Some career experts (and I use this title lightly) tell people to work for free as a way to get their foot in the door. This is a stupid suggestion so I was heartened to read a story on FastCompany.com encouraging workers not to work for free.

“If you’re busy doing free work because it’s a good way to hide from the difficult job of getting paid for your work,” Seth Godin exhorts, “stop.”

Godin is a branding guru, and people tend to listen to what he advises. That a great thing because adult internships for for-profit corporations is a dumb way to climb the ladder of success, as Godin points out.

It also can be illegal, which the article fails to mention. (more…)

During the State of the Union address last night, President Obama made some key statements that could impact many employees, and future employees, across the country.

* “I propose a Fix-It-First program to put people to work soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the 70,000 deficient bridges.”

* “Let’s declare no one who works full time should have to live in poverty and raise minimum wage to $9 an hour.”

* “I ask this Congress to declare women should earn a living equal to their efforts & pass Paycheck Fairness Act.”

* “Create H.S. classes focused on science, technology engineering and math, the skills today’s employer are looking for.”

* “Now is not the time to gut investments in science and innovation, we need to make those investments.”

* “I will direct my cabinet to come up with executive actions to reduce pollution and prepare for climate change” and speed to development of alternative energy such as wind and solar.

Jobs created as investments are made in the nation’s ailing infrastructure. Wages finally boosted so that workers who work full time aren’t among the ranks of the poor. Equal pay for women. Training for employees and kids in STEM careers so the United States can compete globally for jobs. And employment opportunities spurred by investments in alternative energies.

These proposals seem to all make sense, no? The question is, how much of these ambitious proposals will become a reality?

(Below is a guest post by Emmanuel Conde, a respected IT recruiter and writer. It is the first in a series of guest posts I will be publishing on CareerDiva offering a different perspective and expertise on jobs and careers.)

By Emmanuel Conde

All the good IT jobs are going to India! Or are they?

We live in an age of fictionalized sensational sound bites on TV. What an undue influence some of this has on our children, and let’s face it, since the television was accepted into our homes we have all felt this influence.

Ask an American kid what they want to do for a living, and you will hear answers based on what TV shows they like. Crime Scene Investigators might be in demand in a few places, but is every wide eyed child going to cut the mustard?

What we do not see are a lot of real world job heroes sensationalized on the boob tube. How do you make an IT geek look good in tights and a cape? It won’t happen! So, we look to our news announcers in their sound-bite worlds saying there are millions of American IT jobs going unfilled. We have to retool our workforce damn it! Well, they don’t generally say damn it, but I do.

There is nothing more boring than watching some geek do geek stuff on TV. Who is there left to influence our young people to step up and take IT careers seriously? The nerds on the TV show, Big Bang Theory are as close as we have come in the USA to glorifying nerds, but they are not IT geeks.

Still, they are inaccurate in their depiction anyway; shouldn’t there be more than one Indian guy? Take a look at the cast and I would challenge any American university to present a ratio of only 25% of a class of science majors who are immigrants. Indian? Yes a lot are from India. Where have all the good IT jobs gone? They are still there, waiting to be filled. (more…)

I love that Waylon Jennings song, “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys.”

Here’s one part of the song I found poignant today:

Them that don’t know him won’t like him and them that do,
Sometimes won’t know how to take him.

Unfortunately, cowboys aren’t the only ones with this problem. It’s also the case for female scientists. No one knows how to take them either.

A Yale study released Monday found there are a whole lot of people in science who just won’t give women a break when it comes to pay and career opportunities. They just don’t get or respect gals who pursue science as a profession.

The researchers at Yale asked “127 scientists to review a job application of identically qualified male and female students and found that the faculty members – both men and women – consistently scored a male candidate higher on a number of criteria such as competency and were more likely to hire the male.” (more…)

Government workers can’t get a break.

They’ve become the target of endless negative attacks. Many pundits keep beating the drum that government should operate more like Corporate America when it comes to the workforce. Businesses, not government bureaucrats, know how to save money and motivate employees, they stress.

Turns out, few really believe government managers should take a page from private business managers.

Last night CNN did a scathing piece on the General Services Administration saying they uncovered evidence of wasteful spending. The government agency reportedly provided cooking classes for employees as part of a team-building exercise.

