Resume Tips for Nurses

by Kim Isaacs
Monster Resume Expert 

The US Department of Labor projects much faster-than-average job growth for nurses through 2014. That means as employers seek to recruit and retain talented nursing staff, nurses will enjoy improved salaries, benefits and working conditions.

You might be thinking: "Oh good, since employers will be clamoring to hire me, I don't have to worry about my resume."

Wrong.

A winning resume will you get noticed for the best positions and can facilitate a promotion from your current position. A strong resume can also help you command and negotiate a higher salary. Always put your best foot forward on your resume to attract the most desirable job offers. Follow these tips to make your nursing resume shine and review this sample resume for an entry-level nurse.

Present Your Value Proposition in a Qualifications Summary

Lead your resume with a qualifications summary that provides an overview of the value you bring to the table. Paint a picture of what you have to offer by including a narrative statement of your goal, specialty area, level of experience and any other top credentials. In the Monster Resume Builder, use the Career Objective field to present your summary.

Add an Expertise Section

A bulleted list of your proficiency areas incorporates important keywords into your resume (so you're found in an electronic search) and gives hiring managers a snapshot of your capabilities. Your expertise (or Key Skills if you're an entry-level candidate and haven't yet developed expertise) could be nursing specialty areas (e.g., pediatrics, obstetrics) or skills (JCAHO standards/compliance, medication administration, case management). On your Monster resume, use the Skills section to present your areas of expertise.

Detail Your Nursing Experience

Hiring managers want to understand the scope of your experience so they can see if you're a good match for the job opening. When describing your nursing experience, write about the type of facility (such as acute care, outpatient, rehabilitation), your caseload and area of specialization. Entry-level nurses with limited work experience should provide details of their unpaid work/clinical rotations/practicums.

Demonstrate You're a Top Performer

Your experience will be stronger if you include your contributions to each of your employers. Think about how you went above and beyond your job duties to make a positive contribution to your employer, patients, families and the community. Did you serve on any boards or committees? Did you help reorganize or launch new facilities or services? Did you provide training for patients and their families? Did you promote health and well-being by providing free community healthcare seminars? Were you known for your strong patient-advocacy skills? Did you help your employer pass an audit or achieve accreditation? Did you train and orient new employees? By providing details about your accomplishments, you're showing potential employers that you would be a valuable asset to their team.

Focus on Your Related Experience If You're Returning to Nursing

If you are returning to the field after an absence, target your resume to nursing while deemphasizing unrelated work. One way to handle this dilemma is to divide your experience into two sections. Call the first Nursing Experience and the second Additional Work Experience. This strategy allows you to bring your older, related work to the forefront of your resume. In the Monster Resume Builder, use the regular Work Experience section for your nursing experience and the Additional Information section to briefly mention your other positions.

Pick the Right Format If You're Changing Careers

If you're a career changer and your previous experience is completely unrelated to nursing, you might require a functional resume format. This style allows you to emphasize your related skills and training, while downplaying your work history.

Highlight Academic Achievements and Nursing Licenses

In your Education section, mention any academic honors, scholarships and fellowships. New grads should consider including their GPA (if impressive) and related courses. Experienced nurses may decide to briefly mention their clinical rotations in the Education section. Licensure fits nicely in the Education section -- include the state where you are licensed and the date achieved. For privacy reasons, avoid including the actual number; employers will ask for a copy of your license later in the hiring process.

The 5 biggest Job Interview Mistakes You Could Possibly Make

By Hannah Hamilton

Monster Contributing Writer

 

Congratulations! You’ve gotten an interview for that job you want. The next step is to ace it and get closer to getting hired. To do that, you’ll want to avoid making one -- or more -- of these five big job interview mistakes.

Criticizing a Previous Employer

 

Putting down the company you’re trying to leave or one you’ve worked for in the past gives off the impression you’re a negative person who can’t let go of the past. It also may make people wonder what you’d say about their company if they hire you.

 

Also, “it's not a good sign if you're saying really mean things about your old boss,” says Jacob Shriar, a growth manager at Officevibe. “It doesn't make you look good.”

