1. No category

“Career Secrets They Don’t
Teach in High School”
“How To Navigate Your Career”
By David Crays
TheCareerKing
http://www.thecareerking.com
Congratulations!
FREE! You Now Own Resell And
Giveaway Rights To This Report
Greetings!
By owning resell and giveaway rights, you may freely distribute this
report to anyone you wish, resell it for any price and keep 100% of the
profits, or use it as incentive to build your mailing list. The choice is
yours.
The only restriction is that you cannot modify this document in any
way without permission from the author.
Enjoy!
Click Here To Share This Free Report
With Your Twitter Followers
Hot Tip: If you would like to learn how to make this report your 24/7
“Digital Sales Machine” then be sure to read the last page for full details.
http://www.thecareerking.com
About David Crays, CPA
Author/Publisher
David Crays, CPA, graduated from the University of Texas in 1983 where he received his degree
from the Business School’s Business Honors Program (“BHP”). At that time, the BHP was an
invitation only program extended to 2nd year business students, who had performed exemplary
during their freshman year, and consisted of graduate school classes taught by the University’s
best professors. In addition, he acquired enough accounting credits to sit for the CPA exam.
Upon graduation he joined Arthur Andersen, at that time the largest Public Accounting firm in the
world. He left Andersen to pursue a career in sales only to return to accounting a few years later.
During his brief sales career, he learned the value of a good sales presentation and gained a deep
understanding of the need for rainmakers who could grow sales; additionally, he learned that
companies need CEO’s who are visionaries capable of driving sales and yet able to contain costs.
Upon returning to accounting, David worked his way from the bottom up, thus gaining valuable
insight into every role in a company’s accounting and finance organization, including clerical
functions, corporate accounting and treasury, mergers and acquisitions and the rules and
regulations required by the SEC. His roles included Assistant Treasurer of a publicly traded oil and
gas exploration company, Corporate Controller for a multinational manufacturing company and
Chief Financial Officer of an energy services company that he was instrumental in taking public on
NASDAQ.
In 1999, he decided to combine his affinity for sales and entrepreneurship with his financial
background and pursue a career as a recruiter of financial talent. He quickly gained the respect of
the business community by providing talented candidates to some of the largest companies in
Houston, Texas including Lennar Homes, hp, Enron, Duke Energy and BP. He has placed
candidates into positions ranging from $40,000 to over $500,000 per year.
He became a stay-at-home dad in 2005 and began writing about his experiences as a writer for
Examiner.com.
Due to his unique background and love of mentoring and coaching, he decided to follow his wife’s
advice and write a book to guide people throughout their careers.
He is married to Laura Crays, a CFO for one of the largest commodities trading and distribution
companies in North America. Together they have a son.
http://www.thecareerking.com
Intro
The following is excerpted from the book:
“From the Classroom to the Boardroom: How I got there (and how you can too!).
Whether you are just beginning your high school education or nearing retirement, this decision will
help you to help yourself for the rest of your career, and life.
Please Note: I have written this book to encompass all types of careers and destinations. Some people
want to run a large company, while others aspire to be a supervisor in a machine shop. Wherever I
refer to a position of importance, substitute the title you want.
The most important lesson of this book: You must always PROTECT YOUR RESUME. Guard
it with your life, because your life depends on it. Building your resume certainly begins in HIGH
SCHOOL. And in some ways, it actually begins the moment you start elementary school.
One of my favorite bands of all time is Pink Floyd. In their song, “Time,” the lyrics make this point.
Time
(Lyrics by Roger Waters and Pink Floyd)
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.
Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.
I cannot stress this point enough. You must take control of your career and you need to begin as soon
as possible. The reason is, every move you make affects your resume and you can never change your
resume. You can change your name, change your spouse, change your clothes, banker etc.
YOU CAN NEVER CHANGE YOUR RESUME.
http://www.thecareerking.com
Thirty years ago, very few companies verified your education, much less your background. Nowadays,
they confirm your entire background. If you are found to have fudged any part of it, they will fire you
if you are already hired or deny your employment if you are an applicant.
