No Shorts, Flip Flops, or Sunglasses: How to Get and Make the Most of Your First Real Job

By John Wasserman

From how to look your best to how to deal with rejection, it's all here in this breezy, fun tutorial on the essentials that will give you an edge when you head out to start your full-time career.

This is way more than your average, cookie-cutter book on how to write a résumé and find a job.

It’s a personal journey of discovery that I hope will inform, inspire, and empower. I’ve been sharing my journey for more than twenty years with small groups of college-aged men and women, showing them how to get a head start on their professional and business lives and have fun doing it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483541716

Book preview

NO SHORTS, FLIP-FLOPS,

OR SUNGLASSES

© 2013 by John Wasserman

All Rights Reserved

No Shorts, Flip-Flops, or Sunglasses: How To Get

And Make The Most Of Your First Real Job

Copyright © 2013 by John Wasserman

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All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions.

No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part, scanned, photocopied, recorded, distributed in any printed or electronic form, or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without express written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please support authors’ rights, and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials.

Copies are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the publisher.

Editorial, production, and publishing services provided by

Winans Kuenstler Publishing, LLC

93 East Court Street

Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901

[phone]

www.WKPublishing.com

Cover design by Whitney Cookman

First Edition

DEDICATION

To Gitana,

for your love and support;

and our children,

Jack and Anastasia,

who we hope will live their dreams

by helping others live theirs.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Author’s Note

Chapter 1: References A Pond Request

Make Your Mistakes Today

Suiting Up

Chapter 2: Résumania

Too Long

Too Many

Upside Down

The I-Résumé

Too Fancy

Objectionable Objectives

Too Sloppy

Too Clever

Fuzz-y Facts

Too Many Cooks

There Are No Rules

Chapter 3: No Shorts, Flip-Flop or Sunglasses

Combat Zone: The Interview

Like, You Know—Get Over ‘Em!

Questionable Questions

So! Tell me about yourself.

What’s this gap in your work history?

Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses.

Tell me an accomplishment you’re proud of and a mistake you made.

Why do you want to work for us?

Why should I offer you a position here?

Chapter 4: Getting Real

Out Of Bounds

Unplug Your Umbilical

Declaring Your Un-Dependence

Chapter 5: Chalking The Lines

Do Your Gaming Elsewhere

Chapter 6: The Party Stops Here

The Baby Chick Syndrome

Welcome To The Zoo

Chapter 7: Leadership

Fears, Expectations, Opportunities

Don’t Get A Room

Chapter 8: Connecting The Dots

Look, See, Notice

The Network You Already Have

Expectations And Motivations

Quiet Chris

Chapter 9: CUTCO & Vector

Appendix: Helpful Resources

Some Of My Favorite Books

Job Hunting, Résumés, Interviewing

10 Common Résumé Mistakes

25 Words To Never Put On A Résumé

Resources For Personal Money Management

Résumé Humor

A PORTION OF THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THIS BOOK WILL BE DONATED to support the local programs of Children’s Dyslexia Centers, Inc., a network of fifty nonprofit offices in thirteen states that provide tutoring and training services for familes with children affected by dyslexia, an inherited but treatable condition that affects how people learn to read, speak, and process numbers. Famous dyslexics include Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Leonardo DaVinci, and Walt Disney. Dyslexia affects about one in five, boys and girls equally, and if left untreated is the primary reason teenagers drop out of school, contributes to juvenile delinquency, and puts children at risk of underachieving their potential as adults. Early professional help greatly increases a child’s chances of living a normal, fully functional life. For more information, visit: ChildrensDyslexiaCenters.org.

PREFACE

About Pet Rocks

and Pop Rocks

Chances are you opened this book because you’re a college-aged man or woman, a member of the tribe known as the Millennial or Pop Rock generation, and you need a job. Maybe you just got the memo from Mom and Dad—members of the Baby Boom or Pet Rock generation—that’s it’s about time you got off the couch and earned some money of your own. Maybe you’re planning a vacation or need to pay tuition or buy a car. Maybe you just want some pocket cash to be able to buy your own clothes and go out with your friends on weekends.

You need a job, but you opened this book because you want something more than just a job. Sure, you could deliver pizzas, work on a landscape crew, run a register. But you sense there’s something more out there than just swapping time and labor for a few bucks. You want to learn, be challenged, maybe make some serious money, have some fun, and—most important of all—shape your own destiny.

You may also sense that Mom and Dad would like to be able to tell friends and family that you’re doing something more challenging than washing cars or flipping burgers.

If it sounds like I know what you’re thinking, I probably do. For most of the past two decades, I’ve been teaching young people like you how to prepare, look for, find, and make the most of their first real jobs—the ones that don’t require hair nets or rubber gloves. I’ve worked with thousands—the majority college students—teaching tactics and skills, from how to look their best to how to deal with rejection, the essentials that give them an edge when they’re ready to go out and start their full-time careers.

If I know what you’re thinking, it’s because I used to think it myself. Like you, I showed up for an interview one day at a small suburban office of a company that sells knives, looking for a job. I was a college student in north-central Pennsylvania in need of a few weeks’ work during my winter break.

I’d been a short-order cook in a scruffy, small-town bar, and I had a chance to be an operator on a skilift, except I didn’t know how to ski. My dad was in law enforcement—a game warden—and he had lined up a spot for me as a security guard and dispatcher for the campus police. For winter break, I wanted to try something different, and the pay was better.

By the end of the interview I felt something in my life had clicked into place. Like thousands before and since, I was excited about the products—beautifully crafted, made in America, guaranteed-for-life cooking tools. Having worked in a bar kitchen struggling with dull, cheap knives with busted handles, I had a special appreciation for the balance and workmanship. As a hunter, I had grown up knowing how important a good knife is in the woods.

The enthusiasm of the interviewer, who was just a couple of years older than I, was infectious. And the kind of money some of the kids were making was unheard of in my circle. It sounded like a fun way to earn some cash selling a useful product I could feel proud to be associated with, and a way to meet a bunch of new people who were my age and doing the same thing.

On weekends, I wouldn’t have to work the night shift with the campus police anymore, and I saw the opportunity to grow personally and professionally. When I graduated with my BS in business, what was I going to say in an interview if my only job experience was working as a dispatcher, short-order cook, or finishing dry wall?

"Well, I can make a mean