The 83rd Academy Award-winning movies gave us a look into many career paths – from the entrepreneur’s highs and lows of The Social Network to the competition and beauty of a professional dancer in Black Swan. We met “independent security consultants” in True Grit, investment bankers and rogue financiers in the documentary Inside Job and some strange virtual reality workers in Inception.
The biggest winner, The King’s Speech, brings us the most intimate look at the career of a speech coach. The movie tells the story of Lionel Logue, helped Prince Albert overcome his fear of public speaking and his stutter as he ascended to become King George VI just as World War II begins. The movie won four Oscars.

The King’s teacher, played by actor Geoffrey Rush, didn’t have the credentials or training to work as a modern-day speech pathologist. His background  as an actor and elocution instructor, aided war veterans in Australia left with impaired speech and trouble breathing. Today, most speech pathologists have a master’s degree, and 47 U.S. states require a license and ongoing educational attainment.
Some 119,300 people work as U.S.-based speech-language pathologists, half of them in educational settings, and their career prospects are growing faster than average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook. Their median salary was $62,930, though the highest 10 percent earned more than $99,000 a year. Those who work in nursing homes earned the highest median, $79,120, while those in elementary schools had paychecks – and work times – that were considerably smaller ($58,140).

Other careers brought to life in The King’s Speech include:

• Radio announcer. So they don’t use those big circular microphones any more and they hardly ever get to cover royalty at a factory opening. But the BBC employs hundreds of announcers and news staff, and in the United States another 51,000 or so work as radio or television announcers, according to the the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Like many jobs in the entertainment – media fields, competition is keen, even for those who specialize – in sports coverage or by genre of music. Pay sounds low too – the median is $27,520, and some start at minimum wage.
• Military officers. The King saw himself as a naval officer, not an heir to the throne. Today’s military has an array of jobs that its officers could hold, from managing supplies to training recruits to leading platoons.  An estimated 232,000 military officers serve in the four U.S. military branches, one-third of them with the Army, according to federal figures. The jobs, of course, pose serious hazards, during the King’s era and in ours.
• Nanny. Whenever you saw the royal couple’s two princess daughters, somewhere nearby was their nanny, or perhaps a couple of them. This career was less visible than some others; their role then as now is often undervalued. Nannies toil under various titles  in the United States, and few work in surroundings as beautiful as Buckingham Palace. The 1.3 million child care workers in this country are more likely to work in a pre-school or elementary school. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, their earnings are almost as small as the children they care for: median pay is around $9.12 an hour.
• Costume and set designer. OK, this career worked behind the scenes to dress the King elegantly for important speeches and find the right furniture for the speech coach’s rather faded apartment. They also designed or acquired ball gowns, jewelry, rugs and military uniforms aplenty.  They’re a rare breed – only 15 or so work full-time in or near Washington, D.C., according to Rosemary Pardee, who has been in the field for 35 years. The government counts only 22,700 fashion designers – which includes those who design the gorgeous dresses worn to the Oscars as well as work clothes and theater and movie costume designers.

The field is “not so financially rewarding” for most, yet “It’s so incredibly rewarding artistically and creativity,” Pardee told me. Her favorite part: As actors don her creations, “they cease to be a costume and become the clothing of the character….the magic moment.”

For those who work in films all the time and those whose careers never intersect with royalty or Hollywood, the magic moments make worthwhile our  long hours,  puny paychecks, stresses and stuttered missteps.

More Information:

The American Speech-Language Hearing Association has a variety of information on careers and research for the profession.

More resources will be added later on. VLE

This piece is copyright Vickie Elmer. To republish it, please contact me at Vickie.Elmer@gmail.com

After all my worry and strategizing about corporate buyouts, Borders’ bankruptcy and discrimination against unemployed job seekers, I’m thrilled to bring you some good news today:

Raises are back, and they’re bigger than expected – especially for top performers.

Workers “who far exceeded performance expectations” received merit increases of 4.0 percent last year, compared to 2.7 percent awarded to staffers overall, according to Towers Watson, a benefits consulting firm.

They may receive even more in their paychecks this year. Merit increases overall are predicted to reach 3.0 percent, the highest levels since before the financial crisis of 2008, Towers Watson reported this week.  That is ahead of salary increases forecasts by the Conference Board and others, based on surveys last spring and summer.

