Starting out on the right foot

Princeton is a prime recruiting ground for all of the most prestigious Wall Street, management consulting and other types of firms that offer the most sought after jobs. Even beyond campus recruiting, the Princeton badge is a powerful currency that buys access to the interviewing rooms of many companies. For seniors, the news on the job market is good. Despite some uncertainty in the direction of the economy, recruitment is likely to remain strong in 2007. However, while the Princeton degree helps get you in the door, you should know that its face value falls to zero once you begin your career — of course, that is not to undermine the worth of the actual development you will have undergone while at Princeton. Nevertheless, even if you are a superstar on campus — captain of this varsity team, president of that society or a Summa Cum Laude recipient — once you start your job, the slate is wiped clean.

What do matter are these three things: attitude, skill development and organizational smarts. Of the three, at least in your first few years, the most important is your attitude. OK, a great attitude and poor skills will not get you far. But let's be realistic. Most jobs are not that intellectually demanding. The intellectual rigor of your coursework at Princeton far exceeds what you will encounter in your career unless you take on a specialized role. Of course, you will need to learn new skills, and it is important that you become more than proficient, but few get hired into positions without the basic level of intelligence required. So when I say that attitude is the most important factor, it is because it is the most important differentiator of those who perform best. There are many reasons why this is the case, but essentially it boils down to this simple fact — careers are about people, and those with great attitudes tend to do well around people.

After 10 years of professional life encompassing two investment banks and one management-consulting firm (none other than McKinsey, I confess), I have been amazed at how very wrong even the smartest of new recruits get their attitude. As I see it, these are the three biggest mistakes: not putting in the demanding hours to get the job done well and on time, bitching and moaning about the unfairness of things and simple arrogance. This last one, arrogance, is important for Princeton students to know about, as it is often the most capable individuals who get this one wrong, as they feel that the emblem of their capability, their academic pedigree, affords them a sense of entitlement.

The other mistake that surprises me is how ordinarily smart people, when it comes to understanding how organizations work, just do not get it. Here is a real example — a young Harvard graduate in a meeting full of Managing Directors not only decided that he deserved as much "airtime" on the topic at hand as his most senior colleagues, but also thought that he was the person, with his dazzling intellect, to convince them of their erroneous reasoning. I will leave you to figure out how well that individual fared. Now, as much as one should uphold the championing of truth and honor, you have to recognise certain boundaries in organizational contexts. Going toe-to-toe with a superior on a difference of opinion is going to have only one outcome — a bad one — for you. The reality of starting off a career is that you are at the bottom of the pile, and no matter what the recruiters may tell you about their looking for leaders, you will have to do a heck of a lot more following than leading in your first few years, and you had better get used to that notion.

Which leaves the critical skills that you must master. Professionalism — or what I would more specifically define as adopting a systematic approach, research and analytic skills, communication skills and project and people management skills. Master these four broad areas, and there are few jobs that will trouble you from a skills perspective.

It still strikes me as odd that so much emphasis is placed on finding that first job and yet so little thought is put into what is required to succeed once you begin. Walk into the U-Store or the Office of Career Services and look at the lexicon of literature on resume writing, interviewing or choosing the right career. Then see if you can find anything which sets out what you have to do once you actually begin your job. There is little available. I have tried to redress this balance by sharing the experience of hundreds of high-performing executives from firms where a good number of you will start your own careers, but ultimately, it is up to you. Hugh Karseras '95 is the author of "From new recruit to high flyer: No-Nonsense Advice on How to Fast Track your Career." He may be reached at hkarseras@mba2001.hbs.edu.