January 26, 2005

Tailor your resume
Posted by at 3:19 PM

Gretchen has a Bite of Advice: Tailor your resume for each company of interest. This means you don't have to print 200 resumes all at the same time. Unless you're just starting out, you're probably looking for a specific -- or one of several specific -- jobs. It makes sense to at least have several resumes if you can't decide between job categories just yet.
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January 24, 2005

How to handle setbacks
Posted by Jason Butler at 8:28 PM

Believe it or not, even your humble job bloggers have been known to commit the occasional CLM*.

What to do? Leave in a huff, leave in disgrace, or get back in the game?

You'll probably be angry with those who shot you down and jealous of whoever trumped you. You'll vow to short the company's stock and go work for its nearest competitor, or at least think bad thoughts about the organization forever. Perhaps you'll feel so terrible that you'll consider quitting on the spot.

Well, don't do any of this, at least not abruptly and in a huff. You'll be amazed at how quickly these feelings pass. Your career isn't over, probably not even stalled. Faster than you imagine, you can again become a Golden Boy or Gal -- if you display maturity and poise. In fact, your ability to play (and truly be) a gracious loser will speak volumes about your suitability as a future team member and leader.

* CLM = Career-limiting Move.
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January 23, 2005

Having it all ... in retirement
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:42 AM

More discussion on women and academia following the Summers' Slip-up from Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe. Is being a 66-year old new mom the only way to "sequence" your career in academia?

... Berkeley Dean Mary Ann Mason set out to answer the question asked by her women graduate students: "Is there a good time to have a baby?"

Her analysis of 160,000 PhDs showed that having children early in their careers was a boon for men and a bust for women. Fathers who had children within five years of their PhD were more likely to get tenure-track jobs than other men, but mothers were less likely than either fathers or other women. As for women who got on the tenure track before the baby track? Only one in three ever became mothers.

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January 22, 2005

Hey ladies, Harvard's hiring!
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:12 AM

Poor Larry Summers, he just had no idea what a minefield he was stepping in when he voiced the possibility that women were not as naturally equipped to excel in the sciences as men. But the best thing about controversy is that it generally leads to action. Today's Globe reports on the expedited plans for a new Harvard Women's Initiative.

Harvard University's president, Lawrence H. Summers, yesterday asked the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study to oversee a new initiative designed to quickly identify new ways to recruit and support women at Harvard.

In a sign of how much Summers' incendiary remarks about women have shaken the Harvard campus, the new undertaking is being put on a fast track -- an unusual step in the often-ponderous Ivory Tower. Summers said that task forces would be appointed next week, and that the university would begin implementing their recommendations by the end of the semester.

"The events of recent days and continuing concerns suggest that we as a university need to do much more," Summers said. The new initiative will "assure we have the most robust mechanisms we can to recruit and develop the careers of female scholars."

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January 19, 2005

Chicago doesn’t sound much more appealing than New England
Posted by Diane Danielson at 1:56 PM

I had to blog about this article because not only does it point out that Chicagoland is not much better for working women than New England (see yesterday’s post), but it also manages to work in this month’s biggest news story – for those of you in hibernation, did you know that Brad and Jen broke up?

It's been a tough week for women. First there was news of the Brad and Jen split. (That's Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, in case you have been cast away on some desert island for the last month.)

Their much-ballyhooed breakup was announced after the couple returned from a New Year's holiday in the Caribbean. No details have been released, but gossips' tongues are wagging over rumors that their most irreconcilable difference is over whether to have children. He wants 'em; she doesn't.

This news, however speculative it may be, was enough to send one commentator into a dither. It's a slap at working women everywhere, wrote Rebecca Traister of Salon.com. It means that no matter how much women do, we're still defined by our uteruses. ...

... Moving on to actual news that is much more troubling: The progress for women in the corporate world of Chicago has slowed to a crawl.

