Speaking to students is where I get the best feedback about what is needed and what they are looking to achieve. The speaking engagements usually finish with a variety of students approaching me to inform me about the talk or to ask questions. My favorite comment was from a business major at a top business school, that said “You should be speaking at the business school, last week we had an actor. I liked the actor but didn’t learn anything….none of us did.” So, to add to my speaking opportunities I’m offering one-on-one consulting viewing LinkedIn profiles and resumes. Many students I deal with attend colleges where the career counselors have no time, no real-world experience and/or the school itself offers nothing for career exploration or career readiness.

Depending on how one learns some students prefer videos and I have produced 90+ YouTube videos on career readiness. If they prefer reading, I do inform about books on careers such as The Unspoken Rules by Gorick Ng which is the perfect book one needs when they enter the workforce. This could also be a great book for internships.

Moreover, I have done other videos on books such as College to Career by Lindsay Pollack, Do This, Not That by Jenny Foss, From Classroom to Career by Shirley Morrison. These are great career books for college students. I plan to read Designing Your Life, Designing Your Career and Designing Your New Work Life books soon. Recently, read What Color is Your Parachute? and thoroughly recommend that one. It’s been around for years and is still considered a top career counseling book.

Also, within the 90+ videos one can view soft or professional skills. Every student should know and master these, especially speaking and writing. If you have any issues with public speaking, please take a class on it as it will increase your self-worth and confidence. You can join Toastmasters as well. Professional skills are imperative as hard skills are pushed yet when it comes to “get a job!” many are plain lost…… So many students study Python yet have no idea how to find an opportunity aka job.

Many speakers are inspirational, which is great and needed whereas mine is more logical like my book, Careers By the People. They attain the parchment, but what about the next step……work? So, I review ideas and solutions to issues to assist them on embarking on their career journey. Why not help avoid the obstacles that are in their way. A degree, an award and a certificate is awesome but how do I pay the bills?

LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a tool or as one should think, a living and breathing resume of your world. You best know it and update it with everything you do from posting on subjects that interest you to commenting on other posts. It’s all business so stay in that zone and don’t get sucked into political nonsense. Fill out all sections, have a great headshot and make sure they know you are open to work and what you are looking to achieve.

Resume’s are also imperative. Again, many are not taught or helped with this process hence why my top YouTube video is “The Resume Booklet.” This booklet is not only a powerhouse but will get you the gig over the competition as it’s a professionally done document of your business life.

After my book was published, opportunities to speak began to occur. It’s truly amazing to me when I reach out to schools the responses one gets. First, one rarely gets responses and when you do, most are nice and every so often someone is angry at the world and blames you. Being in tech sales for 30+ years you get every complaint plus growing up in Weymouth you are called every name by 3^rd grade.

It was a joy when Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) noted that they would like me to speak for one of their career exploration classes. Moreover, they were kind enough to video tape it and one can listen to a truncated version on my website plus they had a professional photographer take shots for the schools newspaper. HPU has been more than kind to me since the book has been published……then the schools began lining up. Here’s a brief list of on-sites. I did many remotes which are great. The on-sites are a true joy as one can get clear interaction.

Let’s start with universities, got a chance to speak at Boston University (BU) 4 times which was awesome. BU truly takes care of its students. They have many classes on career exploration. As I was bouncing around the Northeast, I also spoke at my alma mater, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. That was a joy as the class was next door to where I took my final course to graduate.

After UMass, I had the amazing opportunity to speak at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Their TRiO Team is amazing and always has great ideas on career readiness. Next, back to Boston to speak at Suffolk University. Suffolk was a joy as the students had some amazing questions and had one student from Weymouth that was on their basketball team.

The high schools circuit encompassed many miles of flight. It started before Careers By the People was published at Kihei Charter School on Maui. Then, after the publication, Kapolei High School on Oahu then Maui High School followed shortly. Back East, spoke 4 times at New Milford High School in CT. On the South Shore of Boston spoke at my alma mater Weymouth High School then cruised over Holbrook Middle High School and finished at Randolph High School. Randolph was a true joy as I met one of the brightest students on the book/speaking tour.

As I went West, I had the amazing chance to speak at California State University Dominguez Hills. An old connection in technology helped me get this setup and had a variety of students asking career readiness questions.

Doing excessive amounts of homework on career readiness as well as attending many conferences, Career and Technical Education kept on popping up aka CTE. Many in the CTE field loved the book and then asked me to break down the chapters to CTE which I did. Here’s the writing on that subject:

It’s a great book for Career & Technical Education as it views 101 occupations that break down into California CTE Career Pathways. In the book there are (4) in Agriculture and Natural Resources (7) Arts, Media, & Entertainment (1) Building & Construction Trades (14) Business & Finance (18) Education, Child Development, & Family Services (1) Energy, Environment, & Utilities (5) Engineering & Architecture (3) Fashion & Interior Design (10) Health Science & Medical Technology (3) Hospitality, Tourism, & Recreation (5) Information & Communication Technologies (6) Manufacturing & Product Design (14) Marketing, Sales, & Services (6) Public Services (3) Transportation.

The emphasis of the book as well as the speaking engagement is not like Designing Your Life it’s about focusing on your profession. It’s 40 years of your existence and per Frank Parsons, other than choosing a spouse, it is the most important choice in your life. Frank is the Godfather of Choosing a Vocation.

Everyone is looking for or wants a dream career, dream job, best job, a solid profession so they scour career guides, career books, career planning, take career assessments etc……which is all good. I enjoy the approach of narrowing it down to a few occupations and fields. If you don’t like hospitals, don’t go into medical, if you love numbers maybe accounting, actuarial science etc… maybe your gig. Focus on a list of likes and dislikes.

Even if you are looking for alternatives to college, talk to people in the field that you want as well as the ones that have left the field and why. Don’t always associate money with success and joy. If all you want is money, that’s easy. Get an MBA from Wharton and work as an investment banker or venture capitalist. They make a few million a year, so that is done. Congrats! Move to Beverly Hills! If you want some joy or a challenge for your career, you must find what interests you and that you enjoy learning about that constantly.

Careers By the People reviews 101 occupations from the people that worked them. They each get asked 20+ questions about their career and the majority have 5+ years in that occupation so you can read if they acquired their dream career or not.

Then I review what I should have done differently in college in hopes to find that dream job or better yet great career. That as well as my videos review internships, career choice, career planning for college, career advancement so you have career options in the hopes of career success.

I hope through this career advice that one can choose the best career path for themselves so they can acquire an occupation that offers some type of joy and purpose.

When should career preparation/career planning start?

So many ask when should career planning start? Is this a good book for career planning in high school, is this career planning for teens, or is this a career book for college students only? I think career books for teens should target 10^th grade and above. Others want to target elementary etc…..Careers By the People is best for age 13 to adult. It’s great to inform young people about occupations but in more of a fun way prior to the serious topics that Careers By the People handles. Some look at this as a career counseling workbook whereas I look at it as a tool to help you narrow down one of the most important decisions in your life.

Careers By the People informs how I should have prepared for a career. You will learn about networking, soft, professional skills from 30+ years in the trenches of technology sales.

Recently, Careers By the People won an IPPY Book Award for Non-Fiction Best First Book Bronze.