For me, preparing to enter the corporate world was a lot like being reborn. At the end of my senior year of college, I felt the same sense of discomfort that a baby must feel when leaving the safety of its mother’s womb. I freaked out about being unemployed and having to move back home, so I stormed my university’s career center and wreaked havoc on every job catalog and database I could get my hands on. I needed a job ASAP, and I was willing to take anything I could get, regardless of whether or not I was interested in the occupation. After all, it was only my first job, right? The media reinforced my belief that because I was 22, I wasn’t supposed to have a clue. Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner, authors of Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties, define a quarterlife crisis as the “overwhelming instability, self-doubt, and sense of panicked helplessness faced by twenty-somethings as a result of constant change and too many choices.” I became complacent, thinking that because I’d inevitably change my mind a million times, I might as well put off the soul-searching.

Even if this approach seems perfectly legitimate to you, I don’t recommend it. First of all, prospective employers don’t like unfocused candidates; they want to believe that you’ve been preparing to work for them forever. Also, switching careers multiple times just for the hell of it sounds like a lot of work to me. You need a lot of training and experience to become proficient in a career, and once you have a family to support, will you be able to afford to pursue the job you love at a $30,000 entry-level salary? Along those same lines, your 20s is the best time to get to a respectable level on the corporate ladder. During these years, you don’t have competing responsibilities, and you are accountable to no one but yourself.

Given these factors, wouldn’t it be much easier to make the smartest career choice you can now? Now don’t get me wrong—discovering your true calling is not an exact science, and it’s impossible to know what you will want to do 10 or 20 years from now. Some futurists even predict that people in their 20s will have several careers in their lifetimes that haven’t been invented yet. Therefore, all of the self-reflection in the world will probably not result in a bulletproof career plan for the rest of your life. It’s also possible that you will try a field you’ve researched and think is interesting, but will realize you hate it after a few months on the job. However, by doing a complete self-assessment while you’re still in school or shortly thereafter, you will be able to decide on a path that provides the core skills and experience you will need to take you wherever you want to go in the future.

Start with a blank slate. This is easier said than done when everyone you know, especially your parents, has an opinion on what you should do now that you’re all grown up. You also have to get past the issue of your major. You might think that because you studied economics you have to pursue a career as a financial consultant. The truth is that even a business-related major will not adequately prepare you for the corporate world, so why let it pigeonhole you?

Forget what you studied in school for a moment and make a list of your skills—otherwise known as the things you do better than most of your friends. Skills can be general or specific. (An example of a general skill is communicating well with people, and an example of a corresponding specific skill is that you present well in front of groups.) Next, sit down for a brief philosophical journey and reflect on the following questions:

Use the answers to these questions to develop what Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, calls a personal mission statement. To paraphrase Covey, the personal mission statement is your own big picture. It should include what you hope to accomplish in your career and reflect the type of person you want to become. By thinking about what’s really important to you and where you want to go in life, your efforts and energy will be directed toward a common purpose. Along with your list of skills, your personal mission statement should provide clues about fields to research.

Now hit the Internet and pore over reference material about occupations that correspond to your skills, interests, and personal mission. Once you’ve made a list of potential careers, ask the career center at your college or university to help you set up informational interviews with alumni so that you can learn more about each job field you are interested in. In these meetings, don’t be afraid to ask specific questions about training requirements, responsibilities, salary, work environment, and opportunities for advancement. As long as you are polite, no one will fault you for wanting the real scoop. Plus, if a job is not as glamorous as it sounds, you will want to know that before investing more of your time and energy. If possible, sample your options by taking courses related to the careers that interest you, applying for internships in your target occupations, or visiting prospective companies so that you can get a real feel for the field you’ll be pursuing.

If you’ve already been in the business world a few years, I suggest a healthy reality check before you jump over to another job. Revise or develop your personal mission statement and ask yourself if you’re on the right track. Why aren’t you happy in your current position? Is it your career choice, your work situation, or you? If it’s the second or third scenario, read on. Hopefully this book will help you. If it’s your career choice, though, this might be a good time to make an appointment with a career counselor, take a personality inventory such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or read a career assessment book such as What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles. Even if you’re mid-career, you can still find a job that works for you.

