At the bottom of social class are people with the least skills. They will be trapped down below as long as they remain unchanged in their skillset. Imagine what will happen to the person working as a janitor or grocery store when he asks for a pay raise. “I deserve to be paid more,” he complains to his boss. He will soon be disposed of and his position will quickly be filled by another person in similar situation. There are a large army of unskilled folks waiting for that paycheck, however meager it might seem.

Remember this golden rule: The less skill you possess, the more disposable and vulnerable you are.

The second rule to keep in mind is: the more people doing your job, the less valuable you are. With a plethora of high-quality IT professionals in China, your computer skill loses value as the market damand is surpassed by its supplies.

I keep telling my children that if you don’t want to be disposed and displaced easily and if want to be rewarded more than the average, you must have above-average rare skills.

On 4/29/2011, Friday evening, two unrelated things happened that shared one similarity. One is the phone chat with a friend of mine in town; the other is chat over Skype with a relative in China.

The similarity is the topic of jobs or rather job-hunting. For my friend here who was laid off two years ago, it is the scanty job market because of slow economy. For the young person in China, he refuses to accept anything that is below his salary expectation.

Both cases make me think hard of the skills that we need to have in order to land on a job. To be sure, the job market is both fair and relentless, in that your pay largely reflects the supply and demand of the skill you can possess. Your salary is the fair market value of your skill. No more no less. In most cases, you get what you deserve.
To be continued tomorrow…

On 2/17/2011, on the way back from my daughter’s evening piano lesson, my son called telling me of his job offer. This is his first one working for a company, though he has been working on his own company, being his own boss, since his high school years.

Instinctively, I started lecturing to him on what a job means, that it means trust, responsibility, opportunity, even though I knew he had heard of it many times before. Here are two things I hope he will keep in mind:

(1) A job is at best an opportunity to learn and gain experience, to build network and connections.

(2) A job is always a preparation for the next step, a bigger responsibility.

On the evening of 12/11/2010, a friend of mine called from out of town. While talking about job perspectives for coming graduates, he told me that many graduates from Harvard and MIT, no matter what majors they had, ended up working in Wall Street for some investment banks.

While it is a good thing that they end up with something that yields big paychecks, I think Wall Street is the ideal place only for those whose sole purpose in life is making lots of money. If that’s not your goal in life, stay out of it.

For some reason, banks always leave my mouth with bad taste. I strongly advise my children against taking this route, mainly because I think it too empty to live through one’s life with no other goal than making money. One got to have some higher calling than money.

Secondly, for a beginner working there, he practically has to invest 100% of time into his work, leaving no time for self-development and career advancement. The worst part is he does not learn as much as he should if he were elsewhere. In the long run, this is a short-sighted choice.

Ask yourself what you want to do with yourself, what is your passion? what really makes you happy, other than possessing tons of money. Next follow your dream relentlessly.

PS. put thing in a long perspective, this is a question regarding what you want to do with your life. After all, one-third of your day will be spent at work. You don’t want to just spend your life making money, as if money were the end of all means.

Last year Salvation Army started its holiday season donation drive earlier than previous years. I guess there are more hungry folks waiting to be fed. You could hear its asking-for-donation bell ringing outside the store in the midst of gusty wind. I met them outside HyVee on Saturday, 12/4/2010 while waiting for my daughter’s art class.

Sadly to say, I noticed not many people paid any attention to them. Some even seemed to make an effort to avoid them. I pitched in some, though I was very much tempted to tell them that they needed to be resourceful and efficient even when they are doing good things.

Normally people would not give out something for nothing. This is especially true during the economic downturn days when most people are short in cash.

In time like this, the Salvation Army should be innovative by adopting some new money-grabbing strategies? e.g. they can mobilize church folks to make crafts or bake pies and sell them outside a store. Look at the girl scouts who seem to be able to make more in a day than Salvation Army in a week.

No matter what you do, there are always better and efficient ways to reach your goal. Creativity and innovation are always a great asset.

Last Saturday afternoon, I talked to one of the visitors to our house, a 14-year-old girl, and learned that she was interested in art and in humanity course. “Because all humanity courses are easy, those in natural sciences are difficult” was her explanation.

