Best alternative to grad school

Best alternative to grad school Ive spent three years writing about how graduate school is a waste of time and money (yes, business school and law school too). So now when radio and TV producers need someone to bitch about graduate school, they call me. Here I am on NPR today. I dont usually post my interviews, but this one is notable because I completely lost patience for people still defending grad school. Its so clear, even to defenders of grad school, that grad school is a bad financial decision, that this guy has resorted to saying that you need to go to grad school to be a good person. Of course, I went nuts on him. I think the thing that is pushing me over the edge with graduate school is that people who are thinking straight about schooling are not even considering graduate school. These people are debating if college is a rip off (heres a great discussion in New York magazine with James Altucher, a venture capitalist in NYC) And people are even debating if high school is useless (heres a great post by Lisa Nielsen who is with the NYC Department of Education). And anyway, Im losing interest in the debate about grad school because Im convinced that the future belongs to home schoolers because they are self-learners. Also, for those of you who keep telling me that there are some fields you absolutely have to have a degree for, check out the song 99 Problems by Jay-Z. The song includes great legal advice about Miranda rights, racial profiling and search warrants, even though he doesnt have a law degree or a creative writing certificate to prove his poetic talents. Click this link for an attorneys analysis of the advice in the song, but heres an excerpt, attorneys advice in italics: The year is ninety-four, in my trunk is raw In my rear-view mirror is the motherfuckin law Got two choices yall, pull over the car or (hmm) bounce on the Devil, put the pedal to the floor And I aint tryin to see no highway chase with Jake Plus I got a few dollars, I can fight the case (Not running from the police seems like excellent advice.) So I, pull over to the side of the road Son, do you know why Im stoppin you for? Cause Im young and Im black and my hats real low Or do I look like a mindreader, sir? I dont know Am I under arrest or should I guess some more? (In general, not volunteering information at a traffic stop is great advice.) In the comments section on the NPR site, people complain that Im bitter and angry and offer no alternative to graduate school. Heres the alternative: Admit that adult life is scary because there is no clear path to success. Grad school is not a quick fix for the fears of adulthood. Instead, be grateful for the chance to be lost it means youre living your own life, because no one can make choices in the exact same way you can, whether they are right or wrong. So all there is for adult life is you, following your nose, trying to figure out what brings you joy. Each time I see someone who has done that, in some little way, I feel relief and hope for myself. Image from Austin Kleon. Best alternative to grad school After yesterdays post, about how stupid grad school is, a lot of people asked, what is an alternative to grad school? This is a great question. I see this picture outside my window at least once a month. I have only a little idea of whats going on. Should I go to graduate school to figure it out? I could. I could get in. And its clear that the next stage in my life will involve some sort of work related to farming. A business. Or writing. Or marketing. But Im not going to graduate school to learn about agriculture because I have tried going to graduate school to get a jump on my job prospects and it doesnt work. When I graduated from college, I was supposedly going to graduate school in history. But I kept writing entrance essays about why I wanted to tell stories about people and history is a good way to do that. And finally, my professor who had stood by me for four years, getting undergraduate research grants for me to study mass movements in colonial America, said, Forget it. You dont want to be a historian. What she really meant was, Im not pulling strings to get you into Yale. And that was the only place I applied. Because she said shed get me in. Every job interview I went on seemed stupid: An incredible combination of not enough money to live on and a job description that was one step up from slave. So I played professional beach volleyball. I got as high as #17 in the US rankings. But when I went back down 32 I had no competitive urge to get back up. So I knew I needed to do something else. But I couldnt get a job. I mean, I could. Working for my boyfriend. But that had sucked before. So I knew it would suck again. I took the GRE and scored in the bottom 20th percentile in quantitative reasoning, which got me into an English masters program. It took me a year and a half and $15,000 in loans to realize this degree would never get me a job. I tried to date a few professors, but they were already adept at judging whether or not a grad student was too messed up. Now Im going to tell you what I did to make things come together in my career. First, I stopped doing work that wasnt going to lead to a job. I got a C in Victorian Literature, a D in Film and Literature, an A in modern literature only because I plagiarized from the New York Times Book Review. Meanwhile, I taught myself HTML before people knew what the Internet was. I presented a paper at the Dartmouth Technology Conference while my fellow English grad students were writing novels. I left grad school a month before it ended. I just left. Went back to Los Angles. I was the thinnest I have ever been in my life because I had no money for food. People worried about me and brought me leftovers. I ate them. This was happening when you had to send out resumes on thick, expensive white paper, and I used food money for postage. I got an interview 50 miles from where I lived. I borrowed a friends car and got the job. I was hired to run the whole Internet for a Fortune 500 company, Ingram Micro. My job was to enforce the AP Style guide even though Id never read it. I was in charge of the web development team even though I didnt know anything about development besides the HTML pages I wrote in grad school. I gave myself a graduate course in Internet. And a graduate course in copy writing. And a graduate course in management. I read books. I read magazines. I tried stuff out and took way too long and then tried it again. I worked 15 hour days, and I felt like I was a student. I was learning all the time. So its logical to me that this is what everyone should do. Find a foot in a door and then start learning everything you can to open that door wider. I got fired for having sixteen non-work projects on my work computer. At the time I was horrified. Now I think it was the inevitable result of me taking control over my own education. If you are thinking of going to graduate school, you need to understand that the process of discovering what value you bring to the adult world is a very hard process to endure. Because you are probably smart, and you like to learn, and most jobs are not about paying you to learn. You have to create that for yourself. The best thing I did is that I kept my learning curve very high even outside of school. I saw where the opportunities were, and I started learning in that area, trying to figure out where I fit. So look. Brazen Careerist has a Social Media Bootcamp. Everyone who is thinking of going to grad school should take the course. Its $245, which is nothingnothingcompared to grad school loans. And the course can show you a way out. The Bootcamp is about possibilities. A course cannot answer your big life questions for you. But it can show you that you have more options than you think you do. If you are thinking of going to grad school, its because you dont like the choices you see in front of you. Maybe nothing gets you excited. But you can use social media to bridge the type of learning you loved to do in school with the type of learning you can get paid to do. And you can use social media to see how to make jobs for yourself that get you excited. It might seem like a harder path to sign up for Social Media Bootcamp instead of getting a graduate degree. It seems harder because you wont have someones stamp of approval. But credentials dont get the job. Experience does. So, in fact, Social Media Bootcamp is the path of least resistance. Your safety net is not a degree, but practice learning new ideas on your own and implementing them. So you know you can do that again and again. Life should be a process of learning and doing, learning and doing. Grad school is all learning. Its an imbalance that is not fair to you, and not right for you. Create your own grad school. Open your own doors. Sign up right now. [Note: The bootcamp registration has passed. But so many people have asked me about signing up that I am offering a one-hour bootcamp alternative. Email me for details: penelope@penelopetrunk.com]

