Co-CEO of OXYGen Financial’s top tip for college freshmen: “Network.”

When the Wall Street Journal asked various executives and financial planners for financial advice for college students, most of the answers were not surprising. Establish a budget, start a savings account, be cautious with credit. Ted Jenkin of OXYGen, however, had a different take. “I would recommend getting on LinkedIn today and making a goal of getting to 1,000 connections at a minimum before you graduate college.” He gave Forbes the same advice, saying, “The quickest way to secure a job is all about who you know…This could make them a lot more money than opening up a credit card or a bank account.”

The LinkedIn advice is not far off base. A recent poll by OfficeTeam, a staffing and placement agency, found that nearly half (47%) of the respondents found online networking to be the most effective– compared to 13% who preferred networking events.

Networking is especially important in today’s competitive job market. Professional relationships give candidates access to job openings that may not be available to the general public. Drexel University’s Steinbright Career Development Center calls this the “Hidden Job Market,” and notes that up to 80% of job openings are never posted anywhere. In fact, major firms like Deloitte and Ernst & Young fill nearly half of their non-entry-level positions with referrals.

Take time to flesh out your LinkedIn profile. Build connections. Some even recommend reaching out to strangers. In an increasingly digital market, it’s important to leverage your tech savvy.

How have you used LinkedIn in your professional or academic career? Connecting with strangers via LinkedIn is highly controversial– what are your thoughts on the matter?

Negotiating In China: Jack’s 10 Rules for Success

Business negotiations are a vital part of both internal and external communications. We negotiate employment contracts, service contracts, mergers and acquisitions. As tricky as it is in the United States, negotiations become even harder when crossing cultural and linguistic borders. This is especially true in China– the world’s fastest growing major economy, and a business scene fraught with delicate guanxi and unspoken taboos.

Jack Perkowski, a Wall Street veteran and entrepreneur in China’s auto and IB sectors, wrote these “10 Rules for Success” for negotiating in China.

1. “Manage your own and your boss’s expectations.” Do not mistake an attempt to “save face” as an agreement. Keep your expectations in check.

2. “Have a negotiating strategy— your counterpart will.” Negotiations in China go beyond the boardroom. Deals often take much longer than they do in the States, for a variety of reasons. They will commonly include various banquets and tea sessions in order to develop personal relationships among potential partners. As such, it is essential to have a long-term plan and a concrete goal in mind.

3. “Understand that negotiating in China is a team sport.“ However, there is usually only one decision maker. Learn to identify the key player, and those who influence him or her.

4. “Assemble a capable Chinese team; enlist the support of third parties, including the government.” It is vital to have someone who can navigate the cultural nuances on your side.

5. “Remember that in China, a yuan is a buck.” A common mistake among businesspeople and expats alike is automatically converting prices back to USD. This disregards the purchasing power of a yuan in China, and often leads foreigners to wrongly believe that they are getting a good deal.

6. “Leave your ego at home.” Modesty is an important virtue in Chinese culture.

7. “Patience is a virtue in China; learn to listen more and speak less.” Be wary of snap decisions.

8. “Don’t set artificial deadlines; control your emotions.” They are not effective in China’s business scene.

9. “Be fair, reasonable, and diplomatic.” Advice that may seem obvious, but is even more applicable in China. Chinese negotiators may not disagree with you outright, but will instead stall discussions. Make sure your position is clearly and respectfully explained.

10. “Nothing succeeds like indifference.” This is the corporate version of playing hard-to-get. Do not come off as overly enthusiastic, and do not lay all your cards on the table.

You can find more of Jack’s insights into the global auto component industry and business in China at Managing the Dragon.

What are your thoughts? How does this differ from negotiation in the US? What are the customs in other countries?

German car company, Daimler, deletes emails for out-of-office employees

According to this report, the average corporate email user sends and receives roughly 105 email messages per day. Over a week-long vacation, this adds up. There is nothing worse for a post-vacation glow than to be caught in the productivity sink that is email. With this in mind, Daimler has introduced an optional program which automatically deletes the emails of employees on vacation. Instead of a typical out-of-office message, senders are notified that their email was deleted, and are redirected to an appropriate alternate contact person.

This is the next step in a growing trend among Germany and the greater Europe region. In 2011, Volkswagen servers stopped routing emails to its employees at the end of shifts. France took this even further in April 2014, introducing rules that give employees the legal right to disconnect after hours. Technology firm, Atos, set a goal to ban internal emails altogether by 2014.

