My former work colleague met a woman at work and used the Instant Messaging (IM) program to flirt with her at work. They would meet during lunch to flirt some more and it was all going well until he got a pink slip. I don’t know if that was the reason why he got fired –- the woman wasn’t even reprimanded -– but the bottom line was that afterwards she apparently refused to date the guy since he was unemployed. The IM feature was soon removed from our computers and since then I’ve never worked at a place where it was actually okay to use it.

New research suggests that IM is an effective way to communicate with your co-workers and that it causes fewer interruptions than it was originally thought that it would. In fact, as the Instant Messaging Proves Useful In Reducing Workplace Interruption article suggests, IM helps to improve productivity when employees use it smartly. for example, using it to see if their co-workers are available to be interrupted in a more intrusive way. According to the research, the IM communication doesn’t allow for lengthy and complicated exchanges so employees don’t waste too much time on it. Tell that to my former work colleague.

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Jowita

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Soon after graduating, I got hired at a magazine for an entry-level position. It was a good gig for a journalism grad and I was very happy to learn the ropes. The thing is, I wasn’t that good at what I was hired for –- my talents lie elsewhere so it was a huge shock when I got promoted.

From being an assistant, I went to a senior position and then it was too late to try to sneak back somehow into a less demanding slot. I had to learn the ropes so quickly that it felt as if I were swinging on them (but not in a happy Tarzan way, more like a terrified Jane way). I also had to learn about leadership. I learned that being in charge didn’t mean ordering people around and resting on my laurels while others worked. It was the opposite -– being in a senior position meant that there was twice as much work and that my peers’ input was now even more important than before. In the Globe and Mail article From Shop Floor to Executive Suite, nine lessons in leadership are mentioned. They are:

• Expand your vision –- understand all parts of the business, not just your specialty.
• Look beyond today –- have a plan with a horizon of years rather than days.
• Refelect –- set goals for yourself and the company and review daily or weekly.
• Develop others -– inspire others by getting to know their individual inspirations and goals.
• Encourage feedback –- ask for input from your peers.
• Keep a cool head –- a leader’s display of feelings will influence how others will feel about their work.
• Trust your team –- keep your hands off while your people are executing your orders.
• Stay approachable -– your employees should feel comfortable asking you for help.
• Record your progress -– know what you’ve achieved and what you need to work on.

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The other weekend, I had a bike accident. I split my shin open and fainted right in the middle of the city on a very hot day. I was in a bit of a shock from the injury and was not doing too great in general. Within seconds, what seemed like a dozen people were ready to help me and paramedics were on their way. I got a ride to the emergency room in an ambulance and everything ended relatively well –- I was stitched up, cleaned up and home three hours later. I was so impressed with everyone who helped, but I especially couldn’t get over the paramedics. This is what they do all the time –- deal with people in shock, often in pain, often in crazy weather conditions. I mean, I know that everyone knows this about paramedics. but I don’t think I really appreciated them until I needed them.

Whether or not you receive paramedic care is often the deciding factor between life and death or disability. It can also determine how long you stay in a hospital, if at all. Paramedics have to have great decision-making and leadership skills and be empathetic and firm on top of that.

Last month, Toronto Emergency Medical Services celebrated EMS week where paramedics and emergency medical dispatchers met with people to talk about their work and to educate them about handling medical emergencies. If you missed EMS week, you can always take a course to learn first aid and CPR -- you never know when you might need it.

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When I was younger I thought I only needed to focus on the type of career advice that was specifically applicable to my chosen profession. In other words, I should just go to a journalism school, meet people in media and start writing for money as soon as I graduated. I assumed that the jobs would just come rolling in if I only did those things –- they didn’t.

At school, they usually don’t teach networking or how to write resumés or even how to look for jobs, really. The only “career advice” we got was from our broadcasting prof who said, “Want to make money in journalism? Marry a lawyer!”

I watched this interesting video on BusinessWeek where Andy Chan, director of Standford’s Career Management Center, had some great career tips. They were directed at MBAs but I think they could be used by anyone who is not sure what to do right after school. Here are Chan’s tips.

• Keep your options open, look for all kinds of jobs, have a plan B (alternative job). See if plan B will lead to your plan A (finding a job in your field).
• If you’ve already landed an internship or a job after graduation, think of how to prepare for it and stay in touch with people you’re going to be working with.
• During the first 90 days in a job , develop an understanding of your managers’ priorities and achievements and find out what needs to be done in your department.
• Take the time to get to know the people around the company –- the more people who know and like you, the more chances that you will be assigned more tasks.
• Once you start your job there’s not a lot of time to network and learn about new careers -- a lot of people will try to help you so take advantage of it and don’t think that you know everything already -- don’t shut the door on them and keep an open mind.

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When I was in university, one way to get a good work-study summer position was to volunteer as a research assistant during the school year. One year, I spent hours measuring subject responses and decoding and entering data. It was often boring, but I knew that it would help my chances of getting a paid position at my school. Plus, it looked good on my resumé to show that I had worked at a post-secondary institution. Eventually, my experience as a research assistant helped me get a position as a teacher’s assistant during my grad year. This in turn helped me get a regular job that required some research and teaching experience.

