Category Archives: Pauline

Keep Cool

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Its over 100 degrees in my room, close to 115 outside.  I stare across the room, my arms crossed, looking my foe dead in the eye.  Pantyhose, my arch nemesis stares back, unflinching.  This is a good old fashioned standoff.  The pantyhose won and strode briskly to my interview, willing myself not to sweat.

I get to my interview site to find that the air conditioning is broken.   Talk about pressure, not only was I nervous, but I was also about to melt into a puddle.  Its moments like this I wonder why I am pursuing such a career.  I have sent off numerous applications, made calls to alums, recruiters, and networked across the country.

My momentary questioning is halted as I hear my name called.  I straighten up, make sure my palms aren’t too sweaty and stride into the interview.  It was challenging, as talking about accounting principles makes me sweat, and that doesn’t even factor in the heat.  But the interviewer was interesting and interested, not to mention he seemed genuinely happy to be speaking with me.

I left the interview feeling cool, inside at least.  All my questioning of my career choice was gone.  Momentary reflection and questioning is fine, its probably healthy.  But I know that all the hours, the suits, and the heat will be worth it.

And what if it isn’t? What if I get my ‘dream job’ and am miserable?  Well, call me short sighted, but I don’t think that way.  Call me an optimist, in an economist suit, but I don’t doubt myself.

The other day I was doing a mock interview and the interviewer asked me if I considered myself a risk taker. Risk?  That certainly wasn’t a word I would associate with myself and I told her so.  She explained to me that I might not consider myself a risk taker but others view me as such.   Now I was really confused, as I look both ways TWICE before crossing the street.  She went on to say that the things I have accomplished, the internships I received, the positions I hold at college would only be pursued by someone who wasn’t afraid to fail.

It took me some time to think about this and I came to my answer, I am a calculated risk taker.  I look at cost/benefits and probabilities of achieving and failing.  If I fail, will the outcome be X, can I live with that?  What’s my probability of failing?  Its a two prong question and we all have these decisions to make everyday.  As I get older, busier, I strive to remember to reach higher, take more opportunities, and not use the excuse, “I’m busy” or “I’m tired”.  I can sleep later.  But I may only get one chance to go for Y opportunity.

Advice to you all: don’t be afraid to reach for it.  You might surprise yourself.

Till next time, stay cool,

Pauline

Challenge

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Fall has come to Southern California.  After intense heat, the crispness of the morning assaults me.  The suit is well worn, but it fits me properly.  I straighten my back and stroll down to the interview location.  It is not yet 8 am and I know I should be tired: I was up well past midnight preparing for this interview.  I had been strategic in this choice: the first and last interviewee are said to be the most memorable.  Personally I feel taking the early interview shows initiative and you get the interviewers while they are still fresh.  And yes, interviewers often have an expiration date: its called lunchtime.

I can’t help but feel nervous about this one.  Recruiting season is at that critical point where you need to step it up and get those call backs.  I won’t use the word desperate, because I’m not, but I really wanted to nail this interview.

I had interviewed with this firm before, for an internship, and they had passed.  This was my second chance.  It was mine to lose.

Waiting in the office felt like an eternity.  Staying calm, keeping your palms from sweating, and looking composed in those long minutes is something I continue to work on.  On the outside I may look calm but my mind is racing.  What will they ask?  Will they reject me again?  What can I do to convince them I am serious about this position?

Long story short, it went really well.  I connected with my interviewers and left feeling optimistic about my future chances with the company.  The future is uncertain but I promise to give you an update in another post!

The good news is that I regained my interviewing confidence and overall feel I am doing all in my power to obtain a great job after school.  I was a bit disheartened, always being the only (or one of very few) Scripps students being interviewed.  The interviewers are in the habit of saying, “Oh from Scripps?   How did you hear about us?”  Almost as if Scripps wasn’t on their radar.  Its a personal goal of mine to represent Scripps in the best possible light and get us on the radar of these firms.  I want to do this AND secure a full time position.

Full time recruiting is a full time job.  Writing cover letters, revising resumes, applying, networking with alums, informational interviews, and handling impersonal Human Resources rejection emails will take its toll.  I started applying to jobs overseas: cast my net even wider than it was previously, leaving no stone unturned, and up-ing the hours each day spent surfing the web for new opportunities.

As a senior, there is also, class, homework, and thesis to consider as well as extracurriculars.  To be blunt: I have taken on a lot of responsibility at Scripps.  I am immensely proud and honored to serve my college and its students, but between you and me, leadership roles require a good amount of mental toughness as well as physical exertion.  Some nights I just want to curl up into bed, turn my brain firmly on OFF and go to sleep: but then I am reminded of a family motto.  Simple.  Direct.  The phrase is, “Suck it up”.  Yep, you heard that right, whenever I feel sorry for myself I mutter the motto under my breath and keep on chugging.  I can’t turn off, its not who I am and its not what I promised to Scripps when I took on these roles.  My friends will tell you, I’m better when I’m busy.  Burning out is not an option.

