Career Journal Assignment Comments and Testimonals

Jamie Glenn
I was lucky enough to be working with Dr. Hansen's Career Journal right when I was actually looking for my first real job. It was uncanny how well the journal mirrored my actual experiences: I had a phone interview the week we went over phone etiquette, a real interview the day after we turned in our answers to the most common college graduate interview questions, and was even in a position to negotiate salary right when we arrived at that section. How was it helpful? First, that salary negotiation bit really does work. I managed to get relocation benefits for an entry-level position (unheard of in my company before). Enough so that I just bought a couch for cash based solely on my reimbursement check from the company (yes, moving can be THAT expensive). More importantly, I've been making friends around here and I finally got one of them to tell me about the conversations they had when they were deciding about whether or not to hire me (I was up against a few other candidates). In the end, I was flat out less technically qualified for my position (I'm an economist) than the competition. Why did they hire me instead? Communication skills, interviewing skills, thank you notes. They just wanted to work with me than they wanted to work with anyone else. You'll read this time and time again, technical skills can only get you so far, after that you have to sell yourself. They can teach you just about anything technical when you get here, but they can never teach you confidence or courtesy.

Go back to Dr. Hansen's Marketing Career Journal.