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A Reality Check for Soon-to-be-Grads

April 6th, 2010 :: Robin Ferrier

by Sarah Morgan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18425359@N03/ / CC BY 2.0

One of the What’s Next, Gen Y? bloggers, Thomas Madrecki, recently posted about trying to figure out what to do upon graduation.

Few things are more obnoxious than hearing from someone older that you’re mistaken because of your youth, so it’s with misgivings that I set out to do exactly that, especially because it’s obvious that Thomas is both intelligent and successful and I don’t want to take issue with him in particular. But what struck me in his post was this:

“The idea, of course, is that work-place competition and increased selectivity in turn engenders more successful paid hires in a tightly budgeted and relatively small industry. All of that is well and good, but even for the most confident of applicants, the idea of heading to a new city with no guarantee of long-term growth or a permanent job is a potentially worrisome hurdle to overcome.”

This started the wheels turning for me. Yes, competition and selectivity IS well and good. And “worrisome” is, often, a fact of life. The thing is, the system is not set up to care about the feelings of new entrants to it.

What bothers me is that frequently, undergrads are called out for having unrealistic expectations or for being entitled — and nobody fixes it. There are increasingly job-specific undergrad offerings, but still, no Reality 101. Sometimes parents or internships explain what you’ll need to wrap your head around, but many times, graduating seniors are in for a woeful shock.

So here I am to shock you. You don’t have to like what I’m going to say. I didn’t. But please believe that the sooner you accept it, the sooner you get through it.

You will be lonely at first. Your career so far has been education, in the company of a peer group that was growing together. You won’t have that company in the same way again, and it’ll be a jarring difference in life.

You will be the butt of jokes about your youth. These include, but are not limited to, references about musical acts, fashion trends, and which president was in office when you were born.
You will make friends with whom you have far less in common than your friends to this point. The work force makes college — yes, every college — look like a military school of conformity.
You will not understand where your coworkers are coming from.

You will have to do what your elders will refer to as paying your dues. This will be maddening. You’ll have a thousand very good reasons why it’s nonsense. It will happen anyway.

You will lose out on something due to office politics, outside relationships or tenure.
You will have to work later than your boss.
You will have to do stuff that is boring.
You will not get paid as much as you want.

You won’t know anything. Yes, despite all that you just went through to learn all that.

You will only use about 15% of your degree. The rest of what you find yourself doing will come from your experience with clubs, roommates, activities and internships.
You will want to use the theory that you learned. Nobody has the money or the support to work on those theories.
You will do things because that’s how your boss wants them, even when you have a better idea.

You will have to fight to be taken seriously.

You will get the same reaction as a precocious child at the grown-ups’ table when you first begin to try to contribute. Keep doing it anyway.
You will learn to get to the point faster. There aren’t any more assignments where you have to hit a maximum. Cut everything you want to explain in half.
You will, in five years’ time, either laugh or cringe about 90% of what is upsets you right now (just think about five years ago). Keep this in mind before unburdening yourself on your coworkers. They’ll be understanding, but you want to be taken seriously, not just understood.

Please don’t despair. I’m only telling you the bad parts on purpose. You’ll see them coming and they won’t sting as much. And you can enjoy the rest of it that much more. The good parts are fun and surprising and there’s no need to prepare for them. Congratulations and have fun!

Sarah Morgan has a decade of experience working in and with the top pharmaceutical companies in the world. She educates corporations, organizations, universities and media about social media; blogs at sarah-morgan.com; Twitters at twitter.com/sarahmorgan; appears professionally at linkedin.com/sarahmorgan, informally at facebook.com/profile.php?id=10908629, and in real life in the glorious state of New Jersey. (Yes, New Jersey.)

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Tags: job hunt, Job Search, post-college, questions, Reputation, Sarah Morgan, Thomas Madrecki
Posted in Job Search, Personal Brand, Sarah Morgan, Thomas Madrecki, WhatsNextGenY | 4 Comments »

The Tug of Truth

March 31st, 2010 :: Robin Ferrier

by Thomas Madrecki

cartoon of people jumping off a cliff like lemmings

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/ / CC BY 2.0

When I talk to friends and family members about future job prospects, there is a now nigh standardized list of ideas and opinions that seems to inevitably meet the air: “You should go to law school.”

Yes, as a trained journalist and devout academic scholar, I seem to have a knack for all things research-based and detail-oriented. And ever since I began to see America’s legal system in action, there has been a part of me that readily identifies with the profession and feels I could easily become one of the thousands of well-paid lawyers across the country.