Missing Opportunities to Prove Yourself

 

Interviewers will ask questions that give you the chance to demonstrate your qualifications and show you have what it takes to do the job. “Failure to answer questions with ESR (Example, Specifics, Results) responses,” is a failure to make the most of the interview, says Hank Boyer, president and CEO of Boyer Management Group.

 

“Most questions offer you the opportunity in your answer to provide the interviewer with specific, relevant examples of you accomplishing some type of measurable result that benefited the employer,” says Boyer. “This requires you to have done your homework ahead of time, and to accurately portray what happened, so that when the employer verifies your story with prior employers, it matches what you said.”

 

Providing the Wrong Recommendations

 

When you first hit the job market, it’s easy to think you don’t have any connections who could serve as professional recommendations. The answer is not to use your mom, your uncle or some other personal contact as a reference.

 

“When graduating from high school or college one thinks they don't know anyone and therefore don't have references they can use,” says Carolyn R. Owens, founder and president of Infinity Coaching. “They decide to bring to the interview a letter from their parents stating how great of a son or daughter they are; this does not go over well with hiring managers and the candidate is not taken seriously.”

 

Setting Yourself Up to Fail on Social Media

 

Social media is part of the process companies use to vet prospective employees these days. Before you walk into an interview, there’s a good chance your prospective employer is looking at your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, Google +, and other social media accounts. If they don’t like what they see, your interview may be doomed.

 

“Posting on social media sites how you have interviewed countlessly unsuccessfully or a picture of you partying the night before an interview,” says career coach Chantay Bridges. “This is not what a potential employer wants to see” and it’s not doing you any favors.

 

Bringing Children Along

 

This may seem obvious, but career coach Jill MacFadyen says she once saw a “man [arrive] for the interview with a toddler. He had on a leather jacket. The toddler had no socks and no jacket, and it was cold.”

 

The leather jacket and the toddler weren’t the biggest problems, though. “In general, big mistakes are not showcasing how you meet the company needs,” says MacFayden. If you show up late, improperly dressed, without having done research, or even with a child in tow, you’re showing the company exactly why they don’t need you instead of what they could gain by accepting you for the position.

10 Timeless Interviewing Rules To Follow

Ten Interviewing Rules

by Carole Martin
Monster Contributing Writer

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In the current job market, you'd better have your act together, or you won't stand a chance against the competition. Check yourself on these 10 basic points before you go on that all-important interview.

Look Sharp
Before the interview, select your outfit. Depending on the industry and position, get out your best duds and check them over for spots and wrinkles. Even if the company has a casual environment, you don't want to look like you slept in your clothes. Above all, dress for confidence. If you feel good, others will respond to you accordingly.

Be on Time
Never arrive late to an interview. Allow extra time to arrive early in the vicinity, allowing for factors like getting lost. Enter the building 10 to 15 minutes before the interview.

Do Your Research
Researching the company before the interview and learning as much as possible about its services, products, customers and competition will give you an edge in understanding and addressing the company's needs. The more you know about the company and what it stands for, the better chance you have of selling yourself. You also should find out about the company's culture to gain insight into your potential happiness on the job.

Be Prepared
Bring along a folder containing extra copies of your resume, a copy of your references and paper to take notes. You should also have questions prepared to ask at the end of the interview. For extra assurance, print a copy of Monster's handy Interview Planner.

Show Enthusiasm
A firm handshake and plenty of eye contact demonstrate confidence. Speak distinctly in a confident voice, even though you may feel shaky.

Listen
One of the most neglected interviewing skills is listening. Make sure you are not only listening, but also reading between the lines. Sometimes what is not said is just as important as what is said.

Answer the Question Asked
Candidates often don't think about whether or not they actually are answering the questions asked by their interviewers. Make sure you understand what is being asked, and get further clarification if you are unsure.

Give Specific Examples
One specific example of your background is worth 50 vague stories. Prepare your stories before the interview. Give examples that highlight your successes and uniqueness. Your past behavior can indicate your future performance.

