Jobs & Career

My guest post this week is from CEO Boris Epstein and AskBINC contributor Tawny Labrum at BINC, a Professional Search Firm specializing in software engineer jobs and the software engineering industry. They know the Investigative personality type and what software engineers want in their careers. (Disclaimer: I’m married to a software engineer, techies check out his C++/D blog and Linux debugger Zero Bugs; I can’t agree more with BINC’s observations)

I asked BINC to talk about their experience with Holland’s Theory and how it relates to job and career satisfaction for their software engineer clients and employers.

BINC:

The saying, ‘birds of a feather flock together’ is used when people with similar characteristics or similar interests choose to spend time together in business and in social scenes. This also seems to be true in the employment industry.

Take for example the Software Marketplace, in which BINC specifically works. We have the opportunity to deal with some of the most intelligent people in the scientific community. They compete with one another to have the honor to work together as a team. And as Dr. John Holland has shown, people who are most successful and satisfied with their careers tend to work with other like minded people.

If you look at the six different personality types of Holland’s Theory described on Career Key’s website, the Investigative personality type screams to those who are employed as Software Engineers:

“- Likes to study and solve math or science problems; generally avoids leading, selling, or persuading people;
- Is good at understanding and solving science and math problems;
- Values science; and
- Sees self as precise, scientific, and intellectual.”

If you ask any of the recruiters at BINC to describe a true software engineer and their ideal opportunity this is the type of result you would get:

• A position that will promote intellectual growth and high level thinking. Software Engineers are extremely analytical individuals who would rather deal with problems that require thought and have a proven answer. This ability to study and solve problems makes software engineers invaluable to their employer because the word of technology is changing rapidly and engineers need to continue to seek new answers or better methods.

• A position where they are inspired and the work they are doing somehow is contributing to the greater good of society. Software engineers often have tasks that are mind-numbing to anyone who doesn’t love what they do. Staring at code, creating and solving mathematical problems, repeating processes without the passion to do so can be wearing, but great software engineers thrive in such an environment.

• Engineers are passionate about what they do and they possess a true love for programming, they strive to be around like minded people. Very rarely is there a job where we place a software engineer in by him or herself. Very often they work in teams and the dynamic has to work or the employer is robbed of the creative energy and passion to get the job done. A successful software engineer seems to thrive in environments where they fit in culturally and their investigative personality type is put to use.

• Engineers look for a supportive working environment with a vision, where ideas can be heard and their paycheck serves as a bonus, not a primary motivator. Part of our job at BINC is to find that right fit for engineers and employers to enable their strengths and provide an atmosphere they will love working in.

As you can see the Holland Theory matches closely what we’ve seen in our day-to- day experience. Software engineers, in general, love solving problems, they love math and science, and they’re passionate about their work. These are the type of people we’ve found thriving in their workplace and loving their careers.

Discovering your passion may seem like a daunting task, but the long-term benefits of investigating your personality, your abilities and your talents will go a long way to helping you find the perfect position. If you’re interested in more of our tips and tricks please visit our blog - AskBinc.com or visit us at bincsearch.com.

NOTE: Career Key thanks BINC CEO Boris Epstein and AskBINC contributor Tawny Labrum at BINC for this great post. To see more careers of the Investigative Personality type and the other 5 personaltiy types, read our article “Match Your Personality with Careers.”

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After an inspiring Inauguration Day, it seems appropriate to talk about taking on challenging career options. This post is one of several I’ll be writing about them. This week, it’s women in science.

If you’re a woman considering a science career, you’re already aware of some of the challenges that lie ahead – whether you encountered them in the classroom, in an internship, or on the job. I don’t just mean outright discrimination, but also peer pressure (anti-geek chic), not having as many female role models, and a lack of female supporters/like-minded friends.

Some believe/hope President Obama is ushering in an era of “geek chic” and greater support for scientific inquiry – and women in science. I recommend Natalie Angier’s excellent article yesterday in the New York Times about the status of women in science careers.

No matter what changes President Obama brings to federal grants and support for scientists and their families, I don’t think the fundamental challenges facing women in science or working women in general will change until the American culture and workplace embraces more practical support for family loyalty and obligations. By practical support I mean flexible schedules, penalty-free “time outs” for women to meet family obligations (children, illness, or parents), and top quality affordable childcare, to name my top three.

What inspires me is not how many women are in certain positions, but what kinds of lives they lead.

• Have they been able to have a family if they wanted one?
• Could they pursue other passions outside of work to enjoy a full professional and personal life?
• Do women feel satisfied with their professional and work goals at the twilight of their careers?

Contribution to society, family and work/life balance are likely some of the issues you’re examining in your career decision and as part of completing your Decision Balance Sheet.

