This Blog.

I have not been keeping up with this blog and probably will not be updating much in the future. I hope that this does not cause any concern and I could very well return to it one day.

Develop A 5-Year Plan Now

A lot of people focus on the now. Where am I working now. Where am I living now. People often neglect to think about where they will be in the future. Businesses can fall into that rut as well. But planning ahead is the best way to get where you want to be. In 1932, Matsushita's founder instituted a 250-year plan when the company was only 14 years old and had 160 employees. Wishful thinking at the time, but now Matsushita is a major conglomerate. Google's mission statement declares their goal is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." CEO Eric Schmidt said that would probably take about 300 years. Now that's planning ahead. But just developing a 5-year plan in your professional and personal life should be more than enough. Get the experience and skills now to be in place to get your ideal job within 5 years. Prepare yourself to be financially sound to be able to buy a house, have kids, or retire within 5 years if those are realistic goals for you. It doesn't have to be terribly detailed, but developing your 5-year plan now will save you a headache in the future.

The Lion and the Gazelle

This is an African proverb I'm fond of:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter if you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

If you're a gazelle, what are you doing to stay ahead of the lions? If you're a lion, what are you doing to catch up to the gazelle? And if you're neither, then you're not in the game at all and you're going to get run over.

Be Decisive

I recently completed a marketing plan for an internet startup company that was desperately in need of some direction. One of the main problems was that they had done absolutely no research on their target market and actually had two disparate target markets: people aged 18-24, and women 29-44. That was about as specific as they had it.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, it often doesn't make sense to do extensive research. However, you absolutely should do some. Especially on something as vital as your target market. However, in other areas you can get away with doing much less extensive research than you might think. This allows you to seize an opportunity more quickly when only limited knowledge is necessary. This doesn't apply to the planning stages of the company, but rather decisions that need to be made as you begin to operate.

It turns out that the younger market segment they really wanted to target made no sense, and a subset of the older demographic was the best for their product offerings. This was my gut feeling from the beginning, but I did some brief primary and secondary research to back it up. That's a good rule of thumb: If you're confident in your abilities then you should trust your gut, but be ready to back up why you made the decision when you have to.

Should you include an objective on your resume?

I am firmly against putting an objective line in your resume. What is the purpose of putting in a sentence stating you are looking for position X where you can utilize skills Y and Z? Not much. I find it hard to believe anyone has been taken out of consideration for a job based solely on their objective statement unless there was something serious weird or deficient about it. It will be helpful if you write out your own objective for personal use so you can target specific positions. But including it on your resume can't really help you in any substantial way. Clearly, if I submitted my resume to an employer then I am looking to work in the position they are hiring for. And I have a pretty thorough list of my abilities on my resume. Writing an objective isn't going to clarify anything that isn't already pretty clear.

Internship Traps

Experience, experience, experience. That is what everyone will tell you that you need in order to get a decent job these days. Well, that, and good networking abilities will certainly help. Since it is hard to go to college and work at a job giving you decent resume material, a lot of people look to internships to flesh out their experience for future employers. But that may be a mistake.

Stop falling into the Internship Trap.

1. You are worth more than nothing.
I don't often work for free. That doesn't mean that I don't like working or that money is my only incentive. It just means that I value my time and if your employer did too then they would be decent enough to compensate you accordingly. There are basically two types of unpaid internships: the shady type that expects you to be a gopher and do menial tasks, and the type looking to get top-notch work at a steeply discounted (free) rate. The former is often easy to spot, the latter is much more insidious. Both should be avoided.

2. Internships do not always lead to a good job.
If you can get one of the elite internships and plan on working for that company in the near future, then good for you. But for most people, the internship is just something to add to the resume because they feel they have to have something there taking up space. Make sure the tasks you are responsible for are actually worth the time and effort you will be putting into them, and if they aren't then go elsewhere. You'll be better off putting your energy into other areas instead, which brings me to my next point.

3. Volunteering can often pay off more than internships.
As I mentioned, internships can be a crap shoot among the shady, the useless, and the actually good ones out there. If you want a way to have a little more control over your position, then consider volunteering. There are plenty of non-profits or small businesses that would be thrilled to have a marketing major create a marketing plan for them or talk about tactics and strategy. These are concrete uses of your skills and knowledge and in the long run will pay off better than most internships where you end up pushing paper all day. And the best part is, you can add your volunteer experience to your resume.

Microsoft Hard Landing

When people find out I had an interview with Microsoft for a marketing position, they always want to know what it was like. So here is the story.

A little over a month ago I interviewed at Microsoft. Let me briefly take you through that story. I submitted an application over three months ago at this point. About a week later I get an email from someone claiming to be from Microsoft and wanting to set up a phone interview. I say 'claiming' because I was very skeptical and thought it could be some sort of prank. The list of people who could have gained access to my email account and knew about my Microsoft application flew through my head. "Who would play such a cruel trick?" I thought to myself. I responded to the email, of course, more than willing to take a chance.

The phone interview happened rather quickly. The lady on the phone was based in California and seemed to have already made up her mind that I was going to be passed on to the next round and the interview was mostly a formality to ensure I wasn't insane or lied on my resume. She spent an unusual amount of time during the interview trying to keeping her dog quiet. She was working from home. The next couple weeks were a flurry of activity with the recruiter contacting me and travel arrangements set up.

Finally, I get to Redmond and am led through a nondescript maze of an office building. Even the interviewers were getting lost leading me to the interview rooms. One redeeming feature was a Microsoft Surface in the lobby which I could play around with. I went through a series of three interviews before lunch. The exact content of those interviews will be addressed in a separate post later - they are everything you have been led to believe - and this was for a non-technical position. Breakfast and lunch were provided and everyone was very nice. However, after lunch I was told by my recruiter to follow him and he walked me to the door, thanked me for coming in, and told me they would have a decision by the end of the week. Refusing to believe the worst, I tried to convince myself the liked me so much they didn't need to see more of me. Wishful thinking as I didn't get the position. Further emails to the recruiter as far as how I could improve in the future went unanswered.