AT the recent Aspen Ideas Festival, the New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman said that when he graduated from college, he was able to go find a job, but that our children were going to have to invent a job.

Jobs, careers, valued skills and industries are transforming at an unheard-of rate. And all of the change and uncertainty can make us risk-averse and prone to getting stuck.

Despite these realities, our education system emphasizes teaching and testing us about facts that are already known. There is much less focus on our ability to discover, create and reinvent.

The same often holds true in the workplace. Perfection is rewarded, while making mistakes is penalized. It’s no wonder that “failure” has taken on a deeply personal meaning, something to be avoided at nearly all cost.

Read the full article on nytimes.com!

Q. I dread going to work every morning and count the hours until quitting time. I feel removed from clients, irritable with co-workers and think I may expire from terminal boredom. But in these hard times, I’d be insane to quit this well-paying position. How have others dealt with burnout? — G.R.

A. You have company. According to surveys this year by CareerBuilder and Right Management, nearly half or more of employers think their workers are burned out on their jobs for various reasons, ranging from stress levels to work overload.

Read the full article on chicagotribune.com!

According to BusinessDictionary.com, perks are “privileges granted to employees in addition to their salaries and benefits,” and may include such things as “the company car, vacations, reserved parking spaces, spacious offices, private dining and washroom facilities, etc.”

It’s the “etc.” that seems to be changing with the times.

Until recently, most discussions of perks focused on what high-tech companies in Silicon Valley were offering their employees: free gourmet meals, 24-hour gym, yoga classes, on-site nutritionist, massage therapy, concierge service, discounted artwork, auto detailing, even botox injections and bring-a-pet-to-work day. The idea was often two-fold: (a) make the company an attractive place to work, and (b) make it easy for employees to work long hours — without worrying about leaving to eat, get to the dry cleaners or exercise. Yet the question arises: If the idea is to encourage employees to work harder, then are free meals really perks? As Steven E. Gross, a senior partner at Mercer Human Resource Consulting, notes, “some people would view that not as a perk, but as serfdom.”

Read the full article on knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu!

You’re out of work, you can afford to keep looking and you just got a job offer that can best be described as, eh. What do you do?

The answer the follows is long and filled with advice from experts that essentially say that as long as you can afford to say no, you should turn it down. They caution that with a lower level, lower paying job you won’t be able to put as much money in your 401k, future raises and promotions will be based off the lower salary and you may hate it so much that you’ll quit in 3 months, making your resume even worse than it is now.

Seriously?  Are we such a nation of whiners that career experts are telling people not to accept jobs on the fear that they will hate them so much that they’ll quit after 3 months, without another job lined up?  If you are such a whiner, I have no sympathy.  I tend to go back to the idea that they call it work because it’s, you know, work. 

Read the full article on bnet.com!

When we experience an “aha!” moment, our brains experience very high gamma activity as new neural networks are formed. Psychology Today writer Dan Goleman offers some advice on triggering creative ideas:

What’s the best way to mobilize this brain ability? It’s first to concentrate intently on the goal or problem, and then relax into stage three: let go. The converse of letting go – trying to force an insight – can inadvertently stifle creative breakthrough. If you’re thinking and thinking about it, you may just be getting more tense and not coming up with fresh ways of seeing things, let alone a truly creative insight.

Read the full article on lifehacker.com!

As an experiment, I recently asked 20 friends to write me a recommendation on LinkedIn. About 25% of the people I asked actually completed a recommendation. Even then, I didn’t really like everything that everyone said. I chose not to show all of them on my profile.

As a job hunter, having recommendations available online is a really valuable thing. Most employers do some level of online background checking. It usually amounts to a quick look at your Facebook and/or LinkedIn pages. Having several recommendations visible when they look will instantly add to your credibility.

Read the full article on glassdoor.com!

Tuesday, August 9 at 7:00 PM, Seattle

This event is a shout out to all the other SEO professionals, business owners and other professionals in the greater Puget Sound who think they could gain from some face-to-face networking talking about possibly the most efficient form of marketing in history.