The 3 percent average raise is a promising reversal from the pay freezes or reductions, furlough days and more of the last  few years, when raises were as skimpy as some exotic dancers’ costumes. As the economy got sicker, many firms uncovered ways to skip raises, or pay their best a small merit increase, by denying the lowest ranked worker any raise. (That trend of giving those at or near the bottom nothing may continue, and definitely shows up in the Tower research.)

Companies definitely have pumped up pay-for-performance  for workers at almost all levels.  Only 11 percent of U.S. employers give cost-of-living increases, according to WorldatWork. a nonprofit human resources organization that focuses on employee rewards.

WorldatWork also has identified another intriguing trend: Raises vary based on geography. Top performers in San Jose, Boston, Portland, Seattle, Houston and Detroit were expected to receive raises of 4.0 percent or better, well above the national average of 3.7 percent. That’s according to WorldatWork’s survey last year of 2,497 HR members.

Even if you don’t live in one of those areas, you may find yourself in higher demand this year. Slightly more than half of the  381 large and mid-sized U.S. employers Towers Watson surveyed in late January say they’re having trouble finding “critical-skill” workers. One-fourth are worried about keeping their best staffers on the payroll.

No wonder they’re planning to offer more generous raises this year.

More information:

My Glassdoor.com post offers advice on building the case for a raise this year.

Turn a job offer into higher pay at your current employer by following advice from The Ladders.
Dig up details on salaries and benefits. My Washington Post piece shows how to set three salary numbers for yourself.

Mentor Graphics just received a buyout bid from takeover artist Carl Icahn. Family Dollar, Twitter and Del Monte may be gobbled up too, while BP, AOL and some financiers are buying.  Wall Street and other firms have enough equity capital to pull off $1 trillion in leveraged buyouts in coming years, the Wall Street Journal reported, a rush that is sure to lead to layoffs and staff buyouts aplenty.

If you’re in a sector that is starting to get merger fever, you could be headed for bad buyout news and a possible pink slip. So you could spend time keeping up on the latest rumors or possibilities or you could update your resume and build your network.

Starting your stealth job search before the first word of a merger gets leaked out makes sense, whether you work for a highly successful law firm or a struggling retailer.  From what I can tell, the merger and acquisition world is warming up again, and could pick up speed this year. Not every buyout results in big job reductions, but many of them do trim staff after the dealmaking’s done.

So if you’re concerned about the future, here’s half dozen things to tackle while your bosses make deals:
1. Gather your goodness. Make copies of all performance reviews, letters of commendation, awards, praise notes, etc. Also include any employee newsletters that mention your team’s successes or any committee that really moved the needle for your organization. Send them to a personal email address or take copies home with you.
2. Tune up your search engine. Make a list of crucial job – hunt tasks and take a few vacation days to complete them. It takes time and energy to redo your resume, add pop to your LinkedIn profile and perfect an elevator pitch. Start on these  – and go to your first networking event or job fair while using a personal day or vacation time. It’s far easier to go now than in the first weeks after a layoff.
3. Identify winners and survivors. Look for any oasis or islands of prosperity – and make friends there. Figure out who is likely to keep their job and who may gain more responsibility in a restructuring or buyout. Those people are the keys to staying employed or setting up contract or freelance assignments.

4. Create your target list. These are the companies and employers that you really really appreciate and want to work for. These are employers that make your best of list, and merit some effort to develop contacts and career possibilities. More on this in my Glassdoor.com blog post.

5. Start searching, quietly. Do this in your off hours or at lunch. Do this diligently  but discretely. If a recruiter calls you in the middle of the day, schedule a phone interview for after work. More tips on this from my Washington Post article.
6. Find a mentor, a job-search buddy. Set up a success team, or find just one person to serve as your cheerleader and your coach. A good friend who you can strategize with weekly will help. So will a coworker who you trust completely and respect for her wisdom and resilience. Ask someone from your faith community or your that very smart guy in your book or wine group who seems so kind. The key: Find someone to to help you and support you and keep you on track. It could be a long trek to finding a new job and it’s better if you’re not walking it alone.

Commercial real estate companies are struggling – and some may close. Municipalities and states are in danger of default. And Borders Group, the book store chain, has just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and will close around 200 stores.
The worst of the restructuring and business woes is still to come, according to one in five members of the Turnaround Management Association. The most troubled sectors, they say, are commercial and residential real estate and retailing.

