A good read for job seekers!
**Good Advice Comes From Many Sources **
By Mary Ellen Slayter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 29, 2003; Page K01
Good career advice doesn’t have to come from “experts.” It can come from all sorts of people. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open. And, hey, it’s often even free.
Readers share their favorite sources of workplace wisdom:
• Parents. Jennifer L. Blanck, director of career and alumni services at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute in Washington, credits her parents for the best advice she ever got. “If you are experiencing problems or issues in a professional setting, . . . document them. If you ever need to support a claim, such as unfair practices or problem behavior, a presentation of the facts is the most persuasive approach,” she said her parents told her. Unfortunately, she said, she’s had to put this advice to use at previous jobs.
• The Internet. Cricket McLeod, 24, says sometimes the Web gives better advice than dear old Dad. "The best, most practical career advice I ever received was from a column on WashingtonJobs.com. The guy wrote something like ‘When finding your new job or career, research the area you are going into to see if there is actually a market for that type of work. Then get necessary training to be certified to work in that field.’ It was kind of a no-brainer but was much more practical that my dad’s heartfelt ‘Do what you love, Cricket,’ " said McLeod, a soon-to-be-graduating college student in Ellisville, Miss. She wants to be a photographer, but she knows those jobs are scarce, so she’s taken every chance to get hands-on experience while she’s in school – newspapers, her college yearbook, art shows, magazines – to make her more competitive.
• Colleagues. Chris, a contractor in Arlington, said she learned her most important work lesson from a co-worker: "Probably the best advice I ever received was from a contractor colleague about the relationships among government contractors, their company boss and their client boss. I was an on-site, first-time contractor at the time, and this advice and knowledge has served me very well ever since.
"She took me aside on my first day and told me to never forget that I am a hired gun regardless of how cordial or close the working relationship is with the client boss and other government team members. Although I may be treated like one of the group in every respect, there is a fine line that should never be crossed. I often had lunch with my client boss and other government staff, but we never discussed other personnel or business-related matters that didn’t concern me. Things can also get dicey when there is too much familiarity.
“I have remembered her advice in the past few months as I watched a co-worker make many of the mistakes I was warned not to and be yanked recently from the contract as a result. Business is business in the contracting world. I am very grateful for my colleague’s wisdom because I take it with me in each new contracting job.”
• Books. Angela White, a law student at American University, takes her career counsel from defense lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz. Or at least from his book “Letters to a Young Lawyer.” Her favorite quote: “Don’t try to become a ‘Sara Lee’ lawyer. . . . If everyone likes you, you’re doing something wrong.” White, 24, plans to be a public interest lawyer.
• Your boss. Yes, listen to your supervisor. And not just about the day’s workload. Steve Cook, 27, was working for a small publishing company in California, “going back and forth between working on the books themselves and the company’s Web site.”
“The editor in chief sat me down at one point and recommended I decide whether I was fish or fowl,” Cook said. "She was fiercely devoted to the editorial staff, and I think she felt that I wasn’t getting the respect, or money, I deserved as long as I was splitting my time.
“It was an exercise that made me really examine what I liked about my job. I ended up sloughing off publishing – the field I had wanted to go into in college – in favor of focusing more on computer work, and I don’t regret the decision,” said Cook, who is now a Web developer living in Takoma Park.
• Teachers. Todd Trimmer, a Dallas software engineer, was paying attention in class. Maybe you should have been, too. Trimmer, 27, said the advice he picked up from Donald H. Kraft, a computer science professor at Louisiana State University, has served him well, keeping him employed through tough times for techies. “Find out what it is your boss does, and make it easier for him to do,” Kraft told the class.