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Abstract

="19b4">News flash: Nobody cares.</p><p id="211b">I don’t mean that to be rude, but in all honesty, colleges and businesses are not charities. They’re typically not seeking to hand out acceptances and job offers with no likelihood of a positive return coming back to them down the road.</p><p id="97f9">They’re self-serving. But you, as the applicant or candidate? You can’t be.</p><h1 id="5117">How do colleges and businesses expect you to earn your place (and prove your worth)?</h1><p id="76aa">There are a few different ways.</p><h2 id="0b70">1. Revenue:</h2><p id="39bc">Businesses are pretty straight-forward in this regard. They’re hoping that, as an employee, you’ll drive more business or make the company more money than your salary plus bonus costs them. By a lot. Will that actually happen? Hard to say — it varies by job, industry, and a multitude of other factors, but that is certainly the hope.</p><p id="6541">Colleges might be less straightforward in this, but future revenue is definitely a part of the goal. It just may not come directly from you — or it may.</p><ul><li>Revenue coming directly from you would be on the off-chance that you get super-rich and successful and make huge donations back to the school. That would be a positive ROI for them.</li><li>The second option is that you do something so impressive or noteworthy, or possibly partake in post-grad recruiting efforts, to drive more interest in, applications to, and enrollments at that university. In that way, you’ll be driving more revenue through the candidates that you’ve attracted and influenced.</li></ul><h2 id="524e">2. Reputation</h2><p id="4d72">Businesses and colleges want to fill their halls with impressive, upstanding, respectable people that bolster the reputation of the institution. If you can also bag a few huge clients, forge key relationships with heavyweight industry partners or large donors, or bring about some world-altering invention that reflects well on the company or university? You can bet that’s going to up their reputation. And that’s a part of what they’re betting on.</p><p id="a869">They don’t simply want you to be rule-following, instruction-takers capable of completing tasks and acing tests. That may be a baseline, but it’s not how you’re going to knock their socks off, and it may not even justify their having chosen you in the first place.</p><p id="f949">Colleges and companies are giving you the opportunity to step into their institutions, learn, grow, and imbue your gained wisdom onto others and hopefully make some big, world-changing impacts in the meantime. Or at least some industry-wide accomplishments they can tout for street cred.</p><p id="e7f7">They’re betting on your potential to exceed their expectations. And that’s something you’ll want to keep in mind from the application to the interview through your actual time in the school or on the job.</p><h2 id="8acd">3. Referrals</h2><p id="91cf">Along the lines of generating a profitable ROI and enhancing the institution’s reputation with your accomplishments, the hope is also that you’ll attract similarly ambitious, talented, impactful, world-changing students and employees to those respective institutions. This is how they can continue the cycle of increased revenue, an upwardly mobile reputation, and an impressive network of alumni or employees.</p><p id="be3d">So, again, it all comes back to your outsized impact.</p><h1 id="b290">But I thought we were talking about applications and interviews?</h1><p id="69d5">We are. That’s where you start.</p><p id="fb13">Even though today you probably don’t know exactly how you’re going to impact the university, company, industry, or world at large in the years or decades ahead of you, you want to convey that mission early on.</p><p

