Value in Volunteering

Now that I’m finally back from vacation and over my reverse culture shock, I’ll stop neglecting you, Awesome and Unemployed!  I had amazing adventures in China.  Here’s one photo of me on the Great Wall of China!

While I was away, an old friend of mine emailed me to talk about his unemployment situation.   Here’s his strategy:

I’ve been unemployed now for a little over 13 months. Supporting myself by playing poker while I look for a real job. For the record, I don’t consider myself to be a professional poker player (though I seem to get that label a lot), my circumstances are fortunate enough to let me do this by and scrape by. Anyways, I’ve categorized my job hunt into 2 categories:
Category A) Jobs to fill my time. This includes counter monkey-type jobs, serving, bartending, etc. And;
Category B) Jobs in line with my career. Marketing-related fields where I’m trying to get in with a number of agencies in town.

He’s currently looking for category A jobs, completely unrelated to his field, while he waits for the recession to lift.  (Side note:  It’s lifting.)  But the category A companies wouldn’t even hire him because he had too much category B experience.

My thoughts?  STICK TO THE CATEGORY B ROLES!  During my unemployment, I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do in life.  I knew that I needed experience and I didn’t really have any, so here was my approach.

I researched small companies in the area that were doing what I wanted to do.  Small companies need the help.  They really don’t have a lot of resources and if you’re a smart, capable individual, they could really use your help.

I found Winslow & Associates, a small event planning company in San Francisco, which was responsible for most of the well-known non-profit events in San Francisco.  The more I read about Lynne Winslow and her company, the more intrigued I became.  I emailed Lynne.

Dear Ms. Winslow,

I hope this email finds you well!  My name is Stefanie and I’m a recent graduate that just realized my life’s ambition: to plan spectacular events that raise awareness and financial support for charitable causes.  I have so much respect for the events that you and your associates put on, and I wanted to write you to see if I could learn more about event planning.

Would you be opposed to having an extra hand around the office as an intern or volunteer for your company?  I will work without compensation and am willing to work as hard as possible to learn about this industry.  I will do anything that you need me to do.  I’m positive, proactive, and resourceful and I currently reside in San Francisco, so transportation is not a problem.

Since I know you are very busy, I’ve enclose my resume.  I know that you are not hiring new employees at the moment, but I hope you find that I will have the basic skills necessary to assist your team as an intern or volunteer.  I am committed to this dream and I hope I will prove to be an asset to your company if you should take me.

If you would like to speak with me more or if you have any questions, you may contact me via email at me@ gmail.com or via telephone at (415) 555-5555.

Sincerely,
Stefanie Lau
Recent UC Davis Graduate

P.S.  I volunteered the past 4 years at the Academy of Friends Oscar Gala and your company truly does a spectacular job with that event.  I will be volunteering this year again and many years to come.  If you are not looking for help at this moment, I would love to take you out to coffee to learn about what you do and all the work that you have put into your company.  Thanks for your time!

(Caveat:  That was my dream after college and what I’ve wanted has changed since then, but I’m thankful I had the opportunity to learn.)

Lynne’s reaction?  YES, YES, YES! 🙂

She needed the help and she found that I had the skills to learn and get the job done.  She brought me in for a quick interview and signed be on as a part time intern making minimum wage ($10/hr).  It wasn’t much, but Lynne saved me.  Here’s how:

1. I got off my @$$ and started being productive.
2. I learned a lot about being detail oriented and applying tools like Excel, Word, and databases.
3. I got to learn from the best in the industry and see how they managed their small company and negotiated with vendors, secured clients, stretched miracles out of a tight budget, and delivered spectacular events.
4. I kept my skills current.

When I got my job with Google, she was not happy.  “You will miss this, Stefanie.”  She told me she was going to hire me and that she fully expected me to stay in touch and involved in her events.  I have stayed in touch and helped her secure some corporate clients, as well.  For everything that Lynne saw in me, I’m grateful and will pay it forward and back as much as I can.

How is this relevant to you?  Well, let me ask you–what kinds of jobs are you looking for in this recession?  How can you keep your skills current and learn the newest trends in the industry?  Volunteer your time.  Someone needs you, somewhere.  Do your research, email the person in charge, and tell them why you’re awesome and here to solve their problems.

Go out there, conquer and succeed!

(Afterthought–I think this is another tip I learned from Charles Caudill.  Charlie, you’re the best!)

Guest Post: The Power of Visualization

Your Friday inspiration & guest blog post by Samantha Chui (with a little note from me at the end!).

