What does finding a spouse and finding a career have in common?

1. A large amount of patience is required for both
2. Hanging out in groups in order to find a spouse or a job is typically required
3. If all of your needs are not met both of these relationships can fall apart quickly.
4. Everyone has preconceived notions about going into a relationship like this. The more open you are with each other in the beginning of the relationship the better off you will be later.
5. The first couple of dates (interviews) can be very uncomfortable.
6. In order to be a friend you must first be friendly. (Even in an interview)
7. People like to be respected; men- hold the door for your date (spouse), open her car door, write her a love letter, buy her flowers, speak to her with love and not harsh words. Isn’t the same true of an interview? Send them a thank you letter for interviewing you, treat the interviewer with respect during the interview, etc…
8. A call back might not happen after the first date (interview)
9. Some persistence might be required
10. In order for anyone to find a spouse or a job, a miracle needs to happen. In the area of marriage it is always amazing to me to learn of two totally separate people rearranging their entire lives to become one flesh. When they met each other they had their own goals and objectives, but when they accept that bond of marriage they relinquish those desires and focus on their desires together.
11. The same goes for finding a job. When a company is looking to hire a new person they search far and wide for the right candidate. This company could hire anyone they want but when it came down to it, they hired you. How mind blowing is that? It could have been anyone in the world but it was you. Don’t take that fact lightly.
12. When you do find a spouse or find a job don’t take these two miracles lightly. Count your blessings and thank God for these two privileges.

One of my favorite blogs, Get Rich Slowly, has a great post by a guest writer Lilly from The Honest Dollar.  Read the whole article here.

Summary points (I recommend reading the whole post here)

• 401k Match
• Employee Referrel Program
• Ask for a better 401k
• Improve your skill set

Non Cash Rewards 

• Ask for more vacation
• Ask for a flexible work arrangement - telecommuting / flextime
• Volunteer within the firm

The following example comes from Lily’s full post that you can read here, but I thought it was worth embedding.  She outlines how to give yourself a $20,000 raise on a $60,000 a year salary.  She calls it the Virtual Raise.

Virtual Raise Example From Lily 

On a $60,000 salary, in a single year:

• You can get $1,800 by getting the maximum 401(k) match if you company matches 50% of employee contributions up to 6% of salary.
• You can get $1,500 for referring a candidate who is later hired by your company. (Payouts vary, but the number seems reasonable given going rates in technology, nursing, and chemical engineering.)
• You can get $11,000 more out of a 401(k) contribution of $10,000 this year if you manage to lower your investment cost by 0.5% per year for the next 20 years by convincing your company to cover administrative fees or offer lower cost funds.
• You can get $5,000 in tuition reimbursement. Of course, you also get the benefit of additional education and accreditation.
• You can get the equivalent of $1,200 in salary if you get one additional week of paid vacation.
• You can get priceless career opportunities by expanding your network through volunteering opportunities within your firm.

What do you think?  Have you tried any of these techniques?  Does it work?

Thanks

justin

Chip MacGregor who blogs about the publishing and writing industry has some great advice on how to get serious about your writing career.

I really needed this advice before I wrote my first book back in 2006.  He has a list of 10 items that would have helped me and will help you now jump start your writing career.  The one tip that I feel is most important is dedicating specific time to write, everyday.  If you are like me, life is jammed packed with way too much activity.  The very thought of writing a book, a daily blog post, or even a weekly article can be daunting.  However, if you dedicate a consistent time every day or every other day you will be amazed at how much writing you can actually get done.  Chip talks about how he chose to write for two hours every morning from 6AM - 8AM.  If he didn’t write at that time of the day he would have never wrote anything.  I love the idea of waking up at 6AM to write but for some reason my body doesn’t seem to function very well before 7AM.  Then it takes my brain another hour to wake up.  I would say by 8AM I am ready to write but not before that.  Can you write before 8AM?  Do you like the morning time or evening for writing?

The same idea can be said about blogging.  I have really determined for 2008 to get serious again about my writing and blogging.   If I don’t set aside a few minutes everyday to consider what I am writing or blogging about it will never get done.  I have never been diagnosed with A.D.D. but I sometimes wonder if I don’t have it.  Therefore it can be hard to focus on writing or finishing a post.  The phone might ring, an email will ding, a new text message has arrived, etc…  You know exactly what I mean.  If it isn’t one thing it is another.  However, if we are serious about our blogging and writing career we must try and push through the distractions to actually get some work done.

