Archive for Category: Generation Y/Millennials
Why Your College Major Doesn’t Matter
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Education Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Job Search Tips Managing Generational Differences on September 14, 2011 at 7:42 am
In honor of back to school season, I wanted to share an observation I’ve made over the past ten years of advising Generation Y on their post-college careers: When it comes to your job search and career aspirations, your college major doesn’t matter.*
Yes, there are some professions (e.g., accounting), where you may need a particular major to land a job with a particular corporation. And job interviewers may ask why you chose your major in order to learn about your decision making process. But in the vast majority of career and job search situations, your major is pretty much meaningless.
The reason is that your college years are about much more than the subject matter of your classes. Here are some of the things that employers tell me are more important than a college major:
- Experience. Virtually every employer mentions experience as the most desirable resume item a job candidate can offer. It doesn’t matter whether that experience comes from internships, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, part-time jobs or working in your family business over the summer. What matters is that you have built professional skills, ideally related to the industry you want to join.
- Skills. Hand-in-hand with experience come tangible skills. For a programming job, for instance, your performance on a sample coding project will matter much more than the words on your diploma. The same goes for artistic talent, sales ability, foreign language fluency or any other measurable skill that is required for success in a job. Such skills can be inborn or learned outside the classroom as much as in it.
- Passion. If I were, say, a designer hiring an employee to work at my clothing label, I’d take someone deeply passionate about fashion over an unenthusiastic fashion major any day. Any entry-level employee will require a lot of training in the actual “work” of a particular job, but genuine enthusiasm can’t be taught. And it’s that enthusiasm that makes people want to teach you, mentor you and eventually promote you.
- Grades. No matter what your major, grades do matter early in your career — for about the first two years or so. The reason is that your grades are a reflection of your diligence, your intelligence and your work ethic. If your grades aren’t that great, it can be helpful if you’ve at least shown some improvement in your GPA over the years. I’ve heard of job offers being rescinded because of a potential employee’s low grades second semester senior year. Employers don’t want to hire slackers.
- Connections. Yep, you’ve heard it a million times: getting a job is often about who you know. The more you build your network in college — by forming relationships with classmates, professors, advisors, career services professionals, internship colleagues and others — the more job opportunities you’ll have no matter what your major.
* Since I write about careers, I’ve addressed the irrelevance of your college major when it comes to your professional future. Where I think college major does matter is when it comes to your happiness and fulfillment in college. My best advice is to major in a subject simply for your enjoyment or your fascination with the content. If you’re dead-set on having a pre-professional major, then you can always double major or minor in something “practical.” Of course, if you are totally passionate about accounting, business, PR or any other pre-professional major, then by all means choose it and enjoy!
How do you feel about the importance of a college major? Please share!
How to Get Smarter
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Job Search Tips Recommended Career Resources on September 2, 2011 at 8:09 am
We live in an economy and society centered around information. This means you must be knowledgeable to get ahead. Luckily, two free web-based tools can help you increase your smarts easily and efficiently.
I’ve come to use these tools on a daily basis and wanted to share them with you. (Note: I’m writing about these tools because I love them and use them. I have no official relationship with them.)
1. Instapaper. As a career expert, one of the most frequent pieces of advice I give is to read the news every day. This means, at the very least, reading a major national news source and subscribing to industry publications and blogs. Most people follow this advice by skimming each day’s headlines, reading some digest emails and checking their social networks for shared articles.
Doing all of that is fine, but it means that most people only have a surface understanding of news and current events. For many topics this will suffice, but the most successful people have a much deeper level of knowledge about their particular field, and current events as well.
How do they do this? By reading longer articles, opinion pieces and in-depth analyses. For instance, book editors read full-length reviews in The New York Times Book Review. Financial professionals read feature articles in Harvard Business Review. Doctors read studies in The New England Journal of Medicine. If you really want to make it big, you need to get smarter by going deeper.
The problem, of course, is that deep reading is incredibly time-consuming. Enter Instapaper. This no-frills app allows you to save any online article to your iPhone or computer (some other mobile devices work with the app as well) and read it when you have time. When I’m not able to read an article I know is important, I’ll Instapaper it and then read when I can. This ensures I don’t miss important content and it helps maximize my “downtime”. Riding the subway, sitting in traffic and waiting at a doctor’s appointment are great opportunities to catch up on my reading.
