Kicking off Season 2 of the Career Cafe, hosts Bobby Hodge, Trekker Burt, and Karl Rostron debunk common career myths and share some workplace horror stories. Drawing from their own diverse career paths and professional experiences in alumni relations and career services, they offer invaluable advice for students and recent graduates navigating the job market. The hosts discuss the fallacy that your major dictates your career, the often-overlooked value of "menial" jobs, and why success isn't always defined by a big paycheck and a fancy title. They also share cautionary tales about job interviews and the importance of managing your digital footprint, reminding listeners that an interview is a two-way street. Tune in for an episode packed with candid advice, personal anecdotes, and practical wisdom to help you confidently launch your career journey.
Welcome to the Season 2 premiere of the Career Cafe podcast! Join hosts Bobby Hodge, Trekker Burt from Alumni Relations, and Karl Rostron from Career Services as they dive into the myths that can derail your career expectations and share some truly unforgettable workplace horror stories. This episode challenges conventional wisdom and provides practical advice for building a fulfilling career on your own terms.
In this episode, we discuss:
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Bobby Hodge 00:12
Welcome T birds to the career Cafe podcast. I'm your host, Bobby Hodge, and I'm here with my co hosts kicking off episode one. Trekker and Karl. Thank you gentlemen for being here. Good to be here. Nice to be here. Awesome. So really quick, just nice, just nice. I wouldn't go with that. We'll see in a minute. We'll see how great this this season is going to be fantastic. Season two, season two
Bobby Hodge 00:38
of the career cafe, where we don't drink anything from a cafe. We were just a coffee list cafe. Really quick, brief recap of season one. So last season, we had the Career Center host most of those episodes. I believe they hosted all of them. This is before I started here, and we went through the job search process. So day one, you realize you need a job. What do you do? To the final day of how do you negotiate your salary? Every step in between. It was really interesting. Yeah,
Trekker Burt 01:16
I love the I'm not a very good interviewer. The interview skills, or highlight, highlight, for sure,
Trekker Burt 01:26
that type of thing, especially having a self confidence when you go into an interview, that's kind of what seals the deal. That's, yeah, the highlight for me from season one, yeah. Well, I think you know what address the very basics that most students have coming in. How do you do it? You know, you don't get taught very often. How do you write a good resume? How do you interview? How to prepare for an interview? What's the application process look like? What do employers look for? And so it set the table really nicely to advance the discussion, which we'll kind of look at this year with some of the guests that we have. Yeah, good lineup. Season One is actually I can thank season one for being able to sit here right now. Season One came out and was released while I was applying for this current job. So not too often do you get to listen to your hiring manager talk about what they want to hear in an interview or what they want to see on a resume. So I remember listening to the final episode of how to negotiate a salary going into my final interview, but I'm here. Yep, area matters. So season two, we've already filmed a couple of episodes, so I'm excited we have, we have some really good guests. Trekker and I met with Jamie Shaw. Jamie's great. She's awesome. She had some really good insights and a lot of like experience that I don't know when you when you grow up in a small town, live in a small town your whole life, you don't imagine becoming director of operations for a multinational company like she a big deal. She is a big deal. She has a huge resume, world traveler for work. You know,
Trekker Burt 03:01
has had a hand in many Olympic events across the world, states, games, country, Olympic style games. And other than that, just a great person and an alumna of Suu, right? She's wonderful. And
Bobby Hodge 03:16
then Karl, we met with Tommy Gilmore from noisy bird marketing, right? Think he's gonna be awesome. That's a long episode. It
Karl Rostron 03:22
was very worth it, though. Yes, I mean, a lot of interesting points of view, you know, coming from someone that was kind of unsure of themselves. Where do you want it? And then life hits you and kind of forces you into making some different types of decisions. And so it's an interesting conversation to see how he ended up, you know, starting his own company, and the role that, you know, his background as a student here that helped leading down that path. So it's a good, good,
Bobby Hodge 03:50
yeah, I think it'll be a good contrast from season one, where season one, you know, it's pretty, pretty cookie cutter. It's what you what you expect, if the journey goes perfectly. These are the steps that you take. But some of our guests, they highlight that not everything always goes to plan.
Trekker Burt 04:05
Most everything does not go to plan, right? But you have a plan, and you just keep taking that step forward and still
Karl Rostron 04:13
the skills from season one, right? I mean, it does. It prepares you, sets the table, helps you navigate through the process. And so I guess in season two, we'll kind of go beyond just that process and look at kind of how life kind of helps you apply the processes. So I mean, Sierra that we talked to, you know, she started working summers for the national parks and decided that really was a lot funner than some of the courses she was taking her so she merged the two together and gave us really fun kind of career journey of her so yeah, very good.
