References are golden assets as you travel your career path. Nurture them with great care. They may be personal or professional. The personal ones can speak to your stability and character. On the professional side, references should address your qualifications to handle the job. A combination of both types is first prize. There are six career tips that will help you make sure your references assets work to your advantage i...

Make no mistake about it. These are turbulent times. The winds of change are sweeping through the workplace. Managers and their troops alike are expected to learn new skills and to accomplish more with fewer resources. Pressures are ramping up on employers to improve their return on investments. In order to survive in this environment employers are slashing their overhead costs by cutting back on operating expenses and elim...

Keys To Career Success You are out of work. Or you are stuck in a dead end job, desperately wanting to change the course of your career path. You've been searching for a new job for what seems like ages. Finally, the telephone rings. You've got an offer. Every fiber in your being says, "Take it. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush." But hold up. Should you take a blind leap into the first opportunity that comes along? W...

There is no second chance to make a good first impression. That's for sure when it comes to a job interview. A first impression is the sum total of all the signals you transmit: verbal communications, sending and receiving messages; body language; self confidence without over-the-top ego; timing; evidence of preparation. Be prepared to make your case with a "sales presentation" that concentrates on three of four key points...

It is wise to spend some time examining the question as to why people make bad decisions because there's an inescapable correlation between the quality of one's decisions at work and the total of one's career success. "Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How To Keep It From Happening To You", a new book co-authored by Sydney Finkelstein, a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, provides some keen...

Common Sense Career Advice Communications must be a two-way street--sending messages and receiving messages--if it is to be effective. That's just common sense; but it is too often ignored, as organizations and individuals spend millions of dollars and countless hours annually on sending messages and make little focused effort on improving listeningskills. Managements are so busy unleashing a torrent of communications...

The world of work is experiencing changes of tsunamic proportions. Career paths are being impacted on a scale not seen since the Big Depression of the 1920s-30s. New opportunities are opening; old ones are going up in smoke. If you are truly ambitious careerists you will pay heed to the advice of Charles Darwin who said, "Survival goes not necessarily to the most intelligent or the strongest of the species, but to the one t...

Eighty percent of the work is done by twenty percent of the people employed. This rule of thumb proves to be true no matter the type or size of the organization. Common sense career advice says work your butt off to be sure you are among the top 20 who are getting the job done. That's a major step toward job security in these times of economic uncertainty. Here are some career tips on how to be in the top 20. Know where y...

Those who are committed to achieving career success know that it is a good idea to maintain an up to date resume.There are at least four benefits to be gained by following this practice.1. Maintaining your resume on a continuing basis means you can work free of undue pressure to produce the best possible, most persuasive documents that the facts justify and your ambitions require.The same goes for a letter to present your r...

Firing people is a tough and unpleasant task no matter how you slice it and dice it. Career paths are disrupted. Hopes for career success are dashed.But when it's necessary, there are eight steps you can take to soften the blow:1. Deliver the bad news in a face-to-face meeting whenever possible. The boss has to do it. There can be no delegation of this responsibility. It is desirable to have one other person present, especi...