1. Editorial: Predicting the Future of Computers!

2. Career Development Notes: 1 Are You a Boy or a Girl? - Check out your gender in a new algorithm!

3. Career Development Notes: 2 Your Personal Work/Life Balance Sheet and Top Ten Tips for Work/Life Balance

4. Career Development Notes: 3 Plan Your New Years Careers Resolution (or 'Revolution') Your free chance to eavesdrop on an expert teleclass! Don't miss this opportunity to listen in or join in!

Call 001-702-821-1425

5. Just for a Laugh!: We stumbled across this useful test of whether you are 'cool' or not.  Feel free to test your friends and family.

1. Editorial:  Predicting the Future of Computers

I was collecting interesting quotes for my new web site again the other day and found that I had amassed a few about computers: 

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." - Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." - The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what .... is it good for?" - Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" - Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981

2. Career Development Notes 1:  Are you a Boy or a Girl? - Check out your gender in a new algorithm!

On the internet there is a new web site that claims to be able to tell you, with 80% accuracy whether a piece of writing has been done by a man or a woman.  It uses a computer programme developed by a team of scientists after an exhaustive study of the difference between male and female use of language.  One of their findings is that women are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns ("I", "you", "she", etc), whereas men prefer words that identify or determine nouns ("a", "the", "that"), or that quantify them ("one", "two", "more").

The web site is called Gender Genie and its address is http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.html. To discover whether a piece of writing has been written by a man or a woman, all you have to do is paste it into a window on the web site and ask for its opinion.  Having done this I can confidently inform you that I am a girl. (This is very reassuring for me because I once had a french boyfriend whose best friend warned him that I was probably a man because I could hum along using a profoundly deep bass to the ballad 'Durham Town' .)  You too can discover whether you are a boy or a girl, by selecting some of your own text and pasting it in! You can read more about their research at nature.com  

The algorithm pays little attention to the subject matter of the piece or writing except to register that it is fiction or non-fiction.  Instead it looks for little clues that both writers and readers would fail to notice, such as the number of personal pronouns used. According to Moshe Koppel, one of the authors of the project, this is because women are more comfortable thinking about people and relationships, whereas men prefer thinking about things. This reminded me of the coaching advice I normally give to people when writing their CVs and that is - how to avoid the "I" word. 

Now a career coach associate of mine who writes a weekly column for the Manchester Evening News has dubbed the use of the "I" word in a curriculum vitae as the "Carmen Miranda Effect".  (You may remember the dynamic heroine of early films who pranced around with a salad bowl on her head, singing "Aye, aye, aye, aye,... aye, aye aye aye lurve you verrrry much....etc.")  Well, part of Ken's theory was that if you mentioned the "I" word repeatedly in the text of your CV that it could (mistakenly, of course) give the impression that you were totally self-centred and egotistical.  It might also reflect, what I can only describe as the 'junior' nature of your career to date, in the nature of - "This is what "I" did at school.....".  

So I began to wonder if in fact I had all this time I had been recommending that people leave personal pronouns out of their CV, thus effectively 'masculinising' their promotional material! Aaargh!  In order to 'test' out my concern, I first pasted a large number of CVs of existing clients (both male and female) anonymously, one by one into the gender genie algorithm. (using the non-fiction option!)  The algorithm successfully stated the 'right' gender in all but two CVs.  Then I found the original CV sent to me by female clients and compared the results of gender genie with that of their new CV - the one we had produced together.  For every female client that I had worked with the gender genie successfully stated their gender in both their old and new CVs.  Phew!

I have no idea how the gender genie figures out whether the writer is a girl or a boy on the basis of non fictional texts - that are mostly dates, schools and quantified achievements?  You'll have to work it out for yourself by reading the full research paper at algorithm and testing it on friends and colleagues.  All I can say is that the gender genie results are obviously deeply meaningful and are presented in very pretty colours.

3. Career Development Notes 2:  Your personal work/life balance sheet

Whether you are out of work, in a job that you hate or that hates you or just feel overworked - use our unique Personal Work/Life Balance Sheet to assess the state your life is in!  Of course you might find that when you have added up all the pluses and the minuses that you are a model of harmony and therefore smugness.  On the other hand if after you have completed your balance sheet (see attached Microsoft Excel file) the 'liabilities', outweigh the 'assets', then Doh! you need to do something about it! 

Recently I was working with the Communications Director/Partner of McKinsey's - Gene Zelazny and he remarked (zen-like) 'that everybody 'stood' on three stones - their health, their home and their work'.  Ergo: If you favour (or neglect) one of these three areas of your life rather than another, then it stands to reason that you might unbalance and topple over.

