And most students (99% of them) would come to me without any idea what they should do for work and for life. The other 1% would be very clear with what they want and mainly wants guidance on how to get there.

For the students in the 99% group, it is not a bad thing because they are at least aware of the situation and seeking help. It is those others who are completely clueless and absolutely unaware of it that I am worried about.

Quite obviously, for students in the 99% group, their answer to, “What do you want to do after graduation?” is invariably:

“I don’t know.”

“I have never thought of it.”

Or some variation of these.

And when asked why they are studying what they are studying,  many would give me a blank stare or give an answer similar to:

“There’s good prospects… according to <some relative>.”

“I had no choice,” or “It’s not my first choice.”

“There’s big money.”

One interesting answer I got just this week was:

“Accountants look really cool.”

As a society, we have come to put a lot of trust in the education system. In fact, too much trust. A degree has been regarded by the recent past few generations to be the ticket for success and, eventually, happiness.

In fact, certain degrees are favoured over others. There is also a huge play of favouritism in the school system where the various subjects are classified in a hierarchy of importance.

Think about it. In your primary school and high school, which are the “important” subjects?

Math, science and language.

How about music, dance, art, history, religious knowledge, ethics and values? These are second-class citizens. Most schools classify these as “nice-to-haves” instead of “must-haves.”

And many parents would even say, “You cannot earn a living with these! There is no future studying these! Don’t waste your time!”

Why?

Because they were brought up in the industrial age in which the industrial revolution essentially requires people trained in the hard skills like mathematics and the Sciences so that they can work in factories and production lines.

Such an intentional and purposeful filtering of subjects in schools deprives young children of the valuable exposure they needed to discover their natural interests, talents and aptitudes.

What’s more is that these same children (that is, you and me) are being drilled day and night about the need to study hard (i.e. maths and the sciences) so that we can go to university, so that we can get a degree, so that we can get a good job, so that we can earn good money, so that we can have a good life, so that we can be successful and happy.

This is one big lie that we have been sold to consistently over the past few generations.

No wonder most of our youths and graduates today feel lost and have no idea what they should do!!

Now, there are many ways to determine what you should do in your life. If you don’t know what you want, here’s another approach:

Think about what you don’t want.

I mean think about the kind of work that you would absolutely hate to do on a day-to-day basis.

What kind of environment do you hate?

What kind of people would you hate to work with?

What would you dislike to deal with on a regular basis?

Look at what you hate and consider the opposite. You see, being clear about what you don’t want and dislike will also give you a good idea of what you want and what would work for you.

“What are the employment prospects these days?”

“What are the hot industries?”

“Who is hiring?”

Employment (or unemployment) statistics are just good conversational topics but they are not worth following for your career planning.

The only employment statistic you should care about is either 0% or 100% – that is, are you employed or not.

The next question to ask is, “Are you in the job you want or not?”

So regarding market prospects for 2010, the answer is, “Why should you care?”

What you should be focusing on is your individual career.  Yes, all things being equal, I would go after growing industries instead of shrinking ones.

But all things are not equal.

It is more important to know your values, skills and interests and match them with the right industry, job function and company instead of picking employers from a hat and force-fitting yourself into them.

Two tips to think about:

1. Let the market respond to your actions.

The market is invaluable in providing guidance on what your skills and qualifications are worth and how you are perceived by it.

If you are aiming for certain jobs or titles or salary levels and are not getting interviews, you need to find out if you are targeting wrongly or simply not positioning yourself properly for what you want.

Rather than reading market news and trying to incorporate that into your planning, craft your best plans and take action from there.

Then, collect market feedback specific to your actions and adjust accordingly.

Remember, if you continue to do the same thing again and again expecting a different result, you are an idiot. And believe me, a lot of people fall into this category.

2. Go for the ideal, not the available or popular.

The reality is that a career is always made up of what you bring to the table (i.e. value) and what the market will take.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not dismissing the importance of what is available in the market.

But you must always keep in mind that markets change, expand and new markets emerge. So, when you look only at what’s available currently, you are not seeing the complete possibilities.

When you aim instead for what is ideal for you and look for a way to bring that to market, you include market expansion and creation in your potential outcomes.

In other words, going for the ideal gives you more opportunities.

So, if you must know what the market prospect is for 2010, you have the perfect answer – it depends on how far you are willing to go.

