Right and Wrong Times to Quit Your Old Job Without a New Job

Right and Wrong Times to Quit Your Old Job Without a New JobRight and Wrong Times to Quit Your Old Job Without a New JobIs quitting your old job without a new job a mistake? Some may instantly say, Yes while others will say, It depends. There are always circumstances behind why we look for new jobs. But when we are thinking of quitting without a new job waiting in the wings, the decision takes a lot more consideration.Whatever your reasons for becoming unemployed without a new job in sight, here are some right and wrong times to quit your old job without a new job.1. Consider your networkRight timeYou have been networking for a while and know people who can help you, quickly. Ideally, you want people who can truly help you, bedrngnis just big talkers who claim to know people. You need solid promises of interviews.Wrong timeYou only plan to start networking once you quit your job. This is also known as, putting the cart before the horse. You are thinking backward. Do not quit to start networking. You should network to eventually quit.2. Consider your financesRight timeYou have money saved up that will give you a large window of time to find new work.You are going to need it. Job searches cost time and money.Wrong timeYou plan on playing it by ear. You will figure it out as you go, but essentially you are flat broke. This is a huge mistake many optimistic, wide-eyed thinkers make. Starting a job search with no money and no plan other than to wing it, looks bad on interviews and will eventually leave you feeling desperate for work. Getting hired or interviewing while feeling desperate always leads to negative results for your career. You look irresponsible to others and may end up in a job you hate.3. Consider your healthRight timeYour health and mental state are suffering. Any job that is causing anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and physical damage to you is not a job you should keep. Not only will it hurt your chances of finding new work while employed, but y ou also may be damaging yourself and your career by working too long in a toxic environment.Wrong timeIf you just kinda feel like you need a change. If all you want to do is change what you are doing, know that it takes time. Executing changes requires time and you will have a better idea if you actually want to change when you give yourself the time to figure out how you will do it.4. Consider your futureRight timeWhen your job is pointless and has no place in your career. It is still ok to go get a job when you need money and you know you can contribute to a company. You knew that your job managing a retail store was only going to be temporary. So, you can leave it whenever you want.Wrong timeIf the job offers a stepping stone to a new career or growth within an established business. You may not be where you want to be now, but if you can visualize a future for yourself at your current company or you know it offers great potential for career growth, stick the job out.5. Consider y our impactRight timeYou tried to make it work. You gave it your best, but all the work is simply going to be in vain. After years at the company, you know you had tried all you can do and the only remedy for you is to leave before the job starts to hurt your career.Wrong timeThere is more to do at the job, but all you need is one minor thing to change and you will be happy again. Ironically, people make irrational decisions like quitting a great job over minor issues. Take some inventory of what you like and do not like about your current job. If you simply have quirks about your job, or the pressure is wearing on you, take a vacation or actions that will help correct the situation. Dont quit just because you have some uncomfortable days at the office.Reality checkQuitting your old job without a new job is not a decision you should take lightly. The long-term effects on your career can be damaging even if the short-term satisfaction exists. Even though many will say it is ok to take risks, most who claim risk-taking is required in a career, usually take calculated risks. Meaning they did the work to minimize as much risk as possible.Ideally, most of the time it is not a good idea to quit your old job without a new job, but sometimes it must be done

