Money Under 30 » Career

Choose Where You Want to Live, Then Find a Job

David Weliver — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:47:47 +0000

When Forbes named Portland, Maine the most livable city in America this year, it didn’t surprise my wife and I or any of Portland’s other 64,000 denizens. With a low cost of living, great culture and dining (we were also named Bon Appetite’s “foodiest small town”), and easy access to the ocean and mountains, Portland freaking rocks.

The only big thing Portland lacks for well-educated, ambitious twentysomethings? An abundance of career options.

Finding a job is tough anywhere in this economy, but it’s always been tough here. Especially for college grads who want a professional career. It’s not as hard to get a retail or service gig here in town, but higher-paying jobs are few and far between.

When my wife graduated from law school here last year, we had a decision to make. We weren’t married yet, and I was living two hours south in the relatively employment-rich suburbs of Boston. We could live in Massachusetts. I could continue my career in publishing and my wife would have plenty of job opportunities to choose from.

Or I could move to Maine. My wife had career options thanks to her networks from law school. But I would have to leave a job for the prospect of never having a job in my field again.

As you already know, I moved to Portland.

When it came down to it, we agreed that our quality of life was more important to us than what we did for a living. That’s not to say career isn’t important to us—we are both ambitious and take great pride in our work. We just really want to live here in Maine.

And so I did what I would recommend to others: Move where you want; then find work. Think I’m crazy? Penelope Trunk probably agrees with me.

You might have to take whatever work you can get for a while. You might have to take an unpaid internship on top of the work that pays the bills. But if you know you want to live somewhere and you commit to living there and finding a career there, you can make it happen. And in the long run, you’ll be happier and healthier for your decision.

When I dropped my career and moved to Portland, I took a job in a coffee shop until I was confident I could pay the bills with my blogging business. I don’t necessarily plan on blogging full-time forever. I may go back to school or, if the right full-time opportunity comes along here, I’ll take it.

But I’m ecstatic to be living where I want to live.

What about you? Have you picked up and moved without a job? Did it work? Have you traded an “ideal” career for a better quality of life? Let me know!

How to Ask Your Boss to Work from Home

David Weliver — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:07:30 +0000

For today’s information workers, offices don’t make sense. Why commute in rush-hour traffic to sit in a cube and write, research, and make phone calls: all things you could do anywhere? For many workers, ending—or at least reducing—daily treks to the office may be as simple as asking their employer. Especially in challenging economic times when employers can’t always offer raises, companies may actually see telecommuting as an affordable way to keep employees happy. If you have ever considered telecommuting but don’t know how to approach your manager about working from home, here’s a look at things to consider before requesting a telecommuting arrangement and a way to propose working remotely to your manager in the best possible way.

Is Working from Home a Good Idea?

Even in a recession, younger workers “still value work-life balance above all else when listing top characteristics of an ideal entry-level employer, placing it well above other factors such as salary and meaningful work,” according to a BusinessWeek survey.

The ability to work from home certainly helps with work-life balance. But as great as working from home sounds when you’re stuck in gridlocked traffic or smelling your officemate’s leftover fish tacos, there are drawbacks. When you work from home, you

Give up social interaction with co-workers
Lose visibility with management
Must become extremely self-disciplined
Blur the line between work and home

Employees that work from home–either by choice or because their employers require it—risk being passed over for promotions. According to a report on executives’ opinions on telecommuting:

More than 60% of global executives surveyed by the Korn/Ferry International subsidiary believe telecommuters are less likely to advance in their careers in comparison to traditional office workers. Interestingly, though, 78% of those execs feel telecommuters are either equally or more productive than those who work in offices.

What’s more, remote workers may also find themselves working at odd hours; answering emails at 10 p.m. or picking up the phone when it rings after five.

Given the downside to telecommuting, working from home isn’t for everybody. If your career plans involve moving up the corporate ladder as fast as possible, it’s best to stay in the office where you’ll be in front of managers all the time. Are you terrible at managing your time? Another sign you should probably stay office-bound. If, however, you spend the majority of your workday online or on the phone and still like the idea of working remotely, it’s time to make your dream a reality.

Selling Your Boss on Letting You Work from Home

Before you approach your manager about telecommuting, you need to put yourself in his/her shoes. Even better, but yourself in his/her manger’s shoes. As you begin to ponder that, write down the answers to the following questions.

