This will be the last post by our Guest Blogger Jane Lovas. Make sure to go back and check out her weekly Thursday series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career.”

Do you feel like the stress of exams and term papers in going to do you in? If finals haven't hit already, then they are just around the corner. Raise a hand if you have a 20 page paper due and you don’t know what you’re going to write about. If you’re a senior, it can seem like EVERYBODY else has a really cool job lined up, or at least an interview with a really cool company, and they're getting ready to go start a new life in a new apartment with new furniture and a new car. And you- you’re stuck moving back home, living in your old room and getting your old part time job back.

Now that we’ve aired all that drama, step back, breath and take another look. Not everyone has the perfect job or perfect life; it only seems that way when you’re focused on what you don’t have.

Take a moment and think about all the things you have to be grateful for. You’re almost done with school for the year, or even better you’re just about to graduate. See, it's not so bad. You have to remember that this crazy week is not the end. Finals are not the Finale.

Finals are a door, one of many that you have gone through and that you will continue to go through in your life. A door that will take you from one experience to another. Sometimes that change seems incredibly important, like graduation and starting a new job . Sometimes changes don’t feel as important, like deciding to join a group such as a co-ed sports team or toastmasters. Yet sometimes without realizing it, the small things that you do will have the biggest impact on your life.

The things that have the biggest impact on your life are the people that you meet and the actions you take. So no matter where you are today, and no matter what you see others doing, remember that nothing is final as long as you keep opening the doors to new people and experiences.

Don’t worry about your finals. Study and do the best you can. At some point, you’ll look back and laugh at how serious you thought this was and how little you knew. Life is full of surprises. Keep opening the doors that you find and enjoy every experience. Nothing is final- really it is only a new beginning.

Have a wonderful life!

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She was also the ThinTalk Guest Blogger for Spring 2010. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

"Race Start" courtesy pdbreen via Flickr Creative Commons

Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

You’re getting ready to graduate and like most of us you’re probably thinking about having a successful life and career. I’m going to share a secret with you: Pursue happiness and success will follow.

How does this work? You tend to be more successful when you do things which you love doing, thus encouraging yourself to feel more confident in your ability to do other things.

When you are having fun and feeling confident in yourself, it’s easier to work and collaborate with other, again allowing you to feel more successful. When you like what you’re doing and interested in it, you are more likely to spend the time to increase your knowledge about it and related areas, again making you feel more successful.

On the other hand, when you focus on success, it often gets defined as more money, a bigger house, a higher position or a new bigger car. The problem is that these things can begin to define you, and as you look around and there is always someone else with a bigger, better, newer something which leads you to be dissatisfied with what you have.

Instead, if you are having fun doing what you love, you’ll find that you have the things in your life that really mean something to you and you can enjoy them because they don’t own you.

Think about this; did Bill Gates get to be so successful because he said "I want to make a billion dollars," or did he say "I have this really cool idea and I’m going to build it and sell it?" Whether you end up making a bazillion dollars or not, remember what Henry Ford's quote, "Quality is Job 1."  I think we should change that to "Happiness is job 1."

Have fun and be successful!

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

"Smiley detail" courtesy renaissancechambara via Flickr Creative Commons

Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

When you want to go someplace exciting and no one can go with you, what do you do? For a long time I didn’t travel anyplace if I had to go alone. I don’t mean to the store or anything like that- I actually do enjoy spending time by myself. Not traveling alone wasn’t about being afraid to be by myself. It was more that I didn’t want anyone to think that I didn’t have any friends.

Finally one day, I got the opportunity to travel to Seattle on a business contract that ended up lasting for 7 months. Because it’s such a long flight between Seattle and Washington D.C., I arranged to have corporate housing and only travel once every three weeks for a long weekend. I made these arrangements because I wanted to get to know Seattle, and if I was only there Monday thru Thursday I really wouldn’t get to see the city.

During my time in Seattle, I learned that the secret to traveling by yourself is to have three things with you at all times. First have a book to read, second have a camera and third have a willingness to start a conversation. A book is great especially if you go out to eat at an establishment where everyone else is in couples and groups. I found that when I had a book to read while eating dinner alone, I wasn’t thinking about what everyone might be thinking about me (which they aren’t!). A camera gives you a mission, and there is something freeing about having a mission. A mission takes you out of yourself. Finally, bringing a willingness to start a conversation is the part of traveling by yourself that makes it the adventure that it should be.

