After landing 3 internships and 4 entry level jobs, I figured I would share my key learnings as well as recommendations for the next generation. Just like investing, your work experience compounds (with the right systems and habits in place). If you're unsure where to start on your personal development journey, I would highly recommend reading the following (in order):

1. 4 Hour Work Week - Tim Ferriss (Great book on how to optimize your time and productivity)
2. Atomic Habits - James Clear (Amazing book on goal setting and how to achieve them by deconstructing via habits)
3. Unshakeable - Tony Robbins (This is a more updated version and summary of Tony's "Money Master The Game." - which is another great book on the basics and foundation of investing, however, it is 700+ pages if you have the patience to read through it like I did!)
4. The Holy Grail Of Investing - Tony Robbins (Latest book of the trilogy series where you can gain insights and strategies from the world's greatest investors across industries)
5. Who: The A Method for Hiring - Geoff Smart (One of the time-tested books on hiring, interviewing etc.)

 “The best investment you can make is in yourself. The more you learn, the more you earn.” - Warren Buffett

 Instead of covering all 7 internships / entry level jobs, I will focus on the following 4:

1. Executive Assistant at San Anselmo Chamber of Commerce
2. Consultant promoted to Director of Brand Strategy & Communications at Shumaker Technology Group
3. Intern promoted to Sports Specialist at Nike US Sports Camps
4. Rotational Intern promoted to Market Research Associate at Vision Critical

"It takes only 7 seconds to form a first impression. People make judgments about a person's trustworthiness within 0.5 seconds of seeing their face." - ZipDo

First impressions are so important that Michael D. Watkins wrote a book titled 'The First 90 Days' to help leaders fast track their onboarding, build relationships with new colleagues and increase your chances of success. When you're younger in your career, not as experienced yet, the one thing you can control is your work ethic and willingness to go above and beyond.

 “There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” - Derek Jeter

The good news is that the bar is set very low - according to a survey by Resume Builder, 74% of managers describe Gen Z as “the most challenging generation to work with.” They show a lack of effort, motivation, and surprisingly, technological skills, leading to higher firing rates. That means if you just put in slightly more effort, it will go a long way, be noticed and you will get rewarded. Every new role that I've ever taken on, before starting, I go out of my way to research and prepare as much as possible with the public information available online. I also like to dress the part and show up at least 10 minutes early.

Researchers over the years who study the “beauty bias” have documented a correlation between attractiveness and career success. For example, as highlighted in Forbes, "researchers sent 11,000 CVs to various job openings, including identical CVs accompanied by candidate photographs of different levels of attractiveness. Attractive women and men were much more likely to get a call back for an interview than unattractive (or no-photograph) candidates were. Scientific studies also highlight a well-established association between attractiveness and long-term income, with above-average beauty translating into 10% to 15% higher salaries than below-average beauty." It isn’t fair and it isn’t always true but this research suggests that it literally pays to look your best!

(Image Source: Taylor's Desk at Nike US Sports Camps)

When I first started at Nike US Sports Camps, I remember logging into my computer in an area called the 'bullpen' where all the new summer intern sales reps sat and I was the first one to talk live with customers, make the sale and take payments. The company president also happened to be walking by on one of the calls and he came over to give me a fist bump and let me know I was the quickest intern to onboard successfully on the first day. The other sales reps took a couple days before they were comfortable just taking a phone call! I can go on and on in regards to how I've done this same approach for my other roles and instead of hearing it from me, I figured it would be better you hear it from those who managed me:

It's important to note, I never asked for these letters of recommendations, the CEO / President went out of their way to write them because I went out of the way countless times for them and consistently over delivered. Little did I know, these letters of recommendations would help me land my next roles at Vision Critical and WME | IMG.

(Image Source: Taylor Business Trip at Headquarters in Vancouver)

Vision Critical (now called Alida) is a full service big data analytics global market research firm and after 8 interviews with the top executives, a 5 minute presentation, 2 page paper and 3 hour on-site, I landed the coveted bi-annual rotational internship program and joined their San Francisco office working on their biggest accounts across tech and telecommunications. I essentially received a masters degree while working full time and instead of paying for it, the company paid me! Every quarter, I had to submit my responses to 10 business challenges which were graded by the heads of each office and given the rotational nature of the program, I was exposed to all facets of the company (from quant/qual research, survey design, presentation design, early stage concept testing, ad/commercial testing, operations, finance etc.) - in addition to my normal scope of work. Each of the 8 interns across cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco etc. were assigned a mentor in their respective office as well as an executive advisor in a different office. As you can imagine, this structured program set us up for success and allowed us to look at all businesses moving forward (from the big picture) and connect the dots across departments instead of being focused solely in one domain. After 1 year, I was promoted to a Market Research Associate.

(Image Source: Taylor's Desk at Vision Critical in San Francisco)

While recognizing many of you reading this (who haven't joined Sports Entertainment Academy yet) may be wondering, "how can I land this same type of experience and mentorship given how competitive it is?" The good news is the times have changed with the democratization of media and information (not just in a physical book format) but with the invention of podcasts, you can now learn from mentors across any business discipline at anytime, anywhere with just a connection to the internet. When I was growing up, you could gain 30 years of someone's life experience by reading their book end to end, typically taking several weeks depending on your work schedule. Now you can gain that same level of experience by listening to a truncated 2 hour podcast and for free! While gaining first hand mentorship experience in an office is still the most impactful (especially from someone just a couple steps ahead of you and not from a billionaire who went viral on the internet, whose challenges and opportunities are much different) - what separates those who are considered 'successful' in their careers are the ones who pay attention to the small details and daily habits. A lot of time, these can only be observed from non-verbal communication and their behavior in person, in office.

 “The most successful people I know sweat the small stuff. If you don’t care about tiny details you’ll produce bad work because good work is the culmination of hundreds of tiny details.” - Steven Bartlett

While remote work continues to progress, when you're younger in your career, it may be wise to seek opportunities that allow you to listen in on many conversations and meetings in person, in office. Also, if you feel like you're already behind in your career or have a job you don't like, I'll never forget one of my professors who was also an executive at Google (for 20+ years) who told me he's seen countless times over the span of his career someone who is young, joins Google - receives the high salary, the meals, free haircuts, gym etc. to then leave thinking the grass is greener on the other side and quickly realizes how great they had it at Google or another similar company. Every job opportunity you take shapes you into the person you are in the future so if you have experience working or have worked in 'non-glamorous' jobs like I did (e.g. in the dish room, cleaning up neighbors yards etc.) you become that much more grateful and motivated for the next opportunity. Wherever you're at in your career, take a deep breath and if you'd like to increase your chances of landing your next dream job, we would encourage you to apply for our new accelerator below👇🏽