Wednesday, 19th November 2008.

The Most Successful Source For Finding A Job

Posted on Thursday, 3rd April 2008 by Erik

Graduating from high school or college is a scary thing. You have relatives and friends constantly asking about your future plans, job offers, job leads, and anything else you don’t want to talk about in small conversation. I’ve mentioned before on this site that formal education doesn’t teach us how or where to find a job. We’re expected to figure it out on our own. During an age where everyone resorts to the internet for their main source of information and social networking, you would think that finding a job has gone virtual. But, the opposite is actually true. The old-fashioned methods of finding a job still hold strong, yet many young people aren’t grasping this concept.

Here is a list of job finding sources that tend to be the least effective:

  • Newspaper Ad: If you’re looking for a part-time job or extra work, this might be a good place to find a job, but it won’t result in finding your new career.
  • Private employment agencies and headhunter firms: Using these services rarely results in getting a job, especially one that you are interested in. Generally, head hunters are looking for executives, not entry positions and middle management.
  • Answering ads in trade journals and publications: Again, the chance of this resulting in getting a job is very low. There is too much time delay.
  • Responding to Internet Ads: This is one of the worst sources for finding a job. Most people who are looking for jobs online are wasting their time and trying to avoid real human contact to get a job they want.

Here are the best ways to find and obtain a job:

  • Identify Your Skills, Research potential companies you’d like to work for, find the manager with the power to hire you, and request an interview. This is the most effective way to find a career. If you identify the companies that will suit you best, chances are that you’ll be a good fit in that company and the hiring manager will recognize it.
  • A referral from a friend or relative.Referrals from friends very often result in landing a job. This is why so many companies offer referral bonuses for recommending a friend to fill an open position. Friends usually won’t refer you to the job unless they already know that you’d be a good fit for the position and you’re qualified for it.
  • Using the career resource center at your university. This is how I landed my first job out of college. I saw the ad at the placement office, they contacted the HR manager directly and sent my resume to them through the mail (not through email!)

The internet has revolutionized many aspects of our life, but it hasn’t changed the way we find jobs. It does give us a reference point to know that a company is hiring, but many positions are not even posted on the internet. Stick to the old-fashioned methods when it comes to finding a job, and you’ll have much more quality results.

Posted in Job Search | Comments (Comments)

The Secret To Becoming Wealthy Starts With Your Career

Posted on Tuesday, 1st April 2008 by Erik

As young people, we are typically searching for a 101 ways to strike it rich. We fantasize about that one great idea or great opportunity that will make us wealthy. But, once you step down from cloud 9, you’ll soon realize that your career is your number one wealth building tool that you possess. This is why I stress the importance of choosing and developing a career that you love and are passionate about. You’ll invest the most time, energy, and money into your day job throughout your lifetime. So, now that we’ve established that your career is how you’re going to get rich, it’s hard to get rich if your career earns you $25,000 a year. Here are some thoughts on increasing your income and strengthening your most powerful wealth building tool.

When to justify getting a graduate degree to earn more income:

  • Compare what you’ll spend on the degree versus what you’ll earn starting out once you’ve received the degree. A medical degree is costly, but the income power that it will bring you far outweighs the cost of the degree. A master’s in philosophy or history is nice, but it won’t increase your income power enough to justify the degree. An MBA is another great example of a degree that is worth spending money on, because business undergraduate degree holders can expect to earn $35,000 out of school, while MBA’s can expect to earn anywhere from $50,000 to $75,000 starting out, depending on the position.
  • Consider how long it will take you. If you’re going to do this part-time, make sure that you have the stamina to finish the degree. The worst you can do is spend money on a degree that you never finish.

Certifications: A lower cost alternative to increasing your income potential.

  • Seek a professional designation to bolster your resume and demand a higher income.
  • Get certified by the organization most respected in your industry.
  • Don’t put the initials after your name, unless it’s a CFP or CFA designation for financial advisors. People don’t know what these initials stand for, and you look like a cheese ball if you have all of these obscure initials after your name on your name plate and business card.

Seize Opportunities At Work.

One of the single strongest ways to boost your income is to take advantage of opportunities at your current place of employment. Don’t be shy to apply for a better position. Pursue new opportunities at work by bringing extra business. The more money that you make for a company, the more you are worth to that company. They will notice, and you will now have negotiating power when asking for a raise. The shy and the timid stay in cubicles. The strong and the aggressive employees are the ones that get the window view.

Start focusing on your day job. How can you improve your income potential at your current career? How can you develop a career path in a career that earns more income? What education and you get to improve the income potential at the career you love? These are the questions you need to start asking yourself. Then, develop your five year plan to make the switch.

