Your next challenge
Now you must find the departments within the company that have jobs that take you places. If the job you're interviewing for requires a great deal of travel, the interviewer will tell you. Strange as it may seem, some people don't like to travel, and the interviewer cannot mismatch the position with a sedentary employee.
Your education, experience, interests, and financial situation may dictate, however, that you join the target company now, and seek the traveling job you want later. This isn't as difficult as it seems. You just need background information on the organization of companies to help develop the pointed questions you want to ask during an interview.
An introduction to the org chart. "Org chart" is an abbreviation of the term "organization chart." Most large companies have a high level org chart they can show to you during the interview. It shows the major departments of the company, their relationship to each other, and the names of the key individuals heading up those organizations. Individual departments also have org charts. If each individual is identified by name as well as by title, the drawing of the department's org chart is much larger and more complex than the high-level chart.
When drawn on a piece of paper, an org chart looks like a group of blocks arranged in the shape of a pyramid: one block at the top, more in each succeeding horizontal row. The uppermost box represents the boss or executive function; lines from this box to the others show the reporting structure.
An illustration
Let us look at the org chart of a dry-cleaning establishment that has just opened for business.
On opening day the boss stands at the front desk, takes customers' requests for cleaning services, and communicates those requests to the cleaner/presser, who actually performs the service. The boss delivers the cleaned and pressed garments when the customer returns, and collects and records any monies the customers pay in return.
This manner of doing business continues until a growing demand for service forces the boss to hire more people. In effect, the boss is forced to create a new organization to meet market demand. The new org chart looks like the following:
Now the boss directs three people. The front desk clerk fulfills the marketing function, the chief cleaner directs operations, the bookkeeper handles finances, and the boss handles the development of new services. Since the dry-cleaning business offers a service and not a product, it has no manufacturing facility like that found in a company that makes the products it sells.
The boss also indirectly oversees the pressers through the supervision of the chief cleaner. The reporting structure, shown by the lines connecting the boxes, indicates that the boss wants the pressers to look first to the chief cleaner for guidance and problem resolution.
On the surface org charts name the elements of a company, the key individuals, and the reporting structure. These charts are important because they communicate the company's current organization. They become even more important as they change over time-and change they do.
When Sue Knoll started working in the communications department for a large electronics firm, she was mystified by the fuss created each time a department issued a new org chart. She thought the conversation caused by each new chart mere gossip that had no impact on her. She, for one, intended to keep doing her job, producing the audiovisual presentations for which she was hired.
Sue realized she was shortsighted when she became aware of her predecessor's career path within the company. The person who had previously held Sue's position was now working in the international division, a position that sounded glamorous and intriguing to Sue. She hoped that over time she could make a similar move. How could she get from her current division, corporate services, a centralized provider of communications services to all departments within the company, to the international division?
Three months after she started, the international division issued a new org chart. A casual glance at the names on the chart told her that a manager for whom she'd been doing a lot of work recently was now reporting directly to the vice-president of international operations. Several new functions reported to this manager, including a box with "TBH"-an abbreviation for "to be hired." A new set of responsibilities and tasks had been identified as necessary, and the job was waiting to be filled. The path to career opportunities in another division suddenly became clear to Sue.
Sue's department had daily contact with other company departments. As Sue went about her daily tasks, she had a terrific opportunity to meet her potential employers within the company and impress them with her good work. The key was the org chart. The org chart told Sue who worked for whom in each division, and who had taken on additional responsibilities. She realized that the people she had thought customers for the services of her division were also sources of job information because they occupied positions of responsibility on the org chart. They could tell her the experience and educational requirements for available jobs and even name the people hiring in the near future. She combined the information provided by org charts with official newsletters, talks with her boss, newspaper articles, and meetings, and developed a career path for herself.
As you will see in "A Futurist Abroad," in this chapter, Jackie Zehring also has moved between departments in her company. As you begin to understand how systems are developed, sold, and installed, you'll be able to look at an org chart and determine where you should be to support your PT aspirations.
Before the interview
Let us in more depth at what you need to know before you go for the interview to make sure you get into an department that takes you places.
