Here you go, 20 pieces of random advice on job searching.  If you have your own advice on job searching please add it on the comments page.

Thanks

Justin

1. Moster.com ins’t the only place to find a job.

2. Most people find a job via networking not blasting out their resume to hundreds of job descriptions

3. Finding a job truly is a divine experience.  So many factors have to come into place in order for you to land a job.

4. Nine times out of 10 the door you think will lead to a job won’t.

5. One time out of 10 will lead to the job you never saw coming.

6. When you are new to job searching meet with a career counselor to help you develop your job search tool box.

7. What is your job search tool box?  Resume, cover letter, references, web site, portfolio, etc…

8. Use your personal and online network to look for a job.

9. Does anyone still use the classifieds?

10. Are you on Linked In yet?  Not only do they advertise jobs but you can use it to search for people at companies you might want to work for.  Once you have made a connection with them you can ask them about job openings.

11. Take down all of your encriminating photos from your MySpace and Facebook.

12. The first three - five years of your career needs to be spend learning as much as you can about your choosen career.

13. Find a mentor within your current employer.

14. Don’t be average, but innovative

15. Innovative employees are invaluable.

16. If you are still in college or high school, real life work experience matters more than text books.  Get as much real world experience as possible before you graduate.

17. Consider doing a job shadow before you graduate.

18. Be an intern and love it.  It might just be your best way into your profession.

19. Take an unpaid internship; suck it up, millions others before you had to do this.  It’s called paying your dues.

20. Start to collect business cards, they will make you money.

More lists like this to come on job searching.  Stay tuned.  If you have your own list of job search advice, post it under the comments section.

As some of you reading this post know, I recently left my first professional job at the Pittsburgh Technology Council. I was there five years, and thoroughly enjoyed my time at the organization. In fact, I was an intern with the Council before they hired me on full time back in 2002. They took a chance on me which I will be forever grateful for.

Since leaving, I am beginning to live my goal of being self-employed. My first and well only client is EduLink Inc. I am doing business development work for them; working with school districts, colleges, and municipalities. We offer them database management solutions.

Now that I have officially been self-employed for a whole two weeks I thought I would share with you what I have learned so far.

1. Businesses pay way too many TAXES!
2. Health insurance is expensive no matter which plan you chose. Be grateful to your employer if they pick up a large portion of the monthly premium. To match the health care coverage I left behind at the Council would cost close to $1,000 per month!!! (By the way, government health care is not the answer either.)
3. The freedom to work with multiple companies at one time is liberating.
4. Any new business I land for EduLink or in other ventures will happen as a result of NETWORKING not cold calling or cold-emailing.
5. Office supplies are taken for granted at every corporation. Ironically enough staples, tape, paper clips, post it notes, and pens do not grow in cubicles. Someone had to actually order those items for businesses to use. Weird huh?
6. IT professionals within corporations are grossly unappreciated. When you are your own tech support you will quickly realize this.
7. Macs really can be used as a business computer, much to the chagrin of every Microsoft-centric IT professional in the world!
8. Self-motivation only happens when you love what you do.
9. It takes time to start anything new.
10. Nothing happens over night, even in the private sector.
11. Someone can make the switch from the non-profit or government sector to the private sector and succeed.
12. Your parents / spouse / siblings / friends will always be cautious when you leave a “safe and secure” job to step out into the great unknown of entrepreneurship. Mainly because they care about you and don’t want to see you fail.
13. People are jealous of people who succeed.
14. You really can invest without a 401K or pension.
15. IKEA is a great place for office furniture.
16. LegalZoom.com makes forming a corporation very easy.
17. Your accountant will be your new best friend and maybe even your lawyer…. nah, on second thought, let’s just stick with your accountant.
18. Business expenses are far reaching – another reason why your accountant will be your best friend.
19. The greater the risk the greater the reward – thanks Richard David
20. Not all technology entrepreneurs get out of bed at noon and work until midnight.

I am sure there is more items I could add to this list but this is good for now. If you have taken the plunge into self-employment or entrepreneurship drop me an email; justin at justindriscoll.net

A colleague of mine sent me a link to a really great web site called “The Cool Hunter.” Here is how they describe themselves:

The Cool Hunter is an Internet-based hub for the best and coolest of everything. Created and engineered for today’s demanding and discerning pop-culture audience – highly invested in stylistic and cultural trends.

