Young and Frugal

NEWSFLASH: No one cares about your resume.

What’s that you say? You’ve spent hours perfectly crafting every word in order to make yourself look fantastic on paper? You even read my advice on resume building? That’s very kind of you, but I repeat, no one cares, and here are 5 reasons why.

• Resumes are boring. No one wants to read them, not even recruiters. It’s a chore that takes time, and realistically the last time you did read one (instead of glance at it) was when you were writing your own.

• People are lying to protect your feelings. When was the last time you or someone you know told a friend you wouldn’t forward their resume on because it was crap? When was the last time you asked for resume advice and everyone told you it looked good? Friends think a lot of things, but very few friends will be brutally honest to help you, if no one is giving you constructive criticism try sending it to other people.

• Your resume won’t get you a job. Do you really think someone is going to hire you based on a piece of paper?

• You’re exaggerating. Everyone does it to a point, but did you really collaborate with the team on the $300 million dollar project, or did you just make copies for them? If by chance someone does read your resume, they are reading it with a skeptical eye and taking it with a grain of salt.

• You are sending it into a black hole. Applying online? Unless you have a persons e-mail address not a generic recruiting address, it will most likely never be seen by  a human eye. Even if you are sending it to a real persons address, remember it’s a chore to open it and they probably don’t want to.

With all this said, it’s true, no one cares about your resume, but you should still care. As much as it kills me to say it, resumes are still very important, and here are 5 reasons why:

• It’s not for other people, it’s for you. Your resume should be a running tally of every impressive thing you have done, and you should use it as a refresher to remind yourself of these things. It should be up to date whether you are job hunting or not, and when you accomplish something of note, write it down. You can always shorten your resume, it’s very hard to lengthen it. Know your resume backwards and forwards and be able to expand on everything on it without fumbling. Even know what doesn’t make the final cut, your resume will help you in the interview (but be careful to not only talk about what is on the resume).

• It is currently the most accepted way to showcase yourself. We are fast approaching the days when someone will say “send me your link” instead of “send me your resume,” some early adopters have already started this with LinkedIn, however, for the time being the resume is still the most accepted way to showcase yourself.

• Key words help you get a foot in the door. Remember that black hole I wrote about? There is a way out, and that is through key words. More often than not applying to a generic recruiting e-mail address will send your resume into a software program in which it will be looking for key words. If it matches the key words, then someone might look at your resume to see if you fit the bill and invite you in for an interview. So remember to use industry language. (Note: although this is my most hated form of applying for a job, I actually did get my current position this way. It never hurts, but don’t get your hopes up.)

• Be true to yourself. A little embellishment is expected but always be true to yourself and NEVER lie on a resume. Lying on a resume is career suicide and it will come back to haunt you. It is better to not get the job by being honest, than to get it by lying. Just ask George O’Leary, former head coach at Notre Dame who was forced to resign because he lied on his resume.

• It won’t make you, but it can break you. First impressions are important, and the resume is frequently someones first impression of you. While it may not make you, it can definitely break you, so in the off chance that someone actually looks at your resume, it needs to be easy to read and perfect. One misspelled word and you are through.

As Gen-Y becomes more of a staple in the work place I see a lot of this changing, particularly the accepted resume format. I believe we will transition to websites with professional bios being the standard (non-boring) way to showcase yourself. But in the meantime, I’ll continue my love/hate relationship with resumes.

Going home to your parents house after moving out is always kind of eerie, especially when “your” room is still full of your stuff. I had that eerie experience earlier this week when went to my parents house and realized that the majority of things left in my room not only define me, they define my entire generation.

As many may be guessing that stuff is my collection of trophies from growing up. I have trophies, medals, and awards for everything. I have a soccer trophies, baseball trophies, pinewood derby trophies, a medal from a poetry contest, and tons of certificates and ribbons. It’s really quite an impressive collection, until you look closely and realize that most of them say “competitor,” and none of them say “1st place.” When I came to this realization I just started to laugh because it finally hit me. I really did get a trophy for everything I did, and I never even won anything! (OK, my high school swim team won the national championship, but I assure you I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I was an “alternate” so I could go on the trip).

