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As You Go Off To College, Do Not Do This.

For anyone who is about to start college, do drugs, smoke cigarettes try beer but abstain from one thing no matter how much peer pressure you get, don’t read Ayn Rand. I just read in Raw Story about the dangers of Ayn Rand and I can tell you, that reading her books as an 18 year old made me a horrible person. Her beliefs take away the only thing around you, that is other people. All things can disappear but nothing is more important than your connection to the people around you and nothing helps your happiness than their happiness. Ayn Rand’s anti-communism to the extreme takes the thoughts of a teenager and helps them stay in a person through adult hood. Most people grow out of it, but not after they do some serious damage to their own psyche and those around them.

Her ideas led to Regan dismantling the mental care in US, Greenspan’s deregulation of finance industry leading to the Great Recession and Bush and Rumsfeld’s war in Middle East. That’s on the large level, on the low level I’d say the entire thought that we are not responsible for the poor and that somehow our spouses are to make us happy and if they do not we can cheat and divorce has ruined millions of families.

Ayn Rand may have been the worst thing to have come to United States.

Rand offered a narcotic for confused young people: complete certainty and a relief from their anxiety. Rand believed that an “objective reality” existed, and she knew exactly what that objective reality was. It included skyscrapers, industries, railroads, and ideas—at least her ideas. Rand’s objective reality did not include anxiety or sadness. Nor did it include much humor, at least the kind where one pokes fun at oneself. Rand assured her Collective that objective reality did not include Beethoven’s, Rembrandt’s, and Shakespeare’s realities—they were too gloomy and too tragic, basically buzzkillers. Rand preferred Mickey Spillane and, towards the end of her life, “Charlie’s Angels.”

So if there is one thing I can recommend to you before you head to college: do drugs, do drink, do sleep with people and experience life, with others, not by yourself, not with Ayn Rand.

If you don’t believe me, believe John Oliver.

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Our Book Page

            One of my favorite teachers in high school, Mr Stimson, had all of his students make a page in his Our Book. Instead of a small picture inside the yearbook that said nothing about you, we had one page where we could write anything we wanted. I wrote this page and it is interesting to see how little I changed. How ADD I was back then, a king of quotes and run on sentences (and still am). Cocky yet nerdy and with a lot of ambition and smugness and the same insecurities that I carry today. You may change a lot after 18, but not as much as you think. (This is page is unedited, just as it appeared in the “Our Book”)

                        This is a San Dieguito Story from a Rushin Point of View
I want to say that San Dieguito men are very fortunate. We have some of the most beautiful and intelligent girls of all schools in the world. Men of other countries would kill to be in our seats, and what do we do, we waste that chance. San Dieguito girls are not that picky, I mean look at what they have to pick from, at San Dieguito a guy is considered to be hot if he’s better looking than a gorilla. Guys take a chance, ask them out, what do you have to loose?
                       
         TV is a Waste of Time, Read a Book and Get Rid of Your Ignorance
            I did a lot during my senior year, sometimes I failed, but in the end I managed to do fairly well. However the main thing that I learned is that “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Its ok to try hard, its ok to fail, you are a failure if you do nothing. As long as you learn from failed attempts, and learn to succeed. As my short experience shows; being successful is not a one-time thing, it’s a habit. 
“In the Life of Garp we are all terminal cases.” (The World According to Garp, John Irving) That maybe so, and for some reason this belief causes everyone to either live in the fear of death, or constantly try to meet because after all “we all die sooner or later.” I believe that the secret to life is to know where you’re going and know how to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, there’s to many of us that would rather sit in front of the TV rather than bother to think about the direction, and these misguided people end up rolling around in circles, never really getting anywhere and disappearing as if they never existed.
In my opinion life should be safe, eventful and always fun, the hardest part is to do so without wasting it.
            In the words of Dale Carnegie, people want recognition; they want the feeling of being important and known for their deeds. When someone messes up on my name or gives the credit to someone else for my work, I become enraged. I am evolved in almost every aspect of school: from the nerdy NHS and Physics club to the famous jock sport that I helped create at this school, Wrestling. All because I want to be recognized, I want to have that feeling of achievement. However, making someone else feel important will raise you that much in their eyes and make them feel good about helping you because once a person has gained the feeling of self importance in someone else’s eyes, they don’t want to drop that feeling.
            “Always Smile” Carnegie said. In some cases a smile is worth a million dollars because people don’t like to deal with angry people. In high school everything is about grades. At the same time everything is about the parties. Next time you receive a bad review or bad grade, come up to the supervisor with a smile, it might make them want to listen to you rather than tell you to leave, honestly, this works. Not only did it work in changing a teacher’s opinion about my grade, but also it changed an admission councilor’s decision at a college, trust me it works.
           


Academic Decathlon Vice President         3rd  team all county                      
SDA Wrestling founder and 2x Captain     6th at CIFs
NHS, CSF, yadda, yadda, yadda.
This is all to make me feel better about myself, I think id did the trick,


I feel good. 5-21-2000            
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Chapter 18: Family

Even in high school, my family essentially left me alone. They paid the tuition without too much hassling even when I failed or took classes again. They helped out with cash when I was a little short and even didn’t ask for the money back when I pocketed a quarter’s worth of tuition when I took two quarters off school. They rarely visited me and just asked me to visit.

