Does Your Major Matter?

Want to hear me?

2007-04-27T13:22:25-05:00

Chris Russell of the Secrets of the Job Hunt Blog just interviewed me for my first podcast! I was terrified the whole time, but I think it went pretty well!

So, if you'd like to hear what advice I have for college graduates, click here. Let me know what you think!

~Katie

Do you have transferable skills?

2007-04-27T00:40:36-05:00

Communications, Creativity, Adaptability, Time Management. What are two things that those skills have in common?

First of all, in my survey, hiring managers selected them as the most four essential skills they look for when hiring college graduates.

And secondly, it's incredibly hard to prove that you're good at them during a job interview! Maybe you can show how well you communicate, but the others... can you think of good ideas and solve problems while someone is peering intently at you, evaluating your every move and holding your future in your hand?

I didn't think so!

This is one of the biggest challenges facing young people today. In school, we're evaluated over and over again on what information we know. In yesterday's workplace, it was the same. A person's job and their salary was based on the training they had and the information they knew.

What you studied--what you learned in school--determined the kind of job you did. Hiring managers could look at your degree and know if you had the specific skills they needed. Or they could easily test you on your knowledge.

Now we're in a world that puts incredible pressure on companies to compete globally, while also changing the ways that business is done. Organizations are now looking for workers who have the skills needed to succeed in a fast-changing workplace. They want people who are reliable, who communicate well, who adapt/learn quickly, and who can solve problems.

And the only problem is that there is no real way to test job applicants on those intangible skills! You could be the best candidate for your dream job... and they might never know! Anyone else frustrated by this?

Photo: Standardization Originally uploaded by seduction by snapshots.

Two reasons for college students to breathe easier about their future.

2007-04-10T19:57:17-05:00

On this blog, I write a lot about how college-educated workers in India and other developing countries are now able to compete globally for jobs. It's a growing problem that most US students don't know much about. After all, we're much more concerned about job competitors in our same state!

Luckily, the job outlook is not as gloomy as I sometimes make it out to be. Many jobs will go overseas--even some that we college graduates thought were untouchable--but there are many reasons that companies will want to hire college students here too.

Still, as college students, it's nice to read articles like this one published on Saturday by the Associated Press. Apparently, even as demand for cheap labor soars, and the international connectivity makes outsourcing possible for jobs requiring a college major, India is beginning to find skilled workers in short supply.

India has 1.03 billion people and a huge English speaking population. Over the past 15 years, college enrollment has skyrocketed. Over 400,000 new engineers graduate every year from their universities. Indian workers do everything from accounting to graphic-development for video games--for less than half the price of workers in developed countries.

The Associated Press article, however, gives college students hope on several levels. First, it brings up the fact that many Indian college graduates are not ready for prime time when they graduate from college.

Since schools in India focus on memorization and tests scores, "'everything else is forgotten: the capacity to think, to write, to be logical, to get along with people' said Mohandas Pai, human resources chief for Infosys Technologies "The focus is cram, cram, cram, cram."

Companies are complaining that many Indian college graduates have "trouble with such professional basics as working on a team or good phone manners." Basic communications skills can be nonexistent.

And that's not the only reason we can relax a little. Another problem faced by India can be described by the article's headline "India high-tech industry out of workers." Indian universities are often operating below international standards--sometimes even with textbooks that are decades old--companies are faced with a shortage of qualified workers. Many experts say that of India's 400,000 yearly engineering graduates, only about 100,000 are qualified to join the job market.

James Friedman, an analyst who has studied the issue, reports that over 500,000 qualified people would apply for 50,000 jobs when outsourcing to India first heated up in 2000. Now that Indian firms want to hire around 180,000 people a year, however, there are only between 100,000 and 200,000 applicants who are capable of doing the job. And workers are becoming more scarce by the day.

Suddenly, the law of supply and demand no longer works so well for India. Fewer workers for more jobs = higher wages. Since much of India's outsourcing appeal is in the low wages, this will be a big problem for international companies.

So, even though outsourcing will be an issue facing college students, the article gives reasons to breathe a little easier. Many international companies will not be so excited about the coming higher wages in India and needing to spend money just to bring workers up to speed.

Have we already been left behind?

