Sidelined by your supervisor? The Story of Kyung-Wha Chung

Your mentor is turning a blind eye on you, while he's bonding with everybody else?  I have been on both sides of the game.  Yes, I got on the right side of the line by being able to deliver (even if I don't, I won't admit it) but there were time when I fell on the wrong side, for reasons other than my competence.  Maybe you don't play the right sport, or say the right thing, or don't belong to the same social / ethnic circle as your supervisor.  Unless you go out of your way of being a total asshole, I think being sidelined sucks big time.  Lately, I came across an article about a very famous violinist, Kyung-Wha Chung, and I think her story would restore faith for those of you sideliners.  It's the classic underdog story, except it is not based on a true story; it is a true story.

Kyung-Wha Chung came from a musical family in South Korea.  Her two younger siblings, brother (Kyung-whun Chung) and sister (Myung-wha Chung), are also famous musicians.  Chung came to the US to study the violin at the Julliard in the 60s, without speaking a word of English.  Back in those days, the stereotype of the violin-playing Asian kid simply didn't even exist.  With the Korean War just ended, and the Vietnam War in full swing, you can imagine the sort of colorful names that people would give her.  But she worked very hard, and eventually proved herself worthy, at least in the eyes of her very demanding teacher, who also taught a number of very renowned violinists.

Her ambitions, however, did not end there.  In 1967, Chung wanted to participate in a very prestigious violin competition. While her teacher did not doubt her abilities, he did worry about her lack of proper relations.  You see, another competitor was also another student of his from Israel by the name of Pinchas Zukerman, who had the backing of the violinist Isaac Stern.  Stern was the Vito Coreleone of the musical world.  Over his long and successful career, he hand-picked many young musicians and brought them into prominence, such as Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman and Yo-yo Ma.  Chung, unfortunately, wasn't one of them.  Her teacher warned her that disappointment would be inevitable, but she still went ahead.  When her mother knew about this, she sold her house and used that money to buy a Strad for her (that must have been a pretty expensive house).  So off to the competition she went, literally with her family fortune on her hands.

Competition was one of most grueling experience of any budding professional musician.  You are judged among the best in your group, and often you are just number to the jury.  In this particular competition, the judges were known to be so demanding, they would rather withhold the prize if they felt none of the players were up to standard.  Both Chung (19) and Zukerman (18) were the only two remaining candidates, but the judges could not figure out who the winner should be.  Isaac stern demanded them to play again, but they still couldn't make a decision.  For the first and only time in the competition's history, they were declared co-winners.  Irrespective of the verdict, Chung already knew it was a job well done.  She took a nap during the two-hour wait for the jury's decision.  Though Zukerman's fame continued to soar with under Stern, Chung went her own way, and her success was no less prominent than her Israeli counterpart.  The rest was history.

Unbeknownst to Chung , she also pioneered a new trend among the Asian population.  Yes, it's the stereotype of the violin-playing Asian kid.  She was one of the first renowned Asian musicians, and her fame brought inspirations to others like her.  Back in the Cold War era, American musicians only had to worry about competing with the Soviet musicians.  Chung opened the flood gate and brought the entire Asian musical community into the game.  In fact, one of  Zukerman's first violin protegees was a Korean-American violinist by the name of Sarah Chang.  Zubin Mehta, a conductor often associated with Isaac Stern's circle, discovered the Japanese violinist Midori.  Both Chang and Midori are now very well established artists.

Now, why do I write all these?  Mugu knows what it means to be sidelined.  There were times I wish I had examples like Kyung-Wha Chung so that I knew there is always hope.  The important thing is, you know yourself, and you know your destination.  Be persistent and eventually your hard work will prevail even in the face of extreme adversaries. True, Chung's family was rich enough to support her through these hardships, but don't forget, that musicians are born, not made.  She has it in her, and she stops at nothing to get to where she wanted.  This is the example we should follow, regardless which side of the line you're on at the moment.

Interviews ... between the lines, above and beyond

Interviews, I dread those.  The first couple are fun but it goes stale very quickly.  Here are some stats of Mugu's on-going job search process:

Jobs applied for so far: about 50
... from which Mugu feels he is very well qualified:  about 20
Opportunities Mugu got through
... networking:  3
... job fairs: 2
... unsolicited application: 1
... referrals from "headhunters": 5

Invitation Interviews:  about 12
... out of Mugu's "very well qualified" list: about 10

... from which came seconds: 2
... Mugu turned down: 1

Now some stats on the actual interviews themselves

Minimum personnel present:  1

Maximum personnel present: 5

Shortest duration: 5 min.

Longest duration: 3 1/2 hrs.

Of which I had to give a presentation: 2

Of which I had to fill out some form: 2

Of which I asked where the door was: 1

Shortest wait for (negative) feedback: before I leave

Longest wait for (negative) feedback: 4 months

Lesson learned

1) If key personnel is not present, you're (pretty much) toast.  Interviews at every "big" company should have at least the hiring manager and HR-rep present.  If HR isn't there that means the job might not exist.  I have had offers that were said to be on the way, only to be stopped dead by HR because the hiring manager didn't follow "procedure".  If the hiring manager isn't there when he said he would, he thinks you're not worth his time (for whatever reason) and gave instructions for his underlings to exercise extreme prejudice.

