March 30, 2007

Needed: teachers
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:33 AM

Today's Globe carries an editorial about the coming teacher gap - in just five years:

In five years, there's going to be a teacher shortage, Tom Carroll said Monday at a Simmons College conference. Two groups will collide: The wave of retiring baby-boom teachers will crash into the wave of teachers who exit the profession after five years or less, leaving a lot of empty desks at the front of the class. Every state faces this crisis, explains Carroll, the president of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

What can you, the job seeker, do about it?

Well, for a start you can think aout getting into the field of education. To help get you going, check out these stats and pages on the US Dep't of Labor's website:

Special ed - pre-K-5th grade - projected 23% national growth, 2004-2014

Kindergarten teachers - projected 22% national growth, 2004-2014

Elementary teachers (except special ed) - projected 18% national growth, 2004-14

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March 29, 2007

Seeking a big change? Start here.
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:53 PM

There are days, God knows, when you drag yourself into the office, look around and ask yourself whether you're in the right career. Not job. Career. Pay attention to that impulse: It might be more than just Monday-morning grousing. Maybe you've been in your field long enough to tell that you don't love what you're doing, and won't ever. Or maybe you've built enough financial cushion that you can finally afford to pursue a career that excites your passions, no matter the paycheck.

Does that sound like you? Read on, Macduff.

Thanks to the good folks at MONEY magazine and Salary.com, here's a great collection of articles and ideas for folks seriously contemplating a career change:

. . .[I]f serious change is seriously on you mind, welcome to the movement. About 60% of more than 12,000 people who answered a MONEY and Salary.com survey said they were considering switching careers or had recently done so, echoing economists' forecasts that the multiple-career work life is about to become the rule. That's where MONEY's second annual Best Jobs in America report can help. This year we sought out the best jobs for anyone ready to change careers, seeking the best combination of pay, security, job satisfaction and match to the kind of skills you'd be bringing from your current job.

Helpfully, they've broken their advice into four different categories, depending on where you are on life's path:

You're young and restless

You're a parent returning to work

You've retired from the military

You're over 50

A lot to absorb and ponder, so we'll let you get on with it.

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March 28, 2007

Self-employed lose healthcare option
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:54 AM

Troubling news from today's Globe for you contractors and contract employees out there - and that is a growing number of you:

A major source of health insurance for people who work for themselves has all but disappeared, casting thousands of contractors, freelancers, and solo practitioners into the ranks of the uninsured, with little hope of obtaining new coverage.

Health plans offered by professional associations were once safe havens for millions of people who couldn't obtain coverage anywhere else. But as medical costs soar, groups representing professions as varied as law and golf have stopped offering the benefit or been dropped by insurers.

Read the full piece.

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March 27, 2007

Happily ever after revisited
Posted by Diane Danielson at 1:48 PM

The latest study on family and home life comes from Wharton, where two professors documented that marriage and divorce are both at low points. 

Specifically, the number of people getting married, which has been falling for the past 25 years, is at its lowest point in recorded history, while the divorce rate in 2005 reached its lowest level since 1970.

Well, this shouldn't be surprising.  Demographics and economics have made marriage into almost a "luxury."   And when we actually have a population of people wanting to get married (to their same gender), most places won't even let them.  Sheesh.

But, according to the authors of the study, the workplace might be in for a shock in the next few years.

While the authors have no definitive answer for how this trend will play out, they suggest in their study that "a related shock to future marital patterns" and their impact on the workplace is the "sharply changing gender ratios on college campus. ... While women were a distinct minority of undergraduates in 1960, they are now a clear majority."

Women with a college degree "have traditionally married men with college degrees," Stevenson says. "As more women than men graduate from college, are they going to not marry, or marry men without college degrees? That's the $64,000 question when it comes to marriage. It's very hard to predict what impact this will have on the workplace, although it is clear that among the pool of skilled workers, a growing share will be female."

My guess?  No MRS's for female MBAs.  This trend of less-educated men has played out in Black and Hispanic cultures for years, and in fact, those women have chosen NOT to marry.

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March 26, 2007

Women-only events - is separate still equal?
Posted by Diane Danielson at 6:46 PM

Carol Hymowitz of The Wall Street Journal looks at High Power and High Heels  in an article about women-only networking events. 

