Penelope Trunk

Archives

Five ways to make yourself a workplace superstar

Posted to: Office Politics | Productivity
September 27th, 2007
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It’s fun to be a superstar. You get a lot of accolades. But the real benefit to being a workplace superstar is that you have more control over your life. A superstar gets flextime. A superstar gets to take a five-month sabbatical and have their job held for them. Superstars are so top-flight that they’d …

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Business schools shift to accommodate the biological clock

Posted to: Parenting | Women
September 26th, 2007
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Harvard just announced that it will change the timeline of business school enrollment as a way to attract “a wider range of applicants” Read: Women. Right now women start businesses at two times the rate of men and women do better in school than men do, but women make up less than one-third of the …

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4 Weight-loss tips from my month in the mental ward

September 25th, 2007
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Most people who are overweight blame their job for their inability to eat right and get enough exercise. Too much work, too tired after work, too much travel. The list is endless. But losing weight is so important for you career that you should go so far as to cut back on your work-officially or …

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Interview with Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Citigroup's Global Wealth Management

September 21st, 2007
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I loved listeing to this interview with Sallie Krawcheck so much. I have been following Sallie’s career for years, and I had no idea I was going to see her in person until I showed up for the Forbes Executive Women’s Forum for a speaking engagement, and there she was, speaking right before I did. …

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Tips for building your personal brand

Posted to: Promoting Yourself
September 20th, 2007
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In a world where jobs no longer last forever, the only constant in your career is you. So instead of relying on the brand of your company to define who you are, you have to rely on your own brand.
That’s not easy, though. Think of all the brand managers who have had their hands onNike or Apple. …

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Big announcement: I’m starting a company!

Posted to: Entrepreneurship | How to blog
September 19th, 2007
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Before I tell you about my company, I want to tell you that ever since I started spending eight hours a day on my blog – which was about two months after I started blogging – I have always thought of the blog as a business.
People would marvel that I could spend so much time …

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Twentysomething: The safe route is overrated

September 18th, 2007
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By Ryan Healy – Safe for me is a cushy, decent job that pays well. Safe is making a steady paycheck that will cover my student loans, rent and living expenses with a small amount left over to put in the bank. Safe is having the spending money to eat out on Tuesday, …

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Five ways the job hunt is about to change

Posted to: Job Hunt
September 16th, 2007
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One of the biggest workplace changes that will take place in the next few years is the way people are hired. So how do you get ready for the changes? Be a good candidate for one thing. But also, be conscious of how employers will start shifting to meet the good candidates, because you want …

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Office politics encourages self-improvement

Posted to: Office Politics
September 14th, 2007
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Office politics is good for you. That is, it makes your life better — not just your work life, but your whole life.
Office politics is a commitment to quality — in your relationships and in your projects. So you need to see it as the glorious underpinning of a transparent workplace in which everyone helps …

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Rosh Hashana forces big decisions about work

Posted to: Knowing yourself
September 12th, 2007
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One of the first major religious decisions that young, Jewish professionals make is whether or not to go into the office on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
Most Jewish holidays start at sundown, a safe time to leave the office. However, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are all-day affairs, and this year Rosh Hashannah starts tonight …

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Five ways to feel less guilty quitting — and why Gen Y feels guilt giving notice

Posted to: Quitting
September 12th, 2007
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I write posts about how to quit because so many people ask me for advice, but I marvel that this is such a big issue.
I have no memory of any of my Gen-X peers having this problem. Maybe because when we were in our twenties there were not jobs to consider quitting. But I think …

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My 9/11 day. My husband. The meaning of my to-do list.

September 11th, 2007
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I was standing at the bottom of the Word Trade Center when it fell. I was standing so close that I didn’t know it fell. I thought earthquake, until I couldn’t breathe. Then I thought nuclear bomb.
Now, when I let my head go back to that day, there are two moments I most easily go …

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Me and Stephanie, talking

Posted to: Fulfillment
September 10th, 2007
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Stephanie Roberts and I hung out at the BlogHer conference, and she recently posted a recording of our conversation on her blog. She asks things people are scared to ask me in person, like how can I keep blogging about my husband? She asks me things no one ever asks, like how do I write …

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A.J. Jacobs: Career lessons from the Encyclopedia

Posted to: Journalism | Knowing yourself
September 10th, 2007
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By A.J. Jacobs – For my last book, The Know-It-All, I tried to fill in the huge gaps in my learning by reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. I read from A to Z. Or more precisely, from a-ak (East Asian music) to Zywiec (a town in Poland) — a total of 44 million …

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New guest blogger: A.J. Jacobs, from Esquire magazine

Posted to: Finding a career | Journalism
September 10th, 2007
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There’s a new guest blogger on Brazen Careerist: A.J. Jacobs. He is an editor-at-large at Esquire, and from what I can tell, it’s one of the cushiest jobs in the world. He doesn’t go to meetings, he seems to have some sort of tenure-track thing where he would never be fired, and he doesn’t even …

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What’s a good question? What’s a good answer?

Posted to: Self-management
September 9th, 2007
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The best questions are not necessarily those that get answers, but those that lead to sharper questions.
My friend Marci Alboher, who writes for the New York Times, often calls me to ask questions about blogging and personal branding. I usually give her strongly opinionated answers and add a little emphasis about how I know that …

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Do you have a good job? Take the test

Posted to: Finding a career
September 7th, 2007
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Today’s job market favors employees. The attitude of most workers is that they should have a job that makes them happy. So it’s no surprise that at any given time 70 percent of the workforce is job hunting, according to the Wall St. Journal.
Everyone is looking for the right position. But what exactly does that …

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Gen X updates outdated work and family goals

Posted to: Parenting
September 6th, 2007
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Every generation revolutionizes something, and Generation X is revolutionizing the intersection of family and work. There’s a new emphasis on keeping families together over career aspirations, and it’s what makes me most proud to be a part of Gen X.
Generation X knows that the belief that both parents in a family can have demanding, time-consuming …

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How to start a business from your corporate cube

Posted to: Entrepreneurship
September 5th, 2007
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Starting a company is cheap enough that you don’t need to raise a lot of money to do it, but you still need to feed yourself. A popular route is the in-between step of being an entrepreneur while still working in a corporate job.
This means there are a lot of people running companies …

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Twentysomething: Be responsible, go back home after college

September 4th, 2007
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By Ryan Healy – According to Monster.com, 60 percent of college graduates move home with mom and dad after graduation and the trend is on the rise. The statistic holds true with my friends from the class of 2006. More than half moved back to the suburbs to start adult life, much the …

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