When you’ve collected enough data to make an informed decision about a particular field, imagine your career path over the next five or 10 years. Suppose you land a dream job in your chosen field. You’ll want to set some preliminary goals for what you hope to accomplish once you get there. In determining aspirations and time frames, try to be realistic. If your objective is to be a millionaire by age 30, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. (For more information on setting goals, see Chapter 4.) You should also have a backup plan. What will you do if you can’t find a job or you don’t succeed in your first career choice? Knowing you have something to fall back on will only increase your confidence level as you hold your nose and dive in.

No matter what direction you choose, you’ll have to cope with some doubt and uncertainty. But don’t let indecisiveness get the best of you. Staying unemployed for too long while you consider the perfect career move will drive you crazy and make prospective employers squirm. Make the best decision you can, act confidently, and never look back. If you do what you think is best, the pieces will most likely fall into place.

In life, we get many chances to reinvent ourselves. Remember when you first arrived on campus for your freshman year of college? The most exciting thing about it was that no one knew what a [insert negative adjective of choice here] you were in high school. You taught yourself new habits and hobbies, and you bought yourself a new wardrobe. Maybe you even picked a new nickname. You had the chance to start over, as if your previous life had never existed.

Graduating from college is a similar opportunity, and, understandably, you probably want to spend the next few years figuring out who you are and what you want out of life. Should you decide to pursue a career in business, however, developing a corporate persona will unquestionably serve you well. By corporate persona, I mean the mature, professional, and competent face you project to the work world. It doesn’t matter what type of person you are in real life; just think of yourself as an actor playing a role while you are at work. So what if you still play drinking games on Friday nights or prefer a book to human company? You can still have a corporate persona.

How will this help you? Quite simply, a marketable persona positively influences people’s perceptions of you so that you can ultimately succeed in the corporate world. I’m sure you’ve heard of big-time publicists who get paid megabucks to promote celebrities and make them look like the coolest people on earth. You can be just like those PR folks, only you have just one client to promote—you. It’s pretty easy, but there is a catch: you must first learn to toot your own horn. Although there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, learning to capitalize on your skills and assert your achievements is a must for career success. If you don’t do it, no one else will, and you’ll be out-promoted by people who know how to leverage their own contributions. Trust me on this. In the end it will pay off almost as handsomely for you as it does for the wealthiest of publicists.

Growing and maintaining a corporate persona is hard work, because everything you say and do affects it one way or the other. The best way to make your persona stick is to clearly establish it at the beginning of your relationship with a company and consistently sustain it during the early phases of a new job.

You can start online. The first step is to do a Google search of your name—and alternate spellings of your name—and see what comes up. A lot of factors influence which pages appear first in a particular search engine, but you can help your cause by purchasing your name from a Web domain company, such as GoDaddy.com, and housing a professional biography, other credentials, and current contact information on a simple and clean Website. If you find yourself competing with other people who have the same name, you might also increase your share of online real estate by writing industry articles for third-party association Websites or community blogs.

Your social media presence should enhance, rather than detract from, your corporate persona. You are hopefully aware that social networks and blogs are not the private havens for friends that they used to be. You can pretty much count on the fact that your boss, senior managers, colleagues, and potential employers are looking at your online sites—privacy controls or no privacy controls. That’s not to say that you can’t have a little fun by including content that demonstrates you’re a human being, but don’t go too crazy with the Facebook applications (à la “Katie was just bitch-slapped by Jason”), and beware of getting too personal. Upload photos of friends, but leave out those of last weekend’s drunken soiree. Keeping the idea of the corporate persona in mind, let’s move on to the mechanics of finding a job.

Getting a good job in today’s economy requires more than just graduating from a good college and hanging out at recruiting fairs. You have to set yourself apart, get their attention, and make them want you.

