I’ve just finished the latest Dan Brown book and now I’m chipping away at The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. I’m busy reading as much pulp as possible this summer because I have a feeling the real reading begins soon. It was much easier to be distracted in June and July though. There’s was a World Cup going on and even better – I was there. Seven vuvuzela-filled weeks back home in South Africa was a fantastic distraction from the pending pressure of an upcoming Executive MBA program. Unfortunately, like all good parties, there was hangover to deal with when it was all done. The end of the World Cup brought on a collective depression for most South Africans and I was no different. What made mine worse was that I had to board a plane back to Washington DC where I was greeted by a seven-week tall pile of mail. At the base of that pile was a pale yellow manila envelope with a “University of North Carolina Chapel Hill” stamp on it.

It begins.

Actually for me it began in February.  That was when a “restlessness” annoyed me enough to drive me to start contemplating what the next step in my life would be. An Executive MBA resonated with the place I found myself in, and almost immediately I started looking at a number of schools. In the end I decided to choose a program which had a global focus and was close to Washington. That left two schools: Georgetown and UNC – Hoyas vs Tar Heels…Bulldog vs Ram…Jordan vs Ewing…It was an impossible choice because both schools are fantastic. Having the luxury of being able to make a decision between two options when you know you can’t make a mistake was a novel experience, but a wonderful dilemma to have. It also made me wish that more decisions in life couldn’t be that way – just think how much easier dating would be.

Choosing a school was only the first step of this adventure; my next challenge was figuring out how to pay for all of this. Why can’t chasing dreams cost less?  Recent legislation has resulted in the government being the originator of most student loans – this serves to lower transaction fees and cut out the middle men…Great if you’re a citizen, not so cool if you’re a “furrenner.”  Luckily for me, American gals like South African accents, which is how I ended up being engaged to one.  And even more lucky for me is that I have the coolest in-laws in the world who agreed to co-sign my loan a year BEFORE I married their daughter. Yay for Sallie Mae!

Get in to school…Tick.

Figure out how to pay for it…Tick.

Log into school email…um…no tick. It took me exactly one week and I have already screwed up my UNC passwords – the Onyen made me cry.

Three more weeks till class, three more weeks till football season. I can’t wait for either to begin.

Cheers.

Before I write anything further, I must admit that I’m generally skeptical of b-school rankings. Why, you may ask? I’m skeptical because the average reader of such rankings very rarely takes the time to understand the the factors that drive them. For instance, some rankings are driven by graduates’ salary increases over time. Some rankings are driven by recruiters’ perceptions of graduates they hire. And so on, and so on…

Back to BusinessWeek. One of the things I actually like about this ranking is that the graduates themselves are surveyed and heavily influence the rankings. You can find a full explanation of the methodology here. This year, UNC Kenan-Flagler’s MBA for Executives Program ranked Number 11 in the world. Not too shabby.

But, that’s not what I’m really excited about. What I’m bursting at the seams to share is that BusinessWeek handed UNC Kenan-Flagler’s EMBA Program a perfect report card! We received A+ grades in all categories (that are graded): Teaching, Curriculum and Support. I think it’s worth noting that UNC is the only program with A+ grades in all three categories. Wow! And, this isn’t something I’d generally point out, but take a look at the tuition levels of the programs ranked around us — UNC is a real value.

Check out the interactive rankings list for yourself. Read the definitions of the categories. Explore the articles about EMBA programs today.

Does this interest you? Give me a call 919.962.2499 so we can talk about how you can Begin Your Beyond at UNC Kenan-Flagler (Shameless plug).

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This fall has proved to be a busy transition period. I feel fortunate to have obtained a product management position in the energy and utility industry, which is experiencing growth, investment, and rapid innovation. Looking back, networking and a targeted company focus proved to make a difference, because I wanted to leverage my telecommunications experience and develop smart grid solutions.

In March, I identified smart energy as a concentration area for my job search efforts. I began networking with business school classmates and former colleagues by expressing my interest to work on smart grid applications in product management. I set the objective to remain local and both identified and narrowed down target companies based on my concentration areas.

I needed to do a combination of things, if wanted to make a successful career transition into another industry. First and foremost, I needed to educate myself on the industry and the current environment, identify and network with people in the industry, scan and apply to jobs opportunistically, and finally establish and maintain job networking dialogs with targeted companies in the areas where I could value.