Bobby Hodge 04:50
So I think it'll be good for our listeners to tune into the following episodes today, really is just going to be a little kickoff of maybe why they should listen to us. So,
Karl Rostron 05:00
I mean, I'm excited to hear that.
Bobby Hodge 05:03
Tell me about you, too, trekker, what are you awesome, collectively,
Trekker Burt 05:11
anyway, anyway, what do you want to know?
Bobby Hodge 05:14
Let's start with Yeah. What do you do for us?
Trekker Burt 05:17
You? I I work. My name is Trekker. I work for the University. That is what I do. I work in the alumni relations office. I mainly manage our data for our alumni. So a lot of lot of a lot of lines on spreadsheets. But for some reason, I enjoy it. I'm an alumni of SUU as well, great place. When I came to school, I knew, I guess I knew I never wanted to leave, because here we are, right? You're the same way, exactly. A
Karl Rostron 05:47
little bit boomerang. I've had to wander around a little bit to find my way back, you know. But, of course, when I was here, you know, now that's the sheep are the big thing, you know, going down that way when I was there dinosaurs,
Karl Rostron 06:00
yeah, yeah. So, you know. So I'm the assistant director Karl roster and Assistant Director of Career Services over employee relations. So I work with employers to get them on campus so that students can meet them, learn about the companies they represent and what they do, help them find part time jobs while they're here, internships, and then, of course, the big goal, help them find that, that lifelong career goal of theirs. And so it's fun, you know, I get to work with a lot of employers, a lot of alums,
Karl Rostron 06:29
you know, we cover from Vegas all the way to Salt Lake to try to find and even north, trying to find employers to come on campus. And it's amazing to see the willingness, you know, especially amongst alum to come back and give back to campus. And so we want to kind of merge that excitement that students have with the excitement that alumni have to come back, and also employers. I mean, they have a real need, and we're an important part in helping them, you know, meet their needs.
Trekker Burt 06:56
So it's not just a gimme, right? They're not running as much as alums love to give back to school. They do have jobs that need to be filled Exactly, yeah,
Karl Rostron 07:05
and we want to help students learn about them sometimes, you know, career fairs that we do, one of the things that we do a couple of months before graduation, all sudden, you know, students are panicking if they don't have a job, and if they already have a job, they're already kind of moved on. And so we want to help introduce students to employers that sophomore and junior year so that they can make informed decisions, so they can be excited about that senior year. They know the goal they're working for. They've learned about the companies and the different things that they have because it goes so far beyond, you know, Coca Cola, all they do is put brown stuff in bottles and then put bottles on shelves, you know. And yet, they have every job imaginable under that umbrella. And so sometimes students don't realize the types of jobs that are out there with the different companies. And so part of my job is helping them expose, be exposed to the just variety of jobs, not just assume that because the company has a name that you recognize from a commercial on TV. That's not all they do. And so
Trekker Burt 08:04
accounting degree, you don't have to go work for Deloitte, right, right? You can go work in any and anybody, because everybody needs an account Exactly. Everybody needs all sorts of work. Yeah, awesome, yeah. Thank you guys. Karl's jobs a little more interesting than mine, more than
Bobby Hodge 08:18
spreadsheets. There's still spreadsheets, though, right there is, there's still, there's always
Karl Rostron 08:23
spreadsheets, and I will hire somebody to do
Bobby Hodge 08:29
okay, well, let's get into some questions. This is the career Cafe podcast, so let's talk a little bit career. Gentlemen, what is one piece of advice that you wish you had gotten early on in your career or fresh out of college.
