Career Development

Mid-career derailment can happen any time, but in today's economy there is no room for complacency. With job opportunities harder than ever to find, it's a particularly rough time to be fired or demoted or to hit a career plateau. You can reduce your risk for derailment by paying attention to your value and effectiveness and by focusing on interpersonal skills, adaptability, team leadership and bottom-line results.

Forget mentors. If you want to reach top management you'll need sponsors-powerful senior players who will stake their reputation on your behalf. While mentors offer informal advice and coaching, a good sponsor opens the doors of the promotion elevator and pushes a protégé through.

10 Great Green Opportunities October 31, 2007 | Brita Belli | Everything's coming up green. Across every industry, new job possibilities are emerging for those with the skills to bridge the divide between the old, fossil-fuel-based economy and the new, energy-efficient one. Corporations once demonized for their role in creating pollution and exploiting workers are being held accountable; they are partnering with nonprofits and hiring corporate social responsibility managers. They are finding that reducing their impact is as good for future profits as for the planet at large. There's no secret to getting a job in the new green economy. It's as basic as applying the job skills you've already developed (web design, sales, management) to a nonprofit or sustainable industry, or coordinating sustainable practices from within a corporate entity. Sometimes, as in green building or solar panel installing, these green jobs require a specific set of skills-and classes are organizing to fill the growing need. Other times, as in the organic food industry, ecotourism or sales and marketing of energy-efficient technology, anyone with a good work ethic can get in and create a great green career.

Growing up on a ranch in Iowa, Jessica Utesch spent many a long afternoon mucking out manure. But she was surprised when she came home from college to take a summer job at the ranch-and her dad handed her a shovel.

Twitter may have cost former Congressman Anthony Weiner his career, but when used properly, social media and other Web tools can actually help you get a job. FINS spoke with Coleen Byrne, a former sales director at Yahoo, about the perils of not being on LinkedIn, reaching out to old friends and colleagues, and using the Web to network offline. Byrne is the co-author of The Web 2.0 Job Finder.

Twitter may have cost former Congressman Anthony Weiner his career, but when used properly, social media and other Web tools can actually help you get a job. FINS spoke with Coleen Byrne, a former sales director at Yahoo, about the perils of not being on LinkedIn, reaching out to old friends and colleagues, and using the Web to network offline. Byrne is the co-author of The Web 2.0 Job Finder.

I'm thinking about a career change and would love to go on a few informational interviews to learn more about the fields I am considering. But I rarely hear anyone talk about informational interviews anymore. Are people still giving them or are they too worried about their own jobs to take the time? How would I go about setting one up? Who should I target? Are certain questions off limits?

For a solid hour, Rick Rush repeatedly inserts a small piece of metal - the parking gear of a future pickup truck - into a slot, adds a spring and lowers hydraulic machines to bolt parts together and ensure they're properly placed. With 87 seconds to complete the tasks before each transmission casing glides by on a conveyor, the wiry 61-year-old toils with a purposeful hunch at a steady, brisk pace.

Do you think rude people appear more authoritative at work and tend to get ahead faster than polite colleagues? According to research from the University of Amsterdam published in the latest "Social Psychological and Personality Science," they do.

ndebted law grads and experienced lawyers who are out of work are moving into what we describe today as the "third tier" of the legal profession: working as temps, generally known as contract attorneys, performing document review work.

Your written plan describes your business, outlines your goals and serves as a road map for future activities- everything from handling unforeseen complications to repaying borrowed money. It's a document that should grow with your business, undergoing constant tweaks as your big idea evolves from a concept into a successful company.

For many companies, tough economic times inevitably end up pushing the work environment to the back burner. Benefits are slashed, innovative programs are dropped, employees get shut out of big decisions. Employees are lucky to have a job, many bosses figure. Anything extra is unaffordable.

I am looking for a full-time job that uses my writing, people and information-gathering talents from 25 years as a Los Angeles Times staff writer. My concern, validated by the coach at the retraining corporation, is that I am over 40. That coach actually told me to leave the dates of college attendance, etc., off my resume. My brother, president of a publicly-traded company, said this advice was nonsense, although he did say age is an issue (and he's older than I am).Can you address this issue of inferiority complex for those of us competing with candidates 20 years our junior? How do we address it? How can we compensate for the potential perception that we are burn-outs or tired when we might -- in my case -- just be bored because we know the job so well?

Because so many people in their teens and early 20s are in this constant whir of socializing-accessible to each other every minute of the day via cellphone, instant messaging and social-networking Web sites-there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home. Chief among them: How much work can "hyper-socializing" students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook?

Adam Sheehan has what Japanese animation fans might consider a dream job. As a senior events manager for Funimation Entertainment, a producer of shows like "Dragon Ball Z" and "Soul Eater," he sets up video screenings, autograph signings and other activities at about 20 anime conventions a year. But Mr. Sheehan, 32, says launching a career tied to a special interest typically requires more than deep-seated passion. Education, pro-bono experience and networking is also essential. Edited interview excerpts follow.

It's no secret that job security is a thing of the past. Taking on part-time work-especially in a creative arena you've always wanted to pursue-is one way to earn extra income and begin exploring new work opportunities before it becomes a necessity, says Scott Belsky, CEO and founder of Behance, a New York-based company that develops products and online tools for creative industries.

The truth is that many employers generally like older hires because they tend to be more reliable, conscientious and loyal. However, candidates over 50 have to overcome hiring managers' fears that they have one foot out the door. Your friends should de-emphasize their age by removing dates from their resumes and making subtle changes to their appearance to look younger. Most importantly, though, they should showcase their enthusiasm for the job and how motivated they are to achieve, which will make employers more likely to believe they're in it for the long-term.

What are the advantages of guiding workers to collect stories directed at organizational career management? Expressing accomplishments in story form is a huge advantage because a compelling, engaging story is memorable to the manager making a promotion decision, while people who aren't telling stories may be forgotten. The decision-maker gets to know and trust employees through their stories, which may also help establish an emotional connection that inspires investment in their success. (And, by the way, the same storytelling principles that work for other employees also work for your own career progression.)

Writing Servlets, JSP and Java Beans for providing Business logic as well as views. * Developed User interfaces using JSP. * Involved Database Connectivity through Model. If you are suitable then please post your CV on http://www.angstcorner.com/CVUpload/tabid/154/mode/ca/Default.aspx or check below links. Experience: 2-4 yrs Salary: 3-4 Lacs(Indian Rupees) Last Date: 01-Dec-09 To know more about this job please have a look on this link: http://www.angstcorner.com/JobDetails/tabid/133/JobID/1053/Default.aspx Thanks Angst

Some professors don't let students see their Facebook pages. Some accept students' invitations but don't initiate them. Peter Juvinall insists students friend him.