Renault Names Deputy for CEO Ghosn After Botched Spy Case

May 31, 2011, 5:39 AM EDT By Laurence Frost

(Adds analyst comment in third paragraph, shares in fifth)

May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Renault SA appointed Carlos Tavares as second-in-command to Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn and will focus on developing factories in France, as the carmaker seeks to move past a botched spy investigation.

Tavares, 52, head of the Americas region for Renault affiliate Nissan Motor Co., will replace Chief Operating Officer Patrick Pelata, the Boulogne-Billancourt-based company said in a statement late yesterday. Pelata stepped down over his role in a probe in which three managers were wrongfully accused of espionage and fired.

“Tavares has good knowledge of both Renault and Nissan and should help Renault capitalize on the alliance,” London-based Credit Suisse analyst David Arnold said in an e-mailed comment. Tavares could “one day be seen as a potential successor for Carlos Ghosn.”

The French state, Renault’s biggest shareholder with a 15 percent stake, has said it wants Renault to take a clearer lead in the alliance with Yokohama, Japan-based Nissan, build cars in China and redouble efforts to develop upscale models for production in France. Ghosn, who also runs Nissan, has urged the government to improve the competitiveness of French car exports by reducing taxes on labor.

Renault rose as much as 77 cents, or 2 percent, to 39.56 euros and was up 1.9 percent as of 11:09 a.m. in Paris trading, paring the stock’s decline this year to 9.2 percent -- the worst performer on the 14-member STOXX 600 Automobiles and Parts Index.

Government Pressure

In connection with the appointment, Ghosn agreed under government pressure to devote more time to Renault, two people with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. They declined to be identified as the talks were private. The CEO had ceded daily operational oversight to Pelata in 2008.

Ghosn will be “more present in France” and personally oversee development of future upscale models and likely plant investments in China, he said in a Le Parisien interview today.

“Permanent improvement in competitiveness and the development of sites in France will be a priority,” Renault said yesterday.

As Ghosn increases his involvement at Renault, the No. 2 position will be slightly reduced from the operational command Pelata held, one person said, adding that details of Tavares’s responsibilities will be decided in the coming weeks.

U.S. Funding

Tavares joined Renault in 1981 after graduating from France’s Ecole Centrale and moved to Nissan in 2004 as program director for compact cars, rising to executive vice president the following year.

In his most recent role, Tavares, a Portuguese citizen, cut global manufacturing costs by expanding production in Mexico and bid successfully for $1.6 billion in U.S. Energy Department funding for an electric-car battery plant.

Nissan Chief Performance Officer Colin Dodge will replace Tavares as Americas chief, adding the region to his current responsibilities for Africa, the Middle East, India and Europe, the company said yesterday.

--With assistance from Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles. Editors: Chris Reiter, Tom Lavell

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Frost in Paris at lfrost4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net

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China National Gold Seeks Africa Investment, President Says

May 30, 2011, 1:40 AM EDT By Bloomberg News

May 30 (Bloomberg) -- China National Gold Group Corp., the state-owned company that controls the nation’s largest gold deposits, wants to invest in projects in Africa as it expects bullion to trade near record levels for the next three years.

“We aim at large-scale mines with good potential in countries that have close ties with China and domestic stability,” President Sun Zhaoxue, 48, said in an interview in Shanghai. “Gold prices will foreseeably fluctuate at historically high levels for another three years.”

Gold jumped to a record $1,577.57 an ounce this month, helping make this year among the busiest for gold deals since 2006. Citic Group, China’s biggest state-owned investment company, and partners agreed this month to buy Gold One International Ltd. for about A$444 million ($469 million) to gain assets in South Africa.

The value of announced gold deals so far this year stands at $16.8 billion, more than the totals for the entire year in 2009 and 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

China National, owner of the Yangshan deposit in Gansu province, may also invest in Southeast Asia and Central Asia, Sun said. It currently doesn’t operate any mines outside China.

The company is also reviving mines that were uneconomical in China’s western provinces as record prices make it profitable to mine them, Sun said, adding that it’s also increasingly exploiting lower grade deposits near existing mines because of higher prices.

Production Boost

China National Gold had a pretax profit of 3.2 billion yuan last year, after boosting reserves to 1,300 metric tons at the end of 2010, the company said on Jan. 9. Production was 32 tons in 2010.

The extra production may boost China’s output to 400 tons in three years, Sun said May 27 at a conference in Shanghai.

China National Gold is also diversifying into copper and molybdenum production. Copper concentrate output will reach 80,000 tons next year and 100,000 tons in 2013, Sun said. Jiangxi Copper Co., China’s biggest copper miner, produces about 200,000 tons of concentrates a year.

Top commodity news: CTOP Precious metals news: NI PCS Commodity Arbitrage Calculator CARC

--Xiao Yu. Editors: Andrew Hobbs, Keith Gosman

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Yu Xiao in Beijing at yxiao@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Hobbs at ahobbs4@bloomberg.net

View the original article here

Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the US Foreign Service

"Career Diplomacy" - now in its second edition-is an insider's guide that examines the foreign service as an institution, a profession, and a career. Harry W. Kopp and Charles A. Gillespie, both of whom had long and distinguished careers in the foreign service, provide a full and well-rounded picture of the organization, its place in history, its strengths and weaknesses, and its role in American foreign affairs. Based on their own experiences and through interviews with over 100 current and former foreign service officers and specialists, the authors lay out what to expect in a foreign service career, from the entrance exam through midcareer and into the senior service-how the service works on paper, and in practice. The second edition addresses major changes that have occurred since 2007: the controversial effort to build an expeditionary foreign service to lead the work of stabilization and reconstruction in fragile states; deepening cooperation with the U.S. military and the changing role of the service in Iraq and Afghanistan; the ongoing surge in foreign service recruitment and hiring at the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development; and the growing integration of USAID's budget and mission with those of the Department of State.

Price: $29.95

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Applying Career Development Theory to Counseling

Intended for upper-division undergraduate or graduate programs of counselor education and human services. The course name is often called Career Counseling, Career Counseling Theories or Career Development.

Price: $166.95

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Career Planning - Are You Following a Planned Career Path or Simply a Series of Jobs?

Successfully managing your own career is critical for your financial and personal well being. Yet it is rarely pursued on a strategic or informed basis. Career planning, particularly in the technology field, is more and more the responsibility of the individual. Particularly, since most people today end up working for many employers.

The overall basis for more successful career management includes developing plans that are applicable at different stages in your working life. And even more important if you plan on a career change after 50.

Although living in the information age, there is few comprehensive job information and planning resources available online. Exploring a career versus job information is more readily available once you have focused on a career path, such as technology or even further, within a specific industry.

When employed the employer generally provides training, successive jobs, and a defined career ladder to the degree that it unites with the organization's needs and objectives. Outplacement counselors generally help people focus on job searches rather than career plans. Recruiters are looking to fill job positions with top candidates for employers who are their clients and normally do not provide career planning services for individuals.

We can generally fit career planning as having three major phases: early stage from ages 16 to 33; middle, from 34 to 52; and later, beyond 53. Many times, early career choices are highly influenced by parents, relatives, teachers or close friends. The choices of technical schools, colleges or graduate schools, as well as majors, begin to focus interests for career paths.

It is important, in the early stages of a career planning, to carefully make choices, as initial decisions can have a major impact on longer term career success and ultimately, happiness.

Mid-stage career planning and effort usually reflects the initial experiences and jobs one has had with his or her early career. It generally is an extension of that experience. At this stage, there may be a thread of a career track, but job moves and knowledge growth during this phase that are not well planned or executed can result in important limits to career-growth.

Late-stage career planning frequently results from the need to find the right position in one's career after an early retirement or a reduction in force. After 50 career planning at this stage generally reflects more entrepreneurial, part time, or flexible working arrangements. This is when traditional employment limitations as well as long developed interests come more into focus.

Career planning at each stage of a person's working career can best be analyzed by considering the following: (1) Take stock of your career. Define your career and objectives at regular intervals preferably at least once a year. Do it in writing. (2) Research and identify possible career options that could meet those career objectives. (3) Evaluate your skills, personality, training and experience. Develop a plan so you can pursue your career objectives. (4) Make a decision as to which career options are the best. Build a plan in the near, medium and long term to reach your career objectives. (5) Be flexible as you monitor your progress. Refine the plan, challenge yourself.

It's critical for you to invest in career planning during each stage of a successful career for short-, medium-and long-term achievement. Ask yourself, are you following a well defined career roadmap or simply working a succession of jobs? If you said yes to the latter, it's never to late to get started.

Career planning, and career change after 50 can be a daunting task, for more information and to get you started in the right direction there is a wealth of information at http://careersafter50.com. Discover stories of those over age 50 who planned their way into new careers after 50 and love going into work every day.

