Phased Retirement – Make Your Case

Many companies and federal agencies offer a way to ease out of the work you love and into the next phase of your life formerly called retirement. A phased retirement strategy offers flexibility. As you approach your retirement age or time in service you can reduce your work hours or work in a different capacityContinue reading “Phased Retirement – Make Your Case”

Getting Real in the Job Interview

You’ve likely seen someone who was great in the interview, but turned out to be a jerk under day-to-day interactions. And the opposite also happens – the stress of the interview makes someone tongue-tied or goofy, when they would be a good asset to the team. By the time you are asked to interview (F2FContinue reading “Getting Real in the Job Interview”

You just had a Career Conversation

Were you paying attention? Not all career conversations are directly about you and getting ahead.  Getting personal feedback is great, but it is only one aspect of career conversations. Career Conversations come from many sources, not just bosses and mentors. They may be hiding in meetings and other conversations. If you just had a hallwayContinue reading “You just had a Career Conversation”

Career Conversations, part 4 – Raise Your Hand

One of the most effective career conversation you can have is asking to do something for your boss. When my boss was sharing some of the company’s plans for re-structuring, we could see that there was a big piece missing (aka “opportunity”) in managing the transition. Turf protection was high and we knew that gettingContinue reading “Career Conversations, part 4 – Raise Your Hand”

What’s Your Professional Development Strategy?

The most frequent responses I get to this question is #1 Strategy: keep getting a paycheck and hope to get promoted;#2 Strategy for Free Agents: Keep current contract(s) or get new clients. I consider these non-strategies. Too many people approach learning something work-related as a task they have to do to keep their jobs orContinue reading “What’s Your Professional Development Strategy?”

3 Reasons + 5 tips to Update Your Resume

Here are 3 reasons why September is a good time to update your resume: Its nearly time for your annual performance review and you want to position yourself or a raise. One of your contacts approaches you with a great job opportunity and needs your resume, now! You learn that your job is in theContinue reading “3 Reasons + 5 tips to Update Your Resume”

Cash or Cachet?

You find a great job opportunity but discover the salary is lower than you expected. Several years ago, I was thrilled when I could tell people I worked for The Washington Post because I no longer had to explain who, where or what they did. Then I moved briefly to a very large organization thatContinue reading “Cash or Cachet?”

The Black Hole of Job Boards

The odds of getting a job by simply applying to online boards are slim.  It does happen happen occasionally. But the biggest complaint I hear is, “I’ve submitted hundreds of applications and never heard a thing.” Well, maybe not” hundreds.” Job boards or Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are designed to screen out, not in.  NowContinue reading “The Black Hole of Job Boards”

How do I Become an Expert?

Organizations depend on people who have “deep smarts”—business-critical expertise, built up through years of experience, which helps them make wise, swift decisions about both strategy and tactics. These mavens may be technical wizards, risk managers, top salespeople or operations troubleshooters, but they are all the “go-to” people for a given type of knowledge in theirContinue reading “How do I Become an Expert?”

5 Actions for Career Management

“Career Management” makes some managers nervous; they might lose key staff or have to spend precious time training and mentoring people.  It raises expectations for many people that they will be promoted sooner, or that another round of lay-offs is coming. And for others, its just another bunch of buzzwords – a “key retention tool.”Continue reading “5 Actions for Career Management”