Vendor Massager for Agency of Domination, Order, and Control (DOC)

Found on 08-29-2013 at URL:

https://wisc.jobs/public/job_view.asp?annoid=68434&jobid=67949&org=410&class=04373

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Corrections, Department of
Contracts Specialist-Advanced DCC
Job Announcement Code(s): 13-03375
County(ies): Dane
Classification Title: / JAC: CONTRACTS SPECIALIST - ADVANCED 13-03375
Job Working Title: Contracts Specialist-Advanced DCC
Type of Employment: Full Time (40 hrs/week)
Salary: The starting pay is between $46,451 and $76,646 per year depending on qualifications and in accordance with the state compensation plan. The pay schedule/range is 07-03. A six-month probationary period will be required.
Contact: Jan Zadra, Human Resources Specialist, 608-240-5516, jan.zadra@wisconsin.gov
Bargaining Unit: Non-Represented
Area of Competition: Open
Deadline to Apply: 9/6/2013
Exams must be saved and finalized by 11:59 pm on the deadline date.
Exam Information: 04373 - Contracts Specialist - Advanced DCC
The Department of Corrections administers Wisconsin’s state prisons, community correctional centers, and juvenile corrections programs. It supervises the custody and discipline of all prisoners in order to protect the public and seeks to rehabilitate offenders and reintegrate them into society.
The Department of Corrections, Division of Community Corrections has a vacancy in Madison (Dane County #13).
Job Duties: This position is responsible for the planning, development, and management of a comprehensive evidence based Division-wide and Cross-Divisional Purchase of Service (POS) program. This position works with Division of Community Corrections (DCC) Regional Program and Policy Analysts statewide to provide program planning at a Regional level, information, and POS technical assistance to the Department. This position is responsible for administering a centrally planned and maintained POS system, providing a seamless flow of services to offenders. This position exercises significant discretion and judgment in the performance of assigned duties and responsibilities through the interpretation of state statutes, administrative rules, Department of Administration purchasing policies and research of evidence based practices and programs. This position provides POS information, audits, and training to DCC staff.
Special Notes:
Applicants must be legally entitled to work in the United States (i.e., a citizen or national of the U.S., a lawful permanent resident, an alien authorized to work in the U.S. without DOC sponsorship) at the time of application. The Department of Corrections will conduct criminal background checks on applicants prior to selection. Upon hire, all new DOC employees are subject to fingerprinting.
Job Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Knowledge of the principles and practices of public administration in creating and maintaining evidence based programs that target offender criminogenic needs and provide stabilization services; principles of management and data analysis; effective planning principles, practices, and techniques; community programs, program organizations, service provider organizations, and professional organizations for correctional clients; Purchase of Service process and procedures; laws, rules, regulations, and standardized procedures pertaining to the State of Wisconsin purchasing; time management skills, ability to manage multiple complex activities and projects simultaneously, and the ability to prioritize workload; methods for identifying available resources; techniques for effective oral and written communication; program and policy development and implementation and knowledge and experience using computer tools such as Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Outlook, Access)
How To Apply:
Apply on-line in WISCJOBS, http://wisc.jobs/public/index.asp by either clicking on "Log In" to access your existing WISCJOBS account and completing a Job Search for keyword 1303375 and clicking on "Apply Now" or applicants new to WISCJOBS will need to create a new account to complete an initial application then apply on-line.
It is recommended that you create your exam answers first in a Word document, then cut and paste to the WISCJOBS exam. WISCJOBS will time out after 20 minutes if your answer has not been saved, then the answer will need to be re-entered.
When you are finished with each page of the exam, click the "Save and Continue" button (bottom of the screen) to save your answers. When you are finished with the exam, click the "Save and Finalize" button and at the exam summary window click the "Finalize" button. If you return later to update your exam you must Finalize again or your exam may not be considered. If you provided an e-mail address when you created your WISCJOBS account, you will be sent an e-mail by the system confirming that the exam process has been completed. This information will also appear in your WISCJOBS job cart.
Preview Exam
1. This position is responsible for the planning, development and management of a comprehensive evidence based Division-wide and Cross-Divisional Purchase of Service Program and requires significant experience in and knowledge of state purchase of service policies and procedures. Please describe your role, education, training and experience specific to the following areas:

1. Purchase of evidence based programs and services
2. Developing bids and proposals
3. Negotiating contracts
4. Contract administration
5. Procurement policies and procedures

