If you are early on in your career, say your 20's or early 30's and you are starting to develop your retirement savings strategy, the opportunity of a lifetime may just have materialized for you! A bear market...
The thing about retirement savings, 401(k)'s, IRAs and their ilk is that you only draw down on your savings in... retirement. And in your case, retirement is decades away, while all the stocks you will be buying just went on a very big sale (and may even go on clearance in the near future).
Yes, the market is down, but if your investment horizon is truly far in the future, that is completely irrelevant for you. When thinking how to allocate your savings, don't worry about what your stocks may do tomorrow, next year or even five years from now. All you need to care about is the very long term.
The bottom line is that if I were now starting to plan my retirement savings strategy, I would go pretty aggressive and put 100% of my money in stocks - at least for the first few years. Even now, although I am 37, my investment horizon is still far in the future. I don't plan to retire until I am about 60 and so my investment stance is still very aggressive. My 401(k) asset allocation is 80% stocks (of which approximately 50% are international stocks), 10% real estate and 10% bonds.
What I am trying to say is: rejoice young folk! The stock market is on sale! Come in droves and bring your friends! You'll thank yourselves later.
Showing posts with label 20's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 20's. Show all posts
Monday, October 06, 2008
Friday, November 09, 2007
Recovering from Career Disaster
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Disaster #1: Selecting the Wrong Company
You did everything in your power to select the right employer for you, but soon after you start working you realize that you have made a terrible error. What should you do? Is it OK to quit immediately? Should you hang around for a year before you leave?
If you find yourself in the wrong company, the first thing you should do is wait. Give it a couple of months. Maybe you will find that what first struck you as horrible is not really so. Making an impulsive career decision is not a good strategy. However, if after a few months you find that the company truly is not the place for you, move along.
Toughing it out for a year is really not necessary. Future employers will understand if you tell them honestly that the company was not a good fit for you, and even though you tried your best, you could not fix the situation. Contrary to what many say, leaving the company after a few months will not reflect poorly on you, provided you do it once. If you bounce around several companies within a short time period, then you have a problem on your hands.
Advice: make sure it really is as bad as you think, but if it is, leave.
Disaster #2: Selecting the Wrong Profession
It is possible that you will find you strongly dislike the industry you are in. Perhaps it is too volatile or too stogy for you. Perhaps you don't deal well with the stringent regulations of the financial industry, or don't enjoy the pressure to bill more hours as a legal professional. Perhaps your industry requires too much travel for your taste, or requires you to work hours that are simply not acceptable. How do you switch to a new industry?
I started my career as a lawyer. After a couple of years on the job, I realized that I simply did not like working in a law firm. I had two options: I could leave my law firm and work as an in-house lawyer for a large company or in the public sector, or I could leave the world of law and try to switch industries completely. I opted for the latter and accomplished a smooth transition by getting an MBA. I haven't looked back.
In many cases you will find that you have similar options. You can choose to remain in your industry but change the circumstances which you dislike. This is a relatively simple transition, however it carries the risk that the change you are making will not be enough to make you happy. Alternatively, you can try to leave your profession and industry and aim for greener pastures. This course of action carries the risk that your new industry or profession will not be any more pleasing for you. It is also a relatively difficult transition to make and often involves re-training and considerable expenditure of time and money.
Advice: understand the consequences, but don't be afraid to make a difficult decision. Few things are worse than working for decades in an industry or profession that you cannot stand.
Disaster #3: Working for a Horrible Boss
Boy, that can seem like quite a disaster. It really sucks to get up in the morning, go to work and know that your horrible boss will be making your life difficult the whole time. A crappy boss can really take the fun out of work. However, as strange as it may seem, working for a horrible boss is not such a disaster. Most people have had at least one terrible boss by the time they hit their mid-career stride.
A horrible boss can teach you many things, the most important of which is what you need to do to avoid being a bad boss. Learn from your bad experience. Watch your boss carefully and try to understand what it is that you don't like about their actions. Is your boss even aware of everything he is doing wrong? Treat the situation as a learning experience.
