Benefits of Leadership Development Program

I got asked about my experience in my current job for some book. If you don’t already know, I’m wrapping up my two years in Intuit’s Rotational Development Program. Somehow, in the past year, they decided to change the word “rotational” to “leadership”. We’re far from being the kind of leader that has a gabillion people working for us. This picture is NOT what we’re learning to become. This goofy picture I found on one of Wharton’s websites and EVERY post needs a picture.
1) What are the benefits of a leadership development program?

The main benefit to me has been accelerated learning:

• About myself (my strengths and weaknesses, passion, brand, direction in life)
• Around how to do jobs & ask good questions in core business functions at Intuit
• Around the basics of collaborative leadership

… all through exposure to very different jobs that require different ways of thinking (programming, marketing, product management, and strategy) and coaching from leaders & peers.

2) Has the program been meeting your expectations?

My expectations have been exceeded in the area of learning and development. For example, I never imagined that so many leaders at the company would share stories about their life journey with me (~40+ so far)… which I think have been the most rewarding insights.

3) Why did you choose a leadership program?

I enjoy taking “point person” roles inside and outside of work and value the impact you can have as the driver. Some of my personal goals seem to only be achieveable by leading teams, so I wanted to be able to make this a key learning area.

Of course there are downsides to a leadership development program (most of which I don’t mind):

• Not being an expert on something early on … focusing on breadth
• Lots of change – Changing jobs frequently, steep learning curve every time
• Having the pressure of high expectations from others

 

My Approach as a College Recruiter

Once again, recruiting at Berkeley was fun … I think this is my 4th season doing it. And only now do I feel like I’m doing it well. But I haven’t gotten much feedback on my trial & error approach, so here it is. And comments, of course, appreciated.

Overall, my mind is working towards … “how do I help this person?” Maybe help him/her figure out the best next step for their career, educate them on what we offer, etc. While balancing … “how can I be effective with my time with this candidate and help Intuit acquire strong candidates?”

General Tips:

• Make the candidate feel comfortable. Be friendly, smile …
• Get to know the candidate first & be good listeners.
• Seek to understand before you sell.
• When in doubt, share your experience or stories. Lessens the amount of canned answers … makes it more real.
• Be mindful of how well you’re managing your time(mentioned above). Ideally, spending the most time with the candidates best-fit for Intuit or kids you feel like need the most help
• Know what a best-fit candidate looks like. Get in touch with HR or the hiring manager for this.
• Know the competition. At a high level, you should be able to give a compare & contrast of Intuit jobs and jobs at other companies.

I think my flow looks like this:

1. Be proactive
   • If people look like their idling around and I’m not helping someone already, I’ll proactively talk to a candidate leading with something like, Hi, can I help you find something? What’s your major?
2. Introduce myself or others
   • Was this through a transition or a pass-along? If so, I’ll try to understand what’s been “covered” with the previous discussion. If not, I just ask the open-ended question … what can I help you with?
3. Listen briefly …
   • Can you get a sense for who should this person be talking to? If so, warm transfer.
4. Assess them quickly — “Great, before I help you with that, I need to get to know you a little bit”
   • Major. Graduation date. (so important, otherwise you might realize later that you were just blabbering to a freshmen for 5 minutes)
   • So do you know what you want to do after college? Are you considering other options? This is to check how hard-wired they are to their “plan”. So it helps weed out people who are EE folks who know they want to do EE and just EE.
   • What other jobs are you looking into. Clues you into how to sell Intuit if it comes to it.
5. Ask them where they want to take the conversation — Hurray, at this point, Intuit should have SOME job match for them. If not, you gotta gracefully let them go.
   • Now the flood gates are open and it gets tricky now. I realized that the value I could bring to the table is limited to about 4 things, all of which take time: describing the company and the RDP program, giving my perspective on the RDP program, highlighting a few key things on their resume through a voice over, or helping with overall career searching advice, or — especially comparing and contrasting jobs (e.g. pros and cons of RDP vs consulting). So be picky on which areas you think you should deep dive in. Sometimes, it makes sense to ask the candidate — So I can help you broadly with these 4 things … do you still want to do X? or how about we try Y and then go to X after?
6. Sell, if a strong candidate. What’s a strong candidate? Ask HR or the hiring manager.
   • Notice how selling is more of a last step. One of the worst things a recruiter can do is sell you on the wrong things … this means the recruiter is talking fervently while the candidate is thinking in their head, get me out of this please; this guy is telling me stuff I don’t care about.
   • Tell them that you think they’re a good candidate for the next step … and briefly why. Of course point out that you’re not the decision maker, but you’d could be their point person. Now this candidate is feeling pretty good about themself and they have a point person … wow! How often does this happen at career fairs?
   • Revisit what other options they’re considering, ask them if they want you to give a high-level assessment of the two options … pros and cons of each, being objective. This is where you leave a deeper impression of this person is looking out for me by being honest.
7. Close on a good note.
   • Explain the process or next steps.
   • Give contact info. Business cards work well here. Set rules of engagement — how it’s totally fine to email about anything, even overall career advice if we got into those discussions. Surprisingly, I offer this to most and only get like 3-4 email responses. But I think it’s a great gesture.
   • Pat yourself on the back!