Karl Rostron 08:44
Oh, for me, it was, it's okay to experiment. It's okay to not have your life mapped out for you that day of graduation. It's okay to try things. I think that's not only the biggest thing I wish somebody would have told me, but the biggest thing that I tell everybody, I tell students, when I talk to them, don't shut doors, don't think or assume, you know, experience everything. Talk to everybody and find out what they do, and find out how they got there, and just experience life. And it's amazing when you open yourself up to the different places life will lead you. I mean, my journey has just, it's, I've wandered a bit, and it's been quite exciting. But it was, you talked about growing up in a small town. I grew up in a small town about 500 people, you know, it was first generation college student. I was never leaving that small town and to end up now coming from, you know, 1718, years in Vegas, where I, you know, was a recruiting manager for a global company. I traveled three weeks out of the month. Stayed in great resorts all over and, you know, we were hiring 900 people a month. You know, all around the world. I was specifically in charge of the Western. United States, Canada and Mexico and so, you know, I was working in different companies, different countries, different cultures, hiring everything under the gamut in like hospitality, and you know that it was all by kind of staying open. Now, what is it you do, you know, and asking questions and talking to people and letting life kind of take me some places that I just didn't even know existed. I'm similar to Karl. I grew up in a town about 500 people, and, you know, first generation college student as well, and was this close to going to work the factory job my dad did, and similar type of work his dad did. And just continue that. But the piece of advice I would give anybody is to have confidence in yourself. I had none, and didn't know what I could do. Didn't know I was capable of much at all, but, but when you learn that confidence, because it's not natural to everybody, you realize you can do anything you put your mind to. You can go anywhere and work anything. I mean, who would have thought Karl would have that kind of good job, right? Right? But he had that self confidence. Was able to pull it off well, and it's okay to be successful in your own eyes, yeah, not to fall under everyone else's expectations for you. You know, you don't have to be this or that or what mom or grandma or dad wants you to be. It's okay to find yourself, to find something that you enjoy doing and be proud of it, right? And decide what what your own values are. I think that's the first thing. I think that's a journey that we all go through college. Is a very big part of that is figuring out, you know, who really am I, aside from now that I'm living kind of on my own, and I'm meeting people from different cultures and different value systems than my own, maybe for the first time, and you're kind of experiencing all these different strange things. And so now you get to decide, kind of who am I and where do I want to go, and how do I fit into this big ball of gas or under and yeah, so like
Trekker Burt 12:04
you started with, I mean, go out and try everything. Figure out who you are, figure out your values and what's important to you, and build that confidence in yourself.
Karl Rostron 12:13
Failure is a failure to it's a different way of learning. It's as important to learn what you don't like in life as it is to figure out what you do, and you can't figure either one of those out without experimenting a little bit, trying it out and asking questions. Perfect. Yeah,
Bobby Hodge 12:31
so really quickly, we talked a little bit about, you know, the journey takes you different places throughout your career. What were your guys's degrees in and you know, do you use your degree now, anything that you learned from it that you do still use, if it's not related, social
Trekker Burt 12:49
sciences degree, technically, social sciences teaching degree. I was supposed to be a high school history teacher, and I'm not. Isn't that amazing? But I yeah, you certainly use your degree. You could. I think half of college, more than half of college, your education, is not learning how to do the formula. And when the Battle of Waterloo was, it's, it's, you're learning how to learn. You learn what it means to educate yourself, how to retain that information, how to work under pressure, how to work with other people in group projects, how to articulate it, how to articulate it so that that four year degree for me, it's like, yeah, I'm a social sciences guy, you know? I use it every day because I learned how to learn while I was in in college.
Bobby Hodge 13:39
Nice, yeah.
Karl Rostron 13:41
So Gee, junior college first, I was an English major that failed miserably.
Bobby Hodge 13:47
You speak English, it's very poorly.
Karl Rostron 13:51
Yeah, I have people that'll swear I can't speak English, but, but anyway, it's if you take into account dialects. Then I guess I would be considered. I came to Suu, was a broadcast major, you know, weather man and sports anchor, that fun stuff. And then I moved in on political science, so I was going to go to Washington and be a political reporter. And as I got looking more and more of that, it was like, do I want to raise a family under that kind of circumstance, traveling all the time, trying to find your place. And so, I mean, I did graduate my communications degree in political science, but it taught me really how to navigate the world. You know, I was aware of what was going on in the world. I then knew kind of how I fit in, and could have intelligent conversations and articulate myself and directly. Did it relate to me getting a job? No, but it was the reason I got many jobs, because I the confidence part plays in and also just the knowledge that I could hold an intelligent conversation with people so. About things going on in the world, and I knew how to learn. And it demonstrates completion, it demonstrates finishing, it demonstrates your ability to learn and grow and adapt. And some majors are very specific, and you're going to learn technical skills that you have to have, and they're going to directly relate to getting the job. Others are more soft in the way that they relate to you getting a job, you know? And then my master's degree is in public administration and learning that part of how you run systems and organizations and people, yeah. I mean, I use it every, every day
Trekker Burt 15:37
that's I'm working on my MPA as well right now, and it is I find myself thinking back to a couple classes on the daily, just people, you learn people, you learn systems. But I want to go back to what you said earlier that that those degrees, your bachelor's, your undergrad, whatever it is you learn the basics of communication, being able to articulate. And that makes me realize, as much as I hated generals when I was an undergrad boy. I sure use them all the time. Now I'm going back and I'm man, some jobs you just you're in Microsoft Word, you're doing mailings, you're doing Excel formulas, you're doing those basics. And a lot of employers degrees required. Doesn't really matter what one and it's because they want to know that you can do those basic things in an office and be able to communicate other people? Yeah,
Speaker 1 16:25
sometimes you have to prove that you can do those like entry level tasks before you can take on those, those bigger ones that are maybe a little more exciting to you. Oh, okay, well, great. I want to, I want to jump into our next section. Then this is called Career myths. We've already touched on this. So this one doesn't have to be long, but first career myth, I just want your guys's thoughts on this. My major will determine my career.
