You did not graduate from a top college. O no! You can never amount to as much as those who did.

Are these thoughts you sometimes or oftentimes have?

Well, Arnold Morales ⚙️ is here to show you and tell you that you can do the same and much more if you put your mind and heart to it.

Arnold is a nontraditional college graduate. He grew up in a low-income household, he is the first in his family to go to college, and he went to a community college.

But Arnold was determined to reach his dream of working at Boeing and never took his eye off this goal. He got the necessary qualifications and experiences.

And even though he was rejected 5 times, he did not give up. Guess where he is working now.

Arnold's story is truly inspiring and goes to show that if you are willing to do what it takes to reach your goal, it does not matter what cards life dealt you.

Arnold is also the host of the podcast Nontraditional College Success, a podcast that motivates and empowers nontraditional students to get more out of their college experience.

Arnold's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnoldmorales/

Arnold's Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1154111

Jai's linkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jolandi-gevers/

Website: www.thegraduateatwork.com

Maya Angelou said 'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

When networking and building relationships you have to take the focus of yourself and place it on other people. You need to think, “how can I make the other person feel special, feel heard, or feel important?”

The next question is how you can keep the focus on the other person. In Ep 35 I mentioned a couple of little things you can do to make others feel appreciated and noticed. In this episode I want to focus in on conversations. How can you make the other person the focus of a conversation?

Listen to this episode to hear what I have learned from the fantastic book, Never split the difference by Chris Voss, ex-lead hostage negotiator for the FBI.

Book link: https://tinyurl.com/y6huq5hj

Jai's LinkedIn Profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jolandi-gevers/

Jai's email address:

[email protected]

Website: www.TheGraduateAtWork.com

Today I have the privilege of talking to Amanda Bauer.

Amanda is the Director of Talent Strategy for Northwestern Mutual in Duluth, Minnesota. Originally from the Twin Cities area; Amanda graduated from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2016. She began her career in Recruiting and Talent Acquisition in Minneapolis focusing on recruiting IT consultants.

In 2018, Amanda and her now-husband decided to move back to Duluth, Minnesota (a smaller town 2 hours north of the Twin Cities Metro); with this move Amanda transitioned into a remote recruiting opportunity, focusing on business professionals, manufacturing, and administrative roles.

In April of 2019, Amanda became the Director of Talent Strategy with Northwestern Mutual up in Duluth. Amanda also serves on 3 local boards in Duluth, and is involved in 3 different mentorship programs to stay engaged and support college students in the Duluth area.

Amanda is a connector in the Duluth area. She loves recruiting and talent acquisition to help people find their right fit in a working world. Being less than 5 years out of school she also has a passion for recent graduates and helping to be a bridge as they transition out of the university environment and into different corporate environments.

Amanda is a very dynamic lady and clearly has a high capacity. We had some challenges with the internet connection, and the sound quality is not the best. This interview has so much gold in it and you will be well rewarded for pushing through the sound quality.

Amanda's LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/amandagoodman2/

Jay's LinkedIn profile:

www.linkedin.com/in/jolandi-gevers/

Website:

www.thegraduateatwork.com

Up until the end of college, no one ever said to you, “Hey, be sure to meet stranger and make new friends so that you can create future opportunities.” You were just told to make friends. And you naturally spent time with the people you liked the most. I know that as a child I did not think “I need to make sure I reach out to strangers so that I can make new friends.”

No, your natural tendencies are to connect with people you already know and enjoy spending time with. In short, networking, well at least the type that leads to career success, has not been a part of your life until the end of college.

You need to make networking a part of your life. Make it a habit. If you know anything about creating habits and letting go of old habits, you will know it is not an easy thing to do. You will need to be very intentional about this process.

In this episode I discuss six step you can take to do so.

Today I have the privilege of talking to Dominic Imwalle.

