Maurice Stocks, Assistant Dean of Corporate Development & Career Management at the BYU Marriott School of Management told BYU-Hawaii students in the School of Business' first entrepreneurship lecture of 2005 "the kinds of things I would tell my own kids" about finding a good job after school:
"Hard work is the key to finding a good job."
Speaking in the McKay Auditorium on January 18, Stocks said, "Each one of you can get a job that will be very, very important for your future, that will provide for your family, but it's going to take effort." Or paraphrasing Thomas Edison, "Opportunity comes dressed in overalls and looks like work."
As one human resources executive recently told him, prospective applicants "need to be prepared to do floors and windows. He said their best people were the ones who came in and were willing to do anything they were asked to do."
Stocks put it another way by quoting President David O. McKay, who said, "Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that power to work is a blessing, that love of working is success."
He explained that despite some unusual dynamics, the U.S. job market and the global economy are generally strong. "This is the first time in history that we have four generations in the work force — matures, baby boomers, Gen X'ers and millennials: Each of these groups have different talents and mind sets. The matures, for example, felt you find a career for life while many millennials think work in and of itself is not what it's all about."
"What we're finding now is that under-25 individuals change jobs every 1.1 years. After 25 they change on the average of every three years." Even so, he added, "many companies still feel the same way they used to about retention."
"As we look at the economy in Provo, we find...that about twice as many companies recruit on campus as in the past, primarily at the graduate level. They're willing to come back, but they're expecting more of the students, a little harder work."
"It is hard work to find a job. You have to be wiling to put in the effort, be willing to work with a lot of different companies," Stocks continued, noting that it takes Provo's MBA students who are "probably in as great a demand as any specialty at BYU...a lot of effort to find a job. The average student spends four-and-a-half months in active job searches." He added that even these "high-demand students...had to approach an average of 29 companies to get that offer."
"We say your job search begins the day you decide to come to college. It should be a four-year effort. The last four-and-a-half months are actually the job search."
"It used to be that good grades meant you could get a good job, but that happens very, very rarely now. Almost every employer is looking for proof that you know how to work. They want to know that you've been successful in dealing with the idiosyncrasies of the work place," Stocks said.
"Companies are expecting you to have internships. During your college career, every student should have at least one good internship. This is not working on campus, or on a project. It's going out and proving that you can do the job in a real situation. If a company is willing to hire you for a formal internship, that says something to other companies."
Researching information on potential employers, he stressed was critical, with the Internet as one obvious source. Also, "people still tend to talk to friends and classmates to get leads. You should not underestimate the power of networking. Ninety-nine percent of everything we do in the business school is networking."
Stocks said this means you have to "determine what you want to be." Then, as one major employer told him, "I don't need experts. I need someone who knows a little about what we're doing." Or in other words, "there's not a reason in the world you should go into an interview unprepared. You should know the basics of the company."
He said a good candidate needs to be "mature, a team player, be very bright, have a strong work ethic, pragmatic in problem-solving and a strong sense of direction. One of your strengths is you know where 'true north' is. No company can afford to hire anyone without the highest integrity."
"Well prepared candidates will continue to find good jobs. My hope is that every one of you will go out of BYU-Hawaii with the tools and the integrity to do exactly what you want to do in life," Stocks said.
"If you work hard, you plan and organize, you can indeed find a job that will set you for the rest of your life and help you get all the things your family will need."