In August, I contacted a former classmate who works as a smart energy product manager and inquired about any forthcoming job prospects. The company, Elster Integrated Solutions, had recently reviewed mid-year budgets and a hiring wave was underway. My classmate provided details about a pending position and I expressed my keen interest.

I applied for the position and went through a total of three interviews. The first interview was a phone screen with the company’s recruiting team to validate my professional credentials and technical aptitude by asking a series of technical screening questions. After passing the first interview screening, I underwent a company visit and was interviewed by three separate teams consisting of the company’s executive management, product management, and software development teams. The team interviews went well. I gained valuable information about the role needs and positioned my candidacy by offering skills and experience in areas where I perceived gaps. The third and final interview was with senior executives that were not available during the second round and I used this opportunity to affirm my job interest and to understand the role expectations. After the third interview, I was offered a job. I evaluated the full offer with both my spouse and my career coach to negotiate an offer, which I accepted. I landed in the same functional role but a different industry, moving from telecommunications solution provider to energy and utility solution provider area.

I have put a considerable amount of energy informing my job networking contacts about my new role. It is important to notify people that you network with about your new status. In a dynamic job environment, you want to be able to keep the lines of communication open in case a colleague needs your help or you need theirs.

Readers, what approaches have you found to be helpful in your job search? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

The day I was laid off, I sought out the director of career management for executives at my alma mater. My first priority was to begin building a relationship with the career center and to launch my job search. My career coach, which the center provided to me free of charge, has contributed to my search strategies and has provided ongoing feedback in several areas.

During the first month, we met every week and we’ve since lengthened our meeting interval to every two or three weeks. The initial month of my job search was focused around strategy development and working on my resume and cover letter. My earliest coaching discussions also explored interests and skills that I had developed outside of work as an entrepreneur. My coach refers to this as the “who are you and where do you belong?” exercise. My coach provided professional contacts so I could discuss alternative career paths and I gained greater insight into how I could market my transferrable skills. I quickly determined that I wanted to spend my energy targeting business development and product management roles. Also, my initial discussions narrowed my targeted industries and companies to themes such as software as a service, virtualization, hosted services, and smart energy (i.e. follow the stimulus money).

The sessions have also expanded my thinking about professional networking to become a more active alumnus. If I want to achieve greater network externalities, I need to plug-in a little deeper to grow my circle. To this end, I now volunteer my time to help plan alumni activities with the school’s staff, which in turn creates face-to-face network opportunities to help garner job leads. We also evaluate my job search actions during the meetings to determine where I need to expend additional energy to increase the effectiveness of my search tactics. I keep a spreadsheet that tracks all the jobs that I am actively pursuing and we review it together. We discuss strategy, tactics, and how I can improve my search.

Feedback is a vital part of my job search. As a job seeker, I constantly receive information and feedback from company recruiters, company insiders (as networking contacts), professional recruiters, and many other sources. My spouse is a great source of love and encouragement. My former work colleagues and friends provide assistance in the tactical aspects of my job search. However, my career coach can see the whole picture. The opening question whenever I meet with him is always ‘how is the search going?’ Bringing these pieces together in a dialog is very useful to diagnose the blocking issues and to formulate alternative approaches.

What approaches have you found to be helpful in your job search? Share your thoughts by submitting a comment at the bottom of this post.

And, who can blame them? When you consider that Google is only ten years old, there are one trillion websites being searched daily, and Facebook has a population bigger than Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Russia, Japan and Mexico — who can keep pace? However, I am here to help. I am going to explain social media in some quick and concrete terms which I hope will improve your understanding and pique your interest.

For me, social media matters for four reasons:
1. Conversation
2. Research and Search
3. Community and Collaboration
4. Repository

Conversation: As The McKinsey Quarterly points out, social media is the latest wave in technology adoptions which could have (I say already has) a more far-reaching organizational impact than technologies adopted in the 1990s — such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and supply chain management. The latest Web tools have a strong bottom-up, grassroots element to allow engagements and conversations with a broad base of users. Social media tools also demand a different way of thinking from that of earlier IT programs, which were instituted primarily by proclamation from wise and expensive senior managers or consulting teams.