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January 18, 2005

One more reason to leave New England (besides the weather)
Posted by Diane Danielson at 8:36 AM

Yes, it's 5 degrees out and I'm wondering what the heck I'm doing living in New England as I bundle up to brave the weather. Add to that, the Boston Business Journal's article this week on how women's earnings in New England trail the national average, and I'm really wondering.

Women's earnings, on average, in New England are slightly lower than the national average, according to a recently released U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. The report shows women in the six New England states in 2003 earned 77.3 cents on the dollar compared to men. Women in Massachusetts earned 78 cents on the dollar, a figure slightly below the national average of 79.5 cents.

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January 17, 2005

The road less traveled
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:16 AM

Ever had a desire to just chuck that desk job and hit the open road? Well, here's the story of one man who did just that, turning a long-term job situation that went bad into his childhood dream job: driving the highway as a trucker:

After 30 years as a reporter, 29 of them at the Portland Press Herald [Maine], Ted Cohen six months ago embraced a new profession: trucking.

"It's all about the open road, right?" Cohen queried a trucker colleague that night.
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Cohen's change is at once radical and logical -- propelled by a boyhood fascination with trucks and necessitated by a career crisis.

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January 11, 2005

Hey Bob. Bob?
Posted by Jason Butler at 8:12 AM

Business Week has an interesting article on what to do when a co-worker is suddenly no longer a co-worker.

If a co-worker, seemingly at ease in his or her job, disappears one random day, don't expect an explanation from your employer. If the departure was shocking in its suddenness, ethical violations may be a factor (but not necessarily). And unless the company makes a habit of unanticipated head-choppings, your job is probably in no more danger than on any other day.

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January 5, 2005

Good news for the New Year
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:19 PM

The Globe reports that Massachusetts business confidence has rebounded:

Business confidence in Massachusetts rebounded in December, with companies expecting improvements in the national economy and better prospects for sales and hiring, Associated Industries of Massachusetts reported.

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January 4, 2005

Gone fishing (or at least on sabbatical)
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:19 AM

Perhaps a few more of us need to put a "gone fishing" sign on our doors, cubes, home offices, etc. and take some time off from our over-hectic work schedules. The Philadelphia Inquirer writes about why stressed out working women can benefit from taking a sabbatical.

Patti Clark, a Bucks County career coach, says that many of the women executives and business owners she works with are always on the clock, whether they are at the office or not. "These women don't go to lunch. They don't even go to the bathroom," she says.

The problem is particularly acute for working parents. According to a Families and Work Institute study, two-income couples with children worked 10 more hours per week in 2002 than their 1977 counterparts. Of the college-educated employees surveyed by the organization, 80 percent said they would like to decrease the number of hours that they work.

At the same time, Americans don't even take the time off they've got coming to them. A 2003 survey by Expedia.com found that employees annually give up $21 billion in unused vacation days.

"Americans are working harder and longer than any other people in the industrialized world," says Shelia Wellington, professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business and former president of Catalyst, a research organization that focuses on women. "And the technology revolution has become a two-headed monster, as cell phones and e-mail continue to erode personal time."

It's not just the wrung-out workers who are paying the price. Job stress costs an estimated $300 billion a year to U.S. businesses, according to a study by the American Stress Institute.

This blogger just wants to know if the fact that my "sabbatical" has now reached 2.5 years, does it still count as a sabbatical?

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January 2, 2005

Rule may let workers keep health coverage
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 8:45 PM

A New Year's Day story on Boston.com reports hopeful news regarding health plan coverage for those who lose their jobs:

For U.S. workers who change or lose their jobs, a new rule issued by the Bush administration just before the end of 2004 could provide better access to group health plan coverage -- in keeping with changes Congress agreed to eight years ago.

The new rule, which becomes effective for health care plans starting July 1, is meant to implement more of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act by making it easier to obtain group health coverage.

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January 1, 2005

He said, she said: more about managing across the gender divide
Posted by Diane Danielson at 11:53 PM

Two weeks ago I wrote about an ABCNews "Working Wounded" column that raised the question of gender differences and management styles. This week, ABCNews runs some of the reader's input to that column.
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