The Employable Graduate

I'm back!

After a leave of absence, I am finally back. (Back to uni, so back to blogging) Sorry to leave you all in the lurch, I have a few interesting articles coming out including some tricks on what your resume should and shouldn't look like. I hope you enjoy!

Free university education for all!

I hear a lot of people complaining that they can't afford college (especially people from the US, what the heck are you guys doing so wrong over there?). That's a lie. Everybody can afford a college/university education, what you can't afford is the degree that comes with it when you finish.

Confused?

Most universities now offer the majority of their undergraduate courses online for free.

Heres an incomplete list (please e-mail me or comment if I missed anything and I'll add it in) of universities offering free education!

Berkley webcasts/podcasts - Of the ones i've tried, this is probably my favorite. Berkley is a pretty amazing school and it shows in the quality of the lecturers. Also if you want the course notes, then make sure you watch the first 'introduction' lecturers, they almost always post the subject website along with any passwords you need. So if you are really keen, you can do the assignments and get the notes that the 'real' students are getting. (If you want a final exam, just sit the practice exams they post as your final exam.)

MIT Open Courseware (OCW)- The advantage of MIT is they provide you with all the lecture notes/assignments/exams you need. They have around 1,550 courses (this figure was based off 2006 numbers, It's probably closing in on 2,000 courses now.) I haven't really spent much time using MIT OCW, but i've heard pretty mixed reports. People are finding it hard to access the web casts (some times they are non existent) and a lot of the advice given by OCW is just to read set books and do the assignments. Which is O.K. but to me university education is more than that. This and this should help you find the video lectures you are after though.

Carnegie Mellon - I don't live in the US and I haven't heard of CM before nor used it's online education program, so it's hard for me to comment. Apparently it's ranked #21 as the best national university though (Source, US News and world report). I really like the interface on their main page though, it's easy to see what's what and I had no trouble navigating to find what I wanted. It looks like they have some interesting stuff like casual reasoning and logics and proof which is the type of content I can see a lot of self learners enjoying. I am going to try something in their economics department and see how it compares to my brick and mortar university.

Utah University - Again I know very little about Utah. Their layout is nice and neat and again its easy to find what you want, their isn't a lot there at the moment. Only a few teaser courses in each department, but I am sure if they get enough user demand this will shift. It looks as if all their courses are in the form of podcasts. Although I still can't figure out how to actually get any of the podcasts, so if anybody could gimme a hint that would be great.

Open learn - Open learn looks awesome. It's basically a university for adult education and distance learning (so they know what they are doing). All their courses are free, they are what all educators should be about, educating their students. Each course is broken down into neat little pieces, it tells you what you will learn from the course, how long it will take and so on. The best bit is how user focused it is, it allows user reviews (so if a course sucks, you are going to know about). Their is also user forums for each subject so if you are having difficulties you can talk to other students (or past students) and they can help you. This is what online education should be about, good material and then students teaching students. I am definitely going to do some OL courses in the future because I love everything about this place.

Here is a list of other sites I haven't tried/know nothing about (I plan to try at least two online courses every semester, so I hope to get around to reviewing these as soon as possible): John Hopkins, University of Washington, Notre Dame and Sofia.

What all of these sites are missing (apart from OL) is the most fundamental part of university; students interacting with other students. I am sure brick and mortar facilities will argue that this can't be done online, but they are liars. If you provided students with a chat program with web cams, they could surely organize their own tutorials (possibly with students who had previously done the course as tutors). Even forums which allowed the students to ask questions would be enough to provide that interaction.

Most of the courses require you to buy books as well. This is a cost, but there is a lot of ways to get books for free (this is usually because these books are out of copyright, if the book you are after isn't out of copyright then try and older edition. Usually the core concepts are the same in each edition but they might update sections/questions in order to sell more books). If the book is out of copyright, then it's ok to go ahead and look for it on one of the many peer to peer networks (i.e limewire or emule). Just remember if the book is still protected by copyright then it's illegal to download it, so please check before searching on a P2P network. BitTorrents are another option. If it's still protected you can always try your local library or state library.

Now, what you have to ask yourself is this. Am I going to college to learn? Or am I going to college to get that piece of paper that says I have learned?

I'd argue (in fact it's something I plan to post a lot about) that soon those pieces of paper will become largely worthless and employers will start evaluating employees on what they know, rather than where they learned it.

