As we grow older everything seems to move at a faster pace, and in the interest of time we begin to accept things instead of wondering about the intricacies of why. We easily forget our curiosity that once wasn’t even satisfied by answers; we lose the curiosity we all used to have.

As adults we all too often look at the simplest items and see them for what they are; a pencil is a pencil. We forget about what it was like to have a sense of wonder, to open our imaginations to the endless possibilities that one simple tool could provide; we forget the wonder we all used to have.

You can get it all back, the eyes, the curiosity, the wonder, it just takes time. Not time as we know it at this stage in our lives; the “let me block out some room on my calendar” time, time as in slowing down.

Today I slowed down to examine a pencil, and it was the best part of my day. I didn’t have a bad day, but taking the time to examine a pencil instead of just use it was that good. I slowed down looked at it and let my mind wonder; I was instantly enthralled by it’s shape, I became curious as to how many lines of writing were required to flatten what was once a sharp lead tip, and thought about the words, no matter how brilliant, that had been permanently vanished by the now depleted eraser. Whose pencil was this? And how did I come to possess it?

These questions led to more and more, soon I was thinking about the business behind pencils and pondering on what would make this pencil better. In this moment I regained my childlike eyes, curiosity, and wonder. It was spectacular!

Slowing down is all it took, slowing down allowed me to rid myself of the cynicism that somehow creeps into all of us and made everything wholesome and good again.

The eyes, the curiosity, the wonder, we all still have it, we just have to slow down and allow ourselves to let it come out.

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Too often people pour their souls onto the Internet, whether it be a friends wall posting or a blog post, and once it is up, it is permanent. A snapshot of how you were feeling at one point in time has been published to the world, and you can’t change your mind on it. We are the first generation that grew up with social media, our lives are practically public information from politically incorrect jokes we write on a friends facebook wall, to the many many inappropriate pictures of us that other people took and tagged us in. For many it won’t really matter, but for those with big dreams (specifically business, political, or athletic) it may.

For the last 7ish weeks I’ve obviously taken a bit of a hiatus from writing. Some of the hiatus had to do with writers block, some had to do with a lack of desire to write, but a good bit of it was actually me censoring myself. As a writer who draws from his own life experience for just about every post, it’s now much harder to write since my co-workers know about this site. Now, if I write about a bad day at work, even if I write about what I’ve learned from it and try to spin it in a positive light, I could come off as complaining (something no one likes). If I write about how I really messed something up, I could (or would in one instance) become a direct target for all the blame, when I shouldn’t be.

Protecting your personal brand online is fairly easy, and protecting it offline is too, but when those worlds collide it becomes a much different world. These instances are even becoming newsworthy: someone on disability posts facebook pictures of them skydiving, someone fires an employee then updates their status telling the world why, or my personal favorite someone gets a job offer then tweets about it saying how the money is great but the company sucks. I’m not saying to have two different “brands” but think of it like this: your work persona vs. your out at the bars persona. Your friends may not care how you act at work, but your boss may care how you act out at the bars.

Over the coming years, as more members of Gen-Y run for office, and further succeed in business and sports it will be interesting to see the scandals that come from all of this, but I think the bigger question is, as Gen-Y becomes even more of an influence will anyone care about poor decisions posted on facebook or twitter? After all we’ve all had them.

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What’s that you say? You’ve spent hours perfectly crafting every word in order to make yourself look fantastic on paper? You even read my advice on resume building? That’s very kind of you, but I repeat, no one cares, and here are 5 reasons why.

• Resumes are boring. No one wants to read them, not even recruiters. It’s a chore that takes time, and realistically the last time you did read one (instead of glance at it) was when you were writing your own.

• People are lying to protect your feelings. When was the last time you or someone you know told a friend you wouldn’t forward their resume on because it was crap? When was the last time you asked for resume advice and everyone told you it looked good? Friends think a lot of things, but very few friends will be brutally honest to help you, if no one is giving you constructive criticism try sending it to other people.

