3 Comments Posted on January 11, 2017January 17, 2017 Career Strategy

Career Strategy 4: How to Get a Job at …

Every year the list of top companies to work for comes out. You may read about their benefits or their culture, and think to yourself, “I would be a great fit for that company.” You go and research. The more you learn, the more you want to work there.

How do you actually get a job at one of those companies? Well, let me tell you.

Gather information
Prepare for success
Reach out to many people in a positive way
Take employees to lunch
Land the job
Make the leap of faith

Gather information

Do as much research as you can about the company, the culture, and the employees. You already know what your skills are, so look through the company’s job site and find jobs that you would fit into. Make a list of all possible positions. It could take you some time to map the structure of the organization.

Write down any questions you have, and come up with ideas to improve the company in the areas that you are targeting.

Prepare for Success

Look at the roles that you would be the best fit for. Do you have the right skills? If there are huge gaps on your resume, you need to fill those gaps. Working in your dream job at your dream company will take some work, but is worth it. Work with your current manager to add requirements to your job that will give you those skills.

Reach Out

As you work on those skills, go onto LinkedIn and find people who have that role, or are on similar teams to that role. Reach out to them, but not in a generic way. People working at these companies get emails all of the time asking to connect. They only respond if the request comes in a way that is relatable, personal, and applicable.

Reach out with a specific purpose in mind that isn’t, “can you give me a job.” They know that you want a job, but you need to prove to them that you are the person that they want in their organization. You do this by spending time with people. They are much more likely to respond to an offer to take them to lunch than a blind resume blast. (I actually wouldn’t send my resume until they specifically ask for it or at least until the dialogue has progressed)

Your note could look something like this. “Hi Brandon, I am impressed by your background in Supply Chain, particularly how your analytics skillset has helped you in your career. I’m going to be in Portland in September. Can I take you out to lunch for an hour on Tuesday, September 25th? I’d like your advice on how to leverage my engineering expertise in the supply chain world”

Employee Lunch

When you do actually meet, do what you said you would do (ask about engineering in supply chain, end the lunch after the hour, etc). You are still in the relationship building and information gathering stage. You could figure out what skills they value in their employees, or what are pain points that the company has and is trying to fix. This will all help you to understand the company and to help brand yourself for their needs.

As the meeting is ending ask them if there is anyone else that they think would be valuable for you to talk to. Specifically, if there are any questions that they didn’t know the answer to, use that as a way to connect to someone else.

If you won’t be in the area, try to set up a call. If you go this route, send them the questions you are trying to answer beforehand so that they know you have thought about it, and it won’t waste their time.

Landing a Job

As a follow-up, thank them for their time. If you do have the skills, you are a good fit, and you have built some rapport, then find the specific job and say something like: “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me again…I was looking at your job search site and found a role that I feel I would be a great fit for. Would you be willing to direct me to the right person to apply for this position?”

They may not help you, but if you proved yourself in the conversation they will at least pass your resume along. If they really like you, they will go out of their way to help you get into the company.

If it doesn’t work with this person, don’t give up. Keep connecting with people until you find someone that you connect well with. (I have a friend who reached out to 20 people in the company before finding someone who really wanted to help them. It may have taken those 19 people for him to brand himself well enough for that 20^th person).

Once the interview process starts, follow the advice found everywhere on effective interviews.

Making the Leap

In the end, I’m hoping you get an offer. It may not always be your dream job, but be willing to take a leap of faith to get into the company. Most of these top 100 places to work companies got to that position because they help their people to do the things they like to do. Once you are in, you can work your way over to your dream job.

Even if this takes years of work, you will be happier for doing it, and the journey itself will develop you as a person.

Good luck out there!

1 Comment Posted on January 9, 2017January 9, 2017 Classic Games, Strategy Games

Risk Strategy

Aww, the game of Risk. The perfect game for teenagers to gather together, roll some dice, and conquer the world. Unfortunately, if you don’t play it right, you could be out sleeping on the couch.

My dad had the youth from church over to play this game one night, and the first person out did just that. My siblings and I were a little younger, so we went and got a bunch of toys, (picture My Little Ponies) and carefully laid them out on the boy, trying not to wake him up. We were successful and ended up with some great pictures.