If you want to see how other women are managing, I scratched the surface and found some inspirational, fun, and informative websites and blogs on women in science. Their blogrolls and links lead to others…Please suggest others you find helpful.

List of Women in Math websites, Agnes Scott College
Biography of Dr. Shirley M. Tilghman, President of Princeton University
Women in Science Blog
Sciencewomen: a scientist and an engineer being the change we want to see (Blog)
Association for Women in Science, see their comprehensive list of women in science organizations.
iwaswondering.org: a curious look at Women’s Adventures in Science (for young women)
On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess (Blog)
See Jane Compute (Blog)

My advice is to embrace the contradictions of raising a family alongside a career path and find female mentors who had and achieved similar goals to yours. It won’t be easy, but you should write your own plan that fits you best. Whether it takes 10 years to get tenure or 5. Who wants to sit around and wait for change? And don’t forget your sense of humor - you’ll need it!

In the rush of daily work, many of us forget to do regular “maintenance” with our job skills. Maintaining our attractiveness on the job market means identifying our skills, strengthening and adding to them, Principle #1 in my blog series, 6 Principles of the Free Agent Outlook on Work.

The more scarce and in demand your skills are, the more likely you will get or keep a job – in other words, marketable skills. The good news is that skills can be both “marketable” and “enjoyable” – you just need to plan it that way.

The following 5 actions will help make you a successful Free Agent using marketable skills you enjoy:

1. Identify your skills, including the “Foundation Skills” and your “motivated skills”, those you enjoy using. You can do this by following the steps in Career Key author Dr. Lawrence K. Jones’s article, “Identify Your Skills.”

2. Match your personality with careers, keeping in mind what you learned about your “motivated skills.” Your Career Key test results and the skills you identified will show you the direction most likely to result in job satisfaction.

3. Know what skills your industry, desired employer, and career path requires. If you’re in the right career – one that matches your personality, it should require your “motivated skills.” If not, then you need to re-evaluate your career path. What you don’t enjoy, you will not do well in the long term.

4. Strengthen the skills you enjoy and that your career requires. You can do this in several ways:

• take training or classes (paid for by your employer or by yourself),
• seek out people with skills you lack or are weak in, and spend time with and learn from them. This could be in your social life and on the job,
• ask for certain work assignments, and/or start a project outside of your job (small business, volunteer).

5. Clearly communicate your skills and accomplishments to employers, whether you are interviewing or in a performance evaluation meeting. If you don’t get performance evaluations, find appropriate ways to make sure your boss – and if possible, your boss’s boss, knows about your skills. For example, if your project made money for the company, find ways to publicly thank people who helped you on the project.

Successful Free Agents need to be ready to tell a prospective employer what their skills are, how they used them in the past, and how they will use them in the future to help the employer achieve their goals (profits, helping people, etc). Preparing yourself using these exercises will make you a successful Free Agent.

On January 19, as part of their “Here to Help: 5 on Your Side” series, WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina profiled The Career Key in an interview with Thu Washington, coordinator of counseling services at Wake Technical Community College. Watch “Career assessments can help you move forward” by clicking here. I love how reporter Monica Laliberte’s colleagues agree with the personality score she received after taking The Career Key - that she liked being her own boss. I can relate…

Top local, national and international education non-profits and companies license The Career Key test and website content. One of them, the State of North Carolina’s College Foundation of North Carolina, was also profiled in the segment. I’ve blogged recently about how I’m a big personal fan of CFNC; their loans made it possible for me to attend Princeton University.

Ms. Laliberte did an excellent job of quickly focusing viewers’ attention on how CFNC and The Career Key link users, not only with careers that match their personality but also in depth information about each career they want to explore - tailored to North Carolina. In the TV news format, it’s hard to present information about online services in an engaging way but Ms. Laliberte did just that.

Staying Mobile is the second of the 6 Principles of the Free Agent Worker. What does it mean to “stay mobile”? In her earlier comment, Angie from Caribbean Career Advice got it right. She said it could mean, “available”, “flexible”, “visible”, “participatory” or “involved.”

You need to see yourself as an actor on a stage, someone who takes action and takes control of his or her life. This applies whether your career is repairing home appliances or teaching extension classes at a local college. Get over any stigma of “selling yourself.” If you follow the suggestions in this post, you won’t need to sell anything. Let your actions speak for themselves.

Many people become too entrenched and too “in love” with their current employer – and in some cases, their industry. Narrowing your worldview to one workplace places your fate in one employer’s hands – not a great idea, even in a hot economy.

