NBA Finals Inspired Some Motivational Quotes

The NBA finals are in full swing between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic. The game tonight reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Michael Jordan that I share with college students all the time.

It seemed appropriate to compile an inspirational list of quotes from some of our favorite Basketball players and coaches. Aside from Michael Jordan's quote, I added other favorites including one from C. Vivian Stinger, who was a 2009 inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

1. "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan

2. "Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates." Magic Johnson

3. "A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals." - Larry Bird

4. "I live my life trying to never appear to be a small man." - Julius (Dr. J) Irving

5. "I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot." - Kobe Bryant

6. "Once you've done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into the action and put your heart on the line. That means not only being brave, but being compassionate towards yourself, your teammates and your opponents." - Coach Phil Jackson.

7. “What I kept pressing upon them is one of the greatest gems there is — a diamond. A diamond, whether it's man-made or comes from coal, is a result of pressure. I wanted them to understand the more pressure is put on you, the more of a diamond you can become.” - Coach John Chaney

8. "Kids don't play every second like it's their life. Those kinds of people are probably the ones who think that in the last seconds we're going to come back, or wait until we do this or do that, but they don't understand how quickly it escapes.” - Coach C. Vivian Stringer

Talking to New Grads? Think S.O.S - Sustainability of Self!

The S.O.S here is not the distress signal of dots and dashes meant to transmit "Save our Souls" that weary sailors and pilots use when they are in trouble. Then again, if you think hard enough, it could actually be a distress signal.

This new S.O.S I am talking about means "Sustainability of Self".

A little back story.

A few months ago I was having a conversation with my teens and a friend of theirs about their futures and their goals. I realized in that conversation that teens really hate the word "career". They don't just have a mild distaste for it, they really hate it. Especially my teens who are sixteen and seventeen.

I started to wonder if it was because, I, their mom, have been in the career management field for ten years and so the word "career" has been around for most of their lives? I know I have seen them roll their eyes when they heard Dad and I get into "alphabet soup" conversation about "typing" based on career assessments. Maybe that was it?

Or, could it be that their "Family Advocacy" class where they talk about careers and jobs and life, only address those well known occupational staples of Lawyers, Doctors, Accountants?

Considering my teens and some friends are in a "Visual Arts" cluster at school, I can see where they might zone out as uniformed teachers do their best to deliver "career education".

In that conversation, my daughter finally said, "Why do you have to call it a career? It's sounds like punishment or a disease!"

My instinct, of course, educator that I am, was to add more clarity, talk about a diversity of careers, but all my arguments came right back to using the word - career. I walked away stumped, but kept thinking about it.

What I see in my teens is the same thing I have seen in recent years working with hundreds of new grads. They are not wanting to talk about careers.

Then it came to me. What about "Sustainability of Self"? I passed it by my husband. What would you think if we talked about the future that way? Would this be better or am I just giving in to teen rebellion?

Here's what I discovered once I tested it on my teens, their friends and some new college grads - "Sustainability" is a good word to use with young people when talking about the future! They know what it means. They see it everywhere. In fact, they talk about it in the context of the environment and the globe, so why not use it to convey the concept of a profession? We know that this generation can expect multiple careers in a lifetime, so why not a new principle or a new metaphor?

My daughter, who is the C.R.O (Chief Recycling Officer) in our house, thinks it is a good approach. She would much rather have a conversation about future "Sustainability of Self" than talk about her future career or job.

I introduced the concept on Twitter and my Tweet buddy, Zach Smith, who writes The Capacity Evolution Blog, thougth the principle was good and we could extend it to: "Sustainability of Family" and "Sustainability of Community".

I like those!

What do you think? Where else could we go with that? Can you use the concept talking to new grads this year who are struggling with this job market!

Are you Kidding Yourself in Your Career?

Check out these 6 ways you could be kidding yourself in your career from CAREEREALISM.

After reading the article, I was wondering if people were really kidding themselves or just choosing an option that makes them feel better. Is that kidding one's self or just wanting to be positive?

Bookmark CAREEREALISM if you haven't yet! Their blog is really a good resource.

Body Language can Bury you in the Job Interview

A UCLA study showed that up to 93% of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. Author, Alton Barbour, author of Louder Than Words: Nonverbal Communication, states that the impact of a message is 7% verbal, 38 % percent vocal ie. volume, pitch, rhythm, etc and 55% is about body movement, mostly in the form of facial expressions.

If you are job hunting, you should know that hiring managers and interviewers spend a lot of time interpreting body language in the job interview. Some interviewers are actually masters at the body-language game. They can spot fear through hunched shoulders, rapid or really slow speech and disinterest in a job seeker’s slouch.