2. This position is responsible for the development coordination, maintenance and projections of the Purchase of Service budget for the Division of Community Corrections. Please describe your education, training and experience, including your specific role and budget amounts, in the following:

1. Budget Development
2. Budget tracking, including use and type of budget tracking systems
3. Budget projections
4. Budget analysis

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3. This position requires the completion of a variety of tasks and projects within strict timeframes, as well as developing partnerships and maintaining effective working relationships including solving complex issues and problems with a wide variety of individuals and agencies, including corrections staff, vendors, community stakeholders and other state agencies.
Please describe your experience and level of responsibility in working with a variety of individuals, community stakeholders and other agencies. Include in your response a specific example of how you were able to manage multiple duties/tasks within stated timeframes and the outcome of your interactions with other entities. Also include your experience working on workgroups, committees or boards.

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The contract specialist needs to find the cheapest effective vendors of prison, jail, and community supervision center supplies as well as contracting out certain probation/parole duties such as AODA and psychiatric counseling. Most of this boils down to getting promised prices and deliverables in writing and checking the fine print for exclusions prior to signing a service agreement.

You don’t really need to market the DOC as a buyer because relevant providers are already tripping over each other to score that cushy penal system contract. Therefore, I spend the rest of this article dressing down certain phrases in the job description.

The whole concept of “providing services to inmates” is rather paternalistic because aside from the minority of prisoners who commit crimes primarily to obtain taxpayer-funded food, clothing, and shelter, the imprisonment or invasive supervision under 35+ probation/parole rules being referred to as “serving” the one thus constrained is like saying someone is “served” at a DMV line: The clients don’t want to be there, and most workers involved are doing it because they enjoy job security and/or tormenting others.

Did you notice how the job description calls for “effective oral and written communication” but not for “excellent” or “professional” communication? That’s because explosive Type 2 personalities are common among corrections workers. The DOC is lucky their overweight probation/parole agents don’t get heart attacks from some of their outbursts towards the people they supervise, lest the employees end up having to see the doc. I’ve witnessed situations where agency employees lost their temper and had outbursts.

“Outbursts?” Yes, I’m talking about obscenity-laced provocations uttered by “community supervision” agents to goad their supervised into verbally retaliating in one-on-one meetings, often within earshot of another agent in a neighboring office or outright in public such as when I witnessed what I now tell you. It apparently is permissible for a community supervision agent to utter while on the job, “I’m not going to take your [expletive] [expletive]!” (The guy they the agent and the cops were leading out of the car just looked ahead and didn’t appear to say anything, but I was passing by on the sidewalk adjacent to the community building parking lot; multiple organizations shared the complex.)

Does anyone else reading this feel such conduct should be off-limits for state officials? I highly doubt that swearing at an ex-con will alleviate “crimonogenic” tendencies; I feel it is actually a baiting tactic to push buttons and maybe get an impulsive disorderly conduct-like response to trigger a parole violation and more prison time. The parole agent thereby becomes the instigator or the “crimogen!” What do others think?

'Tis the season to part with your money!

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I haven't posted in over a month because my offline life has been very busy. An up-and-coming author chose me as his line editor, so my responsibilities in that position supersede any personal projects I had on the table. While I cannot share additional details until we register the copyright of the book, there will be a big release media blitz for when it hits shelves.

Another forthcoming project of mine is an empirical thesis why a trade school degree or certificate has become a more reliable occupational investment than the vast majority of university studies. This entails market saturation and a misconception among the public of what politicians and employers mean when they say, "More college is necessary."

It turns out that choosing the right program -- usually a vocational track of studies like your non-AP friends did in high school -- is far more important than the number of years you spend in a classroom. The proper type of education by category, what I refer to as the "nominal quality by field," trumps the quantity of education every day of the week.

That is an executive summary of my report, and I continue to find figures which elevate the analysis. I hate emotional appeals; that is one of the reasons why I would never succeed in sales. I get more satisfaction in presenting a bevy of supporting facts to buttress my argument and to potentially refute the opposition. Nonetheless, I must finish editing my client's book before returning to that project; I'm writing this on a re-charge break so I can return to the task with a fresh mind.

