Is having a job really the best choice for you today?

By Neil Patrick

Last week I was sent the transcript of a soon to be published book about self- employment as a consultant and how to go about it successfully.

The author asked me if I’d be willing to review the book and provide my reaction to it in the form of an endorsement to be included in the final version when it goes to print.

I was surprised and flattered. Well I’m now reading the book and it’s great and after it’s published in a couple of weeks, I’ll be writing more about it here. But because the topic of the book was essentially self-employment for mature professionals, it got me thinking I really should revisit this topic on this blog.

I talk here a lot about jobs, and how to get them in these hyper-difficult economic conditions.

But there’s another option too of course - creating your own job.

Our generation has been taught to be a bit scared by this I think. We all know of someone who lost their entire life savings when their business went bust or failed to even get off the ground. And yes, the statistics for the failure of start-up businesses are still frightening.

But being self-employed doesn't automatically mean you must risk your savings and your financial future. Quite the opposite in fact.

Not if you choose to take the skills you have acquired over all those years of working and decide to sell them in small pieces to people that need them.

In fact if we accept that getting a job as an employee is now harder than ever, especially once you get past about 45, isn’t it more sensible to choose a life path where our age and experience is actually a benefit rather than a burden?

And here’s the truth: people want and need freelancers more than ever today.

The recession has made businesses really cautious about taking on extra employees. It’s obvious the reason this is happening - why take the commitment of having an extra head on the payroll, month in month out, at a time when costs need to be ruthlessly squashed, when you could get the job done by a contractor with absolutely no long-term obligations attached?

And people will pay top dollar for this too.

You see, the real question clients often face isn't can we afford to pay $500 or $1000 or $2000 a day for a contractor? The fact is that many, many businesses have now slashed their permanent full-time staff to the absolute bone. The moment anything happens (which of course it always does) which means they need some extra resource, they are stuck. Big time. They may also have hiring freezes which means they cannot hire any extra people.

So their problem cannot be solved by hiring new people. But it can be solved by finding skilled and reliable people outside the business to handle it for them. And suddenly if you are on their radar, and you have the skills and experience called for, you are in a strong position to negotiate a good rate. So let’s say they hire you for 6 weeks, 2 days a week, at $1,000 a day. Total cost $12,000 dollars. And their problem is gone.

And you are $12,000 better off in exchange for 12 days of your time. (Okay, I know that’s a gross simplification, but you’ll get the point I’m sure)

And your client’s headcount is still the same. You’re happy. They’re happy.

There’s another thing I like about this choice also. It’s kind of a philosophical point but it goes like this. Remember all those years of toil and torture to get things done for the people you worked for in the past? Sure you do. You’d just rather not think about them usually right?

But here’s the thing – all that sweat and tears taught us a lot. And that’s the point. We can view that as an investment in us. And whilst we may not have exactly enjoyed the process, it makes us what we are today. Which is mature, experienced people who have learned a great deal in our lives.

So what I like is the idea that indirectly, all that sweat and toil is now being rewarded back to us over and over again.

Somehow it feels like justice has been done!

Oh and if you still want to invest all your time in just hunting for a job, remember these realities:

For every great job out there, there are dozens of really soul-sucking, punishing and unrewarding jobs. Just remind yourself about:

1. The feelings of powerlessness experienced daily by millions of employees

2. The lack of job security that now exists for just about every employee

3. The frustrations of having to do what you are told, rather than what you are really best at

4. The requirement of every employer that you work to a rigid schedule like a machine

5. The crazy office politics that demotivate everyone

6. The lack of fulfillment you feel by doing things just because someone tells you you must

7. The increasingly rarity of pay rises when our costs of living continue to soar

8. The daily torture by bad bosses

9. The lack of appreciation shown for all your efforts

10. The fear of making a mistake which will lead to disciplinary action or possibly even being fired.

Let the young people who are less experienced than us have these jobs I say. They need work experience and they need to learn. We've already paid our dues.

Aren’t you infinitely smarter and more experienced and knowledgeable today than when you were 25 or 30? Of course you are. So why would you choose to even think about competing with those people?

Play to your strengths.

Why it’s never too late to embark on your true calling

By Neil Patrick

It’s a strange thing. As we age, we often see our opportunities narrowing not widening.

I say strange because as we go through life, we acquire more and more experience and skills, and logically therefore should see our options expanding not shrinking.

But so many of us are conditioned into thinking ourselves into a box. And if the box you are in just really isn't YOUR box, it gets kind of uncomfortable. And if you’re uncomfortable, you’ll never be capable of achieving your best work.

Here are some examples of well-known people who rejected those ideas and instead went after their true calling.

Some had found their path but hadn't attained any success... some were in a completely different career... some were on the verge of giving up or had given up. But as they matured, they found their true calling and never looked back.

Sylvester Stallone, deli counter attendant. After getting no career traction as an actor in his 20s, Stallone attacked his 30s like any 5'3 man should: He wrote a movie where he was an all-American hero who triumphed over every obstacle.

That movie was "Rocky"... he banged out the "Rocky" screenplay in three days, in between working at a deli counter and as a movie theater usher... and it launched his career with an Academy Award for Best Picture. 

Andrea Bocelli, lawyer. He'd loved music and singing his whole life... but didn't really see it as a career possibility. So, after school, he got a law degree at the University of Pisa. At age 30 he was working as a lawyer and moonlighting in a piano bar for fun and extra cash. He didn't catch a break as a singer until 1992, at age 34. 

Martha Stewart, stockbroker. When she was 30,Martha Stewart was a stockbroker, no doubt learning all about finance and the ‘ethics’ involved therein. Two years later she and her husband purchased a beat-down farmhouse in Connecticut... she led the restoration... transitioned into a domestic lifestyle... and grew that most innocent of things into her evil, evil career. 

Mao Tse-Tung, elementary school principal. In his 30’s, Mao was already involved in communism... he was a young star of the Chinese Communist Party... but didn't realize it could be a career. (Probably didn't see communism as being very lucrative...?)

Instead, he was working as the principal of an elementary school. Where, no doubt, hall passes were decadent. Four years later he started a communist group that eventually became the Red Army and put him in power.

JK Rowling, unemployed single mum. Seven years after graduating from university, Rowling saw herself as "the biggest failure I knew". Her marriage had failed, she was jobless with a dependent child, but she described her failure as liberating:

“Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life”.