The chief operating officer (COO) of a company, the one who oversees the company's business, usually has only a handful of "direct reports," managers who report their plans and accomplishments directly to the COO. Each direct report typically has one major function made up of several responsibilities within the company's organization. For example, a generic org chart outlining the major functions of a company that manufactures, sells, installs, and maintains computer-driven systems looks like this:
Organizational charts can be more complex than the one shown here. New organizational offshoots are frequently created to address a particular problem or opportunity. All companies, though, have similar business concerns to address and therefore have similar organizations.
Everybody is part of a charter. A company and the large organizational elements within a company use charters to guide their activities. A company's charter is a written definition of the company's business; a departmental charter defines the department's role in support of the company's overall charter. No matter how they're worded to reflect the peculiarities of a company's particular industry, the charters of the major organizational elements shown in the above org chart would translate into the following:
Marketing develops the market and sells the computer system. Manufacturing makes it. Operations install and maintain the systems. Development designs new systems and improves existing ones. Finance keeps track of incoming and outgoing dollars, and invests reserves. Other departments that may report to the COO include human resources, which fits people into the company's organization, and support, which provides everything from printing to telephone to outside services and products for the rest of the company.
Charters sort out organizational confusion, and define an organization's objectives. Like organization charts, they change as the company changes. Especially in large organizations, two separate departments may be performing similar functions, and in the course of performing what each believes to be their job, territorial anxiety and conflict develop. Managers who seek to resolve the problem may readily ask the question, "What are their charters?" as the first step in resolving it.
When you first interview with a company, typically with a human resources recruiter who may concentrate on explaining individual jobs to you, it can be very helpful to ask for the charter of each position's department to tell you which have travel opportunities. This is especially true if you are joining an organization to get inside it. Once inside, you plan to do good work and find the job that will take you traveling.
Understanding charters leads to job mobility. For example, say you have the prerequisites for joining your target company as a compensation specialist in the human resources department at the headquarters location. Your employer has smaller regional offices located throughout the country, but in your current position if s unlikely you'll visit them because the overall pay policy is administered from headquarters. Those regional offices, however, are staffed by specialists who install electrical wiring in buildings. The specialists work in their respective regions but their paychecks are mailed from the headquarters office.
If you remain a compensation specialist, your work will be seen but recognized in the regional offices only when a paycheck arrives. If you become a personnel recruiter within the human resources department, though, your work will be seen when you arrive to recruit new specialists.
The charter for the human resources department is to develop and carry out the policies and procedures that allow the company to recruit and retain qualified personnel. When broken down, that charter becomes a group of mini-charters for smaller groups within the human resources department.
As a compensation specialist, your organization's charter is to develop and administer job grades and pay scales-within the broader context of the charter for the human resources department as a whole. In that light, your responsibility is to develop not only job grades and pay scales, make sure they are attractive enough to draw and keep skilled employees, but also see that employees are not overpaid for their contributions. The results of your job affect both recruiting and retaining qualified people, two major elements of the human resources charter.
As a personnel recruiter, your responsibilities include finding and screening job applicants and explaining to them the benefits of working for your company. You want to identify the most qualified applicants and make sure they understand how their work for your employer will be mutually beneficial. You are carrying out the part of your department's overall charter concerned with recruiting qualified personnel.
Le t us look at a second example. Say you are hired as a writer in the product information section of the marketing department of a manufacturer of small computers. The group you join is part of the marketing staff that is located at the headquarters office, which is also the manufacturing locale. Your job includes writing brochures, advertising copy, and product bulletins that describe changes to and plans for the computer product line. You are unlikely to travel much because you physically work with the sources of product information, the designers and engineers.
The company sells the computers directly to retail outlets and also to three or four large distributors, who sell the computers to large corporations in package deals with other products they carry. Both sales groups, the one for retail, the other for distributors, are part of the marketing organization, which has a charter to promote the growth of demand for the company's computers and to actively sell them.
If you took the experience you gained in the product marketing department to the group within the company that works with the distributors, your mobility would be likely to increase. In that group, one of your responsibilities might be developing joint advertising programs snared by your company and the distributors. Much of that joint work will be done when you travel to their headquarters in other cities.
Understanding system operations
The sale and installation of a large system may take a long time. The entire process is very different from selling products in a retail situation. Once you understand this basic process, you'll be able to pinpoint the job you want and become a PT as fast as your talents allow.
