I keep telling people I have lots of ideas, that I’d love to pull into a novel, but I’m so worried about writing badly, I don’t even try.
As one friend pointed out to me — thinking about all the cars on the roads in the US. Very few are porsches that go from 0 to 60 in seconds. Writers are the same way, very few are brilliant coming out of the gate, which is why there are rewrites and multiple drafts.
Thanks Blue Gal!
I like taking personality tests, but I don’t put much stock in most of them. If your categories are generic enough, you’ll find you fit into all defining factors, which doesn’t really serve individuals well.
Today I stumbled across Signal Patterns today via a FaceBook ad. I typically don’t click on those ads, but I’m a sucker for online quizzes.
Signal Patterns (admittedly in beta) wants to not only provide you with in depth analysis of your personality (via 45 traits) and preferences (music, with other topics to be added later), but wants you to be able to share the findings with your friends, as well as meet other people like you. It’ll pull in your profile details from FaceBook and MySpace so you don’t have to create yet another profile page.
Its primary shortcoming is the length of the test. 100 questions are used to get at 90 personality traits. Currently, they list the questions one at a time. By the time I had clicked through the 20th question, I was bored. . . but I committed to the endurance event because I wanted to see the outcome 80 questions later. By the end, I was annoyed it had taken so long.
Signal patterns would be better served by including 10 questions per page. Nor would it hurt to include some cheeky one-liners encouraging testers to keep on clicking. I’d love to see their drop off rate — people who just give up and jump to another site.
Next, some of the statements are double-barreled. For each statement, I must gauge on a scale from not like me at all to very like me. But some of the questions include 2 statements that could conceivably contradict each other; I agree with one but not the other. After reading through seemingly accurate results, I’m less concerned with this issue, but those questions might need some tweaking.
My third issue with the site: After clicking though 100 responses, you have to register with the site to get your results. (Don’t force me to register; if I find the results worthwhile I’ll do so to save them. ) I hate coercion in all forms, but I wanted my test results; I imagine others would feel the same way. I just spent 20+ minutes clicking away, so I want results! I registered with an old Excite account, so I could guiltlessly sever ties if not impressed with the findings.
But I find myself nodding my head at the findings. You can take a look at your results graphically by trait or the factors that those traits are clustered into.
My top 10 traits (of 90)
My favorite pampering event of the year is upon us. . .
Twice a year, Spa Week offers full service spa treatments for only $50 at over 400 participating spas across the United States and Canada. (Major cities and some places in between are well represented)
This spring, Spa Week runs April 14-20th.
$50 facials, massages and pedicures. . .you can’t go wrong. I can’t speak for your your neighborhood, but a great massage can easy cost $125 an hour + tip in Los Angeles.
Next weekend, I’ll be enjoying a 50-minute Organic Fruit Facial at Skin Haven for $50, and I’m not going to feel guilty about it because job hunting is hard work!
Last week the media reported on preliminary study findings which suggest that people who donate a portion of their incomes to causes or people they believe in are happier than those who simply spend on themselves. Whether giving college students money to spend or looking at professionals who received workplace bonuses, individuals cited a greater level of happiness with their lives when they gave a share of that money away.
In recent years, a number of studies demonstrated that a commitment to volunteering in one’s community yielded lower levels of depression. A 2004 study in the UK showed that nearly two-thirds of 25-34 year olds reported reduced stress after they began volunteering. Seven in 10 felt that using their professional skill sets for a philanthropic endeavor cut down on feelings of depression, while almost a third of 19-24 year olds reported lower rates of workplace absenteeism as a result of their charitable commitments. Additionally, a 2007 compilation of study results showed positive health effects from volunteering peaked at 100 hours per year; additional health benefits were not found in those who volunteered more than 100 hours each year.
What should these findings say to you? Find a cause you care about. Think about the community and society stories that tug at your heart strings. Do puppy mills and the Michael Vicks dog fighting scandal sadden you? Perhaps a local animal shelter would be a good fit for you. Do you enjoy playing with your nieces and nephews? Maybe you’d be a great Big Brother or Big Sister. Are you frustrated by the disenfranchisement of qualified voters each election season? Maybe you want to take advantage of volunteer opportunities with a group that focuses on making all votes count. Whether you’re volunteering one weekend a month or 2 hours a week, you and your community benefit.
As twenty somethings, we are often juggling debt and entry level jobs that don’t often leave us with a lot of money to spare. One thing we do have is energy and time. So let’s not discount the fact that the time we can give to a cause is just as valuable as the dollars they collect through various fundraising efforts. A lot of smaller non-profits rely on their volunteers to make their dollars go farther and to keep programs a live. Dedicated volunteers are great ambassadors of the organizations they support.
Whether you have $20 per paycheck to donate or 2 hours every Thursday, you can put a smile on your face knowing that your contribution is making an impact.
P.S. VolunteerMatch is a great site that helps partner you with organizations that need your help. DonorChoose allows you to purchase supplies for underfunded schools.
Fast Company blogger Shawn Graham wrote a column in January about key elements to assessing candidate fit as an interviewer. As I’ve continued my current job search, his comments have been at the back of my mind because those factors apply to evaluating a potential employer as well.
