One of the key areas you may be struggling with as a job seeker is a feeling of rejection. This can cause a real slowdown in your job search activity. This downward spiral can happen for a variety of reasons including:

A poor response from companies and/or jobs for which you have submitted your resume.
Stopping your job search once you get one or two job interviews (to see how they pan out).
Hinging everything on one hopeful offer.
Only using one method to perform your job search (like responding to Internet job postings).

If …

My daughter gave me a copy of “Eat, Pray, Love” and it was a book that gave me some unexpected spiritual insight.   And it was a good addition to a few others I’ve reviewed to help explore our spiritual side.  I’ve read and reviewed “Silence on Fire” (follow this link for my review). I also wrote reviews for Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth“. These three books work at explaining and enlightening me about the spiritual. I recommend them, but cannot deny these …

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article about delegation. I enjoy managing my business and delegating out any and all tasks that I can. Instead, I focus my time and energy doing high value activities that result in the best return for me – both in terms of my personal happiness and profits.
 
Productivity and time management are some of my favorite subjects and areas around which I frequently coach my clients. The other day, I read an article about managing email. The author pointed out 5 actions we …

I started reading “The Walk” by Richard Paul Evans on the recommendation of a blogger Monique Catoggio.  (Very cool! She’s the only other blogger I’ve met face-to-face.  Click here  to see her Being Enpointe blog post on The Walk.)
A few lines out of it’s prologue really  struck me.  The main character Alan Christoffersen  a widower says:
It’s better to be loved by one person who knows your soul than millions who don’t even know your phone number.  I have loved and have been loved as deeply as a man can hope for, …

(…and a lot of things really don’t matter)
I work with a lot of stressed out executives in their 30’s who feel like their life energy, hope and joy have been sucked out of them. What we find very quickly is that they are doing a lot of things that don’t really matter instead of concentrating on the things they really do want in their lives.
What if you stopped doing things in your life that really don’t matter? How would that change who you are? How much extra time would you …

As the father of three daughters, I’m not 100% in favor Emily Bennington’s Huffington Post story where she kisses a guy on a bet at the bar, but otherwise her advice is on the right on.
My daughter graduated a few weeks back and I’m forwarding her this link to Emily’s post. College grads should take on a good amount of risk. Most err on the side of “not enough.” What’s the downside? They have to move in with Mom and Dad. They can use this experimentation to learn and possibly …

If you follow my posts or read my job hunt basics e-course, you know all about my job search adventures. I’m no stranger to the field and have dealt with everything it has to offer. Lucky me, I guess.
I’ve had the added bonus of watching my wife go through it as well – “Up Close & Personal” you might say. Remember the movie? Robert Redford serves and the senior journalist / mentor to the young reporter played by Michele Pfeiffer. They later become lovers, marry and and everything else Hollywood. Celine Dion sings …

I found Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner set nicely on my keyboard.  My coworker, Robert, who knows I run and read stuff like this left it there for me.  I  cracked it open and couldn’t put it down.
Dean Karnazes writes about his 100+ mile ultra marathon running feats, but he does so much more.  Karnazes had reached the point in his life where his life had no meaning and purpose.  He had a void in his life and his six figure salary couldn’t fill it.  He explains how he turned to running, something he had love …

(This one’s dedicated to my Monica and her friends who I pray will follow their dreams taking on their post-college challenges with gusto.)
Last week I wrote “My Daughter’s Graduation Reminds Me to Keep on Dreaming.”  College graduation is such an exciting time!  In its own way, it’s also terrifying.  A few months back I remember a fellow speaker at a high school career day dish out these words of wisdom.
He said that from the beginning, our lives are neatly cut up into segments.  We start in preschool and look forward to elementary …

A few weeks back, Miami’s private high schools sent their fall term acceptance letters.  It’s a big deal for us Miami locals as many of us are alumni and would like to see our kids attending our alma mater.  We were blessed when we got news our youngest daughter was accepted to her school of choice.  It’s the school one of her sisters attended. Both my sisters attended high school there.
Unfortunately, not everyone is so fortunate.  We have a friend whose son got rejected. Instead of celebrating, his …