You see, the keyword is “IF”.

The fact remains that few people take action on the knowledge and skills that they have.

[Side note: In fact, a good percentage of people who are considered successful in our societies today are without degrees. I personally know a number of them.]

The answer is simple: Because they don’t put what they have learned to use.

Many of them, and I hope you are not one of them, are taught that, in this information-age-knowledge-economy, knowledge is power.

This can’t be more wrong.

Knowledge is only *potential* power. If you don’t put that knowledge to use, it will only sit in the books and on the backseat of your mind and can never be powerful.

Only ACTION is power.

To cause something to change, to move, to improve, to work, there MUST BE ACTION. That’s why people who can put knowledge to appropriate use are said to be wise.

Only the top 5% of the students who come to my training workshops will take action on what they have learned. As such, these are the same 5% who will be successful in their careers and lives.

So, if you would decide and commit to applying what you’ve learned to your life, you would be amongst the top 5% of the entire population. The other 95% will still not have a clue what their lives are about and where they are heading.

Guess what? You will have close to ZERO competition and, thus, all the advantages needed. So, let’s not worry at this point in time what will happen IF everyone used the techinques that I taught. Such a question is a good academic question of no practical value.

My point is this:  There is no point gaining more and more knowledge. Start taking action on the knowledge and skills that you have acquired and continue to learn from that point forth. This, then, is the mark of a wise and successful person.

Question for you: What action will you be taking today? Or are you going to wait for the 9 planets in our solar system to align first? : )

Now, you have an upcoming assignment due in 2 weeks that needs high levels of creativity. So, you approach these two persons for help.

As expected, the loud and not-as-creative person dominates the conversation and never allows the shy guy to participate. So, while the ideas generated are good, they are not incredibly innovative.

The question now is: How do you get the loud guy to shut up so that you can hear the shy guy??

By distracting him.

When you approach the two persons in the room again, get the loud guy to watch a movie or give him a puzzle to solve. Under such circumstances, the quiet guy can get his voice heard and you benefit from much more creative ideas and suggestions.

Why should this matter to you?

Well, this is how you mind works. Specifically, this is how  your conscious mind (the loud but not as creative guy) and your subconscious mind (the highly creative yet shy guy) are related.

Your subconscious mind is capable of far more wonderful ideas and innovative solutions to problems. However, what it tries to tell us is often drowned out by its loud and logical counterpart – the conscious mind.

All of us can be a lot more creative than we are now. And the best part of it is that you don’t need to exert much effort or time to “make” yourself more creative.

All it takes is to let the quiet guy speak up by keeping the loud guy busy.

Here’s an action plan the next time you need creative solutions to problems:

1. Become clear and specific about the problem you are trying to solve. It helps to write them down on paper.

2. Work on a word, or jig-saw, puzzle, or even Sodoku will do, for several minutes.

3. Without thinking much about it, note down the thoughts, ideas and possible solutions that come to you concerning the problem you are trying to solve.

Whether we have courage or not is dependent on the kind of conditioning we have received throughout our life, whether we are conscious or unconscious of it.

The good news is: It can be changed, developed and reconditioned. To possess courage is one of the basic requirements for leadership in practically any field.

Fear, or the lack of courage, is the key contributor of failure in life and in management compared to any other factor. It is always fear (fear of rejection and fear of failure being the top two) that causes people to procrastinate, to hold back, to sell themselves short, and to settle for far less than what they deserve!

For example, I always teach that ideal jobs come through personal contacts and networks instead of job-boards like jobsdb.com, monster.com, classifiedpost.com, etc.

As soon as I say, “You have to start networking,” I hear sighs and fearful expressions asking, “Must I?”

Why are people afraid of networking? Because they are afraid of not knowing what to say, how to continue the conversation, how people will think of them… They are afraid of being embarrassed.

In other words, they fear rejection. What other people think of them has become more important than what they want to achieve.

Too bad.

But for those of you who are willing to do whatever it takes (ethically, of course) to achieve your goals (this is the hallmark of a leader because this is a demonstration of self-leadership), ask yourself this question:

“What one thing would I dare to dream or do if I knew I could not fail?”

That is: If you had no fears at all and everything you did succeeds, what would you do differently today?

Now, go do exactly that!

Think about it: What’s the risk? Before you did it (i.e. the something that you fear), you didn’t have it. And if you didn’t get it after you did it, then you are in the same position as before.