Update #1: I realise most of these aren't full courses (i.e, with most of them they only provide broad topics rather than third year specialized taxation courses). I'd argue that courses like these will be added, but they have to get the broad stuff done first because it has the most appeal. (It's not that hard to put a tape recorder in each lecture and post these to the net. In fact most universities do this now.)

Update #2: Yale, Oxford and Stanford used to have an online education system called AllLearn.Org during the first dotcom boom. Apparently it folded and they all lost a heap of money when the bubble burst. That's a shame, because I am not sure how even if they tried really hard they could have produced a poor experience for users. (Even if everything sucked, the lecturers should have shined). It's a shame these universities view education as a business, profit and loss statements shouldn't matter. Read about what happened here.

Don't settle for less.

Most of my friends have jobs and are at University, a few of them are doing trade apprenticeships or TAFE. Recently I was speaking to one of my female friends who works at a local cafe, she was whining about how her pay sucked and that she wasn't learning anything relevant to what she wanted to do in life (shes studying law).

I told her to quit her job and find something more suitable like clerical work at a local law office or something similar. She looked at me like I was a mad man who had a shank and smoked crack out of a light bulb.

I told her that there was absolutely no point in working a job with bad pay and no future prospects (it's ok to earn $1 an hr if its going to lead to something you love with reasonable pay). She agreed with me and then I asked her when she was going to quit.

"I don't know, I'll probably line up another job first."
"When are you going to do that? Don't you have Uni Monday-Wednesday and then work Thursday-Friday? Most places do their interviews during the week between 9-5."
"I guess I am just to busy to find something better then. I'll just stick it out at the cafe until I can find some time to look for something better"

She is never going to leave the cafe, until maybe she finishes her degree and then she will have trouble finding work because she has no relevant experience. She gets paid a measly $10 an hour + tips (Australians don't tip much, so she might get an extra dollar or two an hour more). I did some research into the type of work she wants to be doing and the average pay is about $18 and its considered part time work so you get super and holiday hours (this adds on average an extra 20% onto your salary).

She might be taking the 'safe' option by not quitting her job and having to take out a loan to pay her bills, but in the long run she is selling herself short. Really short.


Lets do the math. She is in her second year of university out of four and works 16 hours a week. That means she is going to work another 1664 hours (16*52*2) before she graduates (Actually, its more because she has just started second year, but lets be lenient).  If she got a job at a law firm doing clerical work then she would be getting an additional $6 per hour. This is taking into account the maximum she would be getting in tips and not including the super and holiday pay from the law firm job. Thats $9984 she is missing out on by not taking a risk. Add the super and holiday pay and you get $11980.4 ($9984 + (9984 * 0.2)). Easily enough for a deposit on your first house, or an extremely nice holiday.

None of those figures include the experience she will get from working there either, she'll find it easy to get a job once she finishes up her degree and will most likely be able to land a higher starting salary because of it.

Not taking a risk might seem like the safe option, but in the long run the only thing you are doing is selling yourself short. If you aren't doing what you love, take a risk and see where you end up. If at the end of the day you can't find anything, there are plenty of local cafes around that are always hiring and if that fails I hear McDonald's is a nice place to work this time of year.

How to give a great presentation

As part of our assessment for human resource management we have had to give a presentation on different aspects (i.e benefits of offering paid maternity leave). The talks so far have been lack luster at best, with students not being able to answer questions directly relating to their topic, not speaking clearly and miss using slides.

Here are my five key tips:

Know your speech back to front - Seriously there is no excuse for not practicing a speech or talk at least 5 - 10 times. If you don't know what you are saying, you will mumble and constantly look at your cue cards. If you are looking at your cards, you can't look at people in the eye and they will soon lose interest. It's also next to impossible to project your voice when your head is facing towards your hands.

Know your topic better than your speech - Don't just spend all your time learning your speech, you need to understand what you are talking about. Otherwise it will show. If you are giving a speech on web 2.0 then emerge yourself in everything web 2.0. Then when it comes time to construct your speech you will be able to give some true insight. Also you are less likely to 'lose your way' when you actually know what you are talking about. No more mumbling looking through your scrappy notes for where you are up to.

Give everybody a copy of the presentation after the speech - If you give it to them before hand, they won't listen to you and they will just read the hand out. If you don't give them a copy of it at all, they will spend the whole time scribbling down notes and not listening to you.

