8 Comments Add your own

• 1. Morgan O'Hara  |  December 21st, 2008 at 6:19 pm

  I agree, and wonder, what’s the Whitaker elevator pitch for our international business study tour? I know we haven’t been yet, but what are the most important takeaways so far? I know this is person specific. I feel like I’ve begun demystifying China and India and how business is done there, and that will allow me to view things from a global perspective and effectively work and interact abroad.

  But I’m not so great at selling myself. How do you all think you can best market this experience? I’ve got my notepad out.

• 2. Chris Carr  |  December 21st, 2008 at 7:24 pm

  Great question.

  Okay, Morgan asked, and I will be brutally honest in my response.

  I will tell the following to anyone who asks me. It will not win me many popularity contests at quaint Cal Poly. I can represent that the below items/attributes are consistently what the good firms, entrepreneurs, start ups, recruiters and clients that I would want to work for tell me they are looking for.

  All should tailor their pitch to their goals, plans and strengths. That, of course, is a given. You must be true to yourself and who you are. Also, it’s a given that you have done your homework on the firm you are pitching to before you talk to them in any elevator or formal interview, and your responses are tailored accordingly from a strategic standpoint.

  That said, if you were pitching to me, and I was considering hiring you, the following items and themes (written with intentional very heavy sarcasm to make the point) would resonate with me. The below is not specific to Morgan (even though he asked the question); the below would be my answer to anyone asking this question.

  “Hello. My name is ____. I am flexible, able to adapt, 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 will not hesitate to work incredibly hard and long hours, if you or the client ask me to or have that expectation. I have no problem in a leadership role and I work well in teams (i.e., I can make nice and play nice with others) and I can present, communicate well orally and in writing. I also know how to dress and act professionally in a setting outside of my own office - including in hot and humid Asia during the summer. I am comfortable with accounting, financial and statistical data and most importantly, I have the persuasion skills to take said data and move your firm forward. I also have a high aptitude to learn on the run. I am also respectful and open minded with others and clients (even the ones I may not personally like). I am not a person who believes or acts that my existence in this world is all about me and my own happiness, views and biases. Exhibit A to support this is my China/India MBA trip and what I learned on that trip about myself, these countries and their business environments. Oh, and by the way, I am one of the few friggin’ Americans that has actually been to China and/or India and know something about those places and emerging markets that others in your firm may not. As I understand it, your domestic market share and revenue are down. Is there something I can do to help you in these other emerging markets where you have a shot to grow sales, revenue or market share? As I understand it, you are not an American firm that sees itself as a victim and/or complains about how slow the domestic economy is yet is unwilling to let go of American protectionism and step off the proverbial cliff and try to develop opportunities in new, non-traditional markets challenging emerging markets. That excites me! I want to work for a firm willing to take such risks and that has such an ability to change, and I would be willing to get on a plane, go and assist, without hesitation and not complain. Once I get off the plane in China or India I already know what to expect because I have been there — this guy named Carr in another chapter in my life beat on our class and MBA program to get us to go there. I am well aware of how hard global business and travel is, yet I welcome the challenge. I have seen the future, I am comfortable there, I know what to expect and how to act once I get there, and I won’t make a fool of myself, my family, you, your firm, or my country, if you send me there. And if you do not wish to send me and instead send others, because I have been there, I can help you find the right personnel to send who will thrive in said environment. Now, good sir, would you like me to give you specific examples of how, through this ‘mini-lab and field study in Asia’ I can verify to you that I do, in fact, have these attributes because at the end of the day I found the trip and experience to really be about developing these types of tools in my portfolio?”

  I don’t think most people realize how rare these qualities are in the employee group of any US or non-US firm.

  And because there are a number of people who would say the above and not really mean it as part of their effort to snow you and get the job (let’s face it, the above items are easy to spout off), I would then proceed to ask you more questions to probe whether your assessment of yourself is/was truly accurate and sincere, or a grand self-delusion …

  If the above are in order, that person will have the job in my firm, hands down. Give any firm a critical mass of people who have the above traits, and it will conquer the world.

  Let’s face it … no interview or elevator chat is this clear and frank. I understand and appreciate that. But, most interviews and elevator chats involving positions of substance ARE conducted in “code” in the form of often general and vague statements and questions to get at the above themes and items. The smart figure this out and play ball, the others do not and will not get the advertised job.

  Again, Morgan asked …don’t shoot the messenger.

  I hope this perspective is helpful. Others, no doubt, may have a different perspective of equal or greater value and I hope they will jump in. Take what is valuable to you, apply, execute and do not look back. There is no universal right answer to the question posed.

  Is your notepad full yet?

• 3. Morgan O'Hara  |  December 21st, 2008 at 10:17 pm

  Thank you for the words of wisdom. I find them extremely valuable, Dr. Carr.

