Don’t hold a meeting without an agenda

April 22nd, 2004

A meeting is a like a party. If you don't plan it carefully you’ll look incompetent and end up embarrassed. Forethought is necessary. You wouldn't invite three ex-boyfriends to a game of Twister with your mom, and you wouldn't plan a costume party without letting people know the theme in advance. While you might not …

What if I lied on my resume?

Posted to: Office Politics | Resumes

April 18th, 2004

Some recruiters say that as many as one in five job hunters lies on their resume.
Why isn’t this news plastered on the front page of The Wall Street Journal? Quite frankly, it’s because we all know businesspeople lie – the issue is how bad are the lies?
Some people make a distinction between the falsehoods that …

Don’t be a generalist — Typecast yourself

Posted to: Finding a career | Job Hunt | Productivity | Promoting Yourself | Recruiters

April 9th, 2004

During the Internet’s go-go days in the late 1990s, I thought the term generalist meant “she's doing two jobs and pays herself double.” Now it seems the word generalist means “good at nothing and unemployed.” In either case, generalist is the label for a career that will die.
Think cars: You never hear an advertiser say, …