The myth of ‘Us vs. Them’

The point I’m trying to make is that the concept of an “Us vs. Them” is becoming increasingly outdated – not just from a global job market perspective, but from a career perspective as well. As we become more aware of this, we will begin to exchange our services more effectively, and navigate our careers in more dimensions than before – across cultures, social levels, languages, skills and geographical spaces.

However, there are huge risks in making the transition from a conventional job mindset to a more open, radical global job mindset. This could mean shifting from one culture to another, changing the way we communicate, adapting our products or services, and so on. But it is inevitable – the world is becoming increasingly advanced, and it requires a lot of expertise, collaboration and innovation to get there. But it can only do so if the solutions are applied in its proper context.

I’ll try to illustrate this from my own work experience.

Absorbing culture in the workplace

In October 2001, I got a job as an undergraduate research assistant at the University of Kansas’ technology research arm, and they got me programming Java interfaces for a NASA-funded space project. I was a newbie, but they made sure I stuck to the best practices and I learnt a ton from that. It was partly the culture, process, and project opportunity that I absorbed from the job. I took this with me to my next job after I graduated and returned home to Malaysia, after having no luck finding a job in the US at the height of the dot-com bust.

Cultural differences can create opportunities, and take them away

It was unfortunate that my new Malaysian job resembled primordial soup in comparison with the NASA project, with very primitive software practices, spaghetti code and other monstrosities (a work practice difference). It was also my first job in a completely new culture as almost all of my colleagues spoke in fluent Chinese rather than English (a language/cultural difference). This caused considerable tension that I was mostly assigned to projects where I worked by myself – but this proved to be somewhat profitable as I was capable of solely implementing entire systems from the database to the interface, due to expertise I gained from my previous work experience.

I left after 2.5 years, after realizing there was a corporate ceiling above me. The experience I gained developing bespoke, well-designed web applications was well-received by the next company who hired me, which was more diverse in their staffing. This was also reflected in their products, as cultural compatibility was less of a concern, allowing them to handpick developers that were truly proficient in their technical trade. Thus, the company culture mostly revolved around technology itself, and it was a very positive atmosphere to work in. This was an example of cultural diversity resulting in a positive work culture.

At this point, I was experiencing how culture made a difference to my opportunities and work perspectives in the two different companies, but it was only in my next job that I felt I needed to seek a better cultural fit in my career progression.

Seeking cultural fit for career reasons

Due to an unfortunate legal battle in the “diverse” company, it downsized and I joined a multinational telecoms company for my next job. It was here that I took part in projects that spanned multiple countries like the UK, France, Netherlands, Malaysia, India and Singapore – becoming sensitive to how damaging misconceptions about another person’s culture can be. I was also increasingly frustrated and confused when I found it hard to relate more Western ideas about innovation and design to my Malaysian colleagues. And as more people misunderstood me, I felt increasingly out-of-place and isolated.

Leaving my home country of Malaysia and coming to London to pursue a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction was an attempt to find a “career common ground” – and this is the point I want to stress: I believe that the boundaries that used to mark “Us vs. Them” are dissolving because job seekers everywhere are becoming more specific about their career goals, and because of this they may journey much farther out of their comfort zones (culture, family, language, etc.) to find a right match. It may not necessarily lead one to move from one country/state to another, but the movement of employees seeking “cultural fit” in their careers is already happening.

Some of us are taught to accept whatever opportunities that are presented to us, and not to be overly idealistic about our goals. But I believe that it’s in everyone’s hearts to serve in the areas they fit in best. I feel that as we move deeper into the 21st century, there will be an increase of savvy job seekers who are willing to sacrifice their previous experiences for new ones – and in so doing create new movements in job industries everywhere.

I’m one of those weird people who still think crazy things are possible, which is probably why my boss hired me. Thankfully, it’s not one of those startups that have no clue how they’re going to make money – but it’s no Google… well, not yet anyway.

And that’s the thing – you go in with a hunch. And you stay with it. Until the point where you have a good feeling that you’re really going to succeed or really going to fail – and everyone in the team makes a decision to push like crazy or run like hell.

In return, you get to experience and contribute towards the success of a company… and sometimes there’s big money involved. If it becomes a failure, you have the real-world experience of how not to run a business – and that’s very valuable experience indeed.

