While many employees look at Human Resources as the “scary oversight” team or perhaps even paper-pushers, HR departments get much less credit than what they deserve.

Persistence can help you get what you want. But take it too far and you can seem like a jerk. Here’s how to walk the line.

Whether you're a new grad or a few decades post-graduation, you have an opportunity to ensure that your professional journey is one to remember. Here are seven road trip-inspired rules to help you navigate your career.

We've all heard the expression "the customer is always right," but in many workplaces the truth of things is closer to, "the boss is always right." Everyone's salary might ultimately depend on pleasing the customer, but in the tumult of everyday office life, it often feels more urgent to keep the boss happy.

When the interviewer gets to those 7 crucial words—"Do you have any questions for me?"—what will you say? And what you'll say next does matter.

Many people think of employee engagement as a relatively new idea, but scientists have been studying it for years. William Kahn first introduced the term in 1990, defining it as “the degree of psychological identification employees experience with their job role or work persona.”

When it comes to strategic career planning, one of the things we recommend to our clients is to imagine where they want to be career-wise 10 years from now; what’s their dream scenario. It’s also important to consider where the industry you want to work in will be in 10 years from now as well.

If you are in the midst of your job search, you have probably noticed that when you send applications into online portals, more often than not, you do not hear back. It can be frustrating to find a job online that you think is a perfect fit and then get radio silence.

Working from home isn’t all sunshine and stretchy pants. Here’s how to beat the collaboration, productivity, and emotional disadvantages that can arise.

If you’ve been eyeing a promotion, now is the time to make your move: More than 100 consecutive months of job gains have given way to the tightest labor market in recent history, leaving employers scrambling to retain talent.

When you’re new to a job, be careful about reading too much into any initial unhappiness you feel. Being new often comes with some level of discomfort.

It’s no wonder that stress and burnout have become growing workplace problems. The World Health Organization has called stress “the health epidemic of the 21st century,” and has recently brought more attention to the seriousness of this problem by redefining burnout, in the upcoming version of the International Classification of Diseases.

Transitioning back to work after parental leave is hard. You’ve been out of the flow of the office for weeks or months, and you’re returning as a different person with new priorities and concerns. (Not to mention the stress and strain of endless new logistics.) It’s jarring and often overwhelming.

According to a recent study, the most common lies are “I’m sick” and “I already have plans after work.” But how frequently you lie (and to whom) depends. Read on, lying liars!

Did you know that a popular question on Google is “How do I look happy at work?” Yikes! Instead of just trying to look happy, wouldn’t you like to be truly happy at work? Of course, you would.

Age discrimination is certainly alive and well and living in America. And no place is it more prevalent than in the technology and new media industries.

Having a desire to work in a place that will share and support your values isn’t going away. The challenge remains in figuring out how to test and evaluate a company’s often unspoken work-life beliefs during the interview process.

You’d rather complain about how much your dog walker costs than reveal how much you gross per month. It’s strange when you really stop to think about it, yet it’s hard to break the pattern.

Plot your career as a journey full of lessons as opposed to a final destination and you will never regret a choice you make. You’ll be apt to take greater leaps, considered risks and feel grateful for every trial and tribulation along the way. Hindsight will always be a beautiful thing.

Salary negotiations should not be feared, nor taken up with kid gloves. They should be forthright, honest, and occur when there is a real reason, rather than imagination at play. Dressing them up or down with intonation, subtlety or subordination is a waste of your mental space and my time.

Don’t believe everything you hear. Some of these most common pieces of advice can have a downside, too.

If you don’t negotiate for a bigger paycheck every time you start a new job, you could be missing out on as much as $1 million over the course of your career. With this guide to salary negotiations, you have no excuse not to ask for more.

Your worst "the robots are taking over" nightmare probably doesn't involve a machine sitting down with a cup of tea and assessing your résumé, but in 2019, the idea isn't completely farfetched.

Being unhappy at work is something almost everyone goes through at one point or another. Sometimes you outgrow your position and there’s no chance of promotion. Or you get a new boss who shakes up your routine. But telling your manager that you’re not happy can be risky.

Despite knowing the importance of professional networking, many struggle with key elements such as maintaining connections, knowing what to post online, or how to grow their network effectively.

Don't miss the beach and backyard barbecues but while you’re at it, make time for some career-focused action that will give your personal brand a boost when the workplace is back to its bustling buzz in the fall.

If you've been fired, you know the disappointment, frustration and pain that can come with that decision. But is getting fired the end of the world? There's always more world to discover.

Americans are more optimistic about the employment landscape than ever before, with 65% saying now is a prime time to land a job. But a tight labor market isn’t necessarily a good reason to change jobs.

All job interviews should take into account what the team make-up is and how you contribute to that team. But you can prepare differently for each one.

"It's not the best thing ever, but it's not the worst thing ever. It doesn't change my whole life." -- Lola Bonfield, age 8

Sure, it's important to negotiate your base pay because what you take home today can impact your future earnings. But remember, your salary is not the only ‘benefit’ from your job.

If you're seeking new challenges and want to develop new skills, you may not need to turn in your notice. Here's how to successfully change jobs at your current company.

To impress a hiring manager, you have to demonstrate why you were good at your job and why you would be a valuable employee for their organization. Understandably, not all jobs have the same impact on an organization as others, but no matter what your position is, you should be able to highlight the results you achieved because of your work.

April’s Labor Department Report stated that the number of jobs available continues to outgrow the number of possible job candidates. This growth puts you job seeker in the driver’s seat. Better pay and benefits and more position options make searching for a job a more optimistic task. But will the job you take be the right job?

Many of you may not be in such an extreme toxic work environment that you are willing to quit your job before having secured a new one, but most will have the occasion to deal with some level of toxicity in the workplace and could benefit from a few tips on how to cope with it when it occurs.

Getting ready for a big job interview can be stressful, and the best thing you can do to calm your nerves is to ensure you're prepared.

It can be an awkward process to leave your job gracefully and professionally. So, whether you leave your job because you hated your position or you enjoy your job but got an offer you can't refuse, follow these steps before you give your two-weeks’ notice to your boss.

Answering questions with just a yes or a no is the equivalent to answering ‘Tell me about a time when you managed a project" with "On January 10." Doesn’t really tell the interviewer much, does it?

First, it’s essential to know that it’s a buyer’s market (with employees being the “buyer,” that is). Futurists have been predicting a “war for talent” for years now. Well, it’s here and that’s good news for workers.

Talking about salary is generally considered taboo, and it should be discussed with care. But it’s not necessarily inappropriate and it’s definitely not illegal, as some professionals may think.

Sometimes, blindly following your ambition—say, taking a promotion that you don’t necessarily want—can lead you down a career path that isn’t quite right for you.

It can be easy to get sidetracked at work when you don’t have clearly defined goals for what you’re trying to accomplish each day. If you want to achieve your career goals, one of the first skills to master is time management.

Your worst "the robots are taking over" nightmare probably doesn't involve a machine sitting down with a cup of tea and assessing your résumé, but in 2018, the idea isn't completely farfetched.

Authenticity is fundamental, not only in our personal lives, but also as professionals. It is critical to professional success and fulfillment.

If you're switching jobs, make sure your new employer doesn't have a broken culture. Here's how.

Small talk and self-promotion may be an introvert’s nightmare, but their inclination toward observation and listening can work in their favor.

Negotiating for a salary should not be about how you dress up the conversation, or about the right verbal innuendo, it should be about the facts.

It is frustrating to invest the time and energy into applying for a job opportunity and not hear back about your application. If you want to know the status of your application and stay top of mind, you will need to follow up.

You may have been belittled, disrespected, or undermined. But here are key lessons every professional can take away from their experiences with terrible bosses.

One of the most-Googled questions last year was “what kind of job should I have?” It’s clear that it is challenging to identify career direction, but the following questions are designed to help you answer that question to make your job search more effective and rewarding.

My career started strong. But five years later, I was laid off–twice. Not only from the first job, but also from the next management-level position I accepted.

The traditional post-interview thank you note is falling out of favor, with a whopping 83 percent of interviewers seeing them as obsolete. So how do you express your professional appreciation?

We've all heard the expression "the customer is always right," but in many workplaces the truth of things is closer to, "the boss is always right." Everyone's salary might ultimately depend on pleasing the customer, but in the tumult of everyday office life, it often feels more urgent to keep the boss happy.

We like to think we have a master plan. We like to think life is linear. We like to think we know what we’re doing while we’re doing it. But we also know that pretty much none of this is true.

A new manager can easily feel overwhelmed. In fact, according to a study by the HR consultancy DDI, six out of ten managers said that becoming a boss for the first time was second in stress level only to a divorce.

From “I’m pregnant” to “I got a better job offer,” here’s how to start some of the most difficult conversations of your career.

We don't think like psychologists. And in doing so, we sell ourselves short when crafting our resumes.

Work-life balance may not be achievable for busy professionals but these three CEOs share their tips for work-life harmony.

Often times in a toxic workplace there is an abundance of tearing others down, passive aggressive leadership, destructive gossip, conniving politics, and abundant negativity. When you are surrounded by this daily it can really start to affect your own self-worth.

Leaving a job is rarely a simple process. Chief among your concerns should be what to do with your 401(k) to avoid losing your savings or enrolling in multiple plans.

When you are the leader, you may have a strong desire to control of everything -- but let's face it, you can't and shouldn't even try to do everything yourself.

It’s easy to become complacent in your career, to trade comfort for challenges and mistake staleness for stability.

A resume is one of the best marketing tools for a professional. It represents who you are, your accomplishments, and the value that you provide in your role and industry.

With the holidays quickly approaching, many young professionals want nothing more than a job they love. The holidays often pass by with family and friends and the things that are truly important in life, and then it hits...

Workplace stress can impact your mental and physical health. Here are some tips on how to handle it.

It seems I have a flurry of inquiries at the end of the year from people who are frustrated with their careers and want advice on how to change their lot in life. Having the career that you’re meant to have requires a long-term approach.

Recruiters will ask why you left your last job. Here's how to discuss your career transitions.

Retirement is the #1 financial worry with 65% of Americans worried about it and a majority thinking about it 4 times per week. The core problem is uncertainty - people have no idea how much they need, because we have created a system around building assets instead of income.

Lateral moves can still push your career forward. You just need a plan and to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Taking a vacation can add extra stress, a raised eyebrow from your manager, and many times means working overtime to make up for what you missed while you were gone. So how can you feel better about using your vacation time?

According to one Gallup study, 50% of employees left their job “to get away from their manager to improve their overall life at some point in their career”

Performance matters more than presence, so here are simple ways to get a lot more done in a lot less time.

Video thank you emails can win out over a regular thank you email because they show that you're tech savvy. Video also can give a brief reprieve to eyes that are tired from focusing for hours on fonts.

The evidence is ample now that working from home is a big productivity boost. The biggest downside--isolation and loneliness--is manageable and employers are rapidly at least experimenting with a mix of remote and in-office time.

Fear is a common obstacle to change. Whether it be making a small change or a drastic one, fear can hold us back from taking the steps needed to get our careers on the right track.

Calling yourself the best salesperson around, the top attorney in your field, the leading digital marketer in your city or the greatest cost accountant ever to live is a very poor branding choice.

Do you secretly browse job listings and no longer look forward to the company’s annual conference? It might be time to make some changes.

Nowadays, your resume has to cater to the human hiring managers and the robots viewing it. Here's how to nail it.

If you find yourself promoted to manager, you might be wondering how to successfully make the transition from peer and manager, especially if you will be managing friends.

Everyone benefits from obtaining support from a group of positive people, whether it’s friends, family members, a career coach, a mentor or a combination of all of these.

When you're tapped for a leadership role, don't look back. Think about what you need to do (and what not to do) to make yourself successful in your new role.

Negotiating salary is uncomfortable. But if you don’t do it, it could cost you $1 million over the course of your career. So as unnerving as it may be, it’s worth it.

The flip side of being smart and accomplished is that it's easy to fall into traps of overthinking, worrying, and perfectionism.

If you're applying to jobs, I'm here to tell you: The cover letter is still a big deal to recruiters and hiring managers. Turns out, if you skip the cover letter, you might just get skipped over in your hunt for your next great job.

It’s a golden opportunity - the 'Fuzzy Front End' between accepting or being named to a new position and actually starting. Those taking advantage of that time do dramatically better in the early days of their new role.

Is bringing your “true self” to work always the best idea? Yes, and no.

One of the things that will help you futureproof your career is to figure out whether you have the potential for jobs that you haven’t done in the past.

Negotiating for a salary should not be about how you dress up the conversation, or about the right verbal innuendo, it should be about the facts.

Understanding what is happening in your body when you’re having a panic attack can help you stop being afraid of them. And these techniques can help you cope until is passes.

