Hot Career Sectors

A recent post focused on how you should follow your natural skills and interests to land your next job. But even though you shouldn’t choose your job based on money, it is interesting to see which industries are doing well (and paying well!) in this still-grim economy – especially relevant during this holiday season.

Many of the high-paying careers listed from the PayScale.com study are positions that require a bachelors degree (or higher?) and very skilled expertise.

So which jobs pay best after three or four years of experience?

• Mechanical Engineer – $73,200
• Software Developer – $82,400
• Electrical Engineer – $84,700
• Web Developer – $60,900
• Financial Advisor – $93,900
• Employment Recruiter – $55,400
• Construction Estimator – $67,400
• Project Engineer, Construction – $69,200
• Manufacturing Engineer – $73,900

Is College Worth It?

The Pew Research Center recently conducted two surveys to determine whether college is worth it. One was a telephone survey taken among a nationally representative sample of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older. The other was an online survey, done in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education, among the presidents of 1,055 two-year and four-year private, public, and for-profit colleges and universities.

Here is a summary of key findings:

• Cost and Value. A majority of Americans (57%) say the higher education system in the United States fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend. An even larger majority—75%—says college is too expensive for most Americans to afford. At the same time, however, an overwhelming majority of college graduates—86%—say that college has been a good investment for them personally.
• Monetary Payoff. Adults who graduated from a four-year college believe that, on average, they are earning $20,000 more a year as a result of having gotten that degree. Adults who did not attend college believe that, on average, they are earning $20,000 a year less as a result. These matched estimates by the public are very close to the median gap in annual earnings between a high school and college graduate as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010: $19,550.
• Student Loans. A record share of students are leaving college with substantial debt. Among those who do, about half (48%) say that paying off that debt made it harder to pay other bills
• Why Not College? Nearly every parent surveyed (94%) says they expect their child to attend college, but even as college enrollments have reached record levels, most young adults in this country still do not attend a four-year college. The main barrier is financial. Among adults ages 18 to 34 who are not in school and do not have a bachelor’s degree, two-thirds say a major reason for not continuing their education is the need to support a family. Also, 57% say they would prefer to work and make money; and 48% say they can’t afford to go to college.
• Split Views of College Mission. Just under half of the public (47%) says the main purpose of a college education is to teach work-related skills and knowledge, while 39% say it is to help a student grow personally and intellectually; the remainder believe that both missions are equally important. College graduates place more emphasis on intellectual growth; those who are not college graduates place more emphasis on career preparation.
• For Most College Graduates, Missions Accomplished. Among survey respondents who graduated from a four-year college, 74% say their college education was very useful in helping them grow intellectually; 69% say it was very useful in helping them grow and mature as a person; and 55% say it was very useful in helping them prepare for a job or career.
• Above All, Character. While Americans value college, they value character even more. Asked what it takes for a young person to succeed in the world, 61% say a good work ethic is extremely important and 57% say the same about knowing how to get along with people. Just 42% say the same about a college education.
• Declining Student Quality. A majority of college presidents (58%) say public high school students arrive at college less well prepared than their counterparts of a decade ago; just 6% say they are better prepared. Also, 52% of presidents say college students today study less than their predecessors did a decade ago; just 7% say they study more.

For more about the two Pew surveys, go to the Pew Research Center site at:
http://pewsocialtrends.org/2011/05/15/is-college-worth-it
.

Don’t Try to Find Yourself; Lose Yourself

David Brooks wrote a column for the New York Times recently titled “It’s Not About You.” It is a rebuttal to commencement-season addresses that urge young people to follow their passion, pursue their dreams, and, above all, do what makes them happy. “This is the litany of expressive individualism,” Brooks warns, and “this mantra misleads on nearly every front.”

Especially this year, he says, we are conscious of the many ways in which this year’s graduating class has been ill served by their elders. They enter a bad job market – the hangover from decades of excess.  And even more important, their lives have been perversely structured. “This year’s graduates are members of “the most supervised generation in American history. Through their childhoods and teenage years, they have been monitored, tutored, coached and honed to an unprecedented degree. Yet upon graduation they will enter a world that is unprecedentedly wide open and unstructured.”

College students are raised in an environment that demands one set of navigational skills, and they are then cast out into a different environment requiring a different set of skills, which they have to figure out on their own.

The most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life, Brooks says. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life. A relative suffers from Alzheimer’s and a young woman feels called to help cure that disease. A young man works under a miserable boss and must develop management skills so his department can function. Another young woman finds herself confronted by an opportunity she never thought of in a job category she never imagined. This wasn’t in her plans, but this is where she can make her contribution.

 “Today’s grads enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the center of a life. But, of course, as they age, they’ll discover that the tasks of a life are at the center. Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself.”

Brooks’ column echoes the themes of Victor Frankl, who wrote “Man’s Search for Meaning” - named one the 10 most influential books ever published in the United States.

“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”

Brooks observes that when all is said and done, ”It’s excellence, not happiness, that we admire most.”

No Slacking Between College and that First Job

You’ve just graduated from college but couldn’t find a job or internship in advance — so you are moving back in with your parents. Can you take some time off before restarting your job search?

No, says Eilene Zimmerman, in the “Career Couch” column for the New York Times.   Taking time off will be hard to explain in an interview and can make you less employable.  The current bad job market may allow grads to think they have a free pass to take it easy for a while, but they don’t.

