Resume

As an approachable leader and champion for both multifamily and my company, I’m asked almost daily how to get to the next level. They’ve taken classes, have a degree, a designation or two and yet their career with their current company is at a standstill. Professionals want to grow, to make more money, to be challenged, to feel like they’re making a contribution, to make their mark… but they’re often unsure about how to find a new position.

You might be thinking this is a no-brainer; you’ll just head to an internet job board, type in the type of position you want, and search through the hundreds or thousands of results. Maybe you’ll apply to all of them, I mean… the more you apply to the better your chances, right?

To quote one of my favorite plays, Death of a Salesman, “It’s who you know, and the smile on your face! It’s contacts, Ben, contacts!”

One of the great challenges in development team building comes down to composition. We ask ourselves; What are my immediate and long-term needs? What skills are important in my new hire? How do I find and choose the best candidate for my organization? The reason that these questions are more daunting in development than other careers is because of the vastly diverse set of skills that must be present in order to create a ‘successful’ developer. It’s not like hiring an accountant.

At first blush, we might say that hiring for a new team is very different than hiring for an existing one. The reason being that with a new team, we know that need a comprehensive skill-set (an A to Z guy), whereas with an already operating team, we might feel that we can simply hire to address our immediate need- what I call a ‘fill the hole’ mentality. For those of you familiar with my blog and the School for Development concept, you already know that this is the exact wrong solution. We cannot continue to make tactical hiring decisions for development roles because a developer is always a strategic position. When we don’t approach our strategic positions strategically, we increase our turn-over and consequently add chaos to our organizations.  So what should we look for when evaluating a candidate?

In my experience, there are three primary qualities that are essential predictors of success for anyone who embarks on the developer’s path. And I choose these three because being a developer means being a salesman, a banker, a visionary leader, a manager and an entrepreneur.

Our conversation following my most recent blog, To MBA or Not To MBA went down some very interesting paths (although for some reason, the comments on ULI did not aggregate on MFI); so much so that I believe that it might be useful to further flesh-out some of the thoughts. The most remarkable to me, was the concept of ‘the ROI of the MBA.’ It has been asserted that the only way in business to evaluate a decision or an investment is based on its ROI. As my view of real estate development and the developers’ role in society is more holistic, my natural reaction is to reject the relevance of this singular point of view. In fact, anyone who has read my blogs probably already knows that I would argue that the sole pursuit of ROI maximization is destroying our urban fabric because it leads to a myopic view of the world. Suburban sprawl for instance is ROI maximization run amuck. I would suggest that we have a higher responsibility as creators and visionaries than can be calculated on a spreadsheet. After all what is the ROI of donating time or money to philanthropic organizations? Or being kind to others? Or traveling the world? Or reading voraciously? Each of these inputs informs our decisions as individuals and professionals, but none have predetermined effect on our salary or future promote.

 There are a few other challenges with the ROI metric as related to the viability of the MBA:

1. The MBA is not a professional degree, therefore it enables nothing. Whereas architecture, law or medical degrees are prerequisites of their professions; an MBA is wholly elective.
2. Actual ROI is only measurable in arrears. So to know whether it was a good investment or not, you actually not only have to get one, but you have to be able to measure your life’s path with it and without it. That is an impossible task.
3.  The unique usefulness of an MBA also relies on your other experiences and qualifications. For instance, if your undergraduate degree is in business or economics, the MBA is mostly redundant. If yours is a degree in literature, you likely have some knowledge gaps which need filled.

 It is important to understand that the MBA is potentially one of many tools in your toolbox and its value is relational to the rest of the tools that you possess. In real estate development, it is improvable that an MBA will have any consequential effect on your overall life’s earnings. But this fact neither makes seeking one a good or bad decision. And attempting to proforma its value is folly.

Let’s face it… the internet is NOT a fad (sorry Al Gore) and the role both the internet and computers play in our business is vast and ever growing. Let’s take a look at what parts of our business are computer and/or internet based:   

• Communication (with Colleagues & Prospects)- Email, usually Outlook is used in our business
• Learning Management Systems- Does your company offer online learning?
• Property Management Software- On our computers and generally on the internet
• Social Media
•  Rent Payments- A good portion of us allow residents to pay online
• Advertising- Our biggest source of traffic, in a lot of instances is apartments.com
• Weekly/Monthly Reports- Excel and Word play a big role in how we relay information
• Performance Appraisals- Many are integrated into our HRIS systems, which are internet based
• Payroll Time Tracking- Does anyone use a manual system anymore?
• New Colleague Orientation- Unless your company is 100% local, the internet is often used
• Accounting- Most accounting departments use our property management software in conjunction with computer and/or internet based financial software
• Payroll- The majority of us rely on Direct Deposit, which uses a computer to transmit.