1. Why do you want to work from home?

Obviously it’s not because you want to slack off, but if you don’t give your boss a better reason, that’s what he/she might assume. Are you trying to mitigate the stress and cost of a horrendous commute? Do you want to spend more time with a young child? Best yet, do you feel you can be more productive working at home–without the distractions of meetings and office gossip?

2. What’s in it for your boss—and the company?

Whenever you want something from your employer (be it a raise, a promotion, or a flexible work schedule), you had better be able to offer something of value in return. You shouldn’t approach your boss about working from home unless you believe your contributions to your employer are valued. You should also be able to explain how working from home will enable you to deliver even more value. E.g., you’ll be more focused, more productive, and less distracted at home.

3. How will your boss manage you?

Many managers’ big fears about letting an employee work from home is losing control. How will your boss know you are being productive? To alleviate the concern, suggest clear ways for your boss to measure your performance working from home. Perhaps you’ll set weekly goals and report back on what you accomplished.

4. How can you compromise?

Unless your company is cramped for office space or actively promoting telecommuting, don’t expect your boss to say “Great idea! Start tomorrow!” when you ask to work remotely. He or she will probably say “no” or “I’ll have to think about it.” So be ready with some compromises. See if your manager will let you try out working from home one or two days a week, for example. Or, offer to sacrifice your next pay raise (a great bargaining chip if you’re a great employee and the company is tightening its belt in the economy; they’ll want to keep you happy, but would love the opportunity to do it without paying you more.

Sample Work from Home Proposal

Complete this proposal, schedule a face-to-face meeting with your manger to bring up the idea, and then email this proposal as a follow-up.

As we have discussed, I continue to make tremendous contributions to [your company name] by [describe your contributions]. In fact, just last month I [Give a specific example of something really great you did.]

I believe I can be even more productive and deliver even more value to our company with the opportunity to telecommute. Because my position requires work that is solely online or on the phone, I can perform my job with fewer distractions and even more productively from my home office.

Telecommuting will improve my work/life balance and job satisfaction and will hopefully contribute to a long and successful tenure here.

If you will consider my request for telecommuting privileges, I am confident we can establish clear and actionable goals and reporting mechanisms that will allow you and I to work even more productively together.

Thank you for considering my request. I look forward to discussing the possibility further.

I have known dozens of former coworkers who have used these tactics to successfully arrange full- and part-time work-from-home privileges…even four day work weeks. If you’re interested in working from home, I hope they work for you!

What do you think? Did you go from working in an office to working from home full- or part-time? How did it happen? What other strategies would you recommend for somebody dreaming of working from home?

On Becoming a Full-Time Blogger

David Weliver — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:42:40 +0000

Today, I become a truly full-time blogger. I have been preparing for this day for eight months (and dreaming of it for several years). Now that it has arrived, I am both excited and petrified, but I am confident that anything without risk is not worth doing.

How I Got Here

When I launched Money Under 30 in mid-2006, this blog was purely a hobby. I was trying to get a handle on my finances and I always enjoyed writing and fiddling with Websites. Around that same time, I left a marketing job in publishing to work for an online marketing firm where I learned a truckload about blogging and search engine optimization. Just four months later, however, the publishing company recruited me back as a textbook sales representative.

Living alone, over a hundred miles away from my wife (we weren’t married yet), and traveling frequently, I had plenty of time to continue building Money Under 30. As the site grew, so did the income I earned from advertising partners. For the first few months, the income was nothing more than a curiosity. Soon, it grew to a small monthly amount that was perfect for making extra debt payments. About a year ago, however, I began earning more from my blogging business than I did at work.

Now, as many bloggers (especially financial bloggers) will tell you, earning more from your blog than from a job isn’t enough to justify going full-time. Blogging income is volatile and unpredictable. Advertisers and traffic come and go, and they can take the blogger’s paycheck with them. I’ve seen this first-hand. During last winter’s credit crisis, many advertisers suddenly pulled out of the blog market and my income dipped considerably.

Considering all the risks of leaving the workplace and becoming a blogger, I realized a few things. Before becoming a full-time blogger, I needed:

A solid emergency fund to protect myself against slow months or lost income.
Comfortably more monthly income than expenses. (Again, as a cushion).
Health insurance!