Keep your slides short/use pictures - Slides/powerpoints are supposed to give the audience an alternate way to see your message. For example if you are talking about the devastating effects of oil spills, use a photo on your slide. Please please please don't put huge amounts of text on your slides, the audience will read them rather than listening to you. Keep it to a maximum of three points per slide.

Keep it short and allow for lots of question time - You need to keep your presentation short so you don't overload your audience with information. If it goes to long you run the risk of them not retaining any of your content at all. Also you need to allow for plenty of Q&A time, the best rule of thumb is 1/4th of alloted presentation time should be kept for Q&A.


Bonus: Read more about great presenting skills here (Guy Kawasaki) and this (Seth Godin) if you want to be a great audience member.

What not to do in a job interview.

Recently I've been going to lots of job interviews (from the interviewer and interviewee side of things). I keep on seeing the same mistakes being made over and over again. Heres a list of things not to do:

• If it's a group interview, don't ask lots of pointless questions. - I understand that you need to get your 'voice' across in a group interview, but asking lots of pointless questions isn't the way to do it. The best way is to listen to what everybody else is saying and then ask a question which is both intelligent and relevant. Make sure you doing all your 'networking' with your future employer during the interview, not afterwards. (I.e, don't go up to the person after the interview and start asking questions.)

• When you are waiting for your interview, don't pretend to talk on your phone. - I don't know if this is some new phenomena or what. When i've been waiting for my interview to start on two occasions people have been talking on their phones and then the phones have clearly rung. WHY WOULD YOU PRETEND TO BE TALKING TO SOMEBODY? (This is happening heaps on public transport as well. Somebody needs to make a website about it.) In fact, don't bring your phone to a job interview (if you bring it, just turn it off during the whole process. Please.) If it rings during your interview, you're not getting the job.

• If you have something in common with the interviewer, don't overplay it. - Often people find out they have something in common with the interviewer (i.e, they went to the same school or they know a family friend). Bring it up once. ONCE. Don't keep going on and on about it. Somebody who goes to my university applied for a job with us recently and he continually talked about how cool it was we went to the same university, over and over again. Needless to say, this guy is still looking for work.

• You can't overdress - A lot of people under dress for job interviews because they don't want to look stupid. You can never dress up to much for a job interview (this isn't entirely true, don't wear a three piece tux to a gardening job). My general rule of thumb is to dress one level above the job you are going for. There are four main types of jobs. T-shirt and jeans/slacks, shirt and pants, shirt with tie and pants and shirt with tie, coat and pants. So if you are going for a t-shirt job wear a shirt and pants, if you are going for a shirt and pants job put on a tie. If worst comes and to worst and they call you on it "What's with the pants and tie? We wear casual dress here!" Just say you came from somewhere else (I.e, your current job, funeral or wedding.)

• Don't over orchestrate your answers - I know a lot of people will disagree with us, but don't over plan answers to common questions. For example "What do you want to be doing in five years time?" It's a good idea to have a rough idea of how you will answer these type of questions, but you can spot somebody who has written down an answer a mile way. This backfires on you in two ways. The first being that it makes you look like you've done heaps of job interviews before. Nobody wants to hire the dud nobody else is hiring. The second part of the reason interviewers ask these questions is to see how employees react on their feet. If it looks like you pre-planned your answers then we have to ask even more odd questions to see you react on your feet. One time somebody had pre-planned all the questions I asked (well 90% of them) in the end I asked him what type of food would he be and he freaked out and said a pear then proceed to list all the good things about pears.

• Relax - It's a job interview. Not judgment day. Most of the time the first interview is set up so your prospective employee can ensure you aren't a freak. If you are relaxed, it'll show and you are more likely to get a call back.

Post graduate studies.

If you are looking to do post graduate studies any time in the future. I can highly recommend JASON (joint academic scholarship online network). Basically it allows you to search for scholarships based on things such as your area of study, location and scholarship type (living allowance, travel and fees).

I'd like to see a similar system set up for under grads, because scholarships for under graduate studies in Australia are extremely difficult to find. (My university has weird conditions as well, some scholarships are given out to students who top the class in first year economic subjects.)

I am not sure what the US or UK equivalent is, but you can use the JASON site to see overseas opportunities (they are usually reserved for Australian or traveling students though.)

Build your references.

One thing most students forget about when they are studying is the importance of references. Once you finish your degree, you are going to try  and find more permanent work . A good (or bad) reference can literally make or break your job application.

