They didn’t actually ask anyone if they liked their job, which I immediately assumed that this article would be about. This list is based on data that may have nothing to do with job satisfaction, but then that’s apparently not what this study was measuring.

Of all the best/worst job lists that I have seen, I believe that this one shows the most researcher bias.

What is the purpose for this list? If you want a “safe” job, then this list might be for you. Mathematicians may not crawl under cars, but what about the rewards that come from doing something you love?

According to this list, the “best” jobs are the ones that require you to sit at a desk all day, be indoors rather then outdoors, have no contact with people, white-collar rather then blue-collar, have fewest deadlines, and have the least amount of physical labor.

In the article that describes the study, they interviewed several workers in jobs at the bottom of the list and found that they really liked their job. One was even noted as being “passionate about his profession.” These two interviews seem to contradict the findings of the study.

Whether people liked their job was not included in this research of “best and worst” jobs. Why is that quality so quickly dismissed?

Did a white-collar person design this study? What would have been the outcome if a blue-color person designed the study? We’d probably see jobs that demand physical labor, contact with people, deadlines, etc. at the top of the list rather than at the bottom.

Frankly, it’s hard to come up with a list about anything and not show some kind of bias. That’s why it’s good to look at lots of lists when looking for a career. If you compare across multiple lists, you should get a more realistic view of careers.

Unfortunately, the best careers in the near future have not even been created yet, and are not on anyone’s list.

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.

At the convention I got to share professional experiences with colleagues from around the country. I attended sessions where experts discussed their best practices. I presented a few best practices of my own at two sessions. And I found that some of the best sharing came from outside of the formal structure of the convention. The informal talk among colleagues between or after sessions is where a lot of great information exchanges took place.

One thing that stood out to me, and possibly others, is the fact that some people had lots of colorful ribbons hanging from their name tag and some did not. The ACTE members had a special ribbon, as did members of certain committees. The session presenters had a special ribbon as well as the exhibitors in the exhibit hall. One that I wore was for the Forum Champions, a small handful of members who are championing the online exchange of ideas within our association membership.

The thing that really impressed me with the array of colorful ribbons is that these ribbons represent people who chose to make a difference in their professional association. These are the members who took the time to be on a committee, share their expertise, or otherwise go above and beyond what’s required for basic membership.

What are you doing for your professional organization? If you are not a member, then go find that professional organization/association that represents people in careers like yours and get involved. Networking is a great way to increase the quality of work in any profession.

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.

It has always been my opinion that God is looking out for the squirrels and provides just the right amount of nuts for them to store up for the winter. I have noticed that this particular oak tree produces the most acorns just before a cold winter and produces less just before the milder winters. My meteorologist father concurred on this weather-predicting aspect of this special oak tree.

What puzzles me most this year is that, though we had one of the largest acorn crops that I can ever remember, the squirrels were few and far between. This seems to suggest that we are in for a long, cold winter, but the squirrels don’t seem to notice.

Could it be that the squirrels are not gathering this year thinking that the acorns will be there when they need them. Possibly the squirrels have moved on to greener pastures somewhere else. Or maybe they’ve moved on to a new synthetic nutritional substance that is tastier and sports a longer shelf life than the lowly acorn.

Possibly some enterprising entrepreneur has changed the business climate in my neighborhood by offering to gather and deliver acorns. My yard is a gather-and-tote-your-own operation, and I have no plans on providing the squirrels a delivery service.

As in any business, having a large inventory and the potential of a large public demand does not always work the way it should. The public can change their minds in an instant leaving suppliers holding the bag.

As we help students prepare for a career, we must make sure they know that industries change or even disappear. Skills must be viewed as transferable from one job to another.

Preparing kids for the 21st century is nothing like preparing kids for the 20th century, or is it?

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.

This mission dovetails nicely with our School-to-Work/Career program. Though we tell the kids that they can grow up to be whatever they wish, we know that many unfortunate man-made barriers can stand in the way.

We’ve certainly come a long way in this country to eliminate racism and empower women, but we still have a long way to go.

We tell kids to forget about money and social standing, and anything else that might stand in their career pathway. The reality is that kids with a passion can truly achieve anything they wish. And it’s those passionate kids who are going to break through those final barriers.

It’s ironic that despite the YWCA’s roots in the Christian faith, that is still one area where many doors are still closed to women. Many Christian churches as well as other houses of worship, have strict gender-specific roles in their leadership. So despite our program to tell kids not to let race, gender or anything else stand in their way, we don’t really have equality in all areas. At least not just yet!

What are you doing to eliminate racism and empower women in your community? Our future workforce depends on our present-day actions. Visit the YWCA and see what you can do to help.

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.

The immediate response from most of my school-mates was “I wish they had that when I was in school!”

Too many of us were shuffled off to college, since the high schools were convinced that getting us into college would ensure financial success.

But most of us majored in something we were truly not suited for, and many don’t want to talk about their job, because it’s just something to do to pay the bills. Think of how much better the world (not to mention the economy) would be if more people found the career path that fired up their passion. Our School-to-Career programs can do that!