As an example, there have been some famous cases of football coaches who have fudged their
experience and it cost them their job in spite of the fact that they were a good coach. In today’s world,
any dishonesty on your resume will cost you far more than you think. In fact, it is so serious that it
could literally ruin your life.
So:
NEVER LIE OR FUDGE ON YOUR RESUME
PROTECT IT WITH YOUR LIFE
Now, let me make something else very clear:
This is not a get rich quick scheme. And the power of positive thinking is NOT all that is required;
although positive thinking will help. Especially when times get tough. Or tougher, if they already
are.
For most of my life, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my career. I have tried many different get
rich ideas and schemes that were sold to me at a “bargain” price. The only guy that got rich was the
guy who sold it to me.
I have tried many professions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
I began as an accountant
I went back to grad school, but ran out of money
Returned to accounting, but quickly left to get rich selling diamonds
Tried selling vitamins via telemarketing with the first company I owned and went bust with
Sold radio advertising
Returned to accounting after another venture renting videos from an ice cream truck didn’t work
Rose to the level of CFO of a company I took public on NASDAQ
Changed again to selling project work for executives
Began recruiting accountants and then executives
Became a stay at home dad
Tried writing articles for an on-line newspaper
And now, I am doing what I always should have: I am writing and teaching you how to be successful in
your career.
Why should you listen?
I have placed people into jobs that pay over a million dollars a year. I have seen executives who failed
miserably and don’t know how to find another job. I have spent countless hours on the phone with
people I couldn’t place into a job, but I could help them to help themselves in changing their career and
turning their life around.
http://www.thecareerking.com
A good friend of mine, John U., is an executive at a major international company. In terms of earnings
and scale of role, he is far more successful than I was. However, he draws upon and benefits from my
expertise every day.
Why? These are his words:
I listen to David’s views because everyone can benefit from a seasoned, objective sounding board.
No matter how experienced; how senior; how well-prepared; or how skilled in both the hard and
soft skills of what they need to know to be successful in their role, the equation remains the same.
Two heads can often be better than one. Another perspective is a valuable tool.
The sort of advice David provides holds the mirror up to help me see my own reflection. And
equally important, my blind spots. I don’t value his judgment because he is my friend. There is
too much at stake for that. I value him as a trusted advisor who is very effective at validating my
own good judgments or helping me see a contrary point of view that I didn’t see or understand.
The credit for my success is clearly my own, but like any successful professional, I acknowledge
the high value I receive from the support network that helps make that a reality.
Why is David particularly good at this role? Because he understands what it takes to succeed in
a variety of roles and at a variety of levels within an organization. He understands the value of
good employees and the costs of bad ones.
He understands what it takes to be successful because his dad was an executive for most of his
career. His father was generous and honest in sharing the lessons, both good and bad, he
learned along the way.
David understands the demands and the costs of being an executive in today’s world economy.
He worked in that world and witnessed what a jungle it can be. He has been willing to take risks,
reaped their rewards and licked his wounds when they didn’t pan out.
And finally, David is particularly good at this because it is consistent with his interests and his
own inner drives. Why is this significant? In this regard, I now offer you a bit of advice passed
along by my Dad. I attribute it, in large part, to my own success. I think it is one of the best
pieces of career advice and life-lessons that I ever received: “follow your passion. Do what really
drives you at your inner core. The world always needs one more, good ________. And your ability
to be that good _______ is greatly enhanced when it’s something you’re internally tuned to be
excited about.”
Through the pages that follow, you may not always like what you hear. There are no easy
answers or fast formulas for success. However, by doing the work, honestly evaluating your own
strengths, weaknesses, getting real about your goals and objectives, and by considering the
lessons included here to help you along the way, your satisfaction with the outcome will be great.