I shared with her my thought. “If it is easy for you, it must be easy for everybody. If you are drawn to humanity courses because of its easiness, it must be the reason shared by many. Whenever there are more people in the field for a limited opportunities, it is like many people trying to pass a single-lane bridge. Imagine the competition for the limited resources! If you want glory, remember there is no shortcut to it.”

I am not sure if the idea has got through the teenager, but I know her mother understands it. Indeed, if the minor fails to grasp the future implication of her action, it is up to the parents to make the youngsters see the light.

Last Friday evening I heard of an interesting study on one’s income and happiness. The result of the study reveals that people with annual income range of $60,000 to $100,000 report the same level of happiness.

That is, the extra $40,000 has not made people any happier. You would expect people are happier with the extra purchasing power or a larger house or a fancier car or more dining out and fashionable clothes. But not so. Why?

I don’t have the answer, but the study suggests a few things for us to ponder upon in this holiday season.

(1) Extra $40,000 income does not make an overall substantial difference in one’s life.

(2) Material accomplishment alone is not enough to make one happy.

(3) In this case, is it worthwhile to fight for that extra $40,000, if it means more sacrifice of your time for that extra?

Admittedly, people going through their life’s journey seldom stop and think of these questions.

When my daughter and I talked about soft addictions, we realized it was so easy for people to develop some types of soft addictions, like over-spending your time on the internet or TV or something else.

I told her, “You know the good part about you is you own it up and ask for outside help when you find yourself wasting too time on some sites when you should be on your school work. Too bad not many people share your honest attitude.”

Soft addiction will hurt you if you don’t confront the reality of your addiction and your lack of self-control, and refuse to seek outside help, allowing it to take over your life, slowly and steadily.

I read from some magazine on a weekend, but I forgot the name of the magazine. It talks a little bit of the damages of soft addictions to our health. This is the first time that I heard of this term, but it sounds pertinent and thought-provoking. Here’s the definition from wiki.

“A soft addiction is a seemingly harmless habit—like watching too much TV, overshopping, excessively listening to music, overeating, or surfing the Internet for hours at a time—that takes up excessive time, money, and energy. It numbs a person from their feelings and mutes their consciousness. The term was coined by Judith Wright, an educator, author, and founder of the Wright Graduate Institute. Soft addictions can be activities, moods or ways of being, avoidances, and things-edible and consumable. Many soft addictions involve necessary behaviors like eating, reading, and shopping. They become soft addictions when people overdo them and when they are used for more than their intended purpose.”

Sometimes, soft addictions provide people with a channel of escape or an excuse when they try to avoid tackling something they don’t like. e.g. a child would not tear himself away from TV when he thinks of the alternative being his homework or he spends more than enough time on his favorite subject so as to postpone doing the subject he does not like. I have seen too many people whose lives have been negatively impacted by their soft addictions.

Obviously, soft addictions bring damage to our health when we overdo anything way too much. Yet, more hideous than this is — they can weaken us, devalue us, render us hopeless, and make any of our dreams irrelevant when our hours and days are aimlessly consumed while we let go of ourselves with our indulgence in our soft addictions. Once trapped by our undesirable soft addictions, we are left with nothing but an image, a self which we don’t like to see in ourselves.

When I shared this with my daughter. She was amazed to find that a high percentage of people were plagued with this or that form of soft addictions.

The other day I talked to a friend of mine about teaching her 7-year-old son how to make and sell origamis among his classmates. Some people may think it a small trick. How much money can you make this way?

If you think the biggest gain is money, you miss the point. The most important part is not money. It is learning and gaining ability. A little kid can learn tremendously from this process, which no money can buy for him.

The first thing that he will learn is this: he cannot make much if he does everything himself. He has to learn to be a boss, that is, mobilizing all the positive elements and make them work for him. Such as, he can make plenty of origamis and ask some of his friends to sell for him among their neighborhood children. Even better he can teach someone else to make for him if he doesn’t have the time. Of course, he has to pay them for their labor.

