MyLifeMyCareer.com

Anytime I tell people that I left my previous position after over two years with that company they always ask, "What went wrong?" I usually like to start by saying what went right before things started going in a direction that I did not agree with. We'll try to do this as best I can without violating the confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements I signed.

So, what went right?

Participated in a management rotational program - This is something I had really wanted to do after college to get a bigger picture of how a business actually works. I had read many books that attempted to illustrate the inner workings of a business, I went to all of my entrepreneurship and small business management classes, but I had never seen or been a part of all areas of a successful larger company (around 200 employees at the time of my start date, so small business by most standards but as big as I was willing to go at the time). I worked or shadowed in all areas of a software company: development, QA, marketing, sales (relationship management is the professional term...), services, training, support, and had exposure and access to senior managers. We even had a lunch series with the CEO and co-founder where we could pick his brain, and learn from his experience building this company over the past 20 years. This program was not as structured as I would have liked, but since it was being offered by a small company where there are not as many resources for given tasks we had to be flexible about when certain meetings could occur. Our team of six recent graduates completed two company-wide collaborative projects which were presented to senior management. The international opportunities research project involved building a competitor database, prospect database, and identifying features that would need to be added to our solutions to be seen as a feasible solution for international prospects. Our client life cycle project focused on the relationship of a specific client from the days when they were a prospect signing their first contract with us, seeing how their needs changed as they grew in size or experienced other business changes, and trying to foresee future needs based on their relationship with us. We even talked to the client with the permission and guidance of the relationship manager which was huge several months into the new job. The rotational program was invaluable in terms of providing a solid foundation for my future positions and career.

Developed and matured as a professional - It is really a night and day comparison from where I was at in 2006 coming out of college, and where I am today. I have always worked in client-facing jobs since my first job working on the tennis staff at a country club in high school, so connecting with co-workers and clients has never been an issue. However, working within a software company on the services team I had to really work on and improve the types of communication required for the different audiences. When dealing with the client or our consultants I had to really take a basic and practical approach for the more business-side projects team members as opposed to communicating technical details to our QA team when reporting issues or when working with the client's IT or tech rep during implementations. I improved dramatically after several projects were in the bag, and even had clients mention to managers of mine that they thought I was much older than 24 years old when talking over the phone or through email exchanges. I'll take that compliment as a sign of growing as a professional.

Collaborated on small to large scale project implementations - Some companies take the approach that you are dedicated to one project at a time, and they set the expectations with the clients that this will be the case. Our company had projects of all sizes, and we were assigned to around 20 projects at a time - 10 or more would be considered larger implementations that could last 6-12+ months. This worked out well for the most part, as you would be waiting for deliverables on several projects and could knock out tasks on other projects or take care of a smaller project in that time. There were of course waves where it felt like every project had deliverables due, and then it would pass after a few weeks and slow back down. I would work on these projects independently managing the timeline and deliverable schedule directly with the client if it was a smaller project, or work with a project manager, consultant, our support reps, and a larger client team if it was a larger and more complex implementation. Experiencing the butting of heads, schedule conflicts, delays on either end, scope creep, pressure from many directions, and everything else that you don't read about in text books or experience in case studies was huge. I am pretty sure my spine grew several more inches having to stand up to internal team members and to clients on certain issues all while maintaining a good relationship and moving forward as smoothly as possibly. With this experience I could work in many different types of positions, and it will serve me well when a management title is thrown my way.

Experienced an acquisition, IPO, internal restructuring, and integration - The company I worked for was acquired several months before my first interview while I was still in school. I remember reading in a Jack Welch book (among many other places) that 99% of mergers and acquisitions fail, so I remember asking the HR associate if she thought that the new parent company would mesh well and allow us to operate as we were. Would the great company culture change? The culture is what sold me initially on the company as it was rare to find that west coast type of company in the middle of the corn fields in Indiana. The HR associate said no way, and I trusted this response especially after visiting the offices twice for second and third round interviews and seeing it for myself. Four months after starting there the parent company went public on the London exchange, and now we were a public and global company of thousands of employees. From there on out the culture did begin to change as sacrifices were made to appease analysts and shareholders. After about a year, an internal restructuring started and neared completion by the time I left. During this time we were also integrated with another company that the parent company owned, and many meetings were held to slowing connect the two companies. Now, I had almost accepted a different position 8 months before I actually resigned, but am glad that I stuck around to experience all of the changes and to piece together what I thought was going right and what was going wrong. Through all the changes in two short years I gained valuable insight into all of the changes, impacts, and employees' opinions during the M&A, IPO, and integration. You cannot teach that.

So, that's what went right. Why did I leave? I think you can infer from some of the above statements that certain aspects of the company changed dramatically from when I had started. These changes combined with my personal recognition that I was working in an industry that I did not particularly care for in a position that was not the right fit caused me to resign. It was a good paying job, I had just been given a significant raise and bonus, it was somewhat secure, but I was not passionate about it. I could have stayed there, bought a house or condo, and settled down, but there were more and more days where I was not looking forward to showing up due to the mis-alignment and lack of interest in what I was doing and who I was serving. I do not want to get stuck in a rut of living for the weekend as so many people my age complain about but do nothing about.

