Penelope Trunk

Archives

Underreported hazards in early-stage startups

Posted to: Entrepreneurship
October 30th, 2007
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It’s Tuesday, which is usually the day for the Twentysomething column. But Ryan announced last week that he’s quitting as a columnist. I’m not surprised. He’s gone through a huge transition – quit his job in Washington, DC, started a company (with me), and moved to Madison, WI – two blocks from me.
It’s …

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Forget email bankruptcy; try Getting Things Done bankruptcy

Posted to: Productivity
October 29th, 2007
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I used to write a lot about productivity, until I started reading blogs and discovered David Allen’s world of Getting Things Done. I discovered that some of the most popular blogs are about productivity, and my blog audience is full of productivity gurus. They gave me a lot of recommendations to improve my productivity ignorance, …

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Teaching old tropes new tricks: Community-building with a 21st-century twist

October 28th, 2007
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During the middle of the 20th century, the social fabric of community unraveled. Families fled to the suburbs, where they lived isolated lives. Baby boomers became hyper competitive – almost a necessity of being part of such a huge generation – and then baby boomers raised latchkey kids, and Generation X felt so isolated from …

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What if the interviewer never calls you back?

Posted to: Interviewing | Job Hunt
October 23rd, 2007
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Every once in a while I’ll publish job-hunt questions people ask me a lot. And it’s that time again. But today I’m publishing a question that stumped me:
“Why don’t interviewers get back to me after the interview? I go to the interview, I feel like we click, and the hiring manager or human resource representative …

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What to teach kids so they’ll do well at work

Posted to: Parenting
October 18th, 2007
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The skills that help us most in life are not the skills we learn from homework. In fact, Time magazine reports that homework is wasting kids’ time on a number of levels, and in his book “The Homework Myth,” Alfie Kohn rails against the massive amount of family time that’s lost to homework. Finally, …

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The real deal about Gen Y: they’re inherently conservative

October 17th, 2007
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The most prestigious place for college grads to get a job today is Deloitte, according to a Business Week story titled, The Best Places to Launch a Career, by Lindsey Gerdes. In fact, the top three choices for Generation Y are all Big 4 accounting firms.
My first thought was, are you kidding me?!?!?!
Because if you …

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5 Ways great speakers connect with their audience

October 15th, 2007
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The art of public speaking is actually the art of connecting. So the lessons in this field apply to everyone since each of us needs to make connections. If you can connect with a room full of people, then you can also connect with an audience of one. And the people we remember most are …

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Is your image hurting your career?

Posted to: Promoting Yourself
October 11th, 2007
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Being overweight or sloppily dressed is worse for your career than being a poor performer.
I’m not saying this is fair, I’m saying it’s true. So manage your weight, and manage the image you project at work, and you’ll do wonders for your career.
If you doubt that your image can inhibit your career, think about this: …

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Five workplace practices that should be over. Now.

Posted to: Office Politics
October 9th, 2007
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1. Voice mail
It will come as news to most people over thirty that most people under thirty do not leave voice mail messages. Think about it: Voice mail takes a long time to retrieve and it’s almost never earth-shattering, so it’s not worth the time it requires. Microsoft is such a big believer in …

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Gays who are out of the closet at work have stronger careers

Posted to: Diversity | Self-management
October 8th, 2007
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This is a guest post from Nina Smith whose blog is Queercents.
I was out at work long before I had the courage to come out to my parents. As a twentysomething marketing coordinator, I would often shoot the breeze in my boss’ office, and during one such gab-fest she asked if I was gay.
I …

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Are MBAs becoming obsolete?

Posted to: Self-management
October 4th, 2007
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The Master of Business Administration degree has been a holy grail for decades. If you wanted a career that mattered and didn’t have the aptitude for medical school, an MBA was a good ticket to prestige and riches.
But things aren’t so clear anymore. If the MBA used to be the entrance fee to climb the …

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Twentysomething: Preparing for life without health insurance

Posted to: Entrepreneurship | Money
October 2nd, 2007
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By Ryan Healy – About a month ago, my brother, Dan, was in the hospital. Originally, the doctors told him he had a small cut, and he should use some Neosporin to prevent infection. A couple of days later, they told him he had a staph infection. Staph infections are bad, but for my brother …

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Strategies for survival on an entry-level salary

October 1st, 2007
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Most entry-level jobs do not pay enough to support someone living in a large city. This is a problem for recent grads. They imagine life in a big city as lots of entertainment, crowds of young people for fun, and a great dating scene. But it’s a hard life to fund: The cost of college, …

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