Secondly, the most important part of being a boss is to work with people. A kid can learn how to deal with people or rather his business partner or whoever helps him sell his stuffs. A kid will learn how to make profits and keep his partners happy and willing to work for him.

There are so much to learn while making money and having a fun time.

Below is the notes that I wrote down on 1/12/2009, while I was reading and thinking of some people that I know of. I planned to write to that person but thought better to keep it here, for my children and my dear readers.

A job is never just a job.
It is always connected to a deep and invisible process of finding meaning in life through work.
It is how you reveal yourself to the world around you and how you are evaluated by the world around you.
All jobs, large and small, contribute to your life’s work. Your labors are shaping your destiny for better or worse.

A job is an opportunity for you and for others.
A job is better than no job.

P.S. People may have different understanding of the meaning of job. I remember when I was given an offer by my current company, someone made this comment,

When I made some origamis for the children of some co-workers, I heard comments like this, “You are so talented. I can never make this,” etc. One doctor expressed the wish to learn. This is really no big deal for us adults, but it could provide some opportunities for children.

First, I remember when my son taught origamis at an elementary school’s kid’s club, about 7 years ago, and the seriousness on his adolescent face. With some fun skill like this, you have the opportunity to learn leadership skill at the little kid’s level or to render community service with senior citizens at some nursing home.

After learning how to make some origamis, a neighboring elementary school girl sold them among her classmates, one dollar each, earning up to $50, before she was stopped by her parents. I don’t see anything wrong with her activities. In fact, kids should be encouraged to earn with their skills and labor. They will feel proud and appreciate the money they honestly earn, much more so than if get them free from their parents. In the process of this, they will learn something valuable that no money can buy.

For adults, my origami has helped defeat the attack of afternoon drowsiness, and extended some good feelings, and much more.

I should call this entry: Never underestimate the power of your hobby. Back in Ohio when I was at Bowling Green State University working on my Ph.D, I met this case in which a Chinese boy whose English and computer skill were not one of the best. Yet he got a good offer.

What happened was during the job interview, the hiring manager learned that this boy was good at Chinese martial art and he himself was a martial art lover. So they spent a large part of the interview talking about this subject and continued the conversation long after the boy got into the company.

I believed the boy’s hobby had played a key role here. Of course, someone might call this a matter of luck. Well, luck favors those who are prepared. I often mentioned this story to my children, hoping they would eventually learn something from this case.

The same topic came back to me yesterday when I sent my daughter to a test center for a high school test. The first time I posted something similar is on 4/29/2010.

There are many tests that people have to take during their career preparation years — PSAT, SAT, ACT, GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, etc. I told my daughter, “Instead of thinking I can always retake the test if I have not done well, like singing the tomorrow song and waiting for endless tomorrows, keep in mind ren sheng neng you ji hui bo?.” That is, how many chances do we have to make it in this world?

The trick is if you believe there is always the next time and always a chance for you to make up, chances are mentally you allow yourself not to give your best shot because you know this is not your last and best one and consequently, you don’t try as hard as you should. With this attitude, you will have to suffer a few losses before you finally pass the required test or live with the not-so-perfect scores.

As a result, you suffer the loss of time and potentially more damage to your career as your options are dwindling with the passing of the time. It reminds me of something from the Art of War — soldiers will show their best if they are positioned in a desperate situation, like having no way out except fighting forward.

When I called grandma in Beijing to recap my weekend activities, she was saying something like this, “Hearing your list already makes me tired, not to speak of doing it.” She said this to me when my children were small and I had to work really hard to get many things done. I was good at making easy task difficult. But then I was young and never felt really beaten. Every time I look back, I see the hardest part has gone and I feel hugely relieved. I am sure many people like me have gone through similar experience, that is, there is nothing unique about mine.

Now the tide seems to have turned as it is my children’s turn to get busy, though not as crazy as I was in the old days, because they don’t have a family on their shoulders. Raising a family and trying to stand on your own financially at the same time is a hardship to say the least. I would advice my children against going this path. I wish they could complete their trailblazing and become somewhat established before they start the joy of a family. But then, it’s fine with me if they decide to switch this order.