Most graduate programs (see ANZ) require at least three references. Because of this you need to start thinking about your references long before you graduate.

Here are some tips on building your references:

• Volunteer somewhere - not for profits rely on volunteers, they will be more than happy to give you a written reference and their contact details for helping out. Plus you get to feel good about yourself. It reflects positively on your character as a worker.
• Internships - Getting yourself an internship is by far the best way to score yourself an awesome reference. It gets you work experience in an industry you are interested in (unless you got an internship at the local coffee hut when you are interested in being an investment banker).
• University/college - At the start of each semester I always make contact with all of my lecturers (usually I ask them to clarify something I don't understand). Most students will only make contact with their lecturer if they need something (an extension or help with exam study). If you make contact early and often you are more likely to get help when you need it and if you do well in the subject you might be able to get a reference from them.
• Minimum wage jobs (It doesn't have to be a minimum wage job, but thats what most students are stuck with). - If you work hard and do your job properly, most managers at McJobs will be happy to give you a reference. Try and help them out when they need it most (work Christmas eve one year). They are more likely to give you a glowing reference.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Don't ask family members or friends
• Make sure you ask before citing somebody as a reference
• Don't ask somebody unless you are sure they will give you a positive review
• Only ask people who know you well (people you did work experience with in year ten aren't the right people to ask)
• Try to spread your references. (For example, don't have three work related references. Try to get an academic reference like a lecturer.)

I'll be writing a lot more about the importance of references. Where I currently work I am sometimes involved in hiring and recruiting, I rarely read resumes. (Mostly because they are filled with dirty dirty lies.) I skip straight to the references and see what people have to say about the person.

How to ask for a pay rise.

Recently I decided that I deserved a pay rise. I've been working in my current job for 7 months now and I am actively involved in training new staff, covering shifts and variety of other minor responsibilities.

I scourged the internet to find some information on how to best negotiate for a pay rise. Most of the information was bogus or focused on managerial salaries. (I.e 100,000+) Because of this it related to stock options, performance pay and

Heres my list of tips on how to get your next pay raise at your 'dead end' job.

1). Do it in writing. - This shows that you are able to use a computer, spell properly and it also gives your boss time to think through your arguments. Most young people also struggle with public speaking so it's likely you will forget your main points if you do this verbally. You are also more likely to receive any questions they might have in written form also, this allows you time to 'script' appropriate responses rather than doing them on the fly.

2). Make it formal - If you don't know how to write a formal letter, then read this. Even if you and your boss are 'friends' they will know that you are serious about a raise if you put some effort into it. It also shows that you are able to construct an argument and  that you have some level of intelligence. Your boss properly has a boss as well, they might need authority from their boss to grant the pay rise. They will not forward a letter that reads "yo will, i fink i am a really good worker, can i have a pay raise?".

3). Outline why you deserve a pay raise - Why do you deserve a pay raise? If you can't answer this, don't bother writing a letter I guarantee you won't get it. Talk about things which you excel at, back it up with anecdotes. Also talk about things which you do that are above and beyond your job description. (For example, I regularly work unpaid over time to help the store out.)

4). Don't threaten to quit - If you make it seem like you will quit if you don't get the raise, you won't get it. People in authority don't respond to threats because it undermines their position. Even if you plan to quit. Don't tell them that. I can't stress this enough, don't even hint at it. Managers hate this sort of stuff.

5). Don't ask for a pay raise when things are in the shitter -  If somebody has just quit, now is not the time to ask for a raise. If profits are down, don't ask. If the boss just got dumped, don't ask. Ask when everybody is happy, when the store is running smoothly. That way management has time to read your arguments and respond appropriately, if they have other things on their plate then your raise is going into the bin.

6). Try to outline how a pay raise saves money - That's right, giving people raises can save money. How? If somebody gets a raise then they are more likely to become more loyal to a business. Loyalty saves money because it results in lower staff turn over. Lower staff turn over reduces recruiting and training costs as well as stopping knowledge from leaving the business. (I.e I am might not be trained to do XY, but since i've been working at my job for E months I am able to provide better customer service in relation to XY.) Find some facts and figures about staff turn over, your boss will be impressed that you can find this information.

7). Give them time - Finish the letter with something along the lines of "I know you will need time to think through this decision, if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me". Add your contact information even if they have it. (It saves them from having to find it.) Make sure you stress that this decision doesn't have to be made today, tomorrow or even next week.

