Managing Your Career

1. Managing Your Career

2. Agenda • Interviewing • Consulting career path • Key Success Factors • 5 tips for any entry-level job • Assorted tips from corporate bigwigs

3. Interviews • Typical criteria includes: • Problem solving skills • Analytical skills (disaggregate problems..) • Quantitative skills • Conceptual Skills (breadth of thought…) • Technical skills • Domain expertise • Papers, patents, presentations, advisor, school, grades, classes • Personal Effectiveness skills • Relationship building ability • Ability to influence others • Poise, presence • Intangible skills • Confidence, professionalism, manners, tone, body language • The general “feel” the interviewer gets about you – incredibly subjective, yet remarkably justifiable using seemingly objective criteria

4. Vocation & Avocation • Vocation • An occupation, esp. one for which a person is particularly suited • Avocation • An activity taken up in addition to one’s regular work, usually for enjoyment • Goal: Vocation = Avocation

5. Consulting Careers • Some leave, often for big company staff positions • Opportunities within industry • Acquired skills and work habits: • Project orientation • Industry focus • Analysis versus implementation • Income trap • Upside: logical, rigorous thinking, network

6. Key Success Factors • Problem solving: analytics, intelligence, 80/20, speed • Communication • Stakeholder relationships • Teamwork • Judgment and integrity • Other: keeping senior people happy (“upward management”), low-error tolerance (self-critical), “make it happen” (accountability), perception management • Alignment with company values, e.g., • “Client first” – consulting, banking • “Passion for technology” – high tech • “Individual excellence / big challenges / teamwork” – typical fortune 500 • “Show me the money” – HF, PE, VC

7. Tip #1 Your Goals • Is there a clear deliverable for each goal? • Do you understand what you need to know in order to accomplish your goal? • Are your goals appropriate for your position? • Do your goals challenge you at a level you are comfortable with? • Are your goals Specific, Measurable, Realistic

8. Tip #2 Communication • Do you and your mentor have a plan for how you are going to communicate with each other? • What happens if there isn’t clear and consistent communication. • Communicate early and often (e.g., weekly 1:1s) • Write a brief summary of your meetings with clear action items • Send status report emails on a regular basis (weekly or biweekly)

9. Tip #3: Giving and Receiving Feedback • Highly valued at most firms • Enables you to learn where you need to grow and help others identify areas where they need to grow • Ask for feedback proactively • Tell people when they are doing a good job • Be specific and use examples.

10. Tip #4: Use Your Resources • Mentor • Manager • Others in your group • Recruiter • Alums • Friends, former mentors • Don’t underestimate the power of your network

11. Tip #5 Be Conscientious With Time • It is ok not to know, but be wise about finding out • Try to balance the amount of time an answer takes to find, and the completeness of the answer • Provide concise description of the problem • Highlight how you tried to solve the problem • Identify where you think the problem is now and possible solutions • Determine what follow-up is necessary

12. Assorted tips • “Choose the company not the job”; “view the glass as half-full, keep ambition hidden, underpromise and overdeliver” – Jack Welch • “Overdeliver, keep an ear to the ground for new ideas, surround yourself with effective people” – Microsoft VP • “Use your currency” – Keith Ferrazzi, CMO Starwood • “Passion, Humility, Kindness” – Dennis Bakke, CEO AES • “The qualities I look for in my successor are not very different from those I would look in a prospective son-in-law” – Warren Buffet • “The most important person is the person in front of you – focus on the here and now” – Alex Mamishev