The “(E)ssault” of the Extrovert!

October 31, 2014 9 Comments

IntrovertVsExtrovert1I write this post on a slight tangent from my norm, combined with a new and refined empathy with a long-time friend of mine, Bob McIntosh, who writes a blog called “Things Career Related.” Frequently, his entries are prompts or opinion leading to healthy debates about the differences between ‘introverts’ and ‘extroverts’ as related to the Myers-Briggs continuum. Bob has long taken the stand of needing to define, defend and promote the world from the introverts’ side of the spectrum reasoning the argument being that the world is essentially created, defined and facilitated by extroverts.

Whether true or not, this post is not intent (here) in debating about which side of the fence has the ‘healthier’ attributes, or is more competent or capable in the world of work. This would be better left to pundits and experts that are far more experienced and studied than I. But that now being said, it IS written, as stated above, with a new-found empathy on my part in understanding what Bob has long been authoring about the introvert/extrovert debate as the other day I was, for lack of a better word (so I’m making up my own), experiencing an “essault!”

A quick definition of introvert vs. extrovert will define the former as one who essentially likes to charge their batteries by retreating inward, into their head. A good book, some quiet time, walking, something not necessarily alone, but with the stimulus meter being dialed back a bit. The Myers-Briggs, the Holy Grail of personality definition and character trait, defines it as; “Introversion (I) – I like getting my energy from dealing with the ideas, pictures, memories, and reactions that are inside my head, in my inner world. I often prefer doing things alone or with one or two people I feel comfortable with. I take time to reflect so that I have a clear idea of what I’ll be doing when I decide to act. Ideas are almost solid things for me. Sometimes I like the idea of something better than the real thing.”

Whereas an extrovert, swinging the pendulum the other way, gets their recharge by talk, and I mean lots of it. Verbal engagement would be the key, and the need, to an extrovert’s indulgence.  Again, according to the Myers-Briggs; “Extraversion (E) – I like getting my energy from active involvement in events and having a lot of different activities. I’m excited when I’m around people and I like to energize other people. I like moving into action and making things happen. I generally feel at home in the world. I often understand a problem better when I can talk out loud about it and hear what others have to say.”

With definitions in place, recently I met, or rather was ‘essaulted’ by what can only be called, the poster-child of the extroverted side of the spectrum.

observe-more-than-you-knowSitting in a crowded cafe, I happened to have a table that still had some open real estate. With the available chair, a woman plonks down and says ‘hi.’ Staring into my laptop, writing, yet with a book available by my side, cover side-up, stating it’s intent with baited breath to be read. To many it might be obvious I’m in the middle of a task or two? I answer, saying ‘how are you?’ in return and go on with my writing.

That was a mistake; answering with an open-ended question as this was apparently taken to mean that I was wanting to know not just ‘fine’ or ‘not-so-fine,’ but everything.

Several weeks for the next hour, I was barraged, spoken at, ‘essaulted’ with such a flurry of words that I was dumbfounded! I had never seen such a thing nor experienced someone who simply just, to use a metaphor, ‘drops all their luggage in the hotel lobby!’ Every possible factoid of this person’s life that could be pried to fit within a one-hours’ time-frame! I heard all about her childhood. Her move to Massachusetts from Virginia and the Carolinas. The details of her divorce. The fact that her daughter is with her ex and ‘shouldn’t be.’ How the ex is such an a** and all of the facts, details and supporting evidence as to why. How her work has been so compromised and how, now carrying two jobs, as a PCA and a delivery person for Domino’s that she’s making ends meet while ‘on the way to her Ph. D. in something.’ Of course once she’s done with her associates’ degree! How her Jeep Liberty came about from her ex selling off the Honda Civic without her consent and getting a Dodge Ram pick-up. Not sure of the connection but she drives a Jeep Liberty.

Quickly, I could feel the pressure of the walls as the cafe seemed to be really closing in on me. My side of the table drew smaller and smaller. I was tempted in the earlier part of the completely unilateral ‘conversation’ to say something polite to properly euthanize what was to become an interminable event.  The internal dialogue begging, shouting actually, to say “Please SHUT the heck up! Can’t you see I’m doing something and not your sounding board?” But the external dialogue was, “that’s nice,” or “too bad,” etc. Surprisingly, I did nothing, as a sort of anthropological switch flipped and I became a bit curious to see, simply, how this would go if I were to let it play out to its organic end?

But on it went, and at one point within all the verbiage, a question from her court popped out. She asked “what am I doing?” As I started to answer, “I wear a few different hats and….” That was it.  She stomped on my response mid-sentence and interrupted saying she “has many hats too and that she wears them in support of her teams, etc.” Many of them are “actually in her Jeep Liberty so she can switch them up! Gotta support your team, you know!” With that, I tried to throw in that I meant ‘many hats’ in the metaphorical sense, but when I spoke it, like before, as my words were leaving my lips in an attempt to make it across the table, they were met with her verbal defense system being fully armed. Her arsenal of words carpet-bombing and obliterating my response like a thought bubble with a dart through it.  It never made it near the half-way point across the table and just crashed down looking like a collection of Scrabble letters.  I could as well have been talking to a house plant.  My words would have no audience with her.