Making the potential marketplace aware of a product is among the responsibilities of the marketing department. If the marketing department of the system provider has not made its product known to potential buyers either through publicity or the efforts of a salesperson, the prospective customer will not be aware tike provider has a potential solution to the customer's problem. Consequently, the sales and installation process starts with the marketing organization's response to a customer's inquiry or need.
Large systems represent large investments. When a customer decides a large system-a new computer or telephone or energy management system-is required, they ask manufacturers to submit bids detailing the capabilities of the proposed system, how it will be installed, how much training will be provided for users of the system, and how much it will cost. The request for a bid is called Request-for-Proposal (RFP) or Request-for-Quotation (RFQ). RFPs can be lengthy documents requesting a great deal of information.
The marketing department of a system provider responds with a proposal, which may be equally lengthy and complex. Each company's approach to producing a proposal is different, but usually a team of writers, technical support specialists, and members of the sales staff work together to respond to the questions posed in the RFP. They decide if drawings and photographs of the system should be included in their proposal, and make sure the response they are creating addresses all the issues raised by the customer. The issues do, of course, include the actual detailed workings of the product. But the customer will also want to know exactly how the system provider will install the system and how long it will take; the amount and nature of the training available; the procedures used by the manufacturing department to make sure the product is constructed of the highest quality components in the most reliable manner.
Many of these topics fall outside the scope of the marketing department's responsibilities. If the customer representatives are interested in the product, they may, after they receive the response to their RFP, ask that members of other departments visit their locale and specify how they will do their work. Presentations at the customer's location by members of the groups supporting the installation are organized by the salesperson. If the response to the customer's RFP is satisfactory, the presentations go well, and the customer decides to buy the system, a contract is negotiated.
Once the marketing organization has a signed contract, the manufacturing department constructs the product, meets any special requirements the customer may have, and ships the product to the customer's location in agreement with contractual dates.
The operations department is responsible for physically installing it as specified by the customer. This may be time-consuming and expensive. Installing a system may take months, and even after the system is working, the operations department may be contractually required to provide system technicians who remain on the customer's site for a specified period of time.
The product development department designed the original system to meet the demands of the marketplace. As the needs of the marketplace change, product development changes the product as well. In addition, a specific contract may require that a particular feature or capability be added to the existing product; designing and integrating the new capability into the existing system is done by product development.
The finance department monitors the financial health of the company. Consequently, it is involved in collecting due payments, overseeing accounting processes, such as processing expense reports filed by traveling employees, and producing the financial reports required by the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory agencies.
The active contributions of all these departments are required if the sales and installation process is to succeed.
A geography lesson. Why do systems manufacturers put so many of their employees on the road? At a very basic level, they are forced to by geography. Jeannie Cowley sees the most travel opportunities with businesses that are headquartered in one area, "but do business all over, usually businesses that sell a technical product that forces the company to centralize the expertise."
The actual number of customers for large systems of any type is comparatively small, at least compared to the number of customers for items such as office furniture or small trucks. They are the largest, most active companies and government agencies in the United States. They are concentrated in the geographical areas best suited for carrying out their charters. Sought-after customers for large systems thus are located all over the world.
In addition, a company that manufactures large systems must do final assembly of major components of the product in one physical location, their own manufacturing floor. Manufactured to meet any special requirements of the customer, the systems will also be tested several times before they are shipped to the customer's location. This type of manufacturing and testing activity is expensive, time-consuming, and must be carried out in a uniform manner. Because of these costs, most manufacturers have only one main manufacturing location for a product line.
Customers, though, can be located any distance from the manufacturing facility. Selecting one site for manufacturing automatically means putting distance between the provider of the system and most customers. Selling and installing the system becomes a sport for travelers.
Jackie Zehring (see later in this chapter) elaborates: "The marketing path, or distribution channel, is different for personal computers than it is for large systems, for example. Personal computers are handled by distributors, whose customers spend $2000 to $5000 and are far more common than someone who will spend many millions of dollars on a large computer. Thaf s always a corporate entity. In small systems, the user has to come to you. With someone interested in a mainframe, we go to them."
Entry-level Positions
Each organization within a company has entry-level jobs. The educational and experience requirements for entry-level jobs vary as widely as job titles, even though the job responsibilities may be similar to those described in this book. Each company you talk to will give you the requirements you should meet for their entry-level jobs. Read them carefully but understand that most companies phrase job requirements to snag the ideal candidate, and perfect job candidates do not exist. Don't let eligibility requirements you don't meet scare you away from going after a job you want.