If you don’t want to be out in the cold, follow the strategies below.

Capture a continent and control it early
Always take one country to collect cards
Hold onto cards as long as possible
Form alliances with specific conditions and terminations
Eliminate the weak to collect their cards
Don’t spread thin, unless you can eliminate someone
Don’t play the game again until people have forgotten your victory

Capturing a Continent

Early in the game, you need to control a continent to gather your troops. The easiest to control in order are; Australia, South America, and Africa. Those should be your early targets. Australia is good, but you can get stuck there. Africa is great, but you really need an alliance to protect your backside.

“Never get involved in a land war in Asia..”

Card Collection

Every single turn, you must take a country. The cards are so powerful in this game. Early on, your whole purpose is to survive and gather armies until the cards become more powerful.

This also means that you want to hold onto your cards as long as possible. Every time someone else plays cards, the value of the cards increases. Sometimes you are forced to play, but unless you can really do some damage, you want to wait and build up your armies.

Alliances

Alliances are key to winning here. Unless you want to create ill will by backstabbing your buddies, (only works once) you need to set up specific conditions for your treaties. For example. You could say, “I promise I won’t attack you in South America this turn, if you promise not to attack me in Africa on your turn.”

Most people won’t back out of a treaty like this because it will kill their in game credibility. You can almost guarantee that your back will be covered. If they do back out, you can use it as leverage to get someone else to work with you to eliminate them.

This is also to your advantage because you aren’t breaking any treaties yourself.

Eliminate the Weak

Use your alliances to eliminate the weak. Often, you can get someone else to help you to eliminate someone. You may have to let them do the finishing moves to get the cards, but you may be able to negotiate for it.

Keep your Armies Strong

Be careful about spreading thin early on. Sometimes it is worth the risk to eliminate someone, (this is a great time to make a one turn alliance) to get their cards, but try to cover your back as much as you can. This can be taken to the extreme. If you get trapped in Australia, you won’t be the first out, but you won’t end up winning the game in the end.

Take the Victory, and Run

Once you win, don’t play Risk again for awhile. Everyone remembers that you won, and they will make sure you pay for it the next time you play.

After everything you can control, sometimes they just get lucky, and you have to live with it.

Anyone have any other advice? I feel like this game isn’t played as much anymore, but it used to be a regular at many tables.

3 Comments Posted on January 4, 2017 Career Strategy

Career Strategy 3: Getting your First Real Job

Congratulations! You are almost in the real world. You’re close to finishing school and are looking to enter the work force. You will finally be able to eat more than Ramen noodles. But wait, you need to find a real job!

If you’ve followed Career Strategy 1; What do you want to be when you grow up, you already know what you want to be. Now you just need to develop the skills to get there. Your career strategy is a long game. Every choice needs to be made with the future in mind. So what is your strategy for your first job?

Secure and leverage an internship
Focus on entry level jobs
Follow the general job search strategy
Sell your skills
Take a position that prepares you for your next role

Internships

Internships are the key to getting your first job. Paid internships are great, but any internship will do; preferably an internship in an area that you like, as this will be your only work experience going into the job market.

Start looking in November of your Junior Year. Any search engine will work.

Also, talk to people you know already in industry. Often companies are more willing to take a risk fo an internship because they don’t lose much if it doesn’t work out.

Entry Level Jobs

Missed out on the internship? Don’t worry. It makes this step a little harder, but you have a lot to offer, so you’ll be fine.

Just coming out of school, I thought I was awesome. I excelled in school, and had a degree in economics. Who wouldn’t want to hire me? Unfortunately, I didn’t actually have any work experience. Take this as a lesson. You don’t know everything you think you know. You may have been the big man on campus, but you are going to have to be humble and prove your worth again.

Your job search should look for entry level positions. You can actually just type “Entry level” in a search engine, (Indeed.com) and thousands of jobs will show up. Use your degree as a search term to narrow it down. Also use your skill list as search terms.

Job Search Strategy

Read the Job Search Strategy post.

Selling

Even though you don’t have any experience yet. You have a lot to offer. You are passionate, bright, and willing to work hard to learn what you need to. Make this come out in your interviews. Let them feel your excitement.