During this period Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression, and contemplated suicide. Rowling signed up for welfare benefits, describing her economic status as being "as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless" 

Barack Obama, university lecturer. Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004).In 2004, he was 43 years old. I’m not entirely sure what happened after that.

James Joyce, alcoholic. By 30, Joyce was writing... just not getting published. So to make ends meet he reviewed books, taught and, weirdly, made a lot of money thanks to his gorgeous tenor singing voice. He was also a raging alcoholic, which isn't financially lucrative until you become an author and can parlay those drunken antics into stories. Just ask Hemingway. Or James Frey.

Joyce finally got his first book, "Dubliners", published at age 32, which launched his career as, arguably, one of the most successful authors of all time. 

 
Colonel Sanders, tons of blue collar jobs. Well into his 40’s Harland Sanders was still switching from one random career choice to another: Steamboat pilot, insurance salesman, farmer, railroad fireman. He didn’t start cooking chicken until he was 40 and didn't start franchising until he was 65. 

Rodney Dangerfield, aluminium siding salesman. He started doing stand-up at age 19... then gave up on it in his mid-20s.. He started working as an acrobatic diver ... and then as an aluminium siding salesman. He didn't start getting back into comedy until he was 40. 

Harrison Ford, carpenter. When Ford was 30, he starred in "American Graffiti"... which was a huge hit. But he got paid a pittance for acting in it, decided he was never going to make it as an actor, and quit the business to get back into the more financially dependable world of construction.

Four years later, he met up with George Lucas again (Lucas had directed "Graffiti") and Lucas cast him as Han Solo in a movie called Star Wars.

So there you have it. A more or less random list of people who have shown us that by refusing to be kept in your box and allowing your innermost talents to come to the fore, that it’s never too late to start on your own path to greatness.

I guess the message for us all is, never let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do. Especially yourself.

Why management teams are making their employees sick

By Neil Patrick

A great deal of this blog has focussed lately on the recession and its impact on jobs. This has led me to post a lot about how mature professionals can find work in these difficult conditions.

All the while though, I have been conscious that I've written very little about the experiences and needs of those people who are in jobs.

The annual survey of Job Satisfaction was released in June by The Conference Board. A survey of  5,000 US households conducted by The Nielsen Company in the fall of 2012 indicates that 47.3 percent of currently employed Americans are satisfied with their position. This is a negligible change (less than 0.1 percentage points) from 2011 to 2012.

Critically however, the 47.3 percent of satisfied respondents this year is very low compared to the observed levels in 1987 - the first year the survey was run - when 61.1 percent of respondents indicated satisfaction with their jobs. Since that survey, overall satisfaction had steadily declined before levelling off in recent years. Specifically, since 2006, results remain consistently below the halfway mark, indicating the majority of U.S. workers are not satisfied with their jobs.

But these statistics reveal little about the real misery of millions who are suffering every day because of their experiences at work.

Ridea Richardson has a great blog entitled, Just Quiting http://www.justquitthing.com/. This year, she ran a poll which had 278 responses. One question was ‘Why do you want to quit?’ Here’s a fairly typical sample of the responses:

I don’t feel valued. I don’t trust my own team. I don’t feel like I can maximize my value to the firm. The stress is making me physically and mentally ill. I’m not doing the work I love. The company’s values are inconsistent with my own.


I have been working hard with very few breaks since I was 15. In the last several years, I have been trying to shoe-horn my life into my job rather than the other way around. All the travel and long hours are making it impossible to focus on things that are more important to me. My health is suffering. Physically, I am unable to consistently make time to work out; I eat out for almost every meal; do not get enough sleep; have an inconsistent schedule; and I haven’t been to the doctor in years. Mentally, I am affected by the sleep, schedule, and stress. I have difficulty focusing on my job and have lost most of my passion for it. I do not feel that I am learning or that I am in charge of my life inside or outside of work. I am constantly near the boiling point and get angry very easily when I feel that my company has done anything to negatively impact my life again. My work has become boring and repetitive, and it forces me to skip many activities that I enjoy, even when they are after normal business hours and all my friends can make it. The job is significantly hindering all my relationships. It is difficult to maintain existing friendships, let alone make new ones, and I am not able to spend time with family anywhere near as often as I’d like. The relationship with my girlfriend is also suffering from undue stress due to all the travel and time spent forced apart. On top of all this, I am paid less than employees at other companies with comparable skills and experience that work fewer hours with little to no travel.

In addition to providing no challenge, or fulfilment - my current job is completely unrelated to my personal interests and values. I fell into the position because it paid very well and came with a certain degree of prestige, but I’ve never truly been interested in the work, or the industry and I’ve been looking for a way out since I hit the 3 month mark (I’m currently a week shy of 2 years). I’m not able to use my natural strengths, and I am 100% confident that this job is in no way related to my true purpose. I can also no longer tolerate working with my manager or as part of a “corporate” culture.


I studied very hard thinking that I would live a good life after I graduate but I think I’m the unhappy person. I hate this place. I don’t care about my job anymore. I feel like this is punishment for something terrible that I did. I am a lot happier when I’m at home, with my family, with my friends, with my boyfriend. I’m happy even when I’m in class and doing everything else outside my job. My job is tiring and makes me feel sick and the worst thing is the night shift. I feel like crying like a baby when I have to come to work at night. I want to start a business outside my career. I want to do something that will make me feel good. I want to study further. I am not proud to tell people about my job because I feel that it is stupid. I complain to everyone and they seem to think that I don’t know what I want. I want to relax and have fun for a while, take a holiday. I’m just tired, so tired that I can’t even take care of myself anymore. I can’t dress up to look good anymore. I don’t even do my hair anymore. My body is always tired and I’m gaining weight because of the stress making me eat and sleep.



Burnt out, bad management with no hope of changing. Bad team.

I am physically sick. I have anxiety every day when I enter work. I have even gone to the bathroom because I thought I was going to puke from the amount of anxiety I have. I also got vertigo while there in April, and it hasn’t gone away completely since – it is now August. I work with manipulative people, they act like they are in high school – they expect you to know things that you were never taught, they try to keep you at the lowest possible rung with no way of getting out of it, and they dump all of their work on you and don’t help.



