Working from Home - Flexibility, Fun and Financially Feasible!

Ask Wendy Piersall about working from home! She publishes "Sparkplugging" a website for those who think big and want to work from home.

Who is the Work at Home Generation?
If you use technology to free yourself from a 9 to 5, to do work that you love, to get more time with your family, or just want to make money in your socks, then you're in the right place.

If you've every daydreamed about working from home, check out her website. Wendy is a bundle of energy and a real powerhouse. She's someone who makes things happen. Visit her site and gain a whole new outlook on how you can actually make it (and thrive!) while working from your home and juggling the rest of your life.

Wendy used to publish eMOMs at Home but found that dads, entrepreneurs, freelancers, copywriters, photographers, web developers and so many other types of people were following and asking her advice that she rebranded her site to include everyone: hence SPARKPLUGGING.

Defining the Skills Needed for a Job

Job Fairs are a great place to learn more about area companies and what their requirements are for various jobs.

During a recent job fair in Trumbull county, some of the employers found it difficult to locate good applicants that had the skills the company needed.

Although 2 Ticks & the Dog Ad agency didn't mention what they were looking for in the article or on their website, after reviewing their work on the website, I bet they're looking for video editing skills, copywriting, storyboarding... maybe even video camera work. Looks like they put out good work for a reasonable price judging by their awards and client list.

When you talk to someone from a company, they have about 10 words in their head that describe the individual that they are looking for... just like you have about 10 words in your head that describes the kind of job you're looking for. What are your 10 words??

Tags: Trumbull County Video Production Jobs

Attitude Counts!

When you're working a job -- even a stepping stone job -- your attitude counts.

People notice. It matters. Take a look at what Mario Sanchez at ShoeString Branding says about a recent business trip and what he noticed in people's attitudes toward their job:

The difference in salary between these two people can’t be more than a few bucks an hour, however, one cared and the other one didn’t. It’s a matter of character and pride.

Which person are you? Do you treat your work behavior at your summer job, your college job, your job-that-you-have-until-you-get-a-"real"-job, your payback-the-college-loan-interest job as something that doesn't matter? What's your on the job attitude?

I believe that how you act on your current job makes you the person you are. How will others know you will be the right person when the right job comes along when you're the wrong person, even at a easy, temporary job?

Maybe I should rephrase it:
When you're working a job -- especially a stepping stone job -- your attitude counts.

Mario's ShoeString Branding references Jim Collin's Good to Great book's concept of having the right people on the bus. Just so you know, Jim also talks about getting them in the right seats on the bus. Good book. Go get it from the library, skim it and remember the concept. Are you the "right people" and do you know which is your "right seat"?

Flickr Creative Commons Photo Credits: Stephen Witherden

Job Hunting Tips for College Seniors (and Juniors and Sophomores!!)

It's that time of year when the almost grads start compiling their resumes and emailing them all over cyberspace.

Before you hit that send button, take a few minutes to read the advice of Drew McClellan. He has taken the time to compile words of advice from many business professionals into a f*r*e*e downloadable PDF.

Good luck!

Smart Business Cleveland -- Women Who Excel

I read an inspirational interview in Smart Business Cleveland this morning and wanted to bring it to the attention of my readers.

Lee Friedman had to merge 5 organizations into one. And she did it successfully as President and CEO of the Cleveland Leadership Center. Now that's a leader!!

She says the keys are listening, communication and being as inclusive as possible. Smart Business calls her the unifier. I think her ability to combine her strategic planning and collaboration skills really helped her.

You can read the whole story here:
How Lee Friedman brought five organizations together to form the Cleveland Leadership Center

Bridging the Gap between College and Career

Yesterday I met with a young woman who graduated with a degree in Marketing, but was still working the job that helped her pay her way through college at a bar.

Not the best work experience to help land the 9-5 job...

One of the tricks to getting a job is to help the potential employer figure out how they could use you in the business.

Here were my suggestions for her:

1) Find a place that you love & volunteer to help with their marketing: it might be your local YWCA, your church, or a local sports facility where you play basketball, volleyball or soccer. Somewhere you have a relationship.

2) Find some marketing plan templates on the internet and take a stab at writing their marketing plan. It doesn't have to be perfect, but start doing a marketing plan. Print it out to bring to your interviews...