I'm posting today to immediately make a difference. I hereby present:

Five Things Which Every College Student
Should Bring to Campus

1. Social Security card

   You apply for jobs in hopes of getting a foot in the door -- preferably an internship -- but a campus job will suffice until you can get something more useful. (Campus jobs, like internships, end when you graduate. There's no job security or unemployment insurance.) Whether for internships or for wage slave jobs open to the non-student, a Social Security card is necessary to verify your identity.

   One of the most embarrassing things to happen after being told you're hired is to tell the manager you don't have your Social Security card; in that case, your job goes to someone else, and you'll probably be ignored in subsequent years of job applications to that department.

   No Social Security Card = No Job

   Although some illegal immigrants are enrolled in university, I would expect university HR managers and department supervisors to exercise the same vigilance on documentation-based gatekeeping for those individuals as they do for clearly non-immigrant candidates whom they interview -- to do otherwise would be racist or at least ethnocentric.

2. Voided check

   Unless you're in the United States illegally, you probably have a bank account capable of receiving Direct Deposit® payments. Bring your checkbook or at least a few checks so that you can write "VOID" on one for verification of your checking account. Otherwise, you'll have to pick up your paycheck every two weeks in person from the Bursar's Office if you work on campus or wait a few days after your actual pay day for your non-campus employer's mailed check to arrive.

3. Suit and dress shoes

   Any job worth its salt will require professional dress. Be sure to bring your very best attire in case you manage to secure an interview for such a position! This encompasses pretty much all internships and most positions where you're not doing manual labor or coding out of a closet.

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4. Digital camera

   Your college days won't last forever -- even if you go part-time or consciously try to stretch the experience for as long as possible. (It is generally a terrible idea to take longer than eight semesters for a degree -- including summer semesters! Instead: get in, get some internships, and get out!)

   No matter how quickly or slowly you progress through your studies, you'll meet a ton of people. Have your camera ready to capture those moments and to commemorate those people you want to remember!

   I recommend digital because it is cheaper in the long run due to not needing film. In fact, Kodak discontinued most photo film production by 2010 such that analog cameras are no longer widely supported. Granted, the ubiquity of 8+ megapixel camera embedded in smartphones may someday make the idea of a standalone digital camera seem quaint.

   Don't take a camera to a party you don't host because it's too easy to misplace -- one second of distraction, and it's gone. Feel free to use the camera if you're hosting an event, but lock it into a dresser drawer or file cabinet every moment you don't have it in your hands. Do this for every valuable you have. A combination lock or padlock will suffice if the drawer lacks a built-in tumbler lock. Test the lock to ensure it latches!

5. Voice recorder

   Besides proving your professor did or did not say anything offensive during a lecture, a voice recorder can be great for immortalizing the voices of your acquaintances during that tumultuous period. Take the same precautions to safeguard your voice recorder as you would your camera.

   Be extra careful when deciding whether to press the "record" button, however: The so-called "public arena" doctrine of what is permissible is far narrower for speech than it is for someone's image due to the shorter range of the audible (acoustic waves) versus the visual (ROYGBIV electromagnetic waves).

   In other words, a person may be photographed when on public property (sidewalks, streets, university plazas and buildings, most businesses unless the owner or an employee tells you otherwise) but not voice recorded except in very particular circumstances. This stems from visibility having a far greater range than audibility -- when view is obstructed and sound is at the normal speaking level of around 60 dB, of course. Someone shouting into a megaphone is fair game for audio recording in most jurisdictions because it is understood that individual wants to be heard publicly.

   Wisconsin law provides for such recording during one-on-one conversation, but you must cease recording when a third person chimes in. One may presumably resume recording when the conversation reverts to a dyadic interaction, even if the interlocutor is different: The limit of two people per recording is the rule of thumb. Read the germane statutes and case law of your own state to decide this; a lawyer will generally be overly cautious to avoid being considered liable.

   On that note, I will pass the buck on taking responsibility for this information because it is only general information and not advice. I'm not telling you or anyone else to photograph someone or to record anyone's voice! You could, or you might not, depending on your own independent judgment.

The above are five very useful items which every college student should bring with him or her to campus. If you've already moved to campus, then politely ask your parents to mail you the missing items. Show them this article if they protest!

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Which Jobs Are Sorely Lacking Experienced Candidates?

Minimum experience standards for hiring tend to be stiffest during times of high unemployment, as many who got jobs through walk-in job applications in the mid 1990s might tell you. A brief article by Chad Brooks of Business News Daily brought my attention to an attempt to describe those vacant job positions most elusive to the millions of American job seekers. Although it amounted to an advertisement for Career Builder of North America, the infomercial confirmed my suspicions that college advocates are wary of naming which positions are sorely lacking graduates of the right major and internship pedigree, if not outright seniority in experience.