Click here to view the amazing offices spaces from Cool Hunter.

They posted an article along with some great pictures of workspaces from different companies around the world. These companies have taken painstaking efforts to understand what type of work environment will allow their employees to operate at the most innovative and creative level. They have also thought through, or maybe I should say thought past, the assembly line mentality that most corporations still exisit in, from an office space perspective.

Think about it - when we went to school how were the desks aligned? They were perfectly formatted in straight lines and everyone even sat in alphabetical order. We were taught not to step out of line, not to stand out from the crowd. The best students were those who blended in, earned high grades, and high SAT scores. The students who were looked down upon were those who didn’t fit the mold of public education. Anyone who stuck their head up was considered a trouble maker and would not be tolerated. Why does it surprise us that the majority of office environments are nicely aligned rows and cubes? We have been sitting in them since we were old enough to attend school. The only exception would probably be kindergarten, but after that the condition began.

Therefore, when you view a web site like the one I linked to above it is almost baffling to consider working in an environment like that. It doesn’t fit the mold. It doesn’t compute with most of the current workforce.

I have a couple of questions

1. Have you ever worked at a company that had an office environment like the ones featured over at Cool Hunter?

2. Did it really make you more creative? Were you able to be more innovative?

3. What would happen to a company from a staff perspective if they began to impliment very different office environments like Coll Hunter is touting? Would people leave? Would it attract a new type of employee that your company was never able to attract in the past?
4. Can I keep my over-stuffed, high back office chair if I am working at a desk made out of a mini-van?

5. Most importantly will I still have a work enviornment where I can plug in my iPod if it runs out of juice during the work day? As long as that is possible I guess I can live with the mini-van in my office.

6. Since we are all reading about the up and coming labor shortage, will an office environment that promotes an innovative and creative culture attract a younger workforce? Will it attract the millennials that Ryan Healy advocates for over at Employee Evolution? (By the way, I am one of the people he is talking about.)

7. Is the return on investment going to be there if a company spends a boat-load of money on an office environment? How practical is this type of decision for a small company who is bootstrapping their way through life?

8. What type of company is optiimal to consider these radical office changes?

9. How will you measure your workforces improvement by offering such an environment such as this?

I am asking these questions because I don’t have all the answers. Feel free to offer your two sense by commenting on this post. Overall I love the idea of drastically shaking up the office space of companies around America. We live in a knowledge economy and should act like it. We no longer work on very many assembly lines in this country. We deisgn them but we don’t actualy work on them. since that is the reality our office environments should reflect our new way of working. A couple of recomendations for CEOs and interier designers:

1. Office environments don’t need to be uniform

2. They need to foster collaboration, team work, innovation, creativity

3. Fitting the mold in life is no longer cool

4. Being different is in an no longer considered wrong

How much longer can we really stand sitting in these boring cubes?

Question: Do you believe that job searching happens by divine providence?

My reason for asking such a thought provoking question is because this topic of divine providence in job searching does not get talked about nearly enough, at least not from what I have seen in the blogosphere. I am sure many of you reading this article today could point to times in your career where no matter what you did it seemed like doors kept closing on you during your job search. And then suddenly, as if by divine appointment a door opened that you never considered. The doors that you were knocking on were doors that in the natural seemed like logical choices and wise moves but for whatever reason they all led to dead ends. And the door that opened and proved to be the most fruitful was the one door that you never even considered knocking on. It was the one that probably never entered your mind or consideration. However, it was the one that brought the result you were looking for right from the start.

The inspiration for this article comes from my brother Ryan. After years of knocking on the most logical doors with little or no results, his unforeseen door opened this week with a new job at Fed Ex Ground here in Pittsburgh! Even though he applied for hundreds of jobs on the Internet Fed Ex found his resume on Monster.com and quickly interviewed and hired him. He didn’t know about the job nor did anyone refer him to the position, they randomly found him with no effort on his part.

