Effective Networking - for Employment and Career Opportunities

How many people know that I need employment is a question I wonder about everyday? I noticed that close to everyone I have met at networking events has avoided direct mention of the topic. I found it curious that very few people have approached me about the status of my job search.

Finding opportunities can happen at networking event, I guess that is all about the nature of the hidden job market.  I learned about HJM after sending hundreds of online resumes to potential employers. Recently I decided humiliation due to lack of success drove me to publically analyze and reflect on the outcome of my networking efforts.

The IEEE foundation funded the making of the documentary I just watched. I have spent more hours volunteering for IEEE that I wish to admit. Since IEEE sponsored the event, I had expected to know about the showing of the new documentary on Charles Proteus Steinmetz titled 'Divine Discontent'. But it was an unannounced event.

At this networking event, most everyone met at the auditorium 1/2 hour before it started. Many of the attendees found seats early. Quite a few people attended, mostly from the college or retired employees of GE. Since the refreshments were served in the auditorium, it was difficult to connect with anyone before the event.  I was luck to pass out 3 networking cards, but received not one in return.  It appears that no one is following the standard networking practice of business card, elevator pitch and handshake. Fortunately for me, one of the three people I gave the pitch to worked as HR at Global Research GE. Anyway the luck of the draw on that encounter.  Now here comes the follow up on the event.

Oh what an Opportunity

The Career Fitness Program & exercising your options by Judith C Kilday.

After taking a deep breath, I thought about my talks with Allison. Again it was an exercise and I patiently attempted to re-frame my attitude. Attitude they say is the deciding factor which creates success. Maybe just one of may factors. At the same time a friend who I realized later was one of the best friends I could ever have, gave me a book. It was just because he cared, he surprised me but he had a helpful nature. The book "I don't know what I want but I know it is not this" was written by Julie Jansen. Julie Jansen has written a step by step guide to finding gratifying work.

What I did discover was working through both books, required grit and commitment. The time was more than I wanted to commit to my professional development. Made me ask a question, what were the results of my efforts?

13 Reasons You're Not As Successful As You Should Be by Jim Kukral

#1 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Laziness
#2 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Entitlement
#3 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Fear
#4 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Negativity
#5 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Stop Thinking
#6 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – No Goals
#7 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – “They”
#8 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – No “X” Factor
#9 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Time Waste
#10 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Social B.S.
#11 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Think Small
#12 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Don’t Want It
#13 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Don’t Believe

Financial Empowerment

An acquaintance from my graduate days at University of Connecticut contacted me about his son applying to RPI.  He and his two boys love to ski, and the winter Olympics drove their enthusiasm.  Skiing was one deciding factor for their college selection.  I hadn't much luck with finding a job after graduating from RPI so I hardly recommended it as a potential choice.  After I sent the email letting them know I  would discourage RPI,  I was quickly escorted off Sage College Campus and asked not to return.

I was reading about financial security at the time.  From the online version of the WSJ By Chris Heilmann of US TRUST Comment: This article caught my eye so I decided to read and comment. US Trust's has a program to help kids get rich. Their program is designed to pass those values to the next generation. Do we adopt the values that generate wealth from our parents, and at what age do we own the responsibility? Are parents trying to pass these values to their youth?

The dean of students approached me when I was reading this article online at the Sage College Campus in Troy NY.  He mentioned there was a disturbance in the classroom and since I had not been in a classroom I quickly replied not my problem and I don't assume to take any responsibility for the college's problem.  Had I been a paid member of the community I would of course take this more seriously. He gave me a letter stating I was a persona non grata and said I was disallowed from coming on The Sage Colleges campus without further notice.  I was taken aback and now am working on what to do next.

To continue on with what I was reading US Trust published an article and video online in the Wall Street Journal, January 2014. Here is another WSJ article: Teaching Your Kids to Be Rich Article: It's not just developing a work ethic—these days, they need to deal with social media too. Comment: so I was interested in what is it about social media that will bring us understanding of our world of work? On one side of the coin, technology advances has caused a new type of business to spring up. What type of businesses are forming and how we do note the drastic changes in how to make money through these new businesses. The current advances in technology have made many changes in how we work and in our society.  Mobility has allowed us to communicate from remote locations, so we can do business anywhere in the world.

So back to what happened, this acquaintance has tracked me down using social networking and online searches and has asked me to help him.  And he wanted me to apply for work at ORACLE.  I am definitely interested since I know the pay will be better than no pay or unemployment.  But my ethical backbone,  told me to inform  him about the truth about the status of my career after graduating from RPI. Right? Wrong I hinted there was a problem and told him that skiing was really important part of his son's future, shouldn't he base a large part of his decision on the quality of that program?

Making a Makerspace Creating a Business Model

This article by Guy Calavacanti is a series of workshops and articles sponsored by Artisan's Asylum and MAKE. The first article in the series is on how to get insurance for your creative manufacturing makerspace. The next one discusses the business model. Consider the ways you can make money in this creative manufacturing environment.

  Creating a Business Model
http://makezine.com/2013/06/04/making-makerspaces-creating-a-business-model/

Build Your Own Website (Free)

The about.com website is full of useful information. I have found it a valuable resource and rely on it frequently for general information about "anything" I need to learn about quickly. From About.com: What Free Website Service Is the Best? They suggest Reviewing the options (1) Blogger: A free blogging service (2) WordPress: A blogging tool and publishing platform TVCOG make space had a workshop on WordPress. (3) Google Sites: A web page publishing tool. (4) Tumblr: A microblogging platform for multimedia-rich content The URL will read: www.yoursitename.blogspot.com, www.yoursitename.wordpress.com, sites.google.com/site/yoursitename/ or yoursitename.tumblr.com. TRY WEEBLY Weebly offers a free online website creator so I thought I would try it. I started and closed after I could not upload my business logo so it matched the background. I did decide to try this free website creator since it also offers blogging and e-Commerce. It supports paypal. Comparison of free web hosting services is a great wiki to read before spending lots of your time on creating a versatile website with e-Commerce features. Well how did Weebly measure up? ONLINE MONEY TRANSFERS Paypal is the gold standard for e-Commerce transactions. With one catch, it can not load money to a prepaid Credit Card. Macy's and IEEE both do not accept paypal as a method of payment. A fix for this is MoneyGram. Weebly supports basic features for blogging and e-Commerce. Site owners can develop simple stores with payments through either PayPal or Stripe

LEDs to brighten Palace, save cash

National Grid grant helps pay for new bulbs By Eric Anderson Published 8:03 pm, Thursday, December 19, 2013 The Palace is embarking on a project to replace 8,000 bulbs throughout the theater, many of them energy-hungry incandescents, with the LED fixtures. National Grid provided a $70,000 grant to help pay for the move, which is expected to cut the Palace's electric bill by 30 percent, or about $31,500 annually. "This project will have paid for itself in less than two years," said Ron Semp of Rise Engineering, which works with National Grid on energy efficiency projects. The theater will realize savings "just (on) the manpower alone," said Holly Brown, the theater's executive director. "Some of the spots in this theater are extremely challenging to get to." National Grid offers grants to small businesses to help them save energy. Funding comes through what's known as a system benefits charge on ratepayers' utility bills. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority offers similar grants. http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/LEDs-to-brighten-Palace-save-cash-5079929.php