Stop worrying. Relax. Don't concern yourself with things you can't change. Don't sweat the small stuff. I bet you have heard many of these phrases as you work through your high-tech career. Someone is always telling you not to be so concerned with the issues that surround you. Sometimes they even say that you care too much. It is this caring, though, that raises you above the average employee. It is this caring that helps improve your career and your company. I would argue that it is this caring that makes your career worthwhile. Is it possible to care too much about your work? For me, I think it's is a major pre-requisite for excelling in any career. [Continue Reading]



Link: Discuss this column and podcast in the Friends in Tech Forums!

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, technology, high-tech

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Here are a few of the books I have On Hold at the Los Angeles Public Library.

Inside the Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka, Marc Vassallo
First you build a cloud by K.C. Cole
Death by Meeting : A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business by Patrick M. Lencioni

Link: Previous mentions of "What I'm Reading..."
Link: Browse books at Amazon.com

Technorati Tags: books, learning, history, toread, read, reading,library

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A growing topic among all companies and workers is the balance between your work and home life. As many of you already know, working in a high-tech career can often mean working long hours, including weekends. The stress and strain of an Internet startup can often lead people to abandon their lives entirely in favor of their work. What they may not realize though is just how much they are sacrificing while reaching for the "brass ring" of a million dollar pay out. [Continue Reading]



Link: Discuss this column and podcast in the Friends in Tech Forums!

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, technology, high-tech

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It has been coming for a long time, but I think it is finally here. Every job and every career in America is now a high-tech career. It is impossible to ignore technology no matter what your position. Whether you are a corporate CEO or a security guard, technology is now an intimate part of your work. More importantly, now that technology has found its way into every job, everyone needs to recognize and accept this fact. Avoiding technology and refusing to learn about it is no longer an option. Considering yourself incapable is no longer an option. If you want to move forward in your career, regardless of the work you do, you have to embrace technology and make it your own. If you continue to avoid it, ignore it or distain it, you will see you career whither.[Continue Reading]



Link: Discuss this column and podcast in the Friends in Tech Forums!

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, technology, high-tech

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Here is some good IT writing with a bit of an attitude. Worth a read just to shake up your thinking.

Technologist Manifesto..., or Things Everyone in IT Should Know
The best business solution is not always the best technology solution. The burden is on you, the technologist, to make the best system the business will use. There are two basic types of processes in business: physical and logical. Physical requires the proximity of two or more objects which must interact; like someone to load a crate onto a barge. Logical means it can be done anywhere with an acceptable network connection (like invoicing the loaded barge).

The only point of IT is to improve physical operations by providing efficiencies and reducing logical operations by providing automation. This is true in the Ingram Barge Company and for the Xbox 360.

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, tutorial, technology, organization, software, computers, high-tech, hints, tips

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Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) February 16, 2006 -- Career Opportunities: The High-Tech Career Handbook -- a print column, weblog and podcast focusing on the unique challenges of a high-tech career -- is now available via Newstex, the Content On Demand(TM) company. Newstex (http://newstex.com) delivers real-time newsfeeds and blog content to enterprise customers around the world. The revolutionary Newstex Blogs On Demand product delivers value-added full-text blog content, automatically tagged with key data such as company names, stock tickers, key executives and government officials, and detailed topical categories to ensure greater exposure and reach for bloggers.

Career Opportunities is about to enter its 10th year as a weekly print column for ComputorEdge magazine in San Diego, California and the podcast version of Career Opportunities celebrated its 100th episode and 1 year anniversary in September 2005. The podcasts are produced twice-weekly. and are available via the iTunes Podcast Directory where they regularly appear in the list of Top 100 Business Podcasts.

Friends in Tech

Career Opportunities is also a member of Friends in Tech (http://friendsintech.com). Friends in Tech is an alliance of technology podcasters. Members are regular guests on other member’s podcasts, bringing their unique knowledge, talent and insights to a new audience of listeners. Members also join together to create exclusive content for the Friends In Tech website, including FiT Tips, a collection of short audio hints to help ease listener’s computer life, Retro-FiT, a regular podcast review of all Friends In Tech podcasts and, on-going specials, creating a bit of light-hearted, technology-based, fun.

