Successful Unemployment

Apology, Giveaway and Masha’s Update…

Dear Readers,

Apology:

If you follow me on Twitter or Linkedin, you might have noticed my status updates about some serious troubles that we’ve been having with this website.

Shortly after posting my previous article on Geek Excuses for Bad Presentations a few weeks ago, this website has been hacked, as have numerous other WordPress sites hosted by NetworkSolutions.com. I caught the problem within the first few days, but unfortunately some visitors to this site might have gotten a Trojan Horse virus.

If you visited this site in the last month or so, and do not have an anti-virus software installed on your computer, please download www.avast.com (the Free version works great) and check your computer for viruses!

I sincerely apologize to those of you who might have been affected by this issue! My website hosting company assured me that they are doing everything possible to prevent any hacking attacks in the future.

Giveaway:

So as a way of saying “I am sorry for any troubles this website glitch might have caused you” I am giving away 5  Successful Unemployment Toolkits absolutely FREE!! My Toolkit is completely downloadable, so 5 lucky winners will be able to start increasing their professional value as soon as they receive the download link!

How to win: In order to win you need to be a subscriber to my blog/newsletter updates (you can subscribe on the side bar on the right) AND either follow me on Twitter OR be my contact on Linkedin (if you’re currently not a contact, just send me a request to join my network).

I will send the download link to FIRST 5 people who fit the above criteria and who respond to me either by direct message on Twitter or Linkedin!

One entry per person please! Good luck!

Update:

I have just come back from a week-long Speaking Tour sponsored by the American Chemical Society. I got a chance to tour the beautiful state of Wisconsin and give 6 talks in 5 days. Remember my advice on speaking on any subject of interest to you, not just topics in your technical area? I try to practice what I preach, so here are the 4 topics I covered during this tour:

“A Wife, a Mother, and a PhD”

“Economic Crises and the Need for Computer Modeling”

“Importance of Perception, or Why You Should Care What People Think”

And of course, “10 Steps to Increasing Your Professional Value”

I am currently trying to figure out how to make some of the videos of these talks available to my readers, so stay tuned!

Cheers,

Masha

Dear Readers,

Many of you who have listen to the audio part of the Successful Unemployment Toolkit, know the importance of public speaking, when it comes to finding or keeping a job as a science or engineering professional.

Now I would like to offer You an opportunity to be a presenter at the American Chemical Society Fall 2010 National Meeting and Exposition in Boston.

I am organizing a session at 2010 ACS Fall meeting, titled: Computer Modeling – The Wave of the Future. The session is co-sponsored by the Division of Computers in Chemistry, Division of Chemical Information, and Division for Small Chemical Business.

Why you should care:

I am selecting speakers for this session and it is a wonderful chance  for many of you to:

-Present yourself as an expert in chemistry, biochemistry, engineering and/OR small business development area

-Network with industry professionals in chemical, biochemical and engineering industry

-Grow professionally

-Boost your resume

-Learn what’s new in the chemistry field

-Develop you communication skills

Why might you want to do any of these things? (If you do not know the answer already, you REALLY need the info in my Toolkit!) All of the above can be instrumental in helping you get a job, grow your business, or help you become a more valued industry professional.

What you need to qualify:

- Ability to travel to Boston and attend ACS meeting on August 22-26 (you’ll be responsible for your own travel expenses).

-Be working (or have worked) in area of computer modeling that has something to do with chemistry, biochemistry, biology or chemical or bio engineering

- Be able to say something about how modeling and simulation can help small businesses (I’d be happy to help you with this part, just contact me at masha@mvpmodelingsolutions.com, if you’re stuck on this one)

I am interested! What to do next:

If you have any questions for me about presenting at ACS, please submit them in comments below. I promise to answer all of them! If you are seriously thinking of presenting, please contact me at masha@mvpmodelingsolutions.com.

Finally, please pass the link to this post to any of your colleagues or friends who are looking to grow as a technical professional!

Best of luck!

I am watching the snow fall on the outstretched cornfields of the American Midwest. It is 10° F outside, and after seven years in Southern California, living here seems inhumane.

