DISQUS

I am lucky to a certain point as in the retail world degrees are just not that important - we have people at 6 figures that only have a high school diploma but do have great customer service, leadership, etc. skills.

BUT, you are right that in most of the rest of the world you have to have a degree to back up the rest. I doubt I would have gotten the job I have now or been as successful if I didn't have a Masters. Too bad more companies don't look at potential.

In my world (recruiting in a corporate setting) I am constantly amazed by how many people do not know how to adequately describe themselves or what their soft skills are - much less give coherent descriptions of examples of the skill. Since I run recruiting (that is more involved with strategy than talking to candidates) I pretty much only interview VP's & a few director candidates and these are the ones I'm talking about!!

To recommend you on to my president or a VP, I need to feel confident that you have the leadership, teambuilding, negotiating and personal presentation style to make it worthwhile for them to spend the time talking to you. In this company, you also need leadership courage & a high level of problem solving ability.

Generally speaking I go through 8 to 10 interviews to present 1 to 2 candidates. At this level almost everyone has the hard skills to do the job, it's the emotional intelligence I find lacking, and/or any concrete descriptions of how they have used the skills they profess to have.

I agree with Fathersez & FFB - we need to teach these skills (or keep teaching them) in all levels of school & family life. It definitely will help you move up faster, make more money & if you decide to chuck it all you will have the skills to find & keep clients.

I agree about the over 40 hour job - I'm a director and a 55-60 hour week is "normal" - however, like Ron, I don't see it as a stumbling block.

I have several pieces of rental property, I make jewelry as a hobby & found a place to sell it for me, I run across great bargains and re-sell on Ebay and I just last week purchased (for very little) the contents of a frame shop - about 200 paintings & 50 frames. Don't know exactly yet how I'm going to re-sell them but I have several ideas and know I'll figure it out.

To Patrick's point, there IS a lot of opportunity out there, you just need to find your niche.

I SOOO wish I'd have taken your advice about getting married & staying married when I was young (but then you weren't even a gleam in your parents eyes when I was young...).

I have been married 4 times. Owned a house in each instance of divorce, had 401K's and as I got older, lots more investments. The divorce that hurt the worst was the last one - I was married for almost 20 years and since he made WAY less than me nearly the entire marriage, he wound up with well more than 1/2 of what we had - unfortunately having to clear out my 401K so I could split it with him. I just didn't have enough liquidity to buy him out. He even got a portion of what my father let me when he passed away. It killed me!

My present husband, indeed my LAST husband, is much younger than me & had nothing when we met having given almost everything he had to his divorce. He offered to have a pre-nup and I took him up on it. He does what he loves & makes very little & I do what I'm good at and make 6 figures and we are both happy with that, however, heaven forbid we part, he only gets back what he put in.

SO, I'd add that if you marry later in life & have more than your spouse, of even forsee that your incomes may be very disparate, do a pre-nup - NOT romantic, but then most financial decisions aren't.

@kitty - thank you SO much for your advice. I am trying to re-learn Spanish (grew up in Miami - had to know how to order food, ask directions, costs of items, etc - downtown Miami was almost 95% Cuban when I lived there) and I agree it's easiest to learn phrases first. I now need to know Mexican Spanish as we have shops in Mexico that I need to communicate with & not all employees speak English well, as well as the Hispanic community where I live is mostly Mexican. I have purchased some CD's & they are at normal conversation speed thankfully!

As to Latin, I learned it in kindergarden & first grade so it wasn't a choice. The private school I attended had it as part of the curriculum. I took French in high school but don't remember much & Spanish, at this point in my career will get me further than French (even though I work for a French company! They all speak English).

I appreciate everyone's tips - it's been very helpful in my quest to become bi-lingual!

Thanks Bubelah! I grew up in Miami, now living in Raleigh but I've seen Spanish language newspapers here so I'm sure I can find some - thanks so much for the tips!

Writer's Coin: My Dad came from Scotland & I learned a little Gaelic when I was a kid but since no one else spoke it around me, it quickly went.

Solar Yard Lights: Could you elaborate on the wasy you develop to acquire new languages fast? Since I grew up in Miami I learned basic Spanish & could benefit from knowing it in my job now but I don't seem to be moving the needle much with language CD's - any hints?

Steve (a/k/a BB): Thank you for letting us take off on a tangent! It is too bad that colleges are not pushing more for current students to learn an additional language as in business we are becoming more global by the day - my company does business in 55 countries.