If you’re not sure what is important or interesting to read, check out Instapaper’s weekly selection of the best articles on the web. Not only will you feel smarter, but you’ll also have a great diversity of knowledge to talk about at networking events, job interviews and other situations where you want to make a good impression.
2. Klout. Knowing more information makes you smarter. And so does knowing more about yourself. Klout is a relatively new tool that provides information about the influence you have online. Your Klout “score” uses data from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networks to determine the people you influence through your online activities. Then, the site gives you an overall designation such as “observer,” “dabbler,” “activist” or “thought leader” in the categories you like to engage in. In other words, Klout analyzes how much you’re viewed as a knowledgeable person online.
Why should you care? Because your Internet image matters to your career. As recruiters and hiring managers pay more and more attention to candidates’ social media presence, a high Klout score could help you land a job (or a client or an investor).
Remember that in today’s competitive market, success is not just about what you know, but how you show it. Instapaper and Klout are here to help.
What other tools help make you smarter? Please share!
3 Simple Ways to Get More Feedback
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Future of Careers Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships on August 26, 2011 at 10:38 am
When I run training programs for companies on how to better manage their Generation Y talent, there is a certain complaint I hear over and over again:
This generation wants too much feedback!
According to many managers, Gen Y employees want feedback “on-demand” — they want to know how they’re doing after virtually every meeting, presentation, report, project or any other demonstration of their skills.
Most Gen Ys don’t dispute this fact at all. Almost every young employee I’ve questioned about this stereotype has agreed that it’s true: they can’t get enough feedback at work. This may be because Millennials grew up receiving endless feedback from their performance on video games. Or it may be because they received constant attention and encouragement from their helicopter parents. Or, as digital natives, Gen Ys are used to comparing themselves to the rest of the world with a single click.
Whatever the reasons (and they may be different for each individual), the reality is that most Millennials want more feedback than they’re currently receiving. Many Baby Boomer and Gen X managers are doing their best to provide more feedback — after all, providing feedback is a great way to make one’s employees more productive and successful — but a gap still exists. Remember that for many managers of a previous generation, an annual review was once considered adequate feedback.
In my opinion, the burden to meet Millennials’ feedback needs should not rest entirely with managers. If you are a young professional (or any age professional!) who feels you are not getting enough input from your manager, here are three simple ways to ensure you receive the feedback you want and need:
1. Set a feedback schedule. One of the reasons managers don’t give regular feedback is because they simply don’t have time. So, make it easier for your manager to assess you by asking to set a regular time to discuss your performance. (This strategy works best if your manager has specifically said that you are asking for too much feedback.) Ask your manager for a daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly meeting (depending on what’s reasonable) to chat about your work and provide you with feedback and guidance.
2.Seek out multiple sources of feedback. If regular meetings don’t totally satisfy you, or your manager doesn’t want to meet regularly, this is a smart strategy. Simply look elsewhere. When you have multiple sources of feedback to tap, you can save your most important performance questions for your manager.
Even if you have a manager who loves to assess you, it’s still a wise idea to solicit other people for feedback. While you can’t share confidential work product with anyone else, there are many other aspects of your job that others can assess.
For instance, seek a mentor in another department who can provide feedback on your email communication skills or your overall professionalism, ask a peer to observe you in a meeting and comment on how you handled yourself or attend a few Toastmasters meetings to receive feedback on your presentation skills.
3.Improve your self-analysis skills. The final person you can ask for feedback is yourself. Self-analysis is an important career skill to learn early on in your working life. Continually educate yourself on career-related “soft skills,” such as communication, negotiation, professional etiquette (the many articles here in the Experis Career Center can help), and on the “hard skills” related to the actual work of your job. Then, in any situation where you desire feedback, ask yourself what you did well and what you might improve upon. In most cases, your gut feeling will be correct.
What other suggestions do you have for receiving sufficient feedback? Please share!
