How To Network

Learning to network is crucial to getting a job and progressing in your career. However, networking tends to get a bad reputation. Networking is not about using people to get ahead, it is about building professional relationships. If strong relationships are built it can aid you in your career by offering industry and professional information, information about job openings, assistance with the job placement process, and other network contacts.

So how do you network? First, you need to meet people. The easiest way to meet people is to start off by talking to friends and family members and asking them if they know anyone in your industry. Another way to find contacts is through networking events, LinkedIn, and meeting people in your daily life.

Once you have contact information you should set up a phone call or meet them somewhere to talk. You will want to ask them questions about their job, industry, and experiences as this information can be helpful to you and people typically like to talk about themselves. The contact will typically ask about you. Make sure you are prepared to give a brief description of where you’ve been, what you’re doing, and what you want to do. It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do especially if you tell them you are exploring different industries. If you have more questions or would like a different perspective you can ask them if they know anyone else who could give you more information on a specific topic. This is a great way to gain more network contacts.

After the initial contact it is important to follow up with them from time to time so they are thinking about you. One easy way is to add them on LinkedIn. If the first conversation went well then I would reach out again and ask them more questions you have about their job, industry, or experiences. Another way to maintain relationships is to email your contacts an update when something big happens such as you got an internship, a new job, or are going back to school. Once a relationship is built you can ask if they know of any job or internship opportunities but never directly ask for a job or internship. Directly asking for a job or internship is a good way to lose network contacts and ruin your reputation.

Networking doesn’t come natural to most people. But the key to building a great network is to be networking every day. Some of my best contacts are college friends as they know me very well from working long hours together on projects or homework. Other places I have met contacts are on a plane, networking events, LinkedIn, church, family, friends, work, through other network contacts, and cold calling/emailing. Remember you are building a relationship so treat them professionally.

Tips:

·         Keep track of all your network contacts. I like to use an Excel workbook with their name, email, phone number, job, and a few notes such as how I met them.

·         Take notes when you first talk to a new contact. These notes can remind you about the person and what you talked about the last time.

Common Resume Mistakes:

When writing a resume it can be hard to figure out what employers want. You can have many professionals review your resume and everyone will have a different opinion. Below are some tips on how to write a better resume and how to avoid looking like the rest of the competition.

1.      Be Specific

One of the biggest mistakes that I have seen when reviewing resumes and one that I have personally made is not being specific. For example, when listing relevant course work or skills don’t list something general like statistics. You should be specific such as mathematical statistics, time series modeling, non-parametric modeling, etc. Companies want to see exactly what you know and how you can help them.

 

2.      But Not Too Specific

I like to be as honest and upfront as possible but sometimes this can lead to listing irrelevant information. For example, if you have worked at a company and have been promoted twice you should only list your most current position. Make sure to list any relevant skills you have acquired throughout all of your work at that company but having multiple positions typically doesn’t add any useful information.

 

3.      No General Resumes

Write a resume specifically for the job or type of job you are applying for. I know it is time consuming to write a resume or cover letter but make sure the document is specifically for that type of position. For example, I have a marketing, corporate finance, quantitative finance, data scientist, trading, and investment banking resume. Each resume is targeted to a specific job which means that all of the resume should be relevant to the position I am applying for.

4.      Write For The Position Not Yourself

Don’t write a resume based on what you think has helped you the most; write a resume that is specifically for the employer. For example, I worked at a start-up company for 8 years and I personally think my wide array of skills make me valuable because I can learn quickly and can get anything done based on my experience. When I listed these skills I couldn’t get interviews or call backs because companies don’t understand how this would help them. Everyone has more skills than would fit on one page but you really need to think about the skills you have that employers will pay money for. Don’t list experience if it isn’t relevant. When I read a resume and there are irrelevant topics I get frustrated and just skim the rest of the resume with the intent of throwing out the resume.

 

5.      Guide The Reader

Everyone that reads a resume is busy whether they are an HR recruiter, a managing director, or a network contact reviewing your resume. The most important sections of your resume should be the largest and the most important information should be at the top. For example, you should always list your experience in chronological order but the most important experience should be listed at the top of that job section. I thought my work experience was valuable but companies didn’t and when I made my past work experience smaller and my education section larger more companies started contacting me.

MAE - Introduction To Me

The next few blog posts are made for current MAE students both first years and second years. I encourage everyone to ask questions, add advice, or leave comments.

First off I would like to introduce myself to everyone and share a little bit about what I’m doing and why I am involved with the MAE program. I started at BYU-I pursuing a biology degree with the goal of being a plastic surgeon. After a summer program at BYU-I I realized that I needed a better school that could get me where I wanted to go. I also didn’t think I would be able to cut live people open and so I transferred to Washington State University (WSU) to pursue finance. My father is an entrepreneur and started a company that creates precast concrete restrooms, shower, and utility building for the US government and other corporations. I started working there in high school doing secretarial work and over the next eight years I would work in almost every facet of the business. My experience at this company made me pursue finance and business. Economic courses were a part of the business curriculum and I fell in love with economics ever since Econ 101.

