I went to a certain university to do my undergrad degree. The university was known for its superb business program so in my fourth year I decided to challenge myself and take one business course. It was a first-year course. Within a month it became clear that all those youngsters in the class were much more serious than any first-year students I'd encountered before. They asked intelligent questions, discussed business news with great passion and competed for marks.

I was assigned to work on a small business project with four other people. I gave up trying to contribute any business knowledge -- they were far, far ahead of me. I took care of our project's ad campaign instead (creative, easy). The course showed me that I was way less focused than I thought I was and that I should probably just stick to the creative side of things. Angry with myself, I thought I'll leave those heartless M.B.A.s to make all the millions they want, fine!

But having an M.B.A. degree doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be a tough, money-making machine once you graduate. In the article M.B.A.s Who Want to Save the World the author, Colin Campbell, talks about a new group of business graduates who want to use their great entrepreneurial skills towards helping those who are less fortunate. Since M.B.A. programs usually cost thousands of dollars, going into social entrepreneurship may not seem like the most lucrative choice but it certainly gives M.B.A. grads much more than just money.

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Jowita

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I love the look of suits but I know that it's a real pain to care for them. They have to be dry-cleaned, pressed and all that, on top of costing hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars. But there's a new suit on the horizon. It's made out of special wool and it may just become the to-go option for the always busy professionals. Reuters sent out a news item about an Australian-made suit that can be washed in the shower, hung to dry and ready to wear. The suits are proving to be popular in Japan.

The rep from Australian Wool Innovation that produces the suit said it can actually be worn in the shower although it makes more sense to drape it on a clothes hanger and wash it this way.

Anyway, I'm picturing busy business executives showering in their suits together before big, important board meetings. Priceless.

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Jowita

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No, no and no. The article Debunking Workplace Myths talks about 10 misconceptions people have about the workplace. My friend A. works with a bunch of guys. She is the only female in her workplace and that's fine -- she likes working with guys, no problem there. However, she says she wants her lunch hour to herself. She needs to get away from her office and walk around, have coffee all on her own, or go shopping. But she doesn't do that because she feels like she has to spend every lunch with her co-workers. She says every time she has tried to get away someone would volunteer to join her and she didn't have the heart to say no. She was worried her co-workers would think she was snobby if she ditched them.

But according to the Debunking Workplace Myths article, you don't have to be buddies with your co-workers in order to get along. It's expected that you should be respectful and cordial towards them. You don't have to hang out all the time -- it's a myth that you need to be friends with your co-workers -- and no one should take offence if you don't want to do that.

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Jowita

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My co-worker Katherine sent me a funny email. She wrote: "I thought it ironic that The Wealthy Freelancer blog does not pay its contributors (although it does give them a 35-word bio in compensation)."

I went to check out the site to see for myself. Indeed, the blog does not pay its writers and its tag line says: "It's Your Freelance Career - Make it Rich!" Okay, but how is that going to happen if even the Wealthy Freelancer doesn't pay? Its "About Us" page reads: "The Wealthy Freelancer blog is all about sharing ideas, tips, techniques and inspiration to help you create your own wealthy business and lifestyle. A lifestyle that comes from building the kind of freelance business you've always wanted. A business that brings you riches in the form of freedom, creativity, independence, satisfaction and big financial rewards." And so on.

I'm all for great advice, tips and techniques but I am a little surprised that no one on the Wealthy Freelancer's team of writers thought the name to be a little unfortunate. I think it would make sense to pay those freelancers writing for the Wealthy Freelancer if only just to kick-start all that wealth that is supposed to result from writing. (Or should they just call it The "Wealthy" Freelancer?)

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Jowita

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I like to say that I know 99.9 per cent of the people on my Facebook list personally and that I've had at least one conversation with each of them. I'm friends with most of my Facebook friends and I never add people I don't know. My little sister, however, has hundreds of Facebook friends and she doesn't know half of them -- but as she tells me, it is totally normal for 21-year-olds to add people randomly. It's more about quantity than quality. I have no problem with that.

But when I read the Hiring Manager: Step away From the Facebook! blog entry by Toni Bowers, I was shocked to find out that a recruiter sent a Facebook friend request to the person she had just interviewed. Why do that? I think it's intrusive and unnecessary. It's the same as if she had gone through the contents of the interviewee's purse or wallet -- private is private and for most people Facebook is quite a personal affair. (Still, you should never make it too personal -- you never know who has access to it.)