Newstex, the Content On Demand(TM) company

Newstex offers Content On Demand, including tailored, real-time news and commentary from thousands of branded newswires, newspapers, magazines, financial and business sources, official government feeds and weblogs. Newstex collects full-text digital news and commentary feeds, standardizes the content format, adds stock ticker symbols, people tickers and categories, and instantly delivers the result as easy-to-integrate XML or RSS newsfeeds.

The revolutionary Newstex Blogs On Demand product delivers value-added full-text blog content. Newstex processes blogs in real-time through its NewsRouter technology to automatically tag each blog post with key data such as company names, stock tickers, key executives and government officials, and detailed topical categories for distribution to downstream enterprise customers to ensure greater exposure and reach for this valuable content.

February 2006 is Podcast Month at PRWeb. This press release distributed by PRWeb, the Online Visibility Company.

###

Press Contact: Douglas E. Welch
Company Name: THE WELCHWRITE COMPANY, INC
Phone: 818-781-6955
Website: http://welchwrite.com/career/

More Information: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/2/prweb343808.htm

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Note: I am re-releasing this podcast interview since a bug in iTunes, triggered by some malformed XML prevented a large majority of Career-Op listeners from receiving it. Some of you may be seeing this file for a second time. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I wanted to insure that the largest possible audience was able to hear this interview. -- Douglas

This is the first in our on-going interview series with high-tech careerists of all types.

Today's interview is with David Jefferson, senior engineer/navigator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). We talk about how we got started in his career, how high-tech is integrated into his work and how you plan for projects that take 10 years or more to come to fruition.





Link: Discuss this interview in the Friends in Tech Forums!

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, technology, high-tech, interview

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This is the second in our on-going interview series, talking with high-tech workers of all types.

Today's guest is Kevin Devin, Information Systems Analyst with a large building controls manufacturer, host of In the Trenches: The Podcast for SysAdmins and founder of Friends in Tech.



Link: Listen to Interview #1 with David Jefferson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Link: Discuss this column and podcast in the Friends in Tech Forums!

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, technology, high-tech

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AT&T was kind enough to put this billboard up in my neighborhood, but I felt it needed something more.



Click for larger image

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We have our winners for the Radical Careering Book Giveaway!

Thanks to all who entered and the wonderful comments I received about Career-Op. Your kind words are greatly appreciated.

Winners

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Adam Larson
Marc Donnelly
flex411 (at) gmail
Frank Kelly
Yanhui Zhao
Aaron Kay

If you entry did not include a mailing address, please forward that information to radical@welchwrite.com.

I will be mailing out your books as soon as possible.

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For information on this contest, visit this post

Ends February 13th, 2006.

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Learn Out Loud (http://learnoutloud.com), "...your one-stop destination for audio and video learning", has added Career Opportunities as a Featured Podcast.

Thanks to Seth and all the others at Learn Out Loud! Check them out for a great directory of educational podcasts. Seth and his brother, Nathan also host their own podcast, Hear me now, brother.

* Learn Out Loud is also a fellow member of LA Podcasters.

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, losangeles, kids, children, learning, education

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While this has been reported in several places, and picked up by SlashDot, I have not been able to confirm it directly. That said, let me take a moment to address the issue, which is one that will eventually, if not currently, be faced by nearly everyone. Let us hope, though, that it is indeed a hoax...although a sick one, at that.

If your company comes to you asking (read, demanding) that you receive an RFID implant, walk out that very minute and find a lawyer. I can see NO situation, now or in the future, when such a demand could or should ever be placed on an employee. There are limits which should never be overstepped and surgical implantation of any security device, no matter how small, is just such a hard limit. The same might be said for any biometric-based security devices. To some, even this use violates the basic, inherent privacy of our own bodies. Let companies find some other way to (supposedly) protect their security. This is one burden that should not be borne by employees.

Some on SlashDot have posted their thoughts that, perhaps, this is a publicity ploy by the company, where they are trying to prove that "our security is better than theirs.", but the fact that something like this can even be described is a frightening as any dark future that has been represented in science fiction writing.

I hope this story is a hoax, but all too frequently these days, scenarios we once thought possible are becoming reality every day.

RFID Injection Required for Datacenter Access user24 writes "Security focus reports that RFID injections are now required for access to the datacenter of a Cinncinati company. From the article 'In the past, employees accessed the room with an RFID tag which hung from their keychains, however under the new regulations an implantable, glass encapsulated RFID tag from VeriChip must be injected into the bicep to gain access ... although the company does not require the microchips be implanted to maintain employment.'"

