| Topic Name: |
Consulting Glass Ceilings |
| Message Name: |
Hmmm, well, despite the subtle shots at me... |
| Date Posted: |
01/29/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
take a deep breath kiddo. you have to remember that despite your entrepreneurial spirit and despite your work experience which is only 3 years, you are a rookie. your difficulty breaking through right now has NOTHING to do with your age. that is an excuse, an immature excuse. you're inablity to break in has to do with major lack of experience. i know you're 22 and you feel as if you've done a lot, but you really need an ego and reality check. there are people who are 30 with years of experience who are trying to break into consulting and i-banking. trust me, i know you feel as if you are extremely well qualified and more qualified than most, but trust me, you're probably not. until you check your ego at the door, people in interviewsd are going to look at you and think you;re a snot-nosed punk. i don;t blame you for being confident, or cocky, afterall, you've probably had lots of people tell you how great you are and how you're going to make it big, and you make a lot of money for a 22 year old. but a lot of people can do creative strategy, a lot of people have started their own businesses, alot of people haev entrepreneurial spirit. what do you bring to the table? do you have real experience? no. did you graduate from a top ten school with a 4.0? i don;t know, but am guessing no. are you humble? no. are you arrogant? yes. think long and hard about why you're not getting the jobs you want. and stop copping out with the age thing. it's just an excuse. good luck, kid. |
| Message: |
Your views are well-received. Actually, I have 4.5 years of experience. I started my company at 19, but I was doing contract web development as early as May 1996, as one of the first alum from NYU's Center for Advanced Technology. That was the same year the web became recognized as a viable business tool. So, in actuality, I've been involved in modern IT as long as anybody, so experience in eBusiness is not a problem for me, and rejecting me on grounds of "experience" isn't a particularly effective excuse
Where I will agree with you is my lack of "general real world" experience - though I've been working full-time in some capacity or another since I was 12, they aren't exactly things I'd be proud to place on a resume.
But I look at it this way - I'm not applying for executive or director positions. ok, so I don't have 10 years of experience, so what? I look for jobs that require experience that are reasonably within my grasp. These jobs for which I apply ask for between four and five years of experience in managing, planning, strategizing, etc. I have that. So I don't understand the pretense.
I'm certainly not arrogant, and I don't believe I come across that way. I think I have a somewhat aggressive interviewing style, but that's because I become defensive when I ask when I graduated and begin questioning the validity of my experiences, or worse, they don't ask many questions at all. It makes me feel as though they immediately made a decision the instant I come through the door. In more than a few cases, I've had to essentially interview myself, because they just wanted to get it over with. Can you truly say that's not an example of pre-judgment based solely on age?
I also understand and accept your point that I'm not the only person who has ever started a company, and is creative. But I'm one of only a few people who has done all of that and is applying for "lowly" positions like sales engineering or project management. Most of these other entrepreneurs apply for positions considerably higher than mine, so they are effectively removed from my playing field. I thought I was being humble by applying for project management positions and not demanding six figures, because I firmly believe I could do work more advanced than that, too. I realized that when I was at my last company as a project manager. It really wasn't challenging. I mean that honestly, and not with any spite or arrogance, and that's why I'm still applying for PM jobs.
I realize that one has to pay his/her dues in order to achieve long term success. But surely there's some kind of provision for those who have worked hard - and believe me, I've worked extremely hard over these past five years. Why shouldn't I be rewarded accordngly?
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