I wish you all the best with your journey and in reaching the destinations you seek--------John U.
http://www.thecareerking.com
During your reading you will learn:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
How to avoid the mistakes I have made;
How to learn from a recruiter who has witnessed varying degrees of success;
How to find a good recruiter;
How to navigate your career into the corner office…if you really want it;
How to find a good career coach;
How to find and utilize a mentor;
When to make a career move;
What career to choose;
When to start thinking about the above; and,
Life choices like marriage, kids, relocating to other cities and countries etc. and how they affect your
career outcome.
As John wrote above, this isn’t easy to do. And let me make this clear:
If you think that “Survivor” or “The Apprentice” are just games and are not like the real world
game, then you haven’t played the game.
The real world is far harder to be successful in.
The good news is: Unlike those Reality TV games where there is only one winner (out of hundreds of
thousands of applicants), there are many winner slots in the real world.
After reading this, you will be better off than the millions who haven’t.
HOWEVER, I want to stress this point again: This is NOT a get rich quick scheme.
Unless you were born into wealth, the only way to get wealthy is to work harder and smarter than
your peers.
Let’s get started.
http://www.thecareerking.com
Table of Contents
Author’s Note
Chapter 1 – High School
Chapter 2 – How to Choose Your Career
Chapter 3 – College or Trade School
Chapter 4 – Trade Schools
Chapter 5 – College
Chapter 6 – First Job vs. Graduate School
Chapter 7 – First Job
Chapter 8 – Graduate School
Chapter 9 – Managing Your Career
Chapter 10 – Coaching
Chapter 11 – Recruiters
Chapter 12 – Preparing Your Resume
Chapter 13 – Making a Move to a New Job or Career
Chapter 14 – When You Become Unemployed
Chapter 15 – Outplacement Firms
Chapter 16 – What do CEOs and other “C” Levels Look for
Chapter 17 – Getting the Corner Office
Chapter 18 – How I got mine
Chapter 19 – Board of Directors
Chapter 20 – Why I left
Chapter 21 – Successful Habits
Chapter 22 – What Now
Thanks
http://www.thecareerking.com
Author’s Note
Depending on which career stage you are currently in, you may choose to skip around certain
chapters. For the most part, each chapter stands on its own. If you have the time, I encourage you to
read the whole book, as some chapters have pointers that apply no matter who you are or where.
I wrote the book based on my own career and experiences. As such, I use a lot of reference to
corporate positions in the ivory tower; however, at the end of the day, these terms and titles are
interchangeable with whatever terminology and titles your industry uses.
For example, the CEO title could be replaced by Superintendant of Maintenance if that is your goal.
This is possible, because I have worked in a variety of roles, including summer jobs pumping gas,
shoveling rocks eight hours a day, calculating payroll, inputting computer data, delivering newspapers
and cutting grass. I have held professional jobs as an accountant, salesman, recruiter and now writer.
I have worked side by side with union workers, clerks who chatted incessantly while manually
calculating payroll all day every day and assisting chemists with their data entry. I have worked
alongside CEO’s of public companies, SEC lawyers, public accountants, geologists, bankers and
human resources professionals. I recruited a variety of positions from payroll clerk to staff accountant
to CFO to VP of Coal Mining Operations.
As such, I have seen what works in almost any type of job and career you can think of. Without fail,
there are certain truths that are universal to them all.
Throughout the book, my good friend John, contributes his thoughts which are written in purple. In
some cases, we may have different points of view; that is okay, because the more perspectives you can
appreciate the more successful you will be.
http://www.thecareerking.com
Chapter 1
High School
If you have already graduated from High School, then this section may be skipped. However, it
will apply to your kids when they reach the appropriate grade.
Most people don’t have any clue what they want to do with their life when they are in high school.
Indeed, it is the rare child that does.
However, if you want to be successful, High School is when you had better get started.
When I applied to The University of Texas 30 years ago, the grades and test scores that were required
for acceptance were not that high. Today, they have minimum requirements that I was nowhere near.
In fact, it has become so competitive that in many areas they limit it to the top 10 percent of children in
in-state schools. So if you or your child go to a really good high school, it is possible that an “A”
average is NOT good enough.