2007-04-03T18:01:00-05:00

In America, the big educational debate over the last couple years has been the controversial No Child Left Behind Act. Parents, educators and politicians are all concerned over the ability of young Americans to compete in a global job market. Whether or not NCLB is the best way to prepare youngsters, I definitely think we're right to be concerned.

Why? Because I'm finding that we're already behind.

For the last month, I've been taking an intensive German language course in Hamburg, Germany. For four hours everyday, I attend classes with young people from all over the world. Since the students are so global, the teacher speaks only in German. Even though it's a beginner's level course, it's up to us to understand the grammar rules he's teaching us.

I come home exhausted everyday.

Ironically, I'm probably more qualified than most Americans would be to take the course. My high-school Spanish taught me how to pronounce the vowels and how to learn a spoken language quickly. My time studying Latin taught me how to break a word into parts to deceiver the meaning. My 5th century BC Attic Greek has a very similar grammatical structure, and taught me not to panic when the professor tells me that there are 6 different ways to say the word "the" in German.

In America, learning a foreign language is not a priority. Although some others may be different, my high school does not require students to take a foreign language to graduate. My college required only two semesters.

Compare that to students in other countries. In Germany, students begin to study English as early as 5th grade. Many students are offered the option of starting another language in 7th grade. A study called Europeans And Their Languages found that the majority of Europeans (55%) believe that children should start learning their first foreign language before the age of six!

In the year and a half that I've been overseas, I've been constantly impressed by how many of my fellow college students are fluent in at least two languages. Many speak more. My friend Michael is capable of writing university level papers in both English and Danish--although his mother tongue is Polish. Another friend shifts effortlessly from Italian to German, English, French and Portuguese. The 6 year old daughter of one of my professors happily chatters away in English and Maltese, and she's nearly fluent in French.

Many Americans probably believe it doesn't matter, because English is understood almost everywhere. But, it matters more than we think. Most international businesspeople speak and conduct business in English, but most European companies want job applicants to be at least bilingual.

In Asia, there are more (non-native) English-speakers than in the whole of the US and the UK--but there are significantly more people who speak Mandarin than any other language in the world. As China rises in prominence, isn't it logical that Mandarin will become much more widely spoken too? This won't hurt the Chinese, and will only slow down many people in the EU. But what about the Americans who never learned how to learn a language?

Everyday, I feel how hard it will be for us to catch up. My already bi-lingual classmates absorb the German lessons much more rapidly than I do. They articulate more clearly, they read faster, they understand directions better, and sometimes they even explain things to me in English when I'm completely lost. For me, learning German is exhausting--and the grammar is only manageable because of my dead-language background. The only other American in my class has a much worse time.

That's why I find it funny when we Americans adamantly debate the steps we can take to make sure our students don't fall behind. Unfortunately, we already have.

Hopefully we Americans as a whole will not be left out of the global conversation as frequently as I am left out of daily conversations right now!

Update: Andrea at Wise Bread recently wrote a good post on this topic called "Want a Good Job? Learn to Speak Ghetto." It's worth reading, so I urge everyone to go check it out.

More Jobs Without Borders

2007-03-26T19:29:24-05:00

Career Hub, an excellent blog for job seekers, just wrote about how employees of the Boston Globe are protesting the outsourcing of their jobs to India.

You're probably wondering if you read that correctly. A major American newspaper is outsourcing to Bangalore? It's true.

And they're not the only one. Manufacturing jobs being sent overseas is old news, but many companies are sending highly-skilled, college-degree-requiring jobs away too.

At call centers, like AOL’s hub in Bangalore, employees earn $300/month.
Stock market analysts in Bangalore make $15,000/year.
The 70,000 accounting graduates coming each year out of Indian universities start work at $100/month.
Indian MBAs earn only $12,000/year for financial analysis.
Indian graphics artists doing movie special effects earn only $5000 a year.
GE has several thousand PhD scientists working on cutting edge projects at its research and technology centers in Bangalore.
“Personal remote executive assistants” who will do anything up to creating a complete PowerPoint presentation and finding relevant research overnight, can be hired in India for $2,000 per month.

