Posts Tagged ‘career transition’

Career Tips: Shorten Your Unemployment by 90 Days

February 14th, 2010

Most senior executives have never faced the prospect of prolonged unemployment. Add to that a hyper-competitive job market and the realities of not generating income for the foreseeable future, and we all tend to get overwhelmed.

So….you’re in transition, now what? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a concise, easy-to-read guide that could get you started off on the right foot and maybe even shorten your path back to steady income? Good news! Such a guide has been presented by Andy Robinson and CAREEREALISM, and is available for FREE as an e-book entitled:

“I’m In Transition, Now What? 12 Ways to Shorten Your Unemployment by 90 Days.”

This e-book is comprised of 12 powerful ways to shorten your transition by 90 days. It’s chock-full of useful tips on networking, resume writing, interviewing, social media, and much more from career experts across the country. They intend this e-book to be a living document, meaning new chapters will be added based on reader feedback.

You can access the e-book by clicking here and entering your e-mail address.

About Andy Robinson

Andy Robinson is an Executive Career Coach, Career Success Radio Show Host, Personal Branding Strategist, Consultant, Speaker. He is a 15 year executive coaching veteran and work with coaching clients nationwide. Previous experience includes over 10 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers as a consulting director and human resources specialist. Connect with Andy on LinkedIn: www.AndyOnLinkedIn.com, Twitter: www.AndyOnTwitter.com or visit his Blog Site at: www.AndyRobinsonCoach.com.

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Posted in Career Tips

Tags: Andy Robinson career transition Careerealism interview interviewing Interviewing techniques Interviews job market Networking networking for work resume resume writing social marketing social media social media job search transition Unemployment

Career Transition: Bridging the Career Gap, Receiving through Giving

February 8th, 2010

By Susan Posluszny of OPTIONS for Career & Life Planning LLC

When you are looking to transition from one career field into a totally new career field, you can tend to feel like an outsider looking in. You send out resumes knowing that you would be able to prove yourself if only someone would give you a chance. You find yourself wondering just how those insiders got there and sense that all the posted openings go to those who have inside connections.

Well, one wonderful thing about gaining career and life planning skills is that you become empowered with the knowledge that you can break into any career field you choose. It really is about figuring out where you are relative to where you would like to be and working to ‘bridge the gap’ to your new career interest area. One way to bridge the gap is through volunteer work. Through volunteer work in a career area of interest, career transitioners are able to gain knowledge, experience, and connections in industries and work settings where they have no prior work history. You essentially ‘give and receive’ at the same time. My own career development offers examples of how I have worked to ‘practice what I preach’ over the years.

When I first graduated from college I worked in advertising for a time (on good old Madison Avenue in New York City). I quickly realized that this work was not as glamorous as I had envisioned and decided that, for a number of reasons, this work was not for me. As I worked with a career counselor and explored alternate possibilities I came up with a number of career interest areas including human resource management, corporate outplacement, and career development in a higher education setting.

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Posted in Career assessment and transition

Tags: Career planning career transition life planning skills Susan Posluszny Volunteering

Career Transitions: It All Begins with an Ending

January 7th, 2010

By Susan Posluszny, MA, NCC

Endings are the clearing process which allows us to move on with new beginnings in our personal and work lives. Through the work of William Bridges, author of the well known classic, Transitions, we learn that the transition process begins with an ending. For those who are unemployed (willingly or unwillingly), an awareness that the transition process has predictable stages, with the first one being an ending, can serve as an aid in dealing with and moving beyond the loss.

There are four different aspects of the natural ending experience. They do not occur in any specific order. They are as follows:

Disengagement - a separation from the familiar place in the social order (a pilgrimage, divorce, death, job loss, and illness are examples of disengagement). These, and many lesser events, disengage us from the contexts in which we have known ourselves. They break up the old system that served to reinforce our roles and to pattern our behavior.

Disidentification – in one way or another, most people who are in transition experience a sense of not being quite sure who they are anymore. The person loses a sense of self-definition and tends to question…”Who Am I?”

Disenchantment – involves the discovery that in some sense one’s world is no longer real. Separated from the old identity and the old situation or some aspect of it, a person floats in a state of limbo between the old world and the world that is yet to be experienced. Disenchantments come in many forms: relations that proved unfaithful, leaders who are unethical, idols who are petty and dull, and when a trusted organization betrays your trust. Moving forward involves recognizing that a shift in perspective may well be in order…that is the realization that your old reality was in your head, not outside of you.

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Posted in Career assessment and transition

Tags: career change career transition separation Susan Posluszny Transitions William Bridges

Career Assessment: Starting Your Own Business, Part 5

December 1st, 2009

By Thomas Arrison, Certified Public Accountant

Paying your taxes

Be sure you are sitting down. The taxes on the income from your business can be as high as 40 to 50% of your net profit. It all depends on what other income shows up on your tax return. The fact that your spouse is working can push you into this level of taxation as can investment income, unemployment compensation, or rental income. Here is how it breaks down:

The Social Security Administration gets about 15% of your wages or net income from self-employment to cover your Social Security benefits and Medicare. When you are an employee, you pay half and your employer pays half. When you are self-employed you pay the whole 15%. Your itemized deductions, such as mortgage interest and real estate taxes, do not effect what you pay for Social Security.

