Starting Low, Hitting High
This guest post from Practical Tips for Young Urban Professionals, courtesy of Recruiting Blogswap, seems written to give impatient Gen Y-ers some food for thought.
A True Story of Climbing the Ranks
One Friday morning, an eager young student at Stanford University stood before Louis Janin. He was seeking part-time employment from Janin, who informed him, “All I need right now is a clerk-typist.”
“Fine,” the young man said eagerly “I’ll take the job.” Then he added, “But I can’t come back until Tuesday.” Janin agreed, and the next Tuesday the young man reported for work as scheduled.
Janin asked him, “Why couldn’t you come back until today?” The young man replied, “Because I had to rent a typewriter and learn how to use it.”
This zealous new typist was Herbert Hoover, whose can-do attitude eventually led him through the doors of White House.
But first it led him through worldwide travels working in the mining industry, including stints in Australia and China. As described by the Hoover Presidential Library:
Herbert Hoover’s big break came when he took a job as a typist with Louis Janin, an expert on western mining. Mr. Janin appointed Hoover assistant manager of the Steeple Mine at Carlisle, New Mexico, and later an investigator of hydraulic installations for gravel mines in Colorado. In the fall of 1896 Janin recommended Hoover for a position with the British mining firm of Bewick, Moreing and Company. They were looking for Americans skilled in gold-mining practices to work in western Australia.
A True Story of Youthful Impatience
A common observation of those involved in the hiring process is that college graduates attempting a quick entry into the yuppie’s world of work are too eager to start big.
I once interviewed an applicant who was a fresh graduate of a prestigious university and had been recommended by a friend of my boss. He was smart, cocky, and oozing with self-confidence — the kind of attitude my organization was looking for.
Preliminary interviews went well. But then he reached the final interview with me. After 5 minutes, he was out of my office — without a job offer.
The department manager, who had been eager to hire him, asked me why I had disagreed. I stood my ground and calmly told him that this candidate was looking for a supervisory job, and he was not willing to start at the department-staff level.
Further, though just a fresh college grad, he had asked for the salary we paid an assistant manager — and had done so even before I asked how much he was willing to accept, a step that normally comes only after a job offer. My colleague went back to his office embarrassed and dumbfounded.
Conventional Corporate Wisdom Still Applies
Simply put, in many organizations there is no way up but to begin from the entry level. Unless one has the willingness to start where deemed suited and learn new skills and knowledge along the way, one can never climb the corporate ladder.
While dreaming big is encouraged, taking short-cuts is abhorred. There are no short-cuts in the corporate life. Greatness begins from humble beginnings. Likewise, successful careers begin from entry level jobs.
To conclude, I quote Orison Swett Marden (an early American motivational writer, and very much a self-made man himself):
The sculptor will chip off all unnecessary material to set free the angel. Nature will chip and pound us remorselessly to bring out our possibilities. She will strip us of wealth, humble our pride, humiliate our ambition, let us down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand ways, if she can develop a little character. Everything must give way to that.
With that, suffice it to say: any entry level job or any task for that matter, when taken seriously and worked with heart and enthusiasm, can mold us into a better employee and eventually lead us to success.
By the way, Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933), was the son of a Quaker blacksmith born in an Iowa village in 1874, and raised in Oregon. He enrolled at Stanford University when it opened in 1891, graduating as a mining engineer, at which point he took the typist job that wound up truly opening doors for him. He brought to the Presidency an unparalleled reputation for public service as an engineer, administrator, and humanitarian.
Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.
We hear alot in the media about Gen Y entitlement but from what we have experience directly ourselves and from all the Gen U research that we have done – what this generation seems to want is very similar to other generations – a quality job and a career path. Of course there are probably individuals that are outside of the norm but isn’t that the case of every generation?