The best way to use the time between graduation and employment is to focus on learning about your industry and developing skills you need for employment. This is also a good time to build your network. Use your college’s alumni office to find professionals in your industry, or do some virtual networking through a social media campaign. “Create a LinkedIn profile, because recruiters use that as a primary way of sourcing candidates,” says Katharine Brooks, director of liberal arts career services at the University of Texas, Austin, and author of “You Majored in What?”  Twitter and Facebook enable you to have conversations with people in your field. “Use Twitter to begin to establish yourself as someone who is knowledgeable about your industry,” Ms. Brooks says. “Start tweeting about articles of interest in your field and the latest research findings.”

Talk to people in the industry and read job ads to learn what employers are looking for, Ms. Brooks suggests, then determine what you can do to get the necessary skills and experience. If you know you need more customer-service experience, for example, you might volunteer to answer phones at a charitable organization or try to get a job at a call center, she says.

Volunteer work is another option, but choose work that enhances your résumé, says Dan Black, America’s director of campus recruiting for the professional services firm Ernst & Young in New York. “Find ways of using your degree to help the organization — it might be marketing, finance or event planning.” Don’t just look at established charities; find some small local businesses and offer to volunteer, while learning at the same time.

Click here for the entire column.

Advice to Graduates: “Lean In” to your Careers

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg gave the commencement address this year at Barnard College. 

Sandberg’s address inspired a blog post by Andrew McAfee for the Harvard Business Review. Predictably, he says, she took up the topic of female underrepresentation at the top ranks of government and business: “Of 190 heads of state, nine are women. Of all the parliaments around the world, 13% of those seats are held by women. Corporate America top jobs, 15% are women, numbers which have not moved at all in the past nine years. Nine years. Of full professors around the United States, only 24% are women.”

Then, not so predictably, Sandberg places the responsibility for this inequality largely on the young women themselves, rather than on external forces such as sexism and unequal burdens.  She encourages young women to be ambitious and self-confident, and to “lean in” to their careers, especially before important life choices loom. She says:

“Women almost never make one decision to leave the workforce. It doesn’t happen that way. They make small little decisions along the way that eventually lead them there. Maybe it’s the last year of med school when they say, I’ll take a slightly less interesting specialty because I’m going to want more balance one day. Maybe it’s the fifth year in a law firm when they say, I’m not even sure I should go for partner, because I know I’m going to want kids eventually. These women don’t even have relationships, and already they’re finding balance, balance for responsibilities they don’t yet have. And from that moment, they start quietly leaning back… So, my heartfelt message to all of you is, and start thinking about this now, do not leave before you leave. Do not lean back; lean in. Put your foot on that gas pedal and keep it there until the day you have to make a decision, and then make a decision. That’s the only way, when that day comes, you’ll even have a decision to make.”

McAfee says he finds Sandberg’s advice “refreshing, novel, and super smart.” And he says he echoes her advice, and expands it to all of this year’s graduates. “The rate of change and uncertainty in the economy is high and getting higher, and good jobs might well be getting harder to come by. The best way to thrive in this environment is to be excellent at what you do, and the best way to become excellent is to lean way in to your career as it starts.”

Turning your Internship into a Job

An internship is a great way to start down a career path.  It also can be a good way to get a full-time job.

If you are fortunate enough to find an internship, how do you lead that internship to a full-time offer?  Here are some techniques, suggested by Quintessential Careers, for turning that internship into a job:

• Be sure you want a full-time job with the company. Interning allows an employer to test drive an employee, and it also lets the employee test drive the employer.  Is it a good fit?
• Do your best work, day after day. Treat the internship as if it’s “the real thing.” Be willing to do what’s needed. Deliver only high-quality work.
• Seek out extra work, new projects. Show your willingness to go beyond the job description for your internship.  Look for ways you can make your co-workers’ jobs easier. You’ll make a great impression while sharpening your skills so you can step into a permanent position when the time comes.
• Maintain a positive, eager-to-learn attitude. Ask questions. Show that you want to learn the job and learn the company.
• Develop your skills. Learn unfamiliar software programs. Try projects that help you to hone skills you’ve never used or don’t use often.
• Track your contributions and accomplishments. Be sure to keep a record of all the ways you’ve contributed during your internship. Be prepared to present this list when you make your pitch to the employer for a permanent job.
• If the internship doesn’t turn into a job, keep in contact and be persistent. Maybe you’re not in a position to take a full-time job when the internship ends. Perhaps you have coursework to complete before graduation. If that’s the case, be sure to leave on the best possible terms. Write to your supervisor to thank him or her for the internship opportunity.

How Parents can Help Their Kids Job Search

This blog is usually addressed to the jobseeker him/herself, but today we’re going to make a little change and address it to the parents of jobseekers.  Parents, you’re probably wondering how you can help your children find a job in this crazy economy.  Especially if your child is a recent graduate, they may find it incredibly difficult to land their first real job.  So how do you help your child find a job?  Lee Miller from New Jersey Business has some great suggestions for helping your children become more independent and more likely to land a job.  Here are a few:

• If you let your children move back in with you, hold them accountable to paying rent and doing household chores.
• Encourage them to volunteer a few days a week – it’s a great way to teach responsibility and work skills, but it’s also good for boosting their resume and meeting networking contacts.
• Providing structure for their job search – Telling them specific blocks of time where they should be job hunting, and a quiet space they can use to do the hunting.
• Stay back.  Helping your child is ok, but taking control of their job search is not actually helping at all.  Lee Miller cautions that over-involved parents will actually hinder the search.  This is your child’s job; let them make mistakes and learn from them.