November 2007

Just discovered the blog Bum No More ("Off the Couch, Out the Door") after it linked to my 8 tips for recent college graduates. I've spent some time poking around there and found a lot of great advice on many of the same topics I write about here -- go check it out. Oh, and I love the little logo.

Enjoyed this article in today's WSJ about a Harvard Business School graduate and former investment banker who now works as one of the country's few female high school football coaches, in Texas no less. An excerpt:This spring, Ms. Myers interviewed for a job at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas where she had served as the tight ends coach in 2003, the year the team won a Texas state championship for private and parochial schools. She said the team's new head coach, Bill Persinger, told her he couldn't hire her because there are too many people who doubt that a woman truly understands the physical and aggressive nature of football -- or could be capable of imparting it to the players.

Mr. Persinger said he mainly wanted to hire someone with more experience in his offensive system, but that Ms. Myers's gender, and the likely protests that would come from parents if she was hired, were factors in the decision, too.

To get her current job at Prince of Peace, she disguised her gender by applying under the name S. "Chuck" Myers. Doug Pevehouse, who had just been hired to start a football program at the private Christian school in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, said he had no idea what the initial stood for. "If it would have said Susan, I probably wouldn't have called," he said.What's next? Condoleezza Rice as NFL commissioner?

Blogger Kristina Cowan posts a great round-up of reviews of Yahoo's Kickstart, a professional online social network targeted at twenty-somethings. Kristina's conclusion:I use Facebook and LinkedIn, and I recognize the merits of both. After signing up for a Kickstart account and exploring the service, I agree with other bloggers--it could prove useful to 20-somethings just starting out and looking to build a professional network.... But for those who have been working for a while--Generation X, for example--Kickstart is more likely a place to reconnect with old college chums. Gen X is better off sticking with LinkedIn for professional networking.My two cents: Anything that helps college students and recent alums focus on professional networking is a great thing. It's not something all college graduates do well. More here.