Some entry-level jobs contain a great deal of travel. When you talk with an interviewer, your task is to find them. The following pages discuss some entry-level jobs in each major organization of a typical systems provider.
JOBS IN MARKETING
User Trainer
Function: Once installed, complex systems are frequently used by people unaware of their complexity. They are called end users and need training to use the keyboards associated with a new computer system or the features of a fancy telephone. Trainers who instruct end users frequently do so on the customer's site at the time the new system is installed.
Qualifications for user training positions include the ability to communicate effectively, an outgoing personality, a high energy level, and enthusiasm.
Technical Support Specialist
Function: In the marketing department, the person filling this job helps members of the sales staff explain the technical details of a product to prospective customers, works out detailed answers to questions in RFQs, and configures a. system to meet a customer's size and function requirements. Technical support specialists, who sometimes carry the word "engineer" in the job title, determine the appropriate number and type of system components-printed circuit boards, end-user instruments-needed to make the system perform as requested by the customer. They frequently go on calls with sales people and give presentations describing the product.
Qualifications include the ability to communicate effectively, willingness to find out how and why things work, and a basic understanding of computers and electronics.
This is an entry-level job when the company offering it has a training program to support the hiring of prospects with potential. End-user trainers also move into this position over time.
Product Demonstration Specialist
Function: Demonstrations of how large systems actually work when operated by the end user are a major part of the system selling process. The demonstrations take place in meeting rooms designed to display the product in its best light. Demonstrations usually are conducted at the location of the system provider. If the system is demonstrated at trade shows each year, however, the demonstration specialists also go to the trade shows.
Qualifications include a professional appearance, poise, and the ability to speak before a group of people and to understand how the technical attributes of a product relate to the work of employees in the customer's company.
JOBS IN MANUFACTURING
Entry-level manufacturing jobs that require frequent travel aren't common. If you hire on to build part of your company's product, you are tied to the manufacturing line. If your company has manufacturing operations in more than one location or is considering manufacturing in another country, travel opportunities would be present. But it is unlikely anyone but a seasoned specialist in the manufacturing organization would be selected to travel to these other locations.
JOBS IN OPERATIONS
Data-Base Specialist
Function: Computerized systems use software, coded instructions called programs, as the medium for relaying operational instructions to the physical components of the system. Another layer of coded instructions, called the data base, is required to customize the operation of the system to the operational requirements of the customer. For example, in the case of a large telephone system, the system's data base insures that the correct telephone instrument rings when its number is dialed, or that a long-distance call to Florida actually connects to the correct phone there, not to one in New York.
Data-base specialists go to a customer's site to explain what kind of information they need from the customer and then make sure that the data base is entered correctly into the system.
Qualifications for data-base specialist include the ability to interpret seemingly unrelated data, effective communications skills, the ability to follow through with a task until completion, and the flexibility to shift attention rapidly from project to project. These qualifications are not limited to people with specific educations; successful data-base specialists include people with degrees in physical education, family counseling, and music.
System Installer
Function: System installers set up the system hardware at the customer's location. Computer systems or computer-driven systems are usually made of metal cabinets with electrical connections inside them. System installers set up the cabinets and fit printed circuit boards into the cabinets, plugging them into the electrical connections. They also install the cable that connects one cabinet to another.
System installers tend to have education or experience comparable to two-year technical school degrees. They may spend up to three months at a customer location. They may work long hours to get the system ready for service. This job seems to attract free spirits who like to travel, work hard, and still enjoy the free time available to them.
Cable Installer
Function: Cable installers set up the cable network that links the manufactured system to end-users. The cable they install radiates from the system cabinets throughout the customer's premises (indoors and outdoors) and connects to devices such as telephones or computer terminals at the work places of the people who need them.
Cable installers usuajly have high school educations. They work for the company installing the system or for a subcontractor. They may spend weeks or months at a customer's location, depending upon the complexity of the installation. Cable installers who work for a subcontractor tend to travel within a single region, whereas cable installers who work for a system provider travel to any place their employer is installing systems.
Cable installers with experience and a talent for evaluating the overall scope of an installation may become members of a site survey team. The site survey team goes to a customer's location to determine the time and money required to install the cable. Their cable installation estimate becomes part of the overall system price quoted to the customer in response to the RFP.
