Study Finds: People Pursuing Childhood Dream Jobs More Likely to Find Pleasure in Job.

For children, it's up there with picking out a dollhouse and stuffed animals -- answering the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? 

Over the course of your life, the answer to 'What is your dream job?' is something that changes as you confront reality, and practicality.

But according to a new study released Thursday by LinkedIn, roughly 1 in 3 adult professionals (30 percent) say that they have their childhood dream jobs or work in related careers. (No specific age range was mentioned by LinkedIn in the survey.) The online professional network surveyed 8,000 adult professionals from across the world for the study. (LinkedIn counts a total of 187 million members, which it says makes it the world's largest professional network.)

"Childhood dream jobs are pure; it's about what we have a natural inclination for," Nicole Williams, LinkedIn's career expert, said in an interview. "The dream jobs we aspire to as children are a window into our passions and talents."

So what were the top dream jobs for today's professionals back when they were kids?

For American men:

1. Professional or Olympic athlete (8.2 percent of survey respondents).
3. Airplane or helicopter pilot (6.8 percent).
3. Scientist (6.8 percent).
4. Lawyer (5.9 percent).
5. Astronaut (5 percent).

For American women:

1. Teacher (11.4 percent).
2 Veterinarian (9 percent).
3. Writer, journalist or novelist (8.1 percent).
4. Doctor, nurse or emergency medical technician (7.1 percent).
5. Singer (7.1 percent).

So how do people define their dream jobs? The vast majority -- 70 percent -- of those surveyed defined the "childhood dream job" as "taking pleasure in your work." Just 6 percent said it meant making a lot of money.

According to Williams, the childhood dream job is an issue many professionals never really let go of, and in fact, try and return to their passion as they advance in their careers. "I've met a lot of people at their 40th birthday and who say, 'I am not doing what I want to do.' "

So what do you do if you want to transition into your dream job? Williams had three tips:

1. Track down someone doing your dream job. Even well into professional life, it's possible to have a "warped perception" of what a childhood dream job is, Williams says. So it's important to find out what living a certain job is really like, to see if you really want to move forward. She said that she recalled one woman who gave up everything to become a baker, but wasn't thrilled when she had to start waking up at 4 a.m.

2. Immerse yourself in the community. Another way to find out if your childhood dream job is really everything you actually dreamed it would be is to gain some direct exposure in the field. Every field has career groups that are joining. They can also help provide a path toward joining a field. "Dip your toe in," Williams says.

3. Figure out the connection to your current job. "Oftentimes, we are attracted to what we are innately capable of, so don't presume the job you currently have isn't connected" to your dream job, Williams says. When people go for their "childhood dream job," they often think they have to make a "clean break," but oftentimes the impulse to "wipe away that old experience" is really not necessary, Williams says. "You don't want to start from scratch."

What was your childhood dream job?

Article Source:  aol.com

How Losers Get Hired in Today's Tough Economy - See the overlooked truth.

There's nothing more frustrating than watching a loser get hired or promoted when there are far better candidates around, not least of all, us. Sadly, that sort of thing happens all the time. And the cost in terms of time, training and organizational effectiveness is higher than most managers realize.

While every manager hires the occasional weak employee, some definitely make a habit of it. On the flip-side, I bet plenty of us have been on the other end of that equation, although it's safe to say that none of us would like to admit it. Still, it is a sobering thought.

In any case, we'd all like to believe that staffing a company unit or group and finding the right job is more of a science than an art. In reality, it's neither. It's actually a complex and subjective process with a lot of variables. It's so error prone, and for so many reasons, that in some ways it's remarkable that the right person ever gets hired at all.

It's a lot like dating, when you think about it. And how often do we get that right? So when it comes to job matchmaking, why are our hit rates so poor? And aside from whining and complaining and beating our heads against the wall, what can we do to improve the situation?

Assuming we're all smart people with our hearts more or less in the right place, understanding the primary reasons why we so often hire the wrong people -- or are the wrong people ourselves -- should go a long way to helping us avoid that fate. Here are my top seven, in no particular order.

We reach for the stars. It's human nature. Poet Robert Browning said, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp," and you know what? He was right. You set your sights too high and go for it. Sometimes it works and you pull off a minor miracle. The rest of the time, you get to lower the bar and do it again -- and again, until you get it right. That's a heavy price to pay, no matter which side of the equation you're on.

Garbage in, garbage out. Hiring managers and recruiters are forever throwing generic or poorly thought-out job specifications together. Why? They don't know what they're doing, don't see it as a priority or any number of reasons. In any case, the result's the same: garbage in, garbage out. Then they wonder why none of their hires work out.

