life@work

LinkedIn is Essential

The other day I met with a client who's a professional in his 40's who is not on LinkedIn. He admitted this fact rather sheepishly, and was not surprised when I "assigned" him the task of joining it and setting up his network.

It's time to get over your fear of transparency or procrastination or whatever it is that is keeping you from bothering to join LinkedIn! Even if you're not looking for a new job, get on there. Like it or not, LinkedIn has become an incredibly useful tool to build and maintain your contacts, and in today's climate, working your contacts is Job #1.

One caveat: don't join LinkedIn if you're not willing to commit. By commit I mean bothering to set up a complete profile, and by complete profile I mean writing compelling copy about yourself, getting recommendations from others and writing recommendations.

Like any other tool, LinkedIn is only helpful if you use it. Signing up and not showing up gets you the same results as paying for the gym membership and staying home to watch TV.

It's easy to prowl around on the site and learn about its features, but there are also more ways you can learn how best to take advantage of LinkedIn. Here are just a few:

• The official blog
• Linked Intelligence, the unofficial source for all things LinkedIn
• I'm on LinkedIn, Now What? It's a book by Jason Alba, and there's a blog, too.

So what are you waiting for?

I'd love to hear your story about how LinkedIn has helped you in your career.

How to Work from Home

I work for myself from a home office, and I love it.

Most of the time.

I love the flexibility and the commute (about 15 feet). There are a few downsides (no paid benefits, kids pilfer stapler) and a few challenges that I am always working on (such as what exactly are my work hours, and the ups and downs of varying cash flow.)

I know a lot more people would like to be working from home, and there are a lot of scams out there, so I recommend this helpful article from CareerJournal  about websites for at-home jobs.

Virtual assistants and freelancers are two of the most popular job options. Naturally there are plenty of opportunities to make cold calls, and many of the jobs are part-time and not high-paying. But the article offers useful places to start your research for an at-home work option that's right for you.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

How to Get the Coolest Jobs

Alexandra Levit, author, career consultant and blogger, has written a cool book about cool jobs.

Even if you're already established in a career, aren't you curious about what it takes to be an art curator, image consultant, travel journalist or computational linguist? Don't you want to know what a computational  linguist is in the first place?

In How'd You Score That Gig? A Guide to the Coolest Jobs and How to Get Them, Alexandra describes what it takes to break into 60 different careers.

First you take a quiz (I love quizzes!) to figure out your "passion profile":

• The Adventurer
• The Creator
• The Data Head
• The Entrepreneur
• The Investigator
• The Networker
• The Nurturer

Each profile features 8-10 jobs. Alexandra describes what each job entails, how to enter the field, how competitive the industry is, and in some cases, how much it pays.

What I especially appreciate about this book are its focus on jobs you don't normally read about in career reference books and its up-to-date links to resources. I also enjoy the conversational writing style and the interviews with people who are currently doing the jobs.

Alexandra has obviously thoroughly researched each of these careers and doesn't hesitate to share the possible downsides. I like this too.

Whether you're just graduating from college or are considering a career change after a number of years on the job, this book is a helpful guide that you'll actually enjoy reading!

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

How Advanced Degrees Affect Women's Lives

Photo by sndrspk

I am one of the few women in my now 10-year-old mom/baby group with "just" a B.A. degree.

Several have at least a Master's degree, and there are a couple of PhD's. Many of my friend's spouses or partners have advanced degrees, too.

I read this article from CareerJournal.com with interest, about a large new study conducted by a law professor at Washington & Lee that's coming out next week on women and advanced degrees.

Among the findings is the fact that women with M.B.A.'s are more likely to divorce than men. (Apparently the men to whom they are married don't also have an M.B.A., otherwise their divorce rate would be just as high, right?)

In fact, women with law and medical degrees are more likely to divorce than their male counterparts as well.

Forget divorce, the study also states that women with advanced degrees are abstaining from marriage in the first place at a much higher rate than are men.

And here is where the rubber meets the road - the more women earn, the more likely they are to be single without children.

This rings true looking at my own world of contacts.