When you travel with someone else, often times you’re too busy being with your travel partner. On the other hand, when you’re by yourself it’s easier to take the time to engage a stranger in a conversation. It’s these conversations that open up a world that you’ll never experience if all you only travel with a friend or partner.

So next time you want to go some place for the weekend and know one can go, step out by yourself with a book, a camera and the willingness to start conversations and see who you meet and what stories you hear. You’ll be amazed at the experiences you’ll have.

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

"***" courtesy paramitta via Flickr Creative Commons

Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

You landed your first job. Now, finally after years of scrimping and begging, you have your own money. Well maybe the scrimping and penny-pinching hasn't changed, but you still have your own money. Now what are you going to do with it?

As tempting as it is, this isn’t the time to go buy that fancy new car, new furniture or designer clothes. The very first thing you should do is take a look at the concept of Paying Yourself First.To be clear: buying all the stuff you want is not paying yourself first. That is paying the bank and the stores first. Think about this for a minute; you buy a car for $20,000 and in 20 years what is it worth? Not much! More than likely you’ll have spent money on 4 or 5 more cars (if you keep each one for 4-5 years). If you trade them in and even get $4,000 for each one in 20 years you’ll have paid the bank and the dealership $88,000, and what do you have? A 4 year old car worth about $3,000!

Let’s take a look at the principle of Paying Yourself First. Instead of going into a lot of debt for new wheels, you decide to buy a used car or use mass transportation until you’ve saved and gotten a pay raise. Now, instead of making a $300 per month car payment, you can put $100 per month into savings or investments and use $200 for a used-car payment.

This chart assumes a monthly investment of $100 at 8%. In 20 years you’ll have paid the bank and the dealership only $72,000 but you have $59,000 saved! In 30 years it gets better (even after you've stopped investing $100 per month); you’ll have only paid the bank $24,000 but be worth almost $150,000:

Time Period 10 years    20 years   30 years

Total invested $12,000   $24,000    $24,000

Account value $18,294   $58,902    $149,035

Of course the more you save and invest, the more you’re likely to have. The secret is to take some money now and start paying yourself first by investing it. Later, as your income increases and you gain more experience with investing, the more you’ll be able to do.

Remember every time you spend money you are paying someone else, so make sure you are paying someone else for something that is going to enhance your life. So pay yourself first, then decide what things are important and at what level. Maybe you want the money to start your own business or take a trip, you get to decide.

Do you have to have the most expensive stuff? If so, think about how those things enhance your life and what the real cost is of having them is before you pay others for (i.e. go buy) the things that bring you long-term enjoyment.

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

"100 Dollars Money by Photos8" courtesy Photos8.com via Flickr Creative Commons

Ah! Do you smell that? Well, if you are anywhere near ThinkTalk headquarters, that smell would be the pollen in the air. It’s cues like this- the smell of pollen- that remind me of the season and the time of year. You see, something interesting happens when you graduate from college. Your life no longer is measured in a time spurt stretching from Winter break to Spring break. Rather, at least for me, it is measured in work deadlines and important life milestones.

Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

Social Media is fun, isn't it? You can connect with all your friends; the ones you’ve had for years and all the new ones you've met or you’re going to meet in college. You can also use it to check out new places or find events.

So what’s the problem?

There are no problems as long as you remember these common-sense rules:

There is no such thing as true privacy on any of the social media tools.

If you post something someone may grab it and before you know it everyone’s seen the picture of you doing something not very smart, or copied something that you posted and now it’s floating around the internet. Right now you might think “So what, what’s the big deal?” It can become a big deal if it affects your ability to get a job or a security clearance.

Think about it: would you want your posts to be on the front page of the New York Times or People magazine where everyone (including your parents, grandparents, professors and prospective employers) can see it. If not, don't post it. Anything you post on the internet has a half life similar to that of carbon-14, which for you non-science majors has a half life of 5,730 years. If your posts and profiles outlive you, do you want some of this stuff floating around longer than you might be around?