At the same time, though, I must say there is some aspect of law school that strikes me as undeniably mundane and typical. To employ a clichéd description, I don’t know if anything screams “selling out” quite like attending law school. Of course, that’s my personal opinion – but to me, it is the sum of all things “safe,” “expected,” and “what your girlfriend’s parents might like their future son-in-law to do if he isn’t a doctor or a celebrity.”

If not law school, though, what course of action might best suit my talents and interests?

With a background in editorial decision-making and writing, not to mention a decent amount of print and web design experience, I’ve naturally focused on job opportunities within those sectors. But communications agencies are tough to break into and many require that potential full-time entry-level employees fulfill an internship post-graduation. Those internships are frequently unpaid and there is an upfront emphasis on the fact that interns may not – and, in this economy especially, chances are, will not – be hired after the summer months. The idea, of course, is that work-place competition and increased selectivity in turn engenders more successful paid hires in a tightly budgeted and relatively small industry. All of that is well and good, but even for the most confident of applicants, the idea of heading to a new city with no guarantee of long-term growth or a permanent job is a potentially worrisome hurdle to overcome.

Elsewhere in the communications world, truly viable job prospects seem few and far between. There are plenty of interviews to be had, even in this tough economy, but what is missing is an easily accessible pool of entry-level positions tasked with the type of far-ranging creative work in which I have an interest. I might be able to find work as a marketing associate or as a corporate communications assistant, but the degree of responsibility – how multi-faceted an opportunity is – entrusted to me would most likely be lacking if the average job description holds any truth.

The end result is a feeling on my part that accepting a job for the sake of having a job would be, much like law school, settling for something I don’t whole-heartedly want to do. I’m a passionate person, a devoted person, and a hard-working person – but I have to believe in what I’m doing, and I have to feel like whatever I’m working on takes full advantage of all my talents and mental abilities. Perhaps from a pejorative stance that makes me highly selective and/or slightly inflexible. On the other hand, I consider this potential weakness one of my greatest strengths: Whether in good or bad times, I won’t settle for anything less than the best.

That notion of “refusing to settle,” though, brings to mind perhaps my biggest fear about the “real world” and the job market. I’m a firm believer in the pursuit of happiness – in a quest for existential meaning and philosophical understanding. Some might even say that the questions of truth – What makes living worthwhile? How can man better his condition? How does one become a hero if becoming a hero is possible? – tend to dominate my thinking on a wide range of subjects.

And so, now on the verge of entering a consumerist, very non-philosophical world (in which the bottom line reigns supreme and one’s only goal is to fulfill the demands of his job), I am somewhat concerned that any job opportunity will require me to make a personal sacrifice – to X-out or subdue the Nietzsche-loving student, to replace the self-directed author and literary critic with a mechanical businessman removed from higher, more human devotions.

Which is better? Which is more immature – to obsess over truth or to obsess over completing menial tasks?

The answers to those questions are profoundly personal, and everyone has a different opinion to share. That much has been made clear to me while I’ve searched high and low for the elusive perfect opportunity.

As for how I’ll respond to such musings, I have yet to determine what I’ll do next. I’ve come to a cliff – it’s time to jump or run…

Thomas Madrecki is a fourth-year Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia and the former managing editor of The Cavalier Daily newspaper. A true media chameleon, he hopes his extensive writing background and knowledge of various print/web design options makes him the perfect candidate for a career in brand management, communications, journalism, and/or public affairs. On the side, he’s also a former Dexter USBC High School All-American bowler (averaging about 225) and a budding, Nietzsche-adoring philosopher with a keen interest in existentialism and the pursuit of happiness. Make sure you check out his online portfolio!

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Tags: Job Search, law school, lemmings, post-college, Thomas Madrecki
Posted in Job Search, Thomas Madrecki, WhatsNextGenY | 4 Comments »

The Importance of Adaptation and Survival in the Job Search Jungle

March 9th, 2010 :: Robin Ferrier

by Thomas Madrecki
A caveat: I am a fourth-year student at the University of Virginia with a good grade point average (3.79/4.0) and a solid background in journalism and communications, and I have yet to secure full-time employment. That being said, I still believe in the following recommendations…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/icelight/ / CC BY 2.0

There’s no question that we live in an ever-changing digital and Internet-driven environment, an environment that affects every aspect of our lives, including the job search process. And with so many mediums and so many options out there, it’s more important than ever that we learn how to stand out from the crowd and how to efficiently and effectively communicate our professional proficiencies across a wide media stratum – not only because it will make us stand out, but because it showcases skills that companies are looking for in the hiring process. In an odd – if convoluted – way, selling yourself successfully means selling to recruiters the idea that you can sell … anything.

