Marty Nemko

THE Key to Losing Weight....Really

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:13:00 +0000

THE key to losing weight is STAYING conscious from the moment you're thinking about eating until the moment you've moved on to other tasks. During that time, KEEP thinking about how NOT eating is your reward: you'll look better, be healthier, have more energy, etc.

Remember too that it takes 20 minutes for your brain to recognize you're no longer hungry. So eat little and move on to some other task, rather than eating until you no longer feel hungry, let alone feel full.

I suggest you tape a sign "STAY Conscious!" on your refrigerator and another one on your dashboard, to remind you when you're out. Read it aloud often to lock the concept into the forefront of your mind.

I'd love to know if this little post ends up helping you.

Why the Career Advice: "Write a book" is Usually Bad Advice

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:32:00 +0000

Yesterday, I received one of the countless publicist pitches I get touting a career "expert" who has just written a book. Most of those authors fit into one of two categories: "I have a cool career and I can help you get one too," or "I'm America's Best Career Coach and I can help you land a dream job."

Candidly, I feel sorry both for the authors and consumers of such books. I've written elsewhere, for example, here, about why "find your dream" career advice is largely snake oil. So I'll just touch on that here. Here's just one reason: The author tells what worked for him in landing a job and asserts it will work for the reader. The problem with that is that what works in landing a job for a person with the ability and perseverance to write a published book is unlikely to work for more typical job seekers.

For example, many articles and books have been published on how to land a job at Google. A Google search on the term "Land a Job at Google" yields 89,000 links. One of those links takes us to the book, Get a Job at Google: Craft a great resume, network effectively, and ace the interviews. Fact is, as the Wall Street Journal reports, Google receives 2,000,000 resumes a year and hires only 7,000 people. That's 3 out of 1,000, a far lower ratio than admission to Harvard. And many of those Google jobs aren't great---for example, screening those 2,000,000 resumes!

And most of the non-temp, interesting Google jobs go to people currently employed by a prestigious firm doing work similar to that in Google's want ad, with a strong recommendation from their boss, a degree with high grades from a designer-label college, who has been personally referred to Google's hiring manager. Like I said, "how to land your dream job" advice is pretty snakey oil.

Now, here's why I feel sorry for the authors of such books.

Many of these authors have the fantasy of becoming the next Oprah, Tory Johnson, or at least getting $5K-a-pop keynote addresses, $200-an-hour consulting gigs, and/or using the book to establish enough credibility to land a job they otherwise couldn't. With those fantasies as fuel, those wannabes spend a year or two writing a book, a fortune on their wardrobe, upping speaking skills, a publicist, etc., plus many additional hours or money creating and adding SEO-optimized, traffic-building, relationship-building content to their website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, plus in-person networking with people who can help flog their book.

Alas, unless an author is already a household name, he or she is most likely to end up deriving less net income per hour for all those efforts than if flipping burgers at McDonald's. It usually takes a year or three for them to realize they've been wasting their time and money. By then, they're in the unenviable position of having to convince an employer to hire them over job applicants with a more germane and recent work history. Or they have to somehow convince their parents or spouse to be their permanent cash cow.

I wish more publicists, book packagers, etc., and indeed screenwriting and acting coaches, who make their living selling the dream to wannabes were honest with prospective clients about the likelihood of non-celebrities generating a sustained middle-class income from their creative output, and honest enough to ask such questions as, "Do you really believe your expertise is great enough to tout yourself to the world as being able to help the sorts of people who buy career-help books to land great work in this lousy job market more than the zillions of other books, coaches, workshops, TV shows, articles, podcasts, blogs, columns, etc., that do the same, often for free?

Short of that revolution, I believe that especially today, with so much free content on the Net and the ease of self-publishing, the old advice to "write a book to become successful" is invalid if not an outright scam. And more broadly, so is the industry catering to artistic wannabes.

How to Make the Most of a Job Lead

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:12:00 +0000

You're meeting someone who might help you find a job. This is not a job interview. It's a person you know or a cold-contact with someone you're hoping will create a job or project for you, or suggest someone who might help you land a job.

