Fast Growth Professions + High Salaries
Posted on June 25, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
When things get tight economically, most of us are left with 2 choices. Either cut back and spend less or find a way to earn more money. If you find yourself in the later category, here’s a list of the top fastest growing jobs, which by the way also have high or potentially high salaries.
- Commercial Loan Officer
- Financial Analyst
- Senior Database Administrator
- Network Security Administrator
- Registered Nurse
- Web Interface Design Director
- Restaurant General Manager
- Paralegal
As with any career move, it all starts with an updated resume. After that it’s always a good idea to understand if your skills, interests and abilities are indeed the right fit. Ensuring your learning style, behaviors, and interests are all in alignment with the job is an often overlooked factor in determining long term growth and success. Good luck!
Until next time…
2 CommentsGeorge Carlin Passes Away at 71
Posted on June 23, 2008
Filed Under Off the beaten path, Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y | Leave a Comment
Sad news this morning as word comes that we lost one the comic greats this weekend. George Carlin has passed away at 71 from a long battle with heart disease. Carlin’s career spanned over 5 decades and the comic re-invented himself again and again. I first heard Carlin via his famous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” and always appreciated is clever irreverent style. Over the years Carlin’s routines became the stuff of comic legend.
A mainstay on the Tonight Show, Carlin was also the host of the very first “Saturday Night Live” telecast in 1975. During the course of his career he produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, several TV shows and appeared in numerous movies.
He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.
Love him or hate him, his comic genius is undeniable. Rest in peace George, we will miss you!
Until next time…
Leave a CommentA-holes In The Workplace
Posted on June 20, 2008
Filed Under Career Development, Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y | 1 Comment
My good friend Joyce Maroney who writes for the Workforce Institute recently featured a guest post entitled A**holes and Absenteeism. It was written by Dr. Steven Hunt, and based on his interview with Bob Sutton, Stanford professor and author of the popular book “The No A**hole Rule” (Business Plus press, 2007). The book deals with workplace bullying and it’s effect on office moral. It’s a great piece, I hope you enjoy it.
The following is a guest post by our board member, Dr. Steven Hunt. He recently had the opportunity to interview Bob Sutton, Stanford professor and author of the popular book “The No A**hole Rule” (Business Plus press, 2007). The title Bob chose for his book is provocative, but the topic is serious. Bullying behavior by bosses at work can degrade employee productivity faster than just about any other poor management practice. With Steve’s permission, I’ve taken the liberty of masking the potentially offensive “a**hole” term for readers. Here is Steve’s otherwise unaltered guest post:
One thing that really impressed me about Bob’s work is that, despite the somewhat irreverent title of his book, the book is based on a lot of in-depth, rigorous empirical research. A tremendous amount of time has been spent studying the notion of a**holes and how they impact business performance. Most of this research doesn’t actually use the term “a**hole”, opting instead for more socially appropriate terms like “bully”, “jerks”, or “emotionally insensitive”. But the focus is the same: what is the impact of having individuals in a company who treat others in a way that makes them feel demeaned, emotionally hurt, or otherwise hurts their sense of self-esteem? What is clear from this research is that a**holes have serious, lasting and damaging consequences to a company’s bottom line.
One item of research discussed in the “No A**hole Rule” struck me as being of particular interest to many of the readers of the Workforce Institute website. Hourly employees are much more likely to skip work if they feel their supervisor is an a**hole This by itself is probably not that surprising. But what is more interesting is that hourly employees who dislike their boss will not necessarily miss more work on a regular basis. Instead they will choose not to come in to work on those days when they have some reasonable excuse (for example, during a snowstorm). Of course, it is during these times when companies are likely to most want employees to make the extra effort to show up.
In sum, when a supervisor acts like an a**hole to his/her direct reports the way direct reports get back at this person is through not helping them out when they are most needed. This just another reason why companies should be serious about weeding out supervisors who treat employees in a cruel or demeaning manner.
It would be nice to live in a world where we don’t need research to justify to companies why they should not hire or retain a**holes. But sadly, as Bob also points out in his book, a great many companies tolerate a**holes rather than recognizing them for the damaging influence that they are.
This is just one of many very interesting facts and insights I gained from interviewing Bob and reading his book “The No A**hole Rule”. If you’d like to hear my full interview with Bob Sutton, you can check it out at the following site: http://www.successfactors.com/podcast/bob-sutton/
Steve
Until next time…