So, there I sat, glassy eyed, bored, not really being able to intake or process any of the words being thrown my way. What most concerned me was that my dazed look, my glance bouncing off her forehead to other distant parts of the cafe, the fact that of the hour in total my inclusion in the ‘conversation’ could have been counted in syllables much less actual words, never seemed to register on her part in any way? Not one iota of content was needed from my side of the table and there was absolutely no measure on her part as to how her verbal mortaring was simply distributing shrapnel in my direction? When, after said hour, she FINALLY seemed to slow to catch her breath, I started to pack up and excused myself. I said “nice to meet you” and headed out on my way, quickly. I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted in my life compared to how I felt after fielding the time sitting across the table from this woman.

Bob, you’ve long argued, to paraphrase, ‘that it is the extrovert that runs the world while the introvert quietly maintains things behind the scenes.’  Bob, as a fellow introvert, I sympathize with you.  I empathize with you even. But, I disagree with you.  In my observations, the world is run by the introvert.  It may be ‘advertised’ and ‘marketed’ by the extrovert, but it is the introvert doing the planning, thinking, calculating, creating, reflecting and executing of how it is to move forth. The extrovert necessarily carries the bullhorn!

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Job Search Strategies for New Graduates

June 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Success!  Congratulations as you’ve worked hard and toiled in the classroom for 4+ years and now it’s time to see it all come to fruition as you enter working adulthood! The job market is a huge entity and for those walking in, it can be a cold splash in the face for even the most seasoned job-seekers, much less new grads just getting their feet wet! Below are 10 common mistakes of job hunters (new ones in particular) and following that are 10 tips to get your search going so that you can stand out!

Tips for a Successful Job Search

Tips for a Successful Job Search

Ten Common Mistakes of the (New) Job Hunter

1) Not Being Proactive
2) Using the Internet AS your job search
3) Not Networking Effectively
4) Not Tailoring Resumes and/or Cover Letters
5) Misusing/under-utilizing the Internet
6) Failing to Follow Up
7) Setting Expectations Too High
8) Not Appearing Professional
9) Not Taking the Job Interview Seriously
10) Not Utilizing Your College’s and/or professional Career Services

Now, Ten Tips to get you Really Moving in your Job Search!

1. Research, research and then research some more!

As with any job search plan, one of the most important steps is to do the up-front research. If you have a degree in a chosen field, it’s best to research opportunities and get a general feel as to what the requirements are to be and how organizations differ from one another. Sure, Google and Microsoft (Bing) specialize in search, but are they the same? No. Ford and Chevrolet both manufacture and sell automobiles, but are the two companies the same? No. It is your ‘job’ to be able to distinguish an organization before approaching. Today, especially, there’s an inordinate amount of information available for job-seekers, and to an employer, there’s no excuse you didn’t use it in identifying what makes them unique.

2. Get your resumes (yes, plural!) ready.

Make them specific and tailored for each position and industry. Use your headings, categories and descriptions to give your resume flow and ‘a story’ that speaks to each employer. A generic resume smells of desperation and/or indifference and when an employer has hundreds, if not thousands, it can go by unrecognized.  If it doesn’t ‘speak’ to the role and the nuance of each organization it gets put in the ‘circular file,’ damned for eternity.

3. Just as important, get your cover letters to speak.

Make them so they are not the generic – “as a new grad, I am really interested in a position at your organization… etc., etc….” This doesn’t SAY anything. Use the cover letter to speak to them.  Connect your experience, skills and, most importantly, interest to what they do. Remember, the organization is NOT thinking about you. They are only interested if they can be thinking about HOW you can help them. Your letter needs to sell them on that fact!

4. For grads, be sure to visit your college’s career services office and/or seek professional assistance.

Utilize these resources for career counseling, job and internship listings, access to recruiting programs, and career networking. The staff is typically seasoned in helping you get your materials in order and preparing you for your search. Remember, the ‘job’ of the career office is to help PREPARE you for your job search, not to conduct it for you so you need to be proactive and willing to do the leg-work.  If already out of school and graduated, hiring on a career services professional can be a great way to get objective, resourceful guidance and assistance that can be a huge investment.

5. Being connected and online is your friend.

Allows for real-time information and connection. Obviously, there are a number of online job boards for job seekers, and using your time to keep abreast of these; job listings, postings, job search tips and career advice, is important as a puzzle piece to your job search. As a side benefit, but just as important, keeping your social networks active and in the loop at the same time.

6. Promote and clean-up your on-line presence and profiles.

Use sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to your advantage in self-branding. Many companies now use these social networks to advertise, meet and recruit.  Connecting with prospective employers via social networks could be a way to get in the door. Many organizations now gauge the aptitude of a prospective employee not only by their professional and educational experience, but their online biographical presence. What you say and how you present yourself online can, and will, translate into real-world perception. Whether positive or negative is up to you!

7. Take advantage of recruiting and career fairs.

These are a great way to strike up mini informational interviews with organizational representatives that are trying to sell you their organization. These are great venues to ask questions, pick up valuable advice and then use that in your marketing of self! Bring copies of your resume to distribute as this is a terrific way to connect and position yourself with potential hiring managers, not to mention any information gleaned can then be used in a follow-up cover letter and interview.

8. Package yourself to promote!

Learn the basic etiquette of job-hunting which includes dressing appropriately, learning the importance of a good handshake, eye contact and thank you notes and emails. Take advantage of the plethora of career articles online which outline all the basic requirements of the job search process.

9. Network extensively and politely, professionally, but shamelessly, USE them!

You cannot have too many people in your corner when you are looking to secure a job, and networking plays a critical role in the process. Networking can be both formal and informal. Friends, family, neighbors, alumni, even people you meet on the bus or at a store are potential conduits in generating job openings.