This maybe the way it goes for most people although rare occurences of disagreement can overshadow even the least difficult parent-child relationships.

It’s a hard balance, from one perspective, you are now free and mom and dad have a hard time facing that and at the same time you’re not, because maybe they are paying for your school and your living expenses. They have to let you go and make mistakes but at the same time, they don’t want to see you make mistakes that could cost you your life.

UCSD campus was built on cliffs. We would often go down these cliffs for some awesome surf. One kid, Gilbert, decided to climb the cliffs. They were soft sandstone and often crumbled and fell. He was from Nor Cal, not used to the soft spongy clay and as he climbed, a piece fell off and Gilbert fell to his death. Here’s a case of a kid out on his own, away from the parents, a sweet and smart kid and one stupid move and he’s dead… His parents will never see him, he will never get a diploma or travel the world..

This fear is why some parents would go crazy trying to protect their kids. One friend in college would find her mom at her dorm once a week, bringing her food but really checking up on her. It drove her crazy, but in someways, this checking up kept her on track and out of trouble.

It’s a fine line and that line is best kept through communication. You calling your parents and talking to them will make them a lot more relaxed about you and that will in turn give you peace and let you have the freedom to do your best. When you stop talking to them, they will probably wonder what’s going on, start calling and maybe visit you, and that will probably keep you out of trouble and on a good path to graduate and do well in life.

There are so many distractions in college, parents can become one of them or be a great tool to keep you on track, as well as a great source of funds if you are so lucky.

I would often go see my parents on the weekends when I moved out, the talks and questions were tough when I wasn’t doing well, they frankly pissed me off. But that in the end helped me do better because when I wasn’t accountable to myself, I was at least accountable to their annoying questions.

Be thankful for the love and if you don’t have it.. then find it in yourself to help your friends and create a family for yourself in college. There are lots of kids like you, without support, without help, so help each other out, watch out for each other and be a family.. Because you will soon find out, that in the end, we do nothing for ourselves and everything for people around us. 

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Chapter 6 Student Organizations

Student Organizations
  • Finding the right one
  • Professional
  • Social
  • Starting one
  • Benefits
   In addition to stamina, intelligence and physical prowess, one needs other skills in life which a lot of students develop while involved in the hundreds of student organizations which exist on college campuses. They allow one to develop their interests, social abilities, widen social networks and develop leadership abilities. Last one occurs because over years of involvement, you are sure to be more involved and take on more and more responsibilities and develop a much more meaningful experience with the organization. Many people come back to their organizations years later and keep in touch with those who they were involved with for many years.

Which One Should I Pick?
They way to find an organization is usually that first week when they are out advertising themselves. Find that which interests you and see the people who run them. If you like the people and you share common interests and passions, it will be a good experience and pay off well. It doesn’t matter if it is a sport, an environmental advocacy, church group (although honestly, those scare me) or a hiking club. The important part is that this will add to your major, your personal grown and it will be fun.

If it Doesn’t Exist, Start it.

But back to business of student orgs, I’ll explain them from my perspective and how I got into them. I was studying optics and in San Diego, there would be a conference every year where scientists and engineers doing optics from around the world belonging to that particular society would come together and present their work. Once I realized that my school did not have this society, I realized it could use it since there was so much research and talent in that sphere. Once I began the organization, I learned what it is to recruit people, what it is to fund-raise and what it is to work with other organizations. It wasn’t easy. I first got a feeling for who wanted the club, so I introduced my idea in an optics class and passed around a sign up sheet and seeing 15 names on it I decided to go on with it and have a meeting. Two people showed up to the meeting but they motivated me to continue. I felt that I could accomplish a lot with this club and add value to lives of students. This pushed me to work to get funding, get advisers, speakers and worked with other clubs to create joint events. When you are doing something good that benefits others like students, department and major, people get on board and help. This was an amazing experience and it actually led me to finding work once I finished college. This was one of those things that made me realize that everything you do in life will either open or close doors.

When starting or joining organizations, the number one reason for doing is because you enjoy the people you are with. The reason one does anything is because of the people and you learn to value that when you are in a student organization and it is a lesson that was an invaluable part of my education.

Dangers:

    There are many organizations and many people find themselves involved in more than one. In fact, you can find yourself interested in so many organizations as to over involve yourself and end up watching your academics and quality of life take a dive. So make sure to keep a balance. Just like videogames, tv, partying and books, a little at the right time is a good thing but too much will knock off the balance of the life and there will be consequences to pay.

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Chapter 13: Time Off

True sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

  1. Why do it
  2. What it accomplishes.
  3. Fake time off through study abroad.
    It was the end of the first half of sophomore year of college when I got my progress report: C, C-, C-. I was taking all upper division Physics classes and things were not going well. The classes were interesting and fun and I was doing horribly because I had no idea what I was doing there. I was unmotivated to continue. What was I doing? Why was I doing this? I was studying haphazardly, barely opening the books and barely trying at the homework. College was all of a sudden hard and I couldn’t answer the question of why I should put in the effort and something just clicked: I should do what my friend was doing.

      Nancy was going through a difficult time and took time off. During her time off and just like many famous people the likes of which include Steve Jobs, she took a couple classes at a community college and traveled to India. I stole her idea and didn’t enroll for the next quarter, I didn’t even go back to my job at the lab, I just took time off. I wanted to have nothing connected with my old life.