I think it is also important to note that I did not just up and leave as some people do when they leave a position. I had and still have great respect for my team, my managers, and the entire services department, really. I worked with all of them to try and transition my project portfolio as smoothly as possible to minimize any impact internally or experienced by the client. I stayed past 5 PM on my last day after a 10:30 AM exit interview so that I could finish up transition process docs for some of the larger projects that were being passed to co-workers of mine. I even planned and gave my two week notice at a time when many of my projects were either close to wrapping up or barely started where the impact of a transition would be minimal. I look forward to staying in touch with many of my former co-workers, and definitely did not torch any bridges. I'm sure there were some hard feelings from certain people towards me when I left, but that's out of my control and part of business. I did everything I could to leave on the best terms possible, and have done this in every previous position. A strong finish is extremely important to me, and I would hope you do the same when in this situation in the future.

So, what now? Well, I'm taking some time off to travel and visit friends that I haven't seen in awhile while searching for jobs and new cities that I may want to re-locate to (kind of hard to take a month off while working). Some people joke about the early retirement and being voluntarily unemployed in this horrible economy, but this is really the first month I have had off since I was 4 years old. I always played several sports each season growing up, then I got to the age where I could work on top of going to school and playing sports, and I only took off a few weeks before starting work right after college ended. It feels good to get back to neutral, rest up, and enjoy life. I went to Nicaragua at the end of July, and I just finished a 20 day road trip from San Francisco to New York City by plane, train, and automobile. I have only been away from work for less than a month, and already am researching opportunities and sending out resumes. I know which cities I enjoyed being in and visiting people, and I know what I want to do. Now, it is just a matter of will I be hired with my current portfolio and experience, or will graduate school be required?

I always thought that I would shut this blog down at the end of position #1 after college, but in the rare case that this information is actually valuable to someone I will keep it going. I will let you know how it turns out. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves.

Severe thunderstorms are rolling through Indy and the suburbs, so I'm hanging tight before socializing this evening. Why not rattle off a little blog post instead of taking cover in a sturdy structure (my apartment does not count as a sturdy structure - paper thin walls, zero insulation, and cheap construction)?

The professional work-force is boring and overly cautious in what they say and do at work. There, I dropped a bomb of a generalization. I have cracked jokes and received the follow up emails or conversations that are to the effect of "Easy there big fella." I think very few people enjoy being a robot of pure etiquette between the hours of 8 and 5 each Monday through Friday, but do so because it is accepted as the proper behavior within the walls of a business. When did becoming a stuck-up douche with no sense of humor become perceived as professional?

I would rather walk the line of "maybe we should have a sit down with HR" not because I'm a rebel without a cause, but because maybe that line is drawn too close to "church/funeral behavior" and not close enough to "summer bbq" behavior. I don't see a correlation between me sitting with my hands crossed, half-falling asleep, and wishing people would say what they really want to say instead of speaking business gibberish and me being more productive. I check my email, calendar, run data analysis tests, and work on another project all at the same time. What's wrong with cracking a joke or injecting humor into business conversations? Nothing. I do it all the time - in moderation of course.

I agree that there is a recommended mixture of comedy and seriousness that still allows the collaboration to move forward in a productive manner while having a good time. It does take a certain level of maturity, personality, and conversational experience (put that on your resume) to recognize when you are deterring the current movement or progress. Cross that line of "intelligent and fun co-worker" to "class clown" a few times and you will recognize the response and learn to not do it again.

So, lighten up, make the best of a situation that isn't always fun, and change the perception of what it means to be professional. Working towards your goals with the company you work for, starting a business, or running a business is rewarding but hard work that lasts many years. The stress will build up and you will release it one way or the other if you don't manage it.

The biggest stress reliever for me is comedy. Even at the office.

I didn't drink coffee until I started working full-time and had to get up everyday before 7AM. It was a rough transition from college. What eased the transition was my desire to drink mug after mug of coffee each day. There are different ways to drink coffee in terms of amount and frequency which can be more beneficial than other ways. I never thought of this, but it's true.

Most people fill their mug or styrofoam cup to the brim because a) the coffee pot and break room are a long walk from their desk, b) they enjoy drinking more coffee in one sitting, or c) only pansies fill a cup half way. If it was meant to be filled half-way they would have made a smaller cup to be filled to the brim.

I used to do 1 full cup in the morning and 1 full cup in the early afternoon, but the caffeine would wear off after 60-90 minutes and I would drag until lunch or the end of the day. I now do a half a cup every 90-120 minutes, and I never feel the effects wear off. I read about it somewhere, and it actually works. I also get a cup of water with each half cup of coffee to rinse my teeth and to flush my system. I have no idea what would happen if I drank coffee alone - probably clog a pipe somewhere.

You can do the same thing with caffeinated tea or energy drinks if that is your bag. Why would you pay all of that money for Red Bull, though, when the company coffee is free? I guess you could always find out where the Red Bull promotional Mini Coopers full of college student employees will be located in your city if you live in a bigger city, and then the Red Bull would be free too (minus the cost of $4/gallon gas tracking them down).

Anyways, drink less coffee more and lose the caffeine crash.

The President of the United States. Vet. Brain Surgeon. Nothing. Accountant. Investor. Programmer. Tech Researcher. Professor. Interaction Designer. Consultant.

Going back as far as I can remember those are the occupations I dreamed of one day being. Nothing - that one hit during high school when I either thought that the high school years were the pinnacle of life and didn't care what was next, or because I truly recognized that I was clueless to my own interests for the future. I just remember teachers saying that new types of jobs were being created, and that my position did not even exist yet. I one-upped the high school profs, and majored in something that didn't formally exist during my hs years - Informatics.

