Save And Invest!

It is never too early to think about saving and investing for retirement.

Check CNNMoney’s “Ultimate Guide to Retirement”: http://money.cnn.com/retirement/guide/

Debacle On Wall Street

As young professionals, we definitely have to be concerned about the economy.

Check out the news on what’s going on right now in the financial world (Please, click on the titles to read the articles) :

Worst Crisis Since \’30s, With No End Yet in Sight – Wall Street Journal.com

How We Got Here: It\’s Housing, Stupid – CnnMoney.com

Fed, central banks move to boost global confidence – Yahoo.com

Markets remain uneasy after central bank moves – Yahoo.com

How does the situation affect us?

AIG, Lehman, and Merrill Lynch: How do they affect you? – YoungMoney.com

Will AIG plan cost taxpayers money, or just sleep? – CnnMoney.com

What AIG\’s Troubles Mean for Your Insurance – CnnMoney.com

5 questions: Why AIG matters to you – CnnMoney.com

Financial Advisers Warn Against Knee-Jerk Reaction – CnnMoney.com

The World’s Most Powerful Women by Forbes.com

With Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin making waves in politics, we decided to have a section on women ”movers and shakers”.

Check Forbes.com “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” at: http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/27/most-powerful-women-biz-powerwomen08-cz_me_cs_0827women_land.html

You can also find the following sections (please click on the titles):

Finance High Flyers

Humanitarians

Media Masters

Women To Watch

“Secrets Of The Self-Made…” by Forbes.com

I love to learn from ’self made’ entrepreneurs, and there is a lot we can learn from them. So, check this out: “Secrets Of The Self-Made 2007″ by Forbes.com at http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/20/citigroup-abbott-trump-ent-fin-cx_bn_richlist07_0920secrets_land.html

Abstract: “They’re rich– really rich–and in the mood to share.

Their secrets, that is. We played 20 questions with 21 self-made members of the Forbes 400. Result: an exclusive, introspective and often playful peek into their best days, worst qualities, guiltiest pleasures …”

“Certificate programs can propel career” by Boston.com

Check this out: “Certificate programs can propel career – Credentials from a respected institution can propel career, give resume a boost” – Boston.com

Abstract:

“… Certificate programs have boomed in recent years as technology and business practices have changed at an ever-faster pace and as individual career paths have grown more circuitous. According to a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, for many academic institutions, adult learners (including those in certificate programs and other part-time postbaccalaureate studies) account for more than half of all enrollments and are usually a significant source of profit.

It’s a big business. Harvard University alone, according to the Chronicle, takes in about $150 million per year from some 60,000 continuing education students — far more students than are enrolled in its traditional graduate…”

You can read the article at: http://www.boston.com/jobs/globe/articles/092902_cert.html

The Semantics of YoPIs and Yuppies By Filip Simunovic and S.Z

Thank you Filip and SZ  :)  for this superbe article!

 

Both words are spelled similarly. Obviously, the pronunciation is even more similar. And they are both odd abbreviations beginning with a ‘Y’.

But how do they relate beyond that?

The first one stands, clear enough, for a fledgling blog, on the pages of which you are reading this text. If it is to develop beyond that and become a club, a movement or a subculture of its own remains to be seen – its future is largely in our hands.

Behind the second abbreviation lays a comparatively gigantic phenomenon, a phenomenon so old that it had already long passed its prime and is probably extinct.

Here, we will discuss the demised giant.

Yuppie stands for Young Urban Professional or Young Upwardly Moving Professional. It usually refers to an eighties subculture of young people who were pursuing well-paid professional careers, and who were distinguishing themselves by disregarding the stability of family life and taking pleasure in advancing their career and spending money on themselves. An archetypical Yuppie is a late-twenties/early-thirties lawyer or stockbroker, drives a BMW convertible, is elaborately groomed, clad in designer clothes and armed with a selection of the newest gadgets and accessories. He or she is focused on working hard with the goal of achieving professional heights and financial opulence.