     Did I travel? No.. I wish… Instead, I took Chinese and weight training at a community college and I found a job at a MotoPhoto where I helped develop film.  I was quickly fired from that job for being late four out of five days my first week (my lax schedule at the engineering lab made me forget what it’s like to have a schedule) and after much job searching, I found a job at an Italian deli and later a second job as a parking lot attendant.

    The deli was bad. Because I was the only one who spoke fluent English, I answered phones and chopped lettuce for the sandwich line. Just like in the movie “Coming To America,” I was promoted to making sandwiches and breakfasts. I liked the people but I hated answering to a terrible boss for  minimum wage. By the time I got through my third week working 80 hours a week doing mind numbing work, I knew I needed to go back to school.

    That is what time off is about, it’s about figuring out what you want out of life so that if you know what you want to learn, you give it your all. In all honesty, after coming back, there were some classes where I did better and some in which I did worse and some I had to repeat multiple times. The important part was that I was willing to do it because I had a goal which I did not have before taking time off.

    I’m telling you this because I feel that you need to remember that there is another option during times of spinning wheels. Don’t pick a major unless you’re sure that it is what you want to do because as long as you have doubts, you will not apply yourself and you may come to regret it later. Of course some people will doubt themselves no matter what. That is natural but for those people for whom it is a constant thought, it is important to recognize that those doubts have to do with liking what you’re doing and future prospects. If you are not sure you will be successful, you need to remind yourself that the field you are in does not define your success, only your willingness to work does. However, if you’re not ready for school, if you’re not ready to work hard everyday to learn what you need to to be successful in your field, you should not be there and if nothing seems to help, you might need time off to figure things out.
   Maybe my reason for going to college was not the best. I didn’t want to be the best engineer, I just didn’t want to make minimum wage for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to become like some of my co-workers who worked hard without a prospect of a future. It was too hard working so many hours a week and not being able to save money. This was while I was single and with roommates, I thought about prospect of family and outlook became even more dim. By going back to school, I was able to get a much better job and have much more choice today. Because of my time off, I came back to school re-focused, re-freshed and  I was no longer taking my education and job as a student for granted.

Gap Year

    By 2006/2007, some colleges began to offer time off before first year of college as some do in Europe and Australia where they call it “gap year.” Some kids, who have the means, take it to travel the world while others work to save up or volunteer. If you’re intelligent enough, you can probably do the same thing and get someone to pay for it. The Blue brothers (not from the movie) who came to own General Atomics,  as students of Yale University in the sixties, paid for their flight across central and south America by writing articles for travel magazines. Additionally scholarships and fellowships exist to pay for travel and adventures.

     Another choice is to volunteer in places like Guatemala, I met lots of people while traveling through central America however it does often cost money to do that. I met two girls: Julia and Jane from Seattle in Nicaragua who were biking with two guys from San Francisco on the Island of Ometeppe in the middle of lake Nicaragua. They were there for two weeks to travel and then were to spend two more working in the fields of Nicaragua. I met a girl who quit her fashion career in Sao Paulo to work the fields on a kibbutz in the desert of Israel. And a good friend of mine Michael left his job for sever months to help build a school in Africa. School is work and sometimes you need to re-orient yourself, quit and see if your compass is in the right direction. Most of the time people come back to the same thing. Partially, because what they are looking for can’t be found somewhere else.

Study Abroad

    One other opportunity, which I call fake time off, is Study-Abroad. You continue to take classes, you get to experience another country and another culture, you get to travel and you don’t loose time. Most people who do it do not have an epiphany, do not change course and generally have the money to afford it (or at least exploit the love and well wishing of their parents) to finance their trip. My best friend went to Costa Rica (where he lost his virginity) another classmate of mine went to Australia, and another to Italy. What most people will say is that it is the time of their life. While coaching wrestling I met many foreign exchange students and I hosted some of them and some hosted me when I went to their countries. What I noticed among them all is that they were all strong individuals who had the ability to be far from family, be independent and open themselves up to new experiences. If you are not that type of person, then I recommend even more that you do it.
People who come back from study abroad, lack that timidness and fear of traveling to far away places. They are not afraid of language barriers, customs and just facing the world. They are worldly and more mature people. So grow some new neurons and experience life! What else will you do with your life? Play video games? On the other hand, those who wanted to study abroad but never died recall it as their biggest regret of undergraduate education.

Word of Caution

A Gap year can be great but too many people I met while traveling did not use traveling to expand their mind but to escape the banality of everyday life. If there is not purpose behind your life, you are not likely to rediscover it somewhere else. Party at home, relax abroad but always push yourself out of your comfort zone to grow as a person, it’s what makes life awesome.
What you you might be surprised to learn from your time abroad, is that what you had was good and you don’t miss the good until you experience the bad. Don’t worry, I’m not spoiling a surprise, it’s a great feeling to find out something you already knew before.

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Chapter 12 Picking Your Major



Being famous isn’t prety,
That doesn’t elevate us up,
No need to start an archive,
To shake over your writings.
Aim of creating is to give one-self,
Not ruckus, not success,
The shame of being worthless
While praised by everyone as best.
— Boris Pasternak, My Sister – Life




  • How to pick one.
  • Double major or minor.
  • What to do if you feel you need to switch.


