58 and Still Unemployed: Building a Plan

by Doug Berube

             I’ve now been unemployed for eight months; my email in-box is filled with daily job alerts, LinkedIn group notifications, headhunter inquiries, and the occasional job scam with no leads in sight.  I’m networking on LinkedIn, even read the book “The Start-Up of You” by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, and I will continue to network because it is a learning experience. Currently, I have submitted over 90 resumes and still counting. I have gone to job fairs, interviewed with a few headhunters, even had one in person interview (nothing), taken on-line resume building with interview skill training; I’m a while trained job hunter.

            I have been researching the reality of the 50 to 61 age group current history of reentering the job market. Reuters reported an Urban Institute report that employees over the age of 55 are less likely to lose their job during this economy, but if they do, they are 33 percent less likely to find new work than their counterpart's age 25 to 34. The AARP reports that the 55 plus age group is the only one showing an increase of the unemployed; all the other age groups have been decreasing. This age group, as reported by the AARP is not being re-employed because of age discrimination. The reports are not encouraging as a 58-year-old  human trying to get back into the workforce. My research also uncovered that there are some older American finding jobs, and now I know that I’m directed to find out about their success.

            Mark Miller, January 14, 2011, report in Reuters three key employment recommendations; “Keep skills current, Expand horizons, and Don’t over –play deep experience.” I’ve already known about these tips, and I’m back in school to complete my bachelor degree in business management and going to school is part of my plan to expand my horizons. School is the environment I need to be exposed to new ideas. The curriculum is constructed to cultivate the ideas and work them out to fruition. Caution is always good advice about over-playing experience because arrogance is offensive.

            Discovering the actual situation about the current economic conditions about re-employment is only part of my awareness. I need to become aware of my potential and how to use it to my advantage. I’m going to do a SWOT analysis to determine my strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. I’ll take that analysis and construct a few mind maps to plot out several paths and see where they take me. One of the maps will be plotted to determine some entrepreneurial possibilities. Becoming an entrepreneur just might be the alternative to the age challenge of the current job market.     

Will Someone Else’s Shoes Fit?

by Doug Berube

            The old saying goes, “you should walk a mile in their shoes first” before you judge them. This is a saying I’ve heard all my life, as I would imagine most have been told the same parable. The lesson to be learned was not to judge someone until you first understand what other went through. We are also taught from the “Good Book” to treat ours are you would have them treat you. Both statements are proclaimed from generation to generation, and I wonder if the true meaning is known. The social media are filled with hatred, prejudice, and apathy, which doesn’t support any moral connection to those words of wisdom. Does society comprehend the words to the meaning of empathy?

            What does empathy mean? Merriam-Webster defines it as “The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” That is a very general definition because humans are highly complicated beings. The capability to imagine yourself as someone else is a very complex imaginative process. Each of us has basic recognized emotions that are innate and could probably be achieved unconsciously. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object.” Humans are social beings, and our morality is inherent to our cultural development.
            As social beings, we need to ask a moral/empathy question to determine our attitude.  Would you make the decisions you make about people you don’t know if they where your neighbors, and you had to look into their eyes every day? I know someone will say that if they were your neighbor, they wouldn’t be a stranger. I think the point of the question is that everyone should treat as your neighbor. We have to go back to treating others as you would have them treat you. Theorist William Icker's states empathy as, “A complex form of psychological inference in which observation, memory, knowledge, and reasoning are combined to yield insights into thoughts and feelings of others.
            There is an “Empathy Experiment” by Capital University in Columbus, Ohio using volunteer students to explore whether empathy can be taught, and if so, what are the effects? Nichole Johnson post this is the second year and the topic of is, “Nutrition in America," to answer a specific question: Can we empathize with someone who makes choices we disagree with? Capital University President Danvy A. Bowman said, But now I want to explore the notion of teaching empathy through an issue that many perceive to be a matter of choice – the food we eat – as opposed to circumstance – being a member of the working poor community.” This experiment is to will test the University of Michigan's report that there is a decline in empathy among college students today compared with similar students two to three decades ago. The students from Capital University will be reporting on their experiment this month, and it will be interesting to see the outcome.
            Neuroscience has been conducting experiments using fMRI to determine how the neural system subserving emotion regulation modulates the other components that are involved in empathy. The one question worth exploring are the external influences that affect how we choose to see other people, nations, and religions. Social Media are prolific with pundits preaching their consequences for not following what they are pushing. Empathy is in the brain, and this is in support of Jefferson’s observations. We are by nature social, and our morality comes from our being. There are disorders that affect our social ability for empathy or other individual interactions. All of humanity should practice empathy, because currently, as throughout history human have not. Humans are not freed from tribalism and monoculturalism which mean treating others as you would want them to treat you has its hindrances. The “Empathy Experiment” should help with our understanding of empathy, and if it can be taught, our society can be improved as a benefit to all.