10. Volunteering or taking an internship is good and good for you.

A great way to ‘test’ an area of interest and bolster your skills. These programs, some of which can be paid, are a valuable way to gather on-the-job training which can work to make your resume stronger and give you tangible experience. In some cases, if all goes well, many organizations will consider offering you a position on a permanent basis based on what they’ve seen. As a volunteer or intern, it can help put your finger on the pulse of an organization and you can position (see research above!) yourself immediately for interviews should job openings occur.

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What’s Missing in the College Experience? Part 4 of 4

April 16, 2014 Leave a comment

Choosing a major can be stressful!

Choosing a major can be stressful!

Part 4 of “What’s Missing in the College Experience” – Where is your major leading you?

“Many people end up doing work completely unrelated to their major in college, but it still helps to know for what careers that major might matter when selecting a major or concentration. Students who really know the possible career paths with an undergraduate degree are few and far between at the time of major selection. Many students choose their majors in their sophomore year before they have much work experience at all. There would be many benefits to students if there was a consultant at the school keeping track of where their major may lead, career-wise, and what those careers meant in terms of average activities. Not only would students be making a more informed decision, but it would jump start the process of searching oneself to figure out what they really want to do before the big crunch at the end of senior year.” (Eli Lisseck ’13)

While I was at Mount Holyoke College as the Director of Recruiting and Employer Relations, I had the opportunity or working with many great partner recruiting organizations and some really wonderful students looking to make their mark in the world. One woman, in particular, that really ‘got it’ was a student that was interviewed and hired by, I believe, Paine Webber.

She was a history or psychology major, I can’t remember for sure, but the point being she was hired on by a pre-eminent financial institution after graduation in the liberal arts. Upon being installed on a team, one of her also recently graduated co-workers, had come out of a more formal business program as opposed to her degree in the liberal arts. Upon hearing of her ‘history’ or ‘psych’ major, he turned to her in a meeting and brazenly said, “what are you doing here?” Without missing a beat, she responded by saying, “to do the things you cannot!” A brilliant retort and was coming from someone that could articulate her liberal arts experience and how it would be a good translation to that financial working environment.

But for many, that transition and translation is not so easy.  College is a major expense in one’s lifetime but students who don’t follow their hearts by delving into subjects they’re most passionate about will ultimately hurt their chances of a successful—and satisfying—career in the long term, many college officials say.

For college students, declaring a major can be a stressful moment in one’s academic career. What do I major in? What should I choose? Now I have to live with this? These are some of the questions that plague thousands of newly minted college students each year, looking ahead, producing beads of sweat and who have nightmares of doing the ‘diploma walk’ only to head off the stage after graduation directly into an unemployment line.

For many, they view it as though they essentially are to say, ‘this is now what I am to do for life…’ While true to some degree, no pun intended, a major is really nothing more than saying I am specializing in an area of interest and taking the classes to support such. For someone who already has a career destination in mind; say they want to build bridges as an engineer or be a surgeon, they are lucky in that they are on a defined path and their declaration of major is more of a natural means to an end. The more difficult task is when one doesn’t necessarily have a set outcome in mind; no set path or destination, and choosing or declaring a major can be a pretty stressful addition as one feels they are essentially locking in by having to ‘choose their future.’

The good news is that, as stated above, a major is a focus and what, for many, is missing in their college experience, is a real, comprehensive understanding as to how that major is, or can be, translated to the working world and charting off on a career in the future. This is especially true when majoring in the liberal arts or humanities where the outcome can be a much more abstract path as is not necessarily a linear translation to a job or career.

Much of what happens in the classroom, and its success, is in how one, upon graduation, understands the subtlety, nuance and range of skills that are now to be articulated in a way that explains its relevance to a potential employer.

Most majors are elastic in that employers rarely ‘need’ a specific degree majored in, but instead a set of skills (both hard & soft), experiences and the ability to put them into motion. It is rare that a new hire is showing up at the door with a stand-alone skill. Employers look for a mosaic of such and future college graduates have such, but many do not know they have such and it is in this applied learning, this translation that can be the ‘make or break The college experience is too often limited in making that translation for students and many times the only discussion of such is schlepped over to the off-in-the-corner, stand-alone career services to make those connections evident.

This is a huge missed opportunity in that while these dedicated offices of careers and career transition do what they can, without the full ‘eco-system’ buy-in of the campus at large, the talk of transition from academics to career is usually too limited or late in coming and is missing a great opportunity to be as effective as it could be.

Much of what should or could be done during the college experience is a synthesizing of one’s academic studies at every corner of the respective campus, in a way that fully cross-pollinates, so that students have four years of not only academic intake, but four-years of transitional understanding of their academic history, both looking back and looking ahead? The college experience should, and can, be an artful balance of synthesizing interests, skills, personality strengths and acquired knowledge while at the same time acquiring tangible experience outside of the classroom.

In a perfect world, in the first four semesters, when wrapping up the sophomore year, if possible, this synergistic learning would make for a much better understanding of one’s choosing a major and how it ultimately can be a better blueprint for the transition to career and life after college.

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What’s Missing in the College Experience? Part 2 of 4

April 9, 2014 Leave a comment

Writing well is work.

Writing well is a process learned and re-learned.