Hop over to Chip’s blog to read all about his great post in getting serious about your writing career in 2008.

Unless you have been living under a rock you are aware of the apparent slow down in the US economy and the shockwaves that it is sending around the world.  The Dow opened up in a nosedive today but has since rebounded as I write this post.  The fact of the matter is the economy and the stock market fluctuate everyday.  One-day earnings are good and the next day they are not.  One day the interest rates are cut and the next day they rise.  Today business is booming but tomorrow unemployment might rise higher than it ever has.  The economy, business, our career, our lives all have ups and downs.  There isn’t anything we can do about it.  Solomon was right on the money when he said there is nothing new under the sun.

I am not going to write this article today hoping to give you some economic insight and reassurance.  My brother is majoring in international affairs and national security at the University of Pittsburgh.  When he goes on and on about the economy and world affairs I often find myself yawning through the speech because it begins to bore me to death.  However, that doesn’t mean I am not interested in it and glad that someone is thinking about these issues.  I am also glad that it isn’t me.  Even though I am not an economist I do have common sense.  My common sense tells me to not get so excited about the down turn in the economy and the stock market.  These things happen and will continue to happen; simply because the economy is slowing down, and yes we might go into a recession does not mean that your employer is going to walk into your office today and hand you a pink slip.  Could it happen?  Yes, but it won’t happen because your boss was watching CNBC and heard the news of a recession and decided to start taking preventive measure by firing you.

Here are a few things to keep in mind since the mainstream media is constantly talking about recession, recession, and more recession.

Every industry is different: The trucking industry is down today because the homebuilders industry is down.  On the flip side the software industry is booming and so is telecom.  In certain sections of the country manufacturing is still going strong while the car industry limps along.  The education and government sectors cannot find enough qualified workers to fill their seats.  The ups and downs of life have always been there, why do we act like this is something new?

Anita Bruzzese over at 45 Things.com has a great post on “Recession Proofing” your job.  Here are a few items she suggested, I recommend reading the entire post for more detail.

Keep Your Butt in the Chair – Now is not the time to slack off.  Now is the time to step it up and show your company that you care and want to see them succeed.  I agree.
Reach out – she suggests reaching out to other departments and learning from them about what is going on in their world so you can stay ahead of the game.  Another way to put it is to make sure you are reading the writing on the wall.  If your company is talking about closing offices, losing big clients, etc… you might want to consider redoing your resume.
Network Like Crazy – all of those industry meetings you have been attending, or should be attending, will now begin to pay off.  If you have developed a good network of people you might want to consider putting your feelers out there to determine what is going on in the marketplace.
Be on the cutting edge – I love this idea.  The people who are on the cutting edge will not be left behind.  Have you been reading the trade publications for your industry?  Have you been reading and contributing to blogs in your industry?  All of that effort won’t be in vain when you need to switch jobs.  All of that effort will add to your networking efforts because those are the people you need to be talking with when you need to jump ship.

Great post Anita, I think you are right on the money.

I would also add…

• Consider hiring a career coach before you do lose your job
• Call the college you graduated from and talk with their career center.  These offices can be a great resource when you are considering a new job.
• Take a step back and consider what you are doing for a living.  If you are unhappy in your current role now might be a great time to go back to school or take some time off to find what you are truly passionate about.
• Understand the business you are in and make sure you are trying to read the writing on the wall before they read the writing on the wall to you by telling you to pack up your office and be out by 5PM.  That is never fun.

Here’s the bottom line.  Simply because we might be headed for a recession does not mean you are going to lose your job.  If you do lose your job there are a number of factors that went into this decision.  CNBC doesn’t have as much impact on your boss’s decision as it might seem.

What do you think?  Do you agree with my assessment of the situation?  Do you agree with Anita over at 45 Things? Tell us what you think by leaving a comment.

I was talking with my friend Steve over the weekend at a graduation party about my book.

During our conversation he told me that the first chapter of my book, finding the need, inspired him to look within his own company to see where he could meet the need of his own company.  Even when I wrote this book I was only thinking about entry level candidates and not thinking about the experienced worker but you cannot limit the genius of individual freedom.

