Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

Books on Hold is a blog series dedicated to books I have seen in passing and requested from my local library. See more in the series at the end of this blog post. — Douglas

Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

From Amazon.com…

“If you said advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?

Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He’s studied why New York Times articles make the paper’s own Most E-mailed List, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children. In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.

Contagious combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese-steak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is: a blender. If you’ve wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share. Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.”

* Discovered via KnowledgeBlocks

Previously in Books on Hold:

• Salty Snacks: Make Your Own Chips, Crisps, Crackers, Pretzels, Dips, and Other Savory Bites
• Pancake: A Global History
• Breakfast for Dinner: Recipes for Frittata Florentine, Huevos Rancheros, Sunny-Side-Up Burgers, and More!
• Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community by Joy Deangdeelert Cho
• Nigellissima: Easy Italian-Inspired Recipes by Nigella Lawson
• Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future
• Meatless: More Than 200 of the Very Best Vegetarian Recipes (Martha Stewart Living)
• How to Boil An Egg by Rose Carrarini
• Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor-Forward Food from the Upstart New York City Vegetarian Restaurant by Amanda Cohen
• See more Books on Hold here!

Job Openings from Tuesdays with Transitioners

Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, organizer of Tuesdays with Transitioners posted these job listings recently. Join Tuesdays with Transitioners Meetup group to receive these job listings directly via Meetup.com and email.

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – March 10, 2013

• Entertainment Company seeks Office Manager
• Assistant to Production Company
• Director of Warehouse Operations (Santa Clarita, CA)
• Associate Manager, Materials/Supply Chain (Los Angeles area)
• Channel Manager for Digital Media Company
• Executive Personal Assistant to Entertainment CEO
• Evening Legal Secretary in Pasadena
• Fulfillment Assistant, Joni and Friends
• Statistical Programmer, Clinical Trials
• Biostatistician Clinical Trials
• Recruit LA Alumni Only Career Expo
• Marketing Communications/Sales for growing business (Scottsdale, AZ)
• Looking for Field Marketing Reps across CA for Wine Distribution
• Manufacturing Engineer, Caltek Staffing
• Micro Electronics Assembly Manager, Caltek Staffing
• UTA Listings for 03-06-2013
• Production Office PA
• Part-Time Talent Agency Internship (Potential to go to Full-Time Paid)
• Apprentice/Admin Assistant, and International Medical Outsource Opportunity
• Administrative Assistant (La Crescenta)
• Benefits Specialist (La Crescenta)
• HR Generalist (Jackson, MS–relocation paid)

Link to Tuesdays with Transitioners for details on all these positions

** Find more jobs on the Career Opportunities Job Board from SimplyHired.com

Originally appeared on BiggSuccess.com

Career Success with New Media

We were happy to visit with Douglas E. Welch today on The Bigg Success Show today. Douglas is an expert on building the career you deserve and spreading the word about your talents using social media. Among other things, he’s the host of two great blogs and podcasts: Career Opportunities and Careers in New Media. Here’s a recap of the conversation:

Read Douglas talks with George & Mary-Lyn on The Bigg Success Show! with complete text transcript.

Listen to Douglas talk with George & Mary-Lyn on The Bigg Success Show!

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How long are you willing to wait for your company to get its collective “act” together? How long will you suffer through hiring freezes and a moratorium on raises? How long will you suffer a company whose planning, and treatment of their workers, is abysmal at best? How long will you wait before you look for a better job and a better company? You might be surprised at the answer.

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When?

Your problem is, when most companies propose a hiring or salary freeze they have no idea how long it will last. You never know if or when the next layoff is coming and the company will do everything in its power to keep that information from you. You never know when you might see a raise again. When faced with situations like this, where no deadline is given, you need to insure that you establish your own deadlines. How long are you willing to wait? When does a temporary setback turn into a long, slow slide to the bottom?

It has been said that those who are caught up in a layoff are actually the lucky ones. They are given a clear cut reason to go off in search of new work and, hopefully, new opportunities. It is the one’s left behind that really suffer. Workload increases as fewer people are expected to do more work. They worry about when the next layoff is coming and whether they, or their friends, will be on the list. The can foresee that raises and promotions will be a long time coming. Still, they hold on. They listen to every word hat comes out of the executive suite, trying to find meaning where there is often little to be found. They want to believe so badly that this is the last layoff and they convince themselves it is true, even when there are clear warning signs. Don’t fall into this trap and let your career stagnate or collapse along with your company.

