career management

“Remember what I told you….” Six Career Tips from Mom

Allison Hemming on May 6, 2011

Regardless of how our careers are going, most of us can rely on our moms to be in our corner, whether we’re complaining about a bad boss or trying to do some frustrating, herculean feat. Moms want to hear about all our accomplishments, and they pick us up when we feel like we’re failing.

When I was a teenager about to head out to a party, she’d say, “Remember what I told you . . . ” just before the door closed. Back then I called it “pre-guilting.” But today I can hear her advice still ringing in my ears. Here are a few tidbits I know she’d share with you if you were sitting around her kitchen table. You should also know that this coming Mother’s Day will be my first without my mother.

1. Collect people, not things. My mom was a great collector. She had great taste in design and a heck of an eye for finding a bargain at estate sales and discount stores like Marshalls. But she would be the first to give you her special “find” if you admired it. For mom, it was the people who mattered, not the things. She enjoyed the element of surprise around antiquing, but she did it mostly because of the people she got to go on those adventures with. Read More →

S.W.F. Seeks J.O.B.: Make Your Job Hunt Persistent, Not Pathetic

Judy McGuire on May 5, 2011

S.W.F. Seeks J.O.B. is our monthly career advice column penned by Judy McGuire, a sex and relationships expert who also happens to be hilarious. Judy will help us understand how the rules for dating and job hunting are a lot alike–and how the victories in one part of your life can be applied to the other.

Although I don’t completely buy the adage that we only want what we can’t have, it is a fact that whether you’re wooing employers or a trying to reel in a new special naked friend, holding back a little goes a long way towards drumming up interest in your ass. As that wise sage Madonna once sang, “It’s human nature.”

For example, following up a first date with a next-day call, text or e-mail is showing interest. It tells your date that you had a good time, you’re interested in seeing them again, and you’re not the type of mental midget who bothers living by some arbitrary three-day rule. Conversely, professing your undying love, purchasing bridal magazines, and changing your Facebook status after just one night out (even if you got lucky) reveals that you’re not only pathetic, but a sad sack with stalkerish tendencies as well. Read More →

How to Fail Upwards: 5 Secrets CEOs Don’t Want You to Know

Todd Tarpley on May 3, 2011

You could spend years trying to fail upwards, only to find that all the good promotions have already been claimed by more successful incompetent people. Here’s how to shave a few years off your timeline:

Communicate only with superiors. As long as your boss thinks you’re doing a good job, you are. Contrary to popular opinion, you should pay absolutely no attention to colleagues or subordinates. Their opinions don’t matter, which is why they don’t have “VP” next to their names. As long as your boss keeps failing upward, you’re golden. But you’re probably wondering what happens when your boss gets fired, laid off, or retires. Well, unless you can somehow quickly learn to manage a team and collaborate with others, you’re kinda screwed. But cross that bridge when you come to it. Read More →

The Haiku Resume: Boiling Down Your Career into One Line

Daryl Lang on May 2, 2011

Think First Then Type, a column by the copywriter par excellence Daryl Lang, comes with tips and techniques to help you use language more effectively at work. After all, even the best and brightest ideas won’t catch on if you can’t get them understood.

You’ve spent hours perfecting your resume. It glows with relevant skills and accomplishments, it’s optimized for keyword-crawling job sites, and it’s been PDF’d in perfectly kerned Helvetica.

Great work. But when somebody visits your website, your resume isn’t the “front door.” Your visitors want to see a few words that describe what you do. And if the first words that greet them are a boring biography (“an award-winning whatever with X years of experience”), you’re missing an opportunity.

You are a brand in the marketplace, and the best brands say what they do in a few concise words. You can identify many companies by their taglines alone. “The ultimate driving machine.” “Good to the last drop.” “What’s in your wallet?” You need a compelling tagline too. Read More →

Be Your Own Boss: What You Need to Know Before Going Freelance

Beth Temple on April 29, 2011

A new session of Beth Temple‘s popular class on successful freelancing, Be Your Own Boss, will be held at The Hired Guns Academy next Thursday, May 5th. We thought we’d give you a taste by asking Beth to discuss the three most common questions that have popped up in previous sessions.

“How (and how much) should I charge?” Hands down, this is the top question. Of course, if I had an exact answer to the “much” question I would start a side business and add it to my own revenue line! The “how much” question usually refers to an hourly rate, which affects the “how should I charge?” end result. So let’s break it down.

The classic ways to charge are by the hour, by the project, and by a retainer fee. All methods require some knowledge of what an hour costs you in relation to how much a client is willing to pay for that same hour. Start by estimating an hourly rate based on what you were making at your full-time job using this equation: salary / 2000 (hours) + hourly costs of benefits = hourly rate. Then estimate the hours it would take to complete the project, and charge a project fee based on the total hours multiplied by your per-hour rate. (There are a lot of other variables that can come into play, of course, and I go over them in the class.)

