A colleague sent this article over to me as a ‘must read’. What a great Friday muse this one is. We all tend to get so caught up in the wake of technology and its forces that we can’t even remember when enough is enough. I think you’ll get a kick out of this article - I sure did, and it will give you some real food for thought over the weekend. The article is below or here is the link to it in the New York Times.

Great writing Lisa Belkin - Happy Friday!

Overly Wired? There’s a Word for It

WAS there gridlock before there were automobiles? Was there jet lag before there were airplanes? Who was the first person to say “I Googled it” or “he’s cyberstalking me”? At what moment did a “web log” turn into a “blog”?

Language makes things official. Change in the pace of life over the last decade can be measured by change in our vocabulary. We I.M., we get phished, we have PIN’s. We HotSync, therefore we are.

Does a phenomenon fully exist until it has a name? Dr. Edward M. Hallowell thinks not, and he knows more than a little about naming a trend into existence. He was the first to name adult attention deficit disorder, or Adult A.D.D., back in 1995, and now he is taking on the rest of modern life in “CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone A.D.D.” (Ballantine Books, 2006). The frenzy of our wired world, he argues, is giving nearly all of us the symptoms of attention deficit disorder. To conquer the enemy, he says, we first need to name it.

So he has come up with the following suggestions, among others:

Screensucking, which he defines as “wasting time engaging with any screen — for instance, computer, video game, television, BlackBerry.” He goes on to use his new word in a sentence: “I was supposed to write that article, but instead I spent the whole afternoon screensucking.” That concept hits particularly close to home.

EMV, or E-Mail Voice. This, Dr. Hallowell writes, is “the unearthly tone a person’s voice takes on when he is reading e-mail while talking to you on the telephone.” Researchers at M.I.T., he tells us, have developed a program that can electronically measure how engaged people are in a conversation, giving scientific certainty to your suspicion that you are not being listened to.

Frazzing. Defined as “multitasking ineffectively.” The term multitasking itself was originally coined to describe what a computer does during the microseconds between keystrokes. Then it came to mean something humans are proud to do. And when we crash (also a computer term) while trying to multitask, we frazz.

Gemmelsmerch. “The force that distracts the mind or steals it away from what it wants to do or ought to be doing.” For example, “Accidents along the highway are high in gemmelsmerch, compelling drivers to slow down and gawk. A jackhammer outside your window is high in gemmelsmerch. Getting news that you will be audited by the I.R.S. is high in gemmelsmerch. … As if covered in a radioactive cloud of the stuff, the world has never been as high in gemmelsmerch as it is today.”

These are all good words. But Dr. Hallowell’s list is far from complete. A world transforming itself at an almost cancerous pace requires an exponentially new vocabulary. Coined with the help of some friends — particularly my husband, Bruce Gelb, word maven extraordinaire, and Al Cattabiani, founder of Garagista Records and the best punster I know — here are a few of my own additions:

Spammified: to end up in your spam folder by mistake. This is becoming the new “check is in the mail” excuse for why we don’t answer e-mail messages. “I am so sorry, but I only just got your message. It had been spammified.”

Cellopain: the jerk who talks loudly and obliviously on his cellphone in a crowd. There are other words for this person, but they are not printable.

Regurgimailer: people who forward to everyone they know everything that lands in their in-boxes. Warnings about techniques that rapists use in parking lots; photos of adorable missing children; heart-warming lists of why women and their friendships are so wonderful; jokes about, well, everything. The fact that most of the items either have been traveling the Internet for years or turn out not to be true, or both, does not stop them. A word to regurgimailers — check Snopes.com before you forward, please.

Reverberon: the kind of e-mail described above, which has been forwarded endlessly and everywhere.

Telamnesia: a condition that restricts you to talking only to people who are on your speed-dial list because you no longer keep phone numbers in your head. For me, this includes my own home, which I misdialed the other day.

Logonorrhea: a related condition that renders you unable to use certain online accounts because you can remember neither your screen name nor your password.

Bluetooth fairy: a person who walks around with the blinking glow of a Bluetooth headset permanently in one ear. I stand guilty as charged.

There are more, of course. Send me yours. And e-mail this to everyone you know. If it doesn’t end up spammified, it can become a reverberon.

This column about the intersection of jobs and personal lives appears every other week. E-mail: Belkin@nytimes.com.