Here are some of the body language issues to watch for in the job interview:

- Not making eye contact with the recruiter or interviewer or looking only at one interviewer if you are in a panel interview.
- Weak handshake
- Slouching or hanging over the arm of the chair might tell your interviewer that you don’t really care. Maintaining an arrogant posture, leaning back in a matter-of-fact way might indicate some arrogance.
- Gesticulating wildly and relying on your hands to do all the talking. Resting your hands in your lap or on the arms of the chair is good.
- Fidgeting with tight or ill fitting clothing such as trying to close the gap between buttons on a tight blouse or pulling down uncomfortable pants.
- Scratching head, hair, skin or other body parts are a no-no.

These body language no-no’s can be a real turn off to recruiters in the job interview. The worse part is that the job seekers may not even be aware of how they are missing opportunities.

Job seekers should create a quick checklist with these and other points and practice the job interview with someone who will critique them honestly. Another way to check on your body language turn-offs is to set up a camera to record your movements. Work on eliminating any negative messages you might be transmitting through your body language.

As you watch your own body language and movements in the job interview, also watch those of the recruiter.

-Is your panel interviewer at the end of the table falling asleep?
-Is anyone yawning from your stories?
-Is the interviewer texting under table?
-Are they working on other projects?
-Are they eating during the phone interview?
-Are they taking calls that they did not say would be coming in?
-Are they leaving in the middle of the interview again without saying they would?

I have actually seen or heard of recruiters doing all these things in job interviews. Not only is this bad recruiter behavior, and rude to the job seeker, it is also very distracting to an already nervous candidate.

Is the Recession Changing How Companies Hire?

A new article in The Economist magazine says - Yes!

Here are just four of the ways that this global recession is impacting hiring practices per this article. It could impact the job search strategy you execute moving forward.

1. Screening now and making offers but not to start working until next year or sometime after the recession ends. Companies want to be ready to ramp up when things turn around. Look for employers to defer start dates, "giving them six months or a year to travel or do public service."

2. More companies are hiring freelancers, contractors and part time help. This eliminates the costs associated with full time benefits. Many new college grads, including MBA's have to be satisfied for now with temporary work assignments.

3. Companies are pulling back on the perks they use to offer to attract the best and the brightest. With much talent in the marketplace, employers realize they don't need to offer the same incentives.

4. Less opportunities are now available for international students who thought they would be able to get lucrative job offers after graduation from US schools. Many companies are looking at local talent first.

Read the entire article here.

What changes are you seeing in recruiting at your company?

Scoring Points in the Second Interview

If you or someone you know are in the Class of 2009 or, heaven forbid, in the Class of 2008 and have not yet landed a job, check out these tips on how to succeed in the second or third interview. In today's economy, not many people are really landing the job on the first round of interviews. Companies are taking their time to get to know candidates and make the right choice. More and more people I know are going to second and third round job interviews and still not landing the job.

The HBCU Career Center has compiled a list of tips to succeed on the second or third round job interview.

Here are the highlights:

1. Know your schedule. You may meet with several people on a site visit and so you should understand your interview timeline.

2. Stay conservative with dress. You may have to survive a meal with employers and so keep business professional attire in mind for dinner situations.

3. Have questions prepared about not just the job, but the industry as well.

4. Brush up on meal etiquette for second and third round interviews.

5. Be courteous to everyone you meet on the visit; from hotel staff to administrative staff at the interview site.

6. Be cautious about how you interact with recent hires who recently graduated from your alma mater. Stay professional.

Is your Career Going the Way of the Pontiac!

(Photo is courtesy of General Motors)

General Motors is saying goodbye to the Pontiac! It was a good car, a faithful car but no longer has a place within the mission of the organization in this very competitive market place. It is a sad end for one of America's well known "muscle car" brands.

This fantastic photo of the Pontiac in it's hey day made me wonder, if cars could speak, would Pontiacs everywhere say they saw it coming?

Of course we all know that Pontiacs can't speak, but how would the GM employees who worked on the Pontiac answer the same question? Could they say that they saw it coming?

My question today is - Can you tell if your job or career is moving towards obsolescence? If it is what can you do about it?

As employers continue to down size and right size for our new economic realities, so must employees. Here are some tips to consider if you think your job or assignment might be on the chopping block or you are dealing with other recession career issues:

1. Do not put too much stock in what others say. Evaluate the situation for yourself and use your own good judgment. Remember it was only the end of last year when GM's management said that if they did not receive financial help from the government that jobs would be lost. Guess what? Jobs are still going to be lost. In fact, In addition to terminating the Pontiac brand, GM also announced they were eliminating 21,000 more jobs before the end of 2010.