Using Summary for Writing a Resume

Using Summary for Writing a ResumeWriting a resume is easy with summary. In fact, it's so easy that people get results from it! This article will discuss some of the reasons why Summart is such a valuable resume tool.One reason why Summart is great for writing a resume is because it has a lot of features. The first thing you'll find is that it offers a quick and easy to use interface. You won't have to worry about navigating around the program and you can get results very quickly.Next, you'll also find that it gives you quick action on any question you have. If you click on a few links, you'll get a list of the most common career fields and the most popular schools that offer the specific courses. You can even type in a key phrase and get the most popular searches in your field.And, finally, Summart is a great place to edit and customize your professional resume. You can edit the information or keywords you included in your basic resume, as well as add anything else you want. When yo u're done, you can save your personalized resume as a PDF document for printing, including the date and time.Using Summart for writing a resume has several benefits. In addition to the ability to quickly edit and customize the information, Summart allows you to save it as a PDF file. As a result, you can easily share your resume with your potential employers and print it out at your convenience.Lastly, you'll also find that Summart allows you to save hundreds of professional resume examples. Once you create your personal resume, you can use the software to learn from the examples and adapt the information to your own requirements.To summarize, when you write a resume with Summart, you get one-stop shopping for all the information you need to put together a professional resume. You also get access to hundreds of professionally created resumes for the job you are applying for. Plus, you can customize each resume to make it uniquely yours!All of this adds up to a great way to get a res ume you can use for further employment. There's no need to copy the information from your portfolio, because Summart makes it easy to customize your resume for your professional requirements. Once you get started, you'll never go back!