• Your resume won’t get you a job. Do you really think someone is going to hire you based on a piece of paper?

• You’re exaggerating. Everyone does it to a point, but did you really collaborate with the team on the $300 million dollar project, or did you just make copies for them? If by chance someone does read your resume, they are reading it with a skeptical eye and taking it with a grain of salt.

• You are sending it into a black hole. Applying online? Unless you have a persons e-mail address not a generic recruiting address, it will most likely never be seen by  a human eye. Even if you are sending it to a real persons address, remember it’s a chore to open it and they probably don’t want to.

With all this said, it’s true, no one cares about your resume, but you should still care. As much as it kills me to say it, resumes are still very important, and here are 5 reasons why:

• It’s not for other people, it’s for you. Your resume should be a running tally of every impressive thing you have done, and you should use it as a refresher to remind yourself of these things. It should be up to date whether you are job hunting or not, and when you accomplish something of note, write it down. You can always shorten your resume, it’s very hard to lengthen it. Know your resume backwards and forwards and be able to expand on everything on it without fumbling. Even know what doesn’t make the final cut, your resume will help you in the interview (but be careful to not only talk about what is on the resume).

• It is currently the most accepted way to showcase yourself. We are fast approaching the days when someone will say “send me your link” instead of “send me your resume,” some early adopters have already started this with LinkedIn, however, for the time being the resume is still the most accepted way to showcase yourself.

• Key words help you get a foot in the door. Remember that black hole I wrote about? There is a way out, and that is through key words. More often than not applying to a generic recruiting e-mail address will send your resume into a software program in which it will be looking for key words. If it matches the key words, then someone might look at your resume to see if you fit the bill and invite you in for an interview. So remember to use industry language. (Note: although this is my most hated form of applying for a job, I actually did get my current position this way. It never hurts, but don’t get your hopes up.)

• Be true to yourself. A little embellishment is expected but always be true to yourself and NEVER lie on a resume. Lying on a resume is career suicide and it will come back to haunt you. It is better to not get the job by being honest, than to get it by lying. Just ask George O’Leary, former head coach at Notre Dame who was forced to resign because he lied on his resume.

• It won’t make you, but it can break you. First impressions are important, and the resume is frequently someones first impression of you. While it may not make you, it can definitely break you, so in the off chance that someone actually looks at your resume, it needs to be easy to read and perfect. One misspelled word and you are through.

As Gen-Y becomes more of a staple in the work place I see a lot of this changing, particularly the accepted resume format. I believe we will transition to websites with professional bios being the standard (non-boring) way to showcase yourself. But in the meantime, I’ll continue my love/hate relationship with resumes.

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To go along with my passion, I have a scatterbrain. I get a great idea and I jump in head first, only to realize I’m diving in to the shallow end; then before I have time to lick my wounds, I’ve got another great idea, something innovative that will change the way the world  does business. All of my ideas end up spiraling into these grand visions before they are off the ground, and thus they fizzle out.

Recently, after quite a few failed concepts, I’ve learned my most valuable lesson about entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship isn’t about what you are doing, it’s about doing it.

I learned this because my wife started a small bakery. Mary saw a need at our local farmers market, no one was offering baked goods. So she contacted the person who runs it and asked if she could sell some baked goods there. The next week we baked, set up a small stand, and were the only stand at the market to sell out. It was a hit and we made a few hundred dollars, all because Mary saw a need and filled it. It’s not a glamorous business, but it’s something that I am happy to tell people about because action has been taken and it works.

Now we have people asking us where else they can buy our breads, our customers are encouraging us to sell to local shops, and people tell us that they can’t wait for the next farmers market to buy some of our specialty breads and granola bars.

Lesson learned: entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be about starting the next Google, it could be about starting the next big bread company as well .

