Career Jump-Start met on Tuesday, 19 February 2013 at First United Methodist Church at 503 North Central Expressway in Richardson, Texas. They met in room 230A&B because the United Methodist Men were meeting in Ogden Fellowship Hall. This room change occurs on the third Tuesday except during the summer time because of United Methodist Men meetings. The sign in the photograph that follows appears in the church lawn nearest the room where Career Jump-Start is meeting. When this sign is not outside of Ogden Fellowship Hall, go to the parking lot nearest Custer Road and look for this sign near the west end of the building. When you find this sign on the west side of the church:

1.       Follow the sidewalk at the left of this sign to the doors on your left (about the middle of the building)

2.       Enter the building through these doors

3.       Go up the stair case or take the elevator to the second floor

4.       Turn right in the hallway on the second floor

5.       Go to the end of the hallway where you will find room 230A&B

6.       Enter the room through the left door and sign-in at the registration table

Career Jump-Start meets in Ogden Fellowship Hall on most Tuesdays. When you find this sign on the east side of the church (the side close to US-75 Central Expressway):

1.       Enter the building through the door closest to the sign

2.       Go to the right down the hallway

3.       Enter Ogden Fellowship Hall through the second doorway on your right and sign-in at the registration table

There were 19 people in attendance at the Career Jump-Start meeting on Tuesday, 19 February 2013. General remarks before the program included:

• Assessments attempt to determine your comfort zone. 
• Assessments are company specific. 
• Your digital image needs to be pristine especially while looking for a job.
• Read documents backwards to find things that you miss be reading the document forward. 
• Office Max and Office Depot are merging. 
  

Robert Sage presented an excellent review of “Only BFFs Need Apply” by Logan Hill from Bloomberg Businessweek 07-13 January 2013. This magazine article states that companies are hiring people who fit the existing corporate culture even though they are not the best qualified for the position. Culture and diversity are described in this magazine article; however, diversity is beyond the scope of this meeting. Culture is about interactions between people. How do choices you make indicate how well you fit the workplace?

Robert wrote workplace positives and negatives on a white board as people in the meeting named them.

Workplace Positives:

• Family Friendly
• Christian Oriented
• Teamwork
• Halloween Competition
• Fun at Work
• Employees as Valued
• Golden / Platinum Rule
• Lunch and Share

Workplace Negatives:

• Pass the Buck
• Not Invented Here
• No New Ideas
• Always Done This Way
• Good Old ____ Network
• Politics
  

Glassdoor (an online database of information about interviews, salaries, and jobs) collects questions asked by hiring managers. There has been a significant increase in the number of questions asked to determine cultural fit. Companies have distinctive cultures. This culture at Southwest Airlines include going to a weekly party.
 
You should research people who will be interviewing you; Google and LinkedIn are great tools for this. Strive to develop a rapport with the interviewer. A nice firm handshake is important.

“You signal trust in four ways: Look them in the eye, smile, open your body language, and synchronize …” Bloomberg Businessweek, 07-13 January 2013, page 65.

Books recommended in this article are:

• How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less by Nicholas Boothman
• The Fine Art of Small Talk by Debra Fine
  

Both of these books are available from Amazon. If you want to purchase them from Amazon, help support CareerDFW and CareerUSA as follows (this does not change what you pay; however, CareerDFW and CareerUSA receive a portion of the purchase price):

1.       Go to http://careerdfw.org/J/ or http://www.careerusa.org/

2.       Scroll to the bottom of any page on either of the above websites

3.       Click on the Amazon advertisement

4.       Make purchase from Amazon

A wild card is a statement at the end of a 30-second introduction to catch attention. “He walked on fire during the initiation ceremony.”

LinkedIn profiles will replace resumes. There are 30,000 to 40,000 recruiters who are online.

Remember A-R-P (Awareness – Research – Preparation)

Career Jump-Start met on Tuesday, 15 May 2012 at First United Methodist Church of Richardson, Texas. Robert Sage agreed to present a program with very short notice. The scheduled speaker notified the meeting organizer that they were not able to keep the appointment. The meeting organizer invited Robert to be a substitute presenter. Robert accepted the challenge and provided an excellent program.

Robert focused our attention on two magazine articles: “The Joblet Recovery” by John Gerzema in INC. magazine October 2011 on page 38 and “How to Get a Job: Show, Don’t Tell” by Jennifer Alsever  in FORTUNE magazine March 19, 2012 on page 29.

“The Joblet Recovery” explains how piecework is being matched to qualified workers through websites such as: Mechanical Turk, SkillSlate, TaskRabbit, and Tutorspree. Each website operates differently and provides jobs that require skills and knowledge specified on each website.

“How to Get a Job: Show, Don’t Tell” tells us that employers are asking candidates to show or demonstrate what they have to offer.

Payment for jobs acquired through a website and performed can be collected with a device called Square that plugs into a smart phone and reads credit cards. The account number can be keyed into the smart phone when the credit card is not physically available. Intuit provides a similar device and service.

Lockout Mobile Security provides security for a lost smart phone. If the smart phone is lost, the owner can call it from another telephone, enter a command with password, and cause information in the smart phone to be deleted.

NEXT WEEK: Dave Peters is scheduled to present a program

Career Jump-Start usually meets on Tuesday evenings at First United Methodist Church, 503 North Central Expressway, Richardson, Texas 75080. Official information about this group is available at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/CJS-HPUMC/ or http://www.fumcr.com/pages/caring_career_support.