You probably don’t have a lot of time to make this happen. If you’re unemployed, you might be cashing in the last of your savings bonds to make your rent, and you need a job ASAP. If you already have a job and are looking for another, you have only so many hours to inconspicuously surf the Internet before your boss figures out what’s going on. When you’re in your 20s, employment is a catch 22—you need experience to get a job, but you must have a job in order to get that experience. Our forefathers relied on temp agencies to float them through the job-search process. Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury. These days, temp firms are more crowded than a U2 concert. You’ll sit in their plush waiting rooms for hours, filling out personality questionnaires and waiting for a free computer station so you can prove you’re Microsoft competent.

Don’t despair, though. Landing a job in the corporate world is quite achievable with a little ingenuity and preparation. Don’t give them a reason to hire you; dare them to find a reason not to. This is where the concept of the corporate persona comes in. Every interaction you have with a company—from your first written communication to your salary negotiation—should exude maturity, professionalism, and competency. You want the employer to say, “Wow, I’ve never seen a more together candidate. So what if the company is in a hiring freeze? I have to get her on board.”

So where do you start? A good first step is to scout out openings commensurate with your level of experience. Here are some places to try:

Keep in mind that most job openings aren’t advertised, because a lot of businesses prefer to hire from within the company or through word of mouth. If you’re coming in from off the street, you could be out of luck. My friend Jake once tore through New York City in search of a job. In a week, he dropped 200 resumes at a career expo, signed with five recruiting firms, and answered dozens of online job postings. Boy, was he bitter when he was still unemployed after his month-long assault on the New York job market. Jake learned that, unfortunately, being proactive is sometimes not enough. Instead of working harder, work smarter. Use online resources, such as Hoover’s (www.hoovers.com), and business trade publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, and BusinessWeek, to target desirable companies in your geographic area. Then, prepare to infiltrate these companies by making the transition from outsider to insider. Here’s how:

Using a combination of these approaches, you are much more likely to gain access to unadvertised job openings in the companies you desire. However, it probably won’t happen overnight. Be persistent and don’t fall into laziness, even if you’re not seeing immediate results. Keep your expectations realistic and remind yourself of the end goal every day. Above all, don’t doubt your own abilities. Ignore all of the folks who tell you that the market sucks and that you should take any available job, even if it’s not what you want or need. Learn to take rejection with a grain of salt—it’s all part of the process. If you take the right action patiently and efficiently, an opportunity will come along that’s a good fit for your skill set.

The purpose of a resume is to land you an interview. Your local bookstore has a million books about the best way to write a resume so you can achieve that goal. In my opinion, though, writing an impressive resume is simple if you keep a few things in mind. First, employers never read a resume in its entirety, and I’m willing to bet that the average resume gets read in about five seconds.

My father once told me that employers like numbers and statistics—hard facts that show how a candidate is directly responsible for making a company more profitable. Now let’s be real here. If you’re still in your early 20s, the chances are not very good that you are at a high enough level to have had sole ownership of a project. However, the chances are excellent that you have had some measurable impact along the way. Did you help with a project that drove company revenue? Was there any piece of that project that you alone were responsible for? Let’s examine how this strategy might work for a candidate who is pursuing her first corporate job, and also for someone who has worked in the business world before.

Let’s say you didn’t have corporate internships while you were in college, but you did sell ice cream at Baskin-Robbins for four summers. Maybe, while you were there, you helped the manager execute a campaign to draw in customers from a nearby shopping mall.

See why the power statement is better? The original statement makes it look as though you were just a passive body handing out coupons, and the reader is probably thinking that anyone could have done that job. The power statement, however, reads as though you made a significant contribution to the Baskin-Robbins corporation by creating an innovative marketing campaign. Note that the wording of the power statement is still good even if you didn’t make the flyer all by yourself. If you had any creative input whatsoever, saying that you designed it bolsters the perception of ownership. The “Snack on Us” labeling also suggests that you were responsible for branding the campaign. With one statement, you have completely changed the reader’s perception of your role from ice-cream-shop cashier to small business entrepreneur.

