Published May 2005

Grads entering work force
must pay their dues

Q. My daughter is graduating from college as a business major and tells me she won’t be happy unless she lands a management position as her first job. She has excellent grades and has worked in retail throughout college. Although I’ve never been a manager, I argue that she should temper her ambitions and consider working her way into management gradually. Could you offer any insights to talented and ambitious new graduates this year?

A. Whether graduating from high school, college or graduate school, students with limited working experience (including working part time while going to school) must make a critical switch in attitude.

The day after graduation, they should tuck their unframed diploma into a safety deposit box along with their yearbook and other school memories. They quickly will learn why work, not school, is “the real world.”

Here are some insights that may help any new graduate through the minefields of working for a living (my advice to your daughter will follow):

• Your graduation only makes you eligible for full-time employment; it doesn’t guarantee anything. Going through the hiring process, there is one absolute not experienced in school. Typos, misspellings or grammatical errors on resumes and cover letters will automatically torpedo your employment chances. Unlike school, these documents won’t be returned with red pen corrections and a grade.
• Before reporting to your first day on the job, ask your parents, older friends and siblings to offer you critical career and job-related survival skills. It will be comforting to know how people a generation or two older than you may react to you and your contemporaries.
• While you may have had excellent grades and possess technical skills and self-confidence in abundance, you are and will be considered a rookie who nevertheless is expected to perform at a major-league level from day one. You will be expected to fill any deficiency between your job requirements and classroom. Do not expect, but relish any compliments received. Your most important personal mission is to improve your performance as you gain experience.
• Re-enroll in “school” immediately and never leave. Whether paid for or not, take full advantage of any training, professional classes or mentoring offered. Join and participate in at least one professional society or association related to your field.
• Consider your co-workers your new family. You will find among them a wide range of behaviors — some very trusting and helpful, others distant, aloof, perhaps even difficult, with the majority somewhere in between.
• Be prepared to deliver extraordinary customer service. At school, your teachers and professors were your customers, your grades your reward. At work, your customers will be your boss, important co-workers, vendors and representatives of paying clients. Find ways to exceed their expectations of you.
• That said, your boss is customer one. Cultivate a relationship that allows the boss to gradually increase the importance of your duties and responsibilities while allowing you to be open about your confidence to achieve the success desired.
• Be prepared to fail. Somewhere, somehow, you will screw up. Nobody is perfect. When it happens, listen, learn and acknowledge your mistake. Assure your teammates you’ll work extra hard to ensure there will be no repeat.
• Maintain a “work journal” documenting your first year on the job. Note assignments and tasks you enjoyed and that motivated and excited you, and those that did not. For those aspiring to be managers, note circumstances of managerial excellence and failure.

By now, your daughter should realize that going through the hard knocks of work is the only sound preparation for becoming an excellent manager. She should pay her dues before becoming a boss.

Eric Zoeckler operates The Scribe, a business writing service. He also writes a workplace column appearing Mondays in The Herald. He can be reached at 206-284-9566 or by e-mail to mrscribe@aol.com.

Back to the top/May 2005 Main Menu