I am beginning 2009 on the (job)/career hunt! As a student in communications, I was heavy on writing, but really enjoyed the speeches and debate tournaments. Looking for a company that will allow a young professional to be the voice and face of their brand is hard. No one told me that at 22 or 25. I am doing the normal day-to-day search on Monster, careerbuilder, and others.

The process is not that exciting. It has been exciting to go shopping for that dream career. You know the one. The one you took classes for, wrote papers about, and prepared your whole college career for. Well if you’re like many of my friends and myself, your doing something that will get you to that ‘someday’. So as I search for that ‘someday’ career I am looking for a stepping stone role that will launch me to ‘someday’ a little quicker on the corporate fiscal calendar.

What is so bad about getting to ‘someday’ sooner? I think in these times you need to be strategic, and calculating to snag that dream (ehhhm) career. Find time to look around online for job postings. Many businesses are laying off teams of people, but are looking for a leader to take over departments that did not need 3,4, or 5 people when they could pay one person a larger salary to get the job done. It never hurts to look, and when you get some bites on your resume take time to evaluate the opportunities. Do you ever notice that guy down the hallway that is in his 40’s and seems like he is just there to survive. I think those people are all around us, because they don’t pause and look at themselves while they navigate their career. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be ‘that guy/gal’.

Of course it is great to keep your current job until you have successfully signed a contract for your step closer to that ‘someday’ career. I am considering many different career paths right now. I am a communications professional, with sales, advertising, and marketing background so I am thankful that I can reach across the landscape of jobs and grasp at my next career.

Do you think you are stuck in a job, and waiting for that ‘someday’ career?

Does the economy make you want to look or stay put? Let’s discuss in the comments section?

First, Inc Magazine interviewed Dave McCoy who founded Mammoth Mountain (the ski resort in California). The article tells the tale of how he grew his business and it is good reading in general, but one segment seemed particularly  relevant for the times. He commented on how he handled some rough times in the early 1990s.

In 1991, we had to lay off 150 people, because we had six years of very light snow. Instead of keeping all the best people, I looked at the people that were really able to take care of themselves and let them go first. It worked out, because they ended up doing greater things than they had been doing. It may not have been wise, but that’s the way it is with me.

Imagine that. Instead of firing the people at the bottom of the organization, he started at the top. I know a lot of us at the bottom often feel that the middle-top management doesn’t contribute much and it seems that Dave McCoy shared that sentiment (at least to some extent). He was able to run his business without the glut of highly paid middle management. I wonder if this strategy would work in other  businesses or if the resort business is unique.

The second good point I heard last week was from NPR. They were discussing the auto bailout and noted that Japan was in comparably rough shape in the early 1990s. As Japan worked their way through the problem they learned one key lesson: wage concessions are better than layoffs. The workers had to settle for less but ultimately that concession was better than losing their job altogether. I don’t know if this kind of thing could ever work here because of the cultural differences, but I hope our policy makers take note. Someone has been through this before and their strategy worked pretty well; maybe we should devise a similar plan.

However, due to the current economic conditions, this time we decided to make it the Credit Crunch Edition and limit ourselves to gifts under $75 (well, most of them). Plus, everyone does gift lists before the holidays so, we decided to provide the list of what you should have gotten, and let you pick it up even cheaper at all the after Christmas sales!

Without further adieu, here is our list of gifts for young professionals that you should have gotten - Credit Crunch edition!

Grant H

1. A Cookbook - with the crunch, saving money is hip.. learn how to cook and save $$!

2. Cinema tickets, Apple iTunes card or restaurant gift certificates - with times being tough, a good night out at the movies, dinner or some new music to soothe the soul is key.

3. Blu-ray player - It’s more than $75 ($100 at BestBuy) right now but with after Christmas sales it should be cheaper. Even if you can’t find it for that cheap, save $30 by spending the night in with friends and now you have made up the difference.