Part 2 of “What’s Missing in the College Experience” – Writing competently and of quality is not scrutinized

“Outside of academia, you aren’t guaranteed an audience.  Writing is a crucial communication skill whether you are drafting a book or simply sending emails to anyone in a professional setting. College writing has a tendency to trick students into complacency when writing, because it is someone’s job to read their writing. A salaried college professor is tasked with reading your essay on common pool resources, but would your writing attract any attention without the financial incentive? I have found that writing for college and writing for work are two very different ideas because your writing is not guaranteed an audience in the real world, and piquing the interest of others with your passion for a subject is a skill that requires extensive practice.”  (Eli Lisseck ’13)

In my experience, this is an area where many of the institutions of higher-ed are falling short, but in saying so, many – if not all, will disagree. Much of this disagreement is based on the philosophy or expectation that when students arrive out of high school, their writing skills and basic understanding of grammar are to be in place and of a second nature AND at this stage, it is no longer the job of the curriculum to be teaching the basics.  With that being the case, when entering college, the foundation is, or should be, in place and the expectations that the students can engage and embrace the more advanced, esoteric and abstract requirements of the college-level academics.

While it sounds good in theory, in practice, this is not the reality. Many students coming into college are relatively unprepared for the expectations and demands of what college level output requires of them, or at least used to.  Sadly, the solution seems to be, instead of monitoring, policing and fulfilling the expectations of higher-ed, is to simply lower them. Writing, especially in the abstract, tends to be of less than quality and with that, basic rules of grammar, spelling and structure, all get lost in the process as there is no system in place that reinforces or critiques in a consistent and/or permeating way.

Having worked with many, many students over the years, I have seen the writing skills in decline and there are many factors to this I imagine. But there are two that stand out to me in significance over the years as I have been witness to this decline. The first being the most obvious; technology and its contribution to linguistic regression, as we now speak in fractured spits and spurts as opposed to complete sentences attached to complete thoughts behind such. The second, which has crept in at a slower pace but over a longer period of time is that the schools seem to not want to hold people accountable for the lack of quality or proper writing. I have heard many college faculty and administrators lament the writing skills of their very students, yet said students seem to fly through the ranks ultimately receiving their diploma for their ‘exemplary academic four-year toil…’

I’ve called out people on many occasions for the lack of quality in their writing.  The usual response(s) seem to be something akin to, “well it doesn’t really matter,” or “no one really looks for that.” I’ve even spoken with and questioned faculty about such, and while many have agreed that the writing is less than stellar, they will then go on to say, “I am grading for the message and content, not their grammar.” More than one has said, “It’s not my job to correct their grammar at this stage.” I get what they’re saying but I disagree with it. The common theme is that anyone who IS the audience for such output should be critiquing, as if it is not done so, is ultimately a disservice to the student and will only end up being magnified later in time.

Case in point being a student that I had the pleasure of working with during her undergraduate years and she was, in her mind, a competent and aspiring writer/communicator. Everything she had produced in college had been given praise and her writing was celebrated in her grades by faculty. However, upon graduation, her cover letters, the writings I saw, the very documents that were supposed to ‘brand’ her in the job market, that were supposed to tell her story and convey a positive impression on prospective employers, were woefully inadequate, both in foundation and style. Her writing, while ‘fine’ for the classroom, failed to make an impression on the audience she was hoping for outside of college. Actually, let me restate that; her writing DID make an impression on that audience. It happened to be a poor one in that her ‘new’ readers were indeed scrutinizing her materials and critiquing for grammatical mistakes and structure. They were looking at content and context with the evaluative eye of the red-pen and her materials were being lambasted for their poor quality, such that could never represent an organization she were to be interested in working for.

Our office of Career Services would get frequent calls from alumnae stating, “What is going on? The applicant’s writing is horrible? What can we do about it?” Frankly, at that point, the horse is already out of the barn, as it were. Being more an issue of image management and needing a reaction, we implemented a plan that every resume and cover letter forth that came through our office for recruiting opportunities was to be pre-screened and then ‘approved’ by our staff before being submitted to prospective employers. While this was done mainly as a service to appease the employer’s want of not being ‘embarrassed’ by the applicants of their own Alma Mater.  With the intent of heading off poorly written or ill-conceived letters and resumes, this became a pretty effective, for the most part, method in elevating applicant’s presentations. The fact that for many students, this, to use an over-used term, ‘teachable moment,’ the heightened lens of scrutiny, even labeled “harsh” by many students, was really met in our office for the first time on-campus, is part & parcel to one of the issues void in the academic mission – a willing, permeating, consistent and strong scrutiny for the students at every stage of their academic career.

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What’s Missing in the College Experience? Part 1 of 4

April 8, 2014 Leave a comment

"Help! Interest? Vested? Taxes? Huh...?"

“Help! Interest? Vested? Taxes? Huh…?”

Recently, while meeting with our intern, Eli Lisseck ’13, we were discussing his transition from four undergraduate years at Oberlin to the present, where he is now actively engaged in his job search.  I asked him, now that there is some time in the rear-view mirror, to look back and reflect on his four-years of quality education and its application to his reality today.  In this 4-part article, examining, what he thought, shortcomings to the college experience and my personal observations having worked in such for 20 years, we discuss these areas and talk about what educational institutions could do better in preparing students for transition to independence and adulthood.

When asked, he said; “one thing pertaining to the job search that I have observed changing recently is that it never ends. With communications technology rapidly advancing, even people currently at a great position always have the antennae tuned in for new opportunities, just in case. The relatively new culture of rapid job switching and constant job searching puts even more weight on crucial job search skills, and relevant life skills related, than has existed in the past.  There are a few crucial actions to consider, and steps to take, that I wish I had learned a couple of years earlier than I did.  None of these things are particularly difficult to begin doing, but practice certainly helps tremendously.  I hope that thinking ahead will give students about to graduate a head start compared to recent graduates such as myself who have had to pick these skills up as they became relevant, rather than being prepared.  What follows is a list of four ideas, in no particular order, that I feel would benefit students if they were incorporated into undergraduate learning processes.”