Find What You Love, and Do It!

I’m sure you hear this all the time, that’s probably because it’s true. Find what you love, and do it!

Now that certainly isn’t the tune that my parents were singing as I was growing up. Coming from a fairly traditional Asian household, the motto was, “Find something financially secure and socially acceptable, and do it! Now, eat your rice!” Like many others, I bought into this and now as a 26yr old-busy-yuppie-financially secure-somewhat socially acceptable-software engineer, I am thinking again about what I want to do with my life. Is there something more that I could be doing?

When Randy Pausch gave his Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon in 2007, his audience was blown away by the beauty of his message. Titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” his hour-long presentation told the ways he achieved his dreams and then through his work as a professor how he enabled the dreams of others. If you haven’t seen his lecture, for godsake stop reading this and watch it below! Diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, Randy spent the last months of his life undergoing treatment and pondering what message to leave his children with. The lecture he gave at his university to former students and colleagues was the culmination of all those thoughts, and by sharing it he left a larger legacy than any letter he could have given to his children in private.

Randy’s dreams were to:

• Be in zero gravity
• Play in the NFL
• Author an article in the World Book encyclopedia
• Be Captain Kirk
• Win stuffed animals
• Be a Disney Imagineer

And he achieved them all! (or at least variations on them…being Captain Kirk is hard.)

That got me thinking. What are my dreams? And can I really do them?

One weekend, I sat down and wrote all my dreams on post-it notes and stuck them to my wall. Anyone’s who’s been to my apartment is familiar with this peculiar fixture. Over the past year or so I’ve been crossing items off and adding new ones. Because even though Randy talks about childhood dreams, my dreams are always changing. And hell yeah, I’m serious about doing them. (My mom’s been trying to dissuade me by giving me books about disasters on Mt. Everest. Which of course only makes me want to go more!)

Let’s look at that list above.

Buy goldfish. Fish are more fun with friends! I bought a fishtank and 5 goldfish, and set it up in my cubicle at work. Turns out, people love fish! We’ve had some mishaps (rest-in-peace carl 1, 2, and 3), but now that fishtank is a community tank, and a literal watering hole.

Go to grad school. Not quite grad school, but I completed my certificate in project and program management through UCSC extension, paid for by my company!

Get braces. I’ve wanted them forever and raved about them to anyone who would care to listen. Now I feel like I’ve started a movement. C’mon, what are the chances of having 3 out of 20 employees getting braces at the same time?

Climb Mount Everest. Amazingly, I’m not the only one who is into insane hikes. Half Dome completed (8,836ft) three times, tons more to go: Everest (29,029ft)

Each person has different dreams that they set out for themselves and no matter how many people deter you or how many other things get in the way, staying positive, visualizing your goals, and keeping them in constant view really helps you achieve those dreams.

So find what you love, post it up, and go do it!

---

Stefanie’s commentary:

It’s hard to spend time living your dreams when you are burdened with heaviness of being unemployed.  I get that.  But what’s really amazing about Samantha’s story is her positive attitude.  When I first saw Samantha’s wall of post-its, I thought, “Wow, what a powerful tool for keeping your goals present and visible at all times.”  It almost creates a sense of accountability to yourself.  What was more amazing is when I looked at her wall, she had already done half of the things she had set out to do earlier in the year.  (I made her take off a bunch of them!  She didn’t even realize that she had set those goals out for herself back then!)

There’s definitely something to be said about the power of visualization.  Before a gymnastics meet, you might see a gymnast close her eyes and just breathe.  What she’s also doing is visualizing her routines, her every step and her ability to adapt to things that might happen.  She does all this before she even takes her first step onto the floor and it keeps her focused when she enters the task.  And guess what?  She nails it.  Why?  Because she already saw herself doing it.

My point is: Interviews, resumes, finding a job  can be extremely overwhelming, but rather than lose your head, close your eyes, take a deep breath and visualize the things you have practiced and the things you know so well.  Visualize your goals, keep them present and visible, and, before you know it, you’ll be knockin off post-its like Sami!

Walk in with more than your resume…

When I was 20, I had the pleasure of doing an internship program called The University of Dreams. Now a wildly successful worldwide internship program, I’m so thankful for meeting people, like Eric Lochtefeld, who helped make me a better person and who introduced me to my first real job tips.

Eric called upon his friend Charles Caudill, a former VP of Production at CNN and now an independent consultant for Caudill Media Management, to come and talk to our Los Angeles Dreamer group about how to REALLY land a job.

