Review: How to Find A Great Job in the Great Recession

This a review of the book, "How to Find A Great Job in the Great Recession" by Rob Wolf. I attended the Transitioning Professionals Thursday Meetings while in Tampa. Although, I did not attend the Job Search BootCamps. The program Rob offers is the first in a succession of programs. The second being the Team Up! by Orville Pierson. The third program is one on resumes and interviewing preparation. Although, Rob's program touches on this aspect and networking too.

Years prior to meeting Rob through an APICS career counselor, I had already performed much of the activities Rob touts in his book. I had developed with a CPA a financial vision that had been tracking well for many years up to 2009. Expenses were already streamlined and I was focused on the stated objectives of my plan. I knew what I wanted to do and already had a plan in place. However, following 2009 that effort went out the window with the down economy. I had actually prepared for the anticipated economic down turn but did not anticipate the savage economics of change politics that occurred simultaneously. During this time, I focused on completing some schooling, obtaining some certifications, and tried to find something reasonable that could utilize my skill sets. I was relegated to a situation in which I had to wait the environmental circumstances out. The program discusses bridging the gap on page 59-60.

Overall, Rob Wolf's work is salient and to the point. The book is a excellent guide for some one just coming into the job search situation or has been there with low results. I did find a few things that I did in my preparation that are missing in Rob's program and may strengthen Rob's program as well as also offering a new look at the book's organization. These will will be addressed in the review.

How to Find A Great Job in the Great Recession

Rob's program is a marketing program designed to prepare the job seeker for networking and the job search. The program has been running for over 9 years as has undergone several updates and revisions. The most recent revision is "How to Find A Great Job in the Great Recession: 12 Steps to A Job Recovery". The program addresses the 12 steps in 12 chapters as follows:

1. Mission Statement
2. Vision Statement
3. Assessment and Values
4. Financial Review
5. Marketing Plan
6. Networking
7. Resumes
8. Interviewing
9. Recruiters
10. Entrepreneurship
11. Accountability and Building a Strong Calendar
12. Ageism

This program is a method that works well. A stronger focus may require some reorganization of the process and grouping of the topical areas into functional topics. This is not to take away from the program but perhaps strengthen the program into functional categories. These are in no favored order. 

1. Baseline Assessment; ( Financial Review, Assessments and Values )
2. Survival Plan (Entrepreneurship, Bridging the gaps, Streamlining)
3. Strategic Plan (Vision, Mission, and Objectives)
4. Marketing Plan (Resumes, Networking, Interviewing, Channels )
5. Challenges (Ageism, moving targets, depression, rejection, recruiters, etc...)
6. Staying the course (Accountability, Strong Calendaring, volunteerism)

The Mission and Vision Statements: These are chapters 01 and 02 in the book. I agree that every marketing plan has a mission. Nonetheless, the process seems to have the vision and mission statements in reverse order. The vision usually comes first then one or more missions to effect the vision or portions of the vision. The program provides worksheets to help a person through the visioning and mission development process. Objectives fall out of the mission statement and are specific focused goals that guide the search. The objective process seems to have been missed as part of strategy development but addressed indirectly in the Financial and more directly in the Marketing planning. Despite these minor burble's, the mission and visioning preparation is excellent and focuses the job seeker on a narrower scope of the job search effort in order to yield higher results.

Assessments and Values and Financial Review: These are chapters 03 and 04 in the book. Assessments and values are about getting to know yourself. This can be taken to the extreme but the book keeps this process salient and to the point by assessing strengths and weaknesses generally found in four assessment areas. Numerous questions are posed for the reader to contemplate. As part of the assessment there is an environmental focus as well. Understanding the ground situation is essential to navigating the search. The financial review is in-depth discussing net worth, taxes, planning and survival tips. Several websites are offered in support of the assessments and financial review as well as worksheets and numerous tips. The objective overall is to streamline expenses.

The Strength and weakness assessment should be expanded to the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) method. Opportunities should be assessed by looking at skills and abilities that may apply to the search and survival in new ways. Threats are those things that diminish your market efforts such as skill obsolesces and overwhelming competition in a market segment.

Marketing Plan and Networking: Chapters 05 and 06 are the guts of the program. There is a short-term and long-term Marketing Plan. The short-term plan develops your brand and bring into focus your career search. The program focuses on networking, goals, and your skills and abilities. The long term marketing plan focuses building a network by not going at it alone - networking. The networking chapter goes into detail on how to build productive networks providing models and discussing the use of social networking. The program offers tips, asks thought provoking questions, and provides a template for the marketing plan. Overall, these chapters are well prepared covering most aspects. One missing aspect is the use of professional organizations to access opportunities.

