Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
Recently, a jobseeker wrote to us with this question: “I need some advice on what to say to potential employers about the reason for leaving my past job. I received a message today from a company with a possible job, and I don’t want to miss out on the opportunity. I was dismissed from my last job because an employee starting a rumor about me…"
Although the common wisdom is that the holidays are a bad time to do a job search, you can make the time very productive for yourself. While it’s true that fewer people leave positions during the holiday season (hanging on for year end bonuses and office parties) they do tend to begin the new year by making career moves. January is the start of the new calendar year and often the fiscal year, so many departments start filling positions that have been sitting vacant.
In a world where stressed out and boorish job candidates are the norm, you can really stand out as a job candidate by exhibiting classy behavior. Here are some ways to prove that your mama raised you well.
Matthew Barrett, founder of Brain Trainers, was the speaker for our November 18 WorkSource Professional Network meeting. The primary reason people can’t remember facts, faces or names is that they can’t retrieve the information from their long term memory – what Barrett calls the “file cabinet.” Some information never gets from short-term memory – he calls it “the desktop” to long-term. Some information is filed, but may not be easily retrieved upon command. There are a couple of factors that can inhibit memory and recall.
Matthew Barrett, founder of Brain Trainers, is the speaker for our November 18 WorkSource Professional Network meeting. He says that there are five ways you can move information from your short-term “desktop” to your long-term “file cabinet.”
Matthew Barrett, founder of Brain Trainers, is the speaker for our November 18 WorkSource Professional Network meeting. Barrett has a Masters degree in Psychology and calls himself a “personal trainer for the brain.” His lessons take cutting-edge cognitive neuroscience and turn the science into entertaining and accessible presentations for his audience. We spent some
Barbara Sher’s book, I Could Do Anything, If I Only Knew What it Was, is a great read. Sher takes the time to she reveals how to “recapture long lost goals, overcome the blocks that inhibit your success, decide what you want to be, and live your dreams.” Sher has a formula for deciding what you really want to do (which may or may not be related to what you’re doing now.) Then she helps you plan steps to get there.
We humans react strongly to color. Color theory is an important element of any design, and it played a part in the clothes you’re wearing right now. In this recent political season, you can bet that many stylists spent many hours helping candidates send the right message through style and color. If you can’t afford your own personal stylist, here are some general tips on color in the interview.
Many people are stuck in place by circumstances and trying to find a job that will make them whole, bring them back to where they were in their last position. That, of course, should be the long-term plan. But your short-term plan could be to find work to replace the safety net (unemployment compensation) income you are receiving.
If you’re planning to relocate to another city, your jobs search complexity increases by a factor of five: distance, time, cost, market intelligence and the challenge of building a network long distance.