It’s one of the top job skills of the future, but how do you convey something intangible like EQ in a job interview?

Most job hunters know that the two main parties in the hiring process are HR and the hiring authority. To maximize your efforts to get a job offer, you should be aware of the differences between what each party does and how best to proceed with each of them.

So the time for working from home has come, but how to make the most of that time? It's a job skill like any other that requires development.

Are you new at the office and trying to make friends? Or have you worked at the same company for several years, yet are feeling like you still don’t fit in? Maybe it’s time to work on becoming a more likable employee.

Your worst "the robots are taking over" nightmare probably doesn't involve a machine sitting down with a cup of tea and assessing your résumé, but in 2018, the idea isn't completely farfetched.

With many managers still used to the traditional 9-5 office work day, it can be hard to know how to approach them or to get them to approve remote work. Here are a few tips to pitch the idea of working from home to your boss.

You’ve reread the job posting and you’re pretty clear on the role itself. Next: this checklist can make sure that you’ll nail your first impression.

While working from home has a lot of benefits, it also comes with its own list of distractions. How can you stay focused and motivated?

You may be tempted to skip a cover letter in the digital recruiting age, but don't. If you want the job, write about it.

In order to give helpful advice to young working people, from young working people, I asked several millennial employees one question: “What would you say to a room full of 1000 of your peers?”

Just because they're in charge doesn't mean their every request is worth doing exactly as asked.

In the business world, first impressions are important. Many times, the first impression you give (whether you realize it or not) is through email.

You’ve graduated, and now you can unwind and take a much-deserved rest. If your degree is in accounting, go for it. For those who want a career in advertising, you’re making an error that will take years to overcome.

It’s unrealistic for a company to adopt a policy that completely bans dating a coworker, client or business associate. People spend a majority of their day at work, which is why roughly 40% of people have dated a colleague, according to a recent survey.

Relocation is undoubtedly exciting as a change of scenery usually is, but it can also be difficult. There are a million different reasons why people find themselves uprooted from one city and deposited in another. But there’s one common thing that everyone who has relocated shares: Starting over from scratch.

When you’re in your 20s, it’s always "interview season." Even later in life we’re occasionally asked to explain our career arc to others when speaking on a panel or starting a presentation.

Feel like you’re not earning respect at work? Maybe it’s not just about what you should start doing. It can sometimes also be about what you need to stop doing.

There might be many reasons why your job makes you miserable. Maybe your work is boring, your manager is terrible, or your company just has awful benefits or a crappy work culture.

There are so many things that can get good, hard-working people fired. Honest mistakes can carry hard-hitting consequences.

Which excites you more? A job with long-term security that you can really sink your teeth into, or a job with an impressive pay packet and a dash more risk?

Navigating the interviewing process can be like playing a game of chess. Although your experience and qualifications get you into the game, to succeed, you'll have to make a few strategic moves if you want to prevail.

Working remotely effectively is a red-hot job skill--one that requires practicing the right things. Here are 7 ways to make yourself better at it.

Despite their unnerving air, phone interviews actually give the interviewee a lot of benefits. Here's how to make the most of them.

It can be easy to get sidetracked at work when you don’t have clearly defined goals for what you’re trying to accomplish each day. If you want to achieve your career goals, one of the first skills to master is time management.

Enjoy record personal, professional and social growth by radically radically changing your underlying approaches to and motivations for work.

According to a study, 71% of all employees are not fully engaged at work. However, many professionals find that THEY are their biggest obstacles to taking steps to reach their career goals.

Some workers are naturally more assertive than others. But there’s a pretty wide gap between being assertive and being a total pushover, and if you land on the wrong end of that spectrum, you might end up not only setting back your career, but making yourself unhappy on the job.

Want to get promoted? It seems counter-intuitive, but the fastest way to do so is to obsolete yourself.

Being unhappy at work is something almost everyone goes through at one point or another. Sometimes you outgrow your position and there’s no chance of promotion. Or you get a new boss who shakes up your routine.

We all want a resume that will jump out of the pile into the hands of HR managers. But how do you craft a resume that is tasteful yet aesthetic, impressive, yet not braggy?

Many of you may not be in such an extreme toxic work environment that you are willing to quit your job before having secured a new one, but most will have the occasion to deal with some level of toxicity in the workplace.

Are you really sure that company or boss is the right one for you? Ask these questions to be absolutely sure.

With email thank you notes becoming the standard for interviews, video versions have big advantages.

Agencies have a wide variety of criteria when it comes to what they look for in a portfolio. There are some common denominators though. Here are four you must not ignore.

Recently, a contact emailed me to ask for some help on a troubling situation. After a substantial period of unemployment, she had finally landed a job at a company she had really wanted to work at for some time. The trouble is, things didn’t exactly work out the way she had hoped.

Recruiters often go to Instagram and Facebook to determine the kind of person the candidate is beyond their resume. “Instagram and Facebook show a living, breathing person.”

Only a handful of candidates crush the interview process. Few applicants prepare for it properly, leaving their professional fate to hiring managers who must often choose among a group of equally qualified candidates.

While almost all professionals experience some type of work-related stress, there is no question that the more responsibilities you have, the more stress you experience.

The average person spends 90,000 hours -- or around one third of a person's life -- at work. It seems like we're all one project away from living at the office.

Life can be tough. Things can happen that will yank you right out of your comfortable nest. The more open you are to new possibilities, the more diverse your experiences, and the more confident you are in your ability to face new situations, the more resilient you will be.

Establishing yourself in a new role is critical for future career trajectory. Early impressions of your attitude, drive, and performance are often established within the first year -- or sooner.

The world's growing ever more competitive. Even if you already have a job, making sure you have access to the best opportunities means going beyond the usual.

For most people, a resume is their only real marketing tool. Unfortunately, today employers use resumes to screen people out. Unless you are seeking a lateral move to one of your company’s main competitors, chances are your resume will not survive the screening process.

Only a unicorn ticks every box of a recruiter's job description. Skills and experience aren't all acquired only at work. You are more than a mere list of your employers and what you did for them. When in doubt, apply anyway.

It is possible to get recognition for your work and make advances in your career whilst maintaining an introverted personality.

Whether the organization you work for has a mentoring program, a leadership development program, or no program at all, a large part of your leadership development ultimately depends on you.

A new survey suggests creative professionals are being asked to do more work in less time–and it’s taking a toll.

The truth is, when it comes to career planning most people think they have all the right answers when they’re dishing out clichéd and uninformed advice to others, and if you’re the unwitting recipient of these tired tips from everyone in your life you’re likely feeling overwhelmed and unsure of where to turn.

Does going for multiple open roles at the same time make you look desperate, or does it increase your odds of landing a dream job?

A quick and helpful guide for today’s executive job hunter addressing the professional options available to you.

You want to be prepared for your upcoming salary negotiation, so you plan to research the standard pay range and practice asking for what you want. Those steps are certainly valuable, but they’re not enough.

There are benefits to sharing your concerns and frustrations about work with your boss, but only in certain circumstances.

Be careful of falling into these four common traps once you get that desired title change and pay bump.

It’s not that hard to update your resume when you’re applying for the next role up the ladder in your field. Just show how what you’ve already done qualifies you to do similar things at a higher level.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with maintaining one full-time job with great benefits and a standard corporate structure. For many people, this type of scenario works for as long as they need it to. For others, the dream is sometimes interrupted, and a back-up plan becomes necessary.

That moment may come in the first three months or the first anniversary of your first job. Maybe, if you’re thick-skinned, you don’t feel it until your second anniversary. It’s the moment you say to yourself, “This isn’t what I thought it would be.”

It’s difficult to answer, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” when you are still figuring out what you want, but you can still give a good answer without sounding lazy.

Gallup’s new report reveals why most people aren’t engaged at work, and it’s something their managers could easily fix.

Found out that a co-worker earns more than you? You’re not alone. Compensation in the workplace is rarely completely equal.

Many people are questioning whether you should date in the workplace today, and if you do, what rules should be followed.

Remember, the hiring process is a two-way street. You will want to make sure that the job will be a good fit for you. Having some telling questions of your own will help you to make the right decision and make sure that the job will be everything you think it will be.

How can you get someone to meet you for coffee and career advice when it’s like pulling teeth to get an email reply?

If you haven’t been a casualty, you have probably read about the rash of layoffs that have been happening in our industry. The positive spin of “responding to current client needs” and “aligning to a new method of working” is another way of saying the agency model continues to morph.

Quitting a job in a moment of passion feels great. You get to tell the boss off or just free yourself from a situation that no longer works for you.

You already know not to let recruiters see your wild vacation photos. These are a few lesser-known things for which they’re scouring your social profiles.

There’s probably no area where this is truer than the free job search advice that many people take for granted. It’s almost always based on the conventional wisdom, and falls apart when you look at it more closely.

I'll venture to say that most likely, you dislike interviews because of how the interview — or the interview process — makes you feel.

Walter Scott said, “For success, attitude is equally important as ability.” If we don’t have the right attitude or our head is not in the game, our actions may not be as effective.

Relocation is undoubtedly exciting as a change of scenery usually is, but it can also be difficult. There are a million different reasons why people find themselves uprooted from one city and deposited in another.

Leading others to your particular strengths is not rocket science — it’s common sense. But nothing happens until you understand what your particular strengths are.

Talking about salary is generally considered taboo, and it should be discussed with care. But it’s not necessarily inappropriate and it’s definitely not illegal, as some professionals may think.

Mobile gaming is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and requires a steady influx of new talent, ranging from illustrators, animators and programmers, to testers, marketing managers, and more.

Most job hunters use standard methods learned from friends, books, networking groups, etc. They write resumes and cover letters, contact a few recruiters, call friends to ask if they know of any suitable openings, search job posting sites and maybe some company websites.

If someone tried to sell you a new smartphone but only told you how great the touchscreen and battery life were, would you buy it? Probably not.

Negotiating your first salary presents a major challenge. You have not been trained in the art of negotiation, face strong competition, have a deep emotional connection to your work, and often feel some insecurity about your talents.

If you think recruiters don't have the time to properly read your cover letter, you'd be surprised. In fact, a cover letter says a lot about a person and after screening the resumes of potential candidates, hiring managers usually turn to cover letters to see if a candidate will fit into the company’s culture.

It doesn't make any sense to let HR decide if you get interviews. For one, it’s almost certain to result in prolonging your job search.

Time flies. We reflect in disbelief that another year has passed, and our goals for the year remain unfulfilled. Instead of surrendering to discouragement, use the lack of progress as an opportunity to change your approach.

If you are job-searching, you know the importance of making yourself stand out from the crowd. An average corporate job position receives 250 resumes. Out of these, only 4-6 are chosen and ultimately one person will get the job.

It doesn’t matter if you have 50,000 contacts and you’ve done what your networking leaders said you need to do -- if you aren’t getting enough interviews with people that can hire you.

Our jobs pay our bills, and in many cases, our career is part of how we define ourselves. So making a change in this area can be especially stressful. Here are five things that can make your career transition easier.

Recently, a contact emailed me to ask for some help on a troubling situation. After a long period of unemployment, she had finally landed a job at a company she had really wanted to work at for some time. The trouble is, things didn’t exactly work out the way she had hoped.

If you are looking to make a career move, informational interviews are a great way to get the inside scoop before making your final decision. Informational interviews are one-on-one conversations with others who work in the job or industry you want to work in.

A goal, by definition, is the object of a person's ambition or effort. Goals are what keep us moving forward in life, and reaching them gives us great satisfaction. But when it comes to work, 80% of people are not passionate about what they do.

The best way to handle an objection is to anticipate and pre-handle it before it ever comes up. If that isn’t possible, then the best way to deal with an objection is to question it and then turn the objection into the very reason why your idea should be accepted.

Choosing a career is a much more complicated process than taking a simple career test. We have clients come to us often who want to find that ideal job, and have read a book or taken a career assessment only to still feel lost. It’s frustrating, understandably, because we all want to be successful and happy with our choice of career.

If you’re feeling despondent about your career, lack of growth probably tops the reason list for why. Before you decide to bail on your present job, construct a plan for going forward that improves your situation.

A resume is made up of many different layers, not unlike a burger. It needs to have a "bun," or strong foundation to start with that gets the point across of who you are and where you want to go.

Many times we react to situations with feelings of fear, weakness, or negative energy. But really, fear prevents you from being open to new directions and solutions. How you can get over your fears?

Doing things the wrong way over and over won't get a better result. Consider these alternatives.

You may be reading this at work. Why is that? Shouldn’t you be working? Shouldn’t you be so engaged in what you’re doing that reading a blog post, or checking email, or your Facebook account is the last thing on your mind?

Every few years (or whenever the need arises), we engage in a loathsome activity that is about as pleasurable as getting a root canal at the dentist. It’s called updating our résumé.

