By James Santagata
Managing Director, Career OverDrive!

Be spicy, be like Thai food.

Understand that life is simply a sales, marketing and, most of all, perception game so
learn to stand for something and don't worry about being the "nice guy" or "nice girl".

Stand for something. Mean something.

Be like Thai food.

Spicy.

It's not cafeteria food.

And it's not for everyone.

But then again, how many people will stand in line for "cafeteria" food vs ethnic food? Thai food may have a smaller audience but it's an audience of dedicated foodies.

So Spice up! 

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!

One of the major challenges that new or recent graduates face in landing their first professional job is not necessarily determined by what they've studied but rather by what value they can offer to a prospective employer as well as their ability to clearly communicate and convey that to the prospective employer.

It's not just that some degrees are "better" than others, it's that some degrees are either far more in demand (due to a constrained supply) OR certain degrees are
more monetizable by the firm in question.

Holding an easily or readily monetizable degree means that prospective employers don't have to spend time figuring out how to use the degree nor does the student even need to be "good" at conveying their value (of course, this is still very important and I'm speaking on a "relative" basis here).

Conversely, if a degree is not easily or readily monetizable (or it's perceived that way) and/or there is a huge supply of those particular degrees in the marketplace, then the graduate (aka job applicant) needs to turn on or develop some strong "marketing and sales" chops to ensure that they have the proper messaging and are properly packaged and presented to the employer, while clearly communicating and conveying their value.

There's more to it than that on the marketing and sales front, but these are the broad strokes that you should be thinking about and internalizing.

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!


The fallacy of learning and knowledge as "the key to success and power" is one of the primary reasons why so many people needlessly struggle, suffer, underperform or even fail at their jobs, job searches, relationships and ultimately in life. 

This is a critical point to understand:

For instance, it’s highly unlikely that a science book in which the world is described as flat will somehow give you a better understanding of the world as it is let alone make you a better geologist. 

It doesn’t matter if the book is dripping with social proof by being authored by Stephen Hawking or published by Harvard University Press. If it’s inaccurate then studying it, believing it and applying it, is not going to help you one iota -- instead it will hinder or hurt you. 

Understand that, in the case of "bad" or "inaccurate" knowledge, the more you learn, the faster you learn, the deeper you absorb the knowledge, the worse you perform.

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Silicon Edge

Recently Andy Serwer, managing editor of Fortune, sat down with Marc Andreesen to discuss The Future of Work, Cars and the Wisdom in Saying 'No' (full, unabridged version on Forbes Magazine here: Inside the mind of Marc Andreessen).

In this interview, I was particularly struck with Marc's views on the impact of the ever-accelerating and widening technological adoption on the job market, and the elimination of entire categories of jobs as well as his comments on education and the need for re-training.

Andy Serwer: We all understand that the Internet revolution is inevitable at this point, but it’s also kind of controversial. There are scads of new jobs at Facebook and Twitter and other places, but what about the ones that are destroyed by the inroads of technology into every industry? Are you actually creating more than you’re destroying?

Marc Andreessen: Jobs are critically important, but looking at economic change through the impact on jobs has always been a difficult way to think about economic progress. Let’s take a historical example. Once upon a time, 100 percent of the United States effectively was in agriculture, right? Now it’s down to 3 percent. Productivity in agriculture has exploded. Output has never been higher. The same thing happened in manufacturing 150 years ago or so. It would have been very easy to say, “Stop economic progress because what are all the farmers going to do if they can’t farm?” And of course, we didn’t stop the progress of mechanization and manufacturing, and our answer instead was the creation of new industries.

From my vantage point, this is completely off track for one main reason -- in the earlier stages of mechanization and automation we had far, far, far fewer people on this planet so that these productivity increases could support and sustain larger and larger populations. In addition, the rate of change was far lower and more localized. It was the difference of seeing single family home burn, to the firebombing off an entire city with no where to run to the simultaneous firebombing of an entire country if not world. 

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!

The New York Times ran a recent article entitled Young and Educated in Europe, but Desperate for Jobs.

There are so many myths and memes in this article, that sadly is preventing good and talented people from getting jobs. As you read through this article, you'll notice that many of the people in trouble are talking about how they took a college education, how they graduated and how they did what they were told but still couldn't land a suitable job. In some cases, they did land a job but there were greatly underemployed.

You can read the article below, but first allow me to put a few things in perspective:

1. Education: People seem to believe that an "education" is key to landing a job, especially a college education. This is not necessarily a key for landing a job. An education, some particular skills sets or a college degree may be a baseline requirement to be hired but it's NO LONGER a point of differentiation for you as a candidate.