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I have to wonder, what do these trophies mean for my career? 

At this point in my career, I’d have to say, not a good thing because the real world has already smacked me in the face for having an expectation of a big shining trophy (metaphorically).

After my first 10 months of working I had my first formal review in which I learned what my raise would be. My boss started out praising my performance and telling me I had done a good job, and then he got around to telling me what my raise would be. I was on the edge of my seat, “My first raise!” I thought, ” I wonder what my promotion will be, Sr. Analyst!?, either way I’m taking Mary out tonight to celebrate!”

That’s about the time when my daydream came to a screeching halt as my thoughts were interrupted with ”2.7.”

“2.7 Percent?” I asked, knowing that I must have heard wrong.

“Yes”

At that point I must have given him the look of death.

“You’re not happy” he said, as I was biting a hole through my lip and trying to keep my composure.

“Well, I don’t know what you were expecting” he said in a calm, business like voice, but “I gave you the max HR would allow.”

That comment stopped me dead in my tracks, “what was I expecting?” I couldn’t answer it. I really had no idea what to expect, all I knew was that I was that I deserved praise, an awesome reward, and hopefully a pizza party afterward. At least I got the praise.

I look at that situation now and I realize that I was subconsciously expecting some sort of championship trophy (in this case more than a 2.7% raise, and hopefully a promotion) when I didn’t get it, I reacted poorly and threw my own little version of a tantrum in which I went on to pretty much tell him that if I wasn’t going to be paid what I was worth, I would find a place that would pay me what I was worth.

Lucky for me I had a really cool boss and when I called later that evening to apologize for being an idiot he laughed, and understood that I was flying blind and had nothing to base any expectations on. In hindsight yes, my reaction was EXTREMELY stupid, and I really don’t know why I was expecting more, especially when I had already survived a layoff that year.

This experience has caused me to pump the brakes a bit on my expectation for praise and rewards, I still work to the best of my ability, and I still want a trophy, I just don’t expect one anymore.

What do you think being part of the “Trophy Generation” will mean for your career?

In the midst of what seems like endless economic chaos, I work for a company that is doing exceptionally well right now. So well that many people are getting caught up in it. Private equity firms are constantly knocking on the door, and it seems like I frequently hear talk of an IPO.  

As the Treasury Manager of the company, and the writer of this blog, I try my hardest not to get caught up in it, though I admit it’s hard. As a personal finance writer, I preach to be conservative with your money: save, invest prudently, and keep an emergency fund; and as a financial professional in charge of all of a companies cash I act the same way, because if there is one thing I know, it’s that the party always ends.

Adorning the walls of my office I have hung constant reminders of this: vintage advertisements for Chrysler and Chevrolet. Every time I look up and see the ad for “The New 1967 Chevrolet Pickup” or the “Silver Anniversary Edition Chrysler New Yorker,” I think about what their management would have said at that time had someone approached them to announce that their company would go bankrupt. As much as I’d like to think they’d sit down and ask “how? when?” I have a feeling that they would have laughed it off. After all it was the heyday of the automobile!

Think about approaching an internet startup in 2000 (really, any startup will do), with the same information. Money was being handed out left and right, it was a huge party!, but the vast majority of them got caught up in the party and never looked at the bottom line. For a prime example, watch the movie e-dreams which follows the rise and fall of kozmo.com.

What about telling Bear Stearns in 2005? Worldcom or Enron in 2000? Blockbuster in 1999? All of these companies were at the peaks of their “Party” stage in these times, only to go drastically downhill a few short years later.

With all this said, I’m not against the “party,” in fact I love the party stage it’s fun and very exciting, but like any party, you have to party like the party will end, or else you wake up in the bushes wondering where your clothes went.

In personal finance partying like the party will end means saving, planning for retirement, and keeping an emergency fund, all while still enjoying your money. In the business world, that means always keeping an eye on costs (I just saved the company $15k by changing vendors for deposit tickets), managing the funds prudently (and safely), always striving for efficiency, and growing the business at a manageable pace.