The GSA has come under fire recently for a host of spending decisions on employees but this particular one got CNN’s Anderson Cooper up in arms last night. Cooper is still mad they went to Vegas on the tax-payers dime last year for a conference.

You would think the team-building cooking classes would be getting kudos from critics of how the government works. Team-building workshops are a key tool used by private corporations, including Turner Broadcasting, the owners of CNN. (more…)

Online universities have been upping the ante on tempting you to sign up for courses, but you need to be cautious.

Lately I’ve noticed an addition to the qualifications section in help wanted ads:

Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.

An accredited college or university means the educational institution has an official thumbs up. Typically that translates into a state or national body deeming the school worthy of some sort of recognized certification, basically a stamp of approval. One organization most recruiters look to is the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. If your school is recognized by this group, you’re probably OK.

Many of the fly-by-night online degree schools don’t make the cut, and you need to know that before you sign up.

Unscrupulous recruiters at these schools do any thing, even lie, in order to get new students, so if someone at one of these organizations tells you the school’s accredited please do your own research.

I’m particularly angry this morning because the marketing tactics of some online universities are down right sinister. (more…)

I often ask successful professionals about their first jobs. Rarely does anyone tell me they loved, or really enjoyed those initial gigs.

Why? Because it’s rare to walk out of school and into the perfect job, one that’s fun and fullfilling. That’s just how the real world works. Believe it or not, you may actually hate that first job and spend more time learning and paying dues than sitting back in a rocking chair saying, “wow, my job is so great.”

That may be a bit of a disappointment to many younger workers. One study found that enjoyment at work is the top priority for students. (more…)

I got a tweet recently from @MichaelCTak that got me thinking:

what do think about getting your MBA these days for the working prof[essoinal]?

I often get asked about the merits of an MBA but the question typically comes from someone already working in the business world. Many people working for corporations often see an MBA as a good way to help them climb the ladder, but MichaelCTak, who I found out later is actually Michael Tak, works for a social services supervisor for a government agency in Georgia and wants to leave his government and non-profit background behind and go into business.

The question on Tak’s mind was whether an MBA would help him make the transition easier? And he also wondered if getting an online MBA in particular was as worthy as the in-school variety? (more…)

I just finished a story on the teen summer job market and one thing I kept hearing from business owners was that kids today just aren’t independent, and as a result don’t always make the best employees. One woman who owns a water ice shop in Dover, DE told me parents come in to ask if she has jobs for their kids instead of the kids coming in themselves. “That’s a bad sign,” she said, when it comes to how they’ll perform on the job.

Are we not hard enough on our kids? Do we do everything for them to the point of progeny paralysis?

In the last installment from my book, “From the Sandbox to the Corner Office,” I share one CEO’s experience with stern parents who toughened the executive up for life. (more…)

The kid in the front row is definitely the know-it-all in our class. The teacher keeps picking on him when the rest of us go blank after he asks a question. And thank goodness for the girl in the back row who makes my inability to answer many questions look not so bad. Every time the teacher asks her a question she says: “I wasn’t really paying attention.” Man, I can’t wait until this class is over.”

No, this isn’t an excerpt from my teen diary. This is actually what was going on in my head Saturday when I sat in a classroom for a course I’m taking to prepare for a graduate school exam. My plan is to go to graduate school, but it’s just a plan at this point, one that’s getting shakier and shakier the more I realize how much I hate being back in school.

Career writers spew out advice every day, especially in this crummy job market, but too often we don’t really know the details, the nuances, or the hell of that advice. It’s not until we end up on that advice horse ourselves that we realize how difficult it is to steer, or to even stay on the damn thing.

Whether I end up going to graduate school, or even finishing this preparatory course, won’t matter in the end, because at least I can bore you guys with the story of Reeducating CareerDiva. And hopefully, I can enlighten you all a bit on what to expect and how to succeed if you ever decide to get more education in order to enter a new field or just enhance your knowledge for an old one.

That’s why I reached out to a couple of shrinks to get some words of wisdom on why going back to school is so hard for us adults? What happens to us in the years after we graduate from high school or college? Do our brains atrophy when it comes to learning in a classroom setting? Why are my palms sweating? I don’t have a crush on the quiet kid with the “Starsky & Hutch” lunch box anymore. (more…)