Part 1 of ‘What’s Missing in the College Experience’ – General Financial Acumen

“After paying incredibly high tuition for four years, a student should at least have an idea of how to succeed outside of school. Students are first and foremost trained to continue inside the academic world, but many students will not be academics forever. Colleges want successful alumni, and students want to live on their own, so it seems like some required class about finances is pertinent. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just the ins and outs of filing a tax return and how to budget oneself when planning around employment.  An astounding number of recent graduates will forget to budget for healthcare, utilities, tax withholding, and the like when considering their potential income, and struggle later because of it.” (Eli Lisseck ’13)

As supporting anecdotal ‘evidence,’ in an endearing sort of way, one student I had, who accepted a job offer and moved to NYC, related her experience to me that was both funny and inexplicable at the same time.  She was a graduating senior, and a savvy one at that, from Mount Holyoke College and was majored in Economics.

She got her apartment and had that secured at least.  On moving day, she was handed the key by the land-lord and started to move in all her belongings. Walking in she flipped the switch in the entry hall and the light did not come on.  So she flipped it several times.  Nothing.  After setting her stuff down and out of the way, figuring it to be a dead bulb she went and got a light bulb from another spot in the apartment and switched it out and flipped the switch again.  Nothing. Enterprisingly, she then went out and bought a box of light bulbs and came back and started to swap them with the ‘dead’ bulb thinking this should be an easy fix.  Nothing, as expected to an outsider at least.

The reality was that she, in her life-time, every time upon flipping a switch, something was to happen!  She had no concept that one had to start an account with the utility company and it had never occurred to her to inquire as it had been a constant presence, like the very air that she breathed, in her life.  Again, for her entire existence on this planet, something happened when she flipped a switch so who knew?

Much of her story highlights the fact that graduates, or soon-to-be, ‘don’t know what they don’t know’ until it’s either presented or experienced first-hand, with the latter sometimes being too late. This is very apropos to the plight of many college graduates today as they seemingly have no concept of the issues of personal finance and related terms and topics such as; taxes, gross and net pay and what the differences are?  No understanding of the litany of potential benefits that employers may offer in a job and how each of these can play out? Investments and the power of compounding.  The majority have no idea what ‘compounding’ even means?  The fact that a landlord might want first, last month AND a security deposit before they can even set foot in an apartment? What the term ‘vesting’ means? And this is many times Economics’ majors, yet.  How about the fact that credit cards are not ‘free money’ and need to be paid back, with interest yet? What’s interest and why are they allowed to collect that? Remember all those student loans?  Well in November of the graduating year, the note holders show up at the door wanting it to be repaid. Oops, forgot to budget for that!  That renter’s insurance is a necessity when they move out on their own, thinking that the building ‘must be insured, so my belongings must be too…?’

There is an incredible lack of financial understanding and it can have large ripple effects on their navigation of life post-college. For many years I’ve taught workshops and presentations on personal finance, budgeting and understanding benefits offered by employers, etc…  These workshops have always been, historically, well attended and feedback almost universally of appreciation and thanks.  For many, these presentations are kind of deer-in-the-headlights sort of endeavors as students would sit there bewildered, perhaps having a new appreciation for what their parents have navigated to get their sons or daughters to this point in their education.  Some of the more common observations I’ve had are that students have no understanding of the language and machinations of how money & finance works on either the micro or macro scale.

Sadly, this series of workshops on finance that I have done for the colleges, were never a mandated part of anyone’s curriculum and it should be.  It was simply a need that I had witnessed so put it up on offer.  There is no reason or excuse that a student leaving college has no concept of personal finance, taxes, benefits, how to balance a checkbook even.  It really would be a simple addition, if not an all-out mandate, to one’s four-year experience. In fact, the cost-benefit of such is a huge consideration in that graduating students, future alumni/ae, can look back and say that they were ‘better prepared.’  No matter as to one’s major; if it be Economics or Dance, once departing the hallowed halls, they need to be able to understand how it all relates to function in the world they choose to live.  What’s critical, in my view, is that each student leaves college with an understanding of personal finance and how it relates to their transition to the working world.

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Being a New College Graduate Means You are…

April 2, 2014 Leave a comment

Pew Economic Report for New Graduates

Pew Economic Report for Young College Graduates

Facing an unprecedented amount of debt – According to The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) Project on Student Debt two-thirds of the graduating class have debt waiting for them at door after graduation with the average borrower graduating approximately $26,600 in the red. In total, student loan debt is amounting to over $1 trillion. $1.2 trillion to be more specific. Think of that number for our new graduates entering the workforce and the economy as a whole. Of this $1.2 trillion in student debt, about $1 trillion is in federal student loans. This figure does not tell the full story, however, as the $1.2 trillion does not include funds students must divert away from retirement savings, parent borrowing, or credit card debt. While a tie for federal student loan interest rates to the market is of some help, lowering the current rates for undergraduate students from 6.8 to 3.8%. But if and as the market climb, these rates will also climb until they reach a cap of 8.25%.  By TICAS calculation, this may cost families $715 million more over the next 10 years.

