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


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


www.dougsguides.com


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


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


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.


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?


Cultural Stereotypes

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

(From Charles Handy, Understanding Organizations, 1976)

+ Academic Culture


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?


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?


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?


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?


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?


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


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?”


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


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]


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


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


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?


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


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


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


The two most important things:

•  Your internships, part-time work or volunteer work

•  Your network


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


Negotiating your first salary

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


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


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.


The Good News

You got into a great college –

You can get a great job


Good Luck!

and visit

www.dougsguides.com

For a copy of these slides, send email to [email protected]

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

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