Blog, culture and engagement | Ambition In Motion

by Garrett Mintz

Fri 18 October 2019

When dining at a restaurant, what happens when your expectations don’t meet reality? Presuming you were expecting to enjoy your meal, if your expectation is not fulfilled with what you experienced, you will likely not dine at that restaurant again. In contrast, what happens when expectation DOES meet reality? You enjoy your food, and will probably continue eating at that restaurant in the future.

What happens when employees’ expectations of their careers don’t meet reality? They leave.

For college students, possessing a realistic expectation of their career at a company is extremely difficult because they have never worked in the corporate world before. Sure, many college students have had internships and part time jobs before, but it is not the same as being in a full-time career.

There are many things that college students can do to gain a more realistic expectation of the factors affecting their careers. This blog will cover one of the most important factors affecting the expectations of their careers: MONEY.

When it comes to choosing a career from a list of job offers, many people resort to a mindset of “choose the job that pays the most!” This is not a bad instinct by any means. But is that job paying its employees enough to fulfill their expectations of the type of lifestyles they envisioned for themselves after college? If not, even the highest paying career is not enough to satisfy these employees’ expectations.

What can college students do to have a more realistic expectation of their lifestyle and how much money they should make after college?

They can begin by looking at their current lifestyle. If college students have accustomed themselves to a spend-heavy lifestyle in college (or vice versa and not spend much at all), they will likely live a similar lifestyle when they enter their careers. This is because students have grown accustomed to their lifestyles. Even if their parents, student loans, or scholarships covered the tab on many of the expenses that they are going to have to pay for now, students (and all people for that matter) have a difficult time changing their habits. To prove this point, checkout the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary Broke which details the amount of former professional athletes that could not change their lifestyles after retiring and are now bankrupt.

Fortunately for college students, there is an awesome cost of living calculator on Nerdwallet which details the cost of living change from one city to another. By using this website college students are able to calculate their annual living, food, entertainment, and transportation expenses currently. They then can get a really good idea of how much they will spend annually on their lifestyles after college by comparing it to the costs associated with other cities where they wish to live. College students then have to factor in taxes and the amount of money they want to save annually in order to derive the minimum starting salary they need to achieve to live the current lifestyle they are living.

What if the minimum starting salary a student needs to have exceeds the amount of money they have been offered in their job offers?

There are 2 options at this juncture. Either the student needs to find job offers for more money, or he needs to realign his expectations of his lifestyle to meet a more realistic expectation.

By knowing what their minimum necessary starting salary should be, students can then concentrate on all other factors of the career when considering job offers. For example, if you discover that your minimum necessary starting salary is $50,000 (for a specific city) and you have offers for $52,000, $54,000, and $60,000, you can evaluate and compare every other facet of the career (nice employees, opportunities for growth, good location, a culture that seems to fit your personality, etc.) to choose the offer that fits you best among these other factors because you can know that your expected lifestyle will be fulfilled.

By performing this task while in college, students can save themselves a lot of heartache, stress, and time.

When expectation meets reality, satisfaction occurs.

by Garrett Mintz

Fri 11 October 2019

In 1914, electricians were noticing a rift in the career advancement of themselves vs. their peers. Some electricians were given easier jobs and greater job prospects because they were friends with managers, owners, and/or other people in power. These electricians were not given these opportunities because of their electrical prowess, but rather because of their relationship with those that mattered. In May of 1914, The Electrical Worker published that electricians were adopting the phrase “it’s not what you know that counts so much, as who you know!”

This rift the electricians were feeling begged the questions: How do we get to know the right people? Who are the right people? Will people give me any time if they know nothing about me? Are my only connections my family connections?

These questions are just as relevant today as they were in 1914. Tony Robbins has said that “70% of every experience a person will have will come from his/her network”. I don’t know if this information is factually proven, but it seems to make sense and back up the claim that “it’s not what you know that counts so much, as who you know!”

For a professional entering a new industry, a recent college graduate entering the working world, or anyone that is seeking to have more relationships, building a network can be difficult. If you are a person who is seeking to meet new people, it is easy to ask yourself “what do I have to offer?” Without any knowledge, connections, and resources, it is easy to write yourself off as somebody that has nothing to offer.

What you may not realize is that you have a ton to offer in terms of your time and willingness to listen.

PEOPLE LOVE TO TALK ABOUT THEMSELVES!

By seeking to understand another person’s story, you are showing them respect and empathy towards the decisions that person has made in his/her life. Essentially, by listening to another person talk about themselves, you make them feel valued because you care about what they are saying and it is deeply personal to them. No amount of money, connections, or knowledge can make a person feel as great as having someone take the time to listen to them.

