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HR Carnival #15 is hosted today by Irish career-consultant Rowan Manahan on his Fortify Your Oasis blog.

I am particularly glad to see Career Encouragement’s post, “Would you rather stay home with your children?” — this is such a tender and complicated point for me personally that I couldn’t even come up with a comment of my own when she first posted it. I appreciate her voice very much, however!

Deb over at 8 hours and a lunch is also a favorite of mine in this bunch… I appreciate her irreverence and willingness to stare things in the face without blinking.

There’s lots of good stuff here, whether you are an employer, employee, or (oh dear to my heart!) still seeking a job. Don’t miss!

Congratulations to my blogging friend Ann Bares, whose Compensation Force blog was just rated #1 in the recent HR Blog Power Rankings posted on The HR Capitalist!

I always suspected that ordinary people got jobs by having the right degree, combing the want-ads and pounding the pavement, or by having an Uncle in the Business. But nothing about my own search went at all as I expected! Here’s what I did to get my current job:

1. Go to church — not necessarily dressed for success.

I realize there are those who deliberately attend Our Lady of The Lexus to network between services with other powerful people. I have no idea how effective that is, because I was always too busy in the nursery or (later) teaching Sunday School or (later still) leading Bible studies, financial management seminars, and art retreats. But two of the job offers I received this past year came through non-Lexus-driving people I’d met, originally, at church.

2. Write a musical.

Monica, the executive director who has recruited me as her replacement, also attended our church occasionally, where she sometimes played the organ and helped organize a community performing arts series — when she wasn’t touring Europe with her own music. I didn’t know Monica well at the time, but several years ago she filled in on piano at a couple of rehearsals for a musical I’d written and was producing at the church. Last week, she brought up those rehearsals again, insisting that anyone can do that can also run a board meeting.

3. Say yes unless there’s a good reason not to.

A couple years ago, I met Monica again when she came to my office at The Institution That Shall Not be Named bearing brochures for yet another arts series she was promoting. The series didn’t quite fit with our mission, but she’d made it so easy by bringing me the brochures that it was no problem tucking them into our own promotional material that we were distributing soon anyway.

4. Go a little overboard sometimes.

Mostly because I loved the idea (and partly because everyone said I couldn’t/wouldn’t/shouldn’t,) I spent a recent year putting in way more hours than my part-time, minimum-wage employer was paying me to organize, promote, and find collaborative funding for a 4-city tour for a top-notch New York performance group. That performance became a bench mark for our Institute and donations increased exponentially after that. And guess what? Monica was in the audience.

5. Love thy neighbor.

When my neighbor Betsy was dying at home, she needed 24/7 care in place in order to qualify for hospice care. As a single person on social security, that was going to be a problem for her. The only obvious thing for me to do, especially as my working days were pretty empty then, was to organize a care schedule by calling upon her vast network of friends. One of those friends remembered me… and she just happens to be Board President of the non-profit that just hired me.

When you’re traveling, ask the traveler for advice, not someone whose lameness keeps him in one place. - Rumi (13th century poet)

Michelle Goodman over at the Anti 9-5 guide is rethinking her very successful blog. Another of my favorites, Wishy the Writer is on a blogging hiatus, and now I’m reviewing things myself.

It happens. Anyone can start a blog… it’s keeping it up that’s the hard part. It takes a lot of time, it’s scary (who ARE all these invisible people haunting my pages, most without ever saying a word?) and sometimes it’s exhausting maintaining any kind of consistent theme or focus.

I don’t want to quit though. I’ve learned so much, and “met” so many cool people, and there are still so many ideas and directions to try out and explore. Emily over at The Rocky Road of Love and Other Great Recipes has hit upon a marvelous formula for her blog, though she’s still fairly new at it. Her professional experience writing to a schedule and writing for television, among other things, is for her a great advantage, and she has graciously offered to help me brainstorm a bit.

Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help from good people. I’ve also asked a friend (the executive director of a very successful inner-city non-profit) to be my “executive director buddy” and tell me everything he knows. Being too proud to ask these brilliant people for advice would just be too silly. Not everyone is qualified to give advice, of course, but when you find someone who is further ahead than you are, but still travelling themselves on the same road, you’ve found a pearl of great price.

Grab it, if you can!

It’s the Carnival of Human Resources for August 22, and I’m the one lurking over here in the corner wearing the false mustache. I wasn’t strictly invited, but some of my favorite bloggers were, and these collections of HR posts are always valuable to a job-hunter like me.

