Congrats Class of 2010!

Congratulations, Class of 2010! After years of midterms, all-nighters, and late night junk food, you’ve made it! You are officially released into the working world to leave your mark.

But as you embark on this new time in your life, you’re faced with some of the hardest challenges our world has ever faced: a 9.5% unemployment rate in the United States (13% in California!); national bankruptcy in Greece and Spain; and the constant fluctuation of the Asian stock markets. The world as you know it is changing before your eyes and the years you were in school kept you somewhat removed and safe from these realities. But now that you’re faced with the real challenge of finding your dream career (or any career for that matter), the pressure is on.

For those of you who have lined up your first job after college, congrats! You can stop reading now. For those of you who are still searching, I implore you to stay positive. While I won’t have a magic solution to solve your problems, I hope that I can remind you of the ways to keep you moving forward despite setbacks. So here’s my advice to you, Awesome and Unemployed class of 2010:

Stay positive. When you hit the bottom, there’s no where to go, but up.

I am a firm believer in the kinesis of attitude. Finding your strength and staying positive during uncertain times can bring you the energy you need to stay focused and find creative solutions to your situation. It can also draw others to you. People want to help others that have a good attitude despite all their circumstances. Don’t give up on yourself. You have worked too hard to let economic adversity change who you are and what you’ve achieved.

Make small, attainable goals that lead to bigger ones.

When I first sat down with my brother to talk about building a resume, I saw the color drain from his face. The thought of doing something he didn’t know how to do (building a resume) and doing something he didn’t like to do (talking about himself) made him lose his confidence. I knew that if he didn’t take tiny steps to try, he wouldn’t be able to start. He didn’t realize it, but I began laying out small milestones for him, starting with the frame of the resume. In our next conversation, we moved on to filling in the details he already knew about his experience. Finally, he thought about what else might be missing from the resume (I will ignore the fact that he lost his nerve again when I asked how it was coming along, because he forgot that he had even started the resume!). With a few final touch ups, he had a great resume. But had he kept thinking about the goal, he would have stayed overwhelmed and unsure of how to approach the situation. Setting tiny milestones help bring you to larger goals. Don’t forget to simplify your tasks, especially if you dislike them.

Creativity in scarcity.

There are numerous academic articles on how creativity comes out of scarcity. I like to call it being “scrappy”. I remember hitting the point in my life where the depression of being unemployed set in. It felt like there was nothing I could do to land the job I needed so badly for myself. I met with a mentor who suggested that I “walk in with more” than my resume. As I thought about this more, I really thought that I could do more than just talk about how I was a great fit, I would show them with real life examples. For my next interview, I decided to prepare a portfolio that showed off my different skill sets. I included examples of core skills and a snapshot of my schedule to show how I organize my life every day and how active I was. I did research for the company as if I was already working for them and added it to my portfolio. Then, I made sure that I used it as show and tell in my interview. Having visited many college campuses, I’ve seen many creative approaches to “walking in with more” than your resume. So what’s yours going to be?

Finally–Don’t waste a moment.

Being unemployed means that you have free time. Please don’t let your time go to waste. There are books to read, countries to visit, research to conduct, risks to take, people to help, and a life to live. Sitting and brooding over your situation doesn’t change it. It is toxic for your mental health. Enjoy life and do the things that make you the most passionate and alive. Find ways to incubate your skills and your sanity, so that when you finally do get the call from the employer, you’re mentally stimulated enough to have meaningful conversations with them and talk about all the amazing things you’ve been doing with your down time!

And with that, please, go out, and enjoy the summer. I wish you the best of luck!

JR

I love Jonathan’s advice.  It’s always resonated so well with me.  For those of you who need some good advice, JR’s you’r man.  He’s brutally honest and funny. He talks about hiring about 20 minutes in.  Enjoy!

Patience is a virtue

I had a long talk with one of my mentors this weekend and some friends and I’m starting to notice a recurring theme in my life: too much emotion and impatience.  Feeling something is not a bad thing until it gets in the way of the things you want: the job, the promotion, the credibility, the relationship.

I’ve started noticing how stress at work is making me operate as a more “focused” person. By “focused” I mean that I am becoming increasingly impatient with others, especially when I think that my time can be better spent.  (Of course, the value of time and efforts is in the eye of the beholder, don’t forget that.)  Then I got to thinking… how about emotions in the job interview process?

When this comes to job searching, your graciousness and patience with a process, a person, or a company can really show positive character.  Getting pushy, short tempered and impatient does not get you far.