Another thing you may not realize is that no matter how famous, wealthy, or powerful a person is, you are not annoying until you receive a response. Thus, be persistent as “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” This could mean sending multiple emails, phone calls, showing up at their place of work, or even writing a handwritten letter.

The people you should be reaching out to are the people in positions that you aspire to be. Jim Rohn once said that “you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” If you aspire to be in a leadership position at a company, you should be spending time with people who are currently leaders at the company.

After you know the right people, who those people are, and have taken the time to listen to them, you can then easily transition to being understood. The key to being understood is to clearly and concisely convey what you are interested in doing. You can typically count on the 5 to 1 rule. What this means is that you have to give somebody roughly 5 times as much active listening as they will actively listen to you. So if you have taken 15 minutes to listen to somebody’s story and talk about himself, he will give you roughly 3 minutes of actively listening to what you have to say. Therefore, be concise and clear about what you are interested in.

However, there is a trick to the 5 to 1 rule that can give you more active listening time. If you ask questions to the person you are connecting with on the topic of what you are interested in, you are showing that person respect. By asking questions, you are conveying that you care about what they have to say and value their response. At the same time, you are actively engaging them to think about a response to your question as opposed to just listening to you.

Ultimately, by asking the right questions and conveying your interests clearly and concisely, you are making it possible for that person to recommend other people to you. This is how a network grows.

Whether you are a professional entering a new industry, a recent college graduate entering the working world, or anyone that is seeking to have more relationships, these are some tips to getting your foot in the door. Strictly relying on your friends and family’s relationships for connections is a lot of eggs to put in one basket. Also, since it takes significantly more effort to build relationships on your own vs. via friends/family, you will likely value relationships you built on your own more than those you received from friends/family.

“It’s not what you know that counts so much, as who you know!” is very true today. However, there are many ways to get to know the right people. Utilizing family connections can be extremely valuable, but the ability to build relationships on your own is paramount to expanding your network.

by Marcus Wermuth

Tue 8 October 2019

His current focus is leadership and management in distributed companies and how we can build more effective teams across timezones.

He helps others understand that the important part in remote work is building relationships and working with the humans behind the avatars.

Marcus writes about virtual leadership in FastCompany, mentors other remote supervisors, and facilitates international masterclasses about management in distributed teams.

by Garrett Mintz

Fri 4 October 2019

If you are a college student, the process of applying for jobs is relatively simple. You go to your university’s career service website, see what employers have job postings, click apply to any jobs that seem interesting and wait to see if you get a response from any of the employers for an interview. You could also test your luck at career fairs where hundreds of students pour into a venue to have really intimidating, forced, and, for the most part, the same 1-3 minute conversation with recruiters at companies you think you might be interested. Performing both of these actions is relatively simple, and if you are lucky and have a good elevator pitch, you may land an interview.

During this time period of “oh, I should probably apply for jobs” to “Alright! I have 3 interviews”, how much have you learned about any of the opportunities you have applied for? Sure, you may have read a brief 100-200 word description of the employers on a career service website, along with employers’ location, and possibly jobs’ starting salaries. You also probably have a perception of the prestige of the companies and how good having a company’s name on your resume may look.

Are there other factors that you may not know about that might have a huge impact on whether or not you like your job? Factors like how much work is done in groups vs. individually, will you have creative freedom, are there leadership opportunities, will you learn new skills, is there direct access to senior leadership, how varied is the work, how diverse is the workplace, is there a lot of travelling, do you have your own workspace, along with even more factors that you may have no clue about before accepting a job.

As a college student, you have to decide how important these factors are to you and how much of an impact they will have on your career choice.

The difficulty in this task is that this work is purely self-motivated. There is no boss, there is no deadline. You are the only person who will derive the benefit, and have to be able to put in the effort to obtain this information. This is made even more difficult by the fact that the answer to each of these points of research is unique to each department of each company. The accounting department may have an entirely different environment than the marketing department, who are likely completely different from the HR department.

If you consider merely getting a job offer your pinnacle of success, then there is no point to put in the effort to learn whether or not companies possess these factors and how much you value them. But if your definition of success is having a fulfilling career, it might require some additional effort.

The toughest part about this additional effort is that it has to be motivated by you. To your parents and friends, just getting a job offer is wonderful news. The security of having a job offer feels awesome. However, having no clue whether or not you will like the job you have been offered is an issue you have to deal with. You can suppress it and tell yourself that you’ll find another job if you don’t enjoy it or you can embrace it and put in the time to fully understand what opportunities are available to you and which opportunities fit you best.

