Career Advice for Recent College Grads

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If you just graduated from college, finding a job and starting work will be a major life transition.  Here is a good resource that aggregated the top 100 career advice for recent grads by category

  • Job hunting
  • Interviews and resumes
  • Preparing for the working world
  • Finding your passion
  • Career advice
  • Inspiration and Motivation
  • What not to do
  • Where to work
  • Miscellaneous

There is a ton of material.  You will most likely read contradicting advice within this article.   Think of this as reference material like what you get when you do research for a report in school.  You may find all kinds of information on a topic but it’s up to you to formulate your own opinion about the topic for your report.  Your career decisions need to work the same way. ...  read more

Are you making career decisions based on other’s opinions?

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No man or woman is an island, so we are all affected by others’ opinions.  Sometimes the opinions of others helps us see clearly but many times other people’s opinions can sway our confidence and our fundamental career decisions.  You begin to second guess yourself and your decisions.   You begin to make decisions based on how you think others would feel about it.  Frankly it can become a slippery slope creating unnecessary stress for you and does not help with your career. ...  read more

If you do what you love, will money follow?

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One of the advice you hear often and I listed on my last post is: Do what you love and money will follow.   Is this good advice?  Tony Robbins definitely thinks so.  Just last December on Larry King live, Tony gave this exact advice, by telling the story about  Katherine Joosten from “Desperate Housewives” did what she loved (acting) for 25 years and got 2 Emmys recently. ...  read more

Are these bad career advice?

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After writing my previous post, Good vs. Bad career advice, I found the following 12 career advice on the web that are either very controversial or considered bad.  I wanted to share them with you and get your opinion.  Do you think these are bad career advice?

  1. As a woman, you will have to work harder than guys to get the same recognition at work.
  2. Don’t job hop — it shows that you can’t decide on a career and are not dedicated.
  3. Do what you love and money will follow.
  4. You can wait to have kids. There’s no rush.
  5. Report sexual harassment, even if it’s just a minor infraction.
  6. Read business books to become a good leader.
  7. Don’t burn bridges
  8. stick with what you know especially in this economy, as this is the worst time to change careers
  9. If someone is stealing your ideas, let them
  10. Take some “vocational interest type tests” to figure out your  next career move
  11. Keep quiet if there are problems
  12. You need to walk into the CEO’s office and say ‘We need to talk about my salary today.’

I look forward to your comments.

– Lei ...  read more

Is the job market getting better?

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On the one hand, the official unemployment rate has gone up to 9.9% as of April 2010, from 9.7% the first 3 months of this year.  Did you know that 46% of those unemployed have been out of work for 6 months or more?  Did you know Asian has the lowest unemployment rate (6.8%) of all major races – whites (9.0 percent), blacks (16.5 percent), Hispanics (12.5 percent)?  and Women have a lower unemployment rate 8.2 percent as compared to men (10.1 percent)? ...  read more

Decide to Have a Good Day

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The last few weeks have been stressful.  I have been juggling five projects/initiatives at the same time on a 32 hours a week schedule. Unexpected project issues are coming up left and right; requirements are misunderstood; customer experience risks are newly uncovered, etc…

The end result is I have been taking my stress home after work.  Thinking about issues in the shower and waking up with solutions to yet another unexpected problem.  My daughter runs to greet me in the morning and sometimes I feel half there because I am already planning in my head how to tackle the day.  Some days I don’t even feel like going to work.  Does any of this sound familiar? ...  read more