Dr. Neil Hair

I have a number of ideas on how students might best reflect their pro bono (non paid) consultancy experience on their resumes. Background information: Students sit a class for eleven weeks and work through the consultancy process applying the weekly theory to the case of the client. The client gets the benefit of leading edge thinking and the student gets the benefit from seeing the real world application of their thinking. Three things normally stop a student from putting this experience down on their resume.

1. They didnt get a great grade for the project. The thinking behind this is that the student in their mind failed the project therefore and this should not be put down on a resume.

2. They didnt enjoy working with the team they were part of and therefore would rather forget the entire experience.

3. They dont see it as legitimate consultancy experience. They werent being paid, it was part of college credit. It was therefore more legitimate to put down their work as a cashier at a local petrol station (you laugh, this was my first job and it went down on my first post college resume – shows responsibility and customer facing activities!).

The thinking behind each of these three points is flawed for a number of reasons. I'll go through them one by one.

1. Just because you didnt get that elusive A grade does not mean to say that you didnt do a good job in the grand scheme of things. Think of all the learning you did on essentially your tuition dollar and someone elses time as a client. Tackle this head on by focusing more on what you learned from the experience rather than the outcome of the project itself. Yes prospective employers want to see that youve made a company millions – they are more likely though to want to see personal development so theyre not employing a green student with no prior experience in dealing with adversity!

2. Its working with difficult teams that makes the experience all the more worth while! Allow me to rant a little – students are always complaining that their grades are so in-twined with team projects at experiential colleges like Saunders. They dont see it as being fair to their individual grade. WAKE UP!! The real world is almost entirely project focused and you having gone through college avoiding team based projects will only mean that your learning on dealing with difficult people, situations, deadlines and awkward moments of team disfunction will now take place when it really matters – and when your career progression is likely to be directly (and very quickly) impacted. Again – on your resume identify the key experiences coming from this that have better prepared you. Remember to be positive!

3. When exactly are you waiting to gain legitimate experience – day one of a real job? Did the client feel as though youd done something worthwhile? Was your team pleased with its performance? Did you not deliver the project in a tight 11 week period, on budget and on task? What is not legitimate about this experience exactly? The FT recently published a report on what students lack when they enter the workforce and in the top five were lack of experience, inability to work in teams and the inability to present arguments and ideas effectively. By my count of the top twenty things that were common grievances of employers, projects like a consultancy project cover every single issue. One last point on this one, employers feel very uncomfortable hiring students with zero experience, projects like these demonstrate legitimate experience.

So, this moves me onto how best to demonstrate this experience on a resume:

Things you will need. Collect all of your former real world projects, feedback on these from faculty together with any notes you might have on the experience. Now on your resume;

A. Identify clearly and concisely the client, the lead person you reported to (usually the CEO or Marketing Manager) and how long the experience lasted.

B. Identify the central charge of your team. Was it for instance to prepare a marketing plan looking to exploit the use of social networks for instance or perhaps a marketing plan looking at breaking into a new market. Remember that there is no such thing as a boring plan. Identify the purpose, use the term within budget (ie suggests there was a budget but that given the client-consultant privilege you arent able to divulge the amount) and clearly identify the market you went after.

C. Next identify the key factors that influenced the success of the report. Was it – identified a market worth X, profiled competitor activity in this area in Y, interviewed Z number of customers / clients. Clearly note the key features of your approach. Keep this short. Show off your efforts and hard work!

D. Identify clearly the experience you gained from this work. Was it for instance – co-managed (no one believes that you led every single project so avoid the me me me syndrome on your resume), managed under a tight ten week deadline, involved developing an innovative presentation, a learning experience in a challenging environment (in other words no one did any work but you on the project).

E. Identify the output of the project. An action plan, professional presentation, references from a client, experience of delivering on time and so forth. At the end of the section (you may have more than one project to call on) write 'references available on request'. If they request them – put them in touch with your professor and where appropriate the client (always let them know ahead of time that someone may call).

F. Reality check. Get someone else to read what youve just written. Better still get a former project member to read what youve written and comment on it.

And that is pretty much it. Try to make the experience stand out – what really worked for you in the process of a project and why. Capture these details and make it sound interesting. A marketing plan for… sounds totally unsexy. A marketing plan for the X market estimated to be worth in excess of Y sounds much better. Google a consultants resume as well. See how they phrase key accomplishments. And remember – it is real experience. It does count.

The weather people get all excited about the possibility of serious snow and go on about nothing else for three days. Allow me to elaborate:

Thursday 13th. Weather on the 9's report the possibility of some snow over the weekend. No raised voices, no extended weather on the 9's.

Friday 14th. Morning. Weather on the 9's and then 10's suggest there could be some serious snow fall over the weekend. No raised voices, no glee – just another weekend for Rochesterians.

Friday 14th. Afternoon. Weather on the 9's and 10's suddenly becomes the only news story. Serious snow fall has now become – one of Rochester's top ten weather events since records began back in 1860. Why they began in 1860 is not made clear. Perhaps it was a bad winter and someone decided they should probably start recording this stuff.