Talk about your skills and what you can do to add value. They know that you don’t have management experience, but have you ever mentored anyone? They know you haven’t presented to leadership teams, but have you confidently presented in front of an audience? Try to tie your experiences to the skills they are looking for.

Choosing a Role

Eventually, you’ll get an offer. Great job! Before taking the role, take an assessment of what it offers you. Your first job doesn’t have to be perfect, but it needs to be adding something to your career. Figure out if it is a step that will get you closer to your dream goal.

You deserve to have your dreams come true, but you’ll just have to work to get it.

4 Comments Posted on January 3, 2017January 6, 2017 Strategy Games

El Grande Strategy

El Grande is very fun to play. You win or lose because of your own choices, and the choices you make early in the game affect your chances at the end. It is the perfect strategy game. This will be a longer post because the strategy is complex.

Because it is less well known, I’ll start with the general game idea.

Game Play

There are 6 rounds. (9 in the longer game) After every two rounds, you win points in every area that you have the most guys out. Each round, there is a phase to determine turn order based on the card that you play, followed by a round of play where you choose an action from the side and play your pieces accordingly.

Everything in this game is a trade-off. It is a lot like life. You can choose to stay up late to watch a movie, but the consequence is that you are exhausted the next day. In the game, you can choose to go first, but then you don’t get the option to have as many guys in our court. More extensive rules can be found here.

Strategy

Round 1-3: Ramping Up

Play your highest card in the turn order phase
Choose the King action
Play as many guys as possible
Move the King away from where you played. (preferably to your own province)
Win the Castille

Round 4-5,6-7: Preparation Phases

Continue to get as many guys out as possible
Score extra points if cards appear
Win the Castille

Round 6,9: Final Strike

Play your low cards in turn order phase, go last if possible
Choose the card that will give you the most control over the final scoring
Win the Castille.

General Guidelines

Manage your Court
Don’t create grudge matches
Do create tension among other players

Round 1 and 2

At the beginning you really want to get as many guys onto the board as possible. Later you can move them around or take turns to score points, but right now, you need guys out to work with. To do this you need the first turn. Play your 13 in the first round, and try to win the second round, while still having enough guys in your court to play them on the field.

The King is very powerful at this point because there are so few guys out. By controlling the king, you control where placement occurs, and if you go first, you can own an area and move the king away, almost guaranteeing you multiple winning areas.

Winning the Castille is so important throughout the game because by winning there, you get the points for the Castille, plus you are almost guaranteed to win one more area when you move the guys out of the Castille.

Preparation Rounds 3, 5

The whole goal of these rounds is to prepare you for the scoring rounds. You don’t have to go first, but you should still be placing many guys out. This is also a good time to put guys in the Castille to prep you for scoring.

Scoring Rounds

Here is where you have to play your best. Going last by playing your 1 will give you an advantage in deciding the scores. In previous rounds, you played a lot of guys out, so you should be able to get at least one card that can move them to the right places, or add enough guys to win the scoring.

If you go last, you have the final say in where guys end up, so take advantage of it.

And win the Castille. (I can’t emphasize the importance enough.)

General Guidelines

You don’t need to have to many guys in your court. You also don’t want to have to few. After the first round, you want to be playing cards that gives you enough of a court, but also gives you the position you want.

Don’t create grudge matches. In this game, it is really easy to ensure that someone doesn’t win, as long as you are ok not winning yourself. Don’t do something spitefully or it will end up destroying you and them in the end.

Do create tension. What I mean here is that you can set things up so that other people have to focus on each other. Move their guys in such a way so that they have to decide how to defend themselves against each other.

You made it to the end! The strategies here are good, but are difficult to actually implement. My final advice is to choose your best options, then stick with them. You will want to say that you wish you would have done something differently. Remember my post about creating your strategy. Learn from your mistakes and make your strategy better next time.

1 Comment Posted on December 28, 2016January 3, 2017 Game Theory, Strategy Games

Blokus Strategy 2 – Bayesian Probabilities

This piece of Blokus strategy deserves its own post.

Let me introduce you to the concept of Bayesian probabilities. The math is pretty heavy, so I will just describe the concept.

In regular probability, you look at the frequency of how often something occurs. This works in playing card games. “What is my chance of drawing a diamond”.

