As a result, Zynga founder Mark Pincus will finally join the billionaire club.

We don’t know Zynga’s “cap table” – how many shares are owned by employees? How many millionaires will come out of Zynga’s IPO? Unless an insider reveals the details, it’s going to be hard for us to find out.

For an average silicon valley worker (software developer, QA engineer, product manager, customer support, sales, etc.), hitting the IPO homerun is the “Silicon Valley Dream”.

Things have changed in the past 6 to 12 months. The IPO market suddenly becomes more active. The successful LinkedIn IPO brought back hope – IPO can still happen and one can still make some money from the start-up game in the Silicon Valley. The Zynga IPO will only fuel the burning “IPO fire”.

Are you envious of folks who work at LinkedIn, Zynga, Facebook, or other "hot start-ups”? Are you anxious to leave your big company job and find a hot start-up to join?

Maybe I’m a little bit older (and hopefully a little bit wiser) as I went thought the last great bubble in the Silicon Valley during the mid-to-late 1990’s. I want to share with you my perspective on this.

First, the number one reason for people who become rich in start-up is luck. For a start-up to have a home run like LinkedIn, it doesn’t matter how smart and hard-working the entrepreneur and his team are, they need a lot of luck for all of the stars to align and create a successful start-up.

Second, timing is everything. To have a huge exit, the capital market has to be ready to support such an IPO. For a low-to-middle level employee to make a lot of money from the IPO with fairly small number of stock options, the company needs to have million of dollars of market cap after the IPO. And the employee’s strike price should be low enough for him to reap the benefit. Timings for aforementioned events must align.

Third, statistically there are not many exits over $100mm. On his  blog, famed venture capitalist Fred Wilson stated

“There are on average 1,000 early state financings every year. I suppose a few of those 1,000 financings are for the same company, but I doubt that many are. So we can use 1,000 as an approximation of the number of companies that get funded in a given year.

And somewhere around 50 and 100 of them exit for more than $100mm every year. So 5-10% of the companies financed by VCs end up existing for more than $100mm”

Why am I telling you these? Because I think if you’re an entry-level or middle-level worker in the high tech industry, it is virtually impossible for you to pick the winner of the start-up game.

You’re at a very disadvantaged position – venture capitalist needs one home run out of ten investments to make a lot of money. Entrepreneurs and senior management can make good money even though the company’s exit is moderate because of the higher number of stock options they own.

But, you, as a hard-working worker bee, are risking your career and money (you probably will take a pay cut) while working your tail off for a tiny chance to make it.

Do I sound too negative and discouraging? – I’m not telling you not to join start-up. I want you to understand your odd in the start-up casino – you are just like many people who are visiting Las Vegas casinos – the house has an upper hand over you although you might get lucky once a while.

So, instead of chasing the money, make sure you’re really interested and passionate about the product the start-up is making. Joining the start-up should help accelerate your career, make you more fulfilled professionally, and set you up for next stage of your career.

Please don’t join a start-up with the high expectation of hitting a home run because it’s highly likely that you’ll be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you join the start-up for your passion and the opportunity to learn and grow, you might get lucky to have a base hit, or even hit the home run.

After spending several weeks of reviewing the business metrics, we determined a very focused strategy. More importantly, we focused on building small wins. Our motto was every order matters – we tried to make a lot of small, incremental improvement in customer experience, marketing messaging, cost control, team effectiveness, etc.

We implemented a team dashboard that took a metric driven approach to run our business. Every week we reviewed our performance and tried to do something to improve our business.

Little by little, the business started to improve. Six months later, we were growing at 4 times of the average industry growth.

The interesting part is that suppliers starts to contact us to give us more favorable terms. We’re getting calls from marketing agencies for lower rates in exchange for longer term contract. We’re getting more brand recognition.

Once we started making improvements and building momentum, it’s like a snowball that keep rolling. The key is to maintain the momentum, and ride the wave.

Do you feel stuck in your career or your personal life? I suggest you to start DOING small things to make incremental improvement to your situation. Once the snowball starts rolling, the momentum will eventually carry you to the finish line.

Give it a try. Momentum is magical.

There is nothing right or wrong about this. However, this has some implications to you as an employee:

• When you have interpersonal issues or hold grudges against certain colleagues, don’t naively think that HR will be your trusted counselor to resolve the issue. They come from totally different perspective and motivation.
• HR’s priority and your priority are different.
• When you deal with HR, you need to be business-like and professional. Again, HR is not your personal counselor. Don’t reveal personal, sensitive information to HR. Otherwise, you’re risking your career and your future.

She started the conversation by saying: "Before we talked about the details such as COBRA, your last check, vacation balance, etc, we want to find out why you’re leaving the company. We’re not like our parent’s generation who will stay with the same company for their whole lives. We understand people will change jobs. But, we want to understand why you are leaving so that we can do a better job to retain employees".