And, yes, English is spoken most places on the planet but as you have found out, if you really want to get to know the locals, speaking the language, or even making an effort in their mother tongue is a huge help to entering the culture.

Thank you Ruth! My favorite Latin saying: carpe vinum! ;o)

OK, first I must admit that while I lived in Miami I could speak passable Spanish & I took French in high school but can't do anything but cuss in both languages now (funny how those words seem to stick with us...)

The language that stuck and has been very helpful in my career, is, of all things, Latin. Because I learned Latin before I was 6 yrs old it seemed easy at the time and as Latin is the root of so many other words I always seemed to others to have a large knowledge base of vocabulary - something people seem to equate with intelligence. I know it's just good memorization skills!

You might also talk to friends & family - if you kvetched or bragged about something specific you did, they may also remember. Do you have any prior performance assessment paperwork? Annual merit review info? Did you save any emails from that period of time (I send myself things I need to remember to my home email all the time - or that I want to keep track of)? Sometimes if you begin a random word association starting from a project you do remember, that will stimulate your brain to start digging!

I discovered a very good site http://www.rileyguide.com/interview.html that gives you a 360 view of every thing you should be prepared for when you interview. I get asked for advice alot (I am a recruiting director) and I think this is the best site because lots of advice for multiple sources is listed here. I have no affiliation with the site - just think it's good info.

Tell NH Mom of 3 I wish her good luck on her job search!

Plant a tree in the urinal!

Well, that's not practical so they make cake deodorizers that can be put in a urinal so if you don't flush completely it won't smell horrible. And, while urine doesn't have germs coming from your body, as well as no smell, it does get odoriferous when left to stagnate because of all the bacteria it encounters outside of your body. (that's your science lesson for the day... ;o) ..)

Pine deodorizers are also effective. Good Luck! (ps: that would bother me too)

Can't wait to see what new subjects you come up with - and BTW - I'm ENORMOUSLY envious! ;o)

I only WISH it were that easy for a post-menopausal woman! I have to work like crazy watching everything I eat (I don't even remember sweets....) & changing up my exercise program frequently just to stay "even" - fortunately like "no debt plan" I live in a hilly neighborhood and have several dogs that I have begun walking one by one instead of all at once. However, keeping the fat at bay is SO much easier than having to lose it because it's crept on. Keep at it & you'll be back to your fighting weight before you know it!

As a person who moved from Ventura County to Aiken, SC (yup, it IS as small as it sounds) I think I have the best of both worlds. At the moment I am working in Raleigh & going back & forth but before I took the position I'm in now (and I'm in it for a finite amount of time) I lived in Aiken working from home for almost 3 years and loved it. I like the friendliness of the small town, I'm within a 1/2 drive of Augusta (750K population) and about 2 - 2 1/2 hours from family in Atlanta - where I can get just about any kind of cuisine or anything else I need a big city to find.

With the sale of my home in LA I bought my current home on 3 acres, & house is 2,900 sq ft for less than $225K, and had enough money left over to purchase several pieces of income producing real estate to support me when I do finally decide to retire. Most everything I need however I can find either on-line, at the big retailers in town (Target) or the specialty retailers (Pier 1, Hobby Lobby, Dillard’s) and Aiken actually has an amazing array of restaurants.

Before I moved however, I did several months of research to find a town I wanted to live in presumably for the rest of my life. I was mid-50's then and while I might never retire "officially" I wanted a place where I could experience life at a slower pace.

All this said I have to admit I've been a nomad most of my life - the 6 years I spent living in CA was the longest I've lived anywhere since I graduated high school 40+ years ago and started moving up that proverbial career ladder - which accounted for several of my moves. I also have a small family (no siblings - Mom lives with us) and enjoy visiting family & getting to see new scenery. I also travel for business so boredom is not an issue either.

I guess my point is work should not dictate where you live nor should the cost - Your happiness with where you are should.

(though I have to admit to missing my jaunts to the Hollywood Bowl..)

I'd recommend this to anyone who has the financial backing to do it. I was "rightsized" a few years back & because of my age, level of job, etc. I received a year of salary & insurance. It was shortly after 9/11 and there was nobody but nobody hiring us recruiting management type folks.

SO, I decided that looking for a job was useless for a few months anyhow and since I was living in CA at the time I read, I gardened, I took my dogs to the beach, I went to museums, art fairs, shopped, visited family and most importantly I rested. I agree with you that rest/relaxation may take some practice in our "booked to the millisecond" life but it gives you a whole different perspective of life.

