Career Path Stepping Stones

Instructor, Caroline Bender Career path stepping stones can occur in expected places.  What is important to understand about the stepping stone metaphor is that the stones are already there.  You run into trouble when you try to carry them into the river with you. If you have been following this story, you recall that 20 years into the world of work, Miss Bender is suddenly out of it -- but not for the first time. Planning the next move at times like this can be treacherous, especially when you have a poor track record of planning your next move. Top Recruiter Bob Beaudine, in his book The Power of Who (see carousel at...

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Ask a Manager: What makes a Good Manager?

Guest Lecturer, Dick Whitman, Manager in Residence  Dear Manager, What makes someone a good manager? How do you know if you would be good at it-what qualities should you have? How do you know if you're doing a good job? How did you know you wanted to manage people? The most important thing I look for in a manager is the ability to see past the end of one’s own nose. It is about understanding others, being comfortable supporting others, and letting others take the credit for their own great work. I cringe when I see a manager who seems to think it is all about himself. To me, it’s just the opposite. You support and motivate your team...

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Weekly roundup 10-24-2009

The faculty recommend additional reading from the blogosphere.  here are some posts we discovered this week: Career Advice from Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert: rather than try to be the best at 1 thing, try to be really good at two more things... (old post but good) Feeling snowed?  Don't be dazzled by weak business arguments with this counter-argument from Cranky Product Manager Tools you can use:   Small Business Grants for Women Managers are People Too -  commentary from The Office Professional -- another reminder that we are all in this toget...

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Youthful Management

Instructor, Caroline Bender "...we may have to start planning careers that move downward instead of upward through time...Perhaps [one] should reach his peak of responsibility very early in his career and then expect to be moved downward or outward into simpler, more relaxing, kinds of jobs." Harold J Leavitt, quoted in Alvin Toffler's Futureshock, 1971 The greatest direct supervisory responsibility Miss Bender has ever had was for a class of 52 college freshmen in my care 3 days a week for an hour -- during which time I was to teach them the basic reading comprehension and writing skills they would need to thrive in the Texas state...

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Your Unemployment Claim

Instructor, Caroline Bender Because the unemployment insurance experience is handled at the state level, it is difficult to give a comprehensive breakdown of what you can expect from your initial claim.  Begin here if you do not know how the system works in your state.  Like most public services which have embraced new technology, the unemployment experience does not necessarily meaning standing in long lines until the office hours end just as you reach the window.  This can still happen, of course, but your state labor office is more than happy to have you contact them from home. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where I have begun my own journey, the tools are surprisingly simple and thorough, and the phone agents (in my case, "Dorothy,") have been efficient and...

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Things I wish I knew before joining the corporate world

by Miss Minchin, Dean of Students 1. Your undergrad major doesn't matter, but your Alma Mater can help open doors. I went to a great private liberal arts college that no one has heard of except college recruiters. Since I was planning to be a cultural anthropologist or a clinical psychologist, I wasn't aiming for name-drop-ability in business situations while shopping colleges. I wasn't even aiming for business knowledge. I studied behavioral sciences because I knew I couldn't make a living as "just" a writer.  But since I couldn't take 5 more years of being a poor student, the reality of my more than $20k in student loans sunk in and I joined Corporate America. I saw how well-known schools created opportunities for other recent grads. Executives would go out...

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Ask a Manager: Managing through a layoff

Guest Lecturer, Dick Whitman, Manager in Residence Dear Manager:    What is Management going through during a layoff? “Hell of a thing, killin’ a man. You take away all he’s got…and all he’s ever gonna have” -- Unforgiven It's a line from one of my favorite movies,  where a young guy seeks out the notorious killer William Munny to join him in a job of killing some bad guys for pay. Well ole’ Will is not quite what the kid had pictured. After these two finally get around to killing the bad guy, the kid is very shaken, as it wasn’t the tough-guy adventure he had been expecting. It was ugly and it made him sick. The...

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Ask a Manager: Your Questions Answered

The Finishing School welcomes you to our faculty mixer, where we have the pleasure of introducing a newcomer from the corner office, our Don Draper in residence, who will help provide some balance to the dialogue.  We do not say debate, because we are not in conflict with our Resident Manager.  We know he brings a fresh point of view to the topics we discuss, and we look forward to having him answer your questions about life in management and staff relations that we have not been able to address. It is my pleasure to introduce Dick Whitman to the student body, and to invite him to tell you more about himself: A Riff on Management...

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Preparing for the worst: How much should you have in your emergency fund?

by Miss Minchin, Dean of Students If you lost your job tomorrow, would you be able to get by until you found another job, even if that job search took you 8 months? What if you and your partner both lost your jobs? Do you have enough saved up for such an emergency? Do you even know how much you need to have saved for such an event? If you are like most Americans the answer is no. We have all been touched in some way by the current recession, and we all probably know people who have lost their homes, their jobs, or are simply struggling to get by. If there is one positive thing that we can take away from this recession, it’s that we are relearning the value of living within our means and setting aside cash for unexpected life events. More and more people are starting to appreciate...

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Your unemployment experience

Bureau of Labor Statistics, October 2009, lists the national unemployment rate at 9.8%.  10% of men, 7% of women, and 25.9% of teenagers. "Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 603,000 to 10.4 million in September. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) rose by 450,000 to 5.4 million. In September, 35.6 percent of unemployed persons were job-less for 27 weeks or more. " (Employment Situation Summary) By these stats, you stand a very good chance of becoming unemployed before the next benchmark revision, February 2010.  Unfortunately, you are...

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Change is in the air

The Businesswomen's Finishing School and Social Club has been learning about the unemployment experience, most of it the hard way.  Your founders have both been personally touched by America's downsizing, and wish to pass that information along to you "what to expect" style.  (We considered "for Dummies" style, but don't you feel bad enough already?) Beginning today, a continuing series on Caroline Bender's unemployment experience, with guest appearances by Miss Minchin, head-of-household.  Through this approach, we hope to cover both dependent and non-dependent issues, spouse and single impacts, mid-career/"older worker"...

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