by: Adrienne Rodney

It has been said many times that it is better to create your own job than to find one. If you are unsure how to begin, there is a worldwide community that can help you.

In 2011 we attended Startup Weekend three times. Held in just about every metropolitan city in the US and across the globe, Startup Weekend is for entrepreneurs, programmers, designers and other creative types to take an idea and turn it into a business in two-and-a-half days.

Startup Weekend is important because it teaches novices and professionals how to think, act and work like entrepreneurs. Many of the startups turn into actual businesses, with the teams working together far beyond that original weekend.

With free legal advice, free mentors and of course, free food, Startup Weekend gives you a chance to put your passion into practice. So if you think you have a good idea, don’t keep it a secret. Participate in a Startup Weekend and watch your ideas flourish.

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After everyone’s positive response to our Jobsville story, Brooke took the idea all the way to Mountain View, CA for the Mega Startup Weekend, where Brooke and his team worked on making Jobsville a reality.

We recently interviewed Frank Denbow, lead organizer for Startup Weekend NYC and a major force behind Mega Startup Weekend. Check out Startup Weekend in action and hear what he has to say about the events by watching the video above.

HOW AMERICA CAN LEVEL-UP SKILLS AND LAND GOOD JOBS.

Article and Video Interview by Brooke Allen

I’ve often wondered what can be done to make it fun to learn new skills and hunt for a job. Surely if FarmVille can make farming fun, and Call of Duty can make war fun, isn’t it possible for the people who produce those games to apply what they know to making the process of finding and qualifying for a job just a little bit more effective and enjoyable?

As it turns out, the answer is: ABSOLUTELY.

Recently I discussed this very question with Gabe Zichermann, an expert in “gamification,” author of Game Based Marketing, and creator of the Gamification Blog.

Gabe explained that the job search is usually a long process that has many moving parts including the concept of career mastery. He says this is the kind of thing that is well suited to modern multi-player social games.

In order to take someone through the “player’s journey,” game designers break complex processes into their component pieces and by providing guidance and rewards along the way. As missions are completed and skills are “leveled-up,” the player can look back later to see that they have accomplished something amazing – and had fun along the way.

After hearing his fascinating advice on how you can make your own job search more fun for you and for those who are helping you, I asked Gabe if this idea has ever been commercialized.

After all, Zynga has figured out how to get 1% of the world’s population to play Farmville, growing crops that nobody can eat. You join for free through Facebook and begin building your farm. Then you invite friends to start neighboring farms, and you interact daily, by visiting each other and complete specialized tasks in order to receive rewards and “farm coins” which you can use to buy gifts for your friends.

Gabe has famously highlighted Farmville’s social aspect by calling it “poke with cows.”

Wouldn’t it be great if Zynga created a “JobsVille” as “poke with resumes” – a place where you and your friends can help each other level-up your real-world connections and skills, land good jobs, and put real food on the table? What’s in it for Zynga? After all, if Zynga goes public, they will have shareholders to feed. As Gabe suggested in the interview, if people help you with editing a resume, making an introduction, or practicing an interview, it is entirely appropriate you reward them, perhaps with a real (or virtual) gifts bought through the game platform.

Better yet, why not help a charity in the name of the person who helped you?

Zynga has already thought of this; they handle the distribution of charitable contributions from their users through their non-profit Zynga.org.

Gabe told me he has not heard of a single person who has made a massively multi-player on-line social game out of the job hunt, but that it is ripe for development.

by Steve Amoia for No Shortage of Work

Playing baseball was Joe DiMaggio’s first real job as an adult. He had worked at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco with his father, and sold newspapers as a boy. Neither job held much appeal to him.

Few first jobs in life could have the impact of this one. To be a first generation Italian-American teenager with a job at the ballpark. To watch the first American sports icon, Joe DiMaggio, in a way that few could imagine.

An American Cultural Icon

If you ever played baseball, the mystical Joe DiMaggio was as familiar as the crack of the bat, or the thud of the ball hitting the back of the catcher’s mitt. Just like cold beer, hot dogs, and the seventh inning stretch, Joe DiMaggio was an integral part of American baseball tradition and lore.

Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California, on Nov. 25, 1920, and died March 08, 1999 in Hollywood, Florida. He was the eighth of nine children born to Giuseppe and Rosalia, who were immigrants from the Sicilian island of Isola della Femmina (Women’s Island). His father was a fisherman; however, young Joe did not like the rigors of Fisherman’s Wharf. He preferred to play on the sandlots of North Beach, which was and is an Italian neighborhood of San Francisco. His father thought that Joe was lazy, and hoped that the allure of baseball would soon leave his son. Young Joe was not an avid student, and at the age of 16, he dropped out of Galileo High School,
and worked various laborer jobs for the next few years.