Trekker Burt 16:52
Oh, well, we just dispelled that one. Yeah. Myth busted. Yeah, yeah. Gone Gonzo.
Bobby Hodge 16:57
Not that it doesn't help. And like I said, Karl, but you can aim your career at whatever your major is going to be, but you don't need to feel trapped right by you know, maybe you're a senior, you're in your last few classes, and you realize, like, oh, I want to do something different. That's okay.
Trekker Burt 17:13
Couple examples. I mean, besides us. I mean we kind of, my wife's financial analyst for a big company, does all their numbers, all their projections, everything. She's a communications major, but because of her training, her minors, job experience, her resume, and then certifications outside of school, she does that job, and she does it very, very well. I'm a social sciences major. I do data now, but, yeah, yeah, a lot of times it's you, I don't know, hardly anybody that really is stuck to it with
Karl Rostron 17:47
this. You know, there's some that really are, they know, and their mind is, is just driven in a certain way, and they excel in one field and always will. And that's awesome, but, but, and both are okay, yep, 100% Yeah, perfect.
Bobby Hodge 18:03
Okay, next myth. The jobs I've had in the past don't count as experience examples, fast food, retail, things like that.
Karl Rostron 18:13
So my background, I was a corporate recruiter for a long time, and so all I did was read resumes, read applications and interview people, I mean, 10s of 1000s, probably in my time, and I looked at everything I would rather see. I went to work every day. I completed tasks. I excelled at whatever job I had at the time. Didn't get fired, yeah, and was able to move forward rather than I said at home, you know, I'm holding out for management, you know, and the progression in no matter what job you're in, means more to me as an employer than I'm a manager and I'm worth it, and I'm going To sit and do nothing until I get that, demonstrate it, show me. And so, yeah, I there's no unimportant job, as long as you do it well and you apply and you treat it with with dignity and respect and do it to your best. I've been offered so many jobs, and I've always worked two or three jobs. I I'm hyper. I like to work. And so, you know, I've worked what people look at so well, that's kind of a meaning, meaningless job, menial tasks. And yet, I've all the one I was offered promotions Adam, even though it was my part time job, because I worked. And so there's no unimportant or less than job
Trekker Burt 19:40
the world needs bridge builders and ditch diggers. Does it not? Yeah, and, but it's, it's really what you take from that, right? If you're, if you're a Subway sandwich artist, yeah, what matters is, you know, hey, maybe you're just filling the gaps between, between your real job, but you're showing up on time, you're completing the tasks, like you say, but you're also. Pulling some meaning from it, like, well, I didn't just stack meat on a on a bun. You know? I was I was leading, I was tape, I was improving systems. I made my workplace a better place. Here's how dealt with customers. Yeah, solve problems, whatever it is, but pulling meaning and then being able to articulate it into your resume. If that's the
Karl Rostron 20:20
case, the real thing that changed my opinion on on what we would consider those menial jobs or whatever, when I I had the chance to work for the Olympics in Salt Lake in 2002 I was one of the directors of the Olympic Village. And one of the big things that the Olympic Village was the McDonald's all world team, and the McDonald's at the Olympic Village, it was, it was pretty freaking awesome, I can tell you that. But it was made from people that worked in McDonald's from all over the world. It was a big deal for them to get to that point and to see the professionalism that they brought to work, the attitude that they brought to work. And they were at the Olympics, you know, they were giving sandwiches to gold medalists, you know, and coach people that we all knew and see on TV every day, and talking to the managers there that was like their their goal, and they made good money, you know, if you excel at every at anything, the opportunity is there. So don't look at some. Man, this is a minimal job, or I'm only going to make this if you excel at it. Put your mind to it. There's money and a good career and a good living to be made in every
Bobby Hodge 21:34
place, everywhere. Yeah, some of those jobs like, they teach really good skills. They do, like, Chick fil A, not sponsored, by the way. Yeah, right. Chick fil A, if you want to sponsor us, come on. But I mean, I've been to Chick fil A and gotten better customer service than, like, insurance loan carriers. I walk in and like, geez, are you? Is this like, a church? This is you guys are just so, like, nice and welcoming.
