When we talk about careers, we often talk about your knowledge, your skills, your deep understanding of the work you do. While this is certainly important, there can be another aspect of career that is lacking in many of us. No matter how well we know our work, if we don’t also have some basic business skills it can make our career much more difficult.

Finances

What business skills do you need to succeed? First and more importantly, you need to understand money, cash flow and budgeting. If you can’t understand and manage how much cash is coming in and how much cash is going out, you will forever struggle in both your life and career. While there are times in all our lives when you will carry some debt, crushing levels of debt can stunt your career before it ever gets started. Heavy debt can often cause you to make the wrong decisions about your careers at the wrong times. I often see people who remain in bad jobs far too long mainly because they don’t think they can afford to go anywhere else. Even a short break in earning and their debt threatens to consume them. Debt shouldn’t be the deciding factor in your life and career. It limits your possibilities and, in some cases, can lock you into a cycle of bad jobs, for bad pay, that make it very difficult to escape from your debt.

Monitor your income and your expenses closely and carefully. There are a host of programs and web sites that can assist you and many are free. There really isn’t an excuse anymore. Sure, even I had difficulty reconciling my accounts using the old paper methods, but with the help of some financial software like Quicken and others, I can reconcile my accounts to the penny every month. Even more, I can monitor how much I spend on various categories over time. Nothing can be quite so striking as to see how much money you spend on eating out, but many of us never take the time capture that information and use it to our advantage.

Sales

Another important business skill to learn and use is sales and promotion. If you want to make money in your career, either as an employee or freelancer, you need to be able to sell yourself and your skills to your “clients.” For myself, this has always been one of the most difficult tasks and yet one of the most important. You can’t bring in income if no one knows “what you do and how well you do it.” You have to spread the word about yourself and your work so that jobs, projects and other opportunities can find you. Don’t limit yourself by only looking for work when you need that next job. Always be sharing your work and seeking out those opportunities that come your way. I often say to myself and others, “If there is money on the table, figure out some way to pick it up.”

For me, this is the antithesis of the stereotypical, high-pressure, sales process. Sales isn’t something you do at a particular time or place, but rather something that is integrated into every day and every action you take. Thankfully, the invention of social media, podcasting, online video and other tools has allowed me an avenue for sales that better fits my sensibilities and needs. It has also allowed me to integrate sales into everything I do so that I don’t feel that familiar fear of “Sales” with a capital S that so many of us dread.

People

People are often the most confusing, most obtuse, most troubling part of any career or business. Humans are inherently “messy” creatures who often do things for no apparent reason (at least to other humans), or work against their own best interest and, for the worst of them, try to take advantage of other humans at every opportunity. While this may sound depressing, it is also best to remember that there are also many people who are organized, skillful, smart and caring. Of course, these are the people you want to bring into your life, career and business.

For me, there is a certain amount of “gut feeling” that goes into deciding who I work with and who I work for. If you are attuned to it, people often give you very clear signals about who they are and what is important to them. While snap judgements aren’t always the best judgements, there will be times when it is perfectly clear whether you should work with someone.

The trouble is, we often ignore these signs. You discount what you are feeling about someone because you are pressed for time or pressed for money or simply aren’t paying enough attention. This can lead you into bad situations — with bad people. You end up working with others who find no problem in taking shortcuts in their work, even if it harms the customer or client. You hire people who will take advantage of both clients and yourself if given the opportunity. Be aware of the traps that can be found in human relations. Again, there are lots of great people out there, but if you don’t actively seek them out, you may find yourself saddled with people who don’t share your values or goals and this will greatly restrain your success. If you truly want to succeed in your career, you need to become a keen viewer of other people and human nature in general and react accordingly.

Ignore your business skills at your peril. Trying to develop a great career without them is difficult, if not outright impossible. No matter how good your skills, how creative your ideas or how wonderful your projects, if you don’t have a handle on the fundamentals of business, you will constantly struggle.

***

What you need: Business Skills with finance, sales and people — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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No matter who you are, or what you do, there will be times when your thoughts will feel scattered. Too many ideas, competing for too little time. Your thoughts simply go around and around and you can’t seem to choose any one item on which to focus. I call this painful state — “the stall.” You are so overwhelmed with it all that you stop — dead in your tracks. Your anxiety rises as your productivity falls until it seems you will never escape.

How do I know so much about the stall? Well, it was what I was experiencing right before I started writing this column. As you already know, real life has a way of intruding on our work and I am no exception. In fact, since I have so many differing aspects to my work — computer consulting, writing, volunteer projects — it seems to be a regular occurrence. The more you do, the more life will intrude. This week my parents are in town on their yearly visit and I am sitting at my son’s baseball game as I write. Too many things pulling me in too many directions. There is a way to breakthrough the stall, though and the fact that you are reading this column at all shows that I found a couple of methods to do just that.

Do something

When you are stalled it is not important what you do. You simply need to do something. If you want to get moving again, you have to choose one task, no matter how mundane and do it. Sometimes I find it best to pick a task totally at random from my to-do list. Worrying about priorities and deadlines can just lead you deeper in the stall. I don’t care if your random choice happens to be “clean out the cat litter,” — don’t think about it, just get up and do it. Once you complete this first task, you will find that the momentum will keep building. Maybe you will choose another random task. You might even find that your thinking has started to clear and you know exactly what you should work on next. Just like getting a car out of a snow bank, once you get the car moving, keeping it moving gets easier and easier.

Make a list

While sometimes we are hit with the stall because we have too much to do, it can also happen when we don’t know enough about what we need to do. As a devotee of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, it has been made clear to me that if we don’t have a handle on everything we need to do we can also end up stuck. We can get lost in worry that, no matter what we might be doing now, there is something more important that we have forgotten.

One of Allen’s central premises is that of gathering all your “open loops” into one, central trusted location, so you can feel reasonably secure that you know everything you could be doing at any time. Of course, when I recommend this to those who come seeking advice, I often see panic in their eyes when I suggest they try to collect every single item they need to do. They say, “What? If I gather up everything I need to do I’ll just be more stressed. There’s too much. I’ll be more stalled than when I started.”

