Where the Jobs Are

His opening line in the contact email he sent me was, "I'm so glad that someone else reads books." He'd found Graham Greene in my profile, one of his favorites. He then asked if I read Steinbeck. A yes, naturally. We corresponded. Turns out, his job is to persuade bloggers to link to his company's site.

Serge Lavange is an account manager for Jooble, a job search firm with offices around the world. Its head offices are in Kiev, Ukraine and Limassol, Cyprus. The concept behind the company is to be a type of Google site except that whereas Google helps feed you information but anything and everything, Jooble feeds you info on jobs.

Well, I decided I'd go for the ride if he let me ask a few questions.

EN: What is the current perception of where the best jobs are?
Serge: It depends on the location and of course on a company you search the job at. But if you take a look worldwide market we can tell you that IT specialists are in high demand right now mostly in every company, even if it is not IT related company. Let us explain what we mean here. Internet lets its roots to almost every industry and most of companies are trying to expand their activity on-line (social networks, on-line shops, on-line advertising, etc). Of course engineer related jobs are also in demand.

EN: I get the feeling more people are moving outside of their countries to other places than ever before. Are there stats on this? Where are the places more people are moving to?
Serge: There is a saying: “It is good to be there, where you cannot be right now.” According to statistics we see that permanent migration into OECD countries fell by about 7% in 2009 to 4.3 million people. It is the second consecutive year of decline after a decade of growth.

EN: If you leave your country to go somewhere else, where are the easiest places to find employment?
Serge: Every country has its peculiarities and we cannot say that it is easy to find a job somewhere. Unless you try of course. But we think it all depends on the candidate’s qualification. If you have a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree and have fresh ideas in your head then you may feel free to apply for a job to any company you dream about. It may be Google, Apple or any other company. You may reach your goals if you work hard and of course believe in what you do.

EN: How big is Jooble as a company and how long have they been around?
Serge: There are 50+ people working at Jooble. The company was founded in 2007 with offices located in Ukraine and Cyprus. Now Jooble operates in 44+ countries and we permanently develop our services to other countries.

If you would like to find a job in other locations you may try to search jobs in:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Chilie, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia , South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey , Venezuela, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

EdNote: Serge wasn't sure whether this information would be relevant to this blog, but he stated that my articles were interesting and easy to read. That's the second time I've heard that in a week. Serge especially liked my post "Moneyball Worth More Than the Price of Admission." Maybe you would, too.

Cynicism's Consequence

Are there more bad things happening today than there used to be? Is there more to be concerned about? Is there more now to worry about? Or is part of the problem that we have more access to it all via the media? It's hard to tell. I know that these questions were being discussed ten, twenty, thirty and forty years ago. Everywhere we look in the newspapers and on the TV and now on the Internet, we read stories of crises and injustice and abuse and violence.

The net effect of all these negative stories is an increasing weight on the shoulders of our souls. After a while this weight can become crushing, and we drift from being idealistic about the future into a smothering fog of apathy or stained by a corrosive cynicism. Both mindsets are a paradigm shift from the youthful zeal we once waved like standard-bearers marching into a future made better by our confidence and energy.

What happened?

Cynicism has been defined as "an attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others."* The comic strip Dilbert capitalizes on this attitude in a workplace environment. Gossip rags fill their coffers by unearthing the dark side of the celebrity circuit. Washington pundits shine a light into the corners of peoples' hidden agendas, liaisons, mixed motives... or by suggestion the implication of such.

Crime, craziness, crackheads, creepy stalkers... betrayals by those in authority... the uncovering of hidden agendas... These things are not what make us cynical. Cynicism happens when we allow those external events to come inside us. We have no control over all the stuff that is happening out there, but we do have control over our response to it. If we allow ourselves to be poisoned, it is our own fault.

Jesus once talked to a woman about an inner well filled from within by streams of living water. Too often we let the media pollute us with streams of contaminated water.

I was recently watching a Western film where the wagon train had come across a pool of water that carried the sign "Bad water." As thirsty as they were, they would not let their horses get refreshed there and they had to move on. We need to be vigilant about the water we're drinking from. There's poison all around.

Resist the temptation to give up or give in. Let's each do our part, as much as within our power, to make this world a better place.

