July 29, 2005

Workplace of the future
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:21 AM

For many of my (Baby Boomer) generation, during the course of our careers we've watched as information technology has increasingly penetrated the workplace and fundamentally changed the nature of work and how we do it. Having started full-time work in the early 1970's, I could tell some real log cabin stories, but I won't.

The generation coming along behind us, however, which some call Gen Y, and which includes my 19-year old daughter, was born into a computer-based world. And they will bring their wired and wireless habits with them into the workplace.

For a glimpse of what that future workplace might look like, consider the findings on youth and technology as reported by the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

Three-quarters of wired teens use instant message, compared with 42 percent of online adults who do so. Teens most often reserve instant messaging for friends and e-mail for adults, including parents and teachers.

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Older teen girls who were surveyed, ages 15 to 17, are among the most intense users of the Internet and cellphones, including text messaging.

Whether this is good or bad news remains to be seen. But I can tell you based on my own survey of one that these findings ring true.

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Forbes Best of the Web
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:12 AM

It was mighty kind of Forbes to recognize our Job Blog as one of the best career blogs on the web.

With its Sunday employment section full of original content, editors of the Boston Globe created this blog to include other valuable employment, career management and recruiting articles for job seekers. Updated just about every day, entries are short and to the point, with a brief introduction, links to articles culled from all over the Web, and an excerpt from the piece itself.

Check out our very first post, from January 2003. Our reasoning remains:

In The Boston Globe each Sunday, we publish several original articles focussing on the employment, career management, and recruiting issues facing our readers. I'm very proud of our original content, but there's a limit to what we can research, write, edit, and publish on our own. That's why we're starting this Job Blog: to take advantage of the fact that beyond Morrissey Boulevard lies a great big web of that useful and reliable information.

Thanks for reading!

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July 28, 2005

Networking is still king...
Posted by at 5:18 PM

...of job search methods that is. The fact is that roughly 70% of job seekers find their new opportunities through networking. If you need a refresher on the art of networking, take a look at this article from WorldWit. While its focus is on networking to build a business, the same principles apply to the job search. After all, your career is your business.

Networking is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to increase your business. Here are 10 tips that will make you memorable among the people you meet. The point of networking is to add people to your network. Savvy networkers know that their best clients aren’t always people they meet — their best leads are people they’ve never met who were referred by a friend.

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July 26, 2005

Are you a lone ranger?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:54 AM

An excellent report from MassInc's Commonwealth magazine explores the growing trend toward contract employment and the upside and downside for these workers, aka "lone rangers":

Over the past generation, the employer-employee bond has weakened even for those in standard employment settings, where downsizing has become commonplace and no job, from the shop floor to the management suite, comes with a lifetime guarantee. For others. . .it’s a new game entirely, with millions of Americans turned loose and now fending for themselves. Those in this category go by different names - consultants and contractors, temps and contingent workers - that conjure up very different images: They are either masters of their own universe or interchangeable inputs in a brutal new economic order. What they have in common is that, to a far greater degree than for those in the standard world of work, they are on their own.

(Note: to access this article and the MassInc site, one-time free registration is required.)

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The aging college student
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:51 AM

In a few weeks, travelers will begin to see a familiar pre-Labor Day sight on the nation's highways: vehicles crammed to the gills and rooftops with what can only be described as "stuff," translucent decals on the back window, as the nation's college students wend their way back to campus.

But here's some surprising news. Those so-called typical college students are actually now in the minority as institutions of higher learning are discovering that a different, more mature population is interested in their product:

Broadly defined as financially independent, working adults, nontraditional students age 25 and up now make up 38 percent of postsecondary enrollment, compared with 28 percent in 1970, according to US Department of Education estimates. On many campuses, they have become the majority. Only about a quarter of the nation's 14.9 million undergraduates fit the ''traditional" mold of enrolling right out of high school, attending full time, and relying on their parents' purse strings.

Learning and earning have always been connected, but now the motivation to obtain higher-level schooling is becoming even more apparent among the older set. It also bespeaks the trend toward the loosening of the traditional school-career-retirement lockstep that defined us for so long.

Many implications to explore. At the least, the notion of having more options at different points in one's life is both liberating and challenging.

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July 22, 2005

Women are making progress, but then again, so are glaciers
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:32 PM

Describing the progress of women on corporate boards and in the corner office as "glacial" the Economist takes a look at the glass ceiling around the world.

It is progress of a sort—but of a glacially slow sort. The glass-ceiling phenomenon is proving peculiarly persistent. The top of the corporate ladder remains stubbornly male, and the few women who reach it are paid significantly less than the men that they join there.

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When dad loves his work
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:21 AM

What is the best way to groom somebody for a certain career? Start them off young? Make them an apprentice, in the original, pre-Trump meaning of the word, to dad's work?

Have some fun taking a peak at Manny Ramirez, Jr.'s bedrooom, then ask yourself what else could this kid be thinking about but baseball?!