I can tell you from personal experience, though, that once you have collected everything you should be doing, you will feel better. It may sound counterintuitive, but much of the stress generating by too much to do in too little time is caused by being unsure of exactly what you have to do. If you know everything you could be doing at any point in time, you are in a better position to logically and rationally select the best thing to be doing. Then you’ll be able to pull one task from the list and get to work.

Stop

There will be times, though, when none of this works. You have chosen randomly, you have listed everything, but still the anxiety and guilt of the stall will eat away at you. In these crisis times, the best thing you can do is give in. Take the stall as an indication that you are at your breaking point and simply stop trying to force your work…at least for a short time. Get a cup of coffee. Listen to some music. Go for a long walk. Whatever it takes to get away from the pressure. You can’t do this forever, of course. Eventually, you will need to re-engage with your work, but you will come back to the task refreshed and better equipped to face the work.

Don’t let the stall get in the way of your work. Randomly chose work until you can gain enough momentum to keep moving. Get a better grip on everything you need to do. Take some time away. Use these tools to get you out of the stall, keep your work on track and your career moving in the right direction.

***

Archive: The Stall — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Part of any great career, regardless of industry, focus or technology, is the ability to remember what it was like to not know something. As we gain knowledge and skills in our work, we can come to think of others as ignorant and clueless, if not outright stupid. This is a danger zone for any careerist as it leads to arrogance, hubris and — in many cases — obnoxious behavior. We can begin to think we are the smartest folks in the room and everyone else is an idiot. Of course, it only takes one bad day, one bad project, one bad result to bring us crashing back to reality.

It is always important to remember that our co-workers, managers and freelance clients are rarely ever stupid. Rather, they are simply unacquainted and unfamiliar with the work they hired you to do. They know they need it done, but they also know they lack the skills to make it happen. This is a point in their favor. They are practicing the great rule of knowing what they don’t know and seeking out your assistance. That is never to be taken lightly.

For example, in a recent project I was asked to record and produce a series of interviews for a client. Their original thought was to record each subject, individually, in their homes or offices, over the course of one day. Hearing this, Some consultants might have said to them, “Are you crazy or just stupid? Do you know the work involved in setting up lighting and sound equipment, recording, tearing down and moving to a new location only to reset it all and tear it all down again?” The answer is, no they did not know. They don’t do this for a living and had no deep understanding of the work involved. This isn’t their area of expertise and frankly, they probably didn’t need to know this information to do their job. Remember, this is why clients call you.

To our credit, we didn’t respond in the way above, but rather saw this as an opportunity to educate and help them develop the project they wanted without blowing out our energy and their budget. We explained how it would be much easier to bring the people to a central location over the course of a few days so we could do one setup and teardown, but still record between 4-6 interviews in each session. Once we explained the logistics of such a project, they immediately saw how much easier — and yet more productive — this approach would be. Until we took the time to explain the process and procedures involved, they really had no idea what they were asking.

Again, this didn’t come from a place of stupidity, but rather a lack of understanding of the steps that led to the finished product they had in their mind. This is so typical when developing projects either internally or working as an outside consultant. Your clients see the finished product in their mind, but they may have no idea of all the work and preparation needed to get there. This is where your knowledge, skills and ability to educate become so very important. If you don’t have the ability to see beyond what you might think of as a “stupid question” you risk losing the entire project.

That fact is, I often describe myself as being an non-traditional educator. Everything I do, in all my work, involves some sort of education. I just don’t spend that much of my time in what would be considered a traditional classroom. Rather I tend to work one-to-one with partners, co-workers and clients, teaching them skills and helping them move forward with their own abilities. Great teaching — and great work — does not come from a place of arrogance. It comes from a deep understanding of both my own skills and the needs of my clients. They need to understand. They need to learn. They need to be made to feel comfortable and safe so they can take the risks of learning new skills and, in some cases, feeling “stupid” in front of someone else. Arrogance can crush this fragile relationship and leave you wondering where your clients, and your money, went.

Know what you know and know what you don’t know. And know what your clients know and don’t know. Develop your skills and knowledge, but never forget what it feels like to “not know.” Remember how you felt in the past and you will develop a greater knowledge of and empathy with your clients. This then paves the way for great things both you in your own career and for your clients. Educate, illuminate and then create. Your clients need you, your skills and your knowledge.

***

Showing your clients the way — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Our fourth CareerCampSCV (Santa Clarita Valley) is happening on July 13th, 2013 and tickets are available starting today. We hope to see you there!

Unemployed? Underemployed? New college graduate? Considering new career options?

Join us for CareerCampSCV 2013!

When: Saturday, July 13, 2013 9AM to 3:30PM

Where: 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road Santa Clarita, CA 91355

FREE Admission • FREE Parking

Directions

College of the Canyons Career Center presents CareerCampSCV, a FREE  unconference dedicated to helping you build the career you deserve. The day will include scheduled speakers, ad hoc presentations and breakout ses- sions on all aspects of building your career. CareerCamp is FREE for all adults who want to build or improve their career. Space is Limited. Register for FREE today. For more information, a list of scheduled speakers and additional career content

Registration is now open for CareerCampSCV 2013 – July 13, 2013 is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Job Openings from Tuesdays with Transitioners

Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, organizer of Tuesdays with Transitioners posted these job listings recently. Join Tuesdays with Transitioners Meetup group to receive these job listings directly via Meetup.com and email.

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – May 12, 2013

• Curriculum Specialist (Sebastopol, CA)
• Principal, Mariposa School of Global Education
• Las Virgenes School District is looking for counselors-Application deadline is May 14
• Medical Assistant, Plastic Surgery Office (Westlake Village)
• Personal Assistant to High Profile Actor
• Talent Assistant, Management/Production Company
• Part-time Social Media and Office Manager/Assistant
• Call Center – Customer Service (Health Care) – Paid Training Coventry Health Care – Scottsdale, Arizona (Phoenix)
• Music Studio Instructors, Join the Band
• Speech/OT Therapist

Link to Tuesdays with Transitioners for details on all these positions and past listings

** Find more jobs on the Career Opportunities Job Board from SimplyHired.com

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – May 12, 2013 is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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There is a wealth of career advice and information available today via books, television and the Internet. Most is given in the sincere hope of improving the lives of others. It is important to draw on this advice to improve your life and career whenever possible. I am constantly reading reams of material every week, looking for ideas to keep my career on track. Despite all that, there can be a dark side to career advice if you don’t think deeply and clearly about the advice you decide to implement.

