Just a few years ago, Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso was Dumpster diving for bagels, shoplifting, and hitchhiking her way across the country. She had no idea what she wanted to do with her life — let alone for a career — and yet, today, she is now CEO of a $100 million e-commerce company.
(Photo Credit: #GIRLBOSS)
Some have called #GIRLBOSS a “Millennial Alternative to Lean In,” referencing the career advice book by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. In her book, Amoruso details how the last few years of her life have led her to career success, and provides down-to-earth, real career advice to a younger generation she knows have made a few mistakes — but deserves great jobs nonetheless.
Here are three of the best career lessons for millennials from #GIRLBOSS:
1. Take that entry-level job. Amoruso went through what she called “job promiscuity,” chasing one minimum-wage job after another. However, she eventually found that the training programs these jobs put her through forced her to learn the value of customer service. As she writes in #GIRLBOSS, “just apologize to people. Even if it’s not your fault, they’ve been disappointed by the company you work for and its your job to empathize with them.” This eventually led her to create a “philosophy” at Nasty Gal that encourages workers to create a positive culture.
2. Save your money. An entire chapter of the book is dedicated to how Amoruso never went into a single penny of debt to start Nasty Gal. In fact, financial success was never even a goal of hers to begin with. It’s true that building a company with no debt is incredibly unusual in the business world. However, she realized how easy it can be to wreck your credit, and she didn’t want to go down that path.
Additionally, she stresses that once you do start making money (and more money after that), you should not increase your spending accordingly. As Amoruso writes, “when your time spent making money is significantly greater than your time spent spending money, you will be amazed at how much you can save without even really thinking about it.”
3. Don’t make mistakes on your cover letter. Cover letters are admittedly painful to write, but they’re necessary to get your foot in the door for an interview. Amoruso outlines several great pieces of advice, do’s, and don’ts when writing your cover letter in #GIRLBOSS. A few of her tips? Write what you can do for your potential employer, highlight your achievements to connect the dots between where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re trying to go, and do not give constructive criticism without being asked. Save that for the interview!
Tell Us What You Think
Have you read #GIRLBOSS? Do you think Amoruso’s advice is helpful? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.
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