This is a continuation on 10/2/2010 posting on getting ready for job-hunting. Here’s the whole list of “21 Secrets to Getting the Job” by Karen Burns. There are some good points here. You have to realize it is a serious job to find a job. Don’t expect an apple pie dropping from the sky.

(1) Become a decent public speaker
(2) Have reasonable expectations
(3) Do a little PR
(4) Look happy.
(5) Bring your resume into 2010.
(6) Rehearse.
(7) Be upfront about being overqualified
(8) Nail the food part of the lunch interview.
(9) Mirror your interviewer.
(10) Smile during the phone interview.
(11) Don’t freak out about failure.
(12) Volunteer
(13) Blog it
(14) Scrap the functional resume.
(15) Try not to annoy your interviewer
(16) Find an outlet.
(17) Put yourself in the company of upbeat people
(18) Tweet
(19) Grow your network
(20) Change your resume-sending strategy.
(21) Ignore the unemployment numbers.

P.S. yesterday my daughter had no school and I took a day off. She asked me what we would do in the morning. Before long, it was 3:20 PM. We both realized time rushed by so outrageously fast.

During the weekend of 9/19/2010, while my daughter was preparing for a French test the next Monday, she thought it so boring. Three things came to my mind: French, one of my children’s violin teachers, and yes, intangible asset.

That violin teacher majored in musical instruments in college. By the time she was teaching my son, she had a job teaching French while giving private violin lessons. Obviously, she could not find a full time employment with her college major and had to exploit other assets that she could find in herself. From what I could see, she would find more future with this French teaching position than her violin skill.

To be sure, we want to avoid getting ourselves in such a situation in the first place. But you never know what will happen and whatever you learn today, learn it well. It will come in handy someday. Of course, I shared my thought with my daughter, which immediately lifted her spirit.

For most Americans, this is not a question at all — they will start working and paying on their student loans. Actually, they start job-hunting at least one semester prior to that big day. In fact, this should not be an issue at all.

Yes, it is an issue and a serious one for some Chinese college graduates, mostly in China and Taiwan. I have become acquainted with not a few of such graduates.

Nearly all of them have this or that excuse staying at home, out of school and unemployed. This is very undesirable, even if they are preparing for graduate exams like GRE or GMAT.

First, stay-home unemployed –it doesn’t look good on your resume. You want to make all your adult time accountable. Even better, you want to impress your future employers with some experience you are proud of, such as, internship or volunteer or affiliated with a real company or start-on-your-own-feet or anything to show you are a responsible, aspiring and highly motivated young individual.

Second, these stay-homes need to realize that eventually they will have to seek employment and they will be better positioned if they have some work experience in whatever form they can find. Upon college graduation, they have both knowledge and the time to garner valuable work experience.

Thirdly, it agonizes them more than anything when they see their college classmates have moved on while they seem to be wasting time.

Finally, do not waste time. They have no excuse, whatsoever, not to maximize their time upon college graduation, to write new chapters to their glorious careers.

My work is never boring when I have to meet, observe, and reflect upon monitors of all backgrounds. Sometimes, when I flip through their business cards, their faces flash back like a movie, vivid and interesting.

On the Monday morning of 7/12/2010, we had a study initiation visit from a monitor on behalf of a pharmaceutical company. This monitor majored in marine biology and had done tons of research in this area before he made the switch to the field of clinical research associate (CRA) five years ago. He looks sharp and sounds highly intelligent.

I imagine it must be interesting to study marine lives, with vast ocean of water to dive in. As I listened to him, I was wondering why he made a career change to that of CRA. Life of a CRA consists of the hardship of traveling and burying your head among patient’s charts and CRFs, an extremely boring one comparing to an exciting life among marine beings, the broadness of the ocean and the endless diversity of lives deep down there. It is fascinating even to think of it.

He must have the passion for marine lives when he first dived in it. Then why did he quit? The only reason that I can come up is money. To be sure, a senior CRA can easily make up to 6-digit earnings, which not many pure researchers can even dream of. Once again, this brings up to my mind the question of combining your passion and earning potential.

