A bit of advice for Scott Nicholson

Well, today’s plan was to do a full bore post about Scott Nicholson, the jobless 2008 Colgate grad profiled in Wednesday’s Times.  The net of the article was that. Which he turned it down because it wasn’t on the corporate track he covets. Needless to say, this unleashed the furies.

While my intention was to do my derivative bit on Scott’s tale, what could I possibly add to this story that hasn’t been said in the 1487 comments pegged at The Article.  (There’d have been more, but they were shut off.)

I didn’t read all the comments, but comments from those who believe that Scott is a narcissistic, spoiled brat whiner seem to running about 50:1 against those who sympathize with the kid.

Then there are all the blogs that have picked up the Scott saga, including Bess Levin on Dealbreaker,  where the comments are running 100:1 (maybe 100:0) against – and where Scott’s no longer just a narcissistic, spoiled brat whiner, he’s also a DB and a tool. (Oh, and DB doesn’t stand for Dealbreaker, where the comments are briefer and more pointedly vicious than those in The Times.)

With so little to add to what the commentariat has covered – other than to say I would have been a teensie-weensie bit more sympathetic than most - I’ll just wish Scott the best of luck, in both finding a job and living down The Article . Which, naturally, will make finding a job much more difficult in this the Age of Google.

And give him a bit of advice:

At this point in time, a lot of it’s about the Damage Control.

Even if it’s a bit of a stretch, come up with a story about how you were blindsided by the reporter, taken out of context, regret the day that reporter darkened the door of your parents’ lovely home in Grafton, Mass., where you’ve been living scot-free.

Or concoct a story that acknowledges that you do come off as a narcissistic, spoiled brat whiner, but that’s not the real you. Or one about how naive you were, and how you really thought this was a way of differentiating yourself, getting the I-need-a-job word out, that you were so darned hungry that you forget everything you know (or should know) as a twenty-something about the power of online to completely and utterly haunt you.

Just make sure that, in telling your story, you don’t come off as the narcissistic, spoiled brat whiner that’s your current unmanageable Web brand – poster child for millennial cluelessness.

Make sure you rehearse your story. And make sure that you also have a line or two about why you turned the job down.

Your sense that starting out in a career hole can jeopardize earnings and opportunities moving forward is somewhat supported by ‘the facts’.  This is an okay point to make. Just make sure your can explain it clearly if you need to. (Personally, $40K for a liberal arts BA doesn’t sound terrible-terrible to me, but what do I know?)

Pay grade aside, the job you turned down did sound ghastly, by the way. Associate claims adjuster. Yuck!  But a lot of folks end up with ghastly jobs at some point in their life.

Coming from a well to do family, you may have been able to avoid the summer and part-time variety of ghastly jobs. That’s too bad, as even the most ghastly of jobs gives you an opportunity to learn something (if only about yourself). Plus they pay money that is your own, and not something that your parents tucked into your Coach wallet for you.

But it isn’t quite clear from the article exactly what it is that you want to do, other than get on the career track that will make you as financially successful as your father and grandfather have been. Nice home. Nice car. Nice life.

I read “corporate”, “management”, “big company,” “management.” But to do what?

The day of the generic, All-American, clean-cut, okay at everything/great at nothing, automatic success story, fast track to the future is going, going, gone.

You may have figured out where you want to be in 5 years, but if the where is office where you sit around in a suit making six figures, you need to come up with what, more or less, you’ll be doing in that office.  Playing with numbers? Dealing with customers? Exploring new markets?

Maybe you don’t really know quite yet, but you really do need to just light on something that sounds reasonably okay, and make a case (for yourself and the hiring manager) why you da man for it.

And, oh yeah, start doing something more than just moving out of your parents’ home and moving in with your comparatively wildly successful older brother in Boston, and taking any old job.

Now, don’t get me wrong. “Any old job” is an excellent Plan B at this point,.

Still, that plan to move in your comparatively wildly successful older brother in Boston…

The good news is that you’ll be out of the house; the bad news is that you’ll be around your comparatively wildly successful older brother and his no doubt comparatively wildly successful friends. Maybe you can turn some of these folks into nodes on your network. But every last one of them (and the hiring managers they know) will have read The Times article and a lot of the comments. Plus they’re going to be working in jobs that are likely more what you had in mind that what you end up actually doing.

Just do everything you can to avoid bitter-woe-is-me-everybody-knows-paranoid mode.

If you can, try to see the humor in the story. (I know, this will be really, really hard.)

While you’re rebuilding your reputation, taking any old job, etc., you’d do well to supplement any old job with something that will be personally enriching and absorbing in a way that any old job may not be.

Your were a political science major. It’s an election year! How about a campaign?

You seem like a Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass) kind of guy. But you apparently missed that doorbell-ringing, phone-banking, sign-holding, Scott-cheering boat. Or at least it’s not reflected in the story. (By the way, if you did do any volunteer work during the last two years, get that word out.)

Moving forward, you seem like a Charlie Baker (R running for Mass. governor)  kind of guy. Go volunteer on his gubernatorial campaign, why don’t you. (Please don’t take this as Pink Slip endorsement of Charlie Baker. Even though it is slightly – just slightly, and we’re talking infinitesimally slightly  – conceivable that I might vote for him.) If I haven’t gotten the Charlie Baker thing right, there are two other guys running: Deval Patrick - D and Tim Cahill-I.

Or just go do something, anything to get out of yourself. (Trust me, hanging around with your bro and his comparatively wildly successful posse will not be an unalloyed joy.)

Remember, Scott, you may never be able to quite plug the 2008-2010 hole in your resume, but you can do something about July 2010-on.

Also, check out these guys: Brand Yourself, a Syracuse-based company that helps repair web damage by making sure there’s things in the Google queue ahead of things that will embarrass you if the hiring manage seems them pop up first thing when the Google your name and see The Article.

Trust me. On the search engine of life, you want to put as much distance between you and The Article.

Good luck to you.

(Whew, now that this is done with, I can get back to the real blog post of interest: the one on the lady who makes Chicken Diapers. See you on Monday.)