I knew I would be asked this question. I had rehearsed my replies before I came to the meeting. I was quite frustrated at certain aspects of my work, and that’s why I was leaving.

However, I did NOT want to burn any bridges. And HR was not the place to express my frustration and speak my mind. To understand the dirty secrets of HR, I highly recommend you to read Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know—and What to Do About Them .

So, I replied: "I really enjoyed working at Company X. I’m very grateful for the opportunity I was given. I’m leaving largely due to career development reason. I found an opportunity that allowed me to do something that I was really passionate about. My decision to leave really has more to do with the next opportunity, and has less to do with Company X. I really like everyone here. I’ll remain to be a shareholder."

The HR manager then asked: "We understand that most people leave because of career development reasons. But, there must be some reasons that triggered your decision to leave. What can we do better?"

This was a tricky part — I wanted to provide an honest answer, but again I didn’t want to burn any bridge. So, I framed my answer this way:

"Our Company has been growing for the past couple of years. I’m very fortunate to be part of this growth. As a result, I plan to remain as a stockholder. As a stockholder, based on my understanding of our business model, product, technology, etc., these are the three things that will keep me awake at night." I then listed 3 things that I think the company needs to improve in light of rapid growth and the challenge of scale the business. I focused on describing the challenges, and never mentioned a single person’s name.

The HR manager was satisfied, and went on to explain COBRA, final pay check, etc. to me.

It was an amicable exit interview. I didn’t burn any bridge, but still provided the company some feedback to improve.

How is your exit interview experience? Any story to share? I’d love to hear from you.

China holds a special appeal to many ambitious young professionals in the United States and around the world. But, many people are unsure or apprehensive about going to work in China, given the cultural, language and other barriers. I recently conducted an interview with Ms. Marie Cheng, who was born and educated in the United States and Singapore, but chose to pursue her MBA study at the prestigious Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM) and has been working in China’s high tech industry.

I first got to know Marie when I saw her insightful comments on the blog. I was very impressed by how Marie has chosen a unique path to pursue her MBA study at Tsinghua University and pursued a career in China. Enjoy the interview!

What’s your background?

I was born in Westchester, NY, and raised in Ridgewood, New Jersey.  When I was 14, and when my brother, the last of my 3 older siblings, had just graduated high school, he packed up and prepared for college (also Berkeley!) while my parents, grandmother, and I packed our house up for Singapore, where my parents grew up before moving to the US after they got married.  I finished high school at a British international school called United World College of South East Asia (UWCSEA).  There are quite a few UWC’s around the world, all of which tout a version of the British system and, more importantly, the IB.  I graduated with the IB and went back to the states.

I went to the University of Michigan and got a degree in Economics, had a couple of odd jobs and such then.  Since a degree in Economics isn’t exactly a ‘direction’ in life, I went to Denver to help my dad start his medical private practice, setting up the internal computer network, running the back-of-house operations and backup and such, and doing some insurance claims.  It wasn’t my dream job, but it was ok.

What made you decide to move to China?

The summer between high school and University of Michigan, my parents decided to take me on a little tour of Greater China.  My mom was on business in Hong Kong, so we went there first, staying in a nice hotel.  Then we went to Shanghai, then Taipei.  I was blown away by Shanghai.  Even then, 10 years ago, it was bustling and smelly and what I felt seemed like a sense of a Chinese self, something I’d never thought to have before.  So I promised I’d go back sometime, just to explore.  I left my dad’s office in 2004 to take an English teaching position in Nanjing, just to try both teaching and China for a year.  Then I never left.

My reasons for going was a growing curiosity for what it meant to be "Chinese". While I grew up in a large family that was happy to celebrate Chinese holidays together at home, we were in the US and seeing Shanghai was outside of what I had ever imagined.  I saw trendy, busy, working, functioning people.  I saw something more than the Model Minority.  Right or wrong, I saw people who looked very in charge of their destiny.  And they knew how to be Chinese, and I didn’t really get what it meant.  So, I went to find roots, make roots, understand roots.  Post college sometimes felt like a let-down, and I didn’t feel ready to just join the rat race and work on professional development, but I did want to work on my personal development.  And, admittedly, I ran away a bit.  All of us who are here have "ran away" to some extent.

I also feel there is a natural follow-up to this question.  Why did I want to stay?  I stayed after the first year because after so much time I didn’t feel I had learned much Chinese, and this time wanted to see if I could turn my time in China into "direction".  I still didn’t know what I wanted.  But I could tell that staying in China was going to be a boon for me.  Later I stayed because I loved it, the gritty China that was always an adventure, even if it was just going out to buy groceries at the wet market.  Then I stayed for the work opportunities, for the freedom, and because I met my boyfriend who also loved being here.  I stayed for the MBA, the MBA opportunities, and now we stay because we have good jobs that serve China, serve global business, and meet our needs.  It sometimes takes its toll on you, but overall we still love China.

