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Creating Your Own Trend

Making good decisions begins with asking the right questions and gathering meaningful information.  That’s why I encourage people to pay attention to trends in jobs, careers and demographics.  That’s why it is important to start early and allow time for exploring possibilities.  It is also why I recommend that people who are looking at college educations, changing jobs, or re-entering the workforce evaluate their interests, values, passions and abilities.  All of these are measurable and can provide meaningful information in making decisions about career paths.  Paths that can create great satisfaction and reward.

In his book, GOOD TO GREAT, Jim Collins wrote, “Indeed the real question is not, “Why greatness?” but “What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?”  If you have to ask the question, “Why should we try to make it great?  Isn’t success enough?” then you’re probably engaged in the wrong line of work.”

I believe that when the national statistics indicate that greater than 60% of the population dislikes their work, we have a national disaster on our hands.  How can we be great as a nation if we don’t individually feel compelled to create greatness in our own work?

On October 5, 2011 we lost an American Great.  Steve Jobs will forever be known for his impact on the world of personal computing.  He was passionate about his work, and I believe, “compelled to try to create greatness.”

What will you do today that compels you to create greatness?  How can you establish your own trend that creates a meaningful career path?  Need help?  Contact me.

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Careers, Trends and Timelines

I started the month by talking about the importance of students paying attention while they are in middle school and high school to the occupations that currently exist. Family discussions might initiate from careers in the news or people around you in daily life that spark an interest with the student.  I also talk frequently about the importance of career exploration, career shadow experiences and internships.

This week, I want you to take action!  Click here to follow the link to the Bureau of Labor Statistics interactive website for students and career exploration.  You’ll find information that is organized by subject areas associated with school curriculum as well as descriptions of career paths, occupational outlooks through 2018 and careers related to those you originally selected but perhaps hadn’t given consideration.  It’s a great tool and one I hope you will bookmark!

Remember, it is never too early to start exploring.  The more you do, the better equipped you will be to make decisions about your own career path and create an opportunity for increased satisfaction and success.

 

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Being the Leader

Do you remember your elementary school days when you wanted to be the line leader?

Why did you want to be the leader?

  • First to get to the destination?
  • Sense of authority or power over those behind you?
  • Feeling like you could take them anywhere?

Do you still want to be the leader?

Last week I suggested that you read an article about Leadership and the importance in today’s job market and the admissions process for college.  The author, Jason Jakus, wrote about eight qualities of Leadership.  I agree wholeheartedly with all eight, but I would add one more…Responsibility.  Good leaders take responsibility.

So as you look back over your own leadership characteristics and how they align with the eight indicated by Mr. Jakus, consider a time when you took responsibility for a situation and how your own leadership qualities emerged.  What was the situation?  What action did you take?  How long did it take?  What was the outcome?  If you can answer these questions, you just framed a response to an interview question about your own leadership.  You don’t have to be chairman of a corporation or committee, president of a club or organization to demonstrate leadership.  But you do need to consider your own leadership qualities and determine how or if there is a need to develop you more fully in order to be marketable to universities and employers.

Need help?  Click here to Contact Me.

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The Importance of Job Search When You Are Not Searching

Last week I wrote about trends that had occurred over the last 30 years in the career and job market.  I specifically identified the newest flash of social media opportunities.  My goal was not to encourage everyone into the social media marketplace, but to make a point of the changes in trends according to our culture and the world and that we must be forward thinking in our plans for future success.

Whether you are a college graduate, a high school student deciding on college, or have chosen a path of vocational training, it is important to look ahead and pay attention to job and career trends even when you are not looking for a job.  Click here to take a look at the lists in the 2011 Top Ten and the Worst Ten Jobs.  More important, pay attention to how the lists were developed.  Income alone is not a reason to select a career field.  Satisfaction with your career is comprised of other elements that include but are not limited to stress factors, time off, and professional development opportunities.

Just like Capital One asks, “What’s in your wallet,” are you asking yourself, “What’s in my future?”

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Social Media in the Job Market

At a time when information is driving the workforce, it is hard to imagine anyone not paying attention to the trends.  But we are creatures of habit and therefore our daily lives get set in routine and unless an effort is made to allocate time to educate ourselves or allow someone else to provide that resource, we plod along in an undefined direction and “life happens.”

I can remember being a classroom teacher and getting the first computer station.  That was thirty years ago.  Then along came the day when I got six computers and a curriculum for integrating the stations into my classroom schedule.  That was 1987, the computers were dependent on the mainframe with a set curriculum and the Internet was a “buzz word” we had just learned and had no idea of what was to come.  The trend was technology.

