Life Health and Wellness

One of the skills that benefits everyone in terms of networking and productivity is learning people’s names. Once you are introduced to someone, it’s amazing how impressive it is to others when you remember their name the next time you see them. Of course, this is not new information.

Many years ago my father gave me a copy of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People and I still consider it a classic. One of the guiding bits of advice Carnegie offers is to “remember that a man’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” That’s wise advice.

By nature, I’m not inclined to remember people’s names. I have to work at it. But I consider it something for which exerting the effort is worthwhile. So many times I’ve remembered someone’s name upon meeting them again and seen the clear sign of pleasure the other person experienced when they realized I’d remembered their name. It’s validating. We all like it.

Enter Facebook. While I use Facebook for my closer circle of friends (I use LinkedIn professionally), I also have an extended range of casual friends I’m connected to on Facebook that I meet only rarely and often don’t remember their names. Now on Facebook I regularly see their picture alongside their full name. This reinforces their name in my mind, and this includes their last name too which most don’t remember nearly as often as a first name. All of sudden I’m remembering people’s names better. Yay!

Human interaction skills like remembering names is something we should all learn. It will serve us well in both our personal and professional lives. Not all learning has to be comprised of absorbing facts or complex technical skills. Much of the learning we should all pursue centers around how we can best interact and communicate with others. I’m glad Facebook has helped me with one human interaction skill in which I was truly lacking any expertise. Maybe it can help you too.

This post thread started with my book review of Proving Your Qualified.

In previous posts I discussed some of the elements of an education portfolio – résumés and letters of recommendation. Although what elements go into the making of a good education portfolio varies by individual and job target, a good one might consist of a résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials, work samples and documentation of learning. I’ll discuss testimonials in this post and the remaining elements in future posts.

Testimonials

While a letter of recommendation is a formal letter that packs quite a punch when trying to impress someone considering whether to hire you or not, a testimonial can also be impressive. What is a testimonial?

You might be familiar with the many testimonials (or endorsements) that populate the infomercials so prevalent on television today. These are generally written or spoken statements, sometimes short quotes (often from a well-known celebrity, expert in the field, or private citizen) extolling the virtues of some product or service. For our purposes here, a testimonial is someone extolling your virtues, experience, knowledge and skills.

When someone says something nice about your work or your high level of expertise or skill, ask if you can quote them. Or better yet, ask if they’ll put what they said in an email and send it to you. Ask them if it’s alright to include the testimonial quote in your portfolio. Also ask if it’s alright to use their name, title and company (if applicable) and contact information (email address usually). If you feel the quote needs to be reworded, don’t hesitate to revise it and send it back to them and ask if the rewording is OK. You want it to read in that testimonial “style.” They’ll generally say yes as long as you didn’t change the meaning of anything they said.

Why ask if you can use their name and information? Because testimonial quotes attributed to a specific person who can (if one were to want to) be validated make the best impression. But even if the attribution of the quote is from “a satisfied client” or “a fellow co-worker at ABC Corporation,” use it anyway.

Present your testimonials neatly typed as quoted material along with whatever attribution you can include below it. For example…

“John Doe’s computer savvy, work ethic and experience in the software development field have contributed significantly to our company’s success.”
- Jack Smith, Vice President, Big Corporation

 In a portfolio that someone will be flipping through, formatting each quote in a large font that fills an entire page can make an impact. If presenting the testimonial quotes online or in a printed document you’re sending to or giving someone, just present the quotes and attributions formatted nicely in a regular font in a series sequentially on as many pages as is necessary.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the other elements of an education portfolio in future posts.

Marijuana is not illegal because it is unhealthy (it’s not) or because it has negative effects on the mind (it doesn’t). There is no logical or sound reason why marijuana cannabis is illegal in the United States. This ignorant legislation was the result of lies, corrupt motives, vague wording and demonization. This is the real story:

Marijuana has been around for a LONG time. It was ingrained into the culture of America as early as the Jamestown era. Prior to the federal ban in 1937, hemp (marijuana) plants were a huge business for their potential to be made into a variety of products, including cloth, rope and food.

America loved the marijuana plant until it became associated with Mexicans in the early 1900′s. Mexicans were the latest group of immigrants and of course Americans jump to hating anything that is new and different, (ex. Africans, Irish, Chinese). So when they came over the board smoking marijuana, people noticed and California quickly became the first state to outlaw the “preparations of hemp, or loco weed.”

Soon state after state was making marijuana illegal for various, often racist reasons. A prime example of this was one legislator’s comment on the decision in Montana:

“When some beet field peon takes a few traces of this stuff… he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico, so he starts out to execute all his political enemies.”

Another Texan senator said on the floor of the Senate: “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy.”

Excellent reasoning for making ‘loco weed’ illegal.

William Hearst

The next source of pot demonization came from Mr. Henry Hearst, famous yellow journalist. Hearst made it his goal to wipe hemp completely off the map. His reasons are as follows:

1) Mexicans had brought it over and were associated with it, and Hearst hated Mexicans.

2) Hearst invested heavily into the timber industry to support his newspaper business and he did not want hemp as a competitor.

