Career Development

"When I do a seminar for prospective career changers, I always ask the audience how many people are using LinkedIn to communicate directly with contacts in their new industries. Typically, only a handful of people raise their hands. But given the fact that tapping the social-media groundswell is one of the best ways to launch a new career, active participation in sites like LinkedIn should be 100%."

"Can you teach a dinosaur to dance? More importantly, can you teach him to network in 21st Century style? I was skeptical. But George Langis, a veteran turnaround executive, dispelled doubts by learning new networking steps that may hasten his job hunt. He went from conventional handshake networking to creating a personal brand that would be easily marketable online. Though Mr. Langis still hesitates to plunge into "tweeting," his experience could benefit countless other older applicants with rusty job-hunting skills. "

"Personal Branding redefines many of the concepts used in career development and shows our clients why career development is important at all phases of their careers and not just when they are in transition."

"No one is surprised to hear that seniors on the threshold of graduation visit the Career Resource Center (CRC) looking for job search assistance. Those who have procrastinated on career choice and finding employment see the finish line approaching and realize they need to find something that will keep them fulfilled and flush with cash once they're marched to the edge of campus and pushed out of the proverbial nest."

"When James Watson was 24 years old, he spent more time thinking about women than work, according to his memoir "Genes, Girls and Gamow." His hair was unkempt and his letters home were full of references to "wine-soaked lunches." But when Mr. Watson wasn't chasing after girls, he was hard at work in his Cambridge lab, trying to puzzle out the structure of DNA. In 1953, when Mr. Watson was only 25, he co-wrote one of the most important scientific papers of all time."

"Teacher seniority rules are meeting resistance from government officials and parents as a wave of layoffs is hitting public schools and driving newer teachers out of classrooms. In a majority of the country's school districts, teacher layoffs are handled on a "last in, first out" basis. Critics of seniority rules worry that many effective and talented teachers who have been hired in recent years will lose their jobs. "

"Five years ago, Augusto Giacoman was commanding about 30 soldiers and leading raids in Iraq. Now he spends his days in classrooms alongside former bankers, engineers and other civilians earning a master's in business administration."

"Internal transfers and promotions accounted for an average of 51% of all full-time positions filled in 2009, down from 39% in 2008 and 34% in 2007, reports CareerXroads, a staffing-strategy consulting firm in Kendall Park, N.J. Survey respondents included 41 companies that employ a combined 1.8 million U.S. workers. Last year these firms collectively filled 176,420 positions. "

FEBRUARY 19, 2010 │ VOLUME 4, ISSUE 6 In This Issue: Quinn Outlines Plans to Streamline GED Process WIB Suspends New Licensing Policy Nancy Giles to Emcee 2010 Awards Reception Spotlight on Opportunity Award Winners Albany Lobby Day is March 9! Vocational Conference Introduces Foster Youth to New Opportunities Obama Defends ARRA As Administration Steps Up Job-Creating Programs Workforce Marketplace

"Before Andree Bogaerts returned to work as an attorney last fall after nine years at home with her three children, she says, she took a little training first-"a crash course in Excel spreadsheets from my 12-year-old daughter." "

NYC Workforce Weekly February 12, 2010

"People in the midst of a career reinvention don't have the luxury of a manager who sets priorities for them. The most difficult part of making a career change is starting it, especially with only your desire to propel you. As an independent filmmaker, Adrian Belic, 40 years old, is accustomed to making things happen. The first film he made with his brother, "Genghis Blues," won a Sundance award and received an Academy Award nomination. But despite this success, he found it difficult to get a second project off the ground."

"As an entrepreneurial woman with big ideas in the rural, small-town environment of central New Hampshire, Leslie Sturgeon faced plenty of challenges to building her business - especially because when she launched her first company, she was only 22 years old. "

"Women were earning about 166 associates degrees and 135 bachelor's degrees for every 100 earned by men in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Perhaps as a result, more women were employed in teaching, government and health care, sectors that held up better in the recession. The construction and manufacturing sectors, which often require less schooling, have shed millions of jobs in the last few years. "

"WASHINGTON-President Barack Obama's first official economic report to Congress predicts lackluster employment growth this year and next, even after including the impact of a jobs bill whose prospects appeared uncertain in the Senate."

"For a lot of small-business owners, "cloud computing" is the latest IT buzzword to leave them scratching their heads. To demystify things, here's a primer for companies looking to wade into cloud services for the first time. What are cloud services?"

"The unemployment rate dropped sharply last month, but employers continued cutting jobs in January as businesses remained insecure about the economic outlook. The jobless rate fell to 9.7% from 10% in December, the Labor Department said Friday, because its survey of households found more people landed jobs than entered or returned to the labor market. But a separate survey of employers, which counts how many workers are added or cut from payrolls, found that 20,000 jobs were eliminated last month. And revisions to last year's data found far more jobs were lost over the 12 months than previously predicted."

"Today, with unemployment rates hovering at 10%, and all our worries about the job market rooted in the moment, we are in danger of failing to see an important longer-term trend: More Americans are working as consultants or freelancers, either having given up or been forced out of the salaried world of 9 to 5."

"Like many workers, Ivelisse Rivera, a physician at Community Health Center, Middletown, Conn., feels stressed-out by mounting workloads. And she didn't expect to get much help during her employer's annual staff meeting last November-just the usual speeches on medical issues."

"For years, higher education was touted as a safe path to professional and financial success. Easy money, in the form of student loans, flowed to help parents and students finance degrees, with the implication that in the long run, a bachelor's degree was a good bet. Graduates, it has long been argued, would be able to build solid careers that would earn them far more than their high-school educated counterparts."