When people lose their jobs, the obvious comes to mind. No income. However, experiencing unemployment personally, I have learned the numerous benefits of work, along with the pains of unemployment. Understanding this and preparing yourself can mitigate the ways unemployment will hurt. It’s not only about money.
My initial caution to a client (my work was helping others become employed) is that a job search is like being in a boxing ring with your hands tied behind your back, sometimes with a blindfold. A potential employer demands all kinds of personal …

Whenever I run into someone who’s a bit odd, I find myself whispering to myself, “What’s with that guy?”  I know.  I know.  I shouldn’t.  But I’m so used to having people behave a certain way that when they fall outside my version of the norm – whatever that is – it’s something that calls my attention.
Now I’m not always a fan of the heroes Hollywood lifts up for us, but let me point out a few that definitely inspire me and better yet – cause me to spend a …

Harry Backwith’s Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing was required reading at the system integration firm where I worked. All directors were given a copy and expected to finish them. I wasn’t sure what point our CEO was making when he assigned it to us, but I sure did when I was done with it.   Selling the Invisible explains the customer’s perception when buying something they don’t understand.   In our firm it meant buying technology they clearly didn’t understand.
What is it in your case?  About …

No matter if it’s voice mail, email, your Blackberry, a text, your next meeting or perhaps even an letter delivered the old fashioned way – in an envelope with a stamp, every once in a while you have to pull the plug and scream an obscenity ridden with – ENOUGH!
What a concept…… becoming unattainable for some degree of time.
I was looking around a website belonging to Harrison Barnes, the Job Guru, and caught his article “The Importance of Disconnecting from Your Work.” That’s exactly what he’s promoting and …

No matter if it’s voice mail, email, your Blackberry, a text, your next meeting or perhaps even an letter delivered the old fashioned way – in an envelope with a stamp, every once in a while you have to pull the plug and scream an obscenity ridden with – ENOUGH!
What a concept…… becoming unattainable for some degree of time.
I was looking around a website belonging to Harrison Barnes, the Job Guru, and caught his article “The Importance of Disconnecting from Your Work.” That’s exactly what he’s promoting and …

A sensitive but timely topic in the media is about those in important and powerful positions who abuse their status and role, and intentionally or not, violate the moral and civil codes of ethics, and yet expect to be exonerated because of who they are and what they do. Take a look at “Rash of Scandals Tests Democrats at Sensitive Time” to get the details on the dirt.
The above is premised on a recent New York byline regarding the NYS Governor, among other politicians, who finds himself embroiled in an …

My wife’s a lovely lady. You got to meet her. Today we visited the dean at the high school my daughter will attend this fall. Now you have to picture my wife. You get her talking about any one of our three daughters (one of her favorite topics in the world) and she’s on a role. You want details. She has them. You have to realize, she goes way back with these folks.

I wasn’t able to get a word in during today’s meeting, …

(Editor’s Note:  I’d like to introduce my long time associate, Jeannette Kraar.  We’ve been working together for several years – all related to helping job hunters – and have had a lot of fun at it.  She’ll be joining us every Wednesday.  Please provide us some comments to let us know what you think.)
I got this from someone in an email a long while back. I keep stuff much longer than most do only so I can use it for writing fodder someday in the future. Well I …

I have been pleasantly surprised with the episodes of “The Undercover Boss” I’ve watched.  The well-to-do CEO shrugs off the golf clubs, chic expensive cars, cushy lifestyle, expensive suits and jewelry, even if only for a week, to mingle and, alas, work alongside their company’s employees.
Talk about timing given the bad press some other CEOs have been receiving particularly during and post senate hearings.  How can they expect sympathy when they have the audacity to show up in corporate jets, whining about how they cannot afford to not pay bonuses …

Take advantage of this “free time” to dream. I do not mean the Walter Mitty type of fantasies, although that is not such a bad thing. Explore your options, even those you thought were impossible.
While networking, I perused articles on job searching, people in transition, career realignments and just plain, spent way too much time on the internet (not something I want to admit but it must be said).
One can easily become mesmerized or possibly addicted to surfing the internet. It becomes one’s crutch. Signing up to …