I love this post from one of the smartest college students – if not the smartest – I know.  Ben Casnocha suggests that if you want to find out what someone really does for a living, ask him what he does ''on a day-to-day basis.'' According to Ben, typically when you ask someone, ''What do you do?'' you get a grand, idealized vision of what ...

To rally those who have lost their jobs or are facing possible job loss in the current devastated economic climate, Quintessential Careers has created Job Action Day. Job Action Day, which is today, aims to empower workers and job-seekers to take proactive steps to shore up their job and career outlook.  As a blogger in this space, ...

A friend who is in the Communications department at the American Psychological Association kindly provided me with the just-released results of their Stress in America survey, broken down by generations.  As soon as I read it, I was itching to share the key findings with you:    The Stress in America survey was conducted online ...

I’ve encountered a lot of couples where one person has left his or her job to support the career of the other.  Typically, one spouse is an accomplished entrepreneur, so the other pitches in to help grow the business – often in a subordinate role. I’m wondering how many of you would do this if you had the chance.  It would ...

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 Work Environment (ROWE) concept, which they pioneered with electronics giant ...

A few months ago, I met Lia, a woman who has done what I think is a very sensible thing with her career – fulfilling her desire to make a difference in the world in the context of working for a large company – so I thought I’d share her story here.   When Lia chose to transition from the non-profit to the corporate sector, she wanted to ...

Anita Bruzzese has an interesting post on mothers’ influence on career success.  Anita cites the work of a psychologist, Stephan Poulter, who has written a new book, The Mother Factor: How Your Mother's Emotional Legacy Impacts Your Life. The book’s thesis is that whether we acknowledge it or not, our mothers leave an indelible impression on ...

The other night, I was watching a re-run of an episode of Wife Swap.  I’ve seen this show before, and more often than not one of the characters is a stay-at-home-mom who acts very self-righteous about the fact that it is her job to take care of her children, and that it’s not appropriate to allow anyone else to be involved.   I’ve ...

Marketing guru Seth Godin has just set a bunch of us wondering if we really and truly are workaholics. I always thought I was.  After all, I’m driven to work 50+ hours a week.  It’s not enough just to be in the office, I actually have to be contributing something.  If I spend an entire day that’s completely unproductive, I feel ...

Resolute (adj):  firmly resolved or determined; set in purpose or opinion. Tomorrow begins a New Year, and as such, it is the time of New Years Resolutions.  It’s a common joke that we Americans are very fond of making a list of items we want to achieve in the new year – from losing weight and getting in shape to taking a ...