Here's an "app" for the integrity gap

Career strategist and workplace consultant J.T. O'Donnell of CareerRealism blogged recently about the integrity gap each of us faces. Her aha moment came when she read Collin Nanka's blog about his own gap.

Both use leadership developer Robin Sharma's definition of the gap:

There can be no lasting happiness if you daily schedule is misaligned with your deepest values. If there is a gap between what you do and who you are, you are out of integrity. An integrity gap. The bigger the gap, the less your life will work and the less happiness you will feel. Some people would describe this concept as being congruent (the state achieved by coming together, the state of agreement) or having your video aligned with your audio. Internally, the values that lives deep inside you, your conscious will see it if you are misaligned. Too many people talk a good game, but talk is cheap and it really shows in your schedule and what you do.

This ties in so closely to what I do with my clients and with myself. The more focused I become on the priorities in my life, the more closely aligned I feel with my own integrity, and the better my life becomes. I coach my job-seeking clients in the same direction. Find your direction, your purpose, your dream, or at least get a sense of what it might be. Then, and only then, move forward with a job search and resume.

I am always studying this and have been for as long as I can remember. So, it's not unusual that I found a course along those lines. What is unusual is that four months later, I am working that system even harder than I did the day after the seminar.

It's called LifeWoRx by Design, by founder, author, and presenter Don Cote of The Center for the Creation and Preservation of Wealth. In a nutshell that does not do it justice, LifeWoRx helps the student put into practice the rules and processes found in Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, the best-selling business book of all time.

Hill's book is invaluable for anyone who wants to get their life and career on a better track. What Don has done is codified the work. That's the app. If Hill suggests a process, Cote has a worksheet. For now, it's on paper, but they're working on an electronic version, as well, for those folks like me who live and die by their smartphone and Outlook.

If you're interested in a seminar that really does work, one that you'll take home and DO, contact Don.

The next LifeWoRx seminar is the weekend of March 19-21, 2010. Online registration is available. 

If you want to find out more about the seminar from a student's standpoint, email me at jeri@workwrite.net.

When you work for a non-writer

So, here you are, working on your reference sheet, and you'd like your supervisor to give you a letter of recommendation. The problem is, great supervisor that he is, the guy can't write his way out of a paper bag. Any recommendation he gives you is going to be full of half sentences and misspellings that render it useless.

Here's the plan:

1. Ask him for the letter of recommendation.
2. Acknowledge that he's busier than any two people you know.
3. Offer to edit his notes or talk with him for 10 minutes about what he'd like to say and then write the recommendation yourself. 
4. Mention any promotions and what they were for, if they were tied to specific projects or actions.
5. Remember to include your major accomplishments in that position, and quantify them.
6. Use excerpts and rankings from performance reviews.
7. Write the recommendation on company letterhead.
8. Present it to him to read and edit or sign.

 This will give you the information you need in a form that a hiring manager will welcome.

Rich people keep more jobs

 The comments that followed Barbara Kiviat's recent Curious Capitalist blog, Rich people still have jobs; poor people don't offered only top-of-the-head reactions to the numbers and possible reasons for them.

I thought it more curious that it seemed to bear out what Napoleon Hill claimed in Think and Grow Rich, that if the same number of rich people and poor people receive the same amount of money, the rich people will end up with all of it fairly soon.

Rather than insulting the rich people for being unrelenting capitalist pigs and thieves or the poor people for being lazy, no-good welfare-dependent thieves, we need to observe the difference in their thought processes.

What are those making $138,700+ thinking? Who are they being? What are they doing? What is their attitude toward money? How do they use their riches?

What about those making $12,160? Who are they being? What are they thinking? What are they doing? How do they think of money? How do they use the little money they have?

Where do you fit? Where do you want to be? What if you started being that person today? I don't mean go out and buy a yacht. That sort of doing is for later, and only if that is what you decide to do with your riches. But for today, who would you be if you were rich? What would your life look like?

If you have not yet found your next job, are you being a jobseeker, or are you being the person who already has a job and knows it just hasn't yet arrived?

Futurists: Consumers expect better times, more jobs

usiness futurists Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia of The Herman Trend Alert reported last week that most people in the United States are looking up, according to recently released surveys from The Conference Board and the Pew Research Center.