Suppose you worked as an administrative assistant in a large consulting firm. You were a member of a team that serviced a healthcare account worth $250,000 in monthly fees. Perhaps most of the real account work was left to the senior individuals on the team, but you were responsible for creating and managing the budget spreadsheets.

Maybe your contribution to this account was solely administrative. The first statement reads this way. The power statement, however, makes a reader think that you were responsible for managing an enormous amount of company revenue. It says to me that you are extremely trustworthy, and that you have a head for complicated finances.

As you can see, the words you choose to communicate your experience make all the difference in whether your resume is considered average or fantastic. In public relations, we call this strategy “spinning,” and if you don’t think it will work for you, sleep on it. With a little creativity and positive positioning, the most mundane tidbits of experience can become resume jewels.

Spinning is one thing, but you should never lie outright on your resume or fake credentials. Now that this is becoming an increasingly common problem, employers are on high alert, and the risks far outweigh the potential benefits. Here are some other tips that may help your resume through the door:

New online services such as VisualCV (www.visualcv.com ) allow you to take the online version of your resume to a more sophisticated level, but don’t let too many bells and whistles detract from the basics. Make sure that all forms of your resume have up-to-date contact information, including a cell phone number and e-mail address. Don’t forget to replace your cutesy cell greeting with one that is tailored to your most important audience: your potential employer. (See Chapter 5 for voice-mail message tips.)

Burning the midnight oil to write a spectacular cover letter to send with your resume is not the best use of your time. Why? It’s critical that the right people read your materials, and that probably won’t happen with a traditional cover letter and resume addressed to a human resources manager. Your resume could be better than Oprah Winfrey’s, but if it sits in Mr. HR’s inbox for six months, it’s useless.

A few years back, when I was looking for a job, I read two resume-writing books cover to cover. Afterwards, I received form letters from 20 percent of the companies and no response at all from the other 80 percent. Desperate, I tried the following method and got a job offer the first time.

No matter what the recruiters say, the best way to land a job is to communicate directly with the individual who can hire you. It’s easier than you think. The first step is to ask everyone you talk to if they know someone at your target company. Inevitably, you’ll be chatting with someone at a party and will find out that her sister-in-law works for “Fab Company.” Should you find yourself in this situation, don’t waste time reflecting on the coincidental nature of the world. It’s your lucky day! A lot of experts say that the best way to proceed from here is to ask your party friend if she would feel comfortable introducing you to her sister-in-law. I agree that this is a good idea in principle. The only trouble is, then you have to rely on the party friend to follow through. Maintain control over the process by getting the sister-in-law’s name and ask your party friend if she’d mind if you e-mailed her sister-in-law. She’ll probably say yes to your request, because most people like to help someone out. Be sure to thank her profusely. Then go home right away and draft a cordial message resembling the one on page 37. Ideally, you should use an e-mail address from your own personal domain (such as [email protected] and not something unprofessional (in other words, NOT [email protected]). Mention the name of the family member you met at the party in the subject line so that your contact will open the message instead of deleting it with her spam. The tone of the message should not be wishy-washy or vague. Keep it short and sweet, ask for what you want up front, and be specific. Include a signature line with full contact information at the bottom.

So what happens if you’ve shouted Fab Company’s name from the rooftops and you still can’t make a connection to someone who works there? The situation is not hopeless by any means, but you will have to do a little more digging. Call around, look online (sites such as LinkedIn.com are a goldmine), and query trade associations to find the names of people who work in your proposed department. You don’t need to locate a senior manager—anybody with a similar job function will do. If you’ve found a name, but not a corresponding e-mail, check the company Website or call reception to get the format for e-mail addresses at that organization—you’ll find they are usually [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected]. Google the person to find out as much about him as you can, and then craft a short, friendly e-mail introducing yourself and explaining what you’re looking for. Here’s an example:

In your initial communication with Mr. Smith, do not ask him for a job. Rather, gently probe him for information about career opportunities once you’re chatting on the phone or have met in person. The point is to establish a personal relationship with Mr. Smith, because, even if he’s not the person who would ask you in for an interview, you’ve now made it inside the company. Mr. Smith probably has the internal contacts to introduce you to the person who can hire you. Perhaps he will forward your information directly, or mention to several of his colleagues that you’ll be contacting them.