On 7/14/2010, we had another monitor who said part of her job was pure “torture.” But she said she could put up with it for now. I am amazed how much we have to compromise in regard to our comfort when we set our hearts on grabbing more and more.

I shared my thought on these monitors with my daughter during one of our evening walks. She agrees that it is a hard-to-find combination in real life.

I read a piece of news from BBC News on 9/8/2010, by Sean Coughlan, “More than one in four of the entire population of England is now in education or training, according to figures from the government. There are about 14.5 million people in nursery, school, post-16 courses, vocational training and university. Tough jobs market has seen record numbers staying in education.”

To be sure, UK is not the only country that sees the rising number of people in education. It represents an international trend, as people everywhere face the challenge of bad economic time, a changed workforce, and most of all, fierce global competitions.

Two questions that came to my mind.
(1) The cost of this education with regard to money and time. Some of the bills are picked up by government, some are taken care of by parents. Most people get student loans.

(2) The job prospect of education, that is, how much we will benefit from enduring the heavy cost of education. After all, there is no guarantee of anything in terms of job or whatever you desire, regardless how high your degree might be.

I am sure most people go through this cost-benefit analysis when they decide to go through extra years and cost of training and education and believe that the benefits will outweigh the costs in the end. This must have motivated many who seek graduate education abroad.

I would like to share this view with the young graduates or would-be graduates —
If you don’t want to waste whatever it might have cost you to get your education, be genuinely active in job-hunting at least six months prior to graduation. After graduation, if you still don’t have an offer, keep searching or doing something until you find one. The longer you stay unemployed, the less valuable is your degree, and of course the more miserable you will suffer. Trust me, your hard-earned diploma depreciates faster than a used car. You have to seize the moment and face the global challenge.

I once post an entry on how to find assets inside yourself. Here’s a good example. Last Sunday, 8/29/2010, between 4 to 6 PM, while waiting for my daughter’s skating, I had a nice chat with the mother of another skater. I learned something about a figure skating coach there.

He has a master degree in one field. I don’t think he has found a job in the area of his major. Figure skating is his hobby, so is his piano. He also has become very skillful in both of his hobbies, so much so that he is currently giving private skating lessons at the rate of $60 an hour with his schedule fully packed everyday. Yes, he also gives private piano lessons, with the same rate.

I share his experience with my daughter. Intead of saying I don’t have any skills to get me a job, search inside you and see if you have something valuable to share with others. That something might open up an opportunity. This is the first lesson that we can learn from him.

The second one is on those extracurrilum activities that the children engage, such as music, art, sport, foreign language, etc. While the parents invest in money, the children invest in time. While the children have fun doing these, they also want to get something out of it. The only way to guarantee the highest return on this investment is to do your best in whatever you are involved in, so that years later, if there is a need, you can always explore this return like this skating coach.

My daughter has been consecutively under two art teachers since 2006. On 9/4, Saturday afternnon, 5:30 to 7 PM, I went inside the house of her art teacher, I was very much impressed by the teacher’s own art work. To be sure, both of her art teachers, educated in China, are art masters. One is in her 50s, the other a decade younger, yet for some reason, both live a rather precarious life, giving private art lessons without a stable income.

The thought of these art teachers makes me think of the another side of learning. One not only needs to learn a skill, but also needs to know the business side of one’s skill, that is, how to market/advertise one’s skill, the two complementing each other. Basically, you need to know how to benefit others with your skill so that your skill will reward you in many ways.

I am sure the two art teachers would be much well-off if their marketing skill were as good as their skill in art. Don’t ask me how to market their art skill. It is up to the artists themselves to figure this out.

By the end of the day, without the business acuity to sell your art or whatever you claim to have, you will never be able to give full play to your skills or to convert your skills into something else.

Here is what I read on one weekend many months ago. I wrote down the key points but forgot where I read it. Since the note was still scattered around my desk, I assume it has not been taken care of. Hence, I post it here.