The good news is that since slavery was abolished, you have a choice of bosses. You could quit and look for a new job, but in many cases if the company you are working for is a good one, you may not need to do so. Many good companies will re-assign star performers to different groups in order to retain them. Your bad boss may be moved to a different part of the organization, he may leave the company altogether. There is even the possibility that he or she will (God forbid) get promoted out of your life.
Advice: unless your boss compares unfavorably with Attila the Hun, hang in there. The situation is temporary. Treat it as a learning experience. Consider seeking a transfer within the organization. If you've had enough, there's always a greener pasture out there.
Disaster #4: Getting Laid Off
Few things in your career will feel worse than getting laid off. If you get laid off you may feel inadequate or helpless. You may feel that you did something wrong. You will no doubt feel stress.
Reality is that in today's highly dynamic economy, getting laid off is a real possibility for most non-government employees. While you cannot defend yourself against the possibility of getting laid off, you can do certain things to prepare. You should start preparing for disaster well before any clouds appear on the horizon, and one of the first steps to take is to build an emergency fund, to make sure that you are financially stable even if you lose your job.
If you are proactive about building your resume, as I have suggested in an earlier post in this series, you will have put yourself in a great place to quickly bounce back from the unemployment line. If you have been maintaining relationships with many of your former colleagues over the years, as I have suggested in yet another post in this series, you will have a robust network to draw upon and your time out of commission will be greatly reduced.
Advice: losing your job sucks, but it's hardly the end of the world. To minimize the damage from losing your job, make sure that you have an emergency fund. Build and maintain a professional network.
Other posts in this series include:
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decision
Your Colleagues - Your Assets
Active Resume Building
Recovering from Early Career Disaster
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Active Resume Building
This is the third post in my Early Career Decisions series. Today's topic is active resume building. While this post is aimed primarily at people in their twenties who are just starting to build their resumes, much of this advice would work just as well for those of us more advanced in our careers.
The thing to understand about your resume is that it is not a laundry list of your day-to-day responsibilities. Your resume is a story and you are the author. Much like a story, your resume needs to be structured, it needs to grip the reader from the start and draw him into the plot. Most importantly, your resume must deliver a strong and clear message. That message is: "hire me".
Writing the resume is only the final piece of your resume building process. Building your resume starts with what you actually do and what you actually achieve. However, I would like you to accept the following conceptual shift: rather than writing your resume about what you do, do what you want your resume to say.
Here are some steps to take you in the right direction:
1. Set Your Career Goals - before you take any action, it is important to understand what you are trying to achieve. Your actions should be determined by that goal. The goal you are moving towards may be your very next position, or it can be your long term career objective.
2. Create the Experience to Achieve Your Goal - go online to Monster or Hotjobs and find a job description that matches your career goal. Read it carefully and understand what type of experience hiring managers are looking for when searching for someone in that position. You can also talk to people who have already achieved your career goals and ask them what type of experience is required to get hired for a position similar to theirs.
3. Create the Experience You Need - now that you know what you are working towards, and you know what experience you need to get there, start creating the experience that you need. If certain academic degrees are needed, get ready for school. If certain professional certifications are needed, it's time to hit the books. If your career objective requires some international experience, start looking for an international assignment, etc. You don't need to do all of these immediately, but if you are serious about meeting your career objectives, you should come up with a plan for getting there.
4. Do Your Next Job - you will most likely find that much of the experience that is required for your career objective is outside the scope of your current job. That's to be expected, and it should not alarm you. You should find creative ways to get some of the experience you need for your next job, in your current job. That means that in some cases, you will need to seek projects and responsibilities that would not be in your current scope of work.
One way to move in this direction is to volunteer to participate in corporate initiatives. You can also ask to sit and listen to meetings that are not normally in the scope of your work. For example, I have asked to participate in my company's weekly revenue meetings in which sales people review the current status of their accounts, even though this is completely outside the scope of my day to day work. The reason I do this is to get involved in a different aspect of my company's business, which will be useful for me in the long term. There are two other side benefit to this strategy: first, it allows you to free yourself from your pigeon hole. Rather than being looked at as the marketing guy, the operations expert or the finance guru, if you venture outside the scope of your defined role, you are starting to create an image for yourself as a multi-disciplinary professional. Second, if you participate in such out-of-scope activities, eventually you will come across an interesting project that you will be able to participate in. Presto, new and useful experience for your resume.