We need to help our secondary students figure out what they want to be so we can help get them into the appropriate postsecondary education program. Everyone needs some kind of postsecondary education. It might be a university, community college, trade school, or on-the-job training, but whatever it is, it should be preparing each student for the career that is best suited to their interests and needs.

I spent a lot of money studying Electrical Engineering in college before transferring into Technology Education. Up until that time, I’m not sure if I had ever met an electrical engineer or really knew what one did on a regular basis. I was in engineering because I was good at math and built kits from Radio Shack, not because I had any real interests in that field.

When I was in high school, we did not have career fairs, job shadowing, internships, or any other way to meet business professionals to talk about careers. If they did, I was not aware of it, probably because I was earmarked for college.

If I had the opportunity to talk to an electrical engineer while in high school, I might have switched majors in high school rather then in college. (Oh, the dollars I spent on college!)

It is important for our kids to talk to business professionals, not only to gain the social graces of conversing with an adult, but also to gain professional insight into the careers that they have chosen to explore.

I want the next generation to go to their high school reunion talking proudly about their work since we gave them the opportunity in high school to explore their personal interests, explore all careers, have conversations with business professionals, and get on the right track to postsecondary education and a rewarding career.

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.

My school system has embarked on a unique relationship with the local company that brings traveling Broadway productions to the area. This is the fourth time that they have created an all-local-student production of a major Broadway production.

“A Chorus Line” gives the audience a glimpse backstage at a Broadway audition and rehearsal where dancers are competing for a few select places in an upcoming production. They’ve all spent untold years working hard to get to the audition, and now we see the building anxiety over who gets to be one of the eight dancers that will be chosen.

Besides the actual auditioning and rehearsals, we get to meet the characters as they discuss dancing, family, relationships, ambitions, and most importantly for this conversation, they talk about their career and their plans for when they are too old to dance. Some of the characters are living for the moment and have not even considered a life without dancing. That passion is what makes the great dancers truly great.

The actors, orchestra, and many on the technical crew are all middle and high school students from across our large school system. A few teachers and former students are busy working behind the scenes making this a memorable event for all.

We are fortunate to have a talented group of professionals working with our students. Terrence Mann, a Broadway professional, is directing the production. Charlotte d’Amboise, who is in the current Broadway production of A Chorus Line, is helping out with the choreography. Tammy Holder, Broadway musical director, is conducting the orchestra and inspiring the voices. And Craig Stelzenmuller, Broadway lighting designer and former student from this area, is lighting up the stage.

Many of our students have turned this experience in to an official internship. Working with professionals in a professional setting has giving them the unique experience of working on a real Broadway musical. It is hoped that the internship will integrate what they learn “on the job” with what they are learning in the classroom. At the conclusion of the internship, each student will report to their class about their experiences and what they learned from them. These experiences can truly prepare them for the Broadway life or any related career.

Careers in the arts are not for the faint at heart. There are not enough jobs for the people vying for them, but if you have the passion for what you like to do, you can turn anything into a career.

We can learn a lot from the Arts about passion-driven careers. It’s not about the money, it’s about the talent within you that wants to come out and express itself. Are you passionate about what you do in your work? Can you help the next generation find their passion and help them fashion it into a rewarding career?

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.

In the business world it’s common to find a group of business professionals to help you stay on top of your game. But in the world of education it’s not always done.

Sure the curriculum gets updated every few years, but how do you know what’s really going on in the world outside of academia? We are preparing the next generation of employees and the future leaders of the world, but if we focus only on the curriculum, how can we be sure the end result is the correct one?

Before assembling a team of advisors, decide what you are doing. Create a mission statement for your job, a vision, and a set of goals. Your advisors are going to offer advice and help keep you on track to professional success.

It’s an informal group. You never have to bring the whole advisory team together, and they don’t even have to know that they are part of a team. As far as they know it’s just the two of you talking about what you do.

Businesses often include a long-time customer as an advisor. You could talk to former students, or parents. Talk to employers about their recent hires and see if you as an educator can help them as they help you.

Employers in your field of education can help you refine the curriculum and ensure that you are truly preparing students for future careers.

It takes a diverse group of individuals each looking at the situation from multiple perspectives.

Each of these advisors should want you and your program to succeed. Hopefully the team of advisors will benefit from the relationship as much as you do.

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.

A few quotes from the article:

“Can you build a drug company without bricks and mortar? For a local startup biotech firm, that’s not a hypothetical question.”

“CoLucid has no headquarters and only four full-time workers.”

“But it’s rare to contract out the work of key decision-makers such as the chief medical and financial officers.”

“But being virtual makes CoLucid more nimble, White says, because it can easily change personnel when business changes.”

Chris’ Thoughts:

Outsourcing manufacturing and services such as payroll, engineering, web design, database management, and customer service to another company has been commonplace in the last few decades.

But here is a company that is even outsourcing most of their top management including their chief medical and chief financial officers to contracted employees.