The worst thing that can happen is that you lose your job. And it’s better to lose your job at a place where you’re doing something you love at than at a job where you wish you were dead every morning you wake up and have to go to work. And even when you’re homeless, you don’t die immediately. It’s not like you lose the skills you had when you did have a job. And it’s not like you can’t learn new things.

Playing safe in a career is overrated. It pains me to see some people go through their working life enduring so much agony.

23:52:37 reyhan: For me interviews are me interviewing them
23:52:51 Boon: totally
23:53:06 Boon: i so need to write a blog post about that
23:57:58 reyhan: Yes
23:58:06 reyhan: You totally should

Why do you attend interviews? Do you do it just because it’s what you need to do to get a job? Or do you see it as an opportunity to see if this company is really a right match? There’s a difference here.

Companies are Human, Yes They Are

I feel that we’ve become so accustomed to dealing with cashiers, customer service representatives, helpdesk assistants, nurses, telephone operators, salespeople, waiters – so much that we’ve lost the appreciation for understanding how businesses run and make money, and more importantly, how inherently human organizations and companies actually are.

If you strip away the branding, the corporate logos, the job descriptions, the products, and the impressions people have about companies, it’s not difficult to appreciate that managers and recruiters have lives just like anyone else. The people who get paid to hire people represent companies as much as they represent themselves – much like how you discuss with your flatmates about accepting the new guy who’s interested to come on board.

Interviews are like Dates (not the Edible Kind)

This is why Richard Nelson Bolles, author of the famous career book, “What Color is Your Parachute?“, compares interviews to dating.

Sometimes I feel that job seekers prepare for interviews with a series of answers to interview questions like “tell me about your strengths and weaknesses”, “how would you move mount Fuji” – in some kind of formulaic fashion. I think that companies who do hire people who succeed in formulaic interviews, are companies that are formulaic themselves. That’s not a bad thing, unless you’re not interested in working for a formulaic company.

Not all companies hire the same way. Some have fine-tuned the art of finding the fakes from the gems. And this process really isn’t about selecting who’s the better person – it’s just about finding the better match.

If you’re approaching an interview in the same way you did the previous interview – ask yourself, are you doing it because you’re perfecting the art of interviewing (which isn’t a bad thing), or are you really interested to find out what this company about, and take advantage of the interview time to really get to know them as real people. Maybe it’s worth tweaking your interview strategy a little, if you know you’re going to meet someone who was quite different than the last guy.

The Interview Dance

Sometimes, even though I’ve done all the research about the company and I know about the products that they sell, who their customers are, and what their company values are and all that – I still ask them the same questions to find out about the company, just to see if these people really are what they say they are on their company blog and website and stuff. I do it to satisfy my curiosity, and to probe deeper about what makes this person who is interviewing me excited about the job that they do.

I try to come up with questions that, when asked, catches them by surprise and causes them to pause in a way that I can see tiny sparkles in their eyes. And this is one of those things that doesn’t have a formula. When you’re on a date with someone, and you’re genuinely interested to know them better – do you verbalize rehearsed one-liners that you studied from a how-to book, or do you wait for a certain opportunistic moment in the conversation, when you pop interesting questions that make them smile and laugh?

There’s something magical about interviewing someone who really seems like they can understand the heartbeat of the people that work there. Researching companies will get you to a point, but taking a chance to initiate that ‘interview dance’ is really what creates the whole encounter a lot more memorable.

I started my first permanent job 7 years ago, just when the dot-com bust happened. I find it strange that I’m beginning a new phase of my career now, just a year after the recession. I’ll have to say that I’ve become acquainted with recessionary careers, so much that I see opportunities rather than challenges.

Are you Normal? Shame on You.

When recessions happen, everyone wants to stay put. Almost nobody wants to make crazy career changes. Those who don’t have jobs want stable jobs as fast as they can. But because there are so many people reacting in this way, it’s hard for companies to accomodate all these needs, so it becomes really competitive and everyone gets really twitchy and nervous and unhappy about their situation – just sitting and waiting for the recession to pass. This sucks, and nobody wants that.

The people who benefit the most from this predicament are folks who work for almost nothing and have the energy to innovate a dead thing to life. That was me in 2002, when I had absolutely no clue what my market rate was and was just willing to work for a company that would allow me to do stuff I thought was cool.