Career Stepping Stones Beyond the Classroom

Career Stepping Stones Beyond the Classroom Career Stepping Stones Beyond the Classroom A competitive employment market for engineers together with shifting geschftsleben strategies and corporate cultures is shattering the notion that academic success is the sole pathway to career opportunity. While good grades in college still matter, many employers in the technology field are seeking engineers who have broadened their skills and experiences outside the traditional classroom and into volunteer work, design teams, and other types of extracurricular pursuits. konzeption teams in particular allow students strong exposure to the interdisciplinary aspect of engineering and valuable experience in teamwork, communication, and project management. Business employers today are attracted to well-rounded job candidates who demonstrate interest and achievement beyond the normal expectations of coursework and labs, notes Paul Stevenson, an ASME member in the Florida West Coast Section and vice president at McCormick Stevenson, an engineering consultancy located in Clearwater.Paul Stevenson Stevenson, senior vice president of the Societys Student and Early Career Sector, twice a year visits area colleges to impart career advice and guidance, never failing to extol the benefits and value of networking, soft skills development, and active participation in professional societies. Among these professional societies, ASME has provided solid opportunities for students and early career engineers to enhance their skills and grow their knowledge and experience. The Societys popular outreach programs include the Human Powered Vehicle Competition, Student Design Competition, IShow, and technical presentations and poster sessions at various conferences. This year ASME will roll out an ambitious new program E-Fests. Engineering Festivals E-Fests will consolidate several of ASMEs design competitions, while aiming to connect students and early-career engineers to thought leaders and practicing engineers to receive practical and valuable career guidance. E-Fests are built on an engineering festivals model, incorporating many programs and activities in one place. Stevenson is on the ASME team that planned and developed the business model for E-Fests, and was a champion for the program when it was only a concept more than two years ago. According to Stevenson, the program components of E-Fests strongly align attendees with the interests and marketing goals of todays high-tech corporate enterprise. For example, the E-Fests programs will include hackathons, in which students can exercise computer skills and abilities that are viewed as assets to government agencies, transit system operators, and companies seeking new product innovation. Challenged to deal with the unprecedented rate of change brought by the increasingly digitized economy, companies across all industry sectors are recruiting engineers with aptitude in programmin g, coding, and hardware applications. The emerging data-driven economy is putting a premium on engineers who can write and analyze sophisticated computer code and also develop algorithms enabling companies to successfully manage supply chains, internal operations, product development timetables, and other important business functions, said Stevenson. Another emerging industry trend, according to Stevenson, is additive manufacturing, which will receive strong exposure at E-Fests via the popular IAM3D Competition. There are many unmet needs in the additive manufacturing space, particularly in the area of materials characterization, noted Stevenson, who as a consultant to the aerospace industry has seen the ability of manufacturers to design and fabricate quality parts on 3D printers. Young engineers giving presentations in the IAM3D Competition at E-Fests will find themselves in a position to market their talents to firms seeking new ideas and new concepts.Student compe titors gather at the University of Arkansas. Multidisciplinary Engineering At E-Fests, participants in the IAM3D Competition will share the stage with design teams in the Human Powered Vehicle Competition, bringing together creators of simulation tools and 3D printers with designers of control mechanisms and aerodynamic systems in a multidisciplinary forum of information exchange and knowledge sharing. According to Stevenson, E-Fests blur the lines between engineering disciplines, promoting an environment in which young engineers of diverse talents and interests can connect, collaborate, and learn. When they enter the business world, young engineers will see that companies place value on teamwork and communication, said Stevenson. In todays engineering design environment, no product is the creation of one individual. To tackle the complex technology challenges of the 21st century, engineers will need help they will need to work on discipline-diverse teams. In his vi sits to local colleges, Stevenson impresses upon engineering students to learn as much as possible about project management. Skills in project management as well as involvement on design teams convey to business employers that a student has a foundation in team-based problem solving and communication, said Stevenson. He believes E-Fests will assist post-secondary students and early career engineers in finding ways to develop the skills to render them more marketable in todays competitive and multidisciplinary workplace. A central mission of E-Fests is to prepare young engineers to be valuable members of a changing technology workforce and to play a role in helping companies solve the complex challenges facing the world, said Stevenson.

A Brief History of the Detective Story for Writers

A Brief History of the Detective Story for WritersA Brief History of the Detective Story for WritersThe detective story is a literaturform of fiction in which a detective, either an amateur or a professional, solves a crime or a series of crimes. With few exceptions, the crime involves one or more murders (occasionally, detective stories may revolve around spectacular thefts or blackmail, but this is rare). Because detective stories rely on logic, supernatural elements rarely come into play. The detective may be a private investigator, a policeman, an elderly widow or a young girl, but he or she generally has nothing werkstoff to gain from solving the crime. Mysterystories, unlike police procedurals, thrillers, true crime stories, and other crime-related genres are typically focused not on the blood, gore, and horrific details of murder but, instead, on the puzzle of an unsolved murder. While contemporary mystery writers may dwell on graphic details or graphic sex, this is still some what rare. In fact, most classic mysteries fall into the category of nice, clean murders in which the victim is whacked on the head, poisoned, stabbed, or otherwise killed in a single blow with little or no suffering involved. History of Detective Stories The first official detective story welches The Murders in the Rue Morgue, written in 1841 by Edgar Allen Poe. While Poes was not the first story to include a mystery or a murder, it was the first to introduce the then-new character of the detective. It was also the first story to revolve entirely around the solution of a murder-related puzzle. Poes writings were short stories, but The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins, was a full-length gothic novel which was, at the same time, a murder mystery. The most famous of all fictional detectives, Sherlock Holmes, was invented by Arthur Conan Doyle for the Strand Magazine in 1887. It was Conan Doyle who developed the idea of the consulting detective, who works independently from the policea long with a not-quite-bright companion whose involvement may provide comedy, drama, suspense or an opportunity to befuddle the reader with misinterpretations of clues and red herrings. The Golden Age of Mysteries the 1920s and 1930s included authors such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey, Ngaio Marsh. These authors created gentlemen detectives and evocative settings manor houses, cruise ships, and archaeological digs, among others have continued to fascinate readers. Types of Mystery Stories There are several sub-genres of mystery stories. While there is no official set of rules for writinga particular type, these descriptions should be helpful The cozy is a gentle detective story set, almost always, in a small town or village. The detective is an amateur sleuth, usually a woman.The hard-boiled detective story is an older genre which came to popularity during the 1930s with writers such as Dashiell Hammett who developed tough private dicks such as Sam Spade.T he locked room or whodunnit mystery is primarily a puzzle in which characterization takes second place to discovery and interpretation of clues...