Survival+
Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation
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Guest post by Heather Green
A friend of mine recently graduated from college with a business degree and a few years into working for a large corporation, she decided that she wanted to start nursing school. Now, I would say she had lost her mind, but honestly, I don’t blame her one bit!
Nurses are in extremely high demand and the pay is phenomenal. Not to mention, you are helping to save and change lives everyday, how rewarding! So I asked her how she was going to transition from making great money to going back to school full time while paying her bills (including her previous school loans!). She smiled and said that she had a plan.
Continue reading Nursing Your Career Back to Health →
Guest post by Alban
Asking for a pay raise is not something which is taught and can be a contentious issue, especially when times are tough for many businesses and many families. However, successfully securing a pay raise can have little to do with economic conditions, and all to do with how you approach your boss. 
Your boss is unlikely to actually be an ogre and if you don’t have a problem talking to them about a project deadline or scheduling your annual leave them you can approach them in the same respectful and calm manner to ask for a pay raise. It is still easy to feel you are jeopardizing your position with the company if you ask for more money and in down times you may be highlighting yourself as the next one to go in a job cut which is why you need to be aware of the best tactics to use and attitudes to adopt when asking for a pay raise.
And yes – you should still ask for a raise if you think you deserve one, if you like your job and your co-workers then you will be much better off asking for more money in your current position than trying to insert yourself into a new office environment with a higher paying position.
Continue reading 11 Ways to Convince Your Boss to Give You a Raise →
By Kevin M
Even with hints of economic recovery in the air, getting a hired into a new job has never been harder, even for the fully qualified. I know many people who are or have been on extended periods of unemployment in the past year and one common theme is that the usual methods of getting hired aren’t working.
Getting a job is largely about getting noticed, and the best ways to do that are to approach employers in ways most other job seekers aren’t using. Try one or more of these and see if your luck doesn’t improve.
Continue reading Five Unconventional Ways to Find a Job →
Living (and Working) in Abundance
Guest post by Ed Burns
Have you ever asked yourself the question: “What the heck am I doing in this job?” We all go through it. Tomorrow morning as you sit in traffic or slowly make your way to your cubicle, and look around—you will realize that you are not alone. Do the faces staring back at you look like they are living their passions and callings?
Probably not, yet millions of people each day are convinced that work and one’s passion are two entirely different things. Many brush this issue aside claiming “work is work and it was never meant to be enjoyable.”
Continue reading What Can Career Coaching Do For You? →
By Kevin M
In Jobs and Careers That Aren’t Coming Back we listed and discussed 13 career fields that are in a state of decline and unlikely to recover. Today we’ll cover the very opposite: job fields that are here to stay and likely to expand.
Global off-shoring of jobs and advances in technology are squeezing many jobs and careers into gradual extinction, as computers and cheap overseas labor eat away at once common fields of employment. But not all career fields are affected.
People who can produce or fix things often have the greatest job security. The world is full of machines, all in need of service or repair sooner or later. Being one of the people who can keep them going is a chance to start to a side business or to full scale self-employment. Equally important, though we tend to think of most innovation occurring in laboratories, many technological discoveries happen somewhere out in the field, produced by people who can work with their hands.
Continue reading Blue Collar Jobs Can’t be Moved Offshore →
By Kevin M
Recently on OutOfYourRut I’ve been writing a series of posts centered on employment alternatives–self-employment, side businesses and soft employment (part-time, temporary or contract work). The purpose in discussing these alternatives is based on my belief that the weak employment environment we now find ourselves in may not be temporary, and longterm changes need to be implemented in order for us to survive in a job market that may look very different from what we’ve know for most of our lives.
( Photo by Phil Campbell )
Though connecting employment weakness to the recent recession is the standard line, doing so fails to give proper recognition to longer term trends which have had an even greater effect on the job market than we assume. Globalization, advances in technology and rising healthcare costs have marginalized much of the labor force in countries such as the United States. While technology has been eliminating jobs at home, wage arbitrage has been taking place globally, in a competition that high wage/high benefit labor bases, such as that of the U.S., are at a competative disadvantage versus low cost/unbenefited work forces in third world countries. We can protest that it’s unfair competition all we want, but it’s also the reality of our time.
Though the evidence is all around us, I stumbled upon a recent article that addresses the longer term job outlook more directly.
Continue reading Jobs and Careers That Aren’t Coming Back →
By Kevin M
There probably isn’t a soul in the workforce who hasn’t dreamed of or at least contemplated the possibility of working from home. There are many benefits to this arrangement but it’s important to understand the limitations as well.
I’ve spent a good deal of my life working from home and I strongly recommend it as a preferred work style. But I’ve also become quite familiar with both the advantages and the downsides of home basing. For years I worked from home as a mortgage loan officer. It was a natural advantage because it provided the ability to concentrate all of my efforts on serving my customers. It also forced me to learn to work independently and to identify and utilize outside sources who could enable me to do that fully.
Over time I became comfortable with the proverbial “chief cook and bottle washer” aspect of self-employment, and was able to transfer those skills to subsequent businesses, including recruiting and this weblog.
One element of work-at-home that I know to be absolutely critical above all other concerns: your contribution must add tangible value to your employers business.
Work-at-home isn’t about us nearly as much as it’s about our employers and what we can do for them through the arrangement. Never forget this.
Continue reading Making Work-At-Home Work For You →
Guest Post
There can be extreme competition out there these days when it comes to making an impression on the people who matter at work. Finding ways to impress the boss while maintaining your sanity can be difficult to say the least. While you certainly don’t want to have to work 70-hour workweeks just to get ahead, the benefits of career advancement probably won’t just fall into your lap. Most of the time, it takes hard work, dedication, and the ability to learn and adjust to changes in your work environment to get ahead in your career. Here are some tips to take into consideration.
Continue reading Ten Great Tips to Advance Your Career →
By Kevin M
It often seems that people who work for someone else, who hold traditional jobs, dream of the day when they’ll break out of their cubicle and go it alone, running their own business. But talk to many of the self-employed and you’re likely to hear of a deep desire to pitch it all for the predictability of a steady paycheck. Is anyone actually happy where they are? And how do you know if you’re best suited for one or the other?
Many of the discussions of traditional employment versus self-employment center on the financial side of the debate. For example, questions might center around the amount of capital you have to enter and maintain an upstart business, or on your track record of success as an employee at other businesses. While these certainly matter in the decision to transition into self-employment, I’d like to center this discussion on some of the more personal characteristics that could mean the difference between success or failure.
Continue reading Steady Paycheck VS. Self-Employment; Which is Right For You? →
Employers are on tight budgets right now and we need to work outside the box just to get noticed. Think of it as though you’re starting a new business and you’re working to build a customer base by giving out free samples.
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General: Any information in regard to money, credit, personal finance, or in regard to any other monetary topic, provided or shared on OutOfYourRut.com is presented for information and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It is intended to provide general information only and does not constitute personal financial advice in regard to your specific circumstances...MORE-->
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