Self-Discipline

by Doug Berube

“You can never conquer the mountain. You can only conquer yourself.”, Jim Whittaker American Mountaineer and CEO.

Self-discipline is seen by many has such a harsh word of grinding out personal imperfections and dealing with life’s failures. Self-discipline can also be used as a positive tool to achieve a self-determined personal goal. I use a website called Mind Tool’s, www.mindtools.com, which is an on-line personal and professional management and leadership training organization. For me, it is a good resource of support and it has the toolkits I need to pursue my professional and personal endeavors.

Self-discipline is a positive conscious ability to push yourself forward, stay motivated, on task, and not loss your way, regardless of how you feel, physically and emotionally. You are showing personal development when you intentionally choose to pursue something better for yourself and you do it in spite of factors like, distractions, hard work, or unfavorable odds. Self-discipline means you can stay focused until an outcome is achieved, success or failure. Going after a personal or professional goal can be more about fear, than the task itself. You have to overcome the fear of failure.

Self-discipline is different from self-motivation or willpower. Motivation and willpower contribute towards it, as does persistence, the ability to follow-through on your intentions and hard work. Intentions are an act of determining mentally upon an action with an anticipated result. Self-discipline is the ability of carrying out the intention and sees it to its fruition. Negatives can be used, like using fear and doubt to fuel creativity.

Creating a plan is very important because it will be used as a map to navigate as you go through the deserts and mountains of your journey to reach your goal. Here are some key points to implement.

1.    Choose a goal

2.    Find your motivation

3.    Identify obstacles

4.    Replace old habits

5.    Monitor your progress

6.    Seek out assistance when needed

This is about pursuing something that is important to you, they are opportunities. I know the statement of everything is an opportunity can seem annoying and it is received more often with a cynical scoff, than a positive resolve. This generates a question of it being better to be negative or positive when you approach your life.

We as humans have to pay attention when we take on highly motivated tasks. Our self-discipline can become obsessive and single-focused, which means we see all our actions only thought this one focus. Self-discipline is an individual physical and emotional  application of one’s ability to pursue one’s goals. This is a personal path taken to achieve a goal and that plan could be very different for someone else. We are all at different places in our lives and our needs are not always the same. The warning is that we don’t forget empathy because your journey may not be the same for others. The journey still has to be made within you, with using some outside help.

Some advice; it’s never too late to invoke your curiosity to explore and seek out your adventures. Self-discipline is a tool to be used to accomplish your goals. Success takes hard work and you have to be “SMART- specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound” www.mindtools.com.

Recommended reading:

“What if the Secret to Success is Failure?”, The New York Times Magazine, Editor: Vera Titunik, 09/18/2011, On-Line Post, www.nytimes.com

Job and Recruiting Scams

by Doug Berube

Currently, I’m unemployed and actively seeking a job within my profession. I’m using many different social networks and job search bulletin boards. Using these avenues expose my information to predators searching for victims under the disguise of a fake US/overseas company. I have received two phishing e-mails using job offer scams, so below is a copy of the latest e-mail.

