What’s Your Worth?

There are certain employees who are worth their weight in gold, and there are others who should be thrown to the curbside.  Which are you, you ask?  The more cherished employee, of course, reflects a higher value to the employer.  The latter of the two shows up for work, completes the job, and no more.

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How to be a Contender in a Job Interview

You’ve ended up with a job interview, congratulations, you now have a chance to charm a prospective employer face-to-face.  Job interview is the most essential task within the employment seeking course of action.  Employment interviewing by no means appears to get any simpler – even if you go on much more job interviews than you

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Newest Professions, Growing Salaries

The latest directory of job titles from Occupational Information Network (O*Net) features a variety of new entries that many people have never heard before. Some of these jobs — at least the duties — have been around in some form for a while. What’s new is a “professional pathway” for these careers, according to employment

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Smart Risks vs. Foolish Risks

Playing it safe with your career may seem smart. But to really get ahead, you may need to take some risks. “Nothing gives your career a boost like succeeding at a risk,” says Sheila Wellington, author of “Be Your Own Mentor” and a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “It helps you

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The Power of Saying Thank-You at Work

It’s the time of year when we gather with friends and family to give thanks for the good things in our lives (and to stuff ourselves with turkey and other goodies). But gratitude can also be helpful in another important setting: the workplace. Famed business leader and author Dale Carnegie believed that “the big secret

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What Not to Say in an Interview

Interviews are always pretty difficult. You’re nervous. You don’t have a lot of personal space. You’re forced to answer multiple questions back to back with no time to rest. And your whole professional future seems to depend on this one tiny thing. Terrifying! So it’s easy to understand why so many interviewees depend on cliches

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What procedures prevent discrimination?

Disabled employees need not follow regular procedures to achieve reasonable accommodation A U. S. Court of Appeals has held that an employer cannot require a disabled employee to follow the regular procedures for requesting a transfer. It was up to the employer to find her a reasonable accommodation, and to implement it.

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Getting to the Bottom Of CEO Compensation

Since markets turned shaky, a new round of jawflapping about the unseemliness of executive compensation practices has gathered steam. One business magazine that shall remain nameless even called it “The Great CEO Pay Heist.” Of particular fanfare was Apple’s bestowal on Steve Jobs of a stock-option package valued at $548 million. Something clearly has come

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Get Management Advice From an Unlikely Source

Maybe it’s the English major in me, but over the years I’ve derived more practical wisdom and guidance from the world’s great works of literature than from self-help, career and management advice books. I’m an employment counselor by vocation. I’m no snob — I glean words to live and work by wherever I find them.

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Strategies for Making Your Dream Job a Reality

Fantasies can come true. Just ask Ann Krcik, a rock climber who dreamed about quitting her marketing-operations job to work with fellow adventurers in the great outdoors. She made the leap by launching a Salt Lake City, Utah, firm that represents “extreme” athletes, signing them up to appear in commercials, and as models and motivational

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Moving From the Military Into a Civilian Job

Switching from a military to a civilian career is a big step. It also can be extremely difficult. Military officers may be highly qualified for many business positions. However, their backgrounds are so different from those of typical executives that employers often can’t tell if — and where — they’d fit. To start with, military

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Get Career-Changing Experience By Temping

By payroll size, the biggest U.S. employer isn’t General Motors Corp. or Wal-Mart Stores. It’s Manpower Inc., a temporary services firm in Milwaukee, which employs 760,000. Manpower sends all types of employees into companies to fill temporary roles ranging from traditional filing and typing to complex computer, marketing or finance positions. Because these jobs aren’t

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What Does It Take To Change Careers?

Switching from a military to a civilian career is a big step. It also can be extremely difficult. Military officers may be highly qualified for many business positions. However, their backgrounds are so different from those of typical executives that employers often can’t tell if — and where — they’d fit.

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Free Time Is Elusive For Many Free Agents

Despite the corporate layoff announcements piling up, the overall employment picture is still quite healthy. What better time to go into business for yourself? If you’ve yearned for the freedom of being your own boss, be warned: Experienced independent professionals will tell you that there’s little that’s “free” about being a free agent.

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Make a Living While Making a Difference

Wendy Brawer was an English teacher in Japan vacationing in Bali when she noticed how peaceful, rural hideaways were turning into tourist hotels. When she returned to the U.S., she was determined to shift environmental attitudes. She eventually hit upon the idea of helping communities create maps of their ecological and cultural resources. In 1995,

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Five Practical Ways To Change Careers

One reason many people find it difficult to change careers is they think they have to do it in one big leap. Another is simple inertia — it’s easier to stay with the familiar pain of doing what they don’t like than brave the unknown. But you don’t have to change careers in one fell

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