Check it out!

I believe it was Gandhi who once said, “Can’t you people just mix in a little humility?” (I didn’t actually Google that quote, but I’m pretty sure it’s right.)

Point is, one of the most mystifying aspects of workplaces is they seem to render certain people incapable of believing in others and unwilling to seek advice or accept criticism. This affects both employers and employees.

Consider life in your office and how many times you’ve thought, “Why couldn’t so-and-so have just told me what he was thinking?” or “Why doesn’t so-and-so ever ask for my input?” The desire to be a part of what’s going on in a workplace, to be listened to, to be treated with respect, is not an overreach. It’s reasonable, and yet it’s a desire that’s rarely met.

Read the full article on chicagotribune.com!

Every business wants workers who passionately love their work. And for good reason: workers who are inspired are more productive, and passion can provide the energy necessary to fuel engagement, amidst obstacles and setbacks. But while passion seems clearly desirable, recent psychological research suggests that not all forms are adaptive. In fact, some forms can be downright detrimental.

According to Robert J. Vallerand’s Dualistic Model of Passion, passion has two main flavors: harmonious and obsessive. Those with harmonious passion engage in their work because it brings them intrinsic joy. They have a sense of control of their work, and their work is in harmony with their other activities in life. At the same time, they know when to disengage, and are better at turning off the work switch when they wish to enjoy other activities or when further engagement becomes too risky. As a result, their work doesn’t conflict with the other areas of their lives. When they are at the opera, for instance, or spending time with their children, they aren’t constantly thinking of work, and they don’t report feeling guilty that they aren’t working. Questionnaire items measuring harmonious passion include: “This activity reflects the qualities I like about myself”, “This activity is in harmony with the other activities in my life,” and “For me it is a passion that I still manage to control.”

Read the full article here! (via Scott Barry Kaufman writing for the Harvard Business Review)

Cars.com Speaker Series

Thursday, August 4th, 2011 at 6 PM (CT) Chicago, IL

Marty Abbott, former SVP of Technology at eBay, will be discussing the Agile methodology and the changes necessary in order for an organization to obtain value from the process. Food and drinks will be served, and we’ll also raffle off an iPad2. This event is FREE to all attendees – so don’t miss it!

Have you seen a job posting that declared, along with a need to have a degree and experience doing x, y, and z, that candidates must be employed?  According to the New York Times, this is becoming more and more prevalent as more and more people look for work.

Why would companies do that? As someone who has been involved in the layoff of literally thousands of people, I can say with authority that many of those people were high performers who would be an asset to any company they work for.  We terminated them because their job function was going away, or the site they worked at was closing, or they were terminated as part of a Last-In-First-Out strategy.  Sure, some were chosen because they were awful employees.  Duh.  But most?  Hardly.

Read the full article on bnet.com!

You sent out the resume – you’re a perfect fit – and yet no one calls. Sound familiar? In fact, a majority of candidates today do not receive a response on a submitted resume. So the big question is, “When is it appropriate to follow-up with an employer on my submission and how do I do it?”There is no answer that will fit every scenario, but there are some good rules you should follow.

Here are some general rules.

• Follow-up one to two weeks after you have submitted your resume. That is generally the amount of time most employers take to review all applicants and contact candidates of interest for an interview.
• Make contact during the early morning hours when you have a better chance of reaching someone before she or he is bogged down with other tasks to do for the day.
• Don’t follow-up just to ask if your resume was received – that can turn off an employer and does nothing to distinguish you. Instead, use this chance to distinguish yourself and build rapport. Identify the appropriate contact person and CALL them so you can have a conversation and emphasize your strengths. This is your opportunity to impress them with your insights, knowledge and intelligence and they love it when you demonstrate you have researched the company and know a lot about them.

Read the rest on careerealism.com!

A number of the big-name innovators in talent acquisition — the Sodexos, the PepsiCos, and others — are all trying to find a smooth way to get candidates using smart phones excited about a job at their companies, to apply for jobs without having to navigate a corporate careers site on the phone, all the while staying compliant with government rules, and not wreaking too much havoc on the employer’s applicant tracking system.