Blog carnivals are a great idea, by the way — there are many creative ways to organize one, though generally a group of bloggers agree to post on a common theme or topic, sharing editing/hosting duty on a rotating basis. And who better than a bunch of human resource professionals to take advantage of this double-helping of networking — building community among colleagues while building readership at the same time?

So come on in. I’ve got a spare mustache in my pocket with your name on it!

A feed reader (or aggregator) is a way for you to build a customized web “newspaper” for yourself.  You can then track updates from your favorite blogs and news sources, all on one page. 

Here’s how to create a Google Feed reader for yourself. I use Google because it is free and easy to use, and no Google is not paying for the endorsement!

1. Click here to open Google Reader.  (You now have two windows open, so you can still read this.)
2. Sign in if you already have a Google account (or use gmail)… otherwise, click “create an account now” and follow instructions to create your account.
3. Choose your headlines (= “subscriptions”).  There are three ways to add new blogs or news (e.g., CNN) to your reader.
   –  (easiest): click “browse” to see Google’s suggestions to get you started.  Click the ones you want to add. —-OR —-
   –  click “browse” and type in the title of the blog or news site you want to add (e.g. “How to (almost) get the job,”) then select  the one you want to add it. —- OR —-
   –  click “add subscription” if you already know the feed URL, which you can find on many blogs by clicking on this icon: 

   

4. A list of your subscriptions appears at left, and any with new content will be highlighted (everything will be highlighted when you start!).  Click highlighted headlines to see new content.  New content will be “marked as read” as you read it.  If you don’t want to read it, click “mark as read” to de-activate the “newness” of the uninteresting content.
5. To save (or “clip”) interesting articles, click the star icon by that article.  Starred articles will be filed under “Starred items,”  top left, for you to read later.
6. Click “manage subscriptions” now or later to get rid of any that you don’t want.

Plea to readers:

Have a comment, correction, or tip on this subject? What feed reader(s) do you use?  What are your favorite subscriptions?  Do you use your feeder professionally, and if so, how? 
 

I’ve just been “tagged” by Peggy at the Career Encouragement Blog

The rules of tagging:

1. Post these rules before you give your facts.
2. List 8 random facts about yourself.
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names (linking to them)
4. Leave them a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged!

8 Random Facts About Me:

1. I have a double-jointed big toe.
2. I didn’t like olives or coffee until after I was in my 30’s, and now they are both my favorites.
3. I’ve written and produced three plays. Really, really obscure ones.
4. I was an English major and have read lots of great books, but I still love children’s literature most of all.
5. I’ve never had a full-time job, regular salary, and benefits all at the same time.
6. If I didn’t already eat meat, I wouldn’t be able to start now.
7. Today in particular, I’m thinking about contacting Peggy to learn more about the “accepted process of panhandling” This may be a skill I’ll need.
8. I’d never, ever tell my kids and their friends that I used to be able to burp the entire alphabet, too.

The eight bloggers I’m tagging are all (pick one: brilliant, funny, inspiring) people I’d love to know better: some I know already, others I’ve only corresponded with by email or via blog comments.

The Rocky Road of Love and other Great Recipes
The True Vyne
The Pink Slip
Wishy the Writer (’course, she’s taking a “blogging hiatus” at the moment. But read hers, anyway!)
Working Girl
Work Coach
Lauri Kendrick
The Change Agent

When I was trying to decide what to do about a recent job offer, a friend proposed a  “thought experiment” she thought I might be helpful as I made the decision about joining that particular company.

Think about a person you have worked with that you really respected for his/her skill and professionalism - someone who was a boss or mentor to you (let’s call her Jane).  Now imagine you are at a business lunch with the folks from the team that’s been interviewing you, and Jane walks by and stops to say hello.  How do you feel about introducing Jane to your new colleagues and saying that you just took a job reporting to these folks? Are you proud of that decision / accomplishment?

My friend then described a job she had once accepted with a small firm that seemed to have a lot going for it, with the benefit package and flexibility that she needed.  She still felt she was “settling,” though.  While she was able to do good work for them, there was something about the whole arrangement that didn’t quite fit.

One day we were all out at lunch and it hit me, “If “Jane” (a former boss that I just loved - professional, smart, you name it) walked by, how would I feel about introducing her to this crowd?”  I realized I would be embarrassed to let her know I had taken a job with them - I felt like I had settled.  Not because they are “bad” people or anything, but because I knew I was capable of something much different in my professional life.   I realized I couldn’t work somewhere that I felt embarrassed about, so I resigned the following week.