I'm now working in a role that is a cross between business analysis and systems implementation. It's not my life's calling or what I see myself being, but it is a role within a business which became part of a much bigger business. That's all I asked for after college - experience in the "professional" world. I'm 24 and realize I don't have it all figured out, I still don't know what I want to be, and I'm completely comfortable with the fact that I'm not comfortable or satisfied on some days. I like feeling hungry for change in my life. Not Obama-change - just "regular, personal growth and satisfaction" change.

How did I get to where I am today in my Business Analyst role? I didn't just wake up and decide that "Hey, I want to grow up and sit in a cubicle and be a Business Analyst". I took steps that led me in this direction like switching majors from Business Finance and Accounting in the ivory tower of the Kelley School of Business of IU to Informatics - a degree from a school that didn't even have a formal building until my Sophomore/Junior year when they renovated an old sorority house into the new School of Informatics. I switched because I enjoyed the course I took through the business school titled "The Computer in Business". It was basically an intensive Access and Excel overview and application course - one that I enjoyed and everyone else in it hated. I hated all of the accounting and finance courses, so I switched to a degree that was more tech-centric and still allowed me to take business courses that were interesting to me like Entrepreneurship, Small Business Management, and marketing.

Several career paths presented themselves to me during my last two years at IU as I became interested in interaction design, network security, and fields that were not technically defined such as sports informatics. I considered grad school to continue on in interaction design, but I wasn't completely sure that is what I wanted to do. I took the GRE the winter of my senior year just in case I decided it was what I wanted to do, and ended up continuing interviewing with various companies in early spring. I was basically in a long hallway of doors, not sure of which one to walk through, and wanting to keep them all unlocked forever. Something just felt right about one of the opportunities for a full-time position after graduation, and I took it. Was there a reason or tipping point? Not really. It was a combination of thinking I needed a break from academia and the small college town of Bloomington, my bank account being empty and my credit card bills piling up, and my desire to apply my business knowledge to a real situation. Were these thoughts correct and did I make the right decision?

Yes and no. I can answer that way, right? That's the only fair and accurate response. There are days I regret not going to grad school right away, but at the same time I can always go back. It's just a matter of leaving the standard way of life I've become accustomed to over the past few years, and reverting back to learning mode, strapped for cash mode, and increasing debt mode in the hopes of expanding my knowledge and adding a few more doors to that hallway of options. There are also days where I think how much more knowledge I have gained working for two years in an actual business facing non-scripted situations over and over again that I will be able to utilize in my future business plans, endeavors, or to make my learning during grad school (if I go that route) more beneficial and realistic knowing what can happen outside of the bubble of the classroom and textbooks.

The point of this post is that my desires and what I think I would enjoy or excel in change constantly. I've tried to illustrate that for you in case you think you have it all figured out, and have some concrete plan of how your life is going to play out. I could go on for hours about how my mindset, career plan, list of friends, activities I participate in - my life have changed just in the past two years since graduation day.

No one is going to tell you what you are going to be. You have no idea what you should really be. There is no perfect system in place to alert you of opportunities you might enjoy, places you should live because they align with your lifestyle, and so on. I don't think this will ever be possible to create a system that lets you know what you should do and you will be happy doing it for years to come. So much changes internally and externally in your life, and you can either recognize or ignore the fluctuating factors that control your overall satisfaction with what you are doing for a living.

If it scares the crap out of you that you are about to go to college and pick a degree that will ultimately control the first few steps after graduation that's normal. If you just graduated and have a job or don't have a job that's ok. I'd recommend getting a job to experience something and to of course pay the bills so that you can move out of your parents house, but I meant it's ok that you're unsure of what you want to be.

I'm 24, two years removed from college, and have no idea of what I want to be. I do know what I want to do next, though, and after that I'm sure I'll figure it out just like everything else has been figured out on the fly thus far.

The thoughts of this post were inspired by an article in Esquire titled 'You'd Make a Good President. Or Maybe A Good Fashion Photographer. Or a Good Shortstop. The Point Is, You Have No Idea'. It's on page 68 of the June 2008 issue, and currently not on their website. There is an excerpt on Brijit if you are into summaries.

I know the title sounds like some bullshit PR, but it's a message with truth behind it. And NBC was also right about the whole "The More You Know" Saturday morning positive messages in between mindless cartoons. Eek the Cat, anyone?

You don't just get an innovative idea by sitting on your sofa watching American Idol or playing Halo 3. Actually, you can if you allow yourself to, but reading still yields the most inspiration for me. I'm not talking about leather bound books with gold trim on the pages. I'm talking about blogs from other entrepreneurs, websites, and my favorite - magazines. Printed media is not dead (yet), and at $6-20 a year for 12 issues I load up. I try to stay away from more traditional "business" magazines like BusinessWeek or The Economist since they generally report on proven strategies or established methods which are usually common sense to most people or widely reported and you've already heard about them.

