If the first time you present your academic
poster is at the Academic Employment
Initiative for the purposes of being
screened for academic positions, it
might be too late.
At the Boston meeting, I very much
enjoyed meeting many of the more than
seventy poster presenters looking for
academic positions at PUI (principally
undergraduate) and R1 (research
oriented) institution. Several of the
posters and presenters were true
models of my impression of people
who will be invited for academic interviews.
The orientation, offered at the meeting
by Laurel Goj, who succeeded in this
process a few years ago, is a must for
people who expect to do well. She spoke
about things to expect and what people
will be looking for. Even for the experienced
it is a good reminder.
In the practical exercises, I had the
pleasure to meet a couple of colleagues.
One in particular, asked me for coaching
which I gladly listened, learned and
provided items that triggered “light-bulbs
in my mind.”
Distinguishing features of posters and
presenters were:
- presenters who performed an audience
analysis in a conversational introduction,
don’t rush into the technical details
- presenters who seemed to comment
about how they loved working with
students– passionate, engaging,
energetic
- presenters who engaged their audience
with short, meaningful stories
- posters were readable from 6 to 10
feet away. [small blocks of text do not
make it; long detailed equations are
less effective, unless it is truly novel;
pictures; not too busy]
- posters that contain acknowledgment
for support and other colleagues
- hand-outs (and business cards, CVs)
that are informative and clearly constructed
- one clear difference maker is sending
thank you notes to visitors containing
pertinent links.
These are screening interviews for academic
positions and treat them professionally.
Students who visited the posters with
me learned a lot by seeing these posters
before they do it in a future meeting.
The Boston meeting Exposition taught and displayed
some interesting and amazing new areas to consider
looking for positions (International Atomic Energy
Commission), new insights and publications using
the Internet (Journal of Visualized Experiments) and
emerging technologies in all the things we do (e-books,
green lasers, search engines)
POSITIONS: NEXT GENERATION SAFEGUARDS
INITIATIVE
Contact: Allision Holiski holiski@dep.anl.gov
Web-site: http://www.state.gov/p/io/empl/index.htm
State Dept. link that lists all UN (and some other
international
organization) vacancies (updated every
two weeks) and internship opportunities.
Challenging and important opportunities are available
in the international arena, some shorter term, some
permanent. Some of the positions will require US
citizenship. Allison is a marvelous person to explore
what you may be seeking for your career. Email to
arrange a conversation if this area “floats your boat”
[it is Boston, after all!]
ON-LINE JOURNALS WITH A FLAIR
Contact: Leiam Colbert
Associate Editor for Neuroscience
Journal of Visualized
Experiments JoVE
LINK Example:http://www.jove.com/index/Details.stp?ID=1942
21st century publication is moving on line with
blog commentary, selective publication of self
published material and novel podcasts of
discussions. .JoVE is a video-journal that
portrays laboratory techniques to conduct
experiments. The journal team films a
demonstration at your lab and produces the
video. This journal has been needed for some
time in providing safety minded proper teaching
of experimental methods.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: eBooks,
green lasers and search engines
Nearly every publisher had some component
of eBooks in their product line. There was
a “reservation only” seminar which I signed
up for, came late to and was unable to get in
as it had limited slots. Oh, well!
Various search firms continued to highlight
their unique strengths. Nothing really new
appeared, compared to SF. There is a
need to keep material proprietary, so I
wonder about “cloud based” searching and
archiving.
Corning, in their deliberate, focused way,
revealed some amazing applications of
solid state devices. It is worth a look at
their web page.
You might call these things “zeroth order skills.”
In the Boston ACS meeting workshop on ‘First
year on the job for industrial positions,’ which
could be for academic and governmental
roles as well, we had a lively discussion.
One question a participant asked: What do you
do when you enter a room full of people and you
know no one?
Well, (1) if you were the speaker, a panel
discussant or other figure, it is not a bad idea to
ask for the organizer or chairperson or host(ess).
Now, the usual case is an (2) attendee entering
a room. There are two or three strategies. Of
course, before entering the room it is not a bad
idea (2a) to visit the restroom and check yourself
in the mirror. Entering the room, one strategy is
(2b) to look for others who are individuals and look
like they are open to your introduction. Similarly,
you can (2c) observe different groups that seem to
be open to accepting new people in.
An alternate approach can be used when food or
drink is being served. One can (3a) approach the
bar or table and “queue up.” While waiting (3b)one
can engage in small talk and introductions, which can
last beyond getting one’s drink.