Here are a couple of items that I am sure some of you can relate to:
Sent hundreds of resumes via online job boards and corporate web sites.
Countless phone screens and face-to-face interviews
Endless networking encounters
Frustration over the lack of communication from human resources departments (By the way, what is wrong with many HR professionals around this country? This is the one group that is supposed to be the best at communication within a company but when it comes to recruiting they display a pitiful example of good communication. If you interview someone multiple times for a position please have the decency to call them and let them know they didn’t get the job!!!!)
At one point a very large company gave him a verbal job offer only to never make any contact with him again. The words, “You have the job…we will send an offer soon” actually came out of HR’s mouth only never to hear from them again. I guess corporate priorities change on a dime now-a-days. Unfortunately the communication side of HR is slow to adapt.
Countless more hours of trying to come up with alternative plans for your full time job to ensure that you can put bread on the table, a roof over your head, cloths on your back, and gas in your car once you finally get the call that your time with your present employer has ended.

I believe that God has a plan for our lives and that our steps are ordered by the Lord. You may not be a Christian or believe that God has a plan for your life but you must admit that there are situations in life that you simply cannot explain or take credit for. The next time a new job or business opportunity comes your way unexpectedly or effortlessly you will have to ask yourself how this happened? Why did it happen to you at this particular time in your life? Some decisions and events are simply unexplainable except by Divine intervention.

jd

After much thought and consideration I have officially decided to resign from the Pittsburgh Technology Council effective December 21^st, 2007.

My decision does not come as a result of unhappiness.  In fact, I have nothing but positive comments to make about the Council and will continue to be a large supporter of their efforts.  I have greatly appreciated the time and resources the Council has invested in me over the past five years.  I will be forever grateful for this organization because of the chance it took on me right out of college and as an intern.  The skills, contacts, and people I have met along the way will not soon be forgotten.

However, I have been carefully considering my career goals over the past six months and feel that continuing on in the association world / workforce education world is not ultimately where I want my career to go.  I have therefore chosen to take a position in the private sector in a business development role.

My new venture will be one of an entrepreneur.  I have officially launched my own corporation, Education Meets Industry, which will be a consulting company in the education space.  My first and primary contract is with EduLink Inc, www.edulinkinc.com.  I will be helping them grow and expand their business by offering technology  solutions to K-12, higher education, and municipal governments.  They are a database management and information systems company.  I am extremely excited about what lies ahead for this company.

In addition, I hope to continue to add more value and resources to this web site in the way of articles, podcasts, vodcasts, and ebooks.  My goal is to grow my portfolio of resources for students and young professionals to help them find their passion in life and not a job.  These developments should start to pop up after the New Year.

Sincerely

Justin Driscoll

If you are interested in becoming a youth motivational speaker you need to attend this upcoming Youth Speaker Boot Camp in Dallas TX A friend of mine, Josh Shipp, is one of the speakers at an upcoming one-day boot camp for the Youth Speaker market in December in Dallas TX. If you are going to learn about the youth speaker market you may as well learn it from the master, Josh Shipp! Take a look at their web site for all of the details.

www.youthspeakerbootcamp.com

Attention students and recent graduates!  If you are interested in a career in science, engineering, or technology you are in demand.

I have put together a list of  10 companies that are hiring these three groups of students and experienced candidates.  Take a look at some of these companies and their web sites to determine if they are right for you.

1. PPG Industries, Pittsburgh, PA
2. Westinghouse, Pittsburgh, PA
3. Vanguard, Philadelpha, PA / Charlotte, NC
4. Swales Aerospace, Edina, MN
5. Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA
6. Lutron, Philadelphia, PA
7. Johnson and Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ
8. Ford Motor Company, Detroit, MI
9. Applied Signal Technology Inc, Sunnyvale, CA
10.Argonne Natinoal Laboratory, DuPage County, IL

Last week I spoke at an event for a group of financial industry interns here in the Pittsburgh called PRICE.  It is a great program for students interested in working in finance or banking to get a taste of the real world.  Interestingly enough the students who attended the event all worked at major banks here in the Pittsburgh area; Mellon, PNC, and National City.  Out of the 30 students who attended my seminar only three or four actually liked what they were doing for their internship.  That begs a few questions:

1. If you are working in an internship that you do not like, do you think you will like your job after you graduate if it is in the same industry?
2. If you don’t like your job as an intern what are you going to do when you graduate to make sure you love your job?
3. Working for a company with the biggest name and the most prestige isn’t always the best idea.  Small companies can often provide a great internship experience and set you on the right track after graduation.
4. What can you do at your current internship to turn the tide?  No one wants to hate what they do.  I would suggest speaking with your boss to figure out how you can change your current assignment to one that you would enjoy.
5. An internship is suppose to be a learning experience.  Make sure you learn something.

