Interesting book from marketing Legend Seth Godin: Linchpin: Are you indispensable?
As far as I’ve read the reviews, the book basically tells employees to stop expecting and instead being an artist of what they are doing. Even if it is the waitress in a coffee shop. Everybody should be an artist of what they are doing. I cannot wait to get my hands on the book. Should be a great read.
It’s interesting to see that a week after the Ipad was announced…already tons of iPad app developers jobs pop up. Of course the big game shops like EA are moving forward to launch their games on the Ipad. Also newspapers and book publishers are willing to put a ton of money down in order to grab the first guys, who are knowledgable of the system.
Here one good example from Careerbuilder:
iPhone Developer – iPhone Engineer – iPhone Game Developer – iPhone Software Engineer
We are searching for an iPhone Developer, C/C++ Developer, Game Developer with strong
C/C++ development experience or a strong graphics developer with C/C++ and OpenGL programming experience. This position will be directly responsible for developing iPhone and iPad applications.
http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?ipath=EXIND&siteid=cbindeed&Job_DID=J8C36H678G2C90LSDXF&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=677d22dd434041a19be6e206ecf0f44c-318804258-JA-5
Unfortunately they did not put the salary there, but probably a great opportunity for many developers to pick up good cash. Until the next device come out….
According to the College bord and other nonprofit organizations a college degree would lead to $800k to $1million more in lifetime earnings over high-school graduates.
However… now with high tuitions costs and other mysterious calculation lead a few researchers to call it “a million dollar misunderstanding”.
The calculation apparently did not take into account deductions from taxes or breaks in employment. Nor did it put into the equation the student loans and the interest rates of those.
So….overall people estimate that college grads make about $250k to $300k more in revenues a year.
Oh well..the entire WSJ article goes even more into detail, but is certainly interesting. However, let’s hope people still will try to finish college.
A lot of people, who switch from the employee status into self-employment run into problems with
with the amount of bureaucracy. Nowadays however it’s not really necessary to do all these annoying chores and focus on the main things that the business needs. I’ve listed a few services, that we find extremely useful:
Virtual office: Regus.com is probably the most well-known virtual office provider. Pretty much anywhere in the world you have the ability to setup a shop with a mail address and a company holder. Regus forwards emails and provides email/mail forwarding anywhere in the world.
Legal : LegalZoom.com allows to get the necessary papers and legal stuff resolved in a quick manner. Legal Zoom gives the opportunity to sign up an LLC or C Corp within two weeks or so.
Office Services: Office Services such as Afinex offer full-blown phone or customer support, 24×7, 365 days a year
Invoices: Invoices can be managed by with services like invoice.zoho.com or invoice factoring companies, who give you a hands free experience to keep the money rolling.
If you know any other useful services, please comment below.
It’s always surprising how people earn money by doing the weirdest things. That’s why we wanted to start a new series on this blog: Curious ways of making money.
Part 1 is about Making money while watching TV.
There are various ways of making money. Let’s start with the first one’s:
1. Reputation management companies and PR services such as Porter Novelli or Reputationobserver offer people to watch certain shows and monitor brands and names being mentioned. Quite some work, but easy to make good money.
2. Being a deal hunter. Shopping channels such as QVC offer special prices if you buy large numbers. If you compare these prices to offers on your local classified site…or Ebay…you can make quite some money. However you need to be really knowledgable about the stuff or just surf while watching QVC all day.
3. Trendsetter: Watch Opera, Dr. Phil, The doctors and register domains of these new trends during the show. Be the first to have southbeachdiet.com and other great domains 
4. Watch TV online on services such as TVgorge or Hulu and upload a teaser to Youtube. Add a link to your sitee from youtube and enjoy quite some nice free traffic. This is probably an illegal move in the US, but people such as the ATDHE guys or UltimateFighting webmasters cash in big bugs this way.
By no means I am not endorsing such behaviour. It’s always easier to stay on the legal side and use one of the methods 1-3! As you know: Karma always comes back and if you do it right, you can make good money with the first methods while being a couch potatoe
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This is a littel offtopic, but I was always curious of some of my colleagues names. Especially since there are quite a few names, which I have never heard before. So there are a few name meanings websites out there, but unfortunately not all of them don’t really have a big database of what I was searching for.
