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A Living or a Life?

Most of us must make a fateful choice: should we devote our time and talent to making a living — or to getting a life? Mark Albion, who chucked a fast-track career at Harvard Business School, proves that there’s a third way.

“The trouble with the rat race,” the great management guru Lily Tomlin once observed, “is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”

For years, Mark Albion ran at the head of the rat pack. Every step of the way, he built his career on a succession of triumphs. He earned three degrees at Harvard University: a bachelor’s in economics, an MBA, and a PhD in business economics. In 1982, at the age of 31, he won an appointment at Harvard Business School, the West Point of capitalism, where he taught marketing. His success at Harvard attracted attention: He appeared several times on “Nightline” and was profiled on “60 Minutes” as part of a new breed of marketing wunderkind. He was called upon to help the best and the brightest: Blue-chip companies such as Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola flew him in for advice on how to fine-tune their brands. He had brilliant colleagues, unlimited resources, few bosses, a flexible work schedule, and personal wealth.
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How to: Work a job fair

No matter the month or week, there’s a good chance a job fair is taking place somewhere in the Triangle.

For job seekers, that’s an encouraging sign. It means employers are looking for workers to fill job openings after a three-year downturn in the economy.

But it doesn’t mean things are back to where they were in the late 1990s, when the local jobless rate was less than 2 percent and many employers were desperate for workers. Joblessness remains above 4 percent, and openings remain scarce in some business sectors, including technology.
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Employers go extra mile for diversity

Melissa Hamilton won’t have to search for a job in May when she graduates from the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Hamilton, 23, already has been hired at Price Waterhouse Coopers as an associate tax accountant. She found the position through Inroads, a national program that helps train and place minority students in internships and full-time jobs after college.

The program also is a recruiting tool, used by some companies as a way to find qualified minority candidates to fill positions in their firms.
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Employers need older workers

Many people under age 40 may never have thought of age discrimination before, not until they heard about a recent Supreme Court decision regarding what employers can and cannot do regarding older workers.

Specifically, the high court ruled that employees may file claims against employers for age discrimination without proving deliberate harmful intent. But at the same time, the court also ruled employers can let older workers go if they have a “reasonable” cause.
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Buzzwords in your resume

No hocus pocus is needed — adding certain “buzzwords” to your resume could do just that.

How resumes are distributed and retrieved is changing the way they are prepared. Today, a resume often has two audiences:

The traditional interviewer who will read the actual paper copy of your resume, and

The high-speed resume scanner or online posting site that flags particular resumes for the interviewer to review based on specified search requirements.

With this in mind, you must cater to both audiences — the autonomous and the automated — and showcase your experience in a way that gets you noticed by both.
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Concerned about Your Age?

Many older jobseekers go through contortions to hide their age. I say flaunt your age. It will both feel better and make you a more desirable candidate. Just think of all the pluses. Older workers are less likely to arrive at work tired or late after having stayed up all night partying or taking care of the baby. Seasoned workers have the wisdom of having been around the block a few times. And they’re less likely than a twenty-something to job hop. Those are compelling arguments for hiring you. In your cover letters and interviews, make that case.
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Snooze, You Lose; Schmooze, You Win

There’s more to small talk than idle chit-chat.

Those skilled at the art of small talk use it to build rapport with others, especially top managers, and softly sell themselves as an up-and-comer.

It’s a learned skill and takes practice, but attention to small details can pay big dividends in the future.

“Working the room is both physical and mental,” says Dianna Booher, founder of Booher Consultants in Dallas and author of many books, including Communicate With Confidence: How to Say It Right the First Time and Every Time. “You have to want to connect. In a social situation, many people think, ‘How quickly can I get out of here?’ Instead, view the event as an opportunity. Stay in the line of traffic and meet people.”
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How To Ruin Your Career In Ten Easy Steps

If you find yourself cleaning out your desk and starting a new job every nine months to a year, the problem is you–not your boss or colleagues.

It’s important to understand your company’s corporate culture and to match it in words and actions. For starters, if you work in a prim-and-proper button-down office, don’t show up in jeans and a T-shirt boasting about wild times in Tijuana.

“Size up the culture and show a strong work ethic,” says Andrew J. DuBrin, a professor of management at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. “Don’t walk around saying, ‘It’s Wednesday–hump day–and Friday will be here soon.’ ”
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Network Your Way to Success

Any expert will tell you that networking is one of the best ways to advance your career, and it’s also a good source of support for everyday job concerns. Employers, especially those with good diversity programs, also recognize the value of networking, and there are official — as well as unofficial — networks for virtually every group.

“A lot of people of color find these networks especially important,” says Cornelia Gamlem, president of the GEMS Group, a human resources consulting firm in Herndon, Virginia. “They can be a kind of balance in understanding whether a situation is unique or if it’s something other people have gone through as well. [Networks] can help people avoid that feeling of being isolated and overcome problems all on their own.”
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Five Reasons to Apply Online

Remember buying resume paper? There were so many options. You wanted your resume and cover letter to be pretty yet professional, and you wanted them to stand out but not too much. Then sites like Monster that post jobs, as well as general email correspondence, took the stress out of that paper-buying decision.

But be aware: You can further alleviate job-search stress by applying online to Monster job postings. All you have to do is click on the “Apply Now” button at the bottom of a job posting. Here are five reasons to take advantage of this feature:
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