ifrannert
Krannert Graduate School of Management
Winter 1981
Purdue University
careers
At Krannert and dozens of busi¬ ness schools across the country, the months between New Year's and April mark what amounts to an annual phenomenon. "Interviewing season" has no official opening. Nevertheless, its signs are unmis¬ takable: the proliferation of three- piece suits, long lines at the place¬ ment center, students' small talk focused on site visits rather than homework.
"I can appreciate the great stress students experience while they're interviewing," says a recruiter. John Zaioudek (M.S.I.A., 1965), on cam¬ pus to arrange interviews for Owens Corning Fiberglas, understands the situation. Although he now con¬ ducts the interviews, he hasn't for¬ gotten what it was like to be on the other side of the desk: high anxiety!
And yet anxiety doesn't necessar¬ ily stem from waiting to be "chosen." Krannert graduates receive multiple job offers and enjoy starting salaries well above the national average. Placement Coordinator Jim Little notes that technically oriented com¬ panies, like Hewlett-Packard and Tektronix, "can't get enough Kran¬ nert grads. If we had more, they'd hire them," he says.
No, the anxiety is of a different nature. Zaioudek explains: "Every¬ body thinks 'I've got to make this decision, and if I make the wrong one—it will be the end of the world.'" He says when he visits campuses he tries to help students put their career decision in perspective. "A first job is really only that—a first job. There is room to grow as you gain experience in your career."
Six speakers at the Career Day workshops held earlier in the month would agree with Zaioudek. Addressing subjects ranging from interviewing techniques to promo¬ tions and relocation, the workshop leaders tried to give students a view of the life they soon will be entering.
Pat Cowall-Hanover, a recent graduate and now a financial ana¬ lyst at Eli Lilly, voiced the unspoken thought in many students' minds. "I had a lot of anxieties about going into my first job...not about my abili¬ ties, but about what the overall situation would be like." During her presentation on the transition from college to career, she told the audience, "I thought that the first job I took was the most important decision of my life. But what if you don't like your first job? What's the
worst thing that could happen? You change jobs. And you have one val¬ uable asset, your experience of the last year to put on your resume. You have a better estimate of what you really want and need."
Thomas Fitzgerald, director of organizational planning and research at the Chevrolet Division of General Motors, prefaced his remarks on strategic career planning with the warning that the whole notion of having a career is relatively new, an idea borrowed from actors and show people. "Lots of people in our society don't have careers and don't see themselves as being on an upward path or developing their potential. Instead, they have jobs." Further, he noted, "a career path depends a great deal on happen¬ stance and unpredictability as well as planning."
"I would also urge you not to think of a career as something you own, something separate and objec¬ tive from yourself," he told his lis¬ teners. "Nor is careers a board game, like Monopoly or Bridges and Castles on a grand scale. In actual¬ ity, a career is something you live."
Several other speakers also cau¬ tioned students to be prepared for changes at any stage of their careers. Fred Webb of Chevrolet and Gilbert Brown from the Link Division of Singer industries both spoke about the shock of what has been termed mid-life career change.