You can use social media wisely and still have fun with it.

Connect with old and new friends and discover new places. When you post, think about what message you want to give to people that don’t know you very well, or might not know you at all. Your personal brand is at stake. Today you may think you don’t care, but in 5 years it might be a different story and too late.

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

"50 Social Media Icons" courtesy Ivan Walsh via Flickr Creative Commons

Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

You’ve sent out a ton of resumes, gone to every career fair and you finally got the call to come in for an interview!

Now what do you do? This is your chance to sell yourself. Remember, a company wants to hire someone to solve problems. They are not hiring you because you’re smart, which no doubt you are. If they just wanted smart employees, they wouldn’t have to interview, they could get the list of GPA’s and hire from that. The good news is that being smart is not the only quality companies are looking for when they hire new employees.

The secret to getting hired is demonstrating that you are the one that can solve their problem. There are two simple ways to do this. The first one is to show up at the interview prepared answer questions and to ask a few questions.

Some questions you should be prepared to answer are:

• Tell me about yourself.
• What are your strengths?
• What are your weaknesses?
• Do you have any questions about our company?
• What skills do you have that will benefit our company?

Some questions you might want to consider asking are:

• What are some of the specific tasks and responsibilities you’ll have?
• What is the size of the team and how you will interact with team members?
• Ask about the person you’re replacing or if it’s a new position.
• Is there specific training available that will help you quickly get up to speed on the companies procedures?

The second way to prove that you can meet a company's needs is to show up for the interview in a professional manner that builds confidence in you as a responsible employee. This means:

• Showing up 5 – 10 minutes early.
• Talking respectfully to the receptionist or admin.
• Dressing professionally (even if they say it’s a casual dress environment, dress like you’re taking this seriously.)
• Brushing your teeth and spiting out your gum.
• Turning off your cell phone or taking out your Bluetooth earpiece.
• Remembering and using your interviewer’s name. (People like to hear their own name.)

Now that you know what to do, go do it. Interview with ease (practice interviewing if you don’t feel comfortable yet). Have fun and go get a job, and let me know how it goes!

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

"Little Case" courtesy Banalities via Flickr Creative Commons

Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

While you’re in college, meeting people is so easy. You move into the dorm and there are people all over the place, most of whom are also looking for new friends. Then classes start and there are more people around, and again many are looking for new friends. Soon, graduation is coming and with it a new job and maybe a new place to live. You’ll start your new job and meet everyone on your team, and while they are nice, they already has friends and family in the area. Maybe you’ll find a great little apartment. After four years of sharing a 10X10 room with a messy roommate, you are determined to have your own space but soon find that everyone else in your building is involved in their own lives.

You’re busy all day at work, and then come home at night thinking that this isn’t how your new life was supposed to turn out! It’s so much harder to connect with others when they aren’t right in front of your face. What will you do?

You can do one of two things; you can wait for friends to find you or you can go find friends. Take your pick, but I bet you’d prefer the second option if you had an idea of how to go about it.

First things first; we tend to bond with people that like the same things we do. What do you like to do? When you’re in college, it’s easy to start new activities. If you want to be involved in theater, walk over to the theater or sign up for a theater class. If you like sports, head to the gym, take a class or sign up for intramurals. You name it, you can do it.

The challenge now becomes prioritizing, deciding what you want to do and then finding out where it’s going on. Google a topic or activity and see what you can find. You can also search meet up groups. When you locate a group or activity that interests you, commit to trying it at least three times. At the first event you might feel uncomfortable, but usually by the third time you’re beginning to get a feel for it and the people are becoming familiar. If by the third or fourth time you’re not feeling comfortable, then it’s probably time to look for another group or activity.

When you go someplace new, don’t be afraid to take the initiative. Smile,! Say “Hi” and when you meet someone you’d like to get to know better, ask them if they’d care to join you for a cup of coffee.

Be prepared and think about how you’re going to make friends and where you’re going to go to meet them. I assure you that in six months you’ll look back and wonder how you ever thought you were lonely.

Have a great rest of your week!