8). Don't go ape if you don't get it - If you don't get your raise, breathe deeply and assess your options. If you really do deserve one, chances are somebody is willing to pay you more than you are getting paid somewhere else. Look for other work, keep doing your job to the best of your ability. You never want to leave your old employer with a bad taste in their mouth, because you need every reference you can get your hands on. Most graduate programs ask for three work related references and one or two character references (which should be provided by an employer, co-worker, tutor or lecturer). They will also often look at your work history and contact all of your previous employers, if you don't list work because of a bad reference they will wonder why you weren't working for 12 months.

It's time for a blog roll!

For those of you who don't know what a blog-roll is, it's a "..collection of links to other weblogs".

These are the blogs that I read daily and have inspired me to start my own blog. If you haven't checked any of them out before, then give them a try. You'll end up adding them to your RSS feed. I (almost) guarantee it.

Please note, there is no particular order here. Check them all out.

Seth Godin (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog) - Seth is the best-selling writer of books such as "Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable".  His blog is updated regularly (at least once a day during the week, often times more) . The best bit of this blog is the way he presents new ideas (often to do with marketing), but rather than giving you the full idea he'll give you 99% and let you figure out the rest for yourself. While this sounds annoying it's not. By leaving out the 1% he forces you to think it through yourself. This not only makes you feel as if the idea is yours (you figured out the 1% he didn't!) it also helps to reinforce the idea in your head. If you've never read a marketing blog before, this is the place to start. I got his book Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas from my Aunt and Uncle for Christmas and since then i've read his whole back catalogue of blog posts and all his books.

A VC - Fred (http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/) - This is the first blog I ever read by somebody in the VC (venture capital) industry. While Fred is in one of the most interesting industries in the world, he rarely blogs about it. Thankfully his taste in music more than makes up for it, his play list often reads something like this; The Shins, Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse. While our music tastes are extremely similar (those are some of my favorite bands at the moment), he has a lot of interesting things to say; About the VC community, VC itself and even products/services he has invested in. (Don't worry, he is very clear when he has a vested interest in something). He also has a knack of posting things which I've been looking for. An example of this was a video explanation of what RSS is. If you're not in the know go watch this video at Fred's site. Once you've watched that, see if you can subscribe to my RSS feed. (Yay, my first shameless self promotion, I am so proud.)

ProBlogger Blog Tips (http://www.problogger.net/) - Darren Rowse - This blog is all about how to make your blog better and how to monetize it. With other 19,000 RSS subscribers, I am thinking this guy knows what he is talking about. His subscriber base really helps Darren, because of it he can post about new technology (or old) and undoubtedly one of his readers will have used the product/service and will be able to provide some statistics for you. He also road tests a lot of the products/services himself then invites readers to compare results. But the site isn't solely concerned about making money, it's about making your blog better for readers (which in the end will increase your ad revenue, so I guess it is all about the money.) I've gotten a lot of my ideas from him and look forward to testing out more of what he has to say. If you are thinking about starting a blog yourself (you should), check it out.

Guy Kawasaki - (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/) - Another blog by a VC. He probably posts less about VC than Fred, but he is my go-to guy when I want a book to read. He recommended 'Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days" and it's by far the best book I've read all year. Buy it, borrow it, steal it (don't steal it, stealing is bad.) do whatever you have to do to get a copy of this book. Without Guy I wouldn't have read that book, so he is the man. When he does post about VC, he does an awesome job of it. Check out this and this to see what I am talking about. Also if you don't know how to give a proper power point presentation read this (I am talking to you, lecturer from economics of the internet, size 6 font isn't cool.)

Last but not least: 

ViolentAcres (http://www.violentacres.com/) - Completely different to everything else I've posted about. This site is kind of like maddox. Except that it's from a woman's point of view. It's like she's constantly  PMSing and in heat, thats the only way I can describe it. While you might question the education value of this blog, there is some it's just...sparse. For example this  post about the customer not always being right made me really think about the value and importance we put on the customer and not on our own staff.

Thanks for reading my first post, feel free to add your own blog roll in the comments and I'll be sure to check them out. Sorry for the link overload as well, sometimes I go into a link frenzy. Thanks to typepad for making this whole process extremely easy. You can get a 30-day trial with them at typepad.com and then pay as little as $5 a month.