As Herman and Gioia have reported in the past, consumer confidence plays an important role in forecasting the future. Consumers' optimistic expectations have a positive effect on many aspects of the economy.

According to the Pew survey, while only 27 percent of Americans had a positive feeling about the 2000s, most (59 percent) think the coming decade will be better than the last for the country as a whole, a view held across most political and demographic.

At the same time, a significant minority - 32 percent - believes that things will be worse in the 2010s than in the 2000s. Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats (42 percent versus 20 percent) to offer a pessimistic assessment of the next decade. Only a third (34 percent) of independents holds a gloomy expectation.

The outlook for the labor market was also more upbeat. The percentage of consumers expecting more jobs to become available in the months ahead increased to 16.2 percent from 15.8 percent, while those expecting fewer jobs decreased to 20.7 percent from 23.1 percent.

These positive expectations will support higher levels of consumer spending and therefore, drive retail sales as well as the labor market. Expect the labor market to tighten even more for in-demand skill sets.

Generationally, the most optimistic group is young people, ages 18 to 29, 65 percent of whom feel positively about the next decade. On the negative side, people between the ages of 50 and 64 are the most pessimistic about the 2010s---42 percent think things will be worse. This statistic compares with 30 percent of people under 50 and just 26 percent of those ages 65 and older.

In both November and December, The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, rose. The Index now stands at 52.9, up from 50.6 in November. The Expectations Index increased to 75.6 from 70.3 last month. Expectations for the short-term future increased to the highest level in two years (Index 75.8, Dec. 2007). A more optimistic outlook for business and labor market conditions was the driving force behind the increase in the Expectations Index.


Source: From "The Herman Trend Alert," by Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurists. (800) 227-3566. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group, Inc."

Make it a happier new year: Learn something

appy New Year! It will take a good amount of faith for job seekers to feel much elation, especially in the early part of 2010. Even optimistic forecasts of the job market have more later than sooner in them.

So, in between blog posts and applications, networking meetings and pep talks, what is the most valuable thing you can be doing?

Learning.

The instructor in my Investment class, Don Cote of the Center for Wealth Creation and Preservation, said earlier this week that there are only three ways to leverage income:

1. Income property in an appreciating area of the country.
2. Businesses that generate profit.
3. Education that will produce profit.

What type of education will add the most value to your profile?

Are there growth opportunities listed on your last performance review?

Have you been meaning to find a mentor but you've been too busy to look?

Perhaps there's been a program or process you want to teach yourself.

Take a look at your bookshelf. Is there a book that's even more pertinent now than when you bought (or borrowed) it?

If you've been learning right along but not documenting it, that's your final step. LinkedIn has a section about what you are reading or recommend reading.  Your resume has a Professional Development section (and if it doesn't, it should.) Use them.

Show your next employer -- or even your current one -- that you value learning. Your value may become more apparent and your year even happier.

Online job search tools for techs:Help choosing job boards

fter my article about job search engines, I learned of a few more specifically for techs. They're listed below. Even better, there's a job board chooser that reviews them and helps you pick a good one. Enjoy!


Job Board Chooser
JobBoardReviews.com : Reviews job boards and helps you pick the right one for you.

Job Boards

AuthenticJobs.com : Listings of companies looking for full-time and freelance web designers.
FreshWebJobs.com : Full-time and freelance Web developer jobs.
Gladoo.com : Focusing on jobs in India in the technology fields.
Krop.com : Creative and technology job listings.
Elance.com : Focus on freelance work related to graphics, web design, and content creation.

Online job search tools for techs: Job search engines

irst, let me say I'm not a fan of job boards. However, like most things, it's not that they're inherently bad. It's just that most people put more emphasis and faith in them than they deserve.

I don't recommend broadcasting your resume. In some fields (and tech is one), you can quickly become a commodity that loses its value as shelf life extends. For example, in some managers' minds the scenario goes, "Hmmm. I've seen that resume up here for two months now. Wonder what the problem is there."

If you're going to broadcast your resume, do it as narrowly as possible. Have a reason for everywhere you send it. And use the .pdf version so it will not be searched as easily.

Now, search engines are another story. They are our friends. Use them for looking at job descriptions, narrowing down searches to a geographic or career category, or just plain looking around to see what's out there. Here is a list of those I like -- and some I don't -- for job seekers. If you have a favorite that isn't listed here, by all means, add it to the comments so we can have a more comprehensive list.