2. Companies don't just create jobs to hire people: No. Companies hire people, when in the course of doing business and serving their markets and customers they find they need more people (volume) or new skills sets (ability). What you need to do, is to map and align your skills, abilities and potential to the company's needs and show how you provide value.

3. Having the skills is not enough: You still need to find the opportunities and then package and present yourself.

(Fire Your Recruiter!, Crush Any Interview!, High-Impact Resumes)

Europe's fiscal crisis has forced young people like Melissa Abadía to make painful adjustments and migrate to find jobs.


By LIZ ALDERMAN
Published: November 15, 2013

MADRID — Alba Méndez, a 24-year-old with a master’s degree in sociology, sprang out of bed nervously one recent morning, carefully put on makeup and styled her hair. Her thin hands trembled as she clutched her résumé on her way out of the tiny room where a friend allows her to stay rent free.

She had an interview that day for a job at a supermarket. It was nothing like the kind of professional career she thought she would have after finishing her education. But it was a rare flicker of opportunity after a series of temporary positions, applications that went nowhere and employers who increasingly demanded that young people work long, unpaid stretches just to be considered for something permanent.

Her parents were imploring her to return home to the Canary Islands to help run her father’s fruit business. It was a sign of the times, though, that even her own father probably would not be able to afford to pay her.

“We’re in a situation that is beyond our control,” Ms. Méndez said. “But that doesn’t stop the feelings of guilt. On the bad days, it’s really hard to get out of bed. I ask myself, ‘What did I do wrong?' 

The question is being asked by millions of young Europeans. Five years after 
the economic crisis struck the Continent, youth unemployment has climbed to staggering levels in many countries: in September, 56 percent in Spain for those 24 and younger, 57 percent in Greece, 40 percent in Italy, 37 percent in Portugal and 28 percent in Ireland. For people 25 to 30, the rates are half to two-thirds as high and rising.

Those are Great Depression-like rates of unemployment, and there is no sign that European economies, still barely emerging from recession, are about to generate the jobs necessary to bring those Europeans into the work force soon, perhaps in their lifetimes.

Dozens of interviews with young people around the Continent reveal a creeping realization that the European dream their parents enjoyed is out of reach. It is not that Europe will never recover, but that the era of recession and austerity has persisted for so long that new growth, when it comes, will be enjoyed by the next generation, leaving this one out.


[read more...]

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!


A life lived in fear is a life half lived.
(Un vida con miedo es como la vida medias)

 - Spanish proverb

So what are you afraid of?
What are your sticking points?
What's holding you back?

Isn't it time you took control of your life and started living?
Isn't it time that you started on the road to your dream?

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!


Many people have asked, "What exactly is the meaning of Career OverDrive?"

Well, that's a great question.

So allow me to delve a little deeper into this meaning and also explain the essence and philosophy of Career OverDrive!

To some, Career OverDrive! evokes a feeling of speed or acceleration and, yes, one of the purposes of Career OverDrive! is to accelerate your career and more importantly to get you to a terminal or cruising speed as quickly and uneventfully as possible.

That is just the beginning, though, because beyond that we want to keep you there, at that cruising speed, and just like the overdrive gear in a car, this means allowing you to maintain this cruising speed using far less energy than would normally be required.

In terms of your career this means rapidly accelerating your career and then holding your performance and productivity at this high-speed while at the same time throttling back (without degrading your performance and productivity) and  then consuming only a fraction of the fuel (your energy, time and resources) previously used or required. 

The beauty of this is that it allows you to avoid burning out while at the same time maintaining your work performance and enjoying a fantastic work-life balance.

Beyond that, we want you punching above your weight. That is, by taking the skills and abilities you have now and working to help you properly package and present yourself, you should be able to land positions, new jobs, projects and promotions that you are just not "qualified" for on paper or according to the consensus of the powers that be you are "unqualified" and should be rejected with extreme prejudice.

And all of this leads to just one thing.

Our mission is to help you enjoy your work to the fullest while attaining your career objectives with the least amount of stress, effort and uncertainty and all while maintaining an actual life outside of work. 

Yes, the ever elusive work-life balance.

Impossible? 

Far from it. It is very possible. But you must understand that there is always someone who will be looking to ride your coattails, to hitch their wagon to you and have you do all of the pulling, to take your promotion or to steal your time and energy away by covertly or overtly shifting their work load to you, all the while of course, they retain and take all the credit.

