I have been reading a blog written by a very popular blogger named Steve Pavlina.  I do not agree with him on very many issues outside of entrepreneurship and generating passive income through blogs, products, speaking, consulting, etc…  However, I did want to share this post he has on generating passive income to support yourself without a job.  He goes through an extensive list of 10 reasons why you should not get a job but instead generate income from various sources.  If you are not an entrepreneurially minded person then this post will not be very interesting to you.  However, if you are interested in working for yourself some day or interested in generating passive streams of income then you will like this article.

Again, I do not agree with him philosophically or religiously so not all of the content is worth your time but his stuff of generating passive income is worth a read.

Enjoy!

Allegheny College in Meadville, PA chose to host an event I have been running at the Pittsburgh Technology Council for several years called Education Meets Industry. Essentially the school agrees to host an event where a panel of industry professionals come to speak to their students about careers. After a moderated panel discussion about career choices, career advices, we have a time of networking with the students and the company representatives. The networking piece is where the real magic happens. Students often find themselves making connections for internships or full time work after they graduate. We cannot put a price tag on how valuable these types of events really are.

On this particular night we had representatives from Vivsimo, Management Science Associates, Bayer, and Reed Smith. Company representatives spoke to questions that covered issues like:

Resume writing
Cover letters
How to get an internship
The real story about finding a job online
The hiring process at their company
The IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS (I cannot tell you how many times they emphasized this skill)
The power of personal networking when looking for a job
Relocation
Salaries
Etc…

As you can see we covered a wide variety of topics during the Q&A and even more during the networking session.

I took a few photos during the panel discussion from my perch at the moderator’s podium. What else was I going to do while they answered questions?

Thanks to Jim Fitch for all of his hard work in pulling this together.

I was at a job fair today and saw a man walking around the job fair with his daughter talking to companies about job opportunities.  I am a protective parent like the next guy but I think this crosses the line.  It is not the job of the parent to go with their child to speak with companies about job opportunities.  There needs to be a point where a parent has to let go.  Sure, give them advice, counsel, and direction but do not go to a job fair with your children.  You are not their agent, you are their parent.

Are job fairs an effective way to find a job?

Have you ever landed a job at a job fair?

Do most companies go to a “job fair” to find people to fill their jobs or do they go to meet people face to face and tell them to go to the web site to apply?

If you are a job seeker in today’s job market you might want to ask yourself these three questions before you attend your next job fair.  I have attended job fairs and I have run job fairs over the years and I must tell you that I am not sold on the effectiveness them.

What I know for sure is that no one hires anyone at a job fair.  A company may take resumes from candidates to talk to them further about job opportunities but no one is going to land a job at these events.  A better name for these events may be “networking fair,” or “Career Fair.”

The hiring process is too long and drawn out for a company to make a hiring decision on the spot.  This may have been the case 50 years ago but in today’s job market the traditional job fair may need to be rethought.  This is very evident to me as an employer who attends job fairs.  Every year the attendance at most fairs is declining, even the good ones.  Job seekers are realizing that most job fairs are a waste of their time.  They can be more efficient with their time by going on line and apply to companies on their web site rather than meeting them at a job fair where these companies are going to tell them to go their web site anyway.

However, one positive aspect of any job fair is the personal interaction that one can find with a company you may want to work at.  Even if the company tells you to go to their web site you have a personal contact that you can reference when following up with that company after you applied online.  The personal aspect of job searching cannot be discounted no matter how virtual the process becomes.

If you are planning a job fair in the near future I would recommend your fair is for a niche group of companies and job seekers.  The days of fairs that cater to all types of companies and job seekers is over.  What still works is specialized events.  For example, a job fairs for technology students, engineering students, business majors, sales people, healthcare, etc…  These still work.  They are smaller and more defined.  Everyone attending will know why they are there and expect to speak to a specialized group of people.

Are job fairs dead?  I don’t think totally but as a job seeker I would really consider the companies who will be attending before you commit any substantial amount of time to the next job fair you attend.

So I went roller-skating today.

Do you or your kid’s still roller skate?

The last time I went roller-skating, cell phones were not used by most Americans, Bill Clinton was in the first term of his presidency, Madonna was young and relevant, Vanilla Ice was an actual singer, and the internet was only beginning to take shape in our lives. Today as I skated around this old world activity I took pictures on my Palm Treo, emailed them to Flickr, and began to jot notes down for this blog post. Oh how things have changed.

