Brooke and NSoW member Lou Belle will be heading to a JobNob event in NYC on Tuesday, February 9th. Jobnob’s purpose is to connect job seekers to start-up firms. You are welcome to meet up with other NSoW members at 4:00PM before the happy hour. The event starts at 4:30PM and the extra 1/2 hour will give us time to meet each other and plan our approach to the event. For details, visit our last newsletter.
“The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure.” – Françoise Bertaut de Motteville
“I don’t mind hiring the unemployed. I just won’t hire someone who doesn’t work.” – A Hiring Manager overheard at a jobs fair.
If you go too long without working, you will get out of the habit, and your skills will go stale. If you concentrate on finding work, you will find it is all around you. Pick the work that best improves your skills, and soon people will be bidding for your time.
Why I believe there is no shortage of work:
My big break came in the summer of 1972 when I was a student at Rutgers.
My computer class ended, and the computing center removed the system we were using because IBM charged $5,000/month in license fee.
But I was not about to quit learning how to program.
The inventor of the computer language had written a textbook for high school students. I called and asked if I were to round up 10 kids for a summer class, would he give me free copies of his book. They arrived four days later.
A local school teacher told her classes that I’d be offering a free class that the summer. Soon I had my students.
The computing center agreed to waive the $5/hour connect charge if IBM waived their license fee.
When I told IBM that they were the only missing piece, they fell in line with $10,000 in free software.
That is how I learned to program – one chapter ahead of my students.
My new computer skills led to a part-time job as a student, then full-time positions at: American Airlines, Mobil Oil, Chase Manhattan, Morgan Stanley, and C. S. First Boston. That technology is at the core of four corporations and a hedge fund that I’ve founded.
That experience changed my life, yet I neither received nor paid a dime.
That summer I learned:
Yet, I learned many more things that I was unaware of.
Until the morning of May 6, 2002…
CONTINUE READING THE STORY >> and discover what I learned.
A conversation between Brooke Allen (founder of NSoW) and Tom Heinzen who is a Professor of Psychology at William Paterson University in New Jersey, a practicing psychotherapist, and co-author of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, Many Things to Tell You: Natural Poetry by People Living in Nursing Homes, and Eighty Dots. We met recently over bagels.
Brooke: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.
Tom: You are most welcome. I am very interested in the premise of No Shortage of Work; it could be of great help to my students.
Brooke: How so?
Tom: I try to show them, as you do, how they might benefit from alternative approaches to the job market.
Brooke: For example?
Tom: Economics has the concept of “opportunity cost”. If you buy something with money, the direct cost is what you pay. But there may be other costs in terms of what you have to give up. If you were invited to someone’s house for dinner, but instead you bought Yankees tickets, in addition to the price of the ballgame, you also incur the cost of not having dinner with friends.
Brooke: How does understanding that help you find a job? Read more…
No shortage of work needs a slogan.
What gets across the idea that we encourage people to work for each other, and teach each other, without being paid? We do not want to give the impression people should do this instead of working for pay. We simply want to suggest it as a good thing to do when you have time, so as to keep your skills and contacts current.
Please post your suggestions as a comment.
by: Nick Corcodilos
Young people who ask for informational interviews and requests for mentoring are often told NO.
Why?
Because just asking doesn’t do the trick. Mentoring implies a relationship, and it’s up to the person making the request for help to first cultivate a relationship. Find ways to get to know your target and create a connection before expecting a YES about lunch. Exchange some short e-mails. Start a small dialogue with a small question that doesn’t require meeting — e-mail is nice for that. As you cultivate, you also get to decide whether you’re talking to the right person. Relationships take time. So does mentoring.
I think a lot of people say NO because the “informational interview” has become a veiled request for a job interview. People know that. They don’t want to be hassled. So taking small steps to build a bit of a relationship helps make it happen. For instance, before I had dinner with you and we actually met to talk shop, you sent me some e-mails, we spoke on the phone. We established a comfort level — then we had dinner.
It takes time for most investments to pay off. Sometimes they don’t, but the ride is fun anyway! Sometimes people just don’t feel like spending time with someone they don’t know or trust. So, it’s up to the person making the request to do it in a way that’s comfortable and acceptable.