Ask Questions
Many interviewees don't ask questions and miss the opportunity to find out valuable information. Your questions indicate your interest in the company or job.

Follow Up
Whether it's through email or regular mail, the follow-up is one more chance to remind the interviewer of all the valuable traits you bring to the job and company. You don't want to miss this last chance to market yourself.

It is important to appear confident and cool for the interview. One way to do that is to be prepared to the best of your ability. There is no way to predict what an interview holds, but by following these important rules you will feel less anxious and will be ready to positively present yourself.

5 Ways Your Resume Makes You Look Out Of Touch

By Catherine Conlan

Monster Contributing Writer

 

If you’ve been in the workforce for a while and are thinking of looking for a new job, you’ll want to make sure that your resume doesn’t make you look out of touch with today’s workplace. Age discrimination is, of course, illegal, but it’s still a good idea to make sure your resume gives the right impression about your skills and experience.

 

Scott Vedder, author of “Signs of a Great Resume,” says he once saw a job candidate whose resume made him look completely out of touch: It listed the names and Social Security numbers of each of his six grandchildren. “It’s never appropriate to talk about your age or family status on a resume,” Vedder says. “And it’s certainly not appropriate to send a recruiter your family members’ Social Security numbers!”

 

You probably haven’t made that mistake, but consider these other ways your resume may be making you look out of touch.

An epic work history

 

There’s no getting around it: If you’ve been in the workforce a long time, you’ll have a long work history. Keep in mind, though, that you don’t need to list every job you’ve ever had — especially early ones that are no longer relevant.

 

Frame your experience as a benefit: “Recruiters frequently look for candidates with a proven history of success,” Vedder says. “Look for hints in the job posting which indicate a company is searching for a ‘seasoned executive,’ a ‘mature leader,’ or an ‘established professional’ or for jobs which require ‘10+ years’ experience. Then give specific examples to explain why your background makes you a great fit for the job.”

Your social media presence

 

For most jobs it’s OK to leave social media information off your resume, but hiring managers may still search for you online to get more information. You want them to find a strong presence that makes you look dynamic and engaged. “Even if your Facebook or Google+ profile is set to private, people can still see your main profile picture,” says Erik Bowitz of Resume Genius.

 

Make a great impression by choosing an attractive, professional photo. If you decide to be a little more public with your social media, make posts that show you’re plugged in to your industry by sharing timely articles and interesting news.

Your file format

 

Even the type of file you send your resume as can make you look out of touch. If you're using an outdated form of Microsoft Word on an old computer and send your resume as a .doc file, you risk pegging yourself as out-of-touch, Bowitz says.

 

Beyond keeping your own tools up to date, there’s no universal “right way” here. Your best bet is to find out which format is best for each employer and their application system and and use that.

Outdated phrases

 

Resumes have evolved over the years and things like “references available upon request” can make you look less than current, says Alyssa Gelbard of Resume Strategists Inc. “Another giveaway is if they have a separate ‘Interests’ section that includes things like travel, cooking and reading.”

 

Cut the fat from your resume and keep it focused on skills and experience. In addition, highlight the value you can bring to the company.

Signs of being stuck in a tech time warp

 

Not having a personal email address is a mistake, says Tony Palm, president of Military Professionals LLC.He adds that listing proficiency in Microsoft Office, “the Web,” or other standard office technology don’t make you look current.

 

Brush up on your tech terminology to ensure you’re making the right impression. Consider a class that can help you get up to speed on what you need to know.

Do Women Make Better Managers Than Men?

Gallup poll reports female managers engage their employees more than their male peers

Kristen FelicettiDec 15th 2014 9:49AM

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Lean in, ladies. According to a recent Gallup survey, employees who work for female managers in the U.S. are more engaged than those who work for male managers. Female employees who work for female managers are the most engaged, at 35 percent. Female employees who work for a male manager make up 31 percent. At 29 percent are male employees who work for female managers. Male employees who report to male managers are the least engaged, at 25 percent.