Non-fiction books about "new age" business concepts, like The Tipping Point, Long Tail, Wikinomics, etc contain great ideas, but the books are dead to me. No one needs 300 pages to prove a point. Reading a non-fiction book is a huge waste of time. The point of each chapter is usually made in the first few paragraphs, and is followed by 43 more pages of citations and similar examples. The author is basically saying, "Here you have my idea, and here are many other resources that I have arranged in a way to make my idea seem like it is supported whether it is or not." Once you catch onto the pattern, unless the subject is extremely interesting to you the book will be back on the shelf in no time. I would rather go on-line, get the basic premise, and see what other people have to say. It's quicker, more interactive, and rather than one person pitching some crazy new idea there will be many people with different opinions selling it to you or throwing it away. And you can ask them, "Why?", like the inquisitive 2-year old version of yourself is wanting to know the entire time you are trapped reading the book. Pick up a book from the Fiction section, and at least entertain yourself if you're going to spend days or weeks reading one thing.

Magazines have time-sensitive material. The articles are shorter, straight to the point, and more relevant to current trends and events in the world. Most magazines have a consistent voice, so you can usually find several that match your style and you end up reading cover to cover. Most of the articles are on-line for free, but let's be honest, you will get distracted after half an article and mosey on over to Facebook to see pictures of your buddy passed out on some beach during Spring Break. Get the actual magazine, and step away from the computer, and you would be surprised how quickly you will breeze through it picking up ideas to research or look into when you get back to the computer.

So, which ones do I read?

FastCompany
Inc.
Wired - not a "business" magazine, but I'm a tech guy and I would argue that it does contain valuable business info
Esquire - a lifestyle magazine, I know, but successful people are interviewed and popular trends are identified among some other stuff that I would qualify as crap
GQ - same as above - you need to stay in touch with pop culture at some level. It's all about balance.
PopSci - technology mentioned in this bad boy is usually featured 6-12 months later in mainstream media
Technology Review - The intelligent and more research oriented version of PopSci
Scientific American - I read very little of this magazine, but pick up just enough information to be dangerous in conversations that I have no business being included in. You never know when an investor may start discussing the possible types of life in underground oceans recently discovered on a different planet. Or you may be on Jeopardy and win money.

Surprised by the variety? I feel it's important to keep a broad perspective, so that you do not get on one path. Think about it: you are thinking about ideas from different perspectives, picking up general information that may help you or simply rot away in your brain, and you are well-equipped to hang in conversations with many types of different people. If you're ever a manager or business owner, this will be a killer skill in my opinion allowing you to hopefully connect with all of your employees at some level outside of work-related conversations.

Reading is a bore when you could be watching a movie or playing Wii, I realize this. I look at it this way, though: I just spent 20 years going to school, spent close to six figures on college, and I am not going to quit the personal investment just because I have a degree.

You are your greatest asset. There, another BS corporate zinger for you. I'm sure many people who think they are important have said those five "inspirational" words with a straight face. I have always laughed at them when they say them, and chuckled as I typed the phrase. We know this already, and choose to deny or accept it. Thanks for the coffee mug worthy slogan, though. All right, I'm done. Two posts in two days? It's been awhile.

There's a wide spectrum of style to "professional" email etiquette, and both ends of the spectrum suck. On one end you have the people who act like they are writing a letter with a piece of papyrus and a quill dripping with ink. They usually look like this:

Jared,

Thomas The Train
555-555-5555 office
555-555-5556 fax (I know, who still has these, right?)
555-555-5557 home
555-555-5558 cell
555-555-5559 mobile
tommytrain wm
tommytrain2 aim
123 Central Station
London, Bulgaria 129312A-233AB
[ridiculous logo]
"Some slogan our marketing department came up with which sounds self-centered and ridiculous"

That's one extreme that you will experience. You will open a novel like this, and quickly delete it. The other type of email you may receive are the one-liners with no specific information like this:

He said you could call him sometime at the old number. He still works in that department with the other guys at that one location.

Emails are meant to be short, informal, and to the point. That does not mean you can roll out of bed, fire up the blackberry, and send something like the above message while taking a piss and rubbing the sleepy dust out of your eyes. I will delete this on account of you assuming that I am the keeper of all that is knowledge - which I am not nor do I claim to be.

You have to use a few descriptive or key words to make that second message a winner. Here is a nice re-do:

Johhny T. said that he would be available after 2 PM EST for a short call. Tom and Gary from the products group will be on the call. Just set up a conference call, and send him the number/appointment. Thanks.

I now know who I am going to call, who else will be on the call, what time to call (always include the time zone to avoid confusion), and which one of us will be calling the other and at what number. All in three sentences. If it is an internal email you don't need to sign your name at the end because most email clients say who the email is from. As my 7th grade algebra teacher would say, "We're not lazy, we're efficient.".

There's so much more I could say about email and probably will on another day.

I am just getting over a real bad cold that was all respiratory the first week, and all sinus infection this past week. I don't have remote access to my work computer, so I was at the office every day hacking, sneezing, coughing, and blowing my nose - just like everyone else the previous weeks who probably got me sick. How do you prevent getting sick when everyone around you is sick?

Rest on the weekends The weekend after everyone had been sick around me at the office I was out both Friday and Saturday night until 3-4 AM in the morning. I was worn down already on Monday, and by Tuesday I started feeling the first symptoms of the Bubonic plague. In retrospect, I wish I would've stayed in doing a few lines of multi-vitamins instead of using community cups of beer in Flippy Cup and Beer Pong, and started that week with a re-charged immune system.

Really wash your hands A hand-washing that actually results in the killing of germs and bacteria on your hands should last at least 15 seconds. Use warm water, lather up with some hand soap, get the front and back of your hands and wrists, and be sure to run your fingertips across your opposite hand's palm to try and get underneath your fingernails. If you are unsure about the proper technique just watch your doctor the next time you go in for a check-up as he/she washes their hands in your check-up room.

