Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295510558?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Freelancers cobble together part-time jobs to make 'portfolio careers'
By Alyssa Goldman, LearnVest
Russ Juskalian, 30, is a journalist based in Munich who has reported from Southeast Asia, above the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland and from the Himalayan foothills in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
As you?d expect, he writes articles related to his travels. But, unlike most journalists, he also sells his photos, giving him a second career as a photographer.
If that weren?t enough, in his spare time, he teaches classes in science writing, international freelancing and travel writing through an online program offered by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
?My schedule varies dramatically from week to week, month to month,? he says. ?Because I have so many competing things going on ? writing, editing images, pitching, preparing for upcoming classes, grading student work ? I tend to compartmentalize my time, so that I have a series of tasks that I must get done before moving on to the next ones.?
So-called ?slashers,? like reporter/photographer/teacher?Juskalian, are part of an emerging trend known as the ?portfolio career.? And if you?re the right personality type, it can be an incredibly rewarding ? and profitable ? career move.
How portfolio careers became so big
Marci Alboher, author of ?One Person/Multiple Careers,? defines ?slashers? as individuals who?ve created a ?portfolio career? involving multiple identities. Their income comes from part-time employment, temporary work, freelance assignments or a personal business ? or they work a full-time job, while pursuing other lucrative interests.
Barrie Hopson, co-author of ?10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career,? says that this ?type of career offers a much more fulfilling work-life blend, not to mention a safety net of several jobs?so if you lose one or choose to quit a job, you?ll still have other sources of income.
During the heart of the recession, people took on portfolio careers out of necessity. So now that the job market is improving,?why is the slasher lifestyle becoming even more common.
?Increasingly, people are finding that they don?t want to do the same thing day in and day out,? Hopson says. ?The traditional, single-track career pattern of the last century (think ladder) is now more difficult to find, and if you do pursue that, you?ll almost certainly have to move between companies.?
That said, portfolio careers aren?t for everyone.
To determine if a portfolio career is right for you, consult your high school extracurricular schedule, suggests?Erin Albert, author of ?Plan C: The Full-Time Employee and Part-Time Entrepreneur.? Did you dabble in one or more activities, such as theater, music, art or sports? ??If you craved variety, then you?ll most likely crave variety now,? Albert says.
Another question to consider: If you won the lottery tomorrow, and money was no object, what would you do with your life? ?If your brain excitedly goes in 50 different directions in answer to that question, chances are that you have portfolio career potential,? Albert says.
If you think that you might be made of the right stuff, consider these questions before jumping into a portfolio career:
* Do you multitask and manage your time well?
* Do you crave flexibility and creativity?
* Are you organized?
* Are you open to new opportunities?
If you answered yes to most of these questions, this path could be the one for you.
Only one of the 46 portfolio careerists that Hopson studied have returned to a single-track career in the past two years. According to Hopson, all of the participants claimed that they were happier as slashers, which is no wonder, since most of them earned more within two years of their portfolio career than they ever did as a full-time employee.
What to do before launching a portfolio career?
Foresee and handle any conflicts of interest.?This applies to conflicts both with a specific day job and at the career level. For instance, if you stay at your full-time job, but you need more time to dedicate to other interests, have an honest conversation with your employer to come up with the best solution. Additionally, make sure that your other pursuits won?t negatively impact that?career overall.
Only one of the 46 portfolio careerists that Hopson studied have returned to a single-track.
?The good and bad news here is that you have the power to create whatever custom-designed career you want,? Albert says. ?But it does take work and an honest appraisal of what you really want.??
Have at least one consistent line of work.?Alboher notes that it?s always smart to have one or two steady jobs, so that you have a base level of income. Alboher adds that many portfolio careerists take the anchor-orbiter approach, meaning one job requires a physical presence at a certain location during a certain time (i.e. office job), while the other jobs (i.e. freelance work) ?orbit? around it.
Start a rainy day fund.?Put six months to two years of savings in your bank account to support your cost of living ? just in case.?For full-time freelancers, the recommendation is at least a year?s worth of savings. (Read more on the?seven reasons why you need an emergency fund.)?If you?d like to create your own business, Albert suggests launching it while still working your day job. Whether you decide to quit or not, saving is an absolute must?especially if you have a family. Albert explains that a person with three kids, a mortgage and a lot of bills has different (and greater) risks to consider than a recent college graduate.