As a further example: When we lived in Houston, I served on the Texas Exes Board of Former
Students (Houston Chapter). Their main purpose is to raise money to provide scholarships to
disadvantaged students who wish to attend the University. One of the requirements of the board
members is to serve on the scholarship committee. Many applicants are minorities who are first
generation attendees of college. While on the committee I discovered that their grades were off the
charts. Most had better than 4.0 grade point averages due to honors courses receiving extra points.
Their SAT or ACT scores were 95 percentile or better. They also held jobs and volunteered over a
thousand hours a year. And some were gifted athletes who still needed financial assistance. This gives
you an idea of what you’re up against. This is just a small example of the competition of the entering
freshmen class at some of the best US universities today.
Of course not all colleges are that hard to get into, but the harder they are, the better they are for your
resume. And as I stated in the Intro,
ALWAYS PROTECT YOUR RESUME AND YOUR REPUTATION
http://www.thecareerking.com
The next law is: Always Build Your Resume
Your resume is a reflection of who you WERE and what you accomplished, and it gives the reader an
impression of what you will do if they hire you. As a high school student, you are just getting started
with your life after school. For some of you, it is simply a pain in your side to have to attend, others a
pure joy. What I can safely say is, high school, like life in general, is what you make of it.
In other words: you reap what you sow.
If you get involved in your school, you will make friends and you will have a more positive experience
than a student who simply attends school. And the more you enjoy it, the better your resume will be.
A clear example: My wife was very involved in high school (and college) and I wasn’t. She has great
memories of her years in high school. I do not. This foundation established her resume and her
confidence. Today she is a highly paid executive. And she loves her career.
Things to consider at High School
1) Grades and test scores
2) Curriculum
3) Extra Curricular Activities
a. Sports
b. Clubs like chess, year book, drama etc.
c. Student Government
d. Community Service
4) Dating, relationships, sex
5) Drinking and drugs
6) Getting a job
Let’s tackle each one of these as it pertains to your resume and your career.
Grades and test scores are of utmost importance in determining the start of your career. The better they are,
the more likely you are to succeed. As I mentioned earlier, colleges look at these and they are usually the first
thing that they use to eliminate you from consideration. Their reasoning is simple: the higher grade point
averages that they require for acceptance tend to reflect on the “quality” of the student, which reflects the
“quality” of their school. The better ratings mean they can attract better teachers and students. These
correlate directly with what they can charge you to attend. Furthermore, employers look at these criteria and
tend to try and hire these students first. As a result, these students/graduates are paid better and tend to
retire better. And they tend to donate better to their Alma Mater.
http://www.thecareerking.com
This factor alone should motivate you to perform to the best of your ability. The better you do, the more you
will earn and the better you will retire.
Grades alone do not determine your life’s outcome, but they do correlate in terms of likely percentage of
success.
Even if you do not intend to go to college right away, or ever, you should care about your grades. The reason is
simple: like your resume overall, you can never change your grade point average. It will always be a part of
your past, a reflection of your present and forecast for your future.
To underscore and further elaborate on this point, consider this. Your grades can be interpreted by future
employers as an indicator of the intangibles they’re seeking – your discipline, your drive, even your ability to
learn/apply what you’ve learned. Hiring can be a risky proposition for the employer. They look to whatever
metrics they can, to improve their odds based on what’s been previously measured.
More importantly than grades, which can be a reflection of a good or poor test taker, you should require your
teachers to teach. Good teachers teach for the test, great teachers impart lessons and skills that you will need,
use and relish for the rest of your life.
For example, I was a math honors student. Unfortunately, I do not remember my geometry. Mainly because
my teacher was more interested in smoking in his office, than he was in actually teaching me why I needed to
know geometry. And yet today, there are many times I wish I remembered it better and had bothered to learn
it after all.
So every class you take in high school should be with purpose, not just to graduate or get an easy “A.” Trust
me: you will learn more from the hard classes than you will the easy. And you will remember the tough
teachers’ names long after the easy ones’ names are forgotten.
