Entries Tagged 'Careers' ↓

Well, it’s another milestone at The Baglady!  This is the 200th post, and all of you kind readers have made over 1100 comments!  In my 2008 goals post I briefly mentioned that I would like over 1000 visitors to this blog daily by the end of the year, and now I am up to 300 to 400 per day so it seems highly likely I could reach my goal.  Since then,   I also  joined a great community blog named Wise Bread and started a new blog about San Mateo Home Sellers in Trouble.  Between the three blogs now my writing gets over 2000 views per day.  That’s a huge improvement from just 100 to 200 visitors daily 5 months ago!

In terms of blog income, I have gone from  $161 in January to nearly $600 this month.  All of the money I collect from blogging is currently donated to various charities.  It makes me happy when I see my articles earning money every day now, even when I am not writing.

With the growth of my blogs, I finally wrote  a Press page to showcase all the mentions my writing have gotten on top blogs and other press.  Check it out for some of the most amusing and useful articles I’ve written.

I want to say thank you all for reading my writing.  It really makes my day when I hear that my random thoughts have helped you or made you laugh.  I know that I piss people off, too, but getting any kind of reaction means that I made someone read and think a little bit and that is also rewarding.

The more I write the more I think that my writing could be the best legacy I could leave.  I would love for my future descendants to read my stories and my parents’ stories to get a glimpse of how we lived.  I know I love to hear my mom’s stories about  my grandmother’s family. So hopefully I will can preserve this blog for those that come after me.  I also think it is amazing that the internet allows this rapid sharing of ideas and lives.

With that, I leave you with some great Blog Carnivals in the recent weeks:

Carnival of Debt Reduction at Debt Free Revolution

Carnival of Personal Finance  at Alpha Consumer - I didn’t really submit to this carnival but they included my article under Four Pillar’s name.  Sorry Mike, I don’t know what happened there.

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Today as I was driving to work the news did a short report about Homestead High School students going to the 18th annual National Science Bowl sponsored by the Department of Energy. This is a contest where you answer questions about a variety of scientific subjects. Everyone gets a buzzer and you buzz in with your answer for points. It is sort of like Jeopardy, but it’s multiple choice. That news clip stirred up quite a few memories because I participated in that contest when I was in high school and my team made it to the nationals two years in a row after winning the East Bay regionals. We all got an all expense paid trip to Washington DC and had a lot of fun. I would say that was one of the highlights of high school for me.

Even though it has been seven years, I still remember the day of the regionals of the second year I participated. Since it was on a weekend I overslept and my physics teacher’s van was at my door. My teammate knocked on my door and my mom woke me up and I ran down with my hair uncombed and hopped in the van. We won after a few hours of intense competition. A few months later we were flown to DC and participated in the nationals. We met some really weird New Yorkers there. One of the New Yorkers looked so much like one of our classmates that they could be twins. What’s weirder is that they and had the same first name and last initial. I took pictures of him and took it home for comparison. That year my parents actually went to Washington with me just for fun. They had to pay for their trip, but it seems that they liked DC a lot. I really loved touring the Smithsonian and it really takes days to look at everything in those museums and I am so glad they are free for everyone. That year we came in the top 12 in the competition and won $1000 for our school.

Quite a few of my best friends were on the team and we don’t see each other much these days since we all live in different parts of the country now. The girl that’s my best friend is now a bioengineering PhD at MIT, and another best friend is now going to medical school in Cleveland (he still comes to read my blog and leave comments from time to time :D). Another older guy is now doing a geophysics PhD at Harvard. I think another guy is also in grad school for something or other in San Diego. Looking back, I think they have always been the real hardcore science nerds and that is why they are all going to be doctors and scientists now. I think I was on the team because I was quick with a buzzer and I had a lot of random knowledge about rocks, poisons, and diseases. I enjoyed the game and competition, but I always knew that I would not devote my life to science. That is why I am the only one in that club that did not go on to a PhD and I have to say I am quite content with my decision. I also think that my friends are where they need to be, because frankly they are brilliant and maybe one of them will change the world.

So in summary, here are the random thoughts from this session of reminiscing:

1) Science is fun
2) You could win great prizes by being good at trivia and buzzers. Heck, Ken Jennings won over $2 million on Jeopardy.
3) Devoting your life to science isn’t as easy as donating your cadaver

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Well, I have been working for almost three years, and I am on my third job. Some older family members have warned me about being a job hopper, but I don’t think it’s such a bad thing, and here’s why.

