YOUR STRATEGY. YOUR EMPLOYABILITY.

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BE-EDGE
Edge-crafters, Millennials

MILLENNIALS: When Jobs Are Gone, Craft Your Own

May 14, 20200

By Dr. Julia Ivy 

 

The Millennial generation (born between 1980 and 2000) now comprises about one-half of the American workforce, and this generation has been hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. More Millennials (61 percent) have lost their job or had their hours or salaries reduced than any other generational group due to the pandemic.

At the same time, this generation is the most educated. Historical data of educational levels among people 25 to 29 years of age shows 40 percent of Millennials held advanced degrees in 2016 compared to 32 percent of Generation Xers in 2000 and 26 percent of Boomers in 1985.

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By Julia Ivy, Edge-crafters, Educators, Universities

What is the Impact of Capstone Courses on Students\’ Employability?

May 14, 20200

By Swapnil Lokhande.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Julia Ivy

 

The research involves the analysis of the impact of the Capstone program on the employability of the students or job seekers. The fundamental analysis in this research involves the identification of the keywords used by the people (authors) while discussing the benefits of capstone courses in the academic curriculum. The specified goal is to categorize the findings through the BE-EDGE concept and see how far the capstone project helps students in developing their personal, social, and professional capital.

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By Julia Ivy, Edge-crafters, Educators, Universities

What is the Impact of Capstone Courses on Students’ Employability?

May 14, 20200

by Swapnil Lokhande

Supervised by Dr. Julia Ivy

May 14, 2020

 

The research involves the analysis of the impact of the Capstone program on the employability of the students or job seekers. The fundamental analysis in this research involves the identification of the keywords used by the people (authors) while discussing the benefits of capstone in the academic curriculum. The goal is to identify the keywords and analyze them based on the BE-EDGE methodology and see how far the capstone project helps students in developing their Personal, Social and Professional Capital.

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Edge-crafters, Educators

Boutique Employability in a Chinese Investment Firm

April 27, 20200
By TL

 

In seven days, I will officially be a college graduate. I plan to work in a large investment firm in China. After using the BE-EDGE methodology to analyze the corporate decision of Intuit’s QuickBooks trying to expand its market to China, I realized I had a unique niche of marketable skills as well that add value to my future career, especially in how I can find a job that is a good fit for me rather than conforming to what a company expects in its supposedly ideal job candidate. I crafted a personal strategy for my boutique employability.

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Educators

How to Craft a Consulting Case Using the BE-EDGE Strategy: What I Learned from Fellow Students

April 26, 20200

By Richard Li

April 26, 2020

 

As a graduating student, I’ve noticed how a Harvard Business Review case study is oftentimes a business professor’s best friend. As a business student in college, I find these pieces fascinating and a smart method of instruction; they are incredibly useful windows into how the lessons we learn in class can apply in professional settings. As I have come to learn this semester in my Strategy in Action class – a capstone course for all business majors at Northeastern – they are also incredibly effort-intensive and challenging to put together.

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Edge-crafters, Millennials

How to Create a Meaningful Career Path to Successfully Go from a Graduate Student to a Young Professional

April 26, 20200

By Alix Crichton

 

Happy employees could increase “sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%.” (Shawn Achor, 2011). In 2011, Shawn Achor demonstrated that happiness at work is not only beneficial for self-development, but it is also a key success factor for employers.

With this statement in mind, I dedicated my last year of graduate school to seeking the perfect job. Like many Millennials, I felt that the traditional job market did not go along with a fulfilling career (Julia Ivy, 2019). The Answer seemed to be elsewhere, but maybe I did not ask myself the right questions.

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Educators, Universities

Internship and Co-op as a Triple Capital Investment in Employability

April 19, 20200

By Swapnil Lokhande

Faculty mentor: Julia Ivy

 

The research involves the analysis of EMPLOYERS’ PERSPECTIVE on the impact of the internship and co-op program on the employability of the students or job seekers. The fundamental analysis in this research involves the identification of the keywords used by the people (authors) while discussing the internship program in their articles published on business-related and business-targeting public platforms. The goal is to analyze the keywords based on the BE-EDGE methodology and see how far the internship program helps the students in developing their Personal Capital, Social Capital, and Professional Capital.

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Educators

Midlife Career Change: How Colleges Can Help

February 10, 20200

By Dr. Julia Ivy

 

It used to be thought of as “right” to stay on one career track your whole life, gradually climbing the professional and income ladders of your chosen career before ultimately retiring to spend time gardening, vacationing, and enjoying the grandchildren, but times have changed. Midlife career changes have become more and more prevalent, so how exactly can colleges help?