• 4. Jenna Healy  |  February 5th, 2009 at 10:37 am

  We are getting an incredible deal here at Cal Poly compared to the Yale MBA’s cost. I must say, no offense, there is a slight discrepancy between having an MBA from Yale and an MBA from Cal Poly on your resume. The programs seem similar, yes, and the trip abroad as well, which I’m grateful for.

  Two of my family friends are in the process of taking the GMAT, both born on the east coast. When I asked where they were applying, they responded with “Georgetown, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, etc.” to which I became a little, embarrassed. In California, everyone knows Cal Poly, how competitive it is to get in and how admired we are by the other schools. But on the east coast, perspective is a little different.

  I know that Cal Poly has the quality of these other programs, but on the east coast prestige means a lot more. Many east coast employers don’t know who or what Cal Poly is. So, yes, I think we’re getting a deal, but no, our resume won’t say Yale.

  Who will be more prepared for that 6 figure job? We’ll see…

• 5. Chris Carr  |  February 5th, 2009 at 1:25 pm

  Jenna raised an interesting point.

  I would add the following:

  No doubt a degree in anything from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, etc. carries high brand value.

  That said, in my field, law, I have litigated against four Harvard Law School grads in my other life. Two were outstanding. The other two were a total joke — they either faked it to get in, faked it once they got in to Harvard and accepted their “Gentleman’s B” to get through (the grade inflation at schools like Harvard are absurd), or if they worked hard to get in and worked hard once there they did not learn squat about what it takes to be a good lawyer and they should ask Harvard for their money back.

  I.e., early in one’s career, a degree from a top ranked school will help you get the interview and get a foot in the door. No question about that.

  But later in your career, said degree from a top 10 school can sometimes hurt you. For example and to be more specific, if said grads from a top school don’t know their stuff from about their fourth or fifth year out and are not very good, people in any industry will start to question whether they actually received a degree from a top school or whether they are any good. And they might even go further — they might hold it against them.

  The point being that depending on the industry and business, after so many years you must know your stuff and be good, or clients, employees, colleagues, competitors, etc. will start to ask a lot of questions about you and your degree, maybe even attack you for it and/or not do any business with you because you did not keep up with professional growth and knowledge development expectations as you progressed in your career and as a “Harvard man or woman” should.

  You can always hold your head high with a Cal Poly degree.

  And remember, it’s the Harvard, Yale, Wharton, Stanford, etc. boys and girls who now rule Wall Street who got us into this damned current global mess. If they were so bright and so smart graduating from Harvard and Stanford, how/why did they let this happen and why do they keep letting it happen (see recent WSJ articles on yet another round of bonuses on Wall Street as they ask us for more money!)? This speaks volumes, at least to this middle class kid from middle America.

  Closing thoughts:

  Great opportunities abound at all private and public universities in the USA. In my view it is far less important where you go than what you make of the opportunities available wherever you decide to study. I did not go to an Ivy League undergraduate school, graduate or law school. But the opportunities I had at the institutions I attended to excel and succeed were more than I could count and/or had time in a 24 hour day to partake in. I felt like a kid in a candy store at each school, and none of them are considered by the American bourgeois to be a “top academic school”.

  Wherever you go, do your very best, be a prospector (not a patient looking for others to operate on you), shoot high and dream big.

• 6. Nick Chamness  |  February 11th, 2009 at 7:58 pm

  What Dr. Carr brought up in the post above probably holds true in all industries and schools. You could argue the same point for students from Architecture and Engineering at Cal Poly…the coveted two majors at our school. They are held in high regard by nationwide polls, industry and the upper echelon at Cal Poly. I know for a fact that not all of the graduates in these majors live up to these expectations.

  Much like the sub par 50% of Harvard graduates that Dr. Carr dealt with in his legal life, Cal Poly too (much to their dismay) spits out this lower 50%. Like they say, “50% of all doctors finish in the bottom half of their class”…they are many horrible doctors out there. Just because you have the degree does not mean you are worthy. While the China trip will help us out on a personal level as well as on a business level we still have to prove our worth in industry. Luckily all of the people I know in the grad programs appear to have what it takes. Go get ‘em!

• 7. Andre Ourthiague  |  March 10th, 2009 at 10:03 pm

  The experiences of this trip are (will be) priceless. I am proud of the education I am working towards, and a large part of that is this trip. Every MBA in the country receives there fair share of econ, finance and accounting. However, there are only a select few who have a first-hand international business tour as the backbone of their education.

  Now if only I can find a way to market this trip to an Aerospace/Defense industry that often treats China as though it were a bad word:)

• 8. Chris Carr  |  March 11th, 2009 at 9:38 am

  Andre,

  See the below post from David Wolf at the always insightful Silicon Hutong blog.

  His post sheds light on why your buds in aerospace need to better understand China and what is happening there and in that industry … and … heaven forbid … learn to partner with the Chinese.

  I appreciate security clearance issues can make this dicey.

  http://siliconhutong.typepad.com/silicon_hutong/2008/11/the-arj-21-and-chinas-long-slow-climb-to-the-skies.html

  - Prof. Carr

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