The Devil Wears Prada: Don't Let the Book's Title Trick You into Thinking It's about a Bad Boss
Asked what advice I would give to Andrea Sachs for dealing with her bad boss, Miranda Priestly, I had to pause and think. Contrary to popular belief, I think Lauren Weisberger's book is about Andrea, not her boss or the fashion industry. Although the story is fiction, we can still learn four important lessons from this character's experiences:
Lesson One: Research every company to which you plan to apply; get the name of the manager you think you want to work for and learn as much as you can about that person; address your letter to that person, specifically, and, in your letter, demonstrate your knowledge of the company and the manager, and explain why you are the right person for the job.
Andrea got herself into a situation that she could have easily avoided—as so many new college graduates do. Although she had a clear career objective—to write for The New Yorker magazine—she didn't have a clue about how to get that job. That's what got her into trouble in the first place. Andrea went about her job search all wrong, leaving copies of her resume and halfhearted cover letters with security guards at all the big publishers.
Lesson Two: Watch for warning signs during interviews.
Andrea overlooked serious warning signs during her interview at Runway magazine, for example:
● The HR manager working too hard at convincing Andrea to take a job for which she
was unqualified (no experience or interest in fashion);
● Ignoring that her job would involve no editing—the work she really wanted to do
● Accepting that she'd be required to work 14-hour days for a salary of $32,500 per year
● Getting caught up in the image associated with the job ("a job a million girls would die for") that she lied
during the interview ("I adore fashion")
● Accepting a vague job description ("…solely responsible for anticipating [the
editor's] needs and accommodating them")
Lesson Three: Desperation is a bad reason to take a permanent job.
Perhaps Andrea overlooked these signs because she'd been unemployed for six months since graduating from college and felt desperate to earn money. Working at temporary assignments through an agency while conducting a job search for a permanent position is a better choice that accepting a bad job.
What about people who've already gotten themselves into the kind of bad work situation that Andrea did?
Lesson Four: Pay attention to changes in your behavior, your body and your relationships. If a job you don't like is having a negative effect on you in these areas, then it's the wrong job for you—period. Get out as soon as you can.
Andrea began behaving like Robin Hood, expensing inappropriate charges, buying Starbucks coffee for the homeless and leaving 250% tips for breakfast—taking what wasn't hers from her rich employer and giving to the less privileged. It's hard to see this as inappropriate behavior in contrast to the things her boss got away with on a grander scale, but it's never appropriate to take what isn't ours and use it as we think it should be used, even if others are doing it. When you start doing things that you know are wrong, stop and question the values your job puts you in conflict with.
Andrea's body also gave her signs of trouble: light-headedness from not eating or sleeping enough and constant exhaustion that kept her from spending time with people she cared about—people who tried to let her know many times, but to whom she kept saying, "But you don't understand."
Andrea sacrificed her dignity and traded off her integrity in the hope (not the promise) that she'd be rewarded with a shortcut to success—that her powerful, obnoxious boss would get her the job she really wanted so she wouldn't have to work her way up. The temptation to take shortcuts to get what we want, at any cost, is the devil's work. Andrea sold her soul to that devil within herself when she got comfortable wearing Prada and lost sight of her values.
I've worked with hundreds of managers who, twenty years later, found themselves unhappy because they stayed in the job they took "temporarily" when they graduated from college. They traded-off their values when they got comfortable with the compensation, the perks and the hierarchical status they received. By the time they realized that they'd sold their souls, they felt handcuffed by huge mortgages, car payments, college tuition for their kids and the need for medical insurance for their families—to the degree that they'd lost the self-esteem needed to be able to take control of their lives and change their circumstances. So what did they do?
They became bad bosses. You can read about 39 of them in "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Boss? 13 Types and How to Survive Them." And you'll find interview tips in the book, too, so that, hopefully, you won't make the same mistake Andrea did in the first place.
Lesson One: Research every company to which you plan to apply; get the name of the manager you think you want to work for and learn as much as you can about that person; address your letter to that person, specifically, and, in your letter, demonstrate your knowledge of the company and the manager, and explain why you are the right person for the job.
Andrea got herself into a situation that she could have easily avoided—as so many new college graduates do. Although she had a clear career objective—to write for The New Yorker magazine—she didn't have a clue about how to get that job. That's what got her into trouble in the first place. Andrea went about her job search all wrong, leaving copies of her resume and halfhearted cover letters with security guards at all the big publishers.
Lesson Two: Watch for warning signs during interviews.
Andrea overlooked serious warning signs during her interview at Runway magazine, for example:
● The HR manager working too hard at convincing Andrea to take a job for which she
was unqualified (no experience or interest in fashion);
● Ignoring that her job would involve no editing—the work she really wanted to do
● Accepting that she'd be required to work 14-hour days for a salary of $32,500 per year
● Getting caught up in the image associated with the job ("a job a million girls would die for") that she lied
during the interview ("I adore fashion")
● Accepting a vague job description ("…solely responsible for anticipating [the
editor's] needs and accommodating them")
Lesson Three: Desperation is a bad reason to take a permanent job.
Perhaps Andrea overlooked these signs because she'd been unemployed for six months since graduating from college and felt desperate to earn money. Working at temporary assignments through an agency while conducting a job search for a permanent position is a better choice that accepting a bad job.
What about people who've already gotten themselves into the kind of bad work situation that Andrea did?
Lesson Four: Pay attention to changes in your behavior, your body and your relationships. If a job you don't like is having a negative effect on you in these areas, then it's the wrong job for you—period. Get out as soon as you can.
Andrea began behaving like Robin Hood, expensing inappropriate charges, buying Starbucks coffee for the homeless and leaving 250% tips for breakfast—taking what wasn't hers from her rich employer and giving to the less privileged. It's hard to see this as inappropriate behavior in contrast to the things her boss got away with on a grander scale, but it's never appropriate to take what isn't ours and use it as we think it should be used, even if others are doing it. When you start doing things that you know are wrong, stop and question the values your job puts you in conflict with.
Andrea's body also gave her signs of trouble: light-headedness from not eating or sleeping enough and constant exhaustion that kept her from spending time with people she cared about—people who tried to let her know many times, but to whom she kept saying, "But you don't understand."
Andrea sacrificed her dignity and traded off her integrity in the hope (not the promise) that she'd be rewarded with a shortcut to success—that her powerful, obnoxious boss would get her the job she really wanted so she wouldn't have to work her way up. The temptation to take shortcuts to get what we want, at any cost, is the devil's work. Andrea sold her soul to that devil within herself when she got comfortable wearing Prada and lost sight of her values.
I've worked with hundreds of managers who, twenty years later, found themselves unhappy because they stayed in the job they took "temporarily" when they graduated from college. They traded-off their values when they got comfortable with the compensation, the perks and the hierarchical status they received. By the time they realized that they'd sold their souls, they felt handcuffed by huge mortgages, car payments, college tuition for their kids and the need for medical insurance for their families—to the degree that they'd lost the self-esteem needed to be able to take control of their lives and change their circumstances. So what did they do?
They became bad bosses. You can read about 39 of them in "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Boss? 13 Types and How to Survive Them." And you'll find interview tips in the book, too, so that, hopefully, you won't make the same mistake Andrea did in the first place.