His fantastic advice landed me my job at Google.

Charles (paraphrasing here): Be bold. Find out the name of the VP or the CEO of a company and send them a really compelling, personalized email about why you’re amazing, why you respect the company, and offer to take them to lunch so you can learn more about them. You can almost always figure out their email address by doing a combination of firstname.lastname@company.com, or firstinitial.lastname@, or firstnamelastinitial@. Get creative and BCC the email addresses. One of them is bound to go through.

Once you get them out to lunch with you, ask them as many questions as you can.  The secret they don’t tell you is that executives want to talk about themselves, not about you.  You build the connection by showing an interest in their career paths.

So you know what?  I took Charlie’s advice.  I researched his website and when I got back to the Bay Area 4 months later, I sent him an email asking to take him to lunch.  We met at the BJ’s in Cupertino (right on Apple’s campus) and I picked his brain, paid for his lunch, and walked away with the most solid piece of advice I’ve ever received.

Me:  “I don’t get it… I worked so hard…” (shows him my resume of work)

Charles:  “Well, Stefanie, have you ever walked in with more than just your resume?  Everyone in the interview walks in with just their resume and the candidates start to blur together if you’ve been interviewing all day.  So how will you stand out?”

Me:  “hmmm….”

I went home that night and prepared for my interview with Google in a week or so.  I printed 400 pages (mild exaggeration, but it definitely was almost a ream of paper) of research on Google and built a portfolio that had examples of my skills and school work.  I even made a truncated version for my recruiter to keep to remember me.

It worked.  They interviewed many candidates and picked me.

To this day–I am so thankful to Charles Caudill and his willingness to help a lost, dreadfully unemployed college grad.  So I’m paying it forward.

Walk in with more than your resume.  Whether it’s a pair of dice, a rubix cube, or a portfolio, like me, go in there, separate yourself from the others and make then remember why you’re worth it.

Defining Your Personal Brand

Get on it!  Create your personal, virtual brand (or clean out your drunken photos from last year’s mardi gras):  Check out this SF Gate Article on Social Networking and Jobs.

How timely 🙂  For your convenience, the article is re-posted here from SFGate.com.

Need a job? Show them you can Twitter

By Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, July 25, 2009

On Craigslist this week, one job posting asked applicants to “e-mail your resume, online portfolio and the URL to your Facebook profile.”

Another posting required a “demonstrated love for social marketing technologies, including Facebook, blogging and Twitter.”

Experts say social media skills are moving alongside knowledge of e-mail and Microsoft Word as basic job requirements. This emerging trend suggests that in finding a job, it’s no longer just who you know, it’s who you tweet.

“Now when companies hire you, they know you’re going to be an ambassador for the company,” said social media and career counselor Nance Rosen. “Who you have as your friends and how many people you have influence over have become a part of the vetting process.”

And that’s true “whether you’re an administrative assistant or a finance person,” said Rosen, chief executive of Pegasus Media World.

Rosen said her staff found hundreds of listings on jobs sites like Mon-ster.com and Career-Builder.com requiring some familiarity with social networks, either as a job skill or to keep abreast of job openings.

Most, like the Craigslist postings, were related to marketing or setting up a company’s social media presence.

One sales associate position on Craigslist came from a San Francisco firm that required no prior technology experience. But the post asked for a resume and a LinkedIn or Facebook profile because “we are looking for any information you feel would help reflect your qualification and interest in this role along with helping us get a feeling for who you are and why you would be a good match for this position.”

“I have friends who are HR directors, and they all say they look at Facebook profiles,” said Shama Hyder, a Dallas business consultant for social media. “They’re looking to see what the person says, how they represent themselves when they’re out in the real world.”

In one extreme example, the city of Bozeman, Mont., asked applicants to list their user names and passwords to all of their Web sites and social media networks. After a storm of criticism, the city dropped the policy in June.

And retail giant Best Buy recently posted a new position of senior manager, emerging media marketing, requiring a graduate degree and at least 250 Twitter followers.

After the blogosphere reacted, Best Buy decided to rewrite the job description and dropped the exact number of Twitter followers as a firm requirement.

Job applicants may not think it’s fair for employers to judge them by their friends, but the reality is that if that information is public, companies can and will use it, experts say.

“It’s just the way we’re evolving,” said Hyder, who has 18,000 Twitter followers.

The information could help a company build a strong internal culture and could help the job applicant find a suitable work environment. “You’re going to be a more satisfied worker if you personally fit in with the company’s values and culture,” she said.

