Career Advice and Opportunities

We are moving!

2009-07-01T13:04:00.008+10:00

Hello again

The removalists are here! I mentioned some time back that I was planning on moving my blogs to a single new blog at http://www.owenmcnamara.com/ and to use WordPress instead of Blogger - see this article for the reasons why. Well that day has at last come. So from now on my blog posts will be on the new domain which you can get to by clicking here.

Why use my name as the URL? Well, many experts recommend that if you work a lot on the internet, which I do, that you should protect your own name by registering it as a domain (so if you haven't already done that I suggest you do - it costs very little per year and you don't need to do anything with it but at least it will be yours.). I tried to come up with a new interesting name for my blog, and couldn't. My previous blogs were about quite different topics and my new blog will also cover a range of topics that interest me so for now I will use my own name as the blog name. It is the best name I could think of at the moment.

My aim in the new blog is that my posts and newsletter are full of content, not ads, and so you will notice most of my articles in the new blog are longer than the average blog posts you have seen. Yes, there are some ads in my posts but only a few select ones. My aim is to keep them to a bare minimum.

Sometimes I write a blog post or article once a day, and sometimes none for a week or two. It depends on what other projects I have on. I develop and maintain my own commercial websites in a number of different market segments, and I work as a Consultant in Technology Project Management, Software Management and Internet Business Management and Marketing. For your information, my main consulting business website is http://www.knowledgestream.com.au/ which I will completely update sometime in the not too distant future but it gives you a guide.

In addition to my blog posts I do sometimes put together more comprehensive newsletters that people will enjoy and find useful. These will be in the form of a PDF newsletter that I place on my new blog site and then email you a link so you can download at your leisure. My new blog has a simple free newsletter subscription form where you can enter your email address and automatically be sent a short email with a link back to my blog whenever the site is updated or there is a newsletter. That saves everyone time.

I hope you find the new blog and newsletters interesting, informative and valuable to you. Don't hesitate to contact me with any comments, questions or suggestions at my new blog.

Until next time

Owen McNamara

http://www.owenmcnamara.com/

Innovation – Let’s Give It a Chance!

2009-05-13T15:46:00.012+10:00

People know that innovation is one of the keys to our future and it was great to come across an excellent article published recently in a main stream media blog. The article on Innovation by Kristen Le Mesurier in the Sydney Morning Herald Website is well worth reading as is one in the New Yorker: Hanging Tough that Kristen refers to.

Some companies have jumped in far too quickly and started laying people off too soon before they had really analysed the full costs of doing that. Usually, companies factor the cost of an employee as several times that persons salary package. So losing just one good person is expensive, but actually laying lots of people off that you may later need is extremely expensive! It can be fatal to long term success whilst providing a short term solution only.

On one hand if companies lay people off too soon they are hampering the chance for the business to grow again when the times improve and are spending a lot of money in redundancy payouts to boot! But on the other hand if they keep on employing too many staff at a loss for too long then they are putting the whole financial foundations of their business in peril. They are caught between the proverbial "rock and a hard place".

To my mind though, real Innovation is much harder than the easier approach of cost cutting. Yet innovation can yield fantastic results but takes brave managers with foresight and real determination to drive through. When you have a Company Boardroom breathing down your neck it can be very hard to say. “Hey, I have a great idea, let’s try out a complete new product or service line”. Of course, it is easier and more defendable to the shareholders to just cut costs. The connection between innovation and the bottom line can seem a long way off. It is risky, maybe innovation will work, maybe it won’t. And usually our senior managers and executives, as good as they are, are not rewarded for their innovation. Hence, the most common approach is reluctantly for businesses to cut costs. Like a disease it is catching. If your competitors do it, you feel you should and so on it goes.

But history shows Innovation is key, and many books attest to that.
Books such as:

“Good to Great” and “Built to Last” by Jim Collins
“The Medici Effect” by Frans Johansen
"Think Better” by Tim Hurson and
“Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

are fantastic reads that should inspire any company leader to try something different.

I understand the difficulties, but just doing what every other company in the crowd does won’t work in the long term either.

Innovation – Let’s give it a chance!

Owen

P.S. Watch the short presentation by the legendary Tom Peters.

And two longer presentations from Harvard Business Publishing

Plans for this blog plus jobs Social Media networking reminder.

