 | I Got My Dream Job And So Can You: 7 Steps To Creating Your Ideal Career After College By Pete Leibman
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Product Description
Recent graduates looking to enter the workforce face a discouraging job market and stiff competition for even the most entry-level positions. Yet with the right attitude and strategies, they can break into any organization in any industry and start climbing the ladder to success. When he was only 21 years old, Pete Leibman landed his "dream job," working in the front office of the NBA's Washington Wizards. He went on to be their #1 salesperson for three straight seasons and was promoted to management in under two years. In I Got My Dream Job and So Can You, Leibman shares his proven and simple system for career success. He shows readers how to: * Think big and identify what they want from their career * Network their way past corporate gatekeepers * Impress highly influential people in any field * Land interviews for "hidden" jobs * Sell themselves on paper, online, and in person * Get hired faster and with less effort than they thought possible Career hopefuls will also find inspiring stories of other young professionals, creative strategies for leveraging social media in the job-search process, and the 5 secrets that will skyrocket their earning potential once they are hired. In short, all the information they need to land the job of their dreams-in any economy.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #169359 in Books
- Published on: 2012-03-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 256 pages
About the Author
PETE LEIBMAN, despite being told it would be "impossible," networked his way into a job with the NBA's Washington Wizards right out of college and was promoted to management when he was only 23. Today, he is a popular keynote speaker, and the founder of Dream Job Academy, a career-training program for young professionals.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
My Story and Why You Should Read This Book
January 31, 1989: at Madison Square Garden (six minutes before tip-off for Knicks vs. Pacers):
A ball bounced over to us, so I grabbed it and looked up. My father and I were standing right next to the scorer's table at MSG. There were no security concerns at that time about fans being next to the court. Chuck Person, a player on the Pacers, ran over to me and put his hands up. He looked like he was 12 feet tall. I gave him the best chest-pass of my life. He caught the ball and said, "Hey, little man, thanks for grabbing that. What's your name?"
I smiled, and in my high-pitched, meek, seven-year-old voice said, "My name's Pete." Chuck smiled back and said, "Well, Pete, this one's for you." Then he turned around and launched a shot from where he was standing, 25 feet from the basket. It zipped through the net. Swoosh!
He turned his head back to me, smiled, winked, and ran over to his team's bench. That was the first time I said to myself that I was going to make it to the NBA when I grew up.
April 8, 2003: at Johns Hopkins University (in my dorm room):
I was freaking out. How had I gotten into this position? I had done everything that you are supposed to do as a student to prepare for your career, but it had gotten me nowhere. In one month, I was going to be graduating from college, and I had no idea where I was going to live or work. Not exactly the reward I expected after busting my butt for four years. Ever since I had been a little kid, basketball had been my obsession.
When I got to college at Johns Hopkins University and learned that I could combine my love of basketball with my passion for business, I knew exactly what my dream job would be: a marketing and sales position with an NBA franchise. Unfortunately, it looked like that dream would never become a reality. I had spent four years maintaining a high GPA, paying my dues in internships, and scraping by with part-time jobs that barely paid minimum wage. I also spent my entire senior year applying to advertised jobs, participating in on-campus recruiting, and attending career fairs all over Baltimore and Washington, D.C. However, I still had no leads on a job with an NBA team or with any organization connected to sports. I had come close the summer before my senior year, when I landed an interview for an internship position with the NBA's Washington Wizards. However, the Wizards had rejected me and selected another candidate, one who I assumed was more qualified and credentialed.
Now the pressure was starting to mount, and I was really getting tired of friends and family asking what I was going to do after college. I didn't know the answer. As I checked my email that afternoon, I noticed that the Baltimore chapter of the American Marketing Association was going to have a career workshop for local students in four days, on Saturday, April 12, 2003. I also noticed that one of the featured speakers was going to be a man named Howe Burch. At the time, Howe was a senior executive for Fila, the sports marketing company. A light bulb went off in my head as I thought to myself: "Well, he works in sports. Nothing else has worked for me, so why don't I go to the event and ask him for some advice. What do I have to lose?"
Little did I know that simple decision would change my life forever. Six weeks later, I found myself in a private interview with Susan O'Malley, the team president for the Washington Wizards at the time. (In Chapter 6, I'll fill in the blanks on how I got the interview.) The following week, the Wizards offered me a full-time position in their front office, even though I was only 21 years old and had no industry experience. I didn't want to appear too eager when they made their offer, so I waited three seconds before accepting the job. Over the next five years, the Washington Wizards actually paid me (very well, in fact) to brainstorm and execute strategies that would increase attendance at their home games. I also got to:
* Watch games from courtside (a slight upgrade from my usual seat locations as a fan in college).
* Fly on an NBA team plane (a slight upgrade from my usual modes of transportation as a student in college).
* Mingle with political leaders, TV personalities, and multimillionaire CEOs. (It is absurd how much money these people spend.)
* Dunk on an NBA court before a game. (Some white guys can jump, thank you very much.)
* Shake hands with an ex-NBA player who was 7'7" tall. (His fingers were like bananas.)
* Scrimmage against WNBA All-Stars, including Chamique Holdsclaw and Alana Beard. (I'm still trying to catch my breath six years later.)
* Attend an NBA All-Star Game after-party with the players. (I have never felt so short in my life.)
* Have my own private office inside the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. (Well, I started in a cubicle the size of a closet, but I got my own office eventually!)
While the perks were great, they were not the best part of my position. More important, my job gave me a platform to create programs that made dreams come true for other sports fans, and my job enabled me to fulfill my lifelong dream to make it to the NBA (even though I didn't make it as a player). I got my dream job and so can you!
• • •
This book will teach you everything you need to know to get your dream job and create your ideal career as a young professional. While this book features a number of sports analogies and stories from my life, this book is the blueprint for getting any job you want in any industry.
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.Practical and Enthusiastic
By Joshua Lake
This is a practical, 256-page tutorial on how to get the job you've always wanted, and it is written to young professionals -- primarily those still in college. For young, motivated twenty-somethings without work experience, this is a great resource.
This book is in some sense a memoir of the job-search lessons Leibman learned through his own experiences. Like many in the self-help genre, this book includes dozens of anecdotes that can be summarized as, "I'm incredibly successful because of this technique, and you can be too." Leibman does a good job, however, of fitting his own personal anecdotes into larger points, and he does not simply beat the reader over the head with his successes.
Leibman ends his chapters with brief success stories from other people. The success stories are largely fluff pieces, devoid of substantive tips, but they reinforce each chapter's ideas (which are far more meaty and more helpful). Those stories were the only pages I found myself bypassing.
My largest takeaways from the book were these: Networking is essential, due in large part to how few people are hired based solely on their resume; an online presence is important to job seekers in all fields; and setting your career goals is a necessary foundation for the job search. For the first, Leibman's background in marketing and sales truly shines. He offers several dozen helpful tips to those who fear they'll never succeed at networking, and he provides step-by-step tips for how to network by building relationships rather than treating people as means to your end.
Leibman's youth shines in his sections on digital presence. He offers suggestions on building a winning LinkedIn profile as well as Tweeting with a purpose. These strongest sections outshine the other chapters, although each lesson offers something useful.
Leibman's writing is accessible and practical, demanding little and offering much. This book's strength is in its practical application and in its author's enthusiasm. I commend this book to young men and women with motivation and determination to get hired after college. While this book may not provide motivation for discouraged job seekers, it will be of great help to those who are ready for advice.
Disclosure: I was given a free digital copy of this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all thoughts and opinions are mine unless otherwise indicated.
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