Upping Your IQ on EP......Excel and Powerpoint

Janet Hanson, founder of 85 Broads, has some great advice for Comeback Moms. Named for the Broad Street address of her former employer Goldman Sachs, she started the group in an effort to stay connected to her female colleagues when she left the firm and became a stay at home mom. Today, 85 Broads is over 20,000 women strong and has expanded beyond the scope of the financial services industry to include women from a variety of industries who share a passion for excellence.

Recently, Martha St. Jean interviewed her for The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-st-jean/women-work-jobs-and-advic_b_230809.html St. Jean asked her what advice she had for women who were re-entering the workforce after a time away.

"Find the smartest young people you can to help you figure out how to use a computer. Lack of computer skills is what is going to hold older women back.....If you don't know how to create an excel spreadsheet or to create a powerpoint presention, you are seriously handicapped," Hanson explained.

Students today seem to learn Excel and Powerpoint in preschool! Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. But if your kids are older than 11 or 12, chances are they can whip up a Powerpoint and create some basic spreadsheets in Excel faster than you can say Jonas Brothers.

Take care not to be lulled into an inflated sense of computer savvyness just because you can surf the net, email, use Word, and do a mail merge. I did.....and boy did I scramble when I learned---on day 1---just how un-savvy I was.

Excel and powerpoint are the counterparts to yesterday's ledgers and flip charts. Excel is applied in countless ways today---mailing lists, client contact information and follow ups, financial reports, statistical analyses, creating charts, and much, much more. So, if you were thinking that you're not looking for a job in a 'numbers' field and won't be needing Excel, think again.

Powerpoint is used for speaker visuals, on-line written reports, meeting agendas, final reports, slide shows, and meeting handout sheets. I have seen it used in nonprofits, corporate settings, conferences of all sizes, actual and virtual meetings, recruiting fairs, and budget presentations. Like Excel, its use crosses industries and professions. Knowing Powerpoint is simply essential.

As Hanson mentions, you probably know a smart young professional (niece? son? neighbor? candlestick maker?) who can help you begin to master these. Not to worry, however, if they respond to your SOS with a look of unveiled horror. Here are some other ways to sharpen the proverbial saw:

• Adult Education Programs - Many communities offer low-cost courses in the evenings. In my town, the Adult School offerings run the gamut from Photopraphy and Speaking to Your Angel Guides to Microsoft Office and Business Writing. The price is under $100 for a 2 or 3 night session.

• (Take Your Pick) for Dummies- Okay, you may want to tear off the cover, but these are usually well done, easy to follow, and right on the money. Check out your local library to see if they have any of these in stock. The last time I checked amazon.com, there were versions for Excel and Powerpoint, along with others for Outlook (the email system that is often used for scheduling appointments and more), Access (a database program), and Word (could be helpful if you're not comfortable doing more than straight typing).

• County Colleges - Taking a county college computer course can be a great option if you want to get more instruction that an adult school program can provide.

• The Microsoft Website - Once you've gotten some basics down, the Microsoft website provides on-demand trainings on specific topics. There is also a 'type question here' space in the upper right hand section of Word, Excel and Powerpoint for quick answers that may arise as you're working.

Take the time to improve and polish your skills for a smoother comeback experience. Think how proud you'll be when you can add Excel and Powerpoint to your skills summary!

All the best,

Carol

The Modern World of Work

I've been hearing a catchy, clever tune on XM Coffeehouse while driving around town. Modern World by David Wilcox describes how 'this ain't the modern world that I remember.' He's referring to the 60s and 70s rendition of the future. You remember, the one with flying cars, space colonies, smell-o-vision, and Jetson-esque homes and workspaces.

Today's workplace has not been completely Jetson-ized. But if you off-ramped 10 or more years ago, you may be surprised by the workplace a la 2009. Understanding how it has changed provides you with a framework to envision yourself thriving and succeeding as your new on-ramped self. It can also give you important insight for talking about your skills and strengths in interviews and will give you a heads up as to what skills you'll need to polish and/or master.

Here is a brief comparision of what the corporate work world was like when I off-ramped in the early 90s and on-ramped in 2006:

THEN:

• The company I worked for (a major corporation) wasn't on the internet!! Businesses still weren't sure about this newfangled e-world. What we did have was a very unfriendly and clunky intranet, with monitors that weighed 50 pounds and took up a big chunk of one's desk!


