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Career
Counsel - Recent
Questions Answered
Q:
What Path Should I Choose?
Have
you ever been confused on which path of life to choose when you
have two opportunities?
Here’s my dilemma:
I have two job offers. One is to work in a warehouse environment
as a warehouse manager. The other is to work as a sales person.
The sales position offers a slightly higher pay then the job at
the warehouse.
I’m unsure what path to choose. I fear that if I go for the
sales job, and if I don’t meet the sales quota, then my job
will be in danger.
As for the warehouse job, the pay is lower and, I will be
busting my behind for the first three month as a trainee. Then,
after that a probationary period, a pay increase will be given.
Once I get my pay increase, only then will I be making the same
as the sales job.
Here is what I see. As a salesperson, you get a professional
image but you are being monitored based on your performance. As
a warehouse manager, you can “milk the time” and you do not
have to worry about being fired.
Which once should I choose?
A:
You
should go for the sales position. You wrote: "As a
warehouse manager, you can “milk the time” and you do not
have to worry about being fired."
Everybody SHOULD be worried about being fired. Every day. This
is the reality of a global economy. You can choose the
relatively more secure path (manager) if you wish, but it should
be because you feel it's right for you, not because you are
afraid of not performing as a sales rep.
Fear is never a good basis for any important decision.
I took a lot of sales positions even when I was totally
unprepared for them. It built my confidence. Failure can be
great, when you aim at a big goal and go after it fearlessly.
In the end, nobody knows how you truly feel. If I were in your
position, I would go for the challenge of sales. Management is
boring. Selling keeps you sharp, attuned to the action. After a
while, once you master the basics, it becomes a really fun game!
Good luck!
Peter
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Q: Will an Internship Help my Career?
I
am graduating in December with a BA in Graphics Design and all
my professors are encouraging me to do an internship. I attend
school full-time (which I commute 2 hours back and forth to get
to), I have a part-time job, and now they want me to work for
free! Is it really necessary to have an internship, or can I
just skip it?
A:
An
internship is good if you work for a top notch firm or one where
you work closely with the top creative people.
There are things you learn as an intern that is priceless. You
just have to be careful that the company doesn't treat you as
mere "free labour." Clarify expectations right from
the start about what you will do and what you expect, as well as
what they can expect from you.
I used to run a design firm, and I find that the best designers
are never afraid to "work for free" because they can
learn new things and improve their creative eye, hence create
more value for clients.
Good luck!
Peter
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Q:
What Career Should I Choose?
I'm
a college student in his last year and the time has come where
I'm being bombarded by teachers and parents about my future. I
don't know what I want to do; the only thing I do know is that
my main interests are world travel, philosophy and psychology.
Any idea what career path I should follow? Any help would be
appreciated.
A:
Nobody
can tell you or trace your career path but what wiser people can
do is give you a compass so that you know WHEN you stray from
your heart's desire or the world's need.
The framework or compass that I give people in my career
management workshops is one that focuses their attention on
basically four key dimensions of a good, fulfilling and
rewarding career:
- TALENT
- WORLD'S
NEED
- PASSION
- MEANING
These refer, respectively, to your head, your body (you have to
make a living and get paid to feed and clothe your body), your
heart and your soul.
The first thing to do is to determine what you are good at: that
is, find your talent. Sometimes it takes a while to discover
your unique talent. Just pay attention to what people say about
you, especially the compliments they make.
Next you have to develop your talent in a way that serves a real
need in the world.
Think about the theatrical talents of Ronald Reagan and Pope
John Paul II. They both used their acting talent by playing an
important role in the world, at the time they were needed as
leaders.
Over time you will also realize that you want to do something
that is meaningful to you at the personal level. You want to do
something that contributes to a better world, something that is
aligned with your values. This is about wanting to make a
difference. We all want to make a difference.
And of course throughout your career and in fact throughout
every single day, you want to do something that makes you feel
alive (and kicking!).
When older people give you advice, you can easily place their
advice along one of these four key axes. Therefore, nobody's
advice will be complete.
Some will tell you to go "where the money is." Others
will tell you to follow your heart. Yet other people will
suggest you do something that makes a difference.