Still, holding women-only networking events raises some complicated issues. Are these single-sex events just as exclusionary as the traditional spectator sports events and steak-and-cigar dinners have been for men? What about women who have male clients and vice versa?

Some male executives think ambitious women would be wiser to learn to play golf -- still a primary way men in business socialize and lay the groundwork for deal making. And some women are ambivalent about women-only events that may cause them to be viewed as "frivolous." But a growing chorus is saying there's nothing wrong with recognizing that women have different tastes and different interests. Besides, after years of being subtly and not-so subtly excluded from male gatherings, women say they want their own space.

Random thoughts about this:

• I like to golf more than shop, so I don't have a problem with the former.  And I know some metrosexuals who would prefer the latter.  But, what about non-golfers of either sex?  Should they feel forced to go along with what the dominant group has decided is the norm?
• Over the course of my career, I've been excluded from male events as well as female events (the latter for not being senior enough) and it just feels "oh so college fraternity/sorority-like."
• I think it is discrimination to exclude a person based on gender.  However, it's not discrimination to hold an event that is more likely to attract one particular group than another.
• People will follow the power.  If more women are in power, we might see different networking venues where everyone can participate.  We're already seeing gen y men shy away from their father's traditions.
• People will make time for what they think is fun.  We are all extremely busy, but if we think something is going to be fun, we figure out a way to make time for it.

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March 22, 2007

Enough with the opting out already!
Posted by Diane Danielson at 8:30 PM

E.J. Graff's post on TPM Cafe about The Opt Out Myth needs to be read in it's entirety by any journalist who insists on writing anything more about the "opt out" trend.  Some of the highlights from her article that you won't read about elsewhere:

• Only 4% of women in the US population fit the demographics of the original "opt out" article, yet because publishers and journalists belong to this class - it's spotlighted as a trend.
• "opt-out stories invariably focus on women in one particular situation: after they have ‘opted out’ but before any of them divorce."
• "Census numbers show no increase in mothers exiting the work force, and according to Heather Boushey, the maternity leaves women do take have gotten shorter.'
• "In one experiment, Correll and her colleagues asked participants to rate a management consultant. Everyone got a profile of an equally qualified consultant—except that the consultant was variously described as a woman with children, a woman without children, a man with children, and a man without children. When the consultant was a “mother,” she was rated as less competent, less committed, less suitable for hiring, promotion, or training, and was offered a lower starting salary than the other three."
• "Here’s what feminism hasn’t yet changed: the American idea of mothering is left over from the 1950s, that odd moment in history when America’s unrivaled economic power enabled a single breadwinner to support an entire family. Fifty years later we still have the idea that a mother, and not a father, should be available to her child at every moment."
• "Why can’t twenty-first century school schedules match the twenty-first century workday?"

Read the full piece.

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March 19, 2007

Planning ahead
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:59 PM

A new report from Boston-based mutual fund leader Fidelity Investments provides some troubling findings about retirement planning among US workers:

The report, conducted by a new research institute of the Boston mutual fund giant. . .found the average working family today saves enough to replace 58 percent of its income in retirement, combined with Social Security and pension payments. That is far below the roughly 80 percent figure that is commonly suggested by Fidelity, other large mutual fund companies, and many financial planners.

Taken together, the figures paint a troubling outlook, said Guy L. Patton, the Fidelity institute's executive director. Though many people figure to keep working beyond age 65 to save more for retirement, many won't make it to their targets because of health problems. "The additional pressure because of health issues only makes that 58 percent even more of a problem," Patton said.

Read the full piece.

Whatever your career stage - entry-level, mid-career, or even pre-retirement - and even though the "R" word may seem like a distant, hazy, and foreign prospect to you, I highly recommend you begin thinking seriously about planning for retirement before it is too late for you, too.

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March 14, 2007

Flexibility is not a female issue
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:21 AM

It's also not a Gen X or Gen Y issue.  This is an everyone issue.  According to Cali Yost on the Work+Life Fit blog, The National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Demographics (.pdf) just released a study today by the Center for Aging & Work at Boston College.  The study shows that:

As the population ages and more workers face caring for aging parents and retirement, the focus must expand. How do we all find flexibility to strategically adjust our work+life fit in response to personal and professional transitions throughout all stages of our career? This includes finding a partner, and having a child, but also caring for an elder and retirement which historically haven’t gotten as much attention.