I took care of the emergency fund and living below my means a while ago (they’re key financial moves for anybody), but health insurance was the kicker. Going without health insurance was not an option. Although I’m healthy and rarely visit the doctor or get prescriptions, I knew it would just take one illness or accident to bankrupt me.

In late 2008, my girlfriend and I became engaged and we made the decision to live in Maine (where her career is based) rather than Massachusetts, where I was working. This wasn’t easy. We’re both from Massachusetts, but I went to college and she attended law school in Maine. We liked Maine. The state’s slogan is “the way life should be”, and we agreed. There are fewer people and cars. There’s the breathtaking coastline, tranquil lakes, and lush mountain forests. Maine seems to have it all; except jobs. Finding a job in Maine in my area of experience—publishing and marketing—was, and still is, a near-impossible task.

But of course, I had blogging. I just needed health insurance until we got married and I could go on hers. So, in January, I packed up my Massachusetts career and took a job working for a great locally-owned coffee shop that gave employees great health insurance. I had hoped it would be a great trial run for blogging “full-time”. Problem was, working on your feet for almost 40 hours a week doesn’t leave you much energy for working another 30 or 40 on a blog. I had health insurance, but I was still a very part-time blogger.

Fast forward eight months, and (as some readers may have realized) we were married two weeks ago. I left the coffee shop around the same time. Now, after a week on an Aruban honeymoon and a week unpacking wedding gifts and settling into our home as husband and wife, we’re both back to work. For me, for the first time, it means working as a full-time blogger.

The time is right to give this a try and follow others in this space like the bloggers behind Personal Finance Advice, Get Rich Slowly, The Simple Dollar, and more. (Are you a full-time personal finance blogger? Let me know and I’ll add you here…I’m not sure who else is full-time and curious to connect with others who have taken the leap!)

Where I’m Going

I have big aspirations. I started this blog because I am passionate about educating twentysometings about financial issues so that others can avoid many of the mistakes I made in my early twenties. Despite all the great financial blogs, books, and other media out there, last year’s credit crisis proves that we, as a society, are still financially ignorant. I believe that much of this has to do with an almost total lack of financial literacy education in our schools and even colleges. Forget learning calculus; we need to learn how to balance a checkbook and read a credit card statement!

In the next year, I plan to make Money Under 30 a comprehensive educational site that will provide readers of all ages with the necessary tools to master personal finance basics. In addition, I hope to continue doing print, radio, and television interviews and other speaking engagements to talk about the importance of personal financial literacy amongst younger generations.

Longer term, I will also be working on a new non-profit Website that provides the most basic, easy-to-understand personal finance lessons possible. Ultimately, I hope to develop a company that can take these vital messages into schools, colleges, and even corporations to spread financial literacy across the world.

That said, I’m still treating blogging full-time as an experiment. I feel blessed to have this opportunity to take this chance, but I realize that it’s just that—a chance. It may not work out. I’m prepared to reevaluate my career and find work that is both satisfying and in-demand here in Maine, where my wife and I have chosen to live. Though you might be surprised to hear this from a personal finance blogger—it’s not all about money. Becoming a full-time blogger, giving up a salary, and taking on risk may not be the best move for my finances. But I’m optimistic that this decision is the best one overall, and I can’t wait to see what it will bring.

One Last Note

Now that I’m full-time, I will have a lot more time to write content for Money Under 30. Where I probably spent 10 hours a week on this site in the past, I’ll be spending 50 or so a week on it now. What’s missing? What do you want to read more about? Do you have financial questions you want addressed on the site? Please leave a comment or send me a note or a tweet!

The Colleges and Majors With the Highest Paid Graduates

David Weliver — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:45:10 +0000

Will attending an elite college like Harvard or Stanford result in a higher salary? (On average, yes). How much more do engineering majors bring home than English majors? (As much as $21,800 to start).

Most important: How much can you expect to earn with your bachelor’s degree? (A new report at PayScale.com may have the answer).

The PayScale College Salary Report

As the cost of undergraduate education skyrockets, prospective students and parents should be asking: What kind of return is this investment going to yield? Perhaps, like me, you’re out of school and still wondering the same thing.

Wonder no more. The PayScale College Salary Report provides median starting and mid-career salaries for dozens of bachelor’s-level majors and hundreds of colleges nationwide.