For example,there are almost always hold ups in the recruitment process: interviewer feedback takes longer than expected, they have more candidates that they want to meet before they decide, they need more information from you, or you’ve applied and haven’t heard a peep about whether you will get an interview.  It’s hard to wait.  It’s so hard to wait when you feel like your entire world relies on a response.

But your patience and graciousness in the process is very telling about your ability to handle ambiguity and to go with the flow when everything around you is chaotic.  Being rude, overly persistent, short-tempered with your contact won’t help move the process along faster (unless you’re the only person in the world that knows how to do what you’re being recruited for).

So hang tight!  Stay busy with side projects and other things to enrich your skills.  Job searching is just one part of getting yourself back on your feet.  Don’t forget to work on making yourself more knowledgeable about your industry, the work, and, most importantly IMO, yourself.

The really long resume….

I’m reviewing resumes right now for a role I’m trying to fill and I’m just coming across so many long ones.  Please, please, please, please, please trim them down… I can’t find a thing I need on there!

My goodness, read this.  One page… 1.5 max (IMHO anyway….).  Others may disagree with this one page thing, but let me tell you, a well organized and structured resume just makes the others bite the dust.

K.I.T.

Keeping in touch really sounds obvious, but when life is moving at the speed of light, it’s so hard to remember to say hello to those people that helped to guide and mentor your career.

I just got an email update from a close gal pal of mine, just updating us on her fabulous life in New York City.  She was working for Macy’s West when Macy’s shut down their west coast office and she found herself unemployed.  She kicks ass when she’s working, but during a recession and the DRASTIC (and I mean drastic) downsizing of her industry, her search felt futile.  She finally gave in and moved to where the retail and fashion industry is the biggest: New York City.  She got a job with a huge department store as a buyer, which was her dream!  Eventually, she learned the role wasn’t for her, so she ended up moving to another company, but she’s glad she tried it and got the great experience.

It brought me great joy to get an update from her.  I appreciated that she took the time to write a great email about her stressful journey in NYC without her closest girl friends.  Then I thought… wow, I really love getting emails from people that I’ve given advice to along the way.  It’s just so rewarding to hear they are doing well and that they never gave up.

As you continue on this crazy path of finding yourself and the right career for you, give an update some times to those people that guided you along the way.  They’ll appreciate the time that you took to give them an update about where you are, where you’ve come, and to see how they are doing.  They’ll also think of you when things come up. 🙂

This is my homage to all the amazing people who have made an impact on my-so-called-career in large and small ways; to people that challenged me to think differently and be different; to the people that challenged me to work harder, faster, and more strategically; and to the people that continue to watch me fall, make mistakes, and (try to) pick myself up again!

Thank you for investing in me, Vicky Wang, Eric Lochtefeld and his team, Lynne Winslow, Warren Cowan, Paula Smith Quinn, Charlie Caudill, Ed Bailey, Stacy Brown-Philpot, Josh Li, Yolanda Mangolini, and so many more.  I’ll continue to build this list out when I post! 🙂

Jbo Dcesirtpoins (WTH?)

From Michelle Fischer’s Talent Management Blog (Thanks!)

Job descriptions are as cryptic as they can be nowadays.  “Editorial Manager”, “Associate”, “Marketing Specialist”, “Strategic Emerging Business Technologies Marketing-Strategy Operations Bulldog Analyst”.  Blah!  You get my drift.

Job descriptions suck.  But you don’t have to suck at applying to them, too.

Here’s the thing.  Even if you have no experience, you really do have some.  Think hard.

1. What industries have you worked in?
2. What role did you have within that industry?

Maybe your answer is 1) Retail and 2) Sales Associate or 1) Financial and 2) Market Analyst Intern.  These are all experiences on your resume that employers will look at to gauge whether or not you match that cryptic job description they posted on their website.

I often get requests to get submitted for the “Marketing” or “Strategy” positions by people who don’t have any kind of experience in marketing.  It’s not gonna happen, unless they are okay with someone who has 0 marketing experience.  Would you be okay with that?

There are lots of “sexy” job titles out there that EVERYONE is applying to (Fancy words draw you in like… “Marketing”, “Analyst”, “Strategy”, and “Manager”).  Here’s the secret–you’re more likely to get the job if you have direct experience doing it!!!!!!!!  So don’t be fooled by a sexy job title or a sexy product.  It’s so important to read through the “responsibilities” and “requirements” and ask:  Do I meet all these criteria? If you meet them, you will likely get a call back.  If you find yourself saying, “I can do that, even though I don’t have experience in it”, you probably won’t get a call back, unless you’re brilliant in another way.

