careers, careers
Posted by: lucie
No more interviews for a while, please. Have mercy. It would be alright if they didn't last two hours each and contain a multitude of 'behavioural' questions. (Tell me about a time when you had to build rapport in a team. What's the most complicated project you have done at work? When did you last lose your temper?) But three 2-hour interviews in the space of four business days? No more.
Today's was the most bizarre. When I say "phone interview," does a ballpark number of minutes occur to you? Perhaps 30, or 60 at a stretch? How about two hours, beginning with a detailed walk-through of your entire CV, beginning with your first job over ten years ago? Sound fun?
I didn't like the vibe on that one. Something about this woman's voice set me off from the beginning; her no-nonsense, no-warmth tone and the way she said "Interesting," as if she didn't find what I was saying interesting at all, before pausing awkwardly and moving on to another question. I identify her voice with a certain category of less-than-lovely managers for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. This is the first time I've ever had an extensive phone interview, at least one which a job offer potentially depended, and I really don't know how the dynamics work. Perhaps body language and facial expressions would have painted a different picture.
Something doesn't feel quite right about this whole thing, though. The woman I'd be working for, who I met in person last week, was brilliant, but she introduced me to one other guy I'd be working closely with, and I didn't feel any great chemistry with him. Now I'm getting a bad vibe from her boss, not that I'd necessarily be working so closely with her... but still. On top of that, the phone interview lady seems gung ho on getting someone into position as soon as humanly possible. Product releases depend on it. And me, I'm not ready to start work.
So if they offer it, I guess I'll turn it down. I've never turned down a job offer before. Does this mean I'm maturing? That I don't just get overexcited and jump at things without thinking about them, forgetting to even wonder what happened until I've already been in the position for six months? Maybe. Maybe it's just too early to give up on the idea of doing something more meaningful than this. It would be a fun job, but ultimately a little bit vapid.
Monday's interview for the consulting position showed promise. The company actually does a lot of meaningful non-commercial projects and it turns out the work-life balance and travel commitments would be much more manageable than I suspected. The consultant I spoke with seemed to feel that I would fit into the organisation really well. She told me in the first fifteen minutes that she'd be recommending me for a second interview and we talked for another hour and a half.
Back on planet MBA, everyone else has been cramming for their strategy exams. Time for me to immerse myself in the joys of Michael Porter.
shifts each time you move
Posted by: lucie
A moment of silence, first of all, for the end of The Show. Please, Comedy Central, give the gift of Ze Frank to the masses... and bring him back to those of us who will miss the daily bug-eyed dose.
Oh, Ze.
Over here in MBA-land, guess who is coming to the realization that starting the job hunt early(ish) isn't necessarily the best way to alleviate wtf-am-i-going-to-do-with-my-life anxiety? You find a few things to apply for and you feel pretty good about it. Progress, you think. But when progress happens more swiftly than you really want it to, it can attract more anxiety than it chases away.
I have this intuition that I'm not, in fact, going to be offered the job at the Internet startup - even though the manager acted as though she might have considered hiring me on the spot last week. Maybe it's not an intuition as much as a lucie-wishin', chalk-uppable to the fact that I am a bit scared to make any real decisions just yet. It would be a very cool job. I would love it and have lots of fun. It seems like the kind of gig that would fit very nicely into a happy, well-balanced life. I would learn. I would work with cool people. It would probably be really, really great.
It's the commitment thing, I guess. And not just the job commitment - there's a parallel relationship commitment to consider. I know I've written it many times on Overarching, and I continue to bring such situations on myself, but take my advice if you can - don't fall in love when you're not sure what country you're going to live in. Similarly, don't fall in love with someone who doesn't know what country he or she is going to live in. To quote Ani Difranco (who recently had a baby, whoah!) "Love is loose - it shifts each time you move." Relationships are fragile constructs - all the more so when you've experienced a couple that have broken or dissolved - and big shifts in geography and career are hard to take.
Six months is just long enough to know that someone is very precious to you, and that you love them, and that you are only just beginning to get to know them. Tonight I had a very heavy moment when I was speaking to the boyfriend about the possibility of being offered a job, and he was worrying about whether he'd be able to get a job he liked over here, and worrying about my job and geographical commitment narrowing his possibilities. He told me to do whatever made me happy and that we would work the rest out later. For the first time I envisioned a future in which we wanted to pursue different opportunities in different places and didn't have a strong enough relationship to weather it. Or a future in which we moved back to the States and had to make a home for ourselves in a brand new city, but didn't yet know each other well enough, or have enough faith in each other, to pull through that either.
It isn't true that things are either meant to be or they're not. I mean it is, with life overall as a whole, but not necessarily between people. Sometimes things could be amazing but timing is bad. Sometimes a relationship doesn't have time to build up a solid foundation before the storms come. The heaviness intruded when I realized what a fragile, baby relationship we were in... and what terrible odds this delicate thing faced. I want to make sacrifices to protect it, and at the same time I want to selfishishly protect myself from later regrets.