Resumes and Interviewing: Chapter 7 and 8 cover the most common aspects of the job search. The best way to find work is to network and the resume is your billboard. The program discusses the human resource systems, the do's and don'ts, writing the resume, resume types, cover letters, as well as providing checklists, tips, and some cautionary notes. Interviewing is a challenge and the program covers the types of interviews, researching companies, a variety of interview questions, and questions you ask. This part of the program is well developed as it has had a lot of focus over the years.

Recruiters and Entrepreneurship: Chapters 9 and 10 focus on employment avenues through recruiting and entrepreneurial channels. The program goes over the types of recruiters, staff agencies, and scams. Gamification is a newer method of screening and vetting future employees. The program discusses this process. Entrepreneurship is a method of creating income when the job search plateaus. The program looks at different aspects of entrepreneurship such as franchising. At this point in the game, the job seeker is transitioning to another means of income other than working for someone. This is a necessary discussion.

Accountability and Building a Strong Calendar: Chapter 11 focuses on staying the course and being accountable to your plan and statements. the program provides forms, calendars, and worksheets for staying on target. Time management and accountability systems can become overburdening. This program keeps the effort salient and simple.

Ageism: Chapter 12 discusses the less pleasant aspect of society - discrimination. The program touches on age based discrimination providing many tips and discussing personal care. This is only one challenging factor in the job search. Other forms of discrimination are present as well as inequitable hiring practices. The program does not touch on these issues and how to compete in these other situations or other challenges.

Overall, the program is a strong program and gets people thinking in the terms of the search. In short, the program gets your head in the game. The book guides people through the process and the Boot Camp enhances the practice with all the forms, dialogue, and personalized guidance. I strongly recommend this program.

References:

Wolf, R. (2014) How to find a great job in the great recession: 12 steps to a job recovery. OutSkirtPress: Denver.

Higher Education: Creative Destruction?

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Comment:  I came across this article Higher Education: Creative Destruction in 24Jun - 04July 2014 edition of 'The Economist'. I normally do not read The Economist for its outlook and truthfulness in reporting due to the publications strong bias. This article caught my eye after having written on Free-Market Capitalism.  After reading the article, I saw so much wrong with the fundamental logic purveyed, that I thought it may serve as a good example of the challenges facing U.S. Citizens. 

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Higher Education: Creative Destruction?

The article opens with a glowing affirmation of welfarism as the unequivocal source of higher education's entitlement successes offering to the middle class what had previously been only for the elite. The article continues to describe the Free-Market principle of ' Creative Destruction ' as a force operating in the remaking of the university. The article cites a variety of statistics, newer technologies, and market forces as evidence of the remaking. Specifically, the article cites Massive Open Online Courses, MOOCs, as the defining technology that will remake universities and upset the tenure system.  The MOOCs are still early in their development and research is ongoing to resolve long-standing remote or distance training issues.  In general, the MOOC offers classes for free and for a fee the student can transfer the course to accredited status. The operative strategy of the MOOC is to reach as many people as possible training them in the values, knowledge, and perspectives of the course. 

The concept of 'Creative Destruction' is a Free-Market principle. Creative destruction replaces old technology with newer technology in the service of humanity.  The article cites the older university system being replaced with MOOCs and provides the value and benefits of the transition. However, the greater operative mechanism behind the transition is not human creativity in the production of wealth in a free market system but instead creative politics, institutional theft, and demeaning values of political ideologues.

The education system has been wrought with political ideologues for over the past 100 years.  Welfarism is touted as the champion of education but is nothing short of institutional theft which is rooted in political investments vice the production of free-market wealth. These political actors in the education system have introduced mechanisms for change that are not natural and not typical of the Free-Market system.  One such mechanism is Outcome Based Education which has the purpose of educating students according to planned outcomes. The misleading stated purpose is a systemic plan to prepare all students to meet high standards. The real purpose behind the misleading premise is a delivery system for new beliefs, values, and ways of thinking. The Father of Outcome Based Education is professor Benjamin Bloom stated, "The purpose of education and the schools is to change the thoughts, feelings, and actions of students" (Kjos, 1995, pp. 11-13).  In 1956 Professor Benjamin Bloom published  Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in which he defined and classified learning behaviors into measurable categories that deny personality and the spirituality of a person stripping away individuality.  In doing so, Bloom changed the focus of education from a general education that benefited humanity to narrowly focused training based on behavioral psychologists' determination of what changes in thought, feelings, and actions are desirable and perhaps necessary for society as a whole. This led to Mastery Learning and Outcome Based Education (Coffman, 2012, p 203). 