The good news is that my highly educated friends are all still married. Yet, for the most part, they have decided to be at home full-time with their families. In these cases there is a high-earning spouse, with a demanding career that takes up a whole bunch of time.

One of my friends told me once that she thought a family in the U.S. could support only one "high powered" career. Personally, I agree.

We all have our ideas of what a family needs in terms of time devoted to family life and attending to children, and two people working 80 hours a week is really pushing it. (I'm not a fan of any one person spending 80 hours a week at work as a matter of fact!)

So what to make of all this? It's more evidence that career planning and navigation is tricky work when you've got a partner and kids. That old slogan about "having it all" - well, it's time to decide what you really, really want, because you may not be getting it all, not all at one time anyway.

I'm all about optimism and "making it work", a la Tim Gunn. I've got a can-do attitude and lot of creativity. Yet navigating career and family life often involves compromises and feelings of ambivalence. It's important for me to acknowledge that in my own life, and it's important to many of my clients to do that themselves as well.

If this were a blog about social and political activism, I'd have a call for action right about now. But instead I'll have a call for reflection.

• Do you fit the statistics of this new study?
• How has an advanced degree (or lack thereof) affected your happiness in relationships or your decision to become or not become a parent?
• And does your advanced degree translate into high compensation? (For many folks, it does not, sometimes to their surprise.)
  
• What compromises have you made or do you make regarding career and family?
• Are these compromises OK with you?

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

How Does Your Job Rate?

Photo by PhillipC

HR World features an article listing their take on the 10 most overrated and underrated jobs out there.

Where you do think doctor falls on these lists? Librarian? Tattoo artist? Cameraman?

If you're in one of the twenty careers listed, do you agree with HR World's take on it?

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

How Boomers Can Plan Working Until They're 97

Can you tell a member of Generation X wrote the title of this post?

Yes, it's my duty to occasionally poke fun at the huge and ambitious generation that has always cast a shadow on the misunderstood, whiny and poorly defined generation of which I am a member.

Some Boomers want to work until they drop. Why not? They've spent their whole lives working like fiends and are going to live a long time.

CareerJournal.com's article summarizing Tamara Erickson's upcoming book "Retire Retirement: Career Strategies for the Boomer Generation" offers some really useful ways for Boomers (and I would argue, even little ol' Generation X someday) to plan their retirement years.

Like any good career planning practice, the process Erickson describes hinges on looking inwardly first, then reviewing external opportunities and assessing their fit.

In a nutshell you look at both how you want to work and why you want to work, which makes complete sense, yet isn't something that everyone thinks to do.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

What is Career Suicide, Anyway?

The July/August 2007 issue of Fast Company features a one-page "open debate" on this question: "Is staying home with kids career suicide?"

I'm always drawn to articles like this. I stayed home with my kids for a time and have been working from home for the last four years. I know how I feel about my own decision, and what was great about staying home with kids and changing careers, and what was difficult. My spouse, friends and clients have done it all and felt it all - stayed at home, never stayed at home, went back and forth, wish they were home, wish they were working.

Two experts weigh in on the Fast Company debate: one is Leslie Bennetts, author, The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? and Vivian Steir Rabin, co-author, Back on the Career Track.

I have read neither of these interesting-sounding books, although that's not stopping me from weighing in on this debate myself!

The key question in the magazine's debate of course has to be dramatically phrased so that we'll all read the one-page article. Career + suicide = chilly, sinking feeling. Ooh, better read more. And that's my big beef with this debate, how it's framed.

The mere suggestion that staying home with kids may lead to the demise of our careers leads to feelings of panic, entrapment and guilt that are completely unnecessary. This is not a helpful or powerful position from which to make important career decisions. I know too many stressed out, guilt-ridden parents to believe otherwise.

Instead as we (meaning all of us, women and men) choose our careers, decide to have kids, and create plans for blending or separating the two, we should focus inward, on our values and priorities, first. It's a mistake to believe that there is some sort of path drawn out for our lives from which we must not stray, or else. Says who?

For example, do you want to be a VP at your company in the next three years? Do you have strong feelings about daycare? What's compelling to you about being a parent? Do you absolutely love being the CEO? Are you willing to move to a smaller house or apartment to be able to afford to work at the job you really want? We all have different answers to these questions.