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March 12, 2007

The 24-hour woman
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:37 PM

Interesting article in the Boston Globe magazine about breadwinner wives who still handle all the housework. Here's hoping that the women featured stop letting the mommy guilt get to them and they either start delegating the housework more or get that housekeeper!

Women are the maids-in-chief in the average American home (18 hours a week of housework on average, about 40 percent more than men, according to a 2001 study by University of Maryland sociologists). This made sense, sort of, back when women's occupations were limited to variations on caring for other people, usually the ones living at home with them. But it makes no sense today. Women, who compose 49 percent of the American workforce, are now outearning their husbands in 32.6 percent of American married couples, up from 23.7 percent in 1987. Wives brought home 34.8 percent of the average family's annual bacon in 2004, up from 26.7 percent in 1980. In another generation, if this pace of change continues, wives will contribute half. Although there are no local statistics, it would seem likely that Boston has an even larger percentage of these women who earn more than their husbands, thanks to a saturation of industries, like financial services and healthcare, in which women are statistically more likely to be top company earners.

* * *

The same study showed that when women start contributing more than 50 percent to the family income, the amount of housework the husband does actually begins to fall and continues to fall as the wife's earnings climb. And here's the really depressing part: The study also reported that when a wife becomes a family's sole provider, she often does even more housework than when she contributes half the income.

Some experts attribute this phenomenon to what they call "gender deviation neutralization." By "deviating" from established gender roles by outearning the husband, the wife believes she is emasculating him. Men largely define their maleness by rejecting femaleness, so he refuses to be further de-maled by doing housework. The wife, meanwhile, feels so guilty for emasculating her husband that she overcompensates by taking on even more of the traditional female roles to act more "feminine" so her husband will feel more "masculine." Et voila! We've got a female CEO cleaning her toilets at 2 a.m. because she feels too guilty to hire a housekeeper or demand that her husband do it.

Seems like the old Enjoli perfume commercial has come true but with a twist -- We can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and then do all the housework so we don't emasculate our man.

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March 9, 2007

Mass firms are not female friendly
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:56 PM

The Boston Globe reports on the National Association of Female Executives latest list of 35 most female friendly firms.  And there's not a Massachusetts company on the list. Maybe that's why we're the number one state for entrepreneurs

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March 8, 2007

Try this job - for a day
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:30 AM

Ever sit and wonder, while you're sunk into your cubicle at work, what doing some other job, some completely different kind of work, would be like? Something that would get you out of your rut and tap those latent wellsprings of undiscovered talent? Something like, oh, being a rock star, or a celebrity chef?

No-o-o-o, not you! You'd never dream of dreaming while on the job. But . . .just in case you do, here's something you may want to check out:

Ruby slippers, three-wish genies, and winning lottery tickets can be hard to come by, which means it's up to you to make your daydreams a reality. Luckily, you won't need to quit your job, spend your savings, or audition for reality television to make your wish come true. These one-day classes around the city offer the chance to try on a different life without commitment or investment. For a day, you can play detective, rock star, gourmet cook, or great American novelist. Real life can wait.

Read on and learn more from today's Globe Calendar section.

And what a great idea this is. Shouldn't we all be able to do this, all the time, before we commit to certain careers? Seems obvious, somehow. Try before you buy.

Yes, there are internships and informational interviews, but just to do a job for a day would provide terrific insight into various potentials careers. Not to mention: it would be fun.

Which is, come to think of it, exactly what the late great George Plimpton did, living out his dreams in the flesh. For those of you who may be too young to remember, everyman Plimpton gained his fame training and playing quarterback with the Detroit Lions, among other exploits. You can read his hilarious and revealing account in his still in-print book, Paper Lion.

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March 7, 2007

Are blogs the new resumes?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:37 PM

I recently posted here in the Job Blog on the imminent rise of the web-based video resume ("It's a wrap: you're hired!").