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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There was a time that one could assume that the phrase ‘show me the green’ was interchangeable with ‘show me the money’ (and in some respects it still is) – but today it’s really taking on a whole new meaning – it’s a phrase with a movement behind it.

We, the people, are changing our view of green as fast as the kaleidoscope will turn. And the color is vivid. We are thinking green in our lifestyles, our products, the food we eat, the homes we live in and the world we inhabit. And if we’re thinking and living green in all of those areas it stands to reason that the green-way of thinking will spill over into our careers.

But what does ‘being’ green in your career mean? Well, it is different for different people – some say it means working for a company that is producing environmentally safe products, or clean technology. Others say it is working for a company who is giving back to the community, some say it’s about recycling and others say ‘hey, it’s just a place I go to from 9a – 5p and it pays the bills’ (ouch…)!

One of the great things about all this green thinking is what it creates inside of us, in other words, within our own internal environment. We are really all eventually drawn to ‘service’, to a way to give back to the greater good. And that brings up the question - Who are y-o-u, from the inside out? What is going on within your own internal environment and how is your internal ecosystem? Where do you want to make your mark, and what impact do you want to have in the world. Of course, we can’t all be Gandhi, but we can all make a difference – in his beautiful quote “be the change you want to see”, Gandhi knew the richness of green from the deepest level of his being. He knew where he lived inside.

Living your life in a green-way and contributing to life through your own internal environment means reaching in and really deciding who you are, what you want, and how you can make a difference; and then bringing YOU into all aspects of your life, including your career.

Once you make this shift it stands to reason that you will seek out and align yourself with a company that is stepping up to the ‘green-way’ from the inside out too. That means more than just writing some fancy language about it in the companies annual report. It means more than just sharing an internal eco-vision (internal harmony, diversity, etc.). It means a call to action, accountability and answers to who, what, when, where, and why. In other words, companies need to step up and show us what they stand for and how they are committed to contributing to the greater good.

Companies expect us to show up with more knowledge, better information, fresh creativity and vast energy. To show up in those ways we have begun to look deeper and deeper inside our being to come up with our best. And the by-product of all that inner searching is a new expectation about what we want and expect from the companies we work for.

Today companies need to pay attention because ‘we the people’ are blossoming in a big way – big buds, big sprouts, big roots of all kinds. We’re achieving new internal clarity, setting new expectations and aligning with new goals; one of the strongest is all about “green” – inside & out.

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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Tis’ the season! New grads will be entering the job market in droves, but are they really ready for the real world of ‘work’? Here are some tips to stay ahead of the pack.

Top 10 Tips for New Grads Seeking their First Job

Making the transition from college student to full-time member of the workforce can be a difficult time for many graduates. Many graduates will accept responsibilities for their own lives and their own financial support for the very first time. A surprising number of graduates are advised of the challenges of finding a good job in the current job market. Many graduates are advised to simply apply for and accept any job that comes to their attention. Unfortunately, far too many new graduates are guided by this advice and settle for jobs in which they are undervalued and under-challenged.

The team at FiredUP Careers disagrees with this advice. We believe you can find a challenging job in which you will be valued and in which you can thrive. We believe new grads can and should get FiredUP about their new careers and find the opportunity that allows you to Dig What You Do. We offer the following top tips to new grads as they enter the job market.

1. Know your skills, abilities and strengths. This applies to both “hard” skills, and to those “soft” skills that make people good with other people.

2. Know what you want to do and focus on jobs that will allow you to do what you love. Remember that smart organizations hire for passion and train for skill.

3. Know the kind of environment in which you can thrive. If you know that tight, regimented routines with someone looking over your shoulder every minute don’t work for you, look for environments that value and reward innovation and creativity.

4. Create a powerful professional pitch. Develop your own brief statement of who you are, what you can do, what you are passionate about, and why someone should hire you.

5. Dress for success. Whenever you are interacting with a potential employer, dress for the role you are seeking. “Be” the part, help the employer ‘see’ you in the position.

6. Be yourself. Pretending to be someone you are not will lead to problems in time. Of course you should put your best foot forward, but be real.

7. Learn how to interview. Learn the etiquette and the expectations of interviews. Anticipate difficult questions and prepare appropriate answers.

8. Never give false or misleading information. Lying on an application or in an interview or otherwise giving false or misleading information about your education, skills, or experience will set you on a road to disaster.

9. Learn to stand out from the pack. You may be applying for a job with hundreds of other applicants. You need to be memorable in the right ways.