From: Ignacio Mendez [imendez@----------------.com]

New Position Available for you. Resume has been reviewed by our department and you qualify for a position with our

company:

Payments Manager/ Payment Processing Services

Job ID 3848215169

Company Name RIVAL SYSTEMS INC

Base Salary $65,000-$75,000

Position Type Full-Time/Part Time

Experience 0-2 Years Experience

Applicant Email

Location Your Area

Job Category Admin/Clerical

Bonuses Yes

Date Posted FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Job Summary:

Someone who can manage our US business until we will be able to open offices over there. Should be dynamic and open for ideas and suggestions.

environment is a prerequisite for the job. Strong communication, are must.

Job Description:

All details about this can be found at: removed link.

Read them carefully and if you agree we can start right away!. You can apply directly on our page.

Ignacio Mendez

General Manager

When I receive e-mails like these, I first search their name on Google and on a site called, Consumer Freud Reporting at www.consumerfreudreporting.com. This type of scam is reported on Consumer Freud Reporting under the title “Payment Officer/Transfer Manager Scam. The e-mail I received matched the scam description perfectly. In scams like this; you receive an e-mail with a luring offer for immediate employment at a very good salary. The e-mail will have a link to a very convincing website with official looking company products and company information. You have to drill deeper into that information shown on the site. The site listed two overseas office addresses and when I Googled the addresses, one was a hotel and the other was an address with the same website under a different company name. The other revealing indicator was the job description on the website. The requirement was the company will send you customer checks for you to deposit at your bank and then take out 10 to 12% as your salary and then write them a check for the balance. Then, much to your surprise, 10 to 15 days later the checks bounce and you are held responsible by the bank for the monies of the fake checks.

The lesson is that everything must be questioned, don’t take anything for granted. We must defend ourselves by spreading the word and use critical thinking with the tools that are available to us on the internet. There are tens of hundreds of scams, so make sure you don’t get scammed because if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Remember no legitimate company is going to send you international checks for processing at your bank and have you take a percentage of those funds to pay your salary and then write them a check for the difference.

Here are a few sites to help you research for scams.

·         www.consumerfreudreports.com

·         www.snopes.com

·         www.scam.com

·         www.hotscams.com

I hope these links help. Remember, keep your guard up!!

What is Schadenfreude?

by Doug Berube

Schadenfreude – ‘shä-dən-fröi-də: noun; “Pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.” Merriam-Webster

I’m becoming more aware of the politics of our nation and the stratification of behavior of the American citizens. Notice I used stratification instead of class. This is why schadenfreude comes to mind. Schadenfreude is manifested as a human character flaw of envy founded in a person or groups of people with low-esteem. This flaw causes individuals to look for groups (tribes) that can give them a self-affirmation boost by confirming their beliefs and behaviors. Taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune is a lack of empathy and supported by tribal behavior of separation.

The Harley-Davidson motorcycle brands are a good example of the good side and dark side of the extraordinary brand. Schadenfreude was used to market this brand’s tribal envy as the main message and the message was, you have to ride a HOG to be tough. This branding created a dark side tribal behavior that was romanticized by Hollywood, which eventually became a tribal behavior of mayhem and destruction. Today the brand has a very good side and the motorcycles are owned by persons from all walks of life. This brand honors and stands up for the veterans of this country and never forgetting the MIA’s and POW’s. The Harley-Davidson brands are highly motivated about helping children and providing support to many charities. Harley-Davidson illustrates a company can change its brand by marketing a brand that cares.

Schadenfreude has recently become an area of scientific study. Studying empathy; scientists use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for mapping of real-time brain activity centers as individuals are exposed to another person’s pain. The studies of the brain using the fMRI have been opening up this organ of the human body to a level of understanding, which in the past was a mystery. Modern technology will continue opening up the brain and revealing the voice we hear in our head is the voice from our brain. Now this information is increasing our knowledge of how we think. As we learn more about how the brain works and this increases the opportunities for humans to become more compassionate and empathetic.