What?

The next time you are faced with a layoff or other setback, start the clock running. Set your own internal deadlines. Will you look for a new job if there is another layoff in 3 months? 6? 12? How long will you go without a raise or promotion. A year? More? It might be a firm deadline to leave the company or a softer deadline to re-evaluate in x number of weeks or months. The truth is, there are no hard and fast rules about how long you should wait. You have to decide for yourself, based on your knowledge of the company and its current situation. This means that you have to revisit your deadlines again and again. New information will allow you to re-evaluate your position and adjust your deadlines accordingly. Anything is better than ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away.

What you want to avoid, at all costs, is simply moving from day to day and week to week with no idea when or if you need to find another job. I have known people who have survived 4 and 5 layoffs who still express surprise when their turn comes. How could they not see the writing on their friends’ pink slips? They, and many like them, simply chose to ignore the oncoming storm. They found it more frightening to contemplate a job or career change than face the reality of a faltering, and perhaps even failing, company. They simply waited until they were engulfed and only then started thinking of a way out.

How?

Take note of what is happening around you. Are your expense reports taking longer and longer to process? Are small perks like coffee and tea going away? Are there news stories of lost contracts, failed initiatives and executive turmoil in the newspapers? Are new projects being delayed or cancelled? There are more warning signs than I can possibly list here, but you already know what they are. If something feels bad, then it probably is, regardless of what spin the company might put on it. You must always remember that your company’s first purpose is to perpetuate itself. You need to behave in the same way. You must do what is best for yourself, based on the best information you have. Will you make mistakes? Will you abandon a company too soon? Possibly, but it has been my experience that companies that falter so badly that they need to layoff large parts of their workforce take years to recover, if they recover at all. Action is always preferred over inaction. Often you will find a better job than your current one, even if your old company does recover.

Don’t allow your career to drift along, hoping beyond hope that your company will somehow turn itself around. Too often, companies struggle along for years, promising their employees that things will get better, only to struggle for even longer. You need to direct your career and one way to do this is to be aware and thoughtful about your company’s promises. If you company isn’t offering you the career you deserve, find one that will.

***

As you get to be older — I just turned 49 myself — there is a problematic thought process that can creep into your daily thinking. When you are faced with a new career challenge, a new career idea, a new career thought — you balk. You think about all the work that this new thought is going to require and you wonder if it is really worth the time and trouble. To use an older term, you get “set in your ways.” You find the status quo is a much easier place to live. In some cases, you might even be thinking, “Well, I’m not going to be around in this job (or at all) for much longer, so why bother with all this new work?”

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As you might imagine, thoughts like these can hinder your career at a time when it should be experiencing the most success. Let’s call it an advanced form of “senioritis.” I am sure you are familiar with that problem when it occurs with high schoolers and college students. They reach that final semester of their school career and they just stop trying. They want to simply coast to graduation. As you know, of course, this can often lead to some dramatic failures and a semester of Summer school — or worse.

Don’t let senioritis damage your mature career. You need to be as engaged in your career today as you were when you first started. In fact, you should be even more engaged, as you probably have a better position, better pay and, definitely, more power than when you started. It’s true that you might feel you have earned a chance to relax, a chance to coast for a little while. Unfortunately, as much as we might like to believe that this can happen, anyone who “coasts” — at any time in their career — could find themselves without a job. The world continues moving at high speed even if we are coasting, so if you fail to engage in your career you could find yourself falling further and further behind.

While you can’t just disengage and take your “senior year” off, there are ways of modifying or tweaking your career as you get older. First, you can use the power, prestige and goodwill you have created over your career to unload the most unpleasant tasks of your job. If you once had to travel tens of thousands of miles a year, perhaps you can bring in a newer, younger person to handle that aspect of your work. You can then be free to focus on higher-level issues like further building of the business that ensures it will long outlive your retirement and, hopefully, even you. While you can never earn the ability to coast, you can earn the ability to pick and choose the aspect of your job that you most prefer and concentrate your time and energy there.

It might seem counterintuitive, but you can, and should, find new areas of interest and possibility in your career and pursue those, as well. Remember, you aren’t “coasting” in your career, you are simply fine turning it to match your needs and desires as you grow older. Maybe you have always thought that a particular methodology or technology could greatly assist you or your company. Now is the time to dig deeply into an investigation of that methodology while others concentrate on the day-to-day operations.