The truth is, when faced with an expert, a guru, a respected member of our industry, we run the danger of accepting every thought, every rule, every idea as fact. Self-growth isn’t about accepting every idea unconditionally, though. It is much more important to find ideas that hold a resonance for us, personally. Even with the most knowledgeable experts, not every concept will be a gem. It is up to you to sort the wheat from the chaff, whether expert advice comes from a renowned speaker, a book or the Internet.

The Rules

Of all the advice given by experts, including yours truly, I first turn my critical eye to any hard, unbreakable rules. Advice that uses words like “must” and “never” is suspect to me and deserves special attention. It is a rare piece of advice that remains true forever. Rules, if they are useful at all, are fleeting. Work, business and your career change in substantial ways every day. Rules that might have been applicable today, could be obsolete tomorrow. While experts seek to find the universal truths in their areas of expertise, the world does not stand still. Any attempt to assign unbreakable rules will eventually fail. The world has a way of rendering much obsolete, even when created by some of our best thinkers. Who would have thought 30 years ago that CEOs would regularly dress in turtlenecks and polo shirts to give some of the biggest speeches of their lives?
From the gut

There is another phenomenon which is especially disheartening. Sometimes, when taking advice, we will start to ignore our own best instincts, our own “gut level” reactions. Regardless of how we receive advice, or from whom, if that advice goes against our own basic instincts, we will fail to implement that advice properly. It is impossible to whole-heartedly follow a plan of action if we don’t believe in that action to our very core. We may try to fool ourselves into believing, but our instincts will always win out in the end.

The most likely reason we don’t believe is that our instincts are telling us the advice is flawed, even if we can’t consciously put our finger on the reason why. I am sure you have felt it before; that creeping sense of uncertainty; that gnawing sense of doubt. These are warning signs and should be observed as such. There is some missing piece that needs to be discovered and analyzed. Maybe the advice isn’t a good fit for your company. Maybe it goes against some personal ethical belief. Maybe it has simply become obsolete in today’s work world. Whatever the reason, when you have doubts, you must explore them and quiet them before you ever try to implement new advice. If not, you will end up sabotaging your own efforts in the most subtle of ways.

The Trap

There is one final trap when taking advice from friends, managers or experts. If you are not careful, they can end up running, and possibly ruining, your career. When we begin to accept advice unconditionally, we give up control. We let others take over the direction and speed of our career. This often means that someone else is leading you to a destination they desire more than you do. Without thinking critically about advice, there is a danger that your decisions can become a series of automatic responses that serves no one well.

You might sense yourself on this track if too much of your life is taken up with defending a particular expert, concept or way of life. If you invest your own success too deeply in an external source, you can feel threatened when those around you, or even life experience itself, doesn’t agree. Instead of using the advice to help you build a better life, you spend your days trying to protect it in the face of mounting contradictions and attacks. There must be a balance or you will find yourself trapped in a downward spiral built by your failure to think critically about ideas.

Be very careful about the advice you accept and implement. Think critically about each and every piece and never (oh my, there’s that word) accept it unconditionally. While advice can certainly help you build your career, it can also take you down the wrong path, if you let it. We have a brain in order to allow us to think, not simply parrot one idea or another. Thinking critically about your work and your life is just one way to build your career.

***

Archive: A Critical Eye On Advice – from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Enter the keywords you are searching for and your location to get fresh and focused listings.

Jobs.WelchWrite.com

Jobs Available – Listings of all types at Jobs.WelchWrite.com – Search by keyword and location is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Over my years as a freelance computer consultant, I’ve heard many stories of workers who have difficulty getting paid for their work. There can be disagreements about whether a project has been completed, claims of cash-flow problems or even, at the worst, simple fraud. Sometimes companies or individuals can be slow to pay invoices or, when they grudging pay, complain about the quality of your services. There are, it seems, a myriad ways to not get paid for your work.

After talking with my peers about payment problems, it seems I have had it easy. Where they might have experienced several issues with payment, I might have had one. It seems that, often, payment issues have more to do with how we do business, rather than any particular type of client.

Over the years, I have found that part of the secret of getting paid is to act like you expect to be paid. This might sound a bit odd, but I have seen workers who are not confident in their work and offer a host of apologies and excuses, even when they are completing the assigned task in a better than average fashion. They don’t have respect for their own work, and this spills over, often unconsciously, to their clients. This makes it easy for clients to request change after change without additional payment. These clients will often let invoices sit unpaid for weeks or months, considering others more worthy of payment. In the worst cases, it may take threats of legal action or more to get paid.

If you want to get paid, reliably, for your work, there are a few guidelines that you need to follow.

* State your rate, confidently, at the beginning of the relationship

Make sure that your clients know your rates and payment requirement before performing any work. Nothing is worse that having a client question your rate after you have already performed significant work. You may never see the payment for that work, even if the client has benefited significantly.

Don’t apologize for your rates, either. There will always be those who cannot afford your rate, especially as you gain experience. In many cases, the only resource you have to sell is your time and your knowledge. Discounting your rate either shows a lack of confidence in your own work or a belief that you have mis-priced your work.

* Carefully specify projects, deliverables, change order processes and payment plans

If you are working on a long-term project, your project plan must contain a detailed account of deliverables, and the payments associated with those deliverables. Payments should be on-going, at regular intervals. A detailed change-order process should be in place to allow changes as the project develops, but also provide payment plans for this additional work.

