College grads enter the dangerous waters of the workplace

With a bachelor's degree, MBA and two internships under her belt, Libby Sartain felt ready for almost anything on her first day as a personnel assistant in a corporate office - except for the temperamental copy machine. So, she turned to a co-worker for help.

I asked this woman, can you please help me figure out how to do this?'' recalls Sartain of that day almost 30 years ago.And she says: `What's wrong? Didn't they teach you to do that in graduate school?' I thought, jeez, I haven't even said hello to her and she already hates me.''

Now senior vice president of human resources at Yahoo, Sartain, 51, says, ``I later found out that she interviewed for the job that I got.''

For new graduates, navigating the ins and outs of your first job in the real world can seem downright overwhelming. During that transitional year from school to a first full-time job, young women especially might be surprised and frustrated to find themselves in a foreign environment of high demands, difficult personalities and unspoken rules - career issues that can't be learned in the college classroom.

Women are surprised by things like office politics, a lack of support services after coming out of a university, and the diversity of ages, backgrounds and levels of experience of their co-workers,'' says Stephanie Eberle, graduate career counselor and liaison to the women's community center at Stanford University.Every organization has rules that are unwritten and its very own culture.''

Nearly three decades after the copy machine exchange with the hostile co-worker, Sartain has held close one of the hard lessons she learned early on about those unspoken workplace guidelines.

One thing fresh grads - especially women - don't realize is that they are walking into a whole political system,'' Sartain says.But they don't take the time to ask questions about that. Since then, I've always asked - wherever I'm starting - `Was there anybody internally that wanted this job that I should be aware of?' Obviously if you got it and they wanted it, then that is the first person you should try to win over. ''

For Maria Reiling of eBay, a corporate dress code, structured work hours and shift in learning styles were the biggest changes from her role as a student to her first job as a management consultant after graduating from Harvard business school.

Suits were common practice,'' says Reiling, 36, lifestyles category director at eBay,and I had to adjust to getting to work at a specific time every day, which is a big switch from your class schedule as a second semester senior. ... On the learning side, it was a different kind of learning. At work, you learn by doing, not by reading and synthesizing. I was excited to stop just thinking about things and see a more tangible result from what I was doing.''

Young women may also find themselves in the new situation of entering a field with a higher percentage of male colleagues.

Elena Morado, senior manager worldwide of gender diversity at Cisco, dealt with the gender imbalance issue head-on at her first job in human resources at an electrical company.

To prepare for a position that entailed interviewing machinists and welders and working on contracts for the unions, Morado spent a day working alongside the blue-collar workers.

I was 21, young and attractive and in an organization that was predominantly male,'' Morado, 53, says.I had to establish credibility and gain respect by really understanding the business. So, I spent the day with a welder and a machinist and had them teach me what they do and the terminology. Once I learned their language, I could show them I was serious about my role.''

Like preparing for a class, understanding the business is something all young graduates should take the time to do, according to Carmen Sigler, provost and vice president for academic affairs at San Jose State University.

Just because you've graduated doesn't mean you stop learning,'' says Sigler, who began her career as a teaching assistant at the University of Michigan.You have to learn about the mission of your organization. Learn the structure, the culture and observe people around you. You are surrounded by examples of people succeeding and those who are talented but are not particularly successful. You learn also from those people by observing their mistakes.''

Marina Park, who served as firmwide managing partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in Palo Alto, Calif., for nearly eight years, says her biggest mistake at the beginning of her career as a summer law associate was not speaking up. It's a mistake that's common among women, she says.

I was expecting people to be aware that I was buried in non-stop tedious work and I was completely overloaded with 10 partners asking for projects with deadlines that were all due on Monday morning,'' Park, 49, says.I was going through life expecting people to look out for me more. I wasn't aware of how much ownership I needed to take in order to communicate with mentors -- to let them know what I was doing, how I was doing and what I needed to do next.''

Park later found that voice when she took the initiative to ask two of her mentors at the firm to help her move from litigation to a technology transactions practice.

Women are less likely to be assertive about asking for better opportunities,'' Park says.But don't sit back and wait for things to come to you because you think you're doing a good job, which is how we're trained to think in school. Study hard and you'll get that good grade. It doesn't work that way in the career world.''

New grads in their first jobs must realize that they are learning from the experience and that it's a launching pad for greater things ahead, says one expert.

Really put your all into it and give it at least a year to see what it's about,'' advises Donna Greene, author ofTwentysomething Girl: Real Advice on Relationships, Career and Life on Your Own.''

``Even if you don't have exactly the right job for you at the moment, this may be a job that will help you advance later on. You never know what it may lead to.''

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(c) 2006, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.). Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.