Career Development - Recommended Reading to Make the Most of Your Career

No matter where you are in your career, you can always benefit from keeping up with the latest literature related to career and professional development. Whether you would benefit from learning how to land the job of your dreams, how to get a promotion, or just how to function more effectively in your current career, there are excellent career development books that can be of great benefit to you.

As a professional it's important to continue learning and growing throughout your career, and keeping up with the latest professional development literature is a great way to stay ahead of the curve. The time you spend reading career development books is an investment in your long-term career success.

Reading career development books enables you to learn from leading experts in the field from the comfort of your own home. No matter what professional or personal challenges you face related to your career, you'll be able to find books that can provide valuable insights and tips regarding your employment-related concerns.

Suggested Topics Include:

The following list includes a selection of current career development literature. These books are great tools for individuals seeking to grow as professionals. They are a great starting point, but just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the many publications that can provide guidance for building the career of your dreams.

Career Advancement: Whether you are just starting out in your career, seeking a promotion, or are thinking about taking your career in a new direction, you will benefit from the practical tips and suggestions in Stepping Up: 12 Ways to Rev Up, Revitalize, or Renew Your Career by S. Gary Snodgrass.

Take Charge of Your Career: Have you ever been faced with a difficult career situation that literally seemed to come out of nowhere? I Didn't See It Coming: The Only Book You'll Ever Need to Avoid Being Blindsided in Business by Nancy C. Widmann, Elaine J. Eisenman, and Amy Dorn Kopelan is a unique career guide designed to help professionals anticipate and effectively deal with these types of situations.

Personal Branding: Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand by William Arruda and Kristen Dixson explains how to position yourself for career success by building your personal brand. The book provides readers with step-by-step tips for improving your career karma by building and managing your own brand.

Success Secrets: Too many people unintentionally sabotage their career success potential because they don't understand how to position themselves for success within their organizations. Help! Was That a Career Limiting Move? By Pamela J. Holland and Marjorie Brody is a practical guide designed to help professionals recognize and understand workplace behaviors that negatively impact their ability to get a ahead. This is a must-read for people who find themselves being overlooked for promotions or who want to be sure that this never happens to them.

Your Career is Worth The Time

Keep in mind that becoming a successful professional involves more than just getting the basic training you need to enter the workplace. Successful professionals who want to fulfill their potential invest time and energy in learning how to grow in their careers. The time you spend learning how to improve your ability to advance in your career can result in exponential rewards.

Mary White is a career and training expert who specializes in customer service, management, and career development training at Mobile Technical Institute http://www.mobiletechwebsite.com She also works with MTI Business Solutions, providing marketing, writing, and SEO consulting services to a wide variety of clients. Stop by http://www.dailycareerconnection.com regularly to read more tips for improving your professional skills and career prospects. Register for Daily Career Connection and receive a free "50 Career Tips eBook"! Also visit http://www.dailybizsolutions.com for small business success tips.

Will The New Job Or New Career Choice I Like Be The Right Career For Me?

As a psychologist and career counselor, I have worked with thousands of people over the years who are choosing or changing careers, and who are wondering whether they would really like to be in a particular career. Based on this experience, I believe that most people who want to go into a career they think they'd like do not really explore the questions they need to in order to be sure that it's the right career for them.

Here is a list of 20 questions to find answers to before concluding that a career you think you'd like is really right for you, followed by 9 sources of information for answering these questions:

Questions:

1. In general, why do you think you'd "like" this career?

2. Why is going into this career important to you? What values, needs, and goals does it satisfy?

3. What do you actually know about this career?

4. Do you have any direct experience in this career? Have you had any jobs or volunteer experiences?

5. Have you talked to people who are in this career?

6. Have you done any reading on the career?

7. What are the opportunities? What kinds of money can you make in this field, and where are the openings?

8. What would your typical day be like in this career?

9. What are the drawbacks, disadvantages, and roadblocks of this career?

10. Do your interests match the interests of others in this career?

11. Do you have the aptitudes, skills, and abilities to be successful in this career?

12. Do you have the education or training to get into this career?

13. Do you have the personality characteristics that will make you successful in the new career?

14. Do you have the motivation and energy to follow through and do what you would need to do to get into the new career?

15. What are your "transferable" skills? That is, what skills or knowledge do you now have that you can use in the new career?

16. What skills or knowledge do you have that would not only be transferable, but that would also be a unique advantage in the new career?

17. What will it take to get into the new career? What kind of additional training, education, or experience would you need?

18. Have you developed a specific plan, including timetables and specific goals to be accomplished?

19. Do you have a network of support from family, friends, co-workers, or significant others?

20. Having answered all of the above questions, do you still "like" the career and think it's a good idea to get into it, and why?

I think you'll find that there are many resources you can use to help you answer the above questions. Among them:

1. Reading. This would include not only the hundreds of books and pamphlets on careers and career choice, but also publications describing careers (such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Department of Labor and available on the Internet).

2. Practical experience. Not only is it possible to get a full-time or part-time job, but one can also volunteer at an organization or a company a couple of hours a week, just to get exposure to the area. Usually, any organization is glad to have this kind of help (unless they think you're an investigative reporter from some newspaper or TV program).

3. Job search counseling. Anyone changing career directions needs a highly competitive job search strategy. This should include resume, cover letter, and job interviewing strategies that are specific to your situation. This may also include advice on researching the job market.

4. A thorough self-assessment. This is not an assessment BY yourself, but an assessment OF yourself. A good career counselor can provide this kind of assessment, which would include counseling and testing.

5. Career tests. In general, tests divide into three categories: 1) aptitude, ability, and skills tests, 2) career interest tests, and 3) personality and motivational tests that focus on characteristics related to the career world.

6. Career coaching. Guided discussions with an expert can help you to clarify your goals, strategies, and commitment.

7. Education and training. Before you launch full-time into a degree program, it is possible to take one course, or a seminar, or a workshop, or a brief certificate program in the new career.

8. Networking. There are many job clubs and career resource centers available to explore new careers. Schools, career counselors, and other professionals can usually give you information on these resources.

9. Informational interviewing. It's usually not a good idea to go into a career if you haven't talked to at least a few people who are already in it and can give you the lowdown. You can also talk to people in academic and training programs.

Armed with all of this information and all of these insights, you should now be in a better position to judge whether taking the next step in this new career area makes sense for you.

Sander Marcus, Ph.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Certified Professional Resume Writer in Chicago. He has over 3 decades of experience in providing career counseling, aptitude testing, job search coaching, and resume writing to tens of thousands of individuals. He is the co-author of 2 books on academic underachievement, various tests, and numerous articles. He can be contacted at marcus@iit.edu, 312-567-3358.www.center.iit.edu

My Brilliant Career

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

Price: $18.36

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Sony Chief Stringer Blindsided by Hackers Seeking Revenge

May 27, 2011, 3:06 PM EDT By Cliff Edwards, Michael Riley and Joseph Galante

(Adds Sony letter to U.S. lawmakers in 17th paragraph.)

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., besieged by hackers since April, considered its PlayStation Network an unlikely target even after threats by the online collective Anonymous and three separate security incidents in 2008.

The hacker group declared in April that it would wage a cyber war against Sony for trying to stop people from tinkering with the PlayStation 3. Three years earlier, the company faced three breaches in Europe, including one in which Sony said some PlayStation Network user data might have been stolen.

The repeated incidents should have warned Sony its online network was vulnerable, said Eugene Spafford, a computer science professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The failure to enact safeguards such as appointing a single chief of security may show Sony misunderstands the risks inherent in Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer’s networked strategy, he said.

“The evidence we’ve seen so far speaks to a lack of a good data management plan and a good security plan,” said Spafford, who specializes in information security, computer crime investigation and information ethics.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said today it told Sony to carry out preventive measures against data breaches, instructed the company to ease customer concerns over misuse of credit cards and share more information among affiliates.

Spreading Attacks

Sony has struggled to keep up with the barrage that started in mid-April. The Qriocity and PlayStation Network entertainment services were knocked out for almost a month, compromising data in more than 100 million accounts.

In the past week, the Tokyo-based company has been hit with smaller intrusions -- a breach at online-service unit So-net Entertainment Corp. led to the misuse of user names and passwords of 128 customers. This week, Sony shut web pages that were targeted in Greece, Canada, Thailand and Indonesia.

The PlayStation Network will resume in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand tomorrow, while services in South Korea and Hong Kong will remain suspended until further notice, Sony said today.

“Obviously our network security didn’t stop the attack and we’re trying to understand why, and we’ve made big strides in bolstering our security,” Stringer said in a May 17 interview, before the most recent incidents.

