'Fatherly' Advice on How Online Learning Can Help You Break Into One
by Ysolt Usigan
Attendance and participation during parents' days at school... Lending a helping hand on homework activities such as making a 40-foot-long map of the solar system... Reading with your kids after school and before bed time... Vacations, road trips and day outings... How can any professional partake of all the joys and responsibilities of being a parent and still advance in a demanding job? Many have grappled with this question, so we asked three dads how they manage their parental priorities with challenging positions.
Read on for their advice on how eLearning helped pave the way to landing a family-friendly career.
'Fatherly' Advice on How Online Learning Can Help You Break Into One
by Ysolt Usigan
Attendance and participation during parents' days at school... Lending a helping hand on homework activities such as making a 40-foot-long map of the solar system... Reading with your kids after school and before bed time... Vacations, road trips and day outings... How can any professional partake of all the joys and responsibilities of being a parent and still advance in a demanding job? Many have grappled with this question, so we asked three dads how they manage their parental priorities with challenging positions.
Read on for their advice on how eLearning helped pave the way to landing a family-friendly career.
Jim Kerby of Wheaton, Ill.
Job Status: Project manager for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Family: Wife (Sue) and three kids (Tom, 10; Steve, 8; and Charlie, 6)
Fatherly Advice: Home computer-access is key when it comes to maximizing your family time. Jim Kerby is the head engineer for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Accelerator Project (an eight-year, $200 million international enterprise to develop, construct and deliver components for which should become the world's largest particle accelerator).
He is also the deputy head of engineering for the company's fabrication department and leads 100 employees. Sounds overwhelming, but he's quick to point out that he also finds time to ride his bike, play sports and travel with his sons. And he is in the process of earning his master's degree from Purdue University's Krannert School of Management (West Lafayette, Ind.).
Jim fits in all three areas of his life by taking some of his classes online and working on the LHC Accelerator Project at his convenience from home. Remote access to his company's network and the ability to set his own work and class schedules help the 41-year-old maximize his time. The only thing in Jim's life that he admits is suffering: his hobbies. "School is my current 'hobby' and then some, I guess," he says. "I'm reading textbooks as opposed to novels." And when it's time for dad to engage in his scholarly "hobby," his family acknowledges his commitment.
"I make sure my kids, in particular, understand that there will be times when I'll be in the house, but not to be disturbed," he explains. "But when you're spending time with your wife and kids, [concentrate] on them." Luckily, it's his organizational skills and ability to focus on whatever task is at hand that keep Jim's different roles balanced. None of his responsibilities is ever neglected, he points out.
"Blocking out time for family is critical to making it all work." Especially since his sons and his supportive wife are more important than any job or degree, he adds.
Brian Johnson of Milton, Pa.
Job Status: Director of Multicultural Affairs and special assistant to the president at Susquehanna University
Family: Wife (Darlene) and two kids (Casey, 24; Tom, 21; Aubyn, 8; and Analisa, 6)
Fatherly Advice: Working for a school is as family-friendly as it gets. It helps that Brian Johnson works for a very family-friendly institution, especially since he juggles a career as a department director and president's assistant at Susquehanna degree pursuit at Nova Southeastern University (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.).
Brian realizes being a full-time student with a family and a career can be a rough ride. In fact, the doctoral program he chose was to be completed within three years. Brian didn't finish on time on such a tight schedule. "In the middle of the second year of the program, I also changed jobs and fields so that set me back," he explains. "Plus, I never sacrificed time with my children for school."
The doctorate in education student was able to balance his personal life, two jobs and online schooling with the understanding that those roles remain in that order. "I am definitely a family man first," he attests. "My wife and kids are crucial to my existence; I will never stop living for them."
Lucky for Brian, his current position offers many perks with his family in mind. "It really helps to work at a university where so many people -- from the president down -- have young children," explains Brian. "We have a really family-oriented campus -- from hosting family picnics to holding family-friendly events during major student weekends in which our kids can take part."
To top it all off, when it comes time for Brian's kids to consider college, they'll have the option of going to Susquehanna for free.
Louie Heaton of Fort Worth, Texas
Job Status: Deputy program manager of F-16 Programs in Italy, Turkey and Venezuela for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.
Family: Wife (Valerie), two kids (Christine, 26; Christopher, 30), and two grandchildren (James Ryan, 6; Anna, 1)
Fatherly Advice: Seek great benefits, perks and compensation. Louie Heaton doesn't march to the money horn, but he understands that a company with reasonable compensation and excellent benefits are paramount when it comes to raising a family.
"My company recognizes the importance of creating a family-friendly environment -- and its subsequent positive impact on employee productivity," explains the deputy program manager. "The medical benefits are excellent and the holiday and vacation compensation are more than ample."
And as if that weren't enough to keep family-oriented professionals happy at Lockheed Martin, the organization boasts a work schedule that allows employees to have every other Friday off, providing more time to spend with family.
Now that Louie's two children are grown and married with their own families, the 52-year-old spends those free Fridays online taking classes. "Many positions within my company require a master's degree, plus the education I'm receiving is very applicable to my present business environment," he says.