Posted in Career Development, Career Transitions, Education, Random | Comments (Comments)

Career Question for the Weekend

Posted on Friday, 28th March 2008 by Erik

Think about this question over the weekend and post your response in the comment section. Have a safe weekend!

Would you rather have a safe, secure job that paid you regularly or would you rather have the opportunity and resources to start your own business?

The only stipulation is that the safe job would guarantee that you never get fired and always make enough money to pay your bills, and the business opportunity would have the chance of making you a multi-millionaire but also have the chance of making you go bankrupt?

What would you choose and why?

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Start Up Business | Comments (Comments)

Two Things College Never Taught You

Posted on Wednesday, 26th March 2008 by Erik

Maybe you went to some special college that actually cared about how you functioned in society, but I attended the University of Florida, where they are more concerned about putting up more buildings and increasing their pushing you out of the graduation door as fast as possible. I love UF, and I hate talking bad about the school, but it’s like every other large university. You are just a number, and they expect you to figure out some of the most important subjects by yourself: your career and your money.

College never taught you how to manage your money: I write for a blog called Money Crashers which is a personal finance blog that I started 2 years ago. I realized that the need to educate young people about how to manage their money was extremely high. The reason for this is that we breeze through school by hearing a couple lectures here, and a couple impromptu power point presentations there, and we’re expected to know how to manage our money. There is no set cirriculum to help educate you about personal finance, buying and selling real estate, picking 401(k) investments, and picking the right insurance policies. We need to do something about this, and it starts with high school and college students. They need to be educated by people who don’t have an alternative agenda. For instance, there are personal finance courses in some high schools around the country, but many of the materials they use are sponsored by Visa or Mastercard. Don’t you think it’s a little bit of a conflict of interest for a credit card company to be teaching young people about how to manage their money?

College never taught you how to get a job or start your own business: I started this blog because of this very reason. College is supposed to prepare you for the real world, but there is no cirriculum to counsel you on how to get the right job to fit your career goals and personality. One thing I HATE about the public school system from K through 12 is that they steer kids towards the mentality of finding a good job and never towards the option of entrepreneurship. This is because Baby Boomers are young children, and they were taught by their parents to find a safe job and stick with it for a long time. This isn’t the case for us. We’ll most likely change jobs 10 to 12 times over our working career. We may even change careers a few times. There is so much to know about choosing a career, transitioning to a new career, interviewing for a job, dealing with office culture, starting up a business, managing your own business, and the list goes on. Yet, we are supposed to figure this stuff out on our own.

Maybe there’s an element to falling on your face first that helps you learn life lessons, but I think that the educational system is just out-dated and old-fashioned. It’s stuck in its ways, and it would rather spend more time on the periodic table of elements rather than practical lessons about two of the most important aspects of your life, your money and your career.

So, what’s the solution to this knowledge gap? Do we petition the government and get more cirriculum into public schools and universities? Or do we continue to strive to educate the Millenial Generation, so they can teach their kids about these subjects. I think it’s a combination of both. I think we do need more cirriculum in schools about sound money management principles and career development, but we also need to educate parents about these subjects so they pass it on to their children. What do you think? What’s your solution?

Posted in Education | Comments (Comments)

Enjoy Your Work More By Taking Care of Yourself

Posted on Tuesday, 25th March 2008 by Erik

I was reading this article from Brip Blap about 15 ways to make your 9 to 5 job more enjoyable, and I thought that I would share them with you.

  • Get Up Early
  • Stop Smoking
  • Stop Eating Junk Food
  • Exercise
  • Groom
  • Hygiene
  • Smile
  • Read/Listen
  • Eat Lunch With Humans
  • Take Breaks
  • Leave Early
  • Do Errands on the Way Home
  • Take a Shower When You Get Home
  • Go to Sleep Early

Tips I Agree With The Most:

I really like his idea about taking breaks and leaving early. I always took a break every hour and a half when I was working in an office setting. I also always left at about 4:55pm every day. I made sure that all of my work was current or even MORE than current, and I would leave just a little bit early. Some people think that this shows you are too anxious to get out of the office, which is probably true, but I think it shows more that you worked efficiently throughout the day, and you can afford to leave five minutes early. Bosses like employees that are on top of things, not staying late every day to catch up on work. It’s also very important to take care of yourself, because this greatly affects the outlook you have on your work and work life. It also gives bosses and employees a better impression of you when you show that you care about yourself.