What does the lower number of 3.8% interest actually translate to for students? If we go back to that average figure of $26,600, compounding for interest year over year using the 10-year-payback plan that is the standard, the total cost of your $26,600 loan is now closer to $40,000.  Break that down by monthly payments and you are looking at about $320 per month going toward student loan payments.  In the end, the opportunity cost of the education itself is almost $40,000 in addition to what’s already been out of pocket for tuition, room, board, books, food, etc.  Every dollar now owed is a dollar delayed in terms of the down payment on a house. Money put aside for retirement or investments.  Dollars sacrificed for the next generation’s needs.

Facing an improved economy but – for every position offered by an employer, not only are the new grads in competition with each other, but facing increasing numbers from laid-off, displaced and/or career changing job-seekers that, in addition to a college degree, offer a tangible employment history and applied experience. With that new competition, increasing numbers of recent college graduates are ending up in relatively low-skilled jobs that, historically, have gone to those with lower levels of educational attainment. This is having a push-down effect where those with only a high-school degree are now being displaced by college graduates.

In fact, the proportion of ‘over-educated’ workers in occupations appears to have grown substantially; for example in 1970, fewer than one percent of taxi drivers and two percent of firefighters had college degrees, while now more than 15 percent do in both jobs; The figures are based on an analysis of the 2011 Current Population Survey data by Northeastern University researchers. They rely on Labor Department assessments of the level of education required to do the job in 900-plus U.S. occupations, which were used to calculate the shares of young adults with bachelor’s degrees who were “underemployed.”

About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in well over a decade.  In 2000, the share was at a low of 41 percent, and this was when the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields.  The result is that if you look at employment broken down by occupation, young college graduates were heavily represented in jobs that merely require a high school diploma or even less.  The barista serving you coffee with the Ph.D is no longer an urban myth.

Faced with ‘new’ employer skepticism – As more and more news reports and pundits attempt to explain the plight of current prospects for new graduates, another, new-ish court is being heard from more and more; the employers.  They say that college students, in general, are entering the workforce, or trying to, with a double whammy working against them; coming in the door without the skills needed to hold down or perform a job AND, in addition, unrealistic expectations about the job itself and the requirements the employer is needing. This means that in a soft job market like we’re now experiencing, recent graduates are facing not only stiff and varied competition from experienced workers re-entering the workforce but also new, budding skepticism from the employers with the (limited) jobs on offer.

According to Inside Higher Ed, more students have struggled to make their mark in a depressed job market and this has raised the obligatory questions about the intrinsic employment value of a college degree?  In the same correlative breath has the concern that new graduates are not equipped to function in the work place and are not meeting employers’ expectations and needs.  A new survey reaffirms that quandary.  In the report, “Bridge That Gap: Analyzing the Student Skill Index,” only half of college students said they felt very or completely prepared for a job related to their field of study. In contrast, and perhaps even more telling, even fewer employers – 39 percent of those surveyed – said the same about the recent graduates they’d interviewed in the past two years.  The fact of the matter is that the latter percentage, whether real or perceived, is the benchmark as they, the employers, are the ones hiring.

The most ‘educated’ but the least well prepared – As the more scrutinizing lens of a poor economy starts to look for answers, many have argued that colleges and universities aren’t doing enough to prepare their students for the work force.  This is true; sort of…  I would have to agree with that assessment and I don’t mean in a way that condemns the educational institutions’ intentions.  The problem is that the ‘system’ is not built where the idea of higher education and its synthesis of development and ’employ-ability’ are best intertwined.  In most cases, for example, representative career service offices tend to be an isolated campus entity.  Either an overbooked office that doesn’t have the resources and staff time to effectively work with students navigating their career path OR an office that can go underutilized or flat-out ignored by the campus community.  I’ve seen and experienced both and both are a disservice to the very client’s they try to serve.  In the past couple weeks I have spoken with several soon-to-be graduates and the common question asked is “have you been to your campus career center?” Invariably, the answer seems to be either ‘no’ or ‘yes, but only one or two times.’

What’s missing is that colleges need to be systemically embedding career development into the fabric of the undergraduate education.  This is a difficult task as many a faculty department will fight the ‘vocation’ label and/or expectation tooth & nail.  This is changing as new members replace the incumbents understanding the new economy and its demands but it is a slow evolution at best.  If this were to come to fruition, an organic and institutional embedding of course and career, not only would this better prepare students for life after college, it would help to justify the value of a liberal arts degree, or any degree for that matter especially as outcomes are becoming the new quantitative rage.  

To qualify, this post is not meant to simply and merely highlight the negatives facing our soon-to-be-freed graduating class, but instead to shed some light on the realities being faced, not just by the current generation, but all generations as there is a systemic, ripple-effect that reaches out and affects us all.

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When Does the Interview Actually ‘Begin?’ Part 1

March 19, 2014 Leave a comment

Watch what & when you speak!

Watch what & when you speak!

As we approach nearer the end of the spring semester, graduation looms for the nation’s college seniors.  This leaves many new potential entrants of the job market starting to examine and prepare for this annual transition and individual rite of passage.

The impending interviews will be out there waiting for many that have started to plant some seeds in their job search.  With that, the talk about when and where the interview actually begins becomes a topic for many career professionals and pundits.  Many say it is when you arrive the obligatory 10 or 15 minutes early before your slated time-slot.  Some say it’s once the handshake has taken place and a welcome into the office has been given. Many theories and opinions are bandied about.

Frankly, while all can be ‘true’ for the interview proper; the actual sit-down, face-to-face with your interviewer, the ‘rules’ for such, can be a bit misleading.  Anything that transpires within the actual framework of the interview, no matter how good, can be undone in a heartbeat after such when the employer starts to put in a little time to research your candidacy, with intent or not, and what you need to understand is that as a new job seeker, and for the future, your interview definitely does not start when you show up for a meeting! What many people fail to realize is that interviews begin even before the moment of contact is made with an organization as evidenced by the anecdote to follow.