Now it appears another new media tool, the blog, may have beaten video resumes to the punch:

Daniel Scocco [of the Innovation Zen blog] says that while blogs won't completely replace resumes, "bloggers certainly have an edge over job seekers that do not publish one." He points out that hiring a blogger is a "lower risk proposition because you have more information and a better idea of how they are going to perform."

Read the entry from Maura Welch's "Business Filter" - what else?! - blog! (Is it just me, or is it getting a little claustrophobic in here?. . .)

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March 6, 2007

Working for the "Man"
Posted by Diane Danielson at 4:39 PM

Turns out that most people literally want to work for a man.  MSNBC.com reports on the latest study that finds male leaders more acceptable, if not preferable, for both genders.

While more than half our 60,000 respondents said a person's sex makes no difference to leadership abilities, most who expressed a preference said men are more likely to be effective leaders.

Of male respondents, 41 percent said men are more likely to be good leaders, and 33 percent of women agreed. And three out of four women who expressed a preference said they would rather work for a man than a woman.

The survey, conducted early this year, found a bonanza of stereotypes among those polled, with many using the optional comment section to label women "moody," "bitchy," "gossipy" and "emotional." The most popular term for woman, used 347 times, was "catty."

There are still few women in the corner office today, and the numbers appear to be declining. Our survey sheds light on one obstacle blocking women from the boardroom: negative attitudes about women leaders — attitudes women themselves still harbor.

.

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March 5, 2007

It's a wrap: you're hired!
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 2:12 PM

TIME Magazine workplace reporter Lisa Takeuchi Cullen reports on a new job market sales tool: web-based video resumes, which some prognosticators feel are inevitable:

Once the rest of the YouTube generation enters the workplace, "video résumés are going to be as ubiquitous as PDAs or iPods," says Mark Oldman, a co-president of Vault.com.

But, hold your horses. There are still some unresolved issues:

The paper résumé is egalitarian, more or less, and that's why human-resources people are wringing their collective hands over visually enhanced job applications. Many recruiters won't even accept CVs with photos attached for fear of lawsuits. Some companies even block out the candidate's name, citing studies that showed bias toward the white-sounding ones. They're worried that video résumés will invite lawsuits by candidates who could claim bias based on race, gender or age--indiscernible on paper but not on video.

Read the full piece from TIME.com, which includes links to sample video resumes.

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As tech firms rebound, a robust job market emerges
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 2:03 PM

Techies, take note. There are signs that the pendulum has finally begun to swing back in the local job market:

The job market hasn't returned to the feverish state of the 1990s, and fields such as telecommunications have been slower to recover. But multiple job offers are no longer rare for managers and consultants, software developers, researchers, website designers, marketing and sales professionals -- even newly minted college graduates -- knocking on the doors of resurgent high-tech companies. Especially hot are Internet businesses riding the new wave of digital commerce.

And, on the flip side, employers are struggling for the first time in years to hire technology talent. Many are paying signing bonuses ranging from $15,000 to $40,000, often structured as tuition forgiveness, to lure masters in business administration graduates from top schools.

Read this front page feature from yesterday's Boston Sunday Globe, also our BostonWorks "Story of the Week."

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March 1, 2007

Electronic John Hancocks
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:36 AM

USA Today ran a story questioning the use of elaborate e-mail signatures:

Increasingly, the e-mail signature is no longer just an inverted letterhead (name, title, company name, address and phone number). It's a mini-résumé, complete with website, blog address, IM screen name (or two), Skype account, compendium of company accolades and bit of borrowed aphorism or ginned-up maxim — all stacked up to the extent that the e-mail signature often stretches longer than the e-mail itself.

The result, manners mavens say, demonstrates at best a lack of respect for the reader's time — and at worst an inflated sense of the sender's self-worth.

Now, I have to disagree with this because I tend to look at people's signature lines, either for the correct contact information, or to see if it tells me a little bit more about the person. Admittedly, I get a LOT of emails from people I don't know. So I often click on the links in signature lines before I respond as it gives me a little better idea who they are and why they are writing me. Also, how does it waste reader's time? It's not like an annoying flash video on a site. You aren't forced to read through it first before you get to the content. What's your opinion?

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