It might sound like an enormous amount of work, but if you launch a project without carefully specifying your rates, payments and change order process, you are almost guaranteed to lose money. You are setting yourself up for disagreements over the original specification, the change orders and even whether the project is complete in everyone’s mind.

* Don’t extend credit until a relationship is established

In my own business, I ask for payment at the end of each service call, either by check or cash. As I develop a relationship with the client, especially in small business environment, I might eventually move them to a monthly statement. I only do this, though, once they have established the ability, and desire, to pay. To be honest, since I always apply the 2 previous guidelines in all my work, this is usually not an issue. Those clients who show any issues with payment are quickly abandoned. There is no reason you should have to deal with payment issues. It only saps the strength of your business and damages your own confidence in your work.

The final truth is, payment problems in our businesses are usually of our own making. If we don’t price our services correctly, or don’t have confidence that our rates are fair and appropriate, we send out subtle signals that allow less than scrupulous clients to take advantage. Specify your larger projects so that payments and change orders limit opportunities for disagreement. These few simple guidelines can help you build your business and your career by showing your clients that you expect to be paid for your good work — something any worker has a right to expect.

***

Archive: Getting Paid — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Many people like to think that there is work and there is play and there is never any crossover between them. We do “work” to earn money to pay for our food, our clothing, our houses. We “play” to escape our work and have fun. I was reminded this week, though, that playing can also result in more creative and fulfilling work, often in entirely new areas. In today’s work world, where everyone is an entrepreneur regardless of where they work, we all need to be looking for those new, unique ways, to expand our work and build a career that is both lucrative and fulfilling. Often, this means engaging in new ideas and projects simply for the sheer fun of it. I can tell you from personal experience that you never know where it might lead.

My most recent story of turning play into paying work started a few months ago. I was working in my computer consultant role for a friend of a friend. It was some typical Windows-related software issues that I fixed in about an hour. This was my traditional work role — fix the problem and get paid.

At this client’s house, though, there was a beautiful Asian-influenced garden. There, in the heart of the suburban San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, was a tranquil retreat for both the owner and the clients who came to her creativity consulting business. I was so struck with the garden that I asked the client if I might take a few photos to share on my garden blog — another aspect of the far flung areas of my work/play. When I returned home, I posted those photos to my blog and then also created a short montage video, which I naturally shared with her.

Fast forward to about 6 months later. This same client contacted me again, but not for my traditional computer consulting. She was holding a creativity event and wanted to know if I could create some testimonial videos for her business with the people who would be attending. She had quite liked my original garden video and since she already already knew my work she felt comfortable in hiring me for this new project. Had I not taken a few moments to document her garden for another aspect of my work — and share those photos and video through my blog — she would have probably never known I was even capable of video production.

This story directly points out how important it is for all of us to engage in activities outside our typical work — and share those activities with others. You never know where your next job, your next project, your next career may come from. I have found over the years that these serendipitous moments are often the source of my most fulfilling and lucrative work. It may seem odd to combine work with play and personal projects, but it is through this combination that we develop our own personal career and create opportunities we may never have thought possible.

The strange fact is, we are often the worst judge of our own talents and value. We can be dismissive of our leisure activities and think that there is no way these activities could also help us earn a living. This is why it is so important to share these activities and let others decide how useful they might be. In this particular case, the client simply did not have the skills — or interest, for that matter — in creating these videos, even though she knew they would be very useful for her web site. Once she saw my interest and abilities, she realized she had found someone who she could pay to bring the project to fruition. Had I never shared my interests and skills, though, we both would have missed out on a great opportunity.

Starting today, I want you to think about your own interests and hobbies and how you might share those interests with others. Surely, not every part of your “play” needs to be turned into paying work, but wouldn’t it be great to earn money doing something you absolutely love? This can’t happen, though, unless others know about your love, your skills and what you can create for them. Open yourself up to opportunities all around you, simply by letting others know what you find interesting and fun. You never know where it might lead.

***

Sharing your interests and personal projects can lead to paying work for others – from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Job Openings from Tuesdays with Transitioners

Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, organizer of Tuesdays with Transitioners posted these job listings recently. Join Tuesdays with Transitioners Meetup group to receive these job listings directly via Meetup.com and email.

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – April 29, 2013

• Sr. HR Business Partner (El Segundo)
• HR Manager (El Segundo)
• HR Director (Gardena)
• Social Media/Digital Marketing Intership (Possibility of Intern-to-Hire)
• Contract Technical Writer, Medtronics (Northridge)
• HR Analyst, Entertainment Company (Los Angeles)/HR Generalist, Real Estate Company (Beverly Hills)
• Entertainment Agency seeks 2nd Assistant
• Director and Manager, Tierra del Sol
• Contract-to-Permanent Recruiter, Emser Tile
• HR Business Partner, Los Angeles-based manufacturing firm
• Associate Director, Human Resources (San Francisco Bay area)
• Sr. Compensation Analyst
• HR Generalist (Jackson, MS–relocation paid)

Link to Tuesdays with Transitioners for details on all these positions and past listings

** Find more jobs on the Career Opportunities Job Board from SimplyHired.com

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – April 29, 2013 is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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How often do you know everything about a job or project before you walk through the door? How often do you know everything about a piece of hardware or software before you have to install it or, even more likely, teach it to someone else? The world moves too quickly these days to possibly learn everything we need to know, before we need it. In today’s world, we are often deeply engaged in more “just-in-time” learning than ever before. So, how does one survive in a world where we are learning and teaching at the same time? Oddly enough, to be successful at just-in-time learning, you actually have to make many preparations.

Traditional and more

One way of preparing for the “just-in-time” world is to learn as much as possible about as much as possible. If you have taken classes in Cisco router management, project management or accounting, you may have 70%-80% of the knowledge you need to be productive. Training, classes, apprenticeships all fill the well you will draw on in later work. You need to choose wisely, though. Overly-specific training or classes that have limited application aren’t going to help much. You simply won’t find enough opportunities to apply that knowledge. Training on products or concepts that are nearing obsolescence won’t serve you well, either. You need knowledge that is going to be applicable in the coming months and years.

