Getting out of school and stepping into the real world can be an intimidating endeavour for graduates. What should they expect once classes are over for good?
Nobody owes you a living. It is the real world now and you’re going to have to make the best of it based on the skills you’ve acquired while in school, but you must also remember that the amount of experience you have in your chosen profession is still zero. It’s going to take a long time to build up the respect, the reputation and the chops to be able to get ahead.
One of things we’re seeing when I’m hiring people is when they come out of school they think the world owes them a living. ‘I spent all this money on an education, well damn it, I want something out of it now.’ It doesn’t work that way. You have to have the skills and you have to prove yourself because as a boss or a co-worker/supervisor, you have to prove to me that I can trust you and that you’re not going to screw me.

Once a graduate finds their first job, what kind of role can they expect within the company that brought them aboard?
The first part of what you’re doing is going to be a tell-do situation. The boss will tell you what to do, and you do it. They don’t want your input, they don’t want your suggestions — at that very first stage of your career, do what you’re told. Eventually, once you prove that you’re trustworthy, that you’re ambitious and all of those good things, then you can start contributing. But first, it’s the whole tell-do relationship and until you have proven that you can do what you’re told, you’re not going to get any more. Don’t even try.

How tough is it to balance the stresses of a first job with the stresses of every day life?

It depends on the job. Some jobs are going to expect that you’re going to put in 100 hour weeks at the beginning, and that’s paying your dues. If you’re a doctor and you’re a resident, you’re doing the 48 hour shifts as a way of shaking out the posers. You may be in a career/job/company/organization that has that culture where it’s like, ‘okay, you want to be with us? Let’s see if you can take the heat.’

When you started out in the radio industry, did you have a mentor to help show you the way?
No, which was a problem. I always had hoped that I would find someone that would take me under their wing, but I never really did. The only thing I really had were co-workers that were in the same situation as me, so we leaned on each other. With radio, what I did was collect a series of virtual mentors — these are people I would listen to on other radio stations both locally and from afar and I would listen to them and try to copy them and try to emulate them. They mentored me without even knowing it, which is why these days when a student or someone comes to me, I have a real hard time saying ‘no’ because I remember being shut out so many times by people.
 

Do you think it’s important for every young professional to have a mentor?

Absolutely – you have no idea what you’re doing so you need to look outside to find somebody that knows what they’re doing. You can learn a lot by simply observing without even necessarily talking to them. jp