2009-05-11T20:52:00.015+10:00

Hello again,

I haven't been doing much work on this blog lately as I have been working very hard on one of our commercial e-commerce sites. I also completely updated our company website at http://www.KnowledgeStream.com.au and put some of the internet information I have gathered for those interested on
http://InternetBlog.OwenMcNamara.com

My plan when I get time, possibly next week, is to move all my blogs into a new WordPress blog at http://www.OwenMcNamara.com . I have set up a new WordPress template at that domain but haven't moved the posts across as yet. I like this blog service at Google, it is free and Google Blogger is great, but I just wanted to try out the famous WordPress and am able to get some great templates for that.

I must admit I had larger plans at one stage for a Career Advice type website that this blog did start out as but over time I have come to realise that the market is quite saturated already and that most people when looking in the current climate are just after something quite simple but very very important: a job!

So just to remind you of a few posts that listed some job web sites to check out
http://next-career-move.blogspot.com/2009/02/job-sites-to-try.html
and
http://next-career-move.blogspot.com/2009/02/some-interesting-websites.html

as well as the more well known job search companies Seek, Monster, CareerOne, ITWire, Creative Jobs Central, and so on. There are many many to choice from depending on which Country you reside in - they are easy to find on the web.

On the Job hunting front, for people who are looking, I want to remind you of the benefits of services such as LinkedIn for finding people and staying in touch with them. Often you can find a new position from your own network without ever having to look elsewhere. That way you will have a personal recommendation from someone you and your perspective new employer knows and that is a big advantage. Perhaps even more so in these times of recession in most of the OECD countries. So if you haven't already, I suggest you check out LinkedIn, and see if you can find people you know. It is amazing how useful it can be. Even I am in there at http://www.linkedin.com/in/owenmc.

On the same line I have heard of many using Facebook the same way. So don't restrict yourself to the traditional ways, use the new Social Media Internet tools as well to help find a lead to your next job. Good luck in your search.

Until next time

Owen

Career Advice Overview and Options

2009-04-10T15:16:00.010+10:00

You may have noticed that the last few posts were all related and together gave people some other options to look into on their search.

In my post entitled: "Career Advice - Where Do You Get It?" I discussed the problem many people have in figuring out exactly what they want to do for their next job, regardless of what they are currently doing - you might want a change. The blog included a package offer from the legendary author Brian Tracy that would help anyone decide just what they want to really do.

Predicting the future job trends is difficult but my post: "What Are Tomorrows Jobs?" discusses key areas to look into and how to get some training to move into those new areas.

The post "More Jobs, Interviews and Cover Letters" has some more information related to putting together your cover letter and looking for different jobs that you may not have seen before.

And if you are wondering if you should or if you shouldn't try something different then maybe this little post will help: "The Road Less Traveled".

My most recent post prior to this one discussed your responsibility and that of corporations in these times: Corporate and Personal-Responsibility.

There will be more posts to follow on this theme of trying something different and also the basic but often overlooked problem of creating a great resume.

And finally, those people interested in learning how to use the internet to supplement or even replace their income will learn from "Internet Business"

Happy Easter

Owen

Corporate and Personal Responsibility

2009-04-04T22:21:00.006+10:00

A short post today on the subject of Corporate Responsibility. There are lots of comments in the media at the moment criticising companies for putting so many good people out of work. Now in some cases that criticism is justified as in some cases companies have jumped in far too quickly and starting laying people off too soon before they had really analysed the full costs of doing that. Usually, companies factor the cost of an employee as several times that persons salary package! So losing just one good person is expensive, but actually laying people off that you may later need is extremely expensive! But most companies are acting responsibly, they have to! They have to answer to their shareholders and boards of directors ultimately, and they are often caught in a very difficult position.

On one hand if they lay people off too soon they are hampering the chance for the business to grow again when the times improve and are spending a lot of money in redundancy payouts to boot! But on the other hand if they keep on employing too many staff at a loss for too long then they are putting the whole financial foundations of their business in peril. They are caught between the proverbial "rock and a hard place" or maybe that is just a saying where I come from.

Some companies are getting it wrong and have had to rehire people later that they retrenched, but most often this is not the case. Companies in general try to do the right thing by their people and their community, they are aware they have a social responsibility as well as one to their shareholders, in fact the two are closely linked.

So instead of criticising upper management for the tough decisions they have to make (and yes some will get it wrong, don't we all) I suggest employees in companies that are on the "edge" try to help out. They can knuckle down and really try to help their company out, work a bit harder, be more focused, ask your manager how you can help out more (that will be an unusual concept for some but try it), pull together as one team to get through the tough times. Because those companies and teams that don't will not survive, they will fail.