2. Start scanning the environment and building new job skills that are in demand. Look inside your existing company and then look inside your industry as a whole. Learn about the direction of your industry and where you fit.

3. Make an effort to connect with and support other people. Our tendency sometimes is to think we are alone in our job or career anxiety. This is not true. There are others in the same boat and creating a network of supporters is one way to advance.

4. Act for the present, but stay focused on the future. Remember, your goal should not necessarily be loyalty to company, but lifelong employability.

5. Manage your workplace stress. Employees are facing unbelievable levels of workplace stress during these challenging economic times. Many workers are stressed by extra assignments, workplace bullies who are acting up, declining retirement funds and worries about whether or not their jobs will withstand the next round of budget cuts. Getting a handle on workplace stress is a must!

Of course there are no guarantees that even if you do all the right things, you won't be downsized. However, take the time to manage your own career. No one else can do that for you.

Do you have any tips to share about a job or career that could be approaching obsolescence?

Workplace Bullies Are Acting up During the Recession

Dr. Bertice Berry, sociologist and author calls them “internal terrorists." Workplace bullies, Berry says, "are people who don't understand their own purpose or potential, and because they don't, they try to destroy the purpose and potential of someone else. They would make things wrong to prove that they are right.”

Have you seen workplace bullies in action recently? Seems some people have.

If you have to deal with workplace bullies at the office, you mostly chalk it up to one of the annoyances of the job and not let it affect your work. In some cases when it turns into a you-go-or-I-go situation, some people do walk away from the office, the department or the company. You know the old cliché – people don’t leave jobs they leave managers and the people they work with. Well that is easier said than done when there are more people than available jobs.

It is becoming the you-go-before-I-go .

That was the essence of the conversation by the couple in the check-out line behind me at Trader Joe’s yesterday! One shopper was telling the other about the undue pressure she was feeling from an office bully who was intimidating newer staff to push them out. She stated that this bully was telling junior staff about positions in other departments for which they should apply. The bully had apparently gone so far as to tell two newer employees, that she had not been in agreement with them being hired since she knew that they would unnecessarily stress the company financially.

I guess I have been so focused on encouraging folks to stay positive and pay kindness forward, that I wasn’t thinking about workplace bullies who try to intimidate others out of a job in an effort to keep their own.

One of the newer employees was afraid to take the issue to management, for fear it put a spotlight on him as a troublemaker.

It crossed my mind that the person telling the story may have been misreading the situation. Is it really bullying or is someone just strategically trying to manage their own career? Is it an unsophisticated attempt to try the if-you-go-then-maybe-I-don't-have-to-go strategy?

It sounds like the real possibility does exist that in a tight job market, the workplace bully in some people might be rearing it's ugly head.

Thoughts?

FREE Resume Printing Day at 1600 Fedex Locations

In an effort to help the community and job seekers at large, Fedex is offering free resume printing to customers today only!

Over 1600 Fedex (you may know them as Kinko's) locations will participate.

"We want to help people who need it right now," said spokeswoman Jenny Robertson in a Chicago Tribune article. "We can't give out free food, but we can give away free copies."

Kudos to Fedex! Way to Pay it Forward in a Bad Economy.

Stimulus dollars may end up helping illegal workers

By Franco Ordoñez
fordonez@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009

Some construction jobs created as a result of federal aid could go to illegal immigrants.

Thousands of N.C. jobs and millions in wages created from the federal economic stimulus package could wind up going to illegal immigrants.

Congress stripped language from the $789 billion package that would have required employers to verify the legal status of workers paid with stimulus money.

The White House estimates the package will generate or save an estimated 105,000 jobs in North Carolina over the next two years.

While it's impossible to say definitively how many illegal immigrants will get jobs, multiple studies estimate at least 14percent of the construction labor force is in the U.S. illegally. Experts say actual numbers are likely much higher.

North Carolina could get $1.3billion for highway and school construction, which, based on federal estimates, could mean more than 5,000 jobs for undocumented workers.

“That's not right,” said Jon Holstead, 24, a Charlotte electrician helping to build Salome Church Road Elementary School near Lowe's Motor Speedway. “You have Americans out of work, but you have illegal immigrants coming to work.”

The stimulus package was a popular topic this week at the school construction site where Americans and immigrants work side-by-side. Several immigrants on the project told the Observer they are working without proper legal papers.

A masonry worker, Juan Luis, 28, said Latinos are struggling as much as anyone.