Margaret's Top Ten Tips for Work/Life Balance

1. Negotiate a Change with Your Current Employer. Progressive employers recognize the value of good employees, and many are willing to find ways to help current employees deal with short-term or permanent changes caused by family situations. The changes can include flexi-time, job-sharing, telecommuting, or part-time employment. Your first step is to research your employer's policies and methods of handling previous requests. Then go to your boss armed with information and a plan that shows how you will be an even more valuable and productive employee if you can modify your current work situation.
2. Find a New Career. Some careers are simply more stressful and time-consuming than others. If you need more time for yourself or your family, now may be the time to explore careers that are less stressful and more flexible.
3. Find a New Job. Rather than a career change, perhaps you simply need to take a less stressful job within your chosen career. This change may involve working with your current employer to identify a new position, it may involve a full job search, or it may involve temping or becoming a consultant or starting a freelancing or other home-based business.
4. Slow Down. Life is simply too short, so don't let things pass you in a blur. Take steps to stop and enjoy the things and people around you. Schedule more time between meetings; don't make plans for every evening or weekend, and find some ways to distance yourself from the things that are causing you the most stress.
5. Learn to Better Manage Your Time. Avoid Procrastination. For many people, most of the stress they feel comes from simply being disorganized and procrastinating. Learn to set more realistic goals and deadlines - and then stick to them. You'll find that not only are you less stressed, but your work will be better.
6. Share the Load. Even though we may sometimes feel we're the only ones capable of doing something, it's usually not the case. Get your partner or other family members to help you with all your personal/family responsibilities. Taking care of the household, children, or parents should not be the responsibility of just one person.
7. Let Things Go. (Don't 'Sweat the Small Stuff.') It's simpler said than done, but learn to let things go once in a while. So what if the dishes don't get washed everyday or that the house doesn't get vacuumed every week. Learn to recognize the things that don't really have much impact in your life and allow yourself to let them go - and then not beat yourself up for doing so.
8. Explore Your Options. Get Help. If you are feeling overwhelmed with your family responsibilities, please get help if you can afford it. Find a sitter for your children, explore options for aging parents, and seek coaching for yourself. In many cases, you have options, but you need to take the time to find them.
9. Take Charge. Set Priorities. Sometimes it's easier for us to allow ourselves to feel overwhelmed rather than taking charge and developing a prioritized list of things that need to get done. You need to buck the trend. Develop a list. Set priorities. And then enjoy the satisfaction of crossing things off your list.
10. Simplify. It seems human nature for just about everyone to take on too many tasks and responsibilities, to try to do too much, and to own too much. Find a way to simplify your life. Change your lifestyle. Learn to say no to requests for help. Get rid of the clutter and baggage in your house - and your life.

In the end, the key word is balance. You need to find the right balance that works for you. Celebrate your successes and don't dwell on your failures. Life is a process, and so is striving for balance in your life.

4. Career Development Notes 3:  Plan Your New Years Careers Resolution (or 'Revolution') Your free chance to eavesdrop on an expert teleclass! Don't miss this opportunity to listen in or join in! (It's only me 'n Kath!)

If your attempts to set yourself New Years Resolutions (particularly as far as your job is concerned) make Bridget Jones' New Years Resolutions look sophisticated and professional then maybe you would like to listen into a telephone call that we are organising in early December.  We want to take the pain out of 'Setting Your New Year Career Resolution' by starting you doing the thinking early and helping you with the planning.  In next month's newsletter we will include twelve tips - one for each day of Christmas.

So this is what you do - if you'd like to listen in or take part in our discussion (gasp!) then phone this number Call 001-702-821-1425 at 6pm GMT on Thursday 4 December 2003.  Alternatively you can develop@careersnet.com and put 'YEH RIGHT!' in the SUBJECT line and hit the SEND and let Kath or myself know you would to look at the details.  (By the way both Kath and I are studying to be 'certifiable' advanced teleclass coaches and we need you to practice on. At one of the classes we attended we heard a really good tip from the host, for 'would-be' hosts and that is 'Not to worry about whether anybody is listening or not - just assume they are and carry on with the class.' So we'll just assume you are there anyway.) 

If you have completed your work/life balance sheet (see above and attached) and you are in 'deficit' in anyway then let us help you plan your way out of it.  Even if you are steady on your rocks - you are welcome to join us for an amusing session with v. serious intent.

5. Just for a Laugh!: We stumbled across this useful test of whether you are 'cool' or not.  Feel free to test your friends and family.