    • My phone rang at nine am on a Tuesday morning, rousing me from my sleep. It was my friend and business partner’s  distressed mother asking me if I could speak to her younger son. He was starting his second year of college and had no idea what he wanted to do. He called me a week later and explained that he is considering physics but wasn’t sure if he would make money at it. To me that signaled like a path of mediocrity. I asked him: what is it that you want to do? He really didn’t know, he just knew he wanted to work with other people. I gave him some suggestions of how a technical degree could come in handy and how he could do something with other people with that degree. But essentially I said “find something that you love and pursue that, you will make far more money doing something you love than doing something you tolerate.”


    How to pick one.
    There are few who know who they are and what they want to be as they enter college. They are lucky but they also don’t necessarily stick to that. Remember that many artists, become writers, that many singers, become actors, lawyers, become sky diving instructors and engineers become motorcycle teachers. Without a lifetime goal, we become bored and move on to another calling. If you grew up with many interests, it may be difficult to decide on what you want as you enter college. But as I told Aaron, follow your passion and then find a way to make money at it.


    When I entered college I had no idea what I wanted to be. I figured that an engineering major would give me options, that if I wanted to switch to something else, it would give me the necessary pre-requisites. However, what I didn’t realize, is that once you start on a path, it can be very difficult to quit. The more time and effort you put into something, and especially as people believe or doubt your abilities to follow through, it may no longer be about your passion for that field, but a matter of pride. This has to be identified early on because regretting and resenting a decision ten years into a career is no way to live.



    When one major isn’t enough.

    Once you have your passion, look around for professions and requirements for those. They should direct you towards the best major. Sometimes, for some people, the major may not be a good fit because you may feel that your skills are more than adequate without further education. This is very rare, it is probably not you and you probably know it. For those individuals a complementary major maybe good. For others a double major can be a good idea, provided that it doesn’t leave you too much in debt. 
    That’s when it is good to look at just taking a minor instead. It’s faster and you can get two or three for the same time and fee as a major.
    For instance business is a great major to add to engineering, so is physics. For doctors, maybe a second language. For photographers, art or writing. A more broad engineering is going to open your horizons, push you academically and make you better at whatever you do.



    How to know if you should stick to it or not.

    Sticking with your major can be hard, and that may be a sign that it isn’t not for you. If what you think you will do in the end, if your most creative classes do not give you the satisfaction and pride in work. Then yes, I advise that you leave. If what motivates you are the good grades and praise from instructors and not the art project or lab or skills you aquire, move on. However, if you are not doing well grade wise, but you love to do what you do, and you spend many hours just to receive a bad grade for what you feel is good and pleasant work, especially in art classes, do not quit, keep going. You have found a passion that you should not give up on because even if you think you’re no good, you should continue. After all, at one point, we were all bad shoe-tiers, didn’t mean we should have quit.
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    Chapter 15. Graduate School

    “If you want to make money, you don’t need a PHD. If you want women, you don’t need a PHD. If you want freedom, then a PHD will help.”-Slava Rokitski

      1. Why apply.
      2. Studying for tests
      3. Personal Statement
      4. Experience
      5. Contacting professors
      6. When to apply
      7. What if grades are low
      8. Masters or Phd


    Those were the words of Slava Rokitski, one of my mentors during my undergraduate days. He has a soft spoken, calm and quiet demeanor. He is one of those who sits, observes and makes a decision carefully.  He gets his work done without a fuss. Why does a PHD get you freedom? “It makes you think clearly and forces you to question everything.” 

     When you question everything, you do research and when you do research you surpass ignorance when you are not ignorant you know reality and when you know reality you can make better decisions and when you make good decisions you are in control and when you are in control, you are free. Everyone I spoke with, did not regret getting a PHD. Not everyone can get a PHD but like my other mentor, Professor Shaya Fainman said when I asked him if it’s possible do a PHD later in life: “Anything is possible, if you have focus.”
    Taking Tests
    Many of my friends took entrance tests, most of them took them more than once. I took mine more than once. Most of us did the same thing, we didn’t study because we thought we were geniuses. But we did poorly and for the second time we studied our hineys off. At the time, I was unemployed and spending 3-6 hours a day studying for my GRE’s. I’d do a practice test in the morning, study during the day then take another one or two during the day and or at night.

    This paid off and after I took the test I began to take grad classes through my employer. I was lucky, they were flexible allowing me to drive to college at lunch or during the day, paying for several classes. This wasn’t easy and I wished I had taken advice of other PhD students, mainly to go straight from undergrad to grad school.

    When To Apply
    When you’re out and working, you get used to having money, having your own schedule and working a lot less than when you were in college. You don’t have finals, you have free weekends and you can take off on vacation any time instead of during designated times.

    Going straight from college to grad school means that you’re used to living poor and working hard. You are surrounded by people like you and that helps a lot. When you’re older you feel out of place and people your age will be a lot less understanding of you going through school.

    If you’re tired of school, just think how you’ll regret not pushing yourself an extra year or two when you’re working and feeling like you could have had another degree. Just a year or two more and your checks will be bigger and a lot more opportunities open. Just look at job openings, vast majority ask for Master’s candidates. So suck it up and do it!