Friday 14th. Evening. All other news events suspended. Climate control in Bhali? Nothing. Election campaign? Nothing. Weather and lots of snow? The only thing on TV. Neil checks cupboards to ensure sufficient tonic water and limes for the ensuing sit in.

Friday 14th. 11pm. Its all about the snow. Up to 25 inches now estimated total by Monday morning starting Saturday night. Neil checks fridge for ample supplies of milk and then cupboard for coffee. Listens to people on tv reporting huge lines at Wegmans. Neil smiles since he was there at 3pm as soon as the faculty meeting ended. Neil goes to bed knowing that all will be well, fridge is stocked, cupboard also, Bombay brimming, limes looking lovely, organic coffee spilling and more milk than a Freijan Cow in the fridge.

Saturday 15th. 9am. 25 inches of snow revised to 5 inches, possibly lots of sleet because a warm front is heading our way from the south. Neil devastated. Thoughts of tales for grandchildren of the BIG WHITE OUT now dashed. The big sit in has become all of a sudden the big joke. And the joke is on the weather people. Neil leaves home in search of alternative entertainment. Settles for hair cut, comes home and bakes pizza and prepares Margharitas for the ensuing warm spell.

To be continued…

Sunday morning 10am. So, I raise my weary head expecting all hell to have broken loose outside and instead I am greeted with lovely Rustic Village staff – bemused looks on their faces as they clear around 1 inch of snow from the ground that fell over night. Absolutely gutted – have donned shorts and a T-shirt and will head out for a bbq with friends this afternoon. What an overly dramatized bit of spin from the weather people… Ive seen more snow in a snow globe! Who sponsors these weather reports? the Comedy Channel? What also amuses me is the local news take on the fiasco.. 'though less snow fell than was expected..' sort of stuff that goes on to state the doom and gloom / dangers of the inch that has fallen. Give me a break. Just say sorry for having gotten is so very wrong and let me enjoy my morning coffee in peace

So much for your 'Ultimate Dopplar Radar' (which upon this performance I am convinced is nothing more than a bucket of water and a stick).

Monday morning. 8am. Appears we had a little snow last night, I cant see my car exactly, but Im sure its where I left it.

Always close to if not top of the list of any college is the focus on marketing itself effectively. I'm passionate about being at Saunders for many reasons, the people I work with, the quality of the students, the innovation of materials and delivery systems and of course the new look to the building. As a marketer though my training tells me to look at the experience from the point of view of the consumer. The primary consumer in this case being the student of course. Thinking this way usually helps. My thoughts follow. What does every graduating student want?

1. A good looking resume in more ways than one. (Check previous blogs out that I have written on this for ideas on how to better market yourself on paper and online).
2. A resume that has extensive experience on it in the form of client projects, volunteer work, co-ops, technological competence, team working skills and signs of creativity and innovation.
3. Confidence in their abilities to do well post classroom experience.
4. A decent job stemming from that resume.

We're doing a lot in these areas to make our students more competitive. The co-op experience is one but my personal favourite is without doubt the client projects many of us use for in class learning. A group of former students just got back from talking with their former client about implementing their plan (and with a bit of luck paying them to do so). Its exactly that sort of experience that makes a resume stand out. Real world consultancy experience. Put together four or five of those on a resume and I guarantee you 'the graduate' will stand out. My own personal experience shows this works. I had the good fortune to be close to a number of faculty as an undergraduate at Cardiff Business School. I was a researcher for the schools vice chancellor for a year and my marketing Professor passed on to me an opportunity to work for a South Wales minerals company one summer. The first project helped me stand out as a person that was able to interact and research with senior managers. The second showed off my creative thinking skills (I identified a market for blast furnace slag to the tune of several million pounds back in 1993). Subsequently the minerals company offered to pay for my masters degree in International Marketing and the former research experience helped me get into a research post at Sheffield Business School where I started my teaching career.

So what does this mean for students? My advice is to take up every opportunity you can, pro bono projects for local clients – no youre not likely to be paid for them – but you ARE building your competitive edge by taking these on! Saunders has great links with local enterprise for you to take advantage of. Hence the success of the co-op experience (if taken seriously by the student). Get yourself into classes that use experiential methods as a means of advancing your understanding. Many of us use these including professors Colton, Demartino, Hull, Perotti, Lawlor, Scully, Boehner, Tang to name but a few. In my calculations the average marketing student having been through our program could have at least TEN real world projects to their name by the time they graduate. Who wouldn't benefit from a page worth of evidence of their experience – learning on someone else's dollar – and gaining experience in putting the theory of class into practice (I will blog on how you frame this experience in another post).

What does this mean for marketing our college? We should do our utmost to inform students of the opportunities we have for them in these areas. Our experiential approach is second to none. We favour a learning by doing approach and we're good at it. We show students how to market themselves on the basis of their experience (nothing sadder than seeing a students resume without their consultancy assignments on it). Finally we show the results of these efforts – the proof of the concept in the fact that many of our students go on to form healthy start ups, hold senior positions in large fortune 500 companies through a series of rapid promotions, or pursue graduate school degrees where prior experience counts towards being accepted. Perhaps the most important ingredient is showing students that we are making them more competitive than our competitors and doing so by taking advantage of our 'unfair advantage' in the community.

