Every now and then you run across something that makes so much sense you wonder why everyone else doesn’t see it as clearly as you think you do. The bizarre contention that so many in American politics, and many of their constituents, put forth with rabid vehemence that relieving America’s wealthy of a reasonable tax burden leads to more jobs for the rest of us runs contrary to common sense. The contention is hogwash.

There is no data whatsoever to support this widely believed stance. Yet consistently we hear over and over the right-wing mantra that lowering taxes on the wealthy produces jobs. The numbers just don’t add up to support this notion and it’s time we finally stopped allowing such nonsense to flourish in the political discourse.

Nick Hanauer gave a great presentation at the TED conference on this topic and you can view it following this post. I recommend you view it, then share and post it far and wide.

Sharing, tweeting and otherwise disseminating this video to your network is especially important because, as of the writing of this post, the TED folks have decided to not post this video on their site. My guess is that it’s because its contentions might hurt some of their wealthy donors financially, but that’s only a guess. Regardless of why it’s not on their website, it should be and change.org has a petition I encourage you to sign to get TED to post the video.

Once you view the video, I’d be interested in your thoughts about it.

(In the interest of full disclosure and balance, here is TED’s official response to not posting the video. I’m still not convinced by their reasoning and I think they should post the presentation.)

Recently I decided to download a great drawing app to my Kindle Fire (Kindle Fire, Full Color 7″ Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi). It’s called Sketchbook by Autodesk. For many years I’ve toyed with the idea of trying to draw or do art of some kind, but all attempts ended up fizzling rather quickly. I’d go to the art store, buy some supplies, bring them home with every intention of playing around with them, and then they just sat unused. Evidently having a digital art medium at my fingertips is changing that for me. I’m actually starting to make some art. I’m a rank beginner and have no allusions of great artistic skills (yet), but something happened that changed my perspective significantly.

I posted some art (pictured below) to Facebook that I drew during a recent plane trip to Cleveland. I’ve found drawing to be one of the few things that quiets and calms my mind, emptying it of anything but what it is I’m creating at the time. It’s very meditative for me.

Anyway, when I posted the picture below on Facebook one of my friends contacted me to tell me how much she enjoyed it. So much so that she asked if she could buy a canvas print of it. I was stunned. Someone liked a work of art I created enough to pay for it? That moment proved something to me.

There is art in all of us!

So often in life we hesitate to create, art or anything. Our fears, trepidations, self-doubts, friends’ negativity and other factors place emotional roadblocks in our lives that keep us from creating and exploring those things in life we want to do. What that woman did for me in terms of bolstering my self-confidence can’t be emphasized too much. It was huge. I’m a fairly confident guy, but even the most confident of us have areas of our lives in which we may lack that confidence. Art was one of those areas for me and this woman did me a great service by telling me she really liked something I created.

So if you have ever hesitated to create art, or create or do anything, due to such fears, know that there are people who will love what you do. Don’t listen too much to the critics. They might have valid points, but they might also just be critical to be critical. Even nice people sometimes put out negativity because they are unconsciously jealous of someone else pursuing their dreams.

Go make art, whatever “art” means to you. I’d love to hear about your experiences if you do.

This post thread started with my book review of Proving You’re Qualified.

In previous posts I discussed some of the elements of an education portfolio – résumés, letters of recommendation and testimonials. Although what elements go into the making of a good education portfolio varies by individual and job target, a good one might consist of a résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials, work samples and documentation of learning. I’ll discuss work samples in this post and documentation in a future post.

Work Samples

A work sample can be anything viewable, readable or listenable that demonstrates you have certain knowledge, skill, experience or other qualities (professional or personal) that will contribute to a future employer’s bottom line. Work samples provide solid evidence of your past work, showcase your skills and abilities, and validate the quality of what you do. And all of it contributes to proving your education.

It’s also good to think of this as not just “work” samples, but samples of anything that highlights an accomplishment or learning of any kind.

All kinds of material can be used as a work sample. Some are obvious and others are less so. Think big and broadly.

If you work in a traditional office setting, depending on your specific job and level you can include copies of material you create such as reports, brochures, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, database designs, project plans, job aids, budgets, and requests for proposals. Almost any work product generated in a business environment can be used as a work sample.

If your work is in the more artistic realm, photographs, photographs of other physical artworks (paintings, sculptures, and so on), graphic designs and publication page layouts can make great work sample inclusions.

Anyone who makes a living with the written word, such as a writer or journalist, can use samples of their written work. Having examples of work that’s been published in the actual published form is always best. But your material nicely typed will suffice.