The MOOC is a natural movement for political ideologues seeking globalization.  World-class standards seek new high standards for global challenges and a global economy. However, the new standards are low for literacy, comprehension, and factual learning but high standards for beliefs, attitudes, and group thinking to prepare human capital for the next century (Kjos, 1995, p. 11).   An upgraded version of Brave New Worldby Aldous Huxley is being implemented to include thinking skills based on feelings and experiences, not facts and reason (kjos, 1995, p. 29 ). The world has moved towards a high degree of confidence in unsupported personal beliefs; opinions are ok. For example, the method used for scholarly publication and citations by the American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual, is deliberately designed to permit adaptations of the truth. The citation methods that the APA uses are paraphrasing in order to permit pliable and malleable adaptations of other scholarly works.

Evidence of the progress towards globalization and adaptation of the educational system is no more evident than this remark, "I have learned may things… children who are educated to respect other cultures, races, and religions generally grow into tolerant adults who raise tolerant children – Reema Sanghvi, grade 11 (Cummins and Sayers, 1997, p. 61).”   This is a political ideological view, a sound byte that sounds good, and not a critical assessment nor realistic as among religions there are intolerant paradoxes. For example, Islam's Surah 112:1-4 is direct denial of Christianity's ultimate revelation and well known verse, John 3:16.  Islam is directly denying Christianity holistically.  In another example, Islam's ultimate revelation is the Sword of Islam, Surah 9:5, states to kill the infidel. Christianity's counter point is Matthew 26:52, for those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.  In order for the Reema Sanghvi's remark to be upheld, the Muslim and the Christian must surrender their belief's to the secular belief rendering those beliefs mute to the secular belief. The issue is a struggle for dominance being taught in the schools not cooperation and tolerance.  The secular view is intolerant of others. "Round pegs in square holes tend to have dangerous thoughts about the social system [the secular system being installed] and to infect others with their discontents," Aldous Huxley (Kjos, 1995, p. 157).  Comment:  I received several remarks expressing concerns about this paragraph. I must stress that the Judeo-Christian theology is not built around one-verse localized context. The Judeo-Christian theology is built around an integrated message system that weaves its message through layers of complexity upon complexity. The principle involves internal consistency and is called the Entire Counsel of God. Therefore, any serious study of the Judeo-Christian theology goes well beyond any one-verse citation and may offer surprising nuggets of knowledge in ways not apparent without study.

Interesting enough, the American Forefather Thomas Jefferson commented on March 23, 1801, "The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind," (Federer, 1996). Jefferson was referring to education and learning when remarking, "freest expansion of the human mind". A socialistic tax supported secular education today has become the topic of this Economist article that attempts to herald free-market concepts that are behind the Christian worldview and the socialistic system is rejecting.  Side note: Christian Doctrine promotes the free-market capitalism centering on the Lesson of Talents and stewardship in support of God's Plan for each individual. People are to be free to pursue their God-given talents. The Bible does discuss social justice as it discusses other bad things like theft and bad government leaders.  The early church, during times of crisis, pooled resources but this was short lived.  The Bible does not ordain social justice as legitimate.

The goal of a proper higher education is not designed to shape social systems or advocacy of political views. Higher education in support of free-market capitalism is designed to develop creative and critical thinking skills as well as sound reasoning abilities. Utilizing these kinds of skills people are able to envision and bring to market new technologies in service to humanity.  Creative destruction is only one component that is operative in a free-market.  Another operative component is innovation through which entirely new markets are possible. The MOOC is possible only because of the innovation of the World Wide Web.  Unfortunately, the MOOC may become a success for the wrong reasons and wrong purposes. Instead of promoting skills in support of free market capitalism, the student may be trained to think in terms of a labor job performing tasks after tasks with no end in sight. 

In conclusion, the authors of the article either have a fundamental misunderstanding of free-market capitalism and the operative mechanism of Creative Destruction or the authors are deliberately trying to mislead readers as they present this blend of socialist and capitalist mechanisms.  Closer to the truth is that the authors may be simply a product of the educational system that trained them in process obfuscation.  Secular thought sounds good but lacks critical assessment skills illustrating a myopic one sided view.  With a proper education, people can make better choices and reject bad things because they can see beyond the spin.

