Steak years and salad years

Sometimes we’re in our steak years, and other times we’re in our salad years. We all go through phases when we’re on top of the world and the next round of drinks is on us; but often, to get to that stage, we need to go through some years of budgeting and college poverty. Watching your money during college can help you learn some crucial lessons in financial literacy early in life.

Get a Job
My first piece of advice is for students to get a job while in school, even if it’s just a few hours a week waiting tables. During my four years in college, I’ve had over 10 jobs and internships, often more than one at the same time. Keeping a relatively steady job is important for a few reasons: (1) The extra flow of income is pretty nice; (2) you often become good friends with your coworkers; (3) you can get a great letter of recommendation from your boss when you leave; (4) employers love to see work experience on a resume. Holding a job in college tells employers that you have good time management, among other valuable skills.  So, even if your part-time job seems irrelevant to your dream job, you are acquiring more transferable skills than you think – you can stretch almost any job into an opportunity to build customer service, sales, financial, management, marketing, and conflict resolution skills.

Learn to Cook
One of the biggest expenses for college students is going out to eat. I’m not suggesting you need to be Top Chef-worthy in your culinary skills, but learn a few low cost, easy to make, and easy to store dishes. In dorms, cooking is almost impossible, so you need to get creative with your microwave. While ramen may seem like the holy grail of budget eating, remember that fruits and vegetables take almost no preparation and store well. I didn’t live with a real kitchen until my junior year, during which I invented “Chicken à la Kelli,” the height of cooking sophistication. I would take frozen chicken breasts, put a few in ziplock bags with a squirt of ranch dressing, let them defrost, and bake them for around 40 minutes. Voilà! Two ingredients and dinner is served. As I got more adventurous, I would add pasta and broccoli and maybe some cheese or sauce. If you are as lost in the kitchen as I was, invite some friends over for a potluck and ask them to teach you their signature low budget wonder.

Watch Your Beer Budget
Another big expense that tends to sneak up on college kids is the cost of alcohol. Assuming you’re 21, my recommendation is that you avoid buying drinks at clubs when you can. You can buy a bottle of liquor and have a few pre-party drinks; even if you don’t have a DD for the night, splitting a cab will still be cheaper than getting drinks at the bar. It’s also not the best idea for your wallet or your body to be going out every night – keep it to one or two nights a week and use that extra money to get a massage after all that dancing!

My Thoughts on Cash
Personally, I avoid using cash whenever possible. I think that in the year 2012 we shouldn’t need to use cash anymore. Multiple bills can get bulky, and I always feel uncomfortable with a lot of cash. If you lose it, it’s gone forever. It can rip and get wet. But there’s an important psychological effect to using cash – when you physically hand over money and realize that you have less now than you did before, it helps you understand the value of money and the weight of your purchase. So, if you have a problem keeping track of where your money goes, try using cash for a few weeks to buy everything and see if it helps you realize how much you are spending and on what. Ideally, if you have a smart phone, set up mobile banking for your debit card and check your account while you wait in the check out line. I think this has the same effect as using cash, but is much safer. Mint.com is a really great website I use to track all my accounts and purchases. Each month, you can get reports detailing what you spend your money on, and you can even get text and email alerts when your account falls below a certain amount.

Most of us will be in our salad years during college, but regardless of if you’re making bank or considering robbing one, if you follow these simple tips you’ll be in your steak years sooner than you think!

Choose your friends, and make them think they chose you

Building a strong support system of friends who will push you to do your best is one of the most important things you can do while in college. This is likely the only time in your life when you will get to regularly interact with such a large and diversified group of people. Take advantage of that opportunity!

Making friends is both an art and a science. The art of making friends I will leave to you, as it depends upon your unique personality; but the “science” is pretty simple to explain. It is possible to take a strategic approach when building a friendship and a network of supporters.

It probably sounds a little crazy, and you might think that I’m a bit of a stalker after you read this. But first, let me explain the benefits of a strategically planned friendship. If you are interested in self-improvement, you can always learn from other people. Identifying other people who are better than you in an area you want to work on is the first step in making a change in yourself.

