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  Career Lessons from a Hollywood Producer There are a lot of books out there on how to achieve job satisfaction and get ahead in the business world, but few are from the viewpoint of someone with a front row seat in the always-elusive entertainment industry. That’s what I found interesting about... 07-18-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: People Skills, Personal Development, Personal Marketing, Professionalism, Work

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  8 Ways to Save Money Today I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from desperate folks who are short on cash and are hoping against hope that they can get a raise at work. But just in case they can’t, over at Brazen Careerist , Alex Fisher has some great ideas for saving money during... 07-16-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Current Affairs, Handy Resources

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  4 Day Work Week is a Reality in Utah According to USA Today , this summer Utah will become what experts say is the first state to institute a mandatory four-day work week for most state employees. Gov. Jon Huntsman, a first-term Republican, says he's making the change to reduce the state's... 07-14-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Current Affairs, Employment Trends, News and Politics, Work

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  Living in Peace in the Present Moment Have you ever noticed that when you spend too much time dwelling on the past, you get depressed about how certain situations played out and what you could have done differently? And when you are always looking ahead to the future, you get anxious about... 07-11-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Emotional Intelligence, Life Balance, Personal Development

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  Surviving Your Company’s Merger In his bestsellers Brand Warfare and Career Warfare , author David D'Alessandro offered sharp advice for building a brand and building a career. His new book, Executive Warfare is the advanced class for the truly ambitious. The book covers what it takes... 07-09-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Current Affairs, Business, Management, Troubleshooting

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  Should You – and Can You – Get a Temp Job? I’ll be honest. I always thought that going to a temp agency was a waste of time. This perception comes from the fact that when I was in college in the late 90s, I visited a few firms, filled out reams of paperwork, took a few computer tests, did several... 07-07-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Career Change, Employment Trends, Handy Resources, Job Hunting, Work

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  Inconsistency: Accept It and Move On I love the show Jon and Kate Plus 8 . For those of you who might not be familiar with it, it’s a reality program on TLC that follows thirtysomething Pennsylvania parents Jon and Kate as they raise seven year-old twins and four year-old sextuplets. I like... 07-04-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Emotional Intelligence, People Skills, Work

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  4 Tips for Avoiding Fan Worship My friend Pam Slim over at Escape from Cubicle Nation has a great post on how to tread the fine line between expressing admiration for someone and fan worship. Straight from the ECN blog are 4 “fan traps” to avoid. I’ve been known to do some of these... 07-02-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Mentoring, Networking, People Skills, Professionalism

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  Qualities of Good Presidents and Good Employees I love this post from Michael McKinney at Leading Blog . It’s based on a new book from Alvin Felzenberg, The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game . Felzenberg devised six criteria to best describe various... 06-30-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Best Practices, Management, Personal Development, Professionalism

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  Career Lessons from Bill Gates So Bill Gates is preparing to retire as CEO of Microsoft . Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen founded Microsoft on April 4, 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to make and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, an early computer that was sold... 06-27-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Attitude & Motivation, Creativity & Innovation, Current Affairs, Entrepreneurship, Management, Ownership & Initiative, Technology

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  Easing Commuter Shock: The New In-Demand Perk? I was recently interviewed for Yahoo! Hot Jobs for a story on how the continuing upward pressure on gas prices is forcing many workers to change how they get to their jobs and to seek added benefits that offset commuting costs. In a recent survey by the... 06-25-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Compensation, Employment Trends, HR Issues, Daily Life, News and Politics

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  5 Ways to Make HR Love You Admittedly, staying on HR’s good side is probably not at the top of your list of managerial priorities, but HR has the power to make your life easier…or very difficult. Over at HR Capitalist , Kris Dunn has five great tips for how managers can make HR... 06-23-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Best Practices, HR Issues, Management

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  Boost Your Earning Power with the Power of Language Did you know that the most accurate predictor of earning power is literacy? Literacy does not just mean being able to read, but also refers to your command of written language. I recently read an article by Steve Kaufmann at LingQ , a company that provides... 06-20-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Continuing Education, Handy Resources, Personal Development, Productivity, Professionalism

