The Author: Jeffrey Tarter

Welcome!

I’m Jeff Tarter, the guy who wrote The First Hundred Days. My more-or-less official bio tells you about my background:

Jeffrey Tarter is a veteran business writer and entrepreneur who has helped create more than a dozen newsletters, newspapers, magazines, professional associations, conferences, and software companies. He has worked as a Time-Life staff writer, senior editor at Inc. Magazine, combat reporter, technology industry analyst, marketing copywriter, management consultant, conference producer, expert witness, and ghost writer. He has also washed dishes (Robert Heinlein’s perennial job for the unskilled), assembled helicopter controls, sold printing, and clerked in a pawn shop.

If there’s a common thread in all this, it’s that I love to unearth ways to improve people’s lives. I’m not much interested in academic theories: My real fondness is for very practical stuff, which sometimes seems insanely trivial but may lead to surprisingly valuable results.

In fact, one of the most memorable moments in my writing career took place years ago at an industry conference, where one of my newsletter subscribers spotted me and ran over and hugged me. “That piece you wrote in your last issue changed my life!” he said. “You showed me how to refocus my whole business!” Having that kind of impact is what keeps me fired up about what I’m doing, despite occasional frustrations and unglamorous hours of drudgery. (My wife happened to be with me at this conference, by the way, so my subscriber’s big hug earned me brownie points with her as well…)

As you’ll discover, The First Hundred Days reflects this same emphasis on practical, life-changing ideas. The original idea came from a realization that there are literally thousands of books and other resources about how to find a job—but almost nothing about how to succeed once you land that job. There are also armies of experts who specialize in helping managers and executives grow their careers—but almost no help for rank-and-file, rookie employees. (A cynic might speculate that this lack of interest likely occurs because the rank-and-file don’t have fat budgets to hire executive coaches.)

So I jumped in, asked a lot of questions, interviewed people with great stories to tell, read lots of books and articles by smart people, and distilled what I’d learned into The First Hundred Days.

Along the way, I discovered that I’d actually picked up a fair amount of practical job wisdom myself—both as an employee and as a manager. Candidly, I was never a star performer in either role. But my sincere wish is that this little book will help a new generation of early-stage employees get off to a much better start than I did.

Best wishes!