4. Your Job IS Resume Building - please recognize the following important maxim: your job is your career, not what you happen to be doing at the moment. Your current job is only a step on the way to your next positions. Because of this you must make sure that your current job does not derail your next job or your career progression.
This statement means that in your current job, you should focus on those actions and activities that are important and that will help move you along to the next level. Surprisingly, this is very often the focus that would make your bosses happy as well. Do not focus on the small or urgent things. Focus on the big, important things. Like I told a member of my team last week, if it's not something you can put on your resume, don't focus on it.
Most jobs on the planet involve a lot of small, day to day, minor or urgent activities. These need to get done, but should not be confused with the important, strategic, major projects that will make you successful in the long run. The analogy I like to use in this context is the difference between a cost center and a profit center. A cost center is a set of activities that are required but that do not generate revenue for the company. A profit center is what pays the bills for the organization. The strategy for dealing with cost centers is cost minimization. The strategy for dealing with profit centers is maximizing profits. Similarly, in your work you should minimize the time you spend on routine tasks. Don't drop the ball, but don't go above and beyond. Spend the extra time you gain on something you can put on your resume.
5. Stay on the Ball - every Friday, ask yourself a simple question: "what have I done this week, to improve my resume?" "Nothing", is the wrong answer.
Other posts in this series include:
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decision
Your Colleagues - Your Assets
Active Resume Building
Recovering from Early Career Disaster
The thing to understand about your resume is that it is not a laundry list of your day-to-day responsibilities. Your resume is a story and you are the author. Much like a story, your resume needs to be structured, it needs to grip the reader from the start and draw him into the plot. Most importantly, your resume must deliver a strong and clear message. That message is: "hire me".
Writing the resume is only the final piece of your resume building process. Building your resume starts with what you actually do and what you actually achieve. However, I would like you to accept the following conceptual shift: rather than writing your resume about what you do, do what you want your resume to say.
Here are some steps to take you in the right direction:
1. Set Your Career Goals - before you take any action, it is important to understand what you are trying to achieve. Your actions should be determined by that goal. The goal you are moving towards may be your very next position, or it can be your long term career objective.
2. Create the Experience to Achieve Your Goal - go online to Monster or Hotjobs and find a job description that matches your career goal. Read it carefully and understand what type of experience hiring managers are looking for when searching for someone in that position. You can also talk to people who have already achieved your career goals and ask them what type of experience is required to get hired for a position similar to theirs.
3. Create the Experience You Need - now that you know what you are working towards, and you know what experience you need to get there, start creating the experience that you need. If certain academic degrees are needed, get ready for school. If certain professional certifications are needed, it's time to hit the books. If your career objective requires some international experience, start looking for an international assignment, etc. You don't need to do all of these immediately, but if you are serious about meeting your career objectives, you should come up with a plan for getting there.
4. Do Your Next Job - you will most likely find that much of the experience that is required for your career objective is outside the scope of your current job. That's to be expected, and it should not alarm you. You should find creative ways to get some of the experience you need for your next job, in your current job. That means that in some cases, you will need to seek projects and responsibilities that would not be in your current scope of work.
One way to move in this direction is to volunteer to participate in corporate initiatives. You can also ask to sit and listen to meetings that are not normally in the scope of your work. For example, I have asked to participate in my company's weekly revenue meetings in which sales people review the current status of their accounts, even though this is completely outside the scope of my day to day work. The reason I do this is to get involved in a different aspect of my company's business, which will be useful for me in the long term. There are two other side benefit to this strategy: first, it allows you to free yourself from your pigeon hole. Rather than being looked at as the marketing guy, the operations expert or the finance guru, if you venture outside the scope of your defined role, you are starting to create an image for yourself as a multi-disciplinary professional. Second, if you participate in such out-of-scope activities, eventually you will come across an interesting project that you will be able to participate in. Presto, new and useful experience for your resume.