Matt Jeffery, who wrote that article on ERE that went quite viral, says his employer, Autodesk, is among the leaders in the mobile race. More on Jeffery and what his company is unveiling in a minute; first a look at how we got to this point.

Read the full article on ere.net!

When you spend eight hours a day in your office, a stimulating work environment is key to creative success.

That’s why many digital marketing agencies — where creativity is everything — have made a solid investment in office space. Whether it’s ergonomic desk setups, interactive wall art or office pets, digital agency spaces have become much more inviting places to spend your Monday to Friday.

Now we’re asking you: What does your inspiring office space look like? How does it help you to brainstorm creative digital marketing campaigns?

See more on  mashable.com!

You may or may not have heard about Google+. It’s the search giant’s answer to Facebook, and it’s hoping to take over the social networking world. It’s very “insidery” right now — since it’s only in Beta. To join, you have to get an invite from someone who’s already on. The site’s creators are obviously hoping Google+ will do to Facebook what Facebook did to MySpace.

That’s all very well and good for rabid social networkers, but if you’re a job seeker and that golden Google ticket pops up in your email box, sent by one of your friends, family members or connections, will it actually help you get a job? Yes and no, according to a little exploring on the site.

The Pros

Since it’s an elite group, it might help you in a job interview to mention that you’re on Google+. If the person interviewing you is not a member, there would be a certain amount of prestige involved in sending them an invite.

Read the rest on glassdoor.com!

The Y generation (me included) has becoming increasingly interested in tangible, short-term rewards. Our goals have followed our materialistic desires, and many of us yearn for ridiculously high salaries within an unrealistic time frame. Even if you graduated from Harvard or Yale, you are not entitled to a six figure salary and mansion before you put in your time in the workforce.

Unfortunately, many university graduates’ parents provide them with an elaborate and extravagant lifestyle from an early age. This leaves them with the desire to outdo their parents. This desire comes with an attitude of entitlement but a lack of perseverance. Unless you have amazing contacts (or your parents do), corporate America has plenty of casualties, young people who think their intelligence is a substitute for experience.

Check out the full article on thejobbored.com!

(Jessica Liebman on businessinsider.com) – I’ve been Business Insider’s Managing Editor for nearly a year now. A big part of my job is recruiting; since we’re a fast-growing company, we’re constantly looking for new talent, from interns to site leads.

I’ve estimated that between career fairs and in-office interviews, I’ve interviewed over 150 people. This doesn’t count phone interviews, which I usually do one or two of every day.

To be fair, most people come prepared.

I’ve been particularly impressed with the graduates of Syracuse University’s Newhouse school. They come with sharp ideas, crisp resumes, and sometimes even a folder with “Business Insider” printed on it to hold extra copies of their clips. (I’m happy to report that we have four Newhouse alums at Business Insider, all of whom were amazing hires.)

From blatant job interview questions like: “Greatest weakness, weakest attribute, most significant failure.” To soft – “What might your previous employer say?” Even softer – “You certainly seem to have a lot of strengths, but we understand no one is perfect.” The question will come one way or another, everyone knows it, yet still befuddled by it.

There have been many Rules of Thumb (R.O.T.) developed over the years, from making light of the question with an answer like “Pizza!” to true confessions, putting a cloud over everyone, to developing a response that actually demonstrates a strength, “I tend to be a workaholic” or “perfectionist.” (Yuk!)

Read the rest on careerealism.com!

A graphic designer has to take care of its portfolio because it is the way in which he presents his abilities. The portfolio is a collected sample which showcases your creativity and ability and you need to submit it properly to your public. Potential employers or clients may read it and what they see can help them to decide whether they want to hire you. That’s why a good presentation has to be properly built up. Along this article we will analyze which samples are better and how to arrange them, we will see example of both online and printed portfolio and how to present them to potential customers/employers.

Read the full article on instantshift.com!