What I Need to Work On:

I really need to start going to bed earlier and waking up earlier. Ever since I left the conventional office life, I have been going to sleep a little later, and waking up a little later than normal. I feel so much better when I go to bed at 11pm and wake up at 6:30pm, rather than going to bed at 12am and waking up at 7:30am. I also had a hard time eating lunch with other people. I always sat out in my car, listened to the radio, and took a short nap during my lunch break. I would encourage you to consider taking short naps on your lunch break as well. I would doze off for 30 minutes during my lunch break and feel much more refreshed for the next four to five hours. It helped curb the 3pm low that we all experience from time to time.

If you have any other suggestions for improving the mundane work life, write a comment below!

Posted in Office Culture, Personal Development, Time Management | Comments (Comments)

Fulfilling Your Passions Without Making A Career Transition

Posted on Wednesday, 19th March 2008 by Erik

I talk a lot about those that have jobs they hate and how to get out of them. But for some, making that leap of changing careers is much too scary. It does involve a big risk to drop your current job and pursue something different. Some of you find yourself in a situation where you cannot pursue something different just yet, because you’re the only bread winner in the house, and I completely understand this. Your first obligation is to always provide for your family. Don’t take a career risk unless you have an alternative source of income to pay for a roof over your head and put food on the table.

But what if you could stay at your current job and still pursue your career passions? You can do this, and I will give you three examples of how you can do it.

Example #1: Starting a Side Business. If your career passion involves a hobby that you can turn into a business, you can boot strap a part-time business to test the waters of your product or service. It won’t consume all of your time, and you can still work at your current job to make enough money to live. The idea is that if your part-time business receives a big response, you can slowly transition that into your full-time job and quit your other day job without taking any additional income risk. The point that you can transition the side business into a full-time business is the point when you are making enough money to cover all of your current and future bills.

Example #2: Volunteer in the career field you are passionate about: One of my passions is to someday coach basketball to young men. Getting into college coaching is very hard if you aren’t a prominent former player or you have big connections with other college coaches. High school coaching is a little easier to get into, so my strategy for being able to coach without dropping everything to do it is work my way up in coaching in my community and eventually look for a head coaching high school job. I won’t be in it for the money, because there is no money in it. But it’s something that I love that I can do while carrying a separate full-time job. You can also volunteer with non-profit organizations if your career passion involves helping others.

Example #3: Find a mentor in the field you want to be in. This example is all about networking. Start hanging out with people who are doing what you want to be doing and find someone willing to teach you about the profession during non-business hours. If you surround yourself with people who are living your dream, then opportunities might come your way with less effort than you thought.

The point that I am trying to make is that you don’t always have to go the traditional route for career transitioning which might involve going back to school, taking a pay cut, or quitting your job right away and hope for the best. Work for free in your spare time, and it could turn into a great opportunity. Remember, you have no experience to boast when you are transitioning careers, so volunteering is a great way to gain that experience. Starting a side business on your own is a great way to test if you can turn your hobby into a career or business. Don’t fall into the trap of being paralyzed by fear at the thought of changing careers.

Posted in Career Transitions | Comments (Comments)

Tips For Coping With a Career That You Hate

Posted on Monday, 17th March 2008 by Erik

Dumb little man posted this advice about how to deal with a career that you hate. His three main steps are as follows:

  1. Determine How You Feel About Your Current Career
  2. Find Your Passion
  3. Take Those Frightening Steps Toward Change

This is sound advice. I think the hardest step out of these three is taking the first steps towards change. Many of us can narrow down two or three different professions that they would rather be doing than their current one. However, taking that leap of faith towards changing careers is a whole different story than talking about change.

This statement in the article struck me most:

You spend too much of your life working to settle for a job that does not inspire you. Dissatisfaction leads to apathy, which in turn leads to escapism. When you do not feel engaged in your own life, you find other outlets to help you try to cope. These things could be as innocuous as becoming consumed by the Internet or by playing endless hours of video games, or they could become as serious as drug or alcohol addiction, or heavy gambling.

Take a look at the people in your life that struggle with addictions such as being hooked to alcohol, video games, or gambling. Do those people love their jobs? If they did, they would have a much stronger reason to spend their time furthering their career or business rather than fueling their addictions. Our work affects every aspect of our life. It affects our marriage, friendships, spiritual life, and emotional well-being. We cannot settle for mediocrity and uninspiring work. We must fulfill the passions in our hearts and minds that we grew up dreaming about.

Tomorrow, I am going to talk about how to fulfill a passion while working a job that you don’t like.

Posted in Career Development, Career Transitions | Comments (Comments)

New Study Reveals that People Like Sitting Through Meetings

Posted on Monday, 17th March 2008 by Erik

A new study performed by Steven Rogelberg, a professor in industrial organizational psychology (can you get more specialized than that?), from the University of UNC-Charlotte revealed that people either enjoy or don’t mind going to meetings more often than they don’t like going to them.

