Manners Matter
Along with cursive penmanship and letter writing, formal etiquette seems to be a lost art. Do manners still matter in the age of texting and flip flops at the White House?
Along with cursive penmanship and letter writing, formal etiquette seems to be a lost art. Do manners still matter in the age of texting and flip flops at the White House?
Taleb likens people who don’t prepare for randomness to turkeys in mid-November; they’re happy, but not likely to survive.
You can do this. What you’re doing may feel completely novel, and you may see only a handful of people around you (or none at all) who are starting over in mid-life the way you are. But this is an illusion—thousands of others have come this way before you, and you’re by new means the first to blaze this trail. Even more important: if this is the best path to your next step, then it’s the best path.
The Friday before Mother’s Day (in 2014, May 9) is the day set aside to officially recognize the role of military spouses. President Ronald Reagan started the tradition of Military Spouse Appreciation Day in 1984, and the date was standardized by the Secretary of Defense. This post is my gift to my fellow military spouses. My husband served for over 20 years in the U.S. Navy, and I know how challenging it is to find and keep meaningful employment when you follow your spouse across the country – or the world – when he or she transfers to a new duty station.
Bob Burg is a networking expert who is well known for his philosophy on relationships (from his book Endless Referrals): “All things being equal, people do business with, and refer business to people they know, like and trust.”
What are you doing every day to make sure more people know you, like you and trust you?
Too many jobseekers ask their resume to do the work of their network. When it comes to getting results, it’s not even close.
The Bachelor’s degree may have slowed down as a a way for a candidate to stand out. With over 30% of adults now holding a Bachelor’s degree, ‘standing-out’ with respect to education may require job applicants to have more sophisticated training. This may be true both at the beginning of a career and as you climb in an organization. In some job environments, experience can only take you so far. To be considered for executive level positions, you may need an advanced degree.
I was shocked to read about the emails sent by a woman who includes in her email signature “2013 International Association of Business Communicators communicator of the year.” Her name is Kelly Blazek, and she runs a 7,300-subscriber JobBank newsletter based in Cleveland, Ohio. She’s supposed to be helpful (and a great communicator) but after her condescending and downright nasty emails to young careerists became public, she’s doing a lot of damage control. What was she thinking?
An unfortunate paradox pervades the job market: the longer an average person has been out of work, the more likely she becomes to lowering her standards, widening her range of options, ignoring employer red flags, and behaving in ways that don’t benefit her long term interests. This is perfectly natural, and in most cases, it’s a logical and intelligent response to a serious problem.
If you once thought you had everything figured out, you had all the answers, and you were a winner through and through, welcome to a new reality: one in which you don’t know everything, you have lots to learn, and every social gathering is filled with people who can teach you.