The professional world is smaller than you think — many job opportunities depend on whom you know. So by omitting a job or an internship that you held in college, you could miss out on potential connections with hiring managers.

Thousands of skilled marketing, PR, and advertising people are looking for new opportunities in an uncertain economy. Many will make common errors that can hurt their chances for finding a new job. Here are the 7 deadly sins you need to avoid.

Regardless of who the big boss is, the person who has the greatest impact on how quickly you move along your career path is usually the person you report to directly.

The hiring process is a two-way street. You will want to make sure that the job will be a good fit for you. Having some telling questions of your own will help you to make the right decision and make sure that the job will be everything you think it will be.

You have a clear purpose, you understand your audience, you have a robust and compelling structure, and you now even have a high-impact opening. Now you are in your stride, and it’s time for the fireworks.

A goal, by definition, is the object of a person's ambition or effort. Goals are what keep us moving forward in life, and reaching them gives us great satisfaction. But when it comes to work, 80% of people are not passionate about what they do.

First, remember that your integrity is one of the most important qualities that the interviewer will be gauging. Therefore, only tell her or him things that are true and that people who know you would back up. Here are some suggestions that most hiring managers appreciate.

Negotiating your first salary presents a major challenge. You have not been trained in the art of negotiation, face strong competition, have a deep emotional connection to your work, and often feel some insecurity about your talents. The following discussion is designed to help you obtain the salary you deserve.

Walking into any creative agency, it's not likely that you'll see stale colors and environments with a boring corporate touch. Creatives simply cannot bear spaces devoid of a stimulating design. Here are five small changes you can apply to your office right now and enjoy a greater creative output.

Making a good first impression in an interview is critical. In fact, the first 10 seconds may be it.

Career Regret: When you realize the career you've spent so much time working on isn't a good fit. Here are three tips to make better decisions.

Would YOU like a job you can do from home, on your own schedule? Doesn’t that sound great? Just know — there’s no starting salary, no benefits, no support staff, and no free coffee. And no clients or leads.

Setting SMART goals is a great way to stay focused and advance in your career. But sometimes we focus too much on a goal being SMART and we forget to ask ourselves if we even like the goal, are inspired by it, or if it’s the right one.

Being thrown into the deep end in a new job with unclear expectations or mentoring can be difficult and stressful. But there are specific steps you can implement to take the reins and get a handle on the situation.

Negative feelings on the job are inevitable, just like any other area of our lives. But when negative thoughts and attitudes linger, or you feel that your work environment is negative and influencing your day-to-day attitude on the job, it can become more of a problem than just the usual day-to-day challenges we can face at the office.

Things had become a bit challenging where I worked, at EMA, and we had experienced some layoffs due to the ups and downs of the economy and how it impacted the advertising industry. One day, I got called into my boss’s office...

You are not your work. Your work can be a source of satisfaction and a channel for your talents and interests or it can be a means to fund a meaningful life or find a partner.

Creating human connections, developing and leveraging them, is key to creating potential opportunities to "cut the line" and get on the radar.

I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in portfolio reviews during the hiring process and heard someone say, "This person has some great ideas, but he or she can't recognize the good from the great." You might think that isn't too bad a comment, but it is deeper than many realize.

We all understand the importance of having a professional brand. It allows us to communicate our value to others easily, the skills and experience that make us stand out from everyone else in our industry.

Which excites you more? A job with long-term security that you can really sink your teeth into, or a job with an impressive pay packet and a dash more risk?

Advertising, media, and marketing are about negotiating a constantly changing universe of ideas and technology. Here are ten fundamental attitudes and behaviors to help you to zig and zag your way to success.

If you need or want to make a timely, successful career move, one of your contacts may know of a job opening that would be ideal for you. If you let your contacts know that you’d appreciate their help, most people will oblige.

The job market today is like a dangerous wolf pit; only the strongest, fiercest, and most versatile make it through. The value of a well-earned degree is no longer what it once was; even a well-qualified individual has a hard time getting a well-paying job. The only way to get ahead of your competitors is by setting yourself apart. Sounds easy, right?

You’ve no doubt heard or read that networking is the best way to get a job. Many self-described job hunting experts preach that the best jobs are never advertised, and that networking is how to get one of them. The people who promote networking rarely explain exactly how exactly you’re supposed to proceed to actually land one of those dream jobs via networking. It’s just assumed that everyone knows.

As he began to leave nearly an hour later, he asked one question I’d heard before: “What’s the most important communication rule I need to know for my business?” “Well,” I responded, “not the talking I’ve been doing here. Instead, ask a couple highly relevant questions and listen, listen, and listen. Then clarify the responses with another question or two, and listen, listen, and listen some more. At the end of an hour you’ll know a great deal of highly useful client information.” He nodded in very strong affirmation.

In March of 2009, Chris and I went to Destin, FL so that she could take a break from her cancer treatments. She had completed her first rounds of chemotherapy, and desperately needed an escape from her everyday life.

Today job hunters contend with more than a poor economy and lots of talented competitors. Most don’t know how to hunt for a job so their efforts are smart, strategic, and effective.

You’ve landed a job interview. That’s great news! Surely you will want to prepare well for the interview. You will want to prepare your STAR stories, know which strengths to talk about, and the general questions the hiring manager will most likely ask. However, sometimes in the preparation process, we forget about things to ask the hiring manager and factors to ask ourselves before accepting the job.

“Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience.” - Victoria Holt In life, we all experience some form of regret. It can be hard to have Victoria Holt’s positive point of view and see regret as a learning opportunity — harder still when someone realizes that the career they spent so much time working towards isn’t a good fit.

Focus your efforts and energy on getting interviews with hiring authorities. If your main focus is on getting a job, you might do something that cripples your chances of getting interviews—like filling out an application online or sending a resume—which will be screened by HR, regardless of whom you sent it to.

Has your better judgment ever yelled “cut!” like a director when composing email/text/social media post? If so, consider that a save from spewing the dreaded regrettable. It’s your good gut manners way of red-flagging what you wanted to say and letting you know what you should say. Call it an etiquette edit.

Why are some people successful while other talented people fall short? Desire and talent are always the main ingredients for achievement. However, highly successful people stand out not so much because of what they know or even who they know, but because of how they brand themselves.

It is the best job market for new grads we’ve seen since the Great Recession, but it will still be a competitive market with more qualified job seekers than entry-level jobs. The class of 2017 will bring 1.8 million new bachelor’s degree holders into the market. Many will come equipped with college debt — the typical grad carries $30,000 in college loans. It’s not surprising that a record number of young adults — as many as 1 in 3 — are living at home despite an improved job market according to a Pew Research Center study of Millennials ages 18–34.

Leaders, it is on you to take the reigns. It is on you to influence and inspire. Why lead followers when you can lead leaders who can help you influence those followers?

Working from home is becoming more standard practice for business professionals. 24% of business professionals worked from home in 2015 and that number is expected to grow. While working from home has a lot of benefits, it also comes with its own list of distractions. How can you stay focused and motivated?

Behaving like a bully reduces negotiation skills because it blinds one from understanding the other person’s point of view. Victoria Pynchon, co-founder of She Negotiates Consulting and Training, puts it this way: “If you believe you have to force people to do what you want in order to get what you want, you won’t bother learning how to ‘sell’ them.”

We all know the expression “think outside the box” — be more innovative and creative at work. And when we’ve experienced this ourselves, I think we can all safely say we are more successful at work, and happier because we’re using our creative potential. But what happens when we can’t get there, and we get stuck inside the box, so to speak?

In complex business conversations, metacomm can profoundly impact conversations and make them far more constructive and efficient—even timesaving. To a significant degree, metacomm functions to facilitate conversation and is highly useful for training participants in sequencing 101. In our studies and experience with metacomm, we have found a number of these forms especially useful.

One of the most difficult problems with collaborative conversation is staying on track. Smart people inevitably get waylaid by tangential ideas that are suggested by their meeting interactions. That’s precisely why many think that team meetings are such a waste.

Chris and I were in shock. Her neurosurgeon at Duke University Hospital had just told us that she had bone cancer, and that Chris likely had less than five years left to live, since there was a ninety percent five-year mortality rate from the type of bone cancer that she had, which was osteosarcoma.

This is about a critical difference between Trump’s campaign and Hillary’s that has nothing to do with voter registration, allegations of foreign attempts to interfere with the process or voter turnout on election day.

To effectively seek work, think like a marketer and market yourself. Identify your unique selling proposition, carefully target your potential new employers, craft persuasive messages, and determine ways to get the attention and consideration you deserve. Finding a new job requires a Zen that’s comprised of patience, routine, sustained confidence, steady action, and considered risk-taking. But be realistic. Manage your nerves and marshal your resources.

In today’s business world, we all want to get ahead and reach our career goals. It’s important to have a plan to know how to get there. But too many times, an important factor is left out: gratitude. Sometimes we focus so much on getting to the next level that we forget to take a moment to celebrate our accomplishments (being thankful for them), as well as thank those who have helped us along the way.

The job market is becoming more competitive, and job seekers will find it increasingly difficult to land their desired jobs. If you want to get your dream job, you need to have a good understanding of the recruitment methods that are currently being used by companies and take the appropriate measures to make yourself more visible and attractive to potential employers.

Most professionals want to advance at work. Some do not (because they would prefer not to move into a management position where they are supervising others), but the majority of us want to advance in some way and, at least, continue to feel challenged by what we do.

Relocation is undoubtedly exciting as a change of scenery usually is, but it can also be difficult. There are a million different reasons why people find themselves uprooted from one city and deposited in another. But there’s one common thing that everyone who has relocated shares: Starting over from scratch.

How did this happen? You’re sitting there in a cubicle, watching the clock, waiting to get away from the misery. Everyone said you were going to be a star. Here you are, cranking out drivel. You’re not taking it lying down. You’ve got applications out to the best companies — the ones where you’ve dreamed of working since college. No luck yet, and frankly, you’re getting a little sick of them ignoring you. What’s up with that? You’re good. They should see that and at least acknowledge your existence.

MYTH: “Your resume is your primary marketing tool, and it needs to include detailed information about dates, duties, titles, companies, and industries where you have been employed in the past — plus the year you graduated from college, and what you majored in, and if you omit anything, it makes you seem suspicious."

Workplace dynamics aren't what they used to be. Turns out, crafting a stellar resume and nailing all the interview questions won't guarantee you get the job. A study conducted by Duke University researchers revealed a steep positive correlation between appearance and compensation.

It’s the one question every job hunter wants answered: How do I make myself stand out from all the other applicants? How can I outsmart everyone else?

You’ve no doubt heard or read that networking is the best way to get a job. Many self-described job hunting experts preach that the best jobs are never advertised, and that networking is how to get one of them. The people who promote networking rarely explain exactly how exactly you’re supposed to proceed to actually land one of those dream jobs via networking. It’s just assumed that everyone knows.

Networking at large events is essential for making new connections, but it can seem overwhelming if you don’t know anyone in the room and it’s a very large event. It can also seem like an insurmountable challenge if you are more introverted than extroverted.

In April of 2008, Chris and I went back to see her neurosurgeon for her one-year checkup. He asked her to get an MRI so that he could make sure that she was clear of spinal tumors. After Chris had the MRI scan, we went back to see her doctor about a week later to review the scan results. At that appointment, his news floored us.

Success as a corporate executive, entrepreneur, or professional requires careful, calculated branding, both to enter the arena and to stay in the game. Top corporate executives, Hollywood icons, and high-profile athletes have long tapped into the branding model to create and build a personal brand. Now, savvy people in every field are using personal branding to be more successful.

Advertising, media, and marketing are about negotiating a constantly changing universe of ideas and technology. Here are ten fundamental attitudes and behaviors to help you to zig and zag your way to success.

Most times when we think of a job interview, we think of all the potential questions the hiring manager will ask us. The general questions, the personality-telling questions, and how to show our strengths during the interview process. But a lot of times business professionals forget to prepare questions to ask the hiring manager.

It would be wonderful to have a career that fits us, where we always use our strengths! Gallup affirms that if you are lucky enough to be able to do so, you will be six times as likely to feel engaged in your job. However, sometimes we don’t know what our real strengths are or how to properly use them in the workplace to our best advantage.

If you think recruiters don't have the time to properly read your cover letter, you'd be surprised. In fact, a cover letter says a lot about a person — after screening the resumes of potential candidates, hiring managers usually turn to cover letters to see if a candidate will fit into the company’s culture.

Your résumé is the perfect test of your ability to gather, analyze, and translate information into an appealing package. By not including everything you’ve achieved or experienced, you’re telling the hiring manager that you don’t know your own value and how it relates to the business.

