Roadtrip Nation update

Remember the popular book 'Roadtrip Nation: A Guide to Discovering Your Path in Life' 2 years ago? The November 2005 issue of Fast Company updated us that the "Roadtrip Nation" now has many followers; and it begins to form a grassroots movement that helps college students discover truth about the careers. Below are some facts revealed by participants of the "Roadtrip Nation", they tell us a lot about the mind-set of our youth when time comes to make career choices -

1. most people say they don't know what they are passionate about;

2. many people may actually do know what excites them, but lack confidence to pursue that vision;

3. students think once they make a career decision, they are stuck in it for the rest of their life - or if they don't make a decision right away they'll fall behind, like it's a race.

The prospect of doctors' job market is sick

A doctor I know, at the age of 50, is forced to stay home, waiting for the court's decision. There was a law suit filed against her medical practice many months ago. A appraiser has came to her home estimating her estate.
Reader's Digest recently published a piece predicting that as lawsuits rise, the number of doctors falls. We are losing some of the best and brighest to other professions, because of skyrockting medical practice costs and liability insurance rates. However, the doctor dearth is a trend we can live without.

Top (10) Schools for Art and Design

I paid a visit to an art exhibit in downtown Chicago last weekend. Works on display were all students’ projects from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A brother of my co-worker is a student there, so I got the invitation. As an art layman, I was especially impressed by projects in the multimedia/visual communication area. I was later told , according to recent ‘US.News & World Report’ magazine, that the school is ranked the national No.2 for its Master program of fine arts (in art and design). This makes me so proud of being an Chicagoan.

Below is the list of Top (10) Schools for Arts and Design, by the same ranking:

1.Rhode Island School of Design

2.School of the Art Institute of Chicago

3.Yale University

4.California Institute of the Arts

5.Cranbrook Academy of Arts (MI)

6.Alfred U. – New York State Col. Of Ceramics

7.Art Center College of Design (CA)

8.University of California-Los Angels

9.Virginia Commonwealth University

10.Carnegie Mellon University (PA)

Architect job - hot but competitive

Architect is a profession everyone fantasize about. Remember George on the TV show Seinfeld ? He'd always say he was an architect. But people who can't keep fighting in the storm get weeded out early. Some school professors observed that only 25% of student majoring in architect would make it. Among those, many drop out of the field before mid-age.
In the state of Minnesota, for example, there were only about 60 advertised open positions for architect in 2004. This puts architect job in the group of most popular, yet most competitive jobs. Some other jobs in this group are - fashion designer ( 5 openings); professional athlete (10 openings); dancer ( 20 openings); model (25 openings); actor (30 openings). The job demand situation of Minnesota, I believe, is likely representative of US national average.

Dollar and sense for B.S degree-only grads

The real earnings for workers with only a bachelor's degree have fallen for four straight years, for the first time since the 1970s, and the decline shows no signs of abating. Considering the rapid rising of college education cost in recent years, this news will make sleepless nights for some parents.
I think following two factors contributed significantly to this decline: (1) a big portion of US investment capital moved to abroad, such as China and India. Those money, which could be funneled to hire US workers, instead being used to open and develop foreign markets, or develop out-sourcing capacity; (2)US has oversupply of bachelor's degree grads. The number of college-trained workers in has grown by 32% over the past 10 years, compared with only an 8% rise for all other education levels.
Nowadays, you can not afford to not having a BS. The solutions I can offer to deal with this grim situation are:
(1) get higher degrees - M.S., Ph.D, MBA, etc. The quality of bachelor's degree grads in China or India is no less, or even better than that of US for some technical fields; but when speaking of higher degree programs, US is still viewed as the world's No.1. I know the stake is higher here, but so is the reward;
(2) I am certain that although the average earning of bachelor's degree only grads are decline, there must be some jobs with increased pay rates. Why not go after those higher paying professions in colleges ?

Professional athlete job - what is your odd?

The more popular the career, the greater the competition for jobs. An example of this principle, which we can pin numbers down, is a career in professional athletes. Think about how many people in this country make a living by playing professional sports. Compare this number to all of the people you know who wish they could be professional athletes. The difference is big. In fact, experts estimate that only one in 10,000 high school athletes will succeed as a professional athlete. The table below shows the odds of succeeding in a few professional sports. Numbers below were from 2004, but they should not change much over recent years.

--------------Number of Players----Major League----Odds-
--------------in-US-high-school-----Pro-per-year---------- *************************************************************
Football----------1,023,000---------200---------5,300 to 1
Boys Basketball---540,000----------60----------9,300 to 1
Girls Basketball---456,000-----------40--------11,400 to 1
Baseball------------451,000---------300----------1,500 to 1

Out of your dead end job, Fast !

You know it when you are on a dead end job - you don't feel like contributing much, your boss think lowly about you, and your employer don't take your group seriously. The best way to deal with the situation, in my opinion, is to get out of it. Other people's opinion about you don't change that often. There is a Chinese saying, 'after a tree is moved, the tree dies; after a man moved, the man prosper'. The key here is to realize quickly if you were on a dead end job, and move out of it, fast, very fast.

My Job Sucks !

A recent Gallup poll found that 55% of U.S.employees are not engaged at work. Job satisfaction has steadily declined from nearly 60% in 1995, the beginning of the Internet boom, to 50% in 2004.
Why ??
I don't think the essence of our job have changed; it is things surrounding, connecting our job have changed. We are living in a information-overloaded, large-scale collaboration working environment. Biology evolutionary process may have not given us the mental skill needed to properly work in this environment. Most importantly, organizations of our employers are unable to adapt the change quickly. Ways employees are organized are in serious disorder, according to a recent Business Week article, thus make us feeling frustrated and purpose-lost.