A book I've really liked recently was Will You Please Just F*ck Off, It's Our Turn Now: Holding Baby Boomers to Account, by Ryan Heath. It's about how baby boomers won't admit when their ideas are old.
Here is a great example of this problem: Jack Welch (and Suzy Welch) writing ridiculous career advice that assumes [...]

It used to be that people moved to where their job was. But where you live has a lot of impact on how happy you are. So it makes sense that today people pick a city first and then find a job, and cities maven Wendy Waters thinks this trend will increase. I will be [...]

You can judge someone's personality by what his or her work space looks like. Take Tara Hirshfeld, for example. She's set up her office on a picnic table. She has the laptop, the headset, even the office-type snacks. But there are leaves falling and cars honking. Intuitively, you know she's not an accountant-type. And you [...]

We spend so much energy trying to decide what career will make us happy, what job to take, what kind of boss we need. But today happiness is actually a science, and we can teach ourselves to make better decisions faster based on what we know about happiness.
This science of happiness is such a popular [...]

The new workplace currency is training. Title is not important if you're not staying long term. And salary increases of three or four percent are ceremonial. So use the clout you earn to get training; it will make a difference in your life in a way that salary and title cannot because training can fundamentally [...]

Howard Stern has lost most of his audience. I'm not a big fan of his. I like public discussion of sex that is more interesting and productive than Howard offers. But I'm not above learning from him, and how can you not learn a lesson or two from a guy who has lost almost 11 [...]

Here is my first post to my blog. About two years too late.
I know this because two years ago, my readers started telling me that I should blog. I ignored them, mostly, because it seemed like too much work to write every day. After all, I write two columns a week and I invariably do [...]

Anyone who owns a small business knows that if you don’t reinvest in the business, the business dies. So why do so many people fail to reinvest in themselves? Even if you work for someone else, you are running a small business: The business of you. You provide a product and you have to market [...]

Five most violated resume-writing rules
This is the problem with the resume-writing world: Everyone thinks they’re an exception to the rules. Everyone thinks they can pick and choose which rules are important. Do not do this. Until you work in human resources and personally scan 300 resumes a day, you are in no position to discard [...]

My brother Erik told me, "When I read one of your headlines that isn't about me, I don't read the column."
I usually think of Erik as a good example of my target audience: He loves the details of business, he's excited about his career, and he wants to be a billionaire. So for one, stupidity-filled [...]

In the olden days, ten years ago, when I was a dot-com upstart displacing workers twice my age, I could hear people grumble about the workplace behavior of Generation X: We demanded foosball tables, non-hierarchical structure, tons of authority and exciting projects. In exchange, we worked extremely hard and fast, played well in teams, and [...]

Here is my second annual list of things I hate. However, it seems to have morphed into a list of types of people I hate. But this seems fair; no one’s animosity should be limited to inanimate objects.
1. Perfectionists.
These are people who have lost perspective and get nothing done.
Of course, you can guess that I [...]

Those who have mentors are twice as likely to be promoted as those who don't, says Ellen Fagenson Eland, professor at George Mason University and 2003 Winner of the Mentoring Best Practices Award. So start taking the mentoring process very seriously — it should be a cornerstone of your overall career strategy. Here’s a plan [...]

Almost one-third of workers do not meet the writing requirements of their positions, according to a survey by the College Board's National Commission on Writing.
Before any of you get smug with your writing acumen, keep in mind that most workers do not need to write more than a sentence or two to get their job [...]

Looking for happiness through financial success? Wondering what the magic number is? It’s $40,000 according to Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert. Really. So technically, most of you should be happy. And if you’re working for the next big raise, forget it. You’re better off working on teaching yourself how to look at your money with a [...]

My cousin had a karaoke party. I had to go because he's my cousin, but I refused to sing because this would have pained the audience even more than it would have pained me. A woman at the party, however, impressed me by engaging the crowd even though she had no apparent singing talent. It [...]

Here is my current list of things I hate. It’s an on-going project that simmers week after week until it reaches boiling point and I have to spend a column venting.
1. People who are not coachable. They get good advice and don’t take it because they think they know better. Everyone has blind spots that [...]

In the early 1990s, when the job market was very bad, I had a college degree that was getting me nowhere. So my friend got me a job signing Esther Williams’ autograph for fans.
Esther who? That’s what I said. Esther Williams was an Olympic swimmer in the 1940s when the Olympics were cancelled, and she [...]

The current business climate encourages rule breakers. Not the kind at Enron – those are law breakers. Rule breakers break with convention. Sallie Krawcheck, for example, was a top stock analyst in the 90s. She could have gone to a big investment firm where the heavy-hitters gave stock advice that, in hindsight, seems to have [...]

There came a point in my career when my company went bankrupt, the economy was in the dumps, and my network of friends and acquaintances was getting me nowhere. Like all job hunters, I had good days and bad days. On good days, I brewed coffee for that caffeinated, I-can-overcome-anything feeling. On bad days, I [...]