From North Beach to the Bronx

He played semi-professional baseball for the San Francisco Seals, and after hitting in 61 consecutive games, his star rose in the direction of the New York Yankees. He was scouted and later signed by the Bronx Bombers. His career with New York spanned from 1936 to 1951, and included a three year break during World War II. Two of his brothers, Dominic and Vincent, also played professional baseball, respectively. Interestingly, all three played the position of center field.

In an era without television and mass communications, DiMaggio became an American cultural icon. Mostly due to radio broadcasts, magazines and newspapers. To Italian-Americans, and other new immigrants, he represented much more than the perfect swing, the graceful strides, his devotion to Marilyn Monroe, or “The Streak” (he hit safely in 56 straight games in 1941) that would make him immortal. Mr. DiMaggio exemplified that a first generation American could assimilate and become a reference point in the nation’s most popular game of baseball. This sport has the same popularity in the United States as soccer does in the rest of the world.

Rare Childhood Opportunity

My father, Michael Amoia, had a rare opportunity as a child. His family lived near Griffith Stadium, which was at that time the home of the Washington Redskins and Senators. In 1965, the stadium was torn down, and now is the site of the Howard University Hospital. My father was very athletic, and competed in baseball and football for his high school, McKinley Technical. Somehow, and it remains a family mystery, my father obtained a job working for both the Redskins and Senators. My grandfather was not a sportsman, and one can imagine that few adolescents would have been brave enough to walk into the administrative offices of Griffith Stadium to ask for a job.

The ironic facet of this story was that few of his old friends knew about this part of his life. When I mentioned the experience during his eulogy, some of his friends approached me later with seeming disbelief. It was a memory from my father’s life that was very private, but one that always fascinated me.

During his life, he would mention DiMaggio on occasion. I had an older cousin, Robert, who had heard the story in more detail. My father worked in the clubhouse for the Redskins, and was a batboy for the Washington Senators, where his assignment was the visitor’s dugout and clubhouse. He handed Joe DiMaggio his bat on several occasions. My father was able to observe Mr. DiMaggio both on and off the field, and the experience was imbued upon his memory.

Lessons and Memories for a Lifetime

First jobs teach us lessons for a lifetime. In my father’s case, they provided extremely rare memories. He witnessed how a famous athlete conducted himself on and off the baseball diamond. Athletes are not role models nor should be. But my father saw how a quiet, shy man from San Francisco handled intense pressure. He made the effort to remember the name of a young Italian kid called Mike. That alone might have been the most precious memory.

Personal Reflections by Michael Amoia

Dad, what was he like?

“He was a very quiet and private man. In the clubhouse, he didn’t say much, and the other players left him alone. But you knew he was their leader. He had custom-made suits, and always looked sharp. He even looked good in those baggy uniforms they wore back then. He used to drink coffee and smoke Chesterfields between innings, and a few times we had to run out to by him smokes.

You were told by the Senators to treat all the players the same, but with Mr. DiMaggio, it was a different story. After the games, he used to sign balls for me. I sold them outside the stadium for $1. That was a lot of money in those days. That’s how we were paid. We had to ask the players to sign balls or broken bats.”

What made him great?

“Instincts. He always seemed to do the right thing. You never saw him out of position in the outfield. He was quick as a cat. Strong arm. Didn’t miss cutoff men. At bat, you never saw a smoother or quicker swing. Only Ted Williams was a better hitter. He could hit for power and for a high average. He was very graceful for a big man, and ran the bases very well. He played each inning as if it were his last. I never saw him get angry.”

Few of us could have such a childhood memory. It is said that youth is wasted on the young; however, in my father’s case, I would beg to differ. A job that didn’t pay him a salary provided him with a lifetime of memories.

“Do the job in the interview.” Joe DiMaggio did it every day.

Do you have an interesting story about your first job? Please share it with us.

“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?

Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”

— Paul Simon, “Mrs. Robinson.”

Steve Amoia is a freelance writer, editor, and translator from Washington, D.C. He focuses on alternative health, career-related themes, historical figures, Italian and international soccer, and martial arts. He can be contacted at info@sanstefano.com and his writing portfolio can be found at www.sanstefano.com.

by: Adrienne Rodney

Journalism is everywhere. Blogs, Twitter, Podcasts – all give voice to a new generation of reporting. But is every journalist a reporter?

What about finance? Is there a difference between a financial journalist and a general reporter? What do financial reporters need?

KNOWLEDGE

“I don’t believe anyone can be a journalist today unless they speak the language of finance,” says Toni Reinhold, editor with Thomson Reuters for more than two decades and the president of the Newswomen’s Club of New York.