Here’s an example from my college days:  Application after application, I started submitting to analyst roles.  I got an F in Calculus.  Do you think I should be an analyst?  I had no idea that I wasn’t a fit for the role.  I just applied and crossed my fingers for it, because it sounded so sexy and everyone else was doing it.  Wouldn’t you want to do it, too?

Yeah, but you shouldn’t.  You should focus on applying to things that you have experience in.  Stay true to your roots.  Unless you are trying to change careers, in which case, we should have a separate conversation.

Consider that the title of a job description don’t mean a thing.  You could be applying to the King of the World role and you would find out that they are actually looking for someone to manage a world that’s actually a 3’x4′ cardboard box (kind of like Snoopy did above!).  Do your diligence and read through the meat and potatoes of what they are saying in the body of the job description and make sure that you fit every single requirement!

Aha!  Not so cryptic any more.

Note:  For highly competitive companies, they may not call you back, even if you meet all their requirements.  I know I didn’t get a lot of calls back just because of the volume of applications they get, inflating the quality of their pool of applicants.

Ask me anything!

Hi guys,

Following in the footsteps of my good friend, I thought I would create a Formspring.me page where you can ask me candid and anonymous questions about anything!  I will do my best to respond and let you guys in on my “secrets” at work, life, and love (although I think the last one needs some work).

Operating with love,

Stefanie

The Perfect Resume (IMHO) pt.2 – Experience

I apologize awesome folks.  Busy as always is never an excuse to neglect helping others.  So I’m back.  I’m here.  I’m yours.

You guys are craaaaaaaving this.  Based on the number of hits from part 1, I have decided to bring you part 2 to this series!  Let’s deep dive into the meat and potatoes of a resume.  The experience section. It’s one that gets a ton of variation in formatting and information, so let me help you understand how to start thinking about it better and organizing your story.

Here’s the thing about resumes.  A trained recruiter will probably only spend 30-60 seconds OR LESS reviewing yours before they make a decision about whether you should be passed on to interviews.

If you have 30 seconds to convince someone to give you a chance, you’re going to want to highlight your most important accomplishments in each role and prioritize these things as the first few bullets in your experience section.  Make sure that every word on the page is necessary and adds value to your story.  Even something as simple as dates in a role can show 1) commitment and tenure, 2) promotion rates, and 3) years of experience.  Because of this, it’s important to show both Month/Year that you started and ended each role.  Those little details and small changes can tell an employer a lot!

Let’s talk more about bullet points

If something’s not adding value, remove it or consolidate and demote it to the last bullet point!  Here are some questions you should answer in every bullet point under your experience section:

• What did you improve in the company/role?  (Increased sales by 326%….)
• What was amazing about this?  (…within one month…)
• How did you do it?  (…by restructuring the sales incentive program to refocus on A, B, and C.)

What’s not included there?

• I was amazing.
• Fantastic.
• Efficient.
• Awesome.
• Great.

Let the employer decide for themselves what is amazing, fantastic, and efficient.  You just state the facts about your contributions and what you did to elevate your past employer or role to the next level.

I also really dislike seeing 13481758 bullet points under each section.  Be concise – give 3-5 bullets that have more meaning.  When I see a resume with 3257109 bullets, I get frustrated.  Make it easy.  Synthesize your work by only including what matters.  We’ll interview you to uncover the other details on HOW you did it.

I love numbers!

Using numbers and metrics can also really help to show the speed, scope, volume, and impact that you have left behind.  Employers want to know that you have the basic analytical skills to measure the results of your work.  If you never tracked your work before, you should start!  No matter how well you do, nothing illustrates your achievements louder than numbers on a resume.

If your resume isn’t already formatted to consider these things I said above, revise it.  Then let me know if this changes how many call-backs you’re getting!

Do what makes you happy

For me, there’s always a silver lining.  I don’t know where this came from, but I really try not to dwell on my failures and I try to focus on things that bring satisfaction and joy to my life.

Drumroll, please!  Introducing the… Wall of Joy!!

Where I’ve now decided to document all the things that make me happy.  My friend Samantha and I are actively indexing all the things that make life fun and worthwhile.

Job searching is hard, but try to find the fun in your situation and document things that make you happy.  That positive energy is contagious and will keep you sane in your job search.