Options

id="b4ec">Let the college or employer know that you do plan to utilize certain skills or talents you possess, along with certain resources or training they provide, in order to result in outsized outcomes that give back tenfold and serve THEM.</p><p id="8533">It’s all about them. Or at least, that’s what you should be selling.</p><p id="7cab">Because even if you don’t end up creating that world-changing invention, saving an endangered species, or bringing in a $100 million recurring revenue client? Showing that you have the empathy, foresight, and business perspective upfront to <i>recognize your mission</i> to bring about some impact is going to put you in a class above your peers and colleagues.</p><p id="8a90">You get them. You empathize with them. You prioritize them. Therefore, you’re aware of the opportunity you’re being given. And you’re also aware of what these colleges and employers are hoping to get out of you.</p><p id="f889">It’s a transparent exchange. It’s mature. And it makes you look ambitious, well-informed, and selfless. And confident. You don’t know exactly what your impact on society will be, but you sure as heck do plan to make one. And that university or employer who says yes to you just may be lucky enough to enjoy your ride.</p><h2 id="f871">Want a few examples?</h2><ul><li>Extensions of your current hobbies or talents and how you may lend them to a business, non-profit, or world-impacting venture in the future. I know a <a href="https://lawire.com/beta-bowl-supports-students-journey-conquering-the-literacy-and-education-gap/">teen who loved reading and ended up starting a literacy-focused nonprofit that has already donated over 30,000 books to kids in poverty</a>. That’s using an interest or hobby to make an outsized impact. <a href="https://vimeo.com/513279561">You can see her on The Kelly Clarkson Show talking about her impact here</a>.</li><li>Get specific with your interests and let your research and preparation shine. For example, don’t simply say that you want to be premed. Talk about why you’ve developed an interest in a specific discipline of medicine or in finding a cure or treatment for a specific disease. Discuss your goals to embark on research, your hope to shadow current scientists <i>(perhaps you’re already doing this — even better!)</i>, and why you hope to make a huge, lifesaving dent in this underserved domain.</li><li>Don’t just read the company’s job posting; listen to their earnings call, read their 10-K (if a public company), and try to get a grasp of where they’re going in the future. <i>Which specific divisions do they plan to expand? Any new markets or offerings they’re broaching?</i> Insert yourself and illustrate how you could be a part of those future expansion efforts, and explain why you would be uniquely suited for them and the types of outsized returns you would hope to generate.</li><li>Lastly, bring some new ideas to the table. Offer up a fresh perspective that the university or employer may not have thought of, but one that could possibly add and expand their value. Perhaps a specific nonprofit. Or an environmental initiative. Or an international partnership. Or an educational offering. Something to show that you have foresight and will bring about something new, exciting, and innovative. That’s why they’re hiring you.</li></ul><p id="6aaf">That’s the way to get a college acceptance or job offer.</p><h1 id="0ef5">So what was that one secret?</h1><p id="5ddb">Thinking like them. About what you can do for them. And conveying your motivation, how you plan to make the impacts you do, and why you’re uniquely suited to add that impactful contribution. <i>Package yourself like the best gift that will keep on giving (to them), for years to come.</i></p></article></body>

The One Golden Secret to Acing Any Job Interview or School Application

This is almost too valuable to give away for free — but here goes.

It’s been more than a decade since I applied to colleges, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve applied to or interviewed for jobs as well. However, I did have my fair share of success when applying to (14) colleges, and getting only one rejection (sadly from my first choice school — Stanford). I subsequently went on to bag more than a handful of finance internship offers during college and graduated with a 6-figure job at a top investment bank.

Am I saying this to brag? Not at all. But there is one small secret I knew then, that I know to be true even more now (as a business owner), that I believe was a huge advantage in my college acceptances, internship offers, and full-time job success.

I’m not an application coach, but I could play one on TV…

Perhaps I should also mention that I’m CEO of an e-learning company that helps teens become entrepreneurs (Beta Bowl) and I write a good number of recommendation letters for university hopefuls each year, as well as internship and job referral letters. My letters alone have gotten students off waitlists for top colleges and universities, from Babson to Caltech. And have helped 18-year-olds walk into selective startup interviews, ace them, and get their first offer in fintech in Silicon Valley, rather than bartending to cover their tuition. Suffice it to say, I am familiar with the current college and job recruiting system today.

The other week, I was on the phone with a parent of a high-school teen who told me I should be a college application consultant or mentor. This was hilarious to me since I simply shared what I thought to be obvious, common knowledge with her (with respect to her son’s upcoming college application essays).

The funny thing is, she isn’t the first person who’s said that to me — in the past month alone. In fact, I probably have a dozen or so emails stating the like from various parents and even from educators themselves.

Cracking the code to applications and interviews

If you really want to know why I seem to have cracked the code to college acceptances and job offers, I think it’s pretty simple: I don’t think like an applicant.

Or a candidate.

Or a hopeful employee.

I think like a business owner — even if we’re talking about colleges (which supposedly aren’t “businesses” — but that’s a whole other debate for another time).

What does thinking like a business owner mean? It simply means not thinking about yourself, why you might like to attend a certain university, or why you think you’d be a great fit for that selective job.

News flash: Nobody cares.

I don’t mean that to be rude, but in all honesty, colleges and businesses are not charities. They’re typically not seeking to hand out acceptances and job offers with no likelihood of a positive return coming back to them down the road.

They’re self-serving. But you, as the applicant or candidate? You can’t be.

How do colleges and businesses expect you to earn your place (and prove your worth)?

There are a few different ways.

1. Revenue:

Businesses are pretty straight-forward in this regard. They’re hoping that, as an employee, you’ll drive more business or make the company more money than your salary plus bonus costs them. By a lot. Will that actually happen? Hard to say — it varies by job, industry, and a multitude of other factors, but that is certainly the hope.

Colleges might be less straightforward in this, but future revenue is definitely a part of the goal. It just may not come directly from you — or it may.