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  What Defines Success? Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about success at work, and how it means different things to different people. When I first graduated college, I thought success was setting and then achieving a goal to reach a certain level. But for someone who is naturally... 06-18-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Attitude & Motivation, Ownership & Initiative, Personal Development, Plans, Hopes, Goals

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  Go Home with Some of the World’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs Have you ever wondered how super-successful business owners with millions of customers get started? Surprisingly, many don’t spend years toiling in Fortune 500 brand powerhouses, some had no money or no connections going in, and some weren’t even trained... 06-16-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Cool Careers, Entrepreneurship, Business, Work

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  Employees Sent to the Parking Lot? I heard a preposterous story about a CEO who arrived at his new company – a medium-sized business with about 100 people in his location – and proceeded to order all of the employees into the parking lot. “You all are to stay out here until further notice,”... 06-13-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Office Politics, Ownership & Initiative, Personal Development, Personal Marketing, Reviews & Promotions

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  At the End of the Day, You Have to Be Yourself Last week, I gave a talk on twenty-first century recruitment and retention at the American Society of Training and Development’s annual conference in San Diego. While I was there, I attended a few “train the trainer” sessions on improving your technique... 06-11-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Attitude & Motivation, Communication, People Skills, Professionalism

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  Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It Can you imagine a workplace with no pointless meetings, no boss hovering over your shoulder, and no punishment for arriving at 9:05AM? Two online friends of mine, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson , have just released a new book based on their popular Results-Only... 06-09-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Attitude & Motivation, Creativity & Innovation, Employment Trends, Business, HR Issues, Life Balance, Productivity, Work

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  Get By With a Little Help from Your Friends Although 2008 has been pretty good so far, 2007 was a doozy, and it has taken me a little while to recover. I’ve experienced a crisis of confidence, and only recently started talking to my friends about it. My radio show co-hosts, Christine Hassler and... 06-06-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Attitude & Motivation, Communication, People Skills, Personal Development, Troubleshooting

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  Ladies Who Launch Abound As many of you know, I am writing a new book on drastic career change to be published by Random House/Ballantine Books in 2009. I've been scouting out potential interviewees for a few months now, and I've noticed a very interesting phenomenon. There is... 06-04-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Career Change, Employment Trends, Entrepreneurship, Life Balance

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  Read the Clues Before You Take the Job Far too often, I see or hear about people jumping into new job situations, either because they’re desperate to be employed or because they get overzealous after a really good interview. But rushing into a job is like rushing into a relationship – a lack... 06-02-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Job Hunting, Networking, Troubleshooting, Work

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  Surviving the Interview – On No Experience In his book How to Win Friends and Influence People , author and motivational guru Dale Carnegie says that the person who can speak acceptably is usually considered to possess greater ability than he actually has. In my experience, this is true. If you... 05-30-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Entry Level, Best Practices, Communication, Job Hunting, Personal Marketing

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  The Quest for Happiness with Gretchen Rubin - Continued Here’s the second part of last week’s interview with happiness expert Gretchen Rubin, who has a terrific blog called The Happiness Project and is currently working on a memoir about her own quest for happiness. Alex: Is happiness overrated? If not, why... 05-28-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Attitude & Motivation, Career Change, Life Balance, Personal Development, Blogging

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  Hot Fields' Lower Salaries Leave Candidates Cold We've talked periodically about the impact that the economy's downturn is having on the job market. Last week, in the new Outside Voices blog that recruitment guru Joel Cheesman is writing for U.S. News and World Report, the topic is compensation in traditionally... 05-26-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Compensation, Current Affairs, Employment Trends, HR Issues, Job Hunting

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  Dream Job Spotlight: Interview with Kori, Event Planner (Part II) We’re continuing our conversation with Kori Carter, an event planner with her own business, Kori Elizabeth Events . Alex: What personality traits do you think it takes to be successful in your job? Kori: Being bossy, neurotic (in a good way), organized,... 05-23-2008, 8:00 AM by AlexandraLevit to Water Cooler Wisdom Filed under: Cool Careers