Even if you can obtain an important person’s phone number, I wouldn’t call until you’ve exchanged a few communications via e-mail. For one thing, the chances of getting a higher-level executive on the phone are pretty slim. If the exec doesn’t know you, getting past her assistant will be like robbing a casino. Also, leaving a voice-mail message has the unsavory intrusiveness of a cold sales call. In the beginning, stick to e-mail—it really is your best opportunity to knock the socks off someone who matters.

The key to stress-free interviewing is to prepare, but not too much. You want to do just enough research so that you know what to expect and can speak intelligently on the points related to your job function. It helps to jot down a few “wow ’em” facts about the company that you would never know unless you did your homework. However, don’t spend too much time on the company’s Website that you end up sounding like an encyclopedia in the interview.

It’s in your best interests to find out as much as you can about the person or people interviewing you so that you know who you’re dealing with. A Google search will prove helpful in this regard. Determine in advance what type of interview you’ll be having so that you aren’t caught off guard. Will the meeting be one-on-one, or will you be sitting in front of a panel of executives? Will you be asked to consider a real-life business problem? Will any type of written or computer test be required while you’re there?

I also recommend putting together an interview portfolio. A portfolio is a three-ring binder in which you can include anything that highlights your business achievements and shows your level of commitment to previous positions. For example, as a marketing communications executive, my portfolio included press releases and business plans I’d written, magazine articles I’d contributed to, and print advertising campaigns I helped develop. A neat and professional portfolio can be an excellent tool to refer to during an interview, and you of course should have an online version that potential employers can check out either before or after they meet you in person. Most people don’t bother to create anything like this, but it really does speak volumes about your ability to package yourself.

Although it’s a good idea to be conversational during an interview, be careful how much personal information you divulge. There is never a good reason to bad-mouth your previous employer, even if everything you say is justified. While he is listening to your sob story, your prospective employer is thinking how in a year you will be sitting in front of another interviewer complaining about his company. Don’t be fooled by an interviewer who seems compassionate. Remember, the two of you are not friends, and that the interviewer’s first loyalty is to the company he’s hiring for. If you are asked why you left a job, answer with a neutral statement, such as “The commute didn’t allow me to spend enough time with my family” or “I wanted to gain experience working in a different industry.” Here are some other things to keep in mind as you undergo the interview process:

Many companies have their human resources representatives conduct interviews, but you should try to meet with—or at least speak with—the person who will be your official manager. The reason behind this is pretty simple: if your personalities clash or if you have fundamental differences in the way you work, you need to know immediately so that you can determine if you want to pursue the opportunity further. I’m not saying that one conversation will accurately reflect how your boss will act on the job or that problems won’t arise later that were impossible to predict. However, if you hate the person on sight, you should consider whether it’s a smart move to work for her.

While you’re interviewing, you should also talk to existing employees at the company—preferably those in the department you want to work for. Tactfully learn as much as you can about the corporate culture, or the working environment and the politics of the company. Think seriously about whether you could fit in, because you won’t be able to have a happy and fruitful career in a company that makes you uncomfortable or doesn’t meet your individual needs. Get a sense of the overall mood and morale of the employees, and listen carefully to what they say—and what they don’t say. If you think that every employee is going to sing the company’s praises just because you came up from HR, you might be surprised. I interviewed at a technology company that really impressed me until two of my potential colleagues told me to leave “before I got sucked in.” I didn’t take the offer, but I might have if I hadn’t taken the time to get the insider’s view.

A quick word about interview thank-you notes: Some people think e-mail thank-you letters are enough, but I have to disagree. If you want the company to think you are a “go the extra mile” type of person, start by spending the extra minute it takes to snail mail actual cards.

