Displaying All Posts in the Career category

How to Make the Right Choices After Getting Fired

Did I tell you about the time I got fired?

It was my first job out of college. I was working as an accountant at a small firm doing tax returns for small businesses. It was run by three partners. Nice guys. But after four months, they weren’t happy with my work. And they shouldn’t have been. I was slow and made a lot of mistakes. I was a lousy accountant. Click Here to Read Article …

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Office Campaigns and Crusades

My recent article about dealing with unreasonable bosses and unreasonable requests generated a lot of debate. Some readers agreed with me that you often need to simply grin and bear it until you can get a better job, for various practical and financial reasons. Others argued that the best course of action is to always fight back, to demand fair treatment, and to put your ethics above your wallet. One person even suggested contacting a union representative, but that really only works in the 1950s or in France (which amounts to the same thing).

Because this is such an important issue for the people it affects, I think it deserves a little more discussion. Click Here to Read Article …

How to Get Ready to Be Promoted

Sorry you didn’t get the promotion. Who knew Larry over there had potential to be middle management?

I know you have the potential too. But it’s just not your time. When will it be your time? You need to take these steps first.

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How to Make Yourself Indispensable

In this economy, job security is a bit shaky. It’s more important than ever to excel at your job. If you have a good job, or one you’re enduring until you find that dream job, make yourself irreplaceable. This is how I did it.

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Projecting the Right Image: 5 Tips For Having a Great Professional Portrait Taken

Whether you need a headshot to serve as your Twitter avatar or to accompany your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, blog or official work bio, having a great portrait is more important than ever for today’s savvy professional. Here are five key tips to get that picture-perfect photo:

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Internal Hiring: How to Be the Right Candidate

You’ve been with your company for a little while now. You’re great at your job but you’re thinking you could use a little more challenge. Or change. Or both. You’ve invested some time with this company and you like the culture, the business, and the benefit plan. But there’s still something missing. You don’t want to leave and start again at a new company, so what are your options?

You can settle and just keep doing the same job, hoping for opportunities to pop up to stimulate you or your career, or you can be proactive, and look at other departments and try working with them. This gets you the benefit of starting a new job with the security of staying within a company that you already love. No, this isn’t the same as dating your ex-wife’s sister just because you love the family – that’s a different article altogether. This is more like finding the right fit for you and your development. Maybe a better (or worse) analogy is thinking that any piece of the jigsaw can be made to fit – but it might not look quite right, and it’s usually not that good for the puzzle, especially the puzzle piece. If you know you aren’t fitting in quite right, it’s your responsibility to find where you belong.

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This is Not in My Job Description

For those of you who are young, idealistic, and just brimming with shiny hopes and dreams, I have some unfortunate news: Life isn’t fair. Nor is it reasonable, rational, sensible, logical, nice, or fluffy. Life is strange, ridiculous, cruel, fantastic, bizarre, whimsical, capricious, and just a little bit dirty.

I tell you this because one day, possibly one day quite soon, your boss (or someone who wields even more power over your fragile working existence) is going to ask you to do something that you don’t think you should be doing. And you are going to be very unhappy about it. Click Here to Read Article …

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How to Get Hired at a Startup

There are 1,523 articles about how to get noticed, be presentable, and format a résumé for getting hired at a big company with a real HR department.

OK, I admit I made that number up.  But there’s a lot.

But what about getting hired at a little startup? What if you want to be employee #10?  Or #1? Surely the rules aren’t the same when there is no HR department, no recruiter, and the founder is going to show up to the interview (at the coffee shop since there’s no office) wearing Birkenstocks and a T-Shirt that says:

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