That said, nearly anything you learn can help, even if you are not yet sure how it applies to your future work. Take, for example, learning how to manage a coffee bar. It has many lessons to offer that apply far outside its immediate realm. You will learn management skills, accounting and bookkeeping, customer service and a host of other useful skills. You can never be quite sure how you will apply your new knowledge in the future.

Your goal in all this learning is to be able to face new challenges by drawing on your reserves of knowledge. In an example from my own life, it is impossible for me to work with every piece of hardware and software on the market today. In fact, it would foolish to even try. I would be spending hours investigating devices and programs I might never see in the actual course of my work. Instead, when I find myself facing an entirely new situation, I have developed enough experience with enough devices that I can make my way through nearly any process.

Over the years, I have also discovered a host of web sites that allow me to find more specific information “just-in-time.” Whether I am faced with an unfamiliar virus, error message or unique piece of computer hardware, a quick search is often all I need to move the project forward.
To some people, this “seat-of-the-pants” method can be overwhelming, if not outright frightening. Still, it is essential for every worker, regardless of your type of work, to apply these methods, no matter what your official job title. You must be able to adapt, learn and apply your knowledge almost simultaneously.

Another important aspect of “just-in-time” learning is the ability to retain the knowledge you have acquired from day-to-day and moment-to-moment. In my own case, I use a combination of tools to “remember” information that might be useful in the future. My first, and most important, tool, is the journal I am writing in at the moment. I often take notes when I am with a client, especially if faced with a particularly esoteric or challenging problem. Then, when faced with a similar problem in the future, I don’t have to try to remember the entire solution, only a basic idea of when I first faced the situation. Then I can simply flip through my journals to refresh my memory.

I also use online bookmarking tools, like del.icio.us, to remember useful web sites, tech notes and online discussions. These tools add the additional benefit that they allow me to access the information wherever I have an Internet connection and they contain search tools that can quickly locate the information I need. You should develop similar tools to assist your learning and retention.

Just-in-time learning is a fact of life in today’s work world, but through active learning, and learning through experience, you will be ready to face even the most exotic work challenges.

***

Archive: Just-in-Time Learning — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Our lives and our careers are deeply affected by our surroundings. We can try to ignore the noise, trash, overcrowding and other issues, but it really isn’t completely possible. They can effect us at a subconscious level and add burdens to our sometimes overburdened lives. When you are trying to build the career you deserve, you need a physical environment that helps and soothes you, not one that is constantly confronting you and taking energy away from your more important work.

The Place

What makes for a “decent place to live?” It is different for everyone. Let’s start with the physical constraints. Is it overly noisy? Is it too noisy for your constitution? Some people thrive on “the voice of city” — that constant cacophony of cars and people and sirens and trains. It gives them energy and helps them feel connected to the world. Others, like myself, get annoyed by constant, repetitive noises and need quiet. As I write today, the air is filled with the sound of gas-powered leaf blowers — one of the banes of my existence. The sound distracts me and makes it hard to do my work. Luckily, though, the noise will soon abate and the neighborhood will be somewhat peaceful once again.

In your area Is there too much pollution? Too much crime? No easy way to get to work? Whatever the problems, you need to think deeply about what is affecting your ability to create the career you want and deserve. You need your energy to focus on your work and career and each physical problem you face saps that energy. It makes it more difficult for you to do great work, expand your influence and grow. I know that in many cases we focus more on career issues like general education, specific skills and career opportunities, but your physical environment is a low level problem that affects everything else in your life. It can’t — and shouldn’t be — ignored.

The People

Often, we live someplace because that is where we, our families and our friends have always lived. Unfortunately, this means that some people live in depressed, dilapidated and even dangerous areas. Even worse, we live in those areas not because we have to, but rather simply from inertia. If you want to build a great career — and a great life — you may need to move from your family’s traditional setting to somewhere more conducive to your career.

This could mean moving from the small town to the big city. It might mean moving out of “the neighborhood” to somewhere closer to your job. In this global economy it could even mean moving to another country. Whatever the case, it can be difficult to break free from your history, but it can be dramatically important to do so. If there are few job opportunities where you are, you may have to move. If you face crime every time you return home in the evening, you need to move. If you are surrounded by the exact opposite type of people you wish to associate with (or become), it may be time to get out. It is a simple truth that who you are is greatly affected by the environment where you live. You can’t divorce yourself from your environment.

Where to go

The first step in finding a “decent place to live” is understanding that you are not trapped where you are. You CAN move across town, across the state or country or even to another part of the world, should that be where the opportunities exist. With my own son, I have hoped to instill in him the fact that his work could take him anywhere.

We have had the opportunity to visit family in Sicily and take him on business trips to the UK. He is currently enamoured with working in the gaming industry and often talks about the possibilities of working abroad. I feel that it has been very important to expose him to new countries, new people, new thoughts throughout his childhood so that he would be open to the possibilities for his future. Sure, I will miss him if he moves thousands of miles away, but I will also celebrate the fact that he is seeking opportunities wherever they may lie.

If you have never thought about the possibilities and opportunities of leaving the place of your birth, I urge you to do so. Yes, you may find success where you are now, but it is deeply important to be open to opportunities elsewhere. Don’t limit yourself to your own small geographic area. Be aware of far flung opportunities — perhaps even cultivate them. In today’s world of social media it is very likely you will have contacts all over the world. Engage with them. Ask them questions. Learn what they like about their location and their career — what their city or country offers them.

Except for those in the most desperate of circumstances, most of us can choose not only the work we do, but where we do that work. Careers are rapidly becoming global in these first decades of the 21st Century and all of us need to recognize and exploit that fact. We are not stuck. We are not trapped. We all need — and deserve — a decent place to live so that our careers — and our lives — can flourish. It is up to you, though, to go out and actively find the environment, the city, the state, the country that is best for you. Don’t let inertia decide where you work and live. It is a fundamental truth that what we all need is a decent place to live.

