Wednesday, Zach and I will be a part of an event that will be pure choas due to what can be referred to as ‘The Great Recession.’  This event is the Jobing.com Career Expo, a large career fair that in the past has attracted as many as 9,000 job seekers and 300 employers. 

Wednesday’s numbers are expected to have 20,000 job seekers, and 100 employers.  That means that there will be about 2,000 job seekers for every employer. 

I will be taking pictures and blogging about the event as I feel it will the symbol of the ’Great Recession’ as I look back twenty years from now.   

As we get 2009 underway the number one thing on most of our minds is the economy. We read about new stimulus plans, falling stock values and Wall Street scandals on a daily basis; yet most of still struggle to understand what needs to be done to spur the economy forward.

The truth is that these problems are far more institutionalized and systemic than we initially thought. The U.S. economy is not facing a crisis of confidence but the free markets reaction to our hysterical over confidence.

Below is a link to an article by Michael Lewis published in this weeks NY Times Op-ed section. Michael Lewis is the author of the book “Moneyball”, about the secrets of the Oakland A’s revolutionary draft strategy, and the most interesting financial writer I’ve read. Check out the article and let me know what you think…

Article–LINK

Last night I went to the Golden State Warriors vs. Phoenix Suns basketball game. This post is not about basketball and the millions players make, nor how it was very nice of Mary Gilbaugh to provide me with complementary tickets, but rather about the initiation college graduates have when entering the “real,” working world.

Brandon Wright around this time last year was the most recognized figure on the North Carolina campus. His lanky six foot nine frame and fifteen points per game scoring average was the subject of many basketball commentators praises as NBA scouts drooled at the opportunity of drafting him. Buying into the hype, Brandon decided to forgo his final three years of college and go to the NBA.

With the third overall selection in the draft, Brandon went to the Golden State Warriors.

Being a huge Golden State Warriors fan and Bay Area native, I have had the privilege of enjoying the best year the team has had since the ’91-’92 season. I have also seen very little of Brandon (the Mr. Wright is completely unnecessary considering he is three years younger than I). He has averaged about four points a game while appearing in half the games this season, with the other half being spent on the bench.

Last night Brandon did make an appearance in the game, albeit for about six seconds. As he joyously responded to the call to put him in the game, he was briefly corralled by the head coach before reporting to the scorers table. Brandon’s first impact on the game was immediately fouling Shaquille O’Neal, which the big man did not take a liking to. For a minute I thought Shaq was going to break Brandon’s braces with one swift jab. With that, Brandon was quickly taken back out of the game and took a seat on the bench, where he would not move from for the remainder of the contest.

What Brandon did for the Warriors is what an entry-level college grad would do for his first employer. Fouling Shaq was like getting a cup of coffee, or washing the boss’s car. Both are meager tasks only assigned to rookies, for no other good reason other than to give the message of “welcome to the real world. If you think you’re going to own this business in six months you’re wrong. Now take a seat back on the bench/cubicle.”

Yesterday I came across Whitney Johnson’s “Dare to Dream” blog. She had an interesting point on one of her posts that said, “for all your readers know, you may be daring them to dream, without having dreamt yourself.”

This quote frightened me. I’m scared that you, the reader, think that I, the author, am just some 22 year old kid telling you to follow your dreams. I am going to share with you how, and why, I am pursuing the passion so you do not get the wrong impression of this site.

My Story:

I chose accounting when I was deciding what my major should be in college. My step dad told me that accountants made the most money and had the most opportunity out of school, and since I was insecure and money driven at that point, I chose accounting.

I never planned on being accountant, but that was the path I was led down by default. All of my classmates either were continuing their accounting education by obtaining their masters degree, or were accepting offers at Big 4 firms for fifty thousand dollar salaries in the fall semester of 2005. I was stuck in the middle. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.

I had twenty interviews with potential employers that fall semester, and one thing became apparent. Not everyone had it figured out.

But that damn question of “what should I do with my life” lingered over the heads of everyone I talked to in the interview waiting rooms. Even after I accepted an offer with an accounting firm that fall, that question still remained on my mind.