In have a slew of interviews this coming week and  I will meet them head on.  Tomorrow I will put on my suit, greet the crisp air, and hold my head high.  I am from Scripps, and am and Economics major.  And I am ready to take on the world.   Scripps has given me opportunities, its my turn to reach out and take them.

Puzzle Pieces: The interview and company fit

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Interviews can have polarizing effects:

1.  You finish and want to curl up into the fetal position

2.  You leave energized, not in any rush to change out of your suit and pantyhose

Clearly, these are two ends of a wide spectrum.

These both happened to me recently: I pride myself on being pretty tough, and clearly I feel like I can offer advice on interviewing.  But even I have rough meetings and interviews.

The first started out well enough, chatting, keeping stories short/sweet and to the point.  He was hard to read and clearly was looking forward to lunch.  He stared at me and interrogated me ‘firing squad style’.  The questions were technical but also amorphous in nature.  There was nothing to grab onto, I felt like I was flailing, no matter that my answers were right.  I wasn’t talking about ME, I didn’t give him details about what I PERSONALLY had done, we were too busy talking about financial statements.  He had clearly taken control of the interview.  Did he want me to wrestle control away?  My attempts to do so were futile and seemed to annoy him.  We got to the end and he looked at me and said, “I just don’t see anything special about you.”  I surprised myself by launching into a three point summary of why I am special and how passionate I am.  He didn’t look convinced.  Two days later I got the impersonal HR email.  Thanks but no thanks.   I left that interview a little deflated and questioning whether I had the potential to pursue this industry.   He had been very convincing that there was in fact NOTHING worthwhile about me as a human being.  (But no, I didn’t get into the fetal position-I went for a run.)

Luckily another interview followed in rapid succession.  I was nervous, afraid that I had lost my knack, as though writing this blog had sucked all my confidence out of me.  I sat down with these two men and the vibe was instantly different.  It flowed like a conversation, I spoke about myself providing details about who I was and where I was going.  They offered words of support or encouragement; nothing sappy just the occasional, “I agree,” or, “That makes sense.”  In this industry, that’s about as touchy-feel-y as we get.  Writing my thank you note was a treat, not a chore, and I left that interview feeling a sense of belonging.  They aren’t the type of firm with a track record for having many women, but they were the type of guys who want an equal.  The word, on Vault (which you should all read before ANY interview–check the CP&R library for it–or BUY it) , and online sources, is that women at the firm are few but treated, “no better, no worse” than men.  That is exactly what I want.

The point of this post is to say that sometimes you will get in an interview and it will go AWFUL.  Fit is real, you might not fit in and you can’t always elbow your way in.  But sometimes you feel a ‘click’.   Ok, sorry for a corny metaphor, you are a puzzle piece.  You can fit different places but there are some places you cannot fit, and some places you fit perfectly.  You can probably work at any place–especially if you have great connections–but you probably don’t want to work for a group that isn’t accepting of your differences.

Think about it: you might have always wanted to work at Company X: because of what you have heard and read.  People are often the best indicator of the firm.  You will be spending the majority of your life with them.  Get a bad vibe?  Finish the interview in a professional manner and get out.  Don’t beat yourself up, there are plenty of places you can find a better fit.

A Mean Cup of Coffee

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Preparation.  Determination.  Mental Toughness.

Sound like a pro athlete?  Being a strong job candidate and an athlete are much the same thing.   I can remember several interviews where my instinct was to cry in interviews.  Not because I was sad, but because I was frustrated.

You have to train for this type of stress.  Some ‘amusing’ questions I have fielded in interviews:

Answering the following with a firm, authortative style:

“Can you make a good cup of coffee?” “Do you have an attitude, young lady?” “You aren’t a vegetarian are you?”

Yep, you heard that right, interviewers ask these questions for one of two reasons: 1.  they are not the nicest people/do not believe in women in the workplace.  (OR MORE LIKELY) 2.  They want to see if you can take it with a smile.

It takes practice but here’s how I handled these ‘tough’ questions.  Some interviewers are smooth and easy into these topics, others rely on the element of surprise and spring it on you mid sentence.  So you gotta be ready.  Have you heard the song, “Help” by the Beatles?  Great song, but you need to be the opposite of that.  YOU can do this all on your own just keep yours wits about you!

