You can integrate Twitter into your job search activities and you can do it in 15 minutes a day (after some learning-curve time for setting up your account and reviewing the basics). It’s disturbingly easy to spend hours watching and responding to your Twitter stream—it’s as easy as spending hours applying to positions online, or…    Continue reading

If you are a compulsive business card collector, please stop it. Handing out your business card to 50 people you talked to for about 30 seconds each, not only makes you look self-serving and desperate, it also sends off a clear message that you’re most likely going to spam people with your newsletter, resume or…    Continue reading

You’re managing your career in tough times – probably like no downturn you’ve ever experienced. Even as financial markets improve, the structural, economic, and political aftershocks of the economic calamity will keep job search very competitive for many years. Even as overall trends improve, the markets will continue bouncing back and forth and back again….    Continue reading

How loyal are you to your employer? Would you be willing to cut pay, benefits, or hours to help keep your company afloat? Do you feel as if you and your company are “in this together”? If you said “No way!” to the above questions, you’re not alone. A new study by research giant Ipsos…    Continue reading

In today’s job market, you’ve encountered a huge, fundamental shift in the corporate world: many companies are no longer routinely grooming employees for long-term career advancement. Career development is now up to the individual. You must chart your own roadmap for career development, in order to be resilient when the job market fluctuates wildly. Now…    Continue reading

In a job interview, you may field questions about your situational behavior and decision making. That’s based on the premise that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Behavioral questions (often not even framed as a question) typically start out: “Tell me about a time…” or “Describe a situation…” Example questions are: “Tell…    Continue reading

Let’s talk about getting fired. So the boss calls you in to her office. Things haven’t been going well lately at the company. Sales are down. So is new hiring. You take a seat and your boss says, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but we need to let you go.” What do…    Continue reading

As a job seeker, your goal in an interview is twofold; you need to gather enough information to decide if you want to work at a company, and you need to convince the interviewer that you are the candidate for the position. Part of convincing the employer that your worthy of a role is showing…    Continue reading

To call today’s economy tough is like calling Moby Dick a big fish. Let’s face it, with the threat of double digit unemployment looming ahead it is down right scary for the vast majority of people I hear from each day. However, if you can stay focused, determined, upbeat and flexible these times offer opportunities…    Continue reading

This spring’s class of college graduates is part of a whole new generation – the Millennials.The mistake would be to assume they are like the generations that have gone before them. In our new book The M-Factor we help leaders understand how best to recruit, retain, manage, and motivate this next great generation.  We believe…    Continue reading

Until fairly recently the main measure of a company’s success was determined by its financial bottom line. Was it making a profit or was it sustaining losses? Although companies have been managing their activities by using their financial profits as their guiding light for a very long time, many stakeholders have sustained losses while the…    Continue reading

To be highly successful in your career requires that you engage in risk taking. But risk is accompanied by fear–fear that you’ll screw up, fear that others will judge you, and fear of the unknown. Confront your fear and use it as a motivator! The benefits of being a courageous risk taker are many. If…    Continue reading

One-half of US employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, up from two-fifths 10 years ago. Are you one of them? If you are seriously dissatisfied, it’s going to affect your attitude. And that may show up in your performance. It could also put you at risk of losing out to others who are more satisfied…    Continue reading

The world economy is in flux but emerging economies continue to drive significant growth for global enterprises. Global companies recognize that their best chances for success lie with recruiting managerial talent with international experience – it’s the big resume differentiator. For students who have studied abroad, this is good news, especially considering the contracting U.S….    Continue reading

In our modern world, we’re moving at such a rapid pace we often miss seeing extraordinary signs and messages that pop up in our daily life. Whether you’re a soldier in Afghanistan, a corporate executive, a parent, spouse, or employee, when you can slow down enough to recognize and listen to your intuition, it can…    Continue reading

Whether you’re working at home, overseas, or all over the world at once, the surefire way to become a success is to first be a great worker. No matter if you’re self-employed, CEO of a multi-national corporation, assistant manager, or a laborer, when you pre-pave your work experience you’re putting your focus on the “now”…    Continue reading

At some point in your career, you are going to have to ask for a raise (or a promotion or a better benefits package). You’ve been working hard at your job, and now is the time to reap more rewards. How do you approach your employer? What do you say, and how do you say…    Continue reading

Not all executives are leaders.  Not all managers are executives.  Not all career people are professional. Top company management usually comes from the ranks of those who sell the core business product-service, not from those on the firing line who deliver it.   That’s why in media, programming and news people rarely become management.  Since advertising…    Continue reading

I fled the cube 15 years ago to work as a freelance writer, and I’m happy to report that I’ve yet to be evicted from my home or wind up on food stamps. As a result, I’m constantly asked to share my top tips for would-be and newbie freelancers. Here are a few of my…    Continue reading

“If you see a fork in the road, take it,” and “You can observe a lot by watching” are some of the many one-line quips of baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra.  Yogi’s comments are both fun and a blinding flash of the obvious that often draw us back to simple truths.  My favorite is…    Continue reading