Female managers themselves also tend to be more engaged than their male counterparts, with Gallup finding that 41 percent of female managers were engaged at work, compared to 35 percent of male managers. This applies to female managers of every working-age generation, including ones who have children in their household. Managers who are more engaged tend to be more likely to contribute to their workplace's current and future success.

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How does Gallup measure employee engagement? They use the Q12, a 12-item survey that addresses specific elements of engagement that will predict employee and workgroup performance. The 12 Elements of Great Managing Are:

• I know what is expected of me at work.
• I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
• At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
• In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
• My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
• There is someone at work who encourages my development.
• At work, my opinions seem to count.
• The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
• My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
• I have a best friend at work.
• In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
• This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Employees who work for female managers outscored those who work for male managers on every Q12 element but one. When it comes to setting clear work expectations, creating a positive team environment, as well as giving employees helpful feedback, recognition, and opportunities for career growth, female managers eclipse male managers.

As Lisa Quast warns in Forbes, the results of this Gallup study should not provoke a gender competition, nor a 'male versus female' attitude. Anyone can become a great manager, but the Gallup findings are suggesting that the engagement of female bosses should be taken into account when promoting people into management positions. Especially since Americans are still more likely to say they would prefer a male boss (33 percent) to a female boss (20 percent) in a new job.

Avoid the Top 10 Resume Mistakes

By Peter Vogt, Monster Senior Contributing Writer

It's deceptively easy to make mistakes on your resume and exceptionally difficult to repair the damage once an employer gets it. So prevention is critical, whether you're writing your first resume or revising it for a mid-career job search. Check out this resume guide to the most common pitfalls and how you can avoid them.

1. Typos and Grammatical Errors

Your resume needs to be grammatically perfect. If it isn't, employers will read between the lines and draw not-so-flattering conclusions about you, like: "This person can't write," or "This person obviously doesn't care."

2. Lack of Specifics

Employers need to understand what you've done and accomplished. For example:

A. Worked with employees in a restaurant setting.
B. Recruited, hired, trained and supervised more than 20 employees in a restaurant with $2 million in annual sales.

Both of these phrases could describe the same person, but the details and specifics in example B will more likely grab an employer's attention.

3. Attempting One Size Fits All

Whenever you try to develop a one-size-fits-all resume to send to all employers, you almost always end up with something employers will toss in the recycle bin. Employers want you to write a resume specifically for them. They expect you to clearly show how and why you fit the position in a specific organization.

4. Highlighting Duties Instead of Accomplishments

It's easy to slip into a mode where you simply start listing job duties on your resume. For example:

• Attended group meetings and recorded minutes.
   
• Worked with children in a day-care setting.
   
• Updated departmental files.

Employers, however, don't care so much about what you've done as what you've accomplished in your various activities. They're looking for statements more like these:

• Used laptop computer to record weekly meeting minutes and compiled them in a Microsoft Word-based file for future organizational reference.
   
• Developed three daily activities for preschool-age children and prepared them for a 10-minute holiday program performance.
   
• Reorganized 10 years worth of unwieldy files, making them easily accessible to department members.

5. Going on Too Long or Cutting Things Too Short

Despite what you may read or hear, there are no real rules governing resume length. Why? Because human beings, who have different preferences and expectations where resumes are concerned, will be reading it.

That doesn't mean you should start sending out five-page resumes, of course. Generally speaking, you usually need to limit yourself to a maximum of two pages. But don't feel you have to use two pages if one will do. Conversely, don't cut the meat out of your resume simply to make it conform to an arbitrary one-page standard.

6. A Bad Objective

Employers do read your resume objective, but too often they plow through vague pufferies like, "Seeking a challenging position that offers professional growth." Give employers something specific and, more importantly, something that focuses on their needs as well as your own. Example: "A challenging entry-level marketing position that allows me to contribute my skills and experience in fund-raising for nonprofits."

7. No Action Verbs

Avoid using phrases like "responsible for." Instead, use action verbs: "Resolved user questions as part of an IT help desk serving 4,000 students and staff."

