The Choice is Yours

Right now recent graduates have a choice: take a job in the United States that is "good for their career" with a stable job and good pay OR move abroad and take a position with inherent risk that won't be relevant for your career.

I remember when I graduated, my friend's dad said to me "I know someone who taught English who came back and can't find a job". That's the common perception; If you go abroad, you won't be able to get a job when you get back. You won't be able to find something and you will be stranded. People will look at you like you aren't serious about your career.

This couldn't be further from the truth...

This is a big reason why I started BrainGain. I personally believe that going abroad is BETTER for your career than staying in the states. It will open your world up to a wealth of opportunities that you simply never knew about. It enables you to adapt to a new way of living, think on your feet, and be independent. Most importantly, it also allows you to remove yourself from the people who you grew up around, which enables you to pursue YOUR interests, rather than what your friends and family have pressured you into thinking that you were interested in.

I get on calls every day and talk to people about co-working spaces, hackathons, impact investing, and many many more…most students have no idea that these fields even exist….I know I didn't when I came out of school. If I never traveled and moved to India I wouldn't have ever learned about these things.

Could I have learned about these things while living in the US? Absolutely. But the EXPOSURE to these fields while it was directly relevant in my life is what made it so powerful. I want to share that exposure with other people, and put them in environments where they can immerse themselves in a world that has always existed, but they never knew about.

Someone emailed me today and said:

"I have been looking forward to joining the entrepreneurial community out in San Francisco after I graduate (as a salesman or marketer for a small to midsize biotech company), but an opportunity to work abroad would be a life changing experience!

Your program seems to be the best of both worlds, and I would be thrilled to get a chance to hear some more about it."

This statement, in a nutshell, is what we are working to do; give you the best of both worlds.

We are eliminating the choice. We are making it so that you don't have to choose between your career and travel - you can do both at the same time. You can have your cake and eat it too. Get career relevant experience in a foreign country and push your career to a new level that wouldn't be possible had you not traveled.

And the positions you are "giving up" in the states? They will always be there for you.

We often look at one year abroad as this enormous life altering decision, where we are leaving behind everything we have built up for ourselves over the last 20 some odd years...but thats not the case.  In reality that will always be there for you. The same job that you could have gotten in the states will still be available one year later. Your friends, family, everything will stay exactly how it was...but you wont.

One year later you will come back from traveling and working abroad and it will seem as if the world has been flipped on it's head. You will look at life in an entirely new light, and where you want to take your life will forever have a new meaning. You will have opened up doors that will remain open for the rest of your life.

The choice is yours….

Giving Yourself Credit Where Credit is Due

I have become an expert at down-playing compliments whenever they are given to me.  I act like with all of my achievements as if they were just "things that came really easily to me" (even when I worked my butt off).  I'm a frequent user of phrases such as: "Oh, it was no big deal" or "Anyone can do it". I guess I always thought and was taught that, people like people who are modest and humble.  And I like being liked.  Boasting about your accomplishments is obnoxious and selfish.  Self-promotion is embarrassing and pushes people away.  Accepting a compliment when a compliment is given to you is just plain self righteous.  Ew.

But then...

I had an enlightening conversation with a friend the other day over lunch about how often we down play our accomplishments.

(It was eye-opening to realize that I was not the only one who did this, and even more eye-opening when I realized what a habit it had become.  And it was detrimental.)  

Many of us do this.  Is it because I'm a young professional?  A woman?  A human?  Because being boastful is an unattractive quality?  I do not have an answer as to why, but what I do know is that I must stop falling into the habit of responding to every compliment with, "It wasn't really that big of a deal" or "Anyone can do it" and start responding with a simple, "Thank you".

Why is it so hard?  Thanking someone for their compliment, for noticing your hard work, is something that you owe yourself. What is your self-talk like if you cannot accept someones kind words?  Negative.  

Saying thank you for a job-well-done is the least you can do to treat yourself with the love and respect that you deserve.