Blast furnace slag isnt exactly sexy. What you do with it can be. I think I'm very much living proof of that and I have my former marketing professor to thank. So, thank you Professor Robert Morgan, Associate Dean and the Sir Julian Hodge Professor of Marketing and Strategy.

I got some of the best news ever today at 11am. My wife, who has been working on her PhD for a few years now, passed her viva exam and can now use the title! Her thesis explored psychological contracts in a virtual team. That means there are now Drs Hair in the house and I am one very very proud husband!! Rose, youre the best and I knew you'd walk it Nx.

Interesting article from the homeland. Ministers are about to announce a move towards wind power that could see British homes powered by wind technology alone by 2020. This makes me happy. Ive always been a fan of renewable and freely abundant energy sources. One of my favourite spots is of course Palm Springs on the approach to LA – how anyone can see wind farms as anything other than magnificent is beyond me. I'll certainly take these beautiful objects over coal power stations like those in Didcot, South Oxfordshire any day! I also like the look of the wind turbine in Green Park that you can see from the M4 just outside of Heathrow in Reading. It was designed by Sir Normal Foster (like Cranfield Universities library where I worked on my PhD) so it has form as well as function. I'm quite surprised that more hasnt been done on both sides of the pond to make people aware of the low cost of ownership of wind turbines. Theyre quite popular in the farming community (so they must save you money in the long term knowing farmers like I do!) and Im seriously considering one for my eventual home. They are also big in the boating community for obvious reasons. What I like about the whole wind movement is that, in the UK at least, its seen as state of the art to have one of these things in your back yard. We need more of that kind of ethos here. The costs of a system are about $4k these days and rumor has it that you'll return more money on this investment than you will savings in the bank earning 5%. Again – why arent these facts and figures being reported more generally? Home Depot may be partly to blame. B&Q – the UK's Home Depot sells wind turbines for about $2.5k – the British government also provides grants to help home owners set these mini power plants up. The great thing though is what energy you dont use you sell to the National Grid for profit. Bargain. Couple of extra links for you here and if you want to buy me one here.

It is with great enthusiasm I can report our class on online advertising – special focus Second Life has begun! The class is maxed at 40 students who all seem very keen to understand the commercial implications of this environment and how we might be better prepared personally post graduation. We have three of the worlds top ten richest avatars presenting as part of the course and a number of in-house experts. Online learning have graciously provided us with funding to secure the help of a dedicated team of Second Life professionals and we have a list of clients in Second Life that are looking forward to working with our students on understanding competition and customers. The eleven week course should be excellent! I will also be blogging my own experiences teaching in this environment for people to follow.

Having recently subjected myself to two international flights (Virgin Atlantic, my second fave service bar British Airways) I came away thinking about how airlines could provide me with a better service. As I spend much of my working day hooked up on email, surfing and commercializing Second Life I figured I could continue to be much more productive if the airlines went just a little further and rolled out on-board wifi. Now, I know they are in the habit of complaining about interference with on-board systems, and I know that they haven't read the reports from scientists saying there is NO DANGER to on-board communication devices (the problem was always with analogue systems NOT digital) and I know that they will use any excuse they can not to listen to the voice of the customer and provide a better service. I know all of that. BUT – what they don't realise is that the first in advantage of this sort of feature could be significant. Some airlines have tried it before and it failed (Lufthansa for instance). It failed because they wanted to charge ridiculous access costs to business class passengers only. Well – surprise surprise!! Of course it was going to fail – most business class passengers I know prefer NOT to work on the flight and get some shut eye instead! I on the other hand – a dedicated member of the digerati – would love to spend my hours doing what I normally do at work and at home. So – someone please – wake up and get market oriented. Such a service might also convince me to fly american services once again – provided of course that access was free. Until that time though – Ill continue to fly anyone other than domestic carriers where ever possible. Rant over.

Im increasingly aware of Facebook's troubled relationship with advertising revenue streams and its users. Front page CNN.com on Sunday for instance led with the story of consumers becoming increasingly worried about how their information was being used (or misused). The good news of course was that activists managed to convince the company that a change of strategy was in order. Facebook listens! The first step in any productive relationship! As I understand it consumers were cross because having opting into a system they didnt really understand, they could not then opt out of it when they did. Ah the dangers of an uninformed consumer. I would imagine Facebook was rather pleased by the initial take up of the project only to be devastated (financially) by the fall out of actual experience. One of the troubles with Facebook is that its inherently innovative – the news feeds features got it into trouble in the past (only to be accepted by the populace later) – I see similar patterns with whats happening now. I also believe that this innovativeness will keep Facebook strong (much stronger than myspace) because it shows no fear in reinventing itself or drawing in consumers to help in this process. However – that said – I am noticing less activity of 'friends' that have graduated and perhaps this is one of Facebook's main challenges – keep consumers engaged in the process of logging on and updating profiles. How they do this will of course depend on the consumer.