Yes, college rankings are old news. But it’s about time we learned what kind of bread the graduates of various colleges and majors are earning. Sure, student-faculty ratios and high bars-per-capita are still important, but salary stats will matter for forty years, not just four. Here’s a preview of what the College Salary Report offers:

Highest Paying Undergraduate Degrees

Aerospace Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Computer Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Economics
Physics

U.S. Colleges with the Highest Paid Graduates (Bachelor’s Degree Only)

Dartmouth College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Harvard University
Harvey Mudd College
Stanford University
Princeton University

Does It Matter?

This College Salary Report is interesting at first, but I don’t find its results that surprising. I would have guessed that engineers earn more than English majors. Similarly, I hope Ivy League grads earn more than the rest of us. (Otherwise, why do students compete so hard and pay so much to attend them?)

What I would like to see is a report that combines a college’s alumni salary data with its tuition and average financial assistance. In other words, which schools cost the least but can earn you the most? In the meantime, this report is a start. (PayScale College Salary Report“>Access the full report).

What do you think? Should anticipated earnings play a role in students’ college and/or major decisions? Did salary expectations play a role in your decisions? Were the results what you expected?

You Can’t Get Rich on a Salary!

David Weliver — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:25:52 +0000

It’s been the mantra of entrepreneurs for generations: “You can’t get rich on a salary.” Is it true? With scant exceptions, even top-paid execs, doctors, and lawyers make less than $1 million a year. And you can certainly grow rich earning six figures a year if you play your cards right. But what about the rest of us? If we aren’t interested in following one of a handful of professional tracks that lead to big paychecks, there are two options: Accept our income level and spend and invest wisely to protect the little money we earn or become an entrepreneur. The way I see it, we can become financially comfortable on a salary, but not rich.

What is “Rich”?

These days, I think far too many people mistake being “rich” with being financially secure. Certainly, to somebody who is broke, somebody with a $1,000 in their pocket will seem rich. And, as other bloggers and financial magazines sometimes document, ordinary Americans become millionaires everyday. These ordinary millionaires don’t earn seven figures (or even six figures) a year, they don’t inherit their money, nor are they business owners—they just play by the right personal finance rules. They’re millionaires, but are they “rich”? I don’t think so.

In fact, I’ll bet if you ask people who reach a net worth of over $1 million, many will tell you that they aren’t going to stop until they reach a net worth of $4 or $5 million. Even then, they won’t be “rich”. Financially secure? Sure. Upper-middle class? Yes. But “rich”? No.

Rich is having tens of millions, or billions. Like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, or Sir Richard Branson. Rich is having your own island and a private jet. Rich is giving away more in charity every year than most people will ever have in the bank.

And the fact is, you can’t get that rich on a salary.

What Can You Do on a Salary?

Just because you work for a paycheck doesn’t mean you can’t take control of your financial future. In fact, if every salaried employee’s financial destiny were predetermined, there would be scant use for financial advice!

Working for a paycheck, you can control how that paycheck grows by:

Proving value to your employer,
negotiating your compensation,
investing in yourself (via training and education), and
managing your career track.

You can also maximize how much of your paycheck you keep by:

Living well below your means,
Getting out of and avoiding debt, and
Saving and investing regularly.

At the end of the day, however, you can only squeeze so much out of your chosen career field. Will it be enough to make you comfortable? Probably. Will it be enough to make you content? Hopefully. Will it ever make you “rich”? Unlikely.

Why Does it Matter?

Most of us don’t care if we ever get that rich. Most of us, myself included, will be just fine being comfortable and building a modest level of financial security. Still, it pays to steal a few tactics from the playbooks of the truly rich. A few of those tactics include:

Taking calculated risks,
Working for yourself,
Seeking opportunities, and
Understanding the value of time.

Incorporating some of these tactics of entrepreneurs and business leaders can only help us maximize our paychecks, but also may lead us to new earning opportunities outside work that will supplement our incomes and either increase our overall wealth or propel us to financial goals faster (such as early retirement).

In the coming weeks I’ll be writing more about how to pursue entrepreneurial activities on a part-time basis and how to supplement full-time entrepreneurship with a “day job” as well as the importance of risk in building wealth. In the meantime, do you agree that it’s impossible to grow rich on a salary? Please share your thoughts in a comment!

