Job Talk NJ

Entering an Industry with no Prior Experience

Today’s jobtalk is with Timothy Johnson III, who is working in a field that is unrelated to what he studied in college. In this interview, I don’t get into what Tim does for a living, rather I find out about the decisions he made when he was in college and how he was able to break into marketing without studying it in college – no related internships either. Check out what Timothy has to say about getting a job in an area in which you have no prior experience.

Title: Marketing Coordinator

Education: B.A. Linguistics, Swarthmore, 2007

Age: 26

Did you have an interest in marketing when you started college?

Well, no. When I started college, my intention was to go to medical school to get my M.D./Ph.D. I always liked science. During the summer before my senior year in high school, I did research through the Temple University’s Physician Scientist Training Program.  The following two summers I also spent doing science research because at that point I was set on going to medical school.

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Be Professional

Photo Source: Flickr’s Andrea Schwalm

Guest Post By Dana Sitar

One difficulty in making your art your business is that often there are no clear-cut rules for how to act in that business. Norms kind of get thrown out the window when your greatest strength is your ability to be different. But that doesn’t mean that you no longer have to act like a professional — you just have to figure out exactly what that means in your profession.

You don’t have to get stuffy and formal all of a sudden. Don’t hide your tattoos and trim your beard. If you’re a comedian, you can still be funny. If you’re a writer, you can still be poetic. But, there are a few things you can keep in mind to ensure that you’re taken seriously in your industry, and that you continue to be someone people want to work with.

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Live on the Cheap

When I was little, I used to have one of those magic 8-balls. A lot of kids had them. Of course I knew that magic 8-ball wouldn’t give me the answer to my questions, but it was fun to pretend. Now there’s something better, there’s Google. You know how it goes. You type in your question and you get tons of answers.

How do I get rid of shin splints?

Can I wait till 40 to have a child?

Is the economy ever going to get better?

Maybe you’re in high school and trying to find information that supports your desire to forgo college. You Google. You find articles like this one  that lists successful people without degrees – of course Bill Gates is the first person listed. You find James Altucher’s blog, which has some posts that get you pumped about being successful without college. And you read this article from the NYT that has you convinced college would be a waste of your time and money (or your parents’ money!) because you won’t find a job when you graduate.  

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Interview with a Restaurateur

Today’s jobtalk is with John Procaccini, who owns three restaurants in the Princeton area with his brother, Tino. Soon, they’ll add one more restaurant to their portfolio when their Kingston restaurant Osteria Procaccini opens its second location in Pennington.

I interviewed John Procaccini at PJ’s, which he and his brother bought this past August. Procaccini was manning the checkout when I arrived, and for a moment I wondered if he’d actually be able to talk to me or if I’d be having to get soundbites in between his ringing up customers.

Luckily, I did get to steal some of his time, and here’s what I found out!

By the way, check out a review of Osteria Procaccini in the New York Times. 

Title: Restaurateur

Education:  B.A. Business Management and Organizational Behavior (minor in entrepreneurship), Rider University, 1997

Age: 36

When did you start buying restaurants?

We bought our first restaurant in 1999. My brother was still in college at Rider. I had just graduated, but I also had a fulltime job. I was the director of International Operations at Sarnoff Corporation. I was in Asia every other week. I did that for 15 years while running a restaurant too.

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Interview with a Future Dentist

Today’s jobtalk is with Patrick Shock, a recent college graduate who took full advantage of his college years to explore potential careers. Patrick has put a lot of time and thought into his decision to pursue dentistry. Reading this interview will give you insight into the question that everyone asks at least once, “What makes a person want to become a dentist?”

Title: Future Dentist

Education: B.S. Neuroscience, University of Delaware, 2011

Age: 23

How did you choose your undergraduate major in college?

When I started college, I wanted to pursue medicine so I thought that a good major would be biology. I was focused on doing the right thing to get into grad school. I wasn’t necessarily interested in biology, but I wanted to go with the quota.

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