Following nOva’s lead, I decided to reveal some of my favorite podcasts that are essential to me making it through the work week. Trust me, work would not be quite as enjoyable if I didn’t have podcasts on my Zune. I listen to or watch approximately 34 podcasts, but I’m only going to provide you with a sampling of the ones I enjoy the most.

Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code

Aside from the fact that Adam was one of my favorite MTV VJs back in the day, I just find this podcast enjoyable. He discusses a little bit of everything, which can include tech, world politics, his dealings with the TSA, his family, and music, of course. I love the fact that Adam is wide open with all guns blazing, hence why his podcast is one (among several that I listen to) with the “explicit” tag.

Buzz Out Loud

If you want daily tech stories with a humorous slant, then the Buzz Out Loud podcast is for you. If you’re familiar with Mahalo Daily’s Vernonica Belmont, then you may or may not be aware that BOL is the podcast she worked on before leaving. However, hosts Molly Wood, Tom Merritt, and Jason Howell are holding things down quite nicely.

Mysterious Universe

I just recently discovered the Mysterious Universe podcast and have been hooked ever since. This podcast covers everything supernatural: ghost hauntings, thunderbird (not the email app) and bigfoot sightings, UFO news, and other supernatural phenomena. If you are a believer and follow the ways of Agent Fox Mulder, then this is a podcast you will enjoy. (more…)

I’ve been looking to buy a larger bag to carry my stuff to and from my daily work commute. For years, I’ve had a trusty, JanSport slingbag – a one strap backpack similar to a traditional messenger bag – that I use to carry around my stuff: Zune, cell phone, umbrella, notebook, and work documents. I’ve realized that I need a larger bag and have been looking around online for something suitable to carry my laptop in addition to the regular stuff I carry. So, I hopped over to eBags and have narrowed my search to a Timbuk2 messenger bag (pictured above) that fits my needs. A family member happened to overhear me discussing the messenger bag I was considering and told me, “You’re a professional now. You shouldn’t be still carrying around book bags.” So, my upgrading from my slingbag to a Timbuk2 messenger bag is not professional enough? Does the fact that I carry a slingbag or a messenger bag mean I’m not a professional at all? I suppose I should be carrying around the briefcase purchased by my parents when I was in college, huh? Briefcases are for the “old school” business professionals. I’m definitely not old school, and while I’m a professional (and have been since I quit college), something rankles inside of me at the thought of carrying a briefcase…hence the reason why it’s still sitting in the same corner of my house after all these years, unused. (more…)

Like many, I have had numerous jobs in my lifetime, some professional, some not so professional; however, there is a common thread that employers should follow when it comes to employee retention, especially good people who are exceptional workers. Here’s a few of the guidelines employers should follow to keep the cream of the crop from running to the competition.

Offer Opportunities for Advancement

Ever had a position where you were “too good” at your job and upper management manipulated your opportunities for career advancement? So have I. I have been in positions where management trapped me in my slot, afraid that if I left, they would have a problem meeting SLAs (Service Level Agreements). I also once made the mistake of exposing too much knowledge to managers when it came to information that they found valuable and limited people (two, including myself, to be exact) knew about. Although I attempted the process of knowledge transfer to the best of my abilities, the situation I was in affected my ability to move upwards. Management deliberately blocked my opportunities for advancement for a time before I was finally able to make my escape. When I finally found an opportunity to advance, I found myself in another similar situation with my new job.

I became trapped in the new position for a number of years because I was a key person for my team, something I’m sure others can relate to. There was lip service from management about training me to take on new responsibilities, but those opportunities never came to fruition. As time passed by, I was pigeonholed into that position because of my work ethic and the fact that I gradually became the person on my team with seniority, thus knowledge. This time around, I didn’t reveal exactly how much I knew about the operation. Still, I openly shared knowledge every chance I got with my newer teammates to bring everyone up on the same level. This still didn’t work in my favor because of cutbacks and a high level of turnover in my team in a short amount of time. Fortunately, a manager I worked with in a previously joined my division and offered me an opportunity to move up.

While I understand management has to worry about staffing for key positions, they should not go out of their way to block advancement opportunities for their employees, especially those who are actively trying to advance in their careers. I was being deliberately held back, even when there wasn’t a shortage on my team. For some people, they will start to look elsewhere for career advancement. I was thisclose to doing the same thing. (more…)

All too often, I watch professional relationships evolve into personal relationships between colleagues. By personal relationships, I’m referring to coworkers who hang out after work, go to each other’s houses, and/or become romantically involved. While it does provide fascinating office gossip, romantic entanglements with a coworker are avenues many people know to avoid. However, many people think that developing outer-office friendships with coworkers is okay. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that, this creates a blurry line between your professional and personal life that could affect you in your professional career.

One question you have to ask yourself is this: do you really want to bring your coworker’s personal issues into your professional relationship? For me, the answer is a firm “no.” I once worked with a coworker who had no problem sharing the intimate details of his personal life with me. I didn’t ask for it, nor did I encourage it, but he had a huge problem with over sharing. I knew way more than I needed to know about what he did off the clock. His extracurricular activities included but was not limited to: smoking weed, getting extremely drunk every weekend, having one-night stands (and not remembering how he met the woman he woke up with because he was high and/or drunk), and getting arrested for everything between driving on a suspended license and drunk driving (twice). For some people, having this guy around was like having reality TV (think Real World) sans a camera. For me, it dramatically changed my impression of him as a colleague, and I no longer saw him as a business professional. Instead, I saw him as a drunken pothead who managed to stumble into work on Mondays and do just enough to be adequate at his job. He never thought about the consequences of his actions, of the possibility that I may have become his supervisor; he had armed me with a laundry list of his faults, things that would have blocked him from promotion. Fortunately, for my colleague, that scenario never happened, and we remained teammates. While this is an extreme case, it shows one of the dangers in allowing colleagues to know too much about your personal life. (more…)

There were high hopes for my future when I attended college. I was expected to matriculate from the university with an MBA and secure a “spectacular” job in the business field with a starting salary of $40,000-$50,000 (or higher). My future was laid out for me, and I was expected to follow a path towards “success.” Unfortunately, that shiny new MBA, bright and promising future, and path towards success was not my own. It was defined for me by my parents, who had high expectations for me since they did not attend college. I was to be their shining beacon of a success based on what they knew: a college education brought success in life. I knew better, of course, but when I dropped out of college, I failed to launch towards the path they had defined for my life. I know it bothered them, thinking that I would have to struggle in the job market with low paying jobs. This, of course, did not bother me. I had a plan for my life that had nothing to do with the plans my parents and other family members had for me.

I was an over-achiever throughout my high school years. Awards and honors graced my trophy case and walls; some I cared about, others I didn’t because they were more for my parents benefit than mine. Despite my being an over-achiever, I was not a straight A student in high school. I use to be up until middle school, but life circumstances changed my perception on the importance of grades. I was capable of making straight As if I wanted to; I just didn’t care to be graded and measured by other people’s standards. My standards were the only ones that matter. I knew I was smart; I didn’t need to make straight As to tell me that or provide reassurance. My high school years and the accomplishments I’d achieved showed me that I had a huge amount of potential ahead of me. It also showed my family members as well, and when I dropped out of college, there was a perception that my potential in life took a nosedive. Again, I knew better. (more…)