Yes, fear may be there. But you can feel the fear and do it anyway. This is the surest way to conquer fear and build courage.

A leader is first a person who can lead himself or herself. Without such courage, leading others effectively will not be possible.

So, next time someone says, “No” to you, you say, “Next!”

Flexibility.

We are living in an age where change is happening faster than anyone of us can imagine. Like what Einstein said some time ago, answers to the same questions are changing all the time. For those of you who are studying now, most of what you are learning now will become obsolete by the time you graduate.

Coupled with the rapid advancement in technology, change doesn’t occur in a straight line, is unpredictable and come from all different sides that it is impossible to predict.

Since this is the case, the only attribute that will ensure your sustained success is your flexibility to learn new skills, find new resources, try new solutions, tread new paths.

Change causes great stress for people who have a “fixed” mindset. These are people who are stuck in their beliefs and ideas about how things SHOULD BE. They have fallen in love with “tradition” and “history.” They are always thinking, “I have done it this way in the past and it worked, and so, I shall continue to do it this way.”

They constantly take on the role of a JUDGE, comparing how things are done now with how things have been done in the past. As such, they continue to use their existing methods and processes, and are unwilling to change even when circumstances demand otherwise.

In other words, they can only think IN the box given to them.

And they would rather spend energy and time RESISTING the change rather than putting that effort into making the change work for them.

Whether you like it or not, a time like this demands rapid response to blinding changes. It is VITAL that you develop your flexibility by remaining open to all possibilities and never to close yourself off to anything. Stay alert to new ideas, information, and knowledge at all times and be willing to put them to use or test.

Remember this: It is your willingness that makes you able.

It’s always interesting to note what staff members of retail shops do when I walk into a shop or a restaurant. For some of the shops that are more progressive, I will often hear a word of welcome; others simply couldn’t care a hoot who walked into the shop.

What intrigues me is that many of those who says, “Welcome!” don’t actually mean it at all.In fact, I get the feeling that I am not welcomed at all.

How do I know?

Because their body language tells me so.

The words, “Welcome! Please take a seat” or “Welcome! Please take your time to choose” can be flying out of their mouths but I will often find them slouching in their chairs, not even looking at me or, if they were looking at me, their faces looked as if they just woke up from sleep.

This becomes even more amusing when, in one restaurants recently, the waiters and waitresses started wearing a bright yellow badge with a smiley face. Instead of becoming more friendly to their customers, they have opted to let the badge smile on their behalf.

Does it work? Not the slightest bit.

The fact is that our non-verbal communication screams so loud that others cannot hear our words and voices.  If you have been to my classes, you’d already know that the non-verbal portions of any face-to-face communication (body language, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, breathing, eye blinks, listening, etc.) accounts for 55% of the entire communication; words 7% and verbal 38%.

So, the most basic thing to remember when you communicate is that what you say, how you say it and how your entire body expresses it MUST BE CONGRUENT. This has great and profound impact on not just relationships and interviews but your entire life!

But there is so much to consider for body language alone. Where should you start?

Let’s start with your smile.

A sincere and genuine smile does not stop at the lips and mouth. It extends all the way to the eyes. Show a little teeth. Try practising this in front of your mirror for 5 mins a day. If necessary, hold a pencil horizontally with your teeth and make sure your lips don’t touch the pencil.

Here’s the clincher:
When you meet someone, don’t be too quick to smile. Instead, look into the person’s face for a second, THEN, let in a warm, big, responsive smile that runs throughout your entire face. This slight delay will convince people that your smile is real and only for them.

This being a new semester in a new academic year, I was assigned
the role of a subject leader which means that it is my job to
coordinate with all the professors teaching the same subject I am
teaching – Business Communication.

So, I held a first meeting with all the teaching staff, professor
and teaching assistant to discuss the syllabus, textbook,
assessment schemes, teaching approach, and so on such that we can
all on the same page.

I taught the subject last semester and so, thought it a good idea
to share what I did and experienced as well as what worked and what
didn’t work with the team so that we can make the necessary changes
this new semester.

Interestingly, even before I could start saying anything, one
professor, who was the subject leader for this subject last year
(and whom I took over from) said:

“Ethan, I saw from your syllabus that you have made significant
changes to the syllabus and assessment scheme which I wrote for
this course last year. You have also changed the textbook which has
been used for the past 3 years. I don’t see why you should make
these changes. This is not right!”

