Job Search continues...

The job search just started, and it is already is in full swing!

First of all, I must mention & thank my mentor who has guided me through the process.  (If you haven't found a mentor, you simply must stop reading immediately and start looking into mentoring programs.  The experience, wisdom and support a mentor can provide is simply invaluable!)

So far, the Mentor Extraordinaire and I have made a list of my ideal companies - even including the pie-in-the-sky ones!  Next, we will begin selecting the top 10 to really target.  However will I decide?!

So far, here are my "Must-Have's":
1)International training programs and/or international travel opportunities, and
2)A product or service that I can really get behind... No McDonald's expansion endeavors in the future for this girl!

I'm very excited to see what becomes of it all, especially since someone recently noted that now is the time to go after my dream job, and he is absolutely right.  Why not!?  At this stage, I can be flexible and committed to any opportunity.  (That McKinsey article really resonated with me!)

I am now particularly open to those opportunities that will take me abroad!  How exhilarating!  A fresh start ahead, and with an MBA and a sparkling résumé (well, it will be once I'm done with it!), I may just find the perfect job I never knew I always wanted. :)

Now I just have to touch up my résumé and "get to work" so to speak!  Wish me luck and pass along any tips you have on how you found your dream job!

Commitment & Flexibility: What's YOUR Strategy?

Below is an excerpt from a recently published article by McKinsey & Co. The article's main focus is  overall corporate strategy; however, this particular snippet, Test #7, can apply to any strategy for any undertaking: professional or personal.  

Commitment and flexibility exist in inverse proportion to each other: the greater the commitment you make, the less flexibility remains. This tension is one of the core challenges of strategy. Indeed, strategy can be expressed as making the right trade-offs over time between commitment and flexibility.

Making such trade-offs effectively requires an understanding of which decisions involve commitment. Inside any large company, hundreds of people make thousands of decisions each year. Only a few are strategic: those that involve commitment through hard-to-reverse investments in long-lasting, company-specific assets. Commitment is the only path to sustainable competitive advantage.

In a world of uncertainty, strategy is about not just where and how to compete but also when. Committing too early can be a leap in the dark. Being too late is also dangerous, either because opportunities are perishable or rivals can seize advantage while your company stands on the sidelines. Flexibility is the essential ingredient that allows companies to make commitments when the risk/return trade-off seems most advantageous.

A market-beating strategy will focus on just a few crucial, high-commitment choices to be made now, while leaving flexibility for other such choices to be made over time. In practice, this approach means building your strategy as a portfolio comprising three things: big bets, or committed positions aimed at gaining significant competitive advantage; no-regrets moves, which will pay off whatever happens; and real options, or actions that involve relatively low costs now but can be elevated to a higher level of commitment as changing conditions warrant. You can build underpriced options into a strategy by, for example, modularizing major capital projects or maintaining the flexibility to switch between different inputs.

One point that resonated with me was designing a strategy portfolio that incorporates big bets, no regrets and real options.   

The more education we receive, the more we recognize the many inherent risks to our choices.  McKinsey's suggestion allows us to manage risk without being crippled by the potential dangers we identify as consequences of our actions.  Whether negotiating a business deal, a raise, a house, or a new job, knowing our options and managing our own risk portfolio allow us to craft a combination of commitment and flexibility that will yield success. 

For more of McKinsey's tips on Testing Your Strategy, click here.

Stop Doing That! Five New Year's Resolutions

As we start crafting our 2012 New Year's Resolutions, check out these ideas from HBR on what we can stop doing to make life more enjoyable and balance the work/B-school demands in the upcoming year.

I think I'll put a couple of these to use to help minimize stress and (hopefully) better manage the pressure I put on myself to perform at 110% 24/7.  It gets tiring after a while!

Check out the Five Activities the Harvard Business Review suggests we stop doing, and I hope the article will inspire you to come up with your own ideas on things you can do to make your life easier in 2012.  If you brainstorm any doozies, feel free to add some comments to the post!

Warmest wishes for a Healthy and Happy New Year!

