Chances are good that you’ve recently made or will soon be making one or more decisions that will impact your career success, although you might not realize that if your decisions are made without looking at them from all sides first. Being clear about what you’re aiming for in terms of career results is sound advice–a good place to start. Ben Stein (an American writer, lawyer, actor and commentator) put it this way: “The f...

By now, I think most people realize that they have a brand, whether or not they pay much attention it. However, since so much information is available about you online these days, ignoring your online brand and reputation is risky at best. How Do You Manage Your Personal Brand Online? William Arruda is widely recognized as the guru of personal branding. A recent post by Tara Kachaturoff in Arruda’s online publication, The P...

It’s the start of a new year, and you probably have a list of things you need or want to do. Looking at your resume might not be one of them unless you’re on the verge of launching a serious job search. (Some people don’t do it even then, although they should!)The fact is, any point at which you’re not in or planning a near-term job search is an excellent time to haul out your existing resume and dust off the cobwebs. For o...

With all that’s been going on in the world during the past months and years, you might roll your eyes at the very thought that you could pursue career success without fear this year, and it would be hard to blame you. However, I’d like to offer some encouragement with this thought: fear paralyzes; hope energizes.I know it’s easier said than done to tell you to put fear aside as you plan your career steps this year. Like you...

Did your new year get off to a strong start? If not, don’t worry. There’s plenty of time to make a course correction. However, if you were thinking about launching a new job search this year, you’ve already missed your chance to gain early momentum (late December would have been a good time for that). As the saying goes, though, “all is not lost.” You just need to get cracking!Key Points for Your Job SearchAs the Greek phil...

The thought that no one hires toward the end of the year is a topic I’ve covered before, but I think it’s worth another quick look as Christmas and other holiday celebrations take center-stage in people’s lives.Year-End Hiring Dormant or Nearly So?Conventional wisdom often says that you might as well “hang it up” until at least the first of the new year as far as job searching or other career management activities goes. How...

As a professional resume writer, I have to acknowledge up front that I have a bit of bias on the subject of resumes–especially when I read (as I usually do) a column by Ask The Headhunter’s Nick Corcodillos, who basically considers resumes most suitable as garbage-can liners!In a recent post, titled “The Magic Resume Calculator: Save 95% of your job hunting time!,” Corcodillos does, however, make good points that I can agre...

Recently I published a post about midlife (or other) career change. Related to that is the situation that too many people face–being in a lousy (read: toxic) work situation that clearly isn’t going to get substantially better soon, if ever.During this year-end holiday period, you might benefit from carving out at least some time to consider your current work environment and decide whether it’s great from start to finish, sa...

Companies theoretically want to hire high-performance employees, and if that describes you, you probably want to be hired by a company that will recognize and appreciate the value you bring to it. The trick is, how do companies determine ahead of time whether someone will be a high performer and how do you present yourself in that light to prospective employers? Is it all about talent or does hard work play a part?5 Signs o...

The phrase “midlife career change” is nothing new. It’s something that’s been occurring for decades, maybe even centuries. However, there are some aspects these days that might make career change–midlife or otherwise–more challenging or at least challenging in different ways than in the past.Midlife Career Change–What’s InvolvedTwo broad scenarios can apply to these situations. Either you’re considering a career change volu...