Portfolio careers also have many benefits
?Anyone who has ever been pink-slipped, fired or laid off understands the importance of moving multiple careers forward and not putting all career eggs in one basket (figuratively speaking),? Albert says. ?By juggling multiple careers, one can have flexibility and adaptability, which are two key skills every employee in this post-economic downturn needs to have to succeed in the future.?
Plus, if you do choose to return to a traditional work environment, your extensive repertoire and transferable skills from your portfolio career might give you a leg up against other applicants.
Juskalian definitely seconds the flexibility and adaptability comments, not only because his income is irregular, but because his work flow is, too. Depending on what?s going on in his personal life, his schedule can swing between periods centered around friends and family to periods of almost no personal time and all traveling, writing, editing and teaching.
?I find my lifestyle very fulfilling,? he says. ?But there?s no doubt that it takes a certain mentality ? and a lot of energy ? to juggle my career.?
More from LearnVest:
8 Mistakes Not to Make on LinkedIn
The Most Surprising Childhood Expense at Every Age
Why I Chose My Spouse's Job Over Mine
8 Money Habits That Are Holding You Back
7 Top Home-Buying Mistakes People Make
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Facebook's Home On Android Could Give You A Sixth Sense For Your Social Life
Constant, close contact with your friends. That's the promise of a "Facebook phone". The modified Android OS and mobile homescreen replacement sources tell us Facebook will unveil April 4th pushes your social life to you so fetching it isn't interruptive. The News feed brought us ambient intimacy, but Facebook's homescreen could turn that social graph awareness into a sixth sense.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yLqy1CElVkY/
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Business: Avoid Complacency: Employ Change Management Now
Any time that your business undergoes a change, it is important to utilize proper change management in order to ensure that the change goes through smoothly. This is becoming more and more important over time, as change becomes the norm rather than the exception. Once management identifies the need for change, it can be helpful to hire a change manager to assist them through the process. They can then be expected to undergo some of the following changes.
First of all, the change needs to be effectively communicated to all affected parties. It needs to be made perfectly clear what changes are going to be made. Affected parties should understand why the changes are taking place. Just as important, they should understand what would happen if the change were not to take place. Finally, they need to understand what training will be undergone in order for the change to take place. This communication process is one of the most important aspects of change management. If it is not utilized properly, a company will be met with a great deal of resistance from employees.
Managers and employees must then become heavily involved in the process of change. Management must effectively teach the necessary skills to the employees that they need in order to do their job properly.
The next step is to incentivise the training process so that it works more effectively. The target goals should be divided into several smaller goals so that the change does not seem as large or as insurmountable. When short-term goals are met, employees should be rewarded accordingly. This helps motivate the work force, allowing it to work more effectively. This process also helps subdue critics and negative thinkers who hinder the transition process.
Employees feel more comfortable and motivated when they are kept in touch with the results of the changes that they are making. When success is achieved it should be congratulated. Analysis of performance should be used to encourage continued improvement.
Ultimately, the changes should be included in a new organizational culture. This means that the change should be recognized for the additional changes that it creates. When one aspect of business is changed, it has effects on all other aspects of business. This should be properly recognized and dealt with through structural changes. Both managers and employees will require regular encouragement for the transmission to be completed. Old habits can take quite some time to reverse. A change manager is highly recommended for this process to run smoothly.
First of all, the change needs to be effectively communicated to all affected parties. It needs to be made perfectly clear what changes are going to be made. Affected parties should understand why the changes are taking place. Just as important, they should understand what would happen if the change were not to take place. Finally, they need to understand what training will be undergone in order for the change to take place. This communication process is one of the most important aspects of change management. If it is not utilized properly, a company will be met with a great deal of resistance from employees.
Managers and employees must then become heavily involved in the process of change. Management must effectively teach the necessary skills to the employees that they need in order to do their job properly.
The next step is to incentivise the training process so that it works more effectively. The target goals should be divided into several smaller goals so that the change does not seem as large or as insurmountable. When short-term goals are met, employees should be rewarded accordingly. This helps motivate the work force, allowing it to work more effectively. This process also helps subdue critics and negative thinkers who hinder the transition process.
Employees feel more comfortable and motivated when they are kept in touch with the results of the changes that they are making. When success is achieved it should be congratulated. Analysis of performance should be used to encourage continued improvement.