Don't void the hand-washing You've just had a great hand-washing experience, now you just have to get back to your desk without touching anything. Air dryers are preferred as long as you use your arm/elbow sleeve to push the button that starts the flow of air. If you have paper towels, hopefully they are automatic so that you can just pull off what you need without touching a handle. Only dry your hands with one side of the paper towel to keep any remaining bacteria on that side of the towel that rubs off from your hand. Throw it away and grab one more paper towel before exiting to open the door handle without touching it. Hang onto the paper towel if you have other doors to walk through to get to your desk, and throw the paper towel in a public trash can or recycle bin on the way back to your desk. You now have far fewer germs coming with you into your workspace.

Call into meetings Instead of sitting in a conference room with other infected individuals, pretend like you just got off another call or are extremely busy and call into the meeting going on in your building. I rarely do this, but if someone in that room is coughing frequently I do not want to be in the same room. It's kind of a dick move, but people will get over it. You're doing it to stay healthy and use less sick time, so they should understand that you are just trying to protect the bottom line like any good corporate workhorse.

I've made it my initiative as of late to do the little things to get back onto the track of lower levels of stress at the office.

Deadlines
I dream of the day where everyone realizes that deadlines lead to anxiety, rushed or poor deliveries, and the never-ending acceleration of the pace that we work and deliver. Yes, there are people out there who need deadlines in order to function, but I fully support the idea of respecting that others will work as quickly as they can while remaining sane and maintaining a high level of craftsmanship. If I doubt that they are intelligent enough to handle themselves in a deadline-less world, I'm not hiring them, working with them, or buying or selling to them. If someone told me that I could have my newly ordered cell phone in a week, but that it really takes them three weeks to produce it correctly in a low-pressure environment I would rather wait the three weeks to ensure top-notch production of my phone to ensure the long-term value.

Unfortunately, deadlines do exist in my current position, and they are created by clients, project managers, other managers, co-workers, and myself. I've learned in less than two years that up to this point in life you really could please almost everyone. Working, going to school, and maintaining a social life seemed rough at the time. There were times in college where tests or project due dates fell closely together, and I was challenged. In the workplace though, especially in the technology sector, the pace of business blows anything I experienced in college away. It comes in waves just like college, but the intensity level gets a little nuts at times. My first reaction is to get frustrated at the lack of time left, the effort of others, the wrong expectations by involved parties, or any other factor outside of my control.

I go home, I get pissed thinking about it, and then I sleep. I wake up the next day thinking more reasonably, and realize that I brought most of that stress onto myself by trying to do too many things at once, rather than doing what I can do now while waiting for other pieces to fall into place. I realize that learning to estimate how long it takes you to do something is tough. I always want to deliver lightning fast, and make the mistake of giving myself a deadline that is overly ambitious, to say the least. I'm starting to really know what I am capable of, and actually and realistically delivering. Many times I tend to give an unrealistic date of delivery out of fear that the other person will be disappointed with what I predicted. More often than not, they would not have cared at all. I'm getting the hang of this and slowly regaining control. Deadlines were always set for me my entire life: test dates, homework assignments, sales goals, athletic development planning, and so on. We need to do a better job of educating students on setting their own deadlines and project planning - a skill that I was definitely in need of more practice on before entering the workplace.

Email, IM, Phone
If you want to get anything done, ignore at least 2 out of the 3 at all times. Plan meetings and times when you can call a client or they can call you. I like to provide top-notch service and convenience for my clients, so too often when they ask when I am free on a certain day I will respond anytime if I only have a few short meetings. They then hang up, I start to work, they call out of the blue, we have an unplanned 45 minute conversation, I hang up, go to the bathroom, have a quick chat, and finally sit down taking another 20 minutes to figure out what I was doing before the call came in. It's much easier to know when the call is coming in, so that you can plan to take it and work on a task that should wrap up around the time they are calling. You can at least form a more defined stopping point in a more continuous or larger task. You cannot eliminate all surprise calls thanks to our "on-demand" nature and way of life, but limiting these types of calls leads to you keeping your head on straight. Voicemail is a good thing, though.

For email, I recently turned off the Outlook pop-up feature that lets you know if a new message has arrived, who it's from, and the first part of the message. I have my inbox and calendar minimized most of the day. I try to check it at stopping points or breaks in my current project or task, or at the four logical breaks of the day: arrival to the office, before lunch, after lunch, and before leaving for the day. Now, since many people have become accustomed to instant responses from almost everything else in life thanks to everything from McDonald's to Google, some people get ticked if you don't respond right away. I always say if something is on fire, they will probably call me. I can't always count on this, as some people for whatever reason would not pick up a phone and make a call even if they were on fire. I'd love to check my email only 4 times a day while at work, but you just can't due to the way email has evolved. My best plan of action (and most reasonable) is to only plan to answer emails 4 times a day at the intervals discussed above, check it during breaks in project work or right after a meeting, and only respond to frantic or immediate attention emails outside of the planned answer periods. That's about as managed as you can become with Outlook without being a dick to everyone who is emailing you.

Pray that your IM goes out or is destroyed somehow. Ours was just out for two weeks, and now no one uses it now because two weeks is a long time and everyone has forgotten. 9 times out of 10 I use it to receive a comedic remark from another employee or to make a similar point. Older employees take it more seriously which is nice, I guess, but at the same time just come over and talk to me rather than trying to have a formal conversation through IM. If you put up your "busy" or "away" icon, people still send you messages that pop up, so just turn it off if it is not a "mandatory" communication tool in the company you work for.

