Career Development

"We read in newspaper headlines that the economy may have permanently lost 20 million jobs, that 70 million "baby-boomers" are ready to retire, that 50 percent of the workforce will be people of color by 2028, that younger workers are changing careers five to seven times, that America is losing its half-century of global economic dominance and that the global skills gap is worsening. The US workplace is experiencing radical transformational changes. These changes will require new skill-sets for future career success and to start closing the non-competitive skills gap."

Job tracking website. Better than a spreadsheet.

"Job boards are irresistible because they seemingly put everything within easy reach. Unfortunately, the majority of job hunters are competing for the same small pool of jobs and getting turned down."

"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."

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.

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.

The U.S. Department of Education on Thursday will release the final version of its much-awaited "gainful employment" rule that punishes career-training programs for graduating students with heavy debt loads. The rule, one of the most controversial to come out of that office in years, is an effort to ensure the programs are preparing students for legitimate jobs. This final version is less severe than a draft released last summer, giving programs more opportunities to right themselves if they run afoul of the measure.

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

Can working hard at the office invigorate a marriage? A new study suggests that for working mothers at least, that may be the case. Working moms tend to be happier with their marriages when they are shouldering heavy workloads on the job, says a four-year study of 169 couples published recently in the Journal of Family Psychology. One reason may be that when working moms' workloads increase, their husbands tend to help out more at home, researchers suggest.

As vice president of a Los Angeles film-production company in the 1980s, Ronald Kaufman had nearly everything that he'd ever wanted in a job -- great pay, friendly co-workers and interesting work coordinating product placements in films. Unfortunately, he hated the job. "The owner of the company was a master at intimidation and would scream at everybody. An hour later, he would be a great guy. It made everybody unhappy to be there," says Mr. Kaufman, now an executive coach.

Big U.S. employers, worried about replacing retiring baby boomers, are wading deeper into education and growing bolder about telling educators how to run their business.

: While the résumé as you know it from 10 years ago is still alive and kicking, there have been a number of modifications to it. No longer do job candidates simply present a Word document of their qualifications. Today, they need to craft a package both online and off to present to a prospective employer. This needs to include both a résumé and an online profile as well as an easy way for a prospective employer or recruiter to move back and forth between the two.

Career Quotes

Those working in metro areas scattered along the East and West coasts - San Jose, New York, Seattle - tended to get paid better last year than their middle-America counterparts, according to the Labor Department's report comparing occupational pay in 77 metro areas, released Wednesday. Employees in the heartland and in certain southern metro areas, such as Lincoln, Neb., and Tallahassee, Fla., earned the least.

Undergraduates across the country are choosing to leave science, technology, engineering and math programs before they graduate with those degrees. Many students in those STEM fields struggle to complete their degrees in four years, or drop out, according to a 2010 University of California, Los Angeles, study.

For most entrepreneurs, sales calls aren't a laughing matter. But maybe they should be. Making humor a part of your pitch can work wonders, says Burt Teplitzky, a stand-up comedian, author and corporate trainer in Los Angeles. Jokes can help establish a rapport with customers, release tension and increase your "likability factor"-all of which can make it a lot easier to close a deal.

Non-users of LinkedIn may wonder, why bother? Posting a profile, keeping it updated, building and maintaining your network of connections, and responding to messages takes time.

"Would you work 100 hours a week for your dream job, or simply to have a job at all? Juggle contributor Kyle Stock asks these questions over at FINS.com, a Wall Street Journal site focused on careers. Here's an excerpt:"

"he Career Counselor's Handbook (2nd Ed.) by Howard Figler & Richard N. Bolles. Ten Speed Press, 2007, 301 pp. ISBN 9781580088701. $19.99 Both Figler and Bolles have over six decades of experience in the field of career development, and both have written best sellers about the subject, including The Complete Job-Search Handbook (Figler, 1999) and What Color is Your Parachute? (Bolles, 2009). Figler and Bolles have combined their experience to produce a practical guide with The Career Counselor's Handbook. The book includes a discussion of the history and definition of career counseling, a sample of tools, tips for dealing with difficult clients, an overview of the values that shape career work, and guidelines for establishing and maintaining a career in this field."

"I was privileged to hear His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama speak as he accepted the International Freedom Conductor Award in Cincinnati, Ohio in October 2010. As a career coach, I reflected on his words to see how these might apply to life and work, especially for those in a life or career transition. These ideas are applicable to both career coaches and clients alike."