The first step? There are several very easy and readily available ways to boost your resume and its appearance. A little bit of effort will go a long way toward impressing future employers and making your application stand out amid a sea of less marketable candidates.

The first of these suggested technical skills is a familiarity with the Adobe creative suite. And I’m not suggesting this just as a skill set for someone looking to enter the communications/design arena. I see no reason why any job-seeker wouldn’t stand to profit from even the slightest InDesign and Photoshop experience.

For starters, any product crafted in Adobe software looks and feels light years ahead of anything composed in Microsoft Office. Every employer receives hundreds of applications that originated as 8.5 x 11 documents in standardized, size-12, Times New Roman font. Maybe, if they’re lucky, some bold soul is creative or design-oriented enough to fashion his resume in Helvetica instead. Far better, though, to use InDesign in composing your resume and sample materials, as the number of advantages vastly exceeds any initial drawbacks in terms of a learning curve. If you’ve got an eye for print design – just an understanding of what works and what doesn’t – you’ll be able to reap numerous benefits:

A “cleaner,” more sophisticated look.
A quicker and easier ability to convert documents into secure .pdf format.
Generally speaking, more space to include outstanding achievements and career experiences as a result of straightforward, customizable line kerning/leading and font selection/sizing.
Another great technical skill on the bottom of your application.

As a final note, be careful not to “go crazy” with your resume. I shouldn’t have to say this, but tailor the look of your resume to the impression you wish to convey to employers. Maybe a serif font with dozens of bold, dramatic flourishes speaks to your inner poet, but it’s probably unwise if one is seeking employment as a financial adviser (though I’d have to inquire why any poet would stoop to such mundane, middle-class work). Similarly, though, I personally love groundbreaking graphic design and all things “modern” and “clean.” Precisely because I’m not seeking employment as a graphic artist, my own resume reflects a more traditional, perhaps refined, taste. After careful consideration, I attempted to utilize a standard layout with relatively easy-to-read boxes and a few eye-catching design tweaks (the Trajan font header, for example, as cliché and overdone as Trajan tends to be). The result is something that is slightly more text heavy than I would ideally like, but provides an adequate representation of who I am.

Providing that link brings me to the second technical skill recommendation – WordPress web site design as a way to showcase your work portfolio online. Initially a blogging platform, WordPress has been molded into a viable content management system with the help of an open-source (and mostly free) design community. An entire instruction manual could be devoted to conveying how to best utilize WordPress, but the bare bones are these:

You have two options – WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The first is a free-to-host service with more limited design and URL options, while the latter is a fully customizable option used in conjunction with a paid hosting service and URL. The best option is up to you, but my personal route of choice was first to explore the system using WordPress.com and then transfer over to my own domain.
WordPress uses customizable “themes.” There are dozens of blogs and sites devoted to the latest WordPress designs, so common sense would dictate that you research as much as possible before starting your new site.
Get your hands dirty. WordPress is easy to use, but one has to experiment, naturally, before one can get the most out of the system. Looking into the coding framework and going beyond the initial capabilities of various templates is the only way to separate oneself even to a greater degree, so it can’t hurt to tinker.

I apologize upfront for the scarce introduction, but all that really needs to be mentioned is the “wow-factor” possibility. To be perfectly frank, I didn’t know a lick of coding and still barely know my way around PHP and CSS. But with a bit of determination and outside-the-box thinking, I put together a creative portfolio that most college students charting a career in my field of choice (i.e., not web/print design) can’t match. As a side bonus, my experience using WordPress later provided me with several freelance opportunities, the most important of which was the chance to redesign an internationally distributed magazine’s web site.

So, what’s the takeaway? There are plenty of ways to distinguish your application during the hiring process. I haven’t found the right job yet, but I can’t imagine being in today’s job market and not being armed with the technological survival and adaptation mechanisms highlighted above. After all, it’s a jungle out there.

Thomas Madrecki is a fourth-year Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia and the former managing editor of The Cavalier Daily newspaper. A true media chameleon, he hopes his extensive writing background and knowledge of various print/web design options makes him the perfect candidate for a career in brand management, communications, journalism, and/or public affairs. On the side, he’s also a former Dexter USBC High School All-American bowler (averaging about 225) and a budding, Nietzsche-adoring philosopher with a keen interest in existentialism and the pursuit of happiness.

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Tags: Job Search, Skillset, Thomas Madrecki
Posted in Job Search, Thomas Madrecki, WhatsNextGenY | No Comments »