MyLifeMyCareer.com

I sit for roughly 7-7 1/2 hours a day, and am moving around for meetings, to ask questions, or to go to the restrooms or break room for less than 30 minutes a day usually. I come home and do some exercise on the Indo Board, crack a few sit-ups, and possibly some other light workout exercises. Now that it is cold I rarely make it out to run. All of this is not enough compared to my college days with all of the walking to class through campus, regular jogging, and trips to the gym to play intense pick-up games of basketball.

Aside from the lack of working out enough, another concern of mine is my vision. I'm 24 and I can noticeably tell that I am becoming near-sighted very quickly. This is no doubt a result of staring at a computer all day. When I do look up it takes a few seconds for my vision to clear and focus on something just 10 feet away. I have read that you are supposed to do 30 minutes of eye exercises each night to reverse the damage done from forgetting to blink and straining the eyes in the cubicle all day. My eyes are always dry now, and I should be buying stock in Visine with as many drops of the comforting formula that I use each day. I've made it an initiative to do 2-3 minutes of eye exercises each hour at work: focusing on different intersections of the ceiling tiles at different distances and positions, looking to the four corners and blinking heavily, and leaning back and closing my eyes to take some of the weight off of the guys. I feel a little better, but the florescent lights are killer. Maybe I should get that vision training video game for the DS.

The one thing that I am doing right in the world of health is eating healthier than I ever have. I rarely eat fast food, I rarely eat out since I am not traveling for business, I don't remember the last time that I bought chips or anything else that comes in a bag, and I am eating way more white meat than red meat. Making a large pot of pasta, meat, and vegetables is simple, lasts a few days, and doesn't taste that bad.

It's important to exercise at a time when the LB's can pile on, cholesterol can shoot way up even at a young age, and you can become very lazy after coming home from a grueling eight hours at the office. Break the bad habits early on after graduation, and you will set yourself up for a longer run at life.

Yes, this post was largely inspired but the enormous quantities of food that I consumed over thanksgiving on top of the average of 19 hours of sleep each day.

Enjoy the break, and safe travel to everyone who gets to drive or fly to go eat turkey and hang with your family!

It's tough to do when you know that project work needs to be completed, but chances are you will end up only prolonging your cold or other contagious virus by showing up at work. Since everyone is contained in tight quarters with no windows open (standard in most office buildings), colds and viruses spread quickly in offices. I can't stand when other people are coughing and sniffing all day, so to not be a hypocrite I stay home when I have a cold or am not feeling well.

Today was one of those days, and I feel much better after resting most of the day and taking medicine. Even though I feel guilty taking a sick day, it's much better for the company since I would probably not be as productive, and other workers are at risk for getting sick causing a much larger loss of production. More importantly, I give my body the rest it needs.

That's all I have today, as staring at a computer screen is not helping my headache.

I am a strong supporter of companies, ceo's, and recruiters striving to be as truthful about the positives and negatives of the company that they represent, the job responsibilities, and their honest opinion on if the job is right for you more so than if you are right for the job. I'm always focusing on the flaws of recruiting entry-level employees as a result of misrepresentation in order to meet hiring quotas or simply to fill a position, but it is equally important for all of the job seekers out there to bring the same attitude and honest approach to the table.

Other than telling the truth and fully answering questions, how do you make yourself transparent or appear to be transparent? If you had an interview with no time limit, how much should you reveal?

These are tough questions, and I don't think that you can say that revealing the same amount of information to every recruiter is a wise decision. I think there is something admirable and ethical about not just answering the questions that they ask you, but revealing details about your experience and past that they didn't necessarily ask to hear about. If the recruiter is a seasoned interviewer or HR professional they will appreciate any additional information that you are willing to share with them in order for them to decide how good of a match you actually are.

That's the easy answer for the situation where you applied for a position, they offered you an interview, and you are in the room with them. What about making your resume and details of your past available through your profiles on Monster, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, Facebook, or your blog? I'm not talking about the pictures of you passed out on a couch with sharpie all over your face, but more about the details highlighting your previous employment, current interests, portfolio of sample work, or academic performance.