4. Your Job IS Resume Building - please recognize the following important maxim: your job is your career, not what you happen to be doing at the moment. Your current job is only a step on the way to your next positions. Because of this you must make sure that your current job does not derail your next job or your career progression.
This statement means that in your current job, you should focus on those actions and activities that are important and that will help move you along to the next level. Surprisingly, this is very often the focus that would make your bosses happy as well. Do not focus on the small or urgent things. Focus on the big, important things. Like I told a member of my team last week, if it's not something you can put on your resume, don't focus on it.
Most jobs on the planet involve a lot of small, day to day, minor or urgent activities. These need to get done, but should not be confused with the important, strategic, major projects that will make you successful in the long run. The analogy I like to use in this context is the difference between a cost center and a profit center. A cost center is a set of activities that are required but that do not generate revenue for the company. A profit center is what pays the bills for the organization. The strategy for dealing with cost centers is cost minimization. The strategy for dealing with profit centers is maximizing profits. Similarly, in your work you should minimize the time you spend on routine tasks. Don't drop the ball, but don't go above and beyond. Spend the extra time you gain on something you can put on your resume.
5. Stay on the Ball - every Friday, ask yourself a simple question: "what have I done this week, to improve my resume?" "Nothing", is the wrong answer.
Other posts in this series include:
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decision
Your Colleagues - Your Assets
Active Resume Building
Recovering from Early Career Disaster
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Your Colleagues - Your Assets
This is the second post in my series about early career decisions.
Today I would like to talk about one of the most under appreciated assets that each of us owns at work. Our colleagues. Whether you work for a small organization or a large one, in your day to day work you are probably building a large number of relationships with fellow workers, customers, suppliers and more. As these acquaintances move across companies and industries, your professional network extends with them.
Colleagues can shape your career to such an extent that many individuals never have to actively search for a job, as new career opportunities just seem to flow in their direction. Here are a couple of examples that I have personally witnessed in just the past two weeks:
Knowing that I am hiring a new member for my team, one of my customers called and told me about a good candidate that he used to work with in the past. I decided to interview that person, based solely on his recommendation. In the end I did not hire this candidate, but the point is that she would never have even gotten an interview without a recommendation from her colleague. Another example: my boss has been looking for a new member for her team for the past couple of months. Over that period, she has called five or six individuals that used to work for her previously, in the hopes of luring them to join her team. My point is this: if you are able to build and maintain a strong relationship with your colleagues, you will have created a long lasting and powerful career resource.
So how do you build such strong and long lasting relationships with your colleagues? Here are a few tips:
1. Make Your Boss Look Good - doing your job well; giving your boss credit where credit is due; supporting him in front of his boss; are some of the easiest ways of making your boss look good. Do that consistently, and when your boss gets promoted within the organization or moves to a better position in a different company, he may try to drag you along with him. Think I am overstating the case? The first thing a new executive does in a new position, is move people he trusts into positions of power around him. This is a quick and effective way to consolidate power and ensure that he gets the job done. Be one of those trusted few.
2. Be Fun to Work With - coming to work in the morning is much nicer if you like the people you work with. In every organization there are some who are liked by all, others who are tolerated, and a few who are despised. If you are someone people like, you will find that they try to take you with them into future positions. You know what they say, good people are hard to find. To achieve this goal, be courteous, professional and respectful to others. Try to avoid gossip or negativity, and most importantly in my opinion, try to avoid any blatantly political actions. Stay above the day to day corporate warfare and you will be rewarded.
3. Keep in Touch - the very essence of building a professional network, is keeping in touch with people. Ironically, when folks leave the company, is the time at which their value to your professional network increases the most. Luckily, these days keeping in touch with former colleagues has become a very simple matter. You can use such tools as linkedin.com or Plaxo to keep in touch with people. You can also send the occasional e-mail update or the annual Christmas card, and having lunch with some of your old colleagues periodically is not only useful, but fun!
Some companies actually encourage their alums to stay in touch. One consulting company I worked for in the past has a website for all it's former employees and sends quarterly news updates to everyone registered to that alumni network. In another of my former companies, alums themselves have started a Yahoo mailing group through which we all stay in touch.