Revenue coming directly from you would be on the off-chance that you get super-rich and successful and make huge donations back to the school. That would be a positive ROI for them.
The second option is that you do something so impressive or noteworthy, or possibly partake in post-grad recruiting efforts, to drive more interest in, applications to, and enrollments at that university. In that way, you’ll be driving more revenue through the candidates that you’ve attracted and influenced.

2. Reputation

Businesses and colleges want to fill their halls with impressive, upstanding, respectable people that bolster the reputation of the institution. If you can also bag a few huge clients, forge key relationships with heavyweight industry partners or large donors, or bring about some world-altering invention that reflects well on the company or university? You can bet that’s going to up their reputation. And that’s a part of what they’re betting on.

They don’t simply want you to be rule-following, instruction-takers capable of completing tasks and acing tests. That may be a baseline, but it’s not how you’re going to knock their socks off, and it may not even justify their having chosen you in the first place.

Colleges and companies are giving you the opportunity to step into their institutions, learn, grow, and imbue your gained wisdom onto others and hopefully make some big, world-changing impacts in the meantime. Or at least some industry-wide accomplishments they can tout for street cred.

They’re betting on your potential to exceed their expectations. And that’s something you’ll want to keep in mind from the application to the interview through your actual time in the school or on the job.

3. Referrals

Along the lines of generating a profitable ROI and enhancing the institution’s reputation with your accomplishments, the hope is also that you’ll attract similarly ambitious, talented, impactful, world-changing students and employees to those respective institutions. This is how they can continue the cycle of increased revenue, an upwardly mobile reputation, and an impressive network of alumni or employees.

So, again, it all comes back to your outsized impact.

But I thought we were talking about applications and interviews?

We are. That’s where you start.

Even though today you probably don’t know exactly how you’re going to impact the university, company, industry, or world at large in the years or decades ahead of you, you want to convey that mission early on.

Let the college or employer know that you do plan to utilize certain skills or talents you possess, along with certain resources or training they provide, in order to result in outsized outcomes that give back tenfold and serve THEM.

It’s all about them. Or at least, that’s what you should be selling.

Because even if you don’t end up creating that world-changing invention, saving an endangered species, or bringing in a $100 million recurring revenue client? Showing that you have the empathy, foresight, and business perspective upfront to recognize your mission to bring about some impact is going to put you in a class above your peers and colleagues.

You get them. You empathize with them. You prioritize them. Therefore, you’re aware of the opportunity you’re being given. And you’re also aware of what these colleges and employers are hoping to get out of you.

It’s a transparent exchange. It’s mature. And it makes you look ambitious, well-informed, and selfless. And confident. You don’t know exactly what your impact on society will be, but you sure as heck do plan to make one. And that university or employer who says yes to you just may be lucky enough to enjoy your ride.

Want a few examples?

Extensions of your current hobbies or talents and how you may lend them to a business, non-profit, or world-impacting venture in the future. I know a teen who loved reading and ended up starting a literacy-focused nonprofit that has already donated over 30,000 books to kids in poverty. That’s using an interest or hobby to make an outsized impact. You can see her on The Kelly Clarkson Show talking about her impact here.
Get specific with your interests and let your research and preparation shine. For example, don’t simply say that you want to be premed. Talk about why you’ve developed an interest in a specific discipline of medicine or in finding a cure or treatment for a specific disease. Discuss your goals to embark on research, your hope to shadow current scientists (perhaps you’re already doing this — even better!), and why you hope to make a huge, lifesaving dent in this underserved domain.
Don’t just read the company’s job posting; listen to their earnings call, read their 10-K (if a public company), and try to get a grasp of where they’re going in the future. Which specific divisions do they plan to expand? Any new markets or offerings they’re broaching? Insert yourself and illustrate how you could be a part of those future expansion efforts, and explain why you would be uniquely suited for them and the types of outsized returns you would hope to generate.
Lastly, bring some new ideas to the table. Offer up a fresh perspective that the university or employer may not have thought of, but one that could possibly add and expand their value. Perhaps a specific nonprofit. Or an environmental initiative. Or an international partnership. Or an educational offering. Something to show that you have foresight and will bring about something new, exciting, and innovative. That’s why they’re hiring you.

That’s the way to get a college acceptance or job offer.

So what was that one secret?

Thinking like them. About what you can do for them. And conveying your motivation, how you plan to make the impacts you do, and why you’re uniquely suited to add that impactful contribution. Package yourself like the best gift that will keep on giving (to them), for years to come.