Diary of a New Hire: My First Day….

Most of our coaching advice goes to job seekers but we also coach individuals on how to be successful from day one on their new jobs.  The smart candidates want this guidance because first impressions mean so much. 

Kevin was an exceptional college student (Engineering Master’s Degree with a 3.8 GPA)  and took his job search very seriously.  The night of his first interview, he made sure to send a thank you note to his interviewer, mentioning why he really wanted the job and why he thought he would be a great hire. 

He kept in touch with the manager, and ultimately, he was given the job.  He tried to negotiate for a higher salary, and before doing that, he did his research.  He found out that although the $53,000 per year was solid, most Master’s Degree candidates in Chemical Engineering were making $60,000.  He spoke to his placement director, to other candidates that were hired, and he did some research on line.  Although he didn’t win his negotiation (you don’t always get what you ask for), his manager said he would do everything he could to raise his salary as soon as he could. 

So all was set for Kevin’s first day.   Again, Kevin did everything right.  He dressed up a bit just in case he looked too casual.  He got there early.  He kept himself busy even though he didn’t have a formal assignment.  Here is his own description of that first day on the job….

My first day at work started when I decided what to wear.  Although I was told that the dress code is lax I chose to wear a dress shirt and tie for two reasons: 1st, I wanted to show that I care about making a good impression; 2nd, dressing up generally makes me feel more confident and capable.

I showed up to work about 20 minutes early. At orientation there were about 20 new hires in an auditorium. I made it a point to make some friends during this time just in case I needed help with something! In the auditorium there were two managers who would call new hires to the front to review their security clearance forms before final submittal.

When this was finished we collectively made our oaths to the constitution (fyi, Kevin works for the Federal Government). Finally, our human resource specialists escorted us to our offices.

The first thing that my department did was to take me out to the Olive Garden to get acquainted without the pressures of the office. Next, we returned to the base where my supervisor discussed the goals and visions of our team. I made sure to ask questions regarding my place in the group.

I finished up my day by starting some of the many trainings that are required of me; I don’t exactly have an assignment so I decided I would remain busy with training at least. Also, it would be good to get this done early so as not to have to crunch it in when I do get busy.

Filed under: career coaching, life coaching , College graduate, First Day On The Job, gen y, new job, starting salary

Book Review: Gotcha Capitalism – How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day, and What You Can Do About It

Bob Sullivan’s Gotcha Capitalism – How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day, and What You Can Do About It is an easy-to-follow, comprehensive and handy guide to identifying extra fees and overcharges that consumers can sometimes successfully dispute.  At his estimate of almost $950 in such charges per year, reading the book is a small investment to pay to be a savvy consumer. 

I found most helpful the template letters and summary list of which industries are most amenable to customer complaints.

Sullivan is very honest about the time investment you often need to make to seek redress, and he speaks of the larger issue about principle and creating a fairer society.  But at an annual savings of about $950 to fight these fees (solving the larger issues are of course worth many times this but hard to quantify to the individual) I became inspired to earn so much money that I wouldn’t care about these fees.  There are many Millionaire How-To studies that show that wealthy people track their money diligently and question extraneous charges, so perhaps I am wrong to try and “earn” my way out of caring.  But at least when I am focused on earning rather than fighting, I get the upside of moving towards a positive goal that has benefits beyond the cushion against unfair charges.  This seems to me the more optimistic approach.

Filed under: book review, life coaching , Bob Sullivan, consumer advocacy, Gotcha Capitalism, money-saving tips

On Geoff Colvin’s The Upside of the Downturn

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/28/news/economy/colvin_upside.fortune/index.htm

Above is an excerpt from Fortune writer Geoff Colvin’s upcoming book.  The article is about business (Fortune readers are supposed to be the CEO demographic) but his Five Moves To Make Now (with some extrapolation) carry key insights for below the C-suite and everyday life:

1) Evaluate employees better.  Colvin talks about company performance reviews, but in our personal lives we also have our teams, so reassess yours.  If you’ve been unhappy with your housekeeper or haircutter or some other service provider, now is an excellent time to revisit that since you need to be watching your costs anyway.  On a personal relationship note, you may have outgrown a relationship or find someone has become an energy drain.  Give an honest evaluation and try to make things work, or move on.