My answer to this: the more the better. Go into detail about successes and failures at each of your previous positions. Justify any possibly negative points of your past. There is no limit to what you can post about yourself on the social networking sites or your personal website. The popularity of social networking sites lies in our enjoyment of making and managing personal connections. Use the same power to attract the attention of a recruiter who seems to connect with you - your profile, actually, and you will be a step ahead of everyone else. Hopefully, you are attracting companies who are more aligned with your skills and interests since you would have revealed more of these details. When you apply for jobs they usually want a one or two page resume included with a one page cover letter. Three sheets of paper amounts to several millimeters of thickness. If you want to trust a recruiter to let you know if you are right or wrong for a job based on this minimal amount of information combined with several hours of interviewing that's your call.

Honestly, does anybody do this anymore? Believe it or not, there are more companies than you think that only accept resumes and cover letters through the regular, snail, USPS, or whatever you want to call it - mail.

The "big" tip that everyone used to tell me was to fax your cover letter and resume to get noticed. Since only contracts and papers that typically need to be signed are sent through fax, people receiving the fax generally know that it is probably an important document since it was faxed. I always thought that was funny, but then I started working and receiving faxes is a big deal, especially if it was received through the main fax number for the company instead of my personal line and ends up in the regular mail box. The only other mail that comes through my company mailbox is my paycheck report and corporate junk mail. If I saw a letter in there, I would definitely pay attention to it. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea, and it should be attempted by some of you.

It's a pain to print out your cover letter and resume, pick up a decent folder, stuff it into a parcel envelope, and pay for shipping something that you could send for free, but I can see where this would get more attention. There is something about reading a document printed on paper rather than my computer screen that instantly scores positive points in my book, and I tend to retain the information more. Again, I think there is a significant advantage here if the company accepts resumes through the mail.

Whichever route you choose: email, fax, or mail, only send your resume and cover letter down one of the possible paths. Do not overwhelm and piss off a recruiter by sending double or triples of your resume that they receive from several different directions. Roll the dice, pick a method, and do it.

Relocating for your new job or internship can be a strain on your personal life, and can also cost a ton of money. One of the benefits that most companies that are known for recruiting college graduates offer is relocation assistance. Be sure to look at the amount offered, and what types of expenses are acceptable to claim as part of your relocation. For most, they will cover the transportation and gas only. The better relocation assistance plans cover your gas, transportation, hotel for you and your family if needed, food while traveling, and the security deposit at your new apartment or rental property. I'm honestly not sure what they cover, if anything, if you have bought a new house.

Coming out of college, you may have some low bank account balances, credit card debt, and looming student loans which you usually won't have to start paying for several months. My student loan payments started a little over six months after graduation which was plenty of time to settle in, and recoup some of the losses incurred in college. Not having to pay anything to move to your new location is huge.

If you are moving to a completely new city where you know very few people, hopefully you start working with other recent graduates because it is hard to meet new people outside of work unless you are a member of a church, local club, or have a pub/sports bar that you go to all of the time. You may or may not have sociable neighbors who are your age, but that all depends on where you live. It's hard to know which apartment complex would have a high density of young professionals, but the easiest way to find one is to look for bars or "hot" nightlife districts. There are always tons of young people that choose to live near these areas in any city. Keep in mind, though, that by living in these areas you have a greater chance of dealing with the pumping bass of your neighbor's stereo just like in the dorm, and that is the last thing you want to hear on a week night trying to get enough sleep to make it through an entire work day.

Relocation is surely a big deciding factor for most people, and it is important to find out the details of how much of your relocation expense balance will be covered. If everything is fully covered and you can cope with moving to a new city, the relocation factor may not be an issue at all letting you focus on the quality of the company. You want to live in a city where you will be happy, and in an area of the city that matches your lifestyle. After the dust settles and the new job smell wears off you are going to experience some dissatisfaction, but that feeling can be exaggerated if you are not content with your living situation, either. Both where you live and where you work will play a big role into your impression and personal review of your first job a couple of months into your new position.

One of the other factors that makes the transition from college student to young professional difficult is the fact that there are no more extended breaks that clearly separate stages like with most of your academic career.

Think about it. In college you just have to make it through fifteen weeks of the semester before getting a month off. If things get tough during that time with course work, finances, or your personal life you can still count down the days until the end of the semester.

Looking back all the way to your grade school days every kid counted down the days until summer starting with the first day of the 180 day school year. In between that 180 day school year we would break it down even further counting down the days until fall break, thanksgiving, winter break, and spring break which would help us psychologically cope with being contained in a classroom against our will.