How did you get your first job in China?

My first job in China in 2004 was with a prominent high school in Nanjing.  Many other foreign teachers there said they went through friends or paid agencies to help them find positions and make all the visa arrangements.  I had a family friend of my mother’s who had been playing teachers in China and she had heard of a vacancy and had me contact them directly.  I remember thinking that the contact didn’t look quite so professional (it was in English), but I figured they were not very professional.  Turns out this can be the case for a lot of Chinese companies in terms of document conversion into English.

My MBA internships and jobs have been obtained in different ways.  Most of the time someone I knew had info on an opening and could introduce me, and as opposed to me asking them for help (because i didn’t know to), they approached me to see whether I was interested.  That was because they have seen my hard work and attitude in the MBA, and to them that was enough reason to introduce me to their contact.  The interviews were always interesting because they wished to test both my Chinese and English, and were surprised to hear my Chinese accent; my Chinese is pretty good now if I do say so myself, considering I learned it as an adult.  I was told that my multiculturalism would be a boon in the office, and indeed it seemed it was.  In my most recent interviews, that has been repeatedly cited as an asset, as well as bilingualism, and a demonstrate passion for the industry. 

What are some of the biggest challenges of working in China?

This depends on who and "what" you are.  If you are a Caucasian coming to China to work for the first time, language and culture will certainly be big challenges, but so long as you come with an open mind, and demonstrate yourself to be this way, you can be "forgiven" for not having great Chinese or for having no understanding of culture.  Why?  This is because it isn’t expected of you; after all, you’re white.

If however you are an ABC/overseas Chinese, your challenges are greater on all fronts.  You are expected to have a good grasp of Chinese, or at least a steep learning curve, and some inherent understanding of culture.  Fair or not, the local Chinese can’t help but see you through this lens because you ARE Chinese, look Chinese, and whatever passport you have, you are of Chinese origin. 

There is even more to consider if you are not white, not Chinese, but from somewhere else in Asia.

I wrote my MBA graduation thesis on the importance of building trust in the multicultural workplace in China, and find that the two biggest challenges, from my perspective, are:  1)  Knowing what is *really* expected of you as an employee and a person, and what assumptions have already been made about you based on your background, and 2) knowing how to navigate language and culture to build real trust.

One thing I notice from own MBA experience is that MBAs tends to hang out in their own circles. Do you find yourself hang out mostly with your fellow foreign students? Or there are a lot of interactions with the local students?

During the MBA, yes, you could argue it was easier to hang out with other foreign students than local Chinese, because of shared upbringing.  Often though, what mattered to me more was a shared outlook and attitude, and that did not consistently come from any one nationality or ethnicity.  I count among my closer friends 2 local Chinese, one Taiwanese American, a girl from Hong Kong, and a dear friend from Kenya. 

Recalibrating my attitude towards my time in China often helped me have better friendships with the Chinese.  Group projects, proven reliability, etc, were also the lubricants in fast growing friendships.  Going out to KTV was also a great way to interact.

How about language and communication? How did you pick up the Chinese language?

I’ve been studying Chinese on and off since high school, and even had a semi-functional level while taking the mandatory classes in college.  I largely lost it after that and promised to improve it after moving to China.  It has been a hard long process, but essentially I took a year to study it full time; 4 hours in the mornings, working on my own business in the afternoons.  By the time I hit 4-5 months of study I hit a critical mass in my vocabulary, level of comfort in conversing, and I learned so much faster in the remaining 4-5 months.  I have been trying to learn as much as possible in the last 3 years since I finished the 1 year course.  I took a 1on1 course for a while, focusing on reading of the news and talking about every day events, activities, and situations.

Piece of advice:  Learning Chinese is like tackling projects at work.  There are 4 major components of Chinese:  Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading.  If you are pressed for time, you prioritize, but ideally you learn them all.  You devise how much time you devote to it a week, you determine necessary resources, and you work on it alone or others, and with diligence and serious dedication.  You have to really focus on learning. 

Is the Tsinghua MBA application process pretty similar to US/EU MBA programs? I read from the Tsinghua MBA web site that foreign students tend to live off campus while the locals live in the dorm. How did you like your living arrangement and social interactions while you were a student at Tsinghua?