Karl Rostron 21:58
It's crazy. There are great training program available, and a lot of them will pay for for even more training and more specific education. So, yeah, don't shortchange things and
Trekker Burt 22:08
take pride. Yeah, you do. No matter what your life that you're living, it's not in the future, it's right now. So take pride in it. You know, whatever it is you got to do, whether it's you want to work there or not, and just take
Karl Rostron 22:21
future. Doesn't just come. You know, it's a journey to get to the future, and that's where you are right now.
Bobby Hodge 22:29
Perfect. Okay, on to the next myth. Next myth. Success equals money plus big title.
Karl Rostron 22:37
That's a personal thing. I What do you watch your definition of success?
Trekker Burt 22:43
I have a good buddy from the Democratic Republic of the Congo central the African continent. Right? Genius student. He came over here for his education to the states, and we met here at Suu. He was in the master's program, and he finished up his master's. I got his master's in finance as an undergrad in finance, and he was looking to go to get his doctorate in finance. And he's looking at these schools, and I applied to a few, and I don't know any of them, but you know, he says Trekker. I got into one of the top schools, one of the top finance programs in the world. It's in London, England. And I'm like, That's awesome, you know? And he said, but I'm about to get married. I'm engaged to this girl. I love her. He's like, What would you do? I mean, I have the opportunity to I have the opportunity to make so much money, but I'm going to be away for 80 hours a week. I could choose that career path and go down, or I could be at home with my wife and kids and be What do you choose? You know, and it does. It comes down to your personal definition. I know plenty of people who find success at work, name, title, money. I'm not one of those people. Personally, I'm I'm a I want to find a job that I can leave at five o'clock get home to my wife and kid every day. You know,
Karl Rostron 24:06
that's where I find. Spend weekends Out, Kicking the dirt, looking for rocks, lights and arrowhead Yeah, and yeah. I'd rather do that than an office and but again, it's okay if you want the other one too. One of my bosses, I remember he walked in the office, he said, Well, today was an okay day. I just made $52 million and he did. He personally on a sale, made $52 million and that was Thursday, you know,
Trekker Burt 24:34
and think he'll take the rest of the day off. No,
Karl Rostron 24:37
that's just it. He didn't, because the goal in life was to work and to make more that wasn't that wasn't enough. There's 52 million for tomorrow and but he that was his joy. That's what he had. All the titles in the world. He never went home, and he was okay with it. He loved it. He loved the prestige that come with. He loved being able to share the money, because he did. He was good to people, but he associated success with $1 sign, and that's what made him happy. And that was fine. That was That's all right for me, I said, I Hey, it's nice to have a little pat on the back every now and then, but it's nicer I need to put a worm on a hook and float around in an ocean or something, you know it. And it's okay that we go back to the personal values that you have and how you want to define success and but that's you need to define it, you know. Like, what's the show the City Slickers? You know, there's one key to success, you know? And what is it is different
Trekker Burt 25:43
to everybody? Yep, yep, yeah. And that being said, if the world was run by guys like Karl and I, we'd probably still be living in caves.
Karl Rostron 25:51
Yeah, there'd be nothing done.
Bobby Hodge 25:55
No, I think the definition of happiness is definitely something you got to figure out for yourself.
Trekker Burt 26:00
College is a great time to do it. Yeah,
Bobby Hodge 26:03
okay, thank you guys. Okay, next myth
Trekker Burt 26:07
like, I feel like we're those do mythbuster dudes like, I would be Jamie the one with the beret and the glasses. Yeah, is that Jamie? I don't know. I think so. Mythbusters Anyway, go on. We're busting myths.
Bobby Hodge 26:20
Employers don't care about degrees anymore.
