Learning, Teaching, and Learning to Teach

May 6, 2010 Leave a comment

I was hired to HP as part of the Graduate Investment Program [GIP], along with 32 other fresh college graduates from the class of 2009.  We’re all effectively the same age and at the same stage in our lives, and we’re all starting off on our respective career paths.

When we started at HP, we looked to the 2008 graduates, hired less than a year before us, for guidance and mentoring.  To us, these 2008 graduates were masters of HP sales.  They had training, experience, and expertise.  They always knew the answers to our multitudes of questions.  Even though their 10 months of experience paled in comparison to the experience of the real HP veterans of 10, 20, 30 years, we venerated the 2008 graduates as role models alongside the HP career veterans.

This week, over 50 prospective new hires visit the HP campus.  These candidates are the best of the best. Culled from hundreds of references, career fairs, and online applications, they’ve all made it through the resume screen and the manager interview already.  This site visit was effectively the third round of the process for these potential new hires.  Many of us on the team, including me, volunteered to interview a few candidates and show them around campus.

As we went through the process of talking to these candidates, reading their resumes, and weighing their work experience, it occurred to me that, starting June 1st, we 2009 graduates will no longer be the newbies.  Instead, 20 new, 2010 graduates will consider us, the class of 2009, experts in sales, successful veterans of GIP.  We’ll be mentors and leaders, providing insight and guiding these new hires in the same way the 2008 graduates mentored us.

The prospect of mentoring and teaching is exciting.  But we, the class of 2009, are still learning.   We’re still taking training courses.  For as long as we’re at HP, we probably always will be taking training courses.  We still have questions every day for our veterans, class of 2008 and before.

As the class of 2009 rounds out their our year in the real world, many of us are thinking back to last summer.  The class of 2008 hires took us under their wing and guided us, helping us effectively transition from the world of grades to the world of quotas.

We are still learning, still new to the job.  But I know that the class of 2009 will do our best to provide the same mentoring, guidance, and inspiration to the class of 2010 that we were fortunate to receive from the class of 2008.

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Why is a Manhole Cover Round?

December 12, 2009 4 Comments

Why is a manhole cover round?

And more importantly, who cares?  And why do interviewers keep asking these sorts of questions?

Elaine from Meebo, an in-browser instant messaging service, wrote a blog post considering this question.  She explores the thesis “A product [or company] is the product of its hiring process.”  A company is only as good as its employees, and a product is only as good as the people who make it.

As such, its in the best interest of the company to hire only those who will do a good job in the role they’re hired for.  Why should potential employers ask questions that don’t relate to the job?  Does being able to figure out what part of the wheel the inventor should patent really indicate how well the candidate will be able to do the job in question?

If the applicant wants to be a patent lawyer, probably.  If the applicant wants to open her own bakery, unlikely.

Read more of this post

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Women are Better Managers

July 26, 2009 Leave a comment

At least, that’s according to Carol Smith, senior vice president and chief brand officer for the Elle Group.  The New York Times interviewed Carol Smith on her thoughts about leadership, management, hiring, and gender differences in the workplaces.

Smith was also named Executive of the Year by Advertising Age, based on advertising revenue, brand management and promotion, and Elle’s successful partnership with the hit TV show Project Runway on Bravo TV.

Here’s an excerpt of the interview:

Q. Let’s talk about hiring.

A. I am living by something I read in Cathie Black’s book [“Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life)”] which I sort of instinctively knew — that you’ve got to meet someone three times, and one of them better be over a meal.

You learn so much in a meal. It’s like a little microcosm of life. How they order, what they order. How are they going to give instructions to a waiter? Are they sending back the meal eight times? Can they keep the conversation going, especially if you’re hiring someone who is in sales? Are they asking smart questions?

Throughout a meal, the personality comes out, I think. Are you going to connect with us? Are you going to be part of the team, or are you going to be one of these independent players who wants to take all the credit? Are you good with assistants? Those are things you can find out in some subtle ways when you eat with someone.

Q. Any other tips on hiring?

A. Don’t hire somebody you don’t like. There is always a strong internal pressure to give a job to a person who has all the right credentials and says all the right things, even if something about her sends up little signals of alarm. They may be slight, but in my experience it is a great mistake to ignore them. Every time I went against my instincts and gave a job to someone who, though clearly capable, made me feel uneasy during the interview, it has ended badly.”

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Update

July 1, 2009 Leave a comment

So, a few things have happened that I haven’t yet posted on.

First of all, you may remember that I was fortunate enough a while back to field two interviews.

I was offered a position at one of them, a financial investment firm.  However, as Greg mentioned in his guest post, just because a job is offered doesn’t mean you have to accept it.  So I turned it down.

I was offered a position at the second one, as well, but there was a conflict with the start date.  I clearned up the conflict, but apparently a day or two too late.  Confusion ensued, and they are now in the process of considering me for the second start date, which was recently approved.  I should know by next week.  This has been a very anxiety-producting situation, to be sure.

Anyway, I am certainly keeping my options open.  I am still enrolled as a student at UCSC until August, finishing up a few credits, so I’m not terribly worried.

A friend recently voiced my thoughts on the matter, however.  “If you aren’t working eight hours a day, you should be looking for work eight hours a day.”  While I’m still enrolled in classes this isn’t entirely possible, but I am still sending out resumes at a fairly prestigious rate, and I still have an internship lined up, at the very least.

Graduate school is looking better and better.

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How to Escape Mundanity

May 29, 2009 1 Comment

I was over at Guy Kawasaki’s blog, How to Change the World, today – Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine.  He used to be an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc., and has written nine books.  He also is an excellent public speaker, expert in venture capital and start-ups.

He recently interviewed business coach Pamela Sims, who talks about how to quit your job and start your own company.  Her blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation, is one of the top career and marketing blogs.  In this interview, she talks about everything from having a business plan to creating a PowerPoint to whether or not Twitter is a useful resource.

Here’s the interview, and here’s an excerpt.

“Question: How do you decide which business to start?

Answer: Business ideas are a dime a dozen.  From my perspective, which is firmly rooted in the idea that the purpose of a business is to allow you to live the kind of life that makes you happy, healthy, wise, and wealthy—or at least well-fed, a good business idea has four components.  First, it is rooted in something you are passionate about and which energizes you.  Entrepreneurship is too darn hard to manufacture enthusiasm.  Second, you have the skill and competence to make it happen—or at least a really great contact list of smart and enthusiastic friends to help you figure it out.  Third, you need to do enough business planning to know whom you are trying to serve, and how you are going to make money. Finally, you want a business model that you have the resources to support and that delivers the life you want to live.”

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