***

What Your Need: A decent place to live — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Job Openings from Tuesdays with Transitioners

Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, organizer of Tuesdays with Transitioners posted these job listings recently. Join Tuesdays with Transitioners Meetup group to receive these job listings directly via Meetup.com and email.

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – April 21, 2013

• Assistant Program Supervisor
• Medical Assistant
• Financial Analyst/CPA (Torrance)
• Adsense Expert, Amazon Affiliate Store Pro, Wikipedia Genius
• Freelance Writer/Blogger/Social Media Expert
• Graceful Palms Hospice and Palliative Care needs Nurses (San Fernando and Antelope Valleys)
• Beats by Dr. Dre is Hiring Controllers (Santa Monica)
• Front Desk Assistant, Iyengar Institute

Link to Tuesdays with Transitioners for details on all these positions and past listings

** Find more jobs on the Career Opportunities Job Board from SimplyHired.com

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – April 21, 2013 is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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One of the best ways to build your business, and your career, is to focus not on the business itself, but on the one, unique item you have to sell…yourself. Making your profession personal means giving your clients a direct and personal connection to the work you do. The professional/personal concept came to mind during one of my monthly Career-Op Skypecasts. These are open teleconferences where readers and podcast listeners can ask questions of myself and other attendees. On two separate occasions, I have been asked what workers can do to protect themselves against outsourcing and layoffs. While my own work situation as a freelancer is unique, I believe that others can make use of some of my methods.

Clients hire you, not your company

In my own computer consulting business, people hire me, not a company. When they call The Geek Squad or other computer support company, they are unsure who might show up at the door, which means they are unsure if their problem will be solved. When they hire me, usually as a direct referral from an existing client, they are 100% sure that it is I who will respond. In my case, I am my business. 

No matter where you work, you should seek to establish similar feeling in your clients, even if they happen to be your fellow employees. Co-workers shouldn’t feel they are calling the IT department (if that is your current assignment), but they should be calling Bob in IT, or even better, they should simply be calling Bob. You want the client to associate your excellent work first with you, then with your company or department.

There are several reasons for taking this personal approach. First, regardless of how or when your manager recognizes your exceptional service, your clients will already be aware of it from direct experience. Secondly, your own personal relationship with your client can’t help but outweigh any negative associations with your company or department.

During my time in corporate IT, clients would often praise my work while complaining about the IT department in the next breath. It was a bit surreal, having to divide yourself from your department, but it is essential to your own mental well-being. The truth is, it is often IT workers themselves who have the biggest issues with IT policies. It is nearly impossible to agree with everything your management does. So ally yourself with your client. They should feel that you are on their side and a partner in solving their problems, not another drone from a nearly nameless department.

I believe that my ability to develop a personal relationship with my clients saved me from, at least one layoff. I had been marked for a layoff from my IT position, but then another department, someone I had worked for in the past, heard of this plan, and I was transferred into their department, as their own divisional IT staffer. Had I not performed well in the past work for this client, and developed a relationship beyond my IT role, it is very likely that I would have ended up just another anonymous layoff. Success in your career is truly related to “who you know” in some ways.

You should also be developing personal relationships with your management. The more your manager knows about you, the more difficult it will be for them to add you to the layoff list. It is your goal to remain employed and build your career as much as possible. Isolating yourself from management only makes you a question mark — an anonymous cubicle dweller of whom your manager knows little. No matter the quality of your work, if your manager is unaware of your accomplishments, if is as if they never occurred.

Regardless of whether you are running your own business or working inside a large corporation, you must make the professional personal. You must connect with your clients as a unique individual, as well as an IT worker, salesperson or accountant. It is through these personal relationships that you will build your career, increase your client base and cement your position within any company.

***

Archive: Making the professional personal — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, organizer of Tuesdays with Transitioners posted these job listings recently. Join Tuesdays with Transitioners Meetup group to receive these job listings directly via Meetup.com and email.

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – April 14, 2013

• Media Planning Coordinator (Long-term temporary)
• Manager of Family & Volunteer Services
• Principal HR Generalist, Medtronics
• Sr. Software Developer, Orange County
• Work-from-Home Opportunity
• Temp-to-Hire Assistant, Talent Agency 
• Lead Project Architect (Irvine)
• Account Executive–Logistics

Link to Tuesdays with Transitioners for details on all these positions and past listings

** Find more jobs on the Career Opportunities Job Board from SimplyHired.com

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – April 14, 2013 is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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How much do you know about the company for which you work? How about your company’s market? Do you know the names or professional backgrounds of the members of the board of directors? Why should you care? The truth is, knowing all you can know — about your company, your market, your work and the interests of those around you — directly effects the success of your career. Workers who are insular and care only about the day-to-day tasks they must face will find themselves blindsided by circumstances that might have been foreseen. Your job and your career do not exist in a vacuum. Learn as much as you can about all aspects of your company and you can and will make better decisions about everything. 

The State of the Company

When I was working for a large corporation, I sometimes joked that “workers should never invest in their own company. The employees are always the last to know about anything.” While I might have been joking there was a deep kernel of truth in it. I would often read about layoffs, management changes and cancelled projects in the newspaper before I would hear anything internally. Companies want to keep bad news quiet, especially inside the company, so you have to dig for the information you need. There are several ways to accomplish this.

First, make use of all the news sources at your disposal. Automated news and web searches, like Google Alerts, can often turn up information you might never have heard about otherwise. If your company is publicly traded, subscribe to the news feed for its stock ticker symbol. You might also want to watch the company’s stock price, even if you aren’t an investor. Dramatic stock price changes can point to problems in the company or rumors of potential mergers, even before news stories appear. You would probably monitor the price if you were an investor. Doesn’t the investment of time in your career dictate the same due diligence?

Next, do some research to see how your salary, and the salary of other employees, relates to geographic, national and international pay rates? While I can imagine managers and executives screaming in pain when they read this, I am a firm believer that everyone’s salary should be known to those around them. I know, you can find stories about ruined worker morale and increased pay scales, but as a worker, if you do not have some idea of the going rate for your position, both inside and outside the company, you have no ability to negotiate a valid salary. When salary rates are unknown, the hiring company holds all the power. You owe it to yourself to be armed with the best information possible.