Because Indian workers are able to work for such a pittance, they now being used by foreign companies for business, administrative, clerical and IT support functions.* US financial service industry are projected to save approximately $30 billion from outsourcing--enough money that it doesn't matter to them that they will have to get rid of 8% of their American workplace.

Here's a few more jobs that are being sent over to India:

In Bangalore alone, Intel employs 1,800 electrical engineering and computer science PhDs to design their next generation of microprocessors.
Insurance-processing service Wipro uses 2,500 university graduates to deal with insurance claims.
Global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney predicts that a half-million financial service jobs will be transferred to low-cost places like India before 2010.
Non-profit labor analysts RAND Corporation estimates that 500,000 financial service jobs will be moved to India within the next five years.
In 2005, an estimated 400,000 tax returns were done in India.

Students just about to graduate will be no longer be entering a stable workplace where job competition come from college graduates in the same city. The rise of offshoring has changed the value of human capital in the US and today's college graduates will be entering into a completely new competitive job environment. As a result, college grads need to work on their intangible skills--the human interaction and higher-level thinking skills that cannot be easily sent overseas.

* A pittance in American terms. Cost of living in India is significantly cheaper than in the US.

(Books used as sources after click through.)

Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat. Penguin Group, New York: 2005.

Karoly, Lynn A. and Constantijn W. A. Panis. The 21st Century at Work: Forces Shaping the Future Workforce and Workplace of the United States. Prepared for the US Department of Labor by Rand Labor and Population. Rand Corporation. Pittsburg: 2004.

Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind. Riverhead Hardcover. New York: 2005

Prestowitz, Clyde. Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East. Basic Books. New York: 2005.

A video every college student needs to watch!

2007-03-22T17:50:26-05:00

Very few of us realize how much the workplace is changing, especially when we're headed off to the secure environments of a college for a couple years. So, this is a quick reminder. Watch it, and ask yourself at the end if you're excited, or terrified about how you're going to be employable when the world is moving at light speed?

Shift Happens - Globalization and The Information Age was created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod. If you're interested in sources, go here.

Why Businesses Want to Hire Creative Graduates

2007-03-18T07:17:00-05:00

Today, one of the biggest problems faced by organizations is how to differentiate themselves in a global marketplace filled with choices.

By increasing industry productivity and lowering costs, technological advances have made production of hundreds of goods possible and companies today find themselves contending in an extremely competitive world of business.

Lowered international trade barriers have make products from all over the world available to be purchased anywhere in the world. Increased information on products and prices through the Internet has increased consumer knowledge of that availability.

This is painful for organizations because as quality goes up and prices go down overall, a brand’s power becomes less. As a result, consumers are faced with hundreds of similar choices and brand loyalty has virtually disappeared. Organizations usually find themselves fighting in an international tug of war over a set number of customers who make many of their decisions based solely on which product has the lowest price.

In today’s world, it is no longer enough to sell a product at a reasonable quality and price. Everyone does that. Companies wishing to gain in market share must gain attention from customers in a different way. For that reason, a creative and innovative workforce has become extremely necessary to help organizations differentiate themselves in a global marketplace.

Unfortunately, coming up with new ideas and solutions is not an easy thing for most people, and they cannot become brilliant innovators overnight. Often, however, this is exactly what organizations expect. One day, the leader of a company will throw the gauntlet on the table and demand that everyone there "be creative". Unsurprisingly, this usually doesn't work.

For that reason, companies love college graduates who have shown the ability to think of new ideas and solve problems. In my survey of 559 hiring managers, 45.2% of the respondents said that Creativity and Problem Solving Ability is one of the top three skills they look for when hiring new employees.

Employers don't want run-of-the-mill employees, they want workers who can add value to their organization by helping that organization stand out in the global marketplace!

Why Graduating From College is like Jumping off a Moving Train

2007-03-14T15:30:49-05:00

Graduating college has always been a stressful experience for young people, but today it's becoming even more intimidating. Less job security, increased job competition from around the world, high college tuition and a lot of other real-world pressures have all combined, and the result is that many college students are terrified about what will come next!

In fact, graduating college can be a lot like jumping off a moving train! I would never recommend jumping out of a train to anyone, but there are some situations where you might have to do it just to survive. (For example: a terrorist situation, a faulty bridge, James Bond casting call.) In today's fast-changing workplace, graduating college is also a survival necessity for future employability.

