Lacy (winner, Most Affectionate)
@ Dupont Circle
Q:If your dog was a celebrity, who would it be?
A:"Charlize Theron. She's glamorous."
FOR PLACEMENT LAWYER AND and author Jeffrey G. Allen, landing a job interview starts with "The Magic Four Hello." Making direct eye contact, smiling, introducing yourself and offering a firm handshake can go a long way toward ensuring that you get a sit-down with the manager or business owner who has a job to fill. In his new book, "Instant Interviews: 101 Ways to Get the Best Job of Your Life" ($16.95, Wiley), Allen details the networking strategies that have helped him and others make connections and get hired. We spoke with the job search guru about how everyday encounters can lead to career-changing meetings.
» EXPRESS: Why shouldn't people just rely on traditional "help wanted" listings when looking for a job?
» ALLEN: Traditionally, people chase after what they think are job openings, but those are really just a construct of, in many cases, what a group thinks that they want. Anybody who's ever worked in the HR field knows that a job order is really nothing but a wish list that goes through a committee and gets signed off on. As all successful people know, you really create your own job. Instant interviews work from a very human, one-on-one interaction. It's a disciplined, systematic, focused, step-by-step approach that anyone can do and that works simply because it's based upon human interaction.
» EXPRESS: Why are instant interviews so important in today's job market?
» ALLEN: So much of what we have in our society is based upon what other people tell us, based upon what the media tells us, based upon what the job description says, based upon what some employer thinks they want when honestly they don't have a clue. The only way that anybody ever gets a job is by self-help. Even the government doesn't knock on your door and give you a job without you doing anything. So, you must initiate action, but it has to be a very specific action or you don't get hired.
Continue Reading "Meet to Compete: Author Jeffrey G. Allen On How to Get the Best Job" »
» Name: Aeryn Kwon
» Job: Sushi chef, working behind the counter at the eclectic Asian restaurant Sticky Rice.
» Education: Northern Virginia Community College for Pharmacy Tech.
» Salary: $30,000 - $40,000
» What She Does: The 23-year-old is a sushi "cook" — as she puts it, since females aren't allowed the coveted title of sushi "chef." The notion of a female sushi chef is almost unheard of in the Asian food world. In Japan, some say, it's because women wear perfume and makeup, and the smell will permeate the food. While she respects the customs behind the dish, Kwon isn't subject to the bias: "I work in a place that doesn't make me feel that."
Continue Reading "Steal This Job: Sticky Rice Sushi Chef Aeryn Kwon" »
AS A FIELD ARTILLERY OFFICER in Iraq from May 2003 through July 2004, Shahriar "Sha" Chowdhury didn't find his off-duty hours a big improvement over patrolling Baghdad streets. The Army captain and his unit had no bathrooms, no kitchen and only Meals Ready to Eat for two months.
"I lost a lot of weight," he says. "You'd taste the dust every morning when you woke up. It was a humbling experience."
Rigor and risk are old hat for Chowdhury, 29. He worked full time through college, plunged into financial-planning studies and now is building a client base on only commissions and fees — no salary.
A Reserve Officers' Training Corps student at Fordham University in the Bronx, Chowdhury had expected to make the military his career. But even as a teen he had a yen for finance. Working at Circuit City, "I was the only one who did the employee stock-purchase program," he says with a grin. "I tracked the dividends. In the inner city, not too many people did that."
FOR SOME OF US, the rah-rah phrase "Girls rock!" conjures grade-school doodles on Lisa Frank notebooks. But in D.C., the slogan has hit a hip new note. Girls Rock! DC is a volunteer collective of women whose headlining act is a summer punk-rock camp for girls ages 8 to 18. The group also offers a free series of monthly music workshops for local ladies of all ages.
Though past classes have introduced the basics of in-the-spotlight skills such as DJing and bass guitar, June's workshop, "Amps and Sound," will chart a behind-the-scenes course to tech mastery for aspiring roadies. "Most sound crews and roadies are men," explains Ebony Dumas, core organizer for Girls Rock! To combat that bias, their programs aim to provide an empowering environment where women can experiment, express themselves and learn something new. Oh, yeah, and rock out.
The Basics
Workshops are held monthly and taught by local musicians. Theater technician Kellie Knight, sound engineer Gerri Ruef and long-time musician Kathy Cashel will lead "Amps and Sound." After two hours of hands-on instruction, participants will help local band the Andalusians set up its equipment — right down to the sound check — then stick around for a free live performance.
Continue Reading "School of Rock: Girls Rock! D.C. Teaches Girls the Art of Rocking Out" »
JAMES RICE IS EASY TO SPOT as he maneuvers his bike along the National Mall. It's not his oversize aviator sunglasses, navy mesh Adidas shorts, mismatched green and blue socks, or even the pale yellow "Air Force Dad" T-shirt that does it, though. It's the two-seater cart the 26-year-old is tugging along behind him.
"It's a lot like fishing," he explains over his shoulder to the two passengers he's pedaling in his Capitol Pedicab along Seventh Street. "You want to go where the most fish are."