If your company has not blocked AIM, GChat, Yahoo, or Windows messenger, don't even open it. One, most of the people my age are starting to grow away from it, and those who aren't it seems like are never available at the same time to actually have a conversation. Personal messaging at work is probably not a big deal as long as it is minimal, IMHO, but as a young gun in a corporate office it definitely would not send a good message if you are seen chatting every time someone walks down your cubicle aisle unless you are in data entry and they recognize your mad typing skills. I have never used a personal IM service while at work, but see people doing it all the time - especially through Gmail since it is not detected.

Breaks
Basically, if I'm thirsty I go get a drink. If I have to go to the bathroom, I make a trip to the bathroom. I don't plan these breaks, but the urge to get up usually occurs when I am just finishing up something or running into a wall of frustration - both of which are good times to get up. My eye doctor stresses the importance of a 5 minute break to stretch your eyes every hour is so important in a monitor-staring intensive job. I do not do a good job of this as I don't plan my breaks, but maybe I should.

The biggest productivity killer for me is going out for lunch. You have the 10 minute period prior to lunch trying to figure out where to go, you eat way too much, you come back and keep a conversation going for another 10 minutes, finally get to work, and then fall into a food coma. Bring smaller portions of food in a brown bag lunch with snacks for throughout the day, and you will be more aware and capable of staying on track. Not to mention, you could leave early or accomplish more in the same amount of time. Plus, you save a crapload of money. Brown bag your way to a million.

Conversational segways are the kings of BS in the cube farms, break rooms, conference rooms, and bathrooms at office buildings all over this great land. Knowing just a few things about a co-worker - or even just one thing about them will allow you to turn any one-on-one normally awkward situation in which you are forced to converse with someone who you know could care less about talking to you into a half-way acceptable situation. A segway is nothing more than a half-assed comment or question that is used to create a short conversation that the other person buys into (on the surface) before you move on to try and sell them something, take care of whatever task you came to take care of, or if your coffee mug has finished re-filling and you are ready to return to your desk.

So, what is the most effective and common segway to use in almost any situation? Talk about the weather. Not a day goes by where I do not hear multiple conversations about the forecast, current conditions, or the classic "How's the weather in your neck of the woods?" question. Whenever a big storm is rolling through or massive amounts of snow are predicted (and then never come) employees and clients still get excited like kids in a classroom when a bolt of lightning can be seen through the classroom windows, and could talk about the possibility of a big storm for hours.

We've all been in the "lobby" of a conference call waiting for everyone to join, and you cannot discuss what you are supposed to discuss until everyone is there so you have an awkward silence until someone asks, "So, what's the weather like there today?" even though they check Weather.com every hour of the day out of boredom and already know the answer. Yet, the weather segway, however thick in BS it may be does not usually come off as sounding as lame as other segways, and most people enjoy playing along.

Segways are a great way to get used to communicating "professionally"*, but it's really sad how many silver-haired, 20-30 year veterans still use them thinking that they are professional communication tools. Can you really blame them when self-proclaimed industry leaders encourage the habit? Look at any customer relationship management solution offered by Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, or any other business solutions provider of your choice, and you will see that each customer record has a section devoted to interests or talking points - segways. These are grouped into categories, and are reportable. Reportable BS. Who would've thought? BS sells, or at least it used to. Now, with the 90's invention and advancement of e-commerce consumers no longer have to put up with "car salesmen" pitches that make you want to buy less. When someone pretends to know you now, it just comes off as cheesy and desperate. Maybe it always did, and we just tolerated it. Not anymore.

My recommendation to you is to read and expand your knowledge so that you can engage with others at a semi-intelligent level on various subjects, so that you can have segway-less conversations. At the very least, try to form a common interest through something as simple as a tv show that you both watched the previous night. At least you're both talking about something that you care about, and there is actually a half-way vested interest in the conversation.

The other option is to simply listen. When you get a talker in your office, cube, or on the phone let them them talk. They feel important, you're being "respectful" of their expert knowledge of Seinfeld re-runs, and they feel like they get along with you because it seems like a real conversation to them - especially if you appeared really interested or maybe were actually interested at times.

I simply don't have conversations with people at the office unless I know that we have a common interest, and have had a conversation that had nothing to do with work for more than 5-10 minutes. I'm not sure there is a point to bs'ing with segways. You can still come off as friendly and professional just by getting down to business and talking about the task at hand. I perceive people as more genuine who have a mutual understanding that we are different people, and "hey, how are you?" suffices in passing. If you still are caught up in the popularity game then you probably disagree with everything I just said, and your feelings may be hurt when people don't throw a segway your way. That's fine. You are not alone as the majority of the people in the business world fall in that boat.

*Professional is a vague term. When I use the term I am talking about the general manner that we are supposed to follow when in an office setting, even though it generally goes against everything that is natural and conducive to being comfortable and truly productive.

That's what it boils down to really, and too many of us give up on our dreams in order to pursue a socially acceptable position, a position with a notable company, or basically the conservative option that guarantees a paycheck every two weeks. Sometimes we have to work in positions that aren't exactly aligned with our goals just to survive, so you may not be realizing your dream immediately. It's unlikely that your dream will be realized upon commencement day coming and going, and your first position may be the complete opposite direction of what you really wanted. Just do a search on Monster or CareerBuilder for entry level positions for college graduates and tell me with a straight face that 99% of the available positions sound exciting. Unlikely to happen. However, it's a start to gaining the tangible and intangible resources that you will need to achieve your dreams.