Nick A. Corcodilos is a regular contributor to NSoW, creator of Ask the Headhunter, and author of How Can I Change Careers?, How to Work with Headhunters. You can learn more about him
by Steve Amoia
Brooke asked me to share some insights upon the topic of interviewing. While what I wrote in the article referenced below was targeted for a journalistic approach, there are a few areas that can help job seekers and hiring authorities. I hope that you will find the information beneficial.
As a job candidate, approach the interview from the perspective of the employer or hiring agent. Focus on their needs. As you prepare, pretend they Read more…
Originally published in Science Careers on February 15, 2008
Cast a broad net. Tell everyone you know that you are looking for work and ask them to tell everyone they know. Describe your capabilities in general terms so that you seem appropriate for a wide range of jobs. Defining yourself–or your contact list–too narrowly runs the risk of foreclosing career paths due to your own lack of imagination.*
Every so often you might run across an employer who is good at finding hidden talent, but don’t count on it. So take full responsibility for getting found.
Employers use résumés to eliminate candidates–not to select them. As an employer, I might respond to your résumé if I find no imperfections, but I’ll always respond if you: 1) tell me a compelling story in two or three sentences that makes me want to know more, 2) ask a question that can’t go unanswered, or 3) itemize in a letter a few of your qualifications that fit my needs perfectly–and the letter need not cover a résumé. If I absolutely must have a résumé, I’ll ask you for one.
Don’t judge a job too early. First impressions are hard to overcome–and often wrong. You might develop a new competence out of a previous weak point. Often it isn’t the fork in the road but the entirely new road that gets you there, so you might need to tramp in the brush for a while.
Let your next employer observe you learning something. On the first interview, don’t ask about salary or benefits, ask, “How do you do things around here?” then take notes. Ask, “What do you need me to learn?” then stop at the library on the way home.
Show, don’t tell. Don’t talk about your prior work; bring a portfolio. Don’t itemize what you know; teach what you know. Don’t brag about what you’ve done; demonstrate something that makes you proud.
Try to help those who don’t hire you. There are two good reasons you won’t work somewhere: 1) you’re not a fit, 2) they’re not a fit. In either case, refer others who might work out. You’ll be remembered.
In some cases, you won’t land a job even though an objective person with full knowledge of the facts could only conclude that you are the best candidate. It happens. Forget about it.
Treat employers like people, not companies. And don’t anthropomorphize organizations. I recently met a young graduate student who was bitter about the job-hunting process. It took her 6 months to uncover an ad for “the perfect job” and send out her first résumé. She was interviewed by HR and told that a hiring manager would call her in a week. That was 2 weeks ago and now she was fuming: “I would never work for that company if they begged me.” I asked her if she knew how overwhelming it can be to hire someone while keeping a business running. She said it didn’t matter; it was “just rude. If it is their policy to treat people as they do me, I don’t want to have anything to do with them.” I don’t know what she does now or how good she is at it, but there is no way I’d hire her to do anything until she grows up a little.
Originally published in Science Careers on February 15, 2008
Take responsibility for finding hidden opportunities offered by companies and organizations that need your talents but aren’t creative enough to find you.
You can experience a buyer’s market (more sellers than buyers) or you can experience a seller’s market (more buyers than sellers)–but a dysfunctional market (like the market for science jobs and most others) cuts both ways. Employers can’t find good workers and the out-of-work (and underemployed) workers can’t find good jobs.
An inefficient labor market isn’t such a bad thing for those who are willing to dig a little deeper. Such a market can reward well-spent effort in ways that efficient markets don’t. As a job seeker, your well-spent effort can lead to job opportunities you would have had no hope of landing if the markets were efficient.
Don’t wait for me (or anyone else) to advertise the job you seek. Instead, read the rest of this article and get to work.
By: Margaret Buj
Over the past several months, we have been incessantly bombarded with news of massive layoffs and bankruptcies everywhere. Just this morning on a train to work I read an article about one in six young people being out of work in the UK now as unemployment stands at its highest level for 14 years.
This coverage of the job market may be a daunting and upsetting. It is easy to start thinking there aren’t any job opportunities out there, but this is just not the case. Read more…
by: Brooke T. Allen
I am preparing an article on how to ask for help. Please tell me what is missing from this list.
Did we miss anything? Email Darla or Brooke with your suggestions.