Phase II: Book Review

I recently completed the book They Don't Teach Corporate in College by Alexandra Levit.  It's a book that covers all the lessons she struggled to learn as a twenty-something in the corporate world.  She covers all the hard lessons, mistakes and successes that eventually lead her to a position she enjoys in the field she loved.

I found I identified with her target audience quite nicely.  She described herself as someone who had always been successful in University, achieving high grades and expected to skip up the corporate ladder as easily as the collegiate ladder.  Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as easy as she expected.

Take Away
 There were may points in the book of which I was already aware.  For example, the importance of watching what you say, especially when it's documented in writing (something that I strive to do in this blog and my Facebook profile especially).  I'm also well aware of the importance of networking in a corporate environment.  However, there was quite a bit that I hadn't thought about before.

She recommends developing a 'corporate persona'.  Not an entirely new personality, but a more refined version of oneself to bring to work and work related functions.  Until this point I had attempted to find a company that would accept me and all of me.  In hindsight, this was a bit unrealistic.  A corporate persona should still reflect your personality, but should also show you've put the effort into showing respect to your coworkers.

She also recommends a personal mission statement; something that covers who you are, for what you're looking and how you plan to achieve that.  I will walk through this process in a later post.

One of the most interesting chapters was the chapter on accepting and dispensing criticism.  Being a success oriented person, I have noticed that I have a habit of taking criticism very personally.  She recommends that you separate the criticism from yourself; they aren't saying you are bad, rather that the action you are taking is not what is expected of you.  Actions are easy to reevaluate and adjust.  Your personality? Not as simple.  From there it's important to understand just what they are criticizing, and what actions they feel necessary.

As for giving criticism it was mostly information of which I was already aware.  Do it nicely, constructively, attack the behavior not the person.  But she also mentioned a strategy for coping with employees who, despite your best efforts, cannot accept criticism in any shape or form without falling to pieces.  She recommends treating them as though they are already exhibiting the behavior and praise them accordingly.  Someone not spell checking their work?  Say "It's wonderful that you always check your work for spelling errors. It saves me so much time!"  The idea being that having been recognized for this particular behavior this person will attempt to continue to receive praise of the same variety by then actually displaying the behavior.


Criticism
Although I do not completely agree with this assessment, it might be worth an attempt.  However, it would be necessary to proceed with caution.  There is potential that based on your praise the employee could assume their minimal efforts are enough.  When their mistakes become a serious problem and that person may need to be let go, they will view the reasoning behind their dismissal as being out of the wood work.  After all, weren't you just praising them for displaying the behavior you are now saying they were not doing in a satisfactory manner?

As with most things, I'm sure it's a situational contingency.

Recommendation
I would recommend this book to job seekers who are interested in working in 'corporate America'.  The rules may be different in other life-paths but this is a concise guidebook to a world for which we seem ill prepared.

Best regards,
Beth

Phase II: Introduction

 After the initial contact comes the interview period. This is when companies and I determine if we are right for one another.  Much like a blind date, we each go in with the rosy pictures painted by our profiles (they have my resume, and I have their website) and hopefully get past those basic facts and on into the meat of the issue.  Will I fit in their company; do we each offer what the other is seeking?

A component of Phase II is evaluating just how selective I can afford to be.  How much do those credentials that I managed to rake up in University set me apart from the rest of the pack?  What exactly do I want in a position, how much of that do they need to offer upfront, and how much am I willing to accept one, three and five years from now?

 Phase II covers interview techniques and abilities.  Although I am not convinced that every position I interview for will be the perfect career for me, I plan to approach every interview with the same professionalism and learn from every success and mistake that occurs during the process.  This will include accepting any interview and using it as a practice opportunity.  I will also keep track of questions that will help me to determine whether I will have a positive relationship with an employer.

Finally, this will cover all of Method 5: self improvement.  Because the majority of what I have been pursuing through method 5 is knowledge that will help me in the interview process, I will no longer count method 5 in phase I.

Best regards,
Beth

Method 5: Book Review

"The Myth of Multi-Tasking" by Dave Crenshaw.

The Premise
While we think we're multi-tasking, or completing many tasks at the same time, we're actually switch-tasking; jumping back and forth between tasks. People lose up to 50% of their time on this inefficient system. The system is inefficient because when we take time to make the switch.

(Next time you're interrupted from working on something that takes your full attention, pay attention to how long it takes you to switch back and forth.)

The book also gives a few methods for chronic switch-taskers to improve their efficiency (read: stop switch-tasking). The most important are:

1. Set up recurring appointments with those people who interrupt you most often.
2. Set up 'shop hours' so people know when you will be available next

The idea is that people interrupt you most often because they're afraid they won't be able to pin you down again until after you are needed. By setting up regular appointments with those who interrupt you most frequently you are turning them from an interruption to a primary activity. They will hold onto issues until your next meeting instead of running to you the second they pop-up.

Setting shop hours is like recurring meetings, only the attendees are not always the same. You say "I will listen to ideas/complaints at 10am, 1pm and 4pm." That way people get your full attention and do not get nervous they'll never see you again.

Opinion

The book never addresses whether or not true multi-tasking is possible, it does mention 'background tasking', for example listening to music while you jog. Listening to music is passive in this instance, and as a result it can be successfully completed while doing your primary task of jogging.

As always, I'm skeptical. I believe that many activities we do can become background processes with enough practice, or the right kind of methods for doing them. Though writing (like I'm doing right now) demands my full attention, doing the dishes doesn't necessarily, so long as I have a system down that will ensure that I will not be able to leave food remnants on the plates.

Of course, the dishwasher would completely count in this case ;).

Application


I am reminded of a former boss of mine. An absolutely brilliant woman who was almost incapable of completing anything because her day consisted entirely of interruptions. She was so disorganized even those people with appointments were treated as interruptions. Her job was very broad in scope, and as a result everyone in the organization constantly needed a piece of her.

Recommendation

I would recommend this book to people like her. For myself, however, I am a very organized person, and I have yet to be in a position where I felt as disorganized as I would need to be in order to require the changes recommended in this book.

Method 6, Job Fairs and Method 5, personal enrichment

The long beach job fair is coming up next Monday!

Though most of the companies are insurance or financial services (can anyone say cold sales?) There were a few in which I'm interested.  So, it's time to update the resume!

I have two resumes that I consider 'general', one for marketing, and one for coordination.  I use these for career sites and for jumping off points for resumes customized to job postings.  And it's high time I give them a revamp!

Because none of the employers in which I'm interested list positions, it'll be a bit of a guessing game as to what to put on the resume.  My plan is to put in those experiences which I would like to duplicate.  I plan on communicating what I want out of a job to the employer based on what I put in my resume.  Of course, I'll be a bit selective about which employers I give which resume, those that I suspect might be looking for salesmen I'll be more likely to offer my coordination resume, and those that I think might have a career path that starts with marketing I will give the marketing resume.

Of course, Long Beach is about an hour and a half away from Irvine, meaning most of the companies are not located near enough to my apartment.  But as they say, practice makes perfect!  In attending this fair, I'll be more than ready for the Orange County job fair on the 27th.

I plan on passing out more of the coordination resume due to my personal interests and strenghts.

And in preparation for any potential interviews or meetings, I checked out a book from the library; Doing Business In China.  Come to find out I should have checked the copyright date; 1994.  Suspecting that there may have been some changes in the past decade and a half, I purchased another book (Strategic Asia) from the local university bookstore.  This purchase was only $1, and contains information from as recent as 2007!  Not exactly bleeding edge recent, but a little better than 1994.

Wish me luck on my resume updates!

Beth