Bayesian probabilities assigns probability based on an states of knowledge or belief. “What is the chance of someone playing in that square, given the other options they have to play”

This is pretty complex, so let me give you an example in Blokus. Suppose there are 4 different places that you are thinking about playing on the board. When you look at each one, the you gather the following information about each option.

Option 1: No one else can play on it. It is a perfect fit for your square piece
Option 2: All 4 players can play into this space. Once played there, it is isolated, so it won’t get you anywhere else.
Option 3: Only you and one other person can play here. The other player needs this space to avoid getting stuck.
Option 4: You and 2 others can play here. It leads to one other open space

How do you decide what to do? Bayesian probability tries to assign probabilities to each of these sites to decide the probability that you won’t be able to play there later. It seems complex, but your brain is already doing this when you think through where you should play. I’m going to assign probabilities the way my brain naturally thinks about it, without actually calculating probabilities. (No one has time for you to get your whiteboard out and Beautiful Mind the actual probabilities.)

Option 1: 0% probability of losing this space before your next turn. Wait for a later turn to play here
Option 2: 80% probability of losing this. Potential for this turn
Option 3: 90% chance of losing the space. Would really hurt the other player, and you won’t have a chance later
Option 4: 85% chance of losing the space. This will give you another play, so if you need the extra space, this may be your best choice.

At this point, you know you will probably lose two of the spaces, so do you want to use the chance to block someone out, or to sneak into extra space? Its up to you, just go in understanding the consequences.

Are there any other techniques you use to figure out where to play? Leave a comment.

1 Comment Posted on December 26, 2016January 6, 2017 General Strategies, Kids Games

Christmas Strategy

Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas time, and especially love Christmas morning. I have always had a hard time sleeping because of all the anticipation for what is to come Christmas morning. There are a few traditions we have adopted in our family to make things great.

Invite someone over Christmas Eve to make the time move quicker for the kids
Bring out all the presents right before bed to build the anticipation
Set a time when people are allowed to wake up
Open Santa presents and stockings
Force everyone to eat breakfast
Open presents systematically
Ensure a good mix of shock value, long term need, and short term fun presents
Focus on your Family

Christmas Eve

When Christmas Eve comes around, kids are usually wired, and can’t wait to go to bed. One year, we tried to make it special by turning out the lights and having dinner by the Christmas tree, but Josh was so stressed that Santa would think we were asleep and come to our house early that we had to stop ten minutes into it.

Having people over, or going to someone’s house really helps in making the time pass. It gives kids something to do while they wait for the magic time to go to bed.

Bring out the presents

This may be counter-intuitive if you actually want your kids to sleep, but for me, the magic of seeing all the presents come out of Mom’s closet and go under the tree makes Christmas great.

The kids may not sleep any better, but it builds up the excitement!

Christmas morning

We have a rule that you can’t come wake us up until 6AM. Part of this is that we need our sleep, but really, this is also established to build the anticipation. I loved being awake with my brothers, just looking at the clock and counting down the minutes.

When we do get up at 6AM, we let everyone open their presents from Santa, and their stockings. This gives them a taste of what’s to come, but then we make them eat some real breakfast. “Real Food, not candy”

Then, its time for the presents. When I was growing up, we each opened one present at a time. As you can imagine, with 8 siblings, it took a significant amount of time to get back to your turn. It also really shows if someone else got more presents. (Mom always got the most,)

My wife’s family did the complete opposite. It was more of a free for all. Open your presents whenever you want. Although, this might seem great, Christmas morning is over so fast, that you hardly know what happened.

Mallory and I have taken an in between approach. Everyone picks a present and opens it at the same time. Then everyone picks their next present and they all open at the same time, etc. This has worked well for our family. Anyone else have a different tradition they like?

Present Mix

It is the stressful job of parents to ensure that the presents their kids get make things magical. There are different varieties of presents that will help you with this.

Shock Value Presents: (New Bike, Large Ball, Pogo Stick…)
Long Term Needs/Wants: (Clothes, Games, Backpacks
Short Term Fun: (Lego’s, Games, Dolls, Nerf Guns..)

To make Christmas last, it is nice to have a mix of everything, so that you can enjoy it now, and enjoy it for months to come.