Program Manager
Function: Program managers are responsible for seeing that each installation they manage is installed on schedule and in a cost-effective manner. This is not an entry-level job, but does require frequent travel. It is a worthwhile aspiration for a PT who wants both travel and upward mobility within a corporation. Program managers have responsibility for controlling the budget associated with the installations assigned to them. They coordinate procedures ranging from major steps in the manufacturing process to tasks performed by the subcontractor's cable installers.
It takes patience to acquire the background needed to be a successful program manager because it includes industry experience, professionalism, the ability to learn new skills, and knowledge of the workings of the product. If you enjoy working in the operations organization of a systems provider, though, you may want to target this position as a career goal.
JOBS IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Entry-level jobs in product development (sometimes called engineering) don't offer a guaranteed travel quotient, although there may be occasional travel associated with specific projects, such as testing a new product at a customer's location. Even this infrequent travel is usually undertaken by senior specialists.
JOBS IN FINANCE
Entry-level jobs in a finance organization usually don't require travel either. The same is not true for the CFO, chief financial officer, who may travel a great deal in order to promote communication with the financial community about the company's quarterly financial results or a new stock issue. Exceptions to this exist in large companies with operations located throughout the country. In that case internal auditors travel to these locations to oversee inventory at a spares depot, for example, or to verify the accounting procedures used at a satellite manufacturing facility. For most members of the finance organization in a medium-sized company, travel is limited to out-of-town training sessions on how to use new accounting software packages.
STRATEGY SUMMARY
As you can see, the greatest number of travel opportunities reside in the marketing and operations departments. To become a FT, you should do the following:
- Learn if these types of jobs exist within your target company. Don't be misled by different terminologies or job titles. In your interview, determine the functions of the jobs they have and the departments in which they exist.
- Once you have determined the exact title, function, and department of the position you want, apply immediately, even if they have no existing opening. Companies with ongoing recruiting efforts maintain resume files and turn to them when openings do become available.
- If you can't gain a PT position immediately but can obtain a suitable position in a traveling organization within your target company, accept it. Being able to communicate your career goals to your boss makes them easier to achieve.
- If you can't gain a PT position immediately, can't obtain a suitable position in a traveling organization within your target company, but you can be hired by that company, that too is an avenue to becoming a PT. If your investigations indicate mobility between major departments, that becomes another factor. Should you choose to work for your target company in that situation, find people in other departments who know how movement takes place. Don't be shy about directly approaching a manager in another organization for advice, but do wait until you've been in your initial job for a while. Most managers feel uneasy about a newly hired employee who wants another job but who hasn't developed a performance record.
A FUTURIST ABROAD- Jackie Zehring
"Twenty-one months ago I didn't have a passport and had never been out of the country. Last year, however, I had seven trips to Europe, one to South Africa and Brazil, and one to the Far East. This year I'll have six or seven trips to Europe, and I'm leaving for Hong Kong this week. We'll do Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Taiwan, and Seoul; and then I'm going into the People's Republic of China. I'll be in Canada two or three times this year-and today I got a call about Australia and New Zealand. If s almost too much."
What takes Jackie Zehring to the far corners of the world? The answer is simple: She's invited. As storage management consultant for IBM, Jackie is charged with helping chief executive officers of other companies-mainly Fortune's top 300 companies-understand in what direction IBM is moving toward solving their problems of information storage management. Companies from all over the world are eager to have their planning operations people meet with Jackie and listen to her presentations. At these briefings, they learn about IBM's strategies for dealing with the storage management crisis. She discusses trends in storage management and how IBM's products reflect those trends. User group meetings are held in San Jose on an individual basis, or Jackie takes her "road show" of two or three people to the customer's city.
In San Jose executives sometimes arrive at the rate of one or two a day, but she takes the time to brief herself on each individual. For instance, she checks with the international marketing team for information as to what points each person might want her to cover. "The nucleus of the talk stays the same because the subject matter is technology, but if you want to be effective, you can't have a canned presentation. These people are spending
Job titles and reporting structures change frequently to reflect changes in company philosophy. Do not be misled by nominal differences as you search out your PT position. thousands of dollars and precious time to come to California, so they deserve the best possible presentation in a minimum of words."
