Originally published March 19, 2016 A funny thing happened on my way to bed the other night: I got dumped as a mentor. If you’re a mentor – and I recommend that everyone mentor someone in his or her lifetime – how do you know when it’s time to stop mentoring? Perhaps you’ve taught all…
Originally published February 3, 2015 You’ve submitted more than 200 applications, résumés, and cover letters in the last six months. You’ve made impressions at numerous job fairs. Somehow, though, you’ve been on less than a score of interviews. What are prospective employers missing here? Moreover, what might you be missing in all this? As this…
Originally published January 15, 2015 One of my connections on LinkedIn wrote me to compliment me on what he describes as a unique background. Specifically, he clarified, mine is a long list of diverse job experiences. I’m grateful to him for pointing this out. After he mentioned it, I started looking at my experience a…
Originally published December 24, 2014 Do you sometimes feel braggy when crafting your CV or résumé? Do you think you come across as cocky during job interviews? Crazy thing is that in business – and job hunting is your business – it’s not bragging at all. It’s marketing. More to the point, it’s self-marketing, or…
Originally published May 25, 2014 I love Career Day. Every year I visit schools to share from my professional life with middle- and high-school students. Every year I tell myself to write down the many deep, insightful, and often humorous questions and comments that students share, and then I forget to do so. Every year…
Originally published August 2, 2013 Good morning, Colleagues, I have off from work today. I’m not sick. There was no emergency. I’m not working from home. I have off. I took a vacation day on the heels of our finance audit, which is just an e-mail or two away from completion. Why should you care…
Originally published February 5, 2013 There’s a line in “Heat” (starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino), in which Pacino’s cop character yells – as only Pacino can – at an informant from the underworld about wasting his time. Expletives aside, it glaringly came to mind when a mild-mannered colleague very politely expressed this very sentiment…
Originally published August 31, 2012 We’ve all done it: fired off that text message, only to catch our errors later; or sent that e-mail from our phone and see our mistakes when we receive that quizzical reply. I’ve stooped so low as to send a follow up “correction” text message followed by some slanderous remark…
Originally published August 25, 2012 A few recent requests from students and community advocates who wish me to take them up on public speaking offers really have me thinking. Do I have a few motivational talks left in me? Then it occurred to me: That may be ALL I have left in me! I remember…
Originally published November 2, 2011 A client my firm dropped some months ago came after me to re-enlist our consulting services. They didn’t agree with our reasons for shedding them from our client roster. Ours was a shattered relationship of broken promises, missed deadlines, unfulfilled commitments, ruthless accusations, and irrational justifications. (Not on the firm’s…