We are the "silver spoon" generation whether we like to acknowledge it or not. We're hungry for success - immediate success. Everything we do, create, or consume is instant, on-demand, downloadable, ready in minutes, and available everywhere. Adjusting to a new challenge that could last 45-50 years after completing nearly two decades of institutional learning is like a slap in the face. There will be no parade, just a graduation party hosted by your friends or family in which you will receive a few household items to get you started in your first place. Then you'll move, find an apartment, show up for the first day of work (hopefully not late, like my first day), and you'll dig into whatever position it is that you signed up for at that career fair months ago. You'll get over the shock, and the rough transition from student to full-time employee will yield new knowledge and experiences that will either make you settle in as a lifer for your company, or will encourage you to better yourself and the pursuit of that childhood dream. You have your whole life to find your true passion, but if you think back to when you were a kid it's usually easier to find.

Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams (video)

As I was heading out of the office yesterday, I stopped by to chat it up with some other young guns before leaving. One of them asked if I was taking work home at which point I looked down and realized that I had my laptop in the bag hanging off of my shoulder. It had been like this since last Friday, so I didn't even realize what they were talking about. I quickly rattled off the names of some of the clients who I have project work that needs to be completed asap to try and justify me having my laptop with me and not wanting to appear as a lame slave to the corporate system. His response was classic:

Dude, that is one can of worms you do not want to open.

That is very true. Like the deliciously flavored snack that comes in a tube, Pringles, once you pop you can't stop. One of my new year's resolutions was to make a strong attempt at not working weekends or nights. Work will always be there in the morning regardless of if you work until the wee hours of the night trying to complete work. If you finish a project early, it will be replaced by another project with a new set of deadlines.

In college and all of my years in the halls of academia preceding the last four years, I was the type of student who could not and would not procrastinate. The times when it did come down to the wire, I usually pumped out some of my most focused and greatest reports or project material. Even with the better results it was just something that I wasn't comfortable with, and enjoyed the feeling of being finished before the deadline. Only then could I truly relax and quit worrying. It was a psychological reward - a dog treat for the brain.

In the workplace, there is no reward for finishing early in terms of mental "time off". I've been trying to get the block schedule going - 2 weeks on and 1 week off, then repeat - but cannot seem to get any serious support for some reason. The next project in the pipeline is coming your way, and the same pitfalls, deadlines, and other stress factors have to be overcome again.

The best way to manage the "always on" project cycle is to to leave work at the office. If you work remotely, start and stop your work along with normal business hours. In any traditional and conservative business, this is the only way to stay slightly sane on weekdays.

From now on, I invite anyone who sees me taking work with me to remove my laptop bag from me (use force if necessary, although I may come at you like a spider monkey), return it to my desk, and escort me to my vehicle ensuring that the can of worms remain sealed for all time.

As I was thinking about what to post this week, I was thinking back to what I experienced this week at work, talking with friends about work, and reading articles and blogs regarding work and careers. I'm going on over a year and a half with the same company that I started with after college and realized that I'm really hitting stride now that the bulk of the initial learning is complete.

I was thinking about the frustrations that come along with taking on a new role, and learning how to perform a new function - while performing that function. The sink or swim method of teaching and passing on knowledge is rough at first, but I can be sitting in front of a demo, instructional video, or a one-on-one training session and only absorb the most basic steps of the process. By actually doing what is being taught I tend to learn much more quickly and efficiently. The mistakes, hurdles, trouble-shooting, and uncertainty of the process as a whole can be daunting, especially when you have other projects and deadlines to hit. All of these factors are necessary in order for you to learn and experience a process that looked orderly on paper, but can only be completely absorbed through all of the non-documented factors coming at you in real-time.

I'm not sure how big or what the expected duration of the initial learning curve is for most entry-level positions, but once you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel the added stress of training on top of working is removed. Work simply becomes work at that point. The learning never stops as processes rarely remain unchanged for long, but seeing the big picture through the experience and first-hand knowledge from completing your projects in the first few years really makes the new tasks seem smaller.

It can be extremely frustrating climbing up the learning curve while your managers and co-workers expect you perform other necessary functions at the same time. With the growth and rate or work speed in America, isolated training for new employees is a huge expense and not an option for most companies. Getting through the first 12-18 months will be tough, but seeing the time invested come to fruition is a good feeling and makes you appreciate the fact that you stuck around and stayed committed.

I know that job-jumping, freelancing, and having employment gaps are all accepted and encouraged according to the new laws of business, but there is nothing wrong with sticking around, flattening the learning curve, and enjoying yourself a bit.

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.

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.

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.

Face it, we young professionals and recent grads are high-risk. Most of us don't have many commitments that make us feel obligated to stay in one place. If we're not enjoying the job, we're going to go find a new place to work - a new party to rock.

I've worked for one year and four months with the same company that I started with about a month after graduation in 2006. That must seem like an eternity to those of you who are already with your second or third company. After talking with friends who have company-jumped and switched jobs already, I've come up with a plan for managers and human resource teams to minimize the risk of hiring us. Face it, we can bring a lot to the table, but we can leave the table quickly if needed.

