So you picked your college, found a way to pay for it (or are still paying for it), survived the courses, underwent sleep deprivation, lived on pizza for three meals a day, actually drank that cheap beer you swore you would never touch, and finally graduated. You got your first job and your first pay check and are on to easy street. All is well? Not so fast.
While the core academics for the technical aspects of the job may be have been found in ample supply, some of the essential skills for a successful professional life are missing. The problem is that employers expect you to have those skills, universities expect the employers to provide them, and neither told you anything about them. What are these skills? Although they sound mundane, they are essential skills that all professionals need for a truly successful career but skills in which many lack any formal education, informal education, or even explicit awareness. These skills are in the areas of personal finance, interpersonal relations, and personal productivity.
Personal Finance Skills
The stereotypical ritual of the first paycheck consists of ripping open the envelope containing the check and immediately causing a sonic boom from breaking the sound barrier on the way to the nearest auto dealership. With ink on the paycheck still wet, one signs one’s self into debt for several years in exchange for a machine designed for obsolescence that depreciated the instant it left the dealer’s lot. Sadly, this pattern of economic choices and outcomes often continues until some significant emotional event around one’s finances is followed by a slow realization that the approach to finances and economic decision making overall must change. Even at this point, the motivation may be present but the skills and direction remain lacking.
But what of all the hours of study in the hallowed halls on campus? Calculus to the rescue? A solution inside a circuit from Electronics III to be found? Perhaps a glimpse of assembler code or an algorithm to ensure mutual exclusion might do the trick? Hardly. Unless your course of study explicitly included some component related to personal finance, the concepts and vernacular may well be completely new ground to traverse. What to do?
Fortunately, many have gone before you, confronted the same problem, and through a combination of trial and error, keen insight, a mindset of continuous learning, and sometimes just dumb luck have found practical solutions. Each successive generation reaches these solutions, advances the level of understanding, and refines them, updating them for the contemporary environment and improving their effectiveness.
Awareness of this new body of study is often obtained through books, audio books, seminars, syndicated radio programs with financial experts, trusted elder relatives who have successfully covered this ground, and financial advisors, though not necessarily in that order. A number of books are included in my reading list that specifically address the challenges of personal finance. The two I recommend starting with are The Wealthy Barber and The Millionaire Next Door. In the reading list I have put a one paragraph synopsis of each and I indicate why I believe these are so effective. Note that I suggest that starting with these two; be sure to read the others on the list after completing these two.
The material in The Wealthy Barber covers all of the major contemporary investment mechanisms and some simple guidelines regarding practical budgeting (“pay yourself first”). The material is presented in the form of a story and is highly approachable. This was the defacto standard introductory material before titles like “Finance for Dummies” and others hit the book store shelves.
The second reference, The Millionaire Next Door, is filled with interesting statistics and observations regarding the economic choices made by millionaires, who happen to be more common in the population than one might intuitively believe. The major point of the book is that while many people do well in earning money (termed “offense”), they often fall significantly short in making prudent economic choices in spending money (termed “defense”). For example, most millionaires do not own expensive cars (the most popular vehicle driven by millionaires was the Jeep Cherokee.), wear expensive watches, or live in expensive neighborhoods. They are not ostentatious with their accumulated wealth, which is how they are able to remain wealthy.
Contemporary radio and television hosts that are indispensible with respect to financial advice are Clark Howard, whose tag line is “The Nerd You Need”, and Ric Edelman, who runs one of the largest and most successful financial advising companies now in operation. (For what it is worth: I have a sufficiently high level of confidence in Ric Edelman such that I use Edelman Financial for my own investments and have excellent results thus far). Clark Howard provides a body of data not limited to just investments, but on nearly all economic decisions that one may encounter.
One of my most treasured opportunities during my career thus far was in working with cooperative education program students (“co-ops”) in a commercial environment and helping them start their professional careers. I was privileged to have worked closely with several dozen such students, including graduate students as well as undergraduates. I will never forget an incident with a newly hired co-op graduate student who was determining the logistics of getting to and from work each day on his own rather than having his roommate act as a taxi cab driver.
This student was exceptionally bright, hardworking, received high grades, and was genuinely liked by all who worked with him. He learned new material quickly. He had the best the university program could offer. Yet when it came time to address the travel logistics, the glaring inadequacies of the university education became conspicuous.
Our bright, youthful subject was determined to rush down to the dealership with his first payment as a co-op and purchase a new vehicle (sound familiar?). It was necessary to go to the white board, compute the gross and take home pay (thank you very much indeed, IRS), include living expenses. Next came the cost of car payments, insurance, maintenance, and the impact of this cash flow impediment on his finances during the quarters when he would be in school rather than working and earning a paycheck.
It took about four minutes for him to agree that Plan A was out and it was off to the used, economically oriented, car lot to conduct a search for a more appropriate transportation. (Epilogue: Our hero lived with his beloved clunker for a few years, saved his pennies after securing full time employment and establishing an orderly financial life, and eventually bought himself a shiny new BMW Z3 that he loved, adored, and pampered each night. He did not quite get to the principles described in The Millionaire Next Door (deep sigh). Alas, learning is a continuous activity).