And why not? After his heroics last night in Chicago against the vaunted we've-got-the-best-record-in-baseball White Sox, Manny continues to be the man.

And for at least one lucky little boy, he's not just the man, he's "papi." And papi loves his work.

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July 21, 2005

Waiting for the call back
Posted by at 5:18 PM

As a career coach, I hear lots of stories from clients, one of the most common being the frustration of not hearing back from the employer after a seemingly great interview. If you've ever been in the position of wondering why you didn't get a call back, you'll find this Business Week article of interest.

Here's a sampling of plausible reasons cited in the article:

An opening existed, but after the interview was scheduled and before you arrived, it went away or you became a noncandidate. In the second case, the hiring manager may have looked again at your résumé and decided you weren't right for the job, but the recruiter was too embarrassed to cancel your meeting. After all, there will be other openings -- he might as well meet you now.

Or another candidate may have been so impressive that the hiring manager refuses to seriously consider the other applicants. This sort of thing drives human-resources people crazy, but you can't drag the manager into the interview room. So as a job candidate, you end up killing time with the interviewer, who chats and pretends to take notes -- while avoiding asking hard questions

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July 20, 2005

Hey, liberal arts majors: it's not as bleak as you think
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:04 PM

OK, you can accuse me of a huge bais on this one. I am, admittedly, an English major, so I have a vested interest in any good news for folks of my ilk - ie, liberal arts majors.

Every May and June, it seems, engineers and science majors, along with those toting newly minted business and accounting degrees, grab all the headlines on starting salaries, career paths, and all the rest (check out my earlier blog on this).

But from our friends at career site Bridges.com comes some welcome news about careers for liberal arts majors who, like the proverbial tortoise, may start slowly but seem to do alright in the end:

"Liberal arts grads often have lower starting salaries than those with more technical education. But they go further faster because of their communication and critical thinking skills," says [dean of the liberal arts college at Penn State University Susan] Welch.

"Liberal arts doesn't just prepare students for their first job, but for a lifetime of confronting change in the workplace and in life. Liberal arts grads can adapt to that change with their thinking and communication skills and their understanding of people, organizations and the larger community."

The article includes helpful tips for liberal arts majors preparing for the workplace as well as a set of links to more resources, including an article on "Ten Ways to Market Your Liberal Arts Degree."

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July 19, 2005

HP announces huge layoffs
Posted by Jason Tuohey at 9:10 AM

Computer giant Hewlet-Packard announced it would slash its workforce by about 14,500 - or approximately 10 percent of its employees - in an effort to restore profitability and prosperity to the company.

The quote below shows who'll be most affected by the layoffs:

HP, which employs about 150,000 workers across the globe, said most of the cuts will come in support functions, such as information technology, human resources and finance. The remainder will be made inside business units.

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July 18, 2005

Who am I and where am I going?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:23 AM

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates exhorted his students to "Know thyself". But how many of his students could follow their teacher's advice? And how many of us can today?

What we do know is that for a meaningful and rewarding career, true answers to the questions "Who am I?" and "Where am I going?" are often the necessary first step. They provide the foundation of your explorations in the working world that becomes your career path.

Fortunately, you are not alone when you set out to ponder these imponderables. From our sister site About.com comes this list of Top 10 self-assessment books to help you get at the answers to those fundamental questions:

Self assessment is the process of gathering information about yourself in order to make an informed career decision. The books listed here discuss this step in the career planning process.
- - - - -
1) Do What You Are
by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger, 2001. Are you struggling with a career choice? This book can help you figure out what careers you're best suited for based on your personality type.

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July 14, 2005

Living...and working on the road
Posted by at 5:03 PM

Ever dream of working on the beach one day and in the woods the next?
According to a recent article on abcnews.com, a growing number of Americans are living on the road in motor homes and finding creative ways to make ends meet.

About 1 million Americans live at least part of the year in motor homes or trailers, according to the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association. The number has held relatively steady, even as the sale of RVs has surged in the past few years. But more of those full-time RV residents are working while they travel, employers and others say.

Read the entire article.

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Top 20 at the DOL
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 2:14 PM

It might not race everybody's engine, but here's a pretty neat page for those exploring jobs or thinking about doing any employment-related research: a list of The Top 20 Most Requested Items on the [US] Department of Labor website.

For you job seeker/career changers out there, imagine the endless worlds to plumb under these few links alone:

#1 - Occupational Outlook Handbook

#3 - Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment and Unemployment Data

#7 - Wages by Area and Occupation (Statistics)

#14 - Statistics on Professional and Related Occupations

It's truly Alice through the looking glass, so once you go in, remember to find your way out.

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Apparently, employers think "father knows best."
Posted by Diane Danielson at 11:41 AM

From the Fast Company blog -

A recent study by two sociologists at Cornell University has uncovered an interesting aspect of hiring decisions. Women with children -- mothers -- don't compete for jobs as well as men with children -- fathers -- or childless men and women.

