Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Do I know that person any more? Keeping references fresh….
I received a call last month, an HR person looking for a reference on someone I’d managed back in my computer lab days. Only trouble was, I hadn’t seen or heard from
Louis in at least 10 years. I mean, was he still the same likeable guy I’d managed as a student? Or had he morphed into someone I wouldn’t even recognize any more?
If that were one isolated incident, I might dismiss it as a fluke. But no-siree-bob. I got a similar call last week wanting to know all about Kenneth, another student I’d known
few years ago.
I mean, I seriously like—or liked—both of these former students but was, in essence, stuck in a conundrum. Between a rock and a hard place, as it were. Should I make something
up or admit that I had no idea any more how they would perform on the job?
I’ll leave you guessing as to how I resolved that dilemma. But the moral of the story is: if you want a convincing reference, stay in touch.
Friday, February 17, 2006
The Importance of Being Early…
Today’s title take off on Oscar Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest might be a little thin but it kept running through my head after meeting with my employer friends this morning. Somehow the subject of “new hire’s” came up and it hit a hot button with one manager on the brink of firing a newbie for being late just one too many times.
If you’re a current student, you might be asking….“So what’s the big deal about being late? 10, 15 minutes isn’t going to make that big of a difference over the course of a day.”
That might be true in the long run. Over the course of a day, that’s not much time. Arriving late may even have been your signature in college, sauntering into the classroom using “close to” rather than exact time.
From an employer’s point of view, however, 10-15 minutes is money wasted, money they’re paying you to be at work producing. And as the new person on the block with no well established track record to buffer your mistakes, that’s a expense you can’t afford to rack up.
So, the next time you’re tempted to hit the snooze button and cut yourself a little slack, remember who’s waiting for you on the other side of the office door. “Time is money” might be more than a trite truism.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Grad school glories, an alternative point of view
Since I manage our office’s career resource collection, I’m always on the look out for which books actually get pulled off the shelves and left on the tables, a sure sign that they’re being used. Most referenced type of resource? The grad school prep books, specifcially volumes having to do with entrance testing….the MCAT, LSAT, GMAT, GRE. That’s probably true because a great number of Calvin College graduates eventually, if not immediately, end up in grad school. A great plan for a lot of people. But not a good plan if the purpose is to delay real life or the drudgery and anxiety of looking for a job.
I’ve written about this in the past but today’s angle is a bit different. Advanced education? I’m all for it. But the process of attaining your final degree may be rigorous in more ways than simply the academics. For one person’s experience, check out Dorthea’s story . We probably share more differences than similarities in religous orientation and grad school directions, but she does a great job of recording her first hand experiences in upper academia. Note especially her tips section entitled “Straight Talk About Grad School”, a gritty account bound to remove the stars from anyone’s eyes.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Hiring for attitude….
I visited a place yesterday where precision counts. Well, okay, I was just getting a haircut but the opening line still applies, right? I mean, who wants a bad haircut. The point is that during our extended one-way conversation (stylist as speaker and me as listener), she went on to talk about who gets hired now days and why. To quote, “We hire for attitude. Technique and skills we can teach but not attitude.”
Attitude in that setting means bending over backwards, doing more than what’s expected. And smiling graciously in the process.
So those summer and part time job experiences? Great forays into the Land of the Great Attitude, where you can perfect your approach and collect stories along the way to demonstrate your successes.
Friday, February 10, 2006
MySpace…not just for kids
Looks there are plenty of people finding fascinating material on MySpace this week. That would include local high school administrators who found pics of their students drinking at a weekend party. And there’s no closure yet as some students and parents alike refuse to accept the two week extra-curricular suspension penalty. We’ll see whether or not the issue ends up in court but the issue leaves a divided student body and another illustration of unanticipated MySpace consequences.
A recent issue of Money magazine (February 2006) advises parents to “counsel teens and even post college kids to be aware of the potential long-term consequences…” (Talkin’ ‘bout MySpace Generation, p. 27). But 2 minutes and a very cursory glance at MySpace contributors makes it plain that post college kids aren’t the only ones who need advice. How about 27 year olds who admit that they are the type of person who will wait in the car to drive you away after you, the perpetrator, commit a nasty prank? Hmmmm. And the employment sector for this person would be…..?
