finding and keeping v5 - dougsguides...• early in the year: draft first resume(s), cover letter(s)...

Finding and Keeping Your First (and Second and Third…) Job

Doug Kalish www.dougsguides.com

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 2

College won’t fully prepare you

Maybe you’ve had part-time work or internships, but mostly

•  You’ve been working for yourself •  You’ve been working by yourself •  You haven’t had a boss •  You haven’t had to depend on a team

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 3

College won’t fully prepare you

You’re going to a great college, but mostly

•  You’ll be working for yourself •  You’ll be working by yourself •  You won’t have a boss •  You won’t depend on a team

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 4

www.dougsguides.com

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 5

Today’s Talk

•  Different business cultures and how to recognize them

•  What to expect at a startup •  Entering the job market: A Four-Year Plan •  The right way to write your resume •  Negotiating your first salary •  Handling rejection

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 6

Business Cultures

•  The business culture and the people you work with have more impact on your job satisfaction than your salary –  If you are a cooperative, conflict-avoiding

person at a competitive, confrontational company (or vice versa), you will be miserable

•  Most people don’t find out about the culture until it is too late

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 7

What defines the culture?

•  Management attitude: an aggressive, hard-driving, abusive boss communicates to the rest of the organization that this behavior is not just acceptable, but encouraged

•  Markets served: banks have different cultures from breweries

•  Stage of life: startups will not have the roles, policies and procedures as compared to established companies

•  Regulations: the government keeps a close eye on businesses like financial institutions or hospitals so that deviations from the rules can't be tolerated

•  Finances: cash-starved startups vs. any of the high-flying social networking companies

•  Etc.

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 8

Reflections of the culture

•  Are employees treated fairly and rewarded for their accomplishments?

•  Does the company’s brand reflect the company’s values?

•  Do the leaders provide strong and unified leadership? •  Does the company communicate its mission, strategy

and tactics to all stakeholders? •  How are disputes resolved? Is political infighting

common? •  Does the company invest in its employees with training

and promotion programs? •  Does the company encourage innovation and questions?

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 9

Cultural Stereotypes

•  Power Culture •  Role Culture •  Task Culture •  Person Culture

(From Charles Handy, Understanding Organizations, 1976)

+ Academic Culture

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 10

Power Culture

•  Power is concentrated among a few people •  Relationships matter more than titles •  Few rules and not much bureaucracy •  Common in fashion, film, and publishing and

early stage startups with charismatic leaders Do you make relationships easily, like less-structured environments and don’t mind politics?

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 11

Role Culture

•  Power comes from your title or role •  Highly-structured organizations •  Policies and procedures are formalized

(ritualized interactions) •  Innovation and independence discouraged

Do you like well-defined jobs with explicit expectations?

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 12

Task (or Team) Culture

•  Teams are formed to take advantage of individuals’ expertise

•  Skills are highly valued; incompetence is not well tolerated

•  Independence, innovation, critical thinking and team skills are essential

•  Demanding timeframes and challenges Do you have a problem-solving mentality and are you able to work in unstructured environments with changing objectives?

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 13

Person Culture

•  The expertise of individuals is more valuable than the organization

•  Power derives from how much business you generate

•  Can be a loose collection of practices with shared and/or dedicated resources Do you want to be a lawyer or accountant in a small practice?

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 14

Academic Culture

•  Power derives from your credentials, your ability to argue and your results, probably in that order

•  Your reputation outside the organization may count for more than your reputation inside the organization

•  Frequently oriented toward technologies, not products or markets

•  Transition to a product-based company may be difficult Which is more important to you: a good technology or a stable job?

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 15

Virtual Companies (“Shamrock” Organizations)

•  A core of qualified professional technicians and managers working in a Task Culture

•  Contracted specialists in non-core areas like advertising, human resources, information technology, etc. operating in a Person (or Role) culture

•  Part-time, seasonal and temporary workers to fill the gaps working in Role culture

Handy, The Age of Unreason, 1989

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 16

Determining the Culture (Observe and Ask)

•  What’s the place like when you walk in? •  “How would you describe the culture here?” •  “Does office politics play a big part in getting

things accomplished?” •  “Is there an orientation program?” •  “What brand or image is the company trying to

project?” •  “How do the people who make the stuff get

along with the people who sell it?”

