Blog

In the Driver's Seat

You’re 90% There

Tech women mentors

Career paths are long and confidence is an ephemeral thing. And in my experience, women need their confidence replenished more than men. A couple of years ago, I heard senior banker Heidi Miller talk about how women in business have an over-riding tendency to focus on what they lack, as opposed to what …
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Networking Oblivion

Shaking hands

Are you a good networker, even a great one? Do you invest plenty of time in LinkedIn, steadily building your contacts and sharing posts and other information with the group? Are you a faithful tweeter? Do you tend to see the possibilities in people, wanting to meet them instead of worrying about wasting …
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How To Not Be a Boring Speaker

How to Not Make A Boring Presentation

I have a number of presentations and workshops coming up this fall, and I’ve been thinking about how to structure my talks for maximum value and interest. In my research, I found a Tim Sanders blog post with a phrase that particularly bears repeating: “Do your research about the audience, where they need …
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What Do You Do and How’d You Get Your Start?

Networking at a meeting

Learn about different fields by asking those you meet about what they do and how they got their start.
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LinkedIn Lessons: How to Stand Out and Level the Playing Field

LinkedInHomepage

HR Consultant Judy Lindenberger offers tips to help you stand out on LinkedIn and shares some interesting research.
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Should You Change Your Major to Agree with Your Myers-Briggs Type?

Student assessment tests

Penelope Trunk’s blog post today on what college students should do now offers some great wisdom. But the one tip that really caught my eye was her suggestion to take a Myers-Briggs test to understand what you’re good at. She also suggests that if your score doesn’t agree with your chosen major, you should …
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Your (Smiling) Face Here

Smiley Face

In my line of work I spend a lot of time reviewing peoples’ profiles on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, et al. One of the biggest mistakes people make is having a less than appropriate photo on their profile. Profiles have become a way of life and virtually everyone has at least one. …
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How Communication Skills Can Get You the Job

Staff Cannot Communicate

I recently read two blog posts about the importance of communicating effectively in order to advance your career. On their resumes, most people offer that they have “excellent communication skills”—an exaggeration on the part of most people and also a very subjective thing to gauge. So you think you’re an excellent communicator? Then …
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For the College-Bound: Relevancy Will Be the Greatest Challenge

Kings College Chapel, Wikipedia

Dan Schawbel, the Gen Y personal branding guru, wrote a post last week that resonated with me on a number of levels. Point #5 of the post, entitled “Relevancy Will Become Our Greatest Challenge”, is as apt as the overblown claims that surround it. Who skims 800 blog posts a day, I ask. …
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What Works in Any Job Market

Maximize your impact

I just read a depressing statistic about the job market for new grads. According to a new study by Rutgers University, U.S. college graduates from 2011 have almost half of the graduates from 2010 to compete with in the job market. That is bad news for the career paths of both groups: for …
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