Summer Jobs

Check out these cartoons on Summer Job Cartoons from Job Mob

Need a Summer Job? Check out our current job postings on www.ipfw.edu/jobzone

10 Things That Can Be "Career Killers"

1. Talent Shortages: Make sure to acquire the best education, skills, and experience

2. An Ever-Changing Economy: Have the ability to adapt, be creative, and stand up to challenges

3. Rising Cost of Healthcare: Make wise lifestyle choices, employers want a sustainable workforce

4. Social Responsiblity: Be aware of a broad worldview and weave social responsibility into business strategy

5. Environmental Awareness: Going green also means staying disciplined to possibly work from home and managing time effectively

6. Technology as a Way of Life: Stay updated on the latest technology trends and be willing to work longer or less traditional hours

7. Mobile Workforce: Technology allows us to work "less in the office" so don't be too committed to "punching out" at 5pm

8. Millenial Invasion: According to a study by Mercer, by 2020 40% of the workforce will be Millenials, or those born after 1980; know who you are working with or for!

9. Mixed Generations: People are waiting longer to retire and are living longer; Meister and Willyerd say by 2020 the workforce will include 5 different generations; Work well in teams!

10. Global Talent Seeking: The talent pools are much larger within a "smaller" world; accept other cultures, learn a new language, and be open to new ways!


Pulled from http://www.salary.com/10-global-trends-killing-your-career/

By Dawn Dugan, Salary.com contributing writer

MBTI Series: ISTJ & Interpersonal Skills

Today we're going to discuss an often misunderstood type, ISTJ.  From the outside they may seem like a very distant and cold person who has no interest in connecting with people and a lot of times when they do it seems that they're mean.  Well, this person is not inherently mean, but rather someone who is more of a minimalist.  He/She only speaks when needed and usually they need to speak because they need something that someone else is/was supposed to provide.  ISTJs can seem very short and to-the-point with everyone, and while this may be acceptable in some environments not everyone understands where they're coming from.  So, let's talk more about this mysterious type, dispel some biases, and of course provide suggestions for ISTJs to build on their emotional intelligence.


INTROVERSION-SENSING-THINKING-JUDGING (ISTJ)
If you're an ISTJ you may hear yourself thinking, or saying something like "it's just easier if I do it myself" especially when it comes to delegating to someone who is perceived as less competent as you.  You have a tendency to insist on consistency, meaning everything that is done needs to be done at the same level and in the same way as before and preferably the way you do them.  You have high expectations for yourself and you have the same for everyone else.  Because of this, and the fact that ISTJs work in a very focused, calm, and task-oriented manner, they can often be seen as impersonal and blunt.  We might have a valid argument with blunt, because of the need to be task-oriented and get the information they need in the least amount of discussion as possible.  But, impersonal they are not!


ISTJs tend to be seen as impersonal because most people don't understand how a group of people can sit around each other, not make eye-contact, or even talk to each other and yet still be enjoying their company. To the outsider that just looks like multiple beings tolerating each other in their space rather than spending time together.  ISTJs would disagree and argue that they don't need to be engaged with another human being to feel their closeness and care for each other.  So in light of these miss-perceptions I'm going to provide a few suggestions for ISTJs and ask everyone else to remember this post and not jump to conclusions just because someone seemed blunt.  Bluntness can be confused with rudeness, but it's more about getting the information quickly whereas rudeness contains a lack of caring for the other individuals involved.  It's hard to decipher the difference without asking, so don't be afraid of communication with ISTJs because they actually value accuracy and prefer people clearing the air than jumping to conclusions.


Some suggestions for ISTJ personalities:

1. Your strength is in the details, so keep your attention to details high because what others miss you'll catch which is a great asset to organizations.
2. Start listening more empathetically and showing personal interest in others. Empathy isn't about sympathy, but rather being able to put yourself in the other person's position and understand where they're coming from and why they might be upset, happy, etc.
3. Start considering the big-picture and contextual issues like what's most important in the long run or if the decision that you're suggesting is made then what would be the implications for all involved.
4. Reduce the amount of insisting on consistency with things and remember to consider the big picture.
5. Try not to ignore other people's emotional reactions as being moody, but rather inquire about their reaction to better understand them and hopefully come to a resolution.

For more information about MBTI there are great resources at your local library, or CLICK HERE to review the other MBTI entries from our blog.  Some information in this blog was inspired by and drawn from Introduction to Type and Emotional Intelligence by Roger R. Pearman.

Values

Overwhelmed by too many career options? Considering your values might help you out!

A lot of times when we think of the phrase values, we think about our personal moral or ethical beliefs. But, in terms of making a career choice, when we use the word values, we’re talking more about personal priorities and preferences. (I like to operate under the assumption that anyone who might read this blog would choose a moral and legal career path!)