I dread going to work. I don’t like the direction the company is going. I feel very unfulfilled in my job and there are no opportunities for advancement in the company. My health is suffering and I believe it is the stress of the job.



Because being at a job for over 19 months that I didn’t go to school for is more than enough. I need to gain experience and have an interest in what I am doing. I don’t enjoy the majority of the people I work with. My boss is an ogre who leaves at hours at a time only to give me minimal instruction or support. I don’t have any benefits and the only thing that keeps me there is the pay which is higher than most jobs at my age.



If this was a romantic relationship, my friends and family would be begging me to run.



Repetition at work, bosses are speaking down to me yet I am one of the top 5 employees (by survey metrics / completed assignments) out of my team.



I can’t take it anymore! I’ve been working in the advertising field for 9 years, and I have been working in my current agency for almost 7 years. The idea of quitting had been haunting me for the past 3 years, but I always tried to oppress it by trying to highlight the positive side of my job which is mainly the working environment and how lucky I am to have a sweetheart boss, and how I am being appreciated at this job regardless of the stress, late nights, my boss’s swinging mood, crappy clients…and lately the feeling that I don’t fit anymore with the crowd in the agency. I hate Sunday nights, I drag myself out of bed every day to go to work, I get stomach cramps when I get a phone call from my boss on my mobile. I don’t feel motivated anymore! When a new client calls in, I wish and pray that they don’t proceed with us as I don’t want any more extra work! Nothing excites me anymore in this job. And last but not least, I don’t see myself in this career in the future. However, I feel so lost, I want to quit but I don’t know what will I do next, I don’t want to stay home doing nothing, I know I can go crazy! As well as everybody thinks I am crazy to take this step!



My current job and boss is making me feel so miserable and useless. It is a small company (3 people), and having just moved countries it’s important to have human contact and meet new people - I can literally go 8 hours having only spoken to just my boss. He puts me down, asks me inappropriate questions or makes comments which are unethical. He’s totally under paying me, does not know how to manage people or work and thinks that everyone he works with or for are useless. Most nights I come home and cry, which is obviously effecting my relationship with my partner and my unhappiness is stopping me from going out there and meeting new people and having fun.



My job is taking its toll on my physically and emotionally. Every day is like a never ending marathon of things that you never enjoyed doing.



I know you can question the validity of this sample – it’s fair to say that people who love their jobs are not likely to respond to a survey on a blog called Just Quit. But this is the qualitative side of the situation and the Conference Board data pretty much conclusively spells out the quantitative situation.

You could also argue that businesses exist primarily for the purpose of making money, not making their workers happy. But this misses the point. If we accept that happy employees do a much better job, how much money is being wasted by firms that don’t properly look after their people?

I have lost count of how many times I have heard CEOs say things like, ’Our people are our greatest asset’. Great, so if that is the case, why are so many of them so miserable in their work? And what are you doing about it?

I’d go further too. If the organisation had a non-human asset, like say a building or a capital deposit, I’d venture that most organisations would be taking better care of those assets than their human capital.

Some will point to failures in HR teams as the root of the problem. While I think many HR teams are merely administrators, when they really should be acting like asset managers, the prime responsibility isn’t theirs. They do what the Exec team tells them to do.

In my view to quote the old leadership cliché, ‘the buck stops here’ and that’s with leadership teams.

So next time you are considering joining a firm, I’d suggest that you take some time to try and check out the attitudes and beliefs of your likely line of management all the way up to the CEO. By my reckoning around half of them are going to disappoint you and quite possibly make you ill in the process.

The Lazlo Emergency Commission Report

By David Hunt, PE

I love science fiction. Being an engineer I love reading about the technology / science dreamed up to solve problems like interstellar travel, disease, creative aliens, etc. But I also – contrary to many engineers – enjoy the human elements of the stories too. (Side sci-fi plug: Frank Herbert’s Dune is, IMHO, the greatest sci-fi novel of all time. I read it, didn’t understand most of it, and the moment I finished the last page flipped back and started it again. I read it annually, and still find new things in it that I hadn’t seen, or new insights into human nature that I, now older and hopefully wiser, hadn’t grasped before. That’s the beauty of truly great literature.)

So what’s sci-fi got to do with things? Life imitates art.

In the novel The Forever War (link has spoiler!) mankind is engaged in a life-or-death battle with a race called the “Taurans.” And after the war has gone on for centuries, humanity decides to genetically engineer soldiers into someone’s idea of a perfect soldier – and I’m going from memory here as I can’t find my copy of the book: A combination of the Praetorian Guard, the Nazi SS, the Russian Spetznaz, etc. These soldiers were vicious, incredible athletes, worked together seamlessly, placed no emphasis on individualism or their own survival… and they got cut to ribbons costing humanity many critical battles.

Today’s employers use personality profiling on candidates to search for people who most closely match their particular vision of an ideal <fill in position here> in order to create perfect teams who will minimize interpersonal conflicts. As I wrote on my old blog in a post Diversity of What?:

Just think about how insidious this is. Companies are screening out people based on the ability or inability to show the proper personality for a given position. Just imagine – a group of Accountants who all think alike tasked with developing a new way to achieve a faster end-of-quarter closing. A team of Engineers who all think alike assigned to brainstorm, create, test, and launch an innovative new product. And so on.

More terrible, the hidden implication is that by hiring a person to be the “perfect engineer” (or whatever) a company is hiring to fill that slot with little-to-no consideration of the person’s future potential. Sure, companies have a need for an engineer, but one of the roles of Personnel (note, I used the right word this time) is to work to bring on board people who can grow and develop in the organization in addition to helping fill the immediate needs.

(Sidebar note: My essay in the New Hampshire Business Review reprises some of the points from the above blog post regarding the need for “fresh eyes” to drive innovation.)

So the first point that I’d like to make is that people are not robots. Every person has arrived at today via a unique path, and to think that there is some factory “out there” creating perfect fits for a position is folly. We also have unique personalities, and even if two persons have similar backgrounds and career paths – even tested personality types – personalities and egos can nevertheless result in clashes.

The second point, though, is more significant, and goes back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

While many people are dedicated to their jobs, employers, and careers, most people work to live, not live to work. Unless a person is a “company man” of a kind rarely seen in this era of rapid job shifts – the average longevity of a person in a company these days being on the order of three years – they place more value on their personal life than their company life. More importantly, they place their ability to sustain that life above any loyalty they might feel when the news is filled with stories of entire departments being slashed, and kept around only long enough to train their overseas replacements.