1. Don't sugarcoat the job responsibilities and positions. It's one things for us to misinterpret the job duties, and it's a completely different issue when the human resource personnel and managers performing interviews lie about what the job entails and what day-to-day working will be like with the company. Without working for an extended period of time, soon to be college graduates will not know even half of the right questions to ask to make sure that they can handle the job and stick around for at least a few years. Your goal should be to help them out rather than docking them for not asking the "right" questions. Unfortunately, the college student or entry-level employee cannot test drive the company for several months, so the better that you can describe the experience as accurately as possible the better your chances of hiring the right person.

2. Constant Feedback This is going to only be beneficial if you have an open level of communication and a mutual respect with your young employee. Meet with them, and don't just tell them about their performance, expectations, etc. Ask them questions that center on how satisfied they are with the company, what they could change if they would, what's different about the job that is either better or worse than they expected, and so on. Don't just ask the questions to appear like you care and because your company has a plaque on the wall that says you care. Ask the questions, get the answers, and actually take action to correct issues, find a different position, or prepare for them to leave - if that is the case. The biggest benefit from gaging satisfaction and obtaining feedback in person is to use that information to better inform new candidates being interviewed so that they don't form the same perception prior to being hired as the employee who just quit after 6 months of work.

3. Work/Life Balance This is one that most companies just do not understand, and is one big reason that that they have high turnover among young employees. Several months prior to working 8-5 five+ days a week for you, your shining new young employee was going to classes three or four days a week only in the afternoon, and going to the bars Wednesday - Saturday nights. Out of all of your employees, the youngest employees have the social lives that are valued much more than older employees (not to say that older employees don't have extremely busy lives outside of work, we younger employees just haven't developed the appreciation for a hard day's work, yet). Even if you are paying your entry-levels large amounts of cash to stick around late into the night or on the weekends, they will eventually realize that even the extra money is not worth them missing out on whatever their friends are doing. Watch their hours, and just make sure to manage their work-load from your end as best as you can as they learn how much they can handle in a normal forty hour work week.

There's more to this list, but I'll save that for another day.

This is a common complaint that I have heard from not just young professionals and entry-level employees, but from 20-30 year employees that are in various stages of management. You are responsible for doing one thing or completing a particular task or group of tasks. Everything outside of that is not really your concern. How does that give you any fulfillment and sense of completion at the end of the day if you don't know what it is you have helped to complete?

As a business grows larger and larger, managers are required to delegate tasks to new managers who then delegate tasks to other employees. This opens up the CEO's days to manage the strategy, growth, and allocation of resources within the company (or to play golf and oversee the construction of their mansions - however you want to look at it). They are the brains and the leaders of the company. They see the big picture.

As much as low-in-the-business-hierarchy employees complain about the lack of understanding of the business as a whole, I'm sure that many CEO's have the same complaint about the many smaller pictures that make up the big picture. They have to trust the processes and output created from the divisions of their company to other managers and to you - the general laborer of the company. The best CEO's are the best simply because they hire great managers, and are able to give up responsibilities to others without worrying or losing to much sleep about it.

It's the nature of the beast - the large business, corporation, or global company. We, worker bees, simply don't have time to perform our task and also take part in the larger processes of the company, and CEO's don't have time to lead the company and know how you complete the task day in and day out that allows the company to succeed. I think about this concept by comparing it to those posters which feature a larger picture made up of many different smaller pictures. The CEO has the wider perspective and sees the big picture, and he has to select which smaller pictures to focus on at a given time, but cannot focus on many of them for very long in order to keep the focus on the big picture. The general population of employees usually sees their small picture and the pictures surrounding it (related processes, teams, and divisions of a company), but only in great companies do they have access to the wider perspective revealing the bigger picture that they are a part of.

The key to a great business and company is having employees and managers that are educated on the larger issues and strategy of the company, and for the employees and mangers to educate senior management on the smaller processes and issues before they become a larger problem. Keeping that balance of working specifically on your task while still gaining the knowledge of the business as a whole leads to more rewarding work experience and understanding of how a business operates.

You need to find a company that is not afraid to let entry and mid-level employees in on the big picture. How do you know if a company is open to itself, so to speak? They are usually the ones with very detailed and exciting career pages and company information pages on their websites. Check out the press release section to see if they have press releases only about their products and services, or if they also include positive press regarding the operations of the company and about their employees. As previously mentioned, it's tough to know for sure unless you have actually worked for the company due to the lack of honest company and employer reviews.

Many companies talk the talk, but very few walk the walk.

Recently, I read an article about how the values and culture of a company change when they become a public company or a part of one. No matter what you say your company motto or values are, the number one value and goal of a public company is to generate returns for shareholders.

I don't know many people out of my group of friends who don't work for a public company or a company that is owned by a public company. Unless you work for a small business, it's pretty tough these days to not work for a shareholder driven company. I don't know how you can act in the best interest of the business, especially in tough times, when you have people willing to sell their stock if you don't show them what they want. It's the nature of the beast, I guess.

I'm not saying that small businesses don't have to deal with outside pressure, at all, especially if loans or venture capital is involved. Small businesses have different kinds of problems, like managers trying to do all of the work rather than delegating, employees not communicating truthfully because of the small size of group involved, and simply trying to keep the business going throughout the early years.

Just be aware of factors affecting the nature of whatever company you are working for or thinking about working for, and what's really driving the growth or lack there of.