Your federal income taxes depend on your taxable income and marital status. This blog cannot provide all the alternatives. A large majority of taxpayers end up in either the 25 or 28% tax brackets. Your actual percentage will vary with your return.

Most states have an income tax. Even some states that do not have an income tax have a business tax that applies to self-employed people. New Hampshire is one of those states. Massachusetts has a tax rate of approximately 5%.

Using the numbers above you would be paying either 45% or 48% in total taxes. Now that you are totally depressed, let me back off from that statement a bit. The taxes you pay depend on how your tax return goes together. High mortgage interest and real estate taxes will reduce your federal taxes. A non-working spouse reduces your taxes. Many of my self-employed clients only pay Social Security taxes because their income is low.

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Posted in Career assessment and transition

Tags: career assessment career transition contract employment Employment Employment opportunities self employment Thomas Arrison

Career Assessment: Starting Your Own Business, Part 4

November 26th, 2009

By Thomas Arrison, Certified Public Accountant

Tax Deductions

The reason you need a bookkeeping system is so that you can deduct all the expenses possible to minimize the taxes you will be paying.

There are a couple of expenses that you will not collect in your bookkeeping system.

Automobile expense. You have two choices in calculating your deduction for your automobile. Under either choice you need to keep a log on your business miles and know the total miles you drive your car during the year.

One way is to record every expense, (gas, insurance, repairs etc.) you incur using your automobile. Once you know the total cost you multiply it by your business-use percentage. (Business-use percentage is your business miles divided by your total miles.) Alternately, you use the IRS automobile mileage rate (for 2009 the IRS mileage rate is $0.55 per mile) times the business miles. The vast majority of my clients use the IRS standard mileage rate. It’s simpler to work with.

Deduction for a home office. To deduct the cost to maintain an office in your home, you must use the area exclusively for business. Thus you cannot deduct the expense if you work at your kitchen table. You are allowed to deduct the business-use percentage of all the expenses to run the house. This would include mortgage interest, real estate taxes, utilities, heat, insurance, and general repairs. You cannot deduct repairs to the non-business use portion of the house, like your kitchen. As this is a complex deduction, it would benefit you to hire a tax professional to help you figure it out.

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Posted in Career assessment and transition

Tags: career assessment career transition Employment Employment opportunities self employment

Career Assessment: Starting Your Own Business, Part 3

November 23rd, 2009

By Thomas Arrison, Certified Public Accountant

Some details that you need to pay attention to

Record Keeping

The IRS requires that you keep accurate records of your income and expenses. They don’t tell you how to do it. You want to establish a system that is simple, accurate, and easy to maintain. It can be a paper system or computerized, whatever works best for you. It is important to do your record keeping regularly. Do it every week or at least every month. The goal of record keeping is to collect information together into the categories of income and expenses to determine your net income.

Do not throw your receipts under the seat of your car, in the basket on the back of your counter top, or in a box under your bed.
Do not take a big box of receipts to your CPA to prepare your return.
Be organized. You need to know how you are doing as the year progresses, but you can also save yourself a lot of money in tax preparation fees when you come prepared.

These are general descriptions of different record keeping systems. You will need to dig into the specifics yourself.

Dome Bookkeeping System. One of the simplest systems, you can buy it at most office supply stores. It is a paper and pencil system and is smaller than a crossword puzzle book. With this system you record your income and expenses as they are incurred. So when you make a sale today, write it down. When you pay a bill, write it down. At the end of the month you summarize your expenses by category and tally up your year to date activity. At the end of the year you hand the book to your CPA to have your taxes prepared. Quick, simple, accurate, and it saves you money with your accountant.

One-Write System. Another paper system, you can buy checks and a check register from a company like Deluxe . A check register is created at the same time you write checks and makes a permanent record of each transaction. It also keeps your checkbook in balance. The check register has columns to “spread” your expenses to. So every time you buy office supplies, you put the amount paid in the office supply column. At the end of the month you tally up the sheets. At the end of the year you summarize your activity for the full year to prepare your tax return.

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Posted in Career assessment and transition

Tags: career assessment Career planning career transition Employment self employment Thomas Arrison

Career Assessment: Starting Your Own Business, Part 2

November 16th, 2009

By Thomas Arrison, Certified Public Accountant

Let’s get into the specifics

The first question is “How do I actually go into business for myself?”

It really can be very simple.

In essence you can start your business by standing in your living room and saying “I am in the business of writing blogs (or software support, or making furniture).” Of course, that is not going to put one dollar in your pocket. Which brings us to the next question “What do I do now?”

The real question should be “What form should my business take?”

Lets eliminate corporations right away. No matter what your friends or family say, incorporating your business at the beginning is probably not the right way to go. It requires filing long and formal documents with the Secretary of State and the spending of a lot of money on filing fees, legal fees, accounting fees, insurance, etc. just to set up the corporation. Then you have to pay $3,000 annually to keep the corporation alive. The major benefit of a corporation is to limit your liability, and there are alternatives to using this structure.

Now let’s talk about a Limited Liability Company (LLC).

Like a corporation, you are required to register your LLC with the Secretary of State and pay a filing fee. The fees vary by state. The registration process is easy and generally just a one page form. Then you have to keep the LLC alive by filing an annual report each year. There is of course another filing fee for the annual report.

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Posted in Career assessment and transition

Tags: career assessment career transition contract employment self employment Thomas Arrison

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