Focus on Family

Lastly, the most important thing to do on Christmas is to focus on your family and Jesus Christ. Put your phones and laptops away. Take the time to enjoy your children’s company. They are great people, and they just want to be with you. Invest your time in the things that matter most, your family.

6 Comments Posted on December 21, 2016January 6, 2017 Career Strategy

Career Strategy 2: Job Search

Three things are guaranteed in life: Death, Taxes, and Job Search.

Searching for a job can be stressful. Whether this is your first job, you lost a job, or you are looking for something different, there are a lot of emotions involved. Nothing else is quite like it. You are taking everything great about yourself and sending it to thousands of people hoping one of them will see something good about you and give you a chance.

Below are some tips to help you decrease your stress, and let your confidence shine through.

Figure out what you want
Clean up your Brand
Apply to 5 jobs a day
Reach out to old colleagues
Use multiple methods
Maintain a job pipeline
Do something of value every day
Interview with confidence

What do you want?

Read the post on Career Strategy 1; What do you want to be when you grow up.

Everyone is different. Your ideal role won’t be the same as someone else’s. It helps to ask other people for their opinions, but it is your career in the end, so you have to do what you like.

Clean Up your Brand

You are a brand. You want everything about you to tell the story of your brand. You know what you want to be, so craft everything so that you are seen as the kind of person who would excel at what you are trying to be.

These should all tell the same story about you.

LinkedIn Profile
Resume
Facebook (Yes, your future employee will search for you on Facebook. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a personality. They want to see who you really are, but it should reflect the current you that you are branding yourself)
Blogs, websites

Apply to 5 jobs per day

At the beginning, this is really easy. In Step 1 you just learned what you want to do, so you will search for those types of jobs. There will be many available to choose from. Use your best resume and apply. At this point you are playing a numbers game, you just have to get yourself out there.

Later in the process, it will get more difficult to find jobs that match what you like exactly. Keep applying. This will help you to feel productive, and you will discover new things about yourself as you interview.

Reach out to Old Colleagues

With social media, you are connected to many people in and out of your industry. Let people know you are looking, (be careful if you haven’t left your current role yet. You don’t want to put people, including yourself, into uncomfortable situations.). LinkedIn has a feature that allows you to make yourself visible to recruiters so that they know you are interested.

Don’t just ask people for a job. Explain to others what you are looking for and what you are doing to accomplish it. Often people will try to help you. Be humble and listen to any advice, even if you know it isn’t good. Don’t slam the door on people that are doing their best to help you.

Use Multiple Search Methods

Just applying may work well, but you want to round out your approach. It is just like investing. If you have a balanced portfolio of job search methods, you increase your chances of being seen.

Here are some to try

Job search engines: Indeed.com, Monster.com, careerbuilder, LinkedIn.
Reaching out to old colleagues
Direct networking. (LinkedIn search for people)
Get references (ask your current network if they know anyone in this industry, company, etc)

Maintain a Job Pipeline

People will call you for interviews. Don’t stop searching for other jobs at this point. You want to have a pipeline of jobs at the different stages so that if one falls through, you haven’t lost weeks of time. In the end, it only takes one, but until that happens, you need to have jobs in many different stages so you don’t end up starting over with nothing.

Just do something

It can be frustrating when you don’t hear back from people. The process will move slowly at first, and will often tax your patience. It helps to do something of value every day. Read a book, write a blog post, exercise, help out a neighbor or friend, or make cookies. These don’t have to have anything to do with your job search, but will help you to have value in your life.

(Watching Netflix and playing video games don’t count. You can do this for fun, but try to do something that makes you feel productive.)

Interview with Confidence

When you do get interviews, be confident. There is a great Ted talk about power poses. Do a power pose right before the interview for 2 minutes to get your endorphin’s moving, and to project a sense of confidence. You have every right to be confident. They want you there. You just have to validate their opinion.

Good luck!

What strategies have you used in your job search?

1 Comment Posted on December 19, 2016 Strategy Games

Star Wars Epic Duels

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

Star Wars…

To avoid any spoilers, I’m going to stop there. But in light of Rogue One, I am strategizing about one of the best Star Wars games ever. Epic Duels! The premise of the game is every Star Wars fan’s dream. You choose any character from a great selection of heroes and pit them in one on one battles against any other.