After you’ve responded to questions about your current and prior employment, you might be asked to name your strengths and weaknesses. First, remember that your integrity is one of the most important qualities that the interviewer will be gauging.

Some people are simply born for networking. They're able to connect with others in various contexts, keep the conversation going, and have the courage to talk to people they don't know. If you're an introvert and all of the above scares you, welcome aboard!

Recently a recent college graduate lamented how agencies wouldn’t respond when she sent her portfolio for consideration. After learning that she had sent her work to some of the hottest agencies in our industry, I told her they had responded.

Tired of hoping to win the Resume Lottery in order to generate interviews? There’s a long-proven formula used by direct mail marketers that you can adapt for use in generating interviews. Known as AIDA, it lets you get interviews based on factors that you can win on, rather than those that are commonly used to screen you out.

If you’re like most people, your career isn’t where you want it to be. The number one reason people leave a job is a lack of growth and opportunity. If you’re feeling despondent about your career, lack of growth probably tops the reason list for why. Before you decide to bail on your present job, construct a plan for going forward that improves your situation.

Here’s what a champion does to close more sales and open more accounts. She or he has a strong sense of urgency and knows that it’s vital to motivate a prospective buyer to make a purchase TNT: Today, Not Tomorrow.

My brother-in-law just graduated from college. Smart kid, graduated with honors, headed into journalism, already has experience, clippings, etc. Juggling a couple job opportunities, trying to figure out what’s best for his first full-time gig. And it got me thinking about my own career, with all its ups and downs. Especially the early days, when I made a pretty important decision that I don’t necessarily regret — but was probably wrong, with the benefit of hindsight.

Life is funny sometimes, in ways that you could never anticipate. Never in our wildest dreams could Chris and I have ever imagined that she would get a spinal tumor at the age of 37. We were not prepared for the upheaval and emotional challenges that it would bring, let alone the impact to our careers.

In the business world, you’re not a “bona fide” player unless you have a card. It’s especially important if you’re unemployed and actively going to networking events, job fairs, and interviews. Handing out your resume can be awkward at networking events. Your business card is your calling card. There’s nothing worse than meeting someone at a professional event and you have nothing to hand back but a ripped-up piece of paper or your old company card with your new contact information penciled in. Not exactly a great first impression.

That moment may come in the first three months or the first anniversary of your first job. Maybe, if you’re thick-skinned, you don’t feel it until your second anniversary. It’s the moment you say to yourself, “This isn’t what I thought it would be.”

Have your new year’s resolutions for your career lost their luster? If you started the year off with exciting plans and a timeline and did well for several months, but you’ve lost your enthusiasm, you’re not alone. As the months pass it’s easy to lose your enthusiasm for any goal, career or otherwise. Before you give up, read on to find your motivation. There are ways to get back in the saddle.

When you meet with the hiring authority, she or he will be trying to gauge how you come across in three critical areas. Their most critical concern, whether verbalized or not, is: What can you do for me?

Few people actually enjoy interviews. But part of that is because of the way we perceive what's going down. An interviewer will sense the difference and that could help you get the job. So reframe these key elements for a much better experience.

More and more companies are using video services like Skype, Google Hangouts, and Join.Me to interview job candidates and for regular business meetings. Video conferences are a lot cheaper than face-to-face interviews and offer immediate insights. But doing well in video interviews takes some extra effort and understanding of the platform.

Choosing a career is a much more complicated process than taking a simple career test. We have clients come to us often who want to find that ideal job, and have read a book or taken a career assessment only to still feel lost. It’s frustrating, understandably, because we all want to be successful and happy with our choice of career.

Mobile gaming is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and requires a steady influx of new talent, ranging from illustrators, animators and programmers, to testers, marketing managers, and more. Using our own company as an example, we have over a thousand employees working across our eight global studios from all walks of life. In terms of hiring, we only care about one thing — do you have what it takes to be a game developer?

You’ve no doubt heard that the best jobs are not advertised and are obtained by accessing the "hidden job market". Many resume writers, outplacement firms, career counselors, coaches, and networking groups all tout claims that a large percentage of the best jobs are in the so-called hidden job market, and that is where you should concentrate your job search efforts. Wait just a minute, though.

Fear. This could be the biggest thing holding you back in your career. Nine out of ten times this is an obstacle for clients, because it’s not just about not knowing career direction, but a fear of making a change and trying something new. We encourage our clients to make decisions with strength and positivity. Many times we react to situations with feelings of fear, weakness, or negative energy. But really, fear prevents you from being open to new directions and solutions. How you can get over your fears? Here is a three-step process to dealing with your fears.

Freelance clients can be hard to find — whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the business for 20 years. Sadly, there are no sure-fire ways to get freelance (unless you have a big family with lots of executives and/or entrepreneurs in it). I’ve always done freelance work on the side. It never interferes or competes with my regular work, and it’s a great way to make extra money and keep my writing skills fresh. (Because the “Hashtag Wars” Twitter contest on Comedy Central’s “@Midnight” is a different kind of writing.) So I’ve had to double up my efforts to get freelance, and it’s actually going pretty well. Here’s five tactics to try — along with the stories that inspired them.

Today job hunters contend with more than a poor economy and lots of talented competitors. Most don’t know how to hunt for a job so their efforts are smart, strategic, and effective. Here are four tips adapted from my new book, Graduate to a Great Career, on how to get a great, not just okay, job that I learned from successful job hunters.

I’ve been on both sides of the hiring process — both as interviewee and interviewer. Although our company has a multi-step process that can take a month or so, it seems to work. (We have a great team.) But it’s tough to wait, from each side of the process...

When it comes to professionals seeking marketing, PR, and advertising careers, your resume is not your first impression — your social media footprint is. I mean, if you can’t market yourself, how could I possibly trust you to market my company?

Abraham Lincoln is still a symbol of the best of America, and in 2008 historian Doris Kearns Goodwin listed the ten qualities that made Lincoln such a great leader as well as the qualities we should look for in our present leaders.

MILLENNIALS ARE ME ME ME MANIACS. Millennials grew up in an atmosphere in which everyone got a trophy for every effort, and everything they did was received in a positive and supportive way. In particular, they took their parents’ focus to heart deciding it was all about “me me me,” therefore in a professional setting one might assume they think that everything they do is perfect and they only want praise.

Whether you are looking for a new job or you are working towards a promotion, it’s important to know how to promote yourself. After all, you have to be able to show why you deserve the position over all the other candidates. Promoting or selling yourself is also important if you want to expand your professional network.

Everyone wants to succeed in their career path. Henry Ford said, “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” Unfortunately, not everyone moves forward together, and not everyone in our lives is positive about us moving forward in the career path we have chosen, whether they intend to be that way or not. Or they are simply negative about their own life course and in the process can inadvertently cause our own negative feelings to creep up.

Negotiating your first salary presents a major challenge. You have not been trained in the art of negotiation, face strong competition, have a deep emotional connection to your work, and often feel some insecurity about your talents. The following discussion is designed to help you obtain the salary you deserve.

It can creep up on you slowly. The general grumblings around the office get louder and more frequent, coworkers start calling in sick more often, maybe your managers crack down hard without sympathy, and before you know it your entire workplace is suffering from a case of the occupational blues. Low morale is a serious issue that can hurt productivity, create a rapid decline in overall cooperation, and most importantly, deeply trouble the individuals spending a significant amount of their time working in a situation that is emotionally unhealthy.

If you are currently seeking employment and you have done the following, you may feel like you’re doing everything right: You’ve updated your resume and LinkedIn profile. You are regularly sending in applications online. You are attending networking events. You’re expanding your network through LinkedIn.

If someone tried to sell you a new smartphone but only told you how great the touchscreen and battery life were, would you buy it? Probably not. You would have more questions: How fast is the processor? How great is the camera? Are there any cool video features? If the salesperson only presented you with a few of the smartphone’s best features, he would be selling the product short, and he probably wouldn’t be selling you at all.

The recent buzz in the media regarding selfies and narcissism, and the fact that most employers will now Google their prospective employees, begs the question of whether the selfie can harm your job search. It’s a great question, and while it would be difficult to predict or study, as with anything related to your career, it’s better to err on the side of caution. Here’s why and what to do about it.

To be a successful leader, it is important to help your employees grow. Because new hires are the future of your organization, it is critical to train them well and empower them to become successful in their role as well as within your organization. Not everyone understands intuitively how to lead. Here are some common errors that even the most well-intentioned leader can make and what you should avoid in your own leadership role.

In most companies (and hiring teams) there are one or two interviewers who are good with names. The rest are likely to compare you based on persona. In the final rounds of recruiting, when everyone is equally qualified, that is when hiring decisions boil down to discussions about persona. Your demeanor, your confidence.

If you wear a smartwatch, you are quite familiar with the pesky nudge to “stand.” While that can be as annoying as a mother’s huck to stand up straight, it’s for the same good reason: you and your well-being. And a better well-being makes for a much happier person, on and off the job. Right? No matter how active you think you are after clocking out, it never hurts to squeeze a little more “me” time when planted at a desk for hours on end to help get the kinks out.

Losing your job can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. In some cases, it actually could be the best thing that has ever happened to you! I had a client, years ago, call me, and she sounded great — much better than she ever had during our previous coaching sessions. Two minutes into the conversation she said, “I got fired last week and I’m so happy!” She had wanted to move on for a long time. So if you’ve recently lost your job, although we know in many ways it’s not ideal, here are a few ways to reflect on your situation and find the silver lining.

You've graduated college, landed a decent job with room for advancement, and are satisfied with your pay. So now what? Unfortunately, you can't just coast along, even if you're not looking to get promoted right away. Nowadays, people need to continue investing in themselves in order to simply keep their current job.

​Timing may not be everything, but in job hunting, some times are better than others.

Paying close attention to recent research into various workplace issues that impact employee productivity is crucial if you want your office to help you be more creative. Walking into any creative agency, it's not likely that you'll see stale colours and environments with a boring corporate touch. Creatives simply cannot bear spaces devoid of a stimulating design.

Sometimes applying for jobs feels like casting baited hooks into murky waters in the hopes of catching a big fish. Similarly, applicants push résumés out to job boards and recruiters, eager to hook a recruiter and land an interview. But with so many applications flowing into recruiters’ inboxes, how can job seekers make their résumés stand out in a sea of applicants? Here are 12 vital steps to creating a standout résumé:

Having made it over the transition hump from college graduate to gainfully employed PR and ad agency staffer, I have had my fair share of interviews. It’s fascinating to be “on the inside” and hear what agencies deal with as they search to fill more positions. Because of this, I’ve decided to provide a few do’s and don’ts of interviewing etiquette that might help you get in the door at a PR firm or ad agency.

There are several kinds of office events that let you socialize with other people in your workplace. Even if they may seem trivial or unnecessary, partaking in these social events may also yield positive effects.

Nothing gets your foot through a recruiter’s door like an intriguing CV. Here are some simple rules that you can follow to achieve a coherent and effective resume. A resume is made up of many different layers, not unlike a burger. It needs to have a "bun," or strong foundation to start with that gets the point across of who you are and where you want to go. This is the first thing the recruiter sees, and either encourages them to look further or put it in the "no" pile with the rest.

“Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience.” - Victoria Holt In life, we all experience some form of regret. It can be hard to have Victoria Holt’s positive point of view and see regret as a learning opportunity — harder still when someone realizes that the career they spent so much time working towards isn’t a good fit.

When I teach people how to interview well, I am actually teaching people how to point out their defined strengths. Not sure what your defined strengths are? Join the club! I’ll help you identify those strengths, and explain how to let people know about them when you read…

Thinking of making a career change immobilizes most people with fear. Whether you are aiming for a slight adjustment or a dramatic shift, altering your career path in any way can be overwhelming. And let’s face it — conducting a job search is not anyone’s idea of a good time. Often, job seekers choose to ignore the challenge instead of face it head-on. As a result, they end up years later in the same job they do not enjoy, wondering where the time went.

It was a classic case of misunderstanding. But since more than 50% of all messages are loaded with misunderstanding, it wasn’t especially unusual. Here’s how it happened. The other evening I was having dinner with a half-dozen colleagues, all of whom are retired university faculty and administrators. Some really smart guys. The conversation veered into questions about my consulting and coaching and one of them asked how I “advise my clients.” “That’s not how it works,” I responded.

Is it smarter to focus on landing a job or on getting interviews? Answer: Focus on getting interviews with someone that can hire you. If you focus mainly on getting a job, you might inadvertently do something that spoils your chances of getting interviews, e.g., sending a resume to HR.

Why are some people successful while other talented people fall short? Desire and talent are always the main ingredients for achievement. However, highly successful people stand out not so much because of what they know or even who they know, but because of how they brand themselves.