Today my wife and I took a group of middle school kids from our youth group to a local roller skating rink. While I was there I was amazed at the number of unique and interesting observations I made. Therefore, I thought I would share them with you.

The rink opened in 1948, it looked like it had not been updated since about 1960.

The same man who started it still owns it today. In fact even today he was the one playing the music for his customers in the “DJ Booth.”

When we walked into this rink it felt like we went back in time at least 30 or 40 years. The women behind the glass took our money to get in, $5.00. As you may have guessed no credit cards were accepted. If I heard correctly she was the wife of the owner.

Then it was over to the skate rental window where a man approaching 80 took our $3.00 for skate rentals. I am not sure if he has been working there since 1948 or not but he sure looked like it. I was surprised to see they did offer inline skates rather than the regular four-wheeled roller skates.

The skate rental guy was not able to remember very much information as he worked. As I told him I needed a 13 in roller blades he brought me only one skate. As he set it down in front of me he looked at me like, “Well what do you want me to do? Get going.” So I looked back at him with a puzzled expression and said, “Can I have the other one?” He then realized what he did and then found the other one in the back. I have not idea what he was thinking by only bringing one skate instead of the pair. Especially if you have been working there for 58 years. Don’t’ you think you would have mastered the art of the skate rental window by now? Maybe I don’t know exactly what all goes into remembering the size, taking the money, and brining skates back to the window all at the same time but I would think one could get a handle on this skill after 58 years.

As I began to skate I noticed a man in a referee jersey skating around with a whistle. He apparently was the one in charge on the rink floor. If you stepped out of line in any way he blew the whistle at you to get you back on the straight and narrow. I am not sure how long he had worked there but he also looked like he was still stuck in the 1970s. The pants, the hair style, the mustache, everything. It all fit very well in 1976 but not 2006. All I could think of was that the TV show “That 70s Show.”

There was an organ behind some glass that is used on “adult skate” Thursday morning.

There was a couple who wore the old style skates with clothing that also looked like it was from the 1970s. Their skating abilities far surpassed anyone else’s in the rink but their unique look and fashion style fit very well with the rest of the operation. During the “couples skate” they did not skate and hold hands like we use to do but they danced while they skated. It was very impressive.

Then of course there were a few miscellaneous men, also dressed in an un-modern way, skating around and showing off for people who didn’t care to watch them; also, quite strange.

We did the limbo and some number game where the winning group received a free Pepsi! Oh the joy that filled my soul with a free Pepsi!

I have to tell you, as bizarre as this place was skating is quite a work out. I was sweating quite a bit and have the sore legs to remind me of it tonight.

This post has nothing to do with job searching but I thought I would share my interesting day with you.

Does anyone still roller skate? If so, is your local roller skating rink as bizarre as mine?

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you think back and wonder, “What in the world did I do this week? Where did the week go?” That was my week.

I have been speaking nearly every day of the week at a different school or education organization.

Monday I started out at the Pittsburgh Council of Higher Education where I presented to a group of career counselors from Pittsburgh area colleges and universities on the Pittsburgh Technology Council. We talked extensively about what types of skills technology companies are looking for in college graduates. Some of those skills include: JAVA, ASP.NET, HTML, C++, C, and a few others. Software jobs are in great demeand here in the Pittsburgh region. One of the things I have been trying to emphasize to students and educators is the importance of communication skills in the workplace. Time and again recruiters emphasize to me how important it is for new graduates to have strong communication skills. A company can train someone to be a better programmer or engineer but it is hard to train them to write or speaker more effectively. It can be done but it takes longer.

On Tuesday I was part of a very large “Career Day” at a local school district. There we had four group of local high school student’s parade through to hear all about different careers from professionals around the Pittsburgh region. I was on a panel with a banker, a lawyer, someone from hospitality and tourism, and higher education. I had the chance to tell my popular “3-Pack-A-Day Rooster” story. It is a big hit with high school students.

Wednesday I was a vendor at the Robert Morris University job fair. I love attending job fairs. This is the fourth year in a row I have attended this fair. The student attendance was a little light but I would say that is true with ever fair I have been to this year. Are job fairs quickly fading away as a good way to find a job? How mayn of those companies were actually looking to hire the people who they met at the fair? Since the internet is so important for companies and recruiting why spend the money attending job fairs? I am not an expert but I am a thinker. (Thanks Glenn Beck)

Today, I spoke at Chatham College in Pittsburgh to a group of science students. The attendance was light but the interaction with the students was great. The major emphasis was on internships. The students who attended were mainly freshman or sophomores. I hope they were able to understand my passion for college students doing internships.  Thanks Monica for setting this up!

