What I Wish I Knew After College: Voce Nation Part 4

This is the fourth in our May series of roundups from Vocians, sharing their best advice and tips that they wish could have told their younger selves. Stay tuned for the last post in the series coming next week.

Bob Nelson, Senior Vice President

I wish I had known when I graduated that the best technology doesn’t win. Instead, it’s the best marketed technology that wins. Also, no one really cares what school you went to. Businesses want employees that produce results, and they don’t care where you learned how to be productive.

Randy Ksar, Vice President

After graduating from San Jose State University in 1999 (and now thinking back on it) I wish I knew two things: 1) How to work with integrated teams & 2) How to pitch an idea. First off, in college, the classes I was super excited about were in my business school yet the people I worked with were all biz majors. The reality is that you work with integrated teams ranging from engineering, sales, advertising, PR, marketing, and customer support. Those roles are real and unfortunately that type of cross-school projects never happened. I wish I was better prepared for that process and workflow. Second, pitching an idea to your manager or a big conference room meeting is intimidating. You’re nervous, you’ve prepared all night on your PowerPoint presentation and then you only get through 3 slides out of 20. Why didn’t anybody tell me that was going to happen? Pitching is key to survival. You have that big idea and you need to be prepared to have a 30-sec pitch just in case your in the elevator with the CEO.

Ed McClendon, Supervisor

I wish I knew (in 2004) the iPhone would revolutionize the mobile industry, and Apple stocks would grow to be as high as $95+ a share. I’m sure millions of other folks would agree with me.  In all seriousness, I wish I truly understood the saying “high risk, high reward,” meaning sometimes you have to take chances to end up where you want to be. After college, I took a position at an insurance company. After a couple of years, I didn’t see much growth, but I was afraid to start all over. Six years later, a wise friend said “If you’re not happy, do something about it. You’re still young.” I took his advice and began looking for a job in communications. Flash forward another six-years, I’m happy, I see growth in front of me and I’m so grateful for that conversation.

About the Author
Andy is responsible for developing and implementing social media and digital publishing programs for Voce clients.

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What I Wish I Knew After College: Voce Nation Part 3

This is the third in our May series of roundups from Vocians, sharing their best advice and tips that they wish could have told their younger selves. Stay tuned for the last post in the series coming next week.

Heather Brinckerhoff, Senior Client Executive

I wish I would have known that once you leave college you are 100% responsible for your own career. There are no teachers waiting to give you an extra week on an assignment and no one is out looking for opportunities for you. It is crucial that you learn how to ask for what you want and do so with confidence. 80% of the great opportunities that I’ve gotten in my career thus far were given to me simply because I asked for them. Developing confidence in yourself and the work you provide also helps those around you recognize your value; sometimes passion trumps knowledge. People can be taught just about anything, but passion is instilled in you. Figure out what you’re passionate about and go after it! The only thing holding you back from achieving your dreams is that little voice in your head telling you that you can’t.. so don’t listen (:

Sean Lenehan, Senior Client Executive

I wish I knew after college that while pluralism in thought, maintaining an open mind and being somewhat unsure of yourself is a really good thing, it shouldn’t come at the expense of confidence. Too many times in a college classroom, I heard fellow students (and myself) attach the phrase, ‘I don’t know’ to the beginning or end of their thoughts when they raised their hand or spoke up. It was an easy qualifier to add to protect yourself in case someone else thought you were wrong and that you and your idea could go wear a silly hat and sit alone facing the wall in the corner of the room. It’s true that some ideas are better than others, but those good ideas often start as one or more bad ideas. You should never be afraid to offer your thoughts – getting to something great is always an iterative process.

Ariel Rothbard, Client Executive

When I first joined the working world after college, I wish brought with me an inherent understanding of how to maintain a work-life balance. Of course I always heard people talking about it, but I realized I didn’t fully comprehend what “work-life balance” meant it until I began working 8+ hour days (where attendance is mandatory… unlike some of my college classes). After graduation, entering the workforce can come as a huge shock. At first you feel like your days become consumed with work, while personal activities — from cooking dinner to exercising to hanging out with friends — are only scattered in between. That’s why it’s important to make a concerted effort to establish a healthy balance between time you spend working and time you allocate to your personal life. I’ve learned that a work-life balance is key to being a happy and motivated employee.

About the Author
Andy is responsible for developing and implementing social media and digital publishing programs for Voce clients.

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What I Wished I Knew After College: Voce Nation Part 1

May is graduation season. As Chris Thilk so eloquently described it last week, that means another flock of graduates who “wrestled away from the safety and comfort of college life and expelled into the vast nothingness that’s known colloquially as ‘the real world’”.

We can all remember those days, when the bright-eyed enthusiasm about what the future may hold found a way to mix with the realities of questionable job prospects and looming bills to yield that weird feeling of, “well, I guess I’m an adult now.”

We can all probably also think about any number of nuggets of wisdom that that we wished we knew at that time of uncertainty, confusion and excitement. In fact, that’s exactly what we asked a group of Vocians. Here’s what they had to say:

Clint Gordy, Associate Client Executive

I wish I knew the importance of a good night’s sleep. In college, we are taught that all-nighters for studying and inconsistent sleep cycles are the norm. However, we are not taught that our bodies needs about 7-8 hours of sleep to function efficiently the next day. When I came into the workforce, I thought a 5 hour sleep cycle  would be enough to consistently get me through an 8 hour workday, and lets just say I learned very quickly that’s not sustainable. Remember: we spend an average of about a third of our lives sleeping, so it’s important to treat that time right so the other two thirds of our lives are to the fullest!

Elysia Nazareth, Supervisor

“What I wish I knew most after (and really during and before) college is that you can’t please everyone – and that’s OK. As hard as you might try, not everyone’s going to like you. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that’s true not only in social settings, but also in academic and professional arenas. Having spent countless hours wracking my brain, wondering ‘why?’ and dwelling on the basic principles of right, wrong and what’s ‘fair,’ I can honestly say that investing that time back into doing work that you’re proud of is much more gratifying. Shortly after I had that realization, I opened up a fortune cookie to find the quote below. Now, a solid 80 percent of the time, fortune cookies offer pretty terrible advice like, ‘A change of careers could be good for you.’ But this is one piece of advice I took to heart.”

Andie Rodriguez, Senior Client Executive

While I only graduated from college three years ago, I still feel like I wish I new a lot of things before joining the workforce. One of the hardest parts about starting a job immediately after graduating is that for a while, you will be youngest person in the office. I wish I knew that despite the fact I was barely the legal drinking age, I was empowered to own projects, communicate directly with my clients, and provide important counsel. It turned out, in the “real world,” age is just a number! Don’t ever feel like you’re too young to accomplish something.

Molly Wade, Supervisor

I wish I had known that I could be grateful for the opportunities I was getting at work while also taking ownership of my career path. Fresh out of school, I was thrilled that anyone would give me a job, not to mention a job where I had opportunities to own projects completely independently. I wanted to be appropriately grateful for the trust my boss put in me so early in my career. But being a young person in business, not to mention a young woman in business, I was terrified to speak up for myself. I waited way too long to ask for a promotion and to talk openly about what I did and did not want to do moving forward. I wish I had known you can do both – appreciate the chances you’re given while also taking the reigns of your career from Day One.

About the Author
Andy is responsible for developing and implementing social media and digital publishing programs for Voce clients.

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