When entering groups or meeting individuals, it is
not bad to offer compliments, ask non personal
questions or add something to conversations by
keeping things flowing in a positive vein.
In a sense, the is a zeroth order element of networking.
A follow-up question came from a very professional
young lady, “What should I do when people call me
Sean?” “I don’t feel flattered when people call me that
and it is not my name,” she added. “My name is
Shauntrece.“ I can understand this somewhat.
What I might do is offer the following kind of
anecdote. “Once I was in a meeting room and
someone came to the doorway and yelled, “Sean!”
Three guys immediately got up and looked at the door,
I didn’t get up.
I honestly like my given name, Shauntrece,
and feel much better when people use it.
Could you please?”
Offering a more negative comment does not feel
good for either the speaker or the recipient.
Another professional in the room had an unusual
name for America. Her name is Aimee and she
asked how to help people to use it. Another attendee
spoke up offering that these were two of the first
person pronouns in English. So, she might say,
“My name is Aimee, you know like two first personal
pronouns in English, ‘I-me’”
Use what you prefer to be called and give them
a ‘thought hook’.
While walking through the ACS Boston meeting
Expo a familiar voice called out, “Hey!” Most
often a woman doesn’t respond to a man with
this, but guys don’t mind responding.
I had seen her from the corner of my eye and
did not think she had seen me. So, rather than
continuing on my random walk, I walked over
and greeted her. She said she intended on speaking
with me and asked when was a good time. I said it
was a good time then and asked if she would join me
for lunch.
She is a successful mid-career chemist with a strong
track record. Interviews have been coming her way
while she had been successful in a part time teaching
assignment. Offers have not been coming her way,
however, for several reasons [that are not our present
subject.].
She told me she had a conundrum now. In the
recent past she went on an interview trip to Texas
and was offered a position. Together with her
family, she decided it was not best for them to
take the position. The interview was facilitated
by a recruiter who was on retainer with a firm.
She then received another interview invitation
with the same company, in a different location.
Should she apprise the recruiter of the invitation
to the second interview at a different location one
month later? It was not clear whether it was the
same position just relocated to another site.
We clarified some details and offered some thoughts.
Please view a couple of nice web-sites for
background on working with recruiters 1 2 .
Two career consultants offered her similar
reflections. Namely, working with recruiters involves
working with people with whom you have developed
a relationship. If you wish to continue the relationship
it might be prudent to phone the recruiter and advise
him that a second position and location has arisen
at the firm and you have interviewed there. It is
your call to call before or after the interview, yet I
would pose doing it before the interview to get
a pulse of the organization from a different person.
Do it with a phone call rather than an email as then
there would not be a written record. The recruiter
might not even be at the firm now. Her motivation
was to insure the recruiter benefits if she obtains
a job.
We crossed paths later at the meeting and she
had even more promising interviews. Things
were looking up.
Speaking with Prof. Laurel Goj a career consultant with
the ACS today I learned several things about training
programs and websites to help prepare graduate students
and post docs for academic careers.
Laurel indicated that a number of leading universities will
already offer students courses and programs to help them
do well early in their careers. But she indicated that there
is a new strong initiative called Project Kaleidoscope
preparing the faculty of the 21st century for enhanced
STEM teaching and learning.
AACU supports this program and offers publications
that Laurel said can be helpful for preparing for academic
careers.
Besides the human behavior of ‘white lies,’ fabrications
and story telling which the book “Freakonomics”
reminds us we all do, being unprepared for an interview
or following the ‘party line’ without considering the
unintended consequences. (See also discussion
in NYTimes Freakonomics blog.) are serious
issues for mid-career scientists and managers.
Fabrications and stretching the truth happen in
resumes and responses to interview questions.
- Resumes: dates, accomplishments, skills
- Interviews: are you currently working, how
much you earn, how many people you supervise,
budgetary responsibility, why you left, etc.
Please know that you can guess nearly 80%
of an interview’s questions, so it would help if
you reviewed what might be asked and thought
about, wrote out in long hand and practiced
saying stories and responses.
Please know interviewers know about this
human tendency and look for and recognize
it in individuals. It is often revealed in body
language.
Your reputation goes much further than this.
You have an Online reputation that you need
to assess and seek repairs of if unflattering
things become associated with you. (Seeking
redress, hiring lawyers, correcting records,
etc.). The ACS in fact has been ’sweeping
under the rug’ serious reputation issues that
have come to light in blogs. People in high
echelon positions in industry and government
have been fired and not re-hired for less.
