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

Hi Guys,

Hope everyone’s job search/ professional improvement is moving along!

The download option for the Toolkit has been a hit! No need to wait for it to arrive in the mail – now you can download the audio MP3 tracks and the pdf Guide, right to your desktop!

This week I have been asked to write a guest post on Sales Aerobics For Engineers (http://blog.salesaerobicsforengineers.com/).

I am frequently asked where I received my education and training that helped me launch a successful business and understand sales/marketing and customer relations. On this post I answer the following questions:

-How well equipped were you, as a PhD engineer, to undertake a business development role in past companies you worked for as well as your current consulting company?

-As an undergraduate, how many courses did you take that cross-trained you to speak the language of business, as well as engineering?

-As a graduate student, were you encouraged to take marketing, sales or economics courses as well as grad engineering courses?

-What is the biggest disconnect, then, in terms of undergraduate engineers coming out of school and entering the workforce? Is this disconnect different after receiving a graduate degree? Why or why not?

-Should the structure of engineering education be amended in the future to create more engineers who are capable of assuming business development functions in today’s global economy?

-What advice would you give undergraduate engineering students in terms of preparing their skillset for a successful entry into the workforce?

(If you can’t read the embedded article below,  take a look at this site:

http://blog.salesaerobicsforengineers.com/2010/02/what-they-didnt-teach-you-in-engineering-school.html)

This article is a must-read for everyone hoping to advance their career. I recently wrote it for www.Simple-Talk.com, an on-line magazine for System Administrators and Programming professionals.

If you can’t see the article here, simply visit this link:
http://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmin/general/the-art-of-dealing-with-people/