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Jowita

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Recently I did a Colour Career Counsellor test. This test asks you to pick colours that you most prefer to look at and colours that you don't like to look at. I picked blue and blue-related colours over and over because I had been sitting in front of the computer for a number of hours by then and blue was the only colour that wasn't hurting my eyes. I also quite like blue.

My overt preference for blue determined that I am self-controlled, practical, self-contained, orderly, systematic, precise and accurate.

I'm so glad that people don't take these tests too seriously and don't base their careers on them. If I took this test to heart I would have to try to find a job as a statistician or a budget analyst. (Sadly, I would stay unemployed for a long time as I am quite bad at math.)

I am tempted to mail those test results to my parents right now. And I think my partner -- and possibly my therapist -- would have a laughing fit if they read them, too. As much fun as these tests are, please don't ever think that they are reliable. You see, when I saw all that blue all I was thinking of was escaping to the beautiful island of Santorini and all the test told me in return was that I was good with numbers.

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Jowita

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When I was in school most journalism programs had a mandatory internship. In my first year, I went to work at a newspaper in a small town where I had a chance to sit in on editorial meetings, contribute story ideas and, of course, write. I found it really useful to be able to experience what my dream job was going to be about. Ironically, it was while I was at that newspaper, helping another reporter cover a deadly car crash, that I got turned off of reporting. I am so glad that I got to experience the job firsthand because it showed me that I am not what I thought I was (a reporter).

If you can't apprentice somewhere or get an internship, there's another way to find out what it's like to do your dream job. The purpose of an informational interview is to offer a kind of "window" into the job that you're after. According to Creative Job Hunting is Not For Everybody, the most direct way to research a particular field is to talk to the experts -- the people who spend their days working in the field.

The article points out that such interviews differ significantly from job interviews. For one thing, the job seeker, not the employer requests the meeting, and the job seeker takes responsibility for the question-and-answer process. In this type of interview you can ask questions such as: "What does your work day look like?" or "How do you see work of this kind changing in the future?"

Keep in mind that the person who agrees to be interviewed is doing you a great favour, so have questions ready, keep the interview down to an agreed time (30 minutes is suggested) and always dress and act professionally.

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Jowita

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Last month, we featured an article about temporary workers. We tried to show you that temporary work is not necessarily evil and that you can use temporary work experience to your advantage. In some cases people get hired full-time at the company they temp at.

However, the CBC Metro Morning News segment Protecting Temp Workers that aired in September pointed out that some agencies have specific clauses that forbid employers from hiring temps full-time -- and that's only the beginning of it. Often, temporary workers have little job security, make way less money than regular workers, and, in some places, they can't even get references from their employers.

According to a CBC website article about temp work in Toronto, "Statistics Canada estimates that people hired through temp agencies are paid 40 per cent less than permanent employees doing the same work." You can go on the CBC forum to voice your opinion -- and share your experience -- on this issue.

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Jowita

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The beginning of last month marked the 33rd Toronto Film Festival, a time when our city goes a little nuts over celebrities and Hollywood glam. The unofficial components of the film festival are product launches or, rather, swag bags filled with stuff. There are special swag suites set up all over the city where the celebs and other VIPs can go and load up on all sorts of things: bottled water, shoes, watches, makeup.

A friend of mine works as a public relations executive for one of the PR firms in the city that launched a truckload of products at the festival. My friend worked 12-hour days, seven days a week. And she had to be in top form, friendly with clients (the product people and the celebrities), knowledgeable and professional. This came after weeks of working a similar schedule preparing for the festival. She loves her job but lately she has been saying that she won’t be able to do it for much longer. She is only 32.

The article Tell-Tale Signs of Job Turning Extreme talks about job burnout and how it ultimately costs employers more to have workaholics on staff than to have a crew that works regular hours. One of the solutions suggested is Earthlink. What is that? “Earthlink is among best-practice companies finding creative solutions for time off. It tracks earned or e-time on the corporate intranet, and urges employees to take time off if they have been working too hard.”

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Jowita

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Personally, I think that getting to work makes my job a little dangerous. You see, I usually try to ride my bike to work and morning drivers are really something else. The normally safe 20-minute ride seems, in the morning, like an extreme sport. On a daily basis, I count my blessings when I make it to work in one piece. But soon, it will get too cold to ride my bike so I will indulge in another extreme sport: trying not to suffocate on the King streetcar.