10. Believe there are great jobs out there and that you can get one. Attitude is everything. Confidence is important. Plan to get the job of your dreams.

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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I was reading a blog this evening about toxic friendships and it triggered some thinking in me on a much deeper level. I wondered why toxic people enter our lives in the first place - whether friends or not. Why do we make room for them? How many of us are living and putting up with a toxic relationship of any kind in our lives, whether it is a significant other, a family member, or even a career that is toxic? Why do we settle (or why are we willing to put up with) less than what we deserve? Perhaps instead of being a poisonous substance, these toxic relationships are a revealing ‘call to action’ for us to wake up and check-in with ourselves. I mean go inside and check out who we are, what we want, where we are going and what we want to contribute to on a regular basis. Maybe these relationships are about staying on track with who we are and what gives us meaning in a way that brings us to the table and allows us to begin giving back in a more significant way.

What do you think?

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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Here’s a great article that my biz partner, Chris Fogarty, just did to help out New College Grads. If you’re graduating soon (or you’re the parent of a new grad and want to pass on some good career advice) be sure to read this one! There are some great tips here on what “NOT” to do…

FiredUP! Get your Career Moving after Graduation.

Congratulations! You’ve worked hard earning your degree, and you deserve a huge hurrah and slap on the back. But wait! You’re work has just begun, as the real world awaits your entry as a productive human being into the workforce. And you’ve got about 90,000 hours of work ahead of you in your lifetime. Ugh you say? Drudgery? It doesn’t have to be that way. Plenty of people actually LIKE their work. Wouldn’t it be great to be in that crowd, waking up each morning looking forward to the day? If I’m speaking to you, then listen up. It’s all about finding a great match. Here is what NOT to do:

1. Take a job that someone else found for you.

How easy could that be? Uncle Jim knows someone at that Bigco, Inc. Your parents tell you its just wonderful, what a great way to start your career, aren’t you lucky. Well, maybe you are. Maybe this IS the perfect first job for you. Maybe this IS an organization that will fit who are and what you want out of work. Or is it just the easiest path to take, and will it turn out to be a life defining moment, a moment that sets your career in the direction of someone else’s choosing? Is that what you want? NO! Take the time to learn about yourself and your options. Do a little research and come up with a list of companies or industries that are of interest to you and would seem to be good places to start your career. This first job is really important in setting the tone of your career. If Uncle Jim’s company is a good match, then great. But don’t make the mistake of jumping into a job or career that you haven’t researched.

2. Send out thousands of resumes. Period.

You’ll most likely be getting pressure to get a job from ‘others’ in your life. Parents, partner, and friends mean well in their prodding, but their constant “so, how’s the job hunt going?’ can become extremely annoying. And an easy way to placate them, and to feel very productive yourself, is to blast your resume out to every online job posting you can find. Then you can report ‘I sent out about 50 resumes last week, haven’t heard anything yet.” Picture this. Thousands of other college grads have sent their resumes out to those 25 companies as well. Now picture the recruiter at the company looking at thousands of resumes. What are the odds of your resume standing out and you getting the coveted interview call? Small. And when someone does call you for an interview, you’ll go into it without knowing if this is something you’ll like, or if it’s a place you’ll fit in. This brings me to the next point.

3. Go into an interview knowing nothing about the company.

Over and over we hear managers and recruiters complain about new college grads coming into an interview with absolutely no knowledge of the company. “So, what interests you about working here” is a common early interview question. What kind of impression do you think you’ll make when you stare blankly and say “I don’t know too much about what you do yet”. A bad one. And without doing some research before the interview, you are missing the chance to ask intelligent questions to determine a great match between you and the company. And what if they offer you the job? You’re thinking you should say yes, of course, but how do you know if you’ll really be happy and successful here? This interview could mean a great deal towards you loving your career. Take the time to research and investigate BEFORE the interview.

4. Be unclear on your personality, preferred working style, value, and abilities.

Success and ‘digging what you do’ will come with finding a job where you can contribute to the organization’s success while getting your own needs met. It’s all about finding a great match. And it’s about you finding a career where you can be yourself and rely on your natural strengths. So how do you know if a job is right for you? You can never be 100% sure, but you can get close. Determining a great match between you and an employer takes a solid understanding of who you are, what you need, and what you have to offer. If you’ve taken the time to do your research on the company and to get clear on what you need, you will make better decisions on whether or not this is a great match. And you’ll deliver a better interview.