When we are in school we are trained to learn new things every semester. We also get new teachers and sometimes new friends. So in a way we are trained to change our environment constantly for 12 to 16 years. It is pretty jarring when you get out of school and you are expected to stay with one company for a very long time. In my case I stayed with my first two companies for more than one year each, and I thought that was a pretty long time at each job, but apparently some people I have met still think you should stay at a company for at least five years, or for life. I think that’s just silly because I really think that if I didn’t change jobs, I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did. I started in a pretty great company with a bunch of extremely smart people, but after testing one application for over a year, I was pretty sick of it. It was possible to move into another part of the company, but I would still work with the same product, and I decided it was time to move on. At my next company I learned a lot more about web technologies and picked up more useful skills. However, after a year and half of the same work I felt that there was not much more to learn.

Another thing I have written about before is that there is really no loyalty towards employees these days. Companies can fire us whenever they want, so why are we expected to give our lives to one corporation? I think in today’s society, blind loyalty to one employer is pretty foolish. When you put yourself out on the market more often you learn what skills are needed in your field, and you can improve yourself accordingly. When your skills are updated and transferable you will not be afraid of a situation where your employer decides to shed you like last year’s fashion.

Job-hopping also builds up your network faster than if you would have stayed in one place. I think making just one friend in a workplace is a great thing, and if you go to more places you are more likely to make business connections that could be tapped later. It is definitely possible to find people you can get along with in almost any workplace. I still keep in touch with quite a few ex-coworkers and it’s fun and informative to discuss our jobs and lives we no longer work with each other.

Finally, when you change jobs more often you are more likely to get great raises from job to job. I think if I had stayed at my first company for 3 years I wouldn’t have had an over 50% increase in my salary in that amount of time.

I feel that in the Silicon Valley job hopping isn’t really looked down on as much because companies are dying and rising all the time here and people shift accordingly. Nearly everyone I know have had a job for less than two years. Right now I feel like I could stay at my current company for quite a while, because I still have a lot to learn after working there for six months. I am pretty sure I won’t stay for life, though, but a tenure of a few years is likely.

I am curious, though. What do you consider to be job hopping? Is changing jobs every year considered job hopping? How about changing jobs every two years? Do you think it is bad or good for your career?

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The hubby and I did do some fun stuff on our weekend to Vegas. On Saturday we went to a company sponsored party and then we saw the Cirque du Soleil show Mystere at Treasure Island at night. There are at least five Cirque shows in the various hotels, but my manager and coworker recommended Mystere because I have never seen a live Cirque du Soleil show before. When we were purchasing the tickets online my husband said, “Wait a minute, I know why you chose Mystere! It’s the cheapest show!!! I can read your mind!!!” That wasn’t entirely true, but we managed to get very good seats and had a blast at the show. There was a good amount of hilarious clowning, razor sharp acrobatics, and gorgeous aerial performances. Then there was taiko drumming and the live music was quite amazing. I really think the show had it all and I would definitely go see another Cirque du Soleil show in the future.

It is funny when I see on TV that kids say they want to run away with a circus. I completely understand the romanticism and adventure associated with being part of a circus. You get to dress up in pretty costumes, travel the world, and make people happy! However, I also know that it involves a lot of hard work because my dad has a group of friends from a national level circus from China. In 1989 the troupe was performing with the Big Apple Circus in the United States, and several acrobats and just walked out of the last show and defected along with a translator. They were allowed to stay in the United States and then other acrobats of the same troupe were invited to the United States later as teachers and performers. I met the ringmaster of those acrobats once, and he is a pretty amazing guy. He was already 50 something when he was invited to the United States as a teacher and didn’t know the alphabet or any English. Through determination, he managed to learn English phonetically by writing down each sound in Chinese characters and now he speaks quite fluently. He also handpicked many of the performers in his troupe. One younger acrobat told me that he was sent by his parents to train as a gymnast for the Chinese national team, but he was eliminated when he was 10. Every year the ringmaster goes to the gymnast training center and finds new performers for his group and picked him. Most of them have been training every day for 10 to 12 hours a day since they were five and the circus is their family in every way. They managed to mostly stay together and was hired to teach at an acrobatics and performance arts school in San Francisco called the Circus Center. Now after nearly 20 years, their students have performed in Cirque du Soleil and other shows around the world.

I think I appreciated the Cirque show even more because I know the amount of training the performers put into their art. It is a real career path that takes a lot of hard work and passion, but having sold out shows must be quite rewarding. So if you
ever run away with a circus, make sure you are ready for some grueling work!