Things are pretty safe once I get here, except for the occasional back cramp from sitting and staring at this computer screen for hours.

In the Top 10 Most Dangerous Jobs article there are some truly extreme careers mentioned. For example, under number five, a police officer, and under four a miner... Suddenly, I feel really stupid complaining about my bike ride to work!

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Jowita

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When I went to university I was shocked to discover that I needed science to get my psych degree. I loved the humanities and thought psychology was in no way a scientific area -- I took it because I wanted to help people. Shows you how much I knew. I had to take calculus, biology, finite math, algebra and geometry. Later, I struggled through research methods and statistics, and by the time I got to my fourth year I was exhausted from all these numbers. When could I get to work with people? I thought as I codified “subjects” and calculated “medians.” I also wondered: why did I plan so badly?

Well, maybe it was because, like those kids in the Children as Young as Nine Turn Their Back on Science Careers article, I never realized that you need science for a number of careers. There are jobs that don’t necessarily have the word “science” anywhere in their description but rely on it entirely. In other words, you can’t be a veterinarian just because you get along with animals, and you can’t be an astronaut just because you think that the sky is cool.

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Jowita

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It’s Women’s History Month in Canada and, really, does anyone know? I asked friends, both men and woman, and no one knew much about it. So, I thought I would pay tribute to the Canadian women who made my life easier by creating a women’s history display board at my workplace, which helps women find employment.

In doing my research, I found the article Eleven Tips on Getting More Efficiency Out of Women Employees in the July 1943 issue of Transportation Magazine. The article, which was written for male supervisors of women employees during WWII, can be seen in its entirety in Feminist Mormon Housewives. With advice like, “give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day,” or ”a girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick, and wash her hands several times a day,” I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head!

To many young women, like myself, who are straight out of university, new to the workforce and have high expectations of success, these historical anecdotes are clearly not relevant to our experiences. Of course, times have changed … haven’t they?

Indeed, women have made incredible strides in the demanding workforce of Toronto. Today many women are working and we are educated, motivated and highly skilled. However, women are still not represented in many high-paying leadership roles in the corporate and political world. Women continue to face discrimination in more hidden ways when seeking employment, and we still take on the majority of responsibilities in the home while juggling a demanding full-time career.

So, yes, although women in the workplace still face obstacles, we really have come a long way in the 65 years since Eleven Tips on Getting More Efficiency Out of Women Employees was written. We need to look back to our history and acknowledge how far we’ve come. Take advantage of Women’s History Month by participating in activities in your community.

Katie Didyk
Intake/Outreach Coordinator
Times Change Women’s Employment Service

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Most of my family is in one way or another involved in economics or science. There’s a photographer and a journalist somewhere on the family orbit but really nowhere close. My sister is a printmaking artist and I write and take photos. We used to joke that she inherited the artsy-fartsy genes from me because we didn’t think we really had much in common with our parents.

The article Hobbies and Careers are Inherited mentions a study of 2,234 British adults that found that most people inherited an interest in their parents’ hobbies and careers. The article suggests that such findings explain why, for example, Kate Hudson, daughter of Goldie Hawn, is an actress. And, indeed, it’s not so rare that a doctor will sire a doctor or that a young adult will join a family business. But for every rule there is an exception. My parents never really pressured me to do what they did. My sister’s artistic flair as well as my own remained a mystery until we found out that my father used to write for an independent paper and my mom loved to draw as a little girl.

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It starts about mid-August. Suddenly, television commercials and newspaper inserts start advertising notebooks, pencil sharpeners and backpacks, not so subtly announcing that it’s time to go back to school. Then you notice the cool, sharp breath of the next season creeping into the air in the evenings. And you might get a little nostalgic, eyes glazing over as you recall the frantic time looking for the perfect eraser or the binder that will hold a thick stack of papers. Or maybe you’re one of those people who would rather forget that school exists until you absolutely must acknowledge it, the morning before that first bell. Whoever you are, summer playtime is definitely over.

The article Career Transitions Peak Twice a Year discusses research that finds that people usually think of changing their careers in the fall and after the new year. Two types of career changers were identified -- those who embrace change ("questers") and those who like to play safe ("traditionalists").

The fall’s back-to-school aura often makes questers want to re-evaluate their goals and look for change. But, as the author says, "Just because the seasons change, remember the grass isn't always greener on the other side. You might just find that what you have now looks pretty good after all."

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Jowita

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