4. Espresso maker - This is a repeat from last year but one of the easiest ways to save is cutting back on Starbucks.

5. Klean canteen - bring your own water to work. Combined with a Brita, it’s easy way to save money instead of bringing bottled water in every day (and it’s green!).

Dan

6. A french oven. A lot of young professionals are looking for ways to stay within their newly created budget. Cooking for themselves is one
of the best ways. One of the most cost effective (and delicious)
cooking strategies is to start with a roast and then eat its leftovers
all week. You can also make soups and stews. In order to do all of
this, you need the right cooking tools. The cornerstone of those tools
is the French Oven. Versatile. Simple. Awesome.

7. Wrinklefree shirts. I’ve been told that Brooks Brothers have the nicest
shirts that are most resilient to wrinkles.

8. Battery extender for the iPhone. This is great for business travelers,
especially on long flights.

Jen

9. Padfolio- A padfolio will keeps professionals organized for meetings and offers a more professional look than notebooks or scratchpads. For a special, thoughtful touch, have the padfolio engraved prior to gifting.
Price: $20 and up

10. Flickr Pro Account- People love taking pictures and sharing them with friends, colleagues and loved ones. Flickr is one of the best photo sharing services. For just under $25, users get unlimited storage and upload space for photos and videos. Other features include the ability to view stats, set advanced privacy options, and leave comments.
Price: $24.99 per year

11. Keurig Single Cup Coffee Cup Maker- Nothing keeps the creative juices flowing quite like a good cup of coffee. Keurig coffee makers use K-Cups instead of using filters and grind. The coffee pods come in a varity of flavors. Once you have a K-Cup, you will never want regular coffee again. This can be great personal coffee maker in the office for people who don’t want to share burnt pots of coffee with coworkers.
Price: $79.99 and up

12. Cardscan- Cardscan scans business cards and imports them into your computer’s address book. For professionals that get a lot of business cards, this is a great gift. It saves times, keeps things organized, and ensures that important contact information never gets lost.
Price: $159 and up

Brandon H

13. A Vanity Domain Name - Every young professional should have TheirName.com. It’s a cool, unique gift that costs $10. I recommend Bluehost for domain registration and hosting.

14. Cooking Supplies - Like Grant’s cookbook request, cooking can be a huge win during the downturn both from a budget aspect and just for fun. You can get nice cooking supplies for a decent price and they will be used many times over.

15. A selection of Micro Brews or Wine - Check out BeerAdvocate.com for beer or Snoot.com for wine suggestions.

16. Frames - They seem mundane but, frames for pictures or art can be a pain to buy and can really compliment any apartment or condo.

17. Steaks, Sausage, Cheese or Gourmet food - Put together your own gift basket. It’s much cheaper and delicious.

What are your suggestions for credit crunch gifts young professionals should have gotten?

I would like to hear from our other resident bloggers and readers.  What is your new years resolution at the office?

I live in the northeast, and right now all I can see is white. Yes it should be a white Christmas, this year. That got me thinking about color! White has always been a representation of peace, yellow as friendship, and red for love. Growing up my father always talked about the “power tie”, and if you didn’t know the color of a power tie, it’s red. Did you know that the color of your suit and tie, dress, or other articles of clothing say something to all of your co-workers? Well they do. And it can be fun to communicate with color at the office or in the boardroom.

Red is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. It has very high visibility. Red is used to indicate courage.

Great, so you know what red says about you, now check out what all the other colors say. I did most of my research on the meaning of each color at; http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html.

Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation. Orange is not as aggressive as red. Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. Orange is symbolic of strength and endurance.

Yellow is associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. Yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black. Yellow indicates honor and loyalty.
Men usually perceive yellow as a very lighthearted.  Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous color, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety.

Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money. Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Green indicates growth and hope.

Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America.

Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection. White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity.

Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. Black is a mysterious color associated with fear and the unknown. Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, elegant, and prestigious color. A black suit or dress can make you look thinner. Black contrasts well with bright colors.