Today if I want to start a movement to collect used books for an afterschool program, I can launch a blog, host a Webpage on a social network and send targeted messages to likeminded individuals — all for free without approval from anyone. Of course, someone who is displeased with your customer service or product could easily do the same.

Social media allows conversations to take place with all types of people living anywhere in world on all types of topics: vacation spots, dining options, celebrity sightings, politics, cause advocacy, sporting events, hobbies, Dancing with the Stars, books, movies, businesses, photos, presentations and ideas. If you’re not participating, you may be allowing others to shape and influence topics important to you — so do your part and enter the online conversation.

Research and Search: Social media allows for unprecedented access to information that is actionable and real time. Consider these scenarios: Twitter allows you to search a topic to see what is being said in real time; SlideShare allows you to see who has presented on a topic you care about; Facebook allows you to join a group of individuals who want to stay informed about your favorite Romanian poet; and LinkedIn lets you find people who work at a company you are interviewing with or selling to.

Try it: go to one of the social networks above and type your company’s name, your competitor’s name, or the name of your favorite film character. You’ll see that somebody, somewhere is saying something about them. Social media allows others to quickly and openly share concerts they are attending or books they are reading. From a breaking news event (Twitter broke the news of US Airways’ landing on the Hudson River) to knowing who will be travelling on which airline and flight to a specific conference, the information circulating and your ability to capture it and take action is unprecedented.

Community and Collaboration: Social media allows for quick top-of-mind community interactions — with your extended family, old classmates, fellow church members, parents of your kid’s soccer team, or others who love sailing. Social media allows for instant connections, updates, and content exchange. It been never been easier to join a community you care about or to connect with someone. One of my favorite social network communities is the Jimtown Store group on Facebook. Jimtown Store is a great place for sandwiches in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County, California. It is a place I am lucky to visit once a year, but via Facebook I receive regular updates on menu changes, stay informed on happenings and feel more connected to one of my favorite places. Pretty simple and pretty easy for all parties involved.

Collaboration happens when community members ask for help, need information or share content. If you are a dentist, you could receive information on new cleaning techniques, ask for reviews on a new x-ray system or seek partnerships for a new chain of dentist offices. In the realm of advocacy and social entrepreneurship, social media has created unequalled tools for collaboration and action. Today you can communicate directly with elected officials, ask others to join your movement, post videos and keep everyone informed in real time on developments without filters or the approval of media masters. Social media is a grassroots and bottom-up paradigm which allows for communities to collaborate in unison like never before.

Repository: Social media is a unique tool that allows for a massive, open database of all types of content that can be shared, processed or repackaged. From silly — and possibly embarrassing — photos of your high school spring break to serious videos of that amazing presentation you made before your peers. It is all available and easily saved for future access or for future generations.

For me, one of the greatest benefits of maintaining a blog is that I can save content that I care about for future reading or future use. Just today in composing this post, I made several references to my blog for ideas, confirmation and content. And blogs are just one simple tool for warehousing content. Facebook users posted 850 million photos during the month of February; with Flickr you can search these photos by topic and view candid photos of a ski resort you plan to visit. Have you seen some of the video hosting sites lately? People post all types of amazing and bizarre content that ranges from the preposterous to the brilliant. On YouTube, you can see everything from a TED Conference presentation to a video on how to tie a bow tie.

It is quite possible – I think quite certain — that everything you do in the future will be posted (either by you or someone else) and viewed, processed and shared by generations of your family years from now. Your children will have a rich repository of photos, thoughts and experiences unlike anything you or your parents could ever imagine.

Social media is a powerful tool and continues to grow every day. It allows people to maximize activities that they do on a daily basis. Social media allows us harnesses our core activities in a user-friendly, accessible, sharable and powerful technology platform — harnessing a massive amount of knowledge that is actionable.

What do you think? How does social media contribute to your life? Let me know by commenting below. You can also send me a tweet at @marcaross.

Students tell us UNC offers the best value of any top-ranked school. We encourage corporate financial support, but many students pay some, or all, of the cost.

• Check your company’s policies: Many companies offer tuition reimbursement for high-performing employees, especially if you are willing to negotiate. Talk with your colleagues and manager to learn what may be available.
• Apply for student loans: Student loans are available to all MBA for Executive students. Our senior financial aid counselor will be glad to give you the details.