Ultimately, the changes should be included in a new organizational culture. This means that the change should be recognized for the additional changes that it creates. When one aspect of business is changed, it has effects on all other aspects of business. This should be properly recognized and dealt with through structural changes. Both managers and employees will require regular encouragement for the transmission to be completed. Old habits can take quite some time to reverse. A change manager is highly recommended for this process to run smoothly.
Source: http://themakingsofanotsograndescape.blogspot.com/2013/03/avoid-complacency-employ-change.html
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95% West of Memphis
All Critics (106) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (101) | Rotten (5)
A real-life horror story, made no less shocking by the familiarity of its early scenes.
While the "Paradise Lost" films captured events as they unfolded in the heat of battle, "West of Memphis" has the luxury of at least partial closure.
A true-crime story that begins with a notorious murder case and grows into a chilling indictment of the American justice system.
And justice for all? Hardly.
It tells the story of a terrible crime compounded by a grave injustice that's been remedied, but only in part, so it's impossible to have a single or simple response to the movie.
What sets this film apart from previous efforts to document the story is that Jackson and Walsh financed a private investigative team with legal and forensic experts who re-examined old evidence, conducted new interviews and found new witnesses.
The film is so utterly transfixing you won't believe almost two-and-a-half hours have passed when the final credits roll.
We feel like we're watching an overlong true-crime television episode and not a movie.
I would have preferred Jackson's clinically-presented project display a bit more reverence for the three young lives that were brutally taken some twenty years ago.
Moving and gruesome, West of Memphis is an eloquent disquisition on the banality of evil.
"West of Memphis" re-examines evidence and retells the story in a methodical and procedural fashion in which even the false steps lead somewhere.
More a recap and appendix to the Paradise Lost trilogy... one can't help but feel that the celebrities involved needed this document of their efforts to appease their vanity.
The case is more intriguing than the film about it.
Isn't unnecessary, but it's often superfluous.
The film suggests these powerless, poorly educated young men were scapegoated because they would be missed by nobody of importance -- the justice system equivalent of the cannon fodder recruited from the same socioeconomic straits.
It's nice to have all the twists and turns of the iconic case contained tidily in one well-crafted film, although there are no real revelations here.
"West of Memphis" becomes a greatest-hits concert of prosecutorial misconduct, and you'll agree when the film asserts that prosecutors knew they had the wrong guys.
Incredibly, after three documentaries on the subject, there are still things to reveal about the West Memphis Three.
"West of Memphis" does nothing to displace its predecessor films as masterpieces of investigative filmmaking, but complements them as a riveting capstone to an epic and tragic tale.
West of Memphis is the real vindication - even if it is incomplete.
In the end it won't matter if this is the fourth movie about the same subject; you can never learn its lessons often enough.
West of Memphis caps off the Paradise Lost/West Memphis Three saga with a line up full of perpetrators including the media, the West Memphis PD, the legal establishment and suspect gift wrapped with a smoking gun.
Injustice in West Memphis, Arkansas
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Deal may mean immigration breakthrough
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Big business and labor have struck a deal on a new low-skilled worker program, removing the biggest hurdle to completion of sweeping immigration legislation allowing 11 million illegal immigrants eventual U.S. citizenship, labor and Senate officials said Saturday.
The agreement was reached in a phone call late Friday night with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, U.S. Chamber of Commerce head Tom Donohue, and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who's been mediating the dispute.
The deal resolves disagreements over wages for the new workers and which industries would be included. Those disputes had led talks to break down a week ago, throwing into doubt whether Schumer and seven other senators crafting a comprehensive bipartisan immigration bill would be able to complete their work as planned.
The deal must still be signed off on by the other senators working with Schumer, including Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida, but that's expected to happen, according to a person with knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity. With the agreement in place, the senators are expected to unveil their legislation the week of April 8. Their measure would secure the border, crack down on employers, improve legal immigration and create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants already here.
It's a major second-term priority of President Barack Obama's and would usher in the most dramatic changes to the nation's faltering immigration system in more than two decades.
"The strength of the consensus across America for just reform has afforded us the momentum needed to forge an agreement in principle to develop a new type of employer visa system," Trumka said in a statement late Saturday. "We expect that this new program, which benefits not just business, but everyone, will promote long overdue reforms by raising the bar for existing programs."
