What Dropbox wants our kids to be like

Dropbox is a file hosting service based in San Francisco. I use them to back up computer files and sync between computers.  They are easy to use and free up to a certain limit.  I wish I could say I was getting paid to promote them here but I am writing mainly to talk about a recent ad I saw on their website for their Sales New Grad Program.

I am often telling my students to take advantage of all the information available to them these days to prepare for the future.  Linkedin profiles offer insights into what the actual work behind a job title might look like.  For example, looking at a headhunter's profile you should see "cold call" written over and over again! Job descriptions are another resource that have become much more valuable since the advent of the Internet.  No longer are employers limited by cost to 25 words in the newspaper but can now distribute multiple pages worth of details about the job and in this case, what is necessary to get the job.

Here are the requirements Dropbox posted for their New Grad Sales job:

Requirements

1. Internship or work experience in banking, consulting, sales, operations, lead generation, and/or marketing (SaaS experience a plus, but not required)
2. Strong analytical thinking and problem solving skills
3. Team player with excellent collaboration skills to build relationships across the company
4. Results driven while able to cultivate long-lasting relationships with clients across a multitude of industries
5. Fearless attitude to try new processes and iterate to scale a global sales engine
6. Bachelor’s degree (recent graduate or graduating in 2015 or 2016)

I found it interesting that they lead off with internship experience as the first (and therefore most important?) requirement. I assume that they will screen resumes fairly strictly for this and eliminate those candidates who spent their summers mowing lawns, flipping burgers, or packing groceries. I believe we will see this requirement more often in the future which means we as parents should be on the lookout for chances to get our kids into part time jobs that look better on their resumes.

2 and 3 are straight from my article on what most employers want. I don't think there are any job descriptions out there where the requirements are to be a "problem maker" and have "difficulty working with others".

Results driven is the key to #4.  Cultivate relationships is important of course but that is similar to the teamwork requirement in #3. The HR staff screening resumes and the interviewer sitting across from your son or daughter is going to want to see examples of actual achievements. It is difficult to gauge the "driven" part of this so most people will assume that if our kids explain an accomplishment in detailed terms it means they are result oriented.  Here is an example. Joel was very into community service in high school. He became particularly concerned about feeding the homeless so organized a weekend telethon to raise money.  Nice, right? However, to sound like he is "results oriented" there need to be results.  How much money did they raise, how many volunteers did he bring in, how many people did they reach out to?  The concrete numbers for each of these answers will help to show the interviewer that Joel has the bottom line in mind. All our kids have examples of achievements. We can help to quantify them so that the explanations are stronger and more focused.

I don't believe they will look for #5 in the resume.  This is more attitude than anything else.  The interviewer will make a judgement based on the personality and presence of our kids whether or not they are "fearless". Perhaps giving your daughter an impromptu audition.  I hear that adidas often hands potential candidates a sneaker and then asks them to sell it to the interviewer. Going in optimistic and confident will help.

Lastly, a 4 year college degree.  Last because it is the least important. But, still on the list so their assumption is that everyone who applies will be a graduate.

Oh, you have a college age child who might want to apply?  Here is the link.