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7 Pitfalls That Apply to Nearly Everyone's Career
(By Daniel C. Simmons, CPC)
On
average people change jobs five times throughout their lifetime with
some people changing careers up to three times that amount. The job
market in today's world is in a great deal of flux, which makes changing
jobs and career paths the rule and not the exception. In the midst of
all this, there are a lot of decisions that need to be made.
If
you are to make smart decisions with regard to your career you're going
to need a good compass to lead the way and guide you through all the
choices and opportunities that lay before you. This compass is going to
be your passion. What are you passionate about? What is the one thing
that gets you going in the morning and gives you the drive to tackle the
problems of the day? Ideally this would be something you're doing as a
career or are working towards.
Does
this seem easy to you? Well it really isn't. There are quite a few
pitfalls lying in the way, not just for people already established in
their jobs, but also for college students who are looking forward to
venturing out into the job market.
The most dangerous pitfalls that I see looming over those in the beginning stages of planning their career:
1. Pressure from parents -
This isn't easy for anyone to deal with. Of course your parents want
you to go to law school, but you're not interested in becoming a lawyer.
Be steadfast in following your passion and choose your own career path.
2. Peer pressure -
This is when your friends are taking certain courses, have a particular
major and they subtly or not so subtly pressure you to go along with
them. If this is not your passion, you need to ignore them.
3. Personal paralysis -
With so many choices before you it's easy to just remain undecided. But
you can't just sit back and let "life" decide for you. You need to use
your passion as a guiding light and make plans for your career and
future.
Those
are just the pitfalls affecting college students. But what if you've
left college long behind? Believe me there are plenty more pitfalls to
be concerned about, including these:
4. Being Overconfident -
Being confident is a good thing, being overconfident can be a problem. It can easily cloud your thinking so that you are no longer objective. To make sure this isn't you, seek the advice of others that you respect before making important decisions.
5. Starting at ground zero again -
You've now spent a significant amount of time and money following a
particular career path so it's just best to continue on no matter how
unhappy you are, right? I DON'T THINK SO!
6. The status quo -
Sticking to the status quo is among the worst decisions you could make.
If you are not happy with what you're doing but decide to remain since
it's all you know, you will likely live to regret this down the road.
Which brings you to . . .
7. Monday morning quarterbacking -
When you make a decision solely based on the idea that down the road
you might regret not making it is not using sound judgment. This isn't
about holding up a bank. This is about your career and building
something meaningful and rewarding.
What
I hope you get out of this is the importance of letting your passion
guide you. We're talking about the quality of your life. You certainly
do not want to spend your years doing something you really don't like
and ultimately have an unhappy life.
Remember the words of Albert Schweitzer "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."
If you're a job seeker and have any career-related questions, you can email them to Don Hunter at donhunter@consearch.com. Don also encourages you to connect with him on LinkedIn.
Planning for Success Requires Succession Planning
(By Daniel C. Simmons, CPC)
We are well into the start of 2016, and you have more than likely been looking back at your achievements of the past year and determining what your goals are for this year. You are forecasting sales, preparing budgets and of course looking at staffing needs. Ordinarily, this type of planning is routine in most organizations, but as recent economic events have shown, routine planning may not be adequate.
At this point in time it is vital that companies conserve resources, and your most important resource is your people. In looking at upcoming staffing needs you may want to:
- Identify your "core group", the people you rely on most to run your organization
- Devise and implement a solid "succession plan" for each of these individuals
- Create meaningful programs and incentives to retain key players
The question is: how are you going to find the people for your succession plan? You have two options: you can either look within your organization and develop the right people, or you can recruit them. These being your choices you may want to do the followingz. Take a percentage of your total payroll and invest that into offering training programs for your employees.
- Reach out and partner with local school including technical and community colleges to make sure students are getting the right training so they are prepared to enter a high-performance, high-tech workforce.
- Become familiar with all the workforce development programs provided by the government that you can take advantage of on behalf of your people.
If your plan involves recruiting top performers, where will they come from? You will want to find the best resources that can identify the type of candidates your organization will need. Take time to interview them to determine if they would qualify and fit in with your succession plan. You need to look towards the future and determine whether you have the staff you need to run your company, not just this year and next, but for the long term.
If you'd like to discuss any recruiting, hiring, or personnel challenges that your company is currently facing, I'd love to hear from you.
Call me at 888.276.6789 or send an email to dan@consearch.com. (And don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn!)
