Career Advice-Three Choices

[aglose]

Hello everyone,

First thread I've started over on this side of the forum, and I'd like to get some advice from all of you. I'm in my junior year and I have three current opportunities for second round interviews with companies. They are in three very different industries as well. The first option is a beer company. The second is a large food and organic beverage company and the last is a solar energy company. Just off of industry, do you feel one would be a better choice going forward? What advice would you give to someone about to enter into the labor force?

 

[Reggs]

I was a Marketing Manager in solar.

It's a very strange business. So much of solar is backed up by politics and government money, and there are low barriers to entry in the industry. What this spawns is business that has some money in it, but there is less incentive to weed out the idiots. I was in it when I was a lot younger and there were people above me in the company that felt insecure just because I had been to college. My story is not unique either. I've met many people who've worked in solar and it's been the same story.

That said, if I could do it again, I would do it because it really toughened me up. The nature of my work was very important to the company(lead gen) and a lot of eyes were on me, so I was in a pressure cooker from day one. This was stressful, but also exciting. I loved the glory of a job well done more than anything. It was also a political bloodbath, and surviving the targets on my back in that job has proved to be invaluable to my career since.

My favorite memory was early on the job. Just got hired and they wanted me to make a radio campaign. I did lots of market research to choose the right station, and a lot of work to get a good contract with the radio station, wrote good copy, and a few other things. I knew if the campaign launched and it did not meet the numbers I would be fired ~2 weeks into the job. I found myself in my car at 4:30am in my bath robe and a mug of coffee waiting for the very first ad of mine to play over the radio, then frantically calling in on multiple cell phones to test the phone lines. The calls flooded in. Sales were made. Revenue increased. As David Ogilvy would say that's the first time I "tasted blood."

 

[aglose]

I was a Marketing Manager in solar.

It's a very strange business. So much of solar is backed up by politics and government money, and there are low barriers to entry in the industry. What this spawns is business that has some money in it, but there is less incentive to weed out the idiots. I was in it when I was a lot younger and there were people above me in the company that felt insecure just because I had been to college. My story is not unique either. I've met many people who've worked in solar and it's been the same story.

That said, if I could do it again, I would do it because it really toughened me up. The nature of my work was very important to the company(lead gen) and a lot of eyes were on me, so I was in a pressure cooker from day one. This was stressful, but also exciting. I loved the glory of a job well done more than anything. It was also a political bloodbath, and surviving the targets on my back in that job has proved to be invaluable to my career since.

My favorite memory was early on the job. Just got hired and they wanted me to make a radio campaign. I did lots of market research to choose the right station, and a lot of work to get a good contract with the radio station, wrote good copy, and a few other things. I knew if the campaign launched and it did not meet the numbers I would be fired ~2 weeks into the job. I found myself in my car at 4:30am in my bath robe and a mug of coffee waiting for the very first ad of mine to play over the radio, then frantically calling in on multiple cell phones to test the phone lines. The calls flooded in. Sales were made. Revenue increased. As David Ogilvy would say that's the first time I "tasted blood."

Thanks for the insight, I will have to feel out the company when I go for a visit next week. Do you feel that it is a technology that could be the future for power generation? And if you don't mind me asking, how long ago were you in the industry?

 

[Joffrey]

I don't think the solar industry is very healthy right now. There has been a glut in supply for years and some high profile companies have gone out of business. Anyway look up the companies you are interested in. Do a news search on the companies and the industries. When you meet with them try to apply some of what you learned from the news to ask well thought out questions to get an idea of what the company may be facing in the short and medium term. Good luck!

 

[aglose]

I don't think the solar industry is very healthy right now. There has been a glut in supply for years and some high profile companies have gone out of business. Anyway look up the companies you are interested in. Do a news search on the companies and the industries. When you meet with them try to apply some of what you learned from the news to ask well thought out questions to get an idea of what the company may be facing in the short and medium term. Good luck!

Appreciate the advice, and I always do some research and ask a question about the company, which usually lands me the next interview as long as it is either something that takes some time to answer or something that the person interviewing me can't answer. That is one of the easiest things I think interviewees can do to differentiate themselves from everyone else.