Read-Think-b4-u-Write

The Chronicle of Higher Ed 's article Employers and Public Favor Graduates Who Can Communicate displays ambivalent attitudes and a complete lack of real world experience--not by students or employees--but by managers, employers, and professors that peddle such nonsense to students and the community-at-large. What nonsense you ask?  Being "well-rounded with a range of abilities" will land you that fab job you've been dreaming about. Why the attitude?  Here's why.  If a company is hiring for a position that requires a Bachelor's Degree in marketing, finance, or business, it doesn't matter that upper management or your local professor believes "Being well-rounded with a range of abilities is more important than having industry expertise because job-specific skills can be learned at work." Upper management is never going to meet that well-rounded person because that well-rounded person will never pass the initial screening process.  This ...

It's amazing how many newbies to the job market, aka I just got out of college and need a job, think that employers do NOT Google them. Google is the greatest screener available to a Human Resource department AND it's FREE!  Why wouldn't they use every tool available to them to find that perfect employee? So what's a perfect employee?  Well, that depends on the job, but let's think about what the employee from hell looks like. The Ranter - the person who goes on Facebook, Twitter, RateMyProfessor, or the myriad other social media outlets and rants about his or her job, friends, teachers, or parents.  The last thing an employers wants is an employee with the potential to rant about their job, fellow employees, or boss! The Grammatical Nincompoop - the person who can't be bothered spell checking or proofreading their posts.  Think about it.  Have you ever used Facebook--especially if you like text messaging language--and then go back and read how spell c...

How did I run across this great comic?  I was procrastinating of course!  Instead of grading papers, working on lesson plans, or writing the myriad papers that are coming due, I was cruising through Facebook and this little gem from Mashable caught my eye. What kind of procrastinator am I? The Cleaner - definitely - my house could always use a good scrubbing before I actually start grading papers or writing.  Although, lots of thinking gets done as my bathroom starts to shine (that's justification on top of procrastination). The Sidetracker - yes, sometimes writing about comics is a lot more fun than grading papers (no offense). The Social Sharer - my Facebook page is always open AND thank goodness I have never really figured out how to twitter. The Internet Researcher - but it is legitimate research.  After all, I teach short film. A friend once said, "You can get a lot of procrastinating done in twenty minutes."  It took me twenty minutes to fi...