PREFACE TO THE 4TH EDITION

Dear Readers,

It’s hard to believe that fifteen years ago, a little book called They Don’t Teach Corporate in College was written in a second-floor apartment in eastern Long Island, New York. At the time, I was working as a PR manager for a Fortune 500 software company and was engaged to my college sweetheart. My career had finally hit its stride after years of setbacks, and more than anything, I wanted to share the lessons I’d learned with twenty-somethings who were just beginning their business world journeys.

In 2004, there were no other books like They Don’t Teach Corporate in College, and I was very fortunate that the content seemed to resonate with people. A new career was born.

Throughout the next several years, I became a spokesperson and researcher on issues and trends facing modern employees. I wrote for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Forbes, and Fast Company, and worked with companies like American Express, DeVry University, Deloitte, Intuit, and Microsoft. I traveled around the world, from Budapest to Sao Paolo, sharing my learnings with audiences as small as ten and as large as 1,000, and I consulted with the US Department of Labor and the US Department of Defense. Last, but certainly not least, I got married and had two children.

I wanted to get my message of career readiness out as widely as possible because, starting with the 2008 recession and continuing through a decade with 24/7 accessibility, flattening organizations, and ever-blurring personal and professional boundaries, twenty-somethings needed more help than ever. Young professional unemployment, underemployment, and burnout soared.

In honor of our fifteenth anniversary, I’m doing what I can to address these challenges. I’ll include advice for navigating a business world that is increasingly global, virtual, entrepreneurial, and unpredictable. You will hear current thirty-somethings sharing wisdom with their twenty-something selves, and you will hear my take on the most frequent questions asked by They Don’t Teach Corporate in College readers in the last fifteen years. But, as I said back in 2009, life in the business world hasn’t changed in the eighty years since Dale Carnegie talked about getting people to cooperate, so many of the original lessons are intact.

To all of you who have supported me from the very beginning, thank you so much. If it wasn’t for you recommending They Don’t Teach Corporate in College to your friends, family members, colleagues, and managers over and over again, none of my work would be possible. It makes my day to hear an HR leader say she first read this book when she was twenty-two and now gives copies to her new college hires every year.

I hope you’ll keep in touch always.