Of course, every situation is different but this template for making the most of an informational interview can help you get the most of such meetings:

Phone or skype meetings are okay but in-person, if feasible, may be worth the effort.

Mirror the person. Dress as s/he does. Begin the meeting with the amount and type of small-talk that works best for them. Your utterances should be at their speed, average length, intensity, intellectual level and emotional level.

When it's time to get down to business, ask whether s/he prefers you ask questions to identify if and how you might be helpful to them, or whether she/d prefer you describe how you present yourself to the job market so s/he can provide feedback. Respond accordingly. If the person offers a suggestion, try if possible, to simply say thank you and not argue.

At the moment it feels right, ask if s/he knows someone you should talk with, something you should read, a meeting, conference or other event you should attend. When they offer one, ask, "Great. By any chance, do you have another idea?"

End by asking, "Would you mind keeping your ears open for me and if, in a month, I'm still looking, I follow up with you?" The person will usually say yes, which means you've recruited a scout, someone who'll keep the antennae out for you. The person is likely to have more leads for you during the month than what s/he has at the moment you're asking .

After the interview, write, not a thank-you note, but an influencing letter. After the obligatory "Thanks for meeting with me," that letter should include as many of these as is appropriate:

Say you appreciate that he was impressed with (insert the thing he was most impressed with about you.)
If you flubbed something in the meeting, write, "I've given further thought to your question about X. (insert improved answer.)
If you've identified a way in which you might be of help to the person---a project you could do, or even a full-time job--append a half-to-one-page proposal.
Thank the person for offering to keep her ears open and willingness to take your call if, in a month, you're still looking.

After the meeting it's often a good idea to send a personalized small thank-you gift. For example, if he mentioned that he's about to buy a new car--I'd get him a book on the art of buying a new car. I usually buy such presents from convenient Amazon.

That approach should generate benefit in excess of the time you spend obtaining and attending such meetings. If your meetings routinely yield little benefit, you're probably talking too much, listening too poorly, not showing interest in them, and/or shooting for a too low-probability job target.

You're Invited to What I Believe Will be A Great Experience--and it's free!

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:04:00 +0000

I believe the free show I'm about to invite you to will be more entertaining and inspiring than are many shows for which people pay $50 to $100.

A while back, a 40-minute version of the show got a standing ovation. The two-hour version I'm inviting you to should be even better.

It's a one-woman show called Big, Black, and Shy. Jeffrie Givens tells her improbable story punctuated by songs from opera to show tunes to rap, from "In My Own Little Corner" to "I Am What I Am." At times funny, poignant, and inspiring, I believe you'll truly enjoy it. Of course, I'm biased, I created the show with Jeffrie, am directing it, and will be accompanying her on the piano.

The show will be at my home in Oakland, CA on Sunday Feb. 26 at 2 pm. My living room seats only 22 and, especially because it's free, if you want to come, email me as soon as possible: mnemko@comcast.net

Sources of Job Leads

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:57:00 +0000

In my most recent post, I reiterated the value of job seekers cold-contacting 50 target employers. One of the commenters on that post asked if I might suggest ways of finding job leads. Here are some, most which include the name of at least one contact person:

Volunteer at a nonprofit. But be picky--many positions and organizations offer too little hope of it generating a decent job. Often good options are: Get on a board of directors with people with the power to hire you or give you a solid lead for the job to which you aspire. Another often good option: Get on the program or conference committee in your professional association. Those volunteer opportunities tend to put you working, ongoing, with influential people.
Go to the job ad aggregation sites: indeed.com and simplyhired.com. Simply search for ALL jobs in your geographic target area. The organizations with lots of job listings are likely in growth mode and thus are promising targets for your cold contacting a person there with the power to hire you. (Use the other tools in this article to find them.)
ReferenceUSA: 14 million U.S. busineses including four million new ones, where job openings are more likely and less competitive than in established brand-name companies.
Jigsaw/Data.com Contacts. Contains full contact information for 30 million business professionals.
Simply Google as much of this information on a potential lead as possible: name, title, organization, area code, and the word "email."
Members of your professional association, for example, the Society for Human Resources Management.
Call the organization's general number. Press zero for the operator. Say, "I'm sending a note to (insert name): what's the best way to send it to him/her?
Members of your alma mater's alumni association
Google a target employer plus a word or phrase that might elicit the name of the person with the power to hire you, for example, "vice president, marketing."
ThomasNet: Lists 607,000 manufacturers of products and components and 1,000 technical manufacturing White Papers.
Hoovers. 65 million companies.
Vfinance: Companies that have recently received a round of venture or private equity funding.
Business Times: There are 40 local editions, each of which contain information on companies in growth mode.
A business librarian at a major public or university library can provide guidance and/or access to databases to which the library subscribes, for example, Gale Directory Library.
Your friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter, and connections on LinkedIn: Its search feature enables you to identify where each of its 140 million members work plus contact info. And with even a relatively small number of LinkedIn connections, you can directly contact incredible numbers of people. For example, I have only 126 connections, yet those link me to 5,000,000 people.
Oh yeah, don't forget about real friends, sometimes the source of the most useful leads.

Your Network Won't Help? Another Way to Land a Job...(Often) Fast

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:42:00 +0000

It's been said ad nauseam that your network is the best source of a job. That's true but most people who are seeking career advice have already exhausted their network.

For them, the most potent way to land most jobs is cold contact to a target employer, whether or not they're advertising a job. That's true, if you do it right.

First, to motivate you to cold-contact, which many people find anathema, consider this:

A job opening is born when the employer has a need but isn't aware of it. If you cold call or walk in at that point, the boss may be tempted to hire you, at least on a project basis, so he doesn't need to undertake the time-consuming standard employee selection process. Even if he tells some others about the job opening, you'll likely be competing with fewer applicants than if you waited until the job opening was advertised.

The next stage in a job opening's lifespan is when the boss is aware s/he needs to hire someone but has, at most, let insiders know. Call or walk in at that point and you're still competing only with a small number of applicants.

Here's the punchline: Usually a job opening reaches the next stage in its lifespan--it's publicly advertised--when it requires unusual skills, no one who knows the boss wants to work with him, or it's wired for someone but HR requires the job to be advertised. In other words, when you're answering a want ad, you're more likely to be competing with the most applicants for the worst jobs.

That's why cold contact to employers whether or not they're advertising a job, is so potent--if done well. The method of cold-contact I recommend is Phone-Email-Phone-Phone.

1. Make a list of 50 target employers, who are not necessarily advertising an appropriate job opening. Why as many as 50? Because the odds of any one needing you is small. It is a numbers game.

2. Phone each after-hours, leaving this voice mail such as:

This is Jane Blow. I was a project manager at Ace Corp. and got solid evaluations but the job ended so I'm looking for work. I chose to call you because (insert a reason such as why you like the company, its geographic location, whatever.) I'll be emailing you my resume (or if your resume would not impress that employer, a letter of introduction, highlighting what would most impress her.) If you think I might be of help to you or simply want to offer me some advice, I'd welcome hearing from you. My phone number is: repeat it twice.

3. Email your resume and a brief cover letter that reiterates the above.

4. Phone back a week later if you haven't heard from that employer, leaving voice mail if necessary. For example:

This is Joe Blow the project manager from Ace Corp looking for his next job. Not having heard from you, I assume you're not interested, but I know how things can fall between the cracks so I'm taking the liberty of calling to follow up. If you think it's worth our talking to see if and how I might be of help to you or simply to offer some advice as to where I might turn, I'd be pleased to talk with you. My phone number is: repeat it twice.

5. Phone a week after that if you haven't heard from that employer. Say something like:

This is Jane Blow. I was hesitant to make this call because I certainly don't want to be a pest but I hope that perhaps you might even appreciate my being a persistent sort. If you'd like to talk to see if and how I might be of help to you, I'd welcome hearing from you. If not, I promise I won't bother you again! Here's my phone number: repeat it twice.