4. Work Outside Your Team - developing your existing contacts is a good idea, expanding your colleague network is even better. To do so, try to find some opportunities to work with members from other parts of the organization. A great way to do this is to volunteer for some cross functional teams. It is always a good idea to reach-out to customers, attend trade shows, and participate in company social events. Those functions all offer opportunities for meeting and interacting with more of your colleagues.
Other posts in this series include:
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decision
Your Colleagues - Your Assets
Active Resume Building
Recovering from Early Career Disaster
Today I would like to talk about one of the most under appreciated assets that each of us owns at work. Our colleagues. Whether you work for a small organization or a large one, in your day to day work you are probably building a large number of relationships with fellow workers, customers, suppliers and more. As these acquaintances move across companies and industries, your professional network extends with them.
Colleagues can shape your career to such an extent that many individuals never have to actively search for a job, as new career opportunities just seem to flow in their direction. Here are a couple of examples that I have personally witnessed in just the past two weeks:
Knowing that I am hiring a new member for my team, one of my customers called and told me about a good candidate that he used to work with in the past. I decided to interview that person, based solely on his recommendation. In the end I did not hire this candidate, but the point is that she would never have even gotten an interview without a recommendation from her colleague. Another example: my boss has been looking for a new member for her team for the past couple of months. Over that period, she has called five or six individuals that used to work for her previously, in the hopes of luring them to join her team. My point is this: if you are able to build and maintain a strong relationship with your colleagues, you will have created a long lasting and powerful career resource.
So how do you build such strong and long lasting relationships with your colleagues? Here are a few tips:
1. Make Your Boss Look Good - doing your job well; giving your boss credit where credit is due; supporting him in front of his boss; are some of the easiest ways of making your boss look good. Do that consistently, and when your boss gets promoted within the organization or moves to a better position in a different company, he may try to drag you along with him. Think I am overstating the case? The first thing a new executive does in a new position, is move people he trusts into positions of power around him. This is a quick and effective way to consolidate power and ensure that he gets the job done. Be one of those trusted few.
2. Be Fun to Work With - coming to work in the morning is much nicer if you like the people you work with. In every organization there are some who are liked by all, others who are tolerated, and a few who are despised. If you are someone people like, you will find that they try to take you with them into future positions. You know what they say, good people are hard to find. To achieve this goal, be courteous, professional and respectful to others. Try to avoid gossip or negativity, and most importantly in my opinion, try to avoid any blatantly political actions. Stay above the day to day corporate warfare and you will be rewarded.
3. Keep in Touch - the very essence of building a professional network, is keeping in touch with people. Ironically, when folks leave the company, is the time at which their value to your professional network increases the most. Luckily, these days keeping in touch with former colleagues has become a very simple matter. You can use such tools as linkedin.com or Plaxo to keep in touch with people. You can also send the occasional e-mail update or the annual Christmas card, and having lunch with some of your old colleagues periodically is not only useful, but fun!
Some companies actually encourage their alums to stay in touch. One consulting company I worked for in the past has a website for all it's former employees and sends quarterly news updates to everyone registered to that alumni network. In another of my former companies, alums themselves have started a Yahoo mailing group through which we all stay in touch.
4. Work Outside Your Team - developing your existing contacts is a good idea, expanding your colleague network is even better. To do so, try to find some opportunities to work with members from other parts of the organization. A great way to do this is to volunteer for some cross functional teams. It is always a good idea to reach-out to customers, attend trade shows, and participate in company social events. Those functions all offer opportunities for meeting and interacting with more of your colleagues.
Other posts in this series include:
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decision
Your Colleagues - Your Assets
Active Resume Building
Recovering from Early Career Disaster
Monday, November 05, 2007
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decsion
Last week I announced a new series which will focus on making the right career decisions in your 20's. This post is the first in the series.
Early on in your career, selecting the right employer can have a profound impact on the direction your career takes and on your prospects for professional success. Future employers will judge you based upon your previous employers; the breadth and depth of your professional knowledge will depend on your employer selection; and your chances for advancement are sure to be influenced by the type of employer you associate yourself with.