Learning About Careers, One Video at a Time: An Interview with shatterbox founder Amanda Holt
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Future of Careers Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career on August 22, 2011 at 10:25 am
With all the disheartening news lately about a double-dip recession and consistently high unemployment, many job seekers are desperate for new career ideas. One great place to seek inspiration is shatterbox, a video-based social community for students and young professionals to find inspiration and share ideas about innovative careers. The site is completely free and is conveniently searchable by industries or keywords.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with shatterbox founder Amanda Holt about why she created the site and how it can help young job seekers.
Q: What is shatterbox and how did you get the idea to start this business?
A. I like to call shatterbox an “inspiration engine” for young people hungry for passionate careers. It’s a video showcase, a social network and a resource blog full of stories, advice and dialogue centered on the idea of finding your place in the career jungle.
The idea for shatterbox was twirling in my brain in some shape or form since college when the daunting task of finding a job became imminent. My friends and peers lined up for corporate consulting and banking interviews and I wondered two things. First, how they knew what they were doing, and second, what was supposed to be my “thing.”
After two unfulfilling, entry-level work experiences, I felt back at square one and came up with a new approach to finding that “thing.” I took people out to lunch — people who were fascinating, young, passionate professionals who’d managed what seemed impossible: they found jobs or started companies they loved. I learned so much about different paths towards career satisfaction that I wanted to capture them and share them.
So, I began filming interviews with these people, creating short video stories and finally built a platform for inspiring students and post-grads to chase their passions and strengths.
Q. The people you profile are very passionate about their careers. What is your best advice to young people who aren’t sure what they’re passionate about?
A. Own something. By that I mean, even if you’re a student or you’re uninspired by your job, start a club, blog or a meet-up based on something that is yours and makes you feel good.
For instance, the girls behind “Big Girls, Small Kitchen” stumbled upon a food blogging and book writing career after spending their out-of-work hours blogging about what they loved: food and entertaining. The guys who built Compass Partners simply wanted a network of support for undergraduate entrepreneurs and took that need into their own hands. They created a launch pad for young social entrepreneurs.
You’re bound to produce innovative, interesting things when you’re simply enjoying yourself. Maybe it’ll always be a modest hobby, but I constantly come across stories of exciting side projects leading to a passionate discovery and new businesses.
Q. Since you have a website full of inspiring career stories, what are some of the themes you’ve noticed in those stories of what it takes to be happy in one’s career?
A: Theme 1: Time flies. Loving your job or being a passionate entrepreneur doesn’t mean ideas, deals and money will fly in the windows. It tends to inspire you to spend your days (and often nights) engaged and motivated to produce. There may be grinding days and exhausted nights. However, generally happy professionals I’ve met reflect on their days with the age-old mantra, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Be willing to give the hours and those hours will give back to you.
Theme 2: Making a mark. The people who inspire me most are those who are inspired to make a difference. Whether it’s a musician touching people through songwriting, a tech entrepreneur building software to help us manage finances or a non-profit worker committing to end childhood hunger, the happiest professionals I know see a direct relationship between their work and changing the world in even the tiniest way.
Q. Why do you think it’s so important to expose recent grads and young professionals to the career stories of others?
A. Because no one should feel blind. I felt blind when I graduated from college. Even after a summer of internships and informational interviews, I still didn’t have an understanding of the opportunities out there for me.
Witnessing and relating to someone’s story and understanding their struggles, fears, triumphs and choices are essential. It’s helpful to know that everyone goes through the rollercoaster in a different way. I discovered that visualizing what a successful and happy future can look like is really empowering. Putting a face and a story to what was once a three-sentence job description can make all the difference.
5 Ways to Have More Fun at Work
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career on August 12, 2011 at 8:32 am
It’s no secret that “all work and no play” is a bad idea. But what if you could actually play more at work? Wouldn’t that be the best of both worlds? According to guru Dale Carnegie, fun is not just pleasurable, it’s actually essential for career success: “People rarely succeed,” he once said, “unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
While every minute of every day can’t necessarily be a blast, I wholeheartedly agree with Carnegie. The more you genuinely enjoy your work, the more likely you are to thrive at it.
And there’s no better time to have more fun at work than the summer months, when daylight lasts longer, flowers are blooming everywhere and people are generally in a much better mood.
Here are some suggestions for kicking up your fun quotient:
1. Do your most boring or unpleasant work first thing in the morning. This is a popular productivity tip and it really works. When you complete your most undesired tasks first, it leaves the rest of your day for the projects you enjoy more. Plus, you save yourself the hours of dreading the boring stuff, which puts you in a better mood. You will be more available for chatting with colleagues or other fun activities.