Once you start the project, be sure to track your actual hours. At the end compare the number of hours you thought you’d work with what you did work. You will likely come up short that first time–but over time you’ll easily make that up. Read More →

Living Through Lulls: When Your Freelancing’s in a Slump

Homegirl on April 21, 2011

The great thing about freelancing is the free time it affords you. The bad thing about freelancing is the free time forced on you. But freelancers know the deal. Always look for your next job. The problem for me is that when I’m on deadline with little time to even shower, the job search tends to take a back seat to a delivery-menu search for the perfect burger. The one I’ll devour in front of my laptop.

When the job wraps up, and I’m a week into free time, I always regret not having been more diligent in lining up work. By that point, I have caught up on laundry, errands, TV, and sleep. I’ve updated all my software, checked the job boards, and probably snuck in a liquid lunch with friends. I peek at my phone every two minutes like a desperate girl after a first date.

Crickets. Tumbleweed. Panic sets in as I wonder how long I can survive on the check from my last job. Of course, I reach out to everyone I’ve ever met with the undesperate-as-possible email about how “my schedule just opened up and I am available for work if you need anything! : ).” I go to every network-y event I can force myself to attend. Timing is everything, though, and sometimes all this yields is an empty inbox and a cheap wine hangover.

I try to enjoy the downtime and smell the roses. I do. However, the last few years have left me with no padding for lean times, and I’m certainly in no position to take that dream vacation to Spain until things pick up. Instead, my inner fatalist plans what items I will tote around in my new shopping cart/home and which block in Manhattan will be the most hospitable for both me and the dog. Wait, what’s that? The ding of my inbox! You need “what” designed? For how much? I’ll take it. I’m back, bitches!

[Image: Will Design For Food by ~WaSoOoM on deviant ART]

How Not to Succeed in Business: 5 Ways to Lead Like a General, not a Coach!

Todd Tarpley on April 19, 2011

“Management experts” (insert sarcastic chuckle here) are fond of saying that effective business managers lead like coaches, not generals. They point out that in today’s dynamic business world, where top employees have specialized skills as well as the freedom and motivation to change jobs to achieve their career goals, treating employees like regimented foot soldiers is a recipe for disaster. Coaching them like members of a high-performing athletic team is a more productive approach.

What these so-called “experts” fail to understand is that business is a battleground, not a junior-high girls’ badminton league. To succeed, you’ve got to crush your competitors, and what better way to instill that mindset than by crushing your own employees first?

Here are five great ways to do that:

1. Talk, don’t listen! Generals give commands. Coaches have team meetings, make suggestions, and (snicker, snicker) solicit team input. If Patton had adopted the coaching style of leadership during WWII, we’d all be speaking German. Read More →

Bullet Points: Spring Brings Some Hopeful Job News (and Spring Cleaning)

The Hired Guns on April 14, 2011

Some good signs for those looking to make a move: there were more job postings in February than there were at any time in the past two years. And the unemployment rate, though still at an elevated 8.8%, is at a two-year low.
If you’re thinking that you might leave your job in the next few months, now (not later) is the perfect time to get your affairs in order. This includes building your list of contacts (for home use after you leave the job) and pulling together any portfolio samples you may need down the line. The accounting blog Going Concern has some tips on cleaning up your workplace computer, “just in case a team of nerds will be scoping out your computer and any embarrassing data contained therein” after you leave for greener pastures. “This includes your music collection, no reason to give them free MP3s.”
Whether or not you’re planning to leave your job, it’s always a good time to tidy up the cubicle or corner office. As this chipper article reminds us, cleanliness is next to godliness at work as well as at home. The Dumpster awaits.

Bullet Points: Help for When You’re Failing at Your Job; Tina Fey, Job Coach

The Hired Guns on April 13, 2011

If you Google “performance review.” you’ll get pages of upbeat advice returned for your perusal. You don’t get nearly as much help on what to do if you’re failing at your job–whether it’s your fault or not. Today, Portland-based career coach Dorothy Tannahill-Moran provides some much-needed and frank advice on what it do if you’ve recently bombed a performance review–or fear that you’re about to get creamed at your next one. Improving your situation comes down to planning ahead–from understanding what’s expected of you to broadening the places you get feedback to include stakeholders in addition to your boss. Ultimately, you may come to realize that you’re doing the wrong job for the wrong boss, which may require a job change, either internally or externally. So pay attention to your spidey sense.

If you need more advice on swimming with the sharks, it turns out that Tina Fey’s Bossypants is good for career advice as well as guffaws, snorts, and chuckles. [via @ashleymilnetyte]

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