Resumes tell, marketing letters sell. Save your resume and send it after interest has been expressed in you. An effective marketing letter has the additional advantage of pre-selling you, thus making it more likely that your interview will be mainly about chemistry, and less of an interrogation.

Regardless of who the big boss is, the person who has the greatest impact on how quickly you move along your career path is usually the person you report to directly. This is why it is important that he or she not only pays attention to your work but appreciates the effort and expertise that you bring to your position. In the modern workplace this can be more difficult than ever with the emergence of team collaboration and remote work agreements.

How did this happen? You’re sitting there in a cubicle, watching the clock, waiting to get away from the misery. Everyone said you were going to be a star. Here you are, cranking out drivel. You’re not taking it lying down. You’ve got applications out to the best companies — the ones where you’ve dreamed of working since college. No luck yet, and frankly, you’re getting a little sick of them ignoring you. What’s up with that? You’re good. They should see that and at least acknowledge your existence.

Job hunting methods haven't changed in 30+ years. Most people send out resumes to job postings they find online and to recruiting firms. They also fill out applications online, maybe call some recruiters, ask friends and professional contacts about any openings that they may know of, and that's about it. Some people attend job fairs and others join networking groups. As time passes by, pressures may rise, and low-level panic may even set in. This isn't good. What's going on?

To effectively seek work, think like a marketer and market yourself. Identify your unique selling proposition, carefully target your potential new employers, craft persuasive messages, and determine ways to get the attention and consideration you deserve. Finding a new job requires a Zen that’s comprised of patience, routine, sustained confidence, steady action, and considered risk-taking. But be realistic. Manage your nerves and marshal your resources.

About 10 years ago, I decided I didn’t want to work for “the man” anymore. I was tired of working at my little desk, drained from the daily hour-plus commute each way, and sick of getting paid less than what I knew I was worth. So, I decided to quit.

Failure. Let’s get this out of the way first. Failure happens when you stop believing and decide — yes, decide — you have failed. Failure is an end.

​Which excites you more? A job with long-term security that you can really sink your teeth into, or a job with an impressive pay packet and a dash more risk?

A little mayo won’t hurt you. Granted, that statement may be true (in the absence of any allergic reaction), but it doesn’t prevent me from gasping a little bit at the sight of the pasty white condiment. Of course, you can rightly guess that I try to avoid it if possible, but there are times when the lunch caterer has laid out the spread and there’s no place to hide.

Most professionals want to advance at work. Some do not (because they would prefer not to move into a management position where they are supervising others), but the majority of us want to advance in some way and, at least, continue to feel challenged by what we do.

Every few years (or whenever the need arises), we engage in a loathsome activity that is about as pleasurable as getting a root canal at the dentist. It’s called updating our résumé. So why is this process so painful?

Your boss can either help or hinder your career: wowing her/him will help your career. With an effective relationship, your boss can give you all kinds of support, insight, and linking to others in the organization.

Making a good first impression in an interview is critical. In fact, the first 10 seconds may be it. In that short period of time, you’ve probably just finished shaking hands and greeting each other, yet the interviewer most likely has sized you up and even decided whether to hire you or not, according to research done by the University of Toledo. Imagine, all that preparation you did for the interview, and you could ruin everything in the first ten seconds!

Thousands of skilled marketing, PR, and advertising people are looking for new opportunities in an uncertain economy. Many will make common errors that can hurt their chances for finding a new job. Here are the 7 deadly sins you need to avoid.

Some people are simply born for networking. They're able to connect with others in various contexts, keep the conversation going, and have the courage to talk to people they don't know. If you're an introvert and all of the above scares you, welcome aboard! Introverts usually find it very hard to delve into the reality of networking, which in essence means creating and nurturing new relationships. Don’t worry though — here are some tips on networking tailored specifically to the needs of introverted characters.

Hate to go to industry conferences and trade shows? You’re not alone, but avoid attending conferences at your peril. Why? There’s no better place to network and market yourself than industry conferences and trade shows.

Do you feel like you're always being interviewed but you never get the job? Believe it or not, you should count yourself lucky. Only between four and six people get called in for an interview for every batch of 100 resumes. Obviously you're doing something right on your resume and something wrong in your interview if interviewing has become a career for you.

The best career advice I ever got and will ever give comes from Herb Cohen, the famous negotiating guru, who taught me that in business you should “care … but not that much.” Herb believed that mastery of your ego and the confidence to walk away separated the truly successful from the worker drones.

This tends to be the time of year where attrition is at its highest point in many industries. I suppose it’s New Year’s resolutions that have us setting goals for ourselves and wondering whether a career change should be among them. Before we make change for the sake of change, we must start by evaluating what matters to us.

The job market is becoming more competitive, and job seekers will find it increasingly difficult to land their desired jobs. If you want to get your dream job, you need to have a good understanding of the recruitment methods that are currently being used by companies and take the appropriate measures to make yourself more visible and attractive to potential employers.

As we know from working with our career coaching clients and their enthusiasm when they identify their ideal career, it is possible to have a job you truly enjoy and are excited about. These three tips can help you take control of your career today, and begin to define the right fit for you!

I remember a marketing intern asking me once, “What is one thing that I should be doing to learn as much as possible while I’m here?” My answer was simple, “Eavesdrop.” Of course, I was kidding – at least partially kidding.

A very common misconception amongst the professional community, and especially where very talented people have the chance to “shine,” is that showing any type of leadership ability through resume or interview is a big “no-no.” Many equate the demonstration of leadership ability as something that should only be done if one seeks an executive role or a management position. The reality is that lack of leadership could be the one thing holding them back from that higher-paying senior position within the team atmosphere — or even barring them from an entry-level position within a company that requires self-starters in a fast-paced environment.

Communication in the workplace is very important; we all know this. It's the number one skill that employers want in their employees. Communication skills contribute to interpersonal skills and teamwork skills, which means relating well with others, whether it be clients or other workmates. Some communication skills come easily to us, like being assertive, speaking up at meetings, or writing effective emails.

Has your better judgment ever yelled “cut!” like a director when composing email/text/social media post? If so, consider that a save from spewing the dreaded regrettable. It’s your good gut manners way of red-flagging what you wanted to say and letting you know what you should say. Call it an etiquette edit.

At times, being laid off from a job can be devastating. At others times, it can be the best thing that can happen to a person. For me, it took a couple of layoffs for reality to set in…forcing me to take my career into my own hands.

I have always found soccer to be boring. Sorry, soccer fans. I grew up a football fan. It’s structured. It’s fast-paced. There’s a clock I can count on. There’s a score whose number gets in the double digits. But as I have watched my two young daughters take up the game, I’ve learned to appreciate soccer and the lessons about teamwork that they have learned.

Everyone wants to succeed in their career path. Henry Ford said, “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” Unfortunately, not everyone moves forward together, and not everyone in our lives is positive about us moving forward in the career path we have chosen, whether they intend to be that way or not. Or they are simply negative about their own life course and in the process can inadvertently cause our own negative feelings to creep up.

Almost everyone in an office performs their duties satisfactorily, but only a few of them will be considered for advancement when the opportunity arises. Those few are employees who have succeeded in standing out in the office.

This is a message for ad agencies, marketing firms, consultants, freelancers, and everyone who buys or sells a service. Hmmm. That means you and me. Almost always, a freelancer or consultant is asked what their "hourly rate" is.

Negative feelings on the job are inevitable, just like any other area of our lives. Maybe you don’t feel that you can accomplish the task at hand, you’re frustrated by a customer, you don’t feel that the right choice was made by your superior, or you just don’t enjoy the project you’re working on.

The end of the year approaches and you’re still in the job that isn’t doing your career any good. Don’t lament that no one hires this time of year. Instead, use the next few weeks to prepare for your career to be in high gear by early 2017. Here’s a checklist of things to do until it's time to sing “Auld Lang Syne.”

In today’s business world, we all want to get ahead and reach our career goals. It’s important to have a plan to know how to get there. But too many times, an important factor is left out: gratitude. Sometimes we focus so much on getting to the next level that we forget to take a moment to celebrate our accomplishments (being thankful for them), as well as thank those who have helped us along the way.

Let go and renew. Just for the afternoon. Or maybe for the evening, too. But please, before we go any further, don’t confuse my suggestion to surrender as “giving up.”

​Do you recognise the situation? Year after year, we go to the same restaurant because we feel so comfortable there and there aren't any culinary "surprises." For the same reason many people go back to the same holiday destination and the same hotel every year and, of course, always book "their" room, number 24. Or we remain stuck in the same job for half of our lives because we are afraid of doing something new or we doubt whether we are good enough.

Fresh bagels, hot coffee, and the obligatory apple danish — that’s how they rope you in. Of course, if you're planning the meeting, I'd suggest going heavier on the fruit medley. This shows you are more in tune with today's dietary concerns. This article has an agenda to give both meeting organizers and attendees some useful tips, so let's start with the biggest and most overlooked question.

Sometimes applying for jobs feels like casting baited hooks into murky waters in the hopes of catching a big fish. Similarly, applicants push résumés out to job boards and recruiters, eager to hook a recruiter and land an interview. But with so many applications flowing into recruiters’ inboxes, how can job seekers make their résumés stand out in a sea of applicants? Here are 12 vital steps to creating a standout résumé:

I’ve been around. (Not in a sleazy way, you dirty-minded moolyak.) I just meant that as an ad copywriter and marketing guy since 1995, I’ve had a lot of jobs. And one of the many things I learned along the way (besides scoping out the closest bathrooms and when to get in line for Free Lunch Fridays) is the importance of New Hire Orientation.

Aside from the new standards of quality that have been instituted into the new resume requirements for getting past Applicant Tracking Systems, we have to realize that, for most of our lives, we have been writing the resume wrong. Professional resume writers are often baffled at how some of the top professionals at Fortune 500 companies have included so few achievements within their resumes, but have listed many duties!

If you think recruiters don't have the time to properly read your cover letter, you'd be surprised. In fact, a cover letter says a lot about a person — after screening the resumes of potential candidates, hiring managers usually turn to cover letters to see if a candidate will fit into the company’s culture and whether their competencies match with those the business is seeking. Here are six of the most common cover letter mistakes to avoid if you want to pass the initial screening and improve your chances of being considered for a position.

Relocation is undoubtedly exciting as a change of scenery usually is, but it can also be difficult. There are a million different reasons why people find themselves uprooted from one city and deposited in another. But there’s one common thing that everyone who has relocated shares: Starting over from scratch.

How many times, when you have been under pressure, have you thought to yourself: “If I could just calm myself down, I know I would do better!” I might be out of line here, but I think two words will provide a solution to this problem. You’ll see what I mean when you read…

It has been said by some that the Millennial workforce has a sense of entitlement, and that loyalty and commitment have been replaced by our search for purpose, but what it really comes down to is finding the right fit.

As he began to leave nearly an hour later, he asked one question I’d heard before: “What’s the most important communication rule I need to know for my business?” “Well,” I responded, “not the talking I’ve been doing here. Instead, ask a couple highly relevant questions and listen, listen, and listen. Then clarify the responses with another question or two, and listen, listen, and listen some more. At the end of an hour you’ll know a great deal of highly useful client information.” He nodded in very strong affirmation.

So this post is a doozy to write. But you can trust me on this subject — because it’s basically autobiographical. I was laid off (“NOT performance-related,” I was told). Luckily(?), I’d been through this before — several times, in fact.

To be a successful leader, it is important to help your employees grow. Because new hires are the future of your organization, it is critical to train them well and empower them to become successful in their role as well as within your organization. Not everyone understands intuitively how to lead. Here are some common errors that even the most well-intentioned leader can make and what you should avoid in your own leadership role.

A goal, by definition, is the object of a person's ambition or effort. Goals are what keep us moving forward in life, and reaching them gives us great satisfaction. But when it comes to work, 80% of people are not passionate about what they do.

If you’re like most people, your career isn’t where you want it to be. The number one reason people leave a job is a lack of growth and opportunity. If you’re feeling despondent about your career, lack of growth probably tops the reason list for why. Before you decide to bail on your present job, construct a plan for going forward that improves your situation.

Confucius said, “Choose a job you love; and you will never have to work a day in your life.” That is most everyone’s career dream, right? Do something you love. However, in today’s world, it isn’t always easy. There are many factors that can make it difficult to find a job that you love. Responsibilities and constraints like financial and family obligations, where you live, where you went to school, and your past work experience and skill set can affect your ability to do what you love.

About 10 years ago, I decided I didn’t want to work for “the man” anymore. I was tired of working at my little desk, drained from the daily hour-plus commute each way, and sick of getting paid less than what I knew I was worth. So, I decided to quit.