Dominic is currently an Analyst at Deloitte and running DxConsulting in his spare time. He graduated from St. Edward's University in Austin, TX with a degree in Accounting and Computer Information Technology. He has had experience in the range of recruiting, IT, accounting, and consulting. Dominic loves working with others and helping professionals find success in their career path, and outside of work, he is an avid Cleveland sports fan!

Graduating in the midst of the pandemic and with 3 months of work experience, Dominic’s experience Is very relevant to you and I am very excited to share this interview with you.

LinkedIn Profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/domimwalle/

DX Consulting: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dxconsulting-llc/

Jai's LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jolandi-gevers/

TGAW website:

www.thegraduateatwork.com

Today we are continuing our series on networking. You have heard it many time and I have said it before, networking is essential in elevating your career. We all know that networking is very important and yet many of us neglect it. Why?

What keeps us from networking? I posted on LinkedIn about this and received some really good responses. From these responses I came up with the following 5 reasons:

1. Having an incorrect understanding of what networking is.

2. Lack of confidence.

3. The fear of discomfort and rejection.

4. Wondering what value you have to give.

5. A short-term mindset.

In this podcast I delve deeper into these obstacles with some practical advice on how to overcome them.

There is also a bonus 6th reason....

Today I am sitting down with Mahesh Guruswamy.

Mahesh is a product development leader at Smartsheet where he manages teams across multiple sites that build customer facing features. Prior to that he was at Amazon working on initiatives that made Alexa smarter. He built and managed multiple engineering teams that worked on initiatives that helped make Alexa more human.

Mahesh has a very interesting career story working in various positions as a software engineer. He speaks about how he made the transition from India to the USA and how working at McDonalds for 2 years helped him in his life and career.

He has worked a lot with recent college graduates and has great advice to share with them. He encourages graduates to ask for help when its needed and pay it forward. He mentions the importance and benefits of not holding grudges in the workplace.

In the workplace you will get critical feedback and universities don’t always train students how to process critical feedback. Mahesh gives some advice on how to deal with harsh feedback and not take it personally.

LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahesh-guruswamy-84795b6/

TGAW website:

 www.thegraduateatwork.com

In the previous solo episode, you learned that networking is so effective at elevating your career because it opens doors of opportunity and it allows you to learn faster from people who have the experience you lack. But I ended last week’s episode saying, someone who seeks authenticity will not be sold by what is seemingly selfish reasons

Ask yourself, what is more natural for me in forming relationships? The ideal relationship is one where both parties receive value out of the relationship.

In that lies our answer to networking. If you approach networking with the aim to form a relationship where you give value, rather than only receive value, it becomes far more palatable.

But what value can a young professional bring to the table? Listen to find out more.

Email me at [email protected] if you are interested to find out more about the community of excellent people I am starting.

Website: www.thegraduateatwork.com

I have the privilege of speaking to Denis Gianoutsos.

Denis is the CEO and Founder of Leading Change Partners. An organization that transforms business and leaders to lead a bigger game in a disruptive world. A highly respected International Facilitator and Executive Coach. He is the host of the Podcast, Leadership Is Changing.

Denis is a professional, with 30 years’ experience successfully working in the Business and Human Resource space. A strong leader and communicator that has the ability to articulate, connect and work with all levels of an organization.

He was the Global Delivery Lead, Executive Development and Top Talent programs for Hewlett Packard, a Fortune 20 company.

He is also the co-author of a book called ‘Secrets of Inspiring Leaders Exposed’ and currently writing another book on Leadership.

Denis LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisgianoutsos/

Leadership is Changing podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leadership-is-changing/id1517844848

TGAW website:

www.thegraduateatwork.com

We are starting a new series here at The Graduate at Work podcast called Embracing networking.

Networking is without a doubt one of the things you can do to elevate your career, and yet so many people still neglect it.

In this series, we are going to look at why this is and how we can change it.

In today's episode, we are looking at two of the benefits of networking: Opportunities and Learning.

Jai's LinkedIn Profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jolandi-gevers/