Sony believed it had “good, robust security,” Stringer said. He rejected suggestions that the company is paying for a lack of vigilance and said he was unaware of the 2008 intrusion on the PlayStation Network.

‘New Experience’

Since most users of PSN don’t pay, and most threats focus on stealing credit card information, the theft of passwords and other personal data from those services appeared less likely, Stringer said.

“We have a network that gave people services free,” Stringer said. “It didn’t seem like the likeliest place for an attack.”

When the April incursion first started, he didn’t know how serious it was, Stringer said. “I really don’t think I could apologize for not knowing,” he said. “It’s a whole new experience for everybody at this scale.”

Anonymous Vow

There were warning signs. Sony was singled out for retaliation by Anonymous, the hacker group that brought down the websites of MasterCard Inc. in December, after the company sued 21-year-old George “GeoHot” Hotz for posting information on how to modify the PlayStation game console. The case was settled on March 31.

Anonymous announced its revenge campaign, “Operation Payback,” on the website anonnews.org. In an early May statement, the group denied involvement in the PlayStation and Qriocity breaches, while saying some members of the loosely organized collective may have been behind it.

Sony, Japan’s largest consumer-electronics exporter, must connect its televisions, Blu-ray players, game consoles and digital cameras via the Internet to music, movies and video games, Stringer has said. Unconnected devices rapidly become commodities as rivals compete for customers, he has said.

Sony’s investigation into the cause and search for suspects in the mid-April attack is ongoing, the company said. In a letter to U.S. lawmakers today, the company said it believes it knows how the network was penetrated. The company said it doesn’t know who was responsible or precisely how much information was taken.

‘Failure of Trust’

On May 23, Sony said it may spend more than $170 million related to the hack. The company also said it discovered personal data may have been stolen from 8,500 user accounts in a music entertainment site in Greece.

The company erred in “thinking of these incidents in terms of a breach of systems” and communicating with its customers based on the severity of the failure, said Kevin Kosh, a partner at Waltham, Massachusetts-based Chen PR, which represents technology companies.

“When you’re a consumer-facing organization, that’s not the way you should think,” Kosh said. “It’s first and foremost a business failure and a failure of trust.”

In March 2008, Sony informed users in Europe that an unauthorized person may have gained access to personal data on PSN through personal computers. There is no evidence that personal information or credit-card data was taken, and the security flaw, which is unrelated to the recent attack, was fixed, the company said in response to questions for this story.

2008 Probes

London Metropolitan Police questioned a teenager about a separate, September 2008 hacking attack into Sony’s developer network, according to three people familiar with the incident.

The network has no identifying information about customers and isn’t attached to the PlayStation Network, Sony said in the statement provided by Dan Race, a spokesman.

In December 2008, a user revealed a flaw in Sony’s PlayStation Home virtual-world game for the PS3 that let him manipulate pictures and videos on his own device. That person never had access to Sony’s servers, the company said.

“The one incident that related to PlayStation Network, once we identified what it was, they went in and fixed it,” Race said. The April attacks were much more sophisticated than 2008 and appear to be unrelated, Sony said.

In the weeks leading up to the April 16 breach, Sony missed key opportunities to plug holes in its system, said Bret McDanel, a security expert who monitored publicly available server logs.

Navy Server

The company’s network security should have seen a sustained probing of its systems from a Navy medical computer in Southern California, which may have been used as a proxy server by potential attackers, McDanel said.

The company hasn’t turned up evidence of such a probe of its servers, said a person with knowledge of Sony’s efforts to trace the cause of the security break.

“The truth is that people test for vulnerabilities on network systems on a daily basis, and Sony is constantly monitoring for unauthorized activity, conducting our own vulnerability tests and making constant enhancements,” Race said.

He declined to say whether Sony found evidence of a probe from the Department of Defense server. Justin Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy, didn’t return a call requesting comment.

The attack in April was launched through a server rented from Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud-computing service, a person with knowledge of the matter said this month. The account was shut and Amazon’s servers weren’t compromised, the person said.

Security Chief

Companies should consider carefully what data belongs on open servers, put one person in charge of administrative rights and keep track of how and when the network is accessed, said Yuichi Uzawa, a Tokyo-based senior consultant in charge of investigative response at Verizon Business. Nevertheless, determined hackers can often find ways to break in, he said.

“In the end, it’s extremely difficult to defend a network from an organized, targeted attack,” Uzawa said. “Early discovery of signs of intrusion through monitoring of key assets is the best defense.”

Sony said it takes network security and the protection of personal information seriously. There are multiple layers of protection and the company constantly monitors for unauthorized activity, including testing for vulnerabilities, it said.

Even so, Sony’s chief information officer oversaw network security as part of his duties until after the April attacks. A chief information-security officer was then appointed, reporting to the CIO, to provide an additional layer of security, the company said.

Failing to take such a step earlier was a critical shortcoming, according to Chen PR’s Kosh.

“Adding a CISO after the fact is like hiring a bodyguard after you’ve been fatally wounded,” Kosh said. “It creates an impression that there’s a lack of accountability.”

--With assistance from Mariko Yasu and Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo, Eric Engleman in Washington and Erik Larson and Jonathan Browning in London. Editors: Anthony Palazzo, Young-Sam Cho

To contact the reporters on this story: Cliff Edwards in San Francisco at cedwards28@bloomberg.net; Michael Riley in Washington at michaelriley@bloomberg.net; Joseph Galante in San Francisco at jgalante3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net; Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net; Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net; Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

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Career Ideas for Kids Who Like Animals and Nature

This fun-filled series guides young readers through a multitude of career possibilities based on their specific interests and skills and links their talents to a wide variety of actual professions. Each book is filled with engaging text and playful illustrations that present a wide variety of career themes and options. Coverage begins with a set of questions designed to help kids discover who they are, what they like to do, and what they do best. Highly motivational, and just plain fun, chapters include: *Get in Gear! Kids learn how to link their interests to actual professions.
*Take a Trip! Informational interviews with professionals in the field explore a diverse mix of careers.
*Don't Stop Now! Leads to a world of direct exploration and opens the door to Future Destinations!
*and much more

Careers profiled in this new book include: Agribusiness Consultant, Animal Trainer, Arborist; Botanist, Entomologist, Farmer, Hydrologist, Land Surveyor, Marine Biologist, Merchant Mariner, Park Ranger, Pet Groomer, Recycling Entrepreneur, Veterinarian, and Zoologist.

Price: $16.95

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New Business Books

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Eight Job-Interview Wins for the Record Book

By Liz Ryan

After revealing tales of job applicants who disappointed, disconcerted, or generally weirded me out in my last column, I thought it only fair to share stories about prospective employees who surprised me in positive ways. Even in lean times, job candidates who show that they know what an employer is up against and have insight into how to make things more effective are always in short supply. Here are eight stories of job-seekers who made good by standing in their power and helping employers see their value.

1. A Bit of Free Consulting

I'd already interviewed a half-dozen contenders for director of internal communications when Diane arrived. Her professional background included stints at top-tier consulting firms, but I wondered whether our company's breakneck pace and "Ready! Fire! Aim!" leadership style would throw her. "Traditional top-down communication will not do the trick in this environment, in my view," Diane told me. "What other alternative is there?" I asked. To my delight, Diane launched into new-client-consultation mode—right in the job interview. By the time we finished our chat, we had a rough communication plan outlined and Diane had consulted her way into the job.

The lesson: Use your interview time to learn the business conditions, not passively answer questions. People hire people they believe can help them, not the most-groveling or most-docile applicant in the mix.

2. Up From McDonald's

Twenty-plus years ago, I interviewed John for a client-service job. We were both 21; John had just graduated from college, and was working as a crew member at McDonald's (MCD). "Tell me about McDonald's," I said, and John jumped into an explanation of the company's supply chain: "It's incredible," he said. "They know exactly what each store sold on each shift yesterday, so the distribution center sends us just the items we need, based on projected sales for today. The feedback mechanisms are impressive. It's an incredibly efficient information flow." John used his ringside seat to study the operation in a situation where many of his colleagues merely flipped burgers. He saw the bigger picture, paid attention to the critical points where service and profitability were made or broken for the restaurant, and used the job interview to share what he knew. John got the client-service job, and today runs a research organization.

The lesson: You can get altitude on your business from any vantage point. Don't just complete the tasks assigned to you. Use your perch as a place from which to learn the business, and be able to talk about what you know.

