How to get that job you want and keep it. What employers look for in an ideal candidate.

Obtaining a job and keeping it are two separate subjects.

Obtaining a job as a college graduate has a lot to do with attitude and preparation. Attitude is best summed up when comparing two phrases I hear from job applicants. One job applicant will say "I am looking for a job", and what I hear is I am looking for a paycheck.

This is not too appealing because there are hundreds of people looking for a paycheck, the bigger the better. A better phrase is "I am looking for work", which can be followed with "and I have done some research and your company will provide me the opportunity to learn and extend my skills."

The old saw is to dress up, sit up straight, look the interviewer in the eye and most of all be prepared to offer value. If you are interviewing for an entry level job in accounting, be smart enough to know that excel is a tool they use a lot. In fact almost any job I interview if the college grad doesn't know basic office tools they are in an uphill struggle. Word, excel, and if they know PowerPoint great. These are all tools that can be learned with a minimum of effort and bring value to most employers day one.

So Google the place, know what their issues are, who are there competitors, how many offices, etc, something to show you cared enough about them to at least spend some time preparing.

Keeping the job is different.

Here it is a willingness to work. I know of no employer who expects a new employee not to make mistakes. But they will all watch how quickly you head for the door when the clock reaches quitting time. They will notice if you come in early. They will notice if you take long lunches or spend a lot of time on the football pool. The general rule I have always used to succeed is to always exceed my bosses expectations on items I can. So come in 10 minutes early for the coffee etc... and be working at start time. Leave 10 or 15 minutes after quitting time. Always, always, always meet deadlines by either performing, or going back in before they are due and letting the boss know you are going to miss them. When ever you go into talk to the boss bring a paper and pencil.

As you have probably noticed by now non of this has to do with any particular job or function, that is because employers are more than happy to train, and understand mistakes from an employee with the right attitude, but hate it when an employee acts like they are just there to punch a clock and get paid. At this phase of your career effort and attitude will carry you as you gain expertise, later when you have paid your dues you will be better equipped to take it easy, but by then if you are successful you will have developed the work ethic so you won't.

Having USC loyalty ultimately helps, here's how it helped me...sort of...

USC Loyalty.

My response to this is probably not going to be popular, and may not even get posted.

I have not found USC loyalty to be of much value to me. I do not mean that I am not proud to be a Trojan and that it does not reflect well on my resume and I am sure it helps if you are job searching. I also fully respect the education I received and that brought value to what I can offer others, but professionally and personally.

What I mean is that once I got in the real world, performance, commitment, and expertise were much more important. I did not find that anyone cut me a break because I was a Trojan.

I do feel an affinity to USC for sports and it is fun to root for the alma mater. It gives focus to the spectator part of watching college sports and it provides fodder for conversations such as introductory sales talks or striking up conversations with others.

I will continue to look for ways to benefit from USC loyalty but to date it has all been on the social side of my life.

My Definitions of financial products/services and how it applies after graduation.

Many people approach personal finances in different ways which suit their need.

One of the most common mistakes made is to over use a credit card. A dollar here a dollar there and soon you are not able to pay off the monthly cycle. My personal preference is cash. I establish what my weekly or monthly budget is and then I carry cash to pay for everyday items. This is a hard feed back loop because when I run out of money I can not spend anymore. The $3.95 for a cup of coffee becomes much more real if I have to reach in my pocket to pay for it versus swiping a card that doesn't come due for a month.

Debit cards are also becoming popular. One trick I recently heard is that when you need cash from a card, go to a large store like Wal-Mart and buy a stick of gum or what ever and then get additional cash versus going to an ATM and paying $2 or $3 on a $20 cash advance. (In my day that would be called a usury crime, charging that high an interest rate).

So from my personal perspective, I pay my monthly items from a free checking account, I use cash for my daily incidentals and I try to only use my charge card for online, travel or big ticket item (items I may want to return) purchases. I try to pay all charge cards off by the end of the month.

Woulda Coulda Shoulda - If I knew then what I know...

During my undergraduate college days (1978) I was married with a small baby. We lived in the mountains above Chico in a small two room cabin with , a small Ben Franklin Stove for heat and a water supply from a spring which I had to clean out and refurbish before we could begin to use it. This was a little one bar cowboy town and the community regularly ran out of water during the hot summers. I received about $400 a month from the GI bill and I had to provide food, rent, gas and all school costs from this money. During the summers I worked as a Gypo lumberjack, cutting trees on public land, loading it on my buddies truck and hauling it about 60 miles to a mill. Sometimes I would haul water from Chico to the residents for a fee and I was never embarrassed to take any manual labor I could find.

At the time, I thought life was rough, horribly constraining, and unfair because I could see rich kids from San Francisco and LA with parents who paid for everything they needed, including the latest styles and extra party money. But now looking back on it, those days of struggle were what built my grit, my closeness with my son, and my understanding of what had value and what doesn't. So to answer what would I have done different, I would say that instead of those days I spent wasting time thinking life was rough, I would have reveled in it. I would change my attitude and realize that everything I was going through was toughening me up, making me ready to face the real world.

I would have smiled more and frowned less and enjoyed the little pleasures regardless of how much money I had.

Who am I? What is one of my Greatest Financial Achievements?

My Name is Steve.

I have been an Systems Engineer on Space Systems such as Titans and Atlases, I was a Convoy Commander on shuttle missions, was the CEO of a IT company and now work on projects I enjoy as an independent contractor. These include doing senior engineering on a homeland security project to protect domestic water supplies, founding the National Association of Working Seniors, www.workingsenior.com and acting as the CFO and CMO for a small web development company, www.nit.cc.

My greatest financial feat was three years ago when I reached what is called financial critical mass. This means having enough money or investments so that you no longer have to work and therefore you can work for joy. This was achieved by delaying gratification on things my peers may have been doing to allow me this luxury. For example when my friends were getting new cars I was riding the bus, when they were buying big flat screen TVs I was satisfied with my 35 inch tube model. Instead of buying a new large house I added a second story to my existing home.

All of these acts may seem cheap or tight, but what I learned is happiness is not driven by what you have but by what you do and who you help. All of this led to the point that at 50 I was able to retire, with my home paid for and enough money to only have to do what I want to do. Now I help my friends with their businesses or coach my grandkids or simply go Kayak surfing if I feel like it.

So as I said in Blog issue one, start saving now and never stop.