English is the international language in computer work. "I never give a presentation in anything other than English, but if the audience's English is not fluent enough to keep up, I use a translator. I do know some other languages, but I don't admit it to anyone. I might greet a customer in their own language and perhaps invite them to lunch in their language, but there's no pretense of knowing it."
And she uses no words, i.e., captions, on her slides. "The trick to doing international visuals is not to put any words on them. If you do, your audience will be spending so much time reading the words that they won't be listening to you. Or, if English is not their primary language, they'll spend their time copying every word on the slide. These representatives were chosen by their company to come here and prepare a report, so they have to make notes. If I use pictures about our technology, and reasonably few words, I can get their attention.
"Substance is important. You have to be accomplished in the content, and prepared for the question off the wall. I don't believe you can do this when you are extremely young or not knowledgeable in your field. That may sound old and biased, but you need a great deal of depth. It's the old iceberg theory that says you must be prepared to talk about perhaps 10 percent of what you really know. I know a lot about computers, but more important, I know a lot about people and the way they relate to computers. You really need to be people-oriented rather than technology-oriented in this field, believe it or not.
"And you have to have a sense of style and timing. Just like an actor, I use pitch, speed of words, all kinds of theatrical tricks. The right diction is important. With this kind of an audience there must be no slang, no colloquialisms, no 'uhs/ or 'you knows.' I've taught at the university level for fourteen years because I like teaching, but besides being a teacher, an actress would probably find this the best field they could make a living in!"
If she travels to the customer, Jackie's way is paid by the client. As many as a hundred staff people are then able to attend her session at one time, which is good for the overseas company since it minimizes the expense and maximizes the exposure.
All the trips she takes don't upset her personal life. Her husband of four years "thinks if s delicious. He's a tennis bum and gets along fine without me. We're both independent, and he takes great pride in what I do. When I come back from a trip, he's very glad to see me-so the time I'm here is almost like a honeymoon. It's probably the best thing I could do.
"Germany is one of my favorite countries. And South Africa. Hong Kong is very cosmopolitan. If s crowded, noisy, and very exciting. I never want to sleep when I'm there because I love it. Singapore, on the other hand, is beautiful and lush and tropical, but almost too serene.
"I'm a very good tourist if I have the time, but business comes first. I work very hard-twelve, fifteen hours a day. Ifs all day at the office, then dinner out with the customer to talk late into the evening. It can be difficult. But if if s a longer than usual trip, there may be a day or two at the end, or perhaps a weekend in the middle, when I can take a sightseeing tour or go shopping. I have my favorite shopkeepers and jewelers, which I keep as a record for my friends. The list is turning into a travel guide for those who might end up going to some of the countries I've visited. It includes neat places that are off the beaten track, and it's a pretty good record of what I've purchased and what I've paid in different locales. For instance, in Hong Kong there are 14,000 jewelry stores! I know two where the jewelry is really 18K gold, and the prices are as cheap as you can find.
"I also keep the names of restaurants, dishes, the names of shops, people's numbers. I'm an extrovert and talk to everybody, and I swap a lot of cards. I hold on to them all, and then when I'm going to a particular city, I pull all the cards for that place and look people up. It adds continuity to my trips and I'm making many new friends-though I'm losing my friends here. My personal long-distance phone bill has gone way up.
"There are lonely times in hotel rooms, of course, but I never turn on the TV or play cards. I write letters, keep my diary, or read books about the area, and I like to memorize a map and plan walking tours for the occasional evening I have free. In most of the cities of the world I feel very little fear walking around late at night. I take great care to keep myself out of ridiculous situations. The walking is a help in keeping fit, too. I have a great deal of trouble with my weight. Alcohol and calorie consumption are a problem, but I've learned to drink Perrier and bottled water. Nobody cares what you drink. It's only you who makes you order that glass of wine, I've discovered.
"Jet lag is the only other challenge. Some people say they can get off an airplane after eighteen hours and go right to work, but I can't. No matter what tricks I try, I can never avoid it. But that's the only stress I encounter. The work day is free of it because I love what I'm doing. At this point in my career it's rare to get a question I can't answer, and if I do, I say 'I'll have it for you by Thursday.' "
Jackie Zehring, who now talks to CEOs and high level managers of the world's largest companies with the confidence of a solid knowledge of her subject, first walked into IBM's offices many years ago. She was barely holding back tears of anger and despair, and was desperate for a job. Having driven 350 miles from her home in North Carolina on a false lead, she was down to her last $100. Another company had written her several letters indicating that a position was waiting for her. Not a secretarial job, they said, but one using the talents and skills acquired during her tenure at Johnson's Wax, where she had worked for a year after graduating from college. When she had arrived for her appointment, however, she learned they had been interested only in her shorthand and typing. "Secretaries are all we need." Furious, she walked out.