After college graduation you may take a few months off if you have a job lined up, and then you start working. Then you keep working, working, and working and start to realize that aside from the paid time off days that you take advantage of there is no more big deadline or break until your retirement which is roughly 45 years off in the future. After having multiple mini-breaks each of your 16+ academic years including a large three month summer break, you are put in a situation where you only get to look forward to a vacation or two a year on top of days off here and there.

When things get rough at work with periods where projects get extremely hectic, it's tough to keep going and stick with it when you can't say to yourself, Oh well, it will all be over in a few weeks and then I will have three months of nothing. I've actually heard people of different ages say that they expect to burn out in a few months or a few years because it's near impossible for someone to remain efficient and productive for the periods of time that some are working. You're expected to remain competitive in your performance at the office, so people feel pressured to work these crazy hours week after week even though they are also being told to take advantage of the time off (Catch-22, double-edged sword, whatever). You learn to ride out the waves of good and bad times at the office, but the system could use some work.

The competitive line is thin in most industries, and with the dizzying pace of business brought on by the information age a half century ago most managers cannot afford to give their employees extended time off to recharge and get back to neutral. Wouldn't it be great if you had the last two weeks of December off, and two weeks off in the summer on top of your alloted paid time off days? If there was a corporate word or slogan to encompass this idea it would be called burnout prevention planning.

Bottom line, when you start working you will put a lot of pressure on yourself to perform at a high level, but sustaining that level of output with no "real" end in sight is impossible. Work at a steady pace and set realistic deadlines to give yourself the opportunity to be quasi-content, and to not get frustrated and quit, switch companies, and start the process over again.

Life isn't cheap after college. Here's what monthly expenses you can look forward to, and keep in mind you could spend more or less depending on your lifestyle:

Rent/Mortgage - If you have a roommate, you can probably get a two bedroom apartment for $800-1000, and cut your costs almost in half. Good luck finding a modest one bedroom apartment for under $600 a month. If you are smart enough to build up some equity, and can afford to buy a house you could end up paying over $1000 a month easily, so look to get roommates so that you can own and still afford it. Keep in mind that interest rates are dropping right now, and you don't have to put a down payment down. The only thing to consider is how sure are you that your job will be enjoyable and you will be there for at least a few years to let the house/property gain value. My advice: rent.

Renters/Homeowner Insurance/Utilities: Renter's insurance is so minimal I will not even take the time to discuss it. Homeowner's insurance is so much more on top of property taxes and all the little costs you don't think about: lawnmowing, fixing stuff that breaks, and more expensive utilities. My advice again, rent for at least a year so that you have the flexibility to move easily if the job doesn't work out or if you find out that there is a hot spot in the city where other young people live. Utilities will vary based on how big of place you have, so get a roommate if you have a large multi-bedroom place.

Vehicle - If you live in a large metropolitan area get a place close to your downtown office, and if your city has good public transportation you won't even need a car. For the majority of you, you will need your own vehicle. The cheapest option is to keep the car that you currently own. If it is your parents car, offer to buy it off of them so that you can get that pink slip and claim your very first asset out of college. It's a much cheaper option than buying a used or new car. I would recommend not just driving around a car that your parents still own. You want to be independent? Get the title, and remove yourself from your parents' expense column. If you are going to buy or lease a new car, do it within 3 months of graduation as many car companies have price cuts for graduates (Ford comes to mind). If you work for a large corporation there is a good chance that you will receive discounts with various manufacturers, so look into that. The cheapest route is to keep driving the car you already own, and the most expensive route is to finance a new car with monthly payments over $300-500 depending on the brand/model you go with.

Auto Insurance - This all depends on the company and your driving/criminal record. I have a clean record, but I'm driving a 2007 vehicle. Usually you can pay quarterly or bi-annually, but you can expect to pay a couple grand a year (I'm paying just under 2k) if you're driving a newer vehicle with full coverage and large medical/liabilities coverage on injuries you sustain or cause. One way to ruin yourself financially is to not pay for enough coverage, and then you are involved in a serious wreck a year or two after college that you end up having to pay out of pocket to cover for many years.

