Fall campus/MBA hiring is in full swing. 2020 is a tough year for jobseekers. I felt the pain of job-hunting post MBA in 2011-12 right when the fin crisis hit the EU hard. Took me 8mos to land a role @Google, where, over 5yrs, I learned what truly matters in a career; my 2c👇
1/ Career is a long game: before I got into Google, I was jobless for 8+mos & had been rejected by quite a few companies. I was v. close to overstaying my UK visa. One interview can change everything. If you are in the job market, keep learning, & keep meeting potential employers
Hardest was waking up daily & waiting… for rejections, interview calls, interview results, etc. Not knowing was the worst. I made a lot of mistakes here and in retrospect I’d (1) not “bulk apply” - pacing it out keeps things fresh & (2) tap my network - warm refs >> online apps.
2/ You can't do it alone: I was helped by many. An MBA friend let me stay at his place rent-free, a google alum helped w/ interview practice, much moral support from friends, & on and on. The list is even longer once I entered Google. Invest in relationships, pay it forward!
3/ Now, to what worked for me building a successful &, MOST importantly, a very fun career @Google (& even beyond, to this day). Note: my definition of "successful" is more tuned into "fun" - at any day if I am spending >80% of my time on what I have fun doing, I call it victory.
a/ Build a clear, simple practice you're known for. Mine was: I never left anything un-responded. Every request, every email, every IM - didn't matter who it came from, I responded to it within 24hrs M-F. I still try; my SLA is >80%+ overall & ~100% to well-crafted cold outreach.
b/ Work on projects on which someone you respect is betting her career. What they bet could be as small as a bonus/promotion, to as key as reputation.
c/ Pick your actual "job" early in your real job. As a deal-maker, I could focus on few large deals per year that could ALL fail, OR focus on 10 smaller deals that may all succeed. I picked the former and got to be known as someone who “did big deals”. The gamble worked for me.
d/ Show up at the table. My 1st 2yrs @Google, I biked, walked, flew or ran across campus to make it to meetings *in person*, & *on time*. Show up & shake hands w/ people you may someday need to influence, disagree w/, learn or need help from. Find your own post-covid mantra for☝️
e/ Focus on your strengths, not weaknesses. As an ex-engineer, I always felt left out of the action @Google. However, I quickly realized I could never be the top 0.0001% of all engineers in the world. Getting there as a deal-maker somehow seemed within reach (time will tell).
f/ Persistence is the only thing that matters, eventually. Most difficult problems take a long time. Stick with problems, commit to them, and only then would you progress.
Finally, a lesson so important that it is outside of bulleted lists. It is ALL about the people. At the end of the day, all of us want to go home happy and break bread with our families and friends. So...
...over the long-run, if you can't add anything positive to that dynamic, then disengage before you take something out of it. People will forget the facts, figures, charts, and almost everything else about you, but they will never, ever forget how you made them feel. /end 🙏