But she warns workers to watch what they post. “You don’t want to commit career suicide on Twitter or Facebook,” she said.

Social media tips when you’re laid off

— Set up a blog and Twitter account so recruiters can find you and know you’re up-to-speed on social media skills. Post short notes with links to industry news. Re-tweet comments from people whom you admire – they’ll hear about it.

— Participate in LinkedIn discussions and pose questions on discussion boards. Recruiters are watching for smart people with good communication skills.

— Don’t post “job needed, desperate!” Do post attention-grabbing questions such as, “What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?”

— Clean up your Facebook page. Remove photos of your wild time in Cancun, and use the de-friend feature if someone’s posting crazy comments. Consider what quizzes you take: No recruiter wants to know “which one of Snow White’s 7 Dwarfs you’d be” or if you’re a “fan” of sleep.

Source: Nance Rosen, Pegasus Media World

To Change Careers or Not-to-Change Careers… That’s the Question.

Lyndsay, me, and some other interns in our 2005 Intern Program

My friend Lyndsay emailed me with the following question:

“I need some help! I’ve been unemployed now for almost 7 months and it’s not fun.  I’ve sent out probably over 700 resumes at this point and have only had 2 interviews. I am basically in the worst possible industry right now real estate and finance.  I was an acquisitions analyst for a private equity group for about a year and half when I got laid off.  Boo bad economy.  I try my best to stay in touch with friends and contacts I’ve made in the industry, but they all keep telling me the same thing: it’s going to be a few years do something else in the meantime.   One big problem. I’m only qualified to work in my industry.  All of my experience, internships and my degree are all in real estate.  So my question is how does one go about a career change when you have no other experience?“

What Lyndsay’s not telling you (but I know) is that she is deeply passionate about the Real Estate Industry and Finance, two of New York’s most defining businesses.  She has received awards and recognition in the field for her work and she is a true young expert.

Career changes should come about when you have a real passion for another industry and you’re ready to explore it.  In Lyndsay’s situation, she’s truly passionate about these two industries and I would encourage her to stay close, not change careers, so that she can get back into it when it picks back up.  For more advice on career changes, read these tips.

In the meantime, it’s important for her to stay productive, creative, and continue to develop her skills (…so when they ask her, “What have you been doing?”, she can pull out her long list…):

1. Certificate Programs. Lyndsay is already certified in Real Estate and Finance, but if you aren’t already, go get additional certifications in the industry.  This is also a good way to expand your skills and explore other fields without going back to grad school.
2. Grad School. Or you can just go to grad school!  But make sure you know exactly why you are chosing the field and what you want to gain out of the program BEYOND just continuing education.  Graduate degrees can be highly specialized, so they will make you well positioned for very specific roles/fields after grad school.  If you do not have a good idea about your plans after grad school, don’t go until you know!  (Please chime in if you went to grad school and want to share your experiences.)
3. Build your personal brand. Build your personal brand by increasing presence as a virtual “expert” on online networks, like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or create your own website (all about you!).  Gather endorsements, join groups, list all your awards and certifications, and post your resume online through all these channels.  Contribute to expert blogs, build your own blog (add AdSense to make some $ while you are in between jobs), and link back to related blogs.  The more active you are, the more visible you are.  The chances of someone noticing you is higher.  The chances of you being hired is higher.  Instead of you coming to them, the companies will come to you.  (I will follow up on this one–I think this is really important!)
4. Read.  Keep reading books, online articles, blogs, academic journals and newspapers to stay on top of the latest trends in the industry and its trajectory.  If you can stay on top of this, you will be able to talk about the most relevant trends in your next interview.
5. Maintain your contacts. Keep talking to people and sharing your experiences.  Even though they might not be able to help you now, they might be able to help you in a few weeks or months… and because you stayed productive and stayed in touch, you will become top of mind when they need to fill a role.
6. Be an expert, but diversify your experiences. Even as an expert, it’s important to diversify your expertise so that you can bring together the top traits from each industry.  For example, if you take tips and skills from the tech industry (new, developing, creative) and bring it to real estate and finance (established, consistent) you can really enhance the more established industries and bring in new, cutting edge technology and perspectives.

Overall, career changes are great for your personal development, but they should really help you along the path towards a career that you will find most satisfying.  If you’re already there, continue to stay the course, but work harder on building your personal brand in the space.

Update on Lyndsay:  She was doing the right things and within a week of emailing me, she has a new job!  If Lyndsay can do it, so can you!

(Lynds, let’s get together next time I’m in NYC!)