8. Leaving Off Important Information

You may be tempted, for example, to eliminate mention of the jobs you've taken to earn extra money for school. Typically, however, the soft skills you've gained from these experiences (e.g., work ethic, time management) are more important to employers than you might think.

9. Visually Too Busy

If your resume is wall-to-wall text featuring five different fonts, it will most likely give the employer a headache. So show your resume to several other people before sending it out. Do they find it visually attractive? If what you have is hard on the eyes, revise.

10. Incorrect Contact Information

I once worked with a student whose resume seemed incredibly strong, but he wasn't getting any bites from employers. So one day, I jokingly asked him if the phone number he'd listed on his resume was correct. It wasn't. Once he changed it, he started getting the calls he'd been expecting. Moral of the story: Double-check even the most minute, taken-for-granted details -- sooner rather than later.

Beat Business Jargon: A Veteran Bullfighter's Tips

By Heidi LaFleche, Monster Contributing Writer



The project manager says: "Let's take this offline and drill down to the core value-added proposition. This customer needs a turnkey solution to improve its ROI. We're talking about sea-level change. Ping me later, OK? We'll do a brain dump."

Translation: "Let's get together to talk about what we can do to boost our customer's sales. Call me later, OK?"

We've all heard it, and we're all guilty of using it. Business jargon is a tongue-twisting, ear-numbing, brain-boggling part of daily business life. You wouldn't ask your spouse or date to "take it offline" after dinner. When did businesspeople start writing and speaking in such gibberish?

"High tech started a lot of business-speak," observes Jon Warshawsky, coauthor of Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide and chief bullfighting officer at Business Idiots LLC. "We're selling things that are more abstract and difficult to explain." And thanks to word processing, email and IM, we're all writers now too.

Aliens Stole My Dictionary

Business jargon is not only confusing, boring and misleading, it's also contagious. Spend a week at any company, and you'll start talking the talk, as though aliens from Zorgon were controlling your mind. The truth is out there in plain English, but we choose not to use it. For the love of Merriam-Webster, why?

"We're more concerned with how we appear to other people than about them understanding," Warshawsky says. "We want to sound smart and important. So we start making up words and ‘imagineering value-added solutions.' If the building was on fire and you knew the way out, you'd say it quickly: ‘door, stairs, fast!' When the chips are down, we communicate with easy-to-understand words."

Will It Make Sense to Mom?

Warshawsky and the Bullfighter's Guide coauthors found bloated, boring business jargon not only fails to make people sound smart but also makes them less likable. Conversely, those who try to speak and write clearly stand out. "The messages around you are so bad, you'll be surprised how far a little straight talk, humor and storytelling will take you," the books authors write.

A Bullfighter's Guide recommends avoiding these four no-nos in your speech:

• Obscurity: Avoid message killers like jargon, long-windedness, acronyms and evasiveness. Your voice will be heard if you use plain language and candor.
• Anonymity: Your personality got you your job. Don't check it at the door. Bring your voice and your charms to your speech and writing. Talk to people in person. Pick up the phone. Don't run your office life through your email inbox.
• The Hard Sell: Don't over-promise or accentuate the positive and pretend the negative doesn't exist. Businesspeople suffer from information overload. If it sounds like hype, they won't listen.
• Tedium: Self-important people who "dump prepackaged numbers on their audience" and speak in canned terms aren't well-liked or trusted. People like and want to work with someone who sounds genuine and speaks like a real person. The power of persuasion comes from warmth and honesty, not buzzwords.

"From a career perspective, being a charismatic communicator is a bigger asset than people think," Warshawsky says. "Explain it to someone. If it would make sense to your mom, then you're probably OK."

Key Insight: Unscramble Alphabet Soup

Every business or functional group has its own set of technical terms, buzzwords, abbreviations and acronyms. Insider speak is confusing to new hires and makes them feel even more like outsiders. "When you go to a new company, you need to learn the terms they use," says Warshawsky. "And you need to sort out abusive jargon from functional jargon. ‘Tracheotomy' is jargon, but it means something."