Entertainers, speakers, trainers and others who make their living in front of an audience or class can make video or audio samples of their work available.

And don’t forget other samples not related directly to your work. For example, if you wrote a killer research paper in school on a relevant topic, include a copy of that in your portfolio. Or perhaps you volunteer with a non-profit organization and have planned and executed a large charity event. Samples of the event advertising, donor mailer letters and other collateral you created can make excellent work samples.

I think you get the idea. Anything someone can read, view or hear that contributes to someone’s understanding of what you know, what skills you have, and what you’ve accomplished, is fair game for inclusion in the work sample section of your portfolio.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the last element of an education portfolio in a future post.

There was a time when I was incredibly fit and muscular. I am unfortunately not currently in that state and I have decided to correct that situation. I’ve committed to again establishing a regular fitness and diet regimen.

As I approach my 58th birthday, I am not happy with my current fitness level or my physical appearance. I am not much overweight. Maybe 5 or 10 pounds. But I want to look better and I know a bit more dedication to my fitness and overall health would make me happier and I would feel better physically.

My knowledge on how to get fit through proper exercise and diet is fairly robust. With a past background as a competitive gymnast, professional dancer, yoga practitioner and trained aerobics instructor, as well as lots of study in the fitness and health realms, I know how to get fit. But knowing is the easy part. Actually doing it is the hard part.

I also know that I have a very busy life and that going to a gym regularly is probably not a viable option. Gyms also tend to place an inordinate amount of focus on weight training and that’s not of much interest to me anymore. When it comes to exercise, what I want is an approach that can be done anywhere, anytime and with little or no equipment needed. For me to rely on going to a gym regularly would likely doom an exercise regimen to ultimate failure.

What’s generally referred to as “bodyweight exercises” tends to be the best option for me and lately I’ve been following Mike Fitch’s Global Bodyweight Training blog and web site for some great bodyweight exercise tips. I also recommend Mark Lauren’s You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises. It’s a great book with good scientific background on the hows and whys of bodyweight exercises along with a great selection of exercises and programs.

Check out Mike Fitch’s video below to see an exercise I’ve chosen as one of the exercises I aspire to be able to do someday soon.

Also, since I have decided to embark on this fitness quest, I have decided to chronicle some of my journey here on this blog. I will occasionally report my progress, what I learn and discover along the way, any fitness or diet strategies I learn or develop, and share it all with you in the hopes that whatever you might read or view will help you in some small way in your own personal fitness and health endeavors.

Wish me luck.

This post thread started with my book review of Proving You’re Qualified.

In previous posts I discussed some of the elements of an education portfolio – résumés and letters of recommendation. Although what elements go into the making of a good education portfolio varies by individual and job target, a good one might consist of a résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials, work samples and documentation of learning. I’ll discuss testimonials in this post and the remaining elements in future posts.

Testimonials

While a letter of recommendation is a formal letter that packs quite a punch when trying to impress someone considering whether to hire you or not, a testimonial can also be impressive. What is a testimonial?

You might be familiar with the many testimonials (or endorsements) that populate the infomercials so prevalent on television today. These are generally written or spoken statements, sometimes short quotes (often from a well-known celebrity, expert in the field, or private citizen) extolling the virtues of some product or service. For our purposes here, a testimonial is someone extolling your virtues, experience, knowledge and skills.

When someone says something nice about your work or your high level of expertise or skill, ask if you can quote them. Or better yet, ask if they’ll put what they said in an email and send it to you. Ask them if it’s alright to include the testimonial quote in your portfolio. Also ask if it’s alright to use their name, title and company (if applicable) and contact information (email address usually). If you feel the quote needs to be reworded, don’t hesitate to revise it and send it back to them and ask if the rewording is OK. You want it to read in that testimonial “style.” They’ll generally say yes as long as you didn’t change the meaning of anything they said.

Why ask if you can use their name and information? Because testimonial quotes attributed to a specific person who can (if one were to want to) be validated make the best impression. But even if the attribution of the quote is from “a satisfied client” or “a fellow co-worker at ABC Corporation,” use it anyway.

Present your testimonials neatly typed as quoted material along with whatever attribution you can include below it. For example…

“John Doe’s computer savvy, work ethic and experience in the software development field have contributed significantly to our company’s success.”
- Jack Smith, Vice President, Big Corporation

 In a portfolio that someone will be flipping through, formatting each quote in a large font that fills an entire page can make an impact. If presenting the testimonial quotes online or in a printed document you’re sending to or giving someone, just present the quotes and attributions formatted nicely in a regular font in a series sequentially on as many pages as is necessary.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the other elements of an education portfolio in future posts.

