A Career Mosaic

From After College: the business of getting jobs

by Jack Falvey¹

1. Getting a job is not an isolated event that happens every now and then. It is much more like a continuum. It's a whole series of ongoing events that comes together at different times, providing opportunuties and challenges. You can't plan everything, but you can be aware of what works both for and against you. When something fits, run with it. (pp. 8-9)

2. Before you begin your academic retirement party, keep in the back of your mind that at a future date you may want to flirt with some kind of graduate school. In that case, academic numerical respectability may be of … value. (p. 10)

3. Life, on occasion, takes some strange turns. One academically inept undergraduate managed to complete four years with a C as his highest grade in any course. Not what you would call an academic all-American. Because of some career successes later in his life, he was asked to guest lecture at a number of universities. As a result of those lectures, one college wanted him to become a part-time member of its evening school faculty. It fit with his schedule and he thought it would be worth doing, so he began teaching at the college level in his specialty with good results. As an administrative formality after three months of teaching, he was asked to send along a transcript of his college grades from twenty-years past. In this case a bona fide academic horror-show was dug up after twenty years. (p.10)

4. The values in the world of work are much more socially oriented than academically or technically oriented. Conversational skills, appearances, and interestingly enough a good general education will pay a big and expanding role in the future. Being "well read", for example, will show, and pay dividends. (p. 11)

5. Lead time is part of the new game. One factor of never-ending fascination is how we prepare and work to get ready for one eventuality, only to find at some later date, all of our carefully planned work sets us up for a completely different result. The critical lesson to learn early is that just about everything you do somehow pays off. Often it pays off in different ways than anticipated, but it always seems to somehow fit. Jobs, careers, life-planning … happen to be far more art than science. Knowing all kinds of approaches, and understanding how pieces and people can be made to fit tgether are great creative challenges. (p. 12)

6. A junior manager was asked to produce a training film for a trade shop. He relied heavily on an outside audiovisual house for help. By working with a talented writer and director, the manager acquired some very advanced skills without ever going through the basics. As it turned out, the basics were easy to pick up in reverse order, and in a short time he began doing industrial films on his own, by using a skilled team that filled in his technical deficiencies completely. Without any background in film or theater arts, he became a moderately skilled, successful writer/producer of generic video material, which eventually was used by thousands of companies around th world. (p. 13)

7. The single common denominator in all business and organizations is people. Everything comes down to people, trust, friendship, and the building of these kinds of bonds. People are not add-ons to the system; they are the system. (p. 23)

8. Although a job, any job, may look like a reasonable goal when you are on the outside looking it, be selective from the start. (p.46)

9. If you don't ask questions, you may be treated like a piece of furniture. Do what's asked of you, but ask, ask, ask, as much as you possibly can. (p. 53).

10. In reality, most students have very little idea what they want to be in later life and considering their isolated academic environment, there is little reason to expect otherwise. (p. 56)

11. Narrow undergraduate specialization tends to produce narrow specialized people.

12. Informed career decisions are often made in the mid-thirties after a person has had a chance to look around, developing some likes and dislikes. …Students are often influenced by the opinions and desires of others. (p. 57)

13. Contrary to popular belief, the big opportunity will come again and again for those who remain open to the possibility. (p. 59)

14. It is important in any developing career to find people who will teach and challenge you. (p. 60)

15. It is a rare person who knows with real certitude what he wants to be and then follows that dream into the sunset for a lifetime. (p. 65)

16. Taking two steps forward and one back is more than acceptable. In fact, it's an indication that you are in control of the process. When someone asks you what you are going to be, you can give them an honest and sincere answer along the lines of, "I' will let you know as I begin to find out". Your first job is not only the starting point of your composite career mosaic, it is also the beginning of the process of learning more about yourself and how you will choose to fit in the world of work. iT is definitely the beginning of an exploratrion and should be approached as such with an open mind, a willingness to look over many different trails, and a capacity to have fun while doing so. (p. 66)

17. There is a fine line in visibility and self-promotion. Push it too far and you're viewed negatively. (p. 84)

18. From the first job right on through to the president's chair, the resume is a document that does the most damage and the least good… Resumes are a means to screen out, eliminate, reject, separate, and reduce the number of candidates for jobs. Resumes are a double-edge negative sword. Not only do they separate good people from the opportunity to present themselves for possible positions, but they give power to credentials and past experiences which have little or nothing to do with the challenges of actual future tasks. (pp. 88-89)

19. The fact that you are unique, highly adaptable human being makes it difficult to fit into standard screening systems. )p. 138)

20. In moving from the known to the unknown, there is always a certain comfort in the devil you know versus the devil you don't know… Your investment is double - the cost of the education plus the lost income from other efforts (p. 153)

21. Education doesn't stop when you graduate; it starts. Selecting your own material in view of your own developing needs is a new freedom in learning acquired when you leave campus. It's not necessary to have someone else develop your curriculum. You can do it yourself with great variety and benefit One of the advantages of self education is that it can be highly directed. You can focus on specifics that may be given only passing reference in some course, but are especially meaningful to you. (p. 160)

22. Degrees are not keys to the future. They do not unlock doors. (p.161)

23. The open mind-set is important from the beginning. Nothing is forever. Plan accordingly. (p. 181)

***

Text 4