1. Imagination is more important than knowledge.
2. Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. [This means you read too much of other people's thought and got into the habit of thinking through others, losing your own creativity. I would assume a thinking head is better than no-brain one]

3. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. [I like this piece. Indeed, keep alive your curiosity and never get trapped in daily drudgeries]

4. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. [True]

5. The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. [This challenges your understanding]

This is a report on volunteeringinamerica.gov on 6/15/2010, “1.6 million more Americans volunteered in 2009,” by ANN SANNER. “Americans spent 100 million more hours helping their communities last year, a new federal report says, and the number of people getting involved went up by 1.6 million to 63.4 million.”

You would think it is because of high unemployment rate of the nation, as if unemployment naturally leads to high volunteer activity. When people are out of job, they have plenty of time on hand and are in the position to help. But the finding runs against this assumption — “lower volunteer rates in states with high rates of unemployment and in cities with high rates of foreclosures.”

How do we explain this finding? My understanding is when you go out volunteering either your service or your time, you not only need time for it, but also need to be in the mood for such lofty-spirit activity. I would not think anyone in the mood for volunteer when he/she is consumed with worries and anxieties over job, childcare, housing or simply putting food on the table.

Realistically speaking, no philanthropist can afford any good-hearted charity work on empty stomach. In other word, you have to pad your own pocket and tummy, and put yourself in the mood before you see yourself a happy volunteer and a philanthropist, going out lifting up the spirits of your fellow human beings. For my children who have always been eager to help those in need, equip yourself with skills and resources first.

On 6/23/2010, I drove my daughter to Shawnee Mission NW High for summer class. After I dropped her, I saw a car wreck not far from the school on 67th street involving two high school students, a boy and a girl standing outside their cars, waiting for police to show up. The small white car hit with full force the tail of an SUV, nearly totaling the white car’s front hood.

The school starts at 7 AM. On the first day, we arrived a little after 6:50 AM, having to wait for a few anxious minutes outside school before we could finally drive to the dropping spot. We found that if we arrived 2 or 3 minutes early, we could avoid the anxiety and could save more time, reaching there ready and relaxed.

Everyday, as I drive out of the high school on 67th street, seeing the long line of cars piling up to Quivira, I was thinking, “They could have avoid waiting in such a long line if they leave home a few minutes earlier. Why don’t they do that?” Witnessing the car wreck right outside school further makes me wonder aloud.

For my children, you can apply this to other aspects of life, as you might already have heard of this saying, “Early bird catches more worms.” If you want to graduate from either high school or college miles ahead of your peers with overwhelming victory, you have to prepare for this moment years ahead. If you want to catch more worms than your peers, you must plan and start earlier than all of the crowd.

On 5/26, I read an article from yahoo on job prospective for this year’s college graduates. The article mentions the experience of a young graduate from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in history. He has sent job applications to 50 employers, without any luck so far. While keeping his search for something he truly wants, he has taken a minimum-wage job selling software that includes an occasional commission.

This experience reminds me of two people that I know of with similar experience. One has a bachelor degree in mass media from Central Mizzou ending up being a salesperson at Sear’s; the other with a bachelor in early education works as a non-skilled employee at our practice. Both of them started with the same intention as this history-major graduate, but stay in their initially temporary position permanently. The longer they are on their temps, the more challenging it is for them to leave it. It takes extraordinary efforts and will power to make the shift from their temporary one to something they truly enjoy and are trained for. Wish them good luck.

A few weeks ago an article on 10 lowest-earning degrees caught my eyes. It was provided by PayScale’s list. Here they are.
10. Drama (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $56,600)
9. Fine arts (starting annual salary: $35,800; mid-career annual salary: $56,300)
8. Hospitality and tourism (starting annual salary: $37,000; mid-career annual salary: $54,300)
7. Education (starting annual salary: $36,200; mid-career annual salary: $54,100)
6. Horticulture (starting annual salary: $37,200; mid-career annual salary: $53,400)
5. Spanish (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $52,600)
4. Music (starting annual salary: $34,000; mid-career annual salary: $52,000)
3. Theology (starting annual salary: $34,800; mid-career annual salary: $51,500)
2. Elementary education (starting annual salary: $33,000; mid-career annual salary: $42,400)
1. Social work (starting annual salary: $33,400; mid-career annual salary: $41,600)

My first observation is none of them are from science/math/computer fields. All are from humanity/social science.