Have you ever wondered who would win if Boba Fett went head to head with the Emperor? Oh, and Fett has a thermal detonator. What’s not to like about that?

To optimize your game play, there are some bonus rules to add to the fun.

Play with 2-4 players
Randomize characters
Start with extra cards.

This game is great, but if you play with more than 4 players, the game can last forever. My favorite way to play is with 2 players. I have each of us randomly select three characters, and we go head to head with each one, best two out of three. This eliminates any advantages from getting one lucky character, and ensures that the games are short, and everyone gets plenty of turns.

The game can also move faster by giving everyone 6-7 cards at the beginning instead of 4. This just gets you into the action a little quicker.

After you’ve set up your ground rules, you are ready to play the game. Here is the strategy:

Choose Obi-Wan Kenobi if you get the choice
Build up your cards before rushing in to attack
Focus on your characters strengths
Only take risks to defeat opponents

Obi-Wan Kenobi

All of the characters are pretty balanced, except for Obi-Wan. The creators made him strong enough that you should always choose him if you get the chance. If you are playing with someone younger or inexperienced, let them play with Obi-Wan, and it is usually enough for them to be able to win.

Card Buildup

Usually, it is in your best interest to draw cards before going into battle. Ensure that you either have an escape plan, or you can defend yourself for a turn or two before getting into range of the other players attacks.

Focus on Strengths

The general categories of characters are the following (can you count as a category if you are the only one in it? #settheory):

Attacker: Anikan, Darth Maul, Luke Skywalker
Defender: Yoda
Ranged: Boba Fett, Jango Fett, Han Solo,
Special: Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine
Balanced: Dooku, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu

Attackers should collect cards until they know they can kill their opponent in 1 or two turns. They have very minimal defense, so if you get stuck in the fight, you won’t make it out.

Defenders/Yoda is very hard to kill, but has a difficult time defeating anyone. He almost always has defense cards, so any chance you have to attack; you’ll have to take it.

Ranged characters can attack at any time. Target the opponent’s main character, shoot, and run. They usually can’t survive a close on fight, so keep your distance.

Special characters have many cards that work regardless of where you are in relation to the other characters. Stay away from the opponent and use your special cards to whittle down their life points. Save up one or two attack cards to finish them off when they get close.

Balanced characters are great at attacking and defending. The strategy is the same as attackers, but it is easier to get defense and attack cards. You’ll be able to move quicker on your attacks, but still need an exit strategy.

Although there is some luck in your card draws, the fun game play makes this an excellent Star Wars themed game. Unfortunately, it is out of print. You can find it on Ebay for 100 dollars. Well worth the money.

May the force be with you.

7 Comments Posted on December 14, 2016December 15, 2016 Career Strategy

Career Strategy 1: What do you want to be when you grow up?

This is the dreaded question. What do you want to be when you grow up? The answer is easy when you are a kid. My kids want to be the following: Author, Illustrator, Video Game Designer, Garbage Man, Pilot, and Batman.

If you have a choice to be Batman, take it. Otherwise; you’ll have to face reality like the rest of us and choose a career. But what is right for you? Here are the steps that will help you to discover what you want to be:

Make a list of things you like to do
Make a list of things you are good at
Make a list of things you don’t like to do
Compare lists
Use a job search engine to look for jobs using your lists as key words
Develop the skills that you are lacking
Continue to discover throughout your career

Lists

Things you like

Start with a list of things you like to do. No one else will look at this list, so write anything down. Specific items will be more useful than general items. Do you like History class? What specifically about history do you like? Do you like to write papers? Do you like digging into the past? Do you like figuring out why people do what they do? Do you just like the teacher?

Dig deep in your topics to figure out exactly what it is you like. This can be hobbies, specific skills, specific activities, or anything.

Things you are good at

Now make a list of all the things you are good at. This will guide you down a path to understand what direction to take.

Keep in mind that if you aren’t good at something, but you like it a lot, you can develop the skill until you can add it to the list of things you are good at.

Things you don’t like

Work necessarily entails doing some things that you don’t like; but, if you hate talking to people, you should not look for careers in sales.

