Oh … About that Job Thing

Giving advice is always tricky, in part because it is super easy to offer “objective” advice when peering through a glass wall at someone else’s problem; secondly, because the giver doesn’t _really_ have to live with the consequences of the advice.  As a result, any advice one takes should be carefully weighed and considered, or in my case… continue to shop around for the advice you want to hear and take that.

An obvious exception to this “taken with a grain of salt” rule is the 1999 hit, “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)” (must-watch-link) This song was the musical rendition of Mary Schmich’s Chicago Tribune column “Advice, like youth, is probably just wasted on the young.” It is full of tremendous advice, starting with “wear sunscreen,” and going from there.

I’ve spent some time reflecting on my MBA and post-MBA journey and what advice I wish I would have received.  After some time, I thought if I could send a letter back to myself in the summer of 2012, what would it say?   I think this is the advice I would have offered myself…

****

Dear Nick,

First, yes. You will love wearing your suitjamas (link), they may be your best business school (possibly, life) investment. Second, Amazon Prime’s two day shipping is more like a rough guideline rather than biblical commandment– if you really want to wear that onesie/Halloween costume/bro outfit/sunscreen in Trinidad, try to purchase it more than 3 days before the event.

Onto the bigger stuff… your job search will not be a linear A to B experience.  It will be much more like the 2000s stock market; lots of ups and downs and side to sides.  You’ll want to keep a couple things in mind as go…

…Figuring it out …

There won’t be enough time – not before school, during school, or after school.  You don’t really know what you want to do after your MBA or what the right steps are to get there.  Trust me, start figuring it out now.  You think you will have time – time to think, time to plan, time to meet people.  You won’t.  Basically, from the moment you pick up your name tag at O-Week, you’ll be scrambling to get through the day and there will be even less time as the MBA goes on.

Figure out what the hell you want to do.  What industry or company or function or role you want to be in.  This will be the hardest part.  A friend once shared her mom’s life advice– “You can be everything you want in life; just, not at the same time.” This applies to your career. For you, the discovery will happen when:

• F-FOMO – Or more specifically, F*** the Fear of Missing Out. Lots of people go to business school with lots of different plans. You will feel a reassuring comfort and sense of safety when you follow others’ plans.  You’ll see them diligently preparing to interview with Jumbo Multi-Global Conglomerate or attending a networking session with Goliath National Bank and you’ll be afraid your missing out on something so you’ll dive into the same things.  Don’t do it, it’s a waste and a distraction.
• Cut the safety net. At some point, you will be tempted by a safe opportunity doing things you don’t really want to do. It will be nice to feel wanted and, knowing you, like you have a plan. But those feelings don’t make it right.  Cut the net and dive into the chaos.  When you finally turn down your full time offer, it’ll force you to really think about what you want.  If it isn’t working for Medtronic … then what is it?
• Soul search. Pray, talk with friends, read books, make lists, rip up your lists, make new lists, make new friends, talk with new friends. There are a lot of ways to start figuring out what you like doing and what is exciting.  For you, it will be easiest to think about the challenges and questions you like and how you most enjoy solving them.  You have worked closely with several new small businesses and love the challenge of helping them operate more efficiently/effectively.  You also like analyzing information to find patterns (though, it is TBD if you REALLY love data – link) and creatively thinking through problems.  So for instance, maybe…

SMB + Analytics = Analytical Software that supports/enables SMBs 

…Networking…
(My God, you’ll really need to get on board with this)

Meet people. You’ll underestimate how important this is, so I’ll be blunt: it is SUPER important.  Most of the interviews you get will be because of relationships you have.  It is 100% important to get to know your class, but you also need to meet people in the industry and roles you want to be in.  In short, love the bubble then leave the bubble.

Look at you! Now you are networking.  But, let’s be clear on what networking actually is.

Networking is the consistent, ongoing development of meaningful
relationships with individuals who can guide and help you.

Which means, that attending semi-annual alumni sponsored booze-fests where you just hang out with the same people you already know… isn’t really networking.  Instead, try to find one person who can give you information or insights about the role or career you want.  Meet them, learn about what they have to say, thank them and ask to be pointed in the direction of another person.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Get hired.

 Be interested and be interesting. There are lots of ways to stay on top of the various role or industry you are chasing.  Find the news outlets, blogs, conferences, industry research and shows that help you understand what is going on and give you something to talk about. Better yet, share what you find out (in a non-pretentious way) during your networking chats or afterwards.  (Aside: Porter will mention how he started a “professional Twitter” account where he shares one newsworthy article a day.  You’ll feel bad– don’t.  He posts less than a dozen articles over 6 months…jokes on Professional Porter.)

…Nunchuk & other sweet skills…
(Which are now 100% endorse-able on LinkedIn)

Know the skills you need. As you talk to people and start to understand what they do on a daily basis, start comparing yourself and your resume with theirs.  Better yet, get the job descriptions of roles that you like and see what falls under the “Required” section.  Start working on those skills – especially, the “2+ years of experience in (insert function here)” sections.

 Build the skills you want. An MBA offers a number of amazing courses that teach valuable soft and hard skills.  But most of those lessons and skills are summarized in the top 2 bullets on a 10 bullet job description.  The remainder are things you need to figure out and start developing through class projects, club activities, internships (during school and the summer) and other extracurriculars. There are a ton, but some relevant examples where you will want some experience :

• SQL – if the job title includes the phrase “Analytics”, “Insights”, or “Data” you will need to know this
• Google Analytics / AdWords / DoubleClick .. basically, anything Google & Marketing-related
• Mobile Analytics / A|B Testing / Campaign creation – basically the heart of digital marketing
• Build financial model
• Weird other things… Salesforce – basically, every company everywhere uses it. Good to know.  Coding – I debate.  It is a huge part of startups and the Bay Area but if you can show an appreciation for it (similar to how you show a love for Data, which is TBD), you are fine.

…Miscellaneous notes…

Do case interviews.  Every company does some variation of a case these days.  At the end of the day, a diploma and work experience simply won’t be enough.  Companies want to see how you think (whatever that means) and that means being able to do some degree of a case interview.  Whether it is as simple as “How would you price the latest widget from Google?” to “We are consulting for an international distribution company that has experienced 8 consecutive quarters of diminishing profit.  What lines on which financial forms would you like to look at first?”

Process <> Output. There will be times you put in a ton of work and the job evaporates from under you.  There will also be times where a casual conversation at a happy hour leads to a third round interview.  As near as I can tell, there it is highly similar to a Hasbro board game.  In many instances there is huge amount of luck that leads to the right timing, right opportunity, right person, etc. You just have to be ready when those stars align.

Write it down. It’ll help you see where you get traction and where you don’t.  It’ll also help avoid the awkward moments of not remembering when or if you applied for a position previously (sorry Brightroll, I thought the third would definitely be the charm!).  You can also calculate your own Career Funnel:

Know where you will compromise.  Thus far, you haven’t.  Good work.