A very common misconception amongst the professional community, and especially where very talented people have the chance to “shine,” is that showing any type of leadership ability through resume or interview is a big “no-no.” Many equate the demonstration of leadership ability as something that should only be done if one seeks an executive role or a management position. The reality is that lack of leadership could be the one thing holding them back from that higher-paying senior position within the team atmosphere — or even barring them from an entry-level position within a company that requires self-starters in a fast-paced environment.

A goal, by definition, is the object of a person's ambition or effort. Goals are what keep us moving forward in life, and reaching them gives us great satisfaction. But when it comes to work, 80% of people are not passionate about what they do.

Fresh bagels, hot coffee, and the obligatory apple danish — that’s how they rope you in. Of course, if you're planning the meeting, I'd suggest going heavier on the fruit medley. This shows you are more in tune with today's dietary concerns. This article has an agenda to give both meeting organizers and attendees some useful tips, so let's start with the biggest and most overlooked question.

Would you like to take on more responsibility in your place of employment? Many quickly say yes, but are unsure of how to do so. Some think they let their boss know they are available for more work in the right way, but then watch as another employee is given a management position. What went wrong?

When I teach people how to interview well, I am actually teaching people how to point out their defined strengths. Not sure what your defined strengths are? Join the club! I’ll help you identify those strengths, and explain how to let people know about them when you read…

The equivalent of a CPA test for digital marketers does not exist. We do have hundreds, if not thousands, of certifications — but all of them are fairly arbitrary. Google, for example, is an incredible company; but becoming a Google “specialist” takes only a few hours, meaning this certification can be earned in a single weekend. Nonetheless, creating a website logo doesn’t make you an expert in Google AdWords or SEO any more than a weekend spent at defensive driving school creates a NASCAR driver. So why rely on certifications to help you land a job?

You have started your new job, are a week into it, and realize you are either in over your head or your company is offering little training and support — worst case, both. Being thrown into the deep end in a new job with unclear expectations or mentoring can be difficult and stressful. But there are specific steps you can implement to take the reins and get a handle on the situation.

Advertising, media, and marketing are about negotiating a constantly changing universe of ideas and technology. Here are ten fundamental attitudes and behaviors to help you to zig and zag your way to success.

We all know the expression “think outside the box” — be more innovative and creative at work. And when we’ve experienced this ourselves, I think we can all safely say we are more successful at work, and happier because we’re using our creative potential. But what happens when we can’t get there, and we get stuck inside the box, so to speak?

In most "tribes," there are one or two interviewers who are good with names. The rest are likely to compare you based on persona. Think about it; if you’ve been following any of the debates, you can see this on display front and center. The candidates all take jabs at each other’s positioning. As an experiment, forget the candidate’s name and just refer to them by the impression they left on you.

Having made it over the transition hump from college graduate to gainfully employed PR and ad agency staffer, I have had my fair share of interviews. It’s fascinating to be “on the inside” and hear what agencies deal with as they search to fill more positions. Because of this, I’ve decided to provide a few do’s and don’ts of interviewing etiquette that might help you get in the door at a PR firm or ad agency.

Colvin’s point is that trying to figure out what computers can’t do and getting an education to fill that need is wrongheaded. The driving question is: What do high achievers need to know that brilliant machines never will? Colvin argues that high-value skills, built on the humanities and social sciences, are the only sure way to beat the machines.

Quality trumps quantity. Remember that. Your portfolio is an honored place, a place where only your absolute best work resides. It is hallowed ground — the Valhalla for your creative, a place where your greatest ideas are gathered, waiting for that moment when you will call upon them to do battle for you, either in a job or client search.

A very common misconception amongst the professional community, and especially where very talented people have the chance to “shine,” is that showing any type of leadership ability through resume or interview is a big “no-no.” Many equate the demonstration of leadership ability as something that should only be done if one seeks an executive role or a management position. The reality is that lack of leadership could be the one thing holding them back from that higher-paying senior position within the team atmosphere — or even barring them from an entry-level position within a company that requires self-starters in a fast-paced environment.

Robert was at a crossroads. After four years at the same company, he needed a change. But not just a job change — a career change. He had joined the company right after college, was making a great living in sales, came and went as he pleased, and his managers adored him. But he despised cold calling, and he had no passion for the products he was selling

The lazy days of summer are behind us. Now is the time to get back to work, but what does that mean? For some, those words can signify a time of great challenge — entering a new stage in life. Starting college, grad school, entering the job force. For others it’s just more of the same; just another crunch season.

A lot of my work involves being part of a team. As a seasoned skeptic and long time solo contributor, my career goal for the fall is to be a better, more effective teammate. Here’s what it will take.

To effectively seek work, think like a marketer and market yourself. Identify your unique selling proposition, carefully target your potential new employers, craft persuasive messages, and determine ways to get the attention and consideration you deserve. Finding a new job requires a Zen that’s comprised of patience, routine, sustained confidence, steady action, and considered risk-taking. But be realistic. Manage your nerves and marshal your resources.

Being successful at work, just like anything else in life, is not just about what we do. Getting caught up in our to-do lists, it’s easy to forget that it’s also about how we approach actions: with the right perspective, the right attitude, the right energy level.

Is your career path a downward spiral? Why do most careers start and stay on the wrong path? It’s simple when you think about it.

Many that attempt to find a career in advertising know little of the complexities of getting into the best companies. A great portfolio of work is essential, but it isn’t enough to land the job. Here are a few skills to develop to make sure you are in the top tier of job candidates.

Networking is the oxygen of the connected economy. It is the currency of consumer collaboration. Unless you are a monk, getting through life in the 21st century is a challenge at best if you have no network. Virtually every job today is gained through the network.

Hate to go to industry conferences and trade shows? You’re not alone, but avoid attending conferences at your peril. Why? There’s no better place to network and market yourself than industry conferences and trade shows.

You work on the same team. You have similar job descriptions and work ethic. Maybe you even helped train them and have seniority. You both applied for the promotion but you felt confident that you had more experience and would be the first choice. But when the new promotion is announced, it’s their name that’s read, not yours. You want to feel happy for them, but all you can think of is: “Why? Why them and not me? What went wrong?” Here are a few tips that can help you.

Want to contribute to our funny, new WHAT NOT TO DO video series? To pitch us or learn more about this reader-submitted concept, email angel@talentzoo.com.

You’ll normally rub shoulders with skills mentors, people willing to help and mentor, during your first week at a company. It’s important from the outset to find the more capable people. Relational mentors, in contrast, are more difficult to locate.

You will find career mentors both internally and externally, often in consulting or contracting positions. They are the folk you can trust for a sympathetic career ear and advice. They are not limited by the traditional, linear career thinking. The best have a big picture of careers, stay open-minded, and are able to help you consider a variety of perspectives.

Skills mentors are the mentors you need to do your day-to-day work. They’re usually the first you meet in the organization because they have the responsibility to get you situated. Inside your organization and readily available, they can provide the basic mentoring in those specific disciplines and proprietary skills that your organization needs and holds dear.

The need for mentorship is more profound than ever: success without mentors is nearly impossible. Compounding the issue is that choice assignments in this hypercompetitive world are in short supply. So it’s the mentored employee who will be presented with better opportunities, faster promotions, and top salaries.

About 10 years ago, I decided I didn’t want to work for “the man” anymore. I was tired of working at my little desk, drained from the daily hour-plus commute each way, and sick of getting paid less than what I knew I was worth. So, I decided to quit.

At times, being laid off from a job can be devastating. At others times, it can be the best thing that can happen to a person. For me, it took a couple of layoffs for reality to set in…forcing me to take my career into my own hands.

Has your better judgment ever yelled “cut!” like a director when composing email/text/social media post? If so, consider that a save from spewing the dreaded regrettable. It’s your good gut manners way of red-flagging what you wanted to say and letting you know what you should say. Call it an etiquette edit.

I remember a marketing intern asking me once, “What is one thing that I should be doing to learn as much as possible while I’m here?” My answer was simple, “Eavesdrop.” Of course, I was kidding – at least partially kidding.

That moment may come in the first three months or the first anniversary of your first job. Maybe, if you’re thick-skinned, you don’t feel it until your second anniversary. It’s the moment you say to yourself, “This isn’t what I thought it would be.”

Bart Cleveland's video series continues with The Ad Career You're Meant to Have: Avoid Pitfalls and Grow Skills.

Bart Cleveland's video series continues with The Ad Career You're Meant to Have: Maximize Your Marketability.

Bart Cleveland's video series continues with The Ad Career You're Meant to Have: Establish a Career Goal About You.

Bart Cleveland's video series continues with The Ad Career You're Meant to Have: Success Doesn't Happen by Chance.

Bart Cleveland's video series kicks off with The Ad Career You're Meant to Have.

There was a time when youth and inexperience went hand in hand. Now youth appears to trump everything, in technical disciplines especially, but in creative ones, as well. In those arenas, age and experience are seen as liabilities.

The world has changed a lot since I first joined the workforce. Back in the 1990s when I graduated college, you could find a decent entry-level job that would pay you enough money that you could afford a liveable apartment (without any roommates!), and still manage to go out on the weekend. But times? They’ve changed. The truth is, it doesn’t matter what stage of your career you are in. Sometimes you have to make a move.

If you wear a smartwatch, you are quite familiar with the pesky nudge to “stand.” While that can be as annoying as a mother’s huck to stand up straight, it’s for the same good reason: you and your well-being. And a better well-being makes for a much happier person, on and off the job. Right? No matter how active you think you are after clocking out, it never hurts to squeeze a little more “me” time when planted at a desk for hours on end to help get the kinks out.

The best career advice I ever got and will ever give comes from Herb Cohen, the famous negotiating guru, who taught me that in business you should “care … but not that much.” Herb believed that mastery of your ego and the confidence to walk away separated the truly successful from the worker drones.

If you are currently seeking employment and you have done the following, you may feel like you’re doing everything right: You’ve updated your resume and LinkedIn profile. You are regularly sending in applications online. You are attending networking events. You’re expanding your network through LinkedIn.

It’s the one question every job hunter wants answered: How do I make myself stand out from all the other applicants? How can I outsmart everyone else?

Networking at large events is essential for making new connections, but it can seem overwhelming if you don’t know anyone in the room and it’s a very large event. It can also seem like an insurmountable challenge if you are more introverted than extroverted.

Aside from the new standards of quality that have been instituted into the new resume requirements for getting past Applicant Tracking Systems, we have to realize that, for most of our lives, we have been writing the resume wrong. Professional resume writers are often baffled at how some of the top professionals at Fortune 500 companies have included so few achievements within their resumes, but have listed many duties!

Whether it fits or not, we all get grouped into a stereotype. When it happens, and you pay the consequence for someone else’s behavior, it’s pretty demoralizing. But you don’t have to be the scapegoat, particularly if you’re a Millennial.

Would YOU like a job you can do from home, in your jammies, on your own schedule? Doesn’t that sound great? Then consider becoming a freelancer! Just know — there’s no starting salary, no benefits, no support staff, and no free coffee. And no clients or leads.

The tides of our times are shifting from newsrooms to the digital sea. Anyone can cast off there, but it takes fortitude to keep afloat and be discovered by an “audience,” or rather, a community of your own. Keeping afloat on the digital sea – tough!

It was a classic case of misunderstanding. But since more than 50% of all messages are loaded with misunderstanding, it wasn’t especially unusual. Here’s how it happened. The other evening I was having dinner with a half-dozen colleagues, all of whom are retired university faculty and administrators. Some really smart guys. The conversation veered into questions about my consulting and coaching and one of them asked how I “advise my clients.” “That’s not how it works,” I responded.

Fear. This could be the biggest thing holding you back in your career. Nine out of ten times this is an obstacle for clients, because it’s not just about not knowing career direction, but a fear of making a change and trying something new. We encourage our clients to make decisions with strength and positivity. Many times we react to situations with feelings of fear, weakness, or negative energy. But really, fear prevents you from being open to new directions and solutions. How you can get over your fears? Here is a three-step process to dealing with your fears.

A little mayo won’t hurt you. Granted, that statement may be true (in the absence of any allergic reaction), but it doesn’t prevent me from gasping a little bit at the sight of the pasty white condiment. Of course, you can rightly guess that I try to avoid it if possible, but there are times when the lunch caterer has laid out the spread and there’s no place to hide.

My brother-in-law just graduated from college. Smart kid, graduated with honors, headed into journalism, already has experience, clippings, etc. Juggling a couple job opportunities, trying to figure out what’s best for his first full-time gig. And it got me thinking about my own career, with all its ups and downs. Especially the early days, when I made a pretty important decision that I don’t necessarily regret — but was probably wrong, with the benefit of hindsight.

“You are so…creative” was a phase I often heard when growing up. Never really sure if that was a good thing or just an act of kindness said to a square peg, I learned to say “thank you” as I secretly wondered “really?”