One great way to gain insight on salary and other work-related issues to to regularly socialize with your peers in the community. Here in Los Angeles, a local group has formed around the concept of BarCamp. These are ad-hoc, unconferences held all over the world. You might even find one in your own town. As part of our local group, we regularly hold Geek Dinners, where we can come together for food and discussion. You never know what information you might discover while attending one of these meetings. Recently, I was able to gain deeper insights into some technical issues at a local web hosting company that I might never have discovered without meeting this person face-to-face. Don’t underestimate the usefulness of this resource in enhancing your career decisions.

Getting personal

Along with information about your company, you should also seek out in-depth information on yourself. If you don’t have some idea where you stand, professionally and financially, you can make uninformed decisions that can harm you later. One quick calculation to make is to figure out your gross hourly rate. People who work on salary are often surprised when they calculate this number. First, calculate it based on a “normal” 40-hour week. Then calculate your gross hourly rate based on the number of hours you actually work. If your company has a lot of mandatory overtime and other emergency-driven hours, you might find your hourly salary on the pace of someone who works at the local convenience store. Finally, while it can be difficult to pin down exactly, try to divine what your net hourly salary might be when you consider expenses such as taxes and unemployment and health care co-payments. I can guarantee you, this exercise will be a true “eye opener”.

Next, take a good look at your savings, both current and money that you may have tied up in retirement plans, such as IRAs and 401k plans. You might scoff at this if you are in your 20′s, but you should be considering your retirement nest egg from the moment you start your first job. The earlier you start saving for retirement, the better off you will be. Don’t let this opportunity slip away. For myself, I never really plan on “retiring” in the traditional sense. As I look towards the future, I will always want to be doing some sort of work, even into my 90′s. What my retirement plan will provide me, though, is the freedom to work on projects I find important, rather than worrying about supporting my day-to-day living expenses.

Finally, get to know your own wants and desires. Pick your jobs, do not let them pick you. Direct your career where you want it to go, do not let others push in you into a career you do not enjoy. The more information you have about your employer, and about yourself, the better decisions you will make, day-to-day and year-to-year. A great career is not simply about the choices you make today, but the choices you make over a lifetime.

***

Archive: Knowing all you can — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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I have written in the past about the immense power that action brings to your career. The act of taking action brings power to any situation and no more so than when you suffer a career setback. Perhaps you didn’t get the job or the promotion or you’ve been laid off. Let those setbacks drive you on to new — and different — action that can lead the way to the next step in your career.

If you have been pushing for some sort of career change, and find yourself thwarted, it can lead to depression, inaction and even more self-destructive behaviors. How do I know this? I have seen it in myself over the years of my career. In fact, I think it is something that we all have in common as human beings. When we suffer a failure, we often turn inward and attack ourselves with anger and self-doubt. Rather than do this, I challenge you to direct your energies outward. More importantly, though, I also challenge you to do something new, something different instead of repeating the same actions that brought you to that point.

Like anyone, we can become stuck in ruts of attitude and behavior. We can come to believe that there is only one, right way of doing something –whether that something is making our bed or developing our career. That fact is, if you have suffered a career setback after trying one particular tactic, you would be foolish to attempt that same tactic again. Trying the same things over and over and expecting different results only leads to madness. You need to find new and different ways of approaching your career. New ways that have a better chance of succeeding than those you have tried already. This may seem to be common sense, and yet I see many people repeating the same errors over and over in their careers and lives. They can’t seem to break free from their thinking and actions and therefore fail again and again in exactly the same ways.

So, if you recently suffered a career setback, think about the methods you were using. Then think about a method that is directly opposed to that method. If you were looking to gain a promotion by being the same as all the other candidates, think about how you might be different next time. If you were trying to be very different, think about how you might be more similar to the other candidates. If you have been searching for a job without success using the traditional methods of classified advertisements, recruiters and job web sites, think about looking for a new job using direct personal contacts, networking, conferences and more. For every action there is an equal and opposite action, or tactic, or thinking, that you can bring into play.

Whatever you do, though, don’t let inaction become your default action. Unfortunately, inaction is exactly what most people do when faced with career setbacks. We retreat to our caves, salve our mental wounds with binges of television and junk food and try to pretend that the setback never happened. The only way out of a bad situation is through it. Trying to hide will guarantee that you remain no better off than when you started — and more likely, even worse. Hiding away wastes time and energy that could be better spent on finding the next action — and taking it. Taking positive action always leads to improvement, even if the only improvement is making you feel better about yourself and your work. That said, feeling better about yourself and the situation is the first major step to improving the situation.

Action is important when addressing any career setback, but that action must be positive action, focused in new and different directions. Don’t repeat your mistakes again and again. See them for what they are. Learn from them and then try something completely different. Once these different actions are tried you will probably find that success lies somewhere between the two extremes, but if you never try something completely different you will never know what is possible. You’ll simply fail again for the same reasons you have failed before. This is not the career you deserve.

***

New, different, action is the way to recover from career setbacks — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, organizer of Tuesdays with Transitioners posted these job listings recently. Join Tuesdays with Transitioners Meetup group to receive these job listings directly via Meetup.com and email.

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – April 7, 2013

• Executive Production Assistant
• Retail Specialist (Full-Time)

Link to Tuesdays with Transitioners for details on all these positions and past listings

** Find more jobs on the Career Opportunities Job Board from SimplyHired.com

Job Openings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – April 7, 2013 is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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At some time in your career, there will come a time when what you want and what other’s want from you will diverge. It has happened several times in my life and each time it was a challenging moment. When it happens to you, you will find yourself questioning some very basic truths about your work and your life. Finding answers requires some hard thinking and, sometimes, difficult choices. What will you do when the time comes to choose between your own path or someone else’s? Are you ready to face that decision today?

This way or that?