5. Take a job in a company you don’t believe in, or settling for just ‘okay’.

People who love their work feel engaged and connected to what they do. Before you accept a position, ask yourself if you’ll be fired up working there over the next year. Are you truly interested in what the organization does? In the kind of customers it serves? In the products or services it delivers? In how the people in the organization work together?

If you don’t have a deeper connection to some aspect of your work, you’ll be a prime candidate for career drudge. Don’t let this be you. Find the connection.

A FiredUP career is all about finding a great match. Work that let’s you be you, working with people you like, where you’re successful and having a good time. It’s a career that allows for your success in both work and life. Take time today to proactively begin your job search by taking advantage of your college career center resources, or hire a private career coach. Take control of your career and you’ll find the work you love.

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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You’ve got to check this out - www.oneweekjob.com

Here is someone who is taking on career exploration in a big way. The life experience Sean gets from this adventure, not to mention the satisfaction of ‘giving’ back will certainly take him to places he never expected.

Here he is: My name is Sean Aiken, and like many others in my generation, I can’t tell you what it is that I want to do with my life. Help me figure it out by offering me a “One Week Job.” I am travelling week to week throughout the country working various jobs offered to me with all my wages donated to the Make Poverty History campaign. Read how it works.

Good Luck Sean!!

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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I always learn something new from Guy Kawasaki’s blog. I’m sharing this one with you because I think the idea of reverse referencing (checking out your boss before you sign on the dotted line) is such a great idea. How many of us have accepted a new job, been thrilled by opportunity only to find out we’re reporting to a ‘mean-spirited moran’ (as Guy puts it…). Below is Guy’s entry and a great way to do reverse referencing via LinkedIn.

Titled: LinkedIn and the Art of Avoiding the Asshole Boss

Since blogging about Bob Sutton’s notorious book, The No Asshole Rule, I have received a constant flow of emails from readers sharing their own tales of lecherous bosses and indignities suffered.

Mean-spirited morons are still running much of the workplace, and it’s time to take a stand. Most nastiness is directed by superiors to subordinates; so before taking a job, do your homework and screen them out in advance. (After all, avoidance is the easier than curing.)

To do this, I propose that you check your prospective boss’s references just like she’s checking out yours. I’m not suggesting that you ask your prospective boss for a list of references (you can try, but it may mean you don’t get the job).

Instead, do a LinkedIn reference check. First, look her up to determine if you have any common connections. If so, find out more from people you trust. Second, use the LinkedIn reference check tool to find people who overlapped with her in the past.

The beauty of this tool is that she doesn’t even have to be a member of LinkedIn. You simply specify the company and years of employment for her, and LinkedIn will show you people in your network who worked at that company during the same time.

Once you’ve located folks to serve as a reference check, you need to know what to ask. This is where Badass Bob Sutton comes in. He prepared this list of questions for you.

1. Kisses-up and kicks-down: “How does the prospective boss respond to feedback from people higher in rank and lower in rank?” “Can you provide examples from experience?” One characteristic of certified assholes is that they tend to demean those who are less powerful while brown-nosing their superiors.
2. Can’t take it: “Does the prospective boss accept criticism or blame when the going gets tough?” Be wary of people who constantly dish out criticism but can’t take a healthy dose themselves.
3. Short fuse: “In what situations have you seen the prospective boss lose his temper?” Sometimes anger is justified or even effective when used sparingly, but someone who “shoots-the-messenger” too often can breed a climate of fear in the workplace. Are co-workers scared of getting in an elevator with this person?
4. Bad credit: “Which style best describes the prospective boss: gives out gratuitous credit, assigns credit where credit is due, or believes everyone should be their own champion?” This question opens the door to discuss whether or not someone tends to take a lot of credit while not recognizing the work of his or her team.
5. Canker sore: “What do past collaborators say about working with the prospective boss?” Assholes usually have a history of infecting teams with nasty and dysfunctional conflict. The world seems willing to tolerate talented assholes, but that doesn’t mean you have to.
6. Flamer: What kind of email sender is the prospective boss? Most assholes cannot contain themselves when it comes to email: flaming people, carbon-copying the world, blind carbon copying to cover his own buttocks. Email etiquette is a window into one’s soul.
7. Downer: “What types of people find it difficult to work with the prospective boss? What type of people seem to work very well with the prospective boss?” Pay attention to responses that suggest “strong-willed” or “self-motivated” people tend to work best with the prospective boss because assholes tend to leave people around them feeling de-energized and deflated.
8. Card shark: “Does the prospective boss share information for everyone’s benefit?” A tendency to hold cards close to one’s chest—i.e., a reluctance to share information—is a sign that this person treats co-workers as competitors who must be defeated so he or she can get ahead.
9. Army of one: “Would people pick the prospective boss for their team?” Sometimes there is upside to having an asshole on your team, but that won’t matter if the coworkers refuse to work with that person. Use this question to help determine if the benefit of having the prospective boss on your team outweighs any asshole behaviors.
10. Open architecture: “How would the prospective boss respond if a copy of The No Asshole Rule appeared on her desk?” Be careful if the answer is, “Duck!”