No matter what kind of business your in, you can establish credibility, create a unique look all your own, and differentiate yourself from others by incorporating color in your wardrobe.

As a young professional you may be concerned about cost, functionality, or rocking the “boat” at work with fashion. It is ok to stick with the staple colors for work like; black and white, grey, khaki, and many other muted neutrals. Try adding bright argyle socks to a neutral suit if you want to play it safe but still want to say something more than I am here to blend in. If you’re a woman, you can try adding a new belt, or piece of jewelry with bold colors.

I worked with a woman who wore the staple pearl earings and necklace and sweater set, but she added some color during the winter months by wearing a simple light cashmere scarf draped around her neck. What did she accomplish by wearing the scarf? She made herself memorable, she made herself approachable, and she showed confidence by taking a risk with color and fashion at work.

I hope you will take a look at your wardrobe and find pieces that can speak volumes about you in the boardroom without even uttering a word.

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way - things I had no words for.”

-Georgia O’Keefe

Ralph Lauren Spring 2009

It’s that time of year when the busy cube farms grow silent– ’tis the season for holiday vacation!

Assuming you are not part of the finance world, many people from your office may be taking vacation between now and the beginning of the year.  That could mean you are planning on “peacing out” for a few days with the masses or it could mean you are handling the office slack while people with more vacation or seniority are picking out which Holiday Sweater they are going to wear during this year’s family gift exchange.

Going on vacation?  Here are some ways to prepare!

Communicate your time  off in advance. If you are taking an extended vacation, tell your managers, co-workers and contacts ahead of time when you will be out of the office.  This will ensure that any pressing issues are addressed before it’s too late to deal with them.  Colleagues will respect you more for communicating with them in advance instead of them finding out you are out of the office from your auto reply email address.

Prepare your out of office reply in advance. A best practice is to put up your out of office message a couple of hours or a day before you will be gone.  This gives notice to people that you are unavailable but still gives you time to deal with the last minute needs that could come in.  Check with a co-worker to see if you can place their name and contact information in the auto-reply.  The world doesn’t have to stop because you are on vacation.

Change your voicemail to say you are away from the office. Change your voicemail message to tell callers when you will return to the office.

Clean up your office area. Clean up your desk, office or cubicle before you leave for an extended period of time.  Your co-workers don’t want to look at your mess and it will be nice to return to a clean desk.  Don’t forget to clean your items out of the group refrigerator.  No one wants to smell any funky things you left behind.

Holding the fort down but want to make the most of it?  Here’s a tip!

Host an office pot luck lunch. Did the tough economy kill your office Christmas party?  Through your own with no cost to the company.  Organize a pot luck where everyone brings in a dish to share.  Hold the post luck over the lunch hour or maybe over two hours so people can stroll in at their convenience.

What are you doing to prepare for holiday vacation?  Are you going to take time office or work?

Photocredit: Jennifer K. Robinson

...offering bright ideas for work and for play

Seasons Greetings,

To all of my friends in the work force! From cube to corner office, to ’start-ups’ working out of mom and dad’s basements; I hope to play a valuable role in giving tips, ideas, and resolutions to the conflicts that life brings us.

I am a proud Generation “Y” professional. I embrace things that make sense, and are smart, edgy, or even dare I say it creative! Most of all I try to blaze the trail armed with passion in all I do in both my profession and personal life.

Thanks for having me Brandon and team. To our readers, leave some comments and e-mail me with topic ideas. I always have an opinion and I enjoy being creative when I communicate them!

Seth Travis

After enjoying several beers at Het Elfde Gebod I came up with a peachy new idea for NewlyCorporate. I’d like to think the idea came from myself but the La Trappe Quadrupel (or La Trappe On Tappe as I call it, 10% ABV!) might have something to do with it. Regardless, in my haze I decided something must be done with my lack of posting on NC. You see, posting on a blog takes a little bit of work. Poor grammar and sentence construction doesn’t come easy, ya know?