No job search method guarantees employment but my clients that have exhausted their network have found the 50 phone-email-phone-phone approach to be a potent and often fast way to land a job.

Overcoming Adversity: When a pianist loses the use of three fingers

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:10:00 +0000

A while back, I developed a hand condition that rendered three of my fingers useless: I could no longer play basketball, type well, or play the piano the way I used to.

Indeed, the doctor said, "I'm sorry you won't be able to play the piano any more." Here is an attempt to prove him wrong:

Curing the Impostor Syndrome: Work hard then forgive yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:03:00 +0000

I've had the privilege of being career coach to some of the world's most successful executives, lawyers, physicians, professors, etc. And it may surprise you to know that even most of them often feel like impostors.

It's not that they're inferior. It's that there's a gap between what even stars can do and what complete knowledge and perfect judgment would enable. It's simply impossible for a CEO to know for sure whether it's wisest to be incremental or bold, for a lawyer to be certain s/he's picked the right defense, for a physician to be sure when saying, "You're fine," Even eminent experts, those who appear in the media, according to U.C. Berkeley research, have prediction rates no better than chance!

So after you've done what you can reasonably do to become competent and you've reached that sweet spot where yet more study is likely to only minimally improve your success rate, it's time to give yourself a break, time for acceptance of your fallibility, of humankind's fallibility.

I heard a perhaps apocryphal story that at one of America's leading medical schools, the chief resident welcomes each year's interns by telling them, "Each any every one of you is entitled to one clean kill. A patient will enter the hospital reasonably expecting to leave healthy and you'll kill him. Sure you must learn from your mistakes but you must forgive yourself, because medical errors are part of the cost of a medical education. Your worth as a physician is defined by the net effects of your lifetime as a physician."

Whether or not your workplace decisions are life-and-death, work hard to become competent, learn from your mistakes, and then forgive yourself. We're only human.

Career, Workplace, and Economic Predictions and Trends for 2012 and Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:35:00 +0000

My latest TheAtlantic.com article (republished on yahoo.com) offers my career, workplace, and economic predictions and trends for 2012 and beyond. HERE is the link.

The Two Keys to Achieving Your Goals and Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:38:00 +0000

You can set goals and make New Year's resolutions but you'll probably fail unless you remember one thing: stay conscious.

Let's say you want to lose 20 pounds in six months. That meets all the usual criteria for a good goal: realistic, specific, and important. But you will fail unless you stay conscious of the importance of your achieving your goal, from the moment you start thinking about eating through the moment you finish or get distracted by something else. Without that vigilance, it's just too easy to succumb to "Ooh, that food will taste good." It may also help to break your goal into a small step:one pound in the next four days, for example.

Another example: You want to land a job within three months and, to that end, you want to put in 30 good hours a week. During those 30 hours, you must stay conscious that you must put in the time, reminding yourself of all the benefits you'd get from landing a job. Again, it can help to break it down into smaller goals, for example, I'll make five calls today.

If staying conscious isn't enough, tell one or more people your goal and deadline and, if necessary, ask if you could check in daily. For example, ask if you could email them the letter grade A through F you'd give yourself for your day's work.

Three tips from my new book: How to Do Life: what they didn't teach you in school

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:01:00 +0000

Here, I present three tips from my just-published book, How to Do Life: what they didn't teach you in school. It's available on Amazon for $7.99. HERE is the link. I'd welcome your writing an honest review of it on Amazon.

Career Advice: What I said to a panel of student interviewers

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:52:00 +0000

A group of broadcast journalism students did a series of six six-minute interviews with me. Most of the questions were on how to be a career success in these tough times. Here are those interviews.

Note: The first minute is pre-interview fooling around. And the following minute or so has a few audio squeaks--they are student engineers. But the other 33 minutes are okay.

My new book, "How to Do Life" is now available

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:09:00 +0000

I've just published my new book, How to Do Life: what they didn't teach in school.

Perhaps it's author bias but I believe it is an invaluable assemblage of ahead-of-the-pack ideas on career, relationships, money, health, education, and life's big questions, all in 142 crisply written, even mildly entertaining pages.