With so much riding on this decision, how can you increase your chances of selecting the right company? Here are some important pointers:
1. Brand Names - just as most people prefer branded products to generics, most hiring managers prefer to hire people from brand name companies. Hiring managers know that because more "prestigious" companies are more sought after by candidates, they tend to have a larger pool of candidates from which to recruit, and from this larger pool they recruit the cream of the crop. In essence, if you are able to land a first job with a "brand name" company you have another seal of approval on your resume. This seal of approval will be useful for many years to come. Generally speaking, a company whose name the guy next door is likely to recognize is a brand name company. Failing that test, choose publicly traded companies over privately held ones.
Advice: Always aim for prestigious companies within your chosen industry.
2. Training - in your first jobs one of the most important things you need to consider is on-the-job training. Believe it or not, college does not prepare you for the corporate world. The only way you can prepare is to make sure you are well trained by your first employers. When choosing an employer, be sure to consider the company's reputation for offering professional development to its team members. In fact, be sure to ask your interviewers pointed questions about how the company helps its employees grow professionally. In addition to getting a useful answer, that question is also sure to impress any interviewer.
Advice: choose a company which will offer you as much training as possible.
3. Large vs. Small Companies - should you go for a smaller company or a bigger one? The answer to that question is dependent on your career goals. Smaller companies tend to be more dynamic. They offer employees a much broader range of experience, since their work processes tend to be more flexible. Smaller companies, by definition, have fewer employees to handle many tasks. This means that in many cases employees have to wear several hats. This may give you a wide range of experience early on in your career, and may be ideal if you are considering an entrepreneurial direction.
The down side is that in many small companies, employees tend to become jacks of all trades in their functional area. This means that they find it difficult to become experts in any given area. Smaller companies also tend to have fewer resources for on-the-job training and professional growth. In addition, career mobility within these organizations tends to be limited, since there aren't that many roles you can move into.
Advice: unless you are positive you want to choose an entrepreneurial course for your career, starting in a larger company is a safe bet.
4. Select a Company Not a Supervisor - unless the hiring manager is Count Dracula, don't base your employer selection decision on your prospective manager's identity. Managers come and go. Positions change. People get promoted. People leave companies. If you choose your position based on the identity of a manager, you could be disappointed shortly thereafter if that manager leaves or is re-assigned. On the other hand, organizational cultures are very stable over the long term.
Advice: join a company with a good organizational culture and with strong industry presence. Ignore the identity of the hiring manager, for good or bad.
5. Do Not Follow the Hottest Trend - if everyone else is trying to get into a certain industry (say... private equity, for example), that's exactly the wrong industry to get into. There are a number of reasons for this. If all the best and the brightest are trying to get into an industry, it will be very tough to distinguish yourself and stand out from the crowd. In addition, much like the stock market, industry is cyclical and the industry that has seen the hottest streak in recent years is likely to cool off in the future. Don't pick last year's winning sector, pick next year's winners.
The same is true for companies. If everybody is trying to get into eBay, it doesn't necessarily follow that this is the right company for you. There are many brand name companies out there and some of them are starved for top notch talent. Go for those.
Let me share a personal anecdote here. Between my first and second years of business school, I received a lucrative summer internship offer from Intel. I turned down that offer to follow the latest trend and joined a dotcom. The year was 2000 and that story turned ugly pretty quickly, as we all know.
Advice: go into an industry and a company based on the merits. Do not base your decisions on fashions or trends.
6. Think About Your Next Job - you know those folks that buy a house and are always thinking about how each change they want to make will impact the house's resale value? Well, those folks have it exactly right. Before you take any job, think about how that job will look on your resume next time you try to sell yourself to an employer.
Before you accept any job offer, it is important to have a career plan. I know that for someone in their 20's who just got out of college and is working his first or second job the term "career plan" may sound scary. However, by career plan I don't necessarily mean a formal 10 year plan. For the purpose of this discussion, what I am referring to is a vague idea of where you would like your career to take you. Do you see yourself going to law school? Do you see yourself as an Ad Executive? Do you see yourself as a CFO? Wherever you think you are headed, is the job you are being offered sending you on the right path towards that goal?