It is a lesson for members to learn that strictly
‘following the party line, not paying attention
to unintended consequences’ can be perilous.
Please note the link to Employment law in
the yellow column for helpful commentary.
We are a month closer from the previous Boston meeting
blog and a week away from the meeting .
Are you planning to use the venue to explore career
options– did you enroll as a job seeker at the Career
fair?
You can do this before or at the meeting?
Are you unemployed? Career fair is no cost to
members? Membership dues can be waived, if you
are unemployed.
In the last few entries, this blog pointed out
suggestions for resumes and CVs
ideas for meeting people, conversations and body
language
importance of having a professional internet presence
Have you read Freakonomics? In chapter 2, Leavitt
and Dubner speak about the information asymmetry
that exists in many situations and how the Internet
reduces the information imbalance. The employer-job
seeker duo is another example.
How should we help ourselves for the career fair?
1. Ask the ACS to publish the companies and the days the
companies are planning to have representatives present.
Don’t wait, leave things to chance and behave like “finder’s
keepers”. Be proactive. The ACS should publish who
will be there.
2. Do detailed research on each company with whom you
would like to work? Use your network to learn
what it is like working there,
where their locations are?
how business is going,
what the latest news is,
what the latest and most profitable products are,
who is in management..
3. Have samples of your work, copies of your resume,
interview outfit, professional attache ready and
set to go.
4. Post your resume on the ACS job seekers’ web
site
5. Update your LinkedIn.com profile and have
documents ready in the cloud to share
6. If you seek an academic position in the future,
plan to attend the academic employment initiative
Monday afternoon and evening.
See what current job seekers are offering in their
posters and watch how they perform in their interviews.
Take notes. Collaborate with them– help them
and ask them to help you.
7. Develop longer term relationships with people
at the meeting beyond the career fair and the
aei. Attend and interact with company reps
in the exhibition. Bring and share business cards.
Have your internet addresses on your business
card.
8. If you are presenting a paper or poster, consider
it an opportunity to show off your skills as in an
interview. Treat them like part of an interview
revealing your expertise, your personality, your
insight and communication skills.
We have so many incredible tools at our disposal with
modern technologies.
We can instantaneously send an application to our
target via FAX, or email.
We can copy and paste segments of text into another
document.
We can provide salary information that includes signing
bonus, bonus and stock options with our actual salary.
I have seen each of these done. Some would argue,
no big deal, everyone does it to some degree.
Wrong.
These actions seem to be something people ask for
forgiveness after being caught, rather than doing the
right thing, the first time out.
FAXING. Resume submission rule addition
Fast is not best with resume submissions. Now, more
than ever, fax transmission is received at a common,
public machine. Your submission should be to the
identified person of your cover letter in a form that
retains your format. So many companies now enlist
word scanning software to recognize key terms in
their resume screening.
Some people, recruiter or desired recipient, may
ask for a fax. Then, consider a fax and also take
the extra effort and send a hard copy with a cover
letter.
PLAGIARISM WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION.
Every scientist should get into the habit of
providing acknowledgment and attribution for
the ideas and written work of others
Please recognize this is a “hot button” issue with
many. It is not something that should be taken
lightly. Even placing a footnote can meet your
responsibilities, in some cases.
There are certain venues where acknowledgment
is essential– public talks, funding applications,
your interview seminar, etc.
A detailed discussion appears in the NYTimes.
WHAT IS YOUR SALARY.
More often than I care to count, members have
told me the salary they told a prospective employer
was “inflated.” It does no one any good to
misinform. It can lead to dismissal. So do
the right thing and, if you want to inflate, define
all the elements- “salary was …, bonus was
…, signing bonus, awards and reimbursements
amounted to ….”
Interestingly, these days salaries either are not
increasing, year over year, or are regressing
in certain fields where there is an over abundance
and not a lot of competition.
Let’s be real, “Job clubs,” “buddy systems,” ‘social
networks,” and “networking” are terms relating to
similar functions in a job search. They focus on
the FOUR I’S–
ideas,
information,
interviews and
the emerging fourth, ‘internet presence (texting,
etc–. one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one).’
Recently, a person asked if she should share all
her job leads with her job-club, buddy-system,
network [you put in the term…]. “My boyfriend
doesn’t think I should, as it will bring in more
competition for the opening.”
