Staying Positive During Your Job Search

After months of unemployment it is natural to feel frustrated and overwhelmed. The important issue is not to remain in a mental state of negativity and although you may not have control over your employment situation, you do have power toward your emotional well-being.

While job seeking is an obvious part of your daily routine, incorporating time for other interests is vital. How many times, while you were employed, did you say, “I wish that I had time for…?” View this period of unemployment as an opportunity.

Volunteer! It is rewarding for you and the recipient of service. Realizing that looking for a job can be a fulltime job in itself, making an effort to volunteer somewhere with in your community is multipurpose. You’re helping your community but you’re also receiving the benefit of sharing your skills and keeping those skills sharp. In regard to benefiting your employment, employers do look at your volunteer work and the availability to network through volunteering is huge.

Learn a new skill or brush up on your current ones. There are free online courses available such as GFC Learn Free, as well as, low or no cost courses available through your local community college.

Take the time to make face-to-face connections. You’ll probably find a section that lists all sorts of groups in your local newspaper. Quite a few of them are business oriented. Meetup.com lists every type of group that you can imagine. Don’t limit your networking solely to business-focused groups. If you have a hobby, join a group. You may just meet someone who can lead to your next job.

Are we stereotyping ourselves?

Last week, I received a phone call from a girlfriend who holds the position of CEO at a relatively decent sized company. She had called to vent about woman-to-woman jealousies within her office and how she feels that she is perceived as having “Queen Bee Syndrome.” During our conversation, I took a very supportive stance. But our conversation really got me thinking about stereotypes of women in the workplace.

I sought out to find the male perspective and found that the majority of men, which I spoke with, believe the typical stereotypes that women are catty, less efficient and the worst, that women in positions of authority are generally bitchy. I’ve spent a good portion of my career in “male dominated” industries. If we are catty, less efficient and bitchy, I wonder what the terminology is for those same male behaviors.

As women we need to stop using stereotypical terminologies if we expect men to stop perceiving us this way!

Generation Y - Generación Y

Many of us are disenchanted with the current issues of our country, the economy, corruption and politics.

Our issues pale in comparison to that of a tiny country located 40 miles off the coast of Florida.

Below is a brief excerpt of 1 woman’s story. My hope is that after you read this, you’ll feel that your life isn’t so bad and maybe even be inspired to help someone else.

Yoani Sánchez, born in Havana, Cuba 1975.

“I studied for two terms at the Pedagogical Institute, majoring in Spanish Literature. In 1995, I moved to the Faculty of Arts of Letters, and after five years finished a degree in Hispanic Philology. I majored in contemporary Latin American Literature, presenting an incendiary thesis entitled, “Words Under Pressure: A Study of the Literature of the Dictatorship in Latin America.” On finishing at the University I realized two things: first, the world of the intellectual and high culture is repugnant to me and, most painfully, that I no longer wanted to be a philologist.

In September 2000, I went to work in a dark office at Gente Nueva publisher, meanwhile arriving at the conviction—shared by most Cubans—that with the wages I earned legally I could not support my family. So, without concluding my social service, I asked to be let go and dedicated myself to the better-paid labor of freelance Spanish teacher for German tourists visiting Havana. It was a time (which continues today) when engineers preferred to drive a taxi, teachers would do almost anything to get a job at the desk of a hotel, and at store counters you could find a neurosurgeon or nuclear physicist. In 2002, disenchantment and economic suffocation led me to emigrate to Switzerland, from where I returned—for family reasons and against the advice of friends and acquaintances—in the summer of 2004.

In those years I discovered the profession I continue to practice today: computer science. I discovered that binary code is more transparent than affected intellectualism, and that if I’d never really come to terms with Latin, at least I could work with the long chains of HTML language. In 2004 I founded, with a group of Cubans all based on the Island, Consenso, a magazine of reflection and debate. Three years later I work as a web master, columnist, and editor of the site Desde Cuba [From Cuba].

In April 2007, I entangled myself in the adventure of having a blog called Generation Y that I have defined as “an exercise in cowardice” which lets me say, in this space, what is forbidden to me in my civic action.”

How You Can Help!

Source: Generation Y

9to5 - National Association Of Working Women

In 1973, a group of office workers in Boston got together to talk about issues which had no names, sexual harassment, work/family challenges, and pay equity. From this beginning, 9to5 emerged as the national organization dedicated to putting working women's issues on the public agenda. 9to5's constituents are low-wage women, women in traditionally female jobs, and those who've experienced any form of discrimination. Membership is open to all. Now in its fourth decade, 9to5's mission is to strengthen women's ability to win economic justice.

9to5 is committed to:

• Winning family-friendly policies to help working people balance responsibilities at home and on the job.
• Making nonstandard jobs voluntary and equitable so that those who work part-time or as temps receive fair pay and benefits.
• Eliminating workplace discrimination through educating about legal rights on the job, monitoring enforcement agencies, and expanding anti-discrimination laws.
• Opposing punitive welfare policies and backing those that allow women to be self sufficient while supporting their families.

9to5's Work Family Campaign

Our priority campaign is to win family-friendly policies for low-wage women. In the coming year, we'll focus on expanding family and medical leave benefits. These benefits including advocating for minimum requirements for paid sick leave, and increasing access to childcare and other family-flexible policies through TANF and other block grants. We'll do this by working to change national and state legislation as well as workplace policy.

We Help Individuals

9to5's toll-free Job Survival Hotline (1-800-522-0925) provides information on legal rights, strategies to win fair treatment on the job, and ways to get involved with 9to5 in your community.

We Change Attitudes

We've produced ground-breaking research on issues affecting working women including part-time and temporary work, workplace discrimination, family leave, welfare policy, office health and safety, and job retention. We've published best-selling books including The Job/Family Challenge: A 9to5 Guide, and the recently updated 9to5 Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment. 9to5's national network of chapters and activists receive regular Action Alerts with legislative updates and organizing tips.

We Change Policy

We've worked on the grassroots level to pass key legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Family and Medical Leave Act, state health and safety laws, living wage ordinances and anti-discrimination measures. We've helped hundreds of individuals and workplaces win improved policies for pay, promotions, job training, equal opportunity and family-friendly corporate and public policies.

Source: 9to5.org

How Women Get Ahead And Fall Behind

We have all heard about “being one of the boys.” As women, we aren’t, never will be and furthermore, why would we want to? Both genders have their strengths and as women we need to remember what ours are.

In a 2005 study, The Center for Work/Life Policy asked women what they want in the workplace. 79% percent of women said “The freedom to be myself at work,” and that expressing general pleasantry was often misconstrued as weakness. It is a fact that we tend to be compassionate and empathetic by nature. Those qualities make us better team players. But when the team consists of men, women need to “speak their language.” It’s a balancing act, as most of life is. Developing a style of communication is essential no matter who you are working with. A mentor once told me, never answer the question “How are you?” with “Fine.” Instead give a quick, one-sentence update about what you are currently working on. This often leads to a longer conversation and gives you an opportunity to spotlight your work. But always keep the emotions out of the conversation.

We would all like to believe that in this day and age no women would need to be reminded about the negative consequences of flirtatious behaviors. But, how often do you still witness it? Successful women know not to flirt, swear or dress provocatively and statistics prove that women, who attempt these tactics, are less likely to gain promotions. Maybe the saying, “Dress for Success,” is cliché but it is true. As your female co-worker, I don’t need to see the “girls,” I have a set of my own and although the men will enjoy the view, they won’t be thinking about the spot on budget projections report, that you’ve just handed them.

If you want to get ahead, use your smarts, embrace your strengths as a woman and don’t play into the clichés.