3. Showing How You Do It

This story comes to me from my old friend Alice, who was interviewing for an admissions coordinator job at a tony prep school in central New Jersey. The admissions director liked Alice's down-to-earth communication style and her administrative background, but wasn't totally sold. "We multitask here every day, under tight deadlines," said Alice's prospective manager. "Let me show you what I can do," Alice replied. The admissions director said: "Go to the desk out in front of my office, and put together a spreadsheet of information on the competitive private schools in this area." Alice jumped online, got on the phone, and went to work. One hour and a dozen phone calls later, she had compiled a detailed spreadsheet on the prep school's competitive set, showing everything from year established and student/teacher ratios to after-school programs, tuition costs, and class sizes. She got the job.

The lesson: Don't be afraid to show, rather than tell, what you can do for your next boss.

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How to Interview Internal Candidates

By Jeff Schmitt

"So, do you work here?"

It was the first question the interviewer asked me, so I knew then that I wasn't a serious candidate. My employer had assigned a newbie to interview me and she wasn't bothering to make it look legitimate. She rattled off the usual questions, always returning to whether I'd pay relocation expenses for the job, which would require moving from the Midwest to Manhattan. No matter how many transferable skills and examples I cited, she barreled along as if she'd rather be somewhere else. After 15 minutes, it was over. The message had been sent, loud and clear. The company had someone else in mind. No matter what I had accomplished for my employer, I was just a formality. I was someone they had to interview because I worked there. They went through the motions. They couldn't care less about me.

For many companies, interviewing internal candidates is a common courtesy. It reinforces an image that the playing field is level and everyone has a chance to move up. Even with the best intentions, most companies can't escape a precarious dichotomy. Most employees join companies hoping for something bigger. They make sacrifices, believing they'll eventually be rewarded. Deep inside, they measure themselves against that career clock, wondering if they've fallen behind. Conversely, employers have a role to fill. Mistakes are costly and companies lack the time, expertise, and support systems to help an emerging talent grow into the role.

Even the most fair and transparent process risks causing a previously stellar employee to grow disengaged—or lash out. Your own department may never see that employee's performance suffer. It's someone else's problem, you think. Don't kid yourself: It'll blow back on you soon enough. How can you mitigate the potential fallout from a failed internal candidacy? Follow these five tips.

1) Come prepared. "They didn't respect my time." That's the worst statement any job candidate can make about you. Chances are, internal candidates will care enough to do their homework. Do the same. Review their resumes and portfolios beforehand. In fact, invest a little extra time in preparing for them. Don't shortchange them because you're busy, inexperienced, or biased.

Certainly, you don't want to relax your standards. Apply the same questions, expectations, and process to internal candidates, but give them the same shot as your top prospects. Sure, your malcontents will badmouth you on Glassdoor.com. Your goal is something else: keeping your top performers from seeding doubts about the company among their (and your) peers.

2) Follow up. It can be like a first date. One side may feel he or she is making a connection, while the other is looking for a dignified escape. It's cruel to give false hope to a mismatched candidate. But leaving him or her hanging afterward is even more callous. No one intends to ignore a candidate. Sometimes processes, timelines, priorities, and structures change. It's natural to dread picking up that call to deliver the bad news. But it's always better that an internal candidate hear it from you instead of via a peer or a company announcement.

The decision may not reflect on you. Delivery does. Over time a candidate will accept the rejection but never forget the treatment. Internal candidates have patrons, too. People believe in these candidates and have invested in them. Most likely, these patrons will perceive you through the rejected candidate's experience. Even more, they probably have the ears of key members in the organization. So give extra care to internal candidates. It'll eventually catch up to you if you don't.

3) Provide advice. We're all afraid of being sued for saying something wrong. Nonetheless, it pays to step outside your confines and give internal candidates some direction. Outline the technical abilities and areas of experience where they fell short. Suggest alternate roles that may align with their interests and talents.

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Glencore Investor Relations Manager Bias Departs After 4 Months

May 27, 2011, 12:44 PM EDT By Jesse Riseborough

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Glencore International Plc investor relations manager Nicholas Bias has left the company less than four months after starting in the role, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Bias, who took on the job with the Baar, Switzerland-based company in February, resigned on May 25, the person said, declining to be identified as the terms are confidential. Simon Buerk, a spokesman for Glencore, the world’s largest commodities trader, declined to comment. Bias was formerly investor relations manager at Aquarius Platinum Ltd.

His name wasn’t among Glencore contacts listed in a company statement to the London Stock Exchange today after being included in a May 24 filing. Marc Ocskay, who has worked at Glencore for 13 years and is head of corporate finance which incorporates investor relations, was listed as a contact on today’s statement.

Bias accompanied Chief Financial Officer Steven Kalmin on a global roadshow, meeting investors in preparation for the IPO, while Ocskay joined Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg in briefing other potential shareholders, the person said.

Glencore raised $10 billion in an initial public offering in London and Hong Kong this month, selling shares at 530 pence apiece. The IPO, the biggest in the world this year, attracted 12 cornerstone investors, including Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments PJSC and BlackRock Inc., who committed a combined $3.1 billion that they are locked into for six months.

Three calls to Bias’ mobile phone went unanswered and he didn’t return a voice message.

--Editors: John Viljoen, Amanda Jordan

To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Riseborough in London at jriseborough@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amanda Jordan at ajordan11@bloomberg.net.

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Why Change Careers? Six Good Reasons For A Career Change

Here are some reasons you may have for wanting to change your career. If one or more of these apply to you, then you may be ready to make the decision to change career. If your reason for considering a new career is not on this list of the six most common and best reasons for changing career, think carefully. You may need a holiday, sabbatical, a change of job, or to move to a different location. A career change requires a lot of thought, work and time, so do it for the right reasons.

1. Your life circumstances have changed so it's time for a career change:

a) You have children who need more or less of your time than before:

You now have children and want to share more time with them and your spouse than your current career allows.

You have children and you are the primary carer so you need to be at home and want a career that allows you to work from home with the flexibility to work around the hours your children need you.

Your children have started school and you have more time available, so you want to start a new career.

Your children have grown up and left home, and now you no longer have to support them, you want to pursue your life long dream of being a scuba instructor in Hawaii (for example).

b) You have gone through a divorce or break up:

Now that you are single again, you want to move back to your home town/ state/country which you left to satisfy your ex-spouses needs when your relationship was flourishing. Now you can get back to your own family and friends, and find the career that you were meant to do. Your current career was a compromise that you accepted whilst you were married/in the relationship, but now you want to pursue your own dreams.

c) You have recently been bereaved:

Your spouse has passed away. You may have cared for them through a serious and ultimately terminal illness, giving up your career to be at home. Perhaps your experiences leading up to your tragic loss have taught you important lessons about yourself and your own life calling. Now it is time to rebuild your life, and a new career is in order.

d) You have been, or are likely to be made redundant:

Your career is no longer in demand. You have lost your job, and the prospects of finding work again in the same field are slim. You need to find a different career that will provide you with enjoyment, satisfaction and a stable and reliable income for as long as is possible to forsee. Perhaps you have a redundancy package that will help to see you through the transition. Perhaps you are less fortunate, and need to earn money immediately, whilst you investigate potential alternative career options.

Your current career is in less demand and likely to continue declining. You are working in a career that is being subsumed by changes in technology or society. It is only a matter of time before you are made redundant, and you do not want to wait for that to happen. You have to change career. You have some time to do the research, or you have an idea of what you want to do in your next career.

2. You want more personal growth in your new career.

Your current career does not offer you the fulfillment you need, and you want to have a career that allows you to learn and grow as a human being. You want to have passion for your work so that you will be imaginative and creative in your career. You want to fully utilize your talents, education, experience and skills to create something meaningful in your new career.

3. Your want less stress in your next career.

You are experiencing high stress in your current career. You are not as young as you once were (who is?!) and you want more calm in your career. Tight artificial deadlines, reactive "fire-fighting" work and a pressure cooker work environment are no longer for you - you are happy to leave that to a younger person. Now it is time to pursue a proactive, planned, steady new career. A career choice that gives you the work-life balance you desire and deserve.

4. You want more excitement and challenge from your second career:

Your career is boring and no longer challenging. It just does not excite you any more, if it ever really did. You have mastered all the skills you need, your experience makes your job easy, and you have no interest in trying to progress further up the career ladder in this particular sector. You are just not interested in further training in this career - you feel it's not worth the effort. You are looking for an exciting challenging career that will get your adrenalin flowing and your heart pounding again. Something to make you feel young and alive.

5. Your earning power is limited by your current career.

Your current career, interesting and fun though it may be, just does not pay the bills. You need to find something that you can love doing that will provide you with financial security as well as job satisfaction.

6. You see a new career you want to try because you think it will offer you all the above.

Your eyes have been opened to the opportunity of a new career in a field that you had not considered before, or that did not exist before. Perhaps technology, political or social changes, or a move to a different city, state or country has revealed a career choice that you are sure is a better fit for you. If it fits with one or more of the reasons above, then you should consider it.

