Real World Survival Kit. Details and Old

• Everyone join LinkedIn right now while I wait
• Everyone connect to me, at least

• The personal network you start building now is more powerful than anything else I say

• Pito’s patented networking technique
  • When you meet someone interesting, make effort to make a connection.
  • Get contact info.
  • Use spreadsheet (people, names, email, date of last convo, interest)
  • personal details as well - not just contact info, why and how you met them
  • Contact every 6 months.
  • Remind the person where they know you from.
  • Objective of conversation - have a purpose
  • Give them something of interest to them.
  • Assume that you have something interesting to say.
• Linkedin
  • easier to get in touch with people in specific areas (Connect with friends of friends)
  • Put updated information on Linkedin, which has ability to export a resume like PDF

Resumes

• Who looks at Resumes
• How do they do it
• When does a resume turn into an interview

• Who does the next interview?

• Resume content
  • No need for permanent address
  • Leadership and Activities is good, but try and have a special qualifications section, put that at very top! Why is that special?
  • competitive advantage/ What makes you special? (professionally)
  • How will you benefit the Company?
  • Put details about activities/accomplishments, not just a title
  • add more detail about more important sections of resume
  • Have dates
  • People read resumes in “two seconds”; think of yourself as a product.
  • Put skills etc. in priority order (what you know best goes first)
  • make sure skills good and important
  • One page resume rule
  • Older things generally less important
  • Personalize resume based on job/job type (within reason)
  • It is an ongoing process
  • Education section not necessary espec. high school
  • Color is OK!
  • make sure black and white version of your colored resume looks just as good
  • Show, don’t tell. Don’t try and spend a whole page writing out your personality. You won’t have any room for other things and it will be dificult to read
  • Career Objective
    • First sentence of resume state what you want from the job (Written in the frame of the reader)
    • Should be in cover letter as well
    • Make it consistent and relatively specific
• Portfolio
  • Showcases particular pieces of work you are proud of. Pictures, schematics, essays, videos, etc.
  • Have a project that you released into the “real” world
  • Something you had a major role in (can say it is your work)

Interviews / Phone screens

• Phone screens
  • Preparing
  • Doing well or not well during a screen
  • Skill Based
  • They might pick out parts of resume, more description and detail about what you did
  • Know background of the company
  • Gave a question or two ready about the company
  • Try to be positive about the company, even if you have doubts, at least until you get a job offer
  • Make sure they are relevant
  • Know everything on your resume; review older projects
• Interviews
  • How to dress and behave
  • How to play up your strengths
    • when you have little to no technical experience in an internship you’re interested in.
  • How to sell yourself
    • What if you’re not confident in my past experiences.
    • When finding yourself out of your depth skill set wise, how can you emphasize your other strong qualities for a position?
• Classic Interview Gambits
  • Difficult questions
  • What salary do you want?
  • When can you start?
• Followups
  • Best way to follow up after a career fair or after a meeting: Follow up email
  • When to call to ask status
  • Short thank you - sneak in something about wanting to talk more
  • Send a link or potentially more information that came up in your conversation
  • If you don’t have the interviewer’s contact info, email it to the contact you have and ask them to forward it
  • Feel free to followup on your followup
  • After two emails, don’t continue
  • Don’t expect a response from just a resume or even a phone screen. There should be one from an interview

Jobs

• Jobs
  • Companies: Big and small
  • Whats a lifestyle business?
  • Geographic considerations
  • Becoming a contractor or consultant
  • What does a consultant really do?
  • Taxes and benefits
• Internships etc.
  • Some companies do internships
  • Some try to do internship to hire
• Types of Companies
  • Large company
    • fewer interactions outside of department (less personal)
    • more formality takes longer to get things done
    • Laden with process/politics/paperwork etc.
    • Offers a ton of projects; Variety of passions/projects, more opportunities
    • can get laid off out of nowhere - less connection between you and your job security
    • Less scrutiny on each individual employee
    • Structure
  • Small companies
    • Get involved in a lot of projects very easily = more impact
    • No process, take initiative to get things done (fix your own problems)
    • very focused; Lives & breathes the one project - not good if you want to experience more than one type of thing
    • Earlier in your life, it is easier to take risk
    • No room/limited room for mistakes (Spotlight)
    • Easy access to higher-ups
    • Company depends more on you
    • A whole buncha fun, all of the time
    • Conversely, a whole buncha work, all of the time
    • “How funded are you guys?” or CrunchBase (http://www.crunchbase.com/)
  • Differences
    • Differences: more beaurocracy and processes in large companies, whereas small companies demand more self-reliance and are more focused
    • Don’t assume that any job will be secure/last forever
    • Can be a financial issue but also means that you aren’t stuck in a job for life
    • find out about the runway for startups
    • May be easier to get a job if willing to move to an area with fewer people with your skill set
• What’s a “Lifestyle Business”
  • Doesn’t grow (not designed to grow exponentially)
  • Gives a decent, liveable salary–supports the lifestyle its employees want to maintain
  • The lack of prospective growth can hurt the attitude of employees (cause lack of motivation)
• Contractor vs. Consultant
  • Mostly the same, self employed and not working directly as an employee; more of how you want to position yourself
  • Implication of contractor - do a lot of work quickly for the compnay
  • Consultant- more of an advising position
  • Consultant would work with the company, contractor for it.
• Taxes and Benefits
  • Some companies withhold taxes automatically
  • 401K- deposits are not taxed
  • Some companies match a portion of salary
  • 5% match - they will match up to 5% of your income
• Stock purchase plan
  • vesting - you can buy stock but you cannot get it unless you work at the company for x amount of time
  • Significance of each benefit depends on person