Personality: Have you ever had an interviewer as responsive as a brick wall? You’ve done your homework and are gungho about the opening, and he’s staring at the clock wondering when he can pass you onto the next interviewer. He’s not invested in getting to know you during the interview process (when all parties are putting their best foot forward), so do you really want to gamble that he’s going to be invested in you if you’re hired to his team?
Work style: We all know the right answer to the question about your work style is that you’re a team player, but you’re just stellar at working autonomously too. And yes, you can, and will, provide examples of each scenario!
I always ask about the culture — is there a community spirit or is everyone delegated a piece of the pie and a complementary deadline? Figure out how you work best and ask the appropriate questions to see if you’re going to fit in.
What Motivates Them: Graham sites recognition, achievement, and social prestige as possible sources of motivation for candidates. On the flipside, is the company focused on growing or maintaining its client base? Increasing profits? If the company in question provides a service, is the goal winning the maximum number of bids or taking on a workload the current employee count can handle? Is priority placed on quality or the quantity of the work product generated, whether it’s widgets sold or the maximum number of client projects got completed? Does senior management worry more about profit margins today or evolving so that the company is prepared for changes coming in your industry?
Team Dynamic:
Equally important to find out how your position fits into the hierarchy — after you find out what the hierarchy is. Once you know who the position reports to and what other team members you work with, you need to feel out the personalities and expectations of each of those people.
Find out how projects are delegated. Will you be working with the same team members on every project, or do you get to work with a cross section of people from different departments and teams?
Red flag when you don’t get the same answers from team member to team member. You can’t be all things to all people, and if the team members are reporting conflicting needs, you’re bound to be disappointing someone at all times.
You might also want to to find out how senior management views the lower level workers? Some look at lower level employees as replaceable drones, others see the entry-level peeps as potential leaders to invest in. If you’re a pro-active sort that seeks to improve processes, make sure you’re taking a job at a company that is progressive enough to either give you that leeway or be open to the discussion.
Just like there are no perfect job candidates, there are no perfect companies. The key is find the deal breakers before you take an offer.
A 2005 study in the UK found that 1 in 3 individuals made a book purchasing decision based on looking smart.
It finds one in every eight young people confessing to choosing a book ‘simply to be seen with the latest shortlisted title’. This herd instinct dwindles to affect only one in 20 over-50 year-olds.
Just over 40% relied on recommendations from friends and family.
In the short term, publishers don’t care why people buy books, just that the titles are moving. But in the long term, what does it say about society that 33% of consumers are just trying to keep up appearances?
PS. For loads of great publishing industry statistics, check out the running list kept by Para Publishing
If you haven’t yet checked out Jessica Hagy’s blog Indexed, you might want to click the hyperlink today. She records her unique perspective on life and current events using Venn diagrams, charts and graphs. It’s sounds nerdy, but in reality, it’s brilliant.
In an effort to promote her first book she’s popping up all over the place, including at ChangeThis. ChangeThis is a site that encourages people to submit manifesto proposals. These manifestos are meant to be unique ways of looking at our world, in an effort to create a dialogue about the status quo and accepted world view paradigms. The proposals are voted on by site users; those with proposals that get the thumbs up are encouraged to submit the 5,10, or 20 page manifesto for we distribution. The hope is that great manifestos could become viral hits in the digital space.
Hagy’s contribution to ChangeThis is Indexing a Career: A Career Path in Pictures, which documents common workplace experiences over the course of a career. Download it and enjoy her wit on visual display.
I hate happy hour. I seem to defy my age bracket by going out of my way to avoid late nights and alcohol-induced experience.
Ever notice how happy hours and networking always seem to go hand in hand. You don’t hear about networking teas, those just don’t happen. Alcohol seems to be a necessary social lubricant for many.
Given that you are who you know, I can’t avoid networking, but I can try to make it less painful. An acquaintance sent me an invite to a networking/happy hour event at a hotel on the Westside for tomorrow night. Gut reflex — not going. Instead, I sent the invite to a bunch of people I know that are also looking to meet new people for a variety of reasons. One e-mailed back to ask if I was going, and what time I was going? She’d rather go if someone she knows is there.
So picked a time. And now I have a networking buddy. I don’t need to worry about not knowing anyone. Once we’re comfortable in the setting, we have the opportunity to double our networking by working opposite ends of the room. People that would be good fits for her, I can introduce her to later in the evening, and vice versa.
There are countless conferences on technology and marketing and social networking and. . . you get the picture. A person could literally spend a full year just going to conferences and not getting any work done. While conferences are known to cram a lot of information and networking into a very limited amount of time, they are also know for carrying a steep entrance fee. Fees you employers don’t always cover. While you might be able to write the cost of at least a portion of the trip off, you’re still stuck with bill for up to a year before tax time.
Easiest way of enjoying a low cost conference: volunteer. Whatever the organizer needs, be that guy or gal. Can you run the registration table or stuff schwag bags? Are you handy with a digital camera or audiovisual equipment? As soon as a conference you want to go to is announced, volunteer. Just make sure there’s an understanding that you will be attending panels x, y, and z for your efforts.
Last week I had the opportunity to attend YPulse’s College Mashup in Santa Monica. I enjoyed a full day of panels on marketing to college students, as well as overall lifestyle trends of that Gen Y subset. My cost: blogging the event recap. You can find part 1 and part 2 within the hyperlinks. I learned a lot and got to commit it to memory by turning my notes into a summary for those that couldn’t make it.
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