Over My Shoulder

What am I reading? What catches my eye? I invite you to look over my shoulder!

[jonathanerde1-blog]

new site

I am working on a new blog site in order to get the URL that I wanted. 

See you there! :-) jonathanerde.tumblr.com

[jonathanerde1-blog]

[jonathanerde1-blog]

To me, this suggests that a combination of reforms could lower the costs of college. But, it is important to point out that there is a huge variation. Students with the right combination of goals, aspirations, and direction can get a valuable degree without breaking the bank. Unfortunately, many find themselves elsewhere. Perhaps more than lack of funding, there’s a dearth of solid mentoring for students?

[jonathanerde1-blog]

I love the tables as whiteboards innovation. Save paper, save ideas. Of course you might want to snap a photo and upload it to Evernote before your brainstorming session is erased...

[jonathanerde1-blog]

This article in Surfer could be a manual on how to do just about anything well. In business, just like in a surfing competition, it is important to be prepared and know your strengths. Right now this article reminds me of my job search. Does it remind you of anything?

[jonathanerde1-blog]

This article is right on. In today's hyper-competitive job market, job seekers need to go beyond quantity and pay attention to the quality of their offer to employers. What does that mean? Read on. This article starts with some fairly obvious points but makes some great observations that every job-seeker needs to constantly heed. 

[jonathanerde1-blog]

I have read a lot of articles that highlight the ideas verse skills debate. They often have titles like "Is a College Degree Really Worth It" and feature businesses that can't find employees, college graduates that can't find jobs, or college professors who talk about the next innovation in education. As a twenty-something, distinguished college graduate, and job searcher, I have been thinking a lot about this. If there's one educational innovation to be made, it should be a new focus on job-searching and networking in business curriculum.

College students need to be taught, early on, how to network and to be aware of what employers want. Many top-notch students receive a message from their advisers that a certain grade, course or activity will land them a job. But, that's probably only one-quarter of the story in today's hyper competitive job market. Further complicating the problem, top-notch students are often only taught how to write a resume and a cover letter. Those are essential, for sure; but they are rudimentary tools of job searching. These students need to know that it's not just about grades, courses, or majors. They need to know that job-searching is a survival skill. They need to know that their job search doesn't start the day they graduate. It starts on the first day of classes. Today's business student needs to figure out what is they want to do, actively expand their professional network, acquire work experience, create a portfolio of their work, acquire nuts and bolts skills, demonstrate "flexible thinking," and network, network, network.

Articles like this overlook two key points. Success in landing a job sometimes comes from good fortune. But, it is more likely to come from a well-planned course of actions and consistent behavior.

[jonathanerde1-blog]

Social Media is great and I am there, but is it really as effective as face to face contact? Perhaps, it could be used to initiate contact, but the chances that an employer would stumble across a passive job-seeker's profile seem slim. It also seems that advice like this is most useful for a class of networker who is "uber-skilled." In other words, I can picture a recruiter looking for highly experienced workers with credentials, recommendations, rank, and degrees that take years to accumulate. But, that's something that the vast majority of "New Grads" are unlikely to have. Still, I won't argue against the utility of LinkedIn. The trick is to combine it with other more classical techniques.

[jonathanerde1-blog]

I am a big fan of Chrome. So, I had to check if I could add a Tumblr extension to it. This post was created with "Share on Tumblr," and so far I would give it a thumbs up. One warning--be sure to post your entry before you click on a new browsing tab.