The application process was different when I started, but I think it has changed now.  Chinese student applications always involve examinations of some sort, regardless of school or major.  They took a Chinese version of the GMAT and sat through special interviews, often with other Chinese candidates, to have a mock debate in English; our IMBA is in English after all, and they needed to have a decent command of English in order to join.  Foreign students had to take the GMAT and sit individually for an English interview with a panel of professors and administrators.  All students had to submit the requisite application materials.  One thing that was unusual was the requirement of a copy of my undergraduate diploma.  I think that is normal for Chinese candidates for post-graduate study.

The difference in living arrangements among classmates is akin to the difference in pay among colleagues.  When Chinese came to my apartment, they never said anything outright, but I wondered what they thought of my accommodations in comparison to the dormitories.

I should note that foreign students living on campus live in different dorms than the local students.  There is no way we could all share the same dorm; there are special foreign student dorms for the university’s entire foreign student population, and they are expensive with limited amenities (except the daily cleaning lady, admittedly that is a luxury).  It is thus not economical for foreign students to live on campus; they can find much more affordable and better accommodations off campus.

It is understandable and yet unfortunate that the difference in dorms reinforces a difference between local and foreign.  that was a slightly uncomfortable elephant in the room that we never quite knew how to address.  We just tried not to focus on it our put ourselves in situations where that would be brought irrevocably to light.  Much like one might if differences in salary were apparent.

Our MBA director is a great woman who tries to strike a balance between uniting us all in our professional development, and showing how we can all draw on our individual skills and experiences (foreigners who know global/western business practices, locals who know China and China’s business revolution) to help each other grow.

What’s your post MBA plan? Do you plan to return to your home country? Or you plan to stay in China indefinitely?

I plan to stay, not only because my fiancé and I are both here and like it here, but because the only way to really drive home the purpose of doing my MBA here is to apply it.  An MBA on Chinese soil is a great starting point, but it won’t give you the real experience of what happens when you sign deals with local partners, or combat piracy, plan Chinese PR events, go to KTV with potential clients, or negotiate cooperation with employees in another department, or what you really should do if your boss is Chinese and you are foreign, or vice versa.  So, I plan to stay to work.

At this point, my fiancé and I are here indefinitely.  We find that we can not only function in this environment, we rather enjoy it.  China is on the up and up, so naturally it makes professional sense to stay here, but we find we are also very excited about supporting China’s expansion.  Many back home see the "rise of China" as a threat, and indeed, journalists use that phrase to no end and create a zero-sum relationship between East and West.  But what about the rise of China for the sake of the Chinese people?  What about the rise in education standards, or in standard or living, and the opening up of a culture that for the better part of the last 5000 years has been closed?  Any nation has citizens who feel proud to be citizens, and the Chinese are almost feeling that collectively.  We find that rather wonderful, and hope to be a part of that.  I am American and Chinese now.

A lot of young professionals in the U.S. and other part of the worlds are considering to move to China. What advice do you have for them?

The Chinese are a wary bunch, and with just cause; just look at their history.  If anyone comes here to work, understand that whatever your actual intentions, you are assumed to be here as a career move, and just to have fun.  If that’s what you want then no one will argue with you, but they might not trust you.  China is looking for team players, people who can join in the pursuit of their goals, and you should try to "care" about these goals.   Ask yourself before you get here if you have anything in your past that indicates you can do that.  Why?  Because the best way for local teammates/managers/direct reports to trust you is to see that you have this kind of character.  So, be prepared to take time to build trust with others, demonstrate trust, and demonstrate dedication to China’s goals. 

Work on Chinese.  It is such a beneficial tool in working in China, and is a great demonstration of your willingness to meet the Chinese halfway.  Even if you are in the Beijing office of a European multinational company where the working language is English or French, if more than 60-70% of employees are local Chinese, learn Chinese now.

Lastly, manage your expectations about China.  All the movies you’ve seen about China are not China, they are stylized versions of China that is easy on the eyes, ears and heart.  Think about how you measure the following things:  Success, Ease, Difficulty, Logic, Cheap, Expensive, Fairness, Effort, Improvement, "Good" and "Bad".  Now consider that what makes cultures different is the way they view, measure, and value those same things.  Be prepared for different views and standards, he willing to change your expectations, and roll with it!

No one’s asking you to fake your personality and character in order to have a good time and good job here.  So, hopefully you can self-select by asking whether you are open enough to try to love living abroad and respect another culture. 

Anything else you want to share with us about your experience in China.

In bullet points:

• I’ve been here for just over 5 years now and I’m still learning new things about China.
• Real Chinese food is truly, truly wonderful!  You have no idea.
• Coffee from the Yunnan province is pretty darn good.
• I hit another growth spurt in Chinese when I was working by trying really hard to speak Chinese with colleagues all the time.  Even more of an impetus was having Chinese bosses/managers.  if they are at a senior manager or director level, chances are they have worked REALLY hard to get there, and/or are extremely talented, and it would behoove you to learn from them.
• Beware of haircuts in China – take a friend with you who speaks Chinese!  They are so into fashionable hair styles that it gets a little out of hand sometimes…
• Try not to just recreate the standard of living in your home country here without adapting.  You won’t experience as much about China, and it is something that will exacerbate the differences between you and local colleagues.