Consider all the options, but be prepared to take some risk

Nothing is definite in life, except that one day it will end. When that end is near, will you forgive yourself for not taking the risk that might have made you complete? Look into your own heart, make the decision, and then let your head work out the details of how to get there.

http://www.midlife-career-change.com

Former Bank of Italy Governor Sentenced to Four Years in Jail

May 28, 2011, 12:57 PM EDT By Francesca Cinelli

May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Antonio Fazio, a former Bank of Italy governor, was sentenced to four years in jail by a Milan court for his role in the takeover attempt of Banca Antonveneta SpA by Banca Popolare Italiana Scrl, lawyer Franco Coppi said today in a telephone interview.

Fazio was also ordered to pay a 1.5 million-euro fine ($2.15 million), Coppi, who represented Fazio, said. Coppi said he would appeal the decision.

Francesco Frasca, former head of oversight at the central bank, was absolved by the court, Coppi said. Coppi and lawyer Roberto Borgogna assisted both Fazio and Frasca.

--Editors: Tim Farrand, Sara Marley

To contact the reporter on this story: Francesca Cinelli in Milan at fcinelli@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net

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Career Development Interventions in the 21st Century (3rd Edition)

User-friendly and engaging, this text covers both traditional and newer theories of career counseling. The third edition uses the National Career Development Association’s Career Counseling Competencies, the National Career Development Guidelines for professional school counselors, and CACREP Standards as a framework for covering the crucial knowledge areas and skills required for effective career development interventions in a diverse society. Coverage focuses squarely on the application of interventions with real people, using straightforward presentations, student activities, and multicultural case studies to expose students to all of the essential competencies required for the professional practice of career counseling. The authors, both among the leading career development scholars nationally and internationally, share their in-depth knowledge and experience to help readers appreciate the importance of career development theory and practice. This practical text provides essential tips for translating theory into practice in ways that readers can readily apply to their prospective work settings.

Price: $132.00

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Business Etiquette and Corporate Style Tips

Q: Is it necessary to say "bless you" when someone sneezes during a meeting?

A: Nowadays, people expect a "bless you," not out of concern for the sneezer's well-being, but simply as an acknowledgment of another's presence. Is it necessary? Probably not. No one says anything when someone coughs, so why do sneezes deserve special treatment? If the sneezer happens to be seated next to you, offer a discreet "bless you," if you like. If, however, the person is at the other end of the room or someone has already given his or her blessing, hold off. At meetings, you want to move past interruptions and distractions quickly and get back to business.

—Kelly Machbitz, owner, Totalfashionmakeover.com, Clearwater, Fla.

Q: Can I wear sleeveless tops to work in the summer?

A: This question comes up nearly every time I give a corporate presentation on image and style. If your company is conservative in general or has a traditional business dress code (i.e., suits, jackets), wearing sleeveless clothing—without a jacket or cardigan—is inappropriate. In a business casual setting, the answer is not so clear-cut. In the absence of a formal dress code, err on the side of caution and ask your manager or HR person. Exposed skin sends a less business-like message, so also consider the nature of your work. Do you have a client-facing role or is your work primarily behind the scenes? If you do decide to go sleeveless, avoid tank tops, halters, and camisoles. Instead, opt for a sleeveless style with more coverage and a modest neckline. Finally, make sure you have a jacket or cardigan at the office, in case you're called into an unexpected meeting.

—Carol Davidson, StyleWorks of Union Square

Q: Is chewing gum ever acceptable in a business situation?

A: As an image consultant and etiquette trainer, I must say it is never acceptable to chew gum in a business situation when interacting with co-workers, clients, or the general public. Gum chewing is a distraction and almost impossible to conceal during conversation, comparable to speaking with your mouth full of food. On occasion, however, I have suggested that a client chew a piece of gum to freshen his or her breath after a pungent meal, when it was impossible to use a toothbrush and paste. The secret is to be discreet: Excuse yourself from the table and chew a stick of peppermint gum in the washroom; then discard it. This way you can enjoy fresh breath and your chewing won't offend others.

—Kelly Machbitz, owner, Totalfashionmakeover.com, Clearwater, Fla.

Q: Can I wear my favorite pair of 4-inch heels to the office?

A: Generally speaking, heels higher than 3 inches are perceived as more suitable for a dance club than an office environment, especially shoes with thin straps that expose more of the foot, as well as shoes with very thin heels. Ditto for footwear in bright colors. If you decide to go higher than a 3-inch heel, opt for a classic, closed-toe pump in a matte leather and neutral color. You might also consider a platform style or wearing pants the same color as your shoes to camouflage the height of the heel.

—Carol Davidson, StyleWorks of Union Square

Q: I have pale skin and I wonder if a spray tan would give me an edge on a job interview.?Do you recommend it?

A: Several benefits can come from an artificial tan. For one, a little color may boost your confidence level, which in turn could calm your nerves and help you ace that interview.?It may also send the message that you have an active lifestyle and are physically fit—something your potential employer should consider a plus.?Just be careful not to overdo it.?Straying too far from your natural skin tone could send the message that you are superficial, focused too much on extracurricular activities, and lack strong business ethics.?Go only two to three shades darker than your natural skin tone.

—Kelly Machbitz, owner, Totalfashionmakeover.com, Clearwater, Fla.

Q: I love all the bright colors they are showing for spring. Are they office appropriate?

A: No one can deny the merits of neutral-colored business attire, but sometimes we all need a color pick-me-up. This spring, designers are showing citrus shades of orange, yellow, and green as well as coral, pink, and bright blue. Because people perceive brighter hues as bold and playful statements, for a more conservative work environment, less is more. Add brighter colors in small doses by way of a scarf, tie, or handbag. Or you can incorporate more hues in a patterned shirt or blouse and team it with a neutral bottom or jacket. Generally speaking, for business, you will want to avoid wearing bright colors from head to toe.

—Carol Davidson, StyleWorks of Union Square

Q: When a wine glass is placed on a table at a restaurant, how do I signal that I don't want any?

A: Never turn a glass or cup upside down to decline service. If you don't want your wine glass, coffee cup, or water glass filled (or refilled), hold your hand over the glass. If the server fills it before you have a chance to signal no, leave the beverage untouched for removal after the meal.

—Kelly Machbitz, owner, Totalfashionmakeover.com, Clearwater, Fla.

Q: I frequently respond to business e-mails via my mobile device. Must I include a salutation?

A: The type of device you use to send e-mail has little to do with proper e-mail etiquette. Instead, consider your relationship to the recipient, the intended degree of formality, and whether your message is a standalone reply or part of a longer chain of responses. On a first reply when communicating for business, use a salutation that includes the recipient's name, whether it's "Dear Christine," "Hi, Christine," or simply "Christine." While a salutation is unnecessary thereafter, it is considered more formal and appropriate when communicating with a senior associate or an important client.

—Carol Davidson, StyleWorks of Union Square

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Credit Suisse Said to Hire Deutsche M&A Banker Birchenough

May 27, 2011, 11:32 AM EDT By Serena Saitto

(Adds Birchenough’s deals in third paragraph.)

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG hired Deutsche Bank AG’s Don Birchenough as co-head of mergers and acquisitions for the telecommunications, media and technology group in the Americas, said a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

Birchenough, who most recently was head of telecom and media M&A at Deutsche Bank in New York, will start at Credit Suisse in August, said the person, who declined to be identified because the move hasn’t been made public. John Gallagher, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank, confirmed Birchenough’s departure. Duncan King, a spokesman for Credit Suisse, declined to comment.

Birchenough, 43, will lead the Credit Suisse team together with Steve Geller and report to Boon Sim, global head of mergers and acquisitions. Birchenough, who started his banking career at Salomon Brothers in 1995, advised Deutsche Telekom AG on its $39 billion sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T Inc. Last year he advised Qwest Communications International Inc. on its purchase by CenuryLink Inc. In 2009 he advised Time Warner Inc. on its spinoff of AOL Inc.

--Editors: Jennifer Sondag, Sarah Rabil

To contact the reporter on this story: Serena Saitto in New York at ssaitto@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jennifer Sondag at jsondag@bloomberg.net.

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Ask the Ethics Guy! #8

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Are You at a Career Crossroad?

Do you feel like you need a change but can’t quite pinpoint why? You know you want to be happier, more satisfied, and more fulfilled in your career, but you just don’t know what that means. You’re not alone. Many people often wonder if something better might be out there for them.

“How do I figure out what to do next in my career?” is one of the most common questions I get. While most people are somewhat content with their current situation they have a sense that something is missing. Somehow, the meaning they once attached to their job is no longer there. They want to know how they can best use their skills and talents in a more meaningful way. They also want to know how they can better align their most important values with good career opportunities.