So for those who work for struggling employers, and especially at Ann Arbor-based Borders, where I shop, it’s time to save your career and seek new opportunities.  Borders’ 17,500 employees could see this coming for a while, since the bookseller has been sliding and selling or closing assets for years. Yet the tough economy or their love of working amid bestsellers, ideas and authors – or perhaps loyalty or inertial – have kept many people at Borders. Now you need to bail out your career canoe as quickly as you can.

“You need to see the big picture. You need to see what’s going on,”  said Suzanne Collier, who runs Bookcareers and a London-based job search group for publishing types.  That means knowing not only the future of your store but the retailers in your city that are rebounding and growing.

Here then are six tips for Borders workers – and anyone who’s facing the prospect of a restructuring or cutback ahead:

1. Keep your attitude up. Remain calm and don’t panic. That could slow your job search, said Collier.  If you’re losing a job you’ve held for a decade or longer, take time to grieve. For the rest, build confidence and momentum. Visualize yourself taking your experiences – including the pink slip – and putting them to good use.
2. Realize your skills. Take time to write down exactly what you did – and what that required. Ask yourself: What can you do for a new employer? What things did your coworkers always come running to you to solve? Your skills may be readily transferable if you look at them broadly – and break down what you really did, said Collier.
3. Quantify your contribution. Estimate how many extra copies of a book sold because of your decisions, or presentation. “Show how you’ve made a difference, how you’ve made the role your own,” she said. Think of your unique contributions – since competition will be intense especially in cities where jobless rates remain high. Develop a very tight elevator pitch on yourself and your talents.
4. Develop a single-minded focus on your next job. Be a team player another time; now you need to focus on your own future. “You want to keep your cards close to your vest” in troubled times, said Collier.  Don’t mention interviews or opportunities at work. Spend time on your career and job search almost every day, even a few minutes. Make sure your networks- your book group, your synagogue, soccer team, your volunteer friends – know you’re seeking a new job. Even a customer or the UPS guy could help you locate the “hidden job market” of unadvertised possibilities.
5. Look broadly – and beyond your sector. Many companies are building their marketing departments to use Twitter, Facebook and other new online tools to promote themselves. Others want to publish books or booklets to promote their people or products. Don’t assume your next job will be in a book store – or even in  publishing.  “It may break your heart to move out of book-selling,” Collier said, yet it may be necessary to pay the bills. Likewise, if your background is real estate, take your expertise and skills to an area that’s more stable or growing. Join a university or a hospital. Seek out a start-up. Identify the fast-growing companies and sectors in your region or check the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing small companies, out each September.
6. Use time and money wisely. Even if you get a large buyout or severance package, you don’t want to burn through it quickly. Think long-term and keep most of that money as your security to fall back on, said Collier. “I rarely endorse the spending of money” not even if you have a part-time job lined up. There’s too many uncertainties not to keep some funds in the bank.  So test out the latest e-readers in a store or borrow one or two from a friend for a few days, she said. If you need Dreamweaver or other software skills, go to the manufacturers’ website and take the 30-day free usage version. Then borrow a book on it from the library – yes, even booksellers can appreciate those – and teach yourself the basics.

The job market seems like a 600-page mystery novel with a lot of deaths and no clear path. But at least it’s improving albeit slowly. If you work for Borders or another organization facing insolvency, you need to move fast and deliberately on your job hunt.

Part 2:  Coming soon: Five ways to launch your search while the ship is just starting to sink

Read my Ann Arbor Observer piece for a look back at Borders troubles which go back almost a decade. In that piece, I said  Borders’ story sounded like the book “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”

By Vickie Elmer

Jobless Americans face a “disturbing and growing trend among employers” barring them from consideration solely because they are out of work. Older workers,  African Americans and Latinos are at higher risk of this “widespread exclusion,” according to advance testimony to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hearing.

“Bans on considering unemployed workers for jobs are often linked to the duration of individuals’ joblessness; candidates unemployed six months or longer are out of luck,” Christine L. Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project said in prepared testimony.

The EEOC hearing tomorrow (Wednesday) is called “Out of Work, Out of Luck? Denying Employment Opportunities to Unemployed Job Seekers.”  The commissioners will hear from seven employment experts, including a labor lawyer and several advocates, on employers’ moves to rule out jobless candidates for openings.  The hearing was called after a spate of media coverage and because of Congressional interest in the practice, said Christine Nazar, an EEOC spokeswoman.

