Remember the time you got on the plane to come to America; you probably felt a ton of anxiety and excitement at the same time. Yet, no matter how much research you have done on America or how much information your friends and relatives have conveyed to you, it’s not until you land on American soil that you know how it really feels to be in America. This is a common immigrant beginning.
Category: wisdom
Networking Your Way To Success
On December 9, 2010, I walked into the Barclays Capital auditorium in New York to find professionals and students gathered for an ALPFA event. After a few hours, I walked out with a handful of business cards and a sense of motivation and inspiration.
ALPFA stands for Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting. Their annual event, Encuentro took place at Barclays last year. My brother was involved with ALPFA for some time and told me to come to the event. I attended the event and listened to professionals enthusiastically talk about diversity and its importance in corporate America. When ALPFA’s CEO Manny Espinoza spoke at the event, I could sense his passion and pride in the organization. At the networking reception afterwards, I immediately connected with professionals and students. I heard stories of students who received job offers at the ALPFA convention and professionals who switched jobs through their ALPFA contacts. I was impressed to hear their ALPFA stories.
ALPFA’s New York Chapter includes 13 student chapters, and is the second largest professional chapter in the country. The chapter is led by 14 professionals, who volunteer their time to develop and execute events and programs that realize the mission of ALPFA for Latinos in New York. In the last few years professionals from a variety of fields other than finance and accounting have joined the organization. Although I have a marketing background, I have been involved with ALPFA since that event at Barclays.
In today’s competitive job marketplace, there are multitudes of avenues one can take to get a job. In my opinion, the most effective one is networking. Networking is a two way relationship; it will not work if you only consider what’s in it for you. Although it has become a cliché that it is not what you know but who you know, this sentiment is still very true. The popular job avenues such as online job posting sites do not distinguish one’s unique skill sets and background. It is important to get noticed and the best way to do that is to get in front of people. Whether this means going to job fairs, networking events or attending conferences, it is crucial to meet people who can hire you or help you in your career. Professional organizations such as Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting (ALPFA), Ascend and the American Marketing Association (AMA) are some of the best avenues to professional development. They help expand one’s network as well as increase industry knowledge.
I encourage students to become involved in professional organizations early in their professional careers. Students can join various professional organizations at a reduced fee while in school. If your school does not have a student chapter for a professional organization, take the initiative to start one. Besides putting that achievement in your resume, you will gain valuable experience that will be beneficial in the long term. Various professional organizations also have an annual convention where professionals participate in panel discussions and presentations. Some of those conventions also have career fairs and this is a major opportunity for students to meet professionals in the field, learn more about their career interests or even get a job offer.
Upon attending a career seminar, I learned that one of the best ways to stand out from the competition is to take the initiative and ask professionals or senior personnel to have a conversation over coffee. A majority of the time, it might not come to fruition because senior professionals are very busy or they will refer you to HR but it does not hurt to try. I have taken that step and met a few professionals over coffee. Once you have a chance to meet someone face-to-face, you can learn more about the company, talk about your background and unique skill sets and impress the professional as much as you can. Who knows the next time a position opens up at the professional’s company, you might be the first one to get that call.
Your next job might only be a coffee away, so go ahead and keep networking.
Diversity (Published on MinorityMBAs.com)
When we generally hear of the word diversity, we tend to visualize people of different colors or physical characteristics. But what does diversity really mean? Is a Dutch person more of a “diverse” candidate than an American when both are applying to a job in the U.S.? What does an applicant interpret as diversity when applying to jobs and internships? Companies have created pages highlighting diversity and how it is part of their growth strategy.
Upon a quick browse through Google’s career page, we find Google claiming Diversity is our Business. Everybody’s searching for something different. Just as the very idea of Google depends on diversity, so does delivering the best possible products. Our success hinges on our ability to understand the needs of all 597 million of our users. That’s why we work hard to attract and hire talented individuals of every possible perspective, from all over the world. No matter how you slice it, diversity is our DNA. Upon browsing Nokia’s career page, we find the words, While diversity is one of the key drivers of our business success; it is also at the heart of Nokia’s Values and of the Nokia Way. We expect our employees to respect and encourage the strength that comes from diversity.
So what is in fact diversity? How do companies from different continents view diversity? Then there is the overarching question, is diversity always good?