According to The University of British Columbia’s site, “Volunteering may be an outlet for your natural talents, a road test for your new career, or simply a handy way to network. It is also an opportunity to develop new skills, expand your horizons and help others.”

Another great benefit of volunteering is that unlike some of your peers, you won’t be a totally inexperienced fresh grad. With your volunteer experience, reference letters and contacts, you’ll be ready for the job market as soon as you graduate. It may look as if you’re working for free but you’re not – the experience is worth a lot more than anything else.

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My friend has a funny part-time gig – he is a fashion expert. He would never identify as such, but he has been involved in the industry for years so sometimes people call him that The fashion industry is dominated by women and he often goes to media events where he is the only straight male, often the only male, actually. People point that out and find it kind of surprising. But why? Why is it so weird?

Perhaps it’s because we are used to things being the way they are “supposed” to be, which is what we expect them to be, which doesn’t really mean anything. My friend simply finds fashion history interesting –- he never thinks about how he probably should be interested in other things like cars (?)that are more appropriate.

In the article Big Wheels, Big Success a woman named Sue Allen talks about her career as a tractor-trailer driver, teacher and advocate. She mentions that some of her co-workers in the male-dominated trucking industry gave her a hard time but she stresses that she’s always wanted to do what she does. She says, “When someone's telling you can't do something, it's amazing how you find the resources in yourself that allow you to excel."

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No one is really prepared to lose a job. After all, losing a job doesn’t seem like something we should have to “train” for. But it’s a good idea to be ready for the aftermath of getting canned. You might already know what to do, but do you really know how to do it?

In the article Career Management Basics - You Know Them, Do You Practice Them?, the author, Jason Alba, talks about being prepared to do a job search after being laid off. For example, everyone knows that networking is crucial but how comfortable are you with actually contacting people from your network? Get in touch with them now and nurture your relationships. A friend of mine sends holiday greetings to her networking contacts. It’s a small gesture but it’s done a lot for her (one of her contacts called her recently about a senior-position at a major publication in Canada).

Another way of networking is to do it online – go beyond friends’ list on Facebook or LindkedIn (an online network of professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries) and contact people in your field. You can join professional online forums and groups on Facebook. Or, if you’re really ambitious, you can even start a professional group or an online forum yourself where people can discuss topics related to their field.

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A recent article in the Globe and Mail Take That Bird Off Your Shoulder, talked about inappropriate interview behaviours. In one example, a guy actually answered his cell phone during his interview. It was his old boss on the other line. He told his boss he couldn't talk because he was with a client!

Other interesting interview mistakes mentioned in the article, included:

• A person who showed up with a cockatoo on his shoulder
• Someone who put his bubble gum in his hand and proceeded to shake his interviewer's hand
• A candidate who fell asleep during the interview
• A person who walked right into a glass door, which shattered
• An interviewee stopping the interviewer and asking for a cigarette
• An interviewee who sent his sister to the interview to fill in for him
• A drunk interviewee

I'm sure most of us know better than to bring pets to an interview or to polish off a mickey of vodka prior to the event, but according to the article, many people behave inappropriately because of anxiety or wanting to stand out.

The site Quintessential Careers lists standard interview no-nos in Avoid These 10 Interview Bloopers.

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My co-worker Katherine sent me a funny link to The Worst Jobs in the World. Period article. I got inspired and decided to find a few more bad jobs (on Wikipedia). The article mentioned Berserker but I thought I’d feature it here again because it’s so crazy.

• Known for their furiously violent fighting style, Berserkers were Norse warriors who charged at the enemy without armour, clad only in wolf pelts. It is speculated that in order to work themselves up into frenzy, berserkers used psychoactive substances like fly agaric mushrooms. Other theories suggested that the berserkers were drunk or suffered from a mass hysteria or rabies.
• Ursari (1800s, Europe) were Roma bear handlers who would capture brown bears and teach them circus acts. (They also trained and kept monkeys.) This job was probably much harder on the bears, but Ursari had their share of woes as they had been persecuted over the ages for being Roma.
• Gong farmers (Tudor Britain) were probably some of the most unfortunate employees in history. Despite earning a decent living, they worked a night shift, had to live in special designated areas and sometimes died of asphyxiation. Their job? Removing excrement from privies and cesspits.
• Purple maker (medieval Europe) job involved collecting huge amounts of shellfish, smashing them to pieces, adding water and ash to the mix and waiting for 10 days as the concoction rots and transforms into a big stinky purple mess. The purple was used to dye cloth to make the royal garments.

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Three years ago, a posting on Jeff Gaulin's Journalism Job Board asked readers why they were reading the job ad if it was Saturday morning anyway. How come they were not in bed nursing a hangover? I replied to it in a similarly clever (?) way: "I’m not hung over because I’m still drunk."

That was a risky thing to do but I got a call for an interview (the job turned out to be for a daily youth newspaper). Still, my behaviour doesn't come close to what some people are doing in order to catch their desired employer's interest.

