Blowing Your Horn Re: China
April 23rd, 2007
When do you do it? How do you do it? Do you do it?
See this WSJ article, Not Even Politicians Can Out-Campaign Office Grandstanders, for some good advice. I agree that it’s a big mistake to toot your own horn with people or peers who are already familiar with your accomplishments. But, as uncomfortable as it may be you need to be open and learn to (deftly, of course) do so where appropriate with those who are not familiar with your credentials, or the “office grandstanders” out there may eat you alive. And here is a related blog comment from Dan Harris of the CLB re: the interview process which follows up on the recent posting I made about a the NY Times article, Answering the Unanswerable, that I could not agree with more (see Dan’s comment to the article):
I realize now that my 9 year old daughter has rendered me better prepared to interview than back when I was actually interviewing. She asks me questions like these just about every day when I drive her to school: how many garbage trucks are there in Seattle? Do the drivers drive the same route every week, or do they rotate?
Best interview I ever had was when I walked into an office filled with Cub memorabilia. I told him I was a Cub fan and he was very skeptical, being as how I was from Michigan. So he started quizzing me on what the Cubs needed to do to improve the next year and we ended up going through their entire 25 man roster discussing each player, whether he belonged on the team or not and if so, what his role should be next year. I even remember this person loving my assessment that one of the starting outfielders is a great sub outfielder but lacked the power to be a starter. I got the job.
What students need to understand is that interviewers are incredibly busy and if your paper were not good enough you would not be there and really the ONLY thing they want to see in the interview is who you really are. I had never heard of the “airport test” until now, but that’s exactly what it is. It’s can you go out to dinner with the client and the client’s spouse and talk about more than just work and not be viewed as an ass.
Relatedly, a number of you have asked me, “How do/should I describe the China trip on my CV?”
There is no black and white answer and you need to adopt your own style of presentation, but if it was me, I would likely type the following into my own CV (the below relates to the trip when we visited just China and India had not yet become a part of the trip):
California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, CA
M.B.A. (July 2007)
- International Business Tour to the People’s Republic of China —A three week global business practices study of the PRC, with visits to small, medium and large companies in key Chinese cities (Guangzhou, Macau, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Beijing), studying global business practices of American, Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean and European firms (June-July 2007).
Each of you has made a significant capital investment in your education and professional future by taking this elective course and traveling to China. Don’t be shy. Be proud of it. Now is not the time for humility. Consider “blowing your own horn” to help move you forward with prospective employers. It’s business — differentiate yourself from others.
May 24, 2007 addendum: Thanks for Zach and Kim Frederick and LeeAnne Haworth for a great session today. As they highlighted, in your resume you might also consider adding or working in a bullet that is even more specific than the above. For example, list some attributes of a factory you visited (size, sales, product capacity, customers, etc.). If/when we visit the Wal-Mart in Guanzhou, plug in a bullet about that as everyone can relate to that Wal-Mart and what it does. Or list a firm we visited who is a competitor of the firm you now want a job with.
This highlights that your resume should be tailored for each firm you interview with — blanket and boilerplate resumes are dangerous to send out en masse and not as effective as they could otherwise be.
Finally, at a recent College Dean’s Advisory Council meeting I ask some of our members how, from their industry prospective, students might best market the China trip on there resume. The following suggestions were offered:
- Focus on key lessons gained from experience.
- Concentrate on a particular focus for the trip.
- Discuss as a key life experience.
- Use as a topic for discussion during interviews.
- Highlight the interaction with Chinese citizens, the mixture of viewpoints, culture, religion, etc.
5 Comments Add your own
1. China Law Blog | April 23rd, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Here is another tip, of which I thought while reading my horribly written comment above. Companies get so many good resumes they are literally looking for a reason to reject someone. One of my favorites is rejecting someone for a spelling mistake, grammatical error or even a typo on a resume or a cover letter. I know this sounds unbelievably harsh, but if someone cannot get their resume and cover letter down correctly when these are the most important documents in their life at the time, how can an employer expect them to be careful with company documents? I know for a fact there are plenty of other people out there who also use this as a quick way to winnow down from a very large field. Be careful.
2. Chris Carr | April 23rd, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Hi Dan.
I did not think it was poorly written. I read it as a normal, quickly typed out thought and comment normal for blog land.
I could not agree more. Grammar errors and typos on a cover letter or CV are the kiss of death. No excuse for those, at all.
3. Simeon Trieu | February 6th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Of course, one should be able to talk about something else besides work, but as an employer, I would not be interested in what a person can talk about.. or even do outside of work, unless it benefited what their job performance. Of course, work-life balances are also important, but with jobs, especially in technical fields, what you know and how you apply it is more important than what you can talk about. ie. Do you think this same advice applies when applying to Cisco Systems for a technical position?
4. Andrea Muntzel | December 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Wow, those interview questions are difficult. I had a good time reading the comments to the article in the post “Answering the Unanswerable.” How many trees are there in the United States?? I better start brushing up on my trivia.
I’m really glad there was a post on how to market this trip to our employers. After I graduate I’m going into public accounting and I’ve already started showing my employer how this trip is going to help me, help them. In business, everything is about adding value. In order to continue your employment (yes, layoffs are not as uncommon in the state of the economy) you need to add more value to the company than you cost. Since my company is global and since accounting rules differ around the world, I won’t be doing very much international business travel. Despite this, I found that I can use understanding and knowledge of China right here in the US. A prospective client in the US is recently starting up a joint venture on China. I suggested using a tailored-to-the-client team to get the job. If they are starting up a JV in China, they need people on the team who know something about China. With my limited experience, I wasn’t a good candidate, but nonetheless, I wouldn’t have thought of this idea if I hadn’t been thinking of ways to use this trip to my advantage. I tell this example to show how many different and creative ways there are to use this amazing opportunity to advance your career.
In response to Simeon’s comment, I think the reason for the ‘airport’ interview is not necessarily to see if you have work life balance, but to see if you are an interesting person. In a lot of business jobs nowadays you can plan to work on a project team. I think interviewers are trying to see if you would be able to work in a team effectively. Right before a deadline, when you’ve been working with the same people for a month and it’s 10:00pm on a Friday night, having a sense of humor or the ability to maintain optimism is almost more valued than your technical skill. Technical skill can be taught, being an interesting, fun, and motivating person to be around can’t.
5. Morgan O'Hara | December 24th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Taken from Dr. Carr’s comment on the ‘Skull and Crossbones’ post, a few selling points to prospective employers: “you can send me anywhere in the city, county, California, the USA and/or the world and ask me to do anything legal and ethical, and I can/will get it done. Point me in the right direction and I will take care of the rest and the details. I won’t look to you for answers and certainty, because I know you may not know and you are very busy and you are hiring me to figure it out. I also read and follow directions, and I pick up on signals sent my way. I also can operate consistently outside my comfort zone and I welcome ambiguity, and in fact I thrive in said environment.”
I found this advice extremely valuable. It shows that we can use our generation’s shortcomings to our advantage – by letting a prospective employer know that they’re not going to have to coddle us, or shower us with praise, or spell everything out for us. And if we’re hired, then in turn we have to not act like spoiled Millennials.
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