Related posts:

• Seven Lessons I learned from attending business school during recession
• Five alternative careers for MBAs
• To the Unemployed MBA Applicant: Look for Opportunity and Hedge Your Bets
• An in-depth look into MBA Admission Consulting
• A brief survey of the MBA admission consulting market
• 7 tips to improve your chance to get into a top business school

My favorite books about China:

• Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now
• A Comrade Lost and Found: A Beijing Memoir
• River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (P.S.)
• Waiting

Would you quit your job and work for free in order to pursue your dream career?

This is not a hypothetical question. It’s exactly what Brad Stevens did.

In case you haven’t heard about Brad Stevens, he is the head coach of Butler University Men’s Basketball Team. His team is this year’s "Cinderella team" — a "mid-major" program (Butler University is a small school with a student population of 4,000) that has reached the pinnacle of college basketball. They’ll be playing Duke Blue Devil tonight for national championship.

Here are some amazing facts about Brad Stevens:

• He is only 33 years old. One of the youngest coaches ever to lead his team to NCAA final.
• After finishing college, he joined Eli Lilly as Marketing Associates in 1999. To keep his basketball passion alive, he worked as volunteer coaching assistant at a local high school, and helped his father coached the AAU team. 
• According to Wikipedia, “in the summer of 2000, Stevens was offered the opportunity to volunteer in the Butler Basketball office. He ran the idea of quitting his job at Eli Lilly by then long-time girlfriend Tracy Wilhelmy. She thought about it for two hours before telling him to go for it. ‘Now, it looks like a great idea,’ Stevens later remarked. ‘At the time, I thought it was something I really wanted to try.’ Tracy went back to school to get a law degree that could support the couple if things didn’t work out for Brad. ‘We were 23 and realized this was our chance,’ Tracy later said. ‘Five years down the road, we were probably not going to be in a position to do that. The more success you had at Lilly, the harder it would be to leave.”
• And the rest is history. Brad Stevens rapidly moved up the ranks in Butler Basketball, and became head coach at age 30.

Very few of us can go through life and honestly say to ourselves that we really love what we do.

A friend of my dad, who is in his 60s, once told me that one of the best thing could happen to a man is to have a job he is truly passionate about and keep doing it for a very long time.

Friends, I encourage you to listen to your heart.

Do you really enjoy what you’re doing? Are you working at Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, McKinsey, or other employers because it makes you look good in front of your friends and family and/or it is the RIGHT career move for you from a career management standpoint?

If you’re in a position to take a risk and try something you’re truly passionate about, I strongly encourage you to take the leap. Who knows — you might be the next Brad Stevens of your chosen field.

Related posts:

• The anti dot com path to success: A different way of living and working
• Don’t get stuck
• How my friend got a high-power finance job by walking his dog

Excellent resources:

• Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life
• Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success Playbook
• What It Takes to Be #1 : Vince Lombardi on Leadership

His employer was a recently funded start-up when he joined the company as a contractor. He performed well, and was soon hired as a professional service consultant.

Jimmy had great customer facing skills. Customers loved his work. He won an excellent employee award two years after he joined the company. He was doing great.

On the 3rd year, Jimmy then married and started a family. He didn’t want to travel as much as he used to be. So, he talked to his manager, and made a transition to in house software development. He was still working on the same product that he was implementing at client sites. He now worked on adding new features as well as maintaining the software.

On the 4th year, there was a disruptive change in the market. The product Jimmy has been working on started losing market share. It was still used by a sizable number of customers, but its growth was starting to level down.

On the 5th and 6th year, the product was becoming obsolete. It was clear to everyone that the company would soon end-of-life the product.

Jimmy was the only person who was working on this product. He felt threatened a little bit. But, he was waiting for his green card. If he moved to another company, he would have to apply green card again.

Jimmy could try to move into a different role. But, he had been settling nicely into his existing role — he was the expert in the product. He had a lot going on at home — with two little kids, he had to spend a lot of energy on the home front. He enjoyed the familiar work that he was doing everyday — it afforded him flexibility to balance work and life.

On the 7th and 8th year, the company kept losing customers. It’s apparent to everyone that in 12 to 18 month, the product would no longer be supported.

At that time, there was plenty of rumors that the company would be acquired by a large company. The employees might finally see an exit event. Although it wouldn’t make Jimmy a millionaire, it would still mean a healthy amount of cash.