Reinhold believes that since every major news story has some underpinnings in finance,  every journalist should understand how money works. But does market knowledge make a journalist good at his or her job? Should journalists know finance before they start reporting, or can they learn as they go?

Reinhold says it is a little of both, and recommends reading everything you can get your hands on. “Go out and buy a good book on the first principles of journalism…and read it cover to cover. Do your homework.”

TRUTH

Hana Askren, MergerMarket.com editor and reporter, says it’s vital to be honest to your readership and your sources. “I can’t predict who is going to be successful,” she says, “but there are people who really have an innate skill for journalism and a talent for connecting the dots and…gaining people’s trust. You don’t betray. Part of the innate talent of journalism is respecting the people who are giving you information that maybe they shouldn’t be giving.”

Toni Reinhold agrees. “Journalists are born. You have to have a passion for truth and a real, persistent desire to get at it and except nothing less.”

GOOD REPORTING

Strong reporting is different from writing. “Writing can be taught,” Askren says. “That’s why we have editors. Writing is a skill where the more you practice the better you get. I think the skill of being able to talk to people and ask them questions that may sound rude or nosy, and being able to pick up the phone and talk to people you don’t know, I think that is harder to teach.”

But what can be taught – and learned – is up to you. “Be entrepreneurial,” Askren says. “Write the story you want to write, even if no one will pay you for it. Be open-minded about the kinds of publications you’ll work for and the kinds of stories you’ll write. Watch the markets and look up terms on Investopedia. People should find out what they’re interested in and if they don’t know they should read a lot of stuff and they’ll happen on something.”

PASSION FOR THE CRAFT

Phil Wahba left a job with the Canadian government to become a retail reporter with Reuters to follow his passion for news. “Journalism puts you on the front line of lots of things,” he says. “It’s not just one thing happening.”

Kristina Cooke twice applied for the Reuter’s graduate program before being offered a full-time position. Cooke says Reuters likes people who find finance fascinating. “Everything is learn-as-you- go,” she says, “but you have to show you have an interest in business. Knowing the big stories, what’s affecting the markets – that shows commitment.”

But even with the advice Cooke and others offer, a good reporter understands the role finance plays in the world.

“Money is underneath everything,” says Wahba, “and [knowing that] makes you influential.”

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Adrienne Rodney has a degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University and is currently working on a Quantitative Trading Desk, where she has obtained an ever-growing interest in finance and financial journalism.

by: Kristen Contrera
Unemployment rates are at an all time high in the financial sector and hiring managers have their pick of the litter. So it seems logical to ask, in this day and age while the financial industry is undergoing so many changes, what skills are most valued on Wall Street?

To answer this question, let us break down the financial sector into its two key components: trading and sales trading. General trading takes hard skills and know-how, while sales-trading takes personality and an adept ability to communicate.

People skills are a necessity for this second discipline. Though many aspects of the industry have become computerized and automated, good old-fashioned people skills will always be in demand. They are not programmable and therefore are highly valued in this industry that depends as much on sales as it does on intelligent trading. Marketing trainer Dr. Elliot B. Jaffa explains, “It’s walking their talk with the client, following through, and client obsession: treating each client as if they were your only client.” Particularly in the wake of the financial crisis, the sector needs a new face, and that face must merit consumer confidence.

In addition to sales skills, one cannot discount the general skills needed on the trading floor. Inarguably, one of the most valued skills today is knowledge of compliance. In the past three years regulations have become tighter. There is a growing need for those who are knowledgeable on the current regulatory reform and new compliance requirements. This means BASEL II and soon III for European trading and familiarity with the Dodd/Frank Act of 2010 for domestic shops. Often knowledge of certain applications such as the Banking Solutions with SAP can also be helpful when maintaining these regulations.

In addition to knowledge of current compliance restraints, Wall Street needs people with quantitative skills. In more recent history, “Quants,” as they are referred to on the trading floor, and those that offer skills in programming have become increasingly valuable. This means knowledge of SQL, Visual Basic, and C++ have become much more relevant. Many industry forecasters feel as though the finance industry is moving toward incorporating more technological strategies. More and more trades are being executed through computerized statistical modeling processes rather than the broker jocks of yesteryear. As we’ve seen through the emergence of Microsoft in the early 90’s and now more recently through Google, the trend has turned to an appreciation for the ‘nerds’. We now see the industry prioritizing solid applicable knowledge over personality. As Ben Ross Senior, Account Manager at Forest Solutions Group, stated, “companies no longer seek qualitative intelligence but quantitative.”

The industry also seems to be deviating away from more general education. An MBA no longer seem as attractive as a Masters Program in Financial Engineering, Business Intelligence or other specialized degree. The same can be said for certifications. For example, a Project Management Professional certification (PMP) will offer very limited insight compared to a candidate that comes to an industry with specific sector knowledge. While MBAs, PMPs and the like are certainly not downfalls on a resume, they have become less relevant when qualifying someone as the right candidate.