Hiring managers don't know how to interview. Most managers don't have a clue how to interview candidates and choose the right one. They either ask generic softball questions or ridiculously arcane ones that don't do any good. When you combine that with candidates not knowing what they're really cut out for or shooting for the moon, it really is surprising the right person ever gets hired at all.

Everyone's desperate. And everyone's in a rush. "We need someone in here yesterday." "Find someone now before we lose the requisition." And of course people are desperate for work. I can't fault people for needing a job, but I assume every manager has heard the expression, "There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always plenty of time to do it over." Do it right the first time.

Our priorities are screwed up. Most managers simply don't give the hiring and recruiting process the priority it deserves because that's not their primary function. They see it as a burden, a pain in the neck. As a result of that and their all-too-common desperation to get somebody onboard ASAP, they go through the motions and make concessions they shouldn't.

The "Peter principle." News flash: There are an awful lot of incompetent and dysfunctional managers out there. And in accordance with the Peter principle, they tend to hire equally incompetent and dysfunctional employees. After all, fools are easy to fool. And the higher up they are, the more pronounced the ripple effect down through the organization.

Bad recruiting. There are stellar recruiters, terrible recruiters and everything in between. As with all things involving people, the fat part of the bell curve is made up entirely of imperfect human beings. They make mistakes. Some make lots of them. The solution: Vet your recruiters more carefully than you would anyone else for the simple reason that, if you don't, it'll have a ripple effect and you can end up with an entire organization of losers. 

Article Source: MoneyWatch

The Biggest Energy Leak and Draft Causer in Homes - You might have missed this one.

Have you caulked windows and  replaced weather stripping on your doors? Good for you. But if you think you’ve sealed up air leaks, you’re in for a shock. The biggest air leak in your home is right under your nose. Or, underfoot, more accurately.

It’s the hole that a plumber cuts in the subfloor to make room for the drain assembly at the bottom of a bathtub. Because the drain assembly is big, plumbers make way for it by cutting a generous-size hole that gives them some “wiggle room” when connecting plumbing pipes. This big hole often is left open to the space below. 

If you have a first-floor bathroom over a crawl space or unheated basement, you likely have one of these giant energy wasters in your home.

“Having that big hole for the bathtub drain can waste about as much energy as leaving one of your windows open a few inches, all day, every day,” says Allison Bailes III, president of energy consultant firm Energy Vanguard. “The main difference is that you can easily close the window, but most people don’t even know about this other open window.”

And BTW, that hole also is big enough for good-size critters to crawl inside your home!

Plumbers may plug this hole with a wad of loose insulation, but that’s an imperfect solution — fiberglass insulation can sag over time, especially if it gets damp. The preferred method is to insert foam board that’s cut to fit around the pipes, then seal the board in place with spray foam insulation.

You won’t know if you have a problem unless you crawl under your bathroom and take a look at the tub drain assembly from underneath. Patch the hole with pieces of foam board screwed in place, then seal any gaps with spray foam insulation ($8/can).

A plumber will do the job, too, but that’ll set you back $100-$150. Probably worth it when you think about energy savings, comfort, and keeping mice and camel crickets out of your house!

Article Source: houselogic.com

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Missed Deadline Excuses Revamped in the Corporate World

The age-old “my dog ate my homework” excuse may not fly in this paperless startup age, but there are plenty of other excuses you can use when didn’t finish all your work. Especially if you’ve earned your MBA.

There’s an endless number of to-dos at a startup, but I am a big proponent of that elusive work-life balance, AKA sometimes skipping out of the office before 8PM to go get an acupuncture or meet friends for a Grouper.

The key to getting away with not getting everything done is to talk like a businessperson. MBA degrees are optional, but helpful. Pull out those banal MBA one-liners and you can circumnavigate your way through any missed deadline or incomplete spreadsheet. Whether you’re too busy or just a little lazy, here are ten surefire lines that will cover your butt and earn you some corporate cred to boot:

1.       I didn’t have the bandwidth this week

2.       We were trying to boil the ocean

3.       I had to prioritize other deliverables

4.       It wasn’t the right high-level strategy

5.       It fell below the line this week

6.       It’s really a time and distance problem

7.       There were other low-hanging fruit to attend to

8.       It’s just not quite in my wheelhouse

9.       It didn’t make sense to reinvent the wheel

10.   The problem was that we were working in silos

11.   It’s an issue of scalability

OK, that’s eleven. Bonus!

Article Source: Venturebeat.com

Great Tips for Working At Home With Children.