Lately there is increasing endorsement by large companies and organizations for what’s become known as the 70:20:10 model for learning. This model, backed by significant research, clearly identifies how people actually learn what they need to know to do their jobs within a large organization.

Organization workers tend to learn about 70% informally, 20% through coaching, mentoring and development assisted by others within the organization, and 10% formally, such as through classroom-based instruction.

The traditional way we’ve trained workers in the past is simply not sustainable going forward. The modern business environment is either unwilling or unable to properly train its workforce, and even if it was willing and able, the mechanisms by which it’s done so in the past, formal training, tends to be a lousy way to train except in very specific instances when the content is most effectively and efficiently delivered to learners by those means.

I’ll write more about the 70:20:10 model in the future, but there’s a great video narrated by Charles Jennings that explains the 70:20:10 model well and makes a strong case for why companies and organizations should embrace it if they wish to develop and retain a knowledgeable and skilled workforce.

Does your company or organization embrace this learning approach? If so, please share your experience by adding a comment.

This post thread started with my book review of Proving You’re Qualified.

In my last post I discussed one of the elements of an education portfolio – résumés. Although what elements go into the making of a good education portfolio varies by individual and job target, a good one might consist of a résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials, work samples and documentation of learning. I’ll discuss letters of recommendation in this post and the remaining elements in future posts.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are typically written by past employers or clients extolling your background, virtues and skills to another potential employer. Aren’t sure what one looks like? Just go to your favorite web search engine and type in “letters of recommendation” (with the quotes) and you’ll see all sorts of sites devoted to this topic including lots of sample letters.

How do you get a letter of recommendation? You ask!

So many people think it’s wrong to ask for a letter of recommendation. It’s not. Go ahead and ask. Even better yet (and you may find this strange at first), write the letter yourself. I mean it. Write your own letter of recommendation and present it to the person you want the letter from. When presenting it say something like “I know you’re a busy person and I’d like a letter of recommendation from you. I’ve taken the liberty of writing one myself. Of course, you can change it or write your own, but if you agree with what it says and just want to sign it, that would be great. Let me leave this with you and you can look it over.”

You’ll be shocked by how many people will simply sign it. Why? Because the hard work of writing the letter is done for them. Assuming you’ve portrayed yourself accurately in the letter and you know the person sees you and your work as you do, they will likely sign the letter.

When presenting the letter, have it printed on the company or department letterhead. This adds significant credibility to the letter. Make sure to identify the person’s title under their printed name, just below where they’ll add their signature. If you don’t have access to the company stationery, create a simple, professional-looking stationery letterhead yourself and use that. Use at least their name and title in the letterhead. If the company name, address, phone number and email in the letterhead seem appropriate, add those too. You can always offer to alter the letterhead text before they sign it if they don’t like it. There are thousands of letterhead templates available. Again, simply type in “letterhead templates” into your favorite search engine and you’ll find plenty of them.

Try to mix up the way you write these letters of recommendation. You don’t want them to sound like they’ve all been written by you. Likewise, if you create the letterhead for them, don’t use the same template twice.

If the only way to get a letter of recommendation is as an email, then take it. A printout of an email might not have the visual impact of a signed letter on letterhead, but it can still be powerful and influential to those who read it. In this technological age we live in people are used to seeing even important communications in email format.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the other elements of an education portfolio in future posts.

This post continues the topic I started in my book review of Proving You’re Qualified.

Here’s the dilemma. You’re about to search for a new job. You have some work experience behind you. You’ve learned some things along way. Perhaps you’ve read some books, learned on the job, taken some workshops, or otherwise gained some great experience, knowledge and skills that a potential employer will undoubtedly find of benefit to their company. Now you’re looking for a new job or a promotion, but you don’t have a college degree. What do you do?

College degrees (or professional certifications) are far too often the litmus test by which companies have filtered out job applicants. Assuming that someone is a better fit for a job because they hold a college degree often turns out to be a terrible way to judge job candidates. Luckily, many companies are seeing the wisdom in having a more broad set of applicant requirements. You’ll often now see the words “college degree required – or equivalent work experience” listed in a job opening description. As more and more baby boomers retire and companies seek out the required workers in a dwindling pool of talent, I expect this trend to continue.

Sure, for some professions such as physician, attorney or architect, formal education is not just a good idea, but the only way to go. But for the majority of jobs, including many professional jobs, a college degree means little when determining if someone is right for a position.