So, for all those soon-to-be college graduates, here's my top five reasons that graduating college is like jumping off a moving train!

5. You need to look before you leap. It's much easier to close your eyes when you do a scary jump. However, if you close your eyes as you're coming out of college, you'll probably miss some opportunities. Career success books are full of stories about people finding incredible networking opportunities in the strangest places and then eventually landing the job of their dreams. By keeping your eyes open, you'll end up in a much better place.

Photo: Many thanks to mulder.hu

From 4. It's something you have to do alone. Everyone might be holding your hand before you jump, but when it really comes down to it, you must go it alone. Jumping off a train with someone else usually ending in both people becoming a confused tangle of arms and legs that badly injures everyone involved. Same for leaving college. If you cling too tightly to someone else (e.g. your parents), eventually one or both of you will get hurt.

3. You can't practice before you do it. Few people (stunt doubles excluded) jump off a train enough times to know how to do it properly. Graduating college is another thing that people do infrequently. You can read about it, ask people about it, and prepare yourself intellectually for it, but until you're standing there on the edge staring into the unknown... all you're doing is learning theory.

2. You don't know if you will have a hard or a soft landing when you take off, but you will definitely land somewhere. You're a college graduate. That's already a point for you. Even if you have to settle for the most mind-numbing job in the world after college, you are absolutely able to find a job that is more suited to your talent and abilities. Often, the hardest part is making that first jump into the real world. Then you know you can do it and are in a position to look for the next opportunity.

1. Be prepared to hit the ground running. When you jump off a train, the difference in speed between you and the ground can be pretty significant. If you land squarely on both feet, your momentum will bowl you over and probably cause some pretty serious injuries. On the other hand, if you run or roll, you're a lot more likely to come out of the experience unscathed. Same with graduating college. If you're ready to keep your momentum going, you'll likely come of out the experience just fine.

Just like jumping off a train in high heels is a fantastically bad idea, so is entering the workplace expecting that your first job will give you benefits, a pension, and a gold watch when you retire 40 years later. You need to learn about what you're getting into; how the workplace is changing, what organizations need to do to be competitive, and how you can add value.

Nevertheless, plenty of people have done it before and plenty will do it after you. (Just as movie stars will continue their train-jumping days far into the future.) The important thing to remember is that you need to concentrate on surviving the experience, instead of just worrying about it.

What I think will best give students a fighting chance.

2007-03-11T14:00:23-05:00

Yesterday, Drew at The Marketing Minute responded to my post about 15 points of advice that hiring managers gave to me, and challenged me to say which one I believe is the most significant.

Luckily, since I've read tons of excellent advice over the last year and a half, I knew right away which one I think all college students should read:

The days of learning one skill and staying in a job using that skill are LONG gone....You must also be prepared to "go to school" for the rest of your life, but not in a traditional sense. By this, I mean that the business world changes so quickly, that one must have the ability to adapt and change along with it. This means constant study and updating your skills. Businesses (and successful employees) will always be adapting new technologies, conforming to new legislation, using new tools & incorporating new ideas...

Why do I choose this one? It's because so much of the advice I've found is incredibly helpful. There are SO many things that students can do to set themselves up for success in a fast-changing world. They can work on their communications skills, or they can become great at solving problems and thinking of new ideas, or they can devote themselves to learning as much as they can about an emerging technology. They can do all that, or something completely different!

The main thing every student needs to know is that they must expect the business world to change, and they must know that it's their responsibility to keep themselves current and employable. If they can internalize the need for lifelong learning, and actively use it to acquire new in-demand skills, they will go far.

Giving College Students A Fighting Chance

2007-03-09T03:28:23-06:00

Drew over at The Marketing Minute just wrote a blog post called "Help me give college grads a fighting chance." He starts with:

It's Spring. The birds will soon be chirping, the flowers blooming and the college grads descending like locusts on every marketing agency, marketing department and media outlet. They all want one thing -- their first real job.

I remember how scary it was. 20+ years later, I shake my head at the mistakes the grads make while trying to vie for my attention. So I decided we (yes WE) could give them a gift that will put that digital camera to shame. We can help them get that job.

He's asking for advice from people who have been there and I've decided to oblige with 15 more words of advice from hiring managers.

