Laura Wolfe Coaching LLC

Supporting the Evolution of Careers, Leaders,

& Climate Consciousness

Noogling

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332px-NooglerSpoiler alert – don’t read this if you haven’t seen The Internship and care.

The critics didn’t especially like The Internship starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson but for me it had some redeeming qualities. Like getting to see the Google campus, the chemistry between Vaughn and Wilson (Wedding Crashers is a favorite), and watching underdogs prevail.

The movie chronicles two older guys who inconceivably land summer internships at Google and the craziness that ensues. In the final scene, members of the intern team that earned the most points from various challenges were awarded jobs. Of course, the underdog team which included Vaughn and Wilson wins. They were commended for coming together as a team, collaborating, connecting to people, and connecting people to information which is what Google does.

One of the reasons the movie got panned was because it was mostly a commercial for Google but seeing the world of Google was pretty cool. Would love to know how accurately this movie portrayed the internship experience at Google. I wondered if the nooglers really wear those beanie hats but then I came across this story about how Google assesses interviewees and indeed, nooglers wear the hats.

Google evaluates job candidates on leadership, problem-solving, technical skills, and something they call Googleyness – being an effective collaborator, taking action, and comfort with ambiguity.

It’s not possible to speak for all employers but I think the above qualities are valued by most every organization, not just Google.

If you possess these qualities, communicate that on your resume. Prepare for interviews by identifying experiences you’ve had where you demonstrate the qualities. Frame the experience as a quick story you can tell in an interview.

If you have never worked so don’t have workplace experience, find an internship. The more I work with young adults trying to find the right job, the clearer it becomes that internship experience is critical to work success. I’ve been working with college students for more than 14 years now (11 years at LSU and 3 years as a coach). I look back at former students who did everything in their power to find internships and they are now rockin’ in their career. Those who did internships after their sophomore year, giving them two, maybe three full summer internships are especially successful. Work-related experience is truly key.

I’ve written before about the importance of work experience and how to get that experience.

Yes, the world of Silicon Valley fascinates me. Looking forward to the next season of the HBO series Silicon Valley.

What kinds of experience have you found key to your job search? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

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My goal is to write 30 blog posts in 30 days the month of September.

#30in30

Growing College Kids

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Here is some new and interesting research on college students and career development:

1.A recent Gallup poll that examined the relationship between college experiences and life after graduation found that what mattered most to ending up engaged at work and having a sense of well-being was real support from faculty / mentors and experiential learning (i.e., projects, internships, extracurricular activities/organizations) while in school. Sadly, only 3% of those surveyed strongly agreed that all of these were part of their college experience.

2. Research by Katherine Milkman, Modupe Akinola, and Dolly Chugh found that when prospective grad students reached out to tenure-track faculty for a meeting, the requests of women and minorities were ignored by faculty at a higher rate than the requests coming from men. Interestingly, the bias against women and minorities was greater in higher paying disciplines and at private institutions. They found little discrimination in the humanities, more discrimination in the natural sciences, and much discrimination in business schools.
If we generalize the Gallup research mentioned above to grad students, this difficulty women and minorities experience establishing a mentoring relationship is even more troubling.

3. Speaking of business schools, gender, and careers, research by Laura Kray examines why women may opt out of high-paying business careers. In an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition, she shared her findings about b-school students saying “men tend to have more lenient ethical standards than women, and secondly, that negotiators are more likely to tell a blatant lie to a female counterpart than a male counterpart.”
This is a fascinating study and it would be interesting to know if the gender differences in ethical standards and behavior are true for business school faculty as well. I’ve written previously about ethical behavior while in college and believe it has many long-term implications. 

Finally, (disclaimer: it’s my alma mater) what a fantastic way to develop college students – Earl Leonard, a UGA alum mentors students in UGA’s college of business.

Does this research reflect what you are seeing in the universities you care about and with the college kids in your life? Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Wanna job after college?

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helpwantedIt really bums me out to read stories about college grads who can’t find jobs.

I did 11 years in the management department at LSU teaching among other things Human Resource Management and Employee Selection/Placement. I also did stints as department undergrad adviser and as internship coordinator.

During that time I worked with hundreds of students as they transitioned from student to intern to employee. Here are some things I learned that I hope will help you college students out there.

Work experience is important. Working during summer breaks is a good idea. If possible, get a different job, with a different company each summer. As your college career progresses, you will take more major-specific classes. In the same way, seek job opportunities more specific to your chosen field every year. Internships can be a great source for these.

Regarding work, it may be easy to babysit for a neighbor or work for your parents but doing something like that isn’t very helpful in the long-run – unless of course you want to be a day-care worker or plan to go into the family biz.

Work is important for getting that post-grad job offer for many reasons because it:

  • helps you learn more about what you do and don’t want in a career.
  • provides evidence (to recruiters) that you are a reliable and conscientious worker. HR’s preferred reference is an immediate supervisor (past or present).
  • exposes you to others with backgrounds different from your own. The ability to deal with diversity is quite important in today’s workplace. Many students I taught had private school educations and little previous interaction with people unlike themselves. Nothing like a job in the hospitality industry or retail or construction for learning about diversity.
  • allows you to demonstrate that you possess the knowledge, skills and abilities that companies want.

Several years ago, a survey of companies that recruited at LSU found job-related work experience was the #1 quality recruiters wanted in students. And, yes, that’s inherently a Catch-22. How can you get experience, when companies only want to hire people with experience?

Not easy, but certainly possible. However, it requires you be proactive. Ask your boss if you can get involved in a project related to your ultimate goal. For instance, you are a restaurant server who wants a career in HR. Ask if you can participate in training new employees or in selection interviews.

A little initiative is usually welcomed and it certainly can’t hurt to ask. Companies that hire students typically want to them to be successful.

Realizing here that I have too much to say on this topic for just one post so stay tuned…

 

Would love to hear your thoughts on getting a job after graduation.