Karl Rostron 26:26
Depends on the job, right? It does, and it depends on you're talking about a person. And so when you say employer, if it's an employer that worked his way up and didn't get a degree, then he may not value it as much as much as somebody that worked through that degree and realizes what it took to get it. And of course, depending upon the area, degrees are absolutely vital. In some they're a requirement. You can't get around it. And so yes, they're valuable. But like I said, I hired for all different kinds of positions. I hired from maids and janitors through CEOs. And for me, and most of my hiring team, most of the managers I worked with, the degree, if it wasn't specifically required, it was a demonstration of character. It was a demonstration of your value system. It was a demonstration of completing and finishing something. It was a demonstration that I know you know, how to get along with people, to articulate, I dare put you in a room with somebody and that you'll carry on intelligent conversation that will make me and the company look better. So there's just a myriad of things that fit into that, but I would say it's every bit as valuable, if not more today. I mean, there's, we've always gone through swings in employment and swings of what's important. If you, you know, we look at AI now and think, oh, my gosh, the world's being taken over by AI, and you have to follow these steps. And AI is going to tell you how to, you know, in my day, there were things called books, and there were a whole bunch of them written about, oh, this is the way you have to do a resume. You have to follow this format and this and there were 10s of 1000s of books just on how to write a resume. And so we always go through these ebbs and flows and and my days, the stone tablets and, and there's always people that have ideas and opinions on how things need to be done and should be done, and can make money off of convincing other people that they know better. And there is no formula when it comes to me and you talking, it's two human beings talking. We each have life experience. We each have beliefs and value systems, and we're trying to figure out, are we going to get along? Can we work together, and can we be successful? Can you make me money? Yeah. So
Bobby Hodge 28:45
I think one thing that, you know, I recently graduated, one of the things that kept me going, because there was never really, like an expectation to get a degree. Grew up in a blue collar family. They didn't, you know, I was first gen college student, like you guys, and so it was like college was something I wanted to do, yeah, but for the students that are sitting there thinking, like, do I need to do this? Like, do employers really even care about it? I'd much rather look back in 10 years with the regret of, well, I wasted about four years, like, doing a degree that I don't really use now, then 10 years from now, going, geez, I wish I had a degree. Yeah, because I think that regret is probably a lot more costly, a lot more like, Oh, dang. Like, my time is kind of past than if, like, if you're in it right now, you're never gonna look back and be like, Well, that was completely pointless. I didn't learn anything,
Trekker Burt 29:35
and it's an investment. Like, it is what you put into it.
Karl Rostron 29:39
It's not you're not you're not gonna look back and say, I wasted four years and all that money. If you did something while you were here, if you grew as a person, yeah, and developed your value system and decided what you wanted and what you didn't want, I think it's hard to say anybody wasted four years unless they really made that intent. Well,
Trekker Burt 29:59
we. Graduate every year. I think last spring, we graduated 180 MBA students in May, and they all got the same degree. They all got their Masters of Business Administration. But, you know, one of them went, got the grade, did the assignments, check the boxes, got their piece of paper, and, you know, another one did those same assignments, but left with connections, relationships, experiences, because they put so much more into it. And maybe those, maybe those two people put their resumes, resumes to the same employer. But you know, the person that's going to get the job is the person who put time and money, time effort, effort into this degree. Yep.
Bobby Hodge 30:43
I think a better way to reword that myth than to make it true is, even if employers don't care about degrees, you will if you put the time in, if you put in the effort. So, okay, well, thank you. Those are all the myths I have for today that's busted. Um, let's move into the next section. I forgot about this part this. I'm excited about this. So these are horror stories of people in their early career. I've got a couple of them here. Just want your raw emotions and thoughts on these. I'm going to try and read them and not stumble through them
Trekker Burt 31:12
tissue. You'll get my raw reaction right now.
Bobby Hodge 31:18
I applied to this company that had terrible reviews on Glassdoor, but it was close to where I lived, so I thought, at least it's close by. I had a phone call interview with the director. He kept on yawning throughout the interview like he was exhausted, but I still told him I was interested. He told me he drives 45 miles to get to work each day, and I told him I was just six miles away. Then I had an on site interview, which was supposed to be with the director, but he didn't come. So I interviewed with a manager who asked me some questions and gave me a tour. He asked me how I heard about the company, and I said I had read about it on Glassdoor. Then he said, Oh, there are some pretty bad reviews on there. I laugh when I read them. Sometimes you must be pretty desperate if you still want to work here, I just laughed and said I was still interested. Then I had a third interview with the director, and he told me, this is a tough place to work, and a lot of people crack under the pressure. Then he asked me to send him some school projects, and I that I had worked on and the next interview was going to be with the vice president of the company. He also gave me his business card. The next day, I sent him my projects, and within an hour, I got a rejection email. I was dumbfounded, but looking back, there were so many red flags the reviews were right, and it seemed to be a miserable place to work. Day after day, I kept looking for a job, finally found one a couple weeks later, but I felt like I dodged a bullet.