Which brings me back to the Lazlo Emergency Commission Report, cited in the novel. Despite having created teams of ideal soldiers, the effort was a failure that almost cost humanity its survival (I won’t truly spoil the novel’s conclusion – it’s a good read). The conclusion was that we won battles when we had soldiers who were well-trained, well-equipped, and who fought like hell for their own individual survival. The program of engineering idealized soldiers was abandoned.

Teamwork is good, and people need to subsume some of their individual goals for the good of the team. Most people can, and do. Further, teams can be very useful for generating ideas and alternatives and considering multiple viewpoints, analyzing failures, etc. But, given Maslow, great leaders recognize that people are ultimately at work for their own individual survival. Pay games, personality tests for idealized profiles, relative rankings of employees against other employees – all can result in a perception that the employer is pitting employee against employee. Even when this perception is mild, often there is the implicit message that if a person does well, they will only get the “employment continuation award”; the hidden threat is that they might be on the edge and thus better strive even harder to continue getting that award.

When all is said and done, people value their ability to meet their life goals above their ability to meet their employer’s goals. The key to organizational success is to lead with a vision to inspire, not threaten, people. I remember a key line from the classic epic Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, in which an orc in charge of a military unit opines “Where there’s a whip, there’s a will.” I still remember thinking, even in my tender years when I first read that line, that the only inspiration this provides is to do the minimum needed to avoid being whipped. (And it has the second disadvantage of creating resentment of the one doing the whipping.)

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way. – General George S. Patton

Only by inspiring people to see their self-interest as being aligned towards a higher goal do great leaders motivate people, as highlighted by this short anecdote:

A man was touring the construction site of a medieval cathedral. He saw a young man roughing out a stone and asked what he was doing. “I’m carving a stone,” was the answer.

He then saw a somewhat older man carving a bas relief on a stone and asked the same question. “I’m helping build a cathedral,” the second man replied.

Then he saw a man taking these intricately-carved stones and fitting them together and once more asked his question. “I’m glorifying G-d,” said the oldest of the three.

So, a few conclusions.

1. Trying to screen candidates to form a perfectly-functioning team built to an idealized vision and that works together with minimal conflict will, in the long run, backfire. (IMHO conflict is where the best innovation arises!)

2. People arrive at the present through unique paths; there is no such thing as an ideal candidate. (Ironically, companies tout diversity while using personality profiles to eliminate it.)

3. People may work in teams, but for the vast majority of people their own survival takes precedence over the organization’s goals. Only when they’re not worried about lower-levels of Maslow’s hierarchy (like their employer’s control over their ability to put food on the table) can they truly focus on the higher ones (like work goals).

4. A good leader will use fear only sparingly, but will instead inspire and find ways to – on a person-by-person basis – align the team’s goals with the self interest of each team member. (Note – I am by no means saying this is easy!)

With shameless self-reference, check out the quote on this image which I posted earlier.

I am dedicating this essay to David Hildreth, my first boss when I joined Ford Motor Company. Of all the people for whom I’ve worked, he is the only one who – if he called me tomorrow and asked me to come work for him again (which would require relocation to a place I’d rather not live) – I’d seriously consider it… because it was he who asked. He inspired me to be a better engineer, and set me on the path to being a better person to boot.

Would your subordinates – past or present – say that about you?

(c) 2013, David Hunt, PE

David Hunt is a Mechanical Design Engineer in southern New Hampshire looking for his "next opportunity" that allows him to design new products and shepherd them to stable production. His LinkedIn profile is: www.linkedin.com/in/davidhuntmecheng/; he blogs at davidhuntpe.wordpress.com and tweets at @davidhuntpe.

Simple steps to join the top 1% Linkedin All-Stars

By Andy Foote

LinkedIn has always encouraged its users to complete as many sections of the LinkedIn Profile as possible. “Users with complete Profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn”.

They do the encouragement bit pretty well. What they don’t do well is explain WHY having a complete Profile is a good thing for you professionally. Perhaps that’s the reason for the message not getting through?

LinkedIn’s own statistics confirm the completion gap when they tell us that ”Only 50.5% of people have a 100% completed LinkedIn profile“. This is problematic not just for users but also for the platform as a whole. LinkedIn thrives on data and specifically the ability to ‘link’ that data. If almost half of its participants are providing incomplete data, half the network is in a permanent data shadow.

4 LEVELS

There are 4 levels to attain 100% Profile completion or ‘All-Star’.

(1) Beginner
(2) Intermediate
(3) Expert
(4) All-Star

Though the graphic suggests there is another level beyond ‘All-Star’, it’s misleading. ‘All-Star’ currently equates to having a fully completed Profile. Here are the Profile Sections you need to complete to get to ‘All-Star’ (100%):

• Your Industry and Location
• An up-to-date Current Position (with a description)
• Two Past Positions
• Your Education
• Your Skills (minimum of 3)
• A Profile Photo
• At least 50 Connections 

VISIBILITY & SEARCH

The main reason to complete your Profile is to ensure that you will appear in LinkedIn search results. If someone searched on my last name and my Profile was incomplete i.e ‘Expert’, ‘Intermediate’ or ‘Beginner’, all of the other ‘All-Star’ Footes would rank higher and push me down the LinkedIn search rankings. LinkedIn’s search algorithm filters by relevance – it will also rank your search by Connections in Common, Connections by Degree (1st, 2nd then 3rd Degree Connections) and finally Groups in common. All searches conducted on LinkedIn are unique and relevant to you.

The search algorithm seeks and displays results in this order:

1. Profile Completeness (100% only)
2. Connections in Common (shared)
3. Connections by Degree (1st Degree, then 2nd, then 3rd)
4. Groups in Common (shared)

It’s important to understand that Profile Completeness is a trump card in the search game. If you don’t have a 100% complete Profile, your Connections or Groups don’t matter, you will be INVISIBLE when searched, game over.

CASUAL OBSERVER

Though the only person who can see Profile Completion (‘All-Star’ etc.) is you, the casual observer browsing your Profile will certainly notice if some Sections are missing key information (Photo, Past Positions, Education etc.). So it makes sense to be an ‘All Star’ to present well to anyone who comes to your Profile without actually searching for it.