• If someone read an interesting article in a professional journal that he/she wanted to share with colleagues, a routing slip was attached, and the magazine was passed from cubicle to cubicle, with each person checking off as he/she read it.


• Files, busting at their seams, filled people's in boxes. Managing the growing mounds of paper documentation was a constant struggle.


• The phone rang constantly.


• Everyone did their work in the office. Project not finished? That meant a mandatory stay at the office as there was no ability to work from home on a laptop.


• Meetings were held face-to-face in conference rooms and offices.


• Everyone wore suits.

NOW:

• E-mail is everything! Colleagues a cubicle or office away send e-mails all day--interesting articles, updates on client requests, feedback on reports, checking whether you brought lunch or want to order out, etc.


• The phone doesn't ring very much. Client communication, prospective client communication, and communication with friends and family happen on line the majority of the time during the workday.


• Microsoft Office rules the work world. I had fancied myself as fairly computer savvy when I on-ramped. The first day on the job I was asked to edit a fairly lengthy powerpoint, replete with fancy graphics and links. I adeptly corrected typos, spelling and syntax----with a pen on the printed copy of the report. How embarrassed I was when I realized I was supposed to do it online!! I felt SO old-fashioned---barely a step away from asking where the typewriter was!! After somehow muddling through the electronic version, I invested in a bunch of how-to books and practiced at home to get my skills up to speed. It became a personal badge of honor on those rare occasions when I could point out a shortcut to one of my younger, and way more e-savvy, colleagues.


• Meetings often happen virtually. Instead of travelling to meetings, they happen right on everyone's computer. Thanks to meeting software, trainings, client presentations, and proposal meetings can happen without the expense and time drain of everyone being in one location.


• Suits are worn rarely. Big client presentation? Definitely a suit day. Every other day, however, smart business casual is appropriate. Great slacks, blouses, sweaters, and accessories can definitely get you through many work situations.


• Laptops make work portable. My company allowed for work to be done at home--a policy that provided flexibility to meet important deadlines without needed to practically move into the office. I appreciated the ability to work from home when necessary. If a snow storm made roads treacherous, I could still put in some hours at home, keep on deadline, and not have to deal with a white knuckle drive.

What hasn't changed:

Your life experience, patience, compassion, and smarts all work together to make you a wonderful asset to the world of work. I admit to being fairly intimidated by my highly intelligent and driven younger colleagues initially. It didn't take long, though, for me to realize that I most definitely had a lot to offer. I happily acted as their sounding board and helped them, as they helped me, too.

You can make a great comeback. It is nothing short of thrilling to imagine the impact you can make!

All the best,

Carol

"Do it afraid, the courage will come later....."

Tamra Slagle is an example of a mom staging a comeback! After 25 years as a stay at home mom of 13 AND grandma of 6, she decided to go back to school and get her degree. For a dose of inspiration this morning, click on the link below to watch the KDSK-St. Louis story about Tamra. As she so fittingly says, "....do it afraid, the courage will come later."

http://www.ksdk.com/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=articleplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=playlist&maven_referralObject=1143046200

Where's the On Ramp?

Looking for the on ramp......wow, that phrase so very aptly describes the Comeback Mom's journey!

Have you ever taken an exit-only ramp off a major freeway and quickly realized that you'd made a mistake? This is SO not my exit, you begin to think. Finding your way back to the freeway can be harrowing, time consuming, irritating, and a major inconvenience....to say the least! For those of us moms who took career off ramps years ago, our journey back to the on ramp is a bit like this scenario. We were sure about the exit, but finding the on ramp is not as easy as we may have thought it would be.

Trying to use the same old job search techniques from days gone by won't help you to restart your career in a meaningful way. It's kind of like trying to go back up the exit ramp in reverse....definitely not a good approach. The path you took to get off the career superhighway is not the one you'll need to take to get back on.

After staging my own comeback of sorts, commiserating with women attempting their own career comebacks, and providing last minute interview/skills tutorials to friends on important 'interview eves,' I decided to research the comeback mom phenomenon and write a resource book geared for moms like us.

Looking For the On Ramp: A Guide For Comeback Moms will be published later this year. However, I want to begin sharing what I've learned and to hear from other comeback moms regarding what works, success stories, journey detours and challenges. I also hope to provide a forum for comeback moms to support one another, share tips and strategies, and celebrate successes.

Check back often for updates, tips, and strategies for staging your career comeback. If you have information you'd like to share or would like to be interviewed for my book, please email me at camerino.carol@gmail.com.

Best to you,

Carol