The article goes on to describe why people might actually like attending business meetings. Some reasons may be that people usually say they don’t like meetings, because they don’t want to sound like a “suck up”, but when in reality they actually do like attending them. Others prefer communicating with colleagues and collaborating with others to solve a problem or get on the same page for a project. The article suggests throughout that the social aspect of meetings in appealing to many who work by themselves throughout the day on a given task.

Okay, do you want to know the real reason why people like going to meetings? BECAUSE IT’S A REASON TO GET AWAY FROM THEIR WORK! The only thing this study proves is how much people dislike the work they are doing. You know when you’ve got that 3pm meeting, the whole time you’re hoping that it lasts until 5pm, so you can just go straight home instead of going back to your desk. In fact, I’ve been in meetings before where no one wanted to go back to their desk, so we contemplated prolonging the meeting. Then, our conscience set in, and we adjourned the meeting. I just laughed when I read this article, because I know this professor means well and is trying to scientifically figure out the psyche of American co-workers, but they are being way too optimistic about this. People hear meeting, and they think to themselves, “wow, what a good excuse for why I won’t finish my work today or even this week”.

You might think that I’m taking an extreme point of view, but I am just expressing what many of us won’t admit. Think back at a time where you were really engaged in a business meeting, especially one involving a power point presentation or one person dominating the conversation. The problem with corporate America is that they never try anything different. What about going outside and having a picnic while you meet to discuss ideas? What about giving everyone a topic to discuss for the meeting, rather than one person talking over and over about the same thing? If you really want people to enjoy meetings, do something fresh and different. Because from my experience, meetings are just a great excuse for why you’re not at your desk right now.

Posted in Office Culture | Comments (Comments)

Will The Millennial Generation Change the Face of Morality?

Posted on Wednesday, 12th March 2008 by Erik

Everything on the news right now is Elliot Spitzer and his sex scandal involvement with the Emperor’s Club prostitution ring. Rightfully so, it’s big news when the governor of New York, one of the largest states in the union, resigns for something perceived as morally wrong. But, now you have a movement of people, the same ones that stuck up for Bill Clinton, voicing their opinion that this shouldn’t affect his political career. What Governor Spitzer does behind closed doors is his business. If he wants to destroy his personal life, go ahead. That is the attitude of some people in this country. And my question is this: Is this the voice of the Millenial generation or is it the voice of a handful of libertarian thinkers that span across multiple generations?

My parents got divorced when I was in middle school, and many of my other friends were part of a broken family. The Baby Boomer generation had quite an impact on the skyrocketing divorce rate. Some of it was a lack of morality and some of it was just the unwillingness to take marital vows seriously. We’ve grown up watching some of the most prominent Baby Boomers in this country rocked by scandals. We all remember President Clinton and his issues, the Enron meltdown, numerous celebrity scandals, and the list goes on. We grow up watching people our parent’s age go through scandal after scandal. When I was in high school, I thought to myself, “I’m going to pick a girl that I know I want to spend the rest of my life with”, because I saw how divorce affected my parents, their personal lives, and my life. It’s not fun, and I’m sure the entire world knowing that you slept with a prostitute and wanted her to do kinky sex acts, isn’t fun either.

The few people that are sticking up for Spitzer will say that it’s not our place to judge him. This is an extremely post-modern idea. The idea that we should only worry about ourselves, not care if someone decides to destroy their life before our very eyes, and only do what’s right for YOU is the mantra of post-modern thought. The shift of thought from a community of citizens to the egocentric idea of looking out for number one has invaded our culture over the past 50 years.

It’s no wonder that Barack Obama is a popular candidate for the Millenial Generation. The Millenial Generation is a generation of change. We want to change the way things work, the way people think, the way government runs this country, the way we work in society, and the way we gather information. We want to change this country to fit the changes that are occurring at an exponential pace due to technology and innovation. It doesn’t surprise me that a candidate with a campaign of “change” whether or not he’s given any insight as to how he’s going to make changes, is a popular candidate to young people. So, I am curious to know if this generation of change is ready to change the course of morality. Are we ready to put the idea back into our culture that morality and a moral code is real. Are we ready to embrace morality as a part of our everyday lives and live by the golden rule of treating others as we would also wanted to be treated? Or, will we continue to follow the path of thought that says that morality is a dying trend fading away with its out-dated set of rules and regulations.

