ALIGNING YOUR WORK WITH YOUR PASSION

Presented by Meltem Demirors

@Melt_Dem

How to (not) Get a Job

SUCCESS IS A SERIES OF CUMULATIVE STEPS

Setting the Stage

3

THE CONTEXT OF A HUMAN LIFE

Mastering the basics

Figuring out who you want to be

Becoming that person and hitting

your stride

For more mind-bending perspectives on time, check out Wait but Why – Putting Time in Perspective (August 2013) - http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/08/putting-time-in-perspective.html

UP TO YOU!

School Years

Growth Years

Prime Years

AND BEYOND!

4

CAREERS ARE NOT A LADDER

5

THEY ARE A MATRIX

6

STARTING POINTS

Learning how to make slides (yay), working hard (100+ hours a week), and

trying to “be an adult”

7

PROGRESS CAN SEEM FUTILE

Quit job. Apply to gradschool. Spend life savings traveling.

8

AND YOU FAIL A LOT

Grad school at MIT – fail at two startups in a row

9

BUT YOU FIGURE IT OUT

Help build a new company

10

EVERY COMPANY HAS THREE FUNCTIONS

BUILD SELL OPERATE

•  Engineering

•  Design

•  UX / UI

•  Product

•  Sales

•  Business Development  

•  Marketing

•  Communications

•  Analyst

•  Finance

•  HR and Talent

•  Operations

•  Assistant

Often work solo or in smaller teams, focused on project execution, may require specific skills or degrees

Requires communication skills, often around people, may involve travel or frequent “out of office” team

Focused on process and task execution, often part of larger operations team, supporting roles

11

HOW THIS TRANSLATES TO YOUR SEARCH

•  No role is 100% of build, sell, or operate, but the job description gives you a clear sense of what’s involved

•  Your personal preferences will indicate what role may be better for you at this point in your career

-  If you don’t like working alone, maybe an engineering job right out of school isn’t the best fit

•  Be honest with yourself – it may not sound glamorous, but if you’re a super-detail oriented person who slays tasks, maybe an operating role is a good starting point

•  Know what an ideal job would be

- My ideal role would be 40% build, 50% sell, and 10% operate because X, Y, Z

12

FOUR QUESTIONS TO ASK

1.  What are you good at?

2.  What inspires you? What do you love?

3.  What does the world need?

4.  What can you get paid for?

13

NOW FIND THE INTERSECTIONS

What you LOVE

What the WORLD NEEDS

What you can get PAID

for

What you’re

good at

passion mission

vocation profession

14

NOW FIND THE INTERSECTIONS

What you LOVE

What the WORLD NEEDS

What you can get PAID

for

What you’re

good at

passion mission

vocation profession

#YAS aka ikigai

PUTTING IDEAS INTO PRACTICE

How to Start

16

1.  Make yourself visible

2.  Take inventory of your network

3.  Evaluate your options

4.  If it doesn’t exist, BUILD it!

HOW TO START

17

1 . MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE

•  The first thing I do when I meet someone is GOOGLE •  Key places I look:

-  Twitter

-  Medium

-  LinkedIn

•  People won’t know you’re looking for a job unless you TELL THEM. Make it really easy for people to help you!

•  Google yourself and sanitize or do cleanup where needed

•  Make sure your Instagram, Facebook, and other public profiles are PG-rated

18

PRO TIP: LEVERAGE TWITTER

19

PRO TIP: USE MEDIUM

•  Make sure you have a profile and follow people •  Comment on other people’s content

•  Try writing one or two posts – even short posts help!

•  Extra Credit: cross link everything to Twitter and LinkedIn

20

PRO TIP: TELL PEOPLE HOW TO HELP YOU

•  Everyone is really busy – TL;DR check every email •  Be direct

•  Make it easy for others to help you

•  Be open to anything and everything

Meltem (MIT FinTech): Help with Job Search – Resume Attached

Hello X,

You may recall we met at Y – I really enjoyed your Medium post on (insert fact). I’m very passionate about bitcoin, and am starting to look for opportunities. Given your role, I thought you might know of people who are looking for entry-level employees, interns, or part-time help. I’ve included a brief template email to make it easy for you to introduce me, and have also attached my resume. I would appreciate any leads, suggestions, or advice. Of course, please let me know if there is any way I can return the favor or be helpful to you!

Should fit one

iPhone screen!

21

2 . TAKE INVENTORY

WHO WHAT WHERE

•  Spend the time to master these tools and learn how to use them effectively

•  Schedule a quarterly calendar reminder to review all of your tools and update whatever is necessary

22

PRO TIP: FIND LOCAL EVENTS

23

PRO TIP: CHECK OUT VC WEBSITES

•  VC’s are often at the cutting edge of new tech trends – regardless of whether you want to work at startups, corporations, or institutions / NGOs

•  They curate great content which cross-links to jobs, other blogs, and even events!

24

PRO TIP: NETWORKING IN A NON-CREEPY WAY

•  Explain why you’re there when you introduce yourself •  Make business cards with your name, social handles,

email, and university (with graduation year)

•  Have a plan when you meet people

-  Review guest / attendee list and “stalk” them online

-  Prepare questions ahead of time and ask them! •  Tweet from the event – use the event hashtag or speaker

hashtag

•  Follow up with e-mail if there’s a reason

•  Connect on LinkedIn using a custom note

25

3 . EVALUATE OPTIONS

•  Think of yourself as a product manager – YOU are the product! •  Use LinkedIn or your alumni network to find people who have a

background similar to you and are 2-3 years out of school

-  What was their path to their current career

-  What skills have they built and how do they express this?

•  Look at people you find inspiring – CEOs, founder, leaders – and read their bios, look at their LinkedIn profiles, and try to untangle their path through the “matrix”

•  Look for “dream jobs” you’d like to have in 5 to 10 years – what are the requirements? Think about ways you can build toward bigger roles by building your skillset

26

PRO TIP: USE ANGEL LIST

VC pages aggregate portco jobs Can also search startups directly

27

PRO TIP: CHECK WHAT CO’S ARE HIRING FOR AND FIND WAYS TO GET IT

28

4. IF IT DOESN’T EXIST… BUILT IT!

Start or Join a Student Club

Run a conference or event

Create your own internship

Do a research project

•  Purchased domain name on GoDaddy, built site on Squarespace

•  Got funding through adminstration (and sponsors) once established

•  Invite speakers you personally want to hear from and meet

•  Engage with sponsors who are looking to hire you & your classmates

•  Reach out to local startups / companies and ask if you can intern or do projects

•  Come prepared with ideas for short, focused projects and low / no pay

•  Conduct projects for school. interview or gather data from companies

•  Better yet, once research is done, present to execs + post to social

29

PRO TIP: FIND WAYS TO INTERACT WITH TOPICS YOU FIND INTERESTING

Blog for MIT VC Conference “Treks” w Entrepreneurship Club

30

PRO TIP: COME PREPARED

I’m an MIT graduate student looking to build my experience in social media management. I noticed you don’t have a social media presence yet. I’d be eager to help you build a robust social media strategy and engage with your sponsors, data partners, and startups to create content marketing. Here are three ideas I would implement:

Customizing an Internship Pitch a Specific Project

Approached Boston-based startup with content marketing strategy, offered to work for free during “trial period” with potential to be contractor

31

WRAPPING IT ALL UP

Your career is a journey – enjoy it!

You don’t always have to know where you’re headed – success takes time and

preparation

There are LOTS of great tools!

Learn how to build a great toolkit and put in the time and energy to use it

Be patient and roll up your sleeves

Sometimes great opportunities are earned or created, not given