The benefits of surrounding yourself with people who are smarter than you are numerous, but most importantly, by just being around these people, you will be reminded of the change you want to make in yourself!

When I was in 5th grade, my family moved to Florida from North Carolina, and I had to make a whole new set of friends. I realized that I had the chance to reinvent myself. After attending an awards ceremony at my school and seeing the other students being recognized for academic excellence and creativity, I decided that I wanted to be on stage with them one day. So, I made friends with those people – and eight years later, when we graduated together, my friends and I were recognized on stage together with some of the most prestigious awards our school and community had to offer. Today, we remain friends and are making an impact in our respective fields.

How did I get myself into their elite circle as the “new kid”? Once I identified the kind of people I wanted to surround myself with, I began to think about why I wanted to be their friend. For each person, I came up with things that I liked about them or admired them for. Without becoming a fanboy, it is important to build a genuine interest in and admiration for your prospective friends.

I found out what they were interested in and asked to join them at their lunch table one day. As our friendship grew, they began to notice things I was especially good at that they admired in me. A mutual sense of pride for one another’s accomplishments grew along with a healthy sense of competition to push each other forward.

When you start college, you have to learn how to make friends all over again, and it is not always as easy as sitting at their lunch table. Then, when you graduate and enter the “real world” for your first job, you may find yourself friendless again. You can choose your friends, and you can make them think that they chose you!

The friendships that I have built are not any less genuine because I strategically chose who I wanted to be around. I have built a team of worldwide supporters with varied interests and talents.

I don’t mean to suck the wonderment and romanticism out of the art of forming friendships, but in many ways, if you think of it as forming a strategic alliance, the friends you make will help you achieve your goals and are more likely to push you forward than hold you back!

Interview Questions: Do you have any questions for me?

“Do you have any questions for me?” The interview is over, you made it through alive!  …Or so you think. You still have one last chance to sabotage yourself. You will not get the job if you answer your final question with, “Nope, I think we pretty much covered everything.”

You need to have questions prepared for the end of the interview, and they need to be good. Examples of questions that you should not ask in the first interview are:

“How much does the position pay?” – Never bring up money on the first interview for a full-time job. Let the recruiter bring it up first; you will generally negotiate compensation in the 2nd or 3rd interview. Also, remember not to negotiate with yourself. Do some research on industry salaries and let the recruiter throw out some numbers first. (A good site to look up average salaries is www.glassdoor.com.)

“What exactly does your company do?” – This sounds like a no-brainer, but people ask this all the time. Do some research before your interview – in fact, do more than just some research.

“How soon can I be transferred to your Tokyo office?” – Don’t ask about promotion or location change in your first interview for an entry level position. It’s great to show interest in growth and flexibility to move, but if in the first interview you are already asking about moving to a different location or a different position, the company will choose someone more interested in the position for which they are actually hiring.

Here are some examples of questions you should ask:

“I recently read in the Wall Street Journal that your company will be expanding to some new offices in the northeast. How will that growth affect this position?” – It is always good to bring up some current event about the company, but only if it’s positive. Don’t talk about a recent lawsuit or downsizing! Showing you are up on recent events says that you are already behaving like you are a part of their team, and that you are interested in the success and future of the company. But be careful not to bring up a topic you don’t know very much about, and try not to look like you are just showing off. Only bring up an issue if you are genuinely interested and well-informed on the topic.

“Why did you choose to work here? What do you like most about your job?” – Asking the recruiter why they chose the firm or what they like most about their job is brilliant for a few reasons. 1) You can ask this question in any interview for any industry; it’s a great back-up question if you can’t think of anything else and requires no research. 2) You might learn something new and great about the company that will help you make your decision. 3) When you ask the recruiter why they like their job, they will be surprised that you asked about them personally, and they will feel special. 4) If they really do like their job, they will light up when you ask them about it!