What's a newbie to do? Volunteer to create a glossary if the company doesn't have one already. With your supervisor's permission, send out an icebreaker email asking colleagues to suggest terms and definitions. Interview key staffers -- you'll make valuable connections while acknowledging their institutional knowledge. You'll catapult up the learning curve while demystifying the corporate gobbledygook. Can you spell promotion?

Quick Tip: Give These Five a Rest

Warshawsky's five most overused business-jargon terms:

• Empower
• Value (as in "value-add," "deliver value" or "value proposition")
• Thought leadership
• Mindshare
• Customer-focused

Additional Resources

• Fight the Bull: Bullfighter freeware scans Word and PowerPoint files for jargon. Works best on Windows XP for the PC.
• Acronym Finder: This searchable database provides millions of acronym definitions.

Why Lying On Your Resume Is Risky

Monster Career Advice

You just want to get the job, so it’s tempting to stretch the truth a little on your resume. 

But think again if you’re considering embellishing or -- we can just call it what it is -- lying on your resume. What’s the worst that can happen? Paradoxically, the worst-case scenario might be that your lies actually get you the job. Who’s going to start 'fessing up once the paychecks start coming?

If you don’t want to be looking over your shoulder or hoping no one in HR gets suspicious and decides to audit their files, avoid these whoppers on your resume:

Lies About Past Employers

Plan to lie about where you worked? Think again! These fibs are cause for an employer to show you the door, even months or years after you are were hired.

Tegan Acree, director of human resources and training for Nuance Communications, shared a story from a company where she previously worked. The organization hired a high-level executive who claimed on his resume he had worked on Wall Street as well as for a major celebrity. When the employee underperformed and his employer became suspicious, a few calls revealed he had forged all of his experience. In fact, he was working for three different companies on their time. “Needless to say, he was soon working for one less company,” Acree says.

Lies of Omission

Lisa Rangel, managing director of Chameleon Resumes and a former recruiter, recalls a candidate for a position in the legal department of a media company who never completed the degree listed on her resume. “When I confronted her, she said, ‘Well, you never explicitly asked if I earned the degree.’” The media company rescinded the offer since it could not have an employee in its legal department who demonstrated such “flexible morals,” Rangel says. 

Lying about your degree can come back to bite you -- even in the unlikely event that no one notices right away. A dean at MIT resigned her post after working there for 28 years when the university audited its files and learned she did not have degrees from the three schools listed on her initial resume. 

Half-Truths

Mike Ramer, president of Ramer Search Consultants, says you need to be careful about omitting short-term jobs from your resume. “There’s a lot more scrutiny now,” he says. “Companies are conducting background checks that will uncover inconsistencies on your resume.” He recalls an outstanding candidate who failed to mention a short-term position he held, which raised red flags for the employer when it came up in a background check. The company worried that if he lied about that, what else was he not sharing? The company rescinded its offer -- not because of the short-term job, but because the candidate had not mentioned it. 

Little Embellishments

“All of this personal-branding business is encouraging candidates to upgrade their job titles,” Acree explains. “If you were an HR assistant, don’t call yourself an HR manager. When you lie about your job titles, it’s a big red flag.” Acree cautions job seekers to make sure their resumes match their profiles on professional networking sites. “Any discrepancy is going to pop up on a background check,” she says. “The employer will wonder what’s the truth and what's a lie -- and move on to the next candidate.” 

How to Get the Job Without Lying

Tell It Like It Is: Ramer told of a candidate who lied about having a degree and lost the job opportunity. If he had been truthful, his experience would have landed him the position, regardless. If your skills are in demand and you are well-qualified, you may be able to overcome certain obstacles -- if you are up front and tell the truth.

Enhance Your Credentials -- for Real: If every job you want requires a college degree, instead of listing a school where you took a few credits and trying to pass it off as a degree, consider how you can actually earn that degree. Many colleges and universities cater to working professionals, and you may consider an accredited online program.