Secrets #'s 5, 6, & 7 of Highly Productive People

Here are the last three secrets of highly productive people. Check 'em out and feel free to share your own tips on how you stay productive!

Use the phone. Email isn’t meant for conversations. Don’t reply more than twice to an email. Pick up the phone instead.

Work on your own agenda. Don’t let something else set your day. Most people go right to their emails and start freaking out. You will end up at inbox-zero, but accomplish nothing. After you wake up, drink water so you rehydrate, eat a good breakfast to replenish your glucose, then set prioritized goals for the rest of your day. 

Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals. Your brain uses up more glucose than any other bodily activity. Typically you will have spent most of it after 60-90 minutes. (That’s why you feel so burned out after super long meetings.) So take a break: Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do something completely different to recharge. And yes, that means you need an extra hour for breaks, not including lunch, so if you’re required to get eight hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours.

Fun Times at our Semester End Soiree!

Awesome Time at Cantina - can't wait to see what we have planned for next semester! Check out our website to see what's ahead for next semester!

Know Your Worth - How to Negotiate With Ease

It's difficult to get a really good idea of how much you're worth. And it's a heckuva challenge to let your outer voice say what your confident, witty inner monologue has reassured you time and time again - that you totally deserve a raise, a promotion, a company car, a personal assistant, reimbursement for those massages you need because of the shoddy office chair ... whatever it is that you're wanting to go to bat for.

How do you do it? Well, check out these articles in Business Insider & CrazySexyLife.com that illustrate some helpful hints on setting your intention and making it happen!

Oh, and leave some comments with your own advice and with your feedback on their ideas!  I want to learn from you, too!

Secrets #'s 3 & 4 of High Productivity

Distractions are inevitable as we wrap up the year... well, any time of year, really!  

Especially with the last of the holiday parties to look forward to, all of the last minute shopping to be done, and the last of the year's business numbers to report, it's easy to get interrupted or forget what we were doing when we've finished that phone call, but with all these we have demands on our time and energy, we still have to save some of ourselves for the fun stuff!  

Check out Secrets 3 & 4 below to make sure you can keep up during any hectic season!

Be militant about eliminating distractions. Lock your door, put a sign up, turn off your phone, texts, email, and instant messaging. In fact, if you know you may sneak a peek at your email, set it to offline mode, or even turn off your Internet connection. Go to a quiet area and focus on completing one task.

Schedule your email. Pick two or three times during the day when you’re going to use your email. Checking your email constantly throughout the day creates a ton of noise and kills your productivity.

Secret #2 of Highly Productive People: BRILLIANT!

Holy Cow! If this doesn't ring true for me!  Especially you guys with full-time jobs and full-time lives, you must check this one out!  For the full list of highly productive people secrets, click here.

Stop multi-tasking. No, seriously—stop. Switching from task to task quickly does not work. In fact, changing tasks more than 10 times in a day makes you dumber than being stoned (thanks CNN!). When you’re stoned, your IQ drops by five points. When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women). 

Secret #1 of Highly Productive People

I don't know about you, but I am already thinking about next semester... maybe because it's the last one for me!

Having convinced myself to get a head start while I should be laying low and recovering from last semester, I have begun trying to blend my internship schedule with my class schedule while also trying to schedule the fun stuff - running, yoga and friends - to add balance and joy and to reduce the stress of the sometimes-grueling-but-always-busy grad student lifestyle.

(If you haven't noticed, blowing off steam is important! Make sure you include time with friends, working out, travel - whatever makes you happy! - when you set your own expectations for next semester!)

Just this morning, ironically, I saw Seven Things Highly Productive People Do on a news feed, and I think I may need to heed this one below as I already start taking on more than I can chew and foresee feeling overwhelmed - not uncommon among B-schoolers, I suspect!

Over the next few days, I am going to check out these Seven Secrets so that I can work smarter not harder next semester, and I'll pass along the gems to you! Enjoy!

Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks.
Writing “launch company website” at the top of your to-do list is a sure way to make sure you never get it done. Break down the work into smaller and smaller chunks until you have specific tasks that can be accomplished in a few hours or less: Sketch a wireframe, outline an introduction for the homepage video, etc. That’s how you set goals and actually succeed in crossing them off your list.