2. Leave the office for lunch. According to a survey by the American Dietetic Association, 75 percent of office workers eat lunch at their desks as often as two or three times a week. Many companies offer free or subsidized lunch to encourage this practice even more. While I ‘m certainly guilty of forking salad into my mouth with one hand while typing out emails with the other, I know I feel better on days when I meet a friend for lunch. Even if I leave my office for 15 minutes just to get away from my desk, I notice a difference.
While getting out for lunch every day might be tough (and expensive), make a habit of meeting a friend for lunch at least once a week. Or, organize a lunch outing to a funky restaurant with some colleagues you enjoy spending time with. If you want to get really serious about having more fun at lunch, check out the national Take Back Your Lunch project.
3. Volunteer to do something different. Another way to add fun to your workday is to get involved in a variety of different projects. Variation is a fantastic cure for boredom. Ask your boss if any new projects are coming up where you could lend a hand or volunteer to solve a problem that no one is working on (such as creating a better system for scheduling conference room usage). You’ll enjoy the challenge and get bonus points for being proactive.
4. Participate in more “elective” events. Just as school was more fun when you had art class, chorus or woodshop to look forward to, work can be more fun when you participate in non-essential events. If you’re not someone who normally plays in office softball games, joins a big group community service project or participates in March Madness brackets, why not give these sorts of things a try? Besides being a way to network with your colleagues, participating in these activities lets you see another side of people you interact with every—a side you might really enjoy.
5. Celebrate achievements large and small. While most offices have a little cake and a few balloons for birthdays, most don’t take time to celebrate work successes. Next time you’re working on a challenging project, planning a big event or working towards any goal, decide in advance on a fun way you’ll honor the “win.” This might involve ordering in a really good meal for everyone on the team, going out as a group to a mid-day movie, bringing in a massage therapist or doing pretty much anything that would feel exciting and special. You’ll not only enjoy the prize itself, you’ll also enjoy the anticipation leading up to it.
What other ways have you found to add more fun to your days? Please share!
How to Start Your Own Nonprofit: Interview with She’s the First Founder Tammy Tibbetts
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career on August 4, 2011 at 9:37 am
Tammy Tibbetts is one of the most active, inspirational Gen Ys I know. I am a board member of her organization, She’s the First, which is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit that sponsors girls’ education in the developing world.
Tammy generously agreed to answer some questions about how she started her organization and what advice she would give to other Gen Ys who aspire to nonprofit careers.
Q: How did you first have the idea to start She’s the First?
A: My fun motto is “rock the prom, rock the world,” and this is because when I was 23, I decided to start a media campaign and website called She’s the First, inspired by the experience I had creating DonateMyDress.org for Hearst Magazines [in my first fulltime job after graduating from college].
DonateMyDress.org was a directory of prom dress drives nationwide that became successful. So I thought, why not create a directory of school sponsorship programs for girls worldwide and apply the same marketing skills? At the time, I was volunteering for a non-profit that had a sponsorship program in Liberia, so my inspirations mixed and She’s the First was born.
I didn’t intend for it to become an incorporated 501(c)(3) not-for-profit. I thought She’s the First would be just a side media project, like a hobby. It then started to resonate with young women more than I ever dreamed. I think that’s because the She’s the First brand is universal. We can all think of who we are or what we want to be the “first” at. It fuels an intense desire to pay it forward, especially since our website is a storytelling platform about the lives and dreams of girls worldwide.
I realized that in order to achieve the full potential of She’s the First, we’d have to evolve and become an official organization. Until She’s the First receives funding, I still have a day job that I truly love, but my heart is strongly in She’s the First.
Q: So, you’re working fulltime in addition to running a nonprofit. Can you describe how you balance (or not!) your time between all of your activities?
A: Yes, I work 40 hours freelance at a teen magazine, managing social media. I don’t sleep much and I drink lots of coffee and Crystal Light Energy! Sometimes, I am not sure I have the greatest life-work balance, but then again, I’m not the kind of person who would be happy just lying on the beach or going home and watching TV. My brain is wired to do five things at once. Maybe when I get older that will change, but right now I am 25 so I’ll take advantage of the energy!