Tap Your Network: Sometimes you can overcome some missing skills or qualifications by impressing a decision maker who can persuade a company to take a chance on you. Referrals are very important in the modern job search, so spend as much time as possible networking with colleagues and contacts. Be sure you can explain what you offer via a well-rehearsed, succinct pitch. Demonstrate clearly why you are the best at what you do and how you will solve the targeted employer’s problems. 

Build an Online Profile: Overcome gaps in your experience by using the Internet and social networks to demonstrate that you’re an expert in your field. Consider hosting a blog related to your industry, or create a social resume -- a professional Web site highlighting your expertise. Also connect with current and former colleagues on appropriate networking platforms. The more people who know about you and what you offer, the less likely you’ll feel the need to lie to get noticed. If you can create a community and demonstrate expertise, it’s very possible that jobs will start coming to you.

Ex-Googler To Students: Why You Should Work Before Grad School

Business Insider

Theo Vassilakis, worked for Google for almost 8 years, climbing his way up to Engineering Director, before leaving to co-found Metanautix. He has a PhD in math from Brown University. 

He writes:

You’ve just completed your undergraduate education. (Congratulations!) If you find yourself at a crossroad, pondering whether to pursue a graduate degree immediately or seek a job in the industry, here are a few considerations that may help you in your decision-making.

Reasons to choose grad school right after college:

• You have the momentum of having just been in an academic environment, mindset, and work style.
• If you’re interested in an academic career, you’ll maximize the time you spend in academia.
• Academia can feel like a clear path, unlike the unchartered territory of industry.
• Theoretical work can be fun and more self-contained than work done in industry.

Reasons to get a job before going to grad school:

Work experience will help you to develop an independent perspective – in your field of study, in industrial applications of research, and in life in general. If you become a professor, you’ll want to have a wide arsenal of experiences to guide your students. Like college, grad school can be a protective cocoon, offering less of an opportunity to grow in those dimensions, though growth is inevitable and will still happen no matter which path you take.

Going to grad school is subject to a variety of external pressures. Some of these pressures may be emotional, such as pleasing your parents, pleasing professors, a fear of a lack of any exposure to industry and a fear of the unknown. Other pressures may be practical ones, such as money concerns, visa issues, or spouse/partner careers. Do some introspection to determine whether those external pressures are making the decision for you. If so, chances are you won’t be happy at grad school. Conversely, you should also assess if external pressures are driving you to industry even though you are truly passionate about grad school.

It’s possible that what you do in grad school will be influenced heavily by your M.S./Ph.D. advisor’s financial power over you, which isn’t always conducive to a good grad school experience. Often college is either paid for by parents or by debt. Either way, unless you have a lucrative part-time job, you may not have your own sense of what it is like to earn money.

If you work for a while, chances are you may find:

• you like working in industry, and conclude that you don’t need grad school; or
• you still want to pursue grad school, and now you have no doubts; or
• you have the confidence to research the things you care about, once you’ve earned some money, paid some debts, and realized that you will have a job or team you can go back to.

It’s possible that you’d do far more cutting-edge work in a Microsoft Research project, or a Google environment, – or, yes, at Metanautix – than in a Ph.D. program.

Increasingly, the industry is paving the way on key areas like data science, distributed systems, and applications of statistics, because industry has the data, the money, the circumstances, the incentives, and all the raw material. That very trend is part of the reason why computer science programs are having a difficult time attracting, and retaining, top-quality faculty.

If you truly want to be a scholar, academia may be your destiny, but if you work for a few years first, you’ll be better off no matter which path – industry or academia – you decide to follow next.

I would have been a much better math grad student if I had worked as an engineer for a few years beforehand. Work experience would have taught me better accountability, time management, and other lessons that come from the responsibility of having a job.

My officemate in grad school, who had dropped out of Berkeley, gone to work, and later realized that he really loved being in math environments, eventually went back to grad school. He’s now a happy math prof who taught me great lines like “there’s no such thing as understanding, just levels of misunderstanding.”

My business partner, Toli, shares a similar perspective.

He joined the Stanford Ph.D. program in computer science (CS) right out of Stanford’s undergraduate CS program, motivated largely by a sense of “this is just the natural next step for smart people, the same way 10th grade follows 9th grade.”