This behavior makes sense evolutionarily when it came to our species survival. The misfortune of a competitor was a victory for the fortunate one. The competitive nature is still important today because it is part of our social advancements as a culture, but there is a bad side. 5^th Avenue uses schadenfreude as a marketing tool to create an envying class that spend all their time focusing on keeping up with the Jones’ and not necessarily focusing on contributing to society; it’s a take all society. Envy and lacking empathy is not good for the advancement of our society because a large section of our society will be left behind.

 Today schadenfreude is a tribal behavior based on others misfortunes and using their misfortunes against them as a weapon for submission. Enjoyment in the misfortunes of others is divisive and non-productive. I’m not referring the equal competitive marketplace; I’m referring the unequal advantage of the fortunate enjoying in what they took from the misfortunate. Tribal only compassion and empathy is also non-productive for society and is used as a tool for class separation. Self-affirmation lacks empathy and eventually stunts any growth we can make as compassionate beings.

References:

Guild, Gerald. Schadenfreude, 2011, On-line Posting, http://geraldguild.com

Hickman, Thomas., Ward, James. The Dark Side of Brand Community: Inter-Group Stereotyping, Trash Talking, and Schadenfreude, 2007, On-line Posting, www.acrwebsite.org

Moss, Simon, Dr., Schadenfreude, Cognition and Emotion, 2009, On-line Posting, www.psych-it.com

Bryner, Jeanna. , The Science of Schadenfreude, 2011, On-line Posting, www.mnn.com 

Thinking Critically

by Doug Berube

Should critical thinking be an educational priority and part of our basic education? How often do people think about how and why they are thinking the way they do?

“…intelligence…is in plentiful supply…the scarce commodity is systematic training in critical thinking.” – Carl Sagan

I think it is apparent by the stratification of beliefs in how Americans view America and how it should run and function. Even the professional thinking process today makes decisions by way of confirmation bias. This thinking bias causes coalescing of like thinking, which is the cause of tribal thinking.

How do we become critical thinkers and how to question our own thoughts? First a disclaimer, critical thinking doesn’t mean that we all think the same way. It means critical thinking is a process of using self-regulated, self-aware reason as a tool of high quality fair-mindedness. People who critically think consistently by questioning their logic using reasonable open-mindedness and empathic awareness will have a live in tune their mental health.

“Be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your brains fall out.” – Jacob Needleman

Mind Tools: (www.mindtools.com) has a list of critical thinking cognitive skills:

·         Analyze Cause and Effect: separate the motive of reason for an action from the result or outcome

·         Classify and Sequence: group items or sort them according to similar characteristics.

·         Compare and Contrast: determine how things are similar and how they are different.

·         Inference: skilled in reasoning and extending logic to come up with plausible options or outcomes.

·         Evaluate: able to determine sound criteria for making choices and decisions.

·         Observe: skilled in attending to the details of what actually happened.

·         Predict: able to finding and analyze trends, and extend these to make sensible predictions about the future.

·         Rationalize: able to apply the laws of reason (induction, deduction, analogy) in to judge and argument and determine its merits.

·         Prioritize: able to determine the importance of an event or situation and put it in the correct perspective.

·         Summarize: able to distill a brief report of what happened or what you have learned.

·         Synthesize: able to identify new possible outcome by using pieces of information you already know.

This list of cognitive skills, if used consistently, will clarify our thinking and help us become a critic of our own thinking. Developing these skills will create successful thinking.

Critical thinking will help process all the daily information we digest. We are bombarded with information from every form of media that can be used to transfer ideas. When I was growing up we only had 4 major forms of information media; books, newspapers, television, and radio (for us nerds, we included comic books). Today we have those four and a new plethora of information media only hindered by our imagination. The personal computer was the founding device that connected us to a pathway of information that is expanding exponentially about every two years at a time. This leads to an overwhelmed feeling of information overload. But, Clay Johnson mentions in his book The Information Diet, it is really not about information overload, it is about a healthy consumption of information. Just like we are what we eat, we are also the productions of how we consume information. Critical thinking is the proper tool to use in controlling and processing the information consumed. It will be good for our physical and mental health.