My New Year’s Resolution

Disclaimer:  This post is highly philosophical.  It’s about changing the way you think and how you approach your work and life.  Happy new year to all!

—-

Happy Twenty-ten, Awesome and almost employed!

I apologize for taking such a long time between posts.  I’ve been working on a big project all quarter and it’s truly taken up a lot of my time (and sanity)!  Even this first week back hasn’t lighted up at all.  That being said, I’m here, I’m yours.  All my attention for the duration of this post is dedicated to you.  (Side thought: Apologies if you sent me an email and I didn’t get back to you.  I will!)

When I looked at what I could do differently this year, compared to previous years, I kept coming back to the same thing:  Operate with love.

Before you run screaming, “Stefanie has lost her marbles.  This ain’t a dating blog.”  Hear me out.  (Although, it could be a dating blog, too.  Would you like that?)

Everyone I have ever admired operates with this philosophy AT WORK.  If you do what you do for your own glory, you’re standing alone at the finish line.  Isn’t it better to have a whole hoard of close colleagues, friends, family, and fans cheering you on?  You may not be this loving, giving person now, but I am altruistic enough to believe that we can all operate with love.  It’s this passion that improves the world and gives others hope to be better than they are.  (Think Mahatma Ghandi, Betty Williams, and Matt Flannery, Founder of Kiva.org.)  In your own way, with your own work (whatever it is), this should be you, too.

Embarrassing note:  This Nickleback video moved me to the brink of tears in my office one day!  (Thanks, Judy.)

Example #1:  My dad.
When I graduated, my dad and I talked about what I would possibly be.  He told me that no matter what I did, I should give back to others.  He dedicated his entire life to microbiology and genetics.  I wish you guys could see the look on his face when he talks about finding genetic connections and cures for cancers.  My dad is one person, trying to change the world (and every day he does)!

Example #2: Gopi Kallayil
After yoga, my teacher, Gopi, sat a few of us down and talked about the philosophy behind yoga and meditation and how they are all pathways to love and God (Hindu in his case).  Gopi is extremely successful, well-liked and respected at work and he’s someone that I always want to emulate.  When we asked him what his secret was, I was surprised when he told us that it was this yoga philosophy of love.  His motivations for creating phenomenal work product are not for himself, but they are for the greater good of others.  Giving love freely is his secret to success!  Transferring love into his work and then giving it freely, without sense of ownership (mine, mine, mine), has gotten him far.

When I think about my own career at work, this has also applied.  The times when I’ve been fully committed to helping someone else are the times that I’ve received the most recognition and satisfaction in my work.  Hmm… maybe we’re on to something here.

Example #3: Chade Meng Tan

Meng, like Gopi, is one of my favorite Googlers.  Meng is on a mission for world peace one person at a time.  He teaches a course about emotional intelligence and self-awareness called, “Searching Inside Yourself”.  I’m an alumnus of the class and learning from Meng has really changed how I operate.  Not only have I become more introspective, but I have learned to love myself and forgive me for my mistakes and for others’ mistakes and ill will.  Granted, there are still some really SHITTY people out there, but you know what?  It doesn’t change the fact that we all want to feel loved and respected.

Example #4: Alex Duong, actually–he’s just like us!  But here’s how he’s different.

Alex has been working as a consultant for a few years after graduating from UC Berkeley.  At some point, he decided he needed a change of pace.  He applied to Kiva.org and now he’s a Kiva Fellow in Vietnam reviewing loan grants and supporting small business owners in the country.  The impact he, and the other fellows, are leaving behind are going to transform these communities.  He’s helping these small business owners and entrepreneurs one loan at a time.  Read about their experiences here.

Even your manager, an executive, and your recruiter needs love.  Imagine if you approached them with love, forgiveness, and without judgement–what might change in your relationship with this person?

Most importantly, how does this help you in an interview?  In your job search?

Seek problems and aim to solve them for a company.  Before you walk in or before you apply, ask yourself, “What is my motivation?”  Are you doing this for your own glory or are you doing this with a genuine desire to add your expertise to a solution?  It can still be a little of both, but make sure that when you deliver your work (or answers in an interview), you’re delivering it for others.  You’re part of a larger purpose.

This kind of thought leadership is contagious and can dramatically improve your relationships with the people you meet in the interview process.  If they know that you are a point of positive energy (I’m not talking about hyper energy, but positive energy), they will want you.  Be present.  Be engaged.  Be supportive, giving, and smart.  Give it your all, give it freely, and have a fantastic 2010.

With love and respect,

Stefanie