Here a few good ones, that I’ve figured out:
Aarkarshan means attraction
Damian means sweet and harmless
Zoey means life
Ailish means noble, kind
Fun stuff for a boring and cold New Years day
So..finally I’ve put together my New Years resolutions:
1. Get healthier and join the gym
2. Eat better food. Meaning no more junk food (no more pizza )
3. Optimize this blog further. I guess it needs a big update. This inlcudes finding a faster web hosting service.
4. Build out my house. New hardwood flooring and new tiles on the balcony. Also an arch for the garden.
5. Take care of my dog better
That’s it….Happy New Year and thanks for being part of this blog!
The Jobblogger
Just wanted to thank all my readers for staying with me on this blog and I wish everybody happy holidays and a happy 2010.
Finally the market started bouncing back from that horrible depression. Even the real estate market seems to be back on target. At least the Real Estate school around my corner seems to have tons of real estate education material laying around again
So business wise and job wise the market is back on track! 2010 should be better than 2009.
So happy holidays and a happy new year!
Rant On
Doing an address search on the web is just a pain. Just tried to look someone up and besides a bunch of paid services there is so much scraped stuff up there, that it is no fun. Fake Facebook profiles, Myspace nonsense and people search engines make it tougher and tougher to find what you are looking for.
Even Twitter and the new Twitter lists make it easy to just create fake profiles and get them up and running quickly.
Finding an address of someone is really just a pain. Wished that Google or whoever would fix this. Until then I will stick with the paid services like the reverse phone lookup pages.
Rant Off
Working in an airport hotel can be great fun for the individual who
enjoys meeting new people from different cultures and learning a few
words from a broad spectrum of languages. The hotel industry, especially the Gatwick hotels industry, requires a worker with a cordial approach and one who is
dedicated to personal efficiency, with those skills pushed to the
limits when working in a major airport hotel.
Although working at an airport hotel may be exciting at times, it is
also a high pressure position where one must be able to cope with
stressed out guests. One of the main reasons a guest chooses an airport
hotel over a downtown accommodation is for the convenience of getting
to the airport on time. During the typical guest check-out, you will
find the patron looking at his watch and exhibiting some impatience
with the final details of the exit paperwork. The front desk employee
must be sensitive to the guest’s worries and concerns about a speedy
check-out, and must be well trained to handle every emergency that
might slow down the process. If the guest seems a bit grumpy, remember
that he is not going out for a leisurely day of sightseeing, but
rather, is in a rush to catch a flight.
The airport hotel employees that receive gratuities may not have the
largest individual tips, but can make up for that with volume. This
type of accommodation remains one of the most bustling and well-booked
of hotels, offering the tipped employee a nice intake for a day’s work.
The setback to the busy hotel schedule is that an employee may be asked
to work overtime during peak seasons or when large tour groups are
checking-in. This may entail a hectic four hour addition to an already
exhausting shift, but for the professional that takes his job
personally, the hourly overage is welcomed.
Some of the best jobs at an airport hotel that pull in a tip on top of
the wages include food and beverage servers, bell hops, valets and
concierge. The steady influx of checked-in guests can be a gold mine
for those who present themselves with congeniality and a helping hand.
Unlike many hotels located in prime tourists locations, the patrons at
the airport hotels tend to be frequent and repetitive customers. This
is particularly true with business travelers who tend to stay at the
same airport-friendly location on each trip. To the seasoned
professional on the hotel team, this is your chance to build a rapport
with that client and increase your popularity and gratuities.
Life at the airport hotel may be a faster pace than the more expensive
hotels with a view, but if you remember why the guest booked that
location in the first place, you are on your way to understanding what
you need to do to make an excellent impression. Be fast, efficient, and
make their stay pleasant, and you just might be one of the reasons why
the traveling business person comes back.
Employment opportunities can be found on Hotel specific pages. Otherwise Monster and Co will make it as well.