One of students who came up to me after my talk to get his book signed was Bryan Moore.  Bryan is in college at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, but is already blogging about the financial industry and specifically stock research. Recently he started a series of posts about his job search efforts on his blog.  I think it is a fabulous idea and one that all college students should consider.  Here are a few positive aspects about starting a blog in your field of interest.

1. If your blog is done well and looks professional it gives you an instant sense of credibility with your readers.
2. It opens you up to a network of people all over the world who also blog; especially with those who blog in your same field.
3. Your resume can be posted to your blog which can then be found via search engine by recruiters who are using search engines to find candidates.
4. Blogging also forces you to keep up with what is going on in your field of interest which will then give you more to talk about in your job interview and of course on your blog.
5. Blogging also forces you to read and write more often thereby improving your communication skills.

Take a minute and jump over to Bryan’s blog The Financial Whiz and read his post about his job search in the financial industry.  Great job Bryan!

I had lunch yesterday with the owner of a small manufacturing company here in Pittsburgh.  His heat treating facility is in an interesting situation; either change and use technology to stay ahead of their competition and China or fade away into oblivion.  They have a few challenges with this massive change, mainly their workforce.  This company’s workforces is considerably older and not very adapt to change nor very interested in technology.

He told us that a few years ago he installed new machines with touch screens and the place nearly came to a crashing halt.  However, over time and training they learned the system and now think nothing of it.  However, now that he is bringing in a robot that will do the job of several men with much better efficiency and accuracy there is not telling how this will affect this aging workforce.

Now, I say all of that to say this.  He recently had a new employee start working for his company.  This person is 25 years old and very mature for his age because of the choices he made as a teenager that forced him to grow up quickly.  This person found this company on the internet via a job posting and then through the companies web site.  He was so interested in what the company was doing that he sought out the email of the owner of the company and emailed him a very convincing and impressive email which landed him a job within this company.  Here are a few thoughts and tips I learned from this real world example:

1. Traditional HR rules stink - when you are dealing with small companies, especially manufacturing companies the owners are usually very involved.  They do not think and act like HR people who are often the gatekeepers to the jobs you want.  The owner I was having lunch with was EXTREMELY impressed that this person sought him out and was honest with him about why he needed a job.  And you know what; the owner had compassion on him and saw potential in him that would never have come out through traditional HR processes.

2. Don’t Be Typical - A typical person would have simply sent their resume through the traditional means and waited to hear from the company.  I don’t like playing defense and neither should you when it comes to finding a job.  This young man showed a lot of heart and passion by searching out the email address of the owner of the company so that he could convey to him more about himself than his resume ever could.

3. Resumes Aren’t Enough - a resume is fine if that is all you can deliver to your perspective employer but consider a professional web site, blog, electronic portfolio, etc…  Average doesn’t cut it in today’s job market.  You need to convey your worth to your perspective employer in as many ways possible.  A single sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 isn’t a great option but if that is all you have make sure it is the best it can be.

4. Honesty Works - Especially with small companies who are not burdened by HR policies.  If you can talk with someone on the phone or through an email be honest with them about your interest in the company.  Tell them why you want to work there and tell them what has caused you to seek employment in their company.  They won’t be able to assume that from your resume.

In closing, finding a job is like sales.  Sometimes you must cast a wide net to find that nugget.  And as in sales, doors will open in ways that you would have never guessed or could have planned.  Don’t give up it will work out soon.

If you have recently started a new job or internship I would highly recommend reading Seth Godin’s new book The Dip.

I just picked it up last night at Barnes and Noble. It is only 80 pages but of the first 40 I have read, I am extremely impressed. Most of you reading this blog will be familiar with Seth Godin from his extremely influential and popular blog about business and life. His new book is a good reminder for all of us that we need more than desire to be the best in our job and in life; we need focus.

Some of the highlights that I have picked up so far include:

- The Dip is the valley between average and great
- Most of us have too much on our plate to be the best at whatever we have set out to do.
- Focus is better than being well rounded
- Diversification isn’t always good.
- Quitting isn’t always bad

If you have read Seth’s book or are reading it let me know what you think.

Thanks and have a great weekend!