People will remember how they feel about you much stronger than they will remember what you say. When the recruiter shares what they love about their job with you, they will remember you as the candidate that made them feel good. You had that certain “je ne sais quoi,” a quality they can’t put their finger on. They liked spending time with you because you took an interest in them. You’re exactly what they have been looking for to join their team.

Make sure you have a question for the recruiter at the end of the interview, and make sure it’s a good one. Spend some time researching the company, and take an interest in the person across the table. If you join the company, you will become co-workers, and they will likely be your first friend at your new job. Remember, you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. The interview is your chance to determine if you fit in with the company culture. The interview should always be a two way conversation, not an interrogation.

Interview Questions: What are your Weaknesses?

In this post, I’ll address the classic interview question: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” How are you supposed to answer the second part of this question honestly without making yourself look bad?

First, let’s talk about what you should not do.
Do not say that you have no weaknesses! Even if the name on your resume is Clark Kent, you still have a weakness.

Do not say that your weakness is that you work too hard, or that you are too organized, too dedicated, or too passionate. The recruiter will see right through your B.S.

So, what do you say? There are two ways that recruiters have told me they like to hear this question answered.

1) Be honest.
We’re all only human. The recruiter wants to see you demonstrate the maturity to engage in some self-analysis and render yourself a little vulnerable. This does not mean you should talk about your weakness for a guy who can play the guitar, or a weak ankle from when you played little league and tripped sliding into 3rd base. Keep your examples appropriate and relevant to the job.

The idea behind having you identify a weakness is so that you can identify areas for personal and professional improvement. If your weakness is that you are too stubborn to take feedback, you better say how you recognize that you have a problem and you are working to fix it somehow. Don’t give a weakness that you can’t or won’t fix.

2) Use the STAR method.
When in doubt, always return to the STAR method and apply its formula to answer the question. Remember that STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result.

In the case of identifying a weakness, start by explaining the situation – a good tip is to say, “I used to struggle with X.” Then, move on to the task: “I noticed that, due to my weakness in X, I was encountering problems with Y.” Next, talk about what you did about your problem: “I recognized that if I could learn how to Z, then I would reduce my problems with Y and my X behavior would decrease.” Lastly, explain the results of your action: “Now, because I have started doing Z, I have improved in Y and I no longer X. In fact, I recently received feedback from employers and peers commenting on my improvement.”

That’s the secret revealed. Pretty simple! Remember, think of more than one weakness to explain – don’t be surprised if the recruiter says, “Okay, good. Now, give me another weakness.” I have had recruiters ask me for up to five weaknesses, and it’s pretty stressful and dangerous for you to think things up on the spot. The key to impressing the interviewer and getting the job is being prepared.

I will share some tips with you on how to think like a recruiter, so you can anticipate their next moves and pass the interview with flying colors!

Interview Questions: Be a STAR

It’s a new year, and time to get a new job or a first job. With more people than ever fighting for a job in a down economy, how can you stand out and make it through all the bloodshed? There are a few ways I’ve seen students make a positive impression on potential employers, and one of the most important ways is responding with killer answers to tough interview questions.

This is the first post in a series of entries I’ll write about interview questions. Some of the most common interview questions are Behavioral Based Interview (BBI) Questions. The idea behind a BBI question is that past performance will indicate future success. The employer wants to know what you have done in the past to get an idea of how you will react to future situations in the firm. These are not hypothetical questions – you need to use real examples from your past to answer a BBI question.

These questions will generally start with, “Tell me about a time when…”

The typical topics interviewers are interested in are leadership experience, conflict, analytical skills, goal setting, innovation/creativity, and failure. A quick Google search of the most common interview questions will yield results that fall under those primary categories. Begin to think of some relevant stories for each of those topics long before your interview.

The reason I say stories rather than answers is because you need to answer BBI questions with a well-developed story. The best way I know to help students practice putting stories together for an interview is the STAR Method. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Use this method to craft your BBI stories. Go two or three stories deep for each topic, and practice your stories with friends.