Are You Ready For Social Recruiting

Are You Ready For Social Recruiting Social Recruiting Humanizes The Process Despite the dismal response most job seekers get after they have submitted an application, some companies are trying to engage and respond to questions through social platforms (LinkedIn groups, Twitter, Facebook pages). In fact, many corporate recruiters and human resources professionals say they are open to connecting with candidates through LinkedIn. This is good news for job seekers who often find it difficult to make contacts within companies. With a little research, you can directly connect with corporate recruiters and begin building a relationship. Rather than applying for a job and falling into the black hole, you now have more options to connect and stand out. Social Recruiting Study Results Jobvite released their annual findings on how and where job seekers are using social networks for their job search. You can read my summary here. Take note:  There is a major disconnect between job seekers and recruiters. They spend their time in different places. You can read todays US News World Report post to learn which social network YOU need to be active on. Tap Friends To Find Job Opportunities The most compelling reason to embrace social media for your job search is the ability to connect with current and past friends across multiple social networks in order to learn about job opportunities. Read more about the power of being a referred candidate. Open Networks Build Future Relationships And did you know you can forge new relationships with influencers and peers you do not yet know? Open networks like Twitter and Google+ allow you to follow or circle people you do not have connections to. You can even communicate with them just by using their name in your status update. You will find most people who use Twitter and Google+ are friendly and often respond to your message if it isnt spammy or too self-promotional. Try it and see! More Social Recruiting Tips Insight My US News World Report post today has more helpful information about social recruiting for job seekers (and companies). I hope youll check it out!

