More Gain, Less Drain
28. July 2010
admin
Overall, in my posse of people, I’m seeing more drain these days on Indianapolis for young professionals. I’m continuing to ask why.
One mutual young Indy professional had a bunch of friends move to San Francisco. So, I asked why. His response? ”There’s more opportunity out there.” Is there? Really? And what does that “opportunity” look like? Is it more funding for startups, more basic entry level jobs, more fun, more culture, or a combination thereof that is making young professionals wave goodbye to Indy?
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Act Upon Volunteering
25. July 2010
admin
Indy Fringe is seeking volunteers to help them out for the annual Fringe Festival this year–consider helping out. The Fringe Fest is Phenom!
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Locks, Keys, Connect
25. July 2010
admin
Indy Lock & Key events is having another lock & key social in August at LuLus for those 25+. If you want more details, login here.
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The BBC is back - Indy’s Best & Brightest!
22. July 2010
admin
Indy’s Best and Brightest is Back! (We’ll call it the Best & Brightest Club…or BBC!)
Nominations are now open to name YOUR best and brightest professional rock stars right here. In this do more with less economy, nominating should be a piece of cake! The awards ceremony will be held in the fabulous City Market this year in October!
We NEED to honor and celebrate our young professionals out there keeping Indy awesome. Please nominate peeps for the BBC, ASAP.
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Thumbs Down & Up
18. July 2010
admin
Thumbs down on this. We’ve got to stop and figure out why this is happening in our city, pronto.
Thumbs up on this. Our pets need help and many shelters are still at record high populations.
Last but not least, thumbs on this. Film has really evolved in Indianapolis over the past decade, and it is awesome we have this festival going on right now in the city!
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A Tough Lesson
17. July 2010
admin
Although I wrote about this in the context of my writing, the more I thought about it, the more it applies to pretty much any part of life, and it is a tough lesson to learn for all of us!
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300
15. July 2010
admin
I reconnected with a friend of mine who was on a career journey fork in the road for the past few months today, and I was thrilled to hear that she was on the verge of having herself a brand new job that she was super excited and passionate about. After congratulating her, I immediately needed to know–what made her successful in her journey, and what habits did she use to get to where she is now?
The first question I asked her was how many people she networked with or met before officially finding her job. She guessed about three hundred. She also went on about 10 interviews in about 6 months (but she was very judicious about where she went as her dream field was narrow). I asked her if she treated it like a full time job, to which she replied yes. And then, the infamous question I like to ask those who just completed any journey - if you had to do it all over again, would you have done anything differently?
She replied that if she was giving advice to anyone out there looking for new work, it was 1. don’t quit your current job, and 2. if you are forced into leaving (laid off, pink slipped–whatever you want to call it), take one week off before you start to look. Otherwise, you’ll panic and be frustrated and won’t approach the job search without a fresh, open mind. She also suggested that networking, no matter what your work status, was absolutely necessary in this day and age in order to find the right job.
I think the lesson for all of us here is to never stop expanding our personal/professional/insert-your-favorite-term-here networks. Keep meeting people. Keep broadening your horizons. And staying at home and pounding out electronic job submissions really aren’t going to cut it to find your ‘dream’ job anymore. Last but not least, we both chatted about how your ‘dayjob’ can no longer be everything to you - you’re not always going to have a mentor at work, nor super cool leadership opportunities, nor interesting work. That’s your job to go find all that, even if it means going beyond the 4 walls of your work. In fact, in most cases, it is better to polish your leadership and mentee skills OUTSIDE of your dayjob, because the opportunties can be endless and far more challenging.
To my friend, congratulations. To all of us, there’s lessons to be learned here. At least I learned them, and I certainly don’t hope that any of us has to learn them the hard way in the near future.
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Smart Rebound?
12. July 2010
admin
Breaking story today is that the Pacers will stay with a $33.5 million package from CIB. Was this really wise? Why are tax payers continuing to subsidize a losing team, in a bad economy, when the Pacers really probably couldn’t go elsewhere anyway.
What do you think?
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The Library Debacle: Opportunity in Disguise?