My senior year at WSU I took a financial engineering course and really enjoyed the added complexity to finance. I felt like I was cheated in my business degree since we lacked the math, statistics, and computer programming that seemed so valuable on Wall Street and in life. After graduation I continued to work for my father and applied to finance jobs in banking all across the US and specifically in New York. I only got a few phone interviews with no follow ups; even after networking with alumni and other contacts. I decided I needed a master degree in financial engineering and applied to about a dozen schools across the country with my dream schools being Columbia and Princeton. I ended up with an offer from Michigan and an offer from Claremont’s MBA program with the option to apply for the financial engineering program after I took a few more math courses. It was an easy choice due to Claremont’s absurd tuition cost and the fact that Los Angeles has a higher cost of living.

My wife and I moved to Michigan and both worked on our master degrees. The financial engineering (MFE) program at Michigan was crazy with the amount of course work and the depressingly low exam scores. I felt there were drastic changes needed for the program to make it competitive. I spoke on deaf ears as I talked to the program director and staff. After a depressing first semester I decided to transfer into the Applied Economics (MAE) program at Michigan. The program had five core courses and the ability to choose any other relevant course for an elective. I thought this was a great opportunity to continue my education and specialize it in financial engineering while maintaining a more reasonable academic environment.

Ever since I graduated from WSU I had been looking for a high end finance job and it seemed impossible without the best network contacts. Everyone I talked to said they got lucky or they knew someone that passed their resume to the right people. This was very frustrating as I had been networking for years with little progress. I noticed that other students around me were also struggling especially those with no work experience. I wanted to build my network and figured helping others would be a good way to make meaningful network contacts.

For the past year or so I have been volunteering my time and knowledge to improve the MAE as best as I can. I hope all of you find these posts helpful and participate in group discussions.

MAE Grad Speech

I was supposed to give a graduation speech at the MAE graduation event before the official commencement but I was late and wasn't able to give my speech. I would like to post my speech here for all the current MAE students and specifically for those who have just graduated.

2014 MAE Graduating Class

MAE Speech 2014:

It’s an exciting time as we graduate today and are looking to the bright future.

This program has been an amazing opportunity for me and I hope it has been just as amazing for you. With minimal core requirements it allowed me to specialize my education in areas that no other programs offer. I know many of you are dual degree students and have very unique backgrounds. I was able to meet people from all over the world with a wide variety of goals and interests which has helped me see the world through different lenses.

And after graduating I hope we all continue to stay in contact through email and our LinkedIn group. With a better connected alumni base we can continue to give back to this program and help future students in ways that haven’t been possible. Keeping a program running and making it competitive and successful is a large challenge, and I would like to thank Linda and Vinnie for the hard work they have put in. I would also like to thank Stefanos and all the other students who have been helping me build the mentor program and the alumni program as this will help all of us in the short-run and the long-run.

But as graduation has neared, I have realized that I have been in school for 20 years and standing here the future doesn’t look so promising. We are all used to being in school and moving on can be a bitter sweet moment. Many of us are graduating without jobs and that reality has started to set in as well. But I hope you realize how valuable this degree is and how much you have learned from those around you. As I have contacted many of our alumni in the past few weeks I have seen what great lives they have made for themselves and they have accomplished many great things. Our alumni base is very diverse across professions as well as countries. We have all worked very hard to get into this program and we have all worked very hard to graduate. And I know if you continue to work hard as you move forward in your lives you will be just as successful as our current alumni. I would encourage you to think about what this program has done for you and continue to think about how you can give back to the program and the future MAE students.

If there is one thing that I have learned from this program, it is that you get out of the program what you have put into the program. I hope all of you took courses that challenged you. For me there were depressing times when homework loads were high and exam scores were low but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Those terrifying times built character and grit which are invaluable assets that we all need.

So as you close this chapter of your life, and move on to new things, I hope you remember not to take the easy route, but to continue to look for challenges and to better yourselves. I hope you remember how Michigan has helped you and you continue to give back to your fellow Wolverines. For today we are victors and stand among the half million Michigan alumni. And as we say in Michigan, GO BLUE!

MAE Alumna Letter

An Alumna of the MAE program has been very helpful and offered to write a letter of advice to current MAE students. The letter is below.

Hello Fellow MAE students and graduates:

How to find a job with the MAE?   I can appreciate your dilemma because I faced the same one 30 years ago, when I finished my degree. 