2) End guidance.  Colvin refers to stock market guidance on how company financials are faring every quarter.  In our personal lives, sometimes we track things too closely as well.  This may be financial when we open our monthly investment statements and get depressed. If you’ve decided to only rebalance annually, check statements regularly for account accuracy but otherwise let it go.  Are there other areas where you track too closely in the short term and fail to see the long term potential?  Career, fitness, parenthood, relationship?

3) Manage for value.  Colvin talks about business value here, but this is easily relatable to personal value.  In a tough market, where we are stretched for time and dollars, we may have to make different choices.  Are you doing the things that matter?

4) Expand your mind about risks.  Is there something you’ve always wanted to do, but didn’t think it was the right time?  That trip abroad may be cheaper now.  That entrepreneurial venture may seem less risky now that security at traditional jobs has decreased.  I somehow have managed to take the biggest risks (leaving corporate for acting, investing in real estate, starting my own company) during times when the external circumstances would seem to outsiders less than ideal.  But internally, it was the best time for me, and your internal readiness always trumps external considerations.  So downturn or no, we always take risks.  Which ones do you want to take now?

5) Mine employees for ideas.  Colvin points to businesses that get great ideas from lower-level employees.  It’s always good practice to talk to different people, and collect ideas from as many sources as you can.  I have a show next week, in which I write a character monologue that I then perform.  I feel like my kids and my friends actually wrote it because I just expanded on the clever things I’ve heard along the way.  We don’t have to do everything all by ourselves.

Filed under: life coaching, resource recommendation , Fortune, Geoff Colvin, life coaching, recession strategies, The Upside of the Downturn

Knowledge is King!

You’ve heard the expression:  “Cash is King“.  I have one better:  “Knowledge is King”.  If you don’t know what you don’t know, progress will not be made.  

 

Yesterday, my partner and I delivered a workshop to about 50 graduate school students called:   Breaking into the Bank – How to Get a Job in the Finance Industry.  I was so encouraged to see that on a spectacular Saturday morning, almost 50 students came to our 2 1/2  hour workshop.  They came because they didn’t know what they didn’t know and they wanted to find out.

 

It’s the smartest thing really. You already know what you know – so listen to others to hear what they know.  A bit of humility goes a long way to finding out keys to a job search – especially in this market.

 

We talked about the various types of finance jobs you could get: 

1. Front Office: Investment Banking, Sales & Trading, Wealth Management, Asset Management

2. Middle Office: Risk Management, Marketing, Equity Research

3. Back Office: Technology, Operations, Compliance, Human Resources

 

We talked about how the on-campus process works including calendars, resume screening techniques, and network strategies.  We talked about how the off-campus process works – in great detail – giving our combined 40 years of experience on all related topics. 

 

We talked about about the six steps to a job search:

1. Identifying your target

2. Marketing materials

3. Research

4. Networking & Interviewing

5. Staying Motivated, Organized and Troubleshooting Your Job Search

6. Negotiating and Closing the Offer

 

So you never know what you are going to learn when you decide to attend a workshop, call into a tele-class, or speak to an expert, or just a friend who had different experiences than you. 

 

Knowledge is King – so seek it out whenever you can!

Filed under: career coaching, life coaching , gen y, graduate school, job search

Before You Get Your New Job, “Play the Part!”

Here is a guest blog from a fellow coach - Rose Manco from Envision Possibilities.   Sometimes Life Coaches and Career Coaches overlap because in order to conduct a proactive job search, you have to have the right attitude and the right mental state.  Rose and I both volunteer at an Employment Group at St. Clare’s Church in Staten Island, and in this piece she outlines several helpful strategies when looking for a job: 

I was watching Neil Cavuto on TV the other night when he began to tell the story about a man called Al whom he would see on the train every morning on his daily commute to work. By chance, one morning Neil and Al got to talking and it was then that Neil learned Al had lost his job months before. Neil was surprised to hear this because he would see him every day, briefcase in hand.

Al explained he felt it was important that regardless of the circumstance he keep to his routine instead of sitting at home feeling sorry for himself. As a matter of fact, his family wasn’t even aware he had lost his job. Where once Al carried important documents in his briefcase, he now carried lunch and a newspaper to sustain him as he pounded the pavement looking for work.