In my very last interview, I got this funny feeling. I was overcome with fear that this would be my last interview. As I watched my interviewer ramble on and on about how much she loved her job, I realized that I liked interviews. I discovered that I liked interviews because I liked people. And what I enjoyed most about people was talking with them about their passion.

I went home that night and thought about what I would do during the summer between graduation day and my official start date in Corporate America. I got out a pen and paper and jotted down the things I wanted to do. I wanted to travel. I wanted to be close to sports. I wanted to better myself. Most of all, I wanted to continue having the feeling I had when I talked with people about their passion.

These desires that I wrote down is what you now see with Pursue the Passion. The RV came as a necessity because we had nowhere to stay, and I actually thought that when I bought Maggie Miracles (the first RV), that I was making a sound investment. Three hours into the first trip, broken down with green liquid spewing from the engine, I quickly realized that it had not been such a financial savvy decision.

That summer I interviewed 75 amazing people. I traveled 10,000 miles by RV, my mom’s 4Runner, plane, and train for 2 months. I went to places like Nike, Microsoft, Playboy, many sports stadiums, the homes of welcoming strangers, and cities I had only read about. It was the time of my life.

The summer also had an inadvertent effect on my Corporate America experience. It completely soured it before I even stepped in the door. I knew, that after being exposed to all different occupations and possibilities, that I had made the wrong choice to go into accounting. I was selling out by going into a secure, stable, well-paid position because it just wasn’t me. But because I was contractually obligated to show up on September 4th, I was going to show up on September 4th.

On August 23rd, two weeks before my anticipated start date, I reported to a “real job.” The corporate lifestyle benefits came throughout the week, ranging from extravagant lunches to all types of corporate goodies. I temporarily forgot about all that I had gained and gleaned during the summer.

But as the months passed, I began to revisit the advice that was given to me. I began to write a book about the pursuit of a passion, despite not working with a passion myself. This was troublesome to me, and even more so as I continued to receive emails from people around the world who were inspired by this site.

I felt not only like a corporate sellout, but also a hypocrite. I thought to myself, “how can I have a site that says to pursue your passion when I’m not pursuing it myself?”

I guess that was my “aha” moment where I said to hell with this. I started to get by on a PB & J diet, sacrificed Saturday nights, and saved up so I could go on a second PTP tour. I sent out over twenty carefully crafted sponsorship proposals to corporations, schools, and small businesses to see if they’d be interested in sponsoring the tour. No luck.

One day I received an email from the boss saying that she wanted to see me. I made the decision that it was now or never for me. It was time to quit the job I despised.

I walked into the office belonging to my boss at the scheduled time on the scheduled date with my heart pounding and my roommate’s co-worker’s resume. My boss was seated on the other side of the desk with two envelopes. Much like a classic western gunfight, I drew first. I quit. BAM!

I left the two envelopes on the table, one containing a raise, the other a bonus, and said goodbye to steady paychecks and corporate security.

With no paycheck, I scrambled to get by. I hired my friend Jay, who graduated in December with a college degree and is now on the tour, and paid him minimum wage to help me get things in line with the Pursue the Passion tour. He crashed on my couch, and we ate free Hot Pockets and Stouffer’s products, given to us by Nestle, until we couldn’t take the taste anymore.

Every day I would rise at 5am, wake Jay up at 8am, and we’d work until 9pm or 10pm. Then we’d bounce back the next day, looking for sponsors, passionate people to interview, and couches to crash on.

It wasn’t until I focused all my time on Pursue the Passion did I start to see results. After all those hours of writing sponsorship proposals, we found a sponsor in Jobing.com right in our own backyard. We went from having four people visit the site a day to an average of two hundred people per day. We made a pact not to eat Hot Pockets again.

Things started to click and hit full stride come July 1st, the official start of the second Pursue the Passion tour.

We’ve been on the road for over a month now, pursuing our passion, and the question that I frequently receive is “so, are you any closer to finding out what you want to do yet? What you going to do after this?”