I’m not suggesting you set your sights so broad that you try to be all things to all people – just prepare yourself to make the next move, before you need to. Depending on where you work, that may require you to switch industries or job titles. Learning about the criteria for job satisfaction will help you think about what you want in your current job and the next one.

Here are some suggestions on how to stay mobile by making yourself visible.

• Join at least one networking group for your industry (see our tips in my recent post, career specific networking), and plan on attending at least 50% of the meetings. After going for awhile, you’ll meet people and learn new information about other employers and your industry. At some point, you’ll feel comfortable in contributing to the group - either in leadership or giving a talk.
• If your industry doesn’t have a networking group, try one that bolsters skills you need in your job (Toastmasters for public speaking, etc.)
• Offer to volunteer with one group or nonprofit, using skills and/or knowledge needed in your career.
• If you don’t enjoy going to the group after a few tries, think about why that is and try a different group. Does the reason have to do with you, or with the group itself? Are you meeting other like-minded people? If you have trouble talking to strangers (like I do), go online or get library books at with helpful advice, or team up with a more outgoing colleague who will go with you. Just make sure you branch out when you get to the meeting.
• Don’t be afraid to join a group or volunteer where you think people are more educated, outgoing, or interesting than you are. Chances are, you underestimate yourself. As we all learned in grade school (and nothing has changed), who you “hang out” with will rub off on you. You might as well spend time with and learn from other successful, motivated people.

Never lose sight of your goal to be someone available, flexible, visible, and ready for a new opportunity. That’s not disloyalty to your current employer, that’s being smart.

The 2009 What Job is Best for Me? career eBook is now available in the Career Key eBookstore. This eBook shows science-based, high-quality career advice doesn’t need to be boring, overwhelming, or expensive.

Newly updated and expanded, our most popular eBook is a great companion to our scientifically valid career test, The Career Key. The 2009 What Job is Best for Me? guides you through the process of choosing the right career. And it’s reasonably priced at $8.95. Save 20% more when you purchase both the test and eBook together. Learn more and see a link to the Table of Contents here.

Plus, you can feel good about a Career Key purchase. 10% of our profits go to charities like:

• The Nature Conservancy,
• UNICEF, and
• The American Friends Service Committee.

We also support career guidance in developing countries – through local, private entrepreneurs and agencies like USAID and UNICEF. Learn more from our latest newsletter.

Our eBook format is unusual – in fact, I haven’t seen any other career books like it. You navigate easily within the eBook to different topics, including a new section on how to create your own Career Portfolio. You are also allowed to print it – unlike other eBooks.

Career Key author Dr. Jones chose this eBook format because it’s easy to use and practical - our mission has always been to help people make the best career choices. I look forward to your feedback - so far, the response has been fantastic - thank you!

Whether you have a child in school, work as a school counselor, or work alongside them, this is the week to express your support for and appreciation of school counselors. The U.S. House and Senate both passed resolutions designating this week as National School Counseling Week.

For more information, go to the American School Counselor Association’s website.

Today I came across school counselor and leader Robert Bardwell’s column for a Massachusetts newspaper, The Republican. He brings up an excellent point: the typical school counselor today is not the same one you yourself may have encountered as a student. The profession has been reinvented with new responsibilities and talent.

And we need school counselors more than ever. Think about where our country is today – with one of the lowest high school graduation rates among developed countries. School counselors are not the cure-all, but they certainly help, through efforts in student support, advocacy and career education.

Part 3 of 6: The Free Agent Outlook on Work: watch your company and industry.

Complacency, ennui, boredom, apathy – whatever you want to call it – is your career enemy. Get out your compass and decide where you’re going next – preferably a career that will keep you interested.

Now doesn’t seem the best time to quit your job, but it is a good time to think ahead about your next job or career change. Watching your employer and being knowledgeable about your industry trends will come naturally if you are satisfied with your career path. If you’re laid off, you’ll still need to evaluate your career situation. For tips on doing that, visit our article on Career Change.

Here are some red flags to watch and prepare for, even in a recession:

• large technology changes in your industry
• reorganizations and significant changes in upper management
• business owner or boss close to retirement
• new or changing government regulation of your industry
• changes in your industry’s overall business model – does your employer’s revenue now depend solely on online advertising? Selling municipal bonds?
• company culture that tolerates unethical or inappropriate employee behavior (including managers). Forget what the employee handbook says, are people “walking the walk” or just talking?
• poor management of the company - bad investment decisions, failure to adapt to changing market conditions…
  

Although it may take awhile, poor management will filter down to your level. When bad managers run the company, including those who may be “nice” but tolerate poor performance, the company’s business suffers. They do not adapt to change, they make poor layoff choices, etc. You don’t want to be working there for long.