Motivation + Blindness = 200% Increase in Productivity

I entered a team of engineers who were so conservative that they had to put me on projects where I was working by myself in order to keep the peace in the office. I can’t remember how many things I initiated in order to improve workflows and software implementation, and I basically left the company because no one understood what in the world I was talking about anymore.

The funny thing is, half of the innovative practices I had put in place, I learnt on the job. It wasn’t that I brought in knowledge from my previous work experience – I’d just graduated from college. A lot of the other engineers could have trumped me at any time if they had spent time doing the research, but they didn’t.

I did it because I loved it – I loved making stuff better. I wasn’t even thinking about bills and recessions and all that crap. Worrying about stuff doesn’t get you anywhere.

Taking Chances are Underrated, You Should Try It Sometime

Obviously, my next company hired me because of all this cool new stuff I picked up and implemented (pioneered, as they say) – simply because no one gave a hoot about doing it and I did (which is also why you shouldn’t aim for the best companies because there’s less to improve). This could only happen because of recession, when everyone was so scared to lose their jobs, they didn’t want to do anything crazy.

Last year when the recession came, instead of focusing 100% of my time in my studies like most others did, I sacrificed some of my time in the week to work for a startup company. A lot of students were afraid of failing, which would have led to a lower chance at getting a job during a recession, etc.

I’m glad I worked part-time while studying. I initially applied on Gumtree as a front-end web developer (hardly a glamorous job site), and by the time I had finished my course my boss turned me into the CTO because I was practically the most “technical” person in the team (granted, there were only 3 of us).

And yes, I absolutely love my job.

Recessions are a Great Place to Make Things Happen

Of course, there are things you need to avoid in a recession. I’m nowhere near a 6-figure salary. And I’m still living in a shoebox with my wife. But I am absolutely confident it doesn’t get worse from here. A recession is a good place to start for folks who are just dying to make things happen.

Wait, it’s not just good – it’s great.

A cause of the recession? I’m not too sure about that.

The Job goes to the Good Enough and Willing

Not everyone in my same class is in the same predicament, though. Those of us who currently have job offers (such as myself) found part-time or small project opportunities with our current employers while the course was taking place. It was a case of finding the person who could fill an immediate need, and being offered better opportunities as we proved that we were capable enough to handle the job.

One of my classmates, lets call him Joe, started taking up some simple jobs as a freelancer in the middle of the course, and this immediately opened up further opportunities as time went on. In fact, he even had to turn down a job offer from a major company because of time commitments. He did regret it but it was inevitable as they needed someone to start immediately.

He’s a good student, but not the best in the class, and neither is he as good as the other freelancers in the field. He was just responding to an opportunity seeing that he could afford to give up some leisure time.

The Job goes to the One Who Currently has a Job

They say a rolling stone gathers no moss. It’s hard to hire someone when you’re unsure about their track record. But making small sacrifices to gain the relevant work experience is one of the smartest things you can do to salvage a career that’s been halted or diverted by graduate school, a family emergency, a change of fate – whatever.

Joe was contacted by recruiters after they started noticing on LinkedIn that he actually was in employment and doing real stuff that real people do in real projects. Although he has sent out CVs to companies, he hasn’t heard back from a single one: “I dont have anything promising from sending around CVs yet,” he says.

This is from a person who has gotten 4 job offers, and had to turn down 2 of them in the last week. Joe’s problem isn’t about getting a job. It’s about choosing the right one. And it wasn’t a case of sending out CVs.

The Job goes to the One Who Knows How to Network (and not just to the one who does)

Joe’s fortunate situation happened when I recommended him to a senior freelancer (let’s call him Bob), who was looking for some immediate help. That was months ago. Today, because Joe has worked on real projects (short, small, but real) with real clients, he’s met a lot of real people in the industry. People call him by name, and knows him as the guy who has filled that role in a very short period of time and did a pretty good job. But more importantly, they know him as the guy who’s worked with Bob.

Another classmate I spoke to, let’s call her Susan, is planning to put up a portfolio site and print out flyers and business cards – the usual stuff. But only because she knows what it takes to “build her business”, i.e. getting contacts to notice your previous (but real) projects. A portfolio site is as useless as a CV unless you know how to make it talk. Making it talk is the skill of one who knows how to network, and not just someone who does.

In other words, going to an event, shaking their hands and having interesting chit-chat followed by a shove of your CV to their mailboxes isn’t going to cut it.

