Career related news for young professionals
……………..The Millennial generation’s trademark concern with work/life balance demonstrates a change in priorities from previous generations. According to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Millennials say that finding the right balance between their work life and personal life is the number one thing they look for in a job. Yet recently, Barnard 2011 Commencement speaker, Sheryl Sandberg,…
While reading a half a dozen reviews on Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, I pictured red-faced columnists pounding their keyboards in support For or Against the book’s premise. Granted, most of the writers agree with the opposition on a point or two, making them appear at least temporarily objective and fair, but otherwise, it seems…
…………………………… The following is a reprint of an article I wrote for the Barnard College Career Newsletter. For most of my grammar school years, I happily pictured myself singing and performing in middle and high school choirs and musicals. My TV role models acted and sang and I would too because I could do anything…
……………………………The Millennial Generation has job-hopped more than past generations, which the media attributes to a variety of influences, but job dissatisfaction is at the core. Most of the factors influencing job satisfaction aren’t too surprising: working conditions, workload and stress, recognition and responsibility, promotion and financial rewards, co-worker respect and relationship with supervisors. More thought…
I ran on the treadmill this morning watching The Today Show and witnessed teenage fans of One Direction in tears. I don’t fully understand why girls cry when they see idols…are they happy to be in their presence? Or, are they sad they’ll never get closer to them? For whatever reason, these girls were deifying…
Now that the election is over, we can all be happy there are no more snipey political ads, no more intrusive political phone calls, and; no more annoying candidate diatribes. We now know that derisive political behavior doesn’t work so well. Pundits say one of the boons to the Obama campaign came when he joined…
During the second presidential debate last night neither candidate really answered Katherine Fenton’s question: “In what new ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?” President Obama sited his backing of a bill, “The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act…
I’m half way through Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. My take away at this point is that despite being considered arrogant, rude, disrespectful and at times smelly… Jobs’ manic belief in his product overrode his negative attributes and inspired a severely beaten up workforce. How does that happen? When you’re repeatedly told that everything you…
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday on a recent gathering of business leaders who comprised the Women in the Economy Executive Task Force. The group produced some excellent directives for C-suite executives on increasing the numbers of women in companies’ senior ranks. Female and male business leaders delivered guidelines for companies on increasing profitability, developing…
Women comprise nearly half the U.S. workforce and start businesses at 1.5x the national average. However, females are underrepresented on corporate Boards and male founded companies receive 95% of venture capital funding. The University of North Carolina’s online business program, MBA@UNC, highlights these and other business-related gender inequities in its infographic below. One particular fact…
Harvard Business Review recently published an article, Four Ways Women Stunt their Careers Unintentionally. The evils include avoiding self-promotion, neglecting to ask for what you want, shunning attention, and keeping silent. Illustrating some of these female vices, the article describes Sharon Allen, former CEO of Deloitte Touche, who was passed over for a promotion during…
A few years ago I noticed the young women at my company didn’t approach their careers the same way the men did. The women were equally ambitious but didn’t self advocate. Harvard Business Review published a study in October with similar conclusions. According to the study, women are overly modest, don’t ask for what they…
Surprising (I thought) results from a recent career survey revealed that 68% of professionals polled said millennial workers are less motivated to take on responsibility and produce quality work than others. Forty-six percent think millennials are less engaged at work than others. Interestingly, the Gen Y professionals themselves agree, with 54% believing their peers are…
When you are relatively young in the office, clients can be intimidating. There’s so much suck-upmanship going on towards them that you start to feel like part of an entourage. But clients can show astonishingly bad judgment on occasion and it’s good to know how to deal. There’s the obvious, sexual harassment problem. Chances are…
The Wall Street Journal this week noted in its article, From Ivied Halls to Traveling Salesman, that jobless graduates are turning to sales jobs which often don’t require college degrees. In many of the positions, there are no benefits and no base salary attached. The new salesperson follows an eat-what-you-kill philosophy where she must make…
Forbes magazine just released the 10 Worst Stereotypes About Powerful Women. The magazine interviewed female leaders around the world in politics, industry, and media and compiled the following list of their most hated labels: 1. Ice Queen 2. Single and Lonely 3. Tough 4. Weak 5. Masculine 6. Conniving 7. Emotional 8. Angry 9. Just…
Each year, college students rank their top picks of potential employers in a survey produced by Stockholm based, Universum. The research firm asks students from China to the U.S., and everywhere in-between, who they would like to work for. This year the Big Four Accounting firms took second through fifth slots, all bested by Google.…
Malcolm Gladwell, one of today’s great social scientists- or at least one of the most popular, highlights in his book, Blink, the merits and limitations of quick decision making. In Blink, Gladwell takes a universal truth, the best decisions are made after the benefit of significant research, and stands it on its end. Sometimes this…
Just as the offspring of the Baby Boom generation seem to be flooding the applicant pool for schools and jobs, the Wall Street Journal reports that business school applications are down 9.9% from a year earlier. The Journal adds that although historically, interest in graduate school increases when the job market softens, the same has…
Inadequate Career Development Holds Back Female Executives, McKinsey Says (WSJ 3/4/11). The Wall Street Journal previewed a McKinsey Report today which argues that corporations should take the initiative to develop women in the middle of their careers to increase the female ranks at the top of the corporate hierarchy. Doesn’t sound like shocking advice, does…