Q: What is your best advice to other Gen Ys who want to launch nonprofits?
A: My #1 piece of advice is NOT to launch a nonprofit UNLESS you have worked or volunteered intimately with one before. You HAVE to learn how other organizations and leaders function in order to understand what you want to emulate. You will be learning the most important lessons and values that you will need to be successful.
Q: What have been the biggest challenges of founding and running a nonprofit?
A: Every day is a challenge. I think all non-profits have the same answer — the lack of resources. The flip side of that is it requires us to be incredibly creative and think outside the box. That is one of the greatest rewards!
Q: What have been some other big rewards?
A: The biggest rewards are the stories we hear from the girls we have helped. We’ve been particularly affected by:
- receiving a letter from a girl we sponsor, especially the Kisa Scholars, sponsored by [our benefit concert] GIRLS WHO ROCK 2010, because their sponsorship includes Internet access to directly email us.
- working with a teen volunteer in New York City who uncovers her leadership potential to advocate for girls her own age in developing countries.
- Hearing about a college student holding a bake sale in order to raise money to sponsor three girls and then traveling to meet them in person!
Q: You are a rock star at using social media to promote your cause. What role has social media played in the success of She’s The First and what lessons can you share with other aspiring nonprofit founders?
A: Social media is like a magic wand. We’ve asked for many resources and contacts via Twitter and Facebook and received a tremendous response. We also recruit the majority of performers for our GIRLS WHO ROCK benefit concert via Twitter. We’ve found some of our best volunteers and friends via the “new follower” alerts that Twitter sends.
The reason it works for us is because we have an authentic voice and we are diligent about showing our supporters the outcome of their support. We reply to every tweet and Facebook comment we receive because it’s important to us. As my friend Selena Soo once remarked, “Twitter is a dialogue, not a monologue.”
Q: What does the future hold for She’s The First and for you?
A: In the near future, I hope we will earn grants and corporate sponsorships. This will allow us to grow our operations and administrative budget to maximize our fundraising abilities and the scope of our mentoring worldwide. We’d really love to travel more to visit the girls in the sponsorship programs we support.
If you want to see the future of She’s the First unravel, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@shesthefirst)!
Photo by Marc Hall. Left-to-right: She’s the First Executive Director Christen Brandt, Arlington Academy of Hope (Uganda partner school) founders John & Joyce Wanda, GIRLS WHO ROCK Co-Founder Cynthia Hellen, She’s the First Founder/President Tammy Tibbetts
One Simple Tip to Immediately Improve Your Professional Communication
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Communication Skills Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships on July 29, 2011 at 7:15 am
Be more concise.
Yep, that’s it.
For many years I’ve taught professional writing seminars in addition to my career speeches and workshops. In these programs, “Be more concise” is the advice I find myself dispensing more than any other.
Even in our world of 140-charater tweets, 160-character texts and txt msg spk, most people make the mistake of talking and writing way more than is necessary.
Here are some reasons why conciseness is so important, particularly in the workplace:
- People are busy and have short attention spans. Being more concise shows that you respect other people’s time.
- The more information you provide, the less likely someone is to remember it all.
- One perfectly chosen word is worth a dozen less impactful words. As a writing teacher of mine used to use as an example, Which is more powerful: “Lindsey cried really, really hard because she was incredibly sad” or “Lindsey wept”?
- When you talk too much or write very long emails, even if they are beautifully crafted and grammatically flawless, you actually appear less professional to your colleagues. Why? People assume you can’t edit your thoughts or that you’re trying to show off. Or, if you’re a recent grad, you appear to be writing and speaking like you’re still in college and trying to meet a minimum word requirement. (Note: ignore this bullet point if you work in the legal industry, academia or another field where long sentences and paragraphs are the required standard.)
- You become more organized and clear in your own thoughts. Being concise forces you to have a clear understanding of what it is that you’re trying to say. The result is that you are more prepared mentally for whatever next steps are required.