Steve was a seasoned UPS driver doing door-to-door deliveries.  As he looked within the company he realized that UPS was in need of drivers who had their CDL.  A CDL is a commercial trucking license which allows him to drive the 18-wheelers.  Steve’s ability to fresh in his position allowed him to make a wise career choice for him, his family, and even the company he works for.

This introspection of finding the need within his own company helped him do a few things:

• Earn more money because of his new job
• Gain more education within the company
• Help his company meet their needs in a timely fashion

I would venture to say that his introspection not only helped him and his family but his company will be more likely to go to him with more opportunities in the future because he displayed a few characteristics that every company would love to have in their employees:

A willingness to change (Steve is probably at the mid point in his career, with a wife and three children.  It would have been easy to sit back and be content with his situation but his willingness to find the need propelled him to make this change.)

Flexibility – this is a trait that is necessary in today’s job market.  Companies are making changes much more rapidly.  If you are savvy enough to see the changes coming you can then be flexible enough to stay ahead of the curve like Steve did.

Innovative Employees Will Never Be Unemployed – This trait goes along with the willingness to change trait but Steve was looking for the innovative way to get ahead in his company.  In his case innovation meant helping the company in an area it desperately needed assistance, commercial drivers.

Steve’s pursuit to advance his own career could not be done without first looking toward advancing the company he works for.  As his company grows and expands so does his own professional opportunities.  When you are looking to advance your own career make sure you are doing it within the confines of advances the company you work for because your career advancement and your company’s advancement goes hand in hand.

Great job Steve!

Before you read this article make sure you check out the first four articles in this series.

How to Be Guranteed a Job After Graduation

Freshman Year Career Plan

Sophomore Career plan

Junior Year Career Development Plan

This is the final installment in a five part series on How To Be Guaranteed A Job After College. The entire series can be summed up in two words, Experiential Education. As a review, experiential education is nothing more than college students getting work experience while they are in school outside of the classroom. It is a great idea to do as well as you can in your college classes, you need that high GPA, but what is nearly as important is the amount of real life work experience you have once you walk across that graduation stage.

We live in a very competitive job market with a 95% employment rate. Yes I know we always hear about the unemployment rate but to switch this number around we are living in a 95% employment rate. That means only 5% of the population is without work. 95% of the population is working. Of those 5% who are not working many of those chose not to or cannot work for one reason or another.

Since we have such a high employment rate I would suggest you do everything you can to set yourself apart from your competition. One of the only ways to do that while in school is to get as much real life work experience as possible.

The first four articles for this plan have focused on 13 different ways college students can get some great real life work experience and practical knowledge about their potential career while they are still in school.

• Consulting with Career Services
• Career assessment tests
• Meeting with your academic advisor
• Local company visits (company tours)
• Job shadowing experiences
• Writing a resume
• Company Research
• Summer Internship
• School Year internship
• Job fairs
• Networking events
• Short-term project work
• Co-Ops

Here are a two more items to consider during your senior year in addition to the previous 13 opportunities.

Read career articles on the Internet and in respected publications such as Career Journal, Justin Driscoll.net, Monster.com, WetFeet.com and others. I would even recommend reading blogs from corporate recruiters. Many of the large companies are blogging. You can find out more info on this via their online career center.

Attend Career Events – I participate and plan many career information events for college students every year. I know they are happening on your campus. These are not job fairs but panel discussions and specific events for your major. Talk with you professors or career center professionals to find out more info. Last year one of the career events I planned gave a student who attended an opportunity to land an internship with a local advertising company. They work!

In closing, here is what it takes to get a job… HARD WORK. Very few people who have a job ever get that job by walking into the hiring managers office and walking out with an offer.

Once you find a position you are qualified for it is a long process to make sure you are a good fit with the company and the company a good fit with you. It is very expensive to hire the wrong person. That is why so many companies are taking such a long time to hire new candidates; they don’t want to make a mistake.

If you do your hard work up front while you are in college you will be more than educated on the type of opportunities that are available to you when you graduate. In fact you may have an offer in front of you months before you ever walk across that graduation stage. If you do multiple internships or co-ops or job shadows you have a much better shot at landing a position before you graduate. I would go as far to say that if you follow these 15 steps during your college career you will be guaranteed a Job After Graduation!

Here is another Top 5 List for the Pro Blogger Writing Project.

A simple list of five ways to ensure that you always have a job or will get another faster if you lose your current one.  This isn’t a magical formula but more of a practical list.

