Career Opportunities

I am working my way through this program on entrepreneurship and think that you might find it it useful, too. It delves into the basic concepts and concerns of being an entrepreneur and might just give  you some ideas on how you might create your own business.

I believe that entrepreneurship is one of the driving factors of careers today, regardless of whether you are working for yourself or within a traditional corporate environment. You have to DO for yourself as much as you DO for your company or you risk being left out in the cold when the company no longer needs you or your skills. Don’t be caught off-guard. Start thinking like and entrepreneur today!

The new entrepreneurs by The Open University

Course Description

Whether you’re thinking of starting your own business, looking to improve one you already own, or are simply interested in understanding more about how the business world works, this learning pathway is a storehouse of ideas, techniques and real-life stories to inspire and inform.

It includes resources to help you assess and evaluate an idea using comprehensive, practical techniques, and explore a range of business types – from home-workers and ‘mompreneurs’, to family businesses, social enterprises and ‘lifestyle’ entrepreneurs. It also looks at entrepreneurial psychology. What are the qualities you need to succeed? What are the downsides to being your own boss, and how can you prepare for them?

Here is another educational opportunity that has nothing do with computer science at all. (LAUGH) This show some of the depth of the curriculum available on iTunes U.

Writing creatively: plays
by The Open University

Course Description

For those interested in English language or literature, or with ambitions to write plays, the creative activities throughout this learning pathway provide an overview of the process of playwriting – from capturing ideas through to character, structure, dialogue, stage directions and editing.

Leading contemporary British playwrights, including Alan Ayckbourn (the most performed living English language playwright), Bryony Lavery (also author of ‘The Woman Writer’s Handbook’), and Willy Russell (‘Educating Rita’) give tips and practical advice on how to write plays. Their tips include how to read, watch and understand plays – using examples from Shakespeare, Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ and Caryl Churchill’s ‘Top Girls’.

This pathway encourages experimentation as well as learning by reading and questioning. You will also be able to listen to linguistics professor David Crystal at the London Globe Theatre re-evaluating Shakespeare by exploring the original pronunciation.

I started watching the class on iPad and iPhone App Development via iTunes U. iTunes U provides lots of great educational opportunities in a wide variety of areas including computer science, history, humanities, language, literature and business. You can check out the entire catalog at the iTunes U information page or directly in iTunes.

I’ll be highlighted other educational opportunities to build your career in the coming weeks.

iPad and iPhone App Development (Fall 2011)

Course Description

Updated for iOS 5. Tools and APIs required to build applications for the iPhone and iPad platform using the iOS SDK. User interface designs for mobile devices and unique user interactions using multi-touch technologies. Object-oriented design using model-view-controller paradigm, memory management, Objective-C programming language. Other topics include: object-oriented database API, animation, multi-threading and performance considerations.

Prerequisites: C language and programming experience at the level of 106B (Programming Abstractions) or X. Recommended: UNIX, object-oriented programming, graphical toolkits

Offered by Stanford’s School of Engineering, the course will last ten weeks and include both the lecture videos and PDF documents. Released with a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.

This is a series of video lectures and accompanying materials in PDF format.

Due to personal family issues with the scheduled speaker, I will be speaking at this weeks’s Tuesday’s with Transitioners meeting on the topic of “A Year of Action!”.

Action — any action — can help us to get our careers and lives moving forward. Douglas presents a few “action items” you might want to explore or use as jumpstart points for your own ideas.

Learn how action benefits you no matter what your job, current job status or career!

Please share this event with anyone you know who might be interested. All are welcome!

RSVP via Facebook

What: Douglas speaks on “A Year of Action” at Tuesdays with Transitioners

When: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 – Noon-2pm

Where: Congregational Church of Northridge, 9659 Balboa Blvd, Northridge, CA 91325-1902

I first met Susan M. Baker, from Escapehatcher.com almost a year ago and I have thanked my lucky stars ever since. We recently co-chaired CareerCampLA and meet regularly together with some other great people for a monthly New Media Mastermind. I never fail to be enlightened, educated and excited by Susan’s insight into the entrepreneurial world.

In just a few weeks, Susan is presenting The Bootstrap Sessions (a two night event), along with Nathan Hangen.

Having seen how Susan works up close and personal, if you want to “Get over the fear of failure” and “Build your business on a dime” I would highly recommend attending The Bootstrap Sessions. It would be a great way to start moving forward on you business and career plans.

Here is some more specific information from The Bootstrap Sessions web site…

THE BOOTSTRAP SESSIONS

When: June 15th and June 17th at 8PM EDT

Where: Anywhere You Want! (Call in or use your internet connection)
Over the course of two evenings, we’re going to teach you how to build a passion based lifestyle business. We’re going to help you overcome the hurdles of getting started, and teach you how to get past go.

Session 1: The Mindset of an Entrepreneur (60 minutes + Q&A)

Here’s what you’ll learn:

Why failure doesn’t matter
The #1 trick to dealing with fear
How to deal with naysayers and critics
Why you shouldn’t try to please everyone
How to create a clear path of ascension

Session 2: Bootstrapping (60 minutes + Q&A)

Master the art of:

Creating a quick business fund
Build a business fund from scratch
Make money right now!
Create something worth selling (something you love)
Turning your passions into a business

Need some more info before you sign up? Check out their FREE “Virtual Happy Hour” event.

Join Susan and Nathan for the 1st Ever Virtual Happy Hour!

Friday, June 11th, at 7PM EST

A once in a lifetime networking event!

Hosted by rockstar designer: Erica Swanson!

Pull up your cocktails and come join us for a virtual happy hour! We’ll get to know each other a few nights before the event kicks off…we can talk about your businesses, ideas for your businesses or just about anything you want to. You may even have questions you’d like to throw out that we can address during the workshop.

We will even send you a recipe for our signature cocktail called “The Bootstrap” a few days before in case you want to join us in that fun.

No ticket required, simply sign up here!

We’re looking forward to meeting you, getting to know you better and helping you bootstrap your way to success!