Jimmy wanted to wait until the exit event took place. His plan was to cash out, and then looked for another job.

On the 9th year, the economy took a dive. None of the acquisition rumors became reality. The company had to raise another round of funding. Employee stock options were further diluted.

The good news was that Jimmy finally got his green card.

But, his product was no longer offered. His job was eliminated. He was laid off. He was very disheartened by what had happened to him. He had a lot of fears about what would happen next. He hadn’t looked for a job for 9 years. A lot of the stuff he worked on were very specific to the particular company and product — in other words, they’re not very transferable.

Don’t let yourself get into similar situation.

If you work in high tech industry, you should be ready to switch job every few years. The industry changes too fast.

Don’t let yourself get too comfortable.

You need to continue to renew your knowledge and skills.

It is very risky to place all of your bet on a single employer.

Until an exit event actual happens, it’s just a rumor. Expect the unexpected when you plan your career moves.

(Disclaimer: This post is based on a true story, but details have been changed slightly to protect confidentiality.)

Related posts

• Job Hopping is good for you: Career Lessons from Lane Kiffin
• Don’t get screwed! Stock option questions you should ask before you join a start-up
• How to convince employers to hire you even though they don’t have job openings

Excellent resources

• Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know—and What to Do About Them
• Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Personal Brand on the Business Battlefield
• The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers: The Guide for Achieving Success and Satisfaction

Ten years is a long time. Life is short. Lately, I have been doing a lot of reflection and thinking about the past, present and future of my career.

In the next four weeks, I’m going to write a number of articles to reflect lessons learned from this past decade.

I’m also going to ask you for your feedback and inputs – if you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably have gotten some ideas of who I am. I’m trying to figure out how to make the next ten years of my career more fulfilling, and rewarding.

To quote serial entrepreneur and career expert Harrison Barnes:

“You need to be the person you want to be in your life and in your career.  So many people go through life never being who they want to be or doing what they want to do.

Job searching is among the most important activities in your life because it is when you get the chance to discover exactly who you want to be.  I encourage you to do this now!”

I want to make sure that for the next ten years, I will go through life being who I want to be and doing what I want to do.

Today, I’m kicking off the series by talking about my first job after college.

During the past twelve years, I have worked at 3 Fortune-500 companies, and 3 venture backed high tech start-ups. Looking back, the best learning and the most fun I had was at my first employer after college, Andersen Consulting. It had since changed its name to Accenture.

Right before I graduated from college, I had a personal crisis. I had done two software development summer internships during college. I did not like to sit in the cubicle by myself and write code everyday. I hated it. I really wanted to avoid any software development job after graduation.

Six months before commencement ceremony, one credit short of graduation requirement, I seriously thought about quitting my computer science program. One Sunday afternoon when I was talking to my mom, I started crying non-stop. I scared my parents so much that they immediately drove to visit me at school.

I ended up finishing the computer science program, but I was determined to get a non programming job.

I took a job at Andersen Consulting’s San Francisco Office. I started the job with a four-week training program. My cohort consisted of about twenty recent college graduates. We spent our first two weeks in San Francisco, and then another two weeks in St. Charles, IL., a suburb of Chicago. Andersen Consulting had a training facility in St. Charles at that time. It used to be a women’s college, which was turned into a corporate training facility.

The people in my cohort were smart, energetic, nice, interesting, and diverse. Just to give you a few examples of what they ended up doing after leaving Andersen Consulting:

• One person had served the country as Intelligence Officer in Afghanistan, and is currently working as an FBI Special Agent.
• One person left the corporate world and is teaching at a very innovative charter school. He was one of the most interesting and humorous guy I’ve ever met. If I live near his school, I would definitely let him teach my kids. 
• One person is running his own real estate investment company.
• One person has been pursuing a career in sculpture, and had his own show.

Most of us in the group became good friends. We had many interesting and stimulating conversations. We helped each other to go through the training program. I remembered that a few of us were falling behind in our assignment, everyone in the team stayed late to help their teammates to complete the work. I had not seen that kind of collaboration and team work in other corporations I worked at.

The two-week training at St. Charles was also a great learning opportunity for me. Professionals from all over the world came to St. Charles for training. My instructor was from India. My project teammates were Dutch and Finnish. I met two consultants who were from Andersen Consulting’s Beijing Office. I got to a know several Aussies consultants really well. For a fresh college graduate like me, it was an eye-opening experience. It was my International Business 101 lesson.

