Category: Your Career (Page 31 of 62)

      Dave Navarro gives career advice to musicians

      November 2, 2011 /

      Bullz-Eye.com recently interviewed Dave Navarro as Jane’s Addiction was about to release their first album since 2003. In the interview he was asked about advice he’d give to aspiring musicians.

      BE: What is the number one piece of advice you would give to someone starting a band today?

      DN: I’ve answered that before, and to be perfectly frank, in this climate and the way the music business is, I would say the number one piece of advice is to do exactly what you love, and make sure you love doing it. I think back to when Jane’s Addiction started in the late ’80s, and we weren’t really aware that we would amount to much. We thought we were doing something special, but given the climate and what was successful at the time, we just felt that it was best to do what we wanted to do and stick to who we were, and as a result of that, we were able to gain some attention. The climate has changed so much, and the media has changed so much over the years, I’m astonished with how many people I’ve come into contact with that are really looking for fame, period. And those are all the wrong reasons to do this. You’d just be chasing some dream, and once you’ve reached a certain level of success, their whole life will be okay. But the fact of the matter is, they’re still stuck with themselves at the end of the day.

      BE: So music’s not the end goal for a lot of these bands? It’s just celebrity that’s more important to them?

      DN: I don’t want to say that, because there’s a really great rock movement happening, and there are lots of great artists out there. I’m saying that, and I’m sure you can understand, if you look in the more mainstream/pop world, there are a lot of people just chasing the notoriety. And hey, they’re happy doing that, I’m not saying anything negative about them. I’m just saying to upcoming bands, make the goal to work on the music that you’re most proud of, and the rest should fall into place.

      It’s good advice, and the notion applies far wider than the music industry. Ask yourself why you pick any profession, job or career. Are you doing it for the money or other types of rewards, or is it something you really want to do for its own sake. You have to be honest with yourself.

      Your Career

      Your Business Cards

      October 27, 2011 /

      We’ve discussed the cheap revolution before. It’s the notion that you can do so many things today and use countless services for a fraction of what they used to cost. This helps drive entrepreneurship and it helps people sell products or services without a huge support organization. You can be a one-person wrecking crew, using email, the web and social media to network, chase leads and close sales.

      That said, there are still some older traditions that you shouldn’t abandon. While you may not need a fancy office and a receptionist answering phones, you should have a web site or other online presence, and you should have things like business cards. The online and mobile worlds are important, but person-to-person networking is still critical.

      But here the cheap revolution helps as well. You can access business card printing services online and avoid all the hassles of the past. It’s easier and cheaper and you get exactly what you want. So do all the new media stuff, but never abandon old methods of meeting people in person and exchanging business cards.

      Your Business, Your Career, Your Network

      The importance of spotting talent

      October 19, 2011 /

      With the death of Steve Jobs, there will be countless articles covering his career, and many of us can learn a great deal from his success. We’ve already posted his advice to college graduates about finding what you love to do. Jobs was also an incredible innovator and manager, even if he was a tyrant at times.

      If you’re a manager or you run your own business, this story might be helpful. It comes from a Fast Company article after Jobs stepped down as Apple’s CEO but published before his death.

      Jobs had recently come back to the company after a 12-year hiatus working for two of his own startups: NeXT, which made ultra-high-end computers, and Pixar. He was taking a tour of Apple, becoming reacquainted with what the company had become since he’d left. It must have been a sobering, even ugly, sight–Apple was dying at the hands of Microsoft, IBM, Dell, and other competitors that were doing what Apple did, only cheaper and with faster processors.

      In a dusty basement across the road from Apple’s main building, Jobs found a solitary designer who was ready to quit, languishing amid a stack of prototypes. Among them was a monolithic monitor with a teardrop swoop, which integrated all of a computer’s guts into a single package. And in that room, Jobs saw what middle managers did not. He saw the future. Almost immediately, he told the designer, Jonathan Ive, that from here on out they’d be working side by side on a new line of computers.

      Jobs may not be the greatest technologist or engineer of his generation. But he is perhaps the greatest user of technology to ever live, and it was to Apple’s great fortune that he also happened to be the company’s founder.

      Those computers that Ive and Jobs worked on became, of course, the iMac–a piece of hardware designed with an unprecedented user focus, all the way to the handle on top, which made it easy to pull out of the box. (“That’s the great thing about handles,” Ive told Fast Company in 1999. “You know what they’re used for.”) That single moment in the basement with Ive says a great deal about what made Jobs the most influential innovator of our time. It shows an ability to see a company from the outside, rather than inside as a line manager. He didn’t see the proto iMac as a liability or a curiosity. He saw something that was simply better than what had preceded it, and he was willing to bet on that instinct. That required an ability to think first and foremost as someone who lives with technology rather than produces it.

      Jobs was always able to see opportunity and usable innovation that others could not see. He could also spot talent and put people in situations where they can thrive. The story of his visit to Xerox is legendary, as they had the graphical user interface and had no idea people would want it in their home computers.

      You may not have a Jonathan Ive in your organization or revolutionary products sitting on a shelf, but you probably have some very talented people who are stuck in jobs that waste their talent. Take the time to know your team, and dig deeper than your immediate reports. Find the talent, let them work, and your company will have a better chance to thrive.

      Your Business, Your Career, Your Team, Your Workplace

      Flexible careers

      October 6, 2011 /

      We all have different career goals, but one that is becoming more important has to do with job flexibility. We want flexibility on issues like hours and the ability to work away from the workplace.

      Even is a bad economy, these goals are becoming more attainable. Naturally, technology has a lot to do with it. But the culture is also changing, as companies and managers realize that they can have more productive workers if the offer more flexible work arrangements.

      That said, it’s also good to think about certain careers that make it even easier to have a flexible work environment.

      Graphic design jobs fit this category. Technology has completely changed the design field, as everything is now done on the computer. Keep in mind that collaboration is sometimes easier when everyone is under the same roof irrespective of new online collaboration software tools, so some employers will want you to spend some of your time in their office. But you can do much of this work from anywhere.

      Writing jobs are a natural choice. If you can write, there are tons of jobs out there as content development is a growing field. With a computer and an internet connection, you can work for a wide variety of employers.

      Web design jobs are in the same category and combine aspects of the two above. Firms are always looking for online designers, and this is something you can do from anywhere as well. Keep in mind, however, that this is becoming more of a commodity, so it’s important to keep working on your skills.

      Your Career

      Words of wisdom from Steve Jobs

      October 5, 2011 /

      Steve Jobs passed away today. He was one of the most important and influential people of our time and he will be greatly missed.

      I would recommend that everyone, particularly young people, read this speech from Steve Jobs given at Stanford in 2005. It’s the best career advice I’ve ever heard.

      Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

      Read the whole thing.

      Your Career

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