There are two sides to the responsibility equation then: Corporate responsibility to their share holders, community, partners, customers and employees; and individual employee responsibility to their employer, their team mates, their families and their communities. Both Companies and individual employees are jointly responsible, and both have to learn to adapt and work together to get through these times.

Businesses, Companies and individual employees who can't adapt will have to watch as their business or job or both becomes extinct - just ask the dinosaurs what happens if you don't learn to adapt!

Owen

What are tomorrow's jobs?

2009-03-28T21:18:00.008+10:00

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the top occupations projected to grow the fastest in the period 2006-2016 are in order:

Network systems and data communications analysts
Personal and home care aides
Home health aides
Computer Software Engineers, applications
Veterinary technologists and technicians
Personal Financial advisors
Makeup Artists, theatrical and performance
Medical Assistants
Veterinarians
Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors
Skin care specialists
Financial Analysts

The US B.L.S. states: "Among all occupations in the (US) economy, health care occupations are expected to make up 7 of the 20 fastest growing occupations, the largest proportion of any occupational group. "

The same article shows the jobs predicted to have the greatest increase in numbers and those with the greatest predicted decline - the ones to get out of. It goes on to discuss training.

Read the full article with graphs here: US BLS Article on Tomorrow's Jobs

If you are one of our many US readers and you are considering more training then "Education for Careers" has a lot more information at their web site.

From the UK a short article in the BBC reports on a UN prediction for a growth in jobs in the Green industries: "UN Forecasts Boom in Green Jobs". The same sort of growth in Green jobs can be seen already happening around the world.

For our Australian readers the following page has a great list of reference links and other information.

http://www.reinventyourcareer.com.au

and for the latest "Age" employment forecast for the immediate future click here

Owen

More Jobs, Cover letters and Interviews

2009-03-24T12:21:00.019+10:00

On this blog I will sometimes list products and services that might help you in your search and that perhaps you haven't already come across. I am not here to try and sell them to you, just list some of them in case they help you. If there is any selling to do I will leave that to the advertiser themselves on their website for their products or services.

Today I thought I would just list two items of interest. I plan to list a few more later in the week as I will keep on searching and carrying out a basic review before I mention them on this blog.

So read on, and check these two out in case it does help you or someone you know. And can I ask that you let me know how you went, if something isn't as advertised let me know and I will pull it from this blog. Just put in a comment after this post and I will get it.

The first is a product and guide that helps you with your cover letter that you send with your job application. I admit I hadn't paid much attention to my cover letters in the past but the next product offering suggests that your Cover Letter is extremely important and offers techniques based on good advertising copywriting practice to generate Cover letters that get you to the interview. (Now they tell me!)

The product offer page has a small video and lots of information if you scroll down the page that explains it all: Click here for the Cover letter product offer.

The second is a very large and diverse recruitment organization that has 35 targeted job boards in cities throughout the US that you may not have come across. They offer a range of services for a very wide range of industries: Click here to check out Creative Jobs Central

Career Advice - where do you get it?

2009-03-22T23:25:00.008+10:00

Career advice is certainly something that most people need at various times but getting really good advice is hard. I remember the career guidance counsellors when I was at school, they tried of course, but how does one person give really good advice to hundreds of students? Particularly when they personally have no experience of each of the different professions themselves. It is very very hard, so I remember visiting them once, and never going back. I suppose I was lucky in that I knew what I wanted to do anyway at that time.

Regardless of what people decide they want to do, often careers simply cease to exist in particular locations, companies close down, jobs are outsourced overseas and so people find themselves having to move on. People can move on in many ways of course. They can physically pack up and move towns to where they can get a job in their chosen career and industry, and many many people I know do that. Or, people can move on in a different way.

They can stay where they are physically, but move on mentally. That is they can choose to change career, to try something different, even to go and get some more training. There are a multitude of ways they can do that but I urge those of you considering your options to at least entertain what else you could do without having to uproot your families and move to another town? Just think about it, maybe you will come up with something.

As for getting good advice, recently I came across a great package on offer from the well known Brian Tracy. He has reduced the price on some of his books and put together a package of real value that saves us all some money. I won't say much more here, just suggest you have a look at his site now yourself. Click on the icon below and read on. I hope that helps.