Secondly, it is hard to combine a fat paycheck with what you are interested in. You may very well go ahead with music if that’s where your passion is, but you have to go extra thousand miles to excel in the field, to be one in a million like Lang Lang, in order to even find a decent job. If you are not ready to give your bloody best and you still want an extravagant lifestyle, you are better off staying away from the above ten degrees. By the end of the day, as always, it is your attitude and your efforts that count and that will determine where you will end up eventually, regardless of your choice.

Every year, around late May when the weather is getting really summer-like, my mind keeps flowing back to those long lazy summer days during summer breaks, starting from my primary school years in the suburb of Tianjin. The aged dream of teaching in a college has come back again.

For a long time I have assumed summer is not for working but for a nice long break when we can go swimming or go chasing dragonflies or take an hour nap in the middle of the long day. I have figured out that you can have summer break only if you are a teacher somewhere. Thus, I have longed to be a college professor. But I gave up the position when I felt culturally handicapped and mentally constrained in a small no-named town in the middle of nowhere.

I keep convincing my children to take up teaching profession simply because of the long winter and summer breaks. You can have the whole summer for yourself. Imagine that kind of freedom! My turn has gone, though dream still lives. Now it is yet to be seen whether or not one of my children will be able to enjoy the bless of a long summer break.

I had been working at our central office before I transferred to research section at the clinic site. I did learn a lot about billing and coding while working there. But as I did not see much future there and was eager to learn something new, I wanted to move to the clinic, working with patients. So when I saw an opening at research department, I sent an application without really expecting an offer because I had zero experience in the area.

On Monday, May 14, 2007 4:57 PM, as I expected, the hiring manager emailed me, “I wanted to let you know we have chosen another candidate ….” At 5:54 PM on that day, I emailed back, trying to stay positive,

“Thanks for the update. Too bad that I miss this opportunity to get into the clinic, where I am sure I would be able to learn tremendously regarding the actual cancer treatment process. What would you suggest that I should do to prepare myself for any future openings in this area?”

The next day, she wrote back, “Don’t give up …, we are going to be shifting some things around and there will be another opportunity. I was impressed with your eagerness to try something new and think you have a skill set that lends itself nicely to the position.”

Indeed, a month after this exchange, another opening came up and I got it under this hiring manager. I was told later by someone there that the hiring manager did not think I was qualified for the position at all. But here I am with the job. I am sure thing would not turn out this way if I had not send positive feedback. I hope my children will always remember to stay and sound positive even if they feel down and low over experience like this.

On Mother’s Day Sunday, while my daughter was at her art lesson, I was trying to get some garden work done. A Chinese neighbor called about her daughter’s high school. She told me that a Chinese boy at her church was not able to get admitted into any good colleges, not even by Wash-U. The only door opened to him was KU. With perfect SAT score, dozen of perfect AP scores, sport participation at high school, church community work, and plenty of other involvements over his high school years, he was fully confident that he could get into one of the best. What is missing here?

The next day, 5/10, when President Obama nominated the 50-year-old Elena Kagan as Supreme Court nominee, he said Kagan “embodies that same excellence, independence, integrity and passion for the law” as Stevens does. If these are the qualities that Obama looked into for the position, what distinctive qualities that admission officers are looking for when they go through tons of resumes? Other than academic excellence, they also look for persons with outstanding characters and a passion of some kind. What is strikingly lacking in resumes of some high school applicants is a demonstrated passion for something. You may be a perfect student, but they want someone who can do much more than study. You may peck at numerous activities, participating for the sake of participation, without getting thoroughly soaked in any of them, but they are looking for someone who show sincere interests, knowledge and deep involvement in at least one area.

If you have a dream, a goal to chase and have pursued it whole-heartedly, you have the potential for something great, even if you do not have perfect academic scores and have not got your feet wet in many areas. Remember you must let your character shine through your life story and let your passion scream out so that no one will forget you or wait-list you after he or she has read your resume.