    Personal Statement
    A grad school personal statement is not at all like the personal statement for undergrad. The Graduate school could care less about how unique you are or how hard your life was. What they care is that you can work hard, you have passion and you know what you want. They want that because that is the kind of people who thrive in grad school because that is the type of people who have focus.

    For this reason, look up some successful statements and model yours after theirs. This is how they will look:
    I first began to like subject A when.
    I worked on subject A in undergrad with Professor B.
    My grades in this area were C.
    I have done work on the subject, I read the papers on the subject and I intend to work on C in subject A at this school because A, B, C

    That’s it.


    Contacting Professors
    Do it early. In fact do it right after taking a class where you did well where they will remember you. 
    Give the professor a pre-written letter for them to edit and sign. This will ensure that they get to it in their busy schedule and maybe embellish it because you have shown you care for their time. Even if you worked for the pro-fessor pre-write the letter because they don’t remember what you did because they barely remember what they did.

    This is how the letter will look.

    A worked in my lab from A to B and was in my class for D. She was a hard-working student having completed all assignments on time and showed ability to perform in class by earning an A and in lab by quickly picking up the skills and performing them on time and with great quality. She is motivated by C and clearly sees a future for herself in this area of research.
    I recommend this person for your program as I believe they will be able to perform and excel given their talents, skills and passion for C.

    That’s it, be honest about your work and let the professor embellish it if need be. Just don’t put anything that you wouldn’t put for others because then you may never hear from the professor because they are too “busy”, missing the deadline and opportunity for grad school.
    Grades/Test results too low.
    Never take a no for an answer. If you can work hard and have focus, apply to all schools and if you do not get into a school you really want to go to, appeal. My friend Ash had a 2.5 GPA and was able to convince the Dean to let him into the PhD program. He wasn’t regular, he had a patent and a start-up under his belt but neither are you, that’s why you’re reading this to learn before doing. So make sure that you are aiming for the fruit you are qualified for. Otherwise, there are plenty of less competitive programs where you might be a good fit. 
    However, hopefully you are reading this before you let your grades fall too low so that you have to resort to appeals and begging. Best is study hard and work for things and don’t slack or you will come to regret the time wasted and the poor grades as each C is a potentially closed door in the future, there are no do overs in life. I’m not lecturing, I’m just telling you how it will go.
    Masters or PhD
    A Masters degree is great for getting a extra pay when you get out of school and having a little extra qualification for jobs. It prepares you for more than just a bachelors but it is expensive. What many don’t know however, is that you can do is get a Masters via PhD. In United States there is a shortage of PhDs, so it is easier to get accepted into a PhD program which is usually free to the student and after you pass your prelim test which is about two years into the program, you get an automatic Masters. At which point you can decide to go on or to stay.

    Reasons to not go on to PhD:
    You don’t want to go into academia and teach.
    You don’t want to do a post-Doc, period of 2-10 years after PhD where you do the same work as people do in the industry but for a third of the money but with hopes of finding a position at a University to teach.
    Last reason that I know of, you can’t spend another second in the PhD. program.
    Pitfalls

    I have met PhD students whose funding was cut off after four years and could not get their PhD. I’ve met students who were going through the program for ten plus years and I have met students who got on the bad side of a tenured professor who would fail them and get them nearly expelled. One must navigate and tread the waters of University politics carefully.
    You must never burn a bridge, no matter how shaky and keep focus at all times.
    You will work like a slave for virtually no money but in the end you will be smarter, better and richer. So focus on your passion, don’t let others dissuade you and dig in. Others have done it and so can you.

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    Chapter 14 Getting First Job

    “If you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” -Ruth Ginsburg (first female CEO in USA)
      1. When to start looking for one
      2. Where to look for one
      3. What kind of company to work for
        1. Small
        2. Big
        3. Medium
        4. startup
      4. How to look for one
        1. Friends
        2. Family
        3. Websites
        4. recruiters
      5. Cover Letter
      6. What should your resume have
      7. What should it look like
      8. How to act at an interview
        1. Questions to be ready for.
        2. Questions to ask
      9. Follow up email
      10. Negotiating pay
    1. First Job
      1. What to expect
      2. How to work
      3. What to demand
      4. What is demanded
      5. How to quit
      6. How to act
      7. Keeping activities outside of job



    At some point you’re going to graduate and all those years of high school, college and advice from this will book will culminate in your first job. Remember a job? That thing your parents said you were going to need one day when you’re all grown up and have to start paying all those bills? Well, that feeling of adult is here (or will be here). I know you don’t feel it (it’s been ten years for me and I still don’t feel it) but now you gotta go and get that job and make a living.