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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One size fits all resumes are a thing of the past. The marketplace requires new resume techniques and the sooner you recognize this and act on it the more your resume will help Y-O-U. The best way to build your resume is to use the bullseye technique. This means your resume will need to target the specific needs of the employer you are approaching.

Statistics tell us that a resume gets only a few seconds of time during the review process. With this in mind it is important for the top-half of your resume to be right on target with regard to the employers requirements. Think of the top-half of your resume as your billboard or advertising section. This is the section where you will want to point out your specific strengths and use bullet statements to highlight results that you have delivered during your previous employment. This is ‘not’ where you put a boring objective statement of what you want to achieve. That is passé. If you list an objective you must build it around what you will bring/deliver to the employer. Always keep in mind that when the employer is reviewing your resume they will be thinking “what’s in it for me” and not how they can make you a happy camper. So, if your objective focuses on what you want it will be a turn-off right from the start.

The top-half of your resume should also include your ‘professional highlights’ or ‘key achievements’. Again, when writing these make sure to highlight how you have done something the employer needs as part of the job requirement.

Using action words/phrases to begin your sentences is also critical. Just imagine how many resumes the employer gets – literally hundreds, if not thousands. How will yours stand out from the pack and keep the ‘reviewer’ from falling asleep? Action words, that’s how. Here are a couple of examples of how to start your sentences with energy and entice the reader to continue:

• Achieved…
• Created…
• Reduced costs by …
• Delivered…
• Generated…
• Spearheaded…
• Improved…

Use this technique throughout your entire resume. Get rid of any wording that is ‘job responsibility’ or ‘job description’ sounding. Employers want to know about your accomplishments – they do not want a copy of your job description! Make sure to write about your achievements with descriptive words that help the reader visualize you in the position. If you need some examples take a look at this link, there are some great resume samples on this site http://www.distinctiveweb.com. Above all, be sure you use the top half of your first page to really sell your reader. Use language that makes them want to read more about you and most of all – get you in for the interview!

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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There’s an old saying that if something is meant to be then it will happen. Many people take this approach during their job search. Why? Perhaps self-preservation (they don’t like the feeling of rejection – who does?) or it could also be lack of knowledge around best practices when it comes to job search. Either way, standing back and waiting for the chips to fall where they may is the wrong approach to take.

It is the exact opposite of what you need to do. You must be an active participant in the process at all times. Researching your target companies, revising and targeting your resume, practicing your interview skills and strong follow up after the interview process are all just a few of the ways to be actively involved. Employers expect this from candidates as a minimum. So, deciding to just ‘go with the flow’ sends the message to the employer that you are not the best candidate for the position and worse will imply that you do not have a strong interest in the company.

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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“Sometimes digging a deeper hole only means you’ll run into another hole” – ok, not exactly Thoreau but I believe you’ll get what I mean.

What I’m saying here is that many people spend their time ‘thinking’ about a problem (digging the hole) and never apply action towards change. They spend so much time down in the hole that they eventually just ‘think’ their way to nowhere (another hole). And what good does it do? We’ve only got 24 hours in a day and if we spend all of our time ‘thinking’ about change and not acting on change then there we are, right back where we started.

When it comes to your career this can be a disaster. The answer is that you’ve got to go full circle. In other words, certainly you need to dig – you’ve got to find out how you think and feel about something in order to take action. Once you’ve deciphered that, the next step is to turn those thoughts/feelings into intelligent action. This is the step that so many people leave out. Once you apply ‘action’ you will then be able to observe the outcome, make adjustments and continue moving forward. You’ve got to apply the entire model or all you’ll do is keep running into more holes.

Posted by Robin Ogden - FiredUP Careers

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