The fact that we become so outraged by political sex scandals and corporate greed scandals is because of the existence of a moral code that exists outside of us and our culture. The question is not if a moral code exists, but will we embrace it or find a way to justify that it’s not really there. My hope is that our generation will stand for a change in the idea of being faithful to our partners, maintaining honesty at work, treating others with the respect we want others to give us, and following a moral code that makes us more productive members of our society. The change rests with us, because we will be the next governers, presidents, CEOs, husbands, wives, celebrities, attorneys, CPAs, and doctors of this society. The only question is whether we will continue down a post-modern way of thought that says morality is what you make of it or embrace the moral code that has governed our society for hundreds of years.

Posted in Current Affairs, Personal Development | Comments (Comments)

The Top Ten Ways for the Millenial Generation To Earn Alternative Income

Posted on Monday, 10th March 2008 by Erik

Are you sick and tired of relying solely on your paycheck? You should be. Relying on one source of income is extremely risky, and anything that takes risk out of your life is a very good thing. Plus, it’s easier than ever nowadays to create multiple sources of income. Just think about if you were laid off tomorrow, you became disabled, or you had a horrible tragedy occur in your life. If that one paycheck went away, you’re in a very bad situation. Here are my top ten ways for young people like you and me to earn passive income: (in no particular order)

  1. Create a website/blog. You’ve read all the articles online about people starting content-driven websites and blogs, sell advertising, and the money starts rolling in. Well, it’s not that easy, and it’s very challenging to put together a website or blog that earns significant revenue from advertising. It takes months and sometimes years to develop a content-driven site, but IT IS a viable way of creating a multiple stream of income. So, how come you haven’t started one yet? It only takes about a $100 to get a domain name and web hosting.
  2. Start a part-time business. The key here is starting a part-time business based on something you are passionate about like a hobby. If you love computers, start a repair service, if you like antiques, start buying and reselling them. Starting a home-based business is so easy, but again, many of us are paralyzed by the fear of taking the plunge into small-business owning. Don’t be afraid, start one now and figure the details out later. But, don’t take out a loan for a part-time business. Always cash flow small, unproven business models.
  3. Create a timeless song. If you can do this, you and your next of kin will be collecting royalties for years to come. Think of songs like “The Macarena” , “We Are The Champions” , and “Yesterday”. Or what about a popular Christmas song?
  4. Write a book or ebook. eHow has a few tips for self-publishing your own book.
  5. Do consulting work. If you’re an attorney, IT professional, doctor, engineer, or any other kind of professional, you can do consulting work for a high-fee. Knowledge is power in the 21st century, and companies are willing to pay top dollar for you to consult with them about how to make their company better.
  6. Investing in the stock market.I only recommend that people invest in the stock market for the long-term, because short-term investing in the stock market can be very risky and you need to follow the market every minute of the day in order to make real money by investing for the short-term. However, there are many stocks that pay a dividend monthly, semi-annually, or annually.
  7. Rental properties. The right rental property can be a cash cow if done right. If you don’t have any money, don’t invest in real estate. You’ll lose your shirt along with your family. I want to challenge you to pay cash for your first rental property. I know, that sounds impossible, but if you get your finances in order and become debt free, you can start saving a big chunk of cash each month. Look for a great deal, then make a low offer in CASH. You’ll be surprised at the deals you can get, because cash speaks very loud. Then, you can put all of the rental income towards buying another property in cash, and before you know it, you’ll have paid-for real estate cash-flowing itself to buy more properties!
  8. Invent something. This one is a little tougher than most streams of income, but it can also be the most profitable if you fill a need with an invention. Sell it to a company that can mass produce it with rights to royalty fees and you’ll have a steady stream of income.
  9. Public speaking. Establish yourself as an expert of a certain subject, and organizations, universities, and corporations will ask you to speak for a very large fee.
  10. Do Contract Work. There are plenty of opportunities out there for doing freelance work, especially in an era of companies wanting specific tasks performed on a contract basis, rather than hiring a new employee. Elance is a cool website for finding contract work of all different types of work.

The idea here is to get you thinking about generating different sources of income other than your bi-weekly paycheck. So many people look at entrepreneurs as heavy risk takers, when in fact, entrepreneurs are trying to TAKE AWAY the risk in their life by creating a good or service that will outlive them. They are constantly looking for ways to generate multiple streams of income to reduce the financial risk in their life. Relying on one source of income is much more of a risk than pursuing multiple streams of income. Think about that this week and try to brainstorm a way that you can start earning just $100 extra a month. Find, turn that $100 into $1,000 a month. If you came up with 10 ways to earn $1,000 a month or five ways to earn $2,000 a month, you could be earning six figures by doing less work in the long-term.

Posted in Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Passive Income, Real Estate | Comments (Comments)

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