Schumer said: "This issue has always been the dealbreaker on immigration reform, but not this time."
The AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce, longtime antagonists over temporary worker programs, had been fighting over wages for tens of thousands of low-skilled workers who would be brought in under the new program to fill jobs in construction, hotels and resorts, nursing homes and restaurants, and other industries.
Under the agreement, a new "W'' visa program would go into effect beginning April 1, 2015, according to an AFL-CIO fact sheet.
In year one of the program, 20,000 workers would be allowed in; in year two, 35,000; in year three, 55,000; and in year four, 75,000. Ultimately the program would be capped at 200,000 workers a year, but the number of visas would fluctuate, depending on unemployment rates, job openings, employer demand and data collected by a new federal bureau pushed by the labor movement as an objective monitor of the market. One-third of all visas in any year would go to businesses with under 25 workers.
A "safety valve" would allow employers to exceed the cap if they can show need and pay premium wages, but any additional workers brought in would be subtracted from the following year's cap.
The workers could move from employer to employer and would be able to petition for permanent residency after a year, and ultimately seek U.S. citizenship. Neither is possible for temporary workers now.
The new program would fill needs employers say they have that are not currently met by U.S. immigration programs. Most industries don't have a good way to hire a steady supply of foreign workers because there's one temporary visa program for low-wage nonagricultural workers but it's capped at 66,000 visas per year and is only supposed to be used for seasonal or temporary jobs.
Business has sought temporary worker programs in a quest for a cheaper workforce, but labor has opposed the programs because of concerns over working conditions and the effect on jobs and wages for U.S. workers. The issue helped sink the last major attempt at immigration overhaul in 2007, which the AFL-CIO opposed partly because of temporary worker provisions, and the flare-up earlier this month sparked concerns that the same thing would happen this time around. Agreement between the two traditional foes is one of many indications that immigration reform has its best chance in years in Congress this year.
After apparent miscommunications earlier this month between the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce on the wage issue, the deal resolves it in a way both sides are comfortable with, officials said.
Workers would earn actual wages paid to American workers or the prevailing wages for the industry they're working in, whichever is higher. The Labor Department would determine prevailing wage based on customary rates in specific localities, so that it would vary from city to city.
There also had been disagreement on how to handle the construction industry, which unions argue is different from other industries in the new program because it can be more seasonal in nature and includes a number of higher-skilled trades. The official said the resolution will cap at 15,000 a year the number of visas that can be sought by the construction industry.
Schumer called White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on Saturday to inform him of the deal, the person with knowledge of the talks said. The three principals in the talks ? Trumka, Donohue and Schumer ? agreed they should meet for dinner soon to celebrate, the person said.
However, in a sign of the delicate and uncertain negotiations still ahead, Rubio sent a letter Saturday to Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., calling for a deliberate hearing process on the new legislation and cautioning against a "rush to legislate." Rubio and a number of other Republicans are striking a tricky balance as they simultaneously court conservative and Hispanic voters on the immigration issue.
Separately, the new immigration bill also is expected to offer many more visas for high-tech workers, new visas for agriculture workers, and provisions allowing some agriculture workers already in the U.S. a speedier path to citizenship than that provided to other illegal immigrants, in an effort to create a stable agricultural workforce.
___
Follow Erica Werner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericawerner
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/business-labor-deal-worker-program-004114076--finance.html
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'Nasty piece of work': Cloud over London's 'sunshine' mayor Boris Johnson
Matthew Lloyd / Getty Images, file
London mayor Boris Johnson (right) and Irvine Sellar, developer of the new skyscraper The Shard, cut a ribbon.
By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News
LONDON -- He is the goofy London mayor whose jovial self-deprecation and quick intellect have rescued him from a string of political missteps and personal indignities. But floppy-haired Boris Johnson?s happy-go-lucky reputation took a battering this week, just as he revealed his ambition to one day become Britain?s prime minister.
New York-born Johnson -- memorably caught on camera dangling from a broken zip-wire during the London Olympics?-- was accused of being a ?nasty piece of work? in a train-wreck television interview that surfaced a darker side to his persona.
The mayor was asked about a number of embarrassing episodes in his past including being fired from his former job as a reporter with The Times newspaper for making up a quote, losing his opposition cabinet role after lying to his Conservative party leader about an affair and the accusation that he agreed to provide a reporter?s address to his friend, a convicted fraudster, so the journalist could be beaten up.
