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photo credit: Torley

Recently there have been quite a few reports stating that newly graduated design specialists are having some trouble landing their dream job in that field, according to FastCompany.  The speculation behind this problem is that there are a number of rather important skills that companies look for in design specialists that are not always taught in design schools. To help newly graduated designers below are a few helpful hints on the skills that companies are looking for.

• Using your imagination. Bringing concepts together that were never thought of or laid out at the beginning of the job.
• Execution. It is no longer a concept to hand off jobs to teams below you to work on. A designer now is expected to have excellent execution in getting things done, working with their teams every step of the way until the project is complete.
• Passionate Curiosity. This is one of the biggest attributes that decides whether a designer will make it or not. You have to be willing to always be looking into bigger and better ideas.

Talent: Talent is intentionally last on this list. Having a real talent for design is as critical as it has ever been. However, talented designers are far more common than those designers who have real talent complimented with the attributes that are outlined above.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: BL1961

Entrepreneur.com posted a very interesting article on how veterans often make great franchise owners. There were many points brought up in this article that I have to agree with and find also very interesting as well. Today with more and more people being out of work, businesses and franchises are going up more and more, this could bode well for veterans.

Veteran business owners know how to think on their feet and trust their instincts. They’re also trained to adapt to the conditions around them, so making a decision–even a wrong one–allows them to adjust rapidly if necessary.

In the military, people are put through all types of training that help them develop skills in many areas such as leadership, working with others as a team, communication, implementing tasks and much more. All of these skills come in extremely handy for them when going into a franchise.

Every veteran has at least one story that is related to them trusting their life with another human being. In a franchise business you will most likely have some sort of support network such as an advisory board that will help you throughout all of your endeavors with that franchise, this requires a great deal of trust on your part.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: Piez

Harvard Business recently wrote an article regarding the fact that employers are still hiring people who already have jobs rather than all of the hundreds who are out of work fighting to get by and pleading for a job! Most employers are doing this in the mind set that those who do not have jobs were second class performers and that is why the previous employer let them go.

This is something that just really irritates myself and many others for so many obvious reasons. One may be un-employed right now for several different reasons such as company cut backs (lowest on the seniority pole got axed), company trying to keep from going bankrupt so they axed several people including good workers and so many other reasons.

Just because one is currently without a job does not automatically mean they are a crappy employee. If they were such a crappy employee i would think that their employment dates with their previous company would reflect that of gaps in their employment.

One worry is that if this is indeed a major trend, America’s social contract around work could be at risk. Work hard, many Americans believe, and forward advancement is not only possible, but likely. Tried and failed? No problem, says our culture — pick yourself up and try again. And of course, don’t be afraid to move to where opportunities are — that’s the American way. But we undermine those beliefs when we lock active job-seekers out of opportunities.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.