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Since that time I have learned a great deal, and I admit to not knowing half as much as I thought I knew when I graduated.  But on top of learning a great deal, I’ve seen a great deal.  I’ve seen my older coworkers be too comfortable in their positions, I’ve seen them take themselves too seriously, and I’ve seen them continually be out of touch with the real world.  I’ve seen what it’s like to work for a large company, and I’ve seen what it has done to the creativity of my coworkers.  So in their honor, I’ve compiled a list of 23 things I know at 23 that I pray I remember at 43.

1. Just because your salary grows doesn’t mean your lifestyle should
2. Physical fitness is the best way to mental health
3. Don’t stop dreaming
4. The Industrious Gain Wealth, While the Wealthy Remain Industrious
5. Allow your inner Michael Scott to show Edit: I know he’s an idiot, but he always puts people first.  That’s what I meant.
6. Think Different
7. Welcome other ideas
8. Look down, that’s the furthest you’ll fall.  Look up, how high will you fly?
9. If you don’t let people blow you away, you’ll never be impressed
10. Make time for the things you love, they make you who you are
11. Laugh
12. Don’t be afraid to say no
13. Stay in touch with college students, they are where innovation comes from
14. Dream Big
15. Public Companies are where innovation goes to die
16. Share ideas: If you’re scared you’re going to get screwed you’re never going to get laid
17. If someone wants it more, let them have it, if you want it more, compete for it and prove it.
18. Observe behavior
19. Keep It Simple
20. Stay flexible and open to change
21. Stay Informed
22. Surround yourself with those you strive to be like
23. I can (still) Change the world

What do you want to make sure you remember in 20 years?

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Over the last year I have tried to share some of what I have learned through a variety of posts, most notably: Getting a Job: The Resume, Getting a Job: Networking, and My Mandatory Class Proposal.  But a few months ago I was contacted by a reader who told me to read a book that covered similar issues, so I took the opportunity and read it.

Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World, by Lindsey Pollak is a book that I wish I would have read two years ago, but I’m just as glad that I read it now.  

Geared toward the of short attention spans of gen-y, Lindsey writes 90 small blog-like bites so it’s easy to digest and not overbearing to the reader.  In fact, she goes so far as to include a directive to action at the end of each tip to ensure that you take time to think about it and use it more as a step by step tool to your success instead of reading it like a typical book.

Covering a range of topics from what I have recommended (reading the newspaper, getting a professional e-mail address, and watching classic movies) to creative approaches to networking and interviewing like getting active in your alumni association before you graduate and creating a “brag book” of all of your achievements, Ms. Pollak successfully conveys a process that isn’t easy to teach or even learn.  To drive the points home she often inserts interesting success stories from real people who applied these tactics.

Knowing how cocky I was when I graduated, I already knew it all and I probably would not have read this book, but if I could go back in time and force feed this book to who I was then I would do it.  With that said, the advice in the book isn’t just relevant for recent grads looking for their first jobs, it’s highly relevant to those young and old looking to learn or brush up on the basic business and life skills such as networking, resume writing, and various self improvement projects (Tip 59. “Perform Five Minutes of Stand Up Comedy” is something that I have always wanted to do).

If you are worried about getting a job, interviewing for a new job, or even if you recently got laid off, I highly recommend picking up a copy of the book, and I can guarantee you’ll learn some new tricks.

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Being that Mary has excellent fashion sense, dreams of opening her own clothing store one day, and she picks out my clothes… she won.

It started out slow as I gradually transitioned into nicer button down shirts, but soon I was wearing nicer slacks to work, and then one day it got cold, and instead of wearing my red North Face jacket that I wear everywhere (Mary calls winter “Red Jacket Season” because I’m always wearing it), I decided to bust out a blazer I’ve had lying around that I had only worn a handful of times.

People noticed. They began to compliment me on my attire, and ask me “Why are you so dressed up?  Do you have a job interview? Why are you wearing a jacket?”  I’d laugh and say, I’m wearing a jacket because it’s cold.  As much as I love compliments, they  weren’t the only reactions I was getting.