Top 5 Ways to Always Have a Job

5. Hard working

4. Ethics Still Matter in Business

3. Innovative Employees will never be unemployed

2. Those that aren’t afraid to change are invaluable (flexibility / teamwork)

1. Your professional network is more valuable than you could ever measure

This is the second installment of a four part series entitle the Career Development plan for College Students.

To read the freshman year plan click here,

The second edition of the Career Development plan is the sophomore year.

For your sophomore year I recommend continuing some of the freshman year plan but then stepping it up a notch with a few new ideas.

• Continue to meet with your career services advisor. As I said in my first post they are a wealth of resources. Besides, what else are they going to do all day if they don’t meet with you? Their full time job is to meet with students and advise them on career decisions.

• Continue to visit local companies. This process should continue all four years. If you work on this all four years think how many companies you could visit. Even if you only visited two per semester over the course of four years that would be 16 companies in four years. How many of your friends could say they have visited 16 companies over the course of four years? 16 companies in four year = chick magnet, right? Wouldn’t you agree? ☺

• Continue your job shadowing experiences. Again try and do at least one per semester at different types of companies in different industries. These types of experiences can hopefully be arranged via your professors or your career services office. Again, they are waiting for you to come in and talk with them about things like this.

• Tweak your resume. Since this is your second year of school you will have more to put on it. Your first year of school should have provided some great experiences like job shadows and internships. Make sure those are now on your resume. I highly recommend you work with a professional on making your resume as sharp as possible. If you are like me editing your resume is not an easy process. I often over look the smallest of errors that professionals will not miss.

• Continue to do your company research. Find out as much as possible about local companies that could be potential employers. Once you have done a fair bit of research on a few of them continue to try and make some in-roads within these organizations to see what it would be like to work there. A company tour, a job shadow, and internship, or even an information interview could be a great way to take your research to the next step.

• That leads me to my next point. Informational interviewing is a great way to get very valuable experience. Let’s face it; most college students don’t know that much about working in the real world. A great way to learn what it would be like is to sit down with professionals and talk about their job and their day-to-day lives. If you were considering a job in broadcasting, it would be a great idea to call a local radio station to try and interview the local talk show host or popular DJ. Find some time to schedule a visit with them during their workday. Call them and ask them for 30 minutes of their time to find out more about their day-to-day tasks. Tell them you are interested in learning more about what it would be like to work in their field. Most people will not refuse you. Once you have the meeting set, work with your parents, career services professional, or professor to come up with a list of questions to ask them. Hopefully the conversation will take care of itself but it would be a good idea to have some conversations starters ready to go.

• Consider finding a school year internship. At the end of your freshman year I suggested it might be a good idea to find a summer internship. Now I am suggesting the possibility of finding an internship during your spring semester. Shortly after you return from summer break start to look for a spring internship. Try and secure it before the end of the fall semester so you can create your spring schedule around this position. I know during my senior year I worked at an internship during the fall and the spring. I was able to take mostly night classes that made it work. Not every school offers that type flexibility but maybe you could take all morning classes and then work in the afternoon. Do what you can with the resources you have.

• Attend a job fair. I should have mentioned this in the freshman year post but I forgot. I would recommend attending job fairs all four years. They are a great way to improve your networking abilities. You never know whom you are going to meet at these events. I would also recommend making business cards to take to a job fair. Check out Vistaprint.com for very inexpensive cards. You will knock’em dead if you show up to the job fair with business cards. Very few students do this.

• Attend a local professional networking event. Most local communities have a chamber of commerce or a trade association. I know here in the Pittsburgh area we are spoiled with a number of professional networking events available to us. Talk with career services or your professor about local professional events that are related to your major. Nearly every profession has a trade association or networking group that is related to your field of study. These types of events can be a great resource when it comes to finding a job after school. Remember, nearly 80% of the people working found that job through networking.

Again, this is not a complete list but it a group of suggestions. If you have other suggestions please feel free to drop me an email.

Stay tuned for tomorrow and the Junior Year Plan.

Freshman Year Career Plan

This is the first installment of a series of articles on a Career Development Plan for college students freshman through senior year.  Yesterday, I posted the introduction article about the series.  I would recommend reading it for some background.