3) Stories of marijuana making Mexicans rape white men made for riveting stories in his newspaper.

Here are some excerpts about marijuana from his journalism and others like it:

“By the tons it is coming into this country — the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms…. Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him….”

- San Francisco Examiner

“Users of marijuana become STIMULATED as they inhale the drug and are LIKELY TO DO ANYTHING. Most crimes of violence in this section, especially in country districts are laid to users of that drug.”

“Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim’s life in Los Angeles?… THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMES of violence in this country today are committed by DOPE SLAVES — that is a matter of cold record.”

Harry Anslinger

The third driving force behind the illegalization was the director of the newly-created Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), Harry Anslinger. Like many other corrupt politicians, he saw his job as a business opportunity rather than an organization to promote the public well-being. Anslinger wanted the FBN to be a massive organization and he thought that the war on cocaine and opiates weren’t big enough targets for his goal to be reached. Consequently he latched on to marijuana and began a campaign portraying the plant as a cause of violence and social disorder.

Chief among his exploits were the so-called “Gore Files” that “documented” the horror stories of marijuana usage. Here are some quotes from those files:

“This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and others.”

“You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”

“Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality and death.”

“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men”

“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

Anslinger planned for two years and finally brought The Marijauna Tax Act of 1937 (making marijuana illegal on the Federal level) to Congress He brought with him a book full of Hearst’s ridiculous stories, quotes from the “Gore Files” and a whole bunch of racist comments. The only person that stood in his way was Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical Association (AMA).

The brave Dr. Woodward criticized Anslinger for construing AMA statements to make them appear in support of his anti-marijuana legislation. He also reprimanded the legislature and the FBN for using the term “marijuana” in the legislation, which at the time was not publicly known to represent hemp/cannabis. Marijuana was a racist term used to describe the smoking of cannabis by Mexicans. Thus many people who had a vested interest in marijuana such as hemp farmers, vendors and cannabis smokers did not know that this new law would outlaw their beloved hemp. A very snide trick indeed…

Woodward went on to accuse Anslinger of using hearsay evidence and listed the many holes in his “scientific” reasoning for making marijuana illegal. The legislature and Anslinger both retorted by stating that Woodward only had criticisms and no hard evidence as to why marijuana should remain legal.

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was then OK’d by the committee and passed on to the house floor. There, the discussion was exactly this:

“Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?”

Speaker: “I don’t know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it’s a narcotic of some kind.”

“Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?”

Member on the committee flat out lies: “Their Doctor ‘Wentworth’[sic] came down here. They support this bill 100 percent.”

And that was it. Because of one final lie, marijuana was made illegal in the United States.

Since then marijuana has been made a Schedule 1 substance, which by definition has no medical benefits. Except for medical marijuana has been legalized in numerous states and it has been proven to have a wide variety of beneficial medical effects.

The ONLY side-effect of marijuana usage is temporary short-term memory loss due to chronic use. It does not kill brain cells like alcohol and you can safely drive on it. It stimulates appetite. It heighten your creative capabilities. It makes music sounds better, food taste better, sensations feel better, and makes everything just that much more fun. And yet it remains illegal while cancer-causing, highly-addictive cigarettes and alcohol remain totally legal. It’s almost funny how ridiculous the whole thing is. Almost.

This post thread started with my book review of Proving Your Qualified.

In my last post I discussed one of the elements of an education portfolio – résumés. Although what elements go into the making of a good education portfolio varies by individual and job target, a good one might consist of a résumé, letters of recommendation, testimonials, work samples and documentation of learning. I’ll discuss letters of recommendation in this post and the remaining elements in future posts.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are typically written by past employers or clients extolling your background, virtues and skills to another potential employer. Aren’t sure what one looks like? Just go to your favorite web search engine such as bing.com or google.com and type in “letters of recommendation” (with the quotes) and you’ll see all sorts of sites devoted to this topic including lots of sample letters.

How do you get a letter of recommendation? You ask!

So many people think it’s wrong to ask for a letter of recommendation. It’s not. Go ahead and ask. Even better yet (and you may find this strange at first), write the letter yourself. I mean it. Write your own letter of recommendation and present it to the person you want the letter from. When presenting it say something like “I know you’re a busy person and I’d like a letter of recommendation from you. I’ve taken the liberty of writing one myself. Of course, you can change it or write your own, but if you agree with what it says and just want to sign it, that would be great. Let me leave this with you and you can look it over.”

You’ll be shocked by how many people will simply sign it. Why? Because the hard work of writing the letter is done for them. Assuming you’ve portrayed yourself accurately in the letter and you know the person sees you and your work as you do, they will likely sign the letter.

When presenting the letter, have it printed on the company or department letterhead. This adds significant credibility to the letter. Make sure to identify the person’s title under their printed name, just below where they’ll add their signature. If you don’t have access to the company stationery, create a simple, professional-looking stationery letterhead yourself and use that. Use at least their name and title in the letterhead. If the company name, address, phone number and email in the letterhead seem appropriate, add those too. You can always offer to alter the letterhead text before they sign it if they don’t like it. There are thousands of letterhead templates available. Again, simply type in “letterhead templates” into your favorite search engine and you’ll find plenty of them.

