'Life Lessons Learned'

Kalispell author pens book to help graduates succeed

Tiffany Marshall's first job after graduating from college proved to be much more than a proverbial "learning experience."

It ultimately gave her the insight she needed to write a book aimed at helping graduates succeed in their "first real job."

"Life Lessons Learned - What Textbooks Don't Teach" chronicles the 55 most important lessons that Marshall, 30, learned during her first five years out of college. Now a corporate accountant at Kalispell Regional Medical Center, Marshall said her first job as a recruiter for a staffing agency in California and a similar recruiting job in Montana were the impetus for her book.

"I was meeting all these people and listening to the kinds of stories they would tell," she recalled. "I remember thinking, this stuff needs to get written down."

All day long, Marshall would read resumes, interview job seekers and discuss job descriptions and employment situations with companies. In that job, she found herself counseling people about real-life job situations: how to ask for time off, preparing for an evaluation and dealing with difficult co-workers.

"It's common sense, but it's not common sense until you experience it," she said.

Marshall breaks down her life lessons into seven sections: Job hunting, starting a new job, on the job, calling in sick, taking time off, quitting a job and final thoughts.

Her goal was to make the book concise. It's written in handbook style.

Lesson No. 16 - "Don't quote your former employer," is only a half-page long. Although there's value in using skills and experiences from a previous job, "there is a difference between incorporating these learned skills and constantly comparing your current employer to your old employer," she wrote.

"A phrase that people quickly grow tired of hearing is 'At my last company, we did it like this.' Your co-workers may not appreciate the comparison, not only because you may be comparing apples to oranges (or worse, apples to umbrellas), but also because your new co-workers want to build a relationship with you, and constantly comparing them to your old company is like comparing your new boyfriend/girlfriend to your old boyfriend/girlfriend … "

Marshall steps readers through the process companies use in deciding who gets hired and who doesn't.

"I quickly learned that companies today are looking for more than just relevant job skills," she said. "In my experience, companies are looking for three things when they decide whom to hire: hard skills, soft skills and general character traits."

Soft skills are assets such as a friendly personality, patience with customers and the ability to multi-task.

Companies constantly stressed the need for employees with communication skills. Hard skills, such as the mechanics of operating a computer, can be taught. Soft skills aren't so easily learned.

"Several times I'd see job candidates have an edge if they were a people person," she said.

Marshall coaches entry-level employees to be versatile.

"Do whatever it takes to get the job done," she said. "You can learn a lot from those tasks. People don't realize there's value in the boring little tasks. See everything as a learning experience. Appreciate that sense of mastering the level you're at."

Marshall devotes an entire section to the mechanics of calling in sick. Although many seasoned employees may view this courtesy as a no-brainer, first-time workers may not know that "if you're not going to be at work, you need to call," she said. "You need to call every day you're not going to be at work."

Lesson No. 34 is titled "Kid excuses."

"Children will begin affecting your life, even when you don't have children. They will interrupt your agenda and cause more work for you, oftentimes without notice," Marshall advises. "Because chances are, one of your co-workers has kids. And guess what? If their kid gets sick, if their kid's baby sitter gets sick, if the school or daycare closes due to bad weather, your co-worker gets the day off (to take care of their kid), and you get to do all of their work.

"Though it may seem unfair, it's called supporting your co-workers, and in the working world, you will be asked to do it a lot. If it still seems unfair, don't worry. When you have kids one day, you'll finally get to use the classic kid excuses too."

MARSHALL WAS born and raised in a small town in the Mojave Desert of California. She has a degree in speech communications from Cal Poly State University-San Luis Obispo and currently is pursuing a master's in business administration at the University of Montana.

She moved to the Flathead Valley when her then-fiancee and now husband, Scott Wehrmann, got a job at Semitool.

With her West Coast connections, she's marketed her book to a number of college bookstores in California and is just starting to do that same kind of marketing in Montana and other states.

"It's my hope that [my book] will remove the rose-colored glasses and raise life awareness, helping people become confident business professionals," she said.

The book sells for $10.95 and can be ordered online at www.llumina.com/store/lifelessonslearned.htm, or from Ingram, Baker and Taylor and Amazon.com Web sites. E-mail Marshall at tiffany@tiffanymarshall.com

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.