I think about how he sees every moment as an opportunity to continue his Machiavellian rise to power, as he tells me “You are the Treasurer of this company.”  

This makes me smile until I remember that he conveniently left out “until the rest of the department returns from lunch.”

He understands me.  He knows that I volunteer to take on projects, get in early, and stay late so that I can “climb the corporate ladder,” and he feels my disappointment when I fail to get adequate recognition in my review.

He wants me to be more Machiavellian and point out the wasting of company time I view on a daily basis, “That will make you look better,” he says.  He then proceeds to shake his head as if to call me a hypocrite for writing this post at work.

He serves as both a source of joy in my day and as a constant reminder of my increase in “value” to my company after almost a year of work.  After all, the increase in my paycheck tomorrow, reflecting my first raise, is the price my wife paid for him to accompany me at work.

I turn to negative thinking and he he immediately counters my thoughts by shaking his head “no.” I look into his beady eyes, and I think about the joy he would receive from getting any raise, regardless of size, and I instantly feel ungrateful.

He tells me: “Wait until the new corporate website launches, that will be our day! Then we will get the recognition we deserve!”

I nod back in agreement.  I can wait two months until launch, to see what I have worked towards come to life.  Surely that will be my day!

He nods approvingly.

But if that recognition is not sufficient, I’ll leave, with my Dwight Schrute bobble head doll in hand.

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Last week I wrote a resume crash course called “Getting a Job: The Resume”, and now that you’ve got your resume put together, it’s time to start meeting people.  Sure you can apply to job listings online, and no it isn’t exactly a waste of time, but in actuality the best jobs are found through existing relationships. 

Now it’s time to start creating those relationships through networking.  This week I’ve written some pointers for effective networking.

• Read the news, especially the Wall Street Journal every morning.  Pay for a subscription if you don’t have it.  This is prime conversation material, that you are able to use in any situation.  Plus, it sounds really cool and intelligent the first few times you hear yourself say “there was an article about this in the Wall Street Journal last week.”  You’ll be surprised how often you’ll reference it, and how much you’ll learn
• Everything is a networking opportunity. EVERYTHING.
• You aren’t shy anymore.  You are confident and assertive. That means firm handshakes, making eye contact, and speaking confidently like you are sure of yourself and comfortable in the environment.  People remember good handshakes and confidence, but they also remember weak handshakes and lack of confidence, this is your first impression, make it count.
• Listen and bond with them over something.  You need a memorable conversation, a Wall Street Journal article would come in handy here.
• Get the business card and stay in contact using the “bond” or memorable conversation.  Following up the next day is the key to networking.  Without the follow up, you are just an acquaintance, if they will even remember you.
• You want a relationship, do not ask for a job.  If the person asks what you do, be honest, say you just graduated, and you’re looking for something in (insert field here).  Don’t get too specific, A friends boyfriend who was straight out of school once told me that he wanted to do PR for a sports team or a Zoo.  A year later, he was still jobless, my friend had broken up with him (because of his joblessness), and he was still looking to do PR with a sports team or a zoo.  No one wants to help you when you box yourself in, it is best to swallow your pride and realize your first job may not be your dream job.
• Ask for advice.  People love it when you ask their advice.  It makes them feel respected and important, most importantly, they will want to help. 
• Everyone has been in your shoes, and everyone remembers what it is/was like looking for a job straight out of school, let them help you, many people will want to.  You’ll be surprised.
• Use their contacts. Ask them if they know of anyone who might be willing to sit down and talk with you, even if they aren’t hiring.  Remember, you are looking for a relationship.  Sometimes you need to cannibalize the off chance of getting a job offer with one person in order to get an introduction to that persons contact list, but make sure that everyone knows you are looking for a job.
• Have a personal elevator speech.  You have to be prepared for everything.  Be ready for the question of “why should a company hire you?”  You have to be able to perform this on the spot.
• Don’t turn down an opportunity.  Force yourself to be active and social.  You never know who someone knows, and you never know how an opportunity could arise.

The bottom line is that you have to make the most of every opportunity presented to you in life, when you do this you meet incredible people and build your network.

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The Resume: A 10 step crash course

1. One Full Page.  Hopefully you’ve had some good internship opportunities during your time in college that you can put on your resume, but you still don’t have enough experience to merit your resume being over 1 page.  If you’ve got over a page, you’ve got too much fluff (BS), if your under a page it looks like you have no experience.  If you are under a page, be sure to add relevant school projects as experience.  If you’re over a page, most recruiters won’t turn the page, plus staples snag the other resumes in the pile which makes your 2 pager annoying to begin with.

2. Bullet Points.  No one wants to read a paragraph about you, so help make recruiters jobs easier.  Think of bullet points as catchy headlines.  You want them to jump off the page and make the reader get the idea, but also want to learn more (by calling you in for an interview).

3. Strong Action Verbs.  Start your bullet points with an action verb, not “I.”  When you say “Developed a comprehensive database to ensure…” the “I” is assumed, and Developed jumps off the page.  In the example, “Developed” is a strong action verb, it says that you are proactive, yes, it could have used “Made” instead of developed , but Made is too passive.  Use words like Monitored, Created, Examined, Coordinated, Collaborated, Maintained, and Managed.