I then found the official Career Builder summary of the Harris Interactive study; it turns out that Career Builder merely set the study parameters but left all the grunt work (data collection, tabulation, presentation) to Harris, the same company which pays consumer survey takers in "HI Points." Although none of the Harris Interactive studies commissioned by Career Builder are peer reviewed, BuyMyStats.com would be willing to conduct a thorough peer review for a nominal fee.

I actually completed Harris surveys for points from 2004 through 2012 but cancelled when it became more difficult for me to qualify into surveys; my demographics did not change, but perhaps the survey sorting algorithm did. I had earned enough thumb drives and umbrellas by then to be satisfied, as point redemptions were for prizes only and not for cash. That also coincided with Harris changing its HI Point redemption to magazines only, so there were no more practical goods to be had, just propaganda.

And speaking of propaganda: According to Career Builder President Brent Rasmussen's summary of the unpublished data set allegedly comprised of responses from around two thousand respondents, the ten most difficult-to-fill jobs cited by HR staff are, in no particular order:

• 
  Sales representative
• 
  Machine operator/assembler/production worker
• 
  Nurse
• 
  Truck driver
• 
  Software developer
• 
  Engineer
• 
  Marketing professional
• 
  Accountant
• 
  Mechanic
• 
  IT manager/network administrator

Be mindful that these are HR personnel's recollections during the latter half of May and the first week of June 2013 about all vacancies they remember from 2010 through 2013. Again, consult the actual press release for stratification of those jobs by net change in positions (both repeating and first-time vacancies) and percentage growth (relative to its own job type but not relative to all job growth). I could reproduce the numbers here in a long table but don't want to syndicate a press release. By reading this before you read the report, you have a more critical framework by which to interpret the findings.

At the end of the press release, Rasmussen shills "formal education and on-the-job training" as the means to land these nearly-unattainable jobs. However, those millions of under-employed college graduates working minimum-wage service jobs deflate the notion that formal education means anything without an appropriate amount of hands-on experience -- and placement for such training is often irrespective or coincidental to education.

Of the thousands of job vacancies I've read since January 2008, no more than 3 percent indicated on-the-job training as part of the duties, thereby implying in the remaining 97 percent of vacancies that the new hire must hit the ground running without any time to catch up on any knowledge they lack from his or her internship days.

Also from my experience analyzing job vacancies, I find engineering, network administration, sales, marketing, and accounting positions are difficult to fill because employers are boycotting graduates with fewer than two years' full-time experience.

So if you're enrolled in formal studies, then don't get your employment hopes up until you've completed at least four part-time semesters of internships or equivalent. If you've hit senior year without a single internship, then I understand you might want to finish your degree anyway -- just don't be too disappointed to know you've missed the boat on the best opportunities.

Machine operator vacancies are similar in that the most successful candidates are placed early in their adult lives, except in their case, optimal placement occurs in the late teenage years through their high school CAD/CAM instructor and/or vocational school. Industrial firms are skeptical of candidates who haven't been doing such work continuously since high school, although there may be some temporary assembly positions available through a labor temp agency. Assignments will vary from one week to the next, however.

It is challenging to source qualified candidates for truck driver because the majority of the population either wants to spend more time with family instead of being on the road or wants to drive for a living but cannot obtain a commercial driver's license due to a horrible driving record. Nursing candidates are usually placed as nursing assistants while still in nursing school and work 24-hour or longer shifts much like ER doctors, thereby causing sleep imbalances and irritability with family when trying to balance home life with the innate need for sleep.

Software development is distinct from web development because the two disciplines have different tools. For example, PHP for a web server is a subset of the stand-alone PHP executable libraries. Try invoking the "stdin" class on web-only PHP and tell me whether it accepts user input; you'll get an error instead.

Just as in Java or C++, one must install a gigabyte or more of class libraries and the compiler of a given programming language to develop and test applications. The most effective self-promotion tactic in the field is to develop and sell your own apps; good luck standing out, because you have worldwide competition, unlike in the case of the aforementioned jobs.