I could go on and on… I think the writing on the wall is pretty clear, to be successful in our business you MUST have some sort of computer know-how. I’m not talking learning HTML here… I’m talking the VERY BASICS of computer understanding!

For those looking for a new career in the Apartment Industry, or Property Management Companies needing to post job openings, I have created a list of websites I have been using.

Americasjobexchange.com

When I was a little girl, I would stay up all night and dream of one day being in the multifamily housing industry? Okay, well... not exactly.  Just like the majority of us in "the industry," (as we so lovingly call it) I stumbled upon it by sheer accident. 

It started with "The Honeymoon Phase."  How does one know when they are in this phase? Well for me, the symptoms were quite obvious.  In fact, they were easily diagnosable to even the common eye.   They included: excitement, eagerness to get to work, overflowing creativity, boundless energy, and enthusiasm for miles.  Just like in the early stages of any courtship, I gave careful thought and consideration to what I would wear the next day.  In fact my wardrobe prep mirrored that of an elaborate Celine Dion concert.  I visualized myself leasing one apartment after another.  All the while thinking how lucky I was to have stumbled into this beautiful relationship.  I prayed that we would have a lifetime of happiness together.

Fast forward three years.    I was the same girl but now I was terribly ill.  A new set of symptoms had presented themselves.  They included: inside the box thinking, tardiness, grogginess between the hours of 9-5, and really boring outfits.  The situation was really dire.  What was wrong with me? After careful thought and self examination, it become obvious.  I had been bit with a career killing bug--"The Over-It Phase." I had lost my will to be fabulous at my job. 

Just like in any life threatening situation, I realized that I needed to take drastic measures.  What would I do? I started out by prescribing myself a serious dose of medicine: a new outfit with a great pair of shoes.  And that was my first step to a full recovery!

In my journey for rediscovering my passion for my career, there are a few tricks that I have picked up.   These are the lessons I want to share.

1-Your attitude is  your brand.  Just think, everything and everyone is a brand.  When you say the name of a brand, what comes to mind? When I say "McDonald's" you may think golden arches or crispy french fries.  If I say "Tiffanys," you may think little blue box of happiness.

Ask yourself, "What does my personal brand bring to mind?"  If you don't like what your brand is saying about you, change it.

2- Henry Ford is a genius.  He said, "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right."Stop thinking negatively or you will become a self fulfilling prophecy. 

I LOVE American Idol. At the audition stage in the game, when the judges are trying to find the best talent in each city, in 10 seonds or less, they can tell whether someone MIGHT have what it takes to "Be The NEXT American Idol."

In some ways, American Idol is very similar to the resume-interview-callback-job offer process. The end result is the same: Every company is looking for their NEXT rockstar. Are you IT?

(Picture provided by nickel.media on Flickr through creative commons license.)

Lately, much of my work has been very operations oriented. In this time of economic turmoil, companies are returning to the basics. Companies that are still alive today are going back to the drawing board and spending some time to clearly define job descriptions & responsibilities.

(picture provided by KateL366 on Flickr through Creative Commons license.)

Why spend time on something so basic? In the apartment industry, more so than many industries, we have many people classified as a "Jack-of-All-Trades." I hear this term used so much in our apartment industry. But consider for a moment, the translations of "Jack of All Trades" into other languages:

Do you feel the need to get more done? Do you have long to-do lists? Are you doing "stuff" but still can't get "anything" done?

If you answered "yes," you could be headed to a mid-life crisis. These things start small, and then they snowball....take for example:

I had a conversation with a woman yesterday that BLEW my mind. She's young, beautiful, smart (she's my "go-to" person when I need info), socially connected, socially conscious, and someone who gets STUFF done. I'm talking A LOT of stuff. She juggles a demanding job, participates in the local apartment association, fun/loving family woman, successful - one word AMAZING. (Let's call her Mary Poppins going forward.)