3) Go back to your old school work and find some survey that you did. Market research, even something simple like a short survey is part of marketing. Improve on it. If you got it back from your professor with corrections, fix them. Print the survey out and bring itwith you to an interview as a "show & tell" piece. Did you get the results and compile them into a summary? Bring the summary too. Or do a survey for your volunteer marketing project.

4) Did you have an internship? If so, think of 3 things you learned. Write those down on a notecard and commit them to memory. You're going to mention those things in your cover letter and your interview. Just 3 sentences or so, nothing too elaborate.

5) Go buy an inexpensive portfolio to showcase your work. Print out a press release you wrote. Did it get published? Insert both the press release and the clipping in your portfolio. Marketing students typically don't do portfolios, but having a show and tell to present to a potential employer is powerful. Don't obsess about it... get one done. Continue to improve on it every time you do something new or better. But get it started now.

6) Ever do a powerpoint you were proud of? Print that out... You'd be surprised at the number of employers who need people who can deal with powerpoint in creating sales presentations. When you show the powerpoint, just casually mention that you know how to deal with masters, title masters, inserting charts, tables, and compressing photos so that it's not too large to email. If you know how to insert videos and flash, all the better. Don't know how to do powerpoint? Check out these basic and more advanced tutorials and practice. Visit Presentation Zen on a regular basis to get inspired and learn more.

7)Have you ever created a schedule and a budget? Make sure you do for your volunteer project listed in number one. Include approval dates in the schedule. You can do it in weeks, you don't have to put actual dates in the schedule... and the budget can be approximate.

8) Ever set up for a trade show? Write down what you took, how you set up, where you went, types of people you interacted with, how that helped the organization. If not a trade show, a consumer fair, an expo, an exhibit, etc. Have photos? All the better. Print it out and put it in your portfolio to help you with the show and tell. Event marketing, grand openings, open house, even a booth at a career fair... these all represent the company or organization to the public and often entry level marketing people are the ones who can help coordinate something like this.

9) Visit www.clevelandintern.net and look at the possibilities. Pick three to apply for...

10)Bring one or two copies of your resume to every interview. Even (or especially) the informational interviews. It's your packaging. You are the product. People can't just look into your face and realize what you can do, want to do, did and have the potential to do. A resume helps.

-- Of course I also told her to visit this blog. Hope this helps her and the other recent grads who are job hunting or want to be job hunting but don't know where to start.

In fact, if you are a blogger, or like to blog... you may be the one to help the company or organization get started on their own epublished newsletter (aka blog). Don't discount that! Many companies are trying to figure out how to get into the web 2.0 but it's like a different language to them and feels weird. Who knows. Just 15 years ago no companies very few companies had a website. Just 10 years ago Google was born. Just 5 years ago blogs took off... or was that 2 years ago?!

Good luck and keep your chin up!!

Starting Your Own Business as a Career Choice

I recently learned some very insightful ideas from a great speaker, Larry Farrell, who specializes in Entrepreneurship.

He works with Junior Achievement to help prepare materials for middle school and high school programs in an effort to help young people learn more than facts, to learn the principles of starting and running a business.

One fact: Young people will have more than 9 jobs before they are 40. Why not have one of these "jobs" actually be your business and employ people to help build your product or provide your service to the customers?

Larry's Four Principles of Entrepreneurship:

• Sense of Mission
• Customer/Product Focus
• High Speed Innovation
• Self-Inspired Behavior

For more information, check out my Branding & Marketing article with more information about Larry Farrell and his mission of bringing entrepreneurship to the world.

Branding & Marketing for Enterpreneurs & Job Hunters

Yesterday evening I had the opportunity to meet with 30 students and entrepreneurs at Kent State - Stark for the first in a series of business speakers. I was impressed with the attentiveness of the group and the questions they asked. As each person walked in, it was difficult to judge who was a business person coming from work and who was a student walking in from a class -- they all were dressed in business attire. That was a good thing -- each was "packaged" for business.

Donald Thacker asked me to speak following the Entrepreneurship Extravaganza Event in October in Kent.