If you're that hard-up for work, then there's always the understaffed pizza chain to give you a stressful dead-end job with plenty of opportunities for conflict with the angry, imperious public and a poverty wage. The managers will respect your lack of self-respect for applying at such a last-resort place despite being nominally qualified for much better.

They also won't hold it against you if you paraded around town holding a "for hire" sign, which is actually a hellaciously bad public relations move which only attracts snide remarks from customers who recognize you working at the pizza place.

Fast food chains are generally not that bad to work at unless you're a manager -- in which all the franchise accountability falls onto you -- or if you work in an ungodly place which has the cashiers also wait on walk-in diners and process delivery orders in which the GIS glitches and the customer slurs his or her credit card number, thereby preventing an expedient order while the in-person customers line up for service. Again, stay clear of the pizza places unless you've not been interviewed for any other job under the sun such as used car dealer.

I advise signing up for a temporary staffing agency to obtain placement at assignments where you can build face-to-face contacts. Ask the floor manager about internship opportunities for when your temporary stint is over. The success rate of this approach might be low but will remain higher than that of cold calling or attempting to convince obstinate internship coordinators at over-enrolled university programs.

Hot-Shot Copywriter to Shill PowerPoint Shell

http://www.gener8tor.com/jobs/

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Position: Bad@$$ Content Writer / Interviewer with DeckPresenter

We need someone who can create content like what is seen on:
- mailchimp’s blog
- okcupid’s blog
- seomoz’s blog
- appsumo

You are a rock solid writer, right? Shoot us an application with a short story telling us why we should hire you Forget about your resume and cover letter. All we care about is that you write like a rockstar PS. Did I mention we are a totally fun company that you WANT to work for?!

Contact:
Brian Curliss: briancurliss[at]gmail.com
http://www[dot]deckpresenter[dot]com

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I went on a slog on this blog about the rather unpleasant downsides of including university studies in your intended career path -- hint: it's an expensive detour for a plurality -- and ventured on fanciful side stories or "gaidens" -- directly related to some type of occupation to fit the overall theme -- to keep myself from getting bored. Seeing a job vacancy for content writer motivated me not to apply (for reasons explained herein) but to critique it for the world.

The blogs mentioned in the above job description are narrowly and formulaically focused -- almost autistically so -- on the same tired topics such as boosting web traffic and monetizing page views. Being able to write a dozen or so paragraphs of original, non-syndicated content with cohesion and proper grammar throughout does require a mind for semantics and syntax. However, that doesn't require anyone to be cool, hip, or inspiring. Are those qualities possessed by a "rotten derriere writer?"

'Tis the season to part with your money!

Enjoy unique apparel and stationery!

Also, what's up with these mascot gimmicks such as chimpanzees and rikishis? Are they implying that MailChimp slingshots email to your contacts like apes fling feces? What are the implications of AppSumo employees being "sumos" -- throwing around their weight; wrestling with deadlines; spending too much time being sedentary to gain the bulk of the sumo without the strength?

The job description goes on to say, "All we care about is that you write like a rockstar." Really? So background checks are not part of the vetting process? And you want an egotistical person to boot? (There is a reason they chose the term "rockstar" instead of "high performer.")

The postscript scares me away from the firm, though -- emphasizing how "totally fun" an organization is usually an indicator you'll work 60+ hours each week. Life is too short to be working longer than 12-hour days! Maybe work four 15-hour days and give yourself every third day off? The schedule would be like this:    Work | Work | Off | Work | Work | Off | Off | Repeat

I've done a handful of minimal-sleep days during inspired writing sessions on unpublished works in development and can tell you that just about anything becomes entertaining or humorous when your mind is clamoring for a rest. Sleep deprivation is documented as inducing roughly 400% greater sensitivity to emotional stimuli as illustrated in the righthand bar chart of proportionate or standardized effect size (as the lefthand chart is non-standardized).

Unless you're in the acting industry, “emotional lability” is a liability! Most people from just about any culture feel uncomfortable around someone with mood swings; sleep deprivation causes precisely such volatility; and organizations which promote longer work weeks contribute to the emotional instability of employees and therefore to irrational decisions, impulsive behavior, and organizational instability.

Imagine five times the emotionality in a challenging setting, and you have a recipe for emotive outbursts. That is when the employer reaches into its fun bags Bags ‘o’ Fun in hopes of eliciting laughter rather than wailing and gnashing of teeth. It is therefore no mystery how so many hectic, high-pressure firms with above-average hours worked per employee may call themselves "fun" without massive disagreement among former employees (considering the current ones would likely be found out if they complained on blogs, social media, or the like).