Recommended Job Search Engines

Dice.com.......................Niche search engine for techs. Browse by location or job title. Search returned relevant positions but not as many as Indeed.com and Recruit.net.

Indeed.com..................My favorite job aggregator. Enter your search terms, and Indeed will send you daily alerts on new positions gathered from job boards. Free.

Juju.com....................... Surprisingly simple and effective job search engine. Many relevant and timely positions.

Recruit.net..................Millions of jobs from all around the world. Search by keywords and location. Use advanced search for more relevant search returns.

Try it on

CareerBuilder.com.........This used to be my least favorite search engine.  No matter what I searched on, I'd get work at home schemes and insurance sales, hundreds of them. It took more time to find an adequate job description than it did to get the job. Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. I tried it again for this article, and behold, a clean search! I can't say I spent a day experimenting, so use it with caution. But do give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Not recommended

LinkUp.com.................Job aggregator that monitors thousands of employers websites.Tells when job was posted and verified. Loose interpretation of search terms. For example, "IT Operations" category search returned positions of IT Operations Tech at Qwest that matched term. However, it also returned positions of Surgical Technician (veterinary technician and animal husbandry duties) and Mine Operations Technician (end-dump trucks, front-end loaders, dozers, and graders).

HotJobs.Yahoo.com...........Returned only one result with same parameters as above engines. Does have email alerts.

Monster.com.........................Returned only five results with same parameters as above engines.

If you want to pay

WorkTree.com............Claims to be the largest job search engine. Sign up and pay $57 to $77 monthly for access to browsable categories including government jobs and Fortune 1000 companies. Offers free email newsletter.

Where the tech jobs are

ust in case you thought all the tech jobs had gone away, here's a place where they hang out every day. Thousands of them. A virtual herd inhabiting the vast employment savannahs.

They're government jobs, and they're an easy find.

Visit USAJobs and click on USAJobs First Stop. Create your account, and go hunting! You can save and organize your searches in the system.

Here are some of the technology and engineering positions and their numbers by which they are categorized:

• 0332 Computer Operator
  
• 1550 Computer Scientist
• 0334 Computer Specialist
• 2204 Computer Technician (DoD)
• 1710 Educational and Vocational Training Specialist
• 2608 Electronic Digital Computer Mechanic
• 2601 Electronic Equipment Installer
• 2606 Electronic Industrial Controls Mechanic
• 2610 Electronic Integrated Systems Mechanic
• 2602 Electronic Measurement Equipment Mechanic
• 2604 Electronics Mechanic
• 0861 Engineer, Aerospace
• 0890 Engineer, Agriculture
• 0858 Engineer, Biomedical
• 0893 Engineer, Chemical
• 0810 Engineer, Civil
• 0854 Engineer, Computers
• 0850 Engineer, Electrical
• 0855 Engineer, Electronic
• 0819 Engineer, Environmental
• 0804 Engineer, Fire Prevention
• 0801 Engineer, General
• 0896 Engineer, Industrial
• 0806 Engineer, Materials
• 0830 Engineer, Mechanical
• 0880 Engineer, Mining
• 0840 Engineer, Nuclear
• 0881 Engineer, Petroleum
• 0803 Engineer, Safety
• 0800 Engineering and Architecture
• 0392 General Telecommunications
• 2200 Information Technology
• 2210 Information Technology Management Specialist
• 0343 Management and Program Analyst
• 1515 Operations Research Analyst
• 1910 Quality Assurance Specialist
• 1412 Technical Information Specialist
• 2186 Technical Systems Program Manage

When you find a job description, pay particular attention to the closing date. They're serious about them.

We'll talk later about the actual application. For now, just look around and enjoy how many jobs there are to choose among, for a change.

Tech job recovery

nfoworld published predictions Friday that IT jobs creation and hiring will be low-key until midyear, based on Foote Partners research analysts' opinions. Even the recent economic upturns won't boost IT hiring overall until late 2010, and more likely 2011. "Expect the length of the tail on this staffing lag to be much longer than previous economic recoveries," said the Foote Partners' report.

I really thought that jobs would be coming back more quickly than that. Let's hope they're the doom and gloom prognosticators.