Finally — and it all might sound a tad cliche — you can also focus more on becoming the wise old sage of your company or industry. The fact is, you will have seen a lot in your long career and those memories can be tremendously important and useful to others. This isn’t a call to stand in the corporate equivalent of your front yard shouting, “Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!” Rather your past knowledge, combined with new ideas, new thoughts and new, eager people, could create something entirely new and amazing. Your knowledge can help your co-workers avoid common pitfalls along the way to their own career success and help them move onto greater work more quickly.

No one gets to coast in their career, no matter what their age or seniority. Even more, you shouldn’t be seeking to coast out the remainder of your career. The later years of your work life are where you can have the most effect, the most benefit for both yourself and your company. Don’t be the senior in high school who didn’t graduate because they flunked that last chemistry class. Work hard developing new thoughts, ideas, businesses, successes so that you can move on to the next stage in your life confident that you have done your best work. Both your career and your life will greatly benefit.

***

I was invited to join this site, Happify, which seeks to help you build more happiness into your life in a variety of ways. Since it is beta right now, you can only join via invite. It just so happens, though, that I have 5 invites to give away.

Here is some more info on Happify…

At Happify, we’re on top of all the latest cutting-edge research. And it’s that research that informs the interactive, science-based online experience we’ve developed for you — to teach you the skills of happiness. Optimism, self-confidence, gratitude, hope, compassion, purpose, empathy – these are all qualities that anyone can own.

You just have to learn how. And doing so will change your life.

Visit Happify for more info!

Add you comment below about why you would like an invite to Happify and I will send them out on a random basis. Make sure to include your appropriate email address so I can send you the invite.

Job Openings from Tuesdays with Transitioners

Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, organizer of Tuesdays with Transitioners posted these job listings recently. Join Tuesdays with Transitioners Meetup group to receive these job listings directly via Meetup.com and email.

Job Listings from Tuesdays with Transitioners – February 24, 2013

• Metro is hiring!
• Part-time Sales Opportunity
• UTA Listings for 02-22-2013
• UTA Listings for 02-27-2013
• Los Angeles Team Mentoring is looking for recruits
• Joke & Biago is looking for a VFX Artist!
• Executive Assistant, Illumination Entertainment
• Business Affairs Assistant to the COO/EP

Link to Tuesdays with Transitioners for details on all these positions

** Find more jobs on the Career Opportunities Job Board from SimplyHired.com

Al Roker talks about getting started in his career and some of his best advice for anyone building a career. It is great that he says some things that I say all the time to people and in my writing, too.

Can’t see the video above? Watch it on YouTube.

from MediaBistro

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Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on “Presenting Yourself Well on Paper” for CareerCamp Online 2009.

More video from CareerCamp and Douglas E. Welch

I am starting to ramp up production of my next Career Opportunities book and I am looking for a few good advisors/editors to help me make it as great as possible. This will involve “crowd sourcing” this advice — having a number of people look at and comment on what I am producing.

The next book is tentatively entitled “It’s Your Career After All: The Best of Career Opportunities – 2003-2012.”

This will be a collection of columns from the eight years since I produced “The High Tech Career Handbook” back in 2003. Additionally, though, I am looking to expand on the previous material with sidebars, comments, annotations, links and more. This is where the advisors come in.

I am looking for perhaps 10, dedicated, advisors to help me with the creation of this book. This number might change as I move forward, but I my thinking is that 10 people can easily coordinate and communicate both with myself and their peers over the course of the book’s creation.

At this point, of your work, I am offering a free electronic copy of the book and Advisory Board credit in the book when it is completed. That said, I am hoping that you will get more from your advisory role than just a book. I think the conversations we have around the various topics could offer a great chance to think deeply about your career and hopefully jumpstart you on to some unforeseen adventures.

To be clear, this will be a lot of work. Right now the collected Career Opportunities columns run to about 50K words. With the additions I already have in mind, I can foresee the final word count to be around 75K words. While I will ask everyone to suggest edits and corrections, I am, more importantly, looking for questions that need to be answered, expansions that bring more value to the existing text, new areas of thought to be explored.

Are you interested in joining me on this journey? Email me at career@welchwrite.com and let me know your level of interest in the project. What special qualities do you bring to the table? I would love to have a wide range of advisors — in age, in skills, in careers — so that the book provides as much value as possible.

Thanks for reading and listening to Career Opportunities!