SAT and ACT Test Scores matter just as much. The reason is obvious: Unlike scores from a test at your school,
all standardized test scores are equal. They in fact do reflect whether you learned as much at your school as
someone else from another school.
In other words, just because you got an “A” in geometry at your school, doesn’t mean you know geometry well
enough to study mathematics at MIT. Getting an 800 on the SAT Math Test does.
http://www.thecareerking.com
You should strive for excellence on these tests. During my time in school, the common wisdom was that you
can’t study for these tests and Test Prep Classes and Texts were worthless. I followed that logic in High School
and did not score as well as students who had prepared for the SAT.
So when I decided to take the GMAT Test for Graduate Business School, I bought a GMAT Prep Book. I scored
in the 96th percentile. Trust me, these courses and texts work. Use them.
CURRICULUM
It is never too early to be thinking about your career and your resume. If you know you want to be a doctor,
you should focus on science, obviously. If you want to teach history, it again is an easy call.
IT IS IMPERATIVE TO TRY AND DETERMINE WHAT YOUR CAREER CHOICE WILL BE
Admittedly most freshmen don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. Those freshmen that do
know have a leg up on the rest, because they began building their resume from the start.
If you don’t know what you want to do: talk to your guidance counselor early and often. Take tests that s/he
recommends to determine your interests and aptitude. If your school doesn’t have one, or the tests she
administers do not resonate with you, find a company or counselor in your town that does.
Another clear advantage in knowing your desired profession early: It will be cheaper if you go to college
because you won’t spend precious college credit hours and money on courses that you won’t use. For
instance, my Dad began studying chemistry. He retired as a CFO after a long and distinguished career that
began when he switched to accounting after two years in college figuring out what he wanted to do.
Do not waste your high school credits on courses that you have no long-term interest in! Taking Home
Economics may help you get an easy “A” and meet girls, but it won’t help your career (unless you want to stay
at home and cook and clean). Taking creative writing courses, which I did, will help you to be a better writer,
but they won’t help you if you plan on being a mechanic.
Take courses that stretch your mind! If you are good in science, strive for honors courses in science. Likewise
for math. Hopefully your high school offers courses that qualify for college credit. These courses look good on
your college application. More importantly, they allow you to graduate college sooner or use the extra hours
for courses that apply towards graduate school or a minor that intrigues you.
Make sure you learn. So often we are conditioned to study for the test instead of learning. If you are able, do
both. Don’t just memorize, learn. These courses are the foundation for the rest of your life. If you truly learn
the subject matter, it will open up your world to new discoveries, and perhaps you will retain the subject well
enough to use it later in life as a second career or hobby.
http://www.thecareerking.com
For instance, I took many history courses in high school. They didn’t serve my career path well at all. On the
other hand, I still retain an interest in history and worship the History Channel. The interesting thing is, I still
remember my history lessons better than most of my other courses like calculus. This is not my math teacher’s
fault. I memorized instead of learning.
Follow your passion. As indicated in the introduction, tuning into your inner core and following those areas
that you find interesting can be a great point of traction. In High School, you may not yet know how to fully
utilize that, but if you are true and committed to those areas that are of interest, they can in time more easily
translate into a successful career track.
Spend time considering and evaluating what you enjoy learning about. Spend time understanding what
aspects of the pursuit are appealing to you. Seek out advice as to how you can use that as a foundation for
your future.
So often people are encouraged to (or pressured into) following paths that are of little interest to them. David
becoming an accountant, because of his dad is a good example of this. Great on paper, but it didn’t really jazz
him. In David’s case, with his great interest in history, perhaps it may have been a more powerful track for
him? His passion for writing, untapped until recently, has always been a source of enjoyment and satisfaction.