11. July 2010
admin
I was slightly relieved this morning to read in The Star that instead of killing branches, the library system will have shorter hours at all branches to cut costs. But, before we just cut costs and not think outside the box, is there a hidden opportunity here?
I’m not exactly sure what the library’s biggest line item is, but I’m pretty sure it has to be (if not after employee pay) the costs of maintaining facilities. If that is the case…why not utilize this economic downturn as an opportunity…to increase reach and frequency of readers AND cut costs…OR…dare I say, make money?
Here’s the idea: what if we could put all the book drops and pickups in businesses that already existed, like…Starbucks? Or drycleaners? Or McDonald’s? Or grocery stores? Or churches? Or all the above? The IMCPL online book requesting system is STELLAR - so why not have more places to pick up the books and in turn, you could shut down the facilities, either altogether, or just for the summer? That way, the library system can worry about what it should be worrying about (getting books out to the masses as close to home as possible) and the places the books are maintained (businesses that are ubiquitious) are already maintaining their spaces anyway. AND - dare I say I would by an extra cup o’ Starbucks or a Chai when I was picking up my books? Maybe. It would drive traffic to these sites. And the book checkout system could be totally automatic. (redbox, anyone? Like this one - and it’s even red too!)
Another idea would be to flip it - rent part of the library space out (cheaply) to for profit businesses - like Starbucks, for example, or better yet local coffee and tea places - to put in retail facilities at the branches. Make them drive up. (”Yes, I’d like a latte and to pick up my book and DVD holds, please?”) Now I believe they tried this at Glendale and it didn’t really work - but seriously, that was on the 2nd story of a MALL…not anywhere out in the community where people could drive up.
While we have a beautiful new central library facility, we could keep it open, but shut down the branch buildings and get the info out to the people. And yes, I’m aware that people use the library for other things, like the computers and internet access…I’m still working on that one in my head. BUT, I think as one of my friends wisely posted on Facebook this morning - in desperate times, we are forced to get more creative. Are we taking advantage of the opportunity of forced creativity with our library system?
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The Better Work Life
10. July 2010
admin
So, one of the questions we get around here…a lot…is how to get a better life. That is, a better work life. Here are some random thoughts on this:
1. Not everyone loves their job, but there’s a work around - in this economy, having a job is great. If you love it, even better. But if you don’t and really can’t change right now (even if you’re actively looking), you can always improve the quality of your life by surrounding yourself more with your passions. I often ask people what they’re caught doing in their free time for clues about passions. For example, one person I met with recently loves sports. So, in the risk of trying to be everything to every one, I suggested to this person they focus on the sports industry here in town through their work. This creates a win-win, both for the company and the person. Even though in this case, s/he dug her/his job, it is still better to focus on personal passions, because you’ll be more engaged that way. I actually really dig this blog entry on why passion is important.
2. Network cubed - seriously - those who are good at what they do also know its not what you know, but who you know that can make the difference. We all know that the best jobs out there in the universe are never advertised either. So, make it a point to meet someone new each and every day if you can, or once a week. Just make it measurable, and just get out and do it. In this economy, it really is that important. In Indy, there are a ton of places to network - personal and professional (and besides, you are you–the worlds of personal and professional just aren’t separate anymore…)
3. Sharpen your other saws - leadership training, not for profit/volunteer training, training on how to run for office and make an even bigger difference….these are all offered in central Indiana for reasonable fees. An example is Leadership United - they are currently taking applications for all 4 of their leadership training series for the year. Check all of them out (we even have a list of them in the Indy guide) and go for it! Your employer should be supportive of it too, because it is going to make you a more productive and valuable employee.
4. Balance is BS - it really is. I hate the word “balance” because we always end up beating ourselves up over it - if I’m at work, I should be home with my kids. If I’m at home, I should be working out. If I’m here, I really should be there. Quit beating yourself up! Balance should only be under your own personal construct of what you WANT to have in your life at the time…and things change! A mom with little kids off to school is going to have changing priorities, and a young professional who just got hitched might have changing priorities. Just be sure that your personal balance fits and matches your personal form(s) of happiness, and screw what the rest of the world thinks - really! Better yet, substitute the word “balance” with the word “happiness”. And if you’re happy for the time being - cool!
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