Even for employment positions advertised as requiring a college degree, there are sometimes ways to get past this requirement. If you can make a direct, personal contact with someone at a company they can often arrange for the college degree requirement to be waived if there is a compelling reason to do so. There is always someone at some level of the company that can waive the requirement unless it’s one of those jobs that absolutely requires a college degree.

So what do you do? How do you prove to a potential employer that you have what it takes to do a job as well as someone with a degree (if not better)? The answer is to create an education portfolio.

What is an education portfolio? It’s documentation, presented in a concise and easy-to-view form, of your job/life experience, learning, skills, competencies and other factors that taken together comprise your unique, individual education. Truthfully, even if you have a college degree, a good education portfolio will give you added credibility when interviewing for a job.

So what goes into an education portfolio? It can vary by individual and job target, but a good one might consist of these elements:

• Your résumé.
• Letters of recommendation.
• Testimonials.
• Work samples.
• Documentation of learning.

I’ll discuss each of these elements individually starting with your résumé in this post and the other elements in future posts.

Your Résumé

When looking for a job, your résumé is your most important piece of marketing collateral. And that’s how you should look at it. You’re marketing yourself to prospective employers. So your résumé should sell you in the strongest manner possible. In one or two pages your résumé should tell someone what you know, what you’ve accomplished, and how your knowledge and experience can translate into a better bottom line for their company.

Writing a résumé can be tricky. If you can afford it, hiring a professional résumé writer can be beneficial. I would avoid hiring someone through a job board’s résumé service or without some good references. Like the rest of the professional world, quality varies dramatically. Ask around to see if any of your friends have hired a professional résumé writer. Don’t ask someone at your current place of employment unless you’re absolutely sure the person will hold your inquiry in confidence. You don’t want to tip off your employer that you’re looking for a new job.

If you don’t know of someone, consulting a professional organization’s roster like the National Résumé Writers Association is a good idea. If you choose to write your résumé yourself and you have decent writing skills, you can produce a good résumé on your own. I recommend you read The Elements of Resume Style: Essential Rules and Eye-Opening Advice for Writing Resumes and Cover Letters that Work by Scott Bennett. It’s an excellent book you can read in a day and it will give you great basic advice on creating your résumé along with some useful job search advice.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the other elements of an education portfolio in future posts.

Proving You’re Qualified: Strategies for Competent People without College Degrees
By Charles D. Hayes
Published by Autodidactic Press

Ask a random sampling of people who are in successful careers how they learned to do their current job and a large percentage of them will say “I learned on the job.” I hear it all the time and I bet you do too.

If you’ve learned a lot on the job, or through other self-directed means, how do you “prove” to an employer or manager that you’re qualified to do something? All too often when someone is truly qualified from a knowledge, skill and experience perspective, but lacks a college degree, they’re passed over for a job, promotion or important project. Such situations are ridiculous and Charles D. Hayes knows it too. So he wrote this excellent book.

Proving You’re Qualified is less a set of guidelines and suggestions on proving your competency than it is a superb analysis of the illogical environment and attitudes that pervade the business community. Too often businesses elevate those with degrees over those without, even when someone without the degree is clearly more competent. It’s a stupid approach to managing a workforce and ultimately a bad business decision, but it’s a common reality.

It turns out the insightful analysis Hayes presents is great fodder for coming up with your own approaches to prove your competency for a job. And Hayes does offer some helpful strategies that you can use and that I think will prompt you to naturally think of additional strategies relevant to your own situation.

I’ll present some of my own ideas about proving your competency (and your self education) in my next few blog postings.

As I write this, I am approaching my 58th birthday in July. And I can honestly say I am happier today than I have ever been before. Sure, there are some physical issues you deal with as you get older, but in the grand scheme of things I find those not such a big deal (not to downplay those who deal with much more serious physical issues than I have).

Happiness is my only goal. I’ve given up setting lots of goals and objectives for myself and I focus simply on “what will make me happy.” I know it sounds simplistic, but it works for me. It hones my activities down to those I find the most enjoyable. It allows me to easily strip away the stuff in my life that has little return on investment. And surprisingly perhaps, I seem to end up much more productive as I keep my happiness at the forefront of my mind.

As it turns out, older people tend to actually be happier than their younger counterparts. Check out this great TED Talk by Laura Carstensen, Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. It’s always nice to see what we sense from anecdotal input to have some actual data behind it. Enjoy and let me know your thoughts by adding a comment.