You just had a successful interview, the employer is about to make you an offer, and then he asks for a few references to reassure himself that he wants to hire you. The operative word here is reassure. By the time employers get to the reference stage, their minds are usually made up, and they are just doing their due diligence. That said, you must assume that your references will be called, and, subsequently, grilled about your work experience. So, yes, your references have to be real people, and the contact information you provide for them must be accurate and up to date.

The best references are not your best friend’s mother or your favorite elementary school teacher. They also do not include your current boss. I don’t care how chummy the two of you are, you don’t want your manager to know you’re looking for another position. If you’ve never had a job before, you might ask an internship supervisor or a professor you’ve worked with to be a reference. If you have been employed, a friend you worked with in the past or a former boss from a job you left under good circumstances are good choices.

Do not give out references’ names and contact information without talking to them first. Actually, you should contact potential references at the beginning of your job search and debrief each one on the types of opportunities you’re looking for. If they agree to be references, speak to them again immediately after you’ve given their names to an employer. Let them know that the employer is going to call, and make sure to give them as many specifics about the position as you can. Is there an aspect of your personality, background, or experience that your references should emphasize in order to better your chances? If so, be sure to tell them. Providing your references with the key points you want them to mention will make it easier for them to help you.

Follow up with your references to determine if the employer called them. If they were called, get the 411 on the conversations, and then send each reference a thank-you note. If they weren’t, don’t freak out. I’ve heard of employers who ask for references just to make sure you have them—they have no intention of actually speaking with anyone. At any rate, send your references thank-you notes whether they were called or not. You never know when you might need them again.

One last point: It’s not necessary to put “References Available Upon Request” on the bottom of your resume. Believe me, if an employer needs references in order to hire you, she’ll ask for them.

The key to a successful salary negotiation is to avoid getting screwed, and to come out smelling like a rose in the process. You also want to make sure you get the most money possible up front, because once you are inside a company, increases are few and far between. In order to make this happen, you need to plan ahead. Before you go on an interview, you should have a good idea of what you—and the target job—are worth. If you’ve just graduated from college, you might not have much choice but to accept whatever entry-level salary the firm pays. If you’re scouting for a new job, however, you should check Internet salary sites (www.salary.com, www.payscale.com, and so on) to see how much you can command given your level of expertise, your geographic location, and your years of experience. Next, call the target company’s human resources department to find out the salary range of the available position. Finally, David Gordon, internship director of the Marketing Communications department at Columbia College of Chicago, suggests a few questions to ask yourself prior to discussing your salary with a prospective employer:

Gordon also notes that you should prepare for objections to your request for more money, including (1) you don’t have enough experience, (2) other employees at your level aren’t making that much, (3) the budget won’t permit it, and (4) that’s what they are paying new hires. Think about how you would respond to these objections in a way that continues the discussion on a positive note. Prepare to phrase your comments in the form of questions, keeping in mind that the end goal is to reach an agreement with which both parties are happy.

As I mentioned before, try not to be the first one to mention money in the interview, and avoid giving your salary range, if possible. When the interviewer asks you about your salary, keep your response vague, or ask what the company has budgeted for the position. If you must reveal what you’re currently making, inflate the number slightly to account for bonuses, perks, or if you’re due for a raise shortly. You should never lie outright about your salary, though, as some companies may require a job applicant to submit a pay stub.

After the employer makes an offer, remember to ask about other benefits that might add weight, such as stock options, bonuses, and vacation time. If you’re happy with the total package, communicate that to the employer, and ask him if you can have 24 hours to consider it. Next, politely ask for the offer in writing. If you feel you need to negotiate for a higher salary, tread carefully. Gordon advocates the following techniques:

For example, you might say, “I’m really excited about this position and I think I’m a great fit for the company, but I don’t think I could afford to take less than my minimum of $45,000. I have several other opportunities that are in my range, but I’d really prefer to work for you. Is there any way we could work this out?”

Remember that salary ranges are rarely fixed, and once the interviewer has decided she wants to hire you, she will usually meet your request for more money. However, occasionally you might find that great career moves come with a lower price tag. You might be wise to accept an offer that is less money initially, yet pays greater dividends in terms of growth and experience.