References: 

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual. (6th ed.). American Psychological Society: Washington D.C.

Coffman, M. (2012). Plundered: how progressive ideology is destroying america. Environmental Perspectives, Inc: ME

Cummins, J. and Sayers, D. (1997). Brave new schools: challenging cultural illiteracy through global learning networks. St Martin Press. NY.

Economist, The (2014). The Economist: Higher Education, Creative Destruction. Vol 421 Nbr 8893. p. 11.

Federer, W. (1996). America's God and Country. Fame Publishing. ISBN: 1-880563-05-3.

Kjos, B. (1995). Brave new schools. Harvest House Publishers: OR. 

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Morality of Capitalism

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Figure 1: Morality of
Capitalism

Comments: Many people do not think about capitalism's real contribution and value. Although, most hear more from capitalism's opponents who are quick to point to perceived flaws and problems in order to espouse their competitive system. The sound bytes echo over the airwaves as news media drive the spin home; corrupt corporations, greedy executives, and compensation deals that are out-of-this-world. In this post, the morality of capitalism is explored. Originally, this was scripted for inclusion into a book being written several years ago and since that time this material was updated and concepts from the book "The Morality of Capitalism" were included. This book is not a single person's view but instead a set of essays from economists, marketers, political scientists, etc... from whom a broad perspective is offered.

Morality of Capitalism

Morality is a dialectic conversation within the mind of an individual as they search out the distinctiveness between right or wrong, good or evil, redeeming or demeaning, etc... Morality results in an internal character condition within the individual that reflects in their decision making. An individual's moral condition is impressed upon a system, institution, or process by management or the seat the individual may hold. Moreover, a system, process, or institution may reflect a moral posture by design as well as by management. For example, institutional theft is the confiscation or restriction of wealth instituted by those invested in political power, not invested in the production of wealth, and is considered to be the worse kind of theft. Institutional theft often operates behind the mask of process obfuscation. Thus, when organizing a new process, system, or institution care must be taken to ensure there is redeeming value. Leaders must engage in the dialectic conversation and examine the paradoxes carefully.

There is a moral paradox between selfishness and selflessness. When people are selfish disputes arise over exchanges deemed unfair and resentment towards those who become rich. Similar disputes arise when both parties are selfless. In a hypothetical example, the buyer may not make a purchase if the price is too low for fear of taking advantage of the seller. However, the seller may not raise prices out of fear he may be gouging the buyer. The problem is a conflict of interest in either scenario and not a dilemma of rich vs poor cast often as a privilege; the haves and have nots. The solution to the problem is equal rights for everyone. In this way, everyone has the opportunity to pursue wealth (Yushi, 2011). Success is another issue.

Regarding success, in free-markets, some people become more wealthy than others and some lose their shirt. Markets do not generate equal outcomes nor do they require equal capitalization. Thus, a seeming paradox is setup between inequality and equality. Equality is necessary in order to trade, innovate, choose and reap rewards earned but the expectation of results generated is a risk. People possess the equal rights to participate in the free-market but equal results would be an economic absurdity even though that is upheld as a moral value by many people. The scandal inequality thought is the gap between the wealth of people in economically free societies and the wealth in unfree societies. Freeing people economically will create enormous wealth and close the gap. Moreover, it would do so as a positive consequence of justice by eliminating the unequal treatment of people in countries misruled by cronyism, statism, militarism, socialism, communism, corruption, and brute force. Economic freedom means an equal standard of justice, equal respect for the rights of all to innovate, produce, and trade (Nokonov, 2011). Capitalism is not just an alternative to these other systems.

There needs to be a distinction between the forms of capitalism that are often equivocated as one by social intellectuals. ' Crony ' capitalism is a system found in many nations and governments. In many nations, the aristocracy came about their wealth by birth or by alignment with the state and not through the means of production of wealth. Thus, these people, friends, relatives, and/or supporters inherently wield political power and are the ' Cronies '.  Being in such a privileged position they take it on themselves to reward some companies and harm others often using taxpayer money in the process for activities like bailouts, stimulus, pork-barrel spending, and other activities. This is a corrupt system and should not be confused with Free-market capitalism refers to a system of production and exchange that is/has:

• Based on the Rule of Law and guiding discipline of profits and losses
• Equality of Rights for all
• Freedom to choose
• Freedom to trade
• Freedom to innovate
• The Right to enjoy the fruits of one's labor, savings, and investments
• Freedom from Institutional Theft; confiscation or restriction of wealth by those invested in political power rather than the production of wealth.