Sleeping in was the best part!

I don't know - now that I'm back on the East Coast I'm not sure it's any better! Maybe just that I changed industries - retail moves at the speed of light!

Hey Curmudgeon:

That is why I stated above standard in your work. If you don't keep learning & moving you probably won't make it to the year to get your merit and/or bonus anyhow! And, yes, having worked in CA for 6 years I agree that tech companies are a differing breed than other, less progressive, companies.

Patrick:

If the new company is doing well, you might consider asking to be evaluated on a 6 month basis instead of waiting a year. You say it is a lateral move so you must have experience in the role you are considering. If people ask we will give them a 6 mo evaluation with the idea of giving them a bump up in salary if they are doing above standard in their work. Just a thought!

Great article again! The only thing I might add about making the choice to jump jobs (particularly if it's just for money) is to ask your current company if they can re-evaluate your job. Most companies try to keep internal parity fairly even & if you have been in the same job for 5+ years, you could be being paid below the mid-point of the job even if you were at mid-point when you started.

At my company our compensation dept. re-evaluates most of our jobs every 2 to 4 years & in some areas, especially where a shortage of skills has made the mid-point pay of the job jump appreciably, more often than that. If we find more than a 20% differential in any person doing the same job (given that they have the same skill level & educational level) we raise the lower person to at least mid point.

The point being if you like the company you are in but see that money is passing you by, it is worth asking the question can you have your pay reviewed. Your other option is to go to HR (honest, most of us ARE in the business to help) and discuss your desire to be paid what you see others being paid.

As the head of recruiting I have this conversation with someone at least once a week. Sometimes I know about an upcoming opening that we might consider the person for, or at a minimum I can advise them what additional training, education or experience would boost their chances of a promotion.

Your advice about what a raise will "buy" them realistically is also right on target. You have to ask yourself what a longer commute, less benefits, etc. is worth from a dollar perspective.

Love your WIDD file and it's an excellent tip. I head up recruiting for a rather large company (in excess of 30,000 employees worldwide) and I can tell you from a hiring managers perspective (HR's as well) there is a vast difference between a job hopper and a job jumper.

The way a job hopper is viewed is that either s/he can't get & keep a job; or is not a good performer, maybe bored & jumps from company to company in the hope of finding something they like; so invested in moving up as quickly as possible that the first offer that comes in that pays more than the current company does & they are off & running. Overall, not a good impression.

If however, you have had the bad fortune to work with companies not doing well financially & that is why you lost a job or several in a row, explain that on your resume!! Otherwise, it's assumed it's your "fault" you don't stay on a job for long. We do expect a couple of fairly short term positions after college as a learning curve, but if you keep on the path of a job for just a year or even 2, that's generally regarded as a warning sign. Not fair I expect, but it's reality.

On the other hand, as a job jumper, that shows initiative that you have what it takes to get promotions or even if it's a lateral move that you have the resourcefulness to learn different skills. This is definitely a good thing. In addition, (depending upon what level job you have) a good review will go a long way to getting you a better job. If your score is above average & you were blessed with a manager that put on paper the good things you've done, good habits you have & that you exceed expectations, well, that's the candidate we are ALL looking for.

I look forward to seeing the rest of your tips since this one is an absolutely invaluable one.

2 more I'd add - ethics and manners. I head up recruiting for a large company and I can't tell you how many interviewees (AND interviewers) I have seen who don't even know the basics of manners. Not taking a phone call during an interview comes to mind as does having a decent handshake (hate those dead fish handshakes), hand over your mouth when you sneeze or cough...and well I could go on and on.

When I read your post I realized I'd done all the steps except the first one (I have a masters in theater) - and the one that's most important is unfortunately the putting in of the horrendous hours early in your career. I feel very fortunate that I am in the six figure league AND have a job I love. I am an HR Director specializing in Recruiting and you would be amazed how often the theater background comes in handy! ;o)

I'd also say that specialization, past a certain point in your career, is a good tool also depending upon the industry. I got where I am because I became very, very good at a single talent which is recruiting, esp. executives, AND it's a sought after talent. It's the old supply & demand theory that many times determines what you are paid.

I definitely agree that if ALL you want is a 6-figure salary once you get there you will ask, "is this all there is?" - because as any child can tell you money doesn't buy happiness.