When I was Director of Recruiting and Employer Relations for Mount Holyoke College’ Career Development Center there were many instances, but one in particular, when this really came to light.  We had a great recruiting program and many organizational and corporate ‘heavy-hitters.’ On this given day, one of the recruiters, who was from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, was up from NYC for a day of interviewing on-campus.  He had a full-day’s roster and was ready to vet some aspiring students.

In hearing he was to be on-campus for the day, his sister who was in the area and also happened to be an alumna of Mount Holyoke, had agreed to grab lunch together during his interviewing schedule break.  On a full-day 12 to 13 interviews could be conducted by a recruiter and our campus’ recruiting program was also open to other colleges in the area as we shared opportunities collaboratively.

On this day, like many other days, an aspiring senior from one of the neighboring institutions was on the interview roster and he just happened to be scheduled for the 11:30 slot just before the lunch break.  He did all the proper things for his interview. Was appropriately dressed, researched and well-prepared.  Was even about 20 minutes early before his interview and was planning to sit quietly and wind-down, which he did.

At 11:30, he met the interviewer, went in and ‘hit it out of the park!’  Great interview!  Great candidate!  Seemed really interested and knowledgeable and in addition, one who really wanted and was willing to learn.  Perfect, right?  The interview ends, he thanks his interviewer and off he goes as is practice.

In the interim, as the interview was being conducted, the PWC rep’s sister had also come a little early to meet her brother for lunch. While sitting there, she saw the candidate come out of the office and she hasked her brother, “did you just meet with him?”

He said, “yes, great, great candidate. Really nailed it.” “Why?”

Then she told him….

What no one realized at the time was that while he, the candidate, was walking across campus to get to the career center for his interview, on-time yet, he was chatting with his friend the whole way.  During this ‘chat,’ he had nothing good to say about this particular organization or the field in general and was just complaining the whole way about having to ‘work the machine.’
As she was scheduled to meet her brother for lunch and, also heading over early, she happened to be right behind this candidate AND his friend listening to the whole conversation along the way! She didn’t realize the context or the connection in the moment and he was unaware that forces in the world are indeed around him.

So, when she saw him come out of the interview, she connected the dots and put it all together; guess what she told said recruiter?  Yep, you guessed it!  She relayed all the negativity coming out of him that she heard on the way over to the interview.  Sadly, as great a candidate as he was, his chances of joining with that organization ended in that very moment!

Needless to say, he never did get that role or join PriceWaterhouseCoopers back then.  Sadly, also, was that he never knew the reason why an offer nor a continuation of consideration was not extended as many employers, even more so now, are reluctant to say anything in terms of feedback or criticism.

I thought this was a ‘teaching moment’ (I really dislike that term/buzz phrase) so I did later follow up with him to try to offer some clarity on the issue and the circumstances in particular which he was both oblivious to and very thankful for.  If nothing else, I am confident that he realized that the process can be much larger than it seems and the ‘six-degrees’ of separation are out there, watching you, working either with you or against you.  It’s up to you to decide how much help or hindrance they are to be though as every action, motion and on-line post is being watched and part of the over-all evaluation!

To all the aspiring new graduates, recent graduates and Millennials in general, keep the path traveled well-groomed and clean behind you as it will clear what’s in front of you too!

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Millenials on the March….

January 20, 2014 Leave a comment

Millenial’s on the march….Millenials

Lately, I have been reading a lot of articles, many actually, on the “Millenials” through the various news outlets.  There seems to be a new cadre of pundits espousing their research on the generation ‘gone wrong.’  The majority of the writings seem to be laden with facts, figures and statistics with anecdotes thrown in for marketing buzz that is a less than flattering theme in their portrayal of the Millenials, also known as ‘Generation Y,’ those born between 1980 and the early 2000’s. 

The various adjectives that are used to describe the Millenials often relate to them as being “lazy” or “slackers,” “lacking in ambition and drive.”  “Not being able to leave the nest.”  What’s perhaps most interesting to myself, and I’ll get to the realities of the Millenial generation, in terms of employment later in this writing, is that few observing, and now obliged to comment on, seemed to have seen or recognized what was to come? 

Granted, things certainly changed in 2008, for everyone.  Economically, the nation, the world really, has taken such a hit that unless you’ve been living under a rock, or are SO well financially insulated, you can afford to have the blinders on, you’ve been affected in ways not anticipated.  For that, you can thank Hank Greenberg, then CEO of AIG!  You can thank Bank of America and Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, Bear Stearns!  You can thank Freddie Mae/Fannie Mac!  You can thank Bernie Madoff, Hank Paulson & Richard Wagoner!  Ahh, Richard Wagoner.  Remember him flying to Washington, D.C. on the corporate jet to beg congress for bailout monies for GM?  Poor soul.  It was the packaging and re-packaging of risky mortgages being sold to a euphoric public willing to spend much more than they could afford on the McMansion because they were guaranteed equity growth to spend.  It was the ‘creative’ financing of Derivatives that are so complicated that many of the very banks executing such didn’t understand how they worked?  I’m mentioning only a few as the list is very long and they are by no means alone nor is any one of them singularly the cause of what started to unravel economically in 2008.  As Alan Greenspan said, “an irrational exuberance…”

It was a systemic failing, and what I was witness to before 2008, before Millenials were even dubbed or recognized as such, was an increasing trajectory that, unless oblivious or a fool, could in no way think it would keep its upward, double-digit climb and the various expectations and entitlements that come with that? 

