I announced last week that I'll be running a poll on my sidebar each week. I’m aiming for a new one every Tuesday.
The poll is a fun way for me to think about career topics. A new format always gets me going. But it's also fun because even after writing about careers for ten years, [...]

Part of knowing where to steer your career is knowing what is changing in the landscape. In ten years, Gen Y will have taken over middle management. Maybe in five years, if my own office is any indication. But I am sure that Gen Y will run the show differently. And no matter your age, [...]

At the start of our road trip to his cousin's wedding in Illinois, the farmer says, "I have a present for you."
He pulls out a book that is wrapped in the paper that wrapped the last present I got him: Lolita. Which he reads every time he sleeps over at my house. I knew that [...]

Almost 95% of Jews do something to observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I want my kids to be part of this when they grow up, so the only way to do that is to model it for them now. Because it's completely clear to me that people who believe in God are fundamentally more [...]

I'd like to tell you that there are no bad questions. But you know what? That's not true. So here are the ways people ask me questions that drive me nuts:
1. You ask me a career question for your wife.
The first problem with you walking around in the world telling people you need help for [...]

Are you thinking your Blackberry use is out of control and you need to turn it off? Forget it. The problem is not the Blackberry, it's you.
The Blackberry actually gives you the freedom to effectively mix your personal life and work life so that they don't have to compete with each other.
Don’t talk to me [...]

The worst career advice I ever gave was to my brother's college roommate, Robert Buckley. He was one year out of college when he asked me if he should quit healthcare consulting to become an actor.
I said, No, that's the dumbest idea I ever heard.
He told me he thought he had talent, and then (like [...]

One of the most dangerous things you can do in your career is to think you are different from everyone else. The biggest validation of that idea comes in AA meetings – it is widely understood by this group that thinking you're different is just an excuse not to get help, an excuse to think [...]

Let me first say that my lawyer is not happy when I blog about my divorce. But now that I've been in a front-page article of the New York Times for blogging about the divorce, I think we've passed the point of discretion.
And anyway, I think it's okay to blog because I am the transparent [...]

I started using Twitter, after thinking about starting for at least six months. It's very scary to start something new and have no idea what I'm doing.
But I also know that all the excitement in my career has come from my willingness to try stuff that is scary—because I don't know if I will be [...]

Brace yourself for the most thorough compendium of research I've seen about how good-looking people get more of everything. The book is Looks: Why They Matter More than You Ever Imagined, by Gordon Patzer, professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago and former dean at California State University.
It is well-documented that good-looking people make more money [...]

In the train wreck of Eliot Spitzer’s political career, there are many workplace lessons. And lots of people are talking about Spitzer’s career. But what about the call girl?
Ashley Dupre, who was Kristen in bed, was no slouch in the career management department. Sure, her breasts are plastered all over the Internet, but don’t be [...]

Here's the scene: Ryan Healy and I are going through all the stuff we need to change on our new site. We have ideas to spruce things up. And also we're sick of all the stuff we do by hand. We need more automation. And we look over at Ryan Paugh, and he's not taking [...]

You know that people make snap judgments about you based on your appearance. But it turns out that most of those judgments are right. In a study where people viewed photos of CEOs, the people were able to guess the personalities of the CEOs accurately just by looking at their photo. (Hat tip: Recruiting Animal)
Sometimes [...]

Getting hired even when you're not qualified is one of the most important skills to have if you want to keep your work life interesting. Because if you are always taking jobs you're qualified for, then your learning curve is really flat, and your work life is really boring.
So here are three ways to get [...]

The debate continues about whether and when a recession is coming, and what the markers would be. Most of us are in no position to do the analysis ourselves, but you don't need to be an economist to know that if people are talking about recession, you should do some thinking about what you would [...]

I have been auditioning to host a reality show about work, and I'm supposed to fly out to Los Angeles for a test run in front of a camera. My friend Sharon, hair stylist to the LA jet set, told me that I have to get my teeth whitened.
I am a big fan of taking [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]