Known as Gen X, those of us in our forties were supposed to be the troublemakers. The overlooked, under-valued generation. With a mark against us from the start, it’s no wonder one of our favorite super heroes was Underdog.

Graduating from a prestigious, small, liberal arts university, I thought I did everything right. I was involved in clubs and organizations. I had an internship every summer. I even received collegiate and national awards based on my achievements. I even had a job lined up before graduation.

Growing up, I considered two careers: teacher (both my parents were teachers) and writer (I wrote my first “novel” at nine years old—90 handwritten pages). In my childhood imagination, success was making a lot of money and having summers off. Little did I know.

It is the best job market for new grads we’ve seen since the Great Recession, but it will still be a competitive market with more qualified job seekers than entry-level jobs. The class of 2016 will bring 1.8 million new bachelor’s degree holders into the market. Many will come equipped with college debt — the typical grad carries $30,000 in college loans. It’s not surprising that a record number of young adults — as many as 1 in 3 — are living at home despite an improved job market according to a Pew Research Center study of Millennials ages 18–34.

Countless athletes who were average on paper ended up in their sport’s hall of fame. Drafted in the late rounds, if drafted at all, many attended small colleges with even smaller sports programs. They defied the odds, overcame skeptics, and forged legacies. Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, is a relevant example. Drafted in a later round, Brady worked his way into a starting position and led his team to the record books. Today he is arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of pro football.

It would be wonderful to have a career that fits us, where we always use our strengths! Gallup affirms that if you are lucky enough to be able to do so, you will be six times as likely to feel engaged in your job. However, sometimes we don’t know what our real strengths are or how to properly use them in the workplace to our best advantage.

Come write for us at Talent Zoo!

Share your thoughts and opinions on:
-- Today’s working world (Sites: Career Oxygen and Hire & Higher)
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I have always found soccer to be boring. Sorry, soccer fans. I grew up a football fan. It’s structured. It’s fast-paced. There’s a clock I can count on. There’s a score whose number gets in the double digits. But as I have watched my two young daughters take up the game, I’ve learned to appreciate soccer and the lessons about teamwork that they have learned.

Most professionals are familiar with the importance of setting SMART goals. They should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound. Setting SMART goals is a great way to stay focused and advance in your career. But sometimes we focus too much on a goal being SMART and we forget to ask ourselves if we even like the goal, are inspired by it, or if it’s the right one.

The economy is going through some difficult times. Advertising is leading the way when it comes to dissatisfaction. I look at it like A Tale of Two Cities. It may be the worst of times, but it is also the best of times. Technology has given us a large palette to use to create. Don’t believe the naysayer. You can still have a great career. Knowing some facts can help you properly manage your journey and have the career you’re meant to have.

Success as a corporate executive, entrepreneur, or professional requires careful, calculated branding, both to enter the arena and to stay in the game. Top corporate executives, Hollywood icons, and high-profile athletes have long tapped into the branding model to create and build a personal brand. Now, savvy people in every field are using personal branding to be more successful.

Today job hunters contend with more than a poor economy and lots of talented competitors. Most don’t know how to hunt for a job so their efforts are smart, strategic, and effective. Here are four tips adapted from my new book, Graduate to a Great Career, on how to get a great, not just okay, job that I learned from successful job hunters.

Believe the interview advice you've been receiving is stale, outdated, unusable? Think your parents, your older siblings, hell!... even that cool friend who graduated just ahead of you, doesn't know what it's like in the jungle that is trying to nail a job? There's only one way to change a situation. Yell it to the rooftops. Start by emailing angel@talentzoo.com for a shot at contributing to CAREER OXYGEN.

Believe the interview advice you've been receiving is stale, outdated, unusable? Think your parents, your older siblings, hell!... even that cool friend who graduated just ahead of you, doesn't know what it's like in the jungle that is trying to nail a job? There's only one way to change a situation. Yell it to the rooftops. Start by emailing angel@talentzoo.com for a shot at contributing to CAREER OXYGEN.

A GPS doesn't hem or haw. You input where you need to go, it maps the route and delivers. If you miss a return, it doesn't yell or stress. She simply tells you to make a U turn when possible.

In the business world, you’re not a “bona fide” player unless you have a card. It’s especially important if you’re unemployed and actively going to networking events, job fairs, and interviews. Handing out your resume can be awkward at networking events. Your business card is your calling card. There’s nothing worse than meeting someone at a professional event and you have nothing to hand back but a ripped-up piece of paper or your old company card with your new contact information penciled in. Not exactly a great first impression.

Freelance clients can be hard to find — whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the business for 20 years. Sadly, there are no sure-fire ways to get freelance (unless you have a big family with lots of executives and/or entrepreneurs in it). I’ve always done freelance work on the side. It never interferes or competes with my regular work, and it’s a great way to make extra money and keep my writing skills fresh. (Because the “Hashtag Wars” Twitter contest on Comedy Central’s “@Midnight” is a different kind of writing.) So I’ve had to double up my efforts to get freelance, and it’s actually going pretty well. Here’s five tactics to try — along with the stories that inspired them.

In business, as in other vocations, what’s not said is often far, far more important than what is said. Indeed, sometimes people lose their jobs, opportunities, raises, or promotions because they fail to understand what’s not said. So, in many of my posts, when I write about “subtexts,” I’m referring to these covert meanings, hidden commitments, “undiscussables,”or what's not said.

Last year during the Oscars, I saw two well-paid celebrity icons — Patricia Arquette and Meryl Streep — draw attention to an issue that’s very important to me: equal pay for women. Accepting the Oscar for best supporting actress, Arquette made equal pay for people everywhere a rallying cry, which Steep echoed with a standing ovation from the audience. I was cheering, too. And so was my husband.

Give your portfolio an annual check-up. If you can’t get anyone’s attention in the communication arts industry, more than likely your portfolio is the culprit. A goal to refresh your portfolio every year will keep you competitive. Employers seldom look for potential. They want the sure thing.

More and more companies are using video services like Skype, Google Hangouts, and Join.Me to interview job candidates and for regular business meetings. Video conferences are a lot cheaper than face-to-face interviews and offer immediate insights. But doing well in video interviews takes some extra effort and understanding of the platform.

Choosing a career is a much more complicated process than taking a simple career test. We have clients come to us often who want to find that ideal job, and have read a book or taken a career assessment only to still feel lost. It’s frustrating, understandably, because we all want to be successful and happy with our choice of career.

It can creep up on you slowly. The general grumblings around the office get louder and more frequent, coworkers start calling in sick more often, maybe your managers crack down hard without sympathy, and before you know it your entire workplace is suffering from a case of the occupational blues. Low morale is a serious issue that can hurt productivity, create a rapid decline in overall cooperation, and most importantly, deeply trouble the individuals spending a significant amount of their time working in a situation that is emotionally unhealthy.

Losing your job can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. In some cases, it actually could be the best thing that has ever happened to you! I had a client, years ago, call me, and she sounded great — much better than she ever had during our previous coaching sessions. Two minutes into the conversation she said, “I got fired last week and I’m so happy!” She had wanted to move on for a long time. So if you’ve recently lost your job, although we know in many ways it’s not ideal, here are a few ways to reflect on your situation and find the silver lining.

Making a good first impression in an interview is critical. In fact, the first 10 seconds may be it. In that short period of time, you’ve probably just finished shaking hands and greeting each other, yet the interviewer most likely has sized you up and even decided whether to hire you or not, according to research done by the University of Toledo. Imagine, all that preparation you did for the interview, and you could ruin everything in the first ten seconds!

To effectively seek work, think like a marketer and market yourself. Identify your unique selling proposition, carefully target your potential new employers, craft persuasive messages, and determine ways to get the attention and consideration you deserve. Finding a new job requires a Zen that’s comprised of patience, routine, sustained confidence, steady action, and considered risk-taking. But be realistic. Manage your nerves and marshal your resources.

The first person to look at your resume is not likely to be a person, but a computer. That’s because to deal with the sheer onslaught of job applicants, most medium- and large-sized companies use an automated tracking system (ATS) to screen resumes and applications. The job of these resume robots is to decide which applications move forward for a further look by a hiring manager and which are discarded into the corporate database for rejected applications, fondly known as the “black hole.”

Thousands of skilled marketing, PR, and advertising people are looking for new opportunities in an uncertain economy. Many will make common errors that can hurt their chances for finding a new job. Here are the 7 deadly sins you need to avoid.

Workplace dynamics aren't what they used to be. Turns out, crafting a stellar resume and nailing all the interview questions won't guarantee you get the job. A study conducted by Duke University researchers revealed a steep positive correlation between appearance and compensation.

So this post is a doozy to write. But you can trust me on this subject — because it’s basically autobiographical. I was laid off (“NOT performance-related,” I was told) in mid-January. Luckily(?), I’ve been through this before — several times, in fact.

Failure. Let’s get this out of the way first. Failure happens when you stop believing and decide — yes, decide — you have failed. Failure is an end.

In today’s business world, we all want to get ahead and reach our career goals. It’s important to have a plan to know how to get there. But too many times, an important factor is left out: gratitude. Sometimes we focus so much on getting to the next level that we forget to take a moment to celebrate our accomplishments (being thankful for them), as well as thank those who have helped us along the way.

Aside from the new standards of quality that have been instituted into the new resume requirements for getting past Applicant Tracking Systems, we have to realize that, for most of our lives, we have been writing the resume wrong. Professional resume writers are often baffled at how some of the top professionals at Fortune 500 companies have included so few achievements within their resumes, but have listed many duties!

Whether you're looking for new employment or trying to move up within your organization, there is all kinds of advice out there. ​Although taking career advice is fine, you will need to use your judgment and see whether that particular advice is best for you and your career goals.

Sometimes applying for jobs feels like casting baited hooks into murky waters in the hopes of catching a big fish. Similarly, applicants push résumés out to job boards and recruiters, eager to hook a recruiter and land an interview. But with so many applications flowing into recruiters’ inboxes, how can job seekers make their résumés stand out in a sea of applicants? Here are 12 vital steps to creating a standout résumé:

As we all know, YouTube can be a powerful tool for self-promotion — especially when in the midst of a job search. YouTube has over one billion distinct visitors every month. So if you can create a solid, professional YouTube channel for your job search, you can not only have an additional tool for prospective employers to understand your value and your brand, but you can also create a national and even global presence in your industry.

This tends to be the time of year where attrition is at its highest point in many industries. I suppose it’s New Year’s resolutions that have us setting goals for ourselves and wondering whether a career change should be among them. Before we make change for the sake of change, we must start by evaluating what matters to us.

Many clients approach me and ask for help in setting up LinkedIn and other social media profiles. Easy enough. However, when I tell them that they need to get a photo posted, they get uncomfortable.

In November 2015, statistics showed that around 121.9 million people were employed on a full-time basis in the United States. That’s a lot of people working full-time. However, other studies show that over 50% of Americans are dissatisfied with their jobs. Too many people are not in the right fit in their careers. So how can you find your place in the world of work?

​Do you recognise the situation? Year after year, we go to the same restaurant because we feel so comfortable there and there aren't any culinary "surprises." For the same reason many people go back to the same holiday destination and the same hotel every year and, of course, always book "their" room, number 24. Or we remain stuck in the same job for half of our lives because we are afraid of doing something new or we doubt whether we are good enough.

In job hunting, the hiring authority plays the role of prospective buyer, and job hunters play the role of seller. Therefore, a smart seller realizes that many, if not most, prospective buyers will likely have one or more objections to a proposal. No sale is likely until any and all objections are answered — to the prospect's satisfaction. Since the prospect has the power of the purse, a smart seller knows that, to the prospect, her or his objections must be taken seriously.

So we’re cleaning our home office, and tucked in the far corner is my dusty old Rolodex. And hoo boy, is this thing full of memories. Phone numbers of long-forgotten friends and study buddies. Contact info for landlords, landladies, and landpersons. And a few interesting lessons picked up from 20-something years of careering — and an obsolete, business-card-holding piece of round plastic.

When you watch a professional presenter perform under pressure, it appears effortless. What you don’t see is what goes on before that performance, and the way the speaker uses those final few minutes before he or she begins to speak. I’ll tell you about my personal ritual, and how this might help you the next time you have to perform under pressure when you read…

You may not get a job offer during the holiday season, but you might well get the next best thing: an invitation to meet with hiring authorities. Remember: Do not include a resume with your letter. Wait until you are contacted and if they ask you to send it, then do so at that time.

A goal, by definition, is the object of a person's ambition or effort. Goals are what keep us moving forward in life, and reaching them gives us great satisfaction. But when it comes to work, 80% of people are not passionate about what they do.

I’ve been around. (Not in a sleazy way, you dirty-minded moolyak.) I just meant that as an ad copywriter and marketing guy since 1995, I’ve had a lot of jobs. And one of the many things I learned along the way (besides scoping out the closest bathrooms and when to get in line for Free Lunch Fridays) is the importance of New Hire Orientation.