Last Friday evening I talked to my son over the phone about his summer work. If you work under some sort of sponsorship, the sponsor will expect some deliverable at the end of that timeframe. You know deadline often comes faster than you expect. Therefore, it is essential to have a good action plan. He told me the concept of milestone to mark the development of the company. I shared with him some of my past experience.

(1) It is a good habit to keep a work journal so that you can go back and see what you have done in case you need to find that out. When I worked as consultant prior to y2k, I needed to write a weekly status report, detailing the tasks that I had completed and the progress that I had made during that week. A daily work log made the task a whole lot easy.

(2) Always chop a task or a major project into small pieces and assign each piece into certain time range, making sure you meet your own deadline. When I worked on my dissertation back in Ohio in early 1990s, I made sure that I completed each chapter according to my steel-fixed plan.

(3) Another trick against procrastination is to impose a deadline on yourself, which is usually at least one week before the real deadline. This is a sure-proof against procrastination.

The above three mechanisms that I have employed before have helped me. I hope my children will get into the habit of using them. They will benefit from them for this summer and beyond.

P.S. the relative of ours left for China today. When he first arrived in 2006, my son was third year of high school. Now he is third year of college. Next year he will graduate from college. Four years have rushed by so fast!

As spring semester is closing up, I see some young people making plans for the summer. My son called about his summer work and my daughter has already enrolled in summer school and other activities. A relative of mine is going to China next month. A friend of mine invited us to come over for a visit in the summer.

A friend’s visit last weekend made me think of what Chinese woman volleyball team once said.

I don’t know exactly how to translate it into English, but I understand it roughly tells us we don’t have as many chances as we wish to make it in the world. If we don’t make it this time, there won’t be a next time. It is like Olympic games, once in four years. How many opportunities are there for an athlete to win medal and honor in his lifetime?

For most people, they follow the flow everyday, no matter where they are, no more no less, and naturally they will end up being one of the crowd. There is nothing wrong with it as long as you are happy with it.

For a person who is not content with being one of the herd, he must adhere to his inner voice, his goal, ideals, dream, pursuit, while maintaining outward confirmity.

I call this inward adherence as one’s personal agenda. It is a well laid out action plan, step by step, stage by stage, in order to reach your goal. It is the tenacious adherence to one’s personal agenda that eventually distinguishes one from the crowd. I told my children, “You must have your personal agenda, driven by your inner force and follow it religiously, if you dream of standing out someday.” Dream without action will fade away sooner or later.

Last day for tax return. We rushed through it the day before this last day.

This year our company let go of the same number of people as it did last year, plus some staff shifting among its satellite sites. As the result, I began working with a new colleague since last week. Normally, the rule of layoff is last-in first-out. This person told me yesterday that she joined the company after those who just got laid off but still had her job now. “It is because I can do both project manager and CRC job.”

In fact, she can do a lot more than this. She has been involved in staff training, project management, clinical research, meeting federal auditors, etc. Thus, she can be placed anywhere there is a need.

Unless you are the rare expert in one field, versatility, being able to play multiple roles, makes you more valuable to the company than your single-skilled colleagues and less vulnerable in times of recession.

On Saturday of 4/10, while my daughter was having her art lesson, I was reading Time magazine at nearby HyVee grocery store. On 4/12 issue of Time, there is an article named “Coming Home: A Year After the U.S. lifted the Ban on Media Coverage of the Return of Dead Service Members, a Rare Glimpse into the Final Journey of a Fallen Soldier.”

The words of this fallen one is very thought-provoking. When his friend left the army, this soldier said to his friend, “What else could I do? I’m not going to bag groceries. I’m not going to wait on someone hand and foot.” Now rest in peace. He can serve no one on earth.

His words reminds me of what people said of American Civil War as being “the rich man’s war and the poor man’s life.” Isn’t it true with all wars? I am sure this fallen soldier would not go to war, leaving his wife and two children and a third one on the way, if he could acquire a decent professional job.

It is also sad when a man has no other skills to make a living but joining the army. Isn’t it also true that one’s choice of career is extremely limited by the level of skills and ability that he/she possesses?