1. Create an office separate from the main living areas of the house and declare it off limits during working hours.
   Help your child make a child readable sign for the office door so that he will know when it is and isn’t acceptable to burst into the office.
2. Invest in some quality headphones for quiet, heads down, work.
   I can’t count the number of times my wife has apologized to me because the everyone was running around screaming, and I responded “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
3. Maintain a good work schedule, and stick to it.
   Something that really helps in our home is that I have set working hours during the day. At 4 PM, I emerge from my office like someone returning home from work, and I’ll take the children to the park, help with chores around the house, or run errands with the family.
4. Train the children to go silent when Dad’s cellphone rings, but make sure your cellphone ringer is turned on.
   In our house, we have a game. When our eldest son hears my phone ring, he runs and asks his mother for a sticker for his “Daddy’s Phone Log” on the refrigerator. It’s made him become more aware of when I’m on the telephone and has the added benefit of sending him running away when the phone rings. Make sure, though, that you turn your ringer on. If you forget, and answer your phone after it vibrates, no one else will know that you’re talking to someone else and will pester you with “Huh?” and “What?” when they think you’re talking to them.
5. Take a long lunch and enjoy your opportunity to work from home.
   Enjoy the fact you’re working from home and take a time out in the middle of the day to enjoy a long and leisurely lunch.
6. Ask your spouse to communicate with you via IM or email.
   Nothing makes it more obvious that you’re working from home more than having your spouse constantly talking to you. Ask her to email or instant message you so you can ignore them like you would your coworkers’ messages if you were at the office.

What are your tips and tricks for working at home with the kids?

Article Source: business-opportunities.biz

Sound and True Investment Advice

It's no wonder over 90 percent of individual investors pursue an investing strategy that has historically underperformed a globally diversified portfolio of low management fee stock and bond index funds. You are inundated with misinformation generated by the financial media, and sponsored by the securities industry. They have a vested interest in leading you astray. The consequences have been devastating.

Assuming the asset allocation is appropriate for you, most investors would be better off putting all their assets in the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund appropriate for them. I prefer Vanguard's Target Retirement Funds because the underlying funds are all index funds and the expense ratio of the funds is very low at 0.18 percent, compared to the average expense ratio of 0.49 percent for similar funds, according to Vanguard's website. These funds automatically adjust their asset mix over time to become more conservative. Once you purchase the fund, there is no maintenance. Just leave it alone. Since inception in October, 2003 to September 30, 2012, the Vanguard 2025 Fund (VTTVX) returned 5.79 percent before taxes and 5.26 percent after taxes on distributions. At present, it has 71 percent of its portfolio invested in stocks and the balance in bonds.

Note that Vanguard reports its returns both pre-tax and after-tax. Most actively managed funds (where the fund manager attempts to beat a designated benchmark) engage in significantly more trading than index funds, generating higher taxes for their investors. Higher taxes reduce your after-tax returns. As the saying goes, it's not what you make, it's what you keep that matters. If you hold an actively managed fund, ask your broker or adviser to provide you with after-tax returns of that fund.

It's unfortunate that most investors succumb to the sales pitch of brokers and advisers who tell them they can "beat the markets." If your broker falls into this category (and almost all of them do), ask her to describe her methodology. If it is based on past performance, is she able to predict tomorrow's news? Since tomorrow's news is what will affect stock and bond prices, why does looking backward have any predictive value?

If there was a reliable way to "beat the market," you can be sure it would be uncovered by the millions of investors and thousands of academics focused on the market every day. It would also be published in a peer-review journal. I have yet to find any credible evidence of investment expertise permitting anyone to consistently "beat the market." Nothing can beat good ol' investors Due Diligence.

I issue the same challenge to brokers every day. Tell me your methodology for beating the market. Demonstrate that it works. I will check it out and will publish the results. I am still waiting for takers.

While I am waiting, you don't have to engage in market beating behavior that historically has rewarded your broker and punished your returns. You have many options for breaking the cycle of below market returns. One of the easiest ones is to consider whether Target Retirement Funds are appropriate for you.

Article Source: huffingtonpost.com

Investment Financial Due Diligence

When it comes to doing investments people sometimes don't follow the advice of the sages, that is, to do the necessary due diligence. As the well know joke goes: Bob meets his financial consultant at a community event and tells him of how he got scammed into some troubling deal. The consultant asks Bob "Why didn't you call me to discuss this potential investment?" Bob answers him; "I was afraid you will dissuade me from pursuing this deal."

People tend to get emotionally attached to their perspective deals and fool themselves that this deal is different and tend to focus only on the positive aspects of the investment. Somehow they fail to focus on the troubling parts until it's too late, their money is gone.

What should one do when they lack the time or expertise to do the necessary due diligence? Contact an Investment Due Diligence company, you will sleep peacefully knowing that you are doing the right moves and the right decisions.