In high school, it was very clear of what to do to get to college. You get good grades. In college, it was very clear of what to do to get a job offer. You get good grades, internships, and leadership positions in extracurricular activities.

But what about pursuing a career that is fulfilling? This path is much more vague, yet extremely important to achieving happiness in your career.

Ultimately, the more effort you put in to understanding a career before entering it, the more realistic your perception will be of the work. If you do this, you won’t be surprised at the work culture and will be much more satisfied with the work you are doing. Because you knew what to expect, you will likely be happier, more productive, and more engaged in the work you are doing.

Wonderful things can occur when perception meets reality.

by Jordan Paris

Fri 4 October 2019

Jordan’s podcast, Growth Mindset University, was ranked #3 in Apple’s Training category and is consistently in the top ten. In Education, one of Apple’s most competitive categories, the show was ranked #15.

On the show, he interviews young up-and-comers and the most successful people on planet earth like James Altucher, Kevin Rudolf, Mark Manson, Dan Millman, Naveen Jain, and Dan Lok.

Jordan founded The WordPress Rocketeer, where he focused on developing engaging websites to launch his clients’ dreams to infinity and beyond. Now, he and his team have shifted their focus to doing marketing for serious podcasters.

His approach to life and business is simple yet powerful: Don’t make a living, design a life. With this creator’s mentality, Jordan has been able to produce outstanding results for himself and challenge others to rise above circumstances, break the mold of society, and take control of their lives. You can visit him at JordanParis.com

by Erica Ballard

Thu 3 October 2019

Erica works with both individuals and companies to show them how to live healthy despite their busy schedules. Erica is the host of the upcoming podcast The Lies You’ve Been Fed and has been featured in Women’s Health, WTHR, and now the Indy Chamber.

Before starting her businesses, Erica worked in health care and public health for almost a decade. She has a MS from Tufts School of Medicine and her CHC through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.

After ten years on the east coast, she now lives in hometown of Indianapolis with her amazing husband Nick and their really cute dog Max.

Visit thebmethod.com to learn more.

by Charmaine Hammond

Wed 2 October 2019

She has helped clients in many industries build resilient and engaged workplaces, develop high trust/high accountability relationships, and solve workplace issues that get in the way of success and profitability. She has owned 3 of her own businesses over the past 22 years. Prior to this she worked as a Correctional Officer, Counsellor and Contract Negotiation Specialist for government.

Her corporate clients have included all 3 levels of government, oil and gas sector, trade associations and companies (health, nursing, engineering, safety, and more), technology businesses, human resources, community partnership departments, educational institutions, police/fire and rescue, non profit organizations and everything in between. She has presented to more than 300,000 people worldwide.

She has a Master's Degree in Conflict Management & Analysis is a bestselling author (of 5 books & featured in 6 others), and CSP™ Certified Speaking Professional. Charmaine has been featured in renowned publications such as Inc., Occupational Health & Safety Magazine, and many others, as well as having appeared as a guest on numerous TV and Radio Programs.

Charmaine is Co-Producer of The Beast animated film (release winter 2019) starring a number of widely recognized celebrities, and her new book Working Better Together comes out this fall.

by Kathy Caprino

Wed 2 October 2019

A former corporate Vice President, she is also a trained marriage and family therapist, seasoned executive coach, Senior Forbes contributor and the author ofBreakdown, Breakthrough and the upcoming book The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss from HarperCollins Leadership. Kathy’s core mission is to support a “finding brave” global movement that inspires and empowers women to close their power gaps, create more impact and make the difference they long to in the world.

Kathy is the President of Kathy Caprino, LLC, a premier career coaching and executive consulting firm offering career and leadership development programs for women including the Amazing Career Project course, her Finding Brave podcast, and the Amazing Career Certification training for coaches and her Close Your Power Gaps programs.

A leading voice on Thrive Global and LinkedIn, she is also a TEDx and keynote speaker and top media source on careers, leadership, and women’s issues. For more information, visit KathyCaprino.com visit and FindingBrave.org and connect with Kathy on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

by Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang

Tue 1 October 2019

Ai is the founder of Classroom Without Walls, an alternative school for entrepreneurship. As an Adobe Education Leader, Ai is passionate about incorporating social media and creative technologies to enhance student learning and to acquire skills that help them become future ready.

Ai’s work has been featured in Forbes, Inside Higher Education, Pearson Education, and Mark Schafer’s book among others. Ai hosts a weekly live streaming show, in which she interviews leading social media and digital marketers such as Seth Godin. Ai additionally contributes to Entrepreneur and Thrive Global.