I blame my inaction on being tired after my hour and fifteen minute commute but blogging should really come naturally to me. You see, I’m a bit of a talker in person (I’m also kind of a jackass too, but I think I can convey that through the Greek alphabet quite well..). One of my favorite past times is giving unsolicited advice to people who are probably better off not taking it. As an experienced mooch in life, I decided that it’s time to give back, and you damn well better take it (whether you like it or not). Call it ‘wis-dumb’ if you will, but I think I can dispense it like Pez for all who line up at the trough.

So… got a question about anything even mildly corporate related? In need of poor relationship advice? Want some help choosing a good beer? Ask and ye shall receive.  I can’t vouch for the quality of the response but I promise I will work all of my [remaining] braincells to give you a pithy response that might or might not contain actual insight.

Hit me up my darling readers. I look forward to your jeers, insults and metric tons of digital spam. Who knows.. maybe I’ll even get a real question!

NCQuestions@googlemail.com

-G$

Is Your Boss Too Busy?

I have attended a number of sales courses, and negotiation workshops, and one thing that I have learned is that people are busy. More importantly the person that you most likely want to be, is even busier. Don’t worry he/she may not have the time to be your dream mentor and that’s ok. So how do you become that “superman” or “wonder-woman” at work if they just don’t have time to show you all their “office super-powers”?

Your Team of Influencers

Well if you ever read comic books as a kid like I did, then you know almost every good hero has a team, there is the X-Men, the Justice League, and the Avengers to name a few. Wait, I am not saying you need to change your name to “Excelman” or “powerpointgirl” but I am suggesting that we all should have a team on our side separate from our actual office team.

Let’s leave the comic world behind now and discuss what that team means to you and me every day. It means that your team can look much like a Board of Directors. Almost every organization has them. They are people in the community with excellent experience and a highly respectable background of influence.

What should my board of directors look like? Depending upon the complexity of your job you can have 2 board members or more. It is also important to note that this is your “team” or network.

What do these people do? They are actually specialized individuals, peers, subordinates, and experts at an area of your business that you go to for advice, tips, and more.

Is it ok to let the person know that you look up to them or admire their expertise? YES! Let them know that you want to pulse them on thoughts, or ask them to review some documents on a project, or if you could approach them periodically. Make sure they accept, and ensure you are zeroing in on their major strength/skill.

Managing Your Personal Board Of Directors

How can I manage the time I spend with my board? I keep a PowerPoint on my desktop that has an image of a board table. Each seat has a name on it, and the skill set that I attribute my members too. Whenever I have a project I think I could use a tip from, I open the slide up and review my board members. If you are really organized you can also keep a spreadsheet on the project name and board member that helped. This way you can always see who has been engaged and helpful to your growth, and when it may be time for you to bring in some bagels to the office, or offer a thank you lunch.

For those of you that have a mentor that is great! Some businesses are just so large that a board of directors is a great alternative. I want to open this up to a discussion now. Please post a way that you have benefited from your network or “board of directors”

This is a guest (soon to be full time contributor) post from Seth Travis, a Gen Y young professional who is excited to share his experiences in one of the world’s largest corporations. Seth seeks to merge the typical administrative style of leadership with a creative element all his own. He has a B.A. and M.A. in Communications with an emphasis in public relations and advertising. Seth’s proudest accomplishment in graduate school was the creation of the first ever Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s Student Philanthropy Council.
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Picture attributions go to bloke_with_a_camera and StephenPoff

The Education, health services and accounting fields are all hiring while many industries are laying people off from work.  Visit Friday’s post, Is Your Job Safe?, to hear what young professionals are saying about job security and these industries.

Education jobs will increase because people consider new careers when they are out of work and that may mean a return to the classroom.  According to the Labor Department, the education industry added nearly 10,000 jobs in November.  Health services is a growing industry due to the aging population.  Accounting jobs are on the rise due to the upcoming tax season. 

Would you reconsider your industry if you lost your job?