You are in the early moments of your career. During you 20's you need to become great at something. The 30's is about leveraging those early skills and reputation.
You need to thrive in your career and if what your are doing is not the right platform for you to thrive, find an arena where you can do just that.
Also you have be investing in the long term financially. Most of us have access to a 401k or another vehicle like that. Toward the end of your 20's you should be depositing 15% into them. If you are on track great. If not, it is not too late but you must make this a priority.
On a macro level you need to have strategies and tactics to nail both your professional and financial development. We are here to help.
If successful job searches result in multiple offers (and they should), you might want some assistance in sorting-through, comparing and prioritizing various choices. The challenge is that multiple offers are never apples to apples. Read More...
The Department of Labor estimates that between the ages of 18 and 42 the average person will have 10.8 jobs. Another study broke it down with more detail. On average one will have ~5 jobs from 18-24 (summer employment) Read More...
Financial Independence Revealed In Your Earn to Burn Ratio (lets keep it simple) The quest for Financial Independence (aka Financial Freedom) too often provokes more questions than answers. Ratios and advice are often complicated and lacking. Read More...
The term "job search" is a little misleading. Ideally, every job search should result in multiple job offers. Choosing which job you accept is important because a new job, or a new role within a large organization, is a stepping-stone to the next step in your career. But making that choice can be a real challenge. Read More...
Some new employees show up and make a terrific first impression and often, that has powerful downstream implications. They create a kind of ‘Halo Effect’ that leads to a positive assumption that they will be great:
As baseball Hall of Famer Connie Mack said, ‘You can’t win them all.’ But that does not lessen the sting of NO. So what happens when you get a no? You were working with a recruiter, who ushered you into an opportunity. Perhaps they spoke so optimistically that you started to feel like this was nearly a done-deal. Read More...
As crazy as this sounds, many seemingly successful people are living paycheck to paycheck. They are spending beyond their means and they are not putting enough away for retirement. The illusions that you have plenty of time is just that.
We will give you advice on how to be money smart and how to develop a long range plan so that at the end of your career you will have a lifestyle that you enjoy, you will have enough assets to afford that lifestyle without working, so that ample discretionary money and discretionary time to follow your hearts desire. It's up to you, and we are here to help.
Every major financial guru that I know recommends having an emergency fund, and for good reason. This MUST be part of your financial plans as you move forward. Modest, regular funding into an emergency fund will get you to where you need to be over time. What Is An Emergency Fund? An emergency fund...
I recently read a great book for young people who are transitioning from college to career. The Bigs, by Ben Carpenter, offers some of the clearest thinking and ‘how-to’ advice I have come across for 18-24 year-olds. In addition to his book, his website is full of valuable information accented by...
So what happens when you get a no? You were working with a recruiter, who ushered you into an opportunity. Perhaps they spoke so optimistically that you started to feel like this was nearly a done-deal. Then you get a rejection. Even if it wasn’t your #1 choice, you are still hurt, it stings, and...
In the spring of this year the Class of 2015 ushered more than 1.8 million college graduates into the workforce. For most of these graduates, getting a job was priority number one. A first job provides a new kind of independence: the ability to move into one’s own space, pay for expenses and budget. It also opens the opportunity to create financial independence for the rest of your life. Read More...
As the class of 2015 entered the job market, they reported that the ‘opportunity for personal growth’ was high on their list of things they were looking for in the workplace. It was rated higher than job security itself. But… you already knew that, because you are out in front in subscribing to this blog and sharpening your life/career skills every week! Read More...
Every major financial guru that I know recommends having an emergency fund, and for good reason. This MUST be part of your financial plans as you move forward. Modest, regular funding into an emergency fund will get you to where you need to be over time.
What Is An Emergency Fund? Read More...
I recently read a great book for young people who are transitioning from college to career. The Bigs, by Ben Carpenter, offers some of the clearest thinking and ‘how-to’ advice I have come across for 18-24 year-olds. In addition to his book, his website is full of valuable information accented by 13 short The Bigs Videos that are must-sees for every emerging college student (and their parents as well). Read More...
As over 1.8 million college graduates enter the workforce, they face an economic inflection point. Change in their financial life will perhaps never be as dramatic as the transition to career economics. It is advisable that the Class of 2015 look at a revealing case study of those who preceded them, the Baby Boomers. Read More...
The objective of every job search is to receive multiple job offers. These offers provide you flexibility, choices and the option to select the best strategic opportunity for yourself. Jobs or roles within a company are two to four year career stepping-stones on track to your career destination.
But if you receive multiple offers, how do you reject a job offer without burning bridges? Read More...
This is about leveraging your LinkedIn network but let me give you some real life context. This will bring together your-brand, your-network and LinkedIn in order to give you career advantage.
According to Wikipedia: Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. While previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal-branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. Read More...
Your first job is very important as you depart from campus. If you have done a great search, you not only have a job, but it is the first step in a career that you are very excited about. It should be an area or industry that will grow over the course of your working years, so as you become great, opportunity abounds. That first job also can be precedent setting as well. Let’s face it, when you leave campus you don’t really know a lot (sorry if I am hurting your feelings, but please hear me out). What employers are betting on is that you are a Read More...
On campus you are surrounded by many events and opportunities to find employment through internships and/or full time jobs. These fall into the category of the ‘physical job search’ which include events and contacts that you can physically engage with to find an opportunity. Your campus job search is the only one in your career where the employers come to you. Lose your job three years out of college and employers don’t rush to your garage and set up a job fair. At that juncture, it is on you to find opportunities. Read More...
Think of the concept of branding like this: A hiring manager has two different candidates under consideration. All elements being equal:
Whether you are doing this job search from campus, or you are a few years out and you find yourself in a search, one of the side-benefits of doing it is expanding and fortifying your personal network. You will come across a lot of new contacts, be in touch with others, many of whom you have not connected with in a while. Use this to your advantage. Read More...
I am excited to publish a guest post today from Joshua Waldman, author of Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies. He is also the founder of Career Enlightenment; a site with a treasure trove of great information that can help you leverage social media to fortify your job search. Read More...