With the wild popularity of shows like Clean House and Hoarders and websites like Fly Lady, it is evident clutter is a problem for many of us. It’s true. Living amongst clutter and disorganization can befuddle even the most stoic individual. But what about the mental clutter we carry around during a job search? It’s time to spring clean cob-webby, pigeon-holed thinking too. I recently worked with a talented woman wanting to...

Networking. The mere mention of the word strikes terror in the hearts of even the most seasoned professionals. For some reason, the thought of connecting with fellow human beings has become more like something we have to do, instead of something that happens naturally. What used to be pleasant conversation and sharing morphed into to-do list entries and deadlines. We set specific dates and list relevant topics for planned c...

Back in the late 70s, early 80s I attended a Careertrack seminar. I don’t remember the name of the seminar. I don’t really remember the exact topic, but one story the presenter shared stuck with me all these years.The presenter, (we’ll call her Sue) traveled across the US doing seminars. Because of a hectic travel schedule, Sue spent a lot of time in airports peopl e watching. One day, she noticed a woman in an absolutely b...

I was having lunch with a friend a few years ago when a former coworker of hers entered the restaurant. It had been years since they worked together or even seen each other. They exchanged hugs and “how ya beens” quickly catching up on each other’s lives.The former coworker (we’ll call her Janet) shared that her family was moving to Raleigh in a few weeks and she would soon be looking for a new job in a new town. What she...

Career Collective post: Once a month, a group of career professionals blog on a subject topical and timely for a job seeker. We’ll post our thoughts on our own blog and link to the post of our colleagues on the same topic.This month’s topic: How are you fooling yourself about your career/job search? What can you do about it? “How to avoid being tricked by common job search blunders?”Imagine my surprise the other day when I...

No one told me...That was the response I heard when I asked a client about the monetary impact of changes she’d suggested and implemented. I pressed further. “Can you remember anything about how things changed after you introduced your idea?” Her response...a nervous giggle, then **crickets**.I’m not picking on her. It’s not the first time I’ve gotten that response. Pragmatically, we know no job comes with guarantees. In re...

Discouraged is a difficult place to live. We all visit occasionally, but wallowing in a cesspool of negativity doesn’t solve anything. And yes. I realize that leaving “discouraged” is a lot easier said than done. This in no way is meant to diminish personal circumstance, but I do know it’s much more difficult to sell your skill set when you’ve lost confidence in you and it’s difficult to have confidence in you when you can’...

I was going to title this, “It’s a small world after all”, but then “that song” would be stuck in our heads all day and I didn’t want to do that to us. I’m reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. In it he recounts Stanley Milgram’s small world experiment, the original study about six-degrees of separation. (Which of course lead to the Kevin Bacon’s six degrees of separation game...but I digress.) This experiment r...

It seems to be my week to challenge verbal roadblocks. In my last post it was the word “just”. This post, I’m going after “ya, but”. I spend a good deal of time on the phone speaking with potential clients. During those conversations, I generally offer a bit of guidance to help the caller, whether they use my services or not. Sometimes they get it. Sometimes, they “ya, but...” themselves right out of an opportunity for g...

After receiving the topic for this month’s Career Collective post, I bet I’ve read more than 50 articles addressing different aspects of staying motivated during the holiday season in the past few weeks. And that’s a mere drop in the bucket compared to what’s out there. Today, a Google search using “Job search during the holidays” brings back 97,500 (and counting) results. In fact, digging through my own archives, I found a...