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 17

Special Case: Startups

•  There is never enough money •  There are never enough people •  There is never enough time •  Doing one job may not be enough •  Uncertainty rules •  Perks can be cool •  Reality sucks

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 18

Four-Year Plan

When should I start looking for a job? Well, when did you start the college

application process? [You can adapt the timetable if you’re

planning on grad school]

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 19

Freshman Year

•  Set up a parallel online presence – the employable you –  Use an alias for tweets, checkins, tags that could

come back to haunt you •  Broaden your horizons: take a lot of different

classes; engage in a lot of different activities (Michigan Difference) –  Being in UROP is a smart idea

•  Start an ‘achievements’ file •  Don’t obsess over it

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 20

Sophomore Year

•  Start networking (instructions follow) and don’t forget family and friends

•  Look for on-campus groups, clubs, events & activities (not necessarily career-related)

•  Check out Stanford’s Guided Career Path planning: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/CDC/gcp/

•  Snoop around professional organization websites: http://www.cacareercafe.com/cool-connections/

•  Think about an internship

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 21

Junior Year

•  Plan for some kind of summer or school year internship •  Set up LinkedIn account •  Get business cards – Free! (

http://alumni.umich.edu/networking-tools/business-cards-for-students) •  One-to-one networking: profs, local companies •  Assemble a list of target companies and follow them (at

least monthly) •  Join professional organizations (at student rates) •  Arrange phone interview with target HR

–  What kind of skills are they looking for? –  What kind of grads do they hire? From which schools?

•  Visit the career center •  Begin building an argument for being hired: How will you

demonstrate the skills the targets are looking for?

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 22

Networking ideas

•  Join student clubs and professional groups •  Check out alumni networks and websites

–  Mentoring programs –  Online job boards (Blue Hiring Blue) –  Contact the alumni assoc in the cities you’d like to locate

•  Look for contacts at target companies well before you plan to apply –  Family, friends, LinkedIn –  HR –  Professors

•  Follow industry pundits’ blogs and on Twitter –  Comment responsibly to build a reputation

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 23

I hate networking, too

•  Be prepared – have a list of questions you want to ask, anticipate their questions and rehearse answers

•  Be interested – networking is more about listening than talking

•  Be genuine – don’t oversell your experience or skills

•  Be courteous – respect other people’s time •  Piggyback – on people who like to network •  Return the favor •  Reach out – at least once every three months

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 24

Senior Year

•  Review your online presence: at least with google, bing •  Early in the year: draft first resume(s), cover letter(s) •  Visit the good ‘how-to-get-a-job’ websites (like

monster.com) and pay attention! –  Write down and rehearse answers to most likely questions

•  Draw on your network for advice –  Much more likely to get a job through someone you know

•  Before your first interview: –  Do your homework –  Have some questions ready

•  Interview early and often: every interview is practice for the next one

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 25

The two most important things:

•  Your internships, part-time work or volunteer work

•  Your network

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 26

The right way to write a resume

"Arranged and negotiated travel arrangements for 3 VPs for a two week international trip with numerous ongoing changes and cancellations.” [BETTER]

"Arranged and negotiated ongoing international travel arrangements, including changes and cancellations, for 3 VPs resulting in a net savings of over 30% as compared to originally quoted prices." [BEST]

"I was responsible for maintaining the schedules and travel arrangements for three vice presidents." [BORING!]

ROLE

RESULTS

ACHIEVEMENTS

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 27

Negotiating your first salary

•  Have a competing offer (if you can) •  Do your homework •  Understand the whole offer •  Ask questions •  Be honest •  Accept alternatives

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 28

If you don’t get the job…

•  It’s not necessarily about you –  There was an internal candidate –  They hired the friend of an employee –  There are a lot of experienced and skilled people out

there –  Someone was better networked –  The culture wasn’t a fit

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 29

If you don’t get the job…

•  It might be about you –  You didn’t have the right skills –  You weren’t able to convince them you had the right

skills –  Something about your personality or appearance put

them off –  It wasn’t the right place for you

You’re entitled to some explanation. Use it to do a better job next time.

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 30

The Good News

You got into a great college –

You can get a great job

(c) 2011, Doug Kalish. All rights reserved. 31

Good Luck!

and visit

www.dougsguides.com

For a copy of these slides, send email to doug@dougsguides.com