PLANET career

Today, I spoke with Jonathan Fields, who is an author, blogger and much more.  He just launched his new blog based on his “Career Renegade” book today, in addition to an incredible new eBook called “The Fire Fly Manifesto.”  The purpose of this interview is to inspire you to start doing work you love, instead of being part of the status quo, dreading each day of work.  We’re not saying to quit your job, but we are telling you (begging you) to get on a career path, where you are happy AND make money.  It will take time, but the effort is worth it in the end.

Studies show that 75%-90% of Americans are dissatisfied with their work lives. Why does this happen?

Fired by a financial firm? Here's a road map to rejoining the workforce.

"Remember the meeting time."

"Don't forget the meeting time."

Do both of those say the same thing? Not as far as your brain is concerned.

Some people seem to think that this financial crisis is a sign that the end of the world is coming. Well, I can assure you that it is not going to lead to the end of the World… of Warcraft. Why’s that? Because video game sales were up 18% from last October to this October. I guess when you can’t find a job, a new video game seems like a smart investment (you have a lot of time on your hands). I’d recommend that you invest in our job search training course instead, but that’s just my opinion. So, even if you’re frustrated by your job search, don’t give up on the World… of Warcraft. Not only can video games give you a way to blow off your steam while you’re getting pwned by your job search, they can also provide you ideas for new employers to look into. For instance, Irvine, CA based Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind World of Warcraft seems to be on a hiring binge. Maybe your 1337 gaming skills aren’t useless (and don’t tell me that you don’t need a job because you’re mining cybergold). Oh yeah, and if you’re playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure, you’re doing it wrong, n00b.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could anchor yourself so deep into the fabric of the organization that you work for that you become immobile?

Branding Magic Johnson

When I think of Magic Johnson, the following words come to mind:

A few days ago, I ran into someone (55+) who related his experience with age discrimination in hiring. When interviewing for a job with a small business, they told him point blank that despite his excellent qualifications, they probably couldn’t hire him because his health insurance would cost the company too much. So they went ahead and hired a less-experienced, younger applicant.

Unfortunately more and more older workers will face obstacles like these in getting jobs: the percentage of workers 65 and older in the U.S. workforce is projected to double in the next decade – from 3.6% to 6.1%.

Today, I spoke with Scott E. Page, who is a professor at Michigan and is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to diversity. For the benefit of my blog readers, I asked Scott a lot of questions on how diversity in teams is crucial to building a strong personal brand. One of the main conclusions you’ll see is that if you supplement your skills with a diverse team, you will be able to solve problems faster and smarter.

Scott, what is the real power in diversity?

Emotions are at its worst within the first few hours of receiving the news of a layoff or on the news of being fired. It is at this point that some violent or self-destructive emotions can arise in a person.
Many people are highly stressed out by the current economic conditions and if losing your home wasn’t enough of a mental pressure one is already facing, losing the job and if it is the only source of income for the family - there is a high probability that such tremendous mental and financial tension could result in a negative outburst and violence. Not that most of us react in similar way but sure enough the instances are increasing.

• In September this year fired Indian workers lynched CEO. Corporate India is in shock after a mob of workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who sacked them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.
  


• Another recent tragic and shocking killing at SiPort by an employee fired the same day of the killing brings forth some frightful workplace scenarios, especially when the world economy takes on a nosedive every other week and the layoffs are on the rise.
  


• In April 2007, a gunman shot a hostage and himself at NASA's Johnson Space Center, the reason was stated to be a bad performance review that may have sparked the shooting.

While these are some highly publicized incidents, I was indeed surprised to read a report at the ABC 7 online where Garry Mathiason is a senior partner with Littler Mendalson, the nation's leading labor law firm, says that there are about 700 workplace homicides each year.

Think about the number of presentations you experience in the course of a business week.

How many are genuinely useful? How many are good? How many could have accomplished the goal in some way other than a "presentation."

I recall Seth Godin making some provocative statements in his Listen to This post some time ago. Here's one excerpt:

I just returned from the Kennedy Information 2008 annual conference in sunny Orlando. Perhaps it was the very pleasant weather or something in the water, but all of the doom-and-gloom in the economy didn't seem to have much of an impact on the vendors who exhibited at this year's conference.

We had our first booth there ever and plan to return next year. We weren't overwhelmed by the business that we generated but were quite pleased. We were able to get some valuable face time with some clients, have a private dinner with a large client that should become much larger, and meet with 15 to 20 potential clients. We also had the pleasure of speaking with dozens of representatives from other organizations whose hiring needs are not a good fit for our college job board and that's fine as you never know when the people that we met on Monday or Tuesday may change places of employment and then be in a position where we can help them with their staffing needs. Or they may stay with their current organizations and those organizations may change and start to hire college students for internships or recent graduates for entry level jobs.

A couple of days ago a friend from high school e-mailed me to tell me that he loved the direction that the site is going and that I should consider featuring his employer, The Lucas Group. I did a quick Google search, found a recruiting firm that didn’t look all that interesting for the entry level crowd, and kind of ignored it. I didn’t think that I remembered my friend’s going into recruiting, but I shrugged it off. Then he replied to my reply to his e-mail and noted that I shouldn’t confuse his employer with the recruiting firm, so I took another look. The Lucas Group is a Boston based boutique strategy consulting firm that works primarily with private equity investors, corporate executives and their teams, and public sector agencies. That certainly caught my interest, because I know that consulting and private equity are two words that give Business majors (and others) butterflies in their stomachs.