Cast A Wide Net : Another Networking Tip

During the holiday break, it occurred to me that I'm staring down only six months before I need to have a job.

In fact, the topic of job searching and networking has found its way into multiple conversations lately, and the take-aways are always similar:
- It's important to find even more opportunities to cast a wide net when it comes to networking, and
- It's important to get started early - before you actually have to start looking for a job.

So, here is another tip for you on how to start building a network before you really need one!

Join professional networking groups or associations with commonalities that actually interest you. Although alumni networks automatically provide common ground, so do organizations for Asian Professionals, African American Professions, Young Professionals or Women's Business Leaders.

For example, I have two friends who were able to network with each other because each had joined an organization devoted to expats living in the states.

If you're really feeling froggy, join USTA, a rec soccer league, an ultimate frisbee team or a kickball team.

Joining in on something that interests you will provide opportunities to network and find employment opportunities in areas/industries that actually appeal to you or represent a passion you have with people with whom you already have something in common. Who doesn't love that?! It's fun and easy!

And, you're positioning yourself in an environment that you already know you'll enjoy, which means you'll be at ease and your regular charming, impressive self! You'll up the probability that any opportunity that presents itself will be an opportunity you'll like, which is, of course, something we all seek in the daily grind.

So get out there and find organizations, associations or activities that interest you! You'll be "building your brand" and casting your net while having a good time, and networking won't seem like work at all!

Networking Tip

Whether you're looking for a new job, or a promotion, or just looking to expand yourself socially, you probably recognize the value of "nurturing your network."

Here is an idea to help you build yours or enhance what you're already doing...

Seek out and leverage any mentoring and networking opportunities offered by the University, even those that are not necessarily within your major or your field of study. 

 
For instance, I took advantage of a mentor program I heard about through the grapevine that is sponsored by the Institute of International Business at GSU - not the same college as the one offering my major - and it has already proven to be a huge networking opportunity.

The entire cohort of mentors and protégés meets monthly. My personal mentor already takes an active interest in helping me find a job, which is awesome! But, on top of that, these monthly meetings allow us to build relationships with all of the mentors, each of whom is a business leader in Atlanta and genuinely interested in helping us develop our careers.

So, my advice to you is simply Get Involved.

Do some active research and participate in any program that will afford you this sort of experience. In fact, even becoming a mentor yourself will lend itself to building your network! Just find a fun and easy way to engage in great discussions and make some new friends - because that's all networking really is!

Challenges: Change Your Mindset

Wow! For the past week, I have been in the throes of grueling final exam preparation and last minute Flights of the Bumble Bee to finish personal and team papers, one of which, at the last minute, was discovered as having NO CONCLUSION!! How does that happen!? Talk about an intense level of anxiety! How timely that I stumbled upon these little golden nuggets of sage advice...

Here is one that particularly resonated:

Change Your Mindset
"Learn to view challenges or any setback as an opportunity for growth and personal development. See what society has taught us are negatives (stress! deadlines! unpleasant personalities!) and view them as positives. Relax into the discomfort and find the lessons."

Here's what I learned from that little pearl of wisdom:  

1: Do not take any challenge - criticism, inefficiencies in business, interpersonal challenges - personally (so tough for me!) 

2: View these challenges as opportunities to learn how to work harder or smarter and to better relate to my "audience" (whether a professor, teammate, client, etc.).

For example(s): Am I being concise in my term paper and injecting lingo and lessons that were emphasized in class to ensure that I am giving the professor what s/he wants in valuable and relevant manner? Was I an assertive, but effective and respectful communicator in group settings? How could I have helped our group avoid crafting a conclusion to a 15 page term paper two hours before the deadline? How can I better balance duties at work with duties at home, but still find time to do the things that I enjoy, like time with friends or going running?

In and of itself, it is a challenge to change the way we think about the challenges we face, but challenges are inevitable, and the only things we can genuinely control are our attitudes and our behavior.