Just in case they're more right than wrong, how do we position for a continued hiring pall? The report says companies are focusing on their needs for employees with very specific skills. That means:

• Training will continue to be a valuable commodity.
• Outsourcing and offshoring will be used.
• Managed services will continue to be important in company plans.

Any way you can take advantage of any of those points will be a plus on your resume and in your job search.

The three things to bring to the negotiating table

y client has been invited to interview for a network technician job. He's not quite done with his CCNA, so that's a wonderful thing. The catch is it's about 70 minutes from his home where his wife owns a business. He lives in a place where winters mean blizzards and bad roads. Can he afford to commute or rent a studio apartment to reduce driving time and in case of storms?

He needs to find three pieces of information to be prepared to negotiate:

1. His personal wants and requirements.
2. The range the company will pay or what the former employee was earning.
3. The average salary paid in the geographical area where you plan to work.

First, he gets out the household budget and figures out the minimum he will accept. This process should also define and prioritize the benefits he needs and wants and what he is willing to negotiate away.

Second, if there is no salary range listed on the job posting, he calls the company's HR Department and asks what the salary range is for the job. If they say there is none, or it depends on experience, he asks what the current employee in that position earns. If that is not forthcoming, as well, he networks his way to someone else in the company who may know or can find out.

Third, he determines what the average salary is in the company's geographic area. The best place to look for that is www.Indeed.com. On the main page, he clicks the salaries link in the upper left corner of the screen. He fills in the search fields and scrolls down to see the average salary, national salary trend, and average salaries of jobs with related titles (with links back to those jobs).

Other places to search include:
• http://online.onetcenter.org/
• Compensation.BLR.com (offers free trial)
• Salary.com
• www.payscale.com
• Library Resources

Research companies and job search specialists are also available to complete research. They often require completion of a form or a phone interview to define the desired position.

Download help for the pain in your neck

re too many hours in front of the monitor making your neck tense? Are you carrying that nasty deadline on your shoulders days after you beat it? Is working in someone else's chair giving you a pain in your back?

Visit Exerciseminder.com and download their little reminder. Every half hour, it pops up a window in the lower right-hand corner of your screen showing a simple exercise and how many times to repeat it. The whole thing takes less than a minute and keeps my muscles from turning into rocks.

I like the one that says get up and walk somewhere to find a drink of water. I count walking and drinking as my two favorite exercises.

Survey predicts IT hiringto increase a bit in January

esterday, InformationWeek forecast a 3% increase in IT hiring in early 2010. Not exactly cause for bells to ring and angels to appear, but at least it's going in the right direction. Traditional positions in networking, security, and application development lead the list of in-demand skills.


The 3% is a net increase considering 7% of CIOs responding to the Robert Half Technology survey expect staff additions while 4% expect reductions. 

The greatest hiring activity is anticipated from the East North-Central Region (Chicago-centered) and the South Atlantic Region (Washington, D.C. to Florida). 


The health services sector is likely to be a bright spot, needing IT talent to help facilities convert to electronic medical records.

Google those job search scammers

've been getting reports of sites that may not have the job seekers' best interests at heart.

I suggest before spending any time or money on a job search assistance site to run this quick Google search:

site name + scam + ripoff

If there are problems, you'll find plenty of interesting (and heated) reading.

Have you seen IT hiring from federal stimulus?

o you have an IT position in a company that has received federal stimulus dollars? I'd love to hear from you.

The reason I'm wondering is the recent report in Infoworld that only 21 IT jobs have been created or saved through $26 million in federal spending at technology companies nationwide. I waded through a bit of the data at recovery.gov to see if I could follow the money, but it would take days to recreate the trail.

So, I'm thinking I'd rather hear the stories from you.

• Did your company receive stimulus dollars and hire (or not lay off) IT employees? 
• Did you get new hardware instead? 
• Is your company one of those in line for funds but still waiting?
• Does this Infoworld article reflect your experience? 
• What's really happening out there? 

Is your target company stock forecast to yield 30% in coming year?

If you have any cash left after today's Black Friday shopping spree, here's something to consider. Find out if your target company (or those in your mutual fund) is among those named in The Wall Street Transcript's  new publication, TWST Investing Strategies Report, released today and offering a review of the IT Services sector.