It has been a world-wind of a week which does not end yet. Tomorrow is the @pgh.cafe job and internship fair for college and universities students. This is a technology job fair here in the Pittsburgh region. We have 31 companies participating so I am putting the final touches on that event today. It is such a great job market right now. I have turned away nearly 10 companies because we are out of room. Our next event is in February which is poised to be a huge success.

Needless to say I am looking forward to the weekend but it has been a joy speaking at so many schools and affecting so many students these past several weeks.

I have become a huge fan of Indeed.com.

Now they have a Salary Search. I pulled some info right from their web site to explain what they are doing. This is a great tool to figure out how much you are worth.
Indeed Salary Search is based on an index of salary information extracted from over 50 million job postings from thousands of unique sources over the last 12 months. Many job descriptions don’t contain salary information, but there are enough that do to produce statistically significant median salaries for millions of keyword, job title and location combinations - in fact, most job searches you are likely to think of. As new jobs are added each day, the Indeed Salary Search index is automatically updated with fresh salary data, so the salary results are as up-to-date as they could possibly be. (Credit:Indeed.com)

I am reposting this podcast with motivational speaker Josh Shipp. This podcast was originally posted on Successful Motivational Speakers.com but I want to give the interview a larger audience by reposting it here.

A little about Josh…(right from his web site)

Josh Shipp is an internationally known speaker for school assemblies, youth conferences, colleges, and educational events. He is celebrating over seven years of ENTERTAINING, INSPIRING, and EMPOWERING audience’s world wide, and he’s still in his EARLY TWENTIES.
His message is simple, yet powerful. Entertaining, yet challenging. He has spoken to over ONE MILLION PEOPLE, hosted a REALITY TV SHOW, and has shared the stage with BILL COSBY. Josh has the ability to connect on a rare level, to inspire, motivate and get young people to THINK about their lives. Abandoned, neglected, and abused as a child, Josh’s personal story of triumph over tragedy inspires youth to overcome life struggles and to live life to the fullest.

Right click here to listen or

As a job seeker are you going to blend into the crowd or are you going to be remarkable? I have created this podcast because I think it will give you a good illustration on how to be remarkable and memorable as a job seeker with the help of a “Three-Pack-A-Day-Rooster.”Let’s face it; everyone has a resume, a cover letter, a nice suit, and gel for their hair. Everyone is applying for jobs on Monster, Career Builder, Dice, and every other online job board. So the question remains how can you stand out from your competition to get noticed by the company you want to work at?

Here is the list of things you can “be” in order to stand out from the crowd as a job seeker just like this rooster you are about to learn about stood out from his crowd of other roosters and became remarkable.

BE…

1. Remarkable
2. Consistent
3. Ethical
4. Friendly
5. A good communicator
6. Innovative
7. Bold
8. Risky
9. Real
10. Able to fail
11. Able to get up
12. Loud
13. Kind
14. An expert in your chosen field
15. Yourself

Enjoy!
Right-click to download this mp3

I just finished speaking at Allegheny College In Meadville, Pennsylvania today. The group was small but very engaged. I was there promoting a few events we have coming up at the Pittsburgh Technology Council like our @pgh.cafe and the Education Meets industry event. The @pgh.cafe is on October 20th and the EMI event is on October 25th.

They asked me to speak on career advice for college students so of course I had to share some of the principles outlined in my new book “The 7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Graduated.” It went very well and the feedback I received was great.

Two of the students who were at the event were marketing and PR majors. The one young lady is truly being innovative in her approach to job searching. She is doing a direct mail campaign to Allegheny College alumni by mailing them a postcard to introduce herself to them and then trying to line up meetings with each of them at their upcoming homecoming game. This job search strategy kills two birds with one stone.

1. She makes great contacts with Allegheny College graduates that could help her find a job.

2. She promotes the college by bringing some of the alumni back to campus for homecoming.

This is a great example of how to be truly innovative in your job search strategy.

I do want to thank Jim Fitch from Allegheny College for being such a great supporter of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and my work a speaker!

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the event.