There were no new revelations in Sunday?s interview, which was hardly in the mold of Frost vs Nixon. But the feline approach of BBC presenter Eddie Mair exposed a testy, evasive side to Johnson that observers say has undermined his affable public image.
?What?s remarkable is not that the interview happened but the fact that it hasn?t happened before,? said Johnson?s biographer, Sonia Purnell.
?He has always used his jovial fellow act and has never really been challenged like that in an interview until now.
?It is true that he is very charismatic, very clever and engaging. But there is a dark side to his character. He has a ferocious temper and he bears grudges.?
The clash was in stark contrast to Johnson?s winning encounter on ?Late Show with David Letterman? last year, when he entertained the studio audience and shrugged the gibe that he cut his own hair.
It has sparked a debate in Britain about whether the mayor, a keen cyclist and classical scholar whose full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson -- can still be taken seriously as a contender to replace David Cameron as prime minister and leader of his Conservative party.
Mair teased Johnson about his repeated refusal to admit that he harbors ambitions to replace Cameron, with whom he has a mild personal rivalry that dates back to their shared time at Eton, Britain?s most elite private school.
Jan Kruger / Getty Images, file
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor of London Boris Johnson warm up for a tennis match during the London Olympics.
?What should viewers make of your inability to give a straight answer to a straight question?" asked Mair, adding: ?You?re a nasty piece of work, aren?t you??
An online Guardian newspaper poll found 62 percent of its readers thought Johnson could no longer be considered a candidate for Britain?s top job. The interview ?was inevitably described as a car crash, but in the case of Johnson, it was more of a bicycle crash: spokes all over the road, wheels mangled and a reputation badly dented,? wrote the newspaper?s veteran political editor, Patrick Wintour.
Purnell added: ?I think it left a tidemark in people?s minds about Boris?s character.?
However, conservative commentator Toby Young said Johnson?s leadership prospects remain unchanged. ?It's an elementary rule of politics that if you have any skeletons lurking in your closet that are likely to make an appearance during an election campaign, better to get them out in the open now,? he wrote in the Daily Telegraph. ?Not only will it rob them of their bad juju, it will enable his supporters to claim -- yet again -- that he's popular?in spite of?his character flaws, not because the public isn't aware of them.?
Matthew Norman, in The Independent, asked: ?Boris would be a disastrous PM. So why do I quite like the idea?? He wrote: ?Life for diarists and political pundits would improve immeasurably, which strikes me as a very reasonable price to pay for the national shame of having Boris Johnson as prime minister.?
Johnson, 48, has long been a grassroots favorite to lead the Conservatives if Cameron stood down or lost office. However, to be prime minister he would first need to stand again for election to the House of Commons, which he quit in 2008 to run to be mayor of London. He is currently serving his second four-year term and has remained coy about whether he will quit early and return to parliament.
London mayor Boris Johnson attempts to make a dramatic entrance at an Olympic party?but gets stranded on a zip wire instead. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
His mix of conservative economics and liberal social values -- he supports gay marriage and an amnesty for immigrants -- helped secure his election in a city long dominated by left-of-center politics, but it may not sit well with the U.K.-wide Conservative party.
His personal morality may also hinder his progress: He has acknowledged a number of affairs and has been likened to Italy?s serial philanderer and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi by satirical magazine editor Ian Hislop.
Then there is Johnson?s apparent lack of attention to detail. Purnell, who worked alongside him in the Brussels bureau of the Daily Telegraph, said: ?Some of the things he wrote were on the limits of the truth. He was, at best, creative.?
Max Hastings, a former editor of Johnson's during his time as a journalist, described Johnson as "utterly chaotic,"?adding: "Supposing he became prime minister, the idea of Boris Johnson's finger on the nuclear button ... one day he would get it mixed up with the one to call the maid."
However, there remains a lot of affection for a man whose unvarnished approach is a breath of political fresh air.
?He is a sunshine politician and people like that,? said Ross Lydall, chief news correspondent of London?s Evening Standard newspaper, which supports Johnson.
?The way he has improved life for cyclists in London is remarkable -- as a cyclist myself, it certainly puts a smile on my face. He represents a sense of optimism compared to the old, miserable municipal politics of London.?
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