Sounds like it might not be time for any big decisions just yet.
The future infringing on the present
Posted by: lucie
Friends, don't let thoughts of the future crowd your present moment. That's all for now, really. But it's an important thing.
"Informal chat" my arse
Posted by: lucie
Piece of advice: when someone says they want you to come for an "informal chat" about a job, prepare for a full job interview. The first thing my potential manager said after the greetings and pleasantries was, "Right, let me just pull up my interview matrix." Gulp.
The thing is, I've thought about this job so much since I applied for it that I'd done a hell of a lot of research while procrastinating for exams. I knew the company very well: had investigated the history of the potential manager and the CEO, read almost every existing piece of press, spent lots of time on their web site and drafted up a decent list of questions. Who did they see as their main competition? What was going to make their service different from all the other ones out there? What kinds of ideas had been considered and discarded? Plus the usual stuff about organisational structure and - the awkward one - how much funding they had and how long they expected it to last.
Before I could ask my questions, she asked me most of them first. Who did I see as their main competition? What was going to make their product/service different from others'? What kinds of ideas did I have for new features, off the top of my head? Also, could I please tell her how I would go about writing a technical specification for making a cup of tea?
Those went fairly well, I think, given that she sometimes slapped her hands on the desk and grinned in delight, so pleased she was that I'd come up with the right answers - or at least thought in the right direction. None of this cool interviewer facade. So in that respect it was fairly chill.
The only thing I didn't prepare for, and I never do because I hate even thinking about these questions, though my hatred of them never stops them from being asked, was the 'behavioural interview' stuff. For example, "Tell me about a time you had to staunchly defend the customer." That one wasn't so bad. But one of her colleagues came in at the end and got on a roll with those. Like "Tell me about a time when you were under a lot of pressure, and what you did about it. Tell me about a time when two senior members that you had to answer to were in disagreement, and they were at exacly the same level, and how you decided which to choose." And "What would your ideal job be?" I don't know the answer to that one yet.
Nonetheless, it went well. So well that I'm a little bit freaked out, because she's already told me that I'm top of her list and I think the job is an excellent fit. We even talked about me starting part-time as early as May and writing my dissertation on the company's work. And she was really lovely, a very warm, happy, excited and intelligent person who I'm sure would be a joy to work for.
It's just so early. I've only applied for three jobs. This is my first interview (another on Monday and I'm still waiting to hear back about the third). I have a boyfriend who hasn't even started looking for jobs in this country, though he says he would like to stay here. What if he doesn't get one? It's also about an hour commute door to door. That's not so bad, mostly sitting on the train with a laptop or newspaper, but it adds up to a long day. And what of my non-profit dreams? I was quickly coming to the conclusion that I might not have the experience just yet, and this by no means precludes doing something like that next - in fact, probably gets me closer to finding a more focused job - but am I giving up/selling out?
It would be just too funny if I were the first person in my class to secure a job. I never even bothered to create a profile for the yearbook/website they put together for recruiters. I throw my hands up and all but roll my eyes in boredom any time someone asks me what I want to do with my career. But it seems like I may have found a medium-term project that would allow me to work with some very intelligent, very creative, very casual people doing something fun, making great contacts and learning a lot.
Hm.
Oh, and they do have some really cool plans to do different, exciting things.
Phone interview with the potential boss's boss on Monday.
In the meantime, I am on the edge of my seat waiting to hear about Dr Garlich's next job. That is way more exciting than mine.
Monastic life
Posted by: lucie
I think almost everyone who spends a month in a monastery, living the quiet, contemplative life, considers the relative worthiness of that life to our mad, modern existence.
You see a range of reactions and behaviours. In Nepal, for example, there were people who came to the retreat contemplating ordination, and shaved their heads and put on robes within a couple of weeks afterward. That group, not that it is my right to judge at all, kind of worried me. Then you had the ones who hit their spiritual peak at the end of week 2, felt like the whole world made sense, and thought, "You know, this is it. None of that silly modern life is really worth anything. Maybe I could stay here and just be."
Of those, some snapped out of it within a couple of days, and most of the rest gave up the idea when they were re-exposed to the pleasures of samsararic life and remembered all that they would have to give up. A few, however, kept mulling it over. Jon was one of these. When he arrived at the summer retreat at Plum Village eight months later, he told me he hadn't been able to get the idea out of his head - even back in New York.
I didn't take him particularly seriously. He spoke to the brothers at Plum Village about joining them, said he was going home to get his affairs in order, and I just assumed he'd get over the idea.
