When Your Boss Wants to Friend You on Facebook

Posted by Kristina Cowan

Has your boss ever asked to be "friends" with you on Facebook? As social media become more prevalent, more workers are facing this question. A Boston Globe story reports the fastest-growing segment of Facebook is people 25 years or older, and more than half of all users are beyond college.

Accepting a boss's Facebook request can be awkward, but rejecting it can be a slight--and potentially detrimental to your career. Should employers make such inquiries? If they do--and no doubt some will--what's an employee to do?

IT Careers: Too ‘Geeky’ for Women

Posted by Kristina Cowan

Some important people think IT careers need a makeover.

Microsoft is touting them to young women, as is the European Union, which earlier this year announced plans to make IT careers more appealing to women. According to eWeek.com:

The second annual DigiGirlz event, held on March 26 in Islandia, N.Y., was attended by more than 150 11th grade girls from seven schools on Long Island. Presenters from all walks of IT gave presentations on career planning and job roles in areas from law to health care, the public sector and security companies. Women at the top of the field doled out unconventional career advice to girls in the hopes of dispelling the notion that one must be a geek to work with technology.

By squashing IT's 'geeky' image and giving it a sexier sheen, the logic goes, more women will be drawn to it, helping stave off a shortage of workers.

According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology, 1 million computer and information-related jobs are expected to be added to the U.S. workforce by 2014, but U.S. universities will only graduate enough candidates with computer science bachelor’s degrees to fill 50 percent of those jobs.

Where are the rest of the qualified candidates going to come from? Since women only account for 26 percent of tech workers, according to NCWIT, could the untapped female population help meet the projected shortfall of workers?

American Workers Too Fat?

Posted by Kristina Cowan

The cost of obesity is going up.

According to a Conference Board report, obese workers cost private employers as much as $45 billion every year in medical expenses and lost work. That’s a heavy financial burden to bear. Does it justify employers hiring thinner job candidates, rather than those who are obese?

Workplace discrimination such as this—or in any other form—is uncalled for. But the growing costs of obesity increase the odds of it happening, along with other problems for employees and employers.

This Isn't Your Grandpa's Job Market

Posted by Kristina Cowan

Job hopping used to be a red flag. Frequent jumps around the job market signaled a worker's lack of commitment. These days it's more of a green light, especially for younger workers. Job mobility can help speed them along a career path--or rescue them from a rut--and keep them interested in their work.

In a recent Boston Globe piece Penelope Trunk writes:

The best thing you can do early in your career is move around a lot so you can figure out what you're good at and what you like. If you compare people who job hop with people who don't, people who job hop build their network faster, build their skill set faster, and are more engaged in their work.

She's right.

How to Manage Your Boss

Posted by Kristina Cowan

You've probably heard the phrase "bad manager" before. Perhaps you're in the throes of a job you loathe--mostly because of a problematic superior who doesn't do a good job managing you and others.

But what about the way you manage your boss? It's just as critical, according to John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter, authors of "Managing Your Boss," a Harvard Business Review “Classics” article. Workers must manage their bosses if they want to do their best and benefit themselves, their supervisors and their companies, the authors say.

Looking for a Crystal Ball on the Jobs Front, and Turning Up Short

Posted by Kristina Cowan

If the job market seemed soft a month ago, these days it appears softer still.

Late last week the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate rose from 4.8 to 5.1 percent in March, and nonfarm payroll employment was down 80,000 jobs. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics release:

In March, employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and employment services, while health care, food services, and mining added jobs.

The Wall Street Journal notes the job losses are the largest in five years and the third consecutive monthly decline:

Also, revised data showed that employers cut 76,000 jobs in both January and February, more than previously thought. Together, the numbers offer the most persuasive evidence yet that the economy has slipped into a recession.

Even former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the recession has arrived.

Is there any good news?

High-School Dropouts: A Workforce "Tragedy"

Posted by Kristina Cowan

High-school graduation rates in the largest U.S. cities are abysmal.

A report released this week by America’s Promise Alliance says in the 50 largest cities, about half of all students in the main school systems graduate from high school. These rates, the report says, are "considerably lower" than graduation rates in suburban areas:

... extreme disparities emerge in a number of the country’s largest metropolitan areas, where students served by suburban systems may be twice as likely as their urban peers to graduate from high school.

Nationwide, nearly one in three U.S. high-school students drops out before graduating, according to an APA release, and approximately 1.2 million students drop out every year. The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates that 2006-2007 high-school dropouts will in their lifetimes cost the United States more than $329 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity.

These numbers, alarming in their own right, spell major trouble for our workforce. But just how big is the problem--and what's the solution?

Making Sense of a Softening Job Market

Posted by Kristina Cowan

For the U.S. economy, the hits keep coming.

In February, employers cut jobs by the largest amount in five years. According to the Associated Press:

For the second straight month, nervous employers got rid of jobs nationwide. In February, they sliced payrolls by 63,000, even deeper than the 22,000 cut in January, the Labor Department reported Friday. The grim snapshot of the country’s employment climate underscored the heavy toll the housing and credit debacles are taking on companies, jobseekers and the economy as a whole.

While the Bush administration tries to remain upbeat, toting a recent stimulus package, others are casting a darker shadow over the future. A New York Times story reports:

Within minutes of the new report on employment, many in the dwindling pool of optimists changed their positions. ... Just one minute after the Labor Department published its report at 8:30 a.m., JPMorgan Chase reversed its stance, declaring that a recession appeared to have begun. Lehman Brothers switched its position as well.

What does this all mean for workers and jobseekers?

Graduate School: Is It Worth It?

Posted by Kristina Cowan

I recently had the honor of guest-blogging for Michelle Goodman’s always-informative “Anti 9-to-5 Guide.” Michelle and I discussed whether--and how much--higher education is essential to certain career paths. We also chatted about the soaring costs of higher education, the value of community colleges, and trade school.

For the full post, visit Michelle's blog here.

The Romantic Side of Networking

Posted by Kristina Cowan

Networking is one of the most important things you'll ever do for your career. Even when you love what you do, you should continue to widen your professional pool of contacts, including friends, colleagues, bosses, family.

A new book by Shawn Graham, "Courting Your Career," makes a strong case for networking. The book points out that networking was the leading job-search method reported by 78 percent of job-seekers in a poll by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Graham centers the book on an analogy between finding a job and finding a significant other, and is engaging and witty as he delivers a host of useful networking tips.