Preface
I like to write books that I wish I could have read earlier in my life. The genesis for this book dates back to September 1997, when I attended a career fair two weeks after starting the MBA program at the University of Texas. All I knew was that I needed to secure a summer internship. I didn’t particularly care which industry I worked in or precisely what I did. At that point, I had three years of experience in information technology and consulting under my belt, and jobs with technology companies were all the rage.
As I wandered around the job fair, I saw a table for Compaq Computer (now Hewlett-Packard). I approached the recruiter and asked her if Compaq was looking to hire summer interns. "Of course," she said. "What area are you interested in?"
I must have looked like a deer in headlights. I really hadn’t given it any thought. I didn’t even know what my options were. And so I asked a question recruiters really hate to hear.
"Well, what positions do you have?"
I could tell the recruiter wasn’t pleased. "Sir, we have over 3,500 open positions. What department are you most interested in?"
"Um, marketing?" In hindsight, I don’t know where I pulled that answer out of. As an undergraduate, I had taken one marketing course, and I had always been interested in the marketing side of business. But I really didn’t know what "marketing" was all about. I couldn’t even define it well. But by process of elimination, marketing sounded better to me than, say, accounting or finance. The recruiter was clearly annoyed. With a firmer tone, she explained, "We have a few hundred marketing positions available. What, specifically, do you want to do?"
Having by now clearly blown my chances of securing a job with Compaq, I felt I had nothing to lose by continuing this naive line of questioning.
"Well, what kinds of marketing positions are available?"
The patient recruiter began to rattle off job categories -- product marketing, brand management, channel management, partner relations, corporate communications, PR, and others -- and I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. I left the job fair defeated. I clearly had a lot to learn.
Ten years later, I finally do know what she was talking about. And as I moved from tech company to tech company during the boom, then bust, then recovery, I’ve had the benefit of holding several job titles and working with people in all the other business fields found in the tech sector.
Over those ten years, I’ve come to meet a lot of people who remind me of myself at that job fair: undergraduates seeking internships, recent college graduates looking for a first job, experienced professionals considering a career change into the tech sector, people already working for a technology company but interested in learning more about other career options, and even people who are just curious what all these tech people do for a living. If you fall into these categories, this book is for you.
Note that there are quite a few books and websites that will help you in actually landing these jobs. There are books, articles and great websites about how to write a resume, interviewing techniques, professional networking, and many more related topics. For a continuously updated list of some of my favorites, please visit www.TechJobsBook.com.
Finally, I must thank several individuals who provided invaluable assistance on this book: Thomas Aitchison, Jake Angerman, Chris Boyd, Alison Cowden, Ann Dahlquist, Gaea Connary, Amanda Finch, Julie Humble, Cheryl Klinginsmith, and Cindy Lo.
I sincerely hope that this book helps you find the job that’s right for you.
David Wolpert