What's a Graduate to Do? Advice for College Graduates Seeking Jobs in a Bad Economy

David Weliver — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:26:40 +0000

To all the recent graduates out there: Congratulations. You have worked hard, and your accomplishments are well-deserved. Now, welcome to the jungle of reality. And this year, it really is a jungle out there. If you don’t have a job lined up yet, don’t despair. Here are a few ways to put your job search into high gear and make the most of your time before you officially enter the working world.

Finding a Full-Time Job is a Full-Time Job. If you’re after a full-time, career-track position in your area of interest and want it A.S.A.P., then make your search a full-time job. Especially in a down economy, finding work is a numbers game. The more resumes you send, contacts you make, and interviews you land, the faster you’ll land a gig. You may put in long hours week after week only to face countless rejections, but I promise that you’ll find work faster than somebody who hits the beach most days and applies for a couple jobs here and there.

That said, take a day or two to hit the beach, travel, or otherwise enjoy yourself. For most graduates, once you enter the working world, you may not get out.

Limit Your Expenses. Whatever you do, try not to go into debt while you look for work. This is the time to live at home and avoid eating out or shopping. If that bothers you, the more aggressive you can get with your job search.

Expand Your Horizons. Consider working in any number of fields, even if you didn’t study them in college. Most young professionals change jobs many times in their first ten years, so there’s nothing wrong with experimenting with your first few positions.

If you can, broaden your search geographically, too. Some states and cities are weathering the recession far better than others. Kiplinger’s recently released its annual best cities list, and this year, it’s all about where the jobs are. Topping the charts are Huntsville, AL; Albuquerque, NM; Washington, DC; Charlottesville, VA; Athens, GA; Olympia, WA; Madison, WI; Austin, TX; Flagstaff, AZ and Raleigh, NC.

Build Your Resume in Other Ways. Just because you’re not working full-time doesn’t mean you can’t add to resume. Seek out volunteer opportunities, find part-time work, or start your own business. Even a simple hourly job can give you customer-service skills that future employers will find valuable. Plus, it will help with the old cash flow.

Make Sure You Have Health Insurance. Unfortunately, accidents and sudden illnesses don’t care if you’re working or not. Although unlikely, a serious medical condition developed early in life and when you don’t have insurance can bankrupt you and, even worse, might make it difficult to get insurance in the future. Many states allow dependents to stay on their parent’s insurance into their mid-twenties. Make it a point to know exactly where you stand in regards to your parents’ health insurance and, if you’re not on it, find your own plan. For more, read some tips on finding health insurance when you’re unemployed.

Stay Positive. The economy will recover and jobs will return. In the meantime, be happy if you finished college. College grads still have a better shot at employment than those with only a high school diploma. In April the unemployment rate for recent college grads was 6.1%; it was 19.6% for high school diploma holders the same age.

For more advice for recent college graduates read my article 5 Financial Tips for Recent College Graduates at the Qvisory Tools for Life Blog.

How to Think Like a CEO

David Weliver — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:00:53 +0000

If you have ever aspired to run your own business (or an existing corporation), you may already be interested in applying the traits, philosophies, and leadership styles of successful CEOs to your career.

But even if you have no interest in becoming a business leader (or ever working in business, for that matter), learning to think about your own life, finances, and career the way a CEO thinks about running a business can be rewarding…and help you reach your own goals faster.

Successful CEOs Are Focused on the Bottom Line. The CEO’s job, in a nutshell, is to lead a business in generating a profit for shareholders quarter after quarter. The CEO is a leader, but the goal is always profit. In your personal life, your “profit” is the amount of money you save. Just as a business that never generates a profit will fail, if you always spend more than you earn you’ll first go into debt and eventually go bankrupt. To avoid that, and to maximize your savings for your own goals, you’ll need to do what good CEOs do. Put simply:

Find ways to increase revenue (your income)
Find ways to cut costs (your monthly expenses)

Successful CEOs Are Leaders. Even if you don’t manage others at work, you can be a leader by setting an example for everybody you know. Your actions are all it takes: Work harder, spend smarter, give back, be a good listener.

Successful CEOs Are Competitive. Whether you’re naturally competitive or not, it pays to take a competitive outlook in life, especially in your career. I’m not recommending you become ruthless and begin undermining your coworkers to get ahead, but you should pay attention to what other people are doing in your line of work to be successful, and adapt.