Well, you are just reading the words that she said here. If you
could hear HOW she said them (in terms of her tone and volume), you
would know for sure that she was not happy.

There being other teachers around who have no idea what she’s
talking about, I told her that I will address those issues later
and proceeded to give my background of the subject as planned.

From then onwards, she protested against everything that I had to
say (including the poor customer service provided by the publisher
of the new textbook I adopted for the course) and insisted that HER
syllabus and assessment scheme were the proper ones and whatever
changes I have made were simply “unaccredited.”

At the end of that first meeting, all I heard from her were the
problems that she perceive. No solution or way forward whatsoever.
No discussion.

The next morning, I got a call from the Dean of the faculty and was
told of the complaint that she lodge with the management.

I was dumbfounded and could feel a sense of anger rising up in my
chest. My shoulders tensed up and a frown started to show on my
face.

It was at this moment that I was reminded that it is not my job to
judge her. I mean how can I judge her when I don’t want her to
judge me! In any case, putting what I teach to work, what she says
or does is really… none of my business and as such, I can choose
the way I want to respond.

Once I began to let the anger go, something happened.

I was told by the Dean that I have not done anything wrong or
against any course accreditation. I later found that such
antagonistic behaviour from this particular professor is nothing
new and so, I shouldn’t take the adversarial stance personally.

The complaints didn’t stop there but I decided not to spend
unnecessary energies on unreasonable people and to put the effort
into more productive endeavours instead.

Still,  I wondered what triggered such behaviour from such an
“educated” person who refused to communicate so that the matter can
be resolved amicably. How can she be a good role model for her
students considering the fact that she’s teaching “Business
Communication”?

I realized that she might have taken the changes that I have made
as an attack on her capability or worth. This means that she’s not
actually unhappy with the changes that I’ve made per se but she’s
upset with what she perceived as my judgement on her when I made
those changes:

Changing the syllabus means the old one was not good enough.
Changing the textbook means the old one was not good enough…

Well, from my end, there was no judgement at all; only making sure
that what I teach is always improving. The fact remains that I
don’t even know her.

Her reaction was based solely on what she THOUGHT was happening. It
was not based on what’s REALLY happening in reality.

So, are you responding to what you perceive things to be OR are you
responding to the facts? Start being aware today and you’ll realize
how easy it is to change your thoughts and get better outcomes in
your life.

Now, for a fresh graduate with nothing (much) to show for, doing
free work will most definitely build your portfolio. This is one of
the key items in your resume that employers are looking for – what
you have done and what you are capable of doing.

You may have earned your degree, but you haven’t earned the right
to be paid a lot of money yet. And so, you have to proof your worth.

3. If you have really decided on what you really want (even if it
may not be the major that you have studied), then it is time to
build some skills in that area.

Look at what skills your most desired industry needs and wants,
then start learning them. Read books, sign up for courses, do
whatever it takes and stop giving yourself excuses to not pursue
your dream!

4. Start your own personal blog.

Yes, you will be googled. And what better way to let a potential
employer know you before interviewing you?

Of course, your blog content should be about your passion and
interest that has to do with the kind of job that you want. And
yes, put out GOOD content.

There are so many blogging websites out there like WordPress and
Blogger which you can sign up for free and start blogging
immediately. So, no excuses again!

5. Research your target.

If you are truly interested with an industry or company, make sure
you research them thoroughly. This is such that when you approach
them to propose doing free work, you know exactly what you are
talking about. This way, you won’t sound like an idiot.

Doing free work is about building trust with your potential
employer. So, approach it that way. Remember to highlight the
benefits of such a working arrangement FOR THE EMPLOYER such that
what you are proposing becomes valuable.

6. Switch to paid work at an appropriate time.

Your objective is not to do free work indefinitely. So, you have to
lay out for yourself the time frame for your free work to progress
into paid work.

If it is 1 month, then let the company know by then that you’d like
to transit to paid work (of course, based on your performance) or
move on to something more challenging or can be paid work (get
contacts through their network).

Being recession-proof means that YOU can choose what you want to
work on when you want to do so without being dictated by the
economic environment or by the people around. This means that you
have greater control doing the things you love and at the end, you
will be able to create a lifestyle that you really want.