These lists of tasks for your freshman year are in no particular order and of course are a suggestion of the items you should try and accomplish over the course of your first year in college related to career development.  Will you be able to do all of them?  Maybe not but at least try to do as many of them as possible; the more you do the more likely you will have a clear sense of direction about your career as your college career moves forward.

• Meet with you career service advisor at your campus career center.  These professionals are paid to help you find direction when it comes to your career.  They can be a wealth of resources most students over look.
• Take a career assessment test.  Your campus career service office will most likely have some type of career test available for you to take.  I highly recommend you take a look at their assessment tools to help you gage your interest and strengths.
• Schedule a meeting with your academic advisor after you have spent some time talking with career services.  Most students do it backwards; they pick a major and then visit career services.  How can you pick a major before you know what type of career you are interested in working toward?  Your major is a large factor in choosing your career.  Once you have met with career services you may need to meet with your academic advisor to change your major.
• Work with career services or professors to try and schedule tours of local companies.  Most companies are open to hosting tours of their facilities, especially for local schools.  If you are interested in engineering maybe you can tour the local manufacturing company or a technology company.  Tour the companies that fit within your interest.  Maybe you could even take an entire class to the company.
• Coordinate with family members or college staff to set-up one or two job shadowing experiences over the course of your freshman year.  A job shadow is a great way to get some insight into a company.  This is not an internship; you will not get paid.  This is simply an opportunity for you to spend a half a day or a full day with a company that is related to your field of interest.  The beauty of these types of experiences are multiple but the most important benefit is that you can get a very clear picture about it would be like to work in that company without actually working there.
• Write a resume.  I sound like a broken record but work with your career center to write your resume.  It may not be long but at least you have one. If it is short or sparse it might motivate you to fill it up with internships, job shadows, accomplishments, and jobs.
• If possible consider getting a summer internship after your freshman year.  Even if it is unpaid try and get some real experience within your field of study.  Work for a company that is willing to make your internship a learning experience.  The benefits of an internship are many but an internship might be the only way you could ever know if you actually want to be an accountant if you are studying accounting. It is also the only way to know if you don’t want to be an accountant.  Real life work experience matters more than textbooks.
• Create a list of companies in your local area that hire people like you.  If you are studying to be a JAVA programmer.  Work with your career center and professors to learn about as many of the companies in your area who hire JAVA programmers.  The more you know about an industry, a company, and a job, the more opportunities you will have when looking for your first job.  Knowledge truly is power when it comes to career development.

This is a list of suggested career development items you might want to consider for your freshman year.  There may be more but there may be less.  The focus of all these activities is ensuring you as a student spend as much time out of the classroom and in the real world as possible.  I love the classroom environment and love learning but I am a true believer in learning through experience.  It can be very eye opening when it comes to career development.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s edition for the Sophomore Career Development Plan.

I am not a career counselor; however I have become fascinated with the career development industry.  My view of career advice and comes from experience and the experiences of others.

Today I want to focus on career development and planning.

Did I ever take a career assessment?  Sure, who hasn’t?  All of us sat in the guidance counselor’s office in high school completing those meaningless tests to try and tell us what we should do for a living.  To be honest with you I cannot remember what my results said, do you?  If that is the only opportunity for career assessment or if that is the only time we ever think about your career options how does that prepare anyone for their future?  How do you choose your career?  How do you know what you want to do if a high school career assessment is your only opportunity for consideration?

I currently work at the Pittsburgh Technology Council in Pittsburgh, PA.  I often say in speeches that I did not wake up one morning and say, “I really want to work at the Pittsburgh Technology Council one day!”  I landed there because of an internship that a professor in college helped me get.  My career assessment was not very thorough or planned.  My own career journey happened with much inquiry and on the job assessment.  I was willing to try just about anything.  My internship was enjoyable, I enjoyed the work, I enjoyed the people I worked with and I believed in the mission of the company.  And now I have been there almost five years.

These three principles has kept me at the Council and are the three principles that keep most people at their employer or makes them want to work for a particular company.

1. Enjoy what you do
2. Enjoy who you work with
3. Believe in the mission

Has your career happened because of much planning and pre-assessment or did it happen by a random or probably divine set of events?  It would be an interesting study to determine how many people in the workforce are working in a field they studied for or planned for and how many are there for reasons they cannot explain.

How about you?  Are you in a company or job you planned for or did it happen in a seemingly divine series of events?