    A lot of new grads graduate and have no idea what job they want, what to apply for or where to look for it. Many get waiter jobs and have horrible resumes which they send out into a void without hope. However, if you do it right, you should have to send only a handful of resumes to well picked companies where you hopefully have done some probing and found names of hiring managers. Out of those submissions, you should have gotten several interviews and had your first offer within a few weeks of starting your search.
    My first job after college was not easy to get. Most people think that you go to college, have fun, graduate, a bunch of people want you and they pay you lots of money and then you’re rich! And that’s exactly how it does not go. Sorry to tell you, but even if you are Ivy league grad, you will need to have work experience on the resume to compete, and I’m not talking about Jamba Juice. I’m talking some real life work experience.
     If you want an easy time finding a job with good pay, you will have to put in some work at a summer job or side job while you’re studying. And if you’re working while you’re in school, then you may as well make it in the field you plan to work in.
           My first job in school was my first job after finishing high school. I heard about internships, I submitted my resume and got two interviews. One for a pharmaceutical company creating artificial blood and lungs and the other at McDonalds. I gave McDonalds a try, but when they said that they want me to organize files, I said good bye and began doing odd jobs for the pharmaceutical company the rest of the summer. A job like that can give you valuable skills that you can use at the next job. I was testing batches of artificial lung in ovens, fixing industrial printers and doing web-design.
    At the end of that job, I didn’t hate engineering and stuck to my major, which is what you want at the end of internship. Not to stick to your first choice necessarily, but just awareness of it is what you want or not. At the very least, you now have a credible, professional resume and people who could vouch for me.


    Getting the job
    You’re going to have to find it first and there are two avenues: one is economic times are great so you go to where you want to work (search well) apply, apply, apply over and over until they have a position for you and hire you. The other is economic times are bad and you will have to network your little hiney off. I actually found my job in the midst of “The Great Recession” while I was volunteer coaching at a high school. My middle school wrestling coach was looking to hire an engineer and so there I was, hired by someone I knew. So try to remain calm and keep your eye out, employers hate seeing a pushy, stressed and desperate applicant. Just imagine that it is just like dating.

     

    So you network, or apply and you have a bunch of jobs under your belt, you are ready to send a resume.  Having experience means nothing if you can’t get it across to someone who is looking at you on a piece of paper; you have to be able to present your work and experience in a way that other people reading your resume will be able to grasp what you are trying to communicate. As an engineer, I had no idea how to do that. But I didn’t know that I didn’t know that.


    I remember I went to see a talk by Jim Branson at UCSD. Jim Branson was the owner and founder of SpaceDev (now part of Sierra Nevada Corp). This was the company that put SpaceShip 1 in orbit. I knew I wanted to get a job there and I sent them resume after resume. After a week or so of no response,  I would tweak the resume again and send it again. When I still got no  response back,  I went to my parents for help, they shredded it and I remade the resume. I sent it in again and no response. I went to the career center on campus and they shredded it again and I fixed it and again I sent it to SpaceDev.  After eight or nine months, my resume represented my experience and me in such a way that another person could pick it up and say yes, I want to see this person for an interview. I got the interview and got the job.
     
    My point is that you may think you have something that’s great, but until you ask others for help and review, you don’t know. So keep fixing and keep sending. 

     The thing about sending in your resume again and again is that it shows that you really want to work there. People don’t build companies to just make money, they build them because they believe in something and they want people working with them to believe in what they believe. Because people like that will work tirelessly to create what they want to create.
    This is why you have to apply to a company where you really want to work and to a company that you really believe in. Because you cannot fake enthusiasm, you cannot fake knowledge. Learn about them, know them, ask lots and lots of question and never be afraid. Fear will loose you the interview, fearlessness will just keep you from getting the wrong job. As Steve Jobs said “Keep looking, never settle” if you find your passion you will have the motivation to keep going and never stop.

    Resume Basics:
    When it comes to resumes there’s less of a what to do and more of a what not to do and you would be surprised about how much one ought not to do but is done by new grads and even old experienced people everyday.

    As far as the dos, you want a clean, basic, honest and succinct resume. As far as the don’ts, I’ll just list some that I saw glaring at me when I had friends send me theirs for review.

    • No more than a page. If you’re so accomplished that you have more than a page, then they know of you already and you don’t need a resume.
    • No @college emails. Unless it’s MIT, no one cares.
    • Irrelevant experiences that you think “show” what a great applied experience you may have, employer sees it as padding at best and throws it straight into trash at worst.
    • Objective that uses the word “learning”, your new bosses don’t want to teach you, they want someone who knows who they are and knows what they will do.
    • Overly wordy cover letters, experience or skills. Drill it down to the bare essentials. This will take a lot of work, but you’re trying to get someone to give you money; it’s worth it.
    • Being vague, know what you want.
    • Sending it out to someone who maybe concerned. It’s the Internet age, if you can’t find someone at the company to send it to then you’re not doing enough homework.
    • Read it ten times and only then have someone else read it. You want mistakes caught like the wrong name used and those kinds of mistakes are caught only if you’ve done your part of work to get rid of the big mistakes.


    There were some sticky points for me when I was looking for jobs: I didn’t want to work for a defense contractor. Defense is great, we all need it, but I didn’t want to build something that I knew contributed to killing people. So when I took a well paying job at a defense contractor where the CEO promised he wouldn’t give me that kind of work, I was naive enough to believe him, I sold out. He gave me a project creating rifle scopes and I couldn’t not work on it in good conscience. I did not believe in the project I was assigned to and I ended up loosing that job. If you cannot believe in what you’re doing, you will not do your best and you will not satisfy yourself or your boss. This is why you have to be true to yourself.