His enrollment in the University of Phoenix's (Phoenix, Ariz.) master of arts in organizational management program is conducive to his lifestyle, he says. "Since I travel frequently [for work], an online degree was the only solution. As long as I have a phone line, I'm able to attend class."
Even with the demands of student status added to an intense career, Louie always places family at the top of his list. "Dealing with complex technical problems in an international environment makes the challenge of school and family all the more satisfying," he explains.
"My accomplishments can be shared with family and friends, all who've made a positive impact. It's important to maintain priorities and the perspective that family always comes first."
Next: Confessions of Three Work-From-Home Moms >>
Sep 5th 2009 @ 12:20AM prestit56
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Sep 5th 2009 @ 11:11AM akrsnp
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Sep 11th 2009 @ 6:37PM Sandra Speer
As I absorb another day’s messages of record high numbers of unemployment, starvation along with conflicting reports of employment and general profits going up, my mind wonders away from numbers to actual people. People are still primal animals that will satisfy their needs for survival by resorting to doing anything that pays for their food and shelter which is causing the unemployment numbers to go down and money to go back into the economy.
Ha, I laugh as I set out to avoid this latest offer of false hope by allowing my mind to travel to a fonder story. My mail carrier, glowing in his elegance and happiness to be new at his job, renewed my heart as I learned a lesson I will never forget. We are all equal and should be happy to be alive and doing whatever job we can acquire. I see that gentleman doing all that he can for all us on his route while I realize through conversation that he is new with the Post Office as a result of loving his family and losing his executive position with a major corporation that no longer exists. Only my Ms. Recession Scrooge landlord sees the differences in people, she thinks that her tenants are rats that don’t even deserve dry cages. Maybe my sophisticated mail carrier with his smile as he serves all with kindness worked for one of the automotive dealerships that closed recently to help narrow the profit margin for Mr. and Mrs. Recession Scrooge. I further contemplate whether or not the reporter that wrote of the positive numbers questioned his landlord as to why it was ok not to fix appliances, doors and leaking ceilings.
There are examples all around us; I am escorting you through these stories to help you understand why our country is in a recession. We avoid the truth and turn our heads if we see anyone needing anything at all. We have become a nation of selfish Recession Scrooges.
Mr. Recession Scrooge, did you know that while you are ignoring why people are living under bridges another child died by a garbage can? That child’s mother’s heart cried for time to go backward so that she could have begged the gasoline station owner to let them spend the night in the bathroom. Her daughter is dead with the reporter talking of numbers that are offering hope that the recession may be ending. Real tears touched my cheeks as I realized that it did not matter to her that the numbers were going up or down. The mother that watched her daughter die by the garbage can had suffered through her worst in this recession storm. According to Mr. Recession Scrooge and the reporter, her daughter was a necessary loss to the recession to help profit margins climb upward. The profit margin may climb upward, but her daughter climbed six feet under to never climb either way again.
I had some grapefruit for dinner, a treat. Fresh fruit is expensive. Processed sugar is, too. Good, my teeth are not as young as they used to be. Have you ever been hired if you could not smile with confidence? Even the dentist’s ads talk about that job-hiring smile with teeth. If you have no teeth, you are not employable. Yes, there is that prejudice regarding older people with dental problems they cannot afford to fix. Is affording a job living beyond your means? I just saw an article of choice among the Mr. and Mrs. Recession Scrooges, the title says it all, “Five Signs That You Are Living Beyond Your Means.” I have to chuckle, if you never have money for gas/food and your bills are getting paid later and later every month, you are probably living beyond your means. If you need further signs, we could add in the lost or painful teeth, the dead daughter or go the Humane Society and try to find the family pet that was put to sleep because no one had the money to feed him. The dead girl’s mother was glad that she had not told her daughter that Fido was dead. Not to mention the fact that Fido only understood that his family deserted him, he would have died at some point of either starvation or a broken heart anyway. Putting him to sleep was kind; he had no idea that he was considered another necessary victim of the recession.
Then I looked across the street at the beautiful house with boarded windows and doors. I didn’t see a for rent sign or a foreclosure sign. I wondered to myself what it would be like to own a house like that and how beautiful it could be. As I continued to dream of rocking on the front porch, I heard laughter coming from inside, which startled me into reality. I was forced to remember that the United States is in a recession as I saw the sad face of a child peering through one of the cracks in the window between the boards. She must have been eating mush as the electricity and water had been turned off. This is a time in history when those that are dying may possibly be better off than those of us that are trying to survive the recession. If we are going to live through this recession, we are going to have to pay attention to how our forefathers survived possibly worse times than these. We have to become a nation of people working together with our walls built out of prejudices torn down.
Ms. Recession Scrooge landlord arrived at my door dressed in her finery to gather my rent money. I almost did not recognize her because she looked like six other women I saw that day. I forgot to give her the money because I was wondering why human plastic didn’t crack. I also looked for empathy in her face and a hint that she may be a real person when I saw a faint sign of humanity coming from some part of her. My heart sank as I realized that she was only drooling over the money that I had not yet handed her. Oh, by the way, I saw a doctor the other day with a duffle bag over his shoulder walking aimlessly. When do you think this man that was once considered the elite among us will be able to afford his next job?
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