Queercents

“Analyzing what you haven’t got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career.” – Orison Swett Marden

Mondays are my favorite day to review career books. Why? Because most people are at work and if you landed at Queercents during business hours: 1. you have too much time on your hands, 2. you’re more interested in what’s “out there” than what’s on your desk, 3. you truly believe that you can multi-task with your feedreader maximized on the monitor. You’re probably listening to an iPod too. What am I going to do with you twentysomethings?

Ok, kiddies gather around. Maybe it’s time to find the right job and here’s the book that will help you. In How’d You Score That Gig?, Alexandra Levit deconstructs sixty of the greatest, coolest, I-want-one-of-those jobs. Here’s how she did it: Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted, I’ve been drowning in taxes, thank goodness for my DVR.

I have to say, now that we are 4 episodes into this show, I’m pretty disappointed.  The judges seem to be mere celebrities, or maybe just Oprah’s friends.  I would rather have known philanthropists or financial experts on the show.  I also think that we don’t see enough of a teaching philosophy that could really be used to help people.  I give an award each episode of what moment best highlights the old adage “you can give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach him to fish and he eats for life”.  Unfortunately this award is sometimes very hard to give.

Anyway, enough about my rant.  This episode was filled with money moments, just not too many financial moments.  This week, the teams headed to Miami.

Show spoilers to follow…. Read the rest of this entry »

Oprah’s Big Give moved to Houston this week. There weren’t too many money moments as the episode seemed to be about pure philanthropy. However, we did see a lot of fundraising by the teams. Show spoilers to follow…

This week’s episode had the remaining contestants split between two teams. Both Teams were given a school that needed help. The teams were also supported by a celebrity.

Team A - Cameron, Eric, Stephen, Brandi AND professional skateboarder, Tony Hawk
This team was selected to bring a “Christmas” event to their school. While they did not use their celebrity as effectively as they could have, they did show their continued ability to have the community open their arms. It even appeared that Target may have donated more than $16,000 worth of toys. Since we’ve seen Target helping in a past episode, it deserves to be noted. Read the rest of this entry »

This week Oprah’s Big Give moved to Denver.  While I’m glad they got out of Los Angles, I almost wonder if United Airlines is a big sponsor and that we will see most of United’s hubs as the destinations.

Today I had to drive from Indianapolis to Nashville for work and it had me thinking, I really hope that at some point the show heads to rural America.  There are a lot of folks in rural America that could use some help.  I’d like to see a small independent farm gain a bit of support from the “city folk” on the show. 

Show spoilers to follow…. Read the rest of this entry »

This Sunday a new show premiered on ABC TV entitled “Oprah’s Big Give“.  Ten people have been given the chance to participate in a show that aspires to change people’s lives.  These participants have to find creative ways to help people in need.  In the end there will be one person who will be labeled the Biggest Giver and will receive a $1 Million prize

I plan to review and critique each episode.  These reviews will contain spoilers, so don’t read them until after you’ve watched the show.  The show has celebrity judges, but I want you to help me be the judge.  Please comment on your thoughts and ideas.  Do you feel the player did the right thing?  Did they give their recipient a fish?  or did they teach them to fish on their own? What about you? Do you have an idea that could have helped the recipient?  What were some of the creative money options that you noticed?

Show spoilers to follow…. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve decided to start a new thread on Queercents where I review business books. I’ve decided that these books could fall into a few categories, including productivity, advice, retirement, economics, taxes, etc…

Fortunately, I have always been a fan of these types of books and I have plenty of them lying around the house. I’m also always open to reviewing a book that you may recommend, so please let me know.

Freakonomics:

“Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work – whereas economics represents how it actually does work” - Freakonomics

I have had Freakonomics on my reading list for quite some time. The book seemed interesting when I first learned of it a few years back. I finally had a chance to read it and I was generally impressed. Read the rest of this entry »

“I don’t know much about being a millionaire, but I’ll bet I’d be a darling at it.” – Dorothy Parker

If you’re a personal finance blogger, you get a lot of offers from publicists to read and review their client’s books. It’s a nice perk. In 2007, I didn’t buy a single nonfiction title, since I received about 25 for free. There was a period last summer when I was getting a book a week. I finally started declining the review copies because I couldn’t keep up.

I read about half and my three personal favorites were Brazen Careerist, One Person/Multiple Careers and The Anti 9 to 5 Guide. All happened to focus on career advice and not personal finance, but if you get the work part right then typically the money follows. Or does it?

Like most twentysomethings, Alan Corey had a crap job after earning what he describes as a “useless” degree. He kept the crap job for a good portion of his twenties. Why? Because a paycheck was part of his plan. It’s a not-so-secret formula that he reveals in his new book, A Million Bucks by 30 and it’s the first book you should read in 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

Business schools’ best, brightest and most stylish gathered in San Francisco on October 11-14, 2007 to “Connect. Build. Achieve,” as the 10th Annual Reaching Out Conference motto stated. I was invited to the conference to share my impression of this educational, networking and recruiting event for LGBT students in MBA programs.

My aim was to take my outsider perspective and find answers to three questions that registered when I first heard of this conference:
Why is corporate America interested in recruiting LBGT MBAs?
What unique contributions do LGBT MBAs have to offer?
What significance does this conference carry?

I walked away with these answers, plus much more. Read the rest of this entry »