What does this graph tell you? Well for one, that’s a very nicely organized beach resort. Second – in the U.S. we are not legally entitled to any holiday. Yes, your company can technically make you work on Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, etc. Obviously most companies will provide vacation to their employees. Interestingly countries such as Britain also commonly go beyond the government mandates and provide even more vacation (more than 28days). I shouldn’t complain. At the 7year mark I’ll get my 3rd week of vacation (just as likely as the probability of me getting Social Security at 65).

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Career Ramblings has excellent content related to career enhancement including, but not limited to where to look for jobs, excellent interview and resume tips, and advice for how to act to succeed in your career.

The site posts very pertinent content on a consistant basis. I am a regular reader of the blog and have found it so good I purchased a text link on her sidebar pointing to daxdesai.com. What a deal. As expected her traffic has increased dramatically and I got the benefit of being an early advertiser. I locked in a low rate of $10/month for 6 months.   The current rate is $75/month.  I am a trader/businessman at the end of the day. This was a particularly good investment. Since buying my link my traffic has increased to the point that I have been accepted to do reviews of other websites.

The site recently received a PR rank of 6. For those that don’t know, this is a Google ranking. It is a reflection of high quality and linkbacks. Literally thousands of sites link back to Career Ramblings reflecting the good quality of the site’s content.

If you have thought about changing careers, are stuck in a rut, or otherwise need advice this is the site for you. If you think you don’t need advice I still recommend you go at least check out the articles. It may give you a different perspective and inspire you to enhance your own career.

So some of you may be wondering why I’m doing a review of the site? Well for one, the site has a PR of 6 and I have a purchased link. If they link back to me I get the benefit of link back from a high-quality site yet again. Secondly I believe my readers are successful and as such would be interested in the content of Career Ramblings.

If you’d like to participate in a link exhange with Career Ramblings you can do so, but read the rules first.

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Here’s an excerpt:

• 7. Ice-cream maker
• 32. Baker
• 42. Roadie
• 73. Counselor

Find out if your job or dream job is on the list.

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I’m going to start Construction classes in 2007. Why? Why not? I have a deep interest in architecture, construction, and generally redevelopment.

I know many people that have got commercial buildings built for them so this will be a good way to integrate and perhaps even at some point do some large projects. I am not qualified now, but that shouldn’t stop me. I can take steps to move forward which is what I’m doing.

What will my role be in the future? I don’t know, but I would like it to be in the construction/develpment space. It could be in the finance side, or the actual development. I will probably continue doing what I currently do for several years, but we’ll see how it unfolds. My mid-range goal is to apply what I’ve learned to general contract my own home. It will be a good application of what I learn. I’m sure there’ll be mistakes. Better those mistakes be in a small project like a home than a large project leveraged to the hilt with hard time constraints.

Its going to be an interesting 2007! I don’t believe in resolutions. After all why wait till the next year to do stuff you want to do now?

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The Office Rocks! My Office – not so much.

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So I ask, should I be searching for a person with 5-10yrs experience or should I be looking for a person of any experience -perhaps 0 experience & no degree, but with excellent Googling capability?

The search goes on for that elusive Golden Employee.

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In America, vacation is something you save for… kind of like buying a house. Now what I mean by save is not monetary, its your actual days. If you want to take any vacation of significance you have to hope your company has a carry over policy, accumulate vacation then go on a long vacation. Obviously you have to deprive yourself first to get the indulgence of a long vacation. How is it that our neighbor to the North gets double the amount of vacation as we do?

Somehow we’ve sunken into an unnatural state of productivity. I have a friend that exemplifies this – its called a computer server, a machine. We are becoming more machine-like than we realize.

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My experience:

1. Coffee gets taken away – Why? Obviously it costs too much to keep your employees alert. Its much more cost-effective to let them go through the day in a trance-like productive state.
2. Turning off lights to the bare-minimum OSHA requirement. I’ve seen an employer walk around with a light meter turning tube lights to save electricity. We’re not talking about 600watt halogen lights here. We’re talking about 22watt tube lights. Mother nature appreciates it, but this is more of a morale downer than anything else. Its not the light per se. Its the insult that you’d walk around trying to marginalize our work environment.
3. Saying things like “If you don’t like it here, you should leave” addressing a broad employee group in a townhall setting. Now, personally if I’m not thinking of leaving it would make me wonder why I’m not thinking of it. Its a proven psychological fact that it puts it in your head so to speak. I had an interview at ElPaso Energy in Houston. They said during the interview “We don’t have any problems like Enron. Our accountants said we’re good.” Personally I had hoped on some level that they were in fact ok. However when I heard the interviewer verbalize it, it just amplified my belief that his company probably wasn’t. A few months later ElPaso Energy had some auditor issues of their own.
4. Another favorite quote: “You’re lucky to have a job.” – On many levels…wtf does that mean? Are you saying I’m unemployable? I can picture this statement circa Great Depression, not today.
5. Giving annual raises that are less than inflation. You know if you get a raise that is 1% less than inflation, is that really a raise? Knock on wood, I’ve never received a raise less than inflation, but I know plenty of people who have. To those people, I salute you for you have managed to somehow withhold your 2 weeks notice longer than I could.
6. Lastly, but perhaps the most common – Not giving a Great Underpaid employee a raise (while still keeping him underpaid) and then watching him leave the company wondering what happened. Usually this is followed by hiring a semi-competent replacement that usually is overpaid. Its funny how market forces catchup over time.

Wow… I really digressed. Anyhow read the article. Slate puts out some good stuff – an old school web .9 product? What web are we at now anyhow? I’m at Dax 4.0 (whatever that means).

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