When people feel this way, they generally launch a job search. They update their resume, post it online and see what happens. Usually they get a few nibbles but most often the response is fairly minimal. Then, they begin to wonder if they even have other options or if they’re stuck in place forever. They’re at a career crossroad. It’s at this point that career assessments can be of great value by providing personal insight.

Having a clear vision of a desired career path is very important since there are several career paths to consider. Among the options are advancing within your current company, moving to another company for a change of scenery and advancement opportunities, or making a more drastic career change. You may feel that staying put while enhancing your current career situation is the way to go. Or, you may ultimately decide to enhance your knowledge through education, enhance your visibility through project work or volunteering, or by actively cultivating a professional network.

What is most important, though, is that you are able to clearly describe the factors that will bring you the highest level of satisfaction no matter what direction you choose. Career assessment can help you get clear about your career aspirations. Assessing your skills, interests, values and personality and other factors and examining how they connect with potential career opportunities will allow you to get clear about such factors as your ideal work environment, desired salary and benefits requirements, regional preferences, and industry preferences among other variables. Taking inventory of those areas also will provide important insight into what career-related factors will bring you the highest level of satisfaction.

While career assessment can be a formal process that you go through with a qualified career counselor, it doesn’t have to be. There are numerous resources available and exercises you can complete on your own. I’ll outline two exercises you can do on your own.

First, you can start by simply taking inventory of your career progress. A really good exercise is the “Career Lifeline.” When, I use it with my clients, I first have them draw a horizontal line on a sheet of paper labeling the left side beginning and the right side end. Second, I have them plot their career highs and lows beginning from their first “career decision” such as deciding to go to college rather than work, or choosing x major, or turning down y project. Finally, I have them review their lifeline to date, and we discuss the career decisions they’ve made and what influenced those decisions. We also discuss the outcomes. The objective of the exercise is to analyze personal values and their impact on their decision-making, career path and career satisfaction.

A second exercise you can do to analyze your strengths is to ask people for feedback. When they think of your strengths, what words come to mind? Obviously, you want to do this with people who know you and whom you trust. It can be a little awkward, but explain that you are simply trying to get a sense of your strengths.

Another approach is to think over your career at the various jobs you’ve had and think about the feedback you’ve received from employers and co-workers. We are all known for some set of skills and attributes. For example, in all of my work experience, paid and volunteer, I consistently hear feedback that I am organized, focused, articulate, conscientious, hardworking, reliable, pleasant to be around, fun, good with people, good at explaining things, have good presentation skills, am honest, and have integrity. I’ve also been told that I have expert knowledge in my profession and make it easy for people to apply concepts and get results. What do people say about you?

By completing the two exercises you will have a better sense of how you go about making career decisions and what influences your decisions and a better sense of personal attributes that lead to success for you in the past. There are many other exercises in my book, Fast Track Your Career: Three Steps For Finding Work You Love. The Futures in Motion, Inc. bookstore contains other suggested resources ([http://www.futures-in-motion.com/bookstore.php]). You can also complete formal assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Strong Interest Inventory. Futures in Motion, Inc. also offers career assessment packages in which you can complete the series of inventories and get personalized feedback with suggested career options. You can find out more about the packages by clicking this link- http://www.futures-in-motion.com/future_motion_package.php.

As I mentioned, there are several career paths to pursue. Once you’ve completed the assessment process you will be better able to determine whether to advance within your current company, move to another company for a change of scenery and advancement opportunities, or make a more drastic career change. You may decide that staying in your current job while enhancing your current career situation is the way to go. Or, you may ultimately decide to enhance your knowledge through education, enhance your visibility through project work or volunteering, or by actively cultivating a professional network.

Markell R. Steele is the owner of Futures in Motion, Inc. and author of Fast Track Your Career: Three Steps for Finding Work You Love. For the past 12 years, she has passionately shared her secrets for career happiness and success. Her company provides career assessments and career transition assistance. More articles can be found here- http://futures-in-motion.com/article_archive.php

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Parents As Career Coaches

Parents help us discover the gifts and the callings that God has for our lives. Parents help children and teens discover their vocational interests and the motivational gifts. Parents identify the steps and resources that are necessary to develop the qualities and talents that children and teens possess.

Parents know that children and teens receive the vocational interests, abilities, skills, and talents in a seed form. These seeds will develop into careers, jobs, tasks, assignments, or ministries. Then, the talents and gifts will produce earnings, wages, and spiritual rewards as the children receive pleasure from knowing that they are fulfilling the callings that God has placed on their lives.

The Goal of a Parent

A parent receives direction from Proverbs 18:16, Proverbs 22:6, and 1 Peter 4:10.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

1 Peter 4:10 As every man has received a gift, even so minister the same gift one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Proverbs 18:16 A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

To learn about abilities, interests, and motivational gifts, parents have many tasks:

Assess children's and teens' vocational interests, abilities, skills, beliefs, and values.

Discover potential careers that are linked to children's and teens' identified interests.

Help children and teens choose the suitable post-secondary education and training.

Provide resources that help children and teens utilize their vocational interests, abilities, skills, beliefs, and values.

Understand the relationship between education, training, and specific occupations.

Introduce experiences that meet career, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral goals.

Present information on the current and future labor market.

Introduce problem-solving and decision-making strategies, and

Solve career issues, conflicts, and concerns.

The Steps Towards Completing Career Exploration Process

Step One: Preliminary Assessment

Parents must gain access to computerized, online, or paper/pencil career assessments. From these assessments, parents, teens, and children gain knowledge and understanding of our abilities, ambitions, aptitudes, identities, interests, life goals, resources, skills, and values. During this assessment period, parents will evaluate children's and teens' readiness for career planning.

Gary W. Peterson and others of the Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling and Career Development University Center, discussed the differences in career planning readiness. Children, teen, and adults can be categorized as:

Decided

Decided yet needing a confirmation

Decided yet not knowing how to implement their decisions

Decided choosing to avoid conflict or stress

Undecided

Undecided with a deferred choice

Undecided yet developmental unable to commit to a decision

Undecided and unable to make a decision because the individual is multi-talented

Children, teen, and adults transition from indecision to decisiveness when they complete the following steps in the career decision making and planning process.

Step Two: Educational and Occupational Exploration

Parents, children, and teens gather information about:

Educational choices

The benefits of educational achievement

The economy or labor market

Occupational choices

Specific occupations and programs of study

Training opportunities

The relationship between work and learning

Positive attitudes towards work and learning

Personal responsibility and good work habits

A typical working day for a specific occupation

Career exploration systems

Step Three: Problem solving

Parents, children, and teens solve career problems by:

Identifying educational and career planning obstacles

Creating solutions or courses of action

Setting achievable goals

Resolving conflict and tension

Making a commitment to reach our God-given potential

Problem solving should take into consideration personal values, interests, skills, and financial resources. Big problems are broken down into smaller, more manageable steps. Achievable goals result in the production of new competencies, attitudes, solutions, as well as educational and training opportunities.

Step Four: Goal Setting and Decision Making

As individuals, parents, children, and teens:

Set, formulate, prioritize, and rank goals

Clearly state our vocational interests, abilities, and values

Derive plans or strategies to implement the solutions

Make a commitment to complete the plans

Understand decision-making processes

Evaluate the primary choice

Consider a secondary occupational choice, if necessary

Decision-making processes include:

Developing learning and career plans

Identifying suitable occupations

Selecting appropriate educational programs

Figuring the costs of educational training

Considering the impact of career decisions.

Step Five: Implementation

While implementing and executing our learning and career plans, parents, children, and teens translate vocational interests, abilities, and skills into occupational possibilities. Parents, children, and teens do reality testing through interviewing current workers, job shadowing, part-time employment, full-time employment, and volunteer work. Parents, children, and teens obtain skill training, for example, social skills, resume writing, networking, and preparations for interviews.

Career Planning Resources

In order to assess gifts, talents, and abilities, parents, children, and teens need career resources. Career planning resources include books, videotapes, audio-tapes, games, workshops, self-assessment inventories, career exploration web-sites, and computer-assisted career guidance programs. These resources are found at libraries, community colleges, and resource centers.

The basis for most of the resources is the National Career Development Guidelines. In 1987, the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC) developed The National Career Development Guidelines. The guidelines were organized into three areas: Self-knowledge, Educational and Occupational Exploration, and Career Planning.

Self-knowledge deals with our self-concept, interpersonal skills, growth, and development.

Educational and occupational exploration reveals the relationships between learning, work, career information skills, job seeking, skill development, and the labor market.

Career planning includes self-assessment, career exploration, decision making, life role formation, goal setting, and the implementation of career choices.