At Andersen Consulting I was introduced to the concept of knowledge management. As a professional service organization, Andersen Consulting understood that the knowledge and experience of its consultants were very valuable assets for the company. It had a Lotus Notes based knowledge sharing system — anyone in the company could share information, best practices, research, industry analysis, etc. with the entire company. Lotus Notes was an antiqued, closed system at that time. We had to periodically sync our desktop Lotus Notes client application with the server. However, the information in the database were really helpful. Andersen Consulting also build a very strong culture to promote knowledge sharing. I remembered that I contributed a few articles to the knowledge base, which were considered a plus in my annual performance review.

I know some cynical folks will say that "knowledge sharing" is a lot of BS. However, from my own experience, I think it’s very important for any organization to build a strong culture of knowledge sharing. It’s something to be taken seriously. And it needs to have the technical infrastructure to support it. Andersen Consulting showed me a great example of building a knowledge based organization.

Another thing I learned from Andersen Consulting was professionalism. During my tenure at Andersen Consulting, whenever I called or emailed a colleague (in some cases I had never talked to them before), he or she would always get back to me. Most people were very punctual, responsive, and helpful. These are very simple things, but you don’t see them in every company. In fact, I think professionalism is lacking in a lot of high tech companies.

So, as a fresh college graduate, Andersen Consulting was a great first job for me. I learned a ton, met a lot of good friends, traveled to different places, and gained exposure to many different industries, technologies, and cultures. It’s not a company for everyone. For example, I wouldn’t want to live a consultant’s life style now — I need to get home to play with my two kids every night. I cannot travel every week. But, if you just finished college or graduate school, and you don’t have any family commitment, Accenture could be a great place for you to launch your career.

Since I’m neither a USC Trojan fan nor a Tennessee Volunteer fan, I’m fairly indifferent about Lane Kiffin’s move from Tennessee to USC. From an ethical standpoint, I didn’t like how Lane Kiffin made empty promises to the Tennessee community and then bailed on them.

But, I have been fascinated by Lane Kiffin’s career moves. At the young age of 34, he is coaching a top college football program with an annual salary of $2 million. Two years ago, at age 32, he became the youngest head coach ever in the National Football League (NFL). In the past four years, he had switched jobs three times:

• In 2007, he quitted the offensive coordinator position at USC and became the head coach at Oakland Raiders. He had 5 wins and 15 losses as the head coach of Oakland Raiders in a little bit over a year.
• In 2008, after he was fired by Oakland Raiders, he became the head coach of Tennessee Volunteers, a major college football program. He finished his first season at Tennessee with a modest record of 7 wins and 5 losses.
• In 2010, after only one year at Tennessee, he quitted his job again and became the head coach of USC Trojans, one of the most high-profile coaching jobs in college football.

Lane Kiffin is a job hopper. He hasn’t won anything as a head coach. But, he kept getting high profile jobs with excellent pay.

I took a close look at Lane Kiffin’s career moves. Like him or not, I have to say that Lane Kiffin is very strategic in making career moves while managing the down-side risks. Let me share with you a few lessons I learned.

First, Lane Kiffin made bold moves with limited risks. When he was hired by Oakland Raiders, a lot of people were saying that he was doomed to fail. He had never been a head coach before. He had never coached in the NFL. All his previous experience was in college. He was hired by one of the most difficult, and hated owners in professional football, Al Davis.

I think Lane Kiffin was very smart in making this move. He knew what he was getting himself into. The chance for him to succeed in Oakland was low. But, this moved significantly raised his profile in the public. A 32-year old college offensive coordinator without any prior head coaching experience were hired by Al Davis? He must be really good. Although Al Davis was very controversial, he had a history of giving young coaches a chance. For example, he hired the legendary John Madden when he was young and unproven. John Madden led the Raiders to a super bowl.

Although Lane Kiffin was unproven as a head coach, there was a PERCEPTION that he was really good. The hiring by Al Davis further "validated" that perception in public eyes.

On the other hand, because Al Davis had reputation for being difficult and frequently firing head coaches, Lane Kiffin had low risk. If he was fired, the public would be very sympathetic to him. The press would put a lot of blame on Al Davis. That’s exactly what happened two years ago. Under Lane Kiffin, the Oakland Raiders had some improvements, but still had a bad losing record. He lasted for a little bit over one season.

But, the firing didn’t damage the Lane Kiffin brand much. He was soon hired by Tennessee. Some people bought into the perception that he was a great young coach. And they blamed Al Davis for Lane Kiffin’s failures.

Second, Lane Kiffin has surrounded himself with a very experienced team to put him in a position to win. When Lane Kiffin was hired by Tennessee, he was under a lot of pressure to deliver. Tennessee was part of Southeastern Conference (SEC), which is the most competitive conference with several college football powerhouses such as Florida, Alabama, Georgia, etc. As a young coach with little head coaching experience, Lane Kiffin knew that he needed help. He hired his Dad, Monte Kiffin, as the defensive coordinator for his team. Monte Kiffin was widely regarded as one of the greatest defensive coordinators in NFL history.