Here is an example of what I mean:

“Give me an example of a goal you didn’t reach, and how you handled it.” This would be an example of a goal setting, conflict, and failure question.

Situation: My sophomore year, an ambassador for the International Programs office came to speak to my class about international internships. I heard that my university offered a Parliamentary internship in London, and that it was the most competitive position available, with only two people accepted each year. I wanted that internship!

Task: By the summer before my senior year, I had saved enough money and had built up enough experience on my resume to be eligible to apply for the program. I got past the initial screening and was finally offered a phone interview with a campaign manager for one of the MPs (Members of Parliament).

Action: I completely failed my interview. The campaign manager asked me my personal political opinion and I tried to dodge the question by saying I would represent my politician’s views to his constituents during my term in his office, but he kept pushing for an answer. Knowing that most politicians in England are more liberal than I am, I tried to defend my fiscally conservative position. He asked me to prove how a fiscally conservative government could provide for social projects, and I gave examples of big business sponsoring social programs. I even included personal examples of how Fortune 500 companies had helped my social entrepreneurship club with some community initiatives. But I don’t think he believed me!

Result: I did not get the internship with Parliament that summer, and I think it actually worked out for the best. I got an internship instead at an international dot com business headquartered in London and worked in sales, marketing, and public relations. I was living in the same building as the two students who were working at Parliament, and I found that in a smaller business setting I had far more opportunities to make a difference in the company than they had in Parliament. I sat next to the CEO and worked directly with country managers every day in my internship, where they were lucky to see their MP at all for the whole summer.

Make sure your stories fully answer the question, are memorable, and (especially for conflict and failure questions) depict the end result in a positive way. You will need to spend a while thinking up these stories ahead of time, but avoid making them sound rehearsed. Also, don’t be surprised if they ask you follow up questions about your story, or for a second example!

When your best isn’t good enough

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That’s life. When your best just isn’t good enough, you can either learn from your experience or make excuses. You will never grow if you choose the latter.

I have become fairly accustomed to winning. When I enter academic competitions, I usually fare quite well. But last night, I entered an oratorical speech contest and completely underestimated my competition. I didn’t win; actually, in my opinion, I was one of the worst presenters.

Despite all that, I don’t believe I would change very much about my presentation! I had written a compelling speech on the topic; rehearsed my diction, clarity, and emphasis; and even choreographed my presentation a bit, with specific movements and hand gestures to accompany various points. I did my best, and I’m proud of my work.

But my best simply wasn’t good enough.

I approached this competition like a game that I could win with a formula, and as a result my speech lacked passion. It was my first time entering this kind of contest, and I was overly confident for a newbie. I was so impressed by all of the other speakers that I was proud to lose to my competition. I learned a lot from the experience.

That’s life. You can’t win them all! I walked away with no regrets, because I learned from the experience and have made some new well-spoken and passionate friends. I know that I’m still good at a lot of other things, and I believe that I can become a better orator if I practice more and take some tips from my new friends.

When your best isn’t good enough, it is difficult to accept, especially if you have failed in an area of great pride and importance to you. Don’t be discouraged, and don’t be a sore loser.

There will always be someone out there better than you at something. Think of it as your lucky day when you meet those people, because you can make them your friends in life and partners in business one day.

Don’t be afraid to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. In fact, you should be scared if you are the smartest person in the room!

Stop Complaining

Stop Complaining! It’s a pretty simple concept, yet one of the most difficult habits to break. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but…no one cares about your problems. Do you really care about other people’s problems?

It’s very easy to get caught up in complaining about how your roommate drank your last beer, or how your teacher unfairly gave you a pop-quiz, or how you didn’t get enough sleep due to partying and now you deserve pity for being awake and talking to me. I have no sympathy for you.

Complaining is generally used as a vehicle for attention, pity, and sympathy. Do you really want or need those things from your listener?