Advice: before taking a job ask yourself: "is this job the right step towards [INSERT LOFTY CAREER GOAL HERE]."
7. Compensation is Secondary - Shadox are you mad? Isn't money what it's all about? I may be slightly off my rocker, but that has nothing to do with the specific point I am making here. Remember, you are not trying to maximize your immediate earnings potential. You are trying to maximize your lifetime earnings potential. Your first jobs will pay you peanuts compared to what you can make somewhere down the line. Keep your eye on the big prize. Don't accept a job that pays you $5,000 more a year if it doesn't take you where you want to go. That's like boarding a bus that is going to the wrong part of town, just because it looks nicer.
Advice: maximize your long term earnings potential, not your next pay-check.
Other posts in this series include:
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decision
Your Colleagues - Your Assets
Active Resume Building
Recovering from Early Career Disaster
Early on in your career, selecting the right employer can have a profound impact on the direction your career takes and on your prospects for professional success. Future employers will judge you based upon your previous employers; the breadth and depth of your professional knowledge will depend on your employer selection; and your chances for advancement are sure to be influenced by the type of employer you associate yourself with.
With so much riding on this decision, how can you increase your chances of selecting the right company? Here are some important pointers:
1. Brand Names - just as most people prefer branded products to generics, most hiring managers prefer to hire people from brand name companies. Hiring managers know that because more "prestigious" companies are more sought after by candidates, they tend to have a larger pool of candidates from which to recruit, and from this larger pool they recruit the cream of the crop. In essence, if you are able to land a first job with a "brand name" company you have another seal of approval on your resume. This seal of approval will be useful for many years to come. Generally speaking, a company whose name the guy next door is likely to recognize is a brand name company. Failing that test, choose publicly traded companies over privately held ones.
Advice: Always aim for prestigious companies within your chosen industry.
2. Training - in your first jobs one of the most important things you need to consider is on-the-job training. Believe it or not, college does not prepare you for the corporate world. The only way you can prepare is to make sure you are well trained by your first employers. When choosing an employer, be sure to consider the company's reputation for offering professional development to its team members. In fact, be sure to ask your interviewers pointed questions about how the company helps its employees grow professionally. In addition to getting a useful answer, that question is also sure to impress any interviewer.
Advice: choose a company which will offer you as much training as possible.
3. Large vs. Small Companies - should you go for a smaller company or a bigger one? The answer to that question is dependent on your career goals. Smaller companies tend to be more dynamic. They offer employees a much broader range of experience, since their work processes tend to be more flexible. Smaller companies, by definition, have fewer employees to handle many tasks. This means that in many cases employees have to wear several hats. This may give you a wide range of experience early on in your career, and may be ideal if you are considering an entrepreneurial direction.
The down side is that in many small companies, employees tend to become jacks of all trades in their functional area. This means that they find it difficult to become experts in any given area. Smaller companies also tend to have fewer resources for on-the-job training and professional growth. In addition, career mobility within these organizations tends to be limited, since there aren't that many roles you can move into.
Advice: unless you are positive you want to choose an entrepreneurial course for your career, starting in a larger company is a safe bet.
4. Select a Company Not a Supervisor - unless the hiring manager is Count Dracula, don't base your employer selection decision on your prospective manager's identity. Managers come and go. Positions change. People get promoted. People leave companies. If you choose your position based on the identity of a manager, you could be disappointed shortly thereafter if that manager leaves or is re-assigned. On the other hand, organizational cultures are very stable over the long term.
Advice: join a company with a good organizational culture and with strong industry presence. Ignore the identity of the hiring manager, for good or bad.
5. Do Not Follow the Hottest Trend - if everyone else is trying to get into a certain industry (say... private equity, for example), that's exactly the wrong industry to get into. There are a number of reasons for this. If all the best and the brightest are trying to get into an industry, it will be very tough to distinguish yourself and stand out from the crowd. In addition, much like the stock market, industry is cyclical and the industry that has seen the hottest streak in recent years is likely to cool off in the future. Don't pick last year's winning sector, pick next year's winners.
The same is true for companies. If everybody is trying to get into eBay, it doesn't necessarily follow that this is the right company for you. There are many brand name companies out there and some of them are starved for top notch talent. Go for those.