Use this list to really figure out what it is you don’t like. Dig deep on each item and figure out what it is you don’t like about it. Do you hate math? Do you only dislike it because you aren’t great at it? It is OK to dislike things, everyone has different preferences, just be open minded about why you don’t like things. (I sometimes said that I didn’t like painting. I actually love making art, it is just an area that I have to develop.)

All of these lists are fluid, and changing. You aren’t locking yourself into a position, you are just discovering at this point.

Compare Lists

Match up the first two lists. What things are you good at, and also really like to do. There should be a handful of items there that will give you a great starting point on what you want to be when you grow up.

What rose to the top for you? If you don’t like your answers, you can always go back and make a change to your original lists. (Economists have a joke, we always think we are right because if we thought we were wrong, we would just change our opinion so that our new opinion was right.)

Job Search

Open a job search engine. (Indeed, Monster). Use your matching list as search terms. If you haven’t had a ‘real’ job yet, you might not qualify for a lot of jobs, but you don’t worry about that yet. You should notice a pattern. A lot of jobs with the skills you are good at can be categorized into a few different buckets.

I don’t know what your buckets are, but try to figure out the patterns. If the same job title keeps showing up, it could be an indication for you.

Open up the jobs, and see what other skills are required. Straight out of High School, or College, you may not be able to get your dream job at the perfect company. That is OK. Figure out what skills it is going to take to get that job. Start a new list of these skills. This is where you need to focus your efforts so that you can get that dream job.

Check back with your list of dislikes and make sure that there aren’t glaring dislikes on the jobs you are targeting. There may be one or two, and you may just have to deal with them as you prepare for your dream job. Just go in with your eyes wide open.

Skill Development

If you are still in school, start taking classes or participating in activities that will develop the skills you are lacking.

If you are working, try adding additional activities to your current job that will give you the experiences you need to land your next dream job.

Discover

Don’t stop discovering. Once you have your dream job, your career isn’t over. We all change and develop as we grow up. Keep adapting your lists as you grow, and always be looking out for your dream.

You are the strategy officer for your career. Make it great.

1 Comment Posted on December 12, 2016December 14, 2016 Strategy Games

Carcassonne Strategy

Carcassonne is a great game to play with children. Each turn, they only have to make one decision, and you can easily guide them to make decent choices. They enjoy matching up the roads, cities and fields and making a world.

Here is the strategy:

Field Early, and Field Late
Share the cities
Plan your exit strategy
Plan for cloisters
Finish strong

Field Early, Field Late

Very early on in the game, the first time you draw a non-city tile, you want to put a farmer into the field. Field control gets you so many points at the end of the game, you want to get a guy in early, so that the cities get built around him.

After you have one guy in the field, you want to wait before playing any other farmers. You don’t want to run out of guys, so wait until the game is getting towards the end before playing more.

When the game is nearing the end. (3-5 turns left). Start playing in fields strategically. You know at that point where the cities are, and can often sneak one more farmer into the field.

You may have to start a little earlier if opponents start first.

(Carcassone teaches kids that good farmers lie around in the fields all day, (grin))

Share the Cities

The best way to handle cities is to allow someone else to sneak into your city, or to sneak into someone else’s. When you share the city, the other player has the incentive to help you build it.

Try to build one city with one opponent, and one city with another opponent. Then you have people working for you, and even if you share the points, you are getting double the cities.

Right before the city is almost completed, you should consider sneaking a guy in and stealing all the points, but this will put a target on your back.

Plan your Exit Strategy

(Do you have an exit strategy?)

Each time you play one of your men. Think about how you plan to get the guy back. Will it be a small city for quick points? Will it be one of your large cities? Are you planning to leave the guy in the field for the game?

It is ok to leave guys out the whole game, but you have to manager your guys, so that you don’t run out. I always like to keep one guy in reserve just in case you pull a cloister tile.

Cloister Tiles

Always play on cloisters. They are the most guaranteed points in the game. Playing with kids. I will slip all of the cloister tiles into the stack that they draw from before the game starts. This gives them just a little advantage.

(Side note: when we play with the kids, we modify the game so that you don’t have farmers. It makes their decisions easier.)

End Game

At the end, you have to be very aware of everyone’s farmers. This is the point that can make or break your victory. Often you can steal one or two cities away in the last couple of turns.

That’s it! Do you have a recommendation for game modifications for kids? What is your Carcassone strategy?