VEGETARIAN: “I’m sorry, am I late?” I inquired triple checking my watch and confirming with the receptionist that I was indeed 12 minutes early.

“Come in”, the suited interviewer said exasperated tapping his foot loudly on the wooden floor.  There were two interviewers, the second was more sympathetic to my confusion, we shook hands easily.  Then Mr. Tapper whirled on me and stuck out his hand, I went to shake it and heard each of my fingers pop as the man squeezed my hands with such vigor.  First instinct: scream.  What I did: returned with a firm shake and waited for the man to give me my limp hand back and hope all fingers were still attached.  I sat down and Mr. Tapper looked me in the eye and said, “Are you a vegetarian?”  Wow.  Hmm.  I replied the truth.  “I prefer not to eat meat sir”.  He spent the next 10 minutes talking about the importance of meat in a diet and then got on with the interview.

Should I have lied?  Should I have told him I love meat?  In this circumstance I had to tell the truth.  After the fact I found out he had been ‘stress testing’ me to see if I would flip flop in my beliefs.  In this case standing strong was a good thing.

Continue reading →

Stiff Upper Lip

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This post is about sticking with it and staying cool, even if the interview starts to collapse around you.

I think I will focus this post on behavioral interviews, as they are the most common type, even among financial firms.  They ask the dreaded questions like, what are your strengths and weaknesses, why do you want this position, and the dreaded tell me about yourself.

My advice is fairly simple,  I write down my answers.  Tell me about yourself or walk me through your resume does not mean go down the columns of the page.  It means tell me a story.  A compelling story about where you come from and where you are going.  You have about 2 minutes to get it all out, so writing things down and practicing it helps.

Let me tell you about an interview experience I had last year.  I traveled into a city, got there early, dressed in my suit, pantyhose, the whole shebang.  I sat in the lobby and waited 20 minutes.  I kept calm, attempted to appear at ease and un-agitated.  Any moment, I thought I would see my interviewer.  He was, after all, an important man, and the opportunity to speak to him would be worth the wait.

So I waited.  And waited.  And finally an assistant came to lead me to his office.  I had done my research, so I had his bio in hand and had seen a WSJ sketch of him.  There he was, sitting behind his desk, plugging away at his computer.  I stood in the doorway for a good minute before he looked up.  “Oh” he said.  I moved forward and stuck out my hand.  A firm handshake was exchanged (no dead fish!) and I kept standing.  “Sit” he said, and I did just that. (Though many find this old-school, I wait till I am asked to be seated.  It gives the interviewer a sense of power-which they like-and it conveys respect.)

“Tell me about yourself” he said scanning my resume.  “Well I am a junior majoring in Economics…”I took a breath to continue.

“That’s enough” he jumped in and stood up.  I stood up, fairly perplexed.  Most times when people say tell me about yourself they mean it, its your chance to shine, to tell them how great you are, how excited you are about the firm.

He strode out of his office and I followed.  He strolled into an analyst’s cubicle, who was working on Excel.

“Can you do this?” he pointed furiously at her model leaning over her.  “Do you know how to do this?” he repeated before I had even had time to look over her shoulder.

“Yes, sir, I can,” I replied, surprising myself with my boldness.  Whatever it is, I thought, I can learn it.

“Send her the model,” he barked to his analyst.  “Give her your email,” he said to me, as he turned on his heel he said his assistant would show me out.  WOW, I checked my watch.  The interview had lasted four minutes.

I went downstairs, perplexed and frustrated.  I had traveled over an hour, missed class, and the next train wasn’t for sometime.  I opened my laptop.  I got the analyst’s email.  The Excel was doable, my work in a wealth management firm had taught me the basics.  It looked tedious, but I wasn’t intimidated by it.  He obviously didn’t like what he saw, and I hadn’t given him any proof to dispute his first impression of me.

Then I looked at what I HAD. I HAD the analyst’s email.  I quickly wrote to her asking questions about the work, the day to day, how she enjoyed the office, the team, etc.  Within a few hours she had written back long answers and said it was a pleasure to talk to me.  At least I made one friend, I thought.

Two days later I got the call.  Mr. XXYY was very impressed with me, the director of HR (human resources) confided.  The analyst had told him about my email to her, the questions I asked, and my insights into the work.  He had apparently been seeing if any candidate would ‘prove’ themselves in such a way.   They wanted me back.  Four minutes and an email and I had a job.

Though I didn’t take the offer, I must say I learned two important lessons from that interview:

1.  The importance of reaching out to analysts before, during, and after the interview.

2.  NEVER give up.  NEVER sell yourself short.  You are capable of the job.  If you want it: GET IT.  And don’t let them see you sweat.