The MAE is an overly flexible degree that could work in many many contexts and it requires that someone--you--do some careful thinking about what you want to achieve in your career.  From the opposite end of the career spectrum, I know that students are desperate to get somewhere, but it is worth taking a long term view of your career, expect that you will succeed and accomplish and contribute, and spending some time (6 months to a year) doing two things.

·    First, clearly identify your personal strengths, and learning to state them clearly.   You should know what you want to offer an employer.  Ultimately, you will want to target jobs that use your core skills and grow those skills over time, in a context that also allows you to develop secondary talents.  A career and your current job should center around something that you do easily, so that you will excel in the longer term.  To give some examples, higher math and diplomacy are both skills that are easy or hard for various and different groups of people.  If you are terrified to speak in front of groups, you shouldn't target a job or be persuaded to take a job as a spokesperson for an organization.  If you have terrific database and math skills, you need to state that and be hired to do that.  If you don't want to be a database manager, you don't want to get into a job where that is all that you do, just because you have a MAE.  When you're working in a job 40+ hours a week, you must be using your strengths.  If you're not, you won't be happy and you won't perform well.  If you find yourself in a job building on a secondary rather than primary skill, your boss needs to support you while you build your capacity.  If s/he doesn't, s/he will mark you down or even fire you for a weak performance.    

·    Second, learn about the content of jobs in various sectors.  Do ALOT of informational interviewing with a diversity of well-educated successful people to ask them to carefully define the daily content of their job, and tell you what skills they have that are essential to their success.  Ideally, one would do this before entering graduate school, but it can be done in the course of completing a degree.  [By the way, every week, the second page of the New York Times Sunday business section has an interesting interview with CEOs about careers, managing and hiring, being ambitious, strategic moves and thinking outside of the box.  Read the back columns for some interesting views on interviewing as well as very interesting places to work.]  This kind of research will inform your choices regarding the sectors of the economy that interest you, the size of organization you might want to work in, and related lifestyle issues.  There are so many organizations:  public sector, private sector, multinationals, national companies, regional public service utilities, small start-up firms, your own company operating from your study.  Can you stand to sit at a desk all day long?  Do you need to work alone?  Do you want to manage, train, and mentor staff?

·    When you have a list of skills that are central to interesting jobs, you should look over your proposed course choices and make sure that the content of the courses you choose will supply those skills.  If the MAE required courses don't offer you what you need, you may need to extend your stay to get a few courses that do fill those gaps.  Interview next semester's professors and find out what skills you will acquire in his or her class.

 

·    Finally, get a suit and haircut, get your resume in perfect order with your personal strengths and your job skills front and center, and go to professional conferences and network.  Most professional organizations have a discounted student membership fee.  Working professionals are usually interested in meeting and informally interviewing potential employees, and giving suggestions about places that might be hiring.  If you structure it well, that MAE will take you to finance, banking and accounting conferences, transportation conferences, urban planning conferences, engineering conferences, demographics and statistics professional conferences etc. etc. etc.  Meeting people will hone your understanding of what about you sells and where opportunities lie.  It will be fun and will affirm to you the value of your education.

·    Possibly take ANY job in a location that excites you, and locate a good job after you've relocated.  There are agencies in every major city that place professionals in temporary jobs, and working through such an agency gives you the opportunity to examine potential employers from the inside.   However, assess the quality of your credential vis-a-vis other job seekers in the location before jumping in.  Here in Washington DC, having a masters degree is like having a last name, everyone has at least one so what you have to offer has to be strong enough to withstand tough competition.  

·     For U.S. citizens, if you want to be in the federal government, it is always hiring.  The baby boomers are retiring and the federal government is increasingly desperate to backfill and retain talent.  That said, the federal government has not adopted many of the management approaches and tools that are typical in modern successful private sector firms.  The federal government's hiring mechanism is a horrible website called USAJOBS, which one MUST master to get any job in the federal government.  At the end of every job announcement in USAJOBS is the name and phone number of the personnel officer handling paper work for that job listing.  Call that person up and ask them about employment in their agency, including unpaid internships.  Many new MA graduates get a toehold by doing unpaid internships at their agency of choice.   

·    After you get a job--and you will get a job because you're very well trained--settle in, work hard to make a contribution to your organization.  Work with and support your boss, but make him or her support you in your career and help you advance.  After a while, assess your employer and your immediate boss.  If you don't think you've landed the right opportunity, change jobs.

             Best of luck to you,

             Renee in Washington DC, MAE 1983.

Understanding Fast Food

I love fast food and have studied the business side of the industry since I was a kid. It all started with my dad who has been a traveling salesman since I can remember. I’d go on road trips with him and by road trips I mean at least 12 hours a day in a car. We’d talk a lot about business, music, politics, and anything else that came up. Fast food is the diet of the traveling salesman and when you eat fast food because you have to, you analyze the companies much deeper than the average consumer.