Unfortunately, the best way networking works is when you’re telling people about existing, current projects that you’re working on. Telling someone that you’re fresh out of university doesn’t sound very well to the ears of someone who has the authority to hire, unless they’re looking for fresh talent (which, in the case that he/she is hiring, that person might be looking to know who is better than you).

The Job goes to the One Who has had Real Experience, on Real Projects, with Real Clients

The problem companies have with university degrees is that there are a gazillion and one degree holders. Because it’s so hard to filter out the good ones from the not so good ones (read: the authentic ones from the not-so-authentic ones), there is a longer line, a longer wait, and more stringent recruitment processes.

As a freelancer if they ever have to deal with this, and they’ll tell you no.

Freelancers don’t wait in lines the length of football fields to find out if they can feed themselves in the next month – they simply can’t afford to do this. They need real opportunities and they’ll pick the best one out of three. They’ve learnt to accept whatever opportunities are available and make the best out of it, and plan for the future so that the next one hopefully leads to better clients and better projects.

The job market is still very much a hirer’s market. This is because profits drive companies, who influence the recruitment process. Choosing a job now is still much better than it was 50 years ago, but don’t assume that it’ll be easy. The good news is that there are a lot more types of opportunities for job hunters to get into:

• short-term projects,
• volunteering opportunities,
• contributing to real projects like open source software
• contributing to real issues offering real insight through channels like blogs and online communities (takes awhile to get there)
• publishing work

You don’t get to pick the one you always want, but at least you’ll have choices, and you always will.

Strategy: Aim for the Middle, Work to the Top

In a recession, there is a trend for smaller companies to hire more. Smaller companies are more nimble, and they know where to find talent as good employers start getting retrenched from larger corporations. This presents a strategic opportunity that job hunters can seize if they want to get real experience, real projects, real clients, etc.

Strategy: Fill your LinkedIn profile to 100% and include Real Experiences

Recruiters started calling me up with job offers only AFTER my LinkedIn profile was up to scratch. It’s like a trust issue. It’s got nothing to do with the underlying system that LinkedIn runs on. The person who looks more authentic, and has real experience, gets the phone call.

Strategy: Spamming Companies Inboxes with your CVs – 80% quantity, 20% quality

I landed my previous job of four years ago after I selectively applied for 40 jobs. I only had 2 companies call back. Both offered me positions, and I took the best one. Don’t waste too much time applying for “the right job” – there isn’t one. Instead, aim for good companies – polish your CV to “good enough”, then send it along with a nice touch – e.g. an authentic email, a succinct but honest cover letter, whatever. Don’t trust your CV to do the work for you, though. It’s not a living document.

Strategy: Yes, Companies do read your Blogs. And yes, it does give off an Impression

Numerous times, I’ve been contacted by people who have hiring authority (CEOs, senior managers), and they remember me as this guy who runs this blog (www.leapwalking.com). I don’t know why, but I know that everytime I get an email from them, they use the email I’ve published on this blog’s About page, even though I’ve given them my personal email address. So, if you’re posting stuff out there, make it focused, make it real.

Recession = change, that’s all

While the recession is evident around us, it does not mean it’s impossible to get a job that pays well and gives you satisfaction. It just means that a lot of businesses are forced to take stock of what they have now and what they will be doing over the next few years, forcing a paradigm shift to leverage on anything and everything they can come up with.

And this is not just because everyone other company is doing it. It’s also because entire markets are changing.

The question about jobs during a recession is not about whether you can or cannot get one. It’s about asking what change is going to happen and where you feel you can provide the most benefit in such a opportunistic time as this.

What skills that was useful in getting a job before the recession will most likely apply to getting jobs during a recession. The only difference is understanding the needs of the shifting job market – and not just emerging ones but the “holes” left by people who have moved on from “traditional” jobs.

It’s not scary, it’s like a date

I can’t help but recommend Bolles’ 2009 revision of “What Color is Your Parachute?”. It’s a job-hunter’s classic, and I’ve not seen a book quite like it – because it really gets to the point, and it covers a lot of ground. The only negative comment I’ve heard about it was from some Amazon reviewer who criticized Bolles’ religious reference every now and then, which I felt was completely baseless.

To be honest, I think that if you have never been in various types of jobs, or have never faced the reality of being assessed for employment, then the whole process can be daunting and scary. But seriously, it doesn’t have to. Simply because it’s all about people searching for each other. Like a romantic date, it’s always scary the first time.