His propensity to share his opinion and readily offer advice is a character trait. Combining those into this book
is a marriage of those two natural strengths. Another example is young adults choosing medicine or law,
because it is viewed to pay well. There are many a struggling doctor or lawyer, because its not consistent with
their drive and strengths. The financial compensation for the job is only one element of the satisfaction that it
must bring. If it’s not internally commensurate with your strengths, it is likely to fall short in the financial comp
department for you as well.
If you do not know how to translate your interests into a successful career track, seek out advisors, mentors,
college counselors, career coaches or other qualified experts who can. Later chapters in this book explore each
of these aspects of career guidance. Efforts and even some financial investment in some of these resources
may have a short pay-back period if well-selected and used to avoid a path that isn’t going to bring you
satisfaction.
If you have a choice, choose teachers who teach. If you have not watched the movie “Stand and Deliver”, do
so. It shows a teacher who instills a love of math. If you have not seen “Mr. Holland’s Opus”, do so. It shows a
teacher who thought he should earn a living writing and playing music. Instead he found that his true gift was
teaching music.
http://www.thecareerking.com
Teachers that actually teach are worth their weight in gold and worth your time. Sometimes they may have a
reputation as being “hard,” but they may also be the ones whose lessons you recall 30 years later, long after
you have forgotten the teacher who gave out meaningless “A”s .
It is important to understand
why you are learning
something. Knowing how to
determine the area of a
triangle is not as important as
understanding why. Knowing the dates of the Civil War in the United States is not as important as
understanding why the war took place. In both examples, the knowing may serve the moment and get you an
“A”, while the understanding will last your lifetime.
Too often teachers only teach the “knowing” to allow students to pass standardized tests. It is the
understanding that builds depth. For example, simply knowing the accounting rules is not enough.
Understanding how they apply in the real world is far more important. Use of real world examples in all of
teaching is far more meaningful and I wish my teachers had done so. If they had, I would recall how to
determine the area of a triangle when I want to fix the tile in a room that is shaped like a pie wedge instead of
a rectangle.
There’s one final, key advantage in this strategy: later in life, employers, and hiring managers in particular, are
often more keen to understand how you think and problem solve than in the specific answers that you provide.
Possessing the depth suggested above, provides you with the tools to adapt to a more extensive set of
circumstances and applications.
Note: To read the rest of the section on what to consider in High School and beyond you must purchase
the book. We look forward to welcoming you as a member of our family at TheCareerKing.com.
To read more about our book that is changing people’s careers and lifestyles, click here.
David Crays, CPA
Author, Publisher
P.S. Look at the next page for an exciting opportunity!
http://www.thecareerking.com
How To Make This Report Your
24/7 “Digital Sales Machine!”
I hope you enjoyed this free report and picked up your copy of “From the
Classroom to the Boardroom: How I got there (and you can too!)”
Before you rush off to share this report with your Facebook friends
and Twitter followers, let me ask you a question...
Would you like to get paid a commission when the people you share this
report with also buy “From the Classroom to the Boardroom: How I got there
(and you can too!)”?
If so, then all you have to do is rebrand this special report with your
affiliate ID before sharing it with others. That's it. You can then post it to
your blog, share it on Facebook and Twitter, or even use it to build your list.
And here's the best part...
Your readers will also receive “giveaway rights” to this report. Which
means, if they give it away without rebranding it ( and many will ) you'll get
paid commissions on ALL of their referred sales as well. Example: Let's say
“Stephanie” downloads your report, but does not rebrand it with her ID. She
then shares YOUR branded version with Bill who buys “From the Classroom to
the Boardroom: How I got there (and you can too!)”― guess what? YOU just
got paid... Cha-ching!
Get excited! Because you're about to unleash your own “digital sales
machine” that cranks out commissons for you 24/7 ( even while you sleep! )
Here's what to do next...
http://www.thecareerking.com
Step 1: Order Branding Rights on our secret affiliate page
Step 2: Fill in your ClickBank affiliate id so you receive 50%
Commissions on each book your network buys!
Step 3: Click on the rebrand my pdf report button
Step 4: Start sharing your new report with others and GET PAID!
http://www.thecareerking.com