Some of the information I shared related to job hunting as well as launching a product. I referenced Dan Schawbel's blog called Personal Branding and all the great links that he has compiled.

We talked about having an on line branding. Dan mentions it in one of his slideshare powerpoints. You know, potential employers will google your name and find out what your branding looks like on line. See page 5 of this 16 page presentation.

When you're interviewing with a potential employer, do you position yourself? Do you have a niche? What's your one word? One color?

Picture Yourself as an Engineer!

Each year the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. hosts an Engineering Career Day for Young Women at the company's Goodyear Hall facility.

Young women in grades 6 through 12 are invited to attend this event on Saturday, April 19, 2008 in Akron, Ohio.

This program focuses not only on engineering but also on careers that can be launched from an engineering background. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on activities related to multiple engineering fields and will also have the opportunity to interact with professionals from Goodyear, other industrial companies and local universities to learn more about careers in engineering and the sciences.

Other engineering disciplines will also be discussed, including polymer, materials, biomedical, chemical, mechanical, electrical, environmental, and aeronautical. There will also be a special session on Preparing for College for students and Financial Aid for parents. Middle school and high school students will follow separate tracks geared specifically for their age group.

Encourage students to come and enjoy this fun and informative event, as did the young women who attended last year:

"This was very informative and fun!! If offered next year, I will definitely come back." "It was an awesome experience and I now know what my future dream job is!"

The day will conclude with one young woman winning the chance for a ride on the Goodyear blimp.

This FREE event runs 8:00 a.m. to 3 p.m., is open to the public and includes lunch. Participants must register at www.goodyear.com/careerday. The registration deadline is April 5, but space is limited, so register early.

Students may be accompanied by one parent during the day’s activities.

Sustainable Business Practices in a Global Economy

For those in Northeast Ohio, Cleveland State’s College of Business hosts Dave Cowan from Lubrizol to discuss “Sustainable Business Practices in a Global Economy”. It will be held February 21, 2008 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM in downtown Cleveland.

Dave Cowan the Public Affairs Manager at The Lubrizol Corporation has global responsibility for government and community relations. Jim D’Orazio is organizing the event. Jim's a friend of mine and a faculty member at the Nance College of Business Administration

Key topics include:

• How to identify and partner with key stakeholders.
• Creating competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
• Managing risk.
• Being a “good” global citizen…profitably.

The event will be Thursday February 21, 2008 from 11:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. This is the third in a four part series on sustainable business practices.

This free discussion and networking event will be held at the Maxine Goodman Levine College of Urban Affairs, located at 1717 Euclid Ave, in the Bonda Room (UR 254) Cleveland Ohio.

Bring your own lunch but light refreshments will also be provided by the sponsors, Cleveland State’s Department of Marketing and the student chapter of the American Management Association.

Be part of a lively discussion that may help you identify a source of competitive advantage for your company.

To register, please email j.dorazio@csuohio.edu or go to the Nance College of Business web site at http://www.csuohio.edu/cba/mkt/noon

Kathleen Grandfield's Career Combines Chocolate & Jewelry

Kathleen Grandfield's career choices has led her to combine two of her passions: chocolate & jewelry. What's not to love!?!

A gifted jewelry designer, she conceived her first handcrafted line after collecting vintage jewelry while living and working in London. She recently moved Chocolatecture and Red Texture Jewelry Designs to the Houston, Texas Area.

You can view more of her jewelry and chocolate designs at her company's website: www.kathleengrandfield.com.

Or you may want to ask her a question at her blog: La Vida Cocoa.

I just think that it's super to find a way to combine your passions to find the work you love, so I wanted to interview Kathleen as a guest here at Real Women -- Real Careers.

I was able to ask her a few questions about her career to help other women who are considering something similar.

What is the best thing about your job?: The best thing about my job is the enjoyment of being able to use my imagination to create designs in two different mediums. By consolidating both businesses under one website I am able to pursue and market both careers I am passionate about.

What's the best advice you ever got?: The best advice I ever got was to “Invest in Myself”.

Do you have any words of wisdom to other women?: To young women who are embarking on a career path I would recommend doing a Mind Map. Recognize your strengths and passions. Be true to Yourself! Also if possible hire a career coach to guide you and give you seasoned advice and empowerment tools.