Many but not all of its ideas have been presented on this blog and on my website. The book presents them in a coherent package.

I've priced it at just $7.99 because I'm far more interested in being helpful than in making money.

I believe How to Do Life would be of great benefit to people of any age but particularly appropriate for someone just starting out.

HERE is the link to the Amazon page where you can buy it. Do note that the cover may be the one above or the one pictured on the Amazon site. (I can't control which.)

Both a printed-book and Kindle version are available.

I welcome your writing an honest review of it on Amazon.

You Can Vote For or Against Staycations in The Atlantic

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:13:00 +0000

I've long felt that vacations longer than two hours aren't worth it. If your worklife is so unpleasant that you need longer breaks, maybe you'd be wiser to try to get your job description changed, get better at your job, or if you can, find better a better job or self-employment.

And if you or your honey feel you need a longer break, you'll probably get more restoration and even novelty with far less hassle and cost with a staycation: using your home as the base of your vacation operations: You can go to that restaurant you know is great, see those friends you keep saying you want to see, and make that Grand Marnier souffle you've been dying to try.

And unless you're one of those spiritual souls for whom stepping into the Parthenon makes you feel so one with history that it's worth the $$$ and hassles getting to and fro, you may feel you've derived more pleasure per buck and minute by watching high-quality travel videos without cost or hassle on YouTube. For example, HERE is a free five-minute tour of Malaysia. The company that produced that video has created dozens of other free video tours of vacation destinations. To see more, HERE is the link.

I've made the case for staycations on this blog but not elsewhere...until now. It's my Question of the Week in The Atlantic: If and when is it wiser to have a staycation than a vacation? If you'd like to weigh in, just click HERE.

We're All Miseducated

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:17:00 +0000

We are educated by the wrong people: teachers, professors, journalists, filmmakers, fiction authors.

Teachers score lowest among all professionals on the SAT, and qualitatively, spend time with K-12 teachers and, unless you're a dullard yourself, you'll find most of them, well, dull: usually caring but unlikely to educate beyond a minimum, let alone inspire or elevate their students.

Professors are people who opted out of the real world so they can study arcana for a lifetime--not the best people to abet students' real-world functioning. And because there is a near litmus test for hiring professors in the humanities and social sciences, college and graduate school education is truncated: right-of-center ideas will usually be absent from the curriculum except as whipping boys. Some but not all wisdom resides left-of-center.

Journalists disproportionately self-select into the profession because they want to change the world--in the leftist direction their professors monolithically extolled. And most journalists have little real-world experience to temper their being True Believers in leftist theory: that the privileged white male capitalists are destroying society, especially women and people of color. In previous generations, that was tempered by journalism school professors urging students to strive to be fair and balanced. Now, many journalism professors urge "advocacy journalism," even in supposedly straight-news pieces.

Films nearly always have a leftist bias. For example, filmmakers generally portray corporations as evil --even though, for example, if not for corporations, you'd have no medication, no refrigeration, no TV, no computer, no car, no public transportation, etc. And corporations' efficiency enables even most low-income Americans to afford all of the above. Not to mention that big corporations offer some of the more secure, well-paying, well-benefited jobs, with ongoing free training, all in a safe, pleasant environment. But you'll rarely see that message in a major film. The hero is much more often a have-not.

I've been taking a number of literature courses through The Great Courses, for example, THIS, (taught of course, by leftist professors) and I've learned that the authors of most of our revered literature are misfits, so offbeat (depressed, alcoholic, or simply downright weird,) they nearly always honor the weird person over the straight arrow. And, like journalists, most fiction writers, holed up in their atelier most of their life, have little real-world experience to provide a reality check for their dreamt-up ideas.