The Wall Street Transcript provides commentary and insight for investors and researchers through verbatim interviews with CEOs and research analysts. This Report contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts, and Money Managers. It's pricey at $175, but director and C-level job seekers may find the perspective on the industry valuable. Please note that neither TWST.com nor I provide investment advice.

You can read an excerpt of one conversation with Alexander J. Roepers, President and Portfolio Manager of Atlantic Investment Management, Inc. AIM is a $1.5 billion global Registered Investment Advisor, with offices in New York and Tokyo.

The remainder of this 55 page TWST Investing Strategies Report can be immediately viewed by purchasing online. or by calling (212) 952-743.

Just for today, give thankfulness a try

If you're in the middle of a long and difficult job search, or if you're hanging on to a job you hate, it's hard to want to be thankful.

Try it anyway, just for today.

One of the paths to thankfulness is empathy. Try this on:

• Your boss is the biggest jerk you've ever met. There's a saying among my HR pals: People never leave jobs; they leave supervisors. Know that you have plenty of company. Know that many supervisors and managers have never been trained for that role. They were simply the best (or worst) at their last job, so someone in their great wisdom made them a manager. They may be at least as frustrated as you are.  Just for today, decide that you aren't the victim, but they are.

Try thinking about what you'd be thankful for if this awful thing hadn't happened:

• You were laid off six months ago, and you've been looking for a job ever since. I mean really looking. Your family is depending on you; your mortgage is depending on you; your retirement is depending on you. This is the most stress you've ever felt, and it's feeling heavier every day. Just for today, think of something other than your anxiety and responsibilities. If you are able to enjoy a nice meal with loved ones, feel the joy they bring. If you are healthy enough to go outside and throw a football around, feel your body move and your breath fill you with life. If you still have your home, notice how it surrounds you with warmth and safety.
  

Try being thankful for the good things that will happen soon:

• Every cycle has a beginning and end. A project has a lifecycle. Good things end. Bad things end. Just for today, think ahead to the way your life will be when this crisis has ended. Leave the worries behind, just for today. Think about the new job you will have and how it will feel to shake your new employer's hand as you accept their generous offer. Imagine your excitement as you walk to your desk on your first day. Think of your thankfulness when you start your first project. Spend a day there instead of worrying about what isn't happening.
  

All of these are steps along the way to gratitude, which is different from thankfulness, my friend and transformational consultant Jodee Bock said yesterday. She is absolutely right. Thankfulness is a response to a specific event. I am thankful that my pecan pie turned out. I am thankful that my husband vacuumed and dusted yesterday.

Gratitude, on the other hand, is the state of being. If I live in gratitude, my life looks and feels different. When I look for things to be thankful for, I begin to feel constant gratitude. When I am grateful, my life attracts more good for which to be thankful. Look at that, another cycle.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Align your life with your values

My friends and family tease me about being the most organized person on the planet. I have honed Outlook to a fine science. I carry my to-do and calendar with me in my smartphone. Technology is my friend. I generally get where I am supposed to be on time and with the materials I need. (OK, there was that one meeting...).

I have been humbled, and I'm really excited about connecting my organizational skills to the core of my life, reducing stress and being more inspired, productive, and proactive. I spent all weekend at a seminar named LifeWoRx by Design led by Don Cote and sponsored by my friend Jodee Bock from Bock's Office Transformational Consulting.

The take-home was the continuing process of connecting my core values to my everyday actions. I was good at making my list, prioritizing and getting things done. I had connected those actions to the needs of my business, clients, and myself. What I hadn't done was to take that big step back and define what was important in my life now.

Don's program is based on Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. If you haven't read this book, click on the title and order it now. Then, take Don's course. Think and Grow Rich outlines the process of setting goals based on our values and true desires. LifeWoRx by Design takes it further. Don calls it paint-by-numbers Think and Grow Rich. He's right.

In the three days since the seminar, I have further clarified my values and goals, taken steps toward reaching them, connected them to my everyday commitments and actions, and understood more about how to keep doing that.

That's the real secret. Everyone has come home and shelved the three-ring binder or stayed excited until the reality of another work week squeezed it out of you. This seminar shows you how to keep using the process. Don has made the inspiration and commitments difficult to abandon and impossible to forget.

Search all the job boards with one click

See if this makes your job board search easier.

Search All Job Boards

This link will take you to a Google page where you fill in the name of the position you want.
Click the button.
Apply.