(Via Slashdot.)

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Thanks to the folks over at RussDev for listing us in their Top 30 Podcasts list. Go give them a read!

It is always great to hear who exactly is listening to the show.

Thanks again! -- Douglas

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Sometimes you might like to believe your career is a straight-line proposition. You start here, put in hours of work and you will eventually end up over there, at your goal. In the distant past, this might have been true, but today your career is filled with dead ends, mistaken shortcuts, detours and uncompleted roads that can leave you feeling trapped. Despite these fear-inducing possibilities, though, I think that these detours, these aberrations, these deviations from the norm are actually the underpinnings of a great career. Chance and happenstance might feel frightening when you are in their midst, but they can often bring you the greatest rewards. [Continue Reading]



Link: Discuss this column and podcast in the Friends in Tech Forums!

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, technology, high-tech

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Please be aware that if you, or someone you know, is using iTunes to download the Career-Op podcasts, a coding error in my RSS may have disabled their subscription.

The subscription will still show, but it will not pull down any enclosures.

To reset your subscription, you need to unsubscribe and re-subscribe. If, after that, you still don't see any new podcasts, remove the subscription entirely by selecting it and then hitting Backspace. Once that is complete you can re-add it from the links in iTunes or on the web site.

Again, this only seems to effect iTunes users, but please pass the word if you know someone who might be using iTunes to receive Career-Op.

Sorry for the inconvenience -- Douglas

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My latest FiT Tip, which are short podcasts for Friends in Tech, appears today on the Friends in Tech web site.

SME Server is a Linux distribution that installs a complete LAMP (Linux, Apache, mySQL, php) environment on older computers so you can use them as file servers, web servers and more.

Listen to the podcast via FriendsInTech.com

Technorati Tags: build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, podcast, podcasting, software, computers, high-tech, freeware, free, hints, tips, linux, lamp, apache, php, mysql, friendsintech

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It happens all the time, but often workers need a "push" to realize that things have gone to far. This article from CNN Money explores the warning signs and how to tell when it is time to move on.

Your job: Signs you've stayed too long - Aug. 2, 2005

When your grandmother asks "Would you like some bread, honey?" you're most likely to say: "Yes, please" or "No, thanks."

You're not likely to do what I did once: burst into tears.

That incident was one sign I had stayed too long at a job where I logged countless hours doing work that paid far more in stress than money. The other was the recurring thought that if I were hit by a bus I would regret how I spent my last months on earth.

(Via del.icio.us/tag/career.)

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace

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Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we can lose track of our goals in the midst of the chaos of daily life. We work and work on our projects without ever getting them done. No matter how much work you do, if you don’t complete your projects, what have you really accomplished? Your career depends on providing solutions. Don’t build a career that saddles you with never-ending project after never-ending project. Get on with it. Get over it. Get it done! [Continue Reading]



Link: Discuss this column and podcast in the Friends in Tech Forums!

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, technology, high-tech

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Email, and more importantly, effective email is a major part of every high-tech career. Guy Kawasaki, via his new blog, "Let the Good Times Roll", offers up these great tips on insuring your email is the best that it can be.

The Effective Emailer

Because of my recent post about schmoozing, you might think I'm a warm, fuzzy, and kumbaya kind of Guy. Most of the time I am, but I have strong feelings about email etiquette and what it takes to get your email read--and answered. As someone who gets dozens of emails every day and sends a handful of emails every day to get strangers to do things (“digital evangelism”), I offer these insights to help you become a more effective emailer...

(Via "Let the Good Times Roll" by Guy Kawasaki.)

Technorati Tags: howto, how-to, career, job, jobs, work, workplace, tutorial, technology, email, hints, tips

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You might not think that there are many similarities between a high-tech careerist and a medical professional, but over the years I have noticed a few. The most striking one is the fact that we often ignore the advice of doctors and dentists, much like our clients ignore our own recommendations for improving their technology experiences. If you think it is frustrating to have your advice fall on deaf ears, imagine the plight of your doctor. There are ways, though, to help get your message heard, but it takes more than the usual supply of patience. [Continue Reading]



Link: Discuss this column and podcast in the Friends in Tech Forums!

Technorati Tags: career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, technology, high-tech

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