Giving yourself credit where credit is due is part of chasing your dreams. If we cannot sell ourselves well, how will we ever get where we want to be?  This means even past the interview.  (Even I can put on my "I'm awesome-face" and rock an interview.  But after the interview?  I'm back to disregarding compliments and stop believing in the awesomeness that I sold them on.)  I'm working on this personally and I challenge you to do the same.  Notice your reaction the next time someone pats you on the back for a job well done.  Allow yourself to feel proud.  You are awesome.  Stand tall, and say "thank you".

Now, by no means am I saying that you should scare away all of your friends by shouting from the rooftops about how wonderful you are.

But learning to accept a compliment when someone tells you that they appreciated your hard work, is good for not only your relationship with that person, but even more so, your relationship with yourself.

Your very, awesome, self.

See What Sticks: The Health of Your Career is a Joke

Hi everyone, Amma Marfo here. Two quick things about me that you’ll need to know before we begin: (1) I am a reader. I am a library-loving, constant tome-carrying, unapologetic bibliophile. (2) If there’s anyone you will meet who can connect what she’s reading to the world around her, it’s me. As such, I want to dedicate my time in this space to sharing with you what I’m reading, and how it could inform a budding professional’s daily life.

Confession Time: I wasn't very good at my first job.

Sure, I was competent...most of the time. When I started my career, I built good relationships and worked hard to get better in the areas where I struggled. By the time I left, I knew what my next steps needed to be and even though it was hard, I am thankful for the decisions that followed.

But I also wasn't very good because I wasn't myself. I didn't know how to be. At 22 years old, working at a community college advising students my own age, older, or much much older (I had a student senator in her sixties!), I sacrificed being myself for being professional, businesslike, and appearing knowledgeable. It felt wrong at the time- to borrow a quote from the 1989 John Cusack film Say Anything that a friend reminded me of earlier this week, "You used to be fun. You used to be warped and twisted and hilarious... and I mean that in the best way - I mean it as a compliment!"

Many of the students and colleagues that I work with now would never doubt those qualities in me, something that I'm proud of. But I didn't realize until I finished this month's read, Peter McGraw and Joel Warner's The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny, just how far I'm come when it comes to bringing my sense of humor to work.

I have to say, being funny at the office is far from an easy proposition. Comedian and writer Mike Birbiglia talks about the challenges of cultivating a sense of humor that balances enjoyment with tastefulness, noting, "Jokes have been ruined by people who aren't funny." And he's absolutely right. Think about all the Human Resources-mandated apologies, the Tweets of contrition, and the press releases that we see when a funny comment goes wrong. I won't go into McGraw and Warner's scientific strategy on this here, but I have written about it elsewhere if you're interested in learning more. Bottom line: being amusing without being a jerk can be hard.

McGraw and Warner travel around the world- to Montreal for a comedy festival, to New York to work with cartoonists and advertising agents, to the Palestine to see how humor works in times of crisis (I finished this book two days before the recent unrest began), and to South America to see how humor keeps people healthy. Along the way, they learned several lessons about what is funny, and how these lessons can help you be funny in your own life.

From Japan: Know your audience. Did you know that America produces fewer comedy films now than in previous years because the humor doesn't translate to profit overseas? If your audience is varied in their sense of humor or understanding, your approach has to adapt too. There is no one way to get (most) projects done, no one way to lead, no one way to make people laugh. There are nearly as many approaches as there are people in the world, and it will benefit you enormously to take the time to learn. It may take a week, or it may take a year, but take the time to familiarize yourself with your surroundings. Get to know the people you'll be working with, the priorities of your bosses and leadership, and the culture of your office or department. Your efforts to succeed, contribute, and laugh will go over far better once you have a good handle on the context in which you're working.

From New York: if you can't be "ha-ha" funny, be "a-ha" funny! Some of you may say, "I'm not funny" or "I don't want to be funny at work!" That's okay. However, you may still have the chance to be the "a-ha" person; don't pass up that opportunity! Even when you're new to an organization or office, you have insights that you can share. It can be intimidating at times to speak up, especially when your team is comprised of older or more experienced professionals. But as an adopted New Yorker (Tina Fey) says in her book Bossypants, "It's your responsibility to contribute [...] Your initiations are worthwhile." When you hit upon just the right idea, the smile may not be one of amusement; it might instead be one of pride or excitement. Those smiles are just as necessary in the day-to-day, so don't be afraid to voice any idea that might result in one!