"Lonely Monkey Ape at Zoo" courtesy epSos.de via Flickr Creative Commons

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

I know some of you read last week’s blog about getting a job, and you were saying “No way, I don’t want a job. I want to start my own business!” Or maybe you’re still in school and think starting your own business in college would be a good way to make some extra money.

If that’s what you’re thinking, why not go ahead start your own business? But wait – what business are you going to start? And who are you going to sell to?

Starting a business can be exciting and scary at the same time, and the more prepared you are the less scary it will be. Take some time and answer these questions before you get started:

1. What are you going to sell? What problem are you trying to solve? Can you describe it in 15 words or less? (if it takes you a whole paragraph, you’re probably not clear on what you have to offer.) Once you’re clear you can expand on the description.

2. Who are you going to sell it to? Who is your ideal client? The more specific you can be, the easier it will be to find them. Everyone is not an ideal client. Again, can you describe who they are in 15 words or less?

3. Will they want it? It doesn’t really matter if they need it. It is “wants” that make people buy, not just needs. (Do you need Starbucks coffee? Or do you want it?)

4. How will you market it? You have to get the word out somehow: word of mouth, a Web site, social media, mailings or cold calling?

5. How will you fund it? This is a big one! Will you have inventory you have to pay for or other startup costs? Think business cards, Web site, networking functions and finance or legal fees.

Answering these questions will give you the beginnings of a business plan which will help you see what you need to do to launch your business. Also talk to your success team (check out Who’s Got Your Back) to see what thoughts and suggestions they have.

If you’re still in school, this is the perfect time to get out there and test the waters. Have fun- I’d love to hear what type of business you’re thinking about starting.

Have a great week!

"Lemonade Stand" courtesy maubrowncow via Flickr Creative Commons

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.

Guest Blogger Jane Lovas' weekly series called “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Life and Career” runs each Thursday

It’s that time of year – the beginning of job hunting season! If you’re graduating this year then I’m sure you’re looking for more than a "Summer Job" - you want to find a career or at least find the first step on the ladder to success.

Great! So a career… do you know what you want and how you’re going to get it? Do you know what you need to do to be successful?

You are probably going to be told by all sorts of people that you just need to get a job, any job – especially right now with the employment situation looking the way it is. I’m here to tell you that if you play your cards right and do the work, you can have your Blue Sky Job.

The first question is; did you do some informational interviews? (See my ThinkTalk Blog article Interviewing Before You Need to Interview) By talking to people at different companies that interest you, you’ll have a better idea of what your Blue Sky Job is.

Once you’ve done that, spend some time describing your Blue Sky Job. Write down what you’ll be doing, the types of people you’re working with and all the details you can think of. Make sure you are as clear as possible about what you want to do. Realize that as you get more information and experience this is going to change. That’s ok; in fact, more than likely it’s going to be changing for the rest of your life.

Now here is the tricky part: you know what Blue Sky Job you want, so what are you going to provide for your Blue Sky company? Do you know what problem they need solved and how you’ll be able to help solve it? A job is not a just a job – it’s really a problem to be solved.

This is where the contacts you made during your informational interviews and while creating your success team (see Who’s Got Your Back) can be helpful. Ask them if they can share a problem they have and how you might be able to help them with it. Remember, make it clear you’re not asking for a job, only information. Of course it’s always appropriate to let them know you are looking for a job and if they know anyone in need of someone with your qualifications then you would appreciate a referral.

Finally, while you’re attending all the job fairs you can and posting your resume be aware that the best jobs are typically found via personal or professional contacts. Make sure to let everyone know that you’re looking for a job and what type of job you’re looking for. Most importantly, ask if they know anyone that might be hiring and if they can introduce you.

So really the secret to getting your Blue Sky Job isn’t a secret at all. You just need information, perseverance and personal introductions.

Have a great week!

"Blue sky thinking" courtesy kevindooley via Flickr Creative Commons

Jane Lovas is a career specialist who is the creator of the life changing 12 week tele-seminar “Creating the Life of Your Dreams”. She is also our guest blogger, whose column will run every Thursday. If you would like to contact Jane, you can reach her here, here or here.