Career Kids

Getting a Lot Out of SWOT*

*A strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture.
-- Wikipedia

To many of us, S.W.O.T. is just a business term. In an analysis of business, we look at each environment and do a SWOT. 

But this same principle should apply in our very own lives. In order to be the best we can be, we should be able to identify all the components of a SWOT.

Begin by asking yourself the following questions:

• What do I do exceptionally well?
• Where are my gifts?
• Do I constantly give my best? 
• In which atmosphere do I shine? 

The same principle applies to your weaknesses, opportunities and threats: 

• When do I hide behind others?
• What opportunities do I have to better myself?
• What stands in my way of success?

Performing a SWOT enables you to elevate your strengths, restructure your weaknesses, advance on your opportunities and crush your threats. 

Over the next few months we will analyze significant steps for success.  These steps are designed to encourage, direct and build the self-esteem of young people.  I encourage you to take the steps with us and build a life long success manual.

STEP 1: SWOT, analyze you!  What are your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities and threats.

STEP 2: Build from your strengths.

STEP 3: Face your weaknesses.. Dreams are launched here!

STEP 4: Take advantage of your opportunities

STEP 5: Learn from your threats

Join us as we break down the steps that will launch, design and equip you for success.

Original post for Career Kids blog by Demene Benjamin. Read more of Demene's tips at her personal site,www.demenebenjamin.com

Believe In Now

Career!

That's like a 6 letter dirty word if there ever was one. 

At a young age, most of us can't think beyond money, a job and a want. But as time went on, many of us decided that we had to settle for the 9 to 5; for the traditional employment and living for a pay period.

It's hard to imagine that over half of the US economy is supported by small business owners.  That means that somewhere along the line, millions of people got tired of earning just enough and living pay period to pay period. These creative, entrepreneurial folks started designing, manufacturing and marketing products and services of their own and became the backbone of the American economy. 

Some of these businesses are now major corporations: Clothing companies like FUBU, media conglomerates like the Walt Disney Company, and darlings of the tech world, like Microsoft, Google and Facebook. 

If that's not enough to make you change your stinking thinking - that "career" isn't a dirty word, but a platform to launch your dream - think about this: it wasn't just a job that got Martin Luther King, Jr. to dream, or a black man to run for President of the United States or even a women to run for the White House.  These people chose careers! 

I have adopted the theme, "Believe in Now."  Now is the time to prepare yourself for greatness.  Believe now you can launch your destiny and that now is the perfect time to believe in you.

Original post for Career Kids blog. Visit www.DemeneBenjamin.com for more inspiration and advice.

Making Time for Yourself Saves Time in the Long Run

It was Thomas Edison who said, “There is time for everything.”

If you ask most parents they would laugh at the thought. Sometimes I can’t imagine fitting another thing into my week, let alone my day.

However, if like John Kennedy, “we use time as a tool and not a crutch,” we may just find time for everything!

Just think: when is the last time you spent 30 minutes without the kids --  with no phone ringing, no shopping lists to write or mental notes on what still has to be done.

It seems the older I get, I am fighting for my own personal time and I don’t just want it; at this point in my life I require it! So with three girls, a dad to care for, a husband, job, dog, volunteer hours, church and more, just how and when do I find the time?

Most times I get a few minutes to myself once the kids go to bed in the evening. That's when I impose my 9:00 PM "Mom’s Off" rule. After nine, you can’t ask me for a thing and my room becomes my safe haven.

I also start each morning with 15 minutes of quiet time. Before I wake the children I spend time praying, reading, and sometimes stretching. These two times of day have become so important to me that when I don’t make TIME my peace level is affected.

Other methods might work better for you. Here are a few tried and true exercises you might want to try:

• Physical exercise
• Breathing exercises
• Writing
• Affirmations
• Listening to music
• Burning candles
• 10-second body clenches and releases.

Finally, you might ask just how relaxing relates to your self-esteem, and the answer is TIME.

“Every moment is a golden one, for him who has the vision to recognize it as such” (Henry Miller).

This month make your time golden, recognize that your body needs time, your mind needs time and your soul needs time. I plan to learn to take more time, I even started scheduling my time on the calendar! Next month we take a look at organization. If you have found it difficult to find time, make it your new goal to get ORGANIZED.

Visit www.DemeneBenjamin.com for more time management tips.

A New Adventure... Blogging!

Welcome to our the new Career Kids blog. While we often have conversations with teachers, counselors and administrators, writing this blog will be something very new. I am told I can write about anything I want. Hmmm.... that can get me into trouble if I'm not careful.

Working in marketing and publishing was not my personal career path when I started college. But, here I am.

I am also at that age where my friends' kids are graduating from college. Two of my own children are in college. I talk to friends about what their young adult children are going to do after graduation. Everyone is hopeful that a job will be found quickly. One friend of mine has a daughter who lined up a great engineering job before she graduated. This young woman was more than just lucky -- she was determined and a go-getter.

To be honest, I'm not so sure my own kids will be so determined and such go-getters. Will my young graduates move back home for an extended period of time, will they be able to support themselves, will they be happy, etc? When they graduate, it will be the first time they will not be able to write student in the occupation box when filling out questionnaires or medical forms.

I am noticing my conversations with friends whose children are just graduating are involving a lot of discussion about the difficult transition period that many people experience after college graduation. For myself, I can look back at some of the more difficult years in my life and the first year after graduation was definitely one of the hardest. Not planning to go on to graduate school (mainly because I really didn't feel passionate about anything in particular except making money to support myself), what did a degree in psychology really buy me? And what would it buy me now?

Well, the good news is, a college degree in any major still opens doors for you. It may not carry the same weight as it did back in my day, but there are many employers who are looking for the applicants with the four-year degree in any major.

Students usually don't take advantage of all the services a college campus has to offer. If you have a child in college, urge him or her to go to their school's academic and career counseling offices. They can always change their minds and switch careers (or majors). Let's encourage our young college students to be proactive and receive advice and counsel so that their transition into the working world isn't so difficult.

This post was written expressly for the Career Kids Blog by Linda Schwartz. Linda is Partner at Career Kids, the web's premier source for educational materials on careers, guidance, life skills, job search and workforce development.