WARNING: I am going off on a tangent to explore the term virtual as it’s used in this context. It’s a term that has certainly evolved over time and keeps morphing in new directions in the last few years. (Please don’t get me started on the current use of the word digital!)

If the companies in Second Life are virtual, than these cannot be, or has the term virtual expanded to cover this use as well.

Based on my myriad experiences in the work world, what we have here is a company with very few regular employees, and a lot of “contracted” employees. The difference here is that they are contracting high-level employees that would normally be regular employees of the business.

The “virtual” in this case is that you don’t have a big building where everyone comes to work with a sign out front and everything. The Internet has opened the possibilities for new business models like this one where a corporate building is not necessary.

And they found that they could outsource the top management positions as well, which seems odd to me since now you have contracted employees, who could have little allegiance to the company except that they want to keep getting a paycheck, making some top-level key decisions for the company.

One thing that I have learned over the years is that contracted employees can be let go a lot faster and easier than regular employees. An early ending to 1,000 contracts is a much different story in the press than laying off 1,000 employees.

It will be interesting to watch and see if a trend emerges.

Is this company really virtual? What’s not these days?

I’m off to the North Carolina CTE Conference next week. I hope to blog here what I learn. If you come to the conference, look for my career data session on Thursday morning.

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.

The first thing that really caught my eye was question Q8, which asked “If you had to choose, which one subject do you think students should spend more time studying in school?” The respondents were given 11 choices plus an “other” category. Conspicuously missing from the list was any mention of CTE (Career and Technical Education) courses. In fact, I would have been happy with a mention of the archaic “vocational ed” term.

It’s really no big surprise that the respondents selected Mathematics (38%) and English (21%) as the top choices. “Other” was a distant third place with only 10% of the vote.

Yet, back in question Q7, 77% of the respondents said that the problem of schools “placing emphasis on the wrong subject” was somewhat or very serious.

The responders ask for more math and English not realizing that NCLB (No Child Left Behind) forces the schools to emphasize math and English in order to increase scores on standardized tests in those areas. But do these standardized tests really prepare the kids for the real world?

What we really need is more applied math and English. When a student does poorly in math class, the prevailing opinion in education is to get the student a tutor and sign him up for an additional math class. This is like if the kid doesn’t like to eat peas, then make him eat more peas!

What we need to do with the kid who is struggling in math or English is to get him into a CTE or art (visual, music, theater, dance) class where English and math are learned because they are applied to class activities, and applied in such a manner as to have real-world applications that the students will remember for years to come.

Hide the peas in a casserole, or sprinkle frozen peas on top of ice cream. That’s applied peas versus “peas for the sake of peas.”

Q14A got me going too. “If all Americans graduated from a two or four year college, what effect do you think that would have on the overall economy?” 84% of the respondent said that it would “help the economy.”

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (table I-1), only 26.1% of all job openings projected from 2006 to 2016 require a two or four year college degree.

74% of the jobs projected through 2016 do NOT require a two or more year degree, yet the public perception is that the economy would be helped if 100% of Americans got the education required for only 26.1% of the jobs. The only sector of the economy that this would help is the college sector of the economy.

Don’t take my word for it, read the results yourself and see what you think.

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.

A few quotes from the article:

“At the typical college, only 40% of students earn their degrees in four years. The six-year graduation rate of 57% is better, but hardly impressive. Among African-American students, less than half graduate within six years. Overall, nearly a third of people older than 25 who have entered college end up with no degree (but often piles of debt) to show for it.”

“When considering colleges, students and parents should look beyond rankings, grade point averages and SAT scores. What are a school’s dropout and graduation rates? How satisfied are the students with their classroom experiences? Do they get jobs after they graduate?”

Chris’ Thoughts:

Is anyone holding the colleges accountable for the promises they make to the potential freshmen? Do they really make any promises, or is it “society” who makes the promises, and we assume that the colleges will deliver?

I’ve been saying for years that half of the kids we send to college don’t graduate (get their four-year degree in six years). I’m sure there are some really good reasons for this seemingly low percentage, but the reality is that high schools are sending kids to college because it’s “the next thing to do,” and apparently half of the kids are being sent to the wrong place.

We need to be sending kids to college because it’s the right step in the student’s individual education/career plan. For those not familiar with my plan, I think that every eighth grader should create an ever-changing 10-year education/career plan that will take that student through postsecondary education to a successful entry into a career. I refer to it as the “Where do you want to be at age 25?” plan.

Kids need to go to college because it fits their education/career plan, not because “everyone else is doing it,” and so mom and dad can brag about it at the country club!

Stephen Covey reminds us to “begin with the end in mind.” To me that means you pick a career, talk to people in that career field, and then let your future colleagues help you decide what kind of postsecondary education you need to achieve your goals.

Don’t let your goal be just a college degree. Your goal should be a successful entry into the occupation of your choice, a family, house, car, and anything else you need for your “perfect life.” Work backwards from the end (think Covey!) and find out what kind of education you need to get there! It might be very different if you choose your education first, and then looked for a job later on like most people do.

Find the college graduation rates at US colleges and universities.

Well, that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.