Free-market capitalism is often resented by the elite due to an inherent loss of status, power, and control. Free-market capitalism gives levity to the middle class and produces advances to humankind that does not have the magnitude of impact under other systems.

Looking Deeper Into Free-Market Capitalism

So far, as we examined capitalism we considered the ' essence ' of Capitalism as a system that promotes equality, freedom, and opportunity. We also considered the ' being ' of capitalism is a market where production and exchange occur. Now we are going to look deeper at the ' virtue ' of capitalism or what good does capitalism brings about to humanity. We saw on a personal level that everyone was equal and those unjust systems have an alternative. But what good does capitalism do for humanity?

Freedom is connected to capital economies which are deemed to be natural and precede other economic forms (see notes) such as the collectivist views of socialism and the extreme form of communism. Capitalism is an economic system that combines cultural, spiritual, and ethical values in a mixture that puts human creativity to the service of humanity such that value is created as opposed to menially making stuff, things, or jobs (Palmer, 2011, pp. 1-3). Stuff, things, and jobs may be the outcome of creating value but making things serve no redeeming value in itself; every task is followed by another task as there is no foreseeable end or real purpose. Politicians who do not understand capitalism create jobs rather than incentivize innovation. This is a very important distinction between creating value vice simply making things or creating jobs. Capitalists create value and new markets emerge causing the age-old axiom, "Necessity is the mother of invention/innovation" to be an incorrect understanding. Nothing of value was ever necessitated as for example no one was sitting around complaining there needs to be a telephone. The telephone was invented that caused the need that people saw value in having formed a new market. The accurate depiction is "Invention/innovation is the mother of necessity" (Schwartz, 2004, p 13). No one needed the smartphone until Apple / Steven Jobs created the value then lines were out the door for the smartphone. The innovation disrupted the cellular market fundamentally changing the cell phone. Thus, the distinctive aspect of Capitalism is creativity in service of humanity which results in new markets and technologies that give levity to life in some way. In the case of smartphones despite people playing games and texting, the device concentrated technologies of portable computing and telecommunications providing GPS maps, contact list consolidation, weather graphics, etc... Of course, jobs were also created to manufacture, distribute, and sell the new phones. Creativity in the service of humanity is a principle redeeming the value of capitalism.

' Creative Destruction ' is a systemic action within capitalism that replaces the old with new (McCloskey, 2011). The kerosene lantern was replaced by the light bulb and the light bulb is being replaced with the Light Emitting Diode (LED). Kerosene is a fossil fuel and these lanterns when knocked over cause fires. This was the cause of the Great Chicago Fire on October 8, 1871. The incandescent light bulb is safer but burns large amounts of electricity. The LED bulb lasts longer and burns substantially less energy. Thus, the service to humanity is a safer more energy-efficient light source. Of course, there were jobs along the way created too but the advantage of capitalism is the value created in service to humanity and in this case was achieved through ' creative destruction '.

Free-markets are considered natural and precede all other forms of economic systems. When free-market capitalism was instituted and protected by the United States Government for the first time in human history and the middle class had dignity and liberty, an innovation explosion took place. There were all kinds of new devices, products, ideas, and society overcame many social ills. The poor had the opportunity to move up, women can assert their worth and races have equal opportunity. The redeeming value to humanity is an uplifting of dignity and liberty. Overall, Free-market capitalism has had the single most impact on humanity than any rhetoric, idea, political system or economic system (McCloskey, 2011)

Notes: Free market capitalism is considered natural because when freed of all political, social, and human-induced constraints, the market character persists.  The antithesis of free-market capitalism is social justice. I will look at social justice more closely in an upcoming post. 

References:

Kelley, D. (2011). The morality of capitalism; ayn rand and capitalism: the moral revolution. Jameson Books, Inc:  IL.  pp. 71-72.

McCloskey, D. (2011). The morality of capitalism;  liberty and dignity explain the modern world. Jameson Books, Inc:  IL.  pp. 27-30.

Nikonov, L. (2011). The morality of capitalism; the moral logic of equality and inequality in market society. Jameson Books, Inc:  IL.  pp. 55-62

Palmer, T. (2011). The morality of capitalism; introduction: the morality of capitalism. Jameson Books, Inc:  IL.  pp. 1-3. 

Schwartz, E. (2004). Juice: the creative Fuel that drives world-class inventors. Harvard Business Review Press: USA.   

Yushi, M. (2011). The morality of capitalism; the paradox of morality. Jameson Books, Inc:  IL.  pp. 1-3. 

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