Neil was so impressed with Al’s positive attitude and determination he gave him the name of someone whom he thought would be able to help him find a job, which in the end, he did. In Neil Cavuto’s words, “Al played the part until he got the part”.

I was recently invited to be a guest speaker to a group of individuals who lost their jobs and needed a bit of encouragement and life strategy tools to help them while they continued with the grueling process of searching for a job.

A few days later, a gentleman in the group who was feeling discouraged and despondent about the possibility of him ever finding a job at his age, called me to “pick my brain” to see what else he could do. I suggested that one of the best ways for him to keep motivated when it seems as if all doors are being slammed in his face is to share and volunteer his valuable professional skills with those who could use his expertise.

While it was important for him to continue with the important task of a job search, it was just and perhaps in his case even more important to find a venue where he could feel as if he is still a contributing member to society.

I recommended an organization for him to contact who always need seasoned, talented business savvy volunteers. When at first I made this suggestion, he wasn’t too keen on the idea that he wouldn’t get paid but I helped him to realize that he needs to see this differently. One, he could feel valuable while utilizing his skills and helping others, two, he is expanding his network and broadening his exposure to small business owners and entrepreneurs who would have never known about him if he only stayed the traditional job search route. He began to see the possibilities and felt a bit more hopeful which in his case was crucial.

I heard on the radio the story of a woman who until recently had been unemployed for six months. One day as she was driving in her car, she noticed all the foreclosure signs and came to the realization that these homes and former business sites needed to be cleaned and spruced up so they could be more appealing to potential buyers. She approached the Banks with a business proposition and is now earning a comfortable living with her newly formed cleaning service.

Opportunities abound us everywhere but first we need to show up for the part and one of the ways we can do this is by keeping our minds (and eyes and ears open). On those days when life seems to be keeping you stuck, remind yourself to continue to play the part even when you don’t feel like it because you never know where the next opportunity will come from.

Rose Manco, CTACC

Personal Development & Transitions Coach

rose@envisiionpossibilities.com

718.227-2136 

Filed under: career coaching, life coaching , Fox News, Job Search stategies, life coaching, Neil Cavuto, unemployed

Book Review: How The Wise Decide

Written by former McKinsey consultants, Bryn Zeckhauser and Aaron Sandoski, How The Wise Decide studies 21 business leaders and difficult decisions they had made to identify 6 strategies/ approaches/ tactics that underlie these critical leadership decisions:

1. Go to the source
2. Fill a room with barbarians
3. Conquer the fear of risk
4. Make vision your daily guide
5. Listen with purpose
6. Be transparent

The stories are terrific — it is always helpful to hear what others have accomplished and learned.  No need to reinvent the wheel, in classic consulting-speak (the authors would be proud).  That said, while I was riveted in the beginning, I was less interested towards the end.  The stories were still compelling but in an effort to tie them all together perhaps the 6 overarching lessons seemed thin.

That said, the lessons are important and easily overlooked in the daily grind.  “Go To The Source”, the first lesson which espouses going back to the raw data where you can (a healthcare CEO watches surgeries, for example) was my favorite and a great coaching lesson.  How many of you are going to read this or other review of the book, feel like you got enough, and never read it for yourself?  Maybe I needed to read Go To The Source because of my habits, but you need something else from the book that I won’t cover.  The coaching takeaway?  Look at the data, question your assumptions, realize that what you hear is already filtered by the lens from where the info came.  What are you assuming in the decisions that you have made and still need to make?  Go to the source first before deciding.

Filed under: book review, career coaching, life coaching , Aaron Sandoski, Bryn Zeckhauser, decision making, Go To The Source, How The Wise Decide, leadership, McKinsey, McKinsey consultants

Book Review: Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute

This is a very easy-to-read book because it’s told as a story of a fictitious company and the training it puts a new manager through.  Don’t be fooled by the simplicity however; this is a powerful book with an important message — essentially that we are often too immersed in the problem to see how much we contribute (or in fact are the problem).

It’s interesting that the title is so targeted to the business book genre with Leadership prominently in the lead.  Lots of the examples in the book are about family and other relationships, and I found this book to be exceptionally powerful in its advice for family and relationship.

This is a must-read for the proactive career manager and jobseeker because relationship-building is critical in your career, and this book provides a breezy framework for some eye-opening lessons.