That's no great surprise. The choices women make at work are often more nuanced than those faced by men. But what is intriguing is how the rest of the folks shook out.

Mothers scored lower than everyone else. Mothers were ranked as less competent and committed and least likely to be promoted. And they were offered lower starting salaries.

Interestingly, the students ranked women without children as the most qualified on several measures, giving them the highest scores for commitment, competence and likelihood of promotion. Even so, childless women weren't offered the highest starting salaries. Those went to fathers, who also were rated as most likely to be promoted. Childless men didn't fare as well. They beat mothers on most measures but fell behind childless women on every measure but one.

That leaves us with:

Fathers
Childless women
Childless men
Mothers

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July 12, 2005

Summer work
Posted by Jason Tuohey at 3:25 PM

As part of Mayor Tom Menino's city-wide anti-violence strategy, Boston has hired 3,300 kids for summer jobs, a 29 percent jump over last year's number. The hirings are part of a program that strives to provide city youths with a healthy activity outlet, keeping them off the streets and away from gang violence.

According to a local nonprofit worker who participated in the program years ago:

"'It gives kids an opportunity to get off the streets, get a first job, and see themselves with other kids that don't look like them...Without it, I don't know where a lot of them would end up.'"

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July 11, 2005

Slackers!
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:16 AM

A new survey by (BostonWorks' partner) Salary.com reveals that the average US office worker blows over two hours/day in wasted time:

U.S. workers say they squander over two hours a day at the workplace, with surfing the Web, socializing with co-workers and simply "spacing out" among the top time-wasting activities, according to a survey released on Monday.

Is this you? Let us know in the Boston.com poll.

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July 9, 2005

Real estate driving job growth
Posted by Jason Tuohey at 11:28 AM

The New York Times today weighs in on an interesting byproduct of the real estate boom: job creation. According to the Times:

The real estate industrial complex, the economic engine that has become one of the few reliable sources of growth in recent years... has added 700,000 jobs to the nation's payrolls over the last four years.

The Times goes on to show how, by contrast, the rest of the economy has lost nearly 400,000 jobs in that span. Maybe I'll start rethinking my complaints about Boston housing market prices!

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July 8, 2005

Take your dog to work?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:12 AM

It slipped by almost without a bark, but in case you didn't notice,
June 24th was "Take Your Dog to Work Day":

''Having dogs in the workplace has been shown to reduce stress and improve employee morale. Employees are more willing to work longer hours," says [member of Pet Sitters International John] Long. ''It's also a nice recruiting tool. A company that has a pet-friendly policy will appear more attractive to a dog lover."

For a view of several canines at work, check out the photo gallery from this hairy day.

What do you think? Stress reducer or not? Read the discussion group and post your own thoughts.

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July 6, 2005

Base closings, job losses fought in New England
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:49 AM

The recent announcements of planned military base closings brought mixed news for New England, but most of it was bad. From The Week:

Thirty-three major bases [nationwide] would be shut down entirely, including some of the most storied military installations on U.S. soil: the New London submarine base in Connecticut. . .and the 200-year-old Portsmouth naval shipyard in Maine. . .In Connecticut, local officials say closing the submarine base could result in the eventual loss of 30,000 jobs—from high-tech subcontractors to workers at restaurants and bars.

Massachusetts fared better than its neighbors, with Hanscom airfield scheduled for an upgrade and Natick's Army labs spared. But the Cape's Otis air facility, which launched the first fighter jets in response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, is now slated for closure:

Insisting that the closures would endanger our national security, Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, hoping to save the Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, says its demise would “leave serious gaps in air defense and homeland security.”

How serious is this? In an unusual display of bipartisanship, unlikely bedfellows Kennedy and Gov. Mitt Romney co-authored an op-ed piece in yesterday's Globe making the case for Otis.

Another round of hearings takes place today at the new Boston Convention Center as New England lawmakers argue to save military bases.

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Case study: attitude counts in job search, big time
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:59 AM

From a series on CareerJournal called "Success Story", a true-life account that reveals how critical a positive attitude is during a job search:

You can have a great resume, loads of contacts, smooth interviewing skills. But in a job search, attitude comes before everything else.

Job hunting can be demoralizing, even humiliating, especially if you've been laid off. But if you are feeling depressed, bitter or hopeless, you may emanate these emotions just when you need to be making a positive impression. Without a good attitude, you won't network or interview successfully.

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Office temp wars
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:14 AM

No, it's not a battle between contract employees, but rather the air conditioning in the office that can create animosity. Stephanie Armour of USA Today writes about a few people's strategies for dealing with icy offices inside when it's summertime outside.

As summer heats up and air conditioning turns on, employees are getting steamed up about a common workplace problem: office temperature. Research shows productivity falls as offices get colder.

And chilly offices can also lead to workplace tiffs about the thermostat, with unhappy workers toting space heaters, shawls and fuzzy slippers to the office even in summer.

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