Some more advice for those people worried about their jobs and careers at the moment; stop watching or listening to the news or reading the newspapers for a week. Just try it and see how you feel. Listen to music instead, read a book, watch a movie, take up a new hobby, browse the net (but not the news sites). Go on, try it. I bet you cheer up.

See you

Owen

The Road Less Traveled

2009-03-19T21:47:00.005+10:00

As many people including myself embark bravely on new careers and many others are just considering trying something different a famous poem came to mind (and it could just be the red wine :-). Almost everyone has heard the famous saying about the road less traveled. So I just did a quick search and found it. It is a famous poem by Robert Frost, an American poet and the one of the most famous of all.

Robert Frost's 1916 poem: "The Road Not Taken”

Poem

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(poem)

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/51.html

http://www.adamsmithacademy.org/etext/TheRoadNotTaken.html

Just something different for today

Owen

Career Change

2009-03-18T13:29:00.007+10:00

In the current financial doom and gloom many people are concerned about their future career and their job security.

It could be now is the time to take the opportunity to make that career change you have always wanted, or to realise that your old career isn't working for you anymore and you want to do something different. Perhaps you love your current job but realise there will be fewer and fewer jobs in that area anymore so you know deep down that you need to change into something else. But what? How? What options are there? Which options are right for you?

That is a tough question we all have to answer but it is important to ask the question isn't it? The answers will be different for each of us.

Owen

What are the top web sites in the World?

2009-02-27T14:31:00.004+10:00

Here is a trivial pusuit question for you: What are the top 10 web sites in the World?

What about the top 500?

The answer is interesting, look at the list: Alexa: Top 500 Web Sites

Now that was just the apetizer, what about the top One Million Web sites in the World, yes - I am serious.

Look at Top One Million Web Sites in the known Universe

Now guess how many web pages there are in the World! The answer today is at least 25.38 billion pages! For full details on where that number came from check out World Wide Web Size.

Now somewhere in that lot are the web sites for companies keen to hire you!

That was just a digression, I will be back on topic next time

Owen

Some interesting websites

2009-02-23T21:07:00.004+10:00

Hi

The following sites have some interesting information related to being made redundant (your job, not you!) and moving onto your next position and considering your options. Some of these are from the UK and USA. Please post this blog with any great sites you find so others can share.

http://www.thesource.gov.au/find/career/getting_that_job.asp

and

http://www.e2ecoaching.com/

and
http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/laid-off-sites/

and
http://www.prlog.org/10178265-top-tips-for-those-facing-redundancy-over-the-holiday-period.html

And the latest statistics which actually are much better than overseas
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/6202.0

ABC News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/12/2489494.htm

http://www.positionsvacant.com.au/

Good luck

Owen

Job Sites to try

2009-02-23T17:55:00.005+10:00

You may have all these URLs already but just in case you haven't here are a few recruitment sites to check out - I can't comment personally on any of them and they are in no particular order but I believe they are all well known. If you have any others you would like to share please send a post to this blog for others to use.

http://www.engineeringjobs.net.au/

http://www.careerone.com.au/

http://www.seek.com.au/

http://mycareer.com.au/

http://jobsearch.gov.au/

http://www.bestjobsau.com/

http://www.jobs.com.au/

Many also recommend that you use networking groups such as http://www.linkedin.com/
and I certainly have a linkedin profile and have made contact with some old friends using it.

Another good strategy is to go directly to the company websites of interest, larger and more well known companies usually advertise directly on their website.

And last but not least to make sure you do well in the interviews have a look at some interview tips:
Google Search for "Interview tips"

And one more option of course is to consider setting up your own business. Now that is a big step but for some, one worth considering.

All the best for now

Owen

Heard of any companies looking for people?

2009-02-23T17:42:00.008+10:00

Unfortunately lots of people are being given packages and are moving onto new things. It is a shame just how much potential is being lost in so many companies at the moment. But that is the unfortunate reality of where we are at the moment.

I know there are jobs out there but not sure how many but wish everyone well in their search. It is certainly scary times, though perhaps if you don't look at the news so often it won't be quite so scary or at least you won't feel it is anyway :-).

On the local scene I have heard on the grape vine of a couple of companies in the Railway signalling area who are looking for people though I can't confirm or deny that. Please let me know if you don't know who they are and I will send you the links to their company website in case they do have something that suits you.

Do any of you know of companies looking for people?

And a good read that some of you may not have come across is
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/

Owen