About.com’s Career Planning Section provides the following list of values and their corresponding definitions:

• Autonomy: receiving no or little supervision
• Helping Others: providing assistance to individuals or groups
• Prestige: having high standing
• Job Security: a high probability that one will remain employed
• Collaboration: working with others
• Helping Society: contributing to the betterment of the world
• Recognition: receiving attention for your work
• Compensation: receiving adequate pay
• Achievement: doing work that yields results
• Utilizing Your Skills and Background: using your education and work experience to do your job
• Leadership: supervising/managing others
• Creativity: using your own ideas
• Variety: doing different activities
• Challenge: performing tasks that are difficult
• Leisure: having adequate time away from work
• Recognition: receiving credit for achievements
• Artistic Expression: expressing one's artistic talents
• Influence: having the ability to affect people's opinions and ideas

Sometimes individuals can have value conflicts. Value conflicts arise when two or more values compete with each other. For example, the values of High Earnings and Leisure Time may conflict, as those professionals who have a higher salary may be required to work longer hours.

Values can serve as a good way to narrow down competing career choices. You may enjoy a variety of career related activities, but if these possibilities don’t provide you with things like adequate compensation or job security, it may be time to check out other options.

Change Detection!

Instead of bookmarking and checking all your job sites every few days or so, let this tool email you to let you know that a new job has been posted!

Check it out -- Change Detection

They explain it on their website: "ChangeDetection.com provides page change monitoring and notification services to internet users worldwide. Anyone can use our service to monitor any website page for changes. Just fill in the form below, we will create a change log for the page and alert you by email when we detect a change in the page text. We've been doing it since 1999. It's free."

A very efficient way to manage your job search!

Employee Intrapreneur

We have all heard of the entrepreneur, but what is an employee intrapreneur? According to research found at http://www.entrepreneurship-sme.eu/pdf-ez/H200802.pdf,

“Intrapreneurship refers to employee initiatives in organizations to undertake something new, without being asked to do so… Key behavioural aspects of intrapreneurship are personal initiative, active information search, out of the box thinking, voicing, championing, taking charge, finding a way, and some degree of risk taking.”

In a sense, intrapreneurs are entrepreneurs from within the company. This adds some sustainability to the company because the mindset of these individuals are geared toward trying things until they are successful, learning from mistakes, and being frugal with resources at hand. There is less risk involved being an intrapreneur within a business versus the true nature of an entrepreneur on their own, and new ideas can contribute to an organization that is stagnant.

Through a Career Development Professionals conference, I gained some insight to ideas that relate to this topic. Something to think about is teaching leadership to others early on, so they don’t become invisible-the idea of being your own public relations agent and self-advocating for your own valuable ideas. This also relates to the idea of managing your own career; it is not your boss’s job to do this, but only yours to take charge of your career path’s direction. Lastly, play to your strengths. Know what you are great at doing, refine that skill, and implement it within the workplace. This can lead to personal initiative, voicing your concerns and needs, and finding a way to utilize your strengths so you can be a more efficient, happy employee.

Consider reading some books by Marcus Buckingham, as they are written on this topic.

http://www.tmbc.com/about-marcus/books

MBTI Series: ENFJ & Helpfulness

Is there someone you know, whether it's personally or in your office, who is almost always chipper, willing to help, and has leadership qualities?  Sometimes I'm envious of their energy levels and how they can connect with almost everyone.  I'm an introvert, so natural extroverts always intrigue me and when you add in the helpfulness and leadership qualities... well, let's just say I'm infatuated.  Most often than not I just described an ENFJ in his/her prime.  Don't get me wrong, every MBTI type has both positives and negatives and we'll explore ENFJs' today.

EXTROVERSION-INTUITIVE-FEELING-JUDGING (ENFJ)
The "heart" of any MBTI type is the middle two letters, and in this case NF.  An intuitive-feeler is someone who can have high emotional intelligence and can easily show warmth, support, and is very inclusive of friends, co-workers, etc.  Because of this they are seen as natural leaders, but when taken too far can be to helpful.  Everyone enjoys a little help now and then, but no one likes to be seen as incompetent.  Some people take offense to helpfulness because as helpfulness turns into taking away people's job duties their purpose in the job is also taken away.

Leadership and support are great in the appropriate amounts and as long as your Emotional Intelligence is developed well enough then you can achieve just the right balance.  When we consider ENFJ as a whole we see that they like to make decisions, check things off their list, and tend to move to these conclusions rather quickly.  They can also have a tendency to internally draw connections between the problems that exist and possible solutions, which can leave others in the dark on their decision making.  Combine this with an overly "helpful" personality and they can easily been seen by others as a manager who doesn't trust anyone, but is very nice on the surface which can quickly lead to distrust among a team.  So while they can be natural leaders, as a healthy personality, every type has the potential for a negative perspective.

Some suggestions for ENFJ personalities:

1. Create methods to review and verify your details, and then share your internal process with your team while seeking honest feedback and possibly altering your decision based upon the team's suggestions
2. Continue to engage and link others into the group to encourage cohesiveness
3. Start setting clearer boundaries and asking for specific actions of people instead of "helping" too often
4. Stop putting of important tasks in favor of meeting people needs.  Sometimes you have to make a hard decision even if not everyone in the group is satisfied with the end decision.

For more information about MBTI there are great resources at your local library, or CLICK HERE to review the other MBTI entries from our blog.  Some information in this blog was inspired by and drawn from Introduction to Type and Emotional Intelligence by Roger R. Pearman.