Fast forward to today, 2011, the “buzz word” is Social Media and a Google search of key words, “jobs in social media” indicates 163,000,000 results.  There is a trend in this age of information and it is important to pay attention.  Ten years ago we didn’t read articles or see job postings for social media marketing, social media headhunters, human resource management of social media, or social media litigation. While millions of jobs have been lost in the economic disaster of the last few years, the opportunities that are developing require that individuals be prepared and that thinking about careers cannot be the traditional thoughts that the general population has had over the last decade.  The evolution of the job market deserves our attention.  That which we can imagine today will be surpassed tomorrow.  Will you be prepared?  Want to know how?

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Career Trends and Forward Thinking

Back in January, I posted a blog, Paying Attention to the Trends.  I addressed the importance of paying attention to your career path and the occupational outlook in different sectors.  That outlook is based on how society and the culture of work has changed and will change over the next decade.  Did you follow the link within the blog to a great resource?

People like Peter Drucker were masters of understanding how organizations change, manage change and should prepare for change.  While most of the population could not have predicted or even anticipated the economic and employment changes we have seen in the last five years, we can learn from it and be smarter in our plans going forward.  That’s why we pay attention to the trends.

Ten years ago, in his book, Managing in the Next Society,Peter Drucker said, “A century ago, the overwhelming majority of people in developed countries worked with their hands: on farms, in domestic service, in small craft shops, and (at that time still a minority) in factories.  Fifty years later, the proportion of manual workers in the American labor force had dropped to around half, but factory workers had become the largest single section of the workforce, making up 35 percent of the total.  Now, another fifty years later, fewer than a quarter of American workers make their living from manual jobs…..Knowledge has become the key resource.”

If knowledge is the key resource, then being educated is vital and being educated is more than just achieving a degree in an area of study that seems to be a good idea.  I get contacted frequently by young adults who have completed a college education only to realize they either dislike their chosen field or can’t get work and see no hope in the future.  So how can you get on a better track or guard against a career mismatch and thousands of dollars invested in something you really don’t like or with limited career opportunities?

  1. Pay attention to trends across media by reading articles like, Job Market Picks Up for Graduates, in the Wall Street Journal or Hiring in US Slowed in May with 54000 Jobs Added, in the New York Times. While these papers are presenting different perspectives, there are trends that are apparent.
  2. Tag websites that report meaningful data like the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook and monitor them quarterly.
  3. Make a reasonable investment up front in a career professional to help you set a course for success and save thousands in the long run.   Contact me.  I can help you identify the right career direction for you, write a plan for success and monitor your efforts along with the trends.  (scrolling your mouse over any of the highlighted areas within this blog will take you directly to the link)

You can be “forward thinking” much the way Peter Drucker encouraged all of us to look at life and try to predict our futures 50 years out and imagine how our careers might evolve.  You can take action by following these three recommendations.  Or you can invest your time and your dollars ineffectively and like so many others, wonder what happened.

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Projecting You as a Social Entity

How many hours a month do you spend on the Internet?  How much time are you using it for education, entertainment, work, purchasing services or products, or connecting with friends and family?  The average American spends 32 hours per month on the Internet.  A tidbit I learned on a recent webinar hosted by Juicy Results, a terrific web marketing company.   And as I thought about that number, I realized I probably spend that much time per week on the Internet!  If the nature of jobs and careers in the future is changing, then this is important information to know.

Do you have a social media presence?  What does it look like?  Universities and employers alike are using social media to “check out” their candidates.  Everything from your email address and voice message to your pictures and comments on the Internet are available for public scrutiny and feed into your public image or “social entity.”

Just as different people have different perspectives on issues, different generations view and address issues differently.  In regards to social media, there is a great article and some interesting data that specifically address the issues of school and job impact.  Click here to read the article and be sure to scroll down to table 2B and note the difference between Baby Boomers and Echo Boomers.  While an Echo Boomer may see nothing wrong with a particular message posted on a social media site, the individual responsible for your admission to college or hiring you may be a Baby Boomer and the posting is offensive.

Now ask yourself the question again and consider who may be on the other side of the computer monitor checking you out.  What does your “social entity” look like?  What do you need to do to create the kind of social image that characterizes you but doesn’t jeopardize future opportunities?  Contact me if you need assistance or want more information.

