In the words of Robert Schuller, “what would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?” This is the kind of question that stirs those bubbling aspirations that refuse to dissipate. An aspiration is the stuff that precedes every great idea and thrives among those willing to let it take over. Probably the most likely to benefit from such thinking are young entrepreneurial spirits. Young people like Shama Kabani, who founded a social media marketing firm called The Marketing Zen Group at the age of 24. Yoav Lurie and Justin Segall (both 29), are two friends who aspired to mend the “broken relationship between people and their energy consumption”. These guys created Simple Energy, a web platform using social game mechanics to get consumers to save energy. The likes of Lady Gaga and Angelina Jolie are crowned by one of today’s youngest milliners and at 25, Gigi Burris shows that her innovative hat designs didn’t come with age, but with genuineness and grace. We have change agents, thought leaders and tastemakers guiding the next generation into a new consciousness and many of them are under 30. It’s never too early to begin pursuing entrepreneurship. If more is what you want and you’re inspired to take the lead, here are three tips to get those wheels turning and possibly spinning gold:
On March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (aka Pope Francis) was elected the 266th Pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church. It was an exciting day around the world for Argentina, Catholicism and humanity in general. Everywhere you looked, there were stories about Pope Francis from his dedication to the poor to his views on religious and social issues.
One thing that resonated with me was how the Pope had a master’s degree in chemistry and contemplated life as a chemist and teacher prior to entering the priesthood. Chemistry…sounds pretty different from Catholicism, doesn’t it? Apparently, Pope Francis felt a greater attraction to spirituality than ions and so the Pope, in his late 20s, decided like so many others in their careers, to pivot.
These days, the term “pivot” is used frequently in the startup world when a company decides to redirect its business vision. In other words, the company decides to change its strategy in order to be profitable. Companies do it. People do it. Even, popes do it. At some point, we all pivot, whether in our personal or professional lives.
If you’re beginning the process of job searching but don’t know where to start, here are some great websites to help you out. There are so many websites used to search for job openings and career ideas, and many of them you have already heard about. We have listed out the top 5 services along with some honorable mentions. Included in the list are some sites that target special fields. So if you’re interested in narrowing down your search to simply science-related careers, non-profits, jobs overseas, working in an environment-friendly company, etc., read about what we voted as the top five career search sites that will make your search more efficient.
A few weeks ago I was set free. Free from a career path I embarked on over 10 years ago, with no end in sight. I, like many other young, go-getters, smart enough to score well on his LSAT, and without a foreseeable six-figure job in my horizon, decided to go to law school, because at the time, “it was a means to an end.” At least that’s what my mother told me. The only problem was that I had no idea what, where or when the “end” would be.
In our last article, we discussed the importance of what your prospective University offers in regards to Career Services, since students can use all the help they can get as they’re exploring career paths, and weighing their options. Today we continue by listing some of the services offered by Universities ranked in the top ten versus ones that aren’t.
When you’re researching colleges, it is important to check out their career services and how they plan to prepare you for the step after college. What we’re asking here is: if a college is ranked in the “top ten” bracket, does that necessarily mean that this college also has a top career service? To research this question, we considered the “top ten” colleges given by the Princeton Review for 2013. We took the top three public colleges and the top three private colleges and compared their career services to those of lower ranked colleges in the US to see if what they offer aligns with their academic standing.
In short, yes! Growing up, most of us didn’t receive a fair amount of career advice before looking for a job or even before entering college. When you were an adolescent and young adult, you probably had experience in different jobs here and there, but how prepared were you when you had to choose which career to pursue for the first time? How prepared were you when you faced your first work-related problem? Whether these milestones have already passed you by or not, a career counselor, or “coach”, can still be beneficial to you.
Many people in the midst of job hunting turn to online career tests with the hope that after answering a number of questions, they will be told what career is best suited for them. You may be one of them. You also may be wondering how these tests work, what exactly they measure, how effective these tests are, and which test is the best one for you.
Professional growth and finding a job can mean so many things. When you’re looking for a job (that’s more than a “job”), the first and perhaps most important question you can ask yourself is “In what ways might I be of service?” This might seem like a nebulous question so let’s look at its structure and components. “In what ways” specifically avoids limiting words like ‘best’ or ‘highest paid’, and instead allows for creativity, innovation and possibilities. The second half of the question gets to the substance. Any opportunity is fair game; in this case we’re looking for opportunities to “be of service”. Why service? Because positions where we are of service are both more satisfying and more lucrative. If you’re not good at it and/or no one wants it, you haven’t yet found a job…
Let’s imagine that you’re a participant in the board game, “The Game of Life.” You’re sliding along the board until you roll a five and your piece lands on the tile that says, “Pick a Career.” In the game, another participant presents a handful of possibilities and you select one blindly. Each card has the title of the position paired with your annual salary and a picture of your fictional character busy at work. In reality, we know that an array of cards isn’t immediately presented before you when you receive your degree. Fortunately however, you still have a selection of careers. How do you know which one is the one? Which one will make you happy and increase your well-being for the duration of the game of life?