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Edge-crafters, Educators

How to Pitch Your \\\”Self-Help\\\” Book

January 15, 20200

By Dr. Julia Ivy

 

Sales of self-help books reached record levels in the past year, surpassing three million. According to The Guardian, this represents a 20% increase over previous years, “propelling self-improvement or pop psychology into one of the fastest-growing genres of publishing.” According to Publishing Perspectives, self-help books are the world’s bestselling genre. Today, a broad range of authors can find an audience in this fast-growing sector. But marketing a self-help book on a topic beyond health and wellness can be tricky.

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Accomplished Professionals, Edge-crafters, Educators, Employers, Millennials

2020 New Years\’ Resolution: \”It\’s Time for Your Boutique Employability\”

December 26, 20190

By Julia Ivy

 

At the beginning of December, Ian Thomsen, a journalist, contacted me to schedule an interview about my book “Crafting Your EDGE for Today’s Job Market” — the book that equips Millennials, graduates, and soon-to-be graduates, with an instrument to craft their Boutique Employability while they are still in college doing their capstone projects and internships.  We also discussed that the book would serve accomplished professionals (say, veterans) with a tool for how they can utilize their already accumulated personal, social, and professional capital for self-differentiation in the civilian market.

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Accomplished Professionals, Edge-crafters, Veterans

CRAFTING VETERANS’ EDGE FOR TODAY’S CIVILIAN MARKET

November 30, 20190
By Dr. Julia Ivy

 

A simple Google search revealed within seconds that there are around 45,000 veteran organizations in the United States, and many of them are dedicated to assisting veterans with the transition to civilian life. Most of them have veterans on the board who used to face the same “what’s next?” challenge; they have found the way out, so they are eager to help others. On top of this, we have several regulations that encourage businesses and state organizations to hire veterans.

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By Julia Ivy

The Map of This Blog

November 26, 20190

By Julia Ivy

 

When I started to write my blog, I followed a desire to share my thoughts behind BE-EDGE and how it can be applied for individuals, universities, coaches, and businesses. Besides, my friends kept pushing me to do so. But then, I challenged myself whether the use and logic of my posts are clear, so you as a reader can easily find helpful information.

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Accomplished Professionals, By Julia Ivy, Edge-crafters, Millennials

Understanding Your Personal Strategy of Boutique Employability

November 25, 20190

By Dr. Julia Ivy

 

 This post talks about understanding the strategy behind the personal strategy, and not just any personal strategy but Personal Strategy for Boutique Employability. First of all, the term Personal Strategy is overused, while not really defined.  While it obviously includes the “strategy” in its definition, it’s frequently used by psychologies to emphasize their message that a person should define and own their own path in life.

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Employers, Millennials

Why Don’t We Trust Millennials? Low Trust in the Job Market

November 11, 20190
By Dr. Julia Ivy

 

In my strategy research, I investigated strategies for navigating low-trust vs. high-trust environments. Why is there such low-trust in Millennials?

I learned that when we claim this or that environment as “toxic” or “low-trust,” it’s actually not correct. The same environment might be defined as low-trust and high-trust for different groups: it might be low-trust for one group of people (say, for people of a specific age, profession, gender, or origin group), but fine for others (say, of another age or gender group).

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Educators, Millennials, Universities

Millennials Education and Employment: What do Millennials Seek the Most from Colleges?

November 11, 20190

by Dr. Julia Ivy

 

Millennials Education and Employment has long been a concern for the said generation. While some colleges offer great degree programs, they are not much successful in identifying the “core” of the future professionals.

There is a problem here. Historical data concerning educational levels among people 25 to 29 years of age shows Millennials to be the most educated generation, with 40% holding advanced degrees in 2016 compared to 32% of Generation Xers in 2000, 26% of Boomers in 1985, and 16% of Silents in 1964 (Pew Research Center, 2017).

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Edge-crafters, Millennials, Veterans

Job Candidates: Role of Community Engagement in High-Trust Environment Building

October 21, 20190

by Dr.  Julia Ivy

 

Differential generation employees, Millennials Job candidates for instance, often suffer from low-self esteem due to a low-trust environment. Community engagement may be a possible solution to curb this issue and others.

As we discussed in another post on my blog, way too often, people from a different generation (say, Millennials) find themselves in a low-trust environment, where they feel invisible and disconnected, and where their value is perceived as depreciated due to their background (gender, age, previous experience. etc.). This is especially true for established industries that are run by older, “classical,” rules. Academia, banking, construction, and healthcare are just a few examples. If you are in such a context, you need mechanisms of selectivity and verification for choosing the right social capital strategy for navigating such a context.

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