Leslie Whitaker

“How to Get Any Job: Life Launch and Relaunch for Everyone Under 30,” by Donald Asher (Ten Speed Press, 2002 & 2009) aims to advise college-aged people on their future careers. He structures workshops for the readers to figure out what they’re all about, throws in some anecdotes to support his workshops, and ties it all together with economic advice.

Asher recommends that we take our time now to figure out what we want, because we have yet to be indoctrinated in the “adult working world.” He says to hold out for an ideal opportunity, instead of taking what you can, and chastises us losers who live in our parent’s basements.

He has some good advice, but he didn’t realize how expensive housing would become (as compared to the book’s first printing in 2002), the growing unemployment rate, and the fact that most of today’s college kids have been in the “adult working world” since they were 14. The economy is changing, and here’s how to confront it:

1. Living as a team is the new recipe for success: Living in your parent’s basement isn’t the travesty it used to be. To save on funds, many grads are opting to live with their parents. You are no longer weird for wanting to save money!

2. Take what you can get: We typically want to start an actual career right out of college. But what do you do when people who have worked in your field for twenty years are suffering massive layoffs? There are also lapses in insurance to think about. You may want to think about having a “day” job with benefits, while you pursue your passion in your off time.

3. Get creative: Perhaps Asher was able to wait around for his career opportunities, but we can’t. If you want a job, sometimes you just have to invent one for yourself.

If you want a career, sometimes you have to invent your own path. Try taking more responsibilities on at your current job. For example, if you’re a future editor working at a minimum wage job, offer to edit the training manual. I know a fellow who works in data entry that just got a raise for using his IT knowledge. Otherwise, you can always contract your skills privately or start your own business

Today, many business leaders tend to believe that the most profitable way to operate is to establish a relationship with their customers. Marketers use terms like “connection strategy” to describe their attempts to satisfy their customers’ needs and develop loyalty.

Writers have it all over them, and have for a long time, at least based on the one focus group I conducted back when I was 16.  I didn’t know anything about business strategy when I and my friends wrote fan letters to a number of people we admired back in the 70s. We were bored high schoolers, and our plan was to have a fabulous dinner party to liven up our small Connecticut town. We invited Woody Allen, Rudolph Nureyev, probably Bob Dylan and several other unlikely guests. No one showed up, which didn’t surprise us too much. But what was striking — and made the entire enterprise a huge success — was that all (and only) the writers replied.

I don’t think a single one was thinking overtly about “satisfying our needs” or “developing loyalty.” But they certainly did both, several with a simple postcard. John Updike answered with a question: were we surprised he wasn’t coming? Maurice Sendak had a little printed drawing of a dog on his. Paul Zindel, author of The Pigman and The Effect of Man in the Moon Marigolds, wrote back on blue stationery. Robert Penn Warren’s wife declined on his behalf, as did Thorton Wilder’s secretary. Best of all was the response  from J.D. Salinger, who sent a handwritten rejection that called us ‘winsome’ girls. It couldn’t have been sweeter. And it sealed our loyalty, requiring not another word, for nearly 40 years.

As an author myself, I know that books are a strange combination: works of art that are sold as products. But I also know you get very far, in any field, if your connection with your customers is viewed solely as “strategy” cooked up in a corner office. It’s got to come from someplace more sincere and unstoppable –  like a reflex — that is found deep inside.

Boredom can be tied to premature death. That’s reportedly the finding of two researchers at University College London, who will publish their study in April’s issue of the International Journal Of Epidemiology. They don’t point to boredom alone, but say it could be a sympom of other risky behavior such as drinking and smoking, according to this article by Maria Cheng of the A.P.

Boredom-may-be-an-early-killer

What really caught my attention were experts who say that “boredom is potentially as dangerous as stress.” This is yet another reason to add creativity to your job description. How can you shake things up? Turn things around, or just a little sideways? Even small attempts to do a routine task in a more productive or more enjoyable way, or both, can quite literally help you “earn your living.”

Is self-deception holding you back at work? If you constantly come out ahead when you compare yourself to colleagues, you may be fooling yourself, and dragging down productivity.