How To Qualify and Apply for a Targeting Excellence Scholarship
Having
a college degree is more important than ever for young people entering
the workforce. This is especially true in highly specialized fields like
food animal agriculture. A good college education doesn't come cheap so
you will want to determine what scholarships are being offered and do
whatever you can to meet the qualifications. The key to being awarded
any scholarship is to plan early, and it's not too soon to start
planning for 2017.
Targeting
Excellence is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the
world's food supply and to this end they provide scholarships for
students majoring in food animal agriculture in the U.S. They do this
through contributions and by sponsoring a number of fundraising events
throughout the year. The fundraising goal for 2017 is $165,000 to be
awarded to students enrolled in two-year, four-year and graduate
programs who have goals of working in food animal agriculture. The
awards for 2016 will be announced on May 1st. Sixty to seventy winners
will share $120,000, chosen from about 160 applicants, which means
you've got to be in the top one-third to receive a scholarship.
The
overall mission of Targeting Excellence is to host events that bring
professionals and leaders of different agricultural businesses and
production systems together with institutions of higher education and
their students. This facilitates an exchange of ideas, builds personal
relationships and improves communication between all entities, while
having a good time raising funds for scholarships. By attending these
events students have an opportunity to learn about the type of careers
offered in food animal production as well as to spend time with leaders
in the industry.
Upcoming Events
If
you consider yourself a top student and are motivated to succeed in
your career, it would certainly behoove you to attend an event in your
state. Students who attend events are given preferential treatment when
it comes to awarding scholarships. Events will be held at Clay Shooting
venues on the following dates at these locations:
-
June 29, 2016 - Targets on The Move, Ackley, IA 50601
-
September 15, 2016 - Blue Ridge Sportsman Club, Harrisburg PA 17112
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September 20, 2016 - Minnesota Horse & Hunt, Prior Lake, MN 55372
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September 29, 2016 - The Cardinal Center, Marengo, OH 43334
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October 20, 2016 - Drake Landing, Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526
There
is no charge for students to attend and participate in events. To get
on the list to attend the event in your state, sign up on the
targeting excellence.org website to receive their newsletter via email.
You will then receive the information you need to get your name on the
invitation list for the event you wish to attend.
Qualifications and Scholarship Application Process
-
Applicant must have been accepted or already enrolled in a College of Agriculture offering courses in food animal production.
-
Applicant must be enrolled to attend classes as of September 1, 2016.
-
Applicant must be strongly motivated to pursue a career after graduating, in some facet of food animal production.
-
Applicant
must have two references. They must submit their first and last names,
email address, and university or company they are associated with. One
reference must be from one of their food animal production professors
and the other can be another professor or a professional working in the
industry.
-
Official
or unofficial transcripts must be submitted. If unavailable then a
screen shot showing the student's portal where their GPA, test scores
and other enrollment information appears, is acceptable (in .jpg, .gif,
.png, or .pdf file formats only).
-
If the applicant wishes to submit their resume (optional) a digital copy would be accepted the same formats mentioned above.
-
Applicant
may submit one more supporting document if they wish (optional). This
could be an article they wrote that was published, an article that was
written about them, an award they won, etc.
In
addition, there will be two essays required. The topics will be
announced on the targetingexcellence.org website in early January 2017. A
third essay will not be accepted as the additional supporting document.
Priority
will be given to students attending schools in the regions of the
fundraising events. The regions given preference for the 2017 awards are
Iowa, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio, and North Carolina. Students
who've attended an event will also be given preference.
Targeting
Excellence allows students to apply and receive scholarships for each
year they attend college and grad school, enrolled in animal production
courses. The total scholarship funds you can apply for and hopefully
receive can amount to $18,000. With this much at stake, it certainly
makes sense to get organized and invited to attend any one of these
events. Be ready to get your application submitted as soon as it's
announced on targeting excellence.org that they are accepting applicants,
most likely mid-January 2017. Best of luck!
Submit Your Internship Program Information
(By Matt Deutsch)
The Animal Science Monitor has offered to promote internships many times during the 11-year existence of our publication. And we want to do it again!
Our goal is to highlight internship programs associated with Animal Science and/or Animal Nutrition each month in the ASM. But of course, we need your help. That’s why we’re encouraging companies to submit information regarding their internship opportunities.
The process is simple, and the best part is that candidates can apply directly to the employer for the internships in which they’re interested. When submitting your internship information, be sure to include the following information:
- A brief overview of your organization
- A description of your internship opportunities
- A summary of required qualifications
- The time frame and duration of the internship
- Specific data regarding how to apply for the internship, including physical addresses, phone and fax numbers, and email addresses
Once you submit your information, it will appear in a future issue of the ASM! You can email your internship program information to damien@consearch.com.
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