Diversity is hard to define. The Concise Oxford Dictionary definition of diversity is 1. Being diverse; variety and 2. A different kind; a variety. A dictionary definition seems inadequate here (nor concise) or maybe I have an old edition Dictionary. Thus we ask ourselves and interpret what it means. For me, diversity means different; it means difference in ideas, language, culture and essentially backgrounds. No two people have the same background so essentially everyone is “diverse” in some sense. A person growing up in New York City is not necessarily more diverse than a person growing up in Auburn.
Google, an American company sees diversity as a tool that they can leverage to understand the needs of its 597 million users. It makes business sense to value diversity. Nokia clearly defines diversity. Nokia, a Finnish company states in its Diversity page, our goal is to enable men and women of different cultural or ethnic backgrounds, skills and abilities, lifestyles, generations and perspectives to contribute their best to our success. My interpretation without normative data, tells me that although both multinationals value diversity, a job candidate has a better understanding of diversity at Nokia.
Companies seem to value diversity dearly. They share their love stories with diversity by putting up pages, pictures and videos to showcase its presence in their company. Yet there is a lingering question, how effective is a diverse team? Are companies embracing diversity because it’s the right thing to do or do they really see it as a competitive advantage? If a company only operates in the U.S., does immersing a qualified candidate from India help or hurt the group? For companies which operate globally, it is essential to have employees from different background because it helps localize its offerings or for reverse innovation purposes. For a company that only operates locally and has no plans of going international, it would be interesting to find out if embracing diversity contributes to its growth. It helps to have different ideas brought to the table before a decision is implemented. But if diversity is not managed properly, it can prove to be very costly and detriment the organization’s image.
Do non-American companies have a better understanding of diversity than American based? What are the statistics comparing organizations in the same industry where diversity has helped achieve competitive advantage? Is diversity critical to success only for an organization planning to go international in the long run or is it equally important for small businesses? Are there industries that thrive on diversity while in others it does not really make a difference? These are all interesting questions and as more minorities pursue their MBAs and enter the workforce, they will be at the forefront of all this discussion. Research across companies and industries is needed on how companies have achieved competitive advantage through diversity.
This article is featured under “Advice from Career Coaches and Experts” on MinorityMBAs.com
The importance of being resourceful (Published on MinorityMBAs.com)
Resources can be the difference between success and failure. While resources are critical, being resourceful is a vital attribute in itself. Being resourceful helps one achieve their goals whether it’s short or long term and thus is a key skill to develop.
Attending an Ivy League school provides students with vast amounts of resources. It serves as a huge advantage in terms of getting a job amongst others compared to attending a small liberal arts college. Even without attending an Ivy League school, there are numerous ways students can tap into resources of large universities.
Internships in renowned research institutions allow interns to attain experience while also tapping into the university’s resources. The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia Business School offers a challenging research internship program for undergraduates and graduates. Another way to leverage on university resources is to get in touch with professors at research institutions to see if they require assistance in their research studies. Also volunteering at university conferences gives students an access pass to the event while boosting resume credentials. Schools also have partnerships with other universities which allow students to take classes in any of the participating schools.
When it comes to applying for jobs and internships, most are familiar with Monster, HotJobs and CareerBuilder. With the ease of applying to jobs and internships through these career portals, employers are stormed with hundreds of online applications especially when the national unemployment rate for March 2010 was at 9.7 percent. From applicants’ perspective, it’s hard to stand out and even to get a response; from companies’ perspective, they have a huge pile of applications and might have second thoughts on posting a job online next time. Thus, lesser known career portals become perfect alternatives to the mass-marketed job search engines. Startuphire.com is a great online resource for individuals interested in start-up jobs and internships. LinkedIn is another valuable resource and as the cover story of the April issue of Fortune magazine claims, if you don’t have a profile on LinkedIn, you’re nowhere. It also states that the reason LinkedIn works so well for professional matchmaking is that most of its members already have jobs. Also, there are some jobs posted exclusively on LinkedIn.
It is ever more important to be resourceful at a`time`when the labor market is tight. Hard work, perseverance along with some creativity could help both students looking for internships and graduates looking for jobs.
This article is featured on MinorityMBAs.com