It takes a lot of verbal exchange, thinking, manners, courtesy, inquiry, exploration, patience and good old-fashioned friendship. But you never stop doing it. It’s just something that you constantly have to keep working on.

And if you want my opinion, the internet job application process doesn’t quite help with that. Simply because buttons and websites don’t talk back. They’re just lazy ways to send a resume off. There are much better ways to find opportunities for work… and not just any kind of work, but the kind of work that’s the stuff of dreams. The solution? Just keep talking to people, and be open about your needs and wants.

In fact, even if you’re already IN a job and fear for your life so much so that you never ever want to consider moving even though you’re so sick of where you are now… I think you should reconsider. Simply because there are a lot of exciting things happening right now, that have not been happening for the last few mundane years. You just need to keep your eyes peeled and look in places you haven’t thought possible.

Recession – a melting pot of opportunists and scammers

What pisses me off are companies like TheLadders.com who charge an exhorbitant amount of money to “fix” your resume, baiting on people who are in a need for that “one golden interview”. There are better ways to spend that cash. Seriously. Just search Google for “theladders scam” and you’ll see what I mean.

It’s kinda like Swoopo. Not quite scammish, but getting there.

During the recession there are two camps – people who are scared shitless they will do anything to salvage whatever’s left of their potential future, and then there are people who understand that the changing seasons just means renewed perspectives and look forward to a refreshing start.

The good news is that you get to choose which camp you’re in.

Related: Business Week Article – “Help Wanted: What That Sign’s Bad”

Penelope’s post makes sense for people who are looking for a way out of the recession. And for the most part, I do agree with her. I don’t think it is a good idea to go for an MBA, an MFA, a PhD, whatever – if you’re trying to seek refuge from the storm.

But in a way, I don’t think that’s going to stop the tens of thousands who will end up in grad school. So, if you’re in that camp, well… my best advice to you is not to see grad school as a safe haven. It’s extremely deceptive to think that all you have to do is read books and write papers, and do well in class. There’s a lot at stake and a lot to lose in the years spent in grad school.

Grad school is deceptive

One of the main reasons is this – your professors have their own agenda that’s not the same as yours. They tend to value your intelligence and critical analysis of your work (and will reward you for it), rather than your ability to make money and survive. It’s noble, by all means – but far from practical.

The solution to this is to give them what they want, but get what you need. And what you need are:

• connections
• skills
• ‘tricks of the trade’
• opportunities

Connections: Know what’s at stake

It is incorrect to say that there is a huge gap between the corporate and academic worlds. Often times, very established leaders and experts move seamlessly between the two, providing an essential bridge for mutual benefit.

I was just given an opportunity to work with Microsoft for my Masters thesis, and I owe it to my lecturer through her connections. In a way, the process felt a little like going for a job interview, because I knew that it would make a difference to know what the stakes were, and at the end of the day – there were some students who didn’t get what they wanted.

Skills: Discern well between learning and applying

Penelope was right in saying that, to learn entrepreneurship, you have to do it. It can’t be gained by just reading books. But I also believe that there are some people who are so clueless they can’t tell the difference between reading a how-to book and saving their own lives.

If you can’t understand how to translate knowledge into practice, you’re in big trouble. If you think that books should be written in a style suitable for adolescents to make it easier to understand, you’re digging your own grave. This brings me to my next point.

Tricks: Learn the benefits of failing

One essential benefit of grad school that you can’t always get in the working world is the opportunity to fail, and fail often. Don’t take this for granted – smart folks know that getting out early and getting your hands dirty is key to understanding what works and what doesn’t.

In my meeting with the head researcher at Microsoft, I made an absolute fool of myself when I claimed that ethnography was the same thing as field studies. It took me a week before I realized this, but they still let me in. Students are easy to forgive, but there’s always a limit.

The tricks aren’t about failing, but learning from them. It’s easy to say, but I doubt that you’d throw yourself in the deep end of the pool if you knew you couldn’t swim. My take: jump first, swim later. There’s always a way out.

Opportunities: Practice, preach and play

From the onset of the course, I was determined to take the road less travelled. While some students avoid part-time work and external activities in order to concentrate on studies, I run the other way.

I hunted down a flexible job that would pay me enough but not drag me down, signed up as a volunteer on a project with the Interaction Design Association, tried my best to attend every single free event related to my industry, and started following industry leaders on Twitter and started a blog to share my thoughts. I got to work with industry experts almost overnight, and it makes a difference when they know you by name and can vouch for your work.