There’s no data readily available on how often jobless workers are denied consideration for openings because they are not working. But ads on CraigsList, on job boards and elsewhere often state that people without current paychecks need not apply.

“The brazenness of the ads ….and the experiences jobless workers shared with us suggest the practice is fairly common. That suspicion is borne out by comments of human resources consultants and recruiters willing to go on the record about the practice,” said Owens, whose NELP organization researches employment issues and advocates for long-income workers and extensions to unemployment insurance.

However, one employment lawyer said he didn’t think major employers were eliminating candidates because they were unemployed. None of the hundreds of employers of Prousker Rose, a major business law firm, have adopted the practice, said partner Lawrence Z. Lorber. He polled the firm”s employment lawyers and found no examples of it, he said.

Some media reports have suggested employers use the practice to cut down on the number of applicants they must review, or because they want “the best” people and those tend to have jobs. But with the unemployment rate at 9 percent, that doesn’t seem likely.

No federal law prohibits employers from ignoring unemployed candidates, but the EEOC can explore the issue because it may cross over into age discrimination or racial discrimination, by disprortionately targeting protected groups such as people over 40 or African Americans.  “We’re about to take a very close look at it to see if it could unlawfully exclude job seekers….It’s very topical,” Nazar said, given that 13.9 million people were counted as unemployed last month.

Unemployed individuals are more likely to be minorities, said Algernon Austin, the  Economic Policy Institute’s director of the program on race, ethnicity and the economy in his advance testimony. The black unemployment rate is consistently twice as high as whites, regardless of educational levels, he said citing his own research.

“Although blacks make up 12 percent of the labor force, they make up 20 percent of the unemployed,” he said. Hispanics also are overrepresented among unemployed. So employers that state that jobless individuals need not apply are disproportionately targeting people of color, Austin said. Likewise, older workers can be caught in this catch-22 – including the 4.5 million people age 45 and older who were unemployed in January. “The persons likely to be most affected by discrimination against the unemployed are those who have been unemployed longest,” said Owens. That means older workers, who are experiencing longer stretches of joblessness.

NELP regularly hears from jobless worriers, mostly older ones, who are being ruled out because they’re not working, she said. Recruiters have told experienced job candidates they cannot submit their resumes  even when they’re a good fit – because of employer policies or practices of removing anyone who has been jobless six months or more, Owens will testify.

She will tell the story of Michelle, a 53-year-old former IT help supervisor from Illinois, who was laid off in 2008 as part of a downsizing. Many months into her search, she heard from a recruiter who was excited about her qualifications for a job he needed to fill. “The excitement faded, however, when he learned she had been unemployed for more than a year. As Michelle put it, ‘When he realized this, he was very apologetic, but had to admit to me that he would not be able to present me for an interview due to the over six month unemployed policy that his client adhered to.’ ”

Owen’s testimony will reference articles by the Huffington Post, CNNMoney and Atlanta Journal Constitution among others.
The EEOC, which previously has held hearings on age discrimination and the economy and employers’ use of credit histories, will consider job seeker employment status Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. in the EEOC’s offices at 131 “M” Street, NE, Washington.  All the testimony will be posted on the EEOC’s website afterward,

Copyright Vickie Elmer, 2011

Everyone, it seems, loves something or someone at their job.
You read that right: Love is all around us during our work days, whether we acknowledge it or not. So if you do not want to read one of those sweet, sexy, seasonal Valentine’s Day Posts, skip this one and come back later in the week. Otherwise, read on for more on office love, trysts and sought-after jobs.
Despite layoffs, bigger workloads and grumpy bosses, more than half of American workers say they love their jobs, according to a Randstad online survey of 1,008 adults who have full- or part-time gigs. Two-thirds of them report it’s the work itself that makes their jobs wonderful. Those who hate their jobs are more divided on reasons: the job, the pay and their employer were all cited equally.
If you’re not feeling the love just yet, maybe these facts, gleaned from a variety of surveys and sources, will warm you up:

• Four in ten people say they’ve experienced an office romance, according to an American Management Association survey of members. Almost one-third of them ended up married to their coworker. Another four in ten say their fling finished fast.
• Almost a quarter of men say they’ve had an office fling compared to only 15 percent of women, according to Vault.com’s annual survey. I guess those ladies must be going into overtime on office romances.
• Nearly one in ten workers currently have identified a colleague they’d like to date, the same amount who  asked out someone in the last year, according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual office romance survey.
• Only about half of the AMA members polled say they have a written dating policy, and most forbid dating someone at a higher or lower level than you. One-fourth of those in the Vault survey say they dated someone below them at their organization, and almost one-in-five have dated a boss.
• One-third of the 2,000 people who answered Vault’s poll say they’ve experienced a “romantic encounter” in the office. Whether this means a kiss in the copier room or something more erotic, we don’t know.
• More than one-third of those who have a ‘work-spouse’ discuss their at-home sex lives with that person, according to a Captivate Networks Office Pulse survey.  Captivate’s survey of 600 also indicates that one-tenth of workers ended up in a romantic or sexual relationship with their ‘work-spouses.’
• Jobs we’d most love to have:  Simply Hired says the top five clicked on job titles are administrative assistant, customer service representative, receptionist, project manager and material handler. The most searched keywords include part-time, internship and sales..
• * Some jobs have love written into their descriptions. In the government’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, only a handful – veterinarians and animal care workers, counselors and psychologists – have love in their listing. Most require a love of animals.

The real message here:  Money doesn’t bring us love.  Pay may be a crucial reason to work, but it doesn’t mean we’re happier in our jobs. That comes from work we adore, a great friend at work, a dog at our feet or a lover in the next cubicle.

More:  Show your passion, and make your career sizzle. Advice from career coach Chandlee Bryan in my blog post on Glassdoor.com .

I’m a believer in hugging at work. I hug selectively and smartly and sweetly (or so I hope).  I’ve hugged co-workers, bosses and people who work for me for years before I started a company called Mity Nice.

I like giving hugs – and receiving them too, in the office, on lunch hour and before and after work.
So I was dismayed to see the new survey showing 70 percent of advertising and marketing managers disapprove of hugging a co-worker. Even more frown on hugs for a client, according to the Creative Group survey.

Most of the 500 creatives in the Creative Group poll say encircling someone with your arms is rarely or never appropriate in business settings, though advertising types were more agreeable to hugging a coworker than marketing managers. You’ll find me with the minority: More than one-fourth said hugging is somewhat or very common if they know the person well or it’s been a while since seeing her.

Those seem like narrow confines for hugging. So how do you know when hugging is right in the workplace?

Start with your own style and approach. If you’re known for your warmth and kindness, hugging will come naturally. If you’re already talking with colleagues about their wildest dreams or experiences, children or spiritual believes, you’ve started building a workplace friendship, and a hug on a very difficult day seems well, “Mity Nice.”

Then consider the person you want to hug. Some people are just not cut out to be touched at work Steer clear of the straight-laced or coldly calculating types. That’s why I would never have embraced my stilted bosses at a certain former Midwestern paper.  (I  did give hugs – occasionally – to my editors at Newsday, and I definitely want to hug my Fortune editor whenever she approves another article.)
Don’t hug an interviewer, says workplace columnist Anita Bruzzese in her blog 45 Things which asks but doesn’t answer whether and who to hug at work.

Then consider the time and place and possibilities of being misconstrued or embarrassed. If you’re alone in the conference room after a meeting, you may be safer than a hug right by the elevator or entryway.

Sometimes I announce: “I’d like to give you a hug” and then take a half step toward the person and watch for her reaction. If she looks terrified or unwilling, I’ll stop and say something like “Instead, I’ll just send positive thoughts your way.” Then a pat on the hand, a warm smile or sometimes, or a lightly blown kiss – my lips never graze the person’s forehead, I swear.
Perfect your hugging style by setting a number of pats on the back you give, writes Heidi Bedore on the Happy Worker blog. Her post has other good advice on hugging at work and for the very professionally inclined so does the Creative Group.
Are there hazards to hugging at work? Of course. A handful of EEOC lawsuits allege bosses’ hugging – combined with inappropriate touching and more. Hugging a would-be client who is introverted or avoids human contact could cost you a new account. And hugging your boss may imply to some that you’re using your female charms to gain favorable assignments.
The optimist in me thinks all that can be  sidestepped with emotional intelligence, hard work and cultivating cordiality and professionalism.
So join the kind people in the minority who are huggers 9 to 5, and on the afternoon or night shifts too. If you hug someone who’s passed over for a promotion or when they’re mourning the loss of a family member, you’re showing your kindness and humanity.

And you’re using hugging as a tool to build a team, encourage employee engagement and offer moral support.