For those older women faced with life’s challenging twists and turns, have perseverance and never be afraid to “Re-invent” youself. And remember….it’s never too late to achieve your dreams.

Encouraging Young Women to Consider Engineering as a Career

This career event is sponsored by Lockheed Martin, the Girl Scouts and The University of Akron:

Kids Career Day is just around the corner so don’t miss out on this unique and exciting chance to touch science!!! Kids Career Day is a ½ day program that is designed to involve children in interactive activities related to occupations in engineering, science, technology, and math.

It will be held on February 23rd, 2008 from 8:30 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. (registration begins at 7:30 a.m.).

Each activity at Kids Career Day showcases professional women who are currently employed as scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.

Enjoy a morning filled with the fun side of science and math sponsored by Lockheed Martin, The University of Akron and Girl Scouts! To join us just click the link for a registration brochure.

How Did you Get Started in Your Career

I recently was emailed by a young man from University of Washington with Career Questions from a New Marketing Grad. I thought I'd share his questions and my answers here so that it may help more people too:

How did you start your career? My major in college was public relations. In high school I always enjoyed writing. When I was in scouts I sent some announcements into the town paper and got them printed. My senior year in high school I was the school newspaper editor, so when it was time to pick a major, PR seemed to fit my skills and what I liked.

What was your career path to your current position? After I graduated from college, as soon as I got a job, I found that PR wasn't what I expected. PR didn't have the control over a company like I wanted so I quickly went back to school to study marketing. I worked in marketing for many years on consumer products before starting my own marketing company.

My path by title was 1) production coordinator 2) news reporter freelance writer (few months) 3) publications/promotions manager 3) technical writer (few months) 4) copywriter 5) assistant product manager 6) product manager 7) senior product manager 8) brand manager 9)marketing services director 10) entrepreneur/business owner of marketing firm.


What is your typical day consist of? About 50% client work, 10% managing employees, 40% running my business (sales, marketing, accounting, IT, finance, R&D, strategy.) First meeting is usually breakfast, throughout the day I'll have about 15 phone calls, 50 emails, 3 meetings and a very quick lunch/or a longer lunch if it's a meeting. Lots of writing. Many 1 minute conversations with employees. I usually start my day with a cup of coffee and blogging to get the brain cells functioning. Filing the papers on my desk at the end of the day is always a challenge, but if I don't keep up with it, I get piles stacked all over and it looks messy. I like to keep it clean and neat. I make a list of to do's for the next day. Each week I try to spend 5 hours on strategy/big picture.

What do you like most and least about your job? Most: Getting a new client we really want and doing a GREAT job for them. Least: Having to "fire" a client that just isn't working out.

What are the best strategies to break into the marketing field?
1) Volunteer for organizations you're already involved in so you have tangible skills you can show in a portfolio and meet other people who are in marketing. Help the library, the chamber of commerce, the blood drive, your church, the relay for life, community festivals, city council, or any of the non-profit organizations with a board of directors.

2) Work hard and don't complain about doing the "grunt" work like stuffing envelopes or packing bags to hand out that trade show. Do a good job so people will give you more. Look for ways to help. Watch how people do things to get things done.

3) Ask for letters of recommendation from the people you worked for (but only if you really helped them so they will RAVE about you. Ask them to write it on company/organization letterhead if possible. Ask them to mention specifics and give them a cheat sheet to help them write it.) Make a portfolio of your work. Take digital photos of "results" so you can tell a little story (less than 30 seconds each story) about different volunteer products you did. Put the photos and the letters of recommendation into a portfolio along with 2 copies of your resume to take to interviews. I like this portfolio personally because it looks so neat and professional to showcase your accomplishments. Cardinal presentation FLIP books or traditional books.

http://www.nextag.com/cardinal-presentation-book/search-html

4) Get informational interviews where you ask questions like these (What Color is your Parachute) Ask each person who else can I talk to who could help. Use networking to get more informational interviews. Use LinkedIn and Facebook. Take off any "bad" pictures on Facebook or MySpace.

5) Figure out what companies you'd like to work for. Send the VP of marketing a letter expressing your interest.

6) Make job hunting a job with a strategy, plan, daily to dos, and follow ups.

