Group items tagged

"Beloit, Wis. - Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his marriage, members of this fall's entering college class of 2014 have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital world is routine and technology is just too slow. Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit's Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. The Mindset List website at www.beloit.edu/mindset, the Mediasite webcast and its Facebook page receive more than 400,000 hits annually. The class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Since "digital" has always been in the cultural DNA, they've never written in cursive and with cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wrist watch. Dirty Harry (who's that?) is to them a great Hollywood director. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat. Nonetheless, they plan to enjoy college. The males among them are likely to be a minority. They will be armed with iPhones and BlackBerries, on which making a phone call will be only one of many, many functions they will perform. They will now be awash with a computerized technology that will not distinguish information and knowledge. So it will be up to their professors to help them. A generation accustomed to instant access will need to acquire the patience of sch

It's never too early to make a bad impression. A cover letter or introductory email is often the first thing a potential employer sees when reviewing a job applicant. It's the first opportunity to impress recruiters and hiring managers and, therefore, the first opportunity to disappoint them. Everything from copy mistakes to inappropriate jokes in a cover letter could derail an application. Here are the top ten worst things to put on a cover letter:

Benefits of Getting a Qualification- Whether you are presently operating or you are searching for work, you can never be too qualified for employment. With the changing practices and knowledge offered to completely different fields of work, there are always new things to find out.

One of my favorite Millennials is graduating from college next month, and it occurs to me that he, like millions of others from the so-called Godless Generation, could benefit from some sage counsel before entering the workforce.So while the world may view us crusty Gen-Xers as all but done, holding on for dear life while awaiting our sure and inevitable Millennial takedown (or is it shakedown?), I say "Bah! You've still got lots to learn from us, kids."For example…Follow Instructions. Getting ahead at work is nearly impossible if you can't follow instructi

The internship, in which she worked 15 hours a week researching and blogging about corporate workplace benefits, was virtual-she needed only a computer and Internet access. Ms. Roig, a senior at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, never even met her boss, in Atlanta.

"As an academic adviser, I am something of a delinquent, and as delinquents often do, I blame the problem on poor role models at key moments in my youth. My own undergraduate academic adviser never gave me any good advice. Or any bad advice, for that matter."

"We professors love to talk about quiet students: the men who slouch in the back row, hidden beneath their baseball caps; the women who smile congenially but never, ever raise their hands; the classes that leave us frustratedly channeling the hapless economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off as we plead in vain for student participation ("Anyone? Anyone?")."

"If you're like most entrepreneurs, you have a lengthy to-do list that never seems doable-no matter how many hours you work. But there's a reason you're not ticking off items, or maximizing results when you do. You've likely organized your task list by deadlines, and you're cranking away on the most pressing items first. A better, smarter approach is to prioritize your list by what matters most."

"Years ago I had a very demanding, harsh boss. Sometimes, I would get so demoralized or overwhelmed that I would duck into the bathroom and cry, though I made sure to never burst into tears in front of my boss or colleagues."

Although the economy is technically in a recovery, unemployment remains high. And the Fed's August 9 decision to keep rates low through mid-2013 suggests that policymakers expect weak growth for the foreseeable future. What's happening to older workers in this never-ending malaise?

More and more career advisers are bemoaning the practice of revising one's resume to death. Leave it alone once you're happy with it, we advise. That can be a Catch 22 for those of you who are never happy with your resume. The point is some of you are putting too much effort in perfecting your resume and not enough at seeing the whole picture.

Our careers and our lives are constantly changing. With so many twists and turns it is almost guaranteed that our career plans will not be stagnant. There are many different types of individuals who are moving in/out of a traditional career. Recently the term "comeback parent" has been coined for the parent who has left a paid position outside the home to raise a family, and is now returning to paid external employment. Another example is the graduate student who alternates full time employment with full or part time education. Some leave to take care of an aging relative, start a private practice or a business, attend to personal health issues, or even work part-time from home. While juggling various roles in life, it is important to manage our careers even if it is not currently the highest priority. Networking is an important way to effectively and efficiently tend to your career at all times.

Julie M. Heup, an unemployed structural engineer from Slinger, Wis., recently attended a networking event where she handed a local employer two business cards: her own and that of her husband, Mark. Mr. Heup, a jobless supply-chain manager, often returns the favor. The two 40-year-olds never anticipated simultaneous layoffs. "I figured the likelihood of it happening at the same time was slim to none," says Mr. Heup, who lost his job three months after his wife did in November. That's why "we are supporting each other," he says.

ALAN KENNEDY, 54, had never used social networking sites until he was laid off from his job as an engineer last November. Then he did what many job seekers are now advised to do: he set up profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Q: I worked in the health-care industry for 15 years as a geriatric nursing assistant, but I recently decided that my career wasn't paying the bills and went back to school for a B.A. in organizational management and communication. The problem is, I have never worked in an office setting and I'm not sure how to go about learning etiquette, how to speak appropriately, etc. I thought that once I got a degree, everything would be self-explanatory, but it really isn't. Can you help?

I am not your typical "geek" CIO. I have 35 years in banking, including 12-plus years from the business side as well as 20-plus years from the technology and operations side. I have asked about a promotion to COO, but I never really get an answer. I have no mentors and feel very isolated.

So, as you might expect, there are those who have NOT knocked my socks off. In fact, their actions left me wanting to double knot the shoe laces. Bad people? No, not at all. Maybe lazy. Or perhaps, just perhaps, these folks had never been in a positive networking environment before. One in which people give first - not as a result of being helped in advance.

ALAN KENNEDY, 54, had never used social networking sites until he was laid off from his job as an engineer last November. Then he did what many job seekers are now advised to do: he set up profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn.

15 Career Mistakes I've written other newsletter articles about careers (see the links throughout this article as well as at the end of the article), but until now I've never specifically written an article about career mistakes. I think the subject has been too personal - I've made a lot of these career mistakes myself, and it's hard for me to admit my failures. But in the interest of helping others avoid some of the mistakes I've made, I've decided to go ahead and create a list of the major career mistakes that I've made or that I've seen other people in IT make. Let me know if you think of other mistakes that should also be on the list.