1. The degree you have completed represents that you were able to focus on one long term project and complete it successfully. Whether you have an English, Business, or Social Work degree, they will all fit into almost any profession one way or another.

2. The velocity of change has sped up to an amazing pace. It's important to be able to roll with the punches, learn new things, and be able to communicate your ideas faster, more clearly, than ever before. In order to make it in the workplace of the future, you need to be make yourself outsource proof. Learn lots of skills, and be able to relate all of those skills back to the business. You'll never be able to outsource proof your job, but if you are personally outsource proof, you're far ahead of most of your peers. And most importantly, it's not what you know, it's not who you know, it's who knows you. Make yourself known as an expert in your field, and you'll go far.

3. It is important today to be curious. Start each day or each project with two words,"What If." I don't look for steady, loyal employees. I look for quirky dreamers that create and innovate.

The next 12 are continued when you click through...

4. Your major will give you a path, at first. It's not the end-all-be-all. Selling is selling, engineering is engineering, accounting is accounting... It's your skill set that takes you to the next level. Pay your dues and learn all you can. And if you didn't have any business classes, you can pickup a couple of night classes.

5. As college graduates join the workforce, the biggest gift they bring is a new perspective on the issues confronting the business. The trick is to keep bringing new perspective even after working at the same place for a long time. Your activities outside the office can be an important part of your contribution at the office.

6. As college graduates join the workforce, the biggest gift they bring is a new perspective on the issues confronting the business. The trick is to keep bringing new perspective even after working at the same place for a long time. Your activities outside the office can be an important part of your contribution at the office.

7. Your degree should help you develop the confidence to take your "book knowledge" and integrate what is applicable and to utilize your determination, desire, intelligence and flexibility to succeed at the remaining 30%-90% of your job. The ability to work as part of a team is important but you may have already found that the team (as setup for class assignments) can interfere with accomplishing your goals. You will need the ability to work on your own or, when possible, to assume leadership and be able to help maneuver the group towards its goal when necessary.

8. It's not new but it's still very important: Emotional Quality. Although Intellectual Quality is still important, Emotional Quality and stability is essential in todays demanding environment. In today's fast track companies need employees that can count on. Be one. Improve yourself. Learn goal setting and time management techniques. Become reliable. Believe in yourself and the future will bring you anything you want!

9. You should be prepared to sell yourself, even when your skills aren't a perfect match. I designed my current job with my boss on a napkin at a local cafe. He saw the need, liked the idea and created the position. Do what YOU want to do, and you'll be an asset to many organizations.

10. The work place has changed drastically since I started with the present company I am with 10 years ago. Adaptability and change are essential. Many people I know do not use the college major they worked so hard at, however they did learn other skills such as analytical thinking, communication, and logical decision making. It is those items that have carried my colleagues through their careers.

11. You have to have an eye for opportunity and be very creative. There is not a business out there who isn't looking to pay someone very well who can solve their problems..lower their expenses...or increase their sales. Find a way to any of the above and you will be paid handsomely.

12. It is easy to beat out the competition if you carry yourself well, demonstrate that you take life and work seriously, dress conservatively (unless in fashion industry), and have GREAT communication skills. Add the above to a positive attitude and you'll fly at most things in life. As practical as the list above is, most people lack in one or more of those areas. Don't discount attitude.

13. People skills are gaining importance over all other skills - even job skills The future workplace will lay emphasis on efficiency of the whole team rather than individual efficiency

14. The days of learning one skill and staying in a job using that skill are LONG gone. You may have many jobs and even careers over the course of your life, so you have to keep your skills current and not depend on a company for lifetime security or retirement benefits. This means retirement planning at a very early age. You must also be prepared to "go to school" for the rest of your life, but not in a traditional sense. By this, I mean that the business world changes so quickly, that one must have the ability to adapt and change along with it. This means constant study and updating your skills. Businesses (and successful employees) will always be adapting new technologies, conforming to new legislation, using new tools & incorporating new ideas.

15. It is more important than ever to be able to work collaboratively and be able to persuade other people. It's also highly important to be able to work and interact with customers. Workers who don't have customer-facing jobs are going to find it more and more likely to see their jobs outsourced.