Only several years after initial introduction of the term in the early eighties it received negative connotations. It began to imply loss of traditional values, greed, self-absorption, superficiality and ostentatious display of wealth.

From a present time distance, we can wonder if a typical yuppie ever existed in its full-fledged form. It might have merely been a marketing term describing the consumerism-driven mindset of the time, and the subgroup of people who had the means and idle time to intensively participate in it.

However, the impact of the yuppies undeniably resonates in the popular culture. A generation of writers like Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis and Jill Eisenstadt was inspired, or had inspired, the Yuppi phenomenon. Wall Street, a 1987 Oliver Stone film is soaked in the greedy, money-grabbing, unscrupulous atmosphere. More recently, soulless careerism of the successful young people has been violently portrayed in films like American Psycho and Fight Club. A brilliant eighties comedy series Only Fools and Horses revolves around second-grade London swindlers Derek and Rodney who are motivated, albeit unsuccessfully, to rise from a South London suburb and become, in Dereck’s own words, Yuppies.    

Let us end in hope.

Let us hope that YoPI evolves and becomes a trend with an impact on our culture. Let us hope that its impact is a longer lasting, more stable one, one that inspires intellectual achievement, personal relationships, cultural exchange, perpetuated learning and education, and one which does not, of course, in any way hinder a (financially) successful pursuit of a career. All of the above are key prerequisites for cultural tolerance, which in today’s world is much more then an exotic property of well-traveled affluent intellectuals – it has become an everyday necessity.  

To put it in the words of S.Z, a prominent collaborator of this blog (and a prominent individual in many other ways): It is not what we become that is important. Who we become is what matters.

 

Entrepreneur Interview: Michael Librizzi – www.briz.com

We interviewed  a young, talented and hard working young entrepreneur! His name: Michael Librizzi. His business: Briz.com.

What is your background?

I’m 24, I graduated from Syracuse University (I studied finance, information technology, entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises), and started out of college working at Morgan Stanley as an analyst.

 

What is your product/service?

I started Briz.com in 2007 and it is now my full time job.

 

Briz is simple: “It’s where businesses can share their local buzz.”  Briz combines business networking, business blogging, and local search, to create an online community that allows small business owners to reach their area and manage their contacts.

 

‘Entrepreneurship?’ Why did you choose this path?

The passion, the challenge, the reward… Because I wanted to do something that really tested me.

 

How did you get the idea for your business? Tell us about it.

There is a huge gap online in the SMB (small-medium size business market.)  Only 48% of small businesses even have a website, and Internet users are conducting hundreds of millions of local searches each month.  In fact, 50% of people conducting a search to find a local business in their neighbor make a decision of where/what to purchase offline based what they found online.

 

Did you start your business alone or with a partner? Why?

I started it alone, for me it was the best option. I had the vision and the plan to get it going and bringing anyone in early would not have been a good fit.  Though I did have tons of advisors, help, and expert support.  There is no right or wrong way to do it. The most important thing is to recognize the people-resources around you and utilize them.

 

As a young entrepreneur, what challenges do you face?

Everything to date I’ve pretty much have had to teach myself.  So be prepared to be self-sufficient, no one is going to stand there and hand feed you answers on a plate. Be prepared to be self-disciplined, be prepared to work 80 hrs a week.

 

What is the best thing about being an entrepreneur?

Simple – The positive feedback you receive from your customers.  It makes you feel like you’re making a difference.

 

What motivates you?

Challenges motivate me.  Technology and geek stuff motivate me.  But most of all the reward when people see your passion, and when what you do truly helps someone else.

 

“I would like to start a business similar to yours. Where do I start? ”

If you want to start a .com specifically, the most important advice I can give is define your scope.  In the .com world you can do almost anything, and doing it all won’t work.  Draw a circle on a piece of paper.  Then brainstorm what you want to do and write all of the different website functionalities that can be built to support it within the circle. Then start crossing out functionalities until all that is left is the solution to the specific problem you’re trying to solve.