These initiatives recognize a number of issues in a modern, tech-heavy workplace.

1. For many, the workday is 24 hours long. In 2013, Right Management released a survey indicating that 36% of employees receive and are expected to respond to work related emails after clocking out, 6% manage emails on weekends, and 9% manage emails on their vacations.

2. Email is unproductive. In 2012, McKinsey & Company reported that office workers spend an average of 28% of their day managing emails, with little actual value-add time.

3. Work-life balance is vital. Favorable work-life benefits help companies retain employees, but also makes more productive, engaged employees.

What are your thoughts? Does the idea of deleted emails make you nervous? Is this applicable to all companies or industries?

Letters are for traffic courts and fogies

There’s something special about receiving a letter printed on scented, monogrammed, 24-lb stationery. It’s perfect for tucking inside a shoebox in the back of one’s closet, or for makeshift urban tinder. Unfortunately, most offices lack both appreciation for sentimentality and fireplaces. In soulless Corporate America, the physical business letter is becoming a relic of the past.

Young boy does his best to put his letters into a Doremus-style mailbox. 1880. Smithsonian Institution, USA. Web. 8 Aug. 2014.

In fact, letters are becoming so obsolete that the Postal Service is going out of business. USPS reported a net loss of $5 billion in 2013, the seventh consecutive fiscal year to end in a negative bottom line.

In the age of email, traditional snail mail cannot compete. Job-seekers are often told horror stories of hiring managers who refuse to hire anyone without a physical post-interview thank you note. While it may be nice to stand out with a physical note, 87% of hiring managers found emailed “Thank Yous” just as acceptable. Email also makes it easier to say thank you within 24 hours of the interview, while your name and face are still fresh in the interviewer’s mind.

Email speeds up the process of business letters in general. The efficiency is a vital competitive edge. Communication is now instantaneous, rather than waiting for days for physical mail to be sorted, shipped, resorted, and put through the maze of internal mail delivery.

Furthermore, in an increasingly globalized marketplace, physical mail is simply unrealistic. International airmail is unnecessarily time consuming and costly. It also exposes potentially sensitive material to the risk of getting lost along the way.

Emails have become increasingly acceptable in business. I’ve received and sent thank you notes, contracts and proposals, and even job offers via email. They have now become the “language of business.” They are faster, more cost-efficient, and more environmentally friendly. Contrary to common belief, they are even legally binding. In a decade in which even bills and taxes are taken care of completely electronically, physical letters should be left to grandmothers.

Can email replace physical letters completely? When is email inappropriate?

Professionalism shouldn’t equal dull in business presentations

Investment material can be hard on the eyes. There is a lot of information to disseminate, a lot of fine print, and limited space or time to convey it all. Exhibit A: An old Lehman Brothers presentation to investors regarding the buyout of a firm.* A VP dropped it on my desk with a wink during my first month at an investment bank so that I could “see what an investment banking presentation looks like.” The presentation is pretty standard: minimalistic, text-dense, with few visuals except for heavily foot-noted graphs.

We tend to err on the conservative side in finance. We like our standard black suits, our standard serif fonts, and our standard simple PowerPoint templates. However, it is possible to slip in creative flair without being tacky. Here are some tips.

Rethink bullets. Bullets are useful for breaking apart chunks of text into news-bite sizes, and making a presentation slide more skim-friendly. However, if not done correctly, they can look unfinished or sloppy. Consider switching it up by re-organizing bullet points into a flow chart or a well-formatted table.

Use SmartArt. Perhaps an addendum to the above, but also an important point on its own. SmartArt is infinitely more useful than the more familiar WordArt. This tool (on the Insert tab in PowerPoint) can help create instant graphics including lists, hierarchies, process cycles, and more. Even if none of the templates are perfect, you can use them as a springboard to create your own.

For example, I took a coworker’s table regarding a study on retail outlets in a test city (Figure 1) and redid it with some inspiration from SmartArt (Figure 2). The result was cleaner, more aesthetically pleasing, and highlighted the important numbers. (Some information has been redacted for confidentiality.)

Figure 1

Figure 2

Use better animations. Those nifty fade-in/fade-out transitions and the zooming title are distracting. If you are looking to make a presentation more interesting, this is not the way to do it. In fact, PowerPoint Ninja calls them “empty calories,” low in actual substance despite all the flash.