Of course it’s possible the observer may not be ‘casual’ at all, they could be someone looking to fill an order, gap or role and your incomplete Profile just gave them a reason to keep looking. Unfortunately, you will never know how many opportunities you’ve missed because your LinkedIn Profile is incomplete.

GOOGLE PAGERANK

Let’s try an experiment – google your name. Are you on the first page of Google’s search results? Has your LinkedIn Profile appeared first? If the answer to both questions is no, it’s probably because your LinkedIn Profile is incomplete.

If you are not being found via LinkedIn searches, you are not being clicked and your LinkedIn Profile page stays comparatively dormant. That’s a problem when it comes to being indexed on the world-wide web. 1 Billion names are searched on Google every day. 94% of people only look at the first page of search results. LinkedIn ranks higher than all other profiles including social networks and website builders (http://mashable.com/2012/08/02/higher-google-search-results/).

If you’re not being found, you’re lost and in limbo.

Google loves LinkedIn when it comes to PageRank. Apart from being an ‘All Star’, you can significantly boost your Google PageRank by doing the following:

• Create a Public Profile and select ‘Full View’ in your Profile Settings.
• Customize your Public Profile’s URL to be your actual name.
• Use your Customized Public Profile URL generously on the web (i.e blog comments, tweets etc.)

QUANTITY v QUALITY

Many LinkedIn Experts will encourage you to use all of the available space on your LinkedIn Profile and to ‘stuff’ your entire Profile with as many of your keywords as possible to rank in LinkedIn and Google searches. I think that’s bad advice.

Keyword stuffing makes your Profile look bloated and insincere, far better to come across as a genuine and capable professional by effectively telling your story, not gaming the system.

A stunningly good LinkedIn Summary lets you put your best foot forward and could also help you get it in the door. Roughly 70% of the Profiles I view on LinkedIn are via browsing, if I run a search I usually find who or what I’m looking for without paying much attention to ranking. If I see a Profile stuffed with keywords it leaves a bad impression. Now tell me again why keyword stuffing is a good thing?

ORGANIC VISIBILITY

Here are some great organic ways to improve your visibility on LinkedIn (without resorting to keyword stuffing):

• Join Groups, start and engage in great Discussions, be helpful to those communities.
• Create original content and share it with your connections.
• Share relevant content and thank others when they do the same.
• Recommend and Endorse your Connections.
• Build your network by commonality and community.

LinkedIn makes it easy for you to discover like-minded folks, here are some examples of people that are a great match for me based on commonality and community (Groups, Skills and Location).

BE IN THE 1st PERCENT (NOT A WALLFLOWER)

A popular rule for internet participation holds that 1% create content, 9% edit that content and 90% read it. Though that last figure will fluctuate depending on the type of community and seems to be reducing as more people become accustomed to participating online, the 1-9-90 rule still represents an enormous opportunity for anyone who wishes to increase their web visibility, since the barrier to becoming noticed has been set so low.

My advice: step out of the shadows and create (or edit) your future. Complete your LinkedIn Profile then give people multiple ways to find you and compelling reasons to engage with you.

  

ANDY FOOTE is a LinkedIn Management Consultant, Community Builder and Social Business Strategist. I enjoy teaching people how to squeeze the pips out of LinkedIn. I'm the proud Founder and Manager of 9 LinkedIn Groups with over 25,000 members. I blog at Linkedinsights.com and I tweet at @linkedinsights1. You can also find me on Facebook, Google+ and of course on LinkedIn.

This post originally appeared here: 

http://www.linkedinsights.com/why-you-should-complete-your-linkedin-profile/

Employers and recruiters take note - these are the myths about mature workers

By Hani Kafoury 

Peter Spunt, an ex-senior executive in the pharmaceutical industry, has had his share of job search challenges with what human resources experts refer to as “ageism” - or age discrimination.

“At 62, I am happy to contribute to an organization’s success,” Spunt says. “Salary and a fancy title are not my primary concerns. I just want to make use of my hard-earned experience, successful track record and skill set. The fire is still in the belly.”

He is not alone. Many mature workers, defined as aged 45 or older by CEDEC (Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation), seek job-search training and coaching assistance through employment service providers such as OMETZ, La Passerelle and Executives Available. But they come across diehard myths still held by many employers.

Myth No. 1: Expect to pay more

This is by far the most pervasive. Larry Riley, director at job assistance program Executives Available, specializing in job-search strategies and support for professionals 40 years of age and over, says employers may be missing an important point.

“People don’t have the same financial needs later in life - the kids are gone, the mortgage is probably paid for,” he says. “Mature workers are at a different stage of their lives and may not necessarily be looking for high salaries.” Contract work or reduced work hours may be an option - and a win-win for both parties.

Myth No. 2: Expect trouble with younger employees

A 50-year-old may not see eye-to-eye with a much younger manager - but is it age? “While there may be the odd cross-generational challenge, I’ve found that age has little to do with getting along,” says Daniel Ascher, from executive recruitment firm Denell-Archer.

“If you think there is a good fit with the candidate you are considering, that he or she is bringing in the right experience, the right chemistry, and can be managed, then you’ve got yourself a good potential employee.”

Myth No. 3: Expect no overtime

Everything being equal, work ethic often characterizes mature workers. “For most mature workers, the occasional overtime is not an issue because their kids are grown up and they are very motivated to contribute all they can,” says Marianna Balakhnina, coordinator of labour market development at CEDEC. “Many employers say that mature workers have a high level of motivation and dedication.”

Myth No. 4: Expect a short stay

A major study from CEDEC shows that mature workers have lower turnover rates, are quite stable and stay longer within a position and within a company.

“Mature workers tend to be more selective. So once they’re in, they are going to be quite effective and loyal,” says Lois Liverman, executive director at OMETZ, an NPO offering a range of services to job seekers, employers and entrepreneurs.

Myth No. 5: Expect rigidity

Don’t presume or jump to conclusions. “The company should be offering an interview to someone based on experience and skills,” Liverman says. “You need to be able to have that fit. The perfect resumé is one that opens the door. Once they go through it, take the resumé and toss it — it means nothing.”

(As a coach, trainer and consultant in the people side of change, I have found that age rarely has anything to do with whether we embrace or resist change.)

