Taking the long-term view
In just over one month, the Class of 2020 will graduate from Stanford GSB. Many of us are still recruiting for our next full-time role. Some of us, myself included, have had to restart our job searches after employers rescinded offers amid broader hiring freezes and layoffs due to the current economic crisis. Over the past weeks, I’ve oscillated between optimism and fear. It’s been hard to shake the feeling that time is running out.
Last week, GSB alum Jeff Lee joined Allison Kluger’s class on reputation management with a message of encouragement. Though the theme of the session was “reputation beyond graduation,” Jeff’s remarks were as much about hope in the face of uncertainty.
Jeff shared that he left his job at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, the nation’s top law firm, to pursue his MBA at Stanford, also his alma mater. Peers and mentors insisted that his decision was a professional and financial mistake. By the time graduation rolled around, he still had not committed to a new job and sat with questions about what he wanted his next act to be. Were his former colleagues right?
Fast-forward to one year after graduation: Jeff joins A-Rod Corp as COO, overseeing strategy, legal affairs and communications for Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, their businesses and their investments. It was a role that Jeff could not have dreamed up in his final weeks at Stanford, yet his background in corporate law, business acumen and love of fitness made him a unique fit for the role.
As he reflected on his journey, Jeff shared advice on how principles of reputation management can help the Class of 2020 navigate the coming months and position ourselves to thrive. Here are some of the messages that resonated with me:
Graduation is an artificial timeline. Although graduation marks the end of our time at Stanford, it is unlikely that we will step directly into our dream jobs. It is ok to acknowledge that we lost a real part of our experience given classes over Zoom and the shelter-in-place mandate. Furthermore, the inevitable comparisons we make between ourselves and our peers who have wrapped up recruiting and moved into their new homes often lack full context. We systematically underestimate how details like a chance introduction, a pre-existing connection, or months of preparation and networking played into the outcomes we see in others.
Gratitude can be an animating force when we downplay thoughts of envy or comparison and instead look at every opportunity — a conversation with a classmate, a call with an alum, advice from a professor — as a unique gift in and of itself. Ultimately, it was an introduction from Allison Kluger that gave Jeff the chance to meet Alex Rodriguez and pitch his skills.
You can only manage risk, not uncertainty. While we can’t control the strength of the economy or whether our dream employer is hiring, we can control our ability to market our backgrounds through effective storytelling. We can revamp our LinkedIn pages, update our resumes to highlight skills we’ve honed at school, or practice our elevator pitches with friends to ensure that when an opportunity comes along, we’re prepared to highlight what makes us uniquely marketable.
As Jeff noted, careers move in an orbit, not in a straight line. Opportunities can emerge from the least expected relationships and settings. Rather than wait for the perfect job, we should not be afraid of taking a job that is an 80% fit and turn it into a 90%. No one job will define our brand. Although Jeff had spent over five years as a corporate lawyer prior to the GSB, his passion for fitness led him to travel the world to work out in every Equinox. This quirky dedication to fitness caught Alex Rodriguez’s attention in addition to Jeff’s intellectual credentials.
Reputations are built by doing. There are two tiers of characteristics that will govern our professional advancement: competence and personability. We convey competence through how hard we work, our ability to develop subject-matter expertise and our specific skills. These are the very parts of our backgrounds that we must communicate effectively in interviews and through our CVs. By contrast, our personability, how much others perceive us to be ethical, reliable and adaptable, will be informed by what friends, classmates and former colleagues have to say about us.
We build our reputations by consistently striving for excellence in our work and taking steps to support and care for those around us. Even those of us currently facing the uncertainty of not finding a job should remember the ways, big and small, we can reach out and support others. As Jeff notes, “Even if the pie can only be sliced so many ways today, there will be another one to come.” Allison felt comfortable referring Jeff to Alex because Jeff had a reputation for being trustworthy, reliable and consistently performing at the highest level no matter the task.
Like many of my peers, I don’t know what the immediate future holds for my job search. However, I trust that if I approach every opportunity with preparation and gratitude, continue to tell my story, and support others along the way, I will land the right opportunity. After all, my next act won’t be my last.
Thank you, Jeff, for the wisdom, inspiration and encouragement — we in the Class of 2020 sure need it!
To learn more about Jeff, click here to visit his LinkedIn page.
Sources:
- Jeff Lee’s Remarks in GSBGEN-317: Reputation Management
- Photo credit: http://www.jeffleemgt.com/