In the New York Times article It’s No Act, I Need a Job the author, Lisa Belkin, writes about people who film themselves, set up websites, offer pizzas or a million dollars to potential employers. Desperate? Maybe, but as Belkin points out it's crazy competitive out there -- even to get into certain schools so it makes sense that the employment world is even more hung up on hiring those who stand out the most.

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My former employment coach said she once hired someone who left her a personal handwritten thank-you note after an interview. It wasn't the note itself that made her decision, but the note helped her choose between two strong candidates. In such a competitive job market sometimes the little things add up and can lead to the success of a candidate -- you know, the properly formatted resumé, the customized cover letter, the portfolio to illustrate work experience ... and those thank-you notes.

In Give Thanks, Get Job, an article that offers career advice from recruiting experts, one of the recruiters notes that "85 percent of executives say that a post interview thank-you note has some influence on the hiring decision." Employers find that these notes show a job seeker's interest in the position. The thank-you note can also be an opportunity for the candidate to restate the skills she or he would bring to the job. An email is also a great way to thank the prospective employer –- it can be forwarded to all the interested parties who may have some influence in who gets hired.

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There are certain interview questions that I dread. One of these questions is, “Where do you see yourself five years from now?” I always panic, not because I can’t think of an answer but because I find the question a bit too abstract – I can come up with dozens of scenarios.

My favourite behaviourial questions are not about the future but about the past. These questions ask you to give a solid example of something that really happened and how you resolved the issue. For example, “Can you tell me about the time when you had to deal with a difficult client and what did you do?”

Behavioural questions are used to see if a candidate is the right fit for the job, complementing the information in the resumé. For example, an employer can ask you to tell him or her about a specific situation in which you had to deal with a difficult person or had to meet an unexpected deadline. That way an employer can get an idea of what you would do were you to encounter a similar situation in the new job.

The article Behavioural Interviews points out that behavioural questions are used because behaviour is said to rarely change drastically. The answers to these type of questions can give employers an in-depth picture of a candidate.

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In my last year of university I worked at a popular coffee chain for a year. As with many fast food services, this food chain has all kinds of rules that revolved around their products –- they’re quite strict about freshness and cleaning. During the training, we were taught how coffee was prepared, how to make specialty coffees and prepare sandwiches. One thing not covered was customer appreciation. Maybe because it was a given that we were supposed to be friendly toward our customers. After all, their visits were what kept us (and the chain) in business. Despite not being told explicitly to do it, I remember staff giving away many free coffees as well as food –- it developed customer loyalty and I suppose we figured this out instinctively.

This is why I was quite surprised when I read about a woman being fired from Tim Hortons for giving a timbit to a toddler,. First, I had to wonder if she got fired for feeding deep-fried dough to a child but as it turned out her crime was giving away the food. Three managers (!) watched a surveillance tape of the employee giving away the 16 cent snack -– presumably, they were so disturbed that they decided that there was no other choice but to fire the bad employee. The woman was rehired but what a silly scandal for the company. It seems like a good idea to introduce customer appreciation training at Tim Hortons. Freebies for toddlers!

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I worked in this one place where the person in the cubicle next to me was obsessively decorating his apartment. This meant that every day, during lunch, he would dash out of the building and run to the nearest mall. Sometimes he came back with things, sometimes he didn’t. Because he would often forget to take his loot home, it would slowly but surely turn into a medium-sized mountain made out of bags, boxes and tissue paper. He would also do a show and tell. What was left of our little space would get swarmed by other interior decorating enthusiasts who flocked from all the cubicles around us and loudly showered my cubicle mate with praises. I liked my co-worker but often wished there was more than just a barely-there partition to separate us. It was the first time when I thought that maybe the cubicle wasn’t the best design in the world.

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the cubicle. The design of the cubicle is intentionally austere. According to its creator, Bob Propst, “We wanted this to be the vehicle to carry other expressions of identity.” Okay, I get it, but as long you don’t turn it into a mountain of boxes and bags.

If you get bored while you’re in your cubicle, look for a site called The Cube Farm, “a giant noogie to the world of officedom. An oasis of corporate mockery,” which has somewhat funny video clips about cubicle life. (The best thing on the site is the “Panic button.” Priceless.)

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Jowita

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When I was researching about long commutes, I read an interesting opinion piece on jobacle.com's blog Living Too Close to Work: A Problem? I couldn’t imagine how that would be a problem so I read on, looking for some surprising revelation, but there wasn’t much.

The author, Andrew G.R., wasn’t crazy about the possibility of always having to be at work even if the weather was bad and his car broke down. He suspected he would have to do all kinds of favours for his co-workers, such as picking them up from the bus station (?) or having to stay longer after work. His world would “shrink” because a short commute meant missing out on good shopping experiences. Oh, come on.

But then, his last point was: “Human nature always has us wanting more. In the same way high-speed Internet drives us crazy when it slows down, there's a good chance you'll want to trim that commute down from five minutes to four. We lose perspective quickly.”

We do. Or rather, we forget to appreciate the good things. I caught myself the other day, dreading my work commute (10 to 15 minutes by bike) because I’d run out of fun routes and it was getting boring. Oh, come on.

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Jowita

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