Trekker Burt 32:41
Raw reaction you dodged a bullet. Sometimes it's worth driving an extra 20 minutes to not be miserable. 40 hours a week, you know what I mean, or in that case, it'd probably be closer to 50 hours a week.
Karl Rostron 33:00
Don't always believe what the internet tells you, either. Glass Door, okay, see, you hadn't
Trekker Burt 33:06
mentioned, I know you're probably going to get just the negatives on there, right, right. Negative
Karl Rostron 33:11
people voice themselves more than positive people, but also glass door for employers, pay them money, get on their subscription service, and they remove all the negative reviews and only put positives
Bobby Hodge 33:25
is this, are you whistleblowing Glassdoor right now? I am going to get a cease and
Karl Rostron 33:29
desist. I hope. No, that was a big shock to me when I met with the reps and they say, hey, we'll just take all your negative stuff off for a certain amount of money. And so the main point isn't the bash on glass door or any other it's that people can put anything they want on the internet. So personal stories, take them for what they're worth. Are, did they have a negative experience, and will that transfer onto you? Do your own research. Find out about, yeah, there are, don't avoid red flags. Obviously, if you've talked to five people and they all hate it, yeah, there's probably a trend there, right?
Bobby Hodge 34:07
Well, I think he did it the right way. It sounds like, I mean, follow the story would have been a lot worse if it was. I read that there was a company that had bad reviews on glass door, so I didn't
Karl Rostron 34:15
apply. Yeah, yeah. And that's it. And, you know, sometimes, you know, we talked about what Tommy, life happens, and you have to take a job that may not be your dream job, or even one that you like, but you have to live and and that's different than a career journey. You know, you've always got that career journey, but sometimes there are those detours where you just have to survive for a little while, gotta pay the bills and right? And so don't confuse the two. You don't want to stay miserable for long, and you don't want to have to be miserable if you don't have to. But you know to put food on a plate sometimes you're miserable for a little bit, but don't let that be your life. You know you don't have to stay. Miserable, and what are you doing to get out of that situation? You know, getting a job as a job, and you got to work hard on it. And sometimes it works real quickly, sometimes it doesn't. But just like with schooling, you know, are you in it for the long haul, or, you know, for the the grind or unit, for the degree that self actualization, or whatever happiness that comes at the end. And, you know, it's character building, it's trial, it's all those other things that once you're at the other end of it look like, yeah, you know, I learned a little bit never want to be there again. And so this is what I'm going to do to avoid it, but but also experience things for yourself, make your own opinions, because what I like and what trekker like could be totally different things. I could be totally miser. I would be totally miserable if I was trekker, for many reasons, but especially if I had to look at spreadsheets,
Bobby Hodge 35:55
but,
Trekker Burt 35:56
but, and I don't have the social battery
Karl Rostron 35:59
to do Karl's job, you know, and that's fine. That's what it's all about. That's why we're different and so different, you know, different strokes for different folks, but find what makes you happy. Don't, don't live somebody else's life.
Bobby Hodge 36:11
Yeah, I do want to throw in, when I was reading this story, I initially thought, Okay, well, that's, that's why we do interviews, and that's why we interview at companies. Too many people I think walk in. I would have loved to have seen how the story was different if he got offered the job. Because, I mean, do you accept it at that point after you've had three bad experiences and several bad reviews? I think students too often sell themselves short and think that I just have to take whatever job is there. Yeah, they do, regardless of what you know, what they offer me, or how it seems, an interview is a two way street, exactly, and you're going in to see if they fit right with you.
Karl Rostron 36:49
Right? It's your interview as much as the employers, and that's a common mistake, yeah,
Bobby Hodge 36:54
that's why, when, when they ask you the question at the end of Do you have any questions? You absolutely should not just be like, no, like, you know, what is, what are the next steps? You should be curious about what the culture is like, what, what is the day to day like? Who are you going to be working with? What does a day in the life of your job look like,
Karl Rostron 37:11
and what are the company goals? What are your goals? What, what you know, what do you like and dislike? And
Trekker Burt 37:17
bring up what's important to you? Yeah, will I be getting home at five o'clock every day. Will I be working weekends? What's you know, as
Speaker 1 37:24
expected? And I think that sometimes you have to go through that first job to actually realize that those are the questions you ask. Because you get that question in your first interview and you go, Well, what? Or can I even listen
Karl Rostron 37:35
to this podcast? Or you can listen
Trekker Burt 37:37
us? Right? We did the hard work for you,
Bobby Hodge 37:41
we suffered so that you fly right. Okay. Next story. In college, I went to an interview for an internship. The hiring manager comes to the room holding an iPad. We do introductions, and then he shows me the iPad and says, so this is you, and plays a YouTube video of me and my friend from high school doing a silly singing video, I was mortified and turned bright red on the verge of tears. He was laughing, and he said he wanted to teach me a lesson about googling myself before an interview. There's nothing inappropriate or offensive on the video, but I was still so embarrassed. I got offered the internship, but wow,
Trekker Burt 38:16
if they Googled Karl, they'd find a guy in a Sasquatch suit fishing by the pier.