A growing Web site, Zolio.com, provides solutions for both job seekers and employers. Their Web site states that the reason for starting the site was “to create your professional identity after Facebook and before LinkedIn.”

Essentially, this site was designed to help new job seekers (right out of high school or college) to build their resume and professional identity on the Internet. However, the Web site proves to be beneficial for entry-level employees, experienced workers, and employers alike.

Lately, there has been a raging battle, where people have lashed out at personal branding.  First, we heard from Geoff Livingston (a friend), who says “I don’t care about your personal brand.” There were a lot of comments on that blog for and against personal branding.  Then, Mitch Joel, a personal branding advocate chimed in, telling people that they need to care more about their personal brand.  Finally, Pete Kistler, an up-and-coming personal branding evangelist, summarized the arguments in a nice post.

Here are three telling data points which, when properly assembled, paint an unflattering picture about working in America today:

• The wealthiest 1 percent sees their income dramatically outpace others;
• Men in their 30s today earn less than their fathers did in the 1970s;
• A parents’ economic success is one of the biggest pointers to their children’s future economic success.

Those are key findings of a study that evaluates economic mobility, or the ability of a person to move up or down the economic ladder within a lifetime or from one generation to the next.

Today, I spoke with marketing pioneer, David Aaker, about his new book “Spanning Silos.”  The main idea we talk about is how silos are impediments to great marketing.  Silos isolate people, ideas and creatvity and by making it a corporate wide issue, companies can become more successful.  Innovation is the key these days and when it comes to personal branding, you want to be in a creative environment, where you can interact (network) with as many as your coworkers as possible.  Networking within a company harvests productivity.

What are spanning silos and why are they jeopardizing companies’ marketing efforts?

I confess that I am biased when it comes to Hayagreeva (Huggy) Rao's work. We are good friends and work on various projects including an executive program on Customer-Focused Innovation and writing projects, such as our recent article on The Ergonomics of Innovation.   Huggy is great to work with because he not only is deeply smart, he is an unusually broad and open-minded academic.  And, also unlike many academics, nearly everything he says and writes is clear and easy to understand.  If you want to see Huggy at his best, check his new book Market Rebels: How Activists Make Or Break Radical Innovations, which will be published by Princeton next month.  Don't let the academic press put you off, this is an engaging and useful book, showing how innovations ranging from the automobile to micro-brewing spread -- and why many innovations (like the Segway) did not. 

The book is full of useful ideas, but perhaps the central one is that, if you want to mobilize networks of people and markets to embrace and spread an idea, you need the one-two punch of a "Hot Cause" and "Cool Solutions."  A hot cause like deaths from tobacco or medical errors can be used as springboards to raise awareness, spark motivation, and ignite red-hot outrage.  And naming these as enemies is an important step in mobilizing a network or market. But creating the heat isn't enough; the next step needs to be cool solutions.   This doesn't just mean identifying technically feasible solutions, it also means finding ways to bind people together, to empower them to take steps that help solve the problem, and to create enduring commitment to implementing solutions.  Huggy focuses on radical innovations in this book, but the logic and general principles can be applied in any setting where a group or organizations wants to mobilize action -- be it to solve a social problem or to sell a product.  Indeed, that is why the book received such strong endorsements from Andy Grove (as you can see above) and from Mozilla CEO John Lilly -- who praises the book for providing practical ideas that help him run his organization. 

Among the blizzard of pink slips on Wall Street, some banks are growing their staffs ... others aren't.

If your college experience is anything like mine was, then your apartment probably has a giant mold blossom flowering into your living room from the ceiling below your bathroom. You’ve probably called the landlord half a dozen times, and he’s finally sent over his crew to take a look at the problem. They make the executive decision to hack off as much of the mold as they possibly can and then paint over it. Brilliant! You dream of one day owning your own place when you can hire a higher quality team to take care of such pressing issues. Finding a higher quality team isn’t as easy as it may seem. Whether you’re looking for a contractor, plumber, painter or electrician, it’s hard to know what you’re going to get - unless you use Angie’s List. I hadn’t heard of Angie or her List until a few months ago, but now her name seems to come up once a week. Angie’s List is a rapidly growing Indianapolis based company that allows consumers to post reviews of local service companies and healthcare providers online.

Your unique talents, interests, and skills lead to your best career options. Job skills move you forward. But insecurity lurks nearby, ready to demoralize you. It’s easy to focus on barriers and what you lack instead of what you have, and what you could learn in the future.

If you’re in high school or college, you may bemoan your lack of “real world” work experience and connections. If you’re changing careers, you may dread the prospect of starting from scratch again – and taking on student loan debt at the same time. Add more stress and physical discomfort to this list if you’re disabled or newly disabled. And in these difficult economic times, the term “transferable skills” may spell doom as part of an anxious search for an angle to get employed.