Evidently, removing injurious information may not be enough, as Money mag goes on to talk about search engines, such as Archive.org, designed to cull information assumed to be deleted from the the web.
Best course of action, my 27 year old “friend”, is to change your profile, edit your entry and alter your on-line persona. You’ve got a larger audience than happy stud muffins reading about your meant-to-be-humorous, but nonetheless deviant, predilections.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Xanga and Facebook aficionados: Beware of what you post…
I googled myself the other day. Not the real me. Just the Aunt-Bonnie me, which turned out to be scary enough. I came up second only to an Aunt Bonnie cookie maker. This blog has evidently increased my web presence, more than I would have wished when I first began the project. Hopefully, I’ll feel comfortable with my writings ten years from now when they’ll still be floating around the Internet.
Which leads me to today’s topic.
Blogging, Facebooking and Xanga-ing. Or Vlogging if you’re on the cutting edge. All open ended venues where self expression rules. But, a word to the wise, as they say. Let’s face it. The Xanga page which looks great to other college students might not have the same appeal to potential/future employers. I mean, who wants to see your room mate posing in a slip? Or pics of last weekend’s party? Or read your innermost thoughts on your latest relationship? It’s all out there, folks, for any and everyone to read and quite possibly to judge you by.
In fact, it’s happening already. Employers as close to home as those hiring for on-campus jobs are researching the above named sites before hiring. Want a job in maintenance sweeping floors and emptying professors’ waste baskets? Well, think twice about trumping your latest dorm prank on your Facebook page.
Fortunately, what’s done can still be undone. As spring winds blow through campus and graduation looms, consider moving web presence refurbishment to the top of your priority list.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Readers Question: What should I do about my tattoo?
Our question for today comes from Reuben, a college senior ramping up his final semester job search.
Dear Aunt Bonnie—
I am a business major and would like to work in banking, eventually commercial loans. I can pull off the neat and tidy look with one possible problem. A few years ago I got a tattoo of an eagle on my upper back. At the time I thought it was really cool. Sort of a ‘born to fly’ type of persona I wanted to express. But now I’m totally sick of it and find it comes up higher than a lot of my shirts, or at least the eagle’s head makes it past the t-shirt line. So, here’s my question, how will my potential employer react and will my tattoo nix my chances of being hired?
Dear Reuben-
You raise an excellent question. How do most employers respond to tattoos?
Friday, January 27, 2006
Interview Don’ts
As with most weeks, I’ve observed some good behaviors and bad behaviors in my office. Some of the items in the don’t-do-this category, frankly, seem obvious. But, evidently, they not obvious to everyone, which is why I decided to even mention the following foibles witnessed first hand.
So, here we go. In an interview don’t—
1. Allow your cell phone to ring. Check and recheck to make sure the ring tone’s turned off. Otherwise, you may inadvertently create your own version of a stress interview.
2. Use excessive informality. I’ve mentioned this before in a posting on email etiquette. But the principle holds when addressing a potential boss as well. Hey-dude and similar colloquialisms won’t reflect well on your ability to transition from college to work. So my suggestion is to practice this semester with your professors. Use them as your bosses-in-residence, deferring and showing respect as a way of life.
3. This one’s aimed primarily at females—don’t reveal excessive skin. That’s up above, i.e. cleavage, and down below, namely mid-thigh length skirts.
Monday, January 23, 2006
New Years, Aunt Bonnie style….
With all the schedule-destroying intrusions which have happened this past month, my actual Aunt Bonnie’s New Year’s celebration day this year is going to occur on Feb. 1. Yup. The New Years resolutions, fresh starts. All that stuff begins on my very own, personally declared “new year.”
I’ve been known to do this sort of thing in the past. Move a scheduled date to one which works better. So, for instance, if my birthday comes on a Monday, or some other “dull” day, I might move it to a Friday for that year. Given that my birthday falls on Sept. 11, I had a few years where I celebrated on every good day for a whole month.
Okay, so where’s this heading??? It’s actually more than sheer babble, as it has job search implications as well.
If you’re one of those moderately to very frustrated job searchers, someone whose job search is lasting way longer than planned, why not look at the calendar and choose a new DAY ONE? Make it at least a week away to allow yourself time to reassess what you’ve been doing and why you’ve not achieved results (the most common cause being too much time spent on Internet job boards). Revise your plan and re-launch. Fresh-spirited and enthused.