But in the end, it is up to you to consider each piece of advice
given the global picture of a good career, which includes all
four elements (in varying degrees, of course).
Good luck!
Peter
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Q:
How
Can I Find a Good Paying Job That Allows for a Healthy Work/Life
Balance?
A:
Companies tend to be more flexible in accommodating the
schedule of the top performers.
For example IBM says that they allow their top performers to
work from home. IBM has no choice: what talent wants, talent
gets (or else, they move to another employer).
So I don't think that there are "good jobs" for
achieving work/life balance. The only good strategy is to focus
relentlessly on developing your unique talent, so that you
become more valuable to the employer.
Talent is the new name of the game in today's global economy.
For people (parents, etc.), work/life balance makes sense. But
for companies, it has to make business sense.
They will only give you what you want if they get what they
want, which is always superior performance and higher
productivity.
Peter
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Q: How Can I Make $450/Week on the Side Working From
Home?
A: The
real (practical) question is: How can you produce value worth
$450 a week?
Can you think of a product or service that you could offer every
week that would be worth $450?
The more you ask yourself that question, the more ideas will
become obvious to you and jump right at you.
But asking the wrong question will definitely misguide you. I
don't mean to preach, I just observe that so many people who go
into business only focus on $$$ and don't make any.
That's simply because income depends on outcome. If your outcome
(what you produce) is worth $450, then people will gladly pay
you.
Business is not rocket science; it's just a matter of focus.
Focusing on people's needs is really the success secret of all
great business people.
Most people, unfortunately, are too self-centered, and therefore
they stay poor.
Good luck!
Peter
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Q: How Can I Become Very Reach in Business?
A:
Your
spelling error reveals a secret truth about creating enormous
wealth: to become RICH, you must REACH -- millions of people.
Anthony Robbins called it "distribution," but it's the
same concept: you must have something valuable to offer, and you
must offer it to a great number of people (that is, you must be
able to REACH them through various mass media -- like the
Internet).
So the recipe is:
1. Create value
2. Distribute value (to millions of people)
If your value is a digital product (e.g. special document or
report in PDF format), then my friend, you are looking at a
potential fortune.
If your product is physical, you can still make money by
distributing via FedEx (36-shipment anywhere in the world) or
via eBay.
Here's a second secret: "The man who thinks that ten
million dollars is a lot of money, is not the kind of man who
can make that kind of money."
Good luck!
Peter
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Q: Why is There More Outsourcing Done in India Than in China?
A: India offers cheap brainpower, China offers cheap manpower.
Through the Internet, it is easier to outsource services to
India. There is even math and science tutoring of American teens
by Indian tutors, using the Net and the phone.
If you want to read about what is REALLY going on with these two
countries and how they will shape the new global economy by the
middle of this century, read The World is Flat, by Thomas
Friedman (already sold 1.5 million copies) and Three Billion New
Capitalists, by Clyde Prestowitz.
The outsourcing aspects concern business executives, but the
REAL impact will be on North American jobs as the Indians and
Chinese are both smart and hungry for a piece of the action.
The new global economy is slowly becoming an "Olympic"
economy where the best workers from each developed country will
be competing directly with the best workers from other
countries.
Peter
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Q: What is the Secret to Success?
A: "Success leaves clues."
Depending on the field where you want to be successful, you
should study the people who have succeeded. Study them carefully
and do everything they do.
Most people try to be successful through trial and error. They
don't realize that whatever mistake they make, has ALREADY been
made by someone else!
The lessons have been PAID FOR already, all you have to do is
read books and talk to people who have succeeded. Then you will
succeed too!
Good luck!
Peter
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Q: Is it Wrong to Embellish a Resume?
A: Everybody does, which is human nature I guess.
That's not the real mistake.
The real mistake is to think that HR professionals will believe
what you claim you did, without showing evidence that you
actually did it.
I've worked as resume editor and also as career coach, and I'm
always surprised that job seekers seem to believe that whatever
they put down on paper will be believed!
In the end, the way to evaluate the quality of a resume is the
ratio of verifiable claims vs. unverifiable claims.
The more you eliminate claims that can simply NOT be verified,
the better your resume will be. That is, it will accurately
reflect reality, and that is a solid foundation to build an
honest career on.
Good luck!
Peter
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