Successful CEOs Are Always Improving. Obviously, good is never good enough to successful CEOs. They are always striving to make their organizations better. And more often than not, ask a CEO what he or she does with free time during the workweek and you two of the top answers will be “exercise” and “read”. Top execs don’t just want to improve their businesses, they want to improve themselves. Likewise, the more time and energy you spend on improving yourself, the farther you’ll go.

Successful CEOs Are Positive. Not only are optimistic people happier, they are often more successful, too. Nobody wants to hire, much less be around, a “Debbie Downer”. The sooner you learn to look on the bright side, the more opportunities you’ll have.

Successful CEOs Are Persistent. Of course, no matter how positive you are, there are always going to be tough times. Although the first step is to learn how not to let tough times get you down, the second step is to train yourself to work through them. Don’t let set backs stop you from working towards you goals.

Successful CEOs Take Risks. With big risks come big rewards, both in business and in life. It can be scary to take a new job, start your own business, go back to school, or move to a new city. Most people I know never regret doing any of the above, but I would be that there are a lot of people out there who regret not doing some of those things.

What do you think? Are there any top traits that you see successful CEOs using that you have incorporated into your own life?

The Only 9 Resume Tips You'll Ever Need

David Weliver — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:39:02 +0000

To land your dream gig in today’s cutthroat job market, you’ll need a resume that blows hiring managers out of their chairs. To help, I scoured the Web for nine tips that will help you rock rewriting your resume.

1. Sell Your Achievements. What’s the most important content on your resume? It’s not your education, or even your past employers. Aside from perhaps your phone number (so you can actually get an interview), the most important part of a winning resume are achievements. If you’re just out of school, your degree is certainly an achievement. But if you’ve been out for more than a year, what else have you done? Be as specific as possible. Toot your own horn!

2. Use Bullet Points. Hiring managers receive dozens, if not hundreds, of resumes every day. You want yours to stand out…fast! Putting bullet points on your resume will make the document easy to scan and more likely to catch somebody’s eye.

3. Skip the Template. Your resume should be unique—just like you—so skip resume templates. Read up on what a resume should include, but never just cut and paste your info into somebody else’s idea of what a resume should look like.

4. Engage Action Verbs. No, it’s not a flashback to high school English class…it’s a drop-dead rule of great resume writing: Use action verbs! Verbs that pack a punch and are descriptive all by themselves like “organized”, “managed”, “analyzed”, “created”, “planned”, “oversaw”, etc. Note: To avoid going overboard and sounding ridiculous, pick six resume action verbs to start with and add more carefully.

5. Tell a Story. The best resumes have a theme and tell a story, even if they are just a collection of bullets. Even if you have held several jobs in different areas, what is one thing that motivated you at each. What similarities do all of your accomplishments share.

6. Keep it Short; Really Short. These days more than ever, less is a lot more. We’re all strapped for time, so the faster you can get your point across, the better. So keep your resume short. If you’re still under 30, it should never be more than a page.

7. Avoid Clutter. Since you want to keep your resume short, you definitely don’t want to clutter it with things you don’t need. What don’t you need on your resume? Mission statements or objectives, excessive keywords, photos, and jobs you held for less than a year (you’ll probably have to explain those, but save it for the interview). Getting rid of clutter is especially important at the top of your resume. Don’t waste that valuable resume real estate with a generic mission statement!

8. Avoid Resume Design Blunders. Even if your resume is perfectly written, hiring managers may still over look it if your resume is miserably designed. Learn to avoid the seven deadly sins of resume design or, even easier, stick with simple black type on high-quality (but not showy) white paper. Use a simple font (but not the boring old Times Roman). Finally, if you send your resume electronically, always include a simple text-based version. You never know how your formatted resume will look on another computer—or if a hiring manger will even care enough to open an attachment.

9. Improve Yourself, Not Just Your Resume. These days we’re taught from a very early age to do more, more, more just to add bullets to our resumes. The sad reality is, the more we try to accomplish, the poorer we’ll perform at each task. And what good is an awe-inspiring resume if we’re really just mediocre at a lot of things? With that in mind, focus on improving yourself, not your resume. You’ll be far happier—and more successful—because of it.

What to Do If Your Employer Cuts Your Hours

David Weliver — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:19:57 +0000

Has your employer recently reduced your hours at your hourly or part-time job? You’re not alone. In this recession, reduced hours are affecting young workers more than any other age group. If your boss cuts your hours, it’s not an easy time to pick up and find new work. There are, however, a few steps you can take to try to win some hours back.