*The Free Dictionary by Farlex

That Used To Be Us

The other day I began reading Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum's That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. The book's aim is to be a wake-up call to re-capture the qualities that made America great in the first place, a clunk in the head to say, "Don't give up. As pervasive as our problems are, we can still fix them." Whether we will or will not waits to be seen, but for sure our nation is sliding down a slippery slope.

The authors begin by pointing out how our total focus on winning the Cold War blinded us to the the way globalization, information technology, deficit spending, and excessive energy consumption would eventually come back to bite us. The world was changing in ways we did not pay attention to.

Like many such books he uses specific anecdotal details to draw us in and make us aware of the problem. The title itself comes from an experience in which one of the authors was blown away by the sweeping modernization of China. The cities were expanding and ultra-modern buildings were being created as if overnight. The thought entered his head that "that used to be us." America used to be the country whose cities were thriving, whose construction limitations were unbounded.

Friedman zeroes in on one of these Chinese mega-buildings, something like a Grand Central Station for the Bullet Train, and shares how it was built from scratch in eight months. By way of contrast, two broken escalators in the Washington D.C. equivalent have taken more than six months to repair. Whazzup?

Do you ever notice those large cranes that you see at building construction sites? Every once in a while you will see one here in Duluth. It means jobs. It means commerce. A friend of mine was in China and the city he visited had between fifty and a hundred of those cranes at work. Everywhere he looked there was activity. That used to be us.

The title of the book is written with typical American optimism. It contains the phrase, "And How We Can Come Back." But will we? Can we?

Friday while flying home from Ohio I sat next to a man who pointed out to me the nine leaders of China are very different from our own. Eight of their leaders are engineers and the ninth a geologist. At least a third of our Congressmen are lawyers. Law is good, but the way it's being implemented today turns common sense on its head.

I wish I could be as optimistic about America's future as Friedman and Mandelbaum. Our politicians tend to avoid frank talk so that the real problems can never be addressed. Votes have become more important than truth. (Yes, these are generalizations.)

One of my favorite activities when it comes to movies and books is to read the reviews by others. Many reviewers are quite insightful. In this particular instance I recommend the lengthy critique titled Important Topic, Confused and Misleading Analysis which can be found at Amazon.com.

As much as I like advice like Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy," I find myself more often leaning on Intel founder Andy Grove's notable observation which became the title of his book, Only the Paranoid Survive.

Photo: Cover of this week's The Economist

Occupy Wall Street? Then What?

I received an email from my son this week asking what I thought about Occupy Wall Street. I guess my first thoughts were that I have not been following it closely enough to have an opinion. By this I mean, a "thoughtful opinion." I know that knee-jerk opinions are out there in ample quantity.

It is my understanding that the group behind the Occupy Wall Street movement is Adbusters, an anti-consumerist, pro-environment organization founded in Vancouver, Canada. I have read some of their magazines, and even agree with some of their aims. Extreme consumerism is what has led us into the enormous debt we see our nation mired in. Personal debt is encouraged in every direction you look, all for the sake of having more things than one can afford or even appreciate.

Because I make a living in advertising, however, I see things a little differently than some might. Many in the anti-advertising camp complain that people who make bad spending decisions and get into debt buying all these expensive toys are helpless victims, as if they have no personal responsibility in the matter. It's as if consumers have been manipulated against their will to own cars they can't afford, etc.

One of the problems of the current situation in America is that we're uneducated about how things in the economy really work, and have contradictory desires. For example, we want more jobs and better jobs, but when we find oil and natural resources in abundance within the borders of the U.S., we pass laws forbidding anyone to dig or drill or mine for these things, which would produce jobs as well as wealth.

Another example. We complain about billboards being an eyesore, but guess what? Those billboards exist to help commerce, which puts paychecks in peoples' pockets. Not only do the businesses buying billboard space benefit, but the billboard companies benefit as well. Ted Turner's roots were in a family-owned billboard business which he parlayed into ownership of the Atlanta Braves and a huge media empire. His personal businesses have provided salaries for tens of thousands of people, entertainment for millions and generous quantities of charitable giving.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has gained momentum because there really is injustice in the world. But what solutions will we see offered up by these people? Anarchy and revolution are hardly solutions. Hate is not a solution. It is an infection that does equal damage to the hater. Hate blinds people so that they are more easily manipulated.

