If you have read my book you know that I tell a story about my two uncles, Uncle Pete and Uncle Bob. In the book I make the point that their hard work over the past 40 years has sustained them in jobs. They have both retired since I published my book but as a follow up I wanted to share a picture with my Uncle Bob’s retirement party that took place this past Saturday.

Congratulations Uncle Bob! Over 40 years at “the can company.” Well done, you deserve that gun and golf clubs for your service!

And yes… that is my twin brother Ryan on the left.

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!

I had an opportunity to interview Eric Barker from Accenture. Eric and I chatted about

how to become a successful consultant at one of the largest and most respected consulting companies in the world.

What type of skills does Accenture look for in candidates?

What is his day-to-day life like as a consultant?

Does Accenture hire entry-level candidates for these positions?

What is the training like for new employees?

What is the promotion potential like for Accenture employees?

and finally the low down on the travel schedule of a consultant.

Click here to listen to our conversation

Right click to download the mp3 file. 

In honor of my friend Josh Shipp I wanted to make you all aware that May is Foster Care month.

Check out their web site and check out Josh’s latest version of HeyJosh.tv.

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 post is a part of the ProBlogger Top 5 Group writing project.

Top 5 Ways for a College Student to Get a Job after Graduation by: Justin Driscoll 

5. Job shadowing at various companies during college

4. Short term project work during your school year with various companies

3. Internships, internship, internships!

2. Co-ops (multiple year work assignments with the same company)

1. Networking, networking, networking

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.

Graduation is near for many of the nation’s college students.  In order to prepare for this many students will be looking for jobs in all the wrong places.  Many of the large internet sites will make the list of frequent surfing.  In light of this increased amount of job searching among college students or recent college grads I ask you to consider this stat.

Last week I was the bi-annual meeting for the Career Services Advisory board of the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh.  At this meeting a recruiter from Enterprise Rent-A-Car was sitting next to me.  During the meeting he made the point that they hire nearly 50% of their people from employee referrals.  Did you catch that?

The largest employer of new college grads, 8,000 a year, said that they hire nearly half of all their new hires from employee referrals.  So I will ask again; why are you spending the majority of your time surfing Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs, when you should be spending at least half of your time trying to network with current employees at the company you want to work at.  The numbers have been in for a long time, network beats every other job search strategy around.

Jobinar.com launches it’s first teleseminar.

How to Get a Job In Medical Sales Without Any Experience!

Take a look at this new resource for job seekers. I don’t think you will be disapointed. This is the first of many teleseminars for this new service.

I will be interviewing Peggy McKee from Medical Sales Recruiter blog. She has many years of experience in the medical sales recruiting field so I am sure you will love the content from this teleseminar.

Click here for all the details over at Jobinar.com

When I planned on coming to Santa Fe I did not plan on dealing with SNOW!  I am from Pittsburgh so I thought by traveling to the southwest for a conference I could avoid the typical Pittsburgh weather, but I was so wrong as you can see below.