2) If your competition knows someone (and you don't), you're definitely toast.  The hiring manager pulls you over and whispers in your ear, "I would really like to hire you but the other guy knows people at the right places."  You know they are just playing it out.  It's not fair, but moving on is all you can do.  Be thankful that the manager is nice enough to warn you.

3) Be weary of instant positive feedbacks.  No one gives positive feedbacks on the spot anymore because they want time to think.  If they do, they want you out of the room without pissing you off.  Snappy offers to second interviews, and comments like "if you find a job, please let us know", or "we really like you, but this will take us a while to get back to you" are classics.

4) Key questions to prepare for.  This allows you to polish your answers to some sticky questions.  Most of the time the questions and answers are close enough but if they aren't, there will be opportunities for clarification.  Some common and important ones are:

• How did you deal with the asshole at your last workplace?
• How did you take care of impossible deadlines? (working longer is not the answer)
• Would your colleagues want to work with you again?
• What problems did you encounter and how did you solve them?
• What do you do when you are asked to do something you're not very good at?

You should have solid, real-life examples for each of them.  Also, even if these questions weren't asked, use every opportunity to bring them up.

While I am at it, here are some more

• Tell me about yourself (don't regurgitate your resume)
• What are your strengths and weaknesses (weaknesses shouldn't be real weaknesses)
• Where do you want to be 5 years from now (your choices: "Manager" or "Specialist")

5) If you are in a room full of assholes, they might be testing you.  Even though there are assholes at every workplace, chances all of them congregating at your interview is very slim; they have better thing to do!  So when you're in a room full of asshole-acting people, remember that they are doing that to throw you off balance so that they can see your true colors.  Emotional detachment is key to dealing with this kind of interview tactics.  Even if they are real-life assholes, at least it's a good attitude to take.  You can always say, "um, okay, maybe I will go where the people are nicer."

6) Talent agencies are whores.  Sign up with these "talent agencies" and they will give you some tips on writing resumes (at least get everything you have done nicely spelled out), but don't count on them in helping you land a job.  Once they realize you are not as on high demand as they hoped for, they will stop calling you for the "next greatest opportunity".

Why is it so hard to get a job these days

or, the cost of hiring the wrong person.

Well, Mugu has been looking for work for the last little while.  No matter what the job is, the scenario is all the same.  You find something you think you can handle, apply, and then that's it.  Once in a blue moon you would get a call to an interview, then after that, again, nothing.

Sounds familiar?  Not that I condone this kind of snobbery from companies, but you also need to understand why things happen this way.  Sure, many web sites offer just about every explanation under the Sun, and you can pick the one that fits your mood at the moment, but all operate on the same principle:

"The cost of hiring the wrong person outweighs the cost of rejecting the right person."

That's it!  That's why companies cry a river about having a shortage of talents, but in the mean time turning a 180 on you and me.

Here is an illustrative example.  Marty "Pants" d'Avis, has just been hired as a project manager at ABC Widgets.  There are 5 employees under his direct supervision.  He's making 100k + benefits (about 25%) p.a., and his underlings are making half that, also with similar benefit packages.  During his reign, Pant's team ie able to turn over 2 x their salaries in gross profits.  He also authorized 75k of expenditure in equipment and supplies.  So let's do some math:

annual net profit = (2 - 1.25) x (100k + 250k) - 75k = about 200k

Not bad, but unfortunately that's not how it went down.  Pants has his two favorites spending full time on his dead-end pet projects.  He also likes toys, so he ended up spending about 100k on various state-of-the-art equipment, which are now glorified dust collectors.

So how much money is involved this time?  There is, of course, the salary, which is obvious.  Let's assume the three sideliners do not partake on his day-to-day affairs.

annual net loss = 1.25 x (100k + 100k) + 100k = 350k

Now, if there is not enough money to burn already, there is another thing called opportunity cost.  That is, the time and money that Pants and his minions could have spent on more productive ends.  Let's be generous and assume Pant's team is only expected to break even (salaries + benefits).  The sideliners are somewhat more productive; they recover half their book value:

annual opportunity cost = 1.25 x (100k + 100k + 75k) = 350k

So Pants just blew 700k a year, not including collateral damage from lost clients and other dissatisfied employees at ABCW.  What's more, if ABCW expects the original profit of 200k from Pants to stay alive, then this figure balloons to 900k per year (or 550k, if opportunity cost is not considered).  So can companies like ABCW afford to make such a mistake in hiring decision?

Of course, this is a very extreme case, but similar circumstances do happen and often in multiple instances.  In the case of Pants, even though he managed to pissed off just about everyone above and below at ABCW, it still took management eight years to get him to "voluntarily resign" from his position.  If he wasn't hired in the first place, and he turned out to be the great manager who would potentially bring in 200k a year, all that ABCW would lose would be juet that, the potential 200k a year, not the hard cash of 700k from his antics that ABCW would sustain for almost 8 years.

So, next time you don't get picked.  It's not because you are not good (in fact, I think would do just fine).  It's just the risk, no matter how slim, of you bringing everything down faster than they can draft a termination notice that worries them.

As for what to do, I can only give two pieces of advice, coming from someone who's constantly on the receiving end.  First, be honest with who you are.  Second, if you get the boot, don't take it personally.  There is more where it's coming from.