From Tanzania: Don't be afraid to chuckle at yourself. This is an important one. Being the new guy or girl, being the newest to an office, or taking on a new role can be daunting. And we all, no matter our age or level of experience, can start to doubt ourselves or be nervous about making a good impression because of that. But you're going to have moments where you can only laugh. Whether it's because you've done something silly, because you can't believe your good fortune, or because the alternative is crying or screaming, take a moment to find the lighter side and laugh. In my first role, I had reasons to laugh that fit all of those descriptions (everything from misordered promotional items to a screaming fight with a faculty member). And it was harder work to laugh at some of them than others, but ultimately finding the levity in those moments got me through them.

From Los Angeles: Be honest and authentic. This advice comes up a lot, in everything from interviewing to speaking up in meetings, and it's no less true when it comes to expressing your funny or silly side. We all know what trying to be funny looks like and sounds like; these efforts rarely succeed. Think about the moments in life that make you laugh- the daily commute, text messages from friends, your reaction to something you read or saw on TV. Just as this site, and indeed your life, is about finding your niche, so it goes for your sense of humor. If you're going to tell a joke or share a funny quip, make sure it makes you laugh first. If not, don't bother. Someone else can make that joke sing.

Even with all the advice given above, I want to end this post with the advice shared by Peter McGraw, whose desire to create an academic formula to predict humor (I want to teach that!) fueled this whole worldwide search:

Surround yourself with the people and things that make you laugh. Seek out interesting places and interesting people. Focus on the friends that make you laugh, not the ones who bring you down. Choose as a partner someone with whom you share a sense of humor, someone who helps you see the lighter side of life [...] And maybe it's cliched, but remind yourself that everything is going to be okay. That thing that seems so scary in the moment, so catastrophic and worrisome, is only scary because you're paying so much attention to it. It's okay to complain, but add a bit of wit to your grumbling.

How To Get A (Strong) Recommendation on Linkedin

A few weeks back, I received a request from a former employee asking for a Linkedin in recommendation. Read the note below and I’ll share why this wasn’t the best approach and 3 tips on how to get a strong detailed recommendation.

This person was right about one thing, future employers will be looking at his LinkedIn page and recommendations will definitely help. In fact, 89% of all recruiters report having hired someone through LinkedIn. That being said, the approach this person used to obtain the recommendation lacked effort and intentionality. This was coming from a former employee whom I hadn’t spoken to in years and when they did work for me they were part of a much bigger team where I did not have the opportunity to directly supervise them. There wasn’t much of a connection to begin with, and so a note a few years later randomly asking for a recommendation was not motivating at all.

No matter if you needed recommendations for school or for a job, we all know how important a powerful recommendation can be for your future. That phrase, “it’s not what you know, but who you know” is far too common in today’s workforce. It’s important now, more than ever, in a time of limitless social connection, to use the tools (online and face-to-face) available to you to build your network before you need it.

A majority of employers still require you to provide a list references at some stage in the hiring cycle. Many times, as early as when you hit the “apply” button. When it comes to building your reference list or asking for a recommendation, consider these questions first and foremost.

• Who are the 5 most recent connections (former supervisors, colleagues, employees) that can speak to my strengths as an employee and my work ethic?

• When was the last time I spoke to them about my desired career path, and do they know I am currently applying to jobs?

• Is there anything I can do to help make their life easier when it comes to serving as my reference?  (ie. send them your resume, hop on a call to discuss the job, etc)

Often times, college students and young professionals ask for a recommendation from someone that did not directly supervise them and those individuals are unable to cite detailed examples of their work ethic.

If you have a reference in mind and believe they can speak strongly about your work ethic and skills, and you have prepared them with materials or information about the job, then you’re ready for the next step. Now you are fully prepared to ask for that recommendation, and here is how to do it.

