The Pink Cupcake Bakery’s First Vocationer

I received an email today from our mentor at The Pink Cupcake Bakery regarding her first Vocationer, Mindee Thompson.  It sounds like they had a blast.  Beth and her business partner, Sommer are a real kick in the pants.  Brian discovered the bakery during his book tour earlier this year while in Ohio.  Mt. Vernon is a pretty small town to have such an amazing bakery, not to mention two incredibly talented bakers in Beth & Sommer. 

Check out the Pink Cupcake Bakery Blog here!

You can learn more about the Pink Cupcake VocationVacations Mentorship in Mt. Vernon, OH here!

Do your dream job in pajamas

Does your idea of the perfect job involve rolling out of bed in the morning, brewing some coffee and sitting down to work - without going anywhere? You’re not alone. The idea of freelancing is becoming more and more popular. Working at home has a lot of benefits - not the least of which is dropping that commute so you can keep a less frantic eye on rising gas prices.

What to look for in a mentor

The support and guidance of a mentor is critical for successfully transitioning into a new career. That’s why so much of the VocationVacations experience is built around spending time with a mentor. But what are the qualities you should be looking for in a mentor?

Introducing new coffee shop owner mentor!

We are excited to be adding  Johnnie Graves of Johnnie’s Coffee in Marina del Rey, CA as our newest mentor!

Johnnie’s Coffee has been an institution in Marina del Rey for more than 15 years. Johnnie was roasting and selling his own coffee 25 years - well before the Starbucks phenomenon made the corner coffee house ubiquitous.

Getting ready for your “second act”

An engineer becomes a high school science teacher. A high-profile lawyer becomes a child advocate for a nonprofit. A banker becomes a chef. If all these career transitions seem like a step backwards, then you’re missing one of the key elements of a successful “second act” career.

Questions to ask yourself before starting a business

Does your dream job involve working for yourself? There are huge rewards to starting your own business, but there are also plenty of risks. Take a close look at the financial realities of what starting your own business will require. Before doing it, ask yourself these questions:

What will my start-up costs be?

What will my ongoing costs be?

How long before it will become profitable?

Where can I find financing?

How much of my own money will I have to invest?

Still not sure where to start? Here are some resources for figuring out the answers to these questions:

If money were no object …

If you had the skills or talent to switch jobs and your career - right now - to become a musician, painter, filmmaker, actor, singer, playwright or novelist, and you would earn at least as much money as you do now, would you do it?

Job Hop Your Way To Your Dream Job

One of the coolest things about the 21st century is that “job hopping” is no longer a no-no.

Remember when “they” used to warn that frequent job changing would make you look unstable and disloyal? “You’re damaging your career,” they’d fret.

Today, most workers have 10 jobs by the time they’re 40, and no one bats an eyelash. In fact, staying in one job for too long has started to look a bit, well, odd.

In fact, there are real advantages to job hopping:

• you learn how to function in unfamiliar situations
• you become more resilient
• you build an extensive network
• you can climb the ladder more quickly
• you acquire new skills and experience, fast
• you can use your breaks between jobs to travel, intern, volunteer, go back to school

But the biggest advantage is that job hopping can lead you to your dream job!
It’s a fabulous way to sample different industries and roles. The more different jobs you have, the more you learn about yourself-what you like to do, what you’re good at, what gives you the most joy.

So take a chance. You no longer need to worry that the label “job hopper” is going to come back to haunt you.

Karen Burns, who has had 59 jobs herself, is the author of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF WORKING GIRL: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use, coming from Running Press in April 2009. Meanwhile, visit her at www.karenburnsworkinggirl.com

Breaking into a new field

People at the beginning of their professional life can hear “not enough experience” more than a few times on the quest to landing the right job. But later on, when a worker becomes established in their career, they may have experience to spare. If they decide to transition to a new line of work in the later years, they might be hearing another mantra: “too much experience.”

For many mature workers their experience can become a hurdle rather than an asset.

Release the artist within

Many people dissatisfied with their careers think of the career that might have been. They has a passion for art, for example, but listened to friends and family who said it wasn’t a reliable or practical enough option to make a good living. But the trick about having a true passion for something is that it rarely goes away. So 10, 20 or 30 years after starting that practical career, people come back around to their passion. A second career in art, or teaching or whatever else seemed impractical in the early 20s can later in life seem not only feasible but also satisfying.

An article on Huffington Post by Kimberly Brooks takes a look at art as a second career. Brooks highlights the work of artist Kathy Taslitz. Taslitz was interested in art as a child but she majored in communications in college and went on to work as an ad executive. When Taslitz started working in interior design her passion for art was reawakened. Brooks writes about the process of discovering the artist lurking within:

I believe being an artist is a calling, and if it is inside you, it is always there, scratching and clawing to find a way out. I also believe that most people have one inside them - that your hairdresser really wants to be in a rock band, your lawyer is a frustrated comedian and the postman is secretly a poet. It takes guts to let it out; to make that transition. For those who do it later in life - and don’t just sail from high school to an art major to MFA, etc. - there is a particular sweetness to the final product; one that radiates the texture of the circuitous path, the passion necessary to pivot and the essence of arriving toward one’s truest self

And isn’t that what it’s all about? Taslitz has found work that reflects her truest self. What is that work for you?