So Happy New Years…on whichever day you choose.
Friday, December 16, 2005
Christmas break thoughts…
Like a giant expelling a belly-driven yoga breath, the campus is exhaling students. Which leaves only a remaining skeletal staff wandering empty halls.
In some ways, there’s the inevitable sense of completion. Another marker met, another chapter closed, another semester finished. But the accompanying silence bears witness to the fact that this is a place now missing its heart, namely, student hustle and busle. Bright-eyed or at times asleep on the coach outside my office. Whatever their state, they make the place more than a barren structure and my work more than a job.
So, in looking out on a now deserted library and listening to the sound of blowers whooshing heat through the building, I find that I’m grateful. Grateful for all the students I’ve met over the last few months. Grateful for their energy, enthusiasm, and idealism. Grateful for their questions. And, lastly, grateful for the fact that I can look forward to their return in a few weeks. Which is when I’ll be back blogging (January 3, to be exact).
So, until then, have a merry and, most especially, blessed Christmas.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Passion
There’s a little plaque which graces my wall. It’s rather crude and obviously made by hand. But I picked it up from a street vendor a number of years ago because of the saying, “Do your homework and know your facts. But remember, it’s passion that persuades.”
I’ve posted a number of blogs over the last few months on choosing a major and career decision making but not much about passion, most likely because there’s a part of me that thinks passion, in the sense of “do what you totally love”, is over rated. There are few people indeed who remain passionate about their careers. Reality sets in sooner or later. Hopefully, what they do day to day will hold a core of meaningful activity amidst the minutia of seemingly irrelevant details.
But when you connect passion—defined here as what keeps you up at night; what you long to see righted, fixed or restored; or, more positively perhaps, what brings you joy—with life calling, the two concepts help set life direction which transcends specific jobs or careers.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Talking turkey at Christmas time….or, some thoughts for parents
So, did “the topic” come up over Thanksgiving break? If you have an underclassman in the family, the question might have run something like this: so, have you decided on a major yet? Taken any courses which look interesting and might lead to something? For parents of seniors, the tactful, roundabout approach may have been abandoned for something more direct like—so, what are you planning on doing after gradutation?
In case your questions ended in a very short conversation, Johnson and Schelhas-Miller in their recent book, Don’t Tell Me What to Do, Just Send Money The Essential Parenting Guide to the College Years, include some very helpful advice.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
What you don’t need to know first
I was talking with a very bright sophomore this morning about choosing a major. With a next- semester-choosing-a-major-deadline looming, he was still not sure about what to go. When I suggested he come in to talk it over, his reply was that he couldn’t do that because he couldn’t come in with any ideas.
Actually, Not/Nada/Nope. You don’t need to come in with ideas. That’s where we, the career counselors, come in. We’re here to listen and talk things over, to look for and discover together your strengths. So, all you who are waiting until things clear up, wait no more. Just show up. We’ll do the figuring out part together.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Key liberal arts skill hits media coverage
Key Liberal Arts Skill Rates Major Media Coverage. Well, that’s not exactly the intended point of today’s NY Times article on gaming design and academia but it certainly illustrates a crucial point, namely how liberal arts skills build fascile minds, ready to meet present and future challenges over a wide spectrum of issues. Of particular interest to today’s blog—critical thinking skills.
Note the following quote by Bob Kerrey, better known as the former Nebraska senator, who now finds himself in the role of academic president:
“...if you just look at the surface of people playing games, you are missing the point, which is that games are all about managing and manipulating information,” Mr. Kerrey said. “A lot of students that come out of this program may not go to work for Electronic Arts. They may go to Wall Street. Because to me, there is no significant difference - except for clothing preference - between people who are making games and people who are manipulating huge database systems to try to figure out where the markets are headed. It’s largely the same skill set, the critical thinking. Games are becoming a major part of our lives, and there is actually good news in that.”
There you have it. Critical thinking skills. Add that to the rest of what’s mastered at Calvin and you end up with a skill set for life.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Alternative careers for teachers
I presented on this topic a few years ago at a conference for student teachers. The room was so packed that I had students floor-sitting the parameter of the room. In Michigan, at least, teaching jobs are in short supply. And, let’s face it, the average number of years spent in teaching nationwide averages out to just 5 years. Five years and then people are out looking for the next career.
So, what can you do with a teaching certificate—other than teach?
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