7) Look for internships. Try to get 2 or 3 of them in different areas of marketing: communication, research, web design/seo, consumer products, social media, fundraising, etc to try on different areas. Marketing is very different specialty to specialty.

Transitioning the Workplace from Baby Boomers to Generation Y

Although I don't like stereotyping, I do believe that in general different generations view work in a different ways.

A good job: Baby boomers like to "complain" how they took work home all weekend, worked thru the holidays and put in extra hours. In their mind it shows how committed they are, how important their job function, how crucial they are to the overall workings of the organization. "Oh it's really busy at work, I'm really busy, but wouldn't want it any other way."

On the other hand, when the Generation Y group (Milleniums?!) talk about work, it's more about what work enables them to do on their time off. It's not live to work... it's work to live.

I read an interesting article about how to manage Gen Y at work... because baby boomers sometimes don't understand the motivations and what's viewed as a reward to one generation will be seen as a punishment by another. I think the more individuals within the same organization but in 2 different generation groups understand where each other are coming from, it will be a smoother transition into a stronger, happier workplace.

Here's some insights the article offers -- do you agree?

Communication style: Gen Y employees speak a different language, so hiring and department managers need to practice a new style of communicating. Gen Y employees respond to humor, passion and the truth: don't even think of "spinning" a message with this audience. As Gen Y employees increasingly dominate the workforce, people who work with them should also realize how important direct and timely feedback, frequent encouragement and recognition of efforts are to 18-30 year olds. While this may feel like pampering to some, the outcome is a set of employees who are engaged and motivated to show their best work.

Happy New Year -- 2008

New Years resolutions are just goals in disguise! So what career goals are you looking for in 2008?

Figuring out:

- What you love to do?
- What you have skills to do?
- What the world needs?

Where these 3 collide is the sweet spot. Here's to a successful 2008!

Internet Marketing Resources for Students Transitioning to Careers

Getting ready to launch your career? Looking for help beyond the resume & cover letter? How about resources from the internet?!?

You may want to check out these resources from Mike Sansone, one of the top blogging coaches I've found...

Last month he spoke to students and instead of passing out handouts, in true Web 2.0 fashion Mike posted links:

1. Delicious bookmarks: http://del.icio.us/mikesansone/JannFreed to key websites and blogposts

2. His books recommendations from the Shelfari bookshelf - a neat way to recommend and share books http://www.shelfari.com/

Go Red for Women -- Doctor & Spokesperson

Dr. Debbie Plate has combined her role as doctor and public speaker. She spoke to a group of women in Akron to make us more aware about heart health. If you are considering a career as a health professional, you might not realize how much public speaking could play a role in your career.

Knowing how to communicate key information in front of an audience using a laptop, projector and PowerPoint is a skill that transcends many careers.

This morning while attending the American Heart Association breakfast to promote awareness of Go Red for Women, I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Debbie Plate describe some rather startling facts about women's heart health in the United States:

• 460,000 Women per year die of heart failure, making it one per minute. That's more from Heart Failure than the next 5 killers combined! (Cancer is #2 and stroke is #3.)
  
• Among women over 20, about 30% have high blood pressure.


• Overweight women in the USA over 20: 58% of the white women and 79% of African American.

Dr. Plate is a communications person and a doctor. Besides speaking throughout the community, she is often seen on TV representing Akron General Medical Center and interviewing other doctors about their specialties.

She urged the audience to wear RED the first Friday in February to help build awareness of heart health among women. May 8th is the fundraising luncheon to help build awareness.

When something is the number one killer, and so many of the problems are preventable, doesn't it make sense that we should focus on this?

It's amazing to me that wearing seat belts and not cutting your vegetables & chicken with the same knife & cutting board or eating raw eggs seems like it has more public awareness than the actions that cause heart failure. (but I digress.)

If you enjoy public speaking, you are probably in the minority. Many people fear public speaking more than anything else -- even death, rattlesnakes or heights!! Making your career into something where you combine two passions can be a real great way to find the work you love.

And. Oh yeah. Go eat some vegetables for your heart!!