I have always hated the concept of having to dress up for work, but by dressing nicer than my boss and my peers in the department people began to take me more seriously.  No longer was I the young guy in treasury, I was Daniel the Analyst.  People stopped going above my head to ask my boss questions, they started asking me directly… What I was saying meant something.  The woman who has continually gone over my head on a project I am managing has stopped, and she has begun to listen to me and not scoff at every idea of mine.

It’s really quite interesting what a change in dress has done for me, by dressing more professional to work, I have instantly upped my credibility, people take me more seriously, and show me significantly more respect.

So as a piece of overly used advice from a member of Gen-Y to Gen-Y, dress for the job you want and you’ll be surprised at the results you get.

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The business students look at the Liberal Arts majors and think “What in the Hell are they going to do when they graduate? How will they support themselves? Maybe they will just disappear to the shores of Walden Pond…”

Excuse me if I’m wrong, I was always on the business students side, but those studying Liberal Arts look at the business students and think “All their work is so easy! I’m not in school to get a training, I’m here to get an education!”

To be fair, everyone seems to respect the Science and Engineering majors.

In college I was a member of the University Honors Program, which essentially meant that I (and 30-ish other students) took different core curriculum than the rest of the students.  And then we would have to write a thesis in order to graduate with an undergrad degree (something the rest of the University didn’t have to do).  I was also a business student (after spending 3 semesters in Film School) and I graduated with a degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship.

With that said, I absolutely hated the Honors program.  I hated it so much that I went in to the director of the program to ask out of it, he said I could, but that I would have to retake all of the basic University core.  I wasn’t about to take any extra classes, so out of laziness I stayed in. 

I stayed in through Faust, Dante, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Friedman, Darwin, Dawkins, Antigone, and the list goes on…and on… and on.  I hated every minute of it.  I was writing 20 page papers while my other friends were writing 2 paragraph summaries.  As a result of my being discouraged and feeling stuck I was one of 3 or 4 underacheivers in the whole group, I was also the first to realize that like a Harvard student, you can’t fail out.  B- was the lowest grade I could be given which was to the detriment of my GPA.

Looking back on my years in college I have to say that I am thankful for the training I received in my business classes, but I am more thankful for the education I received through the Liberal Arts focused honors program.  Because of the Honors program I am more diversified.  I am able to hold high level conversations with my elders, drop jokes that only a handful of people in the room get, and I’m better at working with people who think differently than I do (or is it that they think along the norm and I think differently?).  Also, because of my film classes I am able to better relate to movies other generations grew up with, the classics that I’d be willing to bet most of Gen-Y hasn’t seen.

One of the best things we can do to improve our lives and our business relationships is to diversify and further educate ourselves outside of what we normally find interesting. Through continuing education and diversifying our lives we become more interesting people and we are able to speak and network with more interesting people.  You’ll be shocked to know how much diversifying your knowledge will help you network and relate to other people.

I hated every minute of my liberal arts education in the honors program, I was surrounded by people who I knew wouldn’t make any money, but I am extremely thankful that I finished the program, and most of my friends from the program are on their way to making good money.

Take a class at a community college, pick up an old classic that you read in High School and have since forgotten, watch Casablanca or Gone With The Wind.   My next step is to learn more about my worst subjects in school: Biology.  Diversify your life.

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Last week I wrote a resume crash course called “Getting a Job: The Resume”, and now that you’ve got your resume put together, it’s time to start meeting people.  Sure you can apply to job listings online, and no it isn’t exactly a waste of time, but in actuality the best jobs are found through existing relationships. 

Now it’s time to start creating those relationships through networking.  This week I’ve written some pointers for effective networking.