1. Do the work

As I mentioned above, prepare some materials for your recommender. Make sure they have information about the job you are applying for and an updated resume. You might want to also jog their memory of a few key projects you worked on with them that can be referenced in the recommendation. Don’t be too pushy, you’ll need to find a balance between providing adequate information and not writing the recommendation for them. The best way to avoid a mishap here is by simply putting yourself in their shoes.

2. Stay in Touch

In 2014, there is no longer an excuse for not staying in touch. Avoid asking for a recommendation from someone who you haven’t (at least loosely) kept in touch with in over a year. Most likely they will not remember the specifics of what made you a great employee or colleague, and they will be unsure of your career path and recent accomplishments. Essentially they won’t be able to speak to what makes you the best candidate for the job. The chances of getting loose connections, those you haven’t spoken to in over a year, to give you a recommendation at all is slim….let alone getting a strong recommendation.

3.   Post it Forward

Find your current supervisors, colleagues, and employees on LinkedIn and start writing a genuine recommendations for them. The more timely the better. Especially, after completing a big project, initiating a new venture, or a hitting a major goal for the organization.

The recommendation below was written by a current student that works for my social media team at Rutgers and will be a senior this year.

She is building her network before she needs it, keeping in touch with them, and providing real-time recommendations. In turn, she has immediately landed herself a handful of detailed and powerful recommendations from not only myself but from other well-connected professionals.

The job you love is out there for the taking, but lackluster recommendations are not going to get you there. ‘You get what you put into it’ is a concept that applies to the job search just as much as it does to any other experiences in life.

The Niche Movement is an organization founded on the principle to end employment unhappiness, and this is one of wide range of topics and ideas we share with young people to help them find the career path they will love. If you found this article helpful, you can support The Niche Movement and our ability to continue to do this work, by checking out our Kickstarter campaign. Donating to the campaign will score you our first book that will be chock full of tips and stories just like the ones featured in this article.

Day 25 - Could Twitter Lead You Onto The Set Of A Documentary? It Did For This Student

In day 22’s post on Monday, I introduced Katie Bean as one of the biggest activators to help spread the Niche Movement when I launched it in early 2013. Because of Katie’s support, I was introduced to Nikki Uy. Nikki was a student at St. Joseph's University, when she was accepted into our first Niche Movement online cohort program in the spring of 2013. When I met Nikki, she was your typical student leader: - led a group of volunteers to teach ESL

- part of the school’s chapel choir

- Dean’s list

- and was part of the peer educator program.

Within the first few weeks of working with Nikki, I realized that as a junior in college she was close to finding her niche but didn’t know how to take the next step. She has a passion for speech therapy and teaching English as a second language to others. Specifically, Nikki wanted to learn how to help others tell their story by participating in our program. In reality, what Nikki needed, was a way to tell her story first, before she could help others tell their story.

I am a very big advocate for young adults to leverage digital networking and social media tools while keeping in mind that face to face conversations still is still the most valuable form of communication. On paper Nikki had a great resume from her extra-curricular experience at St. Joe’s, but she was missing a digital footprint. She was not on Twitter and had only reactivated her Facebook account to connect with others in our cohort. She didn’t have a LinkedIn profile, blog or any real significant presence online. Here was a young woman that had accomplished so much, yet if someone searched for her name online they would find nothing.

This happens to all too many student leaders. Employers look at a resume they like and then search the name online. Finding nothing is about as bad as finding a college party picture. This is why producing a strong digital identity is such a critical component of the Niche Movement, because in order to land the job you love (or start a business you love) you need to have a strong digital presence.

As part of the cohort I was leading that spring, I taught students how to not only leverage digital networking and the tools at their fingertips, but I helped them with their digital footprint. The first thing I did with Nikki was advise her to give Twitter a chance and create an account. Nikki  created an account and together, we helped her identify Twitter hashtags, accounts to follow, and weekly chats to jump into. By the end of the cohort experience, Nikki already saw the power of digital networking and advantages of putting herself out there. In June 2013, she wrote a follow up blog post for The Niche Movement sharing her experiences of how she connected with other speech therapists, graduate students, and became reassured that there was a high demand of work in this field. In her post, Nikki said  “These sort of connections, simply through reading Tweets, have reaffirmed what I want to do with my life.” That is how powerful digital tools can be for students when they understand them and how to best put them into action.