As a foreigner who came to the US from Greece to attend college, he also had a sense that industry means boredom and corruption, because that’s what he saw growing up.

Ultimately, Toli dropped out of the Ph.D. program to co-found or work for a series of startups and to build from scratch many interesting systems. In his view, the intellectual challenges of industry and the chance to teach and mentor other engineers have far surpassed any opportunities he experienced during his Ph.D. years.

Also, because he often lectures or teaches in academic settings, sharing his industry perspective, in Toli’s view, industry is not mutually exclusive to innovation, teaching, or ties to academia.

Ironically, it’s fair to point out that Toli and I met while Toli was teaching (as a fellow or assistant) during his Ph.D. years, and while I was an undergrad.

And a few of our key employees at Metanautix are ex-students of Toli’s. So Metanautix wouldn’t have existed in its current form if Toli hadn't gone to grad school.

4 Ways To Protect Your Job During Hard Times

By Peter Vogt, 

In a September 2008 Accenture survey of more than 300 middle managers across the US, 61 percent said their employees are concerned about being let go. Similarly, three out of four respondents in a VitalSmarts poll conducted at the same time said they believe their organizations are likely to go through layoffs in the next 12 months.

It’s no fun feeling like your neck is under a workplace guillotine. But there are some smart steps you can take now to prevent the ax from falling later.

Do More Than What You’re Told

Look around your workplace. What critical tasks are falling through the cracks because a key employee left, for example, or because there’s no budget for them?

If you cover even a few of these activities without waiting to be asked, you’ll be seen “as one who takes the initiative and who wants to see the success of the team in hard economic times,” says Dustin Weeks, author of Lessons from a Recovering Worker Bee and a former investment banking and corporate finance professional.

Communications consultant Jenny Schade remembers working with a corporate communications manager who helped the company’s information technology department with its communications needs. “She escaped a massive employee reduction when her IT contacts created a special position for her within their department,” she says.

Show Your Company the Money

It’s human nature for organizational leaders to focus more diligently on financial matters when the overall economy is floundering. You need to do the same.

For starters, figure out how you and your work contribute to your organization’s bottom line. Have you saved the company money? If so, how much? Conversely, do you bring in money? Again, how much?

“Find a way to measure your value,” stresses Schade. “If your contribution to the bottom line isn’t obvious to you, how will it be clear to the leaders determining who stays and who goes?”

Similarly, watch your company-related spending closely. You want to be viewed as someone who treats the firm’s money as carefully as you do your own.

“Eat McDonald’s on your business trip,” advises Armen Berjikly, CEO of ExperienceProject.com. “You can fine dine later.”

Become Your Own PR Rep

“Dutifully slaving away in a dark corner, avoiding personal interaction in the name of productivity, may backfire when it comes time for management to hand out pink slips,” says publisher Kathryn Marion, founder and president of Real Solutions Press. “It’s much easier to let go of the person who comes out of hiding every blue moon to hand in work.”

So while you may not necessarily like the idea, make peace with becoming more visible among your colleagues and tooting your own horn -- at least enough to let your bosses pinpoint you as a doer who gets results. Send your supervisor weekly or biweekly emails briefly summarizing your accomplishments. Or volunteer to lead a key multidepartment committee. In other words, do whatever it takes to be seen (and heard) as someone the organization can’t afford to lose.

Be the Likeable, Professional Person Everyone Respects

“Most employees would be shocked to overhear the conversations when managers and human resources are deciding who to lay off,” says etiquette consultant and trainer Jodi Smith.

For example, Smith recently led a four-hour seminar for a corporate client. Fifty of the client’s employees participated. When the session was over, the client said to Smith: “I have to lay off five of these people. Can you guess who?” Smith correctly identified four of the five, based on their attire, behaviors, attitudes and participation during her session.

“It truly is the little things that count,” Smith stresses. “If a manager has two employees who both do their jobs well, the manager is going to keep the employee who is easier -- who comes to work on time, is pleasant and is dressed appropriately. It really isn’t rocket science.”