Suzie Reider, Global Managing Director at Waze (a Google Company)
Graduation Year: 1987
Major: English Literatures
Thank you so much for your contributions to Middlebury’s Board of Trustees. We would love to know about your career path and your time at Middlebury. How did you explore your career after you graduated from Middlebury? I was an English literature major at Middlebury. In college, I was interested in creative writing and didn’t think much about what I wanted to do after college. I think it was very different in the 80s than today. I graduated in 1987 and that Fall was the “Black Monday” stock market crash.
“U.S. markets fell more than 20% in a single day”. I have a lot of empathy for college Seniors entering the workforce this Spring. It will work out.
My first job out of college was working for an advertising agency. My salary was $13,000/year and we dressed up for work in those days and I remember wearing all my mother’s clothes to work as my own work wardrobe was not in the budget. In addition to my day job at Cabot Advertising in Boston, I also created advertisements for a small market in my parent’s hometown. I was paid $100 per flyer and my brother illustrated. To produce these ads I needed access to a Mac for desktop publishing. In 1987 a Mac Plus cost about $2500 and that was way beyond what I could afford.
I came across a newspaper ad for a marketing coordinator at MacUser Magazine (owned by Ziff-Davis Publishing). I took the job at this magazine, which gave me access to a Mac and other equipment needed to publish ads for the small market. 14 years later, when I finally left Ziff for CNET, I was running the sales and marketing for a stable of video and computer gaming magazines.
The job market, the jobs themselves, and the skills are very different from when I was first starting working. I think the applicable advice I have is about being resourceful and intentional as a person but not so much about the actual jobs.
How did your time at Middlebury impact your career? In which areas has your Middlebury education built a foundation for your career? Even as an English literature major, I learned a lot about being analytical, seeing patterns and seeing outliers. I recall exams where we were asked to compare and contrast relationships between characters and the land or between siblings or the concept of ‘going home’ and you’d think about the dozen or books you had read and draw out examples from so many texts. At Middlebury I learned to write clearly and back up statements with facts and examples.
We didn’t have MiddCore or group projects or Freshman Seminars in the 80s but our professors did teach us how to communicate and to assimilate information from lots of sources. I made really good friends at Middlebury which is part of the foundation one builds that is a support system as one travels through life.
What are your suggestions to students currently preparing for job interviews? What particular qualities would you look for when interviewing candidates? I have worked at Google for 14 years and we look for very specific qualities in candidates. This article is a little dated but still applies. We look for leadership (even if not a leadership role), role related experience, general cognitive ability, and culture fit. I feel a generation gap these days as I do not hire junior or entry-level people and so I’m not as familiar with the common best practices for people coming right out of college. That said, handwritten thank-you notes, doing your homework prior to the interview, dressing professionally and so on are still good best practices.
How do you suggest students to network and expand their connections both in college and in their job & internship? Networking is a big word and can have not so great connotations. I like to think about it as an effort to build long-term relationships. Just be yourself and ask real questions. When students contact me, I am very direct and ask where they are looking for help. Be authentic, be as clear as you can be about what you are looking for guidance on. And you can ask “is there anything I can do for you?” – you never know.
One suggestion is to approach relationship mapping (another term for networking) in an organized way. Create a doc/spreadsheet and record who you talk to, date, where, what you talked about, any follow-up etc. You never know when you might want to revisit a conversation and it’ll be a good habit to form as you are just at the start of ‘tracking’ things. Good luck and be resourceful in these times. Don’t wait for the perfect job as one role can lead to another. Know that in the end it also comes down to luck and timing.
This series is coordinated by Xiaoli Jin ’19. Look for more alumni profiles each week. You can connect with Xiaoli on LinkedIn.
If you are interested to interview alumni and contribute to this series, please contact Xiaoli Jin 2019′ on Midd2Midd.
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