Here are three ways to be more concise right now:
- Cut the preambles. There is no need to begin an email or conversation with “It has come to my attention that…” or “I know you are really busy, but…” A short, polite greeting is great, but don’t dilute your message by adding an unnecessary introduction. Some better introductions are “As requested…,” “As discussed…” and “Below please find…”
The worst example of a long and unnecessary preamble came in an email I once received from an intern who attended one of my workshops: She wrote, “I know you said in your workshop not to write long emails, so I apologize in advance that this is going to be a long email, but…”
What a way to turn off your reader!
- Use more bullet points. Yes, some thoughts need to be expressed in formal sentences, but this is not often the case in the workplace. Your reader or listener (of an email, memo or presentation) will be more likely to remember your points when you shorten them into memorable snippets. Remember that your goal is to communicate, not to write the Great American Novel.
- Edit every email message you send. Before I click send on any message, I always go back and read through it to see what I can cut out. This includes shortening sentences, cutting long paragraphs into two shorter paragraphs and eliminating unnecessary information. If this sounds like too much work, then start by editing your most important emails. I predict that the results will be so good that you’ll start to edit all of your messages.
By no means am I advising that you be rude or curt; the goal is to cut out the fat. You know that feeling of dread when you open an email and see that it is pages long and super dense? Don’t give that feeling to anyone else.
My workshop attendees who apply these three simple tactics frequently report back about the immediate positive results they achieve. The more concise they are in their written and spoken communications, the faster they receive replies, the less follow-up they have to do and the more work they can accomplish. My conclusion? The shorter your communications, the longer your career success!
Baking for Good…and a Great Career: Interview with Social Entrepreneur Emily Dubner
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Future of Careers Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career on July 21, 2011 at 10:12 am
Emily Dubner is a 2006 college graduate and founder of Baking for Good, an online bakery that gives 15 percent of every purchase to charity. I love this concept and use Baking for Good for most of my business’s holiday and thank you gifts. (Read about one instance of the excellent responses I’ve received to these gifts here).
Besides having a great concept and satisfying my sweet tooth, Emily is an inspiring example of a young professional succeeding with a social enterprise in a tough economy. She was kind enough to take time out of her busy baking and business schedule to answer some of my questions.
Q: Can you please describe Baking for Good?
A: Baking for Good is an online bakery inspired by the idea of a bake sale. We bake delicious, all-natural brownies, cookies and other sweet treats, and we give 15 percent of every purchase to a charity the customer chooses. We’re currently working with over 200 nonprofit and community organizations. We ship nationwide, so our products make great gifts and can be customized for any occasion.
Q: You were in the same class at Harvard and even the same dorm, Kirkland House, as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. I’ll refrain from asking lots of questions about Zuck and instead ask: Do you think your entrepreneurial ambitions started in college?
A: When I was in college, I saw various classmates starting businesses, but at that time I expected that I would stay on a more traditional path. Becoming a lawyer or a doctor was a lot easier to wrap my head around than starting my own business. But when I look back now, I realize that I was entrepreneurial from a really young age. I loved to do craft projects (think rubber stamps, polymer clay and decoupage), and I started mini, short-lived businesses with many of my hobbies when I was little.
Q: What is your advice to current college students with dreams of starting a business someday?
A: I think business experience of any kind is immensely helpful for college students with dreams of starting a business. It would be awesome to intern at a start-up or in a big company, but even aside from such “obvious” opportunities, working in a retail store or waiting tables can be really eye-opening and formative. I worked for several summers at an ice cream store, and I learned a ton about customer service, management and small business operations.
Q: You started your professional career as a management consultant after college. What was most helpful about that experience?
A: Management consulting was a great way for me to learn about business in broad terms and see how big companies fit together and approach strategic decisions. I learned a lot about organizational design and retail best practices. One of my main clients was a telecom company, and we helped them redesign their retail stores and customer service model. I learned a lot about client management and also how to be very organized and structured in my thinking.
Q: What are the biggest challenges of launching and running a business in your 20s? Have you faced any weird comments or negative feedback because you’re so young?
A: There are a million challenges that come with launching a business, especially for the first time, but I’ve always tackled one at a time (or several at a time). One of the most challenging parts of running my own business has been realizing that I’m often at the mercy of others, even if I’m technically in charge of the company. More than once, I’ve had to scramble to complete time-sensitive orders when the packaging or ingredient I need has gotten stuck on a FedEx truck.