My response was: whatever you do will come
back to help or “haunt you”. If you really do want
to network with integrity, share the job leads. Help
each other make the best impressions. Share what
you learn so that each person can benefit. Employment
these days seems more fluid, and it means more than
just going with the flow. Recognize:
Not every position is right for you. Location,
travel and time requirements, responsibilities,
skills required, etc.
You are not the best person for every position.
While you will learn new things, it is equally
important to be challenged and find satisfaction.
You cannot possibly apply for every opening. As
well, consider narrowing down what you seek in
a position.
Personality fit, commitment and adapting to
circumstances and needs stand out as behaviors
that lead to success early in one’s career.
Chandlee Bryan emphasizes five strategies.
Please let me “tweak” them–
1 Be selective in friends and colleagues in your
network. It is not as important to have many
names, as it is dependable friends who you can
help. This highlights “Choosing as a skill.”
2. Be a good friend by responding promptly
and studying different segments of the job
market. (Each of you do not have to replicate
the same elements.)
3. Be meaningful by reviewing each others’
documents, offering suggestions and offering
ideas on questions and situations. Share
mentors viewpoints.
4. Be Observant on each others’ small things.
Help make each opportunity lead to new ideas
and new successes.
5. Be open and transparent about your goals and
aspirations, as they will be similar and different from
others. Share your evolving needs, desires and
interests.
Now, another person then asked what should be done
in the circumstance that a member of her network
got a call back from a screening interview. In the
call back, the interviewer seemed short, demanded
responses without hesitation, and pushed for
specific commitments. This seemed like it was
a ‘bruising’ way to attract a candidate. It may have
been a “stress interview” revealing how the
candidate deals with stress from a higher up or
customer.
Think about tactics you might use to defuse the
situation. Learn about what specifically his needs
and time constraints were. Explore items you, the
interviewee, seek in a professional and well
articulated manner. Share this with your network and
use this one call back interview as a lesson for all.
You won’t go wrong being sensitive to both
the interviewer’s and candidate’s body languages.
Look carefully to understand what signals may
possibly be being unconsciously sent in these
nervous situations.
1. some innocent gestures may be suggestive of
different signals– “I’m married” “I’m available”
“I’m attracted”– raising hand to eye level to display
wedding bands, hair tousling, licking lips and eye
and eye-brow gestures
2. maintain an appropriate distance between
interviewer and candidate. If there is no table,
consider adjusting your seat to a slight angle,
making it still easy to have good eye contact.
Keep your feet on the ground and arms
relaxed on your lap, or involved in the conversation
and occasionally touching an interview table,
when present, are appropriate. Crossing legs,
other than at the ankles or folding arms,
is inappropriate.
3. There are behaviors, even while waiting
for interviews to start that should be minimized.
Hands on hips, clasping hands behind one’s
head and the athletic stretching movements
should be done in private, if at all.
4. Your voice needs to be strong and
consistently confident whether in person
or on a telephone interview. Keep your
thoat moist.with mints or menthol drops that
lubricate and medicate. Remember to start
speaking a little louder at the beginning of
a statement and settle to your normal voice
projection. On the phone, know a proper,
comfortable position for both speaking and
hearing. Don’t hesitate to ask if voice and
transmission are clear at the beginning of
a phone conversation.
Smiling while speaking offers warmth and
genuineness.
Susan Ireland speaks to several body
gestures in her blog.
Recently I came upon ten behavioral questions
I am glad I did not encounter! It is very good
practice to develop and practice responding to
these tough ones. There are few tougher!
There is evidence that it is important to
establish and maintain a technical internet
presence, like in your LinkedIn.com profile.
It is separate from your professional
affiliation and can list several important
items that you want people to know who
might want to contact you for various reasons.
Career consultants suggest also providing a
folder in a “cloud location” (like google docs)
that contains publications, presentations,
patents and posters. The usual authors, titles
and citations and a link to .pdf or .doc file
should be provided.
Specific elements of one’s profile might be:
1 NAME THAT YOU ARE KNOWN BY AND
APPEARS WITHOUT CONFUSION ON
YOUR RESUME OR CV
2 ONE LINE TITLE OF EXPERTISE
3 SUMMARY
bulleted list of skills and accomplishments
designs, syntheses, characterizations
teams led
goals achieved
strategic impact of projects ($$, time,
proprietary position without violating any
agreements)
4 QUALIFICATIONS
bulleted list of specific items with
differentiating detail, showing depth of
understanding and familiarity
5 EXPERIENCE
Post-doctoral, graduate and
undergraduate research, development and
team activities
Management and supervisory training
Business school or Education experience
and training
If areas formally different, it might still be
significant for networking purposes.