The references I site in the reading list will be enough to inaugurate the journey into the self-education in the area of personal finance. Note that life-long learning and seeking other such materials is necessary for sustained success. Always be learning.
Interpersonal Skills
If it were not bad enough that you were likely deprived of any useful teachings of how to handle money in your long (and likely expensive) academic journey, you were also most likely equally deprived the finer arts of interpersonal skills as a formal part of your university education. Undergraduate adventures are largely a journey of individual effort. Few classes have team projects, and any form of collaboration for class projects or exam preparation is generally limited and typically done informally. There is little included in a university education to drive the evolution of interpersonal skills in a formal sense.
While rare, even those individuals with exceptionally low levels of interpersonal skills can pass through their university adventure unscathed with their lacking level of skill in this area intact. Universities either assume that you have such skills upon entering or assume that you will “figure it out own your own as you go” – it is not really the concern of the university program how, or even if, you develop this dimension.
Interpersonal skills are important for accomplishing what needs to be done in the work place. Contemporary environments have unprecedented complexity, and “getting things done” can not be achieved without the help of others. Don’t work or play well with others, and you may find yourself isolated in the corner of the sandbox.
These skills are also critical for long-term survivability in the market place. On average, about 80% of all jobs that one obtains are landed by leveraging personal contacts for introductions, information, or even hiring. Building your “network” as a resource for future employment is incredibly important now, as the average for an individual is to now have three distinct careers and over 20 jobs during one’s lifetime. These numbers are slightly dated as they reflect a profile from the 1990s. I should expect that these numbers are now higher as an era of “free agency” type of employment continues to emerge and fewer baby boomers are left in the work force with traditional careers that would otherwise drive the average lower.
What to do? Finishing school? Probably unrealistic. Training course? Much more viable, but not always available to all. A read of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies?” Sure. This and every other resource you can get your hands on to read.
Whenever you take a new job or join a new group, note that a practical application of the saying of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” is also in order. Observe the customs of the culture you are in, and determine how to best fit in with the natives. What are the taboos? Walking into the CEOs office unannounced, interrupting a meeting in progress, to spout off your latest pontifications is probably not a winner. This is an extreme example, but there are actions and words to avoid at all levels and these may not be what you expected when you entered the organization. You want to avoid career limiting moves.
On the topic of career limiting moves, note that there is a fundamental unfairness in this. One may spend years building a positive reputation, and it takes but one violation of the taboos to potentially permanently tarnish the reputation and quash all opportunities for advancement. (When this happens, typically it is best to search for a new place to be). It is not fair, but this is the law of the jungle, and one needs to observe it.
The common theme here is that people do not like you for the wonderful person you are and all of the wonderful things that you can do with your freshly minted university degree – they like you for the way that you make them “feel” when you are around them. This is the fundamental fact missed by many a graduate, and I see this frequently in Engineering majors, but I expect it exists in other professions (the medical field comes to mind in particular).
People want to work others that they like. If you are in the mob, the mantra is that you don’t want people to like you; you want people to respect you – or so say the TV serials. For legitimate business adventures requiring collaborative efforts, respect is not sufficient. Like is.
Work environments can be stressful at times, and people can become quite volatile without warning under stress. The very simple-minded model that I use is to look at every person as really two people: the one that is not under pressure, and the one that is under pressure. These are potentially two radically different people, and in this the concept of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is sometimes not far from the truth.
First, one must observe themselves and their actions – particularly under pressure. The folks that see you under pressure are likely to remember what you do in this state more so than what you do under normal circumstances. Again, unfair, but that is the way it is. Unleash a torrent of invectives, whether deserved or not, and that is the image folks will carry of you for years. Best to count to ten, take a deep breath, and pick a more civil approach.
The other perspective regarding the Jekyll and Hyde buried in most of us is what to do when someone else flips the sanity bit and goes into Hyde mode. The strategy that seems to work best is to not react. Hold your tongue and let the storm pass without doing anything to agitate it and risk becoming a target (if you were not the target already). Giving Mr. Hyde a piece of your mind is likely to be a fruitless adventure and merely escalate the episode. After Dr. Jekyll returns and some semblance of sanity restored, have a conversation about what is acceptable and what is not if such a dialog is necessary to establish norms for the future.
Another important point to remember is that at any given time if everyone in your workplace were evaluated psychologically, approximately 20-25% would be characterized as experiencing some level of insanity. (If it is not any of the people around you, then it must be you!) People do not isolate home from work, and issues at home such as divorce, illness within the family, disputes with the neighbors, substance addictions, lawsuits, adventures with the IRS, money issues, and a horde of other potential life issues may be present in any of your co-workers at any given time. These may contribute to triggering unpleasant behavior associated with the Hyde mode of operations.
(The remainder of this article is under construction)
The traits that got you to a certain level in your career may be holding you back from reaching the next level.
Personal Productivity Skills
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