the sta interview: ellen gordon reeves

Career advisor Ellen Gordon Reeves is the author of Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?: A Crash Course to Finding, Landing, and Keeping Your First Real Job. The book is a helpful, funny, and not-at-all-condescending guide for people just out of college who are looking for their first grownup job. The questions in the book came from actual recent grads who consulted Reeves for help. If you want to ask her a question not covered in this interview, you can email her at caniwearmynosering@gmail.com. PLUS, we have four copies of her book to give away, so check back tomorrow for more info.

What do you think today’s college grads and people entering the workforce are the most afraid of? What do you think are their best assets?

I don’t know if they’re more afraid that they won’t get a job, or that because of the economy, that they’ll have to take a job they don’t want or stay in one they don’t like for longer than they’d like. I find that most young people are afraid of their lack of experience. But you’ve got to focus on what you do know and the skills and experience you do have, not what you don’t have. I want today’s grads to feel valuable, not vulnerable. We don’t expect you to have decades of professional experience; you can’t have that at your age, and we know that – that’s why we can hire you inexpensively. Don’t tell your mother I said this, but you’re cheap! Your assets? Recent grads are perceived as creative, tech savvy, flexible, adaptable, willing to work hard, energetic and full of stamina, and stereotypically bound by fewer family commitments than older employees with spouses and children. So if you can convince an employer that you’re smart and articulate, ready to take initiative but also to defer to authority, and that you can not only be a great assistant but do some of the thinking and work left in the void created by more senior people who have been laid off, you’re golden.

Are there certain universal questions/concerns that everyone has when they start their first job? Or do these things change with time and the economy?

When you start a new job any time, you’re understandably nervous because it’s new and you’ve got to adapt to and/or create a whole new routine. You want to please people and do a good job, but you feel infantilized because you don’t know anyone and don’t know how to do anything and are totally reliant on others at the beginning. You don’t know where the bathrooms are or how to use the Xerox machine. You don’t know how to order supplies or how to lock up if you’re the last one in the office. This can do a number on your self-confidence but don’t let it. Then there’s the high school cafeteria lunch dilemma. You don’t want to eat alone but you don’t know anyone and everyone is pairing up as if Noah’s Ark had just docked in front of the building. Wait and watch.

This year, younger people are worried that they are competing with older people in a tight job market. The threat of the guillotine hangs in the air. That’s why it’s so important to present yourself as professionally and with as much maturity as possible. In this economy, the pressure is on to be really good at what you do, to make yourself as indispensable as possible so you don’t get canned if there’s another round of layoffs.

If you could only give someone one piece of advice from your book, what would it be?

My message for all the assistants out there is about making the most of the generally underutilized resources available to you at your workplace. There is a whole chapter on this in the book and I feel strongly about it. It is all about who you know. You should be reaching out strategically to connect to people at all levels of the company or organization you work for, getting the experience you need to move ahead with your personal plan, whatever it is. (And now you know you should have one…) I term this “Inside” informational interviewing, using that I call The Rule of 3 to figure out what you want to do and who you want to talk with.

If you’re not working yet, my message is: stop looking for a job and look for a person! The right person will lead you to the right job.

How can you be professional at a job interview while still showing your personality and not feeling like a corporate robot?

I’ll let Mark Twain answer this question: “You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression.” Dress appropriately for the interview and wear a great but not overwhelming accessory—a piece of jewelry or scarf for a woman, tie for a guy. Make an outstanding first impression with a big smile, good eye contact and firm handshake. Radiate this message: I know who I am, I know who you are and I’ve researched your company and the job enough to know that my skills and talents and experience match your needs. Be Master of the Anecdote. Package everything on your résumé as a concrete story that will linger in the mind of the interviewer. Show, don’t tell. As Twain says: “Don’t say ‘The Lady Screamed.’ Bring her on and let her scream.” Don’t say “I have good communication skills.” Tell a story about how you sold $5,000 worth of advertising space to a client who hadn’t taken an ad in years and how you prevailed upon him to take the ad. If it’s genuinely funny or at least told with some sense of humor, so much the better! People respond to stories. Rehearse the ones you tell about yourself to show yourself putting your best foot forward successfully.

Once you’re on the job, you can have interesting things in your cubicle and let people know who you are by sharing your outside interests with colleagues as you get to know them.

If I had to choose between taking an unpaid internship in the field I was interested in working in, or accepting a paid but uninteresting admin job in a field I didn’t care about, what would you advise me to do?

The first question is, can you afford the unpaid internship? If so, I’d absolutely take that to get your foot in the door because that’s how you’ll eventually get hired. If you can’t afford it, all is not lost; I’d advise you to do both. I would try to do both part-time or see what kind of temping or other kind of work you could do to support yourself at night while you’re doing the internship. Don’t forget that you can also have informational interviews and shadow people in the field you want to get into while you’re working, but there’s no substitute for getting inside a company, having hands on experience and getting to know people through daily contact in the field, company or industry where you want to be.

What are the most common mistakes/gaffes made by recent college grads when they start applying for jobs?

Recent college grads need to know which job-hunting conventions to lose and which to choose. Here are things I’d do differently:

Stop sending résumés hurtling into the black void of cyperspace. Find someone inside the company to talk with. A personal referral from someone is the best thing you can have.

Tailor each to the job at hand. Don’t waste valuable résumé real estate on objectives (your only objective is to get that job or another job there); your GPA (unless asked specifically—do you want to work for someone who cares what your GPA is?) or “References Available Upon Request.” What’s the alternative: your references are NOT available upon request, maybe because you killed someone at your last job?

Take control of the categories on your résumé and re-cast to reflect the language in the description of the job for which you’re applying. No more “Work Experience” or “Relevant Experience” or “Other Experience.” Instead, make your own categories: Customer Service Experience. Office Management Experience. Whatever the job at hand requires.

Good use of Facebook: a discreet posting “Does anyone know the people who write SavetheAssistants.com? I really would love to talk with them.” Bad use of Facebook: posting photos or yourself doing body shots in a bar. I don’t care what you do on your free time (as long as it’s legal) but the lack of judgment and maturity you reveal in posting it in what has now become a professional and public space, like it or not, is scary.

Not having a business card. You need a card with professional contact information before you’re in business.

Getting depressed and not getting out of the house while job-hunting. You’ve got to get out! Exercise, volunteer, meet people!

Not following up after an interview with a thank you note and expression of interest.

Not negotiating salary and benefits; accepting the offer and not understanding the difference between the offer of employment and the terms of the offer.

How did you become a career coach? What kinds of jobs did you have before that?

Career advising is something I fell into, although it makes sense to me in retrospect given my teaching background and self-appointed role as Editor of the World. Whether I’m editing books or people or student papers, my goal is to help people express themselves and their ideas clearly and show themselves in the best possible light. For the last 15 years I’ve been the resident job-hunting expert at the Columbia Publishing Course in NYC, helping students present themselves on and off paper. I was Executive Editor/Education Editor at The New Press (a non-profit publisher in the public interest) and wrote for TIME Magazine’s Education Program. I’ve taught K-12 and at the college and graduate school levels in public and private schools in France and America. I’ve always been the résumé, cover letter and job-hunting resource wherever I’ve worked. Now I’m writing and producing a play based on a post-WW II love story (www.gerdaslieutenant.com), doing a cookbook with a chef in Paris, and am senior editor of Change.org, serving as a career advisor for a great new site they just launched to funnel people into public sector jobs: www.jobs.change.org.