Try to mix up the way you write these letters of recommendation. You don’t want them to sound like they’ve all been written by you. Likewise, if you create the letterhead for them, don’t use the same template twice.

If the only way to get a letter of recommendation is as an email, then take it. A printout of an email might not have the visual impact of a signed letter on letterhead, but it can still be powerful and influential to those who read it.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the other elements of an education portfolio in future posts.

This post continues the topic I started in my previous book review of Proving You’re Qualified.

Here’s the dilemma. You’re about to search for a new job. You have some work experience behind you. You’ve learned some things along way. Perhaps you’ve read some books, learned on the job, taken some workshops, or otherwise gained some great experience, knowledge and skills that a potential employer will undoubtedly find of benefit to their company. Now you’re looking for a new job or a promotion, but you don’t have a college degree. What do you do?

College degrees (or professional certifications) are far too often the litmus test by which companies have filtered out job applicants. Assuming that someone is a better fit for a job because they hold a college degree often turns out to be a terrible way to judge job candidates. Luckily, many companies are seeing the wisdom in having a more broad set of applicant requirements. You’ll often now see the words “college degree required – or equivalent work experience” listed in a job opening description. As more and more baby boomers retire and companies seek out the required workers in a dwindling pool of talent, I expect this trend to continue.

Sure, for some professions such as physician, attorney or architect, formal education is not just a good idea, but the only way to go. But for the majority of jobs, including many professional jobs, a college degree means little when determining if someone is right for a position.

Even for employment positions advertised as requiring a college degree, there are sometimes ways to get past this requirement. If you can make a direct, personal contact with someone at a company they can often arrange for the college degree requirement to be waived if there is a compelling reason to do so. There is always someone at some level of the company that can waive the requirement unless it’s one of those jobs that absolutely requires a college degree.

So what do you do? How do you prove to a potential employer that you have what it takes to do a job as well as someone with a degree (if not better)? The answer is to create an education portfolio.

What is an education portfolio? It’s documentation, presented in a concise and easy-to-view form, of your job/life experience, learning, skills, competencies and other factors that taken together comprise your unique, individual education. Truthfully, even if you have a college degree, a good education portfolio will give you added credibility when interviewing for a job.

So what goes into an education portfolio? It can vary by individual and job target, but a good one might consist of these elements:

• Your résumé.
• Letters of recommendation.
• Testimonials.
• Work samples.
• Documentation of learning.

I’ll discuss each of these elements individually starting with your résumé in this post and the other elements in future posts.

Your Résumé

When looking for a job, your résumé is your most important piece of marketing collateral. And that’s how you should look at it. You’re marketing yourself to prospective employers. So your résumé should sell you in the strongest manner possible. In one or two pages your résumé should tell someone what you know, what you’ve accomplished, and how your knowledge and experience can translate into a better bottom line for their company.

Writing a résumé can be tricky. If you can afford it, hiring a professional résumé writer can be beneficial. I would avoid hiring someone through a job board’s résumé service or without some good references. Like the rest of the professional world, quality varies dramatically. Ask around to see if any of your friends have hired a professional résumé writer. Don’t ask someone at your current place of employment unless you’re absolutely sure the person will hold your inquiry in confidence. You don’t want to tip off your employer that you’re looking for a new job.

If you don’t know of someone, consulting a professional organization’s roster like the National Résumé Writers Association is a good idea. If you choose to write your résumé yourself and you have decent writing skills, you can produce a good résumé on your own. I recommend you read The Elements of Resume Style: Essential Rules and Eye-Opening Advice for Writing Resumes and Cover Letters that Work by Scott Bennett. It’s an excellent book you can read in a day and it will give you great basic advice on creating your résumé along with some useful job search advice.

Come back to my blog as I talk about the other elements of an education portfolio in future posts.

Proving You’re Qualified: Strategies for Competent People without College Degrees
By Charles D. Hayes
Published by Autodidactic Press

Ask a random sampling of people who are in successful careers how they learned to do their current job and a large percentage of them will say “I learned on the job.” I hear it all the time and I bet you do too.

If you’ve learned a lot on the job, or through other self-directed means, how do you “prove” to an employer or manager that you’re qualified to do something? All too often when someone is truly qualified from a knowledge, skill and experience perspective, but lacks a college degree, they’re passed over for a job, promotion or important project. Such situations are ridiculous and Charles D. Hayes knows it too. So he wrote this excellent book.

Proving You’re Qualified is less a set of guidelines and suggestions on proving your competency than it is a superb analysis of the illogical environment and attitudes that pervade the business community. Too often businesses elevate those with degrees over those without, even when someone without the degree is clearly more competent. It’s a stupid approach to managing a workforce and ultimately a bad business decision, but it’s a common reality.

It turns out the insightful analysis Hayes presents is great fodder for coming up with your own approaches to prove your competency for a job. And Hayes does offer some helpful strategies that you can use and that I think will prompt you to naturally think of additional strategies relevant to your own situation.

I’ll present some of my own ideas about proving your competency (and your self education) in my next few blog postings.