Similarly, it’s been a challenge to run a web business when web development is not my forte. When there’s a glitch in the website, there’s only so much I can do to fix it, so occasionally there are stressful times when I have to wait for my web developers to be able to come to the rescue.
I take pride in being young and running my own business, and I think this confidence has helped me avoid negative feedback. When I first tell people what I do, I think some are probably skeptical, but the more I explain, the more they get it and are impressed with the idea and execution.
Q: What have been the biggest rewards?
A: I get to work with so many interesting organizations and people. It’s wonderful to see how our charity partners use the money we raise for them, and it’s also really exciting when we delight a customer with treats that exceed their expectations. It’s fun to get to spend every day focused on a product that creates such happiness.
Q: You’re very active on Facebook and Twitter. How has social media contributed to the success of Baking for Good?
A: Social media has been a really fun way of growing our business. With Facebook, I find that we can keep in touch with customers and easily showcase new treats and special projects.
Twitter has allowed for some unexpected surprises; I’ve connected with new customers, made new friends and even gotten some really exciting publicity opportunities as a result. In many ways I find Twitter to be more personal than Facebook, but they both have their benefits.
Thank you again to Emily for answering my questions!
The #1 Way to Be a Great Employee
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Communication Skills Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships Management Managing Generation Y Managing Generational Differences Office Politics Professionalism on July 14, 2011 at 2:16 pm
In one of the first jobs of my career, I had a very hands-on, micromanaging boss. She frequently double- and triple-checked that I had completed even the smallest tasks. Not surprisingly, it kind of drove me crazy.
Looking back, though, I consider that job to be one of my best learning experiences in professionalism, attention to detail and — most importantly — the art of “managing up.”
When people talk about management, they’re usually referring to how you manage the people who work for you. In this case, we’re talking about managing the person for whom you work: your boss. Can you really “manage” the person who is managing you? Absolutely. This is what it means to “manage up.” And I consider it to be the best way to become a great employee and get what you want from your career.
Note that managing up is not the same as kissing up. I love what blogger Penelope Trunk says on this topic, “Some people think managing up is brown nosing, but in fact, a lot of it is about humanizing the workplace. Managing up is about you caring for your boss, and the result will be your boss caring for you.”
I totally agree.
Here are some suggestions for how to manage up:
- Learn what drives your boss crazy. We all have pet peeves, and one of the best ways to manage up is to learn what completely irritates your boss. Does she cringe at grammar mistakes? Does it irrationally annoy him when people send overly long emails?
You can find out what drives your boss crazy through several methods:
1) Trial and error. I once had a boss who stormed into my cubicle one day saying, “Lindsey! Will you please stop cc-ing me on so many emails?!”
2) Consulting with colleagues or other people in your workplace who know your boss’s style well
3) Asking directly. There is nothing wrong with setting up a chat with your boss to ask if he or she would like you to handle anything differently or communicate in a different way. “Do you have any pet peeves I should be aware of?” is a great question to ask, especially if you’ve just started a new job.
Know what, when, where and how your manager likes to communicate. This is absolutely crucial. You may learn a bit about your boss’s communication style by asking about pet peeves, but communication happens in many forms. Remember that the way you like to communicate may not be the same way your boss likes to receive information. To be great at managing up, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Does your boss’s communication style lean towards the informal or the formal?
- About how often is it acceptable to “pop in” to your boss’s office?
- In general, does your boss prefer to receive long emails covering a lot of topics, or individual emails for individual topics?
- If you’re running late or taking a sick day, how would your boss like to be alerted (phone, email, text)?
- Does your boss prefer to be kept in the loop on everything you’re working on (e.g., with daily or weekly update emails) or is he or she more hands off?
Again, you can find out the above information through trial and error, consulting with colleagues or asking your boss directly.
Bring solutions, not problems. One failsafe way to manage up is to always bring your boss ideas, solutions and research instead of questions, problems and complaints.
For instance, let’s say you can’t find information your boss has requested about a start-up company called NewCorp. Instead of saying, “Sorry, I couldn’t find any info about NewCorp,” come to your boss and say, “I did several Google searches, looked on LinkedIn and Twitter and called a few venture capital firms, but I couldn’t come up with any information at all about NewCorp. As a next step, do you have the names of any of the founders or products that I can research and perhaps find more information that way? Or would you like me to research other companies that have recently launched with similar products? Let me know how you’d like me to proceed.”