Any "mean mamma-jamma" content I write is going to be published on my own blog or as a guest contributor who maintains 100% ownership of intellectual property -- not for an organization which would claim ownership and perhaps not even permit disclosure of the actual author's identity. Whoever DeckPresenter finds will need to figure out just how that service is superior in any manner to SlideShare.

Predictable interview question and pithy answer: “Explain how DP doubles your PowerPoint-viewing pleasure.” “By facilitating teamwork?” While that’s not how I would respond if I were to actually apply for the position, such a retort is fitting for the soon-to-be-sleep-deprived-and-emotionally-volatile “rockstar” candidate they seek.

Financial Recruiter for Woodworkers’ Affinity Group

http://www.careerrookie.com/jobs/Financial-Services-Manager-Entry-Level-Insurance-Finance-Recruiter/J3H1D8613NXXD8GQT83?siteid=cb_jobalert

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Financial Services Manager-Entry Level Insurance/Finance/Recruiter

Job Description
If you are a competitive, diligent and process-oriented individual who is able to consistently motivate and lead others to success, then join our management team at Modern Woodmen of America! We are currently hiring-on and hiring-to-train confident and ambitious Financial Services Managers to help us build a team of successful Financial Services Representatives. Your efforts will work toward making a positive impact on the lives of our members and their communities.

    You will recruit representatives and train them to be high-performing financial professionals through careful supervision and instruction – involving them in the community and developing both their personal and professional knowledge. If you are a communicative, amiable and determined individual who wants to pursue a business management career with a stable and secure industry leader, then Modern Woodmen of America may be the right place for you!

Job Responsibilities
As a Financial Services Manager for Modern Woodmen of America, you will attract, select, train and supervise your team members to help them attain higher levels of success. You will instruct them on proper customer dialogue and interaction as well as educate them on our product line and the benefits of our services.
Additional responsibilities for the Financial Services Manager include:
   - Identifying and developing strong future leaders
   - Commanding the aspirations of your team members
   - Continuing to grow your own leadership skills personally and professionally

Job Requirements
Modern Woodmen of America is also seeking a financially stable individual who either has a proven history of sales management, managerial success in the financial industry, or is willing to undergo extensive training in order to effectively develop into this position.
Additionally, the Financial Services Manager should:
   - Have or be able to attain applicable industry designations
   - Have or be able to attain Series 6, 63 and 26 licenses
   - College graduate or some college preferred
   - Have at least three years of continuous U.S. residency
   - Be a U.S. citizen or hold a permanent resident visa
   - Read, write and speak English fluently

'Tis the season to part with your money!

Enjoy unique apparel and stationery!

Benefits
At Modern Woodmen of America, we recognize how hard our team members work in order to provide our members with the best products and service possible. Therefore, we are pleased to offer our Financial Services Managers extensive training, competitive compensation and an excellent benefits package.
Additional benefits available to the Financial Services Manager include:
   - Medical & Dental Insurance
   - 401(k) Retirement Planning w/ Company Match
   - Non-contributory retirement plans
   - Group health and dental benefits
   - Group term life insurance benefits
   - Optional group disability insurance benefits
   - Laptop provided
   - Social Security and Medicare taxes paid
For more information on Modern Woodmen of America, please visit our career website at http://www.mwacareers.org

Company Overview
Modern Woodmen of America is a fraternal benefit society based in Rock Island, Ill. Modern Woodmen serves more than 760,000 members nationwide, offering life insurance, annuity, investment* and banking products, along with fraternal member benefits for families and their communities.

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Acknowledging the above job description is for a financial services manager, my observations which follow are valid for a number of related occupations: hob-knobbing and rubbing elbows with the dominant consensus builders in your community is akin to being a politician in that you’re trying to win others’ trust and authorization to take some type of action on their behalf. Although being financially stable -- often measured by having a credit score of 700 or above and an earnings-to-debt ratio of at least $5:$1 -- is a personal characteristic necessary to seem competent and unlikely to misappropriate your clients' money, already having a positive reputation within your community of marks target geography is critical so others will refer new business towards you.

