While visiting relatives in our hometown of Tulsa last week, I found myself on kitchen duty with my brother-in-law one afternoon. Cleaning the kitchen during the holidays is somewhat like trying to hit a moving target, because the activity never really ends — it just reaches a lull between two peaks.
But we eventually conquered the task, and with a final triumphant flourish I closed the door of the dishwasher and bent down to start the machine. When I hesitated for a moment to familiarize myself with the settings, my brother-in-law …

During a recent conversation, a friend started talking about a bad experience he had the other day with an overbearing and disingenuous salesperson. He felt like the salesperson’s persona — hair, smile, language, clothing, jewelry, etc. — was just an act only slightly less transparent than that of a circus clown. He described with great disgust how the salesperson was willing to “fudge the numbers” a little to close the deal.
Then my friend said something totally unexpected:
“It’s all this ‘personal branding’ stuff that just makes me sick.” [You can …

As a follow-up to my recent post about the value of a consultant, I wanted to share this related post I just came across from KnowHr entitled “10 Ways to Know It’s Time to Dump Your Consultant.”

clipped from www.knowhr.com

If he says “synergize” more than three times in 5 minutes.
If he’s talking about your business plan on his cellphone earpiece while boarding an airplane.
If he’s so full of himself that he takes his jacket off and tries to hand it to the pilot to hang up. (Sorry, sir, I don’t …

The informational interview is one of the most useful and yet under-utilized career management tools. I’ve become a big proponent of informational interviews ever since conducting my first one several months ago. When I’m among job seekers, I often ask if they are including informational interviews as part of their strategy. Many have never heard of them, and many of those who have tend to shy away from them. If you are not using informational interviews, you are missing a great opportunity.
What is an informational interview?
Sometime called an informational meeting, …

In her Shifting Careers blog this week, Marci Alboher shares an interesting self-assessment exercise. It is designed by career coach Michael Melcher (aka The Creative Lawyer) for people who are searching for passion in their careers.
According to Melcher, many of his clients don’t know what they want to do with their careers; they may have multiple interests and don’t know how to choose among them. They may have done so much self-analysis that they can “speak very fluently about the issues but find it difficult to make actual decisions.”
One way …

Many companies are starting to offer flexible work arrangements as one way to retain the best talent. But is that enough to attract and retain talented employees over the long haul, or is it a stop-gap measure? Is it time to fundamentally change the way we think about careers?
In an interesting article from today’s Financial Times, Alison Maitland reviews the concept of “mass career customization” developed and used by the consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tomatsu. The model encourages employees to tailor their careers around their own needs, goals, and priorities, …

One of my good friends called me last night, and our conversation soon turned to concerns about a consultant he had recently hired for his start-up company. Like many new start-ups, he and his partners are experts in their field, and they are passionate about their products and services, but they lack administrative skills. Consequently, they have found themselves struggling to manage projects effectively and maintain adequate cash flow.
The company hired a consultant to help them work through some of these issues, and my friend was wondering if they made …

If you’ve ever driven I-90 through South Dakota, you’ve no doubt seen the signs for Wall Drug. We stopped at Wall Drug several years ago during a road trip, and I marveled at how they were able to turn a small town drug store into a major tourist destination.
Mike Gunderloy at Web Worker Daily has some excellent observations about how we can apply some principles learned from Wall Drug to our own personal branding and marketing:

Have a simple, consistent, actionable message
Find a memorable hook
Be ubiquitous
Widen your niche

I’d like to offer …

I referred to a column written by Marci Alboher a couple of months ago, and that led me to start reading her columns periodically. I was pleased to discover recently that Marci is now writing a new blog for the New York Times called Shifting Careers.
If you haven’t discovered Marci’s writings, you should check out her blog. It is very well written, entertaining, and insightful. She writes about what she calls the “slash” or “/” career, as in her personal experience as a “corporate lawyer/journalist/speaker/writing coach/and now columnist/blogger.” Perhaps I …

Are you thinking about changing careers? If so, you are in good company (more about that in a moment).
The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics reports that the average worker makes more than three career changes during their working life. That’s career changes — not job changes. Careers can transcend many job changes, so the actual number of jobs can be much higher (I’ve heard estimates ranging from five to eight job changes during a working life).
Career changes can be risky, scary, and overwhelming — especially the older you …