I'm not in a bad position to assess the extent to which the above arguments are true. I've trained student teachers and observed many so-called master teachers. I've been on the faculty of the University of California and the California State University and been a consultant to 15 colleges, so I know lots of professors from the inside. I've been a journalist at the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Kiplinger, U.S., News, the Washington Post, and The Atlantic. So I know journalists. I'm always looking for the metamessages in books, movies, and the news media's reporting. And as a career counselor who has worked with 3,900 clients over the past quarter century, and someone who, even at parties, loves to talk with people about their worklife, I have a pretty good sense of what our society's mind molders are like compared with other intelligent people.

As a result of all of this, I have concluded that we would be better educated if we were taught mainly, although not exclusively, by society's doers: businesspeople, those who work in nonprofits, tradespeople, as well as in the government. The older I get, the more I believe in a variant of the old saw: those who can, do; those who can't, teach, write, or make movies.

Overcoming Shyness: An inspiring story (with music)

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:51:00 +0000

Here's the one-woman show I wrote with Jeffrie Givens. She's the performer and I accompanied her on the piano.

It's called Big, Black, and Shy. It's the improbable story of how she went from being extraordinarily shy to, well, I don't want to give away the ending.

We performed it for the first time yesterday at my home to a packed house of 22 people. I was pleased with how it went.

Here is the video:

A Case for Economic Agnosticism

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:02:00 +0000

What's the best economic system: Socialism? Communism? Capitalism? A hybrid?

So many factors affect an economy that history nor theory provide adequate basis for dispositive judgment.

Thus, despite today's era of polarized opinions, it strikes me that the only responsible positions on the subject are agnosticism or advocacy of some sort of capitalism/socialism hybrid.

What do you think?

Changing Careers in Midlife and Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 04:03:00 +0000

This is my next column in Germany's Spotlight magazine. I thought you might enjoy an advance look.

It's not easy to change careers, especially if you're older and especially in this economy, but it can be done. These are the ways my career coaching clients have most often done it:

1. Ask all your relatives and friends, real-life and online, for example, on Facebook and LinkedIn. Unless it's a very low-level job, most often it's only a friend who will be willing to hire someone with no experience, which by definition, is what a career changer is. Tell your relatives and friends in ten words or less what you're looking for. Examples:

I'd like to combine my law degree with an interest in health care.
I'd love a job working with my hands, especially outdoors.
I'm not an artist but I like working with aesthetic products: fashion, decor, art.
I've very social so any professional job where I work on teams would be fine.

Note that you needn't be highly specific. If you're too specific, for example, "I'm looking for a job as a project manager in a fuel cell fabricator," the odds are too small that your friends will have leads for you. On the other hand, it's usually wise not to say "I'm open to anything." That makes you seem desperate and unskilled at anything.

2. Train with a short program. Most older people don't find it worth the time to complete a multi-year degree program. And remember that older people tend to take longer than the expected time to complete their degree. So look at short job training programs offered by your professional association, a community college, etc.

Examples of careers with relatively short training: fundraising, project management, sales, iPhone technician, piano tuner, home stager, bookkeeper/tax preparer, irrigation designer/installer, locksmith, auto body repairer, baker, bus or truck driver, massage therapist, nanny, and database administrator. Not only are such programs a source of fast training but often of job leads from your instructors and your fellow students.

3. Become self-employed. It's tough to convince an employer to hire an older person even if s/he has much experience. It's harder still if you're changing careers--no experience, no contact list, nothing. So, if you're a self-starter and cost-conscious, you may wish to start your own business. You instantly go from disgruntled employee to CEO, where you run things as you like.

Key to maximizing your chances of success is to copy an already successful simple business: Don't innovate; replicate. Rather than be a guinea pig for some untested idea, it's far safer to replicate someone else's successful business in a different location. For example, let's say you notice gourmet soup/sandwich/salad trucks have long lines. Visit the few busiest ones and incorporate their best features into your own, of course, in a busy location.

4. Decide you don't need a career change, just a career tweak. Might you be happy enough if you did the same work but for a different boss? Different work for your current employer? If the latter, give your boss a proposal for a revised job description that would emphasize your strengths and preferences while meeting your employer's needs.

