How to make a New Year’s resolution that you’ll keep
December 31st, 2007
The way to keep a New Year’s resolution is to pick a good goal and then overhaul your life to in order to meet it. Duh.
But some of you are saying, hold it, my goal isn’t big enough to require an overhaul of my life. Maybe your goal is to, say, clean out your closet. …
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How to deal with getting fired (from Yahoo)
December 27th, 2007
I just got fired from Yahoo Finance.
The long road to my quick termination started in the spring, when I grew friendly with one of the higher-ups in engineering at Yahoo. When he became my boss’s boss’s boss at Yahoo, he suggested that we meet if we were ever both in New York at the same …
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Year-end roundup: Most loved and most hated posts of 2007
December 26th, 2007
The best part of blogging is the community. I have been a columnist for a long time, but I have only been a blogger for a year and a half. And I have to say that the conversation part of blogging is amazing, and it’s something you don’t get as a columnist.
So here’s a thank …
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Learn to take criticism well by choosing your critics well
December 24th, 2007
Do you ever search 43 Things? I love going through it to see what goals people have for themselves. I like seeing where my own goals and accomplishments fit in with everyone else’s.
On 43 Things, 21 people want to learn to take criticism but 77,000 people want to get a promotion. You know what’s wrong …
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What’s the right timing for graduate school?
December 23rd, 2007
What’s good timing for grad school? For some degrees, the best timing is probably never. The benefits of the degree will never outweigh the problems it creates. For some degrees, going fast is key, for others, taking your time can ward off common missteps. Here’s a primer on how to approach a looming graduate application:
Timing …
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4 Ways to sidestep corporate hierarchy
December 21st, 2007
Most people stay at a company less than seven years. Most young people stay at a company less than two. So why are companies still set up for people who stay 40 years and climb the ladder? It makes no sense, and frustrates nearly all workers.
Well, all workers who aren’t at the top of the …
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How to decide if your commute is too long
December 20th, 2007
The average daily commute in the U.S. is about 25 minutes. The shortest average daily commute is about 15 minutes for people living in Midwest cities like Witchita, Omaha, and Tulsa. New Yorkers have the longest commute — 38 minutes, which is six minutes longer than the average commute time in Chicago. The average commute …
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Bad career advice: Do what you love
December 18th, 2007
One of the worst pieces of career advice that I bet each of you has not only gotten but given is to “do what you love.”
Forget that. It’s absurd. I have been writing since before I even knew how to write – when I was a preschooler I dictated my writing to my dad. And …
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How to figure out which tasks you can ignore
December 17th, 2007
This week is the one-year anniversary of the week that I became so overwhelmed with my workload that I started to act like a crazy person.
It happened slowly at first. I was taking care of my kids half-time and writing my syndicated column half-time.
Then I added my Boston Globe column, which required reporting. I had …
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7 Ways to be a better delegator
December 13th, 2007
We all know that we need to be good at delegating in order to have any traction in our careers. We need to be able to learn how to do something and then teach someone else how to do it, so that we can move on and learn how to do something new. This is …
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The end of work as we know it
December 12th, 2007
The New Year is a traditional time for predictions. So here are mine, for the workplace. I predict an end of work as we know it, of course. But don’t get jumpy – it’s not going to be here in 2008. It’s going to come sooner than later, as the next generation infiltrates the ranks …
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What to consider when considering a workplace hook-up
December 10th, 2007
The number-one rule, of course, is you should not be flagrant. A new handbook for workplace dating, Office Mate, is full of practical precautions like asking the person out in the parking lot rather than their cube, and trying happy hours for truly fair playing ground.
Why the caution? According to a Gallup poll, people say …
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Make training a priority
December 6th, 2007
Don’t jump so fast for that promotion or raise you’re about to win. Today’s workplace is largely unstable — people get laid off and job hop constantly, and in general, staying anywhere more than five years is a career liability. Your learning curve flattens out so much that you’re not gaining skills fast enough to …
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Twentysomething: Why I regret getting straight A’s in college
December 4th, 2007
This is a guest post from Jon Morrow, who is 25 years old. His blog is On Moneymaking.
By Jon Morrow – I nearly killed myself in college to get straight A’s. Well, almost straight A’s. I graduated with 37 A’s and 3 B’s for a GPA of 3.921. At the time, I thought …
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Five things people say about Christmas that drive me nuts
December 3rd, 2007
Christmas does not belong in the workplace because it undermines diversity at work. And businesses that promote diversity have more profits in the long run than companies that do not have a diverse workforce.
A big problem with Christmas is that those of us who have no reason to celebrate it have to spend a month …
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