I came to find out that Nikki was also passionate about photography, videography, and documentaries. This all made sense, especially, since she was passionate about telling other people’s story. The six week program was over, but the journey of how Nikki was telling her story and getting closer to her niche was just getting started.

In the summer of 2013, going into her senior year, Nikki went on to create a well-designed about.me page and started a blog where she was documenting her life photo journalism style - something that was inspired by other writers and artists she connected with on Twitter.

Throughout her senior year, her story continued to unfold and she continued to make more connections. As many college students do, she spent a weekend unwinding and went on a Netflix binge. While she was watching ShelterMe, a documentary series that celebrates shelter pets with positive and uplifting stories, she was left so inspired and took to Twitter. Her initial tweet was favorited by @ShelterMeTV and they also followed Nikki. She then direct messaged (DM) them thanking them for the follow and mentioned where she was from and asked if there was anyway to help.

Unfortunately, Nikki didn’t hear back right away but that didn’t discourage her. She followed up about two weeks later with another DM. About two weeks after that, she received an email from Steve Latham, the director and producer of ShelterMeTv. He wanted to jump on a phone call and talk wit Nikki because now, there was an opportunity to help. Nikki and Steve connected and found out that they had a story they were shooting in Long Beach Island, New Jersey and they needed a video production assistant for the weekend.

Nikki pushed through her comfort zone and accepted the 3 day position even though she had little video experience and was a Philosophy major. This was an experience that Nikki would never forget. Her responsibilities in addition to taking pictures, included holding reflectors, posing for camera angles, and assisting the crew with errands up and down the island. She was working side by side with a crew that has worked with MTV, Travel Channel, and National Geographic. All from one tweet - how incredible?!

Nikki didn’t return to school her senior year all of the sudden planning to change her major and try and land a job in the media field. What this experience did encourage was for her to use her interest in taking pictures to tell stories (like she learned from ShelterMeTV) in a creative and artistic way. In her own words, “I basically found another niche.”

While Nikki’s story is an incredible one, the outcome is not that unusual for those students utilizing digital tools and willing to push boundaries. The reason why this story may seem so ‘unrealistic’ is because so many students are not taught how to use these tools to connect or amplify their message. We assume that as digital natives they know how to do all this, but that is simply not true.

Working with Nikki was one of the first times I got to see my two passions come together (much like she ended her story with a second niche). As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am passionate about social media and digital trends. In this experience I was able to share that knowledge with Nikki and her fellow cohort members to assist them in producing their digital footprint. The Niche Movement will never be the same after that experience, because now producing a strong digital presence is part of every conversation, workshop, keynote, etc. In fact, when I gave my first WOW Talk last November, I shared Nikki’s story while imploring other students and job hunters to follow her lead and start working on creating their strong digital presence.

What They Taught Me:

My experience working with Nikki taught me that these two worlds, ending employment unhappiness and social media/digital identity, were interconnected. She also taught me that when students say they are not a fan of social media, we can’t just say ok and back off. We need to find out why. Perhaps Nikki wasn’t into the shallow side of social media, but showing her the productive and purpose driven side open her eyes to a completely new perspective on digital tools.

How They Inspired Me:

In Nikki’s application, she said that she finds fulfillment in her work if she can make just one person smile throughout the day while retaining her positive personality. Well, her story has made me smile everyday. I have presented Nikki’s journey in various talks that I have presented over the last 6 months. She has inspired me to keep helping students and that The Niche Movement’s strategies can help young adults get closer to finding their niche early in life.

#NicheTip:

The Niche Movement showed Nikki how these platforms, apps, and technology can speed up the process of bringing people together and growing your network. I encourage both students and professionals to be using these tools. Everyone has a reason they get up  in the morning and something they care about. Use social media to amplify your message and connect with others who believe what you believe.

To read Nikki’s amazing story and connect with her, check out her blog post featured on our site.