I think that college students often use complaining as a way to modestly impress someone. “OMG, I am so hungover, I didn’t read the chapter at all, I stayed up all night partying, and I just aced that quiz! Whatevs, it’s no biggie, I guess I’m just a prodigy. How did you do?”

I may be guilty of uttering a similar sentence myself, but what are you really telling the other person? “I’m more popular than you as evidenced by the desirability of my company last night, and I’m smarter than you because I don’t need to study. Even on my worst day, I’m better than you, so you should be impressed.”

Is that the sentiment you really want to convey? Because that’s what people hear. So, just stop doing it!

No one really cares about your problems or wants to hear your excuses or your veiled bragging. We all know people like this – they’re downers and they will never ask you about your life. Complaining is egocentric and it brings down your listener’s mood. Do you want to be remembered that way?

Going cold turkey on complaining is hard work! One tip I can offer is to ask before you tell. Show interest in the other person first. Ask how they are doing. If you are interested, people will find you interesting.

When you come off as interested and interesting instead of as a complainer, you can guess that people will like you better and want to spend their time with you. You will be tempted to go back to your old Negative Nancy ways, but resist the urge, and I think you will be amazed by the results!

Do you pass the “Airport Test”?

What is the “Airport Test”?

Interviewers don’t care how many liquids you have in your luggage, if you have turned off all portable electronic devices, or if you can land a plane full of snakes. The “Airport Test” is a common interview technique recruiters use to determine if you are a fun and interesting person to spend an extended amount of time with between flights on a business trip.

In addition to asking you about your leadership experiences, academic accomplishments, analytical skills and the occasional stress question to see how you react under pressure, recruiters are also judging if they like you and think you are cool.

Going into an interview, students are usually so concerned about impressing the interviewer that they often forget to think from the recruiter’s perspective. At the core of most interviews, recruiters are generally looking for two main qualities in all candidates.

1) Can the recruiter show you off to their boss?

2) Are you a fun and interesting person to hang out with?

This post will refer to the second point. It’s hard to believe, but recruiters are a lot like matchmakers. When you join a company, it is like entering a relationship. You will be spending most of your time with your new co-workers so it is important that you like each other and have common interests. If the recruiter thinks they would rather pretend to be asleep than chat with you in the airport waiting area, you have failed the “Airport Test” and you will not be hired.

Part of your interview is to find out if you match with the company culture, and the recruiter must determine if you are a good match in as little as 30 minutes. With such a short amount of time to win a rose from your recruiter to get you to the next round, everything you do in the interview is being observed and judged.

There are a few things you can do to prepare for the “Airport Test.”

– Look at the company website and observe what people are wearing. You can learn a lot about the company culture by the smiling corporate photos. If everyone seems to be wearing pastels, maybe red isn’t going to be your power color for this interview; try lime green or salmon. If the firm seems super conservative, keep it to navy and gray.

– What do you do for fun? More and more companies are starting to ask questions like this during interviews. Don’t get thrown off guard and talk about your keg weekends or reading at home with your cats. Think of some good answers before you go into the interview. A good answer should be interesting and memorable, but also show off some leadership or teamwork skills. Sports are a great go-to answer, but pretty common, so it’s very important that your example is a story that the interviewer can relate to or remember you by.

– Ask the recruiter why they chose to work for the company. At the end of the interview when they ask what questions you have, a good question to ask across industries is why your interviewer chose that firm. People love to talk about themselves, and if your recruiter is passionate about their job, they will light up when they talk to you about what they do. By showing interest in them, you will be remembered as someone they would like to work with.

– Smile! It seems obvious, but you would be surprised how many students freak out during an interview and forget to smile. Don’t let the stress get to you, and just be yourself – the better dressed, more accomplished and articulate version of yourself!

Would you want to spend 2 hours with you during a layover?

How can you convey how awesome, qualified, and fun you are to a stranger in an initial interview? It’s not easy, and that’s why not every applicant will be hired. But remember you are interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you, and they may not be a good match for you. Do your research; if you are excited and passionate about joining the company, it will shine through in your interview and you will be far more likely to advance to the next round of interviews.