Health/Life/Dental/Vision Insurance - Some companies actually cover all of your insurance expenses, but most you will have to pay for out of each paycheck at a discounted price. There are usually different companies to choose from, but again, you're young and have a risky lifestyle so go with more coverage rather than less in case of a catastrophic injury that would put you in a hospital for awhile. I still haven't even used mine, but I plan on getting established with a local physician just in case. You can't afford not to have good insurance, so that you are more likely to be treated in more hospitals. I chose the top of the line plans, and I think I am paying less than $100 a month for everything.

Retirement/Savings - You should not pass up the 401K option that most companies provide. Most will match your contributions up to 4-6% of your entire paycheck amount. That's free money, so you might as well max out whatever percentage that they match. I donate 4%, my company donates 4%, and it's not a big deal if you just have it deducted out of your paycheck. I would also recommend getting a Roth IRA which is another type of long term savings account. There are different types of IRA accounts, but talk to any financial adviser or accountant and they will probably recommend the Roth because of some withdrawl and tax advantages. Investing now rather than later is very important simply because of the time value growth of money which is another way of say exponential growth. Go to any 401k calculator and play around. Saving $2000 a year is a great starting goal, and will result in a very large sum of money (nest egg) when you are 65 and ready to retire. I think the key is having it automatically deducted, so that I don't end up spending it on something that I didn't really need.

Fuel: Get an apartment or place close to work. Stop and go traffic in the morning and evening commute is horrible on gas mileage. You could spend $100 a month on gas or $300-$400 a month depending on what type of vehicle you drive and how far from work you live. Do you still think you look cool in that Tahoe or H2? I have a friend who had a suburban, and was spending $160 a week on gas last summer.

Food/Beverage: I grocery shop once every ten days or so, and spend around $70-80 each time. This usually includes cleaning supplies and toiletries which occasionally need replenished. I wish that was all I spent on food, but you will be going out to lunch quite a bit at work especially in the beginning with all of the cool networking events. I look forward to free lunches. If you are a bar lover on the weekends, buying a six-pack and pre-gaming helps to lower the night's expenses and is still acceptable after college. Stay away from buying rounds if you can, but some nights it just happens depending on the group you are with. Those are the nights where your friends at Visa or Mastercard help out.

Cell Phone, Internet, Television: $150 for an average cell phone plan, premium tv/dvr service, and hi-speed internet.

Those are the biggies. The rest of your money you end up spending or saving. Your choice.

This is a discussion I have had with my friends and other people around my age who have only been working for a year or two. Living in a large metropolitan area or nearby suburb like most Gen Y'ers in the work force, what do you think would be a comfortable salary?

That depends:

Do you live alone or have roomates?
Do you upgrade your vehicle from the rusty POS you had been driving since high school (YES!)?
Do you visit the bars frequently on the weekends?
Do you subscribe to premium television, internet, and communication services?
Do you have money taken out of your paycheck for insurance and retirement accounts?

On average I was shooting for $45,000 out of college after putting together a mess of different scenarios in a spreadsheet. I figured that this would be comfortable living in any medium-sized city, and closer to $50,000 would be nice in a city like Chicago, NY, Boston, LA, Seattle, or similar cities with higher costs of living.

I won't tell you what I make or if I am comfortable or not, but I know that no matter how much I am making until a few years down the road there will always be the potential to be very uncomfortable without a budget. Tomorrow, I'll shed some light on some actual expense figures if you are trying to plan for life after college, so you can see where you can spend more or less to accomplish your spending/savings goals whatever they may be.

We all know how it feels to be told that we are doing something right, exceeding expectations, or simply receiving a pat on the back. Unfortunately, life is not a walk through a metaphorical park, and their will be days when things will not go your way.

When interviewing you will certainly experience the calls or emails letting you know that "you just are not what we are looking for". It is usually not much more descriptive than this, and you are left to guess what you lacked or did wrong in the interviews. After similar calls, I would always go back to the job description on the company's website, review the company information, and then try to replay as much of the interview as possible from the recruiter's perspective usually seeing something that I did wrong.