America's problems will not go away soon. Maybe the good part of Occupy Wall Street is that is reminding us that there has been a lot of discontent roiling under the surface in our contemporary society and its causes need to be more seriously examined, not simply brushed aside and jawboned by pundits.

Limbo Exercise #41

I have made reference before to Dorothea Brande's book Becoming A Writer. Hers was one of the most influential of the many books I'd read (and I'd read dozens) when I was initially striving to do just that, become a writer. Brande emphasized that the craft could be learned and that we did not have to be subject to the whims of a muse. Instead, we could learn to write on command.

As a result of this book one of the things I did to develop this ability was to begin doing daily limbo exercises. If you look up limbo on Google you see videos pertaining to loosening your body. My limbo exercises were designed to loosen my mind and free my pen, or rather, my fingers that tapped on the typewriter keys. And to learn how to create prose on command.

It would go like this: I would take a blank sheet of paper and at the appointed time each day fill it with words. The subconscious mind would actually begin composing long before reaching my seat to do the writing. This daily discipline was quite helpful in enabling me to produce volumes of creative copy. Many of those exercises unearthed some fascinating material and became the basis for articles, stories and poems. What follows is an extract from one of those limbo exercises, circa 1982-4.

Of course he only said it because he was obligated to speak.
He did not like it any more than they did.
But what was he to do?

With best wishes... This time he understood. Wherever there were answers there must be questions. If only he could figure it out.

But then, adults were like that. You can never figure them out. The safe thing was not the best thing, but it was O.K. At least for the time being.

The ideas introduced themselves and he pondered their value. When he finished the exercise he found new ways to explain it. The potential was enormous.

Why had he taken so long to recognize what was plainly evident to all? Surely it was his youth, his lack of experience. The rigorous training would eventually pay off. He was certain of this.

In the meantime, he would wait. Counting days. It would happen as planned or it would be broken up. There were no other paths.

To all you writers out there, "Write on!"

Are Art Museums Necessary?

Several years ago a friend and I drove to Minneapolis for a day and, among other things, visited the Walker Art Center. The Walker is probably the best repository of contemporary art in the Twin Cities and considers its mission to be a catalyst for artistic expression.

The day my friend and I visited they were featuring a show by a group of Italian artists who were active back when I was in school. This was their interpretation of where the modern art scene had left off. My friend, not an artist or trained in the arts in any way, was literally ice cold to it all, and at the time I ended up writing a brief, harsh essay about the experience, which I reproduce for you here.

A BETTER USE FOR THE WALKER CAN BE FOUND

In the early part of our century Nobel prize winning author Andre Gide gave a lecture in which he declared that it was a dangerous thing for art to get out of touch with the public. “When the artist no longer felt his public close to him... art did not die, it lost its head.” His prescience has all but been ignored by an art world so full of itself that it is now an expensive (taxpayer supported) joke. Said Gide, “The artist who has lost a sense of his public is not fated to stop producing but rather to produce works with no destination.”

No where can the empty folly of the arts be better witnessed than in the Walker Art Center’s current exhibit “Zero to Infinity: Arte Provera 1962-1972.” The exhibition presents a collection of Italian artists’ works that purports to be significant and serious. The show included an audio-visual introduction to the movement. Not one person was in the room watching the presentation. Nor were there people in the many rooms of the gallery. I counted perhaps three paying guests. It was a Saturday, yet there were more guards than visitors.

A friend and I came down from Duluth to pay homage to modern art. My friend, not from an arts background, called our six dollar admission a “charitable gift to an undeserving beneficiary.” I, on the other hand, had been an art major. I was in fact making art at the very period in which this work was created. And if there was any doubt then, there is none now. Modern art has lost its way.

While visiting the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair I had the privilege of seeing a true art masterpiece, Michaelangelo’s Pieta. What I find remarkable to recall is that we stood in line for hours in order to spend a few moments with this incredible work. Where is the art that people would stand in line for today? Words like “appalled” and “disappointed” come to mind when I reflect on this recent trip to the Walker. The building could be put to better use. How about as a homeless shelter?

To be honest, the vitriol here was unkind though it does bring into focus some of the problems the arts culture is experiencing as it seeks funding from an indifferent culture. Perhaps I need to write a rebuttal to this in order to locate some kind of middle ground on the matter of museums.

In the meantime, what is the role of art in society? Why do artists make art and who should be funding that?

Till the morrow.

Wordless Wednesday, October 5