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Welcome to the 55th edition of The Carnival of Money Stories. It’s that time of the year again. In Vietnam they are celebrating the national holiday of Gio to Hung Vuong, but here in the United States it is time for all of us to hand in our tax forms. I just begrudgingly mailed out my tax forms with payment, but today’s carnival certainly cheered me up. We have nearly 30 great stories about life and money. Enjoy!

Editor’s Choice

Praveen writes that The IRS Are Humans, Too… at My Simple Trading System. Apparently you don’t have to be freaked out when you receive a letter from the IRS.

Will presents Rogue Debt Collectors Illegally Freeze Debtors’ Accounts posted at Your Finish Rich Plan. This is a scary story of debt collectors who would freeze pension statements.

Silicon Valley Blogger tells us I’ve Left My Job! Tying Up The Loose Ends posted at The Digerati Life. I am so jealous!

Booze Tax

Kyle from Amateur Asset Collector gives us Top 4 Money Wasters in Your 20s. It seems like Kyle paid a bit too much taxes on alcohol when he was in his twenties.

Mr. Cheap presents Cross Border Shopping posted at Quest For Four Pillars. This is Mr. Cheap’s story about the tariffs he had to pay on hard liquor. That will teach him to be a cheap boozehound.

Gas Tax

The rising cost of gas is really cutting into many of our pocketbooks. Here are some stories. about how gas affects people.

MoneyKing presents Ditch That Huge SUV! Blah. Blah ,

Financial Learn presents The Frustration of High Gas Prices posted at Financial Learn.

Business

Mark Butler presents My Big Fat Learning Experience: Vending Machines posted at The Butler Project. We can all learn quite a bit from this story of entrepreneurship.

Career

FFB presents Four Ways I Upgraded Out Of My Raises posted at Free From Broke. More money means more taxes, but it doesn’t have to mean more expenses.

Life. Money. Development. presents The 7 Attributes of Leadership posted at Life. Money. Development.

Credit Cards

FIRE Finance presents UAL Visa Story! posted at FIRE Finance.

Ryan Taylor presents How Much I Make in Cash Back Credit Card Rewards posted at Millionaire Money Habits.

Hank presents The age old question: How many credit cards should I have? posted at My Investing Blog.

Debt

Here are two stories about snowflaking! You can get rid of debt one flake at a time and these two stories illustrate how you can do it, too.

NtJS presents What is: Debt-Snowflaking? posted at not the jet set.

paidtwice presents How I Started Snowflaking at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already….

Investing

Passive Income Investor presents Cheney Betting Against The Dollar posted at LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS & PASSIVE INCOME.

MoneyNing presents Financial Cost of Being Careless posted at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning.

The Dough Roller presents Reader Question: Should $15,000 be invested in P2P Lending or in a Better Mortgage? posted at The Dough Roller.

Net Worth

Want to retire early? These stories of people who managed to accumulate a huge net worth at a relatively young age.

PT presents Where Are They Now? Podcast Interview with a Millionaire in the Making: Todd French posted at Prime Time Money.

GBlogger presents Success Stories: $800,000 Net Worth By His Early 40s? posted at CAN I GET RICH ON A SALARY.

Real Estate

Dorian Wales presents How to Successfully Navigate Your Way through Home Renovations: 10 Practical Tips posted at Personal Financier.

Retirement

Amy presents Yale’s Investment Wizard posted at My Daily Dollars.

Saving

FMF presents Do You Buy Things and Never Use Them? posted at Free Money Finance

Other

Chief Family Officer presents Why I Decided Not To Join Revolution MoneyExchange posted at Chief Family Officer. The loose privacy policy prompted Chief Family Officer to not join the new PayPal clone. I haven’t joined either, because I’m just not really into having another financial account.

First Lady Of Poker presents Women Are Naturals At Poker posted at Shopping and Poker Blog. This is an interesting story about why women can beat men at poker.

The Financial Blogger presents We Are Living In A Good Country.

Raymond presents U-Haul Rental Trucks Suck But They Are The Cheapest Around posted at Money Blue Book.

Jeremy Zongker presents All I Really Needed to Know About Managing Money I Learned From Music posted at Debt Advice.

Madison presents Applying the Five Fundamentals of Financial Success posted at My Dollar Plan.

That is all for this edition of the Carnival of Money Stories. Thank you all for participating and a link back to the carnival is always appreciated. If you have more stories you can always submit it to the next carnival which is being held at Can I Get Rich on a Salary. This is a relatively new blog that is very well written. Now if you haven’t already, go out and file your taxes!

Photo Credit: Paul Keleher 

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