Critical thinking is a process to be used in all facets of our lives; personal, professional, and public. It’s not what we think, but how we think. It’s a constant inquiry and examination of beliefs and actions motivated by civility and respect. Critical thinking and the ability to question questions and becoming a critic of our own thinking should be an educational process learned from the very beginning of our reception of information. Let’s cultivate a healthy consumption of information and question its intent, so we can develop a very rational understanding of the event around us.

“A critical thinker is neither dogmatic nor gullible. The most distinctive features of the critical thinker’s attitude are open-mindedness and skepticism.” – Robert Todd Carroll

References:

Johnson, Clay. The Information Diet. O’Reilly, 2012 pp.2-5

Carroll. Robert Todd. Becoming a Critical Thinker, A Guide for the New Millennium 2^nd edition. Pearson 2005

Elder. L. Becoming a Critic of Your Thinking. Online Posting. www.criticalthinking.org 2004

Mind Tools. Critical Thinking. Online Posting. www.mindtools.com Mind Tools Ltd. 1996-2012  

Re-inventing Myself

A Baby Boomer Recreated?

By Doug Berube

I was debating the title of this essay and my first thought was to name it, “Will a 29 Year Gap be a Hindrance?” or “Midlife Recovery”, but I thought it would be more appropriate to ask the above question instead. This essay is about my decision to go back to college and complete my undergraduate degree in Business Management. You’re probably thinking that going back to college is no big deal and most would think not, but my thinking is marred by a 57 year old perspective and 29 year absence for my last full-time education enlightenment. “Baby Boomer Recreated” as a question has the potential to cause a cognitive awareness to the reality of my situation and a positive change to my consciousness.

Currently I’m unemployed and during tuff economic times I’ve had plenty of excuses to blame others for my situation. I’ve had plenty of time to ponder my predicament and wallowing in the mire of self-pity is not a way to get out of the muck. It’s not healthy to let the muck take up residence in my brain, so the best thing to do is to let go of the past and see the lessons that can be learned that will help me frame a plan to get myself going in a positive direction. I don’t know, at this time, which direction is best, but going in a direction is better than standing in the muck of indecision. My first decision was obvious and that was to start applying for jobs and my job search is including job outside construction industry. The second decision was to go back to college to complete my undergraduate degree to make myself more marketable. These first 2 steps have me headed in a positive direction.

Now that I have accepted the responsibility for my current situation, I will have some control of the outcome to this part of my life. Education is always part of any solution and my hesitation was based on the 29 year gap and a full time student as something for youth. This perception is so far from accurate; I couldn’t be any more wrong. Continuing education is for everyone and there is a good mix of generations, these days, going to college. Personal computers were in their infancy and the only social networking was by phone, mail, or letter. All meetings were in person, which today is not always the first choice. The good thing, I’m very well connected by social media and I been using PC’s from the availability for purchase. This reflection became very comforting as I re-thought the way I was thinking and it appears I’m just part of the normal.

I developed a map by using mind mapping techniques that will help me see options I can take to determine a path and I prefer mind mapping my plan. There are three major components needed for this plan. The formula is System Thinking + Creativity + Vision = Strategic Thinking. The three components have subsets that are part of the equation and I mapped out these subsets because they are a strategy to drive into my brain, peel back the hard shell layers of self-denial and see the real me (well, what I see as the real me). For the current situation, it is always good to review your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Once I make my way through the self-evaluation, I will use the map to set clear and focused goals with prioritized criteria, for my career part of the plan, which can be qualified and quantified. This information will be setup to track and evaluate weaknesses or threats that are becoming a hindrance to my goals. I’m the hindrance most of the time.

A well structured map is just one component on the path to success; motivation is the catalyst to that success. Motivation is the brain activity that takes the focus and understanding of how I work. I have a couple of quotes I like to use for motivation when it appears I’m struggling.

“Never, Never, Never Quite.” Winston Churchill

“When under pressure, your performance level will sink to your level of preparation” Anon

So here is the work skill map; just do it!