Interview with Justin Driscoll

Posted on October 6, 2008
Filed Under Book Reviews, Career Development

I’ve posted quite a bit of information and advice for seasoned professionals, but haven’t posted as much on the ‘how to’s’ for new or soon to be grads. Recently I had the chance to read Justin Driscoll’s book titled ‘7 Things I Wish I Knew before I Graduated’. As someone early in his career Justin offers unique insights for those just entering the workforce. I’ll have a full review of Justin’s book later this week, in the meantime here is a recent interview with Justin.

Why did you write this book?

After five years of speaking to, advising, and mentoring high school and college students about their future careers I felt it was time to put all of my thoughts together in one resource. The book a is the result of that work.

For the first five years of my career I spent time working for a non-profit technology association, The Pittsburgh Technology Council, meeting with companies and colleges. I would meet with hundreds of companies and schools per year with a few things in mind:

· What are your needs as a business?

· How business and education more closely together?

· Does your company hire interns?

· Does your company hire entry-level candidates?

· What type of background do you look for in employees?

· What are your company’s current challenges?

Do you know what companies told me year and year their major challenge was?

It wasn’t health care, or new business development but TALENT, with a capital T. You see the dirty little secret is if businesses do not have a talented workforce the best product in the world won’t sell itself. My book is designed to help the future talent understand what business needs!

Aren’t all career advice books the same? What makes your book unique?

Maybe some of them are similar but this book is special since the information came from years of interaction with actual hiring managers not so-called career experts. If you want the straight-dope on job searching talk with hiring managers not career experts.

The second chapter of your book is titled “Real Life Work Experience Matters More Than Textbooks,” can you elaborate on this?

Sure, first let me say that I am not knocking the value of a good education. School is absolutely important in all faucets of life. However, my main point is to emphasize how important internships, co-ops, job shadows, and any other type of work experience is before you graduate from college. I landed my first job out of college via an internship. Then for the next five years I helped hundreds of students connect with companies across southwest PA through internships. Did I wake up one day and say I know I want to work for the Pittsburgh Technology Council as a resource between education and industry. I think you will find that quite often your jobs or internships will find you rather than you trying to find it.

Do college students always need to know what they want to do with their life after they graduate?

I get this question a lot. First let me say an emphatic no. I bet if you asked a mid-career friend they might tell you they still don’t know what they want to do with their life yet. The fact of the matter is you must strive toward the last chapter of the book, Find Your Passion and NOT your job. If you can find what you are passionate about you won’t have a job, you will have employment happiness. It may take one or two different jobs to realize what you are really passionate about but be patient and look for different opportunities. When you finally do figure out what you are passionate about it will be like someone flicked on a light switch and everything suddenly became clear.

If you had to search for a job today what would you do?

I would immediately open my address book on my Mac Book and begin to email and call people I know. Yes, I probably would look at Monster, Hot Jobs, and all of the major job boards, but networking would be my number one priority. Then I would try to attend events where professionals hang out so I could get their business cards and learn what is going on in the industry. Sitting in your dorm room applying for hundreds of jobs online is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The other thing I would do is start talking to recruiters who recruit in my industry, they have a create pulse on the industry. Get out there and network, you will be amazed at what you find and how open people are with talking to you. Does it take time? Yes of course. If it were easy everyone would be doing it.

What is one piece of advice you could give students if you only had five minutes?

I would strongly recommend you “specialize” in something. Students typically come out of college being “the jack of all trades and the master of nothing.” That isn’t the way business works any more. When a recruiter is looking at your resume they are looking for keywords and very specific information. Their hiring managers or clients gave them a list of items to look for when sourcing resumes. If your resume doesn’t meet those standards you will never even get a call back. The more you can learn about an industry you hope to work in the better off you will be. Simply being good at IT won’t get you an IT job. Know the keywords, talk with recruiters, hiring managers to learn about what they are looking for so you know what to put on your resume. Be specific about your track and the jobs will be easier to find.

Why only seven things are there more things students need to know?

Well yes of course but I couldn’t think of any more than seven… no just kidding. As I speak to college students and employers I continue to see a need for more resources like this because it isn’t anywhere near comprehensive. It was designed to get the student thinking about their future and their ability to be ready for the workforce. If you have seven more you feel strongly about let me know.

Until next time…

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