25 Tips for Women to Make More Money than Men

When I entered the workforce women made 56 cents to men's dollar. Although it is improving, recent statistics show women make only 89 cents according to a New York Times article from this year that discusses a Queens College study. Others say 75 cents, 76 cents or 12 cents. I guess it depends on how you measure: Hourly? Salary? Same job? Same education? Same amount of experience?

There are ways to increase your earnings. Robyn McMaster at Brain Based Biz offers a book called Why Men Earn More: The startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It by Dr. Warren Farrell in her recent post Men, Women, Brains and Earning Power

The 25 strategies boil down to 3 categories 1) be more productive, 2) put in more hours and 3) choose careers that pay more.

Ironically most of the 25 strategies suggest giving up up some quality of life and job satisfaction. (IE be a prison guard vs a child care worker. Or travel extensively as a sales person.)

Many women (most women?!) choose to figure out a way to create a job that fits with their life rather than make their life fit their job. Is it that way for men too? As more men realize the lifelong satisfaction of raising children like being there at the teachable moment or for the school play or being the team manager, I believe the salaries and wages will become closer and closer.

We want to have our cake and eat it too. And why not?!

But still, as you select your career, take some time to picture how you might increase the salary by selecting a different job within the career (example, a nurse anesthetists and traveling nurses each make twice the pay of regular nurses.)

What is it Like to have a Career in Event Planning, Trade Shows, Talent Management and Talent Development?

Ann Ramsey Metzler knows what it takes to work in the high pressure world of trade shows, events, talent management and talent development. She recently relocated to Northeast Ohio after working 7 years in Columbus. She shares her career experiences while working at COSI and at The Ohio State University.

Biggest challenge: My biggest challenge is knowing how to stop at good when that is acceptable for the task. Being a perfectionist at heart makes that difficult and creates the drive in me to go forward to 'great' in every situation.

Most important lesson learned: I have learned to trust my own instincts and also trust the team I am working with for the certain task. Jobs very rarely are accomplished by only one person, therefore, the team that is assembled becomes vital to the successful completion of the task.

Someone considering this for a career should: Be willing to put in long hard hours initially and work on the weekends. Once you become more accomplished you will be able to select the specific projects and programs you work on.

What training did you have? On the job training seems to be the best training in this field. I have learned more from my mistakes then my successes. Finding a good mentor has been critical to my success.

Tips for the Recent Graduate who is Job Hunting

Yesterday I met with a recent graduate who is the daughter of a friend of my sister-in-law's. She majored in marketing and is working on her job hunt. I thought some of the information I shared with her might be helpful to other recent graduates:

• Make sure you work in an internship. An internship tells a future employer that you've worked in an office setting and know important things like how to answer the phone and sound professional, work a fax machine, copy machine, postage machine and what an "in-basket" is used for. Internships also help give you some results to list on your resume, something to put in your portfolio and real life examples of how you helped a company achieve something toward their goals.
  
• Clevelandinterns.com is a good website to get started in your job hunt. So is www.careerboard.com, as well as monster, career builders etc. But more importantly than websites, networking is still a crucial way to meet contacts who know people who are hiring.
  
• Use at least a 12 point typeface on your resume. Most people who are hiring are over 40 years old and often don't like to use reading glasses during an interview. Especially when we are talking to a 22 year old.
  
• Make sure you know your way around the computer -- if you know special tricks with powerpoint, excel and word that others don't -- you'll be invaluable. What about publisher, paint and outlook? Take some time to brush up on those clever little tips that give you an edge to be able to do something that most people with the 3-5 years of experience don't need to know to get a job.
  
• Expect to pay your dues when you start. I know, you did your 4 years of college... well, so did most of the other people in the office, so it's like you're a freshman again.
  
• Develop some questions for the person who interviews you. Things like: "what is the main focus of your company's marketing goals?" or "What's the biggest challenge in your marketing department?" are open ended questions that may trigger a response from you that tells the interviewer how you could help.
  
• Most people you meet will know someone who knows someone who might know someone who is hiring. It's about networking. Make business cards with your contact info so it's easy to refer and reach you.
  
• Find time to visit the chamber of commerce luncheons and talk to the other people at your table.

Getting a job is a job on its own. After you do get the job, remember that someone else is probably looking too. Take the time to encourage them with advice from things that helped you. Extend a hand behind you and help the next young woman in line!!