    When you are true to yourself you also have confidence when you walk into the interview. You know why you are there, you know what you can do and that fearlessness and asuredness will carry you through the questions you know and don’t know. It almost doesn’t matter what you answer as much as how you answer. This is not to say, if you’re an idiot and don’t know your shit you will get away with it, a good engineer will spot BS and throw you out before you have time to even recognize what went wrong.


    After the interview, send an email to the people who interviewed you. If you did well they will give you their cards, if you didn’t then they won’t and you probably applied for the wrong job. Do not send a pretty letter to HR, do not spray perfume on it, do not email HR. They don’t care, they will not pass it on, they will send it straight to trash.


    Where to work:

    I have worked nearly everywhere. Big companies, small companies medium companies and even start-ups.
    Start-ups
    Let me get to start-up first because that’s what EVERY one wants to know about. Start-ups take a lot of money and a lot of work and are like winning a lottery, you hear about the winner but most of the players are losers. They are usually run by people who don’t know business, creating a product that may or may not work for customers who may or may not exist. It’s fun, it’s great, but I would recommend it only for the very young (nothing to loose) or the very old (nothing to loose).
    Most important thing about a start-up is the people, do you believe that the people can execute; are they talkers or doers? If the people creating the product are those who can set out to get something done and can get it done, then you are likely to succeed. But if your team is a bunch of people who couldn’t get anything done somewhere else and this is their another attempt at doing something after a failure, then you may very well waste your time, make no money, and and be jaded by the experience. So my advice after the several start-ups I’ve seen, be careful before jumping in and if you have any reservations about the people, don’t. You may regret it, but most likely you will not.



    Big Corporations

    Big companies are great because there are lots of people to do the jobs you don’t want to do. You learn little about the product and most of learning is about the bureaucracy of the company. If you learn it well enough, you will see a bright and promising career and you can see yourself rising through the ranks. Should you engage in prideful fighting over details hoping to show others how smart you are, you are very likely to be laid off. You don’t have to do a great job at a big company, just look busy and don’t make other people’s job any worse than it is. They are probably just as bored and uninspired as you are. The giant machine with a tiny clog can wipe the spirit out of even the most spirited little clog.


    Some companies however are great at keeping the spirit alive. I saw once how Intel encouraged it’s workers through bonuses, team meetings and posters to remind of goals. This was great, but most people who just followed their job description, kept quiet about their lack of motivation and dissatisfaction about their bosses, did best.



    Medium Companies

    Medium companies offer that middle ground of support and expectation of hard constant work. I would say it is my favorite but it does depends on the job and the company. It also offers enough room to move around and ability to compensate the workers.


    Small Companies

    Small companies on the other hand can be volatile, are full of politics, always short on resources and have a lot of challenges. The place where I had to build a rifle scope was that way and it was really great. Except for I had no choice as far as what projects to do and when your heart isn’t into your work, you will have a tough time biting the bullet and putting in an eight to ten hour work day.
    But it is usually a tight knit team where everyone helps out and you will more than once go out with the CEO for beers.


    Salary

    To figure out how much you should be paid, just be honest with yourself and know your worth. Check how much other people earn. For instance even though Internet was pervasive and I could check how much others are paid with my education, I didn’t know exactly unless I asked my co-workers when I was interning. From them I found out how much someone with my qualifications can ask and so when the interview and negotiations came up, I had no issues discussing pay and generally was offered the amount that made me happy. When you’re earning your worth, you do not work with fear that you’re being paid too much or that someone is using you and that you could earn more somewhere else. That peace of mind is important and so you should not compromise that if you don’t have to. Being firm but polite will always be appreciative so long as you can back up that which you ask.



    At work, Under-promise, Over deliver.
    Some people think that they have to constantly work, they burn out. Some people have no idea how to work, they are thrown out. And then there are those who take their vacations, work eight hours a day, don’t brown nose and just get their shit done.


    That’s my MO. I remember when I was at Luxtera and I was hourly. I traveled every two months. I would work my hiney off and then take off for a week or two to some far off place. The important part was always to be dependable. Get your work done, keep your bosses and co-workers happy, don’t leave for so long that they have to replace you and then all the rest is up to you. One thing is estimating how much something will take you to do it. Usually whatever it takes, multiply by two. Especially if you are new because you will have some snags, you may have to pick up someones slack and no matter what you want to finish early or on time so that your boss is not angry. If you finish early, I recommend keeping it to yourself, then when you come back from that vacation, you can hand him your work and he is happy rather than slamming 15 more hours on you and making that vacation just another day dream.


    Quiting

    If you have to quit, you probably knew it a while before. Be a sport, ask for that raise or change in assignment first and don’t be so scared of rejection. If you have to be scared of your boss, you may need a new boss anyway and if you ask for those things, they may give it to you saving you the trouble of searching for a new job. If they do not give what you feel you need and you really want to jump ship, make sure to get something lined up before getting out. At least throw the line and see what comes up. Then when you get something else, give the boss a couple weeks notice and always go for an exit lunch and ask what you could have done better. Your boss will most likely give you a great set of pointers that will prove themselves invaluable.


    Jumping ship makes sense for two reasons, the company is falling apart and you are no longer learning. Don’t waste your life stagnating, as soon as you’re done learning you should be looking for the next venture. However if the company is crumbling you better get out before too late or you will be getting unemployment and that is a terrible thing to get if you have a mortgage and kids, better go early. How do you know you ask? You see smart people leaving. Smart people don’t leave good places.