Myth No. 6: Expect technology trouble

“It’s not about being tech savvy, it’s about what the position requires,” is a message often reiterated to hirers by Leslie Acs, executive director at La Passerelle, an employment and career transition centre. “One gentleman in our program has been in the garment business for over 30 years. His understanding of the entire process is incredibly profound. But not in a technical way - it’s like he ‘feels’ it. He gets frustrated because recruiters ask him typical questions, not ones that highlight his strengths.”

“But it’s changing,” Acs added. “The value of a mature worker is being appreciated more. Technology is teachable - wisdom and leadership are more difficult to teach.”

Myth No. 7: Expect less stamina and energy

The 2012 CEDEC report indicates that only a small minority of mature workers are challenged physically. Balakhnina is emphatic: “Mature workers are motivated by their eagerness to reach out first to employment service providers, to complete the programs, to do everything they can and not give up.”

When it comes to busting “ageism” myths, company size does not matter. Whether it is a large Crown corporation, such as the Business Development Bank of Canada, or a smaller organization such as Triton Pharma, a company’s culture and approach to diversity is key.

“BDC approaches recruitment from a perspective of diversity and inclusiveness,” says Ela Borenstein, Partner at Health Venture Fund at BDC Capital. “The last two years, we’ve been recognized as a top employer for employees over 40. Currently over 20 per cent of our workforce is over 50, with the average age being 41. It reflects how much emphasis we put on experience.

“I started with BDC in my 40s, and I have been acknowledged as bringing experience and deep expertise to the table.”

Sybil Dahan, president at Triton Pharma Inc., concurs. “We’re a sales force and marketing organization, and for us age is not an issue as long as there is a fit. Our Sales Manager is 67 going on 25!”

Dahan sums it up well. “In the hiring process, you do not want to put age as an obstacle, because what you are looking for is what is missing in your team. Do you have the right mix of gender, age, training, cultural? And from there you go and get it, to gain that competitive edge.”

Before creating Tranzition Consulting Services, Hani Kafoury spent almost 30 years in the corporate world in various senior leadership positions. He holds an M.A. in psychology, is trained in organizational transition management and leadership coaching, and is a certified Myers-Briggs practitioner. Kafoury works with organizations and individuals in effectively managing major change.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Hani+Kafoury+Dispelling+myths+about+hiring+mature+workers/8179324/story.html

This Is How You Get On A Recruiter's Radar — Even If You're Unemployed

By Vivian Giang

It definitely ups your ante as a potential job candidate to be represented by a headhunter, and if you know you have a good job and are good at it, you might already be on their radar.

But how do you end up in a top headhunter's database when recruiters are typically only interested in representing people who are currently employed?

Martin Yate, former director in Training & Development at Dunhill Systems, career management coach for the past 35 years and author of "Knock 'em Dead 2013: The Ultimate Job Search Guide," tells us there's a "huge misconception" when it comes on the correct way of reaching out to a recruiter. 

Yate tells us headhunters get paid 10 to 30 percent of a job candidate's salary, on average, by the employer, so the higher profile the person is, the more the headhunter will get paid. And very rarely are high-profile people unemployed.

If this all sounds despairing for those of you who are currently unemployed, don't lose hope yet. Here are some ways to effectively reach out:

1. Focus your résumé. This means that if you've had two or three jobs with different specializations, you should create two or three different résumés before trying to get it in a headhunter's property.

Yate says that your résumé is going to "disappear in the database until a position opens up," then the recruiter will start typing keywords into their files to find the right person. So if your résumé has skillsets that are too different, you might not be discovered.

2. Research the headhunter. This one is obvious, but Yate says you need to do a deep search into Google by plugging in different keywords, such as "accounting headhunter," "accounting consultant," etc. Find out which headhunter works in your desired field before sending out your résumé. If you need a job, Yate says you need to invest two-to-four hours per day, twice a week researching your headhunter before you use other online job resources.

3. Be active in LinkedIn groups. This means you need to join groups and post "intelligent" things. Ideally, Yate recommends joining groups with professionals 1, 2 and 3 levels above you because these individuals are the ones who will be able to hire you.

"Take the time to agree, or disagree, with a comment, start a discussion on your own, post an article or blog that would be of interest to the people in your group or even post a question, asking for advice," Yate tells us.

"Headhunters will visit these groups, and you'll become visible to them."

As for the recruiting business, Yate says they're not going anywhere.

"[Headhunters] are the most sophisticated sales people in the world. It is really hard to survive as a headhunter … you have to make both parties happy, not just one."

"In an economy like the one we live in today, [the business has] shrunk a lot because of the recession, but we're not going anywhere. Business is going to change, shrink, grow, but it's a very effective way for people to find jobs."


http://www.businessinsider.com/former-headhunter-this-is-how-you-get-on-a-recruiters-radar--even-if-youre-unemployed-2012-7

Message to Employers – WAKE UP!

By Neil Patrick

I have been distracted over recent days by the astonishing employment, social and economic news from around the world that I felt I should share. Consequently, one of my mission objectives of tackling the injustices of ageism in the workplace has been neglected.

So I will aim to try and rebalance things over the next few days with a lot more practical material to try to move the ageism topic up the agenda. If you are here, you probably agree that ageism is a major worldwide generational issue and its effect is being hugely compounded by the mounting global economic and business crises.

Employers’ attitudes are the key of course, so what follows is for them. If you are an employer, HR manager or recruiter, this is my message to you.

Don't be prejudiced against job candidates who are middle-aged , approaching or even past retirement age. They are a much bigger potential asset than you realize.

If you don’t believe me, here are my top 10 benefits of hiring mature workers:

They have a strong work ethic
For older workers, years of working have programmed their minds and bodies so that they almost automatically get up on a Monday morning fully expecting to spend at least the next five days in productive work. Compare this to young employees of whom a significant percentage will not even turn up on a Monday morning because of ‘sickness’, childcare problems or just plain laziness.

They’ve learned things by being there even if they’ve not actually done them
Unlike younger staff, they have been able to observe years and years of their colleagues’ and bosses’ triumphs and failures. This has taught them lots. Not least is that having seen more in their lives gives them more to apply creatively - and let’s face it, creativity isn’t really about Einstein-like breakthroughs, it’s about taking other ideas and applying them. And the more you’ve seen before, the more ideas you have to draw upon. Just because they cannot always show these things on their CV’s doesn’t mean these learnings aren’t massively valuable to employers.