I'm not refuting the data in the books the featured debaters wrote (which as you remember I have not read yet!) I'm also not suggesting that everything's going to be rosy if we simply follow our dreams. I guess my point in the debate is that I don't want to be debating this question!

I'm more compelled by a question such as, "What do you want in your career and what are you willing to risk to get it?" It's not an easy question to answer at all, but it doesn't instill quite the choking paralysis that the suggestion of career suicide does.

Frankly, what's "career suicide" to one person may be completely acceptable to another. Some careers can be easily restarted. Some people are willing to lose some professional ground in favor of gains in other areas of their lives. Many people change careers several times during their lives.

Priorities shift and things happen. Know what sacrifices are worth it and not worth it for you and your family, and give yourself a break from worrying about career suicide. Make your decisions after completing both a thorough internal sweep and objective research.

Life your life fully and readjust as necessary.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

Is a Side Business a Good Idea?

Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends wrote a very informative post recently about the perils of starting a business on the side.

If you moonlight or are thinking about moonlighting, read the post.

Many people I work with start businesses on the side as a way to transition into a new career, or simply to have a business on the side. Depending on the nature of your business, your employer may have something to say about it!

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

Jobs and Inspiration for New College Grads

It's that time of year again, when colleges and universities have their commencement ceremonies and those grads who haven't organized their backpacking-across-Europe-experience, and aren't heading off to grad school this fall, and so far have managed not to make any specific employment plans, are wondering what the heck to do.

For starters, head on over to Collegegrad.com to see this year's list of top entry-level employers.

It's quite a diverse list, from Walgreens to Microsoft to the U.S. Army, but at least it's a starting point for brainstorming and/or ruling some organizations completely out.

The site gets its information from the U.S. Department of Labor, which tells you a little something about the eye you need to have as you sift through their lists of Top Jobs and Top Cities (e.g., "top" could mean "most common" rather than "really cool in ways you care about".)

If all of this is more than a little uninspiring, take a break and check out this website that has collected inspiring commencement addresses since 1936.

Entry level doesn't last forever. Every single one of the commencement speakers listed was at an entry level at some point in their lives, and they went on to do extraordinary things.

It's your turn!

 

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

The Brazen Careerist Writes a Book

I'm in my late 30's. My waaay late 30's.

I have only six days left of them. I'm fine with this. Life is good. Many people I hang out with are older than 40 and make it look perfectly doable. And if Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman can turn 40 this year, then I guess so can I.

When I graduated from college 18 years ago, I had no idea I was part of Generation X. This is because Douglas Coupland's book wouldn't be published for another two years, which cemented the term's use in popular culture.

When I was 22 and desperately seeking a clue about navigating corporate life, all I knew was that I was in the shadow of the Baby Boomers, who were busy taking over the world. I was not wise, I was not empowered, I was not part of a movement or a generation. I was just young and in debt to Sallie Mae.

What I would have given to have had a book like Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success to help me out!

Luckily young careerists now have a great resource to turn to that is filled with practical career advice written in Trunk's singular, direct style.

What makes the book especially distinctive is both Trunk's understanding of the current younger generation of employees and her, well, brazen way of making her point.

I challenge you to find this advice elsewhere:

• "Forget 360-degree reviews, go to couples therapy instead"
• "Use harassment to boost your career"
• "Manage your relationship with your [bad] boss with more empathy, more distance and more strategy"
• "You only need $40,000 a year to be happy"

Trunk's advice is refreshing and her arguments are thought-provoking. She challenges us as readers to take a clear-eyed view of what we want in our careers and consider new ways of getting it.

She has dedicated years to writing about careers and specifically how they contribute to our happiness, and it shows in her solid knowledge of current corporate workplace trends.

I don't agree with every single point she makes, but I never agree with every single point in any book. I appreciated having the opportunity to challenge and reaffirm my own views on job searching, succeeding within a team, and risk taking among other key career skills.

Whether you're 23, 39 or 54, if you work in corporate America, I recommend you pick up this book and learn something new about today's workplace and about yourself.

Click here to read more reviews of Brazen Careerist.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com