 

What advice would you give to people who want to be entrepreneurs and what resources help you the most?

Your network of people will be the most helpful.  My advice is not to be shy in talking about your idea… If it’s worth doing, it will be too hard for people to just steal.  You’ll need all the feedback you can get, and talking about your idea will open up doors to opportunities you can’t anticipate.

 

Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?

Either with briz.com or within venture capital.

In Politics: Republican National Convention (RNC) Speeches – St Paul 2008

John McCain

Sarah Palin

Cindy McCain

DNC Speeches:

http://yopi.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/in-politics-obama-biden-vs-mccain-palin/

http://yopi.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/in-politics-democratic-national-convention-dnc-speeches-denver-2008/

“How to network your way up the corporate ladder” by forbes.com

Check this article: “How to network your way up the corporate ladder” at

http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/10/network-building-careers-lead-cx_tw_0710bizbasics_slide_2.html?thisSpeed=20000

“How To Write A Winning Resume!”

Thank you, cvtips.com for this great article!       You can check their web site at http://www.cvtips.com

 

 

The difference between a winning resume and a loser is style. Your resume has to have plenty of punch, with a lot of obvious merits where people can see it. You don’t have to write a book, just put the strong points where people can see them.

 

In fact, with most resumes, more isn’t better. Content is the key. The basics are very straightforward. You already have the information you need:

 

Name, address and contact number and email at the top, in bold font.

 

You use bold font for headers, too, so anyone skimming your resume can’t miss the sections, and can easily find what they’re looking for.  Never give people a mass of text, because they’ll get lost.

 

First, your objectives.

 

Tell people what you’re trying to do with your career, and make it clear you’re focused and goal-oriented. That works as an explanation of your job application, too, because they can see why you’re so interested in that job.  

 

Next, your skills.

 

Put the really important, salable, skills first. If you have special skills, they go at the top, near the heading. Use bullet points, so each point is clearly marked and separated from the others. Every skill creates a picture of a skill set, and you might even be surprised yourself at what you have. Check this list thoroughly; make sure you don’t leave out anything important.

 

Don’t put trivial things on the skills list. You need things like Communication, Administration, and Supervision, not things like photocopying. If you have certification for specific skills, just put See attached, so they know you can document those skills. 

 

Now comes your employment history.

 

Start with the name and address of the employer, dates of employment, in bold type. Again, this is highlighting the important material.

 

A description of your duties, but not masses of information. You can use your skills list as a sort of check on this description, to make sure you don’t leave anything out. You may find that you’ve left out a skill, in the process.

 

This description leads in to a statement of your achievements. That’s why it’s so important to have everything else clear, so people can see who you are, what you do, and where you work as the background for what you’ve achieved.

 

Achievements need to be brief in length but impressive in depth. The idea is that anyone can see an effective person at work. Awards are definitely good material for your resume, and should also be in bold font. Salesman of the Year or Employee of the Month, it’s all useful material. Significant work achievements can be included in relation to your duties, or as extra material to your duties like special projects.

 

Next come your references. You need at least two, and their names, titles, and contacts are required. The titles are the story, and qualify your resume.

 

Attachments should be equally clear, with headers.

 

Your resume must be easy to look through, and everything must be findable.

 

As you can see this is all about structure.  Masses of text aren’t good structure. They distract, and worse, if you provide a page worth of useful information in three pages, it doesn’t look good. More isn’t better. Quality is the key, always.

 

A clear resume stands out well, simply because of its clarity.

 

You also prove your ability to provide information clearly and efficiently, which is a definite plus to any employer. 

 

Links from cvtips.com (Please, click on the title):

Resume

 

Resume Samples

 

CV Examples

 

Cover Letter

 

Resume Builder

 

Job Search Organizer