Let me share a personal anecdote here. Between my first and second years of business school, I received a lucrative summer internship offer from Intel. I turned down that offer to follow the latest trend and joined a dotcom. The year was 2000 and that story turned ugly pretty quickly, as we all know.
Advice: go into an industry and a company based on the merits. Do not base your decisions on fashions or trends.
6. Think About Your Next Job - you know those folks that buy a house and are always thinking about how each change they want to make will impact the house's resale value? Well, those folks have it exactly right. Before you take any job, think about how that job will look on your resume next time you try to sell yourself to an employer.
Before you accept any job offer, it is important to have a career plan. I know that for someone in their 20's who just got out of college and is working his first or second job the term "career plan" may sound scary. However, by career plan I don't necessarily mean a formal 10 year plan. For the purpose of this discussion, what I am referring to is a vague idea of where you would like your career to take you. Do you see yourself going to law school? Do you see yourself as an Ad Executive? Do you see yourself as a CFO? Wherever you think you are headed, is the job you are being offered sending you on the right path towards that goal?
Advice: before taking a job ask yourself: "is this job the right step towards [INSERT LOFTY CAREER GOAL HERE]."
7. Compensation is Secondary - Shadox are you mad? Isn't money what it's all about? I may be slightly off my rocker, but that has nothing to do with the specific point I am making here. Remember, you are not trying to maximize your immediate earnings potential. You are trying to maximize your lifetime earnings potential. Your first jobs will pay you peanuts compared to what you can make somewhere down the line. Keep your eye on the big prize. Don't accept a job that pays you $5,000 more a year if it doesn't take you where you want to go. That's like boarding a bus that is going to the wrong part of town, just because it looks nicer.
Advice: maximize your long term earnings potential, not your next pay-check.
Other posts in this series include:
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decision
Your Colleagues - Your Assets
Active Resume Building
Recovering from Early Career Disaster
Friday, November 02, 2007
Early Career Decisions
In your twenties and early thirties, your career is typically your most important financial asset. Any investment you make in your career in those early years will have decades to pay-off, and early success or smart career choices can translate into millions of Dollars in future income.
In the coming days, I will be publishing a series of posts on the topic of getting your career going in the right direction. This series will focus on how folks in their twenties can greatly improve their chances for long term prosperity by making a few smart career choices. Here are the posts that I am planning for this series:
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decision - Your early employment history will have a profound impact on the rest of your career. This post will offer specific advice on how to select your first companies, including a detailed discussion of important issues to consider and traps to avoid.
Your Colleagues - Your Assets - This post will focus on developing one of the most important and under appreciated career assets that each of us owns. Our colleagues.
Active Resume Building - Far from being a laundry list of everything you have done in your career, your resume is a story, and you are the author. This post will show you how to plan and acquire an enviable resume.
Recovering from Early Career Disaster - everyone's career has its ups and downs. However, early career mistakes can have a long lasting effect unless they are dealt with quickly and decisively. This post will discuss some of the more common career disasters and offer ways for turning them into career assets.
This promises to be a very interesting series. I hope you enjoy it.
In the coming days, I will be publishing a series of posts on the topic of getting your career going in the right direction. This series will focus on how folks in their twenties can greatly improve their chances for long term prosperity by making a few smart career choices. Here are the posts that I am planning for this series:
Employer Selection: a Strategic Career Decision - Your early employment history will have a profound impact on the rest of your career. This post will offer specific advice on how to select your first companies, including a detailed discussion of important issues to consider and traps to avoid.
Your Colleagues - Your Assets - This post will focus on developing one of the most important and under appreciated career assets that each of us owns. Our colleagues.
Active Resume Building - Far from being a laundry list of everything you have done in your career, your resume is a story, and you are the author. This post will show you how to plan and acquire an enviable resume.
Recovering from Early Career Disaster - everyone's career has its ups and downs. However, early career mistakes can have a long lasting effect unless they are dealt with quickly and decisively. This post will discuss some of the more common career disasters and offer ways for turning them into career assets.
This promises to be a very interesting series. I hope you enjoy it.
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