Guy Kawasaki’s Friend ‘Penelope Trunk’ Dishes out Career Guidance for This Century!

"Penelope Trunk is the author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success (Business Plus, 2007). She is also a columnist at the Boston Globe. Previously, she was a software executive, and then she founded two companies. She has been through an IPO, an acquisition, and a bankruptcy. Before that, she played professional beach volleyball. I’ve included her interview because she provides radically different advice from most career advisers."-Guy Kawasaki 2008

QUESTION:
How much money does it take to be happy?
ANSWER:
It takes about $40,000. It does not matter how many kids you have or what city you live in-that’s splitting hairs, because people’s happiness levels are largely based on their level of optimism and the quality of their relationships. So as long as you have enough money for food and shelter, your optimism level kicks in to dictate how happy you are.

QUESTION:
Is it more important to be competent or likable?
ANSWER:
People would actually rather work with someone who is incompetent and likeable than competent and unlikeable. Most people nod in agreement when they read this. It’s the unlikable who form arguments in their head. But there’s more. At work, if you are unlikable, people start thinking you are less competent. So stop thinking you can skate by on your genius IQ because you can’t. You need emotional intelligence as well. This situation is so pronounced that there are special-education classes rife with kids who could read when they were three. Social skills matter as much as intelligence when it comes to long-term success, even for the geniuses.

QUESTION:
Should I sue a boss who is sexually harassing me?
ANSWER:
In most cases, you will destroy your career if you report sexual harassment. So unless you are in physical danger, you should not. The laws governing sexual harassment don’t protect women who report. The law protects companies from being sued by women who report. Human resource professionals are trained to protect the company, not the woman who reports. When you report harassment, it is usually the case that you lose your job through retaliation. Retaliation is illegal but nearly impossible to prove in court. And, even if you could prove it in court, you would go through emotional hell, with no salary, and high-profile drama that makes you unable to get another job; all this for a settlement that will almost certainly not enable you to retire. This is simply how the legal system works. I am not saying this is okay. But I’m saying that if you care about your career, you’ll do everything possible to not report. Most women are not in a position to sacrifice their career-and their earning power-in the name of trying to bring down one harasser. The legal system needs to step in and take care of this.

QUESTION:
When should I ask for a promotion?
ANSWER:
The average salary increase is 4 percent. Is that going to change your life in any meaningful way? On top of that, someone is promoting you up their ladder, but their ladder is not necessarily your best path. So stay focused on where you want to go instead of the paths other people have created for you. Getting a promotion is so last century. Instead of letting last century’s carrots dictate your workplace rewards, figure out what will be really meaningful to you: training, mentoring, flex time, whatever it is that means more than 4 percent more money. These are all things that can really improve your life and your career.

QUESTION:
What do I do about gaps in my resume when I traveled or couldn’t find a job?
ANSWER:
Talk about them well. A gap is really bad if you spent your days on your sofa watching cartoons. But if you watched cartoons to prepare for your next career move into children’s programming, then you sound focused and driven. Same TV, same sofa, two different stories. People don’t want to hear your life story. This is good news for people with sofa stints. In almost all cases, you learn something during a gap. Tell a great story about what you’ve learned and where you’re going, and your gap won’t get center stage. Leaving out details is not about lying; it’s about telling good stories.

QUESTION:
Will getting an MBA or any other type of advanced degree be a good use of time and money if I can’t find a job?
ANSWER:
No. If you can’t find a job, then you should invest in something like better grooming, or a better resume, or a coach for poor social skills. There are the things that keep people from getting jobs. Instead of running back to school, figure out why you can’t get a job, because maybe it’s something that a degree can’t overcome. Grad school generally makes you less employable, not more employable. For example, people who get a graduate degree in the humanities would have a better chance of surviving the Titanic than getting a tenured teaching job. Unless you are going to a top business school at the beginning of your career, you should not stop working in order to get the degree. Go to night school, because you will not make up for the loss of income with the extra credential. Law school is one of the only graduate degrees that make you more employable. Unfortunately it makes you more employable in a profession that makes people very unhappy. Law school rewards perfectionism, and perfectionism is a risk factor for depression. Lawyers have little control over their work and hours, because they are at the beck and call of their clients, and many are constantly working with clients who have problems that lawyers cannot solve. These two traits in a job-lack of control over workload and compromised ability to reach stated goals-are the two biggest causes for burnout.

QUESTION:
What’s the ideal length of a resume in a world where every resume is electronic and not viewed printed out on paper?
ANSWER:
One, still. Your resume is a marketing document, not a summary of your life, so every line should be about an accomplishment. The more amazing your accomplishments, the fewer you need to list. For example, if you can write “Evangelized Macintosh and made it one of the most beloved brands in the world,” then you don’t need any other sales and marketing bullets on your resume. If you have totally lost perspective, and you think you have two pages’ worth of incredible and relevant achievements, consider that hiring managers spend ten seconds evaluating a resume and a scanner looks for ten key words, which certainly fit on one page.

QUESTION:
How should I prepare for an interview?
ANSWER:
An interview is a test you can study for. So memorize answers to the fifty most common questions. Most interviewers ask standard questions, and there right answers to these questions. Whether you are a stripper or a CIA agent, the answer to your question, “What is your weakness?” is a story about how weakness interfered at work-in a specific situation-and you overcame it. Most of your other answers should be stories, too. This means you need to make them up before you get to the interview. Stories of your life are memorable. Lists of your life are not. Be memorable if you want to be hired. Another way to prepare is to go to the gym right before the interview. It doesn’t matter if you never go to the gym-although you should, because people who work out regularly are more successful in their careers. You should go right before an interview because people judge you first on your appearance, and if you do heavy lifting with your back and stomach muscles, you will stand up much straighter in the interview. This will make you look more confident, which is half the battle in being judged by appearance.

QUESTION:
What’s the right strategy for the search for a first job out of college?
ANSWER:
Don’t place too much importance on your first job. You’ll have a lot more. Most people have eight jobs before they turn thirty, and that’s fine. It is nearly impossible to know what career will be a good fit for you until you start trying things. So give yourself the latitude to try a lot. And don’t get hung up on a big soul search. To land a great job, you don’t need to know the meaning of life, just the meaning of hard work.

QUESTION:
Do only losers live at home after college?
ANSWER:
On some level, it would be insane not to move back home, which is why 50 percent of graduating seniors do it. Thus, moving back into your parents’ house is a smart step toward finding a career that’s right for you, because entry-level jobs typically cannot cover the cost of rent, college loan payments, and insurance payments-all of which are rising faster than wages. If you don’t have to worry about rent, you have more flexibility to wait for the right job and to take a job that feels very right but pays very poorly. The rise of the prestigious but unpaid internship intersects perfectly with the trend to move back home.

QUESTION:
What should I do if I work for a jerk?
ANSWER:
Leave. I know there are classic Bob Sutton (Stanford University professor who has written about assholes) examples of revered jerks like Steve Jobs, but I wonder about the people who put up with him. Can they not find another visionary to work for who is not such a jerk? Staying in a job like this makes you look bad. People wonder why you put up with him. Can they not find another visionary to work for who is not such a jerk? Staying in a job like this makes you look bad. People wonder why you put up with it. And, frankly, you should, too. It’s like being an abused wife. The wife who stays always defends the relationship by how much she gets out of it, but to everyone else it is obvious that she should leave. The problem is a loss of personal perspective.

SOURCE: "Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition" ISBN:978-1-59184-223-1 Pages 318-323