Let’s start off with the basic players and overview. So what exactly is fast food? Fast food is food that can be purchased in a restaurant or in a drive thru and is quick to obtain when you are in a hurry. Overall everything I will talk about when analyzing the fast food industry applies to almost every restaurant and can be applied to many other food companies and businesses.

When eating fast food frequently and on the road you are looking for what I call the core values. The core values are taste, cleanliness, variety, price, availability, and amenities. Taste and variety are similar because you want food that is different and tastes good. Along with this you can consider how healthy the food is. In many cases companies that offer unique food that is different from the typical fast food offerings gain business because it is healthy. After traveling for a few days or even one day it is nice to have fruits, vegetables, and a real meal that isn’t fast food which is one reason some companies do better than others.

Cleanliness is very important for many reasons. After you have been traveling in a filthy tuna can that is packed with bags, marketing materials, and construction tools and supplies you want to be able to sit in a clean place and relax while you eat. Many restaurants are typically dirty or were dirty but can’t break their image as a dirty place.

    Eating at McDonald's with my dad.                                                                                  My niece eating at McDonald's.  

Now let’s wrap the last three together and get to looking at the current and past fast food industry. Price and availability are two of the most common issues while looking for something to eat. If the restaurant is expensive and you’re on a stipend or you work for a start-up company with low funds, price can be a large factor. Surprisingly food prices vary especially when it comes to getting the best value. Also availability is important when traveling by car. When you are driving through the middle of nowhere sometimes there is only one or two places to pick from. If you travel regularly though you know what is available for hundreds or thousands of miles since you have traveled these same areas over and over. As my sister famously said as a kid, “Dad might be lost but he can always find a McDonald’s.” And the last point is amenities. Amenities used to be the availability of restrooms and free refills but today it has expanded to free Wi-Fi and the number of available power outlets. 

Now let’s analyze the companies and how you win at the fast food game. McDonald’s is king with Starbucks following a similar path. So why is McDonald’s king? The key is that McDonald’s has clean restaurants, good tasting food (some healthier options), good value and prices, they are located on every street corner, and they offer great amenities (they never complain if you use their restrooms with no purchase and they typically have free Wi-Fi). The McDonald’s image is what sets them apart. Many other restaurants have tried to make changes to the core values listed above but they don’t know how to successfully change their image. Also many restaurants don’t understand the core values and have therefore failed. The reason McDonald’s is so successful is because they saw the core values before everyone else and made the changes needed quickly.

When reviewing fast food companies one needs to think about the taste, cleanliness, variety, price, availability, and amenities. McDonald’s has done the best out of any restaurant. But McDonald’s gets trashed talked by everyone and especially health nuts since people now view fast food as being “bad” and since McDonald’s  is the best fast food company they take a majority of this hatred. As for amenities another great fast food company to look at is Starbucks. Starbucks has great friendly customer service, tons of outlets, a variety of food and beverage options, they are basically everywhere (especially on the West coast), offer free Wi-Fi, and I don’t think they would care if I used their restrooms even if I didn’t purchase products which makes them great. As for price, Starbucks has high priced products but they add value in other ways. Overall Starbucks has developed a great image and following because it has followed the core values.

So next time you are thinking about getting some fast food think about why you are choosing to eat where you do. I bet the core values of taste, cleanliness, variety, price, availability, and amenities plays a key role of where you eat. Also think about the restaurants that you won’t eat at and I bet they do poorly on the core values.

Job Search - Miami

As many of you know from Facebook I headed to Miami last Friday for an interview. It all started when a recruiter from Burger King contacted me to see if I would be interested in working at Burger King. I had a coffee chat on campus and was very impressed with the people I met. A few weeks later I got a call to set up a first round interview which was a quick behavioral video chat. I passed that and got a second round interview which was an analytical interview. I solved some typical problem solving questions and the interviewer was very nice and friendly. Again this interview was a video chat. I ended up getting a phone call letting me know that I would get a final round in Miami.

I was pretty excited and filled out some basic information so that they could set up my flight and hotel. I flew out Thursday, had interviewing from 9-4:30 on Friday, and then flew home late that night. The final interview process was pretty fun and laid back. The day consisted of a business case game, pitching a 3 minute presentation to the CEO Daniel Schwartz and a few other upper level managers, and speed interviewing. Daniel Schwartz was very nice and entrepreneurial which is rare to see at companies now a days. The speed interviewing was a set of six ten minute interviews with a mix of employees from all different divisions. And before we left, we got a tour of the building.

Me at the Whopper Museum

I was competing with 12 other undergrads and one other masters student all from Ivy League schools. I thought I did pretty well but received a rejection email five days later. The overall Burger King experience was good with the exception of getting a generic rejection email instead of a hand written email or a phone call. Now that it is over I am continuing my long hours of filling out job applications and writing cover letters.