So, employers looking to hire younger workers want many of you to have had internships. Only problem, most of the same employers don’t provide such internship opportunities.

Great graphic by Millennial Branding on what employers are looking for in Gen Y candidates: (more…)

I love comeback stories, and there are few as good as drug-addicted jailbird Robert Downey Jr.’s story.

The actor is now at the top of his game, and the huge opening of “The Avengers,” in which Downey stars as Iron Man, is only going to propel his career further.

I took my nine year old son to see the movie yesterday and we both agreed Iron Man was the best thing about the flick.

That’s why I was so excited to read the latest issue of Esquire with Downey on the cover, and I was even more excited when I read some of his advice about work and careers, which espoused the benefits of having crappy jobs. (more…)

Sometimes a graphic is worth a thousand blog words:

If you’ve read this blog for a while you probably know how I feel about top ten lists. They’re funny to read but I try not to take them too seriously.

I’m taking that sentiment to heart this morning because reporter made the list of worst jobs in the country and while my job can stink sometimes I really do love it.

“Many jobs in the media are characterized by high stress, short deadlines, long hours and a poor hiring outlook,” explains Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com’s 2012 Jobs Rated Report. “Despite these poor working conditions, competition is steep for what jobs remain after massive consolidation and layoffs in the media industry.”

Yada yada yada…

So, I’m going to include the top ten worst and best jobs here, as decided by CareerCast, but please don’t let it get you too down or too up if you’re gig made the list. (more…)

There’s been a lot written lately on how employers and recruiters are doing all they can to dig up dirt on employees and job seekers, but in reality not every manager is putting on their Sherlock Holmes hat.

Yes, it’s disturbing to hear that some hiring managers are asking for Facebook passwords from job candidates; and there’s nothing worse than employers who dig into the credit histories of job applicants. Criminal background checks are also a thorn in the side of many workers, especially those who get nixed for a job even though they may have never been convicted of a crime.

But in reality, Big Brother has not taken over the workplace.

A recent study by EmployeeScreenIQ, a worker screening provider, found that many companies are not rushing to the web or any place else to look you up. (more…)

The jobless figures from the Department of Labor this morning offered some hope. The overall unemployment rate dipped to 8.5 percent, the lowest level since 2009.

What wasn’t hopeful was growth in the number of people holding multiple jobs.

It’s one of the stark realities of today’s job market. Good-paying jobs are being lost, and many aren’t being replaced. As a result, some workers are finding they need more than one job to make ends meet — or at least keep up their standard of living, said Ellen Ernst Kossek, a human resource professor at Michigan State University’s School of Labor & Industrial Relations.

More than 7 million Americans are working two or more jobs today, up from 6.8 million in 2010, and 6 million in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (more…)

For many years now, we’ve all heard about the terrible nursing shortage in this country. The line has been, people who went into nursing would be thrown buckets of money and treated like royalty by the healthcare administrators wanting to hire them. That caused waves of workers to head to nursing schools.

Well, it turns out, promises of milk and honey were hype. Nurses are now being asked to take cuts in compensation and to work more.

A nurse told me a few years back that she thought all the hyperbole about a shortage was caused by the healthcare providers themselves in order to end up with an oversupply of nurses and thus be in a position to pay nurses less. I’m not much for conspiracy theories, but the end result she predicted is happening. (more…)

Reading business books, listening to leadership gurus, and even perusing the help wanted ads lately is like a hellish trip down jargon lane.

One of my least favorites is “critical thinker.” Everyone wants one of those it seems, even if you’re applying for a job in customer service, or as a registered nurse. And job postings including everyone from accounting clerks to Aflac Insurance sales people have to “think outside the box” these days.

There’s so much of this corporate lingo going around employees would like to annihilate them all. Which are most hated? (more…)

Women think mentors are important when it comes to their career advancement but many don’t have one.

That according to a LinkedIn survey released today. The study found that nearly one in five women have never had a mentor, even tough 82 percent say they believe having a mentor is a career boon. And Baby Boomers are dropping the mentor ball more often than Gen Y.

Many women polled said they couldn’t find an appropriate mentor. But when women were asked why they don’t mentor women they said, “no one ever asked.”

“Half of getting a mentor is asking,” said Betsy Myers, founding director for the Center of Women & Business at Bentley University, during her talk at the Pennsylvania Women’s Conference today.

It may be a dumb career move, for both men and women, not to find a mentor, especially if you’re trying to climb the corporate ladder.

A well-placed, successful, encouraging mentor can be your champion if you want to get noticed by the higher-ups but don’t have the stomach to let everyone know how great you are. And a mentor can also help you navigate the ins and outs of what is still a good-ol’-boys network in the upper echelon of the business world, which includes less than 20 percent women in executive officer positions or corporate board seats.

Sharon Allen, the former chair of Deloitte’s board, once told me: “I can’t stress enough how important mentoring is to achieving success in one’s career.” She credited the mentors she’s had in her career with helping her enter the small club of high-ranking women executives.

Here are some details from the LinkedIn study: (more…)

I’ve attended and have been a speaker at quite a few women’s conferences across the country, and I’m pondering today why women need such events.

Right now, I’m sitting in grand Hall A of the Pennsylvania Convention Center ready to hear the first keynote speaker of the Eighth Annual Pennsylvania Conference for Women.

The line up this morning:

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter
Pennsylvania Governor’s First Lady Susan Corbett
Helene Gayle, president and CEO, Care USA
Irene Chang Britt, chief strategy officer, Campbell Soup
Gretchen Rubin, author, “The Happiness Project”
Martha Beck, a life coach and columnist for The Oprah Magazine

I’ll be live blogging throughout the day, sharing some of what I hear.

I’d love to know your thoughts, and also, if there’s someone at the conference you want me to ask of question of, or listen to speak, let me know. Here’s a link to the conference.

Corbett is talking about Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer who led a failed voyage. “Shackleton is remembered as a great leader,” she said, because through hardships, he brought the 28 men under his command home.

“There is risk involved in making changes, or trying something new. If you take risks there is a chance you’ll encounter failure.” She said she suspects it’s that fear of failure that’s the hardest for women to overcome.

Is she right? Are women more fearful of failure, more so than men? (more…)