Karl Rostron 38:21
They would, they would find, that's all they find. I, I,
Trekker Burt 38:26
I kind of had a lesson like that. I was I was taken. I took one of those jobs kind of a you have to put food on the table job, not my career job, right? And walked into the office my first day. And, you know, most folks are pretty kind and welcoming to the new people, but I just got a bunch of empty stairs and almost cold shoulder, and I was like, What in the world, you know, I unbeknownst to me, I found out about a month later, everybody had, you know, Googled me, Facebook stalked me, whatever. And to my disadvantage, my Facebook profile hadn't been updated in a while, and I had a beard and very long hair, they didn't know who I was when I walked in with
Bobby Hodge 39:06
shortly, with long hair and beard, no, no, no,
Trekker Burt 39:10
but, but it does even it's just like they didn't know who I was just because of that. And it goes to show whether you've got something embarrassing online or not, it can affect you, you know,
Karl Rostron 39:20
coming from the other end, from the higher angle, people were surprised when they walked into their interview with me, and I was asking questions about their personal life and and their attitudes and even groups they belong to, and they're like I always looked up social media
Trekker Burt 39:36
profiles. Why wouldn't you?
Karl Rostron 39:39
And even people that put up walls and had hidden and blocked and private, I just paid a company to get me in and so I could see them anyway. And so there wasn't, there's nothing secret or private about what you do online. And I, you know, I looked at it all at very few times. That I use that as any kind of a hiring criteria, but I wanted to know the people. I want to know who they're do they fit in here? What are their goals? What are they doing their free time, you know, and do their goals align with the company goals? Are they going to come in here and just not fit in and cause problems? And are they going to be happy here? You know, that's an important thing. It's not always negative. Why I'm looking on there, it can be just as positive. But yeah, in this day and age, you got to think about the memes you put out there, and you got to think about the jokes that you tell. It's, it's a different world than I grew up in, where pretty much anything, what you leave a footprint, yeah, and so just think about, be cognizant of what you do, and know that at some point people are going to be looking at
Bobby Hodge 40:46
it. Yeah, I think, I think that too often people beat the drum of, well, you shouldn't post anything a trucker your story. I mean, it pointed out you need to, like, update a little bit, otherwise it has the opposite effect. Yeah, that used to be the the key was like, Well, I'm just not gonna post anything, or I'm gonna keep my account private. You realize that you have the opportunity to control what your digital footprint is, and so you should be using LinkedIn to post your accomplishments, post what you're working on, right? And you know, we're in the world now where your employer is allowed to know that you like to go to concerts on the weekend. You don't have to, like you don't have to hide everything that you do,
Karl Rostron 41:23
but if you put on a Sasquatch outfit and go fishing, you end up, one day, being the cover of a seafood processing plant in Washington. Hey, I didn't plan that, but they saw it, and there I am. I'm on the cover, and you get royalties. To this day, you get some free crab every now and then
Bobby Hodge 41:43
the leftover
Karl Rostron 41:45
they had to do, that's right, yeah,
Bobby Hodge 41:50
good. Well, I think we're getting to the end. I think we're wrapping up. He's had enough. I've had enough. Yeah, no, but thank you guys. I'm really excited for this season. Actually, you guys are good co hosts, and I think that we're, we're going to talk to some great people. So hopefully our T birds enjoy it. Hopefully they like, like, a little bit of our takeaways and and find something from this. And if nothing else, at least they're
Karl Rostron 42:14
entertained. We hope so hopefully, right, season two will be good. Yeah, it'll be good.
Bobby Hodge 42:18
Okay, well, T birds. Make sure to tune in if you have questions or if you want to ask us things for future podcasts. You can DM us at at SUU Career Center on Instagram. Be sure to follow all of our other socials. You guys have social media too, right? Trekker,
Trekker Burt 42:35
yeah, it's at SUU alumni on Facebook and
Bobby Hodge 42:39
Instagram, yep. So follow all the SUU accounts, follow us and we will see you guys next week. Thank you so much. You.