Tag Archives: careercounseling

Career Advice 💡Focusing the numbers that do not add up 🧮

An on-campus recruiter came to your school and presented a slide deck showing some detailed metrics of the company.

You saw the revenues, profits, growth rates, and many other important financial metrics. Of course, such information is important for all prospective employees while they are trying to make a sound decision.

Then, you saw the slide, which was about the growth of the company in terms of headcount. The company had a cumulative annual growth rate of 25% for the last decade with respect to its net headcount growth.

What can you do to check whether this number is true?

You checked the company’s total headcount 10 years ago and found out that there were 500,000 employees working at the company at that time.

So, currently there should have been 3,725,290 employees now working at the company, which is more than the total population of your country!

If this trend were to continue for the next 44 years (which is of course very unlikely), almost every living human on earth would be working at this company.

This is an exaggerated story but I have witnessed similar stories in such company presentations.

TL;DR
Being on the lookout of such illogical trickery regarding numbers will serve you well in your career.
In this article, I will expand on the tactics used by some of the ‘prominent’ companies to lure you into their companies and what you need to do to prevent this from happening to you. They might be more desperate than you think. I also recommend a few books that unveil ‘the glamor’ of these companies and reveal the façade.

On outdated measures concerning how big a country’s economy is and what this means for your purchasing power, i.e. your salary or income

Many national income measurement methods of today are misleading and hardly reflect the realities of the state of a national economy. 🧭

Quoting from Michal Hudson’s “The Bubble & Beyond”

“By rejecting the classical distinction between productive and unproductive labor and credit, today’s national income accounts classify rentier gains as “earnings” on a par with wages and profits, adding to national product rather than simply being transfer payments.

This approach treats all wealth as being earned as part of the production process, not extracted from the economy in the form of a free lunch (“economic rent”) by rentiers. ”

In this article, I will investigate why current measures related to how big the economies of countries are trick many. Although many countries tend to jack up their GDP evaluations by using favorable methods, the reality for the average citizen is generally fundamentally different from what all these numbers tell. I will also share some other measures that will be more helpful for citizens in gauging their purchasing power, together with some additional considerations assisting them in making more informed decisions informed decisions.

Questions of self-assessment concerning your career 👔

Questions of self-assessment concerning your career 👔

Why are you working for your current company?

Are you happy?

Where do you think you are in your career life cycle?

How long is your career life cycle and how do you want your career to end if it is ever to end?

Could you write 3 tangible and 3 intangible benefits of working in your current job?

Could there be any other career paths on which you may be more successful and happier?

What competencies have you developed so far and what competencies do you need to develop further?

In this article, I will explain why these questions are important and what they will reveal about you and your career so that you plan your next career step more wisely and proactively.

Career advice on detecting ‘probably sincere’ allies, foes pretending to be friends but always ready to stab you in the back, and outright frauds

In your career, you will come across many sycophants, impostors, virtue and status signalers, and well-connected and well-protected cronies enjoying their sinecure.
Do not get upset; this is a game and you definitely should not be like them.
You should just learn how to detect such people so that your career will not be hampered by them.

What was the chief end of business education and what is it now?

What was the chief end of business education and what is it now?
—
In June 1909, Edwin Gay, the first dean of the school, wrote to a friend:

I am constantly being told by business men that we cannot teach “business.”
I heartily agree with them; we do not try to teach business in the sense in which business men ordinarily understand their routine methods, or in the sense in which you speak of teaching young men to be “money makers” or “to get the better of their competitors.”

We believe that there is science in business and it is the task of studying and developing that science in which we are primarily interested.

It is our aim to give our young business men the breadth of horizon, as well as the equipment of information and grasp of principles which will enable them … to be better citizens and men of culture as well as broader men of business.

Taken from Philip Delves Broughton’s Ahead of the Curve

What are the most important secrets many employers do not want their employees to know?

What are the most important secrets many employers do not want their employees to know? From salary information and promotions to strategic decisions and financials, many secrets will not be revealed to you. However, you should be on the lookout for these secrets for your own career and life.

Deciphering Employment Reports of Universities and Business Schools: Understanding the tactics and developing smart strategies

Employment Outcomes of Professional Degrees 📖
Transparency in a business school’s employment report is important (or for any professional school for that matter).
Of course, under pressure, some schools may choose to be less transparent to whitewash trends going badly.
Although in the short-term this may not affect the school much, in the long-term the quality of education and the students, as well as the reputation of the school if it has one, will erode dramatically.
Do you look at a school’s employment report before even applying?
How do you spot discrepancies in a business school’s employment report, though?

Earning your living in a foreign soil is commendable 💰 However, many calculate the net value of their foreign-earned income wrong

Earning your living in a foreign soil is commendable💰

However, many calculate the net value of their foreign-earned income wrong ⬇️

The salary you will earn in a foreign country denominated in that country’s currency will be depleted by the expenses in that same currency.

Earning Swiss francs in Turkey is different from earning Swiss francs in Switzerland.

Just saying as someone who has worked and lived in 3 different continents and 5 different countries 😉

❗ Remote work dampens such effects to some extent for certain jobs.

On Career Plans and Perfecting Early-stage Career Strategies

‘On Career Plans
All your past experiences and educational credentials served you well and you joined your target firm.
I exclude the situations where pedigree, legacy status, and/or connections trump objective and merit-based qualifications.
What is next now?
Many people throw their career plans, strategy, or tactics out of the window just after landing on a job.
Many think they are set for life although the game has just started.
Starting the game without an A-plan let alone contingency plans will make you suffer a lot.
So, after joining the firm, you should have a solid, but of course evolving, strategy that is better than what you had before joining it.
Do not be rudderless.’

Are you a STEM major planning to work in a STEM-related field after graduation? 📐Learn the job market you are entering post-graduation💼

Are you a STEM major planning to work in a STEM-related field after graduation? 📐
Learn the job market you are entering post-graduation💼
Start with fundamental data:
-The weight of STEM occupation within all occupation: 6.65% (Based on 2020 estimates)
-The weight is projected to increase to 6.82% in 2030.
-That is approximately a CAGR of 0.25%. So, on average US is projected to add 400K jobs each year, 100K of which are projected to be STEM jobs, between 2020 and 2030.
-In the US, 36.6% of all bachelor degrees are STEM and only 27.6% of all STEM majors work directly in a STEM job.
-For the last couple of years, approximately 2MM bachelor degrees are being granted each year.
-So, what are the odds of you landing on a STEM-related job in the US?
➡️You can do similar back-of-the envelope calculations for other occupations/college majors if you are able to scrap/find relevant data.