When Lane Kiffin made the move to USC, he brought with him Monte Kiffin, and recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron. Ed was known as a power recruiter, who was the National Recruiter of the Year in 2004. So, Lane Kiffin essentially hired two superstar assistants when he took the job. He put himself in a very good position to win.

Third, Lane Kiffin increased his odd to succeed by moving into a less competitive environment. The Tennessee Volunteers is part of the SEC conference. That means Lane Kiffin will need to beat Florida and Alabama each year to just win the SEC before his team even gets a chance to compete for national championship. That’s going to be extremely difficult. The PAC 10 is also a competitive conference. But, USC is a notch above everyone else in the conference. It’s much easier for Lane Kiffin to lead USC to win the PAC 10, and then play for the national championship, as opposed to try to win the SEC every single year.

In summary, there are five lessons we can all borrow from Lane Kiffin’s job hopping play book:

• In the short term, perception is reality. Try to cultivate a public image that you’re the smart guy with enormous potential. Someone will offer you big job with big salary.
• Make bold moves, but protect your downside. 
• Surround yourself with smart and experienced people who will compensate for your weaknesses and help you succeed.
• Put yourself into the most conducive environment for wining.
• Experience is overrated. Perception will tramp lack of experience.

Am I being too cynical in writing this post? Well, I think one day Lane Kiffin will have to prove himself as a successful head coach. I do think he is in a pretty good position to do so. Only time will tell.

Let me finish this post with a quote from Benjamin Graham, the legendary author of The Intelligent Investor:

"In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run it’s a weighing machine".

The same applies to the job market: in the short term, the market is a voting machine based on perception of your potential. In the long run, the job market is a weighing machine that will count what you have done.

Related post:

• Sometimes all you need is one class to jumpstart your career
• Sometimes all you need is one class to jumpstart your career
• Don’t get screwed! Stock option questions you should ask before you join a start-up
• The good, the bad, and the ugly of management consulting

Excellent resources:

• Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Personal Brand and Fighting to Keep It
• Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t, and Why: 10 Things You’d Better Do If You Want to Get Ahead
• The Hard Truth About Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They’d Learned Sooner

They feel that the United States is in decline, and the future is in somewhere else. Given how much debt the United States government owe, some folks are fearful of hyper inflation and a major US currency collapse.

Interesting enough, I recently read A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing by Jim Roger,  the legendary billionaire investor who sold his mansion in NYC in 2007 and moved his family to Singapore. Both of his daughters were taught Chinese since they were born. He is quoted as saying: "If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia."

Should you follow Mr. Roger’s advice and move to Asia? I would like to offer a few thoughts.

1. The United States is not as “doomed” as some people think. The financial crisis exposed some serious problems in the US financial and regulatory systems. The US government is in deep debt. The so-called “bears” are very cynical and pessimistic about the system. But, if you look at other countries in the worlds, many governments are much more corrupt, bureaucratic, and ineffective than the US government. I still think comparatively, the United States is in a much better position to recover than many other countries.
2. Don’t move to Asia to follow the crowed; you should know why you’re moving there. During the late 1990’s, a lot of people moved to the Silicon Valley to join the Dotcom boom. And a lot of them were laid off a few years later. They had no interest or passion for technology, but they wanted to be part of the technology gold rush. Similarly, don’t move to Asia because you want to join the “gold rush” crowded. Make the move if you have a genuine interest in Asia.
3. Separate fantasy from reality. Before you make the serious commitment to move to Asia, go to live there for a few months. Can you handle the long work hours and intense pressure? Can you survive the hot and humid weather in Singapore, Hong Kong or Taipei? How about the smog and pollution in Beijing? We tend to fantasize and think “grass is greener on the other side”. But, once you look into the details, you will start seeing things more objectively.
4. If you’re single and interested in Asia, I highly recommend you to move to Asia. You have nothing to lose, and you have a lot to gain.
5. If you’re a mid-career professional, you should think holistically about your move – what’s your competitive advantage when you move to Asia? What is your contingency plan if the job doesn’t work out? Do you plan to get another job in Asia or move back to the United States? What about your kids’ education? You’re not just making a career decision, you’re also make a life style decision for your family.

Related posts:

• Bubble In China?
• How the economic downturn will affect outsourcing to China and India?

Excellent resources:

• A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World’s Greatest Market
• China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
• River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze
• Life and Death in Shanghai
• Download Hundreds of Complimentary Industry Resources: Get hundreds of popular Industry magazines, white papers, webinars, podcasts, and more; all available at no cost to you. With more than 600 complimentary offers, you’ll find plenty of titles to suit your professional interests and needs. Click Here and Sign up today!