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Archive for January, 2008

Ten Tips For Starting A New Job

1.Get to know people. First meet those people in your department and then those in departments you interface with. Listen more than you talk. Ask lots of questions and get clarification if necessary so you truly understand how the office/department/business works.

2.Don't try to change everything at once. Be open to learning "their" way before you suggest "your" way.

3.Get in synch with your bosses priorities. What are his/her expectations of you? Make sure you are living up to them.

4.Have lunch with different people in the organization. Learn the "unwritten rules" of your new workplace.

Presidential candidate John Kerry is fond of stating that "… not since Herbert Hoover has any president lost more jobs than George W. Bush." And there is a kernel of truth to the statement; thanks to technology, jobs require less human intervention to complete. However, a larger factor in this seeming loss of employment is due to the evolution of the American workforce from a lot indentured to the confines of one company or one job title toward the Jeffersonian ideal of every person being a free agent, or indie.

There's a famous song lyric that asks: "Is that all there is?" Every seven seconds, an American turns 50 years old. So there's a good chance that song is running through some of their heads.

The question captures the ennui that many people feel in mid-life. They look up at the clock, see it ticking, and begin counting in their heads all the mountains not climbed, the poems not written, and the songs not sung.

It's time to stop asking the question idly. I'm offering five initial steps that you can take to evaluate your situation and to begin the transition away from a meaningless grind toward a new life that provides you with energy and fulfillment.

"The time we spend in developing resources is what is going to really make the difference in the future."

Have you ever experienced ‘downtime'? Or are you going through it right now? I have! When nothing seems to be working. When you have done everything you know how to do, yet there seems to be no progress. It gets frustrating when you find yourself stuck in an un-resourceful situation. Or when you find it is getting harder and harder to achieve your goals, despite everything that you have done.
This is the ‘downtime'. The system is down.

If you are concerned that your company might be planning a layoff, your best course of action is to be prepared. Employees often see warning signs that their jobs may be at risk. Such signs could include poor company performance, earlier rounds of layoffs, conflicts with their manager, increased manager intervention and involvement, and poor performance reviews. Employees see the signs, but aren't as proactive as they should be in looking out for their future. Here are steps you can take to be prepared for a layoff.

Once upon a time, it was reasonable to think a person could grow up, get a job and work at it the rest of his life until retirement. Those days are quickly becoming a thing of the past. According to experts, a person who begins work today can expect to have as many as fourteen full time jobs in five or more different career fields. A study cited in Forbes magazine showed that 42 percent of the working public is made up of free agents or contractors. These people are hired on by companies for a specific period of time or until a project is finished. As new businesses start up, current businesses grow and thousands of new products and services are introduced into the marketplace each year, these types of workers will be needed more and more. To the traditional worker, this may not sound very stable or secure, but in reality this puts security back into the hands of the employee.

Seeing your job as an honorable job, adds more meaning and peace to your life. Also, seeing the honor in what you do now, creates an ideal foundation upon which a career change can be built.

At fifteen, my first job was that of a waitress at a local truck stop. One day, back then, I happened to meet the elementary principal of my past. She mentioned she had heard I was working part time and wondered at what.

Shamefacedly I mumbled, "Oh, I am just a waitress." That wise, old, stern headmistress said to me, "Teresa, any job is an honorable job. Don't you ever forget it!" And I never have.