Conclusion

We are each significant, different, and special. Yet, God knows our gifts, talents, and abilities. God has chosen us for special positions and tasks. Our occupations should reflect the callings that God has placed in our lives. Our vocations represent the gifts given to us by God. Our destinies come from God. Parents help children and teens discover God-given talents, abilities, and interests so that children and teens can fulfill God's purpose for their lives.

As parents, we will use prayer, the Word of God, other books, videotapes, audio-tapes, games, workshops, training materials, self-assessment inventories, career web-sites, computer-assisted career guidance programs, and resource centers to assist us in helping our children, and teens.

References

Miller, Juliet V. (1992) The National Career Development Guidelines, Eric Digest ED347493, ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Peterson, G., W., Sampson, J., P., Jr., Reardon, R., C., and Lenz, J., G. (1996) A Cognitive Approach to Career Development and Services, Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling and Career Development, University Center, Suite A4100, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1035, http://www.fsu.edu/ ~career/techcenter/html

Dr Mary Askew specializes in career tests, websites, and books for students. Find out how children and teens can reach their career potentials at [http://www.learning4liferesources.com] Contact Dr. Askew at learning4life@qwest.net

Greenlight’s Einhorn Says Microsoft Should Replace Ballmer

May 26, 2011, 10:02 AM EDT By Dina Bass, Kelly Bit and Saijel Kishan

(Updates with opening shares in eighth paragraph.)

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- Greenlight Capital Inc. President David Einhorn called for Microsoft Corp.’s board to replace Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, saying the software maker suffers from “Charlie Brown management.”

Ballmer is weighing on the company’s share price, Einhorn said yesterday at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference in New York. Even so, he recommended Microsoft shares because the stock trades at a “remarkable discount” to the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index while the business outperforms the average S&P company. Microsoft is Greenlight’s eighth-biggest U.S. stock holding.

“It’s time for Microsoft’s board to tell Steve Ballmer, ‘All right, we see what you can do, let’s give so-and-so a chance,’” Einhorn said. “His continued presence is the biggest overhang on Microsoft’s stock.”

Ballmer, 55, has come under increased scrutiny from shareholders as the company loses market share to Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in mobile phones and Apple’s iPad takes sales from personal computers running Microsoft’s Windows. Last year, the board docked Ballmer some of his potential bonus for falling short in the mobile industry and new forms of computers.

Greenlight, a New York-based hedge fund, added 1.39 million Microsoft shares last quarter, for a total of 9.07 million, according to a filing. The stake is worth $230.2 million. Microsoft’s shares have underperformed the S&P 500 in four of the past five quarters.

Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, declined to comment.

Top Shareholder

Ballmer is the company’s second-biggest shareholder -- with more than 333 million shares, or almost 4 percent. Co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates owns more than 561 million shares, or a 6.7 percent stake, according to Bloomberg data.

Microsoft climbed 30 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $24.49 at 9:37 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares declined 13 percent this year before today.

Einhorn, best known for profiting from bets against Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. four months before the firm collapsed in 2008, is a frequent speaker at the annual Ira Sohn conference. In 2006, he used his speech to discuss his recent purchase of Microsoft shares and to recommend the stock.

Since then, earnings per share have more than doubled and four of Microsoft’s product segments have shown improvement, Einhorn said. The company has also almost doubled its dividend and is now trading at a far bigger discount to the S&P 500, he said.

‘Not Getting Credit’

“Microsoft trades at a remarkable discount,” Einhorn said. “Microsoft is not getting credit for its achievements and prospects.”

Microsoft shares trade for about 9.8 times profit from the past year, or 34 percent less than the price-earnings ratio for the S&P 500. That’s the biggest discount since at least 1992 for the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Still, Ballmer isn’t taking advantage of Microsoft’s opportunities, Einhorn said. In his criticism, he likened Ballmer to Charlie Brown, a perpetual loser in baseball, football and other pursuits. The cartoon character’s signature lament is, “Good grief!”

“Ballmer’s problem is that he’s stuck in the past,” Einhorn said. “He’s allowed competitors to beat Microsoft in huge areas, including search, mobile-communications software, tablet computing and social networking. Even worse, his response to these failures has been to pour tremendous resources into efforts to develop his way out of these holes.”

Internet Losses

Microsoft’s online services business, which includes the Bing search engine, lost more than $700 million last quarter.

Einhorn, whose hedge fund manages $7.8 billion, criticized Lehman’s accounting during a speech at the same conference in 2008. Four months later, Lehman filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Einhorn said Lehman hadn’t disclosed its holdings of collateralized debt obligations properly and wasn’t valuing its commercial mortgage-related assets based on market prices.

His wagers haven’t always paid off. Einhorn said at the Ira Sohn conference last year that he continues to bet against rating agencies Moody’s Corp. and McGraw-Hill Cos., owner of Standard & Poor’s. Moody’s has risen 79 percent in the past year, while shares of McGraw-Hill have climbed 51 percent.

Back in 2006, Einhorn compared his investment approach to the strategy he uses in fantasy baseball, a game won by assembling the best team of Major League Baseball players. Einhorn said he’s usually reluctant to spend more than $30 on individual players because he only has $260 to buy the whole roster. Still, he said if Alex Rodriguez, then the sport’s most valuable player, were available for $35, he’d pony up.

Microsoft, he said at the time, was similar -- a little higher valuation than the companies he usually buys, but “Microsoft is A-Rod.”

--with assistance from Josh Fineman and Nick Baker in New York. Editors: Nick Turner, Tom Giles

To contact the reporters on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net; Kelly Bit in New York at kbit@bloomberg.net; Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

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Headhunters' Job Search Tips and Interview Advice

Come on, Get Real

Please don't waste your valuable time applying for jobs for which you fit none of the qualifications. This will only demoralize you when you get no response.

—Tara McKernan, DHR International

Help, Don't Opine

Co-workers don't value your input nearly so much as your cooperation. It's all about how you make the other person feel about him- or herself.

—Mark Jaffe, Wyatt & Jaffe

Turn Rejection into Enlightenment

Didn't make it past the initial phone screen? Don't take it to heart; try to get feedback on why. Always strike a friendly, open, positive tone when probing for feedback.

—Tara McKernan, DHR International

Take the High Road

The simplest and most elegant way to stand above the crowd will always be through the virtue of your actions. It means taking individual responsibility, making good on promises, not exaggerating, always having your mouth and your heart in perfect agreement.

—Mark Jaffe, Wyatt & Jaffe

Prepare for the Big Interview Question

The most frequently asked question is, "Tell me about yourself." The wrong answer is, "What do you want to know?" This tells the prospective employer you're unprepared for the interview.

—Tara McKernan, DHR International

Watch Your Words—and Tone

Real life is like high school. Get ready to be judged on popularity. Recognize that how you say things is often more important than what you say. Above all, don't tell people what's "wrong" with them.

—Mark Jaffe, Wyatt & Jaffe

Put Real Effort into Cover Letters

Generic cover letters are a big no-no. They turn off the prospective employer as they demonstrate that you didn't even have enough interest to research the job or hiring firm.

—Tara McKernan, DHR International

Turn a Negative into a Positive on the Interview

Instead of saying, "No, I've never done that" and feeling miserable afterward, try, "You know, I haven't had the opportunity to do that before but have always wanted to learn. Would I be able to here?"

—Mark Jaffe, Wyatt & Jaffe

Go Traditional

What is the new look for interviewing? The old rule remains true: dark suit with plain shirt or blouse. You'd be surprised how many candidates get this wrong.

—Tara McKernan, DHR International

Let Interviewers Reach Their Own Conclusions

Your next boss wants to be enamored, not assaulted. In business as in love, infatuation rarely results from a hard sell or a soft-shoe routine. Always explain, but resist the urge to exclaim.

—Mark Jaffe, Wyatt & Jaffe

Explain Resume Job Gaps Skillfully

Make it brief, honest, and positive. For example: "I felt I would be doing my employer a disservice by staying on once I decided it was time to move on and decided to make the job search a full-time endeavor."

—Tara McKernan, DHR International

Do Like a Boy Scout

A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Need we say more?

—Mark Jaffe, Wyatt & Jaffe

Write a Can-Do Resume

A good resume advertises not what you've done but what you can do for your future employer.

—Tara McKernan, DHR International

Remember: Worrying Produces Nothing

No matter how legitimate your need to panic—money, health, children—stressing and obsessing will only paralyze you. Has gunning the fear engine ever done anything to relieve the pain?

—Mark Jaffe, Wyatt & Jaffe

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UBS Has No Plan to Split Off Its Investment-Banking Division

May 26, 2011, 12:25 PM EDT By Elena Logutenkova

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG, the biggest Swiss bank, said it has no plan to split off its investment-banking division and has not entered into talks with regulators about moving the headquarters of the company outside Switzerland.