In the case of a financial recruiter, you manage others’ money as an organizational and/or personal trustee; in the case of a politician, you do that via appropriations and vote on other legislation. Being family-friendly and without any substantial legal history is pretty much a requisite unless you’re a financial manager in the slums; in that case, good luck finding the wealthy residents while keeping your nose clean -- most such property managers or “slum lords” live outside the districts of their properties.

It is time-consuming and potentially expensive financially to maintain a community presence sufficient to portray yourself as not only trustworthy but more integrated into the communal fabric than your competitors. The person who is content to read alone Friday nights – let alone the individual for whom a social life is necessary only to earn income at some job or another -- need not apply.

The successful finance recruiter is capable of changing the mind of the person who says, “Thanks, but I have enough friends.” The wealthy person must be persuaded that you are an all-weather ally and not just the latest fair-weather friend to have drinks on his or her tab. Conversely, the finance recruiter will need to dispense with lower-income folks as expediently as possible to minimize time spent on low-return clients.

I find it interesting how the selling of oneself to the customer as not only a competent service provider but also a worthwhile human being is quite achingly, in-your-face obvious within the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) industries. Those are expected to be the greatest economic powerhouses for concentrating wealth in the coming years -- and considering the increasing diagnosis rates of developmental disorders as well as documented reduction in social capital associated with the same, I can see why it will become more difficult to find truly capable FIRE workers instead of those who might merely look qualified on paper (have a finance degree, know insurance marketing tactics, etc. but don’t have many friends). Then again, the Internet has facilitated the exchange of so much previously isolated information such that some portion of the labor force will research and rehearse those mannerisms which they might not naturally acclimate to but need to demonstrate to win others’ confidence.

At least equally important is the locale in which the incumbent will work: aside from the idealistic college kids at UW-Washington County, West Benders generally hate dislike people they don't know. Therefore, I estimate the person to be hired as MWA's next financial recruiter will in fact have been active in multiple West Bend social circles for some time.

Communications Director Matt Guidry of The United Council of UW Students, Inc. has graciously informed me of a survey which it is conducting in conjunction with One Wisconsin Institute to sample the average debt, living conditions, geographies, and demographics of university graduates who are either paying student loan debt or are in deferment on payment of one or more student loans.

Although the sponsoring organizations as based in Wisconsin, all university graduates in arrears are welcome to participate because there are questions to segment respondents by state and by ZIP code. And yes, the survey really does require only five minutes maximum, even if you tab through the page elements rather than use the mouse.

University Graduate Student
Loan Debt Survey

Click here to access the survey!

Addendum: Congratulations if you paid your way through university without loans or paid off your debt really quickly with a high-paying job right out of college, but we're looking for university graduates who are still under one or more student loan debt obligations, whether they've graduated this May or have been a graduate for many years but have been unable to repay all student loan debt -- thanks!

You can do better; go to trade school!

You’re Graduating -- So What?

My primary audience for today’s post is the newly minted or soon-to-be college graduate. You’ve shown enough topical knowledge to be certified as knowing your way through the concepts of one or more subject matters. "A winner is you!" Why the sarcasm? Any obstacles in obtaining student employment were preludes to the perilous challenges of securing real employment in the adult world without the “benefit of the doubt” which accompanies the youngest of job applicants.

Contrast the “industrious” perception of the high schooler who applies for an entry-level assembly, customer service, or otherwise menial job against the “desperate” college graduate who applies for the same job. Whereas the former is too young to have an adult employment record and hence has an excuse for lack of prior experience -- much like a person lacking a credit history has a fairly high credit score -- the latter is expected to have not only had a continuous employment record but also shown an increase in prestige with each subsequent job.

Be prepared for unemployment after conferral of your degree if your jobs have been Work Study or otherwise student-only. Given the timing of this post, some of you might have statistical homework or research papers requiring a statistical summary section. If that is your lot and you realize the futility of graduation but still want or need to earn an “A” on your stats work, then send me a project request.

Bonus: Check out these unapologetically captioned graduation pictures!

Also, Dave Granlund drew a poignant political cartoon --recolored by yours truly for dramatic effect -- biting into the ritual psychodrama bookending the modern university system:

If you've spent the better part of your high school years preparing for admission to a quality university -- most state universities are crap despite being accredited -- then you can be forgiven for thinking the university is your be-all and end-all to a good life. However, you've been forewarned about the possibility that you've been preparing for an illusory outcome which will never exist in your lifetime -- you can be very accomplished in studies, Work Study, and other university activities but be strung out employment-wise upon and after graduation.