I have been working with the Millenials since the day I finished graduate school in the early/mid 90’s.  I didn’t know, at the time, they were called Millenials and it was early enough then that they had not yet earned any labeling of such.  With or without the corresponding labeling, what WAS obvious, was that in the 1990’s into 2008, except for a few minor ‘corrections,’ economic prosperity was simply going upwards.  Every generation throughout the 20th century and into the 21st had the good fortune to be riding a given expectation that theirs would be better than their parents!  Marginally or dramatically, it was given, a mere fact, that ‘each generation would have it better than their predecessors!’ 

Incomes were steadily rising, luxury goods were becoming more and more prevalent, houses were not just getting bigger, but more grandiose and feature laden.  Acquisition & consumption was growing at such a pace that it made the 1987 movie, “Wall Street,” almost quaint by comparison.  Computing, electronics, cars, television, communication; things were just getting ‘better,’ day by day, year by year.  And along with this came a new child rearing.  Kids were being raised, granted with the best of intentions, with the ever growing expectations that each was the next prodigal child in every one of the nation’s homes.  The platitudes have been many and the constant patting on the backs of the growing youth over the last 20 years have been so systemically ingrained that they’ve become the norm.  Every little Johnny & Jenny is to be ‘appreciated’ and the ‘best!’  Every child is a ‘star’ or at a minimum, budding ‘expert.’  Everyone deserves an ‘A,’ and everyone will do great things and discover new antidotes for all of the societal ills!  ‘Competitive’ day-care.  Private schools and nannies.  Designer diapers, Themed birthday parties, extravagant gifts and toys, electronics and connections abound.  Photographs and videos documenting every, singular, mundane moment in every new life!

Now, not only are all these superlatives and actions unrealistic but they are also statistically impossible.  Not everyone can be an ‘A’ student.  Not everyone gets to be a Valedictorian.  Not everyone can be a star quarterback for the team, especially if, given the fact, that every player is given a ball so that it’s ‘fair…’  Generationally, we’ve, systemically, raised a group of people that have difficulty in that they’ve only received positive praise.  They’ve not been ‘allowed’ to fall, or fail, as there’s been a safety net so well built-in that learning to face real adversity, learning to think around a situation, learning to adapt and be resourceful, has been somewhat filtered out of the upbringing. 

Academically, the MIllenials have been duped.  Every college/university has been involved in the ‘arms race’ in trying to make themselves more marketable.  Every institution has spent inordinate monies on waving more glitter, making things shiny, new and large.  Science centers, student centers, suites to live-in, on-campus entertainment and events.  Athletic centers that rival any New York City fitness club!  Selective showcasing of their alumni/ae that have made successes of themselves in popular culture or business, all peripheral branding tools THAT highlight a school’s ‘educational value.’  Academic institutions of learning have become residential communities and country clubs, playgrounds for those entering adulthood, not too unlike a cruise-ship package, oh, but with some coursework and a $200,000 price tag! 

Each institution has been guilty of the ‘come here and your degree with OUR name on it will be the ticket to get you that job or career you not only want, but deserve!’  Along then comes 2008.  Bam!  Nothing seen like it since the Great Depression!  Markets had been climbing, spending growing, no ‘forewarning’ of any doom except from a very bright financial guy from Boston, Harry Markopolos, saying unchecked growth cannot continue and who pointed a finger at Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi-Scheme and said, “there it was, looming in front of us,” to paraphrase, identifying a crash to come.  Prophetic, but had fallen on deaf ears.

In working with the Millenials as stated before, what I’ve witnessed is not that they’re lazy.  They are also not unmotivated, not by any means.  What they are is of such a different time and upbringing that while they are facing some of the very same challenges & similarities that every generation has faced, it is now packaged in different ways and needing to be confronted in new and adaptive ways than in times before. 

Every generation has dealt with economic fluctuations, but this is the first generation that’s had to deal with it while also combined with other ‘new’ factors; many jobs now being outsourced and going overseas, technology eliminating various roles, if not industries, through new understanding and automation.  Every generation has dealt with increasing avenues of communication, but it has been exponential for the Millenials.  Everything now being a simple keystroke or post away, so for them they really do communicate and access information in a way that had been foreign to previous generations.  Every group has had the support of the previous, as alluded to above, but the Millenials have had the ‘good’ fortune of being raised by a community that wants them to succeed!  So much so, think ‘helicopter parenting,’ we’ve in a way forgotten, if you’ll excuse the metaphor, ‘to teach them how to fish, as opposed to just handing them a bountiful catch.’ 

How all of this has evolved along with the associated labels; ‘entitled’ and ‘narcissistic,’ among many others, and yet not having foreseen such, remains an enigma to me.  In using the term ‘slackers,’ I’d like to just draw a few analogies to their previous cohorts, sort of a “then and now.” 

Think Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)?  How about Steve Jobs (Apple)? 
Think Chad Hurley (YouTube).  How about Bill Gates (Microsoft). 
Think Evan Speigel (SnapChat).  How about Michael Dell (Dell Computers). 

“Slackers?”  No.  Different in how they communicate, think, process information, form expectations and view the world and quality of life?  Yes.  Are they to be held accountable for their actions?  Yes.  Are we (previous generations) partly to blame for their new/different world-view?  Absolutely.

Much more to come as this is a new blog and I’ll be reflecting on the employment markets, the entry to such by the Millenials and what it is all to mean…  Stay tuned!      

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