Bridging the Gap: Musings of a Career Librarian

26 July, 2012

Traditional Empoymnet (part 2)

In my last post I asked if traditional employment was dead...I linked to an article that had a somewhat negative outlook. Today I offer a somewhat more positive spin to this question. This article from Fortune contributor Larissa Faw looks at How Millennials are Redefining Careers.

As a Gen Xers near the end of that spectrum I guess I don't see this as anything new. While an undergrad the chair of my department liked quoting to us at Department of Labor statistic about how we would have on average 7 - 10 employers (careers, depending on whose wording you wanted to use.) At the beginning of the piece the author details how people used to define themselves as a single identity (engineer, teacher, NASA, etc.) but now people see themselves with multiple identities (journalist AND marketing consultant AND co-partner in a company.)

In a related piece on Fortune contributor Dorie Clark ponders Why Your Company Should Blow Up the Corporate Ladder. It examines that in order to attract and retain top talent companies should begin to change the way they view the rigid corporate structure? The article looks at a book about an alternative to that rigid structure The Corporate Lattice: Achieving High Performance in the Changing World of Work. In this book the authors look at how movements in a lattice (sometimes sideways, sometimes slightly down or slightly up) can help improve employee satisfaction and thus improve their productivity.

If these authors are correct, will it improve corporate structure? Will it help improve unemployment? Confidence in the economy? I would love to hear what people think.

19 July, 2012

Is traditional employment dead?

Last fall I tried to jump start my motivation for the job search by attending a job search club at my local public library. For me the best positive from this group was this blog. One of the other things we discussed at great length was whether traditional employment was dead. Most of our discussion was about the difficulty for an employee to find a traditional full time job with benefits. Instead people would have to begin working part time, project work, consulting, contract work, etc.

This piece details how many people are perhaps giving up on traditional work. Those of us still trying to find full time work may find this hard to believe, but there is a growing group of people leaving full time jobs to become more entrepreneurial. Kevin Wheeler gives us 5 Reasons Why Traditional Employment is in Trouble.

What do others think? Are you ready to abandon full time work to venture out on your own?

10 July, 2012

Tips for better networking

This piece from the Wall Street Journal covers tips for being a smart protege, which of course is all about networking. A protege needs a mentor to help them learn and grow, and traditional this has been a one-to-one relationship. This piece gets into a detailed explanation of why having many mentors can be better than one.

I have had several mentors during my career, but rarely not more than one at a time. This piece has given my a lot to think about, and I may have more to share about it in the future. Does anyone else have any thoughts?

09 July, 2012

Taking Charge of Your Career

A few weeks back an article appeared in The Atlantic that has stirred up some controversy. It talked about the near impossibility of women 'having it all'... I debated discussing it here on my blog, but it didn't quite seem to fit perfectly with my general theme of advice for those looking for work. Then I saw this response to that article, 5 Tips to Take Charge of Your Career (Startup Success for Women). The author, Mariette Johnson Wharton, is an entrepreneur in the field of marketing and has some good advice (that is of course valuable for men and women.)

#1 Negotiate for promotions and salary increases...
          don't for get my many posts about salary, especially this one on finding salary and employment data.

#2 Start doing the job you want.
Most of us know what we want to do, but opportunities can come at unexpected times and in unexpected ways...

#3 Work on developing a strong leadership style.
          Try reading my friends Jerry Steuerwald's leadership blog.

#4 Become a subject matter expert.
          Knowing your subject better than anyone else will equal success as an entrepreneur.

#5 Build strong relationships in industry.
          Networking, networking, networking.

It doesn't matter if you are considering starting your own business or remaining in a traditional company or if you are a man or a woman... these tips can be valuable for shaping your future employment prospects.

Good luck.

28 June, 2012

State Small Business Development Centers

27 June, 2012

Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship

As I alluded to in my last post, I am beginning a series of pieces that will provide detailed summaries of information freely available for start ups, small businesses and entrepreneurs. To get this series rolling, I will state the obvious, government resources will/should become your best friend. The grandfather of these is the US Small Business Administration.

Every state has at least on district office for the SBA, and numerous college and university resources guides. My next piece will attempt to provide links state level resources for small businesses, that come from sources other than these federal district office or colleges and universities. Also most states have regional offices within them. I am attempting to link to the state level offices to manage the length of the list... but here are some quick web searching tips:

search for:

name of state AND "small business development"
should result in these regional and college sites
name of state AND "small business grants"
should result in sites focused on funding small business development

The remaining pieces will then get into specific resources for the specific aspects of starting and running a small business: writing a business plan, industry and market analysis, demographic information, competitive intelligence, funding.

I welcome thoughts, suggestions and comments.

20 June, 2012

The F-word entrepreneurs love to hate.

As I mentioned about a week ago I am working on a series of pieces to cover resources for entrepreneurs. These resources will run the gamete from demographic and market research sources to covering the basics for writing a business plan. While I finish these posts up I heard this story yesterday on NPR's All Things Considered, it covers failure and start-ups, how it is more common than we would like but is a driving force for the spirit of the entrepreneur.

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