Pushiness is valued

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 394.

Part 2

Part 1

II. READING

v Active vocabulary

o Study the following vocabulary items and collocations:

To look fresh out of college

To have wine-repellent properties

To be articulate

To stay in one's field

High-tech field

To stick with somebody

To put somebody's remarks alongside the conversation

To compute

Short-term training

To make excellent sense

An avocation

A “show-me” attitude

A feasible career move

To tread the path

Buzz-words

v Cultural notes

High-tech – high technology, that is technology that uses highly
sophisticated equipment and advanced engineering techniques, such as microelectronics, genetic engineering, computer industry.

Silicon Valley– an area in North California, in the Santa Clara valley region, where many high-technology companies in the semiconductor industry are concentrated.

o Read the text. Do the comprehension check below:

A couple of years ago, I spilled a glass of wine on my neighbor - or more accurately, on her new Gucci pocketbook. She looked fresh out of college and had the seat next to me on a flight from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco.

Her bag was new and must have had wine-repellent properties, since there was no obvious permanent damage. Of course, I apologized profusely, which led to a conversation and, this still being North America, albeit at 40,000 feet, I asked her the standard question: "What do you do for a living?"

"I got my degree in art history from Wellesley College," she said, "but since there weren't any jobs in my field, I started out substitute teaching for a couple of years. Then I got a job as a receptionist, and that's what I've been doing for the past 18 months or so."

We talked some more, and it became obvious that she was intelligent, well educated and articulate. "Do you have any long-term plans?" I asked. "You don't want to be a receptionist forever, do you?"

"I hope not," she laughed. "I'm not really sure. Back in my junior year, I knew I couldn't get a job if I stayed in my field, but I loved art so. Right now I'm trying to save enough money to go to Europe this summer with my friends."

"Did you ever consider working in a high-tech field?" I asked. "The computer industry, for example."

"Are you kidding?" she asked, her eyes widening. "I don't know anything about computers - no one would want me. I'm interested in something creative, and technology sounds so boring."

That conversation stuck with me. A few days later, I asked a friend who's spent many years in high tech, and is now vice president of a Silicon Valley start-up, what skills he considers fundamental to succeeding in his industry. "Excellence in communication, including listening, writing and speaking. After all, that really is what 95% of high-tech people do all day
long," he says.

After putting my friend's remarks alongside the conversation I'd had with the recent grad, the two didn't compute, as we say in the industry. She'd offered several reasons for not considering a high-tech job, starting with not knowing anything about computers. But how much do you really have to know to get in the front door? Couldn't you get started, then learn more after you got a job? Or couldn't you get some kind of short-term training and use that to leverage yourself in?

"They wouldn't want me," she'd said. Well, perhaps art-history training isn't much in demand in high tech, but I have to believe this young woman would be. She was just too sharp, smart and articulate.

Would there be room for her creativity? Absolutely! The industry is changing so fast that there are almost no rules. Many positions are loosely defined, expanding and twisting into new shapes as needs dictate. At my company, the word is "find a need and fill it."

I found myself wishing I could talk again to my art-history companion. I wanted to explain why looking into high tech makes excellent sense. First, many high-tech positions require no formal technical training at the entry level - or even at fairly high levels. Second, the industry needs well-educated, creative people to fill these nontechnical positions, because without them, technology can't get out of the labs and into the market. Third, the high-tech industry is fast-moving, exciting and fun.

And it pays well enough so that she could keep art history as an avocation, and actually fly around to visit the Pitti palace, the Louvre and even the graves of Sian.

What would have been her reaction to my points, I wondered. I suppose she might have had a "show-me" attitude and said, "Even assuming that everything you say is true, what on earth am I supposed to do about it in practical terms?"

If you're a liberal-arts major, begin by realizing that this really is a feasible career move. Outside of pure development positions in hardware and software, the majority of industry jobs don't require a technical degree. That means other nontechnical majors have trodden the path you'll be taking.

Ideally, you should use every opportunity you can while still in school to add the right buzz-words to your resume. A good resume won't get you a job; only interviews do that. But the wrong resume, particularly in the hands of the dreaded human-resources department, can sink you. Visit your computer-science department to see what formal courses you can take or audit that will help you get your head around the terminology. Try reading a sensible book or two as well, such as "How Computers Work" by Ron White, or my book, "Hi-Tech Jobs for Lo-Tech People".

v Comprehension check

o Answer the following questions using information from the article to support your ideas. Remember to use the article vocabulary to the maximum:

1. What is the general stereotype image of the high-tech industry?

2. Where does the misconception lie? What skills are in demand in the high-tech?

3. What is characteristic for the current status of the industry?

4. Why is working in the high-tech a feasible career move?

5. How can you get ready for working in the high-tech?

o Explain what is meant by:

To put somebody's remarks alongside the conversation you had with someone

A “show-me” attitude

Pure development positions

Buzz-words

o Translate in written the paragraph beginning from “They wouldn't want me…” up to “…find a need and fill it”.

v Active vocabulary

o Study the following vocabulary items and collocations:

A degree of pushiness

To get in one's face

A subtle rejection

To bug somebody's contacts

Messages of secondary importance

To take over for somebody

A thank-you note

A computer-literate friend

To walk the walk and talk the talk

To get inside the walls of something

To temp

To be in short supply

Interpersonal skills

A disgruntled customer

Savvy

To garner experience

To shortchange oneself

To get hung up on something

Job mobility

A few months back

v Cultural note

A rule of thumb – informal procedure or convention

o Read the text. Do the comprehension check below:

When starting your job-search campaign, please remember that the high-tech industry respects, indeed values, a degree of pushiness. We love people who get in our faces, if they do so in a reasonably polite manner. People are so busy, for example, that they rarely return phone calls, even from their colleagues. So don't take this as a subtle rejection. High-tech people aren't subtle. If they want to reject you, you'll know about it. So feel free to bug your high-tech contacts. How much? A rule of thumb seems to be up to five phone calls. On the other hand, I don't believe in sending faxes or e-mail unless they're incredibly brief. People get too much e-mail and will defer messages they consider of secondary importance.

Don't depend too much on getting help landing a high-tech posi­tion from your college's career-planning office. They probably don't have the contacts. Take over for them since you can do a better job. And don't depend on corporate human-resources departments for help, either. Instead, build a
network of possible contacts in your target field, be organized in your pursuit, and you'll be led directly to hiring managers. Keep careful records about whom you see and what happens. Send thank-you notes, and check in every two weeks or so to keep people from forgetting you.

On another point, high-tech hiring managers generally won't care about your grade-point average, so keep it off your resume. It may make them feel inadequate.

If you don't own a computer, pick up an old one - a 386 PC, for example. Anything will do, as long as it comes with the original instructions. Read the documentation and ask computer-literate friends to explain whatever you don't understand.

A major part of presenting yourself as an industry insider is being able to "walk the walk and talk the talk.'' So you might consider getting closer to techies by joining a users' group on- or off-campus. The folks are friendly, and may well have good contacts in the industry. In fact, they can be the start of your network.

If possible, get an internship at a high-tech firm, even one that's unpaid in which all you do is file stuff. It's virtually certain to lead to a job. Some companies don't have internship programs, but if you see a need, suggest they start one with you.

Another great way to get inside the walls of high tech and start your networking from the inside is to temp. Just specify the types of companies where you want to work, and meet as many people as possible once there.