    Co-workers
    Don’t burn bridges, you will meet those assholes again and be good to the good people, they will push you ahead and you can often pull them to wherever you are working. Aside from that, enjoy these people, they probably have the same passion as you and you are working on the same goal. So invite them to bar-b-ques, go out to happy hour because workers that have fun together, accomplish great things together. After all, if you’re reading this book, you’re not just going to have a job, you’re going to have a passion.



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    Chapter 11 Paying for College

    Chapter 11 Paying for College


    “College, the most expensive four years of your life.”


    Christine is a smart go-getter. Her parents came from Vietnam  during the war. Her mother survived the war as a flower girl and when she arrived in the states she had no education and put Christine and two other daughters through high school in Baltimore. Christine was the oldest and the pride of the family having graduated at the top of the class and earned a spot at the prestigious University of Southern California. Christine moved to the other coast and trained to become a famous architect. She took a a year to study abroad in Italy to study how the masters built their masterpieces. She was a favorite of many of her professors and was offered jobs right out of college. She traveled the world and worked in South Korea for one of the top Architecture firms. She traveled alone through middle east on a fellowship to study middle eastern native architecture and design. She came back to jobs waiting for her in a depressed market and within a year brought her fiance from Tunisia to live with her. At the age of 27 she was earning good money at a good firm doing what she loves. She had many opportunities thanks to her studies and was living together with her fiance in a studio barely big enough for a bed, a desk and no kitchen. She has no car and sends most of her money that she makes to a bank. She has a wonderful life on one hand but her future is far from comfortable at the moment. At the age where she should be able to put money away for a wedding, for a house she is barely making ends meet because she has over $200,000 in loans which she did not realize she would have or how she would pay back. She told me that she does not regret her decision to go to an expensive school given the opportunities she now has but the debt obviously weighs her down considerably.

     In 2011, colleges are financed through a form of predatory lending that is similar to the lending in the housing market, except it is worse. Unlike your college loan, with a house in foreclosure, you can walk away from your debt. The college loan creditors will pursue you across space and time: garnishing wages and collecting to the end. You can escape kids and spouses, but you cannot get away from college debt. 

    Unlike with a house or credit cards, the bank do not asks how much you make, how much the education will cost and do not look at your major and how much you will make before saddling you with debt. The bank does not look at how much you have, how well you studied, if the college is credible or even if you will ever make money to repay. Tuition is the same cost regardless of the cost of that education. It is the same no matter how much professors in your department earn or how much your labs cost or what your prospects for making money and paying back that loan with your chosen major. They also don’t seem to wonder that it may be predatory to ask 18 year old that has never paid bills before to take on the responsibility over hundred’s of thousands of dollars and make decisions without considering for a second if those kids know what they are doing. It is also a shame that many parents allow their kids to sign the contracts that saddle them with obligations for life without advising them better. In the end, for those without generous parents, the only way to choose less debt is to choose a less expensive school or to work and not have loans.


    So now that you know that signing up for a loan is a big deal and that no one cares if you will be on a hook with a giant mortgage payment for the rest of your life, I will tell you how to make that decision of taking a loan or not through a couple stories.



    Unlike Christine, I decided to go to a reputable but cheaper University. My parents were able to pay the tuition (which they still to this day remind me of), I worked for  most of my living expenses  even though my parents were still able to help me considerably. I graduated late but I had no debt. I was able to travel the world, buy a car, buy a house within a few years of my graduation. Having no debt and a job which paid well meant a fairly relaxed life style.


    Another friend Arthur who went to the same school as Christine also traveled the world but being an orphan and disabled, was unable to find a job and so had to try and escape his impossible debt or as I call it, 21st century indentured servitude. Many people who put themselves into poor financial situation, are unable to recover mentally. They begin to rack up credit card debt, buy houses they cannot afford. The freedom and cheap money corrupts people and the financial institutions then charge exorbitant fees knowing fully well what will happen, relying on the fact that these poor and naïve kids will make uninformed decisions at a time when they are not ready and thus profit from the misfortune of others. If banks were charlatans fooling people out of nickles and pennies in the streets, they would be in jail, but stealing millions puts them in expensive board rooms.


    If this book is still relevant, and our government failed you, then I suggest, look at your finances, how much can you afford, how much will you earn in the end, what will be your debt, do you want to owe someone money for the rest of your life?


    Think about these decisions hard and make the hard choice of going to a cheaper school, or going to a community college or saving up some money before entering college. Whatever you do, remember that no one will save you or warn you except this book and that if you follow your desire without thought of how that desire will impact your life, you may come to regret your decision for the rest of your life.


    So what are the other options besides debt and work?
    Well, my best friend paid barely anything, he lived at home, went to community college, went to a less expensive public University and finally attended Law School on a scholarship.
    In a sense, you should always try to go where your skills and abilities permit you to go. The choice to go to an expensive school is yours and you can spend a few days per scholarship application, work and study. The odds for those who are not mega rich are tough. Many do not graduate due to the stress of earning money and going to school and life. However with the goal of a better life in your sight, and the belief that many people before you managed to do this and so will you, will help you overcome, graduate in a good financial position with the freedom to pick and choose the next step in your life.