A better kind of animation is intentional false animation, which creates a dynamic walk-through of slides. This essentially lets you create a flip book effect. As the demo video in the link above pointed out, this is also the only kind of animation that will show up on a printed presentation. (Nuts & Bolts Speed Training in general is a great blog and resource for all things PowerPoint.)

What are your PowerPoint go-to tricks to spice up a presentation? PowerPoint pet peeves? Where is the line drawn between engaging and unprofessional?

*Source: http://www.sec.gov

Write the perfect resume… statistically speaking.

ZipRecruiter, an employment website, allows recruiters to rate the resumes of candidates on a scale from one to five. After analyzing over three million resumes, the site recently released this handy infographic detailing the correlations between various resume components and respective ratings.

Keep in mind, however, that correlation does not always imply causation. While some of the points are helpful (resumes with word counts between 600-700 words are 30% more likely to score five stars), others are questionable at best. Here are three points I vehemently disagree with.

1. Include an objective.
ZipRecruiter asserts that resumes with an objective, summary, work history, training, and references sections are 1.7x more likely to receive a five-star rating. However, it’s clear that most experts disagree. Objectives are widely regarded as outdated and redundant. Objectives focus on the job seeker’s needs rather than the employer’s. Furthermore, they’re predictable. Everyone’s “objective” is more or less the same: get the job and move ahead in the industry.

2. Avoid the word “develop.”
While some of the words to avoid are reasonable (e.g. avoid using “me” or “myself” on a resume), the word “develop” should not be included. In fact, “develop” is a great resume word. It is a strong, active verb that conveys significant contribution to a project. Hilariously enough, ZipRecruiter listed the related word “development” as one of the keywords to use, making a resume 70% more likely to receive a five-star rating.

3. Exclude the “Languages” section.
ZipRecruiter found “Languages” to one of the sections that reduce a resume’s chance of scoring five-stars by 24%. However, in many industries, proficiency in a second language is a huge advantage. Especially with the increasing globalization of business, more and more studies find that college graduates with foreign language skills have better job prospects.

What do you think of ZipRecruiter’s inforgraphic? Is it helpful or misleading? What would you keep or avoid on a resume?

Text your boss, but hold the emoticons

Text messages have become an integral part of personal communication today. In 2012, Bloomberg reported that over 8 trillion text messages were sent per year. In the business world, however, there is still much debate about propriety. A 2010 poll found that 50% of people believed it was acceptable to text their boss either “always” or under “informal circumstances.” An extra 42% agreed texting was acceptable with prior approval from the boss. However, some employers disagree, saying, “Texting your boss is never appropriate unless you need to communicate vital info fast and don’t have access to e-mail.”

Text messages are incredibly useful for urgent matters, setting up informal meetings, or asking quick questions. However, because of the informal nature of SMS, there are important guidelines to follow.

1. Ask first.
While younger generations may have no problem with text messages, older supervisors may find texting cumbersome. Some may not check their text messages at all. Others do not have phone plans that include text messages, and pay carrier fees per message. For some supervisors, text messages may be seen as unprofessional or even disrespectful. You should always ask beforehand if text messages are an appropriate way to communicate.

2. Use text messages as a last resort.
For urgent matters, an old-fashioned phone call should be the first resort. However, in cases where the recipient is in a meeting or otherwise unable to answer the phone, text messages may be used instead. They are more appropriate than emails for last-minute or emergency messages because they provide instant communication and notification.

3. Proofread.
Spell out words when sending professional text messages. Do not assume that your recipient understands what acronyms like “IDK” stand for. Even if text messages are informal, they still represent you and your firm. Check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation as with all pieces of professional communique.

4. Watch your tone.
It is difficult to convey attitude via text message. Make sure that your message cannot be misconstrued or misread as disrespectful. Do not attempt to do this via smiley faces or emoji. Keep in mind that your text should essentially be a mini-email.

5. Be professional.
Text messages are saved by both your recipient and your phone carrier. They can be subpoenaed in court. Do not send anything via text message that you would not say in a face-to-face meeting, letter, or otherwise. Learn from Tinder, who is now under a sexual harassment lawsuit due to text messages sent between its co-founders and chief marketing officer.

What do you think? Would you send text messages to your boss or colleagues? What are your thoughts on the Tinder case?