COTJ Reviews Gulpfish Social Job Search Tool

COTJ Reviews Gulpfish Social Job Search Tool 10 Flares 10 Flares The problem: Applying for jobs on Monster, CareerBuilder, and other large sites can sometimes have us feeling like we just arent getting our personality through.  Along with feeling like robots, the process is tedious and leaves us confused as to where weve even applied and who has interest in us. The answer: GULPFISH.COM What is Gulpfish? Gulpfish is a start up social job search website that helps seekers not only get more of their personality into their job applications but also makes for an easy to use and organized search tool. Some great features youll see on Gulpfish include: Creative and elaborate profile section On-line interviews right on Gulpfish Job Search Organization View Top-5 Employers (Employers can view Top 5-Candidates) Television job search application (first of its kind) Gulpfishs Elaborate Profile Creation Gulpfish provides many options for job seekers when creating a profile, which sets them apart from the big name job boards.  Here is a run down of the features/options in the profile creation section: Contact Information This section is what it seems.  Name, location, and the information companies need to reach you. Professional Information Here youll list out the job title/profession you are targeting, the industry you work in, certifications youve received, and lastly your professional education. Career Data This section goes deeper into your career.  It asks you to provide industry blog posts youve written, if youre willing to relocate, and if youd be willing to take a job in another industry for comparative pay.  These are great questions that you dont see on many job search websites. Bio Whats really cool about the bio section is that Gulpfish provides four templates for job seekers (Unemployed, Employed, Student, and Empty).  Its not easy to talk about ourself when asked to, so this is very helpful! Photo Yep, you get a photo too!  If youd rather not have one, thats an option as well. Resume Cover Letter Gulpfish allows you to paste in a saved Resume Cover Letter, or they will help you create one. Portfolio I love this section!  Gulpfish allows you to toss in Pictures, Video, Audio, and other Files that help show off your talents.  This portfolio section is perfect for any creative type job seeker! Video Bio Another cool feature is the video resume section.  You can upload a file from your computer, upload it from YouTube, or go to videoBIO to create one! Gulpfish Organizes Your Job Search Gulpfish offers a few cool features to help you keep your job search organized.  On the right side of your Home page, youll see Employers and Interview Calendar.  The Employers box is where youll see the employers youve saved, as well as an inbox section for messages.  Underneath that section is where youll see your calendar that shows all of your interviews youve set up. Job Search From My Television?  Yep! Gulpfish has launched the first of its kind television application that allows companies and their potential candidates to connect and interact right on their Samsung application enabled internet televisions.  The application theyve created is the Gulpfish Social Job Connect Application.  I havent seen exactly what it looks like and how it works yet, but Im very excited to get a look at it sometime very soon! Gulpfish is Co-owned by Full Force The Full Force brothers (Lucien George also known as Bowlegged Lou, Paul George also known as Paul   Anthony, and Brian George known as B-Fine) have signed on as co-owners of Gulpfish.  The three brothers acted as bullies in the hit films House Party 1 2.  If you arent familiar with those movies, maybe you know who Rihanna, Brittany Spears, Patti Labelle, The Backstreet Boys, Lil Kim, and Nicki Minaj are.  Those are just some of the artists that the Full Force brothers have written /or produced music for. The brothers will help form a Gulpfish Music Entertainment division to help connect those creative professional with jobs.  This division of Gulpfish is coming soon, but you can find it by clicking here. Final Words From COTJ While Gulpfish has really only just begun, they have already been tagged as an innovator in the social job search space.  Their partnership with the Full Force brothers will help them grow at a much quicker rate than most start ups, and creative professionals should be very excited about the partnership. Create your free profile today on Gulpfish.com!

Used cars and job hunting - dont ask for the sun, moon and stars -

Used cars and job hunting - dont ask for the sun, moon and stars - Were selling a car, so we posted a detailed ad on Craigs List and received over 30 replies in just one day. Clearly, we want to sell the car, but we are busy, so going through the replies seems a bit tedious, even though we are happy to have people interested (dont get me wrong)! Many express interest and include their contact information. Some even let us know when they are available to see the car. Others followed up their original email with YET ANOTHER email within 24 hours! But, the most interesting (to me) were the ones who had 8 or 10 (!) additional questions, wanted a picture AND asked if the price is negotiable! Faced with 30+ responses, which do you think well contact first? Yup the ones who gave us the information we need and didnt seem too demanding. Lesson? When you connect with someone for any reason think first about THEIR needs. How will your note, letter or request strike them? If you hope to hear back, make sure you include information that helps your target understand WHY connecting to you would be advantageous. Make it easy to them to respond (by including your phone number and email address). Finally, dont be too demanding! If we can sell a car without responding to extra questions and sending pictures, were going to go that path. High maintenance isnt a label you want as a used car buyer in a sellers market or as a job seeker in a recession. Think of this analogy when you apply for your next job. Are you putting yourself in the hiring managers shoes? What can you do to make things easy for him or her? Are you connecting the dots between what the job requires and what you offer with your resume? Are you addressing the employers key questions in your cover letter? Are your materials optimized and competitive? Do what you can to increase the odds that you will be in the short stack of people contacted for the opportunity. My clients get interviews and land jobs, even in competitive industries. I can help you achieve your goals. Contact me to learn more! photo by preciouskhyatt