What you’re doing in this situation is making your boss’s job easier by reporting the facts, bringing suggestions and simply asking your boss to decide on a course of action. In any situation, ask yourself, “What can I do here to make my manager’s job easier?” The result is that your boss will see you as a problem- solver, a doer and a person he wants on his team. Everybody wins.
What is your best advice for managing up? Please share!
How to Be Great on the Job: Interview with Communications Expert Jodi Glickman
Posted in Career Advice for Young Professionals Communication Skills Gen Y Entrepreneurship Generation Y/Millennials Getting from College to Career Internships on July 7, 2011 at 10:29 am
Jodi Glickman is an amazingly good communicator. She is so good, in fact, that she has built an entire business, Great on the Job, around teaching young professionals how to communicate.
She also has a new book on the topic, Great on the Job: What to Say, How to Say It. The Secrets of Getting Ahead. This week, Jodi took some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few of my questions.
Q: I love the concept of your company, Great on the Job. Can you describe what you do and why you started the business?
A: Great on the Job was founded to teach young people how to talk to one another at work, every day in every situation—when you’re on top of you’re game and when you have no idea what’s going on.
I started the business in 2008 after realizing I had been highly coached and scripted at business school during my interviews with investment banks and consulting firms. There’s a whole lot of networking and interviewing support out there when you’re looking for a new job. But the minute you get to that new job, you’re left to your own devices to figure things out.
There’s no roadmap at work that teaches you how to ask for help in a smart way or answer a question you don’t know the answer to. No one ever teaches you how to raise a red flag in advance of a problem or tell the boss you’ve just screwed up. Great on the Job was launched to meet that need— to give practical, tactical advice for all of those mundane, daily one-on-one conversations that make up 80% of the workday and are so critical to success yet are overlooked by academic and corporate training programs.
Q: In your new book, Great on the Job, you give some very specific communication strategies. I particularly like your strategy for effective phone calls and use it all the time. Can you describe that?
A: The beginning of every phone conversation should start like this:
- Introduction
- Purpose of your call
- Key question: “Do you have a few minutes to speak?”
You can’t assume everybody is just sitting there waiting for his or her phone to ring. Even when someone picks up their line, they aren’t necessarily ready and willing to engage with you. Give the other person an “out” if it’s not a good time to speak and offer to call back or find another time that works better. Great on the Job is all about generosity—asking someone if they have time to speak before you start talking is the generous thing to do.
Q: What are the biggest mistakes young professionals make when it comes to in-person communication?
A: Have you ever heard: “Hey Julie, did you get that email about the thing I sent you last week?” And you, Julie, think to yourself, “I have no idea what she’s talking about.” You can’t assume that I know what project you’re referencing or client you’re talking about. When you’re talking to me, lead with the punch line. Tell me front and center what’s new, different or important. Young people are often far too casual and long-winded in their communications. Get right to the point and don’t make me guess about what we’re actually talking about.
Q: What are the biggest mistakes young professionals make when it comes to email communication?
A: If you have to ask whether or not an email is appropriate, don’t send it. Conflict, bad news, sticky situations—they should never be left to email. Any time you have a contentious issue at hand, you’ve got to handle it in person. It’s way too dangerous to send an email that might be interpreted as angry, snarky or whiny. Just don’t do it.
Q: Why is workplace communication so challenging? Is it harder for Generation Y than previous generations?
A: I think the biggest reason Gen Ys struggle is that they’ve grown up with technology as such a core part of their lives and they’re simply lacking practice. Young people need to get out of their comfort zones and drop by a colleague’s office or pick up the phone and speak to a client on the phone. You can’t hide behind email. You really need to practice the art of engaging with people live, face to face. When you have information to share, instead of sending an email, try out giving an update live in a meeting.
Q: Please tell us where to read more of your advice.
A: I’d love to hear from you! You can find me online at Great on the Job and check out my new book: Great on the Job: What to Say, How to Say It. The Secrets of Getting Ahead on Amazon. There’s also lots of great information on Facebook at www.facebook.com/greatonthejob and I spend a lot of time on twitter at @greatonthejob.
