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The Perfect Job Search: Want to Shorten Your Search? Go for a Perfect 10! The Holidays are the BEST time to job search. The Stages of Your Job Search

October 2011 Newsletter

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.

"More than three-quarters of Americans would blow the whistle on wrongdoing at their workplace, according to a newly released survey - but only if they could do so anonymously, without fear of reprisal, and - and this is a big "and" - there was a monetary reward involved."

2011-12 Winter MNYCCPOA Post

"There are some very important things they don't tell you on career day. Chief among them is that there is a good chance that at some point during your working adult life you will have an abusive boss - the kind who uses his or her authority to torment subordinates. Bullying bosses scream, often with the goal of humiliating. They write up false evaluations to put good workers' jobs at risk. Some are serial bullies, targeting one worker and, when he or she is gone, moving on to their next victim. "

"High school graduation rates are one of education's perennial bad-news stories. How bad? In 2008, there were 1,746 "dropout factories," high schools that graduate fewer than 60% of their students. "

December issue of Employment in New York State is now available.

"Kent Niederhofer can't find enough mechanical engineers to work for him - in southeastern Michigan. You know, where Detroit is, with its 13.3% unemployment rate. Niederhofer is president of the American branch of Ricardo, an engineering consultancy that designs the power trains of some of the coolest stuff around: Bugatti sports cars, huge wind turbines and unmanned aerial vehicles. "We are doing rocket science every day," says Niederhofer. "It's just not on rockets." So Ricardo got a little desperate, renting a billboard to place a help-wanted ad that featured a picture of a sexy-looking sports car, the tagline "Why you became an engineer" and a Web address for job seekers. He calls it engineer porn."

In discussing our unemployment problem today, WSJ's Real Time Economics points to an important issue: worker productivity. The piece explains that, with more productive workers supporting a growing population, the American employment rate and living standards are falling. Indeed, productivity has become a bad word in this economic downturn, but should it be? According to the WSJ: Read more: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/06/06/are-more-productive-workers-bad-for-u-s-jobs/#ixzz1OhC7VTrK

On one side, the Obama Administration, Capitol Hill Democrats, Wall Street whizzes and budget experts have been wearing out their thesauruses looking up new words for "catastrophe" as they try to explain to the public that failing to raise the $14.3 trillion federal debt limit by Aug. 2 would result in a radically different country on Aug. 3. Read more: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/07/19/debt-ceiling-could-a-deal-cost-the-economy-a-million-jobs/#ixzz1SeaCmUlr

The Dream Act puts education within reach even for the Golden State's illegal immigrants. While weighing 50 education bills yesterday, Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Dream Act into law Saturday, opening the state's purse of financial aid to even those who don't have official documentation. Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/10/09/california-passes-dream-act-allowing-aid-for-undocumented-students/#ixzz1aURp5Vq3

If you are in the market for a job, especially if you have at least several years of work experience, you should be taking advantage of the significant benefits LinkedIn can bring to your job search, including warm leads into companies or to people you are targeting, the possibility of creating new job leads through recruiters who frequently use the site or people who are impressed with comments you post on the site, and access to posted and unposted job openings. So how do you take advantage of LinkedIn if you're a job seeker?

I think it`s pretty undeniable that nepotism pays, but don`t worry if your daddy`s not a big executive. You`re in luck because you can create your own nepotism. You don`t need a blood relationship for someone in power to take an interest in you and put you on the fast-track. Here are ideas that can give you the same advantages as those born with great connections.

Ah yes, Networking. Today, it has become a common exercise in the workplace and a vital part of the advancement of most careers. Networking can be accomplished anywhere these days, whether it be outside on a sidewalk, or at an obvious networking cocktail event. If it is done successfully, it can help you meet a future mentor, move you effectively toward an initial interview, or even allow you to make a lasting first impression with your first boss. However, successful networking can often times be harder than it sounds. Sometimes, it is hard to know all the right things to say or do and how to turn a 15-minute conversation into a potential life-lasting connection. With that in mind, I have developed a basic 5-step guide that gives the basics on how to untangle this mystery and turn any previously nerve wracking networking event into an exciting time of opportunity.

There is a common misconception that networking is about "who you know". In the old school world of the privileged classes that was true. However, as the professional world has become more accessible to a broader array of people, this has changed. Networking is no longer about "who you know". Today, it is about "who knows you".

Employment in New York State: October 2009 Issue

"Death on the job was a routine hazard for American workers a century ago. About 100 workers, on average, died every day as mines collapsed, ships sank, trains crashed and factories burned. Nearly all of them are long forgotten."