Our goal is to make that a thing of the past. To help you do this effortlessly, so that it become second nature.

A new "good" habit. The habit of success.

And the habit of not only productive work, but the habit of monetizing and capitalizing on that productive work.

You may well ask, "How exactly is this done?". Well, here are two posts that go a bit deeper into that:

1)  What's The Framework Underlying Career OverDrive's Training Systems?

2. Learn What We Do & Why We're Different

You can also read up on our Career Solutions as well as individual training programs.

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!
(This is part of the No Box Thinking™ Series)


Elephants are considered one of the strongest animals on earth and in places like Thailand it's not uncommon to see one elephant compete against forty or more men in a tug-o-war contest with the elephant easily winning! 

Many elephants are also utilized in the forestry industry and it's an amazing sight to see an elephant easily and deftly pick up a massive log and effortlessly move it about like a mere toothpick. 

Not once or twice, mind you, but all day long and in the scorching heat. 

With such power and stamina an adult elephant could easily snap any ropes or chains used to subdue it. Yet why doesn't the adult elephant do this? And how can such a powerful animal be so easily controlled by an infinitely smaller human wielding only a stick or through the simple pressing of feet or heels into the elephant's neck or ears? 

Well, it all comes down to the elephant's mental conditioning and the shaping of expectations it has received and that has been implanted into it. Many humans would call what the elephant mentally engages in to be a "self-fulfilling prophecy." 

Since an adult elephant is so powerful and could easily break the biggest ropes or chains, trainers begin to condition the elephant at a very early age not only to not want to do this so but also to THINK that it is NOT able to do so.  Effectively to not even consider breaking the chains or snapping the ropes as an option.

Why? Because once we deem something to be "impossible" to do, we no longer attempt it. Our own thinking and thought processes, therefore, become a set of mental chains. 

As a baby, the elephant is often restrained with a substantial piece of rope or chain which is so strong that the baby has no chance of breaking it or escaping. As the baby pulls on the restraints it quickly realizes it cannot get free so it tries less and less frequently and less and less heartily to do so during each attempt. 

As the elephant grows in size, the diameter of the restraints can be reduced since the elephant has now been conditioned to believe that trying to escape or break the restraints is futile. 

Eventually the elephant no longer even attempts to break the restraints as it is now fully conditioned so that the presence of the restraint alone, rather than the tensile strength of that restraint, signals to the elephant that it is incapacitated and cannot move.

At some point, this restraint could be as thin as a piece of twine. 

In other words, the trainer has created a set of unbreakable mental chains for the elephant that the elephant cannot overcome! 

Humans, like elephants are also susceptible to these mental chains. Sometimes we create them ourselves. Other times they are given to us by friends, parents or relatives however well meaning they may be. 

We are taught various myths and memes  (the restraints) during our formative years and then these restraints are constantly waved in front of us to remind us of our inability to move freely through life. 

This is done through the usage of rituals. These rituals can be mores or folkways, comments from friends or family, even imagery beamed into our homes by satellite tv, found on DVDs or in our daily newspaper. 

What mental chains are holding you back?
Would you like to break them?
How will you break them? 

Knowing that they exist in the first place is the major step forward. 


(James originally posted this online on August 16th, 2004 but it is even more relevant today than it was 9 years ago. Several slight modifications from the original have been made)

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive!


Here's our basic philosophy:

I. We Focus On What's Fun & Effective:

• Winning is fun.
  
• Being in control is fun.
  
• Efficiently learning battle-tested and battle-proven techniques is fun.
  
• Being emotionally dissociated from a situation or the outcome of the situation is fun.

II. We Minimize Or Eliminate What Isn't Fun Or Effective:

• Re-inventing the wheel isn't fun.
  
• Spending inordinate amounts of time to learn something, especially of dubious value, isn't fun.
  
• Forgetting what you learned isn't fun.
  
• Not knowing how to apply what you learned isn't fun.
  

In a nutshell, what we've done is to identify the most important skills, the heavy-hitters, that you'll need to maximize the  enjoyment of your current work, career and life.

We've then boiled this down, tempered and honed it, until its been battle-tested and battle-proven.

After that we've created an entire system around it so that all of our training offers something like this:

• A universal framework.
  
• Specific and easy to understand principles.
  
• A series of powerful strategies.
  
• Easy to learn and immediately usable techniques.
  

On top of this we teach not just the "how" but also the “why” so that you can quickly understand not only when and when not to apply this material but also how to deftly apply and calibrate it to an infinite number of real-world situations.