Objective on Resume - How to Write a Good Objective

Objective on Resume - How to Write a Good ObjectiveWriting a good objective on resume is a very important element that must be in your resume. If you want to impress the employer, then you should use some objective to entice them to hire you and get you the job.In resume, it is not enough just to mention some skill that you have. You also need to add something more.There are many things that you can add to make it more appealing and attractive to the employer. When you write an objective, you can let the employer know that you are an exceptional and valuable employee. This will make your resume stand out from the rest of the competition.But the question is, how do you write a good objective on resume? How do you turn a generic resume into an objective? The answer is very simple.You need to hire a professional resume writer or some other resource who knows what he/she is doing. You can trust this source because they can write the job objective for you and write it in such a way that i t makes the employer and recruiter realize that you are the best candidate that they have ever seen in their life. This is because you are using a good objective on resume. A professional will know how to make your resume look better than anyone else's in the world.So the next time you are hiring a person for a new job, look at his/her resume, do you see a good objective written in it? If yes, then the recruiter or hiring manager will recognize your skills, and that is why you are the best candidate for the job.As you know, a good objective will tell the recruiter about your qualities. Then you will impress the employer to hire you. This is a good chance for you to impress the employer. Think of ways to write a good objective on resume, and you will surely be on your way to the top!

Rules for Resume Writing for a Academic Advisor at a College Reviews & Guide

Rules for Resume Writing for a Academic Advisor at a College Reviews & Guide Whatever sample you select, make sure your CV is readable and gets attention from the recruiters at first. Many employees wind up feeling that their existing employers can't offer what they are interested in and proceed to scan the marketplace. When you're a fresh graduate and are looking for a superb job opportunity, you probably require an ideal CV describing all your present skills, qualifications and the other things that makes you suitable for practically any job. Choosing Rules for Resume Writing for a Academic Advisor at a College Is Simple 1 day, you might even delight in writing essays and reports. It is most important if writing a resume, but in addition, it applies to CVs. Applicants must apply online, other types of submission won't be accepted. Writing is a fundamental human activity. If you continue seeing a skill or tool mentioned you don't know a lot about, start looking for free or low-cost on-line courses on the topic to bolster your skill collection. Your resume should be formatted in an easy, professional way. Obviously, the degree of accuracy of the simple fact you will present will definitely are contingent on the stock knowledge you posses. There are lots of facets deciding the grade of the CV and clean appearance is the utmost aspect. There are a few professions like finance or healthcare where specific certifications or degrees are necessary to getting the job. In your resume, it is possible to only consist of work experience directly associated with the job that you apply. Every job must add to the increase and profit of an organization. As an example, in CV, if you're asking for work in education, you might want to place your teaching experience in addition to the CV. Rules for Resume Writing for a Academic Advisor at a College - the Conspiracy In fact, all types of writing have their own methods of influencing the knowledge of an indiv idual. Never use words whose meanings you aren't sure of. When you've written the remainder of your essay, you are going to discover that it's a lot easier to write two to three sentences that outline the range of your work. Rules for Resume Writing for a Academic Advisor at a College at a Glance No matter your major, you will need to generate many written assignments over the duration of your college career. Students are needed to check Blackboard for course activity information in case of a class cancellation. They are required to check Blackboard for course activity information in the event of a course cancellation. Whispered Rules for Resume Writing for a Academic Advisor at a College Secrets If you know a possible employer will want to realize that you have the correct credentials before considering your other experience, place your education at the very top of the webpage just below your contact info and expert summary. Allow it to be simple for them to find you by i ncluding the hyperlink to your profile at the peak of your resume. It is possible to either compose the resume all on your own or get it written from a specialist. If you're searching for a great academic advisor resume example, you've come to the perfect spot. The Argument About Rules for Resume Writing for a Academic Advisor at a College Typically, a resume is 1 page long, though it can occasionally be as long as two pages. Resume is a significant document stating your information essential for the job. What Is So Fascinating About Rules for Resume Writing for a Academic Advisor at a College? The aforementioned rule should be repeated. Watch the subsequent video to learn to compose the great recent-graduate resume for an entry-level position. A proposal, as an example, is a written offer to fix a technical problem in a specific way, under a predetermined plan of management, for a predetermined sum of money.