Name: David Friedman
Educational Background: George Washington University, December 1998
Major: English
Age: 24
Company: GiftCertificates.com
Title: Executive Assistant

David's Typical Day:

8:30-9 a.m. Arrive at the office, turn on the computer.
9-10 a.m. Read and respond to e-mails from colleagues, clients, friends, etc.
10-12 p.m. Update my two bosses on progress I am making on various projects, outline next steps that need to be taken, etc. Overall, in this time I look for opportunities to connect with my bosses to see what knowledge I can extract from them to get the problem solved.
12 p.m. Call potential contacts.
12:30 p.m. Get lunch and bring it back to my desk. Read The Wall Street Journal, browse the Web for new deals, read headlines at Yahoo, Upside Today, internet.com, CNET, etc.
1 p.m. Outline the next steps for my current project which is setting up a tracking system that allows the Business Development department to more accurately track the efficacy of deals entered into.
2-4 p.m. Meet with people who have the info I need to complete the next stage of my project.
5 p.m. Try to come up with a final form for the tracking process. Final, that is, until I rip it apart the next morning.
7-8 p.m. Leave the office. Go out. Go wild.

Checking in with David

How did you find your job?
One of my bosses is friendly with my mother. It goes back to the whole "it's not what you know, it's who you know" concept. ~ How long have you been working at GiftCertificates.com?
It's been about three months now. I graduated last December and traveled down around Arizona from February to May. After that I came back to New York and spent about three months temping at another Internet company. It took me about nine months to figure out what I wanted to do.

Why did you decide to join a dot-com company?
For the past couple of years I've been reading so much about the Internet and how it's just exploding. And the Internet culture is attractive. Internet companies tend to run at high energy levels - they're busy, they tend to respect your autonomy and desire to further your career. And, of course, there's the allure of the stock option potential - it worked for 13 people at Microsoft. I'm not saying that the stock options are the only lure of startups - but they definitely are a bonus.

What was the interview process like?
It was pretty quick and easy. I got this woman's e-mail address through my mother. She told my mother that she wanted me to call or e-mail her right away. I ended up e-mailing her, and soon after we set up an interview. I interviewed with her for about 15 minutes, then I interviewed with the HR person for about five minutes, and then they said, "When can you start? We need you right away." It all happened really fast. I had my first interview on Wednesday and started on Friday.

I don't think that's how most job searches go - but it is somewhat representative of young startups. They tend to be desperate for people. And, in my case, my boss knew my mother and probably thought "let's give this kid a shot." Clearly I was lucky, but I do think that it's indicative of the fast pace of the Internet industry. ~ What do you do in your job?
I basically do whatever needs to be done. That includes everything from doing expense reports to nailing down contacts for potential business development deals. Right now I'm creating a tracking process to help determine the efficacy of the deals that we do. For example, we have a deal with SmartMoney, a financial Internet company. Once we have the deal, we need to evaluate how effective the terms of the deal are for us. It's up to me to figure out how I can distill this information and evaluate how our needs are being met in each deal. It mostly involves creating a spreadsheet from scratch that facilitates this research and allows my bosses in the finance department to determine what's good and what's bad in each deal. Hindsight being 20/20, we need that capability so that we can track the efficacy of a deal and focus on what we know works in future deals.

It's pretty complicated, but that's the huge attraction of the Internet - that whole idea that you're able to innovate. I'm already creating a new process to see how we're doing as a company. I think that's something you really won't find in more established industries where the departments and their tasks are set. It's the energy that you find in startups that I find really attractive.

Do you have any advice for undergrads?
Network. It's not what you know. It's who you know. I think that you'll find that the people who are most successful and satisfied with what they're doing, achieved all that because they've established contacts with people in their field throughout their careers.

Aside from career advice, figure out what keeps you sane in the world as early as possible and try to make a commitment to make that a priority. It's important to figure out what there is in the world outside of your job, and what you're going to be passionate about.