You may think to yourself, how do I get all this “inside” information? People, people, people. Not everything your coworkers tell you may be true (intentionally or unintentionally), but it doesn’t hurt to chat up your friendly tech support person, your friend in finance, or attend and ask around at your next networking event. Are good employees or managers leaving your employer? If you can, find out why. You’d be surprised what you can learn when you’re paying attention.

Next Free Agent Principle: do your job well. Seems pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised…Stay tuned.

For the previous posts for this 6 part series see:
The 6 Principles of the Free Agent Worker
Principle #1: Know and Strengthen Your Marketable Skills
Principle #2: Stay Mobile

If you’d like to know more about what career options and opportunities the new stimulus package offers, I just came across an excellent, timely book for your career research: Great Jobs in the President’s Stimulus Plan by Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D. (JIST 2009) Although I have not yet read it, if it is as helpful as Dr. Shatkin’s other books like 50 Best Jobs for Your Personality, then it is definitely worth reading. I look forward to checking it out.

Once you learn more about yourself and your goals, career information resources like these will help you learn more about career options that match your personality.

Whether to choose a career in education is a difficult but common decision. Many people are interested in education careers. After you match your personality with careers, narrowing your choices based on high-quality career information is critical to making a good career choice. But it takes work to find high-quality information on the Internet; so I’ve started it for you.

Having worked as an adjunct professor myself and raised by a college professor and a public school librarian, I know a little about education careers. With few exceptions, they are political, not well-paid, enjoy iffy job security, and often suffer from a lack of resources. All that said, with the right job fit, education is one of the most rewarding careers in the world. I feel fortunate to have grown up and worked in this environment.

Education is undergoing enormous change from technology, fluid government involvement, college “business models,” and demographics. A few examples of trends:

• the growth in distance learning and Internet based education,
• charter schools and changing public school system funding & structure,
• accountability required by No Child Left Behind and state laws,
• changes in the college professor tenure system, and
• the growing diversity of the American student population.

So whether you are a high school career planner or an adult planning a career change, you need to more about what an education career is like before you leap. The resources I recommend are just a few to get you started, to show the variety of quality career information out there.

Before I recommend these career info links, don’t forget to:

1. Talk with people working in the jobs that interest you – their information will be much more accurate, especially about your geographic region or specialty than any Internet source. Yes, it’s more work but it’s worth it. Learn more about career specific networking.
2. Use your public or school/college library for free subscriptions or links to websites the general public has to pay for. See more tips for taking advantage of the library.
3. Be skeptical of website sources of career information selling something – what is their bias? Where does their information come from? That includes The Career Key. You can learn more at our site about our mission and philosophy (we don’t accept reciprocal linking agreements or advertising).

To start, look at job descriptions, certification requirements, salary, job outlook, and related occupations and websites in the Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook:

Preschool and K-12 Teachers
Post-Secondary (College) Teachers
Education Administrators
Counselors
Librarians

Higher-Ed (college, post-secondary)

• Chronicle.com (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Chronicle also offers a great academic blog list focused on academic life and careers.
• For a “real world” perspective on 2009 trends in technology and higher ed from a college IT VP, read this post from “Bytes from Lev”

Secondary School (K-12)

• About Teaching and the First Year (Editor’s Picks from Ed.Gov)
• Teacher Training and Certification Information (Editor’s Picks from Ed.Gov)
• Ed.gov’s State by State Education Department listing (for licensing info)
• Is teaching overrated? Marty Nemko’s USNWR (U.S. News and World Report) article will give you even more reasons to do your informational interviews.
• Life as a Teacher. This UK government site offers more video and interactive media than any U.S. site I’ve seen in offering teachers’ stories about their career paths and daily work.
• What is Teach for America Really Like? (article in USNWR)
• TeacherLingo.com (teacher blogs)
• The School Counselor’s Role (at the American School Counselor Association website)
• Vocational Information Center (VIC) This non-profit, popular website is a source of career information for educators and can help you explore what it might be like to teach subjects that interest you.
• Top 10 Librarian Blogs to Read in ‘09 from Librarian and Information Science News. The great thing about librarians is you know they love media - so you’re guaranteed to find some interesting career info about librarians on the Internet. This blog list is just a sample…

Early Childhood Education & Preschool

• National Association for the Education of Young Children
• Links on Early Childcare and Education Careers from VIC (see above)
• TeacherLingo.com (search for preschool teacher blogs)
• Lead from the Start Blog: views on preschool, policy and the teaching profession

Any suggestions and feedback on this post or any others is appreciated. This is my second post in a series about challenging but rewarding career choices, and finding the best Internet resources for career information. Click here for my first post about women interested in science careers.