6 EDUCATION
Formal education– degrees, departments,
institution, location, and information links
7 PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
What groups do you belong to?
The Blog “ReCareered” provided another
perspective on what the profile might contain.
A few highlights to take note:
A. list specific areas and subjects in which
you have achieved; generalists do not seem
to draw attention in these profiles
B. think about what it looks like in the finished
document. Long paragraphs will not be read.
C. Volunteer activities, community involvement,
manuscript reviewing are fair game.
D. Other online activities, web-pages, list-servs
and key professional networking tools are helpful
to point to your on-line presence.
E. Getting appropriate recommendations has
value.
In a conversation, a member asked–
“when I attend a meeting, I want to be
sociable and engage in conversation. I
just don’t know what to say. Can you offer
some help?”
There are four tactics to consider: People’s
names, introductions, small talk and
elevator speeches. Remember with all
of them we communicate a lot with our
body language.
- remembering names
hone the skill of remembering people and their
names. [View the link.]
- introductions: consider–
“Hi My name is Theodore Roosevelt. But
you can call me “TR.” No one ever recalls
Theodore as it is not very common these
days. This morning when I was coming in
my car battery died on me. I had to call
around to let my colleagues know and see
if other arrangements could be made. I
was flying from Hartford, as I am finishing
up my graduate degree at UCONN in
materials science with Professor Zhao.
As you can see AAA saved the day and
I made the flight.” A little story with key
items makes a big difference. Make it
easy on your audience to remember you…
- small talk 2 3 4 5
Each day assemble three topics you can speak
to nearly anyone extemporaneously.
- “elevator speeches“ 7
Observe marketing experts and adapt to
yourself. Consider bringing a sample of
something that helps you tell a story about
creativity or problem solving.
Interviewers for industrial positions commonly use
behavioral based questions to explore what a
candidate might do in a future situation, based on
her (or his) previous behaviors in the past.
These type interview questions have been
commented on in several blog posts 1 2 3
There seem to be interesting cultural and
linguistic origins to our behaviors. One of
the things to recognize is that behaviors accepted
in one culture are not well received in others.
We kid each other when academics and
entrepreneurs mix together how “laid back”
one group is and how “assertive” and action-
oriented another group is.
One can adapt and transition our behaviors
but it must be done thoughtfully and with
respect.
Experts in linguistics debate fine details
of universal grammar, but Lisa Boroditsky
authored an interesting piece describing how
cultures portrayed by their languages
affect specific behaviors. “Patterns in
language offer a window on a culture’s
dispositions and priorities.” In this
language seems to encode different
cultures views of the world.
So, since we realize words represent
less than half of the content in communication
and ‘body language’ provides much more,
we each present a different cultural body
language as well.
Yesterday, I interviewed an individual
who displayed two behaviors that struck
me instantaneously. Avoiding eye contact
and over-affirmation (yes, smiling, nodding,
‘that is right’ in rapid-fire, mid-sentence
fashion).
We worked on both throughout our conversation.
Based on his culture there is deep deference
offered to someone he respects and believes
knows more. This leads to the behavior of
not being able to maintain eye contact and
to nod and say “yes” and not question items.
In our culture, it is nearly required that we
maintain good eye contact as it displays
trust, integrity and truthfulness (at the same time
respect is not lessened). Over affirmation tends
to come across not in the intended fashion of
respect, but more as “not well understanding
the topic” of discussion and “wanting to get it
over with.”
So, Lost in Translation can be done in body
language as well.
The Business Journal is a nice source for tips
in delivering “elevator speeches” that are used
not only by entrepreneurs but also by people
at various stages in your career.
Here is link to BJ secrets.
“This American Life” podcast has an nice segment
on thought provoking entrpreneurial examples.
that are fun listening to 2
It is quite amazing and it never occurred to me that
some of the things I have tried in research and
searching and had profound success has been
studied by mathematicians.
Early reports by Viswanathan, et. al. on
albatrosses (ok, this does sound unrelated to job
searching, but stay with me!) revealed a
food search pattern that randomly interspersed
long flights with normal short flights in a
power law distribution of flight times.
(Nature (1996))
Ocean predators in complex food webs have
been reported to use a similar mix of long
trajectories in different areas with short, random
movements (sharks, tuna, marlin, swordfish). 2
This method of search referred to as “Levy
flights” can be helpful in job searching in complex
environments, as well.