After my husband’s new job brought us to Illinois a year ago, I needed employment that would not depend on my physical location. Something that would allow me to follow my husband around the country (his new job requires traveling) and at the same time let me to make money, expand my mind, and use my technical experience.

“I know!” I thought. “I will start my own company!” I’ll just have to do a bit of marketing, a bit of sales, and a bit of engineering. I have done all three successfully before, so how hard would it be to do it all again? Except this time, it would be on my own terms. The idea seemed brilliant. MVP Modeling Solutions, LLC was born, followed closely by the Successful Unemployment Toolkit.

There has been a substantial increase in technical consultants over the past year. As layoffs became more frequent and search for jobs more difficult, many technical professionals decided to become consultants, or start their own companies.

Like most of these budding entrepreneurs, I was not prepared for what was to come. Just as I planned, there were marketing, sales, and engineering activities…but there were also extreme emotional swings that I did not consider before starting to work for myself.

There are times while running my business when I feel on top of the world. When I land a consulting project, or run a successful marketing campaign, or a happy customer lets me know how much he appreciated my help – that success is purely mine. There was no boss to guide me in planning, no co-workers to make corrections. It is a very different kind of “high” that you would never feel when working for someone else.

Unfortunately, with the very high “highs” come very low “lows”. There are days, like today, when I am watching the falling snow thinking about business plans for 2010 and doubting every single idea that comes into my head. I am not smart enough to run a whole company… I am not creative enough to figure out how to tie it all together… I don’t have enough sales/marketing/engineering experience and even if I did, it wouldn’t matter…Do I even want to do this?… Whoever decided that it was legal to make people live in 10°F weather?

I can’t go to my non-existent boss and ask him to help me define my business goals, because I am the boss. I can’t meet a co-worker at a water cooler and moan about how the cold weather sucks and should be illegal. I am my co-workers. This makes it much harder to pull myself out of the self-employment “lows”.

When you are working for yourself and you don’t feel like getting up in the morning, no one will drag you out of bed. Sleep all you want. You do not have to explain yourself to anyone. And that can be exhilarating and excruciatingly difficult at the same time. If you are thinking of becoming a consultant, or starting your own company, be prepared for this emotional rollercoaster. There are days when I can barely drag myself out of bed in the morning because the idea of how much there is do to and how difficult it will be to do it, is overwhelmingly daunting.

During those days, there is one thought that keeps me going. That thought is that tomorrow will be a better day. Maybe even one of those exhilarating days – all I have to do it get up, open up my calendar, and start checking things off my to do list one step at a time. If you have recently become self-employed and are experiencing similar doubts, I recommend you do the same. Before you know it, your business coach calls with some great ideas, happy customers let you know that you are making a difference, a consulting contract gets accepted, and you are back on a “high” again.

During those times it seems that freezing at the 10°F is well worth it to see the beautiful snow cover the cornfields.

Many of you reading this are contemplating becoming self-employed. I wrote this post specifically for professional women, starting their at-home businesses. Most of the concepts here apply to men working form home, as well.  At the very least, show this post to your wife.  She’ll appreciate it, trust me.

How to Feel Like a Powerful Entrepreneur While Wearing a Bathrobe

The truth is you can’t. Or maybe you can, but it is very hard. I tried feeding a baby while writing a PhD thesis and felt much more like a cow than an engineering professional.

There is a wonderful show on TLC called “What Not to Wear.” The two sassy TV show hosts, Stacy and Clinton, in one magical hour transform their frumpy subjects with some nice clothes, a new haircut, and make up. By the end of the makeover almost every one of those poor shlumpy souls is standing up straighter and has a noticeable twinkle in their eye. Did they win a lottery? Closed a huge sale? Got a promotion? Nope. They simply put on some nice clothes and got out of their bathrobe …sort of speak.

Have you ever felt like the last thing you ever wanted to do was go to the gym? Except you just bought a new workout outfit and as soon as you put it on you actually felt like all of a sudden you were in better shape and could not wait to walk into that step class?

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