New Year’s Resolutions

It’s a new year and that means a new beginning; a time to write resolutions for the year 2012. Assuming we survive the scheduled apocalypse, keeping our resolutions for the whole year is often very challenging, and few of us have ever kept all or even some of our new year’s resolutions.

Resolutions often stem from an area of our lives wherein we are dissatisfied. Gym memberships and online dating profiles certainly spike January 1st, since some of the first places people focus on improving in the new year are their bodies and relationships. Improving your body takes discipline, and after that first week the snooze button on your 6:00 a.m. workout alarm gets hit more than once. Improving your relationship status might take courage if you decide to break up (and a dedicated group of friends to keep you from drunk texting your ex the following weekend).

Each year we focus on our bodies and relationships because we believe we can do better, but how many people are satisfied where they spend most of their day – at their job?

I don’t pretend to be an expert on health and fitness, and certainly not on relationships, so you guys are on your own there. However, I think that an area many people want to improve, but are either afraid or don’t know how to change, is their work life. Here are a few thoughts on this topic that may help you get that promotion or even change careers this year:

What Makes You Happy? Spend some time thinking about what would make you happier at work. It might not just be money – it could be more time off, flexible hours, more responsibility, relocation to a new city, a cubicle closer to the windows so you can watch the squirrels play, whatever it might be for you! When you go to negotiate, come to the table with a plan of action; it’s much easier for your boss to say yes to a reasonable plan you propose than to a generic, “I’m unhappy here and you need to fix it or I’m leaving.”

No Ultimatums! This one is a pet peeve of mine. I think that ultimatums are a sign of immaturity and an unnecessarily aggressive way to get what you want. Ultimatums are generally very selfish and do not result in a win-win situation for all parties. If you say, “I want a raise or I’m going to a competing firm,” be prepared to follow through on your threat, and read your non-compete before you go around making statements of that sort, or you could end up fired and searching for a job 50 miles away.

Ask! If you don’t ask for what you want, you almost certainly won’t get it. Your boss probably doesn’t even know that you are unhappy; people usually assume that no news is good news. Tell people what you want – share your goals with your co-workers and supervisors. If you share your interests, you may find there are other areas within your company where you could be promoted horizontally instead of looking for a new job at a different company, or even in a different industry.

Know What You Do Best. Be confident in your skills and abilities. Figure out what you do better than everyone else and compile specific and measurable evidence to support your claim. This could include getting testimonials from satisfied customers you have helped, reports that show improved sales or revenues in a certain month due to an initiative you suggested, peer reviews from co-workers that state how you put in extra hours or helped them on a project. Don’t be afraid to talk yourself up, but don’t lie.

Don’t Gossip. If there is some area of your job you don’t like, keep it to yourself unless you think you can change it. Constructive feedback is generally welcomed and encouraged my managers, so if your cause for complaint is a process you believe you can improve by suggesting a change, by all means share that view. However, if your problem is with a disagreeable co-worker, suck it up or find specific and relevant evidence that proves they are in serious violation of a company policy. Unless they are stealing or harassing you and/or other co-workers, you might have to settle for killing them with kindness. Try not to burn any bridges, even if you are considering leaving – you never know when you might meet again or if they will be able to influence your future in some way later on. It’s a secret dream for all of us to have some grand speech on our last day and storm out escorted by security, but after that initial rush of satisfaction, have we actually accomplished anything?

Be Humble. Restarting a career may mean starting at the bottom. Be prepared for a temporary reduction in pay or responsibility. If you have spent some time really thinking about what you want and have decided that a career change is right for you, stick it out for a few months. Once you get over the initial hurdle of learning a new industry and building up some credibility, it should get much better. Before making a drastic change in your career and lifestyle, be sure you have some financial security to supplement the change in income and a strong network of advocates. Supportive friends and family will get you through those tough days when you question your sanity.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions? If you want to improve your career or work life, consider some of these tips and you will have the confidence and know-how to make that change this year!