Filed under: book review, career coaching, life coaching , career management, Family, Leadership and Self-Deception, relationships, The Arbinger Institute

Book Review: Don Greene’s Fight Your Fear and Win

Ok, where was this book when I was getting creamed on my piano auditions for undergraduate conservatory?  I definitely could have used this advice then.  Jobseekers looking to ace a single interview or manage their energy and emotions better across the duration of their search will also benefit.  Don Greene’s Fight Your Fear and Win has relevant and fascinating examples from sports, arts, business, and the public sector.  Covering seven key skills to perform at your best, it is a must read for long-term strategies and quick tips you can apply immediately to improve your peak performance:

1. Determination
2. Energy
3. Perspective
4. Courage
5. Focus
6. Poise
7. Resilience

Filed under: book review, career coaching, life coaching , Don Greene, Fight Your Fear and Win, peak performance, performance under pressure

Rise to Any Challenge, and Appreciate and Learn Things Along the Way

On April 7th, I had an emergency appendectomy. I considered myself lucky that my appendix didn’t burst before it was removed. Just 3 days later, I was driving to my friend’s house when a woman blacked out behind the wheel, crossed over three lanes & drove right into me. I considered myself lucky that I only had a fractured wrist, that the other driver didn’t have a scratch, and that the only big casualties were my car and the tree that I smashed into.

The bottom line: both incidences could have been a nightmare and I appreciated that they weren’t worse.

Being out of work is stressful, frustrating, annoying, and inconvenient – and a hundred other adjectives! And to make it worse, while you are networking and interviewing, you have to “act” like it’s a lot better than it really is because if you aren’t positive, everyone will run from you … so it’s absolutely necessary that you remain positive.

But what are you learning and what are you appreciating along the way? What is this struggle teaching you? Only you can answer this.

Perhaps things came very easy to you, and until now, and this is the first time you are in a battle for something important. Learn from that struggle and focus on what needs to be done. Appreciate when things go well and enjoy the positive things that happen during your day.

If you are a more experienced professional who is out of work, what are you learning? Are you learning to network like never before? Are your follow up skills finally what they should have been before you were unemployed?

Look for the positive lessons you are learning and you will grow and become a stronger person. That old saying “That which doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger!” is true in a lot of ways. When we are tested and stretched we grow and become stronger.

Filed under: career coaching, life coaching , job search, Positive lessons, Positive thinking, Struggle

Book Review: A Carrot A Day

A Carrot A Day is 365 tips on employee recognition  by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.  Having left Corporate America and its management duties behind, why am I reading it?  It was referred to me by a business newsletter I trust (FYI, this is a great way to find good books).  I like business books in general.  Finally, I am intrigued by the idea of using carrots rather than sticks to motivate, and I wanted to see if I might find tips that I and my coaching clients could use to recognize and motivate ourselves.

The book is just okay.  I buy into the premise, and it’s a very fast read.  Many of the tips are repetitive, though I like that they range from no cost to extravagant and spontaneous to more involved to plan.  Certainly, it’s a good primer for managers looking for ideas.  I did get some ideas for how individuals might implement these techniques for themselves:

Gostick and Elton talk about being generous, explicit and specific with praise.  We can all do this for ourselves.  Keep a journal and write down at least one thing that you did well that day.  As with employees, this recognition will reinforce good behavior and will redirect your energy to what is working;

Tips on capturing events with photos to display throughout the year can be used as a shortcut for visualization.  When you see something inspirational, take a picture and hang it front and center in your office;

The use of small, low cost rewards certainly translates to individuals trying to self-motivate towards their goals.  For example, Gostick and Elton suggest keeping a rewards box and having a raffle each week.  It reminds me to stock up on small treats like journals or spa treats that I can break out when I need a pick-me-up.

So the book itself wasn’t an earth-shattering read, but the concept of carrots and recognition is important and valuable.  We can be our own worst enemy and often beat ourselves up for not doing enough or failing at something.  Just giving me the framework of a carrot a day and reminding me of the power of positive reinforcement made the book well worth reading.

Filed under: book review, life coaching , A Carrot A Day, Adrian Gostick, Chester Elton, employee recognition, goal achievement, motivation, positive reinforcement