If you stick with this advice, the party will last longer, and you’ll be prepared if it abruptly ends.

I have a passion for entrepreneurship. There is something grand about the spirit of bucking the curve, going against the norm and taking your employment into your own hands.

To go along with my passion, I have a scatterbrain. I get a great idea and I jump in head first, only to realize I’m diving in to the shallow end; then before I have time to lick my wounds, I’ve got another great idea, something innovative that will change the way the world  does business. All of my ideas end up spiraling into these grand visions before they are off the ground, and thus they fizzle out.

Recently, after quite a few failed concepts, I’ve learned my most valuable lesson about entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship isn’t about what you are doing, it’s about doing it.

I learned this because my wife started a small bakery. Mary saw a need at our local farmers market, no one was offering baked goods. So she contacted the person who runs it and asked if she could sell some baked goods there. The next week we baked, set up a small stand, and were the only stand at the market to sell out. It was a hit and we made a few hundred dollars, all because Mary saw a need and filled it. It’s not a glamorous business, but it’s something that I am happy to tell people about because action has been taken and it works.

Now we have people asking us where else they can buy our breads, our customers are encouraging us to sell to local shops, and people tell us that they can’t wait for the next farmers market to buy some of our specialty breads and granola bars.

Lesson learned: entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be about starting the next Google, it could be about starting the next big bread company as well .

Today my wife told me that she gets embarrassed when she is around and I try to haggle. I guess I can understand, I used to be like that too, and only over time have I grown bolder. With this in mind, I have to ask why is it that in America, money seems to be taboo?

In other cultures around the world, you are considered stupid or odd if you don’t talk money. In most parts of the world if you buy something without haggling the salesman will probably make fun of you for being a sucker as soon as you walk away. In America haggling is only considered acceptable in 3 scenarios. The first scenario is if you are buying something from a street vendor (like in New York), the second when you are buying something off of craigslist, and finally, haggling is OK when you are buying a big ticket item like a car or a house.

For some reason society has deemed it alright to negotiate and talk money in these scenarios, but if haggling is acceptable in these scenarios, why isn’t it acceptable in your daily spending? If just by asking for a discount you could get one would you go against this social norm?

I frequently go against this norm, it doesn’t always work, but when it does it feels great. Think about it from the salesman’s perspective, if 5% or 10% off will close the deal and allow them get on to helping the next customer why not? And if 10% off saves you $5 will it be worth the awkward moment? The worst thing that could happen is that they will say no.

Talking money does not only mean haggling, it means sharing your salary, something strictly forbidden in America.

In other cultures sharing your salary is not about bragging, it’s just normal everyday conversation. Xin Lu over at Wise Bread wrote a great post about how her Chinese culture influences her money habits. In the post she talks about how her father once helped a friend get a 20% raise, something that would not have been possible had they not been talking about salaries.

If by sharing your salary a friend could tell you that you are undervalued and try to help you get a higher salary is it OK? If you got a 20% raise I’m pretty sure you’d think so.

Recently I started a new job, and by talking about the offered salary and benefits of the job with someone else, that person helped me negotiate the offer I received to effectively be over 10% more than the original offer. Does it feel odd for me to know that someone else knows my salary? Yes a little, but the person who helped was glad to do it and I am extremely grateful to him for it. Sure, at the end of the day I was the one doing the negotiations, and yes, it was a bit awkward, but it was well worth it.

The point here is that Money shouldn’t be taboo. Not everyone is rich, and there is nothing wrong with that, but our culture has ingrained in us that money separates us and defines us. Nothing could be more wrong. Money is something that needs to be talked about by more people, finances cause people more stress than anything, and they are the number one cause for divorce; but if we would all be more open about money we might be able to help each other and it could all change.

Do you talk openly about money? Why or why not?

It is a common belief that failure is the opposite of success, you either succeed or you fail, and there isn’t much of an in between.  But is this really true?