"I was so upset I was crying. I could hardly see to drive as I headed out of town. On the way, however, I passed the IBM office. 'IBM means computers,' I thought. Now, I didn't really know what a computer was at the time, but I did know that a company like that could probably use someone like me since I'd been an accounting major. Actually, I hated doing accounting, but it was no time to be fussy.
"I walked into IBM and told them I'd like to interview for a job. 'Do you have an appointment?' they asked. 'No,' I said. 'We're willing to test new people/ they answered. 'Can you stay the night?' 'Sure!' And that was it. I was hired the next day!" She was immediately sent off for twelve weeks of training, and when she returned, the company gave her a week in which to prepare classes-teaching what she had just learned. "That's the best way in the world to learn, though," Jackie reflects now, "because I found out students collectively know 100 percent more than you do and can teach you."
It also was good practice both in thinking on her feet and fielding random questions-two requirements for success in her present position. As the only woman among men, she sometimes has had to prove her credibility and earn respect by answering the toughest questions customers could ask. "As a woman I had to work harder to be accepted. For example, the first time I went to Germany was the same day we'd shipped a new product from our plant out of Frankfurt, and several of our most demanding European customers were in the audience. They're fine customers, but they expect a lot of extras and a lot of details from us. They listened nicely, politely to me, and then, when the question period began, they asked me extremely difficult questions. I had the feeling that I was working harder than a male engineer would have in the same situation, and to be honest, whether that would have been because of the 'male' or the 'engineer' aspect, I don't know. I felt they had set me up with the questions, and if I hadn't answered them properly, I would never have been invited back. They would have gone home and written off the day. The questions were not the kind that could be prepared for in advance. I didn't know what they were going to ask, but I knew I had to stay calm." But there's no rancor. " 'What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly,' Thomas Paine once said."
Jackie was one of IBM's earliest female marketing reps. "In 1968 when I was doing engineering work, I hadn't thought about marketing because at that time women didn't market at IBM. It just hadn't been done. My manager asked if I'd like to be a marketing rep, and I said 'Yes, it would be terrific, but women don't do that.' Well, they changed. Women did from that time on. There were two of us to start, one on the East Coast, and one on the West. I was the West Coast female marketing rep. I remember being introduced to my new clients. Most of them said things like, 'Oh, I didn't know IBM had women in marketing,' and I'd say 'We do,' and that would be the end of that. But one man reacted strongly. 'I don't do business with women/ he told me emphatically. 'Fine,' I told him. 'Most of the people at the branch office are men, so I'm sure we can find you a male. Tell me, do you have any preference as to religion or color?' I was brasher in those days. He and I did business for a couple of years, but we never got along too well."
Jackie doesn't view the problems she faced along this line as major, just as challenges to be met, problems to be solved, in the same manner in which she settled the question of paying for her male customers' business lunches. Older executives were sometimes uncomfortable when a woman picked up the check, even though they knew it was being paid with company money.
"I chose my favorite three restaurants and went to the individual managers. Tm going to give you my MasterCard number,' I told them, 'and I never want to see a check on the table. I want you to call me by my name when I walk in and I want you to seat me immediately. After I've taken my customer back to his office, I'll come back and sign the check, including a 20 percent gratuity, but I never want to see a check on the table.' It worked."
From marketing rep Jackie stepped into the company's development and manufacturing business, and found a market planning job. As she has changed jobs within the corporation, she seeks growth and increased knowledge, and then positions herself in the right place at the right time. She kept the planning job until the product involved was developed and shipped, and then joined the international part of the company to represent its technology. The job of describing storage management trends to customers did not exist before she came to it. It was created, and she started traveling.
Jackie will not stop at becoming an expert in one field. She'll be looking for new challenges soon in the same company. IBM likes to switch people around every two or three years, and employees thrive on growth in both knowledge and confidence. She will be guiding her own career changes thoughtfully. "I'm a firm believer that there is no such thing as luck. You make your own luck. You can get what you want, but you have to ask for it."