However at the heart of every good worker is motivation. This remains to stand as one of the greatest differentiators. Wall Street needs people with genuine ambition. As Ken Johnson of 7 City Learning, a company that focuses on financial services training, stated, “You must be an athlete. You have to have and seek content knowledge, and a self-initiated willingness to invest in the knowledge of that business.”

Wall Street is looking for and retaining the self-motivated. New hires must be willing to put in the energy needed to come in at a par, and those more experienced must also be willing to expand their knowledge and change with the industry. In this dynamic period, Wall Street has no room for those that fall behind the learning curve.

At the end of the day, Wall Street has many needs. Those who come into the industry prepared, motivated, eager, knowledgeable, and current will succeed, and those people hold the skills that Wall Street values.

by: Adrienne Rodney

My father, Mark Rodney, the musician, told me something profound that his musician father, Red Rodney, told him, “Whatever you do, whether it’s playing a guitar or building an atom bomb, learn you craft well; so when you get out into the real world, you are well prepared.”

For Father’s Day, we asked our readers and others for sage fatherly advice.

Some advice is easy to swallow. Alicia Moore’s dad encouraged her to accept transformation in the workplace. “You’ll change your career three times in your adult life. So it’s okay to change your job as your life changes. Don’t be afraid of it.” Alicia remembered these words when she left her job to start her own business as a virtual assistant.

After Mary Ruiz became disheartened from constant rejection from prospective employers, her dad knew the right words to say, “It doesn’t matter how many people say ‘no’ to you because you only need one ‘yes’.”

Some fatherly advice is not as easy to swallow. Richard Bird worked on his dad’s fishing boat when he was fourteen and he quit after one week. His father said. “We have an option ‘A’ and an option ‘B’. Option ‘A’: you can work for me and get paid. Option ‘B’: you can work for me and not get paid. This is a family business and we all have to work if we want to survive.” Richard continued to work for his father, and held his fishing guide license for 20 years.

Because Anand Bhatt’s dad couldn’t understand why he chose to be a musician, he struggled to find advice to give his son. But when a frustrated Anand needed him, he was there to get his son back on track. “Stress is not to be avoided. Life is like a guitar string. If it has too much tension, it’ll snap. But if it doesn’t have enough tension it doesn’t make a sound at all. You need just the right amount of stress to make life sound like you want it to.”

Many of us can reminisce about the long conversations we’ve had with our fathers, laughing at how fruitless we thought their lessons were at the time. Sometimes we don’t understand the power of their words until years later.

Brooke Allen, founder of NSoW, was told by his father, Tom Allen, Jr., “It is easier to make money doing what makes you happy than to buy happiness with the money you are paid for doing what makes you miserable.”

Brooke’s dad was a trained sculptor, and his career arc took him from fine art to management and consulting. Brooke thought his dad was crazy because it seemed to be hard to make money doing what gives you pleasure, and being a sculptor paid very poorly indeed. Brooke believed a good way to make money is to do things that make other people happy, and the easiest way is to do things that make them rich.

“Only later,” Brooke says,  “did I realize that he was right, because, if you spend your days working at making yourself miserable, you’ll find it very hard to make up for that, no matter how much money you spend.”

Sometimes, the best advice is to not take the advice. Rory Rowland’s father was uneducated (having left school after the 5th grade), and gave his son two pieces of advice: “Get an education,” and, “You can steal more with a briefcase than you can with a gun.” Rory decided to take his dad’s first suggestion but not the second, and now he consults to financial institutions, adding value, and getting paid much more legitimately than anyone could steal at a teller’s window.

Atypically, in a case of ‘do as I do, not as I say,’ Anna’s hard-working, honest dad recommended she take a job as a stock broker to make more money, even though she lacked confidence that she would know how to do right by her clients. He said, “A lot of people in that business don’t know what they’re doing. Besides, everybody is out for themselves, and the only people who are losing money are the ones that already have a lot of it.”

Anna was perplexed. She knew he wanted her to secure a better financial future, but he raised her to value morality. “He wouldn’t act like that himself,” she says now, ”and he raised me not to act like that either. So I’m ignoring his advice and remembering what he taught me to begin with.”

My father’s advice has ranged from questionable to good, although now that I am older I’m learning to reserve judgment. However, without question, he was right about practicing one’s craft. He’s been playing his guitar every day of his life since elementary school, and he surrounds himself with all things musical. That’s why he’s a pretty damn good guitar player: he took his dad’s advice.

It is Father’s Day – have you thought about what your dad has done for you? Do you think about the lessons you hope to teach your children?