A new, expanded version of Leadership and Self Deception (Berrett-Koehler, 2010), a Business Week bestseller in its initial run, can help. The secret? Learn to tune into and follow your first, best instincts.

Here’s how the destructive cycle of deception works, according to the authors at the Arbinger Institute, a Utah-based consulting firm. Let’s say a colleague needs something — information, advice or just a helping hand. Our first instinct when detecting a need is to fill it. But frequently we betray that initial response in favor of focusing on our own needs. We then inflate our own goodness. “I’m so busy I don’t have time to help him.” “I’m way more skilled than she is.” And we exaggerate the other person’s flaws. “He’s so incompetent.”

The problem grows when we continue to regard those we shaft as problems in order to justify our distortions. The resulting downward spiral of self-deception focuses our attention on our own exaggerated accomplishments and curtails our ability to work well with others.

Do you recognize someone? To break out of this self-created box, try to view colleagues as human beings with needs just like your own rather than as objects that may or may not serve your purposes. The result: a more realistic view of yourself and a renewed focus on organizational goals. And the boss just might notice your stronger performance.

The book is popular among corporate executives who believe it can spur productivity. The new edition claims that some managers assign the book to job applicants and make hiring decisions based on the quality of the discussions that follow. Whether you need a job or already have one, get ahead of the curve, and assign this book to yourself.

This post first appeared as a “Quick Study” column (1/12) in JobWeek, syndicated by Content That Works.

It can also be found at philly.com, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s website.

If its shareholders approve, Kraft will amass a pile of debt to purchase Cadbury, the British candymaker, for billions of dollars. But will it honor Cadbury’s noble history?

AsNPR’s Vicki Barker reported:

Almost from its beginnings in 1824, Cadbury has been more than just a chocolate company. Its founder, John Cadbury, came from a long line of wealthy Quakers. He believed chocolate drinks could woo the working class away from alcohol.

In 1879, the Cadbury family created a model village for their workers called Bournville in rolling countryside, away from industrial smoke and fumes.

Cadbury pioneered pension schemes and joint worker-management committees and provided medical services long before socialized medicine came to Britain.

Even today, the company takes a progressive stance on issues from union membership and fair trade policies, to employee involvement.  Employees who want to report any behavior that diverges from the company’s principles can call the confidential Speaking Up Helpline.

I wonder if that will be cut…

Today my hometown paper highlighted Jill Drury, an unusually creative CVS pharmacist who spices up her “repetitive” days by stocking up on cookbooks so that she can share recipes with her fellow pharmacists and even some patients.

They’ve found enhancing their cooking skills spices up their lives. And it’s not that hard. As Drury says, “After all, we were already great at following directions.”

How do you spice up your workday?

“She told me that what she hopes people will learn from her life ‘is that every individual, even a very ordinary housewife or secretary, can make a difference.’”

This A.P. obituary for Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who helped hide Anne Frank and her family in Amsterdam during World War II, omits one of the things I find most impressive about her: that she accepted an invitation in 1996 from Erin Gruwell to speak to her class of “unteachable, at risk” high school students in Long Beach, California. The quote comes from The Freedom Writers’ Diary, the book Gruwell published with her students.

I’m not sure what’s more amazing: that a teacher would extend such an unlikely invitation, or that it would be accepted. Miep wrote to the students on her return:

“The interest and insight shown, both by teachers, impressed me greatly. Without any hesitation I state that this visit has been one of my most unique experiences. Several of your faces have been engraved in my heart.

This week a  manager in the hospitality industry had an easy time weeding out several of the applicants for a mid-level job she was advertising. One rejected applicant sent a three-sentence cover letter — too short to say anything meaningful. Another prospect said that her computer skills were “too numerous to count.” Again, not helpful.

Don’t write a cover letter when you’re too tired or impatient to think of the needs of the recipient. If you can’t bother to supply useful information  to your prospective boss before you have the job, why would she expect you to do any better once you’re hired?

• Do make it very clear why you are uniquely qualified for the job you want.
• Do make it clear that you know what the employer does and needs.
• Do write in clear, grammatically correct sentences.
• Do take responsibility for following up in a reasonable time frame, and then follow through.

When you are looking for a job, there are no guarantees but one:  lousy cover letters are among the fastest ways to be eliminated from consideration.