As you work through your career, day by day, month by month, each decision you make will move you in one direction or another. Will you focus on tech support or networking? Do you want that supervisor position or are you more comfortable as a member of the larger team? Is network management starting to feel dull? Each assignment you take on, each project that you promote will steer your career. Sometimes it happens in subtle ways and sometimes more dramatic. Sometimes your boss comes to you, unannounced and asks you if you want the supervisor position. Sometimes a project is dropped in your lap without any notice.

Your goal is to recognize the cumulative effect of all these little decisions and try to see where it is leading you. In this way, you can seek to counteract that direction or enhance it. Instead of just moving from task to task and project to project, you start to gain some knowledge about your path and your desires for the future. Without this knowledge, you will find your career being directed by those around you instead of yourself. This is never a good situation, as it usually brings you to a destination that is different than your true desire.

Do it my way

No matter how much you might try to direct your career, though, there will be those managers who think they know what is right for you. To be fair, sometimes they might have good ideas, but you need to investigate and approve each turn in the career road, not simply follow someone else’s direction blindly. You will often find that other’s advice is given more to solve their problems than direct your career.
Does your manager really think you would be a good supervisor, or are they only trying to find a quick solution to their staffing problems? Does your co-worker want to swap projects because they think you would do a better job, or do they want to avoid a project that they believe is doomed to failure? Are you being pushed in one direction simply because no one else wants the job? Beware of these outside attempts to direct your career.

Stand up

Whenever you are presented with a career-directing task or project, take the time to think deeply about the ramifications. Follow the path to the logical conclusion. Where will this assignment lead? What direction is this taking me? Then, if you have any issues with this direction, you need to talk to your manager. You need to inform them of your concerns, especially if this assignment is leading you far off your chosen path. Find out why this particular assignment was given to you. It might be that there is no one else to do it. It might be that you have a better relationship with the parties involved. This happens in every job, and it will not be a problem, as long as your manager understands where you want to direct your career and not assume that accepting this project means you want to spend all your time in this work.

Finally, if you find yourself consistently being pushed in a career direction that is wildly different from your goals, you need to take action to restore that career direction. Perhaps this company isn’t the best place to pursue your goals. Maybe you decided that this career isn’t where you want to spend the rest of your life. Does your manager understand your needs? Are they ignoring them or are they lacking the power to assist you? Have you done everything you can to communicate your career direction?

In the end, it should be your decision how you build your career. Don’t let your managers, or your own action, dictate your career by default. It is only by actively directing your career that you can hope to achieve the success you deserve.

***

Archive: What you want… — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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You can’t know which career you want unless you know about a lot of careers. You can’t have a great career unless you know what one looks like. This is why it is so important for children to be introduced to careers and career concepts as early as possible. This doesn’t mean sitting them down and lecturing them about various careers. Rather it means being aware of their interests and desires, finding the “teachable” career moments that happen every day and making the most of them. Help your child find a career that suits them — a career that they will enjoy — a career they deserve.

With a 15 year old boy in the house, talk of college and career is becoming more frequent and I find it is helping me think more deeply about how a career is built these days. One of the first issues I noticed is that everyone needs to be thinking about their career long before they leave high school. In some cases, they might even need to be investigating careers more deeply when they are in Junior High School (ages 10-13, here in the US). If a child is thinking about a specific career in the future, they will need to plan their high school education accordingly. Taking the right courses allows them to explore a career more deeply and discover if it is truly the career for them. Additionally, the right classes can pave the way to move ahead with the career once they graduate.

This is not to say that any child needs to choose a career now. I don’t think anyone can really decide what they want to do with their life when they are 13 years old. Rather, this is a time for investigation and experimentation with a variety of careers. This is a time to play career “dress up” if you will and try to imagine what a particular career might be like. As an example, I will show you some of the ways my son and I have been approaching career investigation.

First, look for child’s innate interests. My son liked to build with Lego and other projects, so at one time he thought he might like to be an engineer. Of course, he had little understanding of what that meant, so when the opportunity arose, I would talk about what engineers and architects did in their work. It helped that we have 2 close friends who are architects and engineers, so I had a ready resource to turn to for more information. Looking for the teachable moment, my son would join us in conversations about what work they were doing and what their day-to-day career was like. At this stage, it is all about recognizing what is of interest to your child and how you can help them to learn more about that interest.

As my son grew older he got into computer gaming to a great degree, as many kids do. For him, though, it also pointed the way to another possible career. As part of this interest he selected a high school that had a tech specialization program, including classes in 2D and 3D game design as well as robotics. This, along with his own gaming, started to show him more about the gaming industry and the possible careers that might be found there. He quickly discovered that a career in gaming didn’t necessarily mean programming, although that is one aspect. There are many other related careers including art design, writing, promotion, marketing, sales, project management and more.

To further his investigation into a gaming career I started to do something that my wife does with her writing students — thinking critically about the games he was playing. Now, when we watch a game playthrough on YouTube, a professional tournament match in StarCraft (yes, there are many professional gamers and tournaments out there) or his own game play, I make a point of asking him questions. “Why do you think they made that choice for the art design? How would you have designed it? Do the game mechanics work well or are they clunky? Do they enhance the gameplay or hinder it? If you were commentating for this tournament, how would you make it better? What are they doing right or wrong? What makes this game so good?”

I want my son to dive deep into the gaming world, if that is where is career aspirations lie, so that he enters that world — or any career world — with open eyes and a deep, clear idea of the pros and cons. The truth is, while it may seem frivolous to some, the gaming industry is a huge, diverse industry with many opportunities in a wide variety of work areas. I think there are a lot of opportunities there, should he decide to pursue it. The best thing, though, is that because of the Internet today, he can investigate the industry in great detail long before he has to commit to a career there. He can easily talk with people working in the industry already and gain a clear picture of what may be possible.

Is your child expressing an interest in a particular career or a particular type of work? If so, follow those interests wherever they might lead. Help them to learn as much about that work as possible so that when the time comes to make a decision, they can do it secure in the knowledge that they understand what that career entails. In this way, we can lead every child to not only the career they deserve, but also a career they might even love.

***

Never too early to introduce your children to career concepts — from the Career Opportunities Podcast is a post from Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

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