My friend didn’t just leave, however.  Because she was valuable to the company, she was able to negotiate a consulting arrangement with them.  “It works much better for me because I can be more forthright and open with my ideas and suggestions since I’m not as tied into them as I would be with an employment relationship.  And it works better for them because I truly believe they are getting better advice from me now.”

Career strategist and consultant William S. Frank heartily endorses this approach, recommending that any job offer that seems unsuitable in terms of duties, responsibilities, or earnings may work very well if reworked into a consulting opportunity instead. In an article he wrote for Careerlab.com, Frank lays out some very practical ground rules one should consider in making such arrangements, most particularly how to calculate an appropriate fee.  It is better, he firmly believes, to give a few hours away than it is to undercharge…  a trap he’s seen many first-time consultants fall into.

Consulting may lead to full-time job offers, or it may very well prove to be an attractive career choice in itself.  In the end though, Frank’s most compelling argument for consulting is this:

No one should be unemployed, even for a day. The world is full of  problems waiting to be solved. Someone out there needs you and your talents badly. It wouldn’t hurt you to volunteer a few hours a week for a charity or for a business in need of your skills, and it certainly couldn’t hurt you to accept a few small consulting assignments while you pursue full-time employment.

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Related Posts:
Nope
How (not) to interview for a job
Woman vs. Rabbit Hole

It’s so new it’s not even in Wikipedia, and baby that’s SAYIN’ something!

Invented (according to Web Worker Daily) by software developer Brad Neuberg, Coworking is “a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents.”  Mostly young, mostly hip independent workers are trading their pj’s and isolation for shared work space where they can network, meet clients, and enjoy some of the time- and space-structuring benefits of “going to an office.”

Click here to watch Brad and some of his colleagues in a “learn more about it” video.

While it’s not an entirely new concept, the current “coworker movement” among the growing number of (mostly web) workers is clearly taking advantage of the social connectivity provided by the internet to collaborate in forming a number of “coworking” spaces  already available (or currently being formed) throughout the US. 

It’s a really neat idea.  What I want to know is whether they accept anyone older than 25, and if you can still get a mocha?

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Related posts:
We are ALWAYS networking
Trying it on for size: permanent 9-5 expat?

Have moved from cookies to olives.  Really strong, salty ones, right out of the jar.  How is it that I survived the first three decades of my life without liking olives? 

However, I am even more grateful for friends.  Some of whom I’ve not even met in person yet, but whose words, both public and private, (Thanks Ann, thanks Peggy) have been very helpful indeed.  Nor will I entertain any silly idea that the ongoing weirdness of my (almost) life is a sign of terminal uniqueness, because I know it is not. 

So.  Millenial career guru Penelope Trunk insists that one of the keys to success is taking long lunch hours, and I agree with her. 

For one thing, meeting for lunch doesn’t take nearly as long as meeting for golf, and I can’t play golf anyway.  Sharing a meal is one of those sacramentally human things for which there is really no substitute.  Call it “networking” in a career context if you want, but it’s so much more than that.

A friend asked to meet today and I happily said “yes.”  We’ve both been so busy with our own lives and all they contain that we don’t see each other as much as we would like.  Across the table, our eyes meet and we smile as we talk. 

This is the good stuff.

She just finished her classes for the term, her first as a Ph.D candidate, (hurray!)  Her life this summer will be filled with trips and beaches, dancing and driving lessons, and getting a child ready for a semester abroad.   We laughed at how this mothering just keeps going on, no matter how long it’s been since we actually had these babies.  At least we can identify, in advance, that summer will be hectic for us, a balancing act between the still-insatiable demands of our tall children and the need to carve out our own space in the midst of them, even as the tall folk inevitably object.  Which, just as inevitably, will make us feel bad, and we’ll have to persevere through that as well. 

It seems too early to call this stage a “mid-life” anything, nor are we empty-nesters just yet.  So we’ve been calling this stage “Chapter Two.”  The most demanding part of our childraising is over (except during vacations!) and we are coming up for air and to take a look around at what comes next.  Several of us (my friend included) are looking at a life without the life-and-financial partner we’d assumed would live it with us.  That’s more than a little rough.

Nor has the world waited for us. Often, weirdly, we’re less employable now than we were straight out of college, even though most of us have had several additional years of gainful employment since then. 

Go figure.

But here is something Penelope Trunk doesn’t know, because she’s not been here.  We’ve been around.  We already know how to be counter-cultural.  We’re tough, and we’ve still got lots of game. 

Watch us. 

And just for you, my friends: one of my very nice Cesar #2 Montesinos, by Tabacalera Fuente.