Thomas Edison is credited with creating the filament in light bulbs that made them feasible for average americans to buy (no he did not invent the lightbulb).  In order to find the correct filament he tried over 2,000 times before getting it right.  If he stopped trying after the first few times, or even the first 1,999 times it would have been deemed a failure, but he didn’t, and thus it is considered successful.

I wish I was writing this after an amazing semester for the Entrepreneur Mentor Society of Dallas-Fort Worth (EMS) so I could rave about success, hard work, and The Power of Gradual, but unfortunately this isn’t the case.  

This semester nothing happened with EMS Dallas except for a lot of talk, after all of the work I put into recruiting only 3 people signed up (ouch). Some people will call this a failure, and I will agree with them; for the time being it has been a failure.  But I know that it isn’t the end, I will try again next semester, and upon trying again this stage will no longer be considered a failure, just a set back because failing is when you quit before you give yourself the chance to succeed. 

My first attempt with EMS was not successful because I did not give myself the chance to succeed. I did not ask for help, and thus I did not succeed, however I won’t call it a failure until I quit.  Over the past few months I developed a good network and I learned some valuable lessons, primarily that I can’t do it all myself and I need to ask for help.  The next few months will be spent re-tooling the concept, and bringing on a student board with leaders at each University, for them to help recruit and share ownership in the organization.

I’m not quitting because I know there are a lot of people who I don’t want to let down, and a lot of students I don’t yet know who I have the desire to help achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.

I’ve never been much for the “standard” way of doing things, because I know if I put my own style behind it it’ll be more memorable. So this post is a blend of a standard blog post and a parting or “keep in touch” letter to my colleagues, in which I out myself as a blogger.

Today is the last day of my first job out of college. As I have written before (elsewhere on the site), I graduated 2 years ago as a cocky know-it-all, but I honestly don’t know if I learned as much in my four years of college as I have in my 18 months of work at a Fortune 500 company. Between the training I have received, the mentors I have found, and the day to day business interactions I have been able to participate in, I gained not only a great deal of knowledge which I will carry with me for the rest of my life, but also many close friends. I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for taking me under your wings, teaching me, training me, and putting up with me on the days when I would endlessly quote lines from various movies or TV shows.

I also greatly appreciate the trust you placed on me and the encouragement you all gave me when I took on new projects around the office. This trust has served as my gold star that, as a member of Generation Y, I am stereotypically striving for. It made me feel proud to go into work and work harder to fulfill what you thought I could do.

For all of these things, and many many more, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making my time with you quite enjoyable.

For my fellow Gen-Y reading this, remember that you You Are Who You Associate With, and while you really don’t have much of a choice with who you surround yourself with at work (especially in your first job), you can only hope to be surrounded by as many good people as I have been surrounded with in my first job out of school. It’s important to remember that you are still learning, so don’t be afraid to latch on, ask tons of questions, and observe. You aren’t expected to know everything and most people genuinely want to help you succeed however they can. I have truly appreciated having this kind of support, and you’ll soon find that you have it too, you just have to remember to ask.

If you haven’t figured out by now, this is my website on which I’ve been chronicling my journey from cocky know-it-all to professional with more to learn. I mainly deal with the topics of business, personal finance, and entrepreneurship for Generation Y, and I don’t get “personal” on the site unless I can relate it to something professional. Jump in, kill some company time and have a look around if you’d like, but whether you do or don’t, please try to stay in touch.

One of the great advantages of blogging and social media is that it makes it very hard to lose contact with someone, so I encourage all of you to stay in touch. I am providing enough modes of contact for there to be no excuse not to.

Email: daniel at this domain dot com

My Facebook Profile

My LinkedIn Profile

Twitter: @danielpbowen

Coming soon-ish: DanielPBowen.com

Or, you can always Google Me (I’m number 2, but closing in on #1 thanks to my syndication on Brazen Careerist).

I hope to hear from you, and wish you all the best in whatever life hands you.

Daniel P. Bowen