UBS sent a note to employees today affirming a “commitment” to the investment bank and adding that “there is no basis for speculation about splitting off” the unit. Separately, Chief Executive Officer Oswald Gruebel said by phone that “there are no talks with regulators about reincorporating a holding company outside of Switzerland.”

Questions have swirled around Gruebel’s intentions since he said in February that UBS may change its structure in the face of Swiss capital requirements that are tougher than elsewhere. Moving its investment bank to another jurisdiction wouldn’t allow the Zurich-based bank to escape the reach of Swiss rules as long as its headquarters are still in the country, Mark Branson, head of banking supervision at the Swiss regulator, has said.

Gruebel said in February that UBS could move some of the more capital-intensive businesses outside of Switzerland. With rules and capital requirements still in flux, the bank will evaluate options for different businesses once it becomes clear what regulators in different countries will demand, he said then.

UBS rose 9 centimes, or 0.6 percent, to 16.09 francs in Swiss trading, bringing the gain this year to 4.8 percent and valuing the company at 61.6 billion francs ($71.2 billion).

Crying Into Beer

The Wall Street Journal said earlier today the bank is planning to separate the securities division and incorporate it outside of Switzerland, a report UBS said was “speculation.”

Turning UBS’s investment bank into a standalone entity would probably drive up funding costs for the unit, which is still rebuilding after record losses in 2008. While the division posted its first annual pretax profit since 2006 last year, of 2.2 billion francs, it had the lowest revenue from trading, underwriting stock and bond sales and advising clients on mergers and acquisitions among the nine biggest investment banks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Branson, head of banking supervision at the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, said in March that trading business “has always moved from place to place and always will,” adding that it’s “not an unintended consequence” of Swiss regulation that banks reconsider the future of their securities units.

Capital Rules

The Swiss government this year proposed changes to banking laws to require UBS and Credit Suisse Group AG to hold almost twice the capital required under the international Basel III rules as of 2019.

“Gruebel is very concerned about the fact that Basel III and the stringent Swiss capital requirements are going to make it difficult to earn adequate returns in certain businesses,” said Christopher Wheeler, a London-based analyst at Mediobanca SpA. “We are not convinced the Swiss regulators would be crying into their beer if some of UBS’s investment banking activities came off the Swiss balance sheet and effectively moved away from Swiss regulation.”

Switzerland had to invest 6 billion francs in October 2008 to help UBS spin off its risky assets into a central bank fund after the company amassed the biggest losses and writedowns from the credit crisis among European lenders at the time. The proposed new rules aim to make sure that the banks’ Swiss businesses survive in a future crisis, even if the rest is wound down, the government said.

‘Migrating’ Business

“We also hear a lot about business migrating across jurisdictions,” Branson told journalists at a press conference in Bern on March 22. “Our responsibility is to set appropriate conditions for banking activities in this country. The responsibility of business leaders is to assess their options, and take the big decisions in the best interests principally of their shareholders.”

Some Swiss shareholders at the bank’s annual meeting last month criticized Gruebel, 67, and Chairman Kaspar Villiger, 70, for voicing reservations about the government’s proposal for stricter capital requirements.

“In this difficult environment, we, as a global bank, 80 percent of whose shareholders are non-Swiss, must seek the optimum structure for our business,” Villiger told shareholders.

--Editors: Frank Connelly, Steve Bailey

To contact the reporter on this story: Elena Logutenkova in Zurich at elogutenkova@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at fconnelly@bloomberg.net

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SAP Investors Want Proof $28 Billion Sales Target Can Be Met

May 25, 2011, 10:55 AM EDT By Ragnhild Kjetland and Aaron Ricadela

(Updates with investor comment in seventh paragraph.)

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- A week after wooing software customers with mobile and data-analysis programs at a U.S. conference, SAP AG’s co-chief executive officers need to win over investors by explaining how they will reach sales targets.

Shareholders gathering today in Mannheim, Germany, want Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe to give details on how the largest business-management software maker can achieve its goal of making a quarter of 2015 sales -- projected at 20 billion euros ($28 billion) -- from mobile products, services and data analysis software such as the Hana technology.

The co-CEOs, ushered in by Chairman and co-founder Hasso Plattner 15 months ago, have gone on an offensive with new software. At the Sapphire conference in Orlando, Florida, SAP announced the release of mobile applications; it struck deals to store, deliver and develop software over the Internet with Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp. Customers such as Colgate- Palmolive Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd. talked about their experiences with the Hana analytics technology.

“Many investors believe SAP’s product portfolio has potential, but we want to see proof and we probably won’t see that for another two years, three years,” said Thilo Mueller, a portfolio manager at MB Fund Advisory GmbH in Limburg, Germany, who helps manage 120 million euros including SAP shares. “I haven’t yet had the big ‘Aha!’ moment with the new management.”

Sybase Purchase

McDermott, 49, and Snabe, 45, replaced now-Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Leo Apotheker in February 2010 amid employee and customer discontent, as well as delays in its Web-based software. “We didn’t have a real story,” Plattner said about SAP before the management change, in an interview last month at SAP’s California campus overlooking the Palo Alto hills. “What does SAP do next?”

Weeks before last year’s annual meeting SAP agreed to purchase mobile-computing software maker Sybase Inc. for $5.8 billion in the company’s second-largest takeover.

SAP needs to be “more precise about what the different innovations will contribute in terms of sales and profit,” Hans- Martin Buhlmann, president of Vereinigung Institutionelle Privatanleger, a Cologne, Germany-based shareholder proxy group, said at today’s meeting, which is attended by 3,300 shareholders. “We want to know how much money we’ll make when, from these innovations.”

‘Back Foot’

SAP fell 0.2 percent to 42.87 euros at 4:29 p.m. in Frankfurt. Before today, the stock had risen 29 percent since the co-CEOs took over. Rival Oracle Corp. increased 40 percent in the same period, and the Bloomberg World Software Index was up 19 percent.

Under Apotheker’s two-year leadership, SAP’s stock generated annualized returns of 5.7 percent, according to Bloomberg data.

“Last year they were still on the back foot” after giving in to customer pressure and delaying a price increase on enterprise support, said Rajeev Bahl, co-head of software and IT services research at London-based Matrix Corporate Capital LLP, who has a “buy” rating and a 50 euro price estimate for SAP.

“This year they are much more confident in their ability to grow beyond the core.”

In 2010, SAP’s software for enterprise resource planning, or ERP, used for tasks including financial planning, human resources and product development, accounted for 72 percent of sales. ERP customers include American Express Co., Canon Inc. and The Body Shop. SAP sales were 12.5 billion euros last year.

‘True North’

“In three years, ERP will have lots of mobile screens and will have a lot of in-memory-based” capabilities, Snabe said in an interview in Orlando. This is how mobile and in-memory will have a “huge influence on” the last 5 billion euros in SAP’s 20 billion-euro sales target. Such in-memory capabilities allow complex calculations to be performed instantly, and may help users to forecast how changes affect business.

In 2009, toward the end of Apotheker’s reign, the company had quarreled with some customers about maintenance prices. In January 2010, SAP caved in to customer pressure and froze planned fee hikes. The company also started offering clients a choice between a full range of tailor-made services and a lower- priced standard package with basic software backup.

“We’ve brought a certain humbleness, a certain intellectual curiosity, and patience for listening,” McDermott said about the relationship to customers after Apotheker’s departure. “You keep your promises, you do this one quarter, one year, at a time and you stay true north to your vision. And we’ll be there at 20 billion euros by 2015.”

Right Strategy?

During Apotheker’s departure, Plattner, who created SAP in 1972 with former colleagues from International Business Machines Corp., vowed to make SAP a “happy company again.” Plattner sought to remove management hierarchies and worked with Vishal Sikka, the executive board member in charge of technology, to speed up software development.

“Innovating doesn’t go through PowerPoint,” Plattner said in the interview. “I should have done this 20 years ago; it would have been a different company.”

Some investors are prepared to wait.

“In all likelihood it will be a couple of years at least before we can tell if it was the right strategy or not,” said Jella Benner-Heinacher, a representative of the DSW German shareholders association. “If you consider the Googles and Microsofts of this world, every day another company is being acquired in this industry that changes the make-up of the market and it will be interesting to see how SAP positions itself.”

--Editors: Kenneth Wong, Robert Valpuesta

To contact the reporters on this story: Ragnhild Kjetland in Frankfurt at rkjetland@bloomberg.net; Aaron Ricadela in San Francisco at aricadela@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong in Berlin at kwong11@bloomberg.net; Tom Giles at tgiles@bloomberg.net.

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