Networking. Is this the secret sauce?

I sit on a few different career panels every year and every year, there’s someone who thanks his lucky stars that he knew someone who knew someone who got him a job.  I have a completely different experience with networking and here’s what I think:

Networking is only a fraction of your ability to get a job.  I got my very first internship at Senator Feinstein’s San Francisco Office because my mother happened to know the office manager.  I don’t think I even interviewed, I just showed up for the job on a Monday after my freshman year of college.  Lucky me, right?  Sure… except, I was in way over my head, dozing off during meetings, and wasn’t given real work until all of the more senior interns had left for the summer.  I had no idea what a lucky gig I had and given my poor performance, I was never asked back.

My point is, any time someone you know refers you for a job, it’s their neck on the line. By referring you for a role, the person is saying “Yes, I highly endorse this person–(s)he won’t mess up.”  You want to make it easy for someone to refer you, because you’re AWESOME (and unemployed or looking for new employment).

Here’s what people don’t tell you:  networking is making friends.  It’s what you do when you don’t need a job.  You develop relationships, talk about anything under the sun, talk about work, and get to know each other in a personal setting.  If one day, you are without a job, this person can say, “You have been awesome these past two years.  I think you’d be a great fit for this role.”  Networking is not emailing someone to say, “Hey, we both went to USC.  Can you get me a job?”

People I a) don’t know well, b) haven’t talked to in years, and c) have never had a real conversation with, contact me for jobs all the time.  My response?  Please apply online.  It’s not that I don’t want to help people.  It’s that I don’t know enough about them, and 90% of the time, they have not done their research about the role that’s the right fit for them.

It’s important to network and build relationships, but the relationship is two-fold.  You’re building a relationship with someone that you want to get to know, because they are interesting or experienced.  Someone you want to support if they ever need you.  And someone who can do the same for you.

Moral of the story?  Start making friends and maintaining the relationships whether or not you need a job.  Learn about them, tell them about you, and then see where it takes the both of you.

Basics First: Building a Strong Resume

Let me start off by saying two things.

1. This is going to be hard work.
2. But I’m here to help.  So read on…

There’s no such thing as the perfect resume.   Each employer and every role requires different skillsets and strenghts, so drafting a perfect resume is almost impossible.  However, there are some key things that you should do to make yourself stand out.

Make yourself desirable in 5 seconds or less.

Finding the right role is like dating.  You want to make yourself as desirable as possible at first glance and a well-written resume is the first glance.  Here’s how you can do this:

• Show them you’re intelligent. If you’ve done well in school, provide a GPA and/or standardized test score on your resume.  Employers want to know that you’re smart and that you took school seriously.
• Show them the impact you’ve made in past roles. Employers want to see how you’ve made an impact on your past employers.  Whether you worked at Pizza Hut or in a corporate office, what have you done to dramatically improve the business and what does that translate to in numbers, percentages, awards, or recognition?  Write it out in a “Situation, Action, Result” format.
  Improved a process:  Built an internal website to house work announcements, schedules, and contact info [Action], increasing communication efficiency [Result] between teammates with different work schedules [Situation].
  Improved customer experience (and brand):   Created social network platforms for the business [Action] creating a means of measuring our customer loyalty base [Situation] and increasing repeat customer base by 47% [Result].
  Saved the company money:   Reviewed and re-negotiated vendor contracts services [Action] to save the company $120,000 in annual expenses [Result].  (The implied situation is overspending.)
• Show them you’re more than just work and school. What really makes you unique?  Are you a boy scout?  In a professional dance company?  The world’s 2nd Place Texas Hold’em Champion?  Show them how you started something, lead a group, project, movement, picked up a skill or hobby, or volunteered your time towards something that helps to shape your overall character.

Format to perfection (this part can be perfect).

Often times how you organize a resume reflects your natural abilities to organize your thoughts and put them on paper.  Put some thought into how you’re structuring your resume and if you’re using the right tools to make it easy to read.  Things to think about:

• Font size –  Too small?  Too big?  They’re not going to read it!  Stick to a size 10-12 font.
• Alignment – Do your dates line up?  Do your sections, subsections, and bullets line up?
• Grammar – Make sure your content is grammatically correct.  If it’s a past project, all the text should be in past tense.  If it’s a current project, the text should be in present tense.  Notice that the Situation, Action, Result examples above are almost complete sentences without the subject (you)

Take these tips.  Format your resume and if you want me to take a look at it, shoot me an email with some context for your situation and your resume at awesome.and.unemployed (at) gmail.com.