Tonight I will pick Jon up at the airport and Wednesday I'll put him on a plane to Bordeaux. From there he'll take a train, get picked up by two of his new brothers, meet his roommates and make his new bed. He will live mindfully and practice with the monks for three months, showing his commitent to monastic life. And then, if they believe his aspiration is sincere, they will give him a new name, present him with two sets of robes and ordain him as a novice monk.
What does one do with a guy who is spending his last three days as a civillian? The usual tourist stuff, I guess... and lots of talking.
Consulting for Idiots
Posted by: lucie
It's that special time of year where they pile on ten overlapping projects and you can't decide whether it's bad planning or a simulation of... you know, real life in management or consulting or whatever high fallutin' jobs we're supposed to get when we walk out these doors.
It's the end of the term and next week I have a presentation worth 40% of a class mark, an exam worth 100% of another class mark, and a paper due (not to mention an 'informal chat' and a friend in town). The following week I have another exam and another paper due (and another 'informal chat'). On top of this, I am meeting my 'clients' for a 'consulting project' on Wednesday - yes, we get to be consultants (for free) to local businesses. My business? It's a consulting firm... So no pressure there. Today I also had to turn in a research proposal for my dissertation including a skeleton bibliography (who has had a chance to think about this yet? No one I know), attend two 1-hour sessions about how to research things and use various statistical analysis packages, chair one meeting on the subject of "what the hell are we doing for this presentation on Wednesday" and sit through a 3-hour lesson on how to be a consultant.
Guess what? If you want to be a good consultant, you should listen, ask questions, be respectful, be professional, etc. You should not do work for free, get too personally involved with your clients (we were actually explicitly told that you shouldn't sleep with clients. At least until after the project. Yes, it was kind of a joke), be late, fail to meet deadlines, etc. Such insight!
One point that was apparently not emphasized enough was the one about pre-judging your clients' situation before you meet them. Because after the workshop was more or less complete, our fearless leader asked if we had any questions about our client cases, or any plans for how we would approach them - having only seen a 1-2 page brief, and not having met anyone from the client company yet. One team announced that its client's idea for expanding its business looked stupid. Another said they thought their client's whole business model lacked any value add to anyone anywhere. But the very best was the guy who complained that his client was a non-profit, and how on earth was he supposed to deal with the kind of people who wanted to change the world, and who thought they could change the whole world, like, tomorrow? Because non-profit people have such an idealistic streak that they can't possibly hold any kind of reasonable expectations.
That's my boyfriend's case partner. I desperately wanted to raise my hand and suggest that he consider the fact that the other half of his team had 6 years experience in non-profit, a highly rational head on his shoulders, and was probably better positioned to do the 'relationship-building' side of things with the clients since he hadn't already decided they were complete morons for not dedicating their careers to the oil and gas industry. But mostly I just gawked.
It was a funny day wherein some of the MBA stereotypes really began to spring wholeheartedly to life. And instructive, really, because you could easily forget that this is what people think of when they hear the letters M-B-A. It reminds you to make twice the effort not to act like such an arrogant know-it-all.
Anyway, who wants to try their hand at consulting? There's a pretty neat Interactive Case Study over at BCG... You know, the company whose star/dog/cash cow/questionmark matrix I was taking the piss out of last week. Enjoy.
Informal chats
Posted by: lucie
Either "informal chat" is the new name for "first interview" or a couple prospective employers just want to get coffee with me.
In addition to "shooting off my CV," as they say, to many employers over the past month, I've applied for a grand total of three jobs that I actually think I'm well qualified for and might enjoy. One marketing position, heavy on the writing, at a non-profit organisation that operates several cancer care centres in the UK. One consulting position with a firm that came to my university to recruit for their media, IT and communications division. And one product manager role at a fun internet company with over $15 million in venture capital funding.
The non-profit people don't seem to be interested in me so far. But the other two are. And they both suggested I come meet them for "an informal chat." With the internet company I buy it. I'll be meeting the woman I would be working for, for starters, and she probably wants to have a chat, wear jeans, talk about the job, see what I'm about and whether we'd be a good fit. The consulting firm, their whole "let's meet at a coffee shop" approach feels a bit more... strategic. They have you meet with a consultant to discuss - well, whatever... and the consultant then chooses to pass you up to a director for a more formal interview, or not to, or to pass you off with a dossier of whatever data they have mined from your consciousness over coffee. Like, "worried that she might resist working a 60 hour week" or something.
But anyway.
I don't think non-profits are going to want me. Looking at the person specifications for these jobs, they all want experience I don't have. Two years in consulting or at a marketing/ad agency, two years working in the third world - all this two years of this or that, and "preferably with a background in the not-for-profit sector." It's funny, I've had this idea that nonprofits would jump at the chance to recruit people with MBAs who are willing to take the lower pay to work for good causes, but it's beginning to look otherwise. The bar is high. There may yet be something out there, but it's probably time to look around for opportunities to gain relevant experience.
Maybe this just isn't the time. We'll see.