When it comes to push and shove, all that extra effort clearly stands out. If you’re in a really good school with the smartest bunch, you won’t just be able to collaborate – you’ll synergize with the best. There will always be opportunities to learn and lead, take what you can (or should) and run with it.

The biggest problem isn’t time management – it’s focus.

More so, I feel lost about this blog. How can I assume to have any advice about work, when I don’t even have a regular job?

Job responsibilities are like scout badges you don’t get in graduate school

All my working friends have very fixed schedules – I understand, because the corporate world lives between 9 to 5. It’s very different executing work in practice than it seems in books. There is constant pressure for employees to perform and meet deadlines – a whole system depends on this. If I screw up my assignments, no one else bears the pain (except maybe those who have put their faith in me).

By not being a part of this pattern of work makes me feel like I’m no longer a part of who I used to represent – the workplace, practitioners, and employees. It’s as though job responsibility acts as a “qualifier” for status – the more responsibilities you have, the better you look in other people’s books.

There are almost no scout badges in graduate school. Previous working experience does blur that line a bit, but there’s almost no politics. To some people, that sounds utopian. But politics is real and unavoidable, and we don’t cover this in class.

The gap between academia and the workplace

I also find that there’s a wide gap between academia and the workplace. Ideally, we want this gap to be bridged well so that we can put into practice the stuff that’s learnt and researched. But this is not always the case.

Company goals and academic goals are two very different things, even though they do contribute to each other at times. This conflict makes it hard for students to compare between what’s taught and what’s practiced.

I subscribe to a lot of blogs and forums in the field I am interested to pursue my career, but I find I have no credibility whatsoever, because I’m not doing the ‘real’ work. The credibility that academic folks impart onto students are often based on academic work, which aren’t always a true reflection of what happens in industry.

Associations, events, blogs, and message boards

I’ve been getting my share of the user-experience (UX) industry goings on through associations, events, blogs and message boards. Even though London is small in comparison to the US UX industry, folks here use the Internet enough to get attention, plan meetups, and share ideas – which are all good to pick up on.

Sadly, though – I feel that not a lot of companies are into making full use of students or interacting with them, apart from getting them to fill up questionaires and showing off how good their brand is, and of course, to attract top talent.

Not all practioners are like that, of course. Associations have student discounts to encourage membership, and their events don’t discriminate between students or practitioners. But students tend to take the backseat – as though we were meant to view things from the sidelines. There’s no PR, no real discourse and interaction, no synergy.

Maybe it gets better over blogs, twitter, and LinkedIn. I have yet to find out.

Reprise

The reason for this post is because I love the brazencareerist community, and I’ve learnt so much from people I haven’t met, I’m encouraged to keep sharing my side of the story – because it is as much as adventure to me as it is to another person reading it. I believe that despite my being in graduate school, my career and life goals are very much alive and kicking – and that’s what this is really all about.

Thanks for reading, and for coming back.

Connect and Contextualize

My wife managed to get a full-time job as an office administrator for a charity company here in London, and I’m really glad she’s happy with it. To be honest, I was giving her all sorts of advice about buffing up her LinkedIn profile, articulating herself clearly, choosing a field she wants to invest in, and so on. After all, if it works for me, why not her?

I learnt that there are many ways into a job. Maybe we’re so hung up about the right things to do that we forget that there are no real guarantees in job-seeking. It really is all about people getting along. My wife went for two interviews, and she initially thought she really wanted the job at the first interview, but after meeting the company, she changed her mind.

Similarly, after 300-odd participants, my wife got hired on the same day by the second company because apparently her IT skills put her above par, not that she’s a certified technician or anything. I think she was a good fit for the company too – the people there seem to like her. So, note to self – context is important.

A good fit

What is a good fit? There are a lot of factors, but not all of them apply in all job situations. Maybe you attempt to connect with stereotypes (geeks in the IT industry, female nurses in healthcare, whatever) from afar, but it’s easy to assume yourself into inability – not a good thing when you want to be motivated to apply for jobs. My wife had bouts of depression when no one was responding to any of her applications.