The suggestion is that professionals in the job
market might occasionally seek opportunities in
a completely different “search neighborhood”
than peers and focused effort searching has been
applied, if progress has not been forthcoming.
In my career, this approach has been applied,
for example, to discover and patent new
molecules for complexing bromine in
polybromide complexes (circulating
electrolyte batteries) with Reilley Chemical,
developing new process analyses in film
manufacturing (chemical fluids and product analyses)
with CPAC at the University of Washington and
looking at widely different journals to develop
my doctoral thesis project from Poland and
fields quite remote from my area of study.
J P Bouchard hints at this in a Science article
to find a career in a different area.
Do you want to see what fields a leading
chemical company is moving? Consider
viewing Dow’s CTO recent presentations
1 2 (ECS meeting Vancouver)
William Banholtzer outlines the importance
of collaborations, working with renewable
raw materials and producing biodegradable
products that serve customers.
He highlights peroxide chemistry and carbon
sequestration. Note also fine work in a
similar vein by T. Collins CMU to treat
halo-carbon chemicals. 3
The Boston national meeting is about 5 weeks away.
If you are interested in using this meeting to explore
your career, resulting from nearing graduation,
exploring post-docs, a recent lay-off, a less than
satisfying current position or just to see what is out
there, consider requesting a career consultant for:
industrial- resume and cover letter help
government- resume and cover letter help (also
filling out government application forms well) and
academic- cv and cover letter help
This blog entry can be of help for some
specific sections and discussion points
Submission rules of thumb 2
Resume vs. CV European CV
Masters degree resumes 5
Resume reviews: some classic errors
Resume formatting suggestions
Resume contents: mid-career 9
Headings 10 11
Objectives 15
Experience
References
Publications
Academic applications considerations 23
Chemical Careers AFTB Sales Legal
Several pieces of current items relating to patents
have a bearing from both academic and industrial
perspectives.
Interestingly, Andy Gilicinski authored an article
on patent reform that selectively touches on
issues. It is pertinent that we get broader
exposure to the innovation encouragement and
proprietary know how protection system that
has developers of new ideas, developers of
practically useful devices and patent trollers for
litigation purposes as users.
Because it is complicated with house and senate
versions and also has a significant international
factor, he had to simplify bullets in the article.
Will it be done all at once or incrementally over
time?
As in the financial reform legislation it will not be
perfect for all parties, here is some quick items
perhaps not mentioned by Andy:
speed of patent process (facilitated by higher
fees) 1
obvious inventions are not patentable 2
patents should have practical outcomes and
benefits 3
copyrights 4
winners and losers remorse in legislation 5
There is much more to this topic.
Security in a time of uncertainty is this entry’s
theme. Security topics include new sources
of estate planning and elder care (banks),
managing long term goals via user friendly
software (mint.com), managing one’s
investment factoring in your position, and
computer security.
NEW ROLE OF BANKERS IN SENIOR
YEARS
Source: K. Greene, Beyond Estate Planning
WSJ 6-26.27-2010, p. B8. Banks and trust
companies offer personalized care (for a fee)
for senior clients. Case stories point out
bringing unique skills and expertise to a
sensitive area of elder care.
MINT.COM OFFERS BUDGETING
ORGANIZATION
Source: K. Boehret, WSJ 6-30-2010
Goalkeeping in Finances.
User friendly mint.com organizes, poses
questions and Checklists, and updates
with user data to aid setting and reaching
multiple goals. Forms budgets for those
who seek the discipline.
CAREER CHOICES TRUMP INVESTMENT
CHOICES
Sources: S Anand, WSJ July 6, 2010
Think Job, Then Stocks
“You have more control over what you do
[at] work. It is going to be the
combination of saving and earning and
wise investing…” Based on career
choices, fluctuations and longevity, one
should temper your investment
tactics and philosophy. With more
uncertainty now, investments might be
more conservative.
COMPUTER SECURITY
Sources: CDW advertisement 6-24-2010
The Economist, June 12, 2010, p. 10
Loose clicks sink ships
WSJ 2-18-2010 p. A3
Hackers mount new strike
WSJ 4-2-2010, p. A15
Prepare for Cyberwar
- estimates are 1200 laptops are lost
at LAX every day!
- encrypt everything
- sounds of individual keystrokes
can be distinguished to eavesdrop
(turn up the radio!)
- incredible global invasion of personal
data by Chinese hackers (care in
clicking on unknown sites)
- consider cyber security adviser,
security r&d in Rockefeller-
Snowe bill