People don’t realize that I am a passion pursuer and a crazy entrepreneur that will not stop until the bank account says zero. My goal is to turn this website into a resource that will help people who are in the same situations I found myself in as a student, and in the working world.

I am whole heartedly and no longer hypocritically pursuing my passion, and I invite you to join the journey as well.

One of the joys in my life is reading the stories that come in every day through our “Submit a Story” page. On average, we receive about fifteen to twenty a day. These stories range from a native american flute maker to a woman prison guard in Sweden.

Every once in a while I read a story that sends tingles through my body. The story below is one that I read yesterday, and I thought I’d share it with you.

Here it is:

During my career I never played a very active role in where I headed. The promotions and job changes were spaced out well enough to give me the illusion of progress, but in reality I simply ‘floated down the river’ letting life take me from one place to another. None of it truly felt like it was my ‘right’ work. I was unhappy, but moderately comfortable.

My roommate Zach accepted a job to accept a job out of school. As an accounting major, the natural next step for him was to take an accounting position. He reassured himself that the work would be temporary before he would move on to the next step.

I have been fortunate enough to observe his behavior as he continued to work as an auditor. I watched him flirt with career changes like becoming a coast guard, or a pilot, or a ski bum. I witnessed him get accustomed to a new city. I saw his long distance relationship fizzle, and stood silent as he spent money on things like a new car and expensive vacations. I also noticed that he constantly made himself busy by working out, going out, watching TV, and reading to take his mind off addressing the issue at hand- the question of how to get out of auditing, and find a job he could be passionate about.

Zach is the subject of today’s post because he is the stereotypical recent college grad trying to figure out what to do with his life. He is also the subject of today’s post because he broke out of the stereotype Monday, when he put in his two weeks to officially quit the job he never intended to stay in after starting eleven months ago.

Read the full interview »

Many students mistake passion for pleasure. A passion can be incredibly frustrating, overwhelming, sometimes even downright painful.

Most students mis-assume that passion must overtake you right away. A passion can be a small flicker – you can tell it’s a passion when its flames are ones you want to fan. It does not start out as a blaze of glory.

A number of students believe there is some great (high-paying) fun job out there somewhere if they can just find it, that does not come with a lot of stress, and that is as much fun as effort. I have not yet seen this job.

Finally, a substantial number of students mistake passion for profit. The belief is that if they do something they really love, they will make lots of money at it. To the contrary, my observation is that most passions insure, at least in the short term, poverty – not wealth.

So why don’t students “Pursue the Passion?”

Read the full interview »

Over the past few weeks I’ve sought explanations from friends, forums, and family to answer to my question of “What is preventing people from pursuing their passion?” The result?

“Money is the fundamental reason of why people are not pursuing their passion.”

No big surprise, right? But as I started to analyze these answers, I began to identify the one common theme that stood out.

It’s not about money. It’s about lifestyle.

Read the full interview »

In the last few days I have started to wonder what prevents people from following their passion. I have been fortunate enough to be exposed to many individuals that have taken the leap of faith, but what is stopping aspiring individuals from starting their pursuit?

I decided to take my research one step further by posting the question in a few forums. The answers I received inspired me to start a series of posts related to each of the commonly discussed responses. Starting tomorrow, I will write about the following topics that stand in the way of people that are hesitant of starting the journey.

Read the full interview »

(This is a post I did for Employee Evolution, a site that helps our young generation answer the hard-hitting questions that come with career transitions.)

Half of the American work force is satisfied with their job, while the other half dreads reporting to a job they hate, working for a boss they can’t stand. As a senior at the University of Arizona, I was determined to join the group passionate about their work. But the biggest obstacle that stood in my way was that I did not know how to get to where I wanted to be, or for that matter, what I should do with my life.

“What should I do with my life” is a question on the minds of many students and young professionals because it’s a damn good question. You just spent four, five, six years in school and now you’re expected to answer it. You have parents pressuring you, friends and colleagues off to undoubtedly successful starts to long careers, and then you have your situation. I’m here to tell you not to worry. Not everyone has their life figured out at our age. In fact, no one really has it figured out.

Read the full interview »