Ai worked closely with Crystal King to develop a workbook for HubSpot Academy’s Social Media Certification. Ai frequently speaks at academic and industry conferences including VidCon, Social Media Week Lima (the largest social media marketing conference in the midwest, and others.

by Garrett Mintz

Fri 27 September 2019

When I was younger and thought of the Ivy League, I had visions of grandeur and prosperity. I believed that it was the melting pot for the cream of the crop. Books such as Ugly Americans convinced me that students attending Ivy League schools could get a job anywhere. As far as I was concerned, students that graduated from Ivy League schools were leaps and bounds more prepared for their careers than students who graduated from second-tier schools.

This point was reinforced even further by an interview I had a few months ago with a 29 year old professional who was working for an investment banking firm.

Me: “What college did you go to and is that a college your company recruits students out of?”

I-banker: “I went to Indiana University, but my company only recruits students from the Ivy League. I was just extremely lucky to get into this company because my girlfriend’s dad had a connection to the company.”

Me: “Why wouldn’t your company recruit students outside of the Ivy League? I mean, it seems like you are thriving at this company, so why would that be any different from other students that graduate from Indiana University, or any other school for that matter?”

I-banker: “We are looking for students with analytical skills. Plainly, students that graduate from second-tier schools don’t have the analytical skills to properly do the job at our bank.”

Me: “But what about you?”

I-banker: “I like to think of myself as an outlier. I first got lucky that I had an in through my girlfriend’s dad. I then realized that after working with colleagues from Ivy League schools that I always strived for greatness and should have set my sights higher when selecting a college to attend.”

Me: “But by that same logic, could you also make the point that there are other “outliers” just like you at second-tier universities that could achieve similar successes as you have?”

I-banker: “Personally, there are so few students at second-tier schools with the analytical skills to succeed at a company like ours that it is not worth the opportunity cost to recruit at those schools to find the ‘diamond in the rough’.”

After completing the interview, I wanted to get to the facts about this investment banker’s notion. Is finding students with the proper analytical skills at a non-Ivy League university truly like finding a “diamond in the rough”?

Fortunately, Bloomberg has already done much of this research. Interestingly enough, Ivy League students are not far and away more prepared in terms of analytical thinking. In fact, Ivy League schools rank average or just above average for most categories that Bloomberg studied (i.e. ability to work collaboratively, adaptability, communication skills, creative problem solving, decision making, leadership skills, motivation/drive, quantitative skills, and strategic thinking).

After looking at the research and reviewing the responses from the investment banker I learned that there is clearly a disconnect.

Is it fair to students who are getting systematically denied from job opportunities because they aren’t attending Ivy League universities?

Is it fair to companies who are neglecting potentially great student hires because they possess the assumption that hiring Ivy League students will net them better and more prepared employees?

Are there other factors that might weigh more important to successful employment beyond technical skills? For example, leadership and organizational development professors Peter Lok and John Crawford have found an interesting correlation between the work environment of an employer and the strengths/goals of an employee. Employees have higher commitment (productivity, retention, engagement) when the correlation between these factors is high.

If there was a way for students to know which companies had opportunities that matched their desired career goals and strengths and a way for employers to inform students of their work environment, would there be higher levels of successful employment (i.e. both employers and employees happy with their relationship)?

I am not saying that there is not a benefit to attending an Ivy League school, but being an Ivy League student does not necessarily mean you have elite technical skills. In addition, having technical skills is not the only factor that leads to successful employment. Furthermore, employers that possess these ill-informed assumptions may be hindering their hiring decisions.

There is no pure solution to these questions I propose, but they are important things to consider if successful employment is the desired outcome for both college students and employers.

BLOG

Job Passion or Money? Why Not Both?

Your expectations should meet reality for your career

You Don’t Need Your Dad’s Connections

How you make people feel can determine the opportunities you receive

Working remotely from an engineering and management perspective

Interview with a guest speaker during the Higher Ed mentor program.

Internship. Check. Job Offer. Check. Career That is Fulfilling…?

Perception should meet reality for your career

Special sessions

Interview with a guest speaker during the Higher Ed mentor program.

Informational interview

Interview with a guest speaker during the Higher Ed mentor program.

Determine the value of education

Interview with a guest speaker during the Higher Ed mentor program.

Informational interview

Interview with a guest speaker during the Higher Ed mentor program.

Informational interview

Interview with a guest speaker during the Higher Ed mentor program.

Why Is The Ivy League Elite?

Does an ivy league education make you a better professional?

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