On this sunny Tuesday afternoon, that's easily the National Museum of Natural History. As Rice cruises by a dozen tour buses crammed along the Constitution Avenue curb, he passes three pedicab peers who smile and wave. A look at the varying logos on the drivers' carts — Capitol Pedicabs, D.C. Pedicab and National Pedicabs — prove there are like-minded entrepreneurs at work here.
The District is in the midst of a rickshaw renaissance. The last two years have seen a steady rise in those willing to ferry folks around on the oversize two-seater carts.
"There's more of a market for it now," explains Steven Balinsky, a 23-year-old co-owner of Capitol Pedicabs (Capitolpedicabs.com).
Continue Reading "Peddling Pedals for Profit: Despite the Recession, Pedicab Companies Thrive" »
YOU MIGHT THINK you're signing up to be e-mailed a coupon for a free exercise class, but the gym just wants to sell you a membership. And if it keeps its newsletters interesting enough, maybe you'll bite. That's e-mail marketing done right. And whether you own your own business or are part of a large company, Constant Contact has a workshop for you. At a recent seminar held in Old Town Alexandria, about 15 participants saw a demo of the company's mailing list management software and some pertinent tips.
» THE BASICS
Yes, the free seminars double as sales pitches, but the pressure is low and many techniques (building a distribution list, writing interesting newsletters) are applicable regardless of the service you use.
Washington, D.C., Constant Contact representative Gina Watkins, who leads the sessions with flair and has the ability to work "Constant Contact" into almost any sentence, asks participants to consider the nuts and bolts of e-mail marketing.
Continue Reading "Crash Course: Get the Word Into Inboxes" »
» Name: Collin Moshman, 28
» Job: Professional poker player and coach. He also hosts online instructional videos for Stoxpoker.com and has authored two books: "Sit 'n' Go Strategy" and "Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'Em."
» Education: A bachelor's degree in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology.
» Salary: Depending on your game, anywhere from $40,000 to $250,000, he says.
» What he does: Moshman's played in live tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and the European Poker Tournament Final, but the bulk of his card playing is online, where he's an expert at Sit 'n' Go poker — ongoing, online tournaments one can play at any given time. He has also begun staking other players, which means providing a bankroll for another person to play, then divvying up the profits. "My wife, Katie, is my most successful stakee," he says.
Continue Reading "Steal This Job: Professional Poker Player Collin Moshman" »
CALVERT THOMPSON WAS a music major at Virginia Tech. But her success as an entrepreneur shows that you can follow your bliss by following a different drummer.
"I had an entertainment bent but didn't want to do opera or teach," says the cheerful 27-year-old. "That's when massage school came to me. I always had a knack for it."
Right out of college, Thompson enrolled in the National Massage Therapy Institute in Falls Church. What started as a childhood affinity led to one and a half years of massage practice with Alternative Health Associates, an Alexandria medi-spa.
It was a good experience, she says, but just one part of a long-term plan.
"My goal was to learn how the business is run," Thompson says. The child of self-employed parents says, "I knew I wanted to open my own practice."
And not just in massage. "For career longevity," she says, a variety of services would be necessary. That meant heading back to school — to Yvonne de Vilar Scientific Skin Care (703-281-2070, scientificskincare.com).
Continue Reading "About Face: How a Music Major Found Perfect Rhythm" »
GOOGLE FOUNDERS SERGEY BRIN and Larry Page are both revered and reviled for their dominance of the Web. The new book "Google Speaks" ($20, Wiley) spills some of the secrets of their success, from their willingness to take risks to their embrace of a laid-back corporate lifestyle. We spoke with author Janet Lowe, who meticulously researched the pair but was not granted an interview with them, to learn more about the 30-something computer geeks-turned-business tycoons she dubs the "twin princes of high technology."
» EXPRESS: What was the most surprising thing you learned about Sergey Brin and Larry Page?
» LOWE: Personally, what was always surprising was how directly and confidently they went toward their goals. They knew what path they were on, they stayed on the path, they were passionate about it, and it happened very young. ... Their parents, in different places and different ways, kind of groomed them for this, but even they didn't realize how magnificently it would turn out. From a business standpoint, what surprised me most was a negative thing. This company and these people have a very cavalier attitude toward other people's intellectual property rights.
Continue Reading "World Web Wonders: Google Founders Speak Out" »
"PEOPLE ALWAYS TRAVEL," says Larry Yu, professor of hospitality management at George Washington University. "Travel is such a part of American culture."
Yu and his colleagues in hospitality training programs across the country are noticing the same thing: Stocks are tanking, factories are shuttering, businesses are imploding — yet the hotel industry soldiers on.
This is true both on paper (the industry grows about 3 percent annually, notwithstanding minor bumps) and in practice: For those working at a hotel, the world literally never sleeps.
"Operating in that environment is very different from an organization that can shut down on weekends. Try a hotel shutdown for a couple of months and see what happens," says professor A. Kobina Armoo, who teaches in Strayer University's hospitality management program. Even when hotels are renovating, they remain open because, he says, starting up again is so difficult. So, though it may make sense to close when rooms are sitting empty, the lights stay on. And for the people who run the hotels of the world, therein lies the challenge and the excitement.
Continue Reading "Welcoming Strangers 24/7: Hotel Industry Offers Stable Employment" »
Addison Road