They know how to communicate clearly
Older workers were educated in a different time and before computers took over the world. Their ability to communicate face to face, on the telephone, or in writing is typically much greater than with younger staff. Phone text messaging, ‘friending’ people (when did that become a verb?!) on Facebook, or following them on Twitter may be seen as a ‘skill’, but it isn’t communication in a way that has much real value to an employer. Communication skills appear on just about every job specification and effective communication in any medium is still about empathy and the application of critical faculties, not clicking on icons.

They know that the customer is king
Almost whatever their career has involved, they’ve dealt with customers. Not necessarily paying buyers, but customers nonetheless. The term usually used for this is ‘stakeholders’. Even if they were not in a commercial environment, they’ve had to satisfy someone to ensure they kept their job. It’s odd that younger people often take a little time to latch onto this simple and fundamentally important point and to conduct themselves accordingly. Older workers on the other hand know it instinctively.

They don’t have to be told what to do, or in what order
After all those years of experience, they have developed a sixth sense for prioritising things. We all have too many demands on our time in a job, so it’s critical that we can distinguish what’s important and what really isn’t. This is a key skill that only comes with maturity, self confidence and experience.

The have an innate appreciation of risk
All human endeavours involve some form of risk. We become more attuned to this as we mature and develop strategies that minimise it. This isn’t fear, it’s a reasoned assessment, weighing the upside gains against the downside risks and acting accordingly. With maturity, our actions are instinctively balanced with risk assessment as an influence. Remember how when you were a child you believed you were indestructible? Or think about why it is that your car insurance premiums fall as you get older…

They can listen as well as they speak
‘I have one mouth and two ears and I use them in that proportion’ That’s not my quotation, but it contains real wisdom. Listening skills not only enable better decisions, they reflect an appreciation of what other people are saying and that in turn enhances older workers’ ability to show empathy. For any business, good customer relationships are built upon the ability to listen and empathise rather than tell.

They don’t panic in a crisis
We learn as we go through life, that often things just don’t work out how we intended or expected. But with maturity, we see things in perspective and therefore react more calmly when this happens. Older workers have seen things go wrong so many times before. Their calmness under pressure means that they can devise a new course of action faster and limit the damage more effectively.

Their egos are not out of control
We’ve all met him or her. The young thruster who’s so fired up by their own sense of self importance and over-eagerness to prove their worth that they rub everyone up the wrong way. Their mission is called ‘me’, not ‘us’. Many organisations do little to control these individuals; such behaviour is mislabelled as enthusiasm. It’s not and it is damaging to everyone. Funnily enough all the people I’ve ever encountered with this affliction were under 40…

They no longer want to conquer the world; they simply want to do a good job
This follows on from the point above. The older worker isn’t aspiring to become the next big thing, regardless of the damage they create along the way. Their satisfaction comes from doing a good job for their team, their department, their corporation. Older workers are not on a personal mission.

Moreover most of what they know cannot be learned in a classroom. Regardless of their professional qualifications, they all have hugely valuable experience from what some call the ‘school of life’ and that’s the most effective learning place in existence.

If you agree with only half of what I’ve said above, that’s still a pretty powerful argument for hiring older workers.

You can help change things right now by sharing this information with your boss, your HR partners and external recruiters. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it started with one stone…

The jobless age

 By Terrie Morgan-Besecker 

Susan Morris was saddened and shocked when she learned her position at an area high school had been eliminated, ending her 15-year teaching career.

The 56-year-old Shavertown woman loved her job, but she remained upbeat, confident that her experience teaching business classes would quickly land her a new job in the private sector.

“I thought, ‘I’ll find a job in an office,’ ” she said. “I can type 62 words per minute. I’ve taught customer service, marketing, management, business law, office procedure …”

Then the letters started to arrive.

“We would like to thank you for your interest,” one letter began. “We regret to inform you, you are not in consideration for this position.”

“After reviewing numerous applications,” began another, “you were not selected as one of our candidates to interview.”

Fourteen months, 56 job applications and 18 state civil service tests later, Morris has not found a full-time position. 

She’s beginning to wonder if she ever will.

She has become a “statistic,” one of 12.1 million Americans who are unemployed as of September. Of that number, 1.9 million, or 16 percent, are “older” workers, age 55 or over. 

High unemployment rates have plagued all age groups since the start of the recession in 2007, but older workers have been particularly hard hit when it comes to finding a new job, say experts in the issues affecting the elderly.

In September, the average duration of unemployment was 55.7 weeks for older workers, compared to 37.2 weeks for younger jobseekers, according to a report issued by Sara Rix, a senior strategic adviser for the American Association of Retired Persons.

Tough times for some

And while the overall unemployment rate for all workers has dropped, from 9.1 percent in September 2011 to 7.8 percent last month, the decrease was less significant for older workers, from 6.7 percent to 5.9 percent.

“The picture has been a lot less rosy for those older workers who are in declining industries or for other reasons lost their job,” Rix said. “They have had a really tough time, as duration of unemployment figures indicate. … The longer a worker is unemployed, the less likely it is that he/she will find work.”

The most common reasons employers cite for not hiring older workers include concerns that they are more expensive, and fear the employer will not have time to recoup their hiring and training costs before the employee retires, according to a 2011 report by Urban Institute, a national research group that provides information about social and economic issues.

Ed : see my post here which provides research data that completely disproves the myth that older workers are less valuable or more expensive to employers:  http://40pluscareerguru.blogspot.com/2013/08/proof-at-last-older-employees-are-not.html

Morris is convinced her age is the primary reason she’s struggling to find work.

She was laid off from a $55,000-a-year position with the Lackawanna Trail School District in August 2011 after the district eliminated the business program she taught for five years.

She had planned to work in the district another 10 years. Coupled with a 10-year stint at a school in Gettysburg, she would have had 25 years in and qualified for a state pension.

Now that’s all gone. 

Today she spends hours on the computer each day searching for job openings. The biggest problem, she said, is she can’t get an interview for most of the positions she seeks.

“They see a student just out of Bloomsburg University who is 22 years old and will start at a lower salary. Why would they look at me?” she said. 

To combat that, Morris said she’s deleted jobs she held more than 15 years ago from her résumé as that can tip off a potential employer to her age. If she can get past the initial resume review and get an interview, she has a better shot, she believes.