Other times, you may review every little detail and still wonder how in the world you were not offered the position at stake. It is beneficial to review what you did wrong and right, but you should not let it bring you down, or hang onto the unpleasant experience for too long. Some people will consider completely different career paths after a few bad interviews. After a few of my not so great interviews early on, I was talking to recruiters with the Air Force with quasi-serious intentions of making an 8 year commitment to be a pilot. Keep in mind that I have always wanted to fly, and it would have been much cheaper to serve in the military as a pilot than to pay for private lessons and additional coursework to be become a commercial pilot. Eventually I thought about what it would be like a few years down the road, and I could not handle being committed to an employment situation like a military position so I stuck with the business route and won out eventually.

Never make a decision or take action until the effects of a negative situation have passed. It sounds simple enough, but it is much more difficult in practice. Stick with your plan which may change, but don't let it change as a result of something that you had little control over. Most interviews where you were qualified and personable during the session end poorly only because of the ideal candidate perception that the recruiter had in mind before the interview did not match the perception that they had of you.

I'm going to have to go with Billy Walsh from Entourage: Suits Suck! Well, right after the cubicle it's the worst part of being in business. Yet, you have to wear one to impress a recruiter regardless of how intelligent you are or what skills and experiences you have that make you the most capable candidate.

Almost every time, the person who has the nicely groomed "straight shooter" look wearing a nicely pressed suit will set the bar high for every other candidate simply because of the first impression. Unfortunately, like with many other things in life, recruiters eat up that first image of a college student or recent graduate who cares enough to present themselves in a "professional" manner.

What is being professional? It varies from company to company. If you work at Google, being professional means working as much as possible on coding cutting-edge applications whether you showered and changed out of your pajamas or not. At Accenture, Deloitte, or any other large consulting firm being professional involves wearing suits or ties every day, and being in client facing situations and on the road most of the time.

You need to find a nice mix of being you and being professional. I would love to see someone pull a "Peter" (Office Space, post hypnosis), and roll into an interview with one of the big four consulting firms wearing flip-flops, jeans, and an un-tucked shirt. Not only walk in, but walk out whenever they feel like the interview is over.

I don't recommend dressing down and attempting a "Peter" if you have an interview with a suit-loving business. Face it, most first jobs are going to involve at least business casual dress attire. However, there is the growing trend of companies outside of silicon valley allowing their employees to wear whatever they want in an effort to foster a more comfortable work environment and more hip culture. Whatever type of company you end up interviewing with and possibly working for just be aware that professionalism is defined differently within different companies, and even within teams or divisions within companies. You just need to match or surpass that level of professionalism, whatever it may be.

In between the Indiana basketball game and the Colts game (still going on) I finally took my car to the car wash. With the Colts game at 4:30 PM local time, I assumed that it would not be busy. I pulled up and there was actually a line of cars waiting to be washed, so while waiting the high school student collecting the cash started talking about the game. It turned out that the line of cars was not a result of them being any busier than usual, it was a result of many of the employees calling in sick because of the game.

Retail, fast food, and general service type business (lawn mowing, car wash, painting, etc) are usually dependent on high school students for their non-managerial employee positions. Those of us who worked in these positions know that calling in sick is a frequent problem. Usually, companies have policies that allow for a few sick days, but most managers will call you into the office when you happen to be sick on the day of a big event.

Part of the problem is that when you are in high school, if you decide to leave or are fired it's not hard to find a new job. If you think going to the game or a certain party is more important than your working the day that you committed to work then you probably don't really need the money, care about the position, or know that you will just find a new job somewhere else soon enough.

Either way, I respect the 17-18 year old guy working at the car wash while his buddies decided to hang him out to dry while they enjoyed the game. I don't think we stress the importance of work ethics enough to young adults, and I don't think that recruiters stress the importance of a solid working record during the high school and college years.

No thanks. I don't know if you have the same perception as this, but when I was in college I always thought it would be cool to be working for a company and having a Blackberry and laptop with me all of the time. It was probably started by watching one of those Sprint or Verizon commercials where the business guys are at some street cafe in Europe and looking cool with their suits, phones, and computers.

Working is not that cool. I don't ever want to be those guys. I leave my laptop at work, and don't ever want a smartphone or other type of device that routes my work email to me wherever I am. I like leaving that email at a desk in an office building for 8 hours each day 5 days a week. That's where it belongs.

Now, if it was my personal email that would be a different story, but it is not. Managing your time at work, so that it is not necessary to need or want to check your work related emails is a skill that is very important to me. I'm not perfect and sign on remotely every now and then to check on projects, but I'm working at bringing the number of times this occurs to zero.