It’s not a healthy way to access jobs purely on guesses about an industry, about a job… simply because most people hire based on compatible values (Kirstof, 1996). That’s funny because when you’re out of a job and looking hard, it seems impossible to find one, you’d think that a right fit sounds like a pipe dream. But companies look for compatible people, so it’s just a matter of trying until you find a good fit.

I’m not saying that all jobs are ideal when a company extends their arm and invites you to join them, but everything that leads to that point should be authentic. You don’t want to fake your way into a job and realize it wasn’t what you wanted in the first place.

21st century hasn’t gotten to everyone yet

Not every company feels comfortable about hiring through the internet. I’m sure it’s great to get 100 times more applicants than those good ol’ snail mail days, but seriously – who wants to sift through a thousand CVs from applicants who are potentially ‘having a feel’? But they have to.

I’m in the IT industry, so LinkedIn works great for me. But in this topsy-turvy economy, the industries that are holding up well in the US right now are healthcare and education, amongst a few other, more standard ones. But not everyone’s into the whole web thing yet, and I think companies are still adjusting to the pervasiveness and the flexibility of the web, which can be a good and bad thing.

Bad: it’s harder to stand out.

Good: You can get a good deal somewhere along the long tail.

Maybe it’s just better to focus on your strengths so you stand out to a company that really fits well with you and vice versa.

References:

• Kristof, A.L. (1996) Person-organization fit: an integrative review of its conceptualisations, measurement, and implications. Personnel Psychology, 39, pp. 1-49
• http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1858788,00.html
• http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/04/pf/forecast_job5.moneymag/index.htm?postversion=2008110709

I might be too quick to judge here, but I don’t think my career has taken a back seat just because I’m in graduate school. The reason why I’m here is absolultely clear – I need a better guarantee into the field of Human-Computer Interaction, and a Masters in HCI has generally been sought after by practitioners.

But just in case you might want to gain more confidence in deciding to get a Masters, think again.

Avoid Graduate School for careers in traditional roles

This particular report based on the UK industry noted that “traditional graduate occupations may be reaching saturation point”, and that “new graduate occupations might still be growing”. If you are in a more traditional role such as Finance, Accounting or Project Management, it may be better to obtain professional certifications rather than a Masters degree. The reason is because they offer more effective training with less money and less time, and they generally hold their value quite well. I hold a PMP accreditation for Project Management, and it’s internationally recognized as a proper qualification for practitioners in the field. It’s a better deal than a Masters qualification, especially if I’m practicing and not into academia.

For emerging industries, maybe

A Masters is OK for the HCI industry, because it’s a relatively new field. I know at least one person who’s been in the industry for a few years tell me verbally that demand for HCI practitioners is increasing internationally, such that they’ve had to import them from various places because there isn’t enough talent locally (she was speaking of the Australian market). She also remarked that HCI has traditionally been established by academia and found its way into the corporate world, such that skilled practitioners were previously researchers with Masters or PhD qualifications, causing a large gap in the industry. In fact, from a recent survey, there are more HCI practitioners with Masters degrees than there are Bachelors. For more emerging jobs, take a look at this article from US News and World Report on Best Careers 2008.

Graduate School isn’t about taking a break

In my perspective, graduate school is about a career extension, not a career overhaul or a career upgrading. I don’t think employers buy that anymore, and they are less likely to substitute experience for credentials (1, 2, 3, 4). This of course, again, depends on whether this experience is mostly gained in the workforce. If it requires complicated mathematics and in-depth study, it may change the game a little. But in short, don’t do it just because you think it’s going to get you a better salary.

Graduate School closes doors?

Penelope Trunk wrote an article about how graduate school closes doors instead of open them. While I don’t agree with her completely, I do agree that the cost of graduate school is very high now, and that it will influence the decisions you make past graduation point. This does limit your options quite a lot. Graduate school is not just expensive, but taxing too. It’s not easy to launch a startup while you’re busy writing that thesis.

In a sense, if you have the means to innovate and start fresh without challenges and limitations of a particular environment (could be graduate school), then what you need is motivation, discipline, and a sound way of getting things done… not a Masters qualification.

If you’re 200% sure, go for gold

If you’re darn certain a Masters degree is for you, give it your 200%. I am one happy camper, and I am relishing the learning, intellectual discourse, networking, and potentially unlimited opportunities that this new field can offer me through this Masters programme. But that means I’ve had to form new habits of planning my schedules properly, strategizing my studies, make full use of my networks, and be more focussed about my goals.