“People say Latinos take our jobs, but no one wants to do the kind of work we do,” he said. “Americans just don't see it that way.”

More than $770 million of the state's stimulus money is expected for roads. A 2006 Observer investigation found illegal immigrants – using Social Security numbers that were fake, stolen or belonging to dead people – working for major N.C. road-building companies. Using a sample of payroll records from large contractors, including Rea Contracting and Blount-Sanford Construction, the newspaper found questionable Social Security numbers for a third of 85 workers.

Observer calls to several road companies were not returned Wednesday.

The unemployment rate in North Carolina was 8.7 percent in December; in South Carolina, 9.5 percent. Last year, S.C. Gov Mark Sanford, who's one of a handful of Republican governors who are considering turning down money from the stimulus package, signed legislation that requires S.C. businesses to verify immigration status. North Carolina has no such law or policy.

The House of Representatives included an amendment in the original stimulus bill that would have required all recipients of stimulus money to use E-Verify, a federal program that checks Social Security numbers. House and Senate negotiators removed the requirement in the final version.

U.S. Rep. John Spratt, a Democrat from York County, S.C., has voted for verification systems and supported the House bill with the E-Verify provision included. But he noted, “I don't think E-Verify should be made mandatory until it is made accurate and reliable.”

Supporters of E-Verify acknowledge errors but say the program still effectively identifies illegal immigrants.

“Would it keep out every illegal? No,” said Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that advocates stronger immigration enforcement. “Like in anything, is there going to be fraud? Sure. … The point is this could be an important tool to deter illegal employment.”

Although they voted against the overall stimulus package, local GOP legislators such as Rep. Sue Myrick, supported keeping verification in the bill.

The office of Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Cherryville Republican, said he joined other Republicans in a letter disagreeing with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which recommended not including E-Verify in the stimulus package.

Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, said in a statement: “E-Verify is an important tool to help us enforce laws already on the books, and it is unfortunate the Senate was not given an opportunity to vote on the provision.”

Opponents of E-Verify says it would hinder the economic recovery.

In a recent statement, the Immigration Policy Center, a pro-immigrant research group, said E-Verify is “deeply flawed and ensnares American job-seekers in database errors, adds to the costs incurred by employers required to use it, and does not actually prevent undocumented immigrants from getting jobs.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that expanding the federal verification program could cost $17 billion over the next 10 years.

A 2006 study by the Kenan Institute at UNC Chapel Hill estimated that Hispanics poured more than $9 billion a year into the economy even after saving or sending home 20 percent of their income.

The spiraling economy has sent some immigrants back to their home counties. Those who remain are vying for far fewer jobs – often in competition with blue-collar American workers.

During a break from installing fire sprinklers at the Salome Church Road school, Thomas Peck, 29, and Robert Vanderburg, 26, sat in Peck's truck to discuss the economy and their hopes for the stimulus package. Looking over at the Latino masonry workers, they said friends could use some of those jobs.

“The more immigrants come over here the less jobs we have,” Vanderburg said. “They come and work for $6 or $7 an hour. An American needs $15 to $16 to get by.”

Are These Career Myths Holding you Back!

There is really no one right way or one path to achieve the career happiness or the "career nirvana" many of us seek. All of us know that multiple factors affect the career decisions or life choices we make at any given time.

If we are exploring a career makeover during this recession or changing careers, we must explore and debunk any career myths or perceptions that might be holding us back. As Olivia Crosby says in her article for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Don't be a victim to your own misconceptions."

Take some time today to explore whether or not any of the following 10 career myths are affecting your current career choices? If you are saying any of these things to yourself, you should know these statements are not rooted in reality. If any of these 10 myths represent a barrier for you, now is the time to start working on them.

1. "There was only one perfect career path ideal for me. I missed my big opportunity several years ago, so it's over for me."

2. "I need to just find one career and stick with it for life. If I change my mind, people will think I am wishy-washy and indecisive."

3. "I have to stick to my college major to build my career. Why else would I spend all that time, if I don't want to work in that field?"

4. "Only experiences and competencies gained on the job are important to determining what I do next. No one really cares about my volunteer work."

5. "New training or education is only for young people. Seriously, I am too old to go back to school."

6. "I need to take career tests since they will tell me what to do."

7. "Work life balance is a big myth; I have to choose between being happy at work and having a family. There is no happy medium."

8. "I really should be looking for a "safe" industry where there is a lot of job security. This is just not the time to start a business."

9. "I can only be happy and make money in one of the hot jobs for the future. I need to get into Healthcare or Technology."

10. "I'm too old to change my career. Starting over would be silly."

Do you have a career myth to add?