1. Be Flexible

The most important thing you can do to show your boss you want more hours is to be available to take them. Of course, you may not be able to skip a college class to pick up an extra shift. On the other hand, if you’ve taken Saturday nights off for social reasons, consider amending your availability. Also, if your employer has multiple locations, indicate that you’re willing to work at more than one if it means a fuller schedule.

2. Be Better Than Your Coworkers

Employers often cut everybody’s hours in lieu of laying off a small number of employees. That saves a few jobs, but it hurts everybody’s budgets. At any job, and in this economy more than ever, you must look out for yourself. That means you must do excellent work, show enthusiasm, and go above and beyond. (And make sure your boss knows about it.) If you stand out among your peers at work, you’ll be first in line when hours come back.

3. Be Persistent

Never assume that your boss knows you want more hours. Believe it or not, she may just assume that if nobody says anything, everybody’s okay with the cutbacks. Tell your boss regularly that you’re looking for extra hours. Do it every week, or even every shift. Don’t be a nag, but slide it into conversation whenever you can. The squeaky wheel does get the grease.

4. Be Creative

Think outside of your job description. Ask your boss—or even your company’s owner (if it’s a small business)—if there are additional responsibilities you could take on a few hours a week. This can be an especially smart strategy if you have specific skills that your current position doesn’t take advantage of, but you think the company could use. Sell your boss or the company’s owner on how paying you a few extra hours could increase business.

What About You? Have you had your hours cut? How has it affected you, and what do you plan to do about it?

Tips for the Under 30 and Underemployed

David Weliver — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:56:47 +0000

The media spotlight often shines on the unemployed, but many Americans under 30 face an equally frustrating problem—they have educations and skills but work in jobs below their earning potential. If this is you, the right combination of perseverance, optimism, and creativity can help you stick it out and eventually land the job you want.

Underemployment is Better than Unemployment

It’s easy to become depressed about being in a position below your potential. That frustration can grow if you don’t make enough to repay student loans or begin saving for your goals. In today’s tough economy, however, be grateful to have a job—any job—as there are many people who don’t. That said, don’t resign yourself to working below your potential forever; start thinking creatively about how you can take your career where you want it to go.

Set Career Goals

Make no mistake, you should never give up on your dreams to do what you really want to do in life. If you know what that is, pursue it everyday, but recognize that it may take a while to get there. If you don’t have a firm idea of where you want your career to go, start to explore different options by reading, networking, and volunteering. Try to get as many interviews you can, but don’t be discouraged if you don’t land a gig right away in the face of unprecedented competition. Use every interview as a tool to help you identify out your dream job.

Set Income Goals

There’s another reality you must face in your career search: You have to make ends meet.

You need to find a job that allows you to pay down debt, afford housing, food and transportation, and save for your future. If you’re in a lot of debt, that may mean sacrificing what you really want to do for a few years to work in a job that pays better. Another option, and one that many people choose, is to work more than one job for a while as you build financial security. It’s not fun, but it will certainly pay off down the road.

Build a Personal Brand and Sales Pitch

In addition to deciding where you want to go, it’s important to begin defining yourself as the person that deserves to get there. What makes you tick? What makes you valuable to an employer? Create a 30-to-60-second pitch that describes what you want in your career, what skills and education you possess, and what other traits you offer. Memorize it, and integrate it everywhere: your resume, your interviews, and even casual conversations you have everyday.

Keep Honing Skills

Even Ph.D.s working as waitresses (and believe me, they’re out there) can continue to hone skills (both on the job and off) that could help them land their next gigs. Sometimes, how we handle simple tasks and routine personal interactions can make the difference between being an average employee and an extraordinary one. And, yes, this goes for both low-level and highly specialized jobs.

Also, continue to hone technology skills, whatever your chosen career-path. Technology is everywhere, and the more you understand it and can use it, the more valuable you’ll be.

Network, Network, Network

Networking is not just about calling classmates and past-coworkers every six months to ask for a job. Networking can be done anytime, anyplace—you just need to casually interject your experience and your job goals into any conversation. You never know who might say: “I have just the job for you!”

Are You Under 30 and Underemployed?

What do you do, and what do you want to do? What have you tried, and what do you think you could try to get you to where you want to be? Please let me know!