“If I could get an interview, I could sell myself,” she said.

Even if she does find full-time work, research shows chances are slim workers in her age group will earn the same. From 2007 to 2009, median hourly earnings are 21 percent lower for older worker in their new jobs than before they were laid off, according to the Urban Institute report.

Morris said she realizes it’s unlikely she’ll match her pre-layoff income. 

While she continues to look for full-time employment, she recently took a part-time position, with no benefits, teaching at a local business school.

Ironically, the decision has cost her $75 a week because the income from the job reduced her unemployment compensation benefits.

“I’m making less than I would if I did not work and just collected unemployment,” she said. “You can’t get ahead.”

So why did she take the job?

“I can’t sit home and not be productive,” she said. “It gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning.”

Still paying the bills

Morris said she feels fortunate that, so far, the layoff has not caused significant financial problems. Between her husband’s job as a carpenter and unemployment benefits she receives, they’re making ends meet. 

But she sees major issues on the horizon once her unemployment runs out in six months. She’s not sure if she has another extension to tap.

She’s also in the perilous position of having no health insurance. Her husband’s job does not offer coverage for spouses, and they can’t afford the $500 a month price tag of the cheapest private insurance plan she could find.

It’s not the fate she expected as she approaches retirement after having worked her entire adult life.

“I’ve worked since I was 16,” she said. “I’ve never had to deal with the unemployment system.”

Despite the disappointments, Morris said she’s not bitter or angry with the school for laying her off. The district suffered a significant cut in state funding and had to cut somewhere, she said. 

“Why waste that energy being bitter and resentful. You have to use that energy to be positive and look for a job” she said. 

Morris tries to remains upbeat, but admits it can be a struggle at times.

“I am a bit disillusioned,” she said. “Why I can’t get an interview is absolutely beyond me. That’s the worst part, the frustration of trying, and trying and trying and nothing happens.”

 http://www.timesleader.com/stories/The-jobless-age,219668

Top 10 reasons why you are your own biggest asset

By Neil Patrick

If ageism is rife amongst employers and you are concerned that your age is threatening your career and future prosperity, stop and think about this. You've got stacks of experience and have learned through many years of seeing successes and failures at work. Your present or prospective employer may not place much value on this, but truthfully, they are just plain wrong! That experience cannot be replaced by any amount of youthful vigor and enthusiasm. It’s of immense value and yet how often do you really think about it?

Here are my top 10 reasons to help you reassess how you think about yourself and your future. Every one of these massively increases your personal value. And I’ll bet you haven't even put most of them on your CV.

You have a strong work ethic 
For most of us, years of working have programmed our minds and bodies so that we almost automatically get up on a Monday morning fully expecting to spend the next five days in productive work. Compare this to the employers of younger staff who often have to make contingency plans for a significant percentage of their workforce not even turning up on a Monday morning because of ‘sickness’, childcare problems or just plain laziness.

You've learned things by being there even if you've not actually done them 
Unlike the youngsters, you have been able to observe years and years of your colleagues’ and bosses’ triumphs and failures. Didn't that teach your something? For sure, it taught you lots. Just because you cannot show these things on your CV doesn't mean they aren't massively valuable to you.

You know how to communicate clearly 

This skill appears on just about every job specification. But how is it measured? The answer is usually that it isn't except by the impressions of the interviewers. These cannot verify whether you can even spell let alone produce a compelling argument on paper. I’d say that not prefixing every verb and noun in your sentences with the word, ‘like’ actually shows that your brain is your own and is quick and sharp... 

You know that the customer is king
Whatever your career has involved, you've dealt with customers. Not necessarily paying buyers, but customers nonetheless. The term usually used for this is ‘stakeholders’. Even if you were not in a commercial environment, you've had to satisfy someone to ensure you kept your job. It’s odd that younger people often take a little time to latch onto this simple and fundamentally important point and to conduct themselves accordingly. You on the other hand know it instinctively.

You don’t have to be told what to do, or in what order
After all those years of experience, you have developed a sixth sense for prioritizing things. We all have too many demands on our time in a job, so it’s critical that we can distinguish what’s important and what really isn't. Again this is a key skill that only comes with maturity, self confidence and experience.

You have an innate appreciation of risk
All human endeavors involve some form of risk. We become more attuned to this as we mature and develop strategies that minimize it. This isn't fear, it’s a reasoned assessment, weighing the upside gains against the downside risks and acting accordingly. With maturity, our actions are instinctively balanced with risk assessment as an influence. Remember how when you were a child you believed you were indestructible? Or think about why it is that your car insurance premiums fall as you get older…

You can listen as well as you speak
‘I have one mouth and two ears and I use them in that proportion’ That’s not my quotation, but it contains real wisdom. Listening skills not only enable you to make better decisions, they enable an appreciation of what other people are saying. This in turn enhances your ability to show empathy. And that’s a word that appears in a lot of job descriptions...

You don’t panic in a crisis
We learn as we go through life, that often things just don’t work out how we intended or expected. But with maturity, we can see things in perspective and therefore react more calmly when this happens. After all we've seen things go wrong so many times before. Calmness under pressure means that we can devise a new course of action faster and limit the damage more effectively.

Your ego is not out of control
We've all met him or her. The young thruster who’s so fired up by their own sense of self importance that they rub everyone up the wrong way. Their mission is called ‘me’, not ‘us’. Yet organisations do little to control these individuals; such behavior is mislabeled as enthusiasm. It’s not and it is damaging to everyone. Funnily enough all the people I've ever encountered with this affliction were under 40…

You know that you are worth a lot more than just what it says on your CV
If you didn't before, I hope you do now.

There is a minor caveat however. By the time we are in our 40’s and beyond, all those years of working have conditioned us in some negative ways too. We are so used to measuring ourselves against the yardsticks our employers choose to use, that we forget all the other things we have learned and achieved. I hope the points above have reminded you of some of these. Many of these things are not even learned in the workplace or classroom. They are from what some call the ‘school of life’ and that’s the most effective learning place in existence.

As I said in my opening, YOU are your own biggest asset regardless of what your employment outlook currently is. Exploiting that asset is the key to your future. I hope the above helps you to expand your ideas about not only your own capabilities, but what you could achieve with them in future. And that is a very great deal.