I should warn you that many of my clients find themselves no happier in their new career in their old one. They bring their weaknesses or bad attitude with them to the new career. So look inward and ask yourself, "Honestly, am I likely to be so much happier and more successful in my new career that it's worth the time, money, and hassle of starting over?"

If so, great. I have indeed seen people become happier in both their professional and personal life from a career change--even if it means a decline in status. One person was a Ph.D. school psychologist but was frustrated at the slow progress of special needs children. She quit, became a pediatric nurse, and is ecstatic!

Our Justice System Reinvented

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:11:00 +0000

Our justice system is laborious, expensive, and too often, what prevails is not justice but the better lawyer.

In my latest Washington Post column, I propose a reinvention of our justice system.

Do Christmas Trees Belong in the Workplace?

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:30:00 +0000

I've just been hired as a columnist for TheAtlantic.com. The column is a bit unusual in that, before writing it, I ask TheAtlantic.com's readers to opine on a question. I then write the column based on their answers and my own thinking.

The first question is, "Do Christmas trees belong in the workplace?" If you'd like to weigh in, HERE is the link.

Communicating Honestly... without getting your head chopped off

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:21:00 +0000

I gave a pre-conference workshop today: Communicating Honestly... without getting your head chopped off.

I thought you might like to see a list of the main points:

To be effective, you must be a detective and a chameleon, changing your style depending on who you're talking with: High or low energy, intellectual or simple, emotional or fact-centered, nurturing or tough-love, closed-ended vs. open-ended questions, give advice or be a facilitator of their thoughts, etc.

Showing you care is among the most important things you can do.

In a particular situation, if you think it's wise to reduce the power imbalance, share a weakness, e.g., if they're sitting, you sit. Say things like, "This is hard for me."

There's usually no need to burst a student's dream. Going for their dream will likely fuel them to do the work needed to get there. Even if they don't succeed, they probably will have learned more and accomplished more from having tried than if you squelched their dream.

If possible, avoid arguing. For example, if your client says, "I don't need math to be an actress," briefly acknowledge them without starting a conversation about it, e.g., "I understand," and move the conversation to somewhere you'd like it to go. For example, "You haven't been in any school plays. Would you like me to introduce you to the drama teacher?" Similarly, when a student goes off on a tangent, briefly acknowledge their point and bring the conversation back to the topic.

To keep the conversation moving where you want, give the person two or three choices, all of which you're okay with.

To minimize defensiveness, use California couching: "I'm wondering if it might be a good idea to do X. What do you think?"

When you're annoyed with a client, it's safer to say "I" than "you," for example, "I'm getting confused. Can we slow down?"

Be time-conscious. There are tools that can enable you to make a difference in just a few minutes. For example:

1. Ask the student if s/he's better with words, numbers, people, working with her hands.

2. Give her two disparate career choices within that category.

3. Based on which one she prefers, offer choices you think will be more on-target.

4. When she seems to like a career, ask her where it scores on The Meter from 0-10. If it's less than a 10, ask her, "What keeps it from being a ten?" Then propose a better-fit career.

Don't expect them to agree to do what you ask--planting a seed may be all you can reasonably expect.

Sometimes, all you can do is give them a resource: someone to talk with, a website, an article, book, etc.

Give career-finding assignments based on the student's abilities and motivation. For many special needs students, you might want to keep it very simple: read this article, visit this site, ask your mother, etc

The perfect is the enemy of the good. Help your client take a step in the right direction. Sometimes that's all you can realistically do. Remember that you are but one influencer over another person. They are a product of their genes, their homelife, their peers, all the educators they've had, etc.

Forgive yourself. You're dealing with a challenging population. Do what you can, in the moment, and when they leave, let it go. You can only control your behavior not its outcome.

Websites listing California apprenticeships: www.calapprenticeship.org.

Remember my dad's story: Never look back; always look forward.

Recreation for a Hermit

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:46:00 +0000

I'd like to tell you my favorite recreation. Even if you're quite social, you might want to add my hermitic pleasure to your recreation repertoire.

It's free, endlessly varied, and fascinating to me. And for you environmentalists, it has a zero carbon footprint.