• Read the news, especially the Wall Street Journal every morning.  Pay for a subscription if you don’t have it.  This is prime conversation material, that you are able to use in any situation.  Plus, it sounds really cool and intelligent the first few times you hear yourself say “there was an article about this in the Wall Street Journal last week.”  You’ll be surprised how often you’ll reference it, and how much you’ll learn
• Everything is a networking opportunity. EVERYTHING.
• You aren’t shy anymore.  You are confident and assertive. That means firm handshakes, making eye contact, and speaking confidently like you are sure of yourself and comfortable in the environment.  People remember good handshakes and confidence, but they also remember weak handshakes and lack of confidence, this is your first impression, make it count.
• Listen and bond with them over something.  You need a memorable conversation, a Wall Street Journal article would come in handy here.
• Get the business card and stay in contact using the “bond” or memorable conversation.  Following up the next day is the key to networking.  Without the follow up, you are just an acquaintance, if they will even remember you.
• You want a relationship, do not ask for a job.  If the person asks what you do, be honest, say you just graduated, and you’re looking for something in (insert field here).  Don’t get too specific, A friends boyfriend who was straight out of school once told me that he wanted to do PR for a sports team or a Zoo.  A year later, he was still jobless, my friend had broken up with him (because of his joblessness), and he was still looking to do PR with a sports team or a zoo.  No one wants to help you when you box yourself in, it is best to swallow your pride and realize your first job may not be your dream job.
• Ask for advice.  People love it when you ask their advice.  It makes them feel respected and important, most importantly, they will want to help. 
• Everyone has been in your shoes, and everyone remembers what it is/was like looking for a job straight out of school, let them help you, many people will want to.  You’ll be surprised.
• Use their contacts. Ask them if they know of anyone who might be willing to sit down and talk with you, even if they aren’t hiring.  Remember, you are looking for a relationship.  Sometimes you need to cannibalize the off chance of getting a job offer with one person in order to get an introduction to that persons contact list, but make sure that everyone knows you are looking for a job.
• Have a personal elevator speech.  You have to be prepared for everything.  Be ready for the question of “why should a company hire you?”  You have to be able to perform this on the spot.
• Don’t turn down an opportunity.  Force yourself to be active and social.  You never know who someone knows, and you never know how an opportunity could arise.

The bottom line is that you have to make the most of every opportunity presented to you in life, when you do this you meet incredible people and build your network.

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I write (what is for the most part) a personal finance blog, so you’d think that I would track every penney, but I don’t.  We budget to pay ourselves first (savings/retirement), pay all of our bills, and then everything else is give and take.  One month we might go over on eating out, but we won’t touch our clothing budget, so we call it even; but over the last month as we have moved I have learned a very valuable lesson.

Once you start spending, it’s hard to stop.  It’s like the floodgates of your bank account open, and the next thing you know, you’re asking how your credit card bill got that high!?

We realized this week that we have run our credit card bills up much more than we realized.  It’s not like we have purchased large items, it’s a great number of little things that we did not appropriately budget for.  For instance, the last two weekends we have been out of town, and we did not adequately budget for food for either weekend.  Plus being gone on the weekend messed up our schedule, so we didn’t go to the grocery store to stock up for the week as we usually do, so we ended up eating out.  Then we moved, there was no point in us buying tons of food when we would have to move it, so we ate out more.  

Our move was a beast by itself.  Thank goodness I have friends and family who were willing to come help when I offered free beer (which no one ended up drinking!).  I rented the largest Budget truck available, for 24 hours, found a coupon code online to nock off 10%, and then surprised myself when I was able to negotiate another 15% off at the truck rental place.

Somehow a great number of little things added up.  The only major things I can remember buying are drapes and blinds for the house (which we came in way under our budget for!…to bad we went over everything else!)

This will serve to be a very interesting month.  We will soon make our first mortgage payment (yikes!), and we’ll get to see how close we were in our estimates for our new utility bills!  Plus, we’ll map out a plan to pay off our credit card bills.  Which right now I’m thinking will involve pulling some funds out of savings and tightening the budget to replace the money over the next few months (and hoping for a decent raise soon!)

Also, allow me to apologize for this seeming rant.  As you know it’s been over two weeks since I’ve really posted anything of substance, so A. I’m a little rusty, and B. it helps to just start writing to get the wheels moving sometimes!

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