4. Formatting. There are many ways to do this, and arguably none is better than the other as long as it looks good.  Below is my preference.

Name

Contact Info (can be on separate lines, or same, depends on space)

TITLE (Education, Experience,…)

COMPANY/SCHOOL                                                                                Location

Title/Role/Major                                                                                 Date -Date

• Bullet Points (at least 4 per best/relevant experience, 3 or maybe 2 for less relevant.
• Bullet Points…

5. GPA.  As a general rule of thumb, if you made above a 3.0, put it on your resume.  If not, don’t.

6. Affiliations.  Chances are you were involved in organizations on campus and you volunteered.  Include them, it looks great on a resume, that IS why you initially did them right?

7. Other/Interests.  This is where you need to humanize yourself.  If you made a 4.0 at Harvard and were super involved on campus, that’s great, but on paper you’re an overachiever without people skills that I don’t want to hire.  However, if you tell me that you are an action sports junkie, or an accomplished ballet dancer that makes you a more interesting person that I would want to work with.  Plus it provides great ice breaker conversation in interviews.

8. References.  Don’t include this section on your resume, and especially don’t put “Available upon request,” that’s just stupid.  If it’s not on there, and they want them, they will ask for them anyway.  And if they are on there it’s rude to your references because you never know when or if to give them a heads up that a call is coming.  Have a separate page that lists references when you go in for the interview.  If they ask for it, you can provide it and give a heads up to your references.

9. Contact Info.  You’re an adult.  cooln3rd1986 isn’t going to cut it anymore.  Try to get your name or initials from an e-mail service.  If not, consider buying your name or last name as a domain and setting up free e-mail like Joe@yourelastname.com/.net/.us  It is very simple to purchase (I prefer GoDaddy.com, be frugal there are always coupon codes for them, and avoid any extras, you just need the domain).  Then read about Google Apps and sign up for free e-mail using your domain!

10. Edit Edit Edit.  Your resume will always be a work in progress.  Before you apply for jobs, send it out to as many (qualified) people as possible and ask them to critique it, not to pass it on.  If no one says anything, that does not mean it’s good.  Tell them to nit pick and be mean, but remember not everyone provides good advice, so don’t feel obligated to accept it all.  You can even send it to me and I will be honest ( daniel at this domain.com).  As a bonus, by doing this and asking for advice, you are building your network and can send it back to them and ask them for more help in finding a job!

I hope you found this crash course helpful, obviously I did not include everything,  so if you have additional pointers please leave them.  My resume is always a work in progress too!

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“We need to talk,” I said, “I enjoy working for you, and I feel like I have gained a great deal of priceless experience, but I’ve been increadibly bored over the past few weeks and when I ask for more work I get bitch work.  I need to know where my job is going.”

He was caught a little off guard, but responded “Well, to be perfectly honest, there is no vertical growth in our department.  If you were to stay at this company it would be in another department.  You aren’t thinking of quitting already are you?”

I smiled, “You know I always look for more responsibility.”

I appreciate his honesty, but I was caught off guard a bit by his frankness.  On one hand it’s good to know, but on the other I was just told I was in a dead end job and I needed to figure out my next move.  My lingering question became, do I start to look for a new job then (after 6 months on the job, the last person in my job lasted 7), or do I do as I’ve been told by most people I’ve met with…stick it out for at least a year.

Fast Forward 2 weeks.  I have breakfast with a powerful HR executive who I met through my father-in-law (networking extraordinaire).  I ask him about my situation to further our conversation, and because as a general rule… effective networking occurs when you ask for advice.  His response was just as I imagined.  “Stick it out for at least a year,” he then caught me off guard, “then send me your resume.”

I was flattered, to say the least, but I still had 6 more months to stick it out… I’m fine with being worked to death, but pure boredom is another thing all together.  I would later find out from a co-worker that the girl who had my job before me watched Grey’s Anatomy and anything else she could online, and that the guy before her brought in DVD’s to watch at work.  This is something I could NEVER do, I view it as wrong on any number of levels, so I would need to find other things to busy myself.

Today I’ve been on the job about 10 months, and I have become the unofficial corporate webmaster, in charge of maintaining our less than par website that was put up in the mid ’90s.  I have since made it my goal to get us a new corporate website, actually this is something I told my boss we needed right after I was hired.

I began lobbying slowly, but gained some backers and was able to successfully create a presentation on why we need a new website.  The presentation was successful and I got the corporate funding for it (very surprising because of the cost cutting measures my company has taken).  Now I am the point man on working with company executives from all departments and a 3rd party firm to develop the site.  I’ve been balancing schedules and putting together an advisory team to watch over the development.  I got much busier when working towards the new site, and I even took stuff home with me one night (something I never do).

By broadening my exposure and working toward my goal of getting the new site, I now have something that gets me excited for work.  It is well outside of my job description, but it has enabled me to gain invaluable management experience and exposure that will surely look good on my resume and aid me in the search for my next position.

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