My favorite recreation is simply to sit in front of my computer and pick one of these:

Watching YouTube videos. That enables me to see, on command, for example:

-- a jaw-dropping version of a magician cutting a man in half
-- a flash mob in a food court singing the Hallelujah Chorus
-- Susan Boyle auditioning for Britain's Got Talent
-- memorable movie clips
-- Bach's Air on a G String while watching beautiful images of deep space
-- Julie Andrews singing "In My Own Little Corner"
-- and, okay, my own crude videos, e.g., this one on how to live the life well-led.

I particularly enjoy listening on my computer since I bought Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 computer speakers. They're $180 new but available in like-new condition for half that on Amazon, and to my ears, they sound as good as a fine home system.

Googling. I can read world-class articles on virtually whatever I want. Finding one is usually as simple as picking one of the first few Google search results. For example, I recently wanted to learn about the future of electric cars. Here's what I found. Yesterday, I wanted to pick a better hair conditioner. A two-second Google search revealed THIS.

Writing. I love to share what I know. If it can be said in a sentence or two, I write it on my Twitter page. If it requires a few hundred words, I write it on this blog. If it's longer, I post it on my website, www.martynemko.com.

When I want recreation away from my computer, true to my hermitic preferences, except when I'm hanging out with my wife, I usually play the piano or in my garden, and six days a week, take a vigorous hike with my doggie, Einstein.

I recognize that my style of recreation isn't for most people.

You're invited to "Big, Black, and Shy," a one-woman show at my home

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:48:00 +0000

You're invited to a one-woman show I've helped create: Big, Black, and Shy.

Jeffrie Givens' (pictured right) will tell her story, which is poignant, funny, and most of all, inspiring. I'll be accompanying her on the piano.

It will be on Dec. 18 at 2 pm at my home in Oakland, CA. Seats are free but there are only 22 seats.

If you want to attend, just email me at mnemko@comcast.net. I'll email you back to let you know if you got seats and directions to my home.

In case you'd like a bit of a sense of what the show might be like, I did a one-man musical show at my home about my own life. HERE is the link to the video of that.

Radio Reinvented

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:03:00 +0000

KGO, one of the nation's most successful talk radio stations has just changed its format to all news. Just what we need: yet another news outlet.

I believe the era of traditional talk radio, with expensive headquarters and expensive talk show hosts is obsolete. The question is: What should replace it?

If I were starting a radio station, I'd crowdsource my programming: Each day, I'd search the podcasting world and broadcast and podcast the very best shows I could find. It would seem that such curated crowdsourced radio would offer fresher, better content, far less expensively than any one station's set of talk show hosts could provide.

Of course, changing programs every day will lose listeners who tune-in specifically because they like a specific show or host. But net, I think it would improve radio and allow it to survive in a world of too many new outlets for interactivity, for example, online forums, Amazon and Yelp reviews, and, of course, Facebook.

What do you think?

It's Time to Hold Colleges Accountable

noreply@blogger.com (Marty Nemko) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:48:00 +0000

The Occupy Wall Streeters are certainly justified in railing against their student loans. College recruitment efforts manipulate students into thinking for the enormous time and money, they'll learn a lot and be professionally employable. The truth is far different.

Perhaps most insulting, the powerful higher education lobby has pressured the government to make student loans the ONLY loan that cannot be discharged through bankruptcy. Indeed it is time to rage against the higher education machine.

My latest Washington Post Big Idea column argues that we must shine a light on what colleges actually do: that is, to prominently post a Report Card with such items as:

What percent of freshmen graduate in four years, broken down by high school record?
What percent of graduates are, within six months of graduation, professionally employed, broken down by major and high school record?
How much do students grow in critical thinking from freshman to senior year, disaggregated by high school record?

Not only would that inform consumers, it would likely finally pressure colleges into spending less on ego-driven new buildings, fat administrations, and silly-research-focused professors and more on transformational undergraduate instructors, mentoring, and a career center that actually is helpful. It might even push colleges to replace lackluster lectures with courses taught on video by a dream team of the world's most transformational instructors.