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Investing Time is Elementary

If you’ve been in an elementary classroom in the last twenty years because you are that young, you have children or are an educator, you might have heard a teacher say, ”Ask three before me.”  They are encouraging the students to ask their peers their questions before asking the teacher.  It serves multiple purposes.  Research has proven that peer instruction is highly effective.  It also provides the teacher more time for uninterrupted small group instruction.  Now you are probably asking yourself, why are we talking about elementary classroom instruction?  Because the concept of “Asking Three” is a great way to learn more about a career path.

We hear a lot about the financial investment of college or technical programs, but we don’t hear a lot about the investment of time.  Internships provide time and experience in learning about a profession, but you can improve on that process by asking questions up front and long before an internship might be available.

Try this as a rule of thumb….Ask Three.  Identify three individuals who are currently working in a field that you have interest.  Contact them and ask if you can have a 15 minute interview with them as part of your career exploration.   People in general like to talk about their work, so start with these questions and see where they lead:

  • Why did you choose this profession?
  • What do you like best about your work?
  • What do you like least?
  • What would you change?
  • What is it about you that makes you good at your work?

Investing some time up front helps to narrow the path and increase your own satisfaction in the process.   It’s elementary, but it works!  Need more help in identifying the path?  Call me or write to marla@marlabrady.com.

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Investment, Risk and Reward

Investment, Risk and Reward …it sounds like I have turned financial planner.  Nothing could be further from the truth…..but, I am all about the plan.  Some of my earlier Blogs were about the importance of having a plan.  The plan I referenced was a plan for identifying career direction and using effective tools to meet that goal.  But for the last three weeks I have written about the importance of watching trends and aligning your career choices with marketable degrees.  I have also promoted the importance of completing that degree in four years.  But today, I want to take you further down the planning path and look at the impact of paying for college as an investment, reward and risk beyond completion of the degree.

In the Winter 2011 Newsweek Kaplan, Linda Stern wrote an article, Strategies to Help You Pay the Bills.  In it she says, “During the 2009-10 school year, tuition went up 6.5 percent at public schools and 4.4 percent at private schools, while the consumer price index actually fell 1.48 percent, continuing a long trend.  Since 1991college tuition has risen 163 percent and household income has gone up 23 percent, according to College Board and census figures.” While the numbers are alarming, she points out that thoughtful planning, effective questioning and reasonable judgment can result in controlled spending and available funds for advanced degrees or creating career opportunities.

So why am I talking about financial planning?  Because student loan debt is out of control and the ramifications are extensive.  Going back to the concept of marketable degrees, how marketable are you if you default on a student loan and create a poor credit rating?  Did you know that there is an increasing trend of employers who monitor credit ratings as part of employment prospects?  In an article published this past week in the New York Times, Laura Asher states some of her concerns regarding the student loan crisis as, “Things like buying a home, starting a family, starting a business, saving for their own kids’ education may not be options for people who are paying off a lot of student debt.”  The article addresses the fact that student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt for the first time ever and that in 2008 two-thirds of bachelors degrees awarded also carried student loan debt.  Click here to read the entire article.

Getting and paying for an education is an investment.  It is an investment in earning potential, social and cultural opportunities and self satisfaction.  It can have great reward both financially and in personal fulfillment.  The risk is how to balance paying for the education without using all of your resources and without loan debt that exceeds your earning potential and creates negative lifestyle impact.  When making decisions about schools… investment, reward and risk are definitely part of the equation.

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What is It Worth?

When I write each week, my goal is to bring you thought provoking information, calls to action or information on tools that can help you make informed decisions about your major area of study or career direction.  Last week we talked about choosing marketable majors and the week before was about spending your education dollars wisely.  I’ve provided websites and insight to watching trends for careers.   Asking the question, “Is my degree marketable?” is effective, but you also have to know where to begin to find the answers.  That’s where watching trends becomes effective in knowing, What is It Worth?

In the Winter 2011 edition of Kaplan Newsweek, there is a great article that lists the “Top 10 Undergraduate Careers by Salary.” Here they are:

Rank                                        Median Starting Salary         Midcareer Median Salary

  1. Engineering                           $61,000                                             $105,000
  2. Economics                                50,200                                                101,000
  3. Physics                                       51,000                                                  98,800
  4. Computer science                 56,400                                                   97,400
  5. Statistics/Math                      48,600                                                   94,500
  6. Biochemistry                          41,700                                                   94,200
  7. Construction Manag.           53,400                                                   89,600
  8. Finance                                      48,500                                                   89,400
  9. Information Sys.                    51,900                                                   87,200
  10. Geology                                      45,100                                                   84,200

The important factor to remember when reading articles like this one is to pay attention to the source.  Where is the data coming from and are there any qualifying circumstances?  In this case, there are, click here to read the brief but beneficial article.