Fresh bagels, hot coffee, and the obligatory apple danish — that’s how they rope you in. Of course, if you're planning the meeting, I'd suggest going heavier on the fruit medley. This shows you are more in tune with today's dietary concerns. This article has an agenda to give both meeting organizers and attendees some useful tips, so let's start with the biggest and most overlooked question.

Confucius said, “Choose a job you love; and you will never have to work a day in your life.” That is most everyone’s career dream, right? Do something you love. However, in today’s world, it isn’t always easy. There are many factors that can make it difficult to find a job that you love. Responsibilities and constraints like financial and family obligations, where you live, where you went to school, and your past work experience and skill set can affect your ability to do what you love.

Relocation is undoubtedly exciting as a change of scenery usually is, but it can also be difficult. There are a million different reasons why people find themselves uprooted from one city and deposited in another. But there’s one common thing that everyone who has relocated shares: Starting over from scratch.

The equivalent of a CPA test for digital marketers does not exist. We do have hundreds, if not thousands, of certifications — but all of them are fairly arbitrary. Google, for example, is an incredible company; but becoming a Google “specialist” takes only a few hours, meaning this certification can be earned in a single weekend. Nonetheless, creating a website logo doesn’t make you an expert in Google AdWords or SEO any more than a weekend spent at defensive driving school creates a NASCAR driver. So why rely on certifications to help you land a job?

How many times, when you have been under pressure, have you thought to yourself: “If I could just calm myself down, I know I would do better!” I might be out of line here, but I think two words will provide a solution to this problem. You’ll see what I mean when you read…

​There is a good reason why we get results for our clients — we focus on the source of their real power and ability to perform. Most people in the corporate world are worried about things like business systems, analytics, work flow, or marketing. It’s all important stuff, but not as important as you might think. Take a deep breath. You may not like what I have to say

It has been said by some that the Millennial workforce has a sense of entitlement, and that loyalty and commitment have been replaced by our search for purpose, but what it really comes down to is finding the right fit.

Advertising, media, and marketing are about negotiating a constantly changing universe of ideas and technology. Here are ten fundamental attitudes and behaviors to help you to zig and zag your way to success.

Within the past year, I’ve been on both sides of the hiring process in my current company — both as interviewee and interviewer. Although our company has a multi-step process that can take a month or so, it seems to work. (We have a great team.) But it’s tough to wait, from each side of the process...

If you work for a digital company, especially a start-up, there’s a reasonable probability you’ll be acquired, merged, or absorbed sometime along the journey. Most people initially freak out. But rather than immediately shooting out your resume or calling your shrink, consider these four coping steps.

There seems to be a lot of buzz about work-life balance these days. This is largely fueled by Generation Y (born post-1980), a generation that is starting to demand more flexible work opportunities. But the desire for more flexibility at work is not limited to those who grew up in an instant-gratification, technology-bred generation. Nine out of ten Americans feel as though they don’t have enough flexibility in their jobs to meet the needs of the people they put first: their families.

When I teach people how to interview well, I am actually teaching people how to point out their defined strengths. Not sure what your defined strengths are? Join the club! I’ll help you identify those strengths, and explain how to let people know about them when you read…

Would you like to take on more responsibility in your place of employment? Many quickly say yes, but are unsure of how to do so. Some think they let their boss know they are available for more work in the right way, but then watch as another employee is given a management position. What went wrong?

Job hunting is a solvable marketing problem. It isn’t a resume problem or a matter of finding the right recruiter — nor the need to know an insider at the company where you wish to apply, though knowing an insider might be helpful by telling you who the hiring authority is.

In most "tribes," there are one or two interviewers who are good with names. The rest are likely to compare you based on persona. Think about it; if you’ve been following any of the debates, you can see this on display front and center. The candidates all take jabs at each other’s positioning. As an experiment, forget the candidate’s name and just refer to them by the impression they left on you.

Having made it over the transition hump from college graduate to gainfully employed PR and ad agency staffer, I have had my fair share of interviews. It’s fascinating to be “on the inside” and hear what agencies deal with as they search to fill more positions. Because of this, I’ve decided to provide a few do’s and don’ts of interviewing etiquette that might help you get in the door at a PR firm or ad agency.

Colvin’s point is that trying to figure out what computers can’t do and getting an education to fill that need is wrongheaded. The driving question is: What do high achievers need to know that brilliant machines never will? Colvin argues that high-value skills, built on the humanities and social sciences, are the only sure way to beat the machines.

Success as a creative director has much less to do with your creative abilities than it does with your bedside manner. Manage people well, including your own ego, and you will be a star.

A very common misconception amongst the professional community, and especially where very talented people have the chance to “shine,” is that showing any type of leadership ability through resume or interview is a big “no-no.” Many equate the demonstration of leadership ability as something that should only be done if one seeks an executive role or a management position. The reality is that lack of leadership could be the one thing holding them back from that higher-paying senior position within the team atmosphere — or even barring them from an entry-level position within a company that requires self-starters in a fast-paced environment.

Burnout can happen over the course of a day, or even over a year. When you can feel stress closing in, don’t be afraid to stand up and take a walk. Clear your head and come back to your work refreshed. If you experience burnout over a long period, schedule your vacation days in advance so you can have a few days to decompress. When you let yourself refresh for work, your productivity increases dramatically and the quality of your output is better!

Do you ever have workdays when you come into the office, determined to knock out a list of tasks — then, before you know it, the end of the day has rolled around and not only have you barely touched your to-do list, it’s actually gotten longer. Often, the culprit is too much time spent checking emails, chatting with officemates, or just trying to get organized in the first place. Although every person’s organizational structure is different, a few basic steps will help you get your daily schedule into shape so you can achieve more tasks in less time.

Leaders, it is on you to take the reigns. It is on you to influence and inspire. Why lead followers when you can lead leaders who can help you influence those followers?

Communication in the workplace is very important; we all know this. According to Job Outlook 2005 (Bethlehem, PA: National Association of Colleges and Employers) it is the number one skill that employers want in their employees. Communication skills contribute to interpersonal skills and teamwork skills, which means relating well with others, whether it be clients or other workmates. Some communication skills come easily to us, like being assertive, speaking up at meetings, or writing effective emails.

The lazy days of summer are behind us. Now is the time to get back to work, but what does that mean? For some, those words can signify a time of great challenge — entering a new stage in life. Starting college, grad school, entering the job force. For others it’s just more of the same; just another crunch season.

My objection to the planner junkies was not the calendar in their hands, it was what that document represented. Someone else set their agenda. Is what you are doing today putting you in control? Regardless of being a business owner or an employee, are you directing your future?

Recently, I had a conversation with a young professional. I was working on his resume and realized that although he was only 25, he was very accomplished. He had a Master’s Degree and multiple certifications. He had leveraged massive growth and real estate acquisitions for his company while maintaining budgets of over a billion dollars.

Networking is the oxygen of the connected economy. It is the currency of consumer collaboration. Unless you are a monk, getting through life in the 21st century is a challenge at best if you have no network. Virtually every job today is gained through the network. If you are selling storage, soup, semiconductors, software, soap, or self, you require relationships and relationship building skills.

Aside from the new standards of quality that have been instituted into the new resume requirements for getting past Applicant Tracking Systems, we have to realize that, for most of our lives, we have been writing the resume wrong. Professional resume writers are often baffled at how some of the top professionals at Fortune 500 companies have included so few achievements within their resumes, but have listed many duties!

Have you ever been faced with such overwhelming odds that a voice inside you screamed out, “Quit! Stop! This isn’t going to work!” We all hear this voice, but one performer I recently saw ignored the voice, and gained my respect…

Nothing gets your foot through a recruiter’s door like an intriguing CV. Here are some simple rules that you can follow to achieve a coherent and effective resume. A resume is made up of many different layers, not unlike a burger. It needs to have a "bun," or strong foundation to start with that gets the point across of who you are and where you want to go. This is the first thing the recruiter sees, and either encourages them to look further or put it in the "no" pile with the rest.

If you know the career you've always wanted is out there, but just can't seem to find it, when do you call it quits on the search? Considering the majority of the working class is having trouble just finding a good job to begin with, sometimes pursuing that dream job isn't worth the effort or risk.

You are the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. -Jim Rohn

I've heard this quote on various occasions. Every time I come across it, I pause for a moment, as the message that lives there is simply so powerful. What and who we surround ourselves with can affect us — and we can begin to mirror the moods, problems, and passions of our surroundings.

If you are currently seeking employment and you have done the following, you may feel like you’re doing everything right: You’ve updated your resume and LinkedIn profile. You are regularly sending in applications online. You are attending networking events. You’re expanding your network through LinkedIn.

​In my experience, most interviewers hire the person they like the most, even at the expense of declining slightly more qualified or experienced candidates. People like people they feel connected with, and these five tips will ensure that you make that all-important connection.

In physical hiring processes, a hiring manager is apt to start at the expertise section, scan through previous employers, read your full education level, and then check out the rest of the resume. Sometimes, they go directly to education, skipping experience altogether, and continue to your affiliations and technical proficiencies.

As a professional in an ever-evolving world of technology, it is absolutely important to keep abreast of changes that occur within the standard operations of society and hiring processes. Not many realize that with the evolution of information systems, most hiring processes are initiated, if not fully executed, online. Therefore, hiring managers and executive decision makers are eliminating the number of resumes that they are scouring each week in order to streamline processes and maximize productivity in the job space while keeping staffing down to a minimum. Let’s take a deeper look into this science and discover how to get past all systems filters to at least be considered for the position that many are applying for.

This is a revolutionary new way of thinking about and landing a new job. What is proposed is that, rather than conducting a job search from the perspective of a seller, you should approach the problem from the perspective of the buyer — i.e., the hiring authority.

Resumes tell, marketing letters sell. Save your resume and send it after interest has been expressed in you. An effective marketing letter has the additional advantage of pre-selling you, thus making it more likely that your interview will be mainly about chemistry, and less of an interrogation.

Don’t you hate it when you run into a user experience problem? Like when a door has an ambiguous handle on it and unclear labeling. The absolute seemingly minor things can have consequences. If someone were in a rush, they might accidently swing it the wrong way and injure someone, or themselves.

Why are some people successful while other talented people fall short? Desire and talent are always the main ingredients for achievement. However, highly successful people stand out not so much because of what they know or even who they know, but because of how they brand themselves.

You've graduated college, landed a decent job with room for advancement, and are satisfied with your pay. So now what? Unfortunately, you can't just coast along, even if you're not looking to get promoted right away. Nowadays, people need to continue investing in themselves in order to simply keep their current job.

Have you lost that lovin’ feeling for your job? How do you know if it is just a phase, whether it is your job or role, or instead maybe the industry that you are in? If you are not as jazzed about your work lately, one of the things you want to consider first is — how bad is it? Is it just a passing phase and hopefully something you can address, or do you need to change positions or your long-term career direction?

We talk about mentors a lot- from softball coaches to swimming trainers to a high school teacher. When we are growing up, almost every adult could be considered a mentor for one reason or another. But many times when we enter the workforce, the general idea seems to be that our training is finished and we no longer need a mentor.

It’s the one question every job hunter wants answered: How do I make myself stand out from all the other applicants? How can I outsmart everyone else?

Interviews for a creative position are usually much different than for any other type of job. Wearing a suit is not a good idea. Discussing your love of Swedish cinema with the creative director is not out of the realm of possibility. However, don't let the relaxed attitude fool you into thinking that anything goes because it's still a job interview.

Almost everyone in an office performs their duties satisfactorily, but only a few of them will be considered for advancement when the opportunity arises. Those few are employees who have succeeded in standing out in the office.

Would YOU like a job you can do from home, in your jammies, on your own schedule? Doesn’t that sound great? Then consider becoming a freelancer! Just know — there’s no starting salary, no benefits, no support staff, and no free coffee. And no clients or leads.

Are you just a data point in the job search statistics? Whether you are one of the five million people who reportedly sent a résumé to Walmart in 2014, or one of the 250 people who applied for a typical corporate opening, why would you expect your résumé to get more than the six seconds the average recruiter spends on them?

Never is personal branding more important than when you’re on the line in a job interview, particularly if it’s a job you really want. Yet most of us go into an interview feeling nervous and powerless. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! With that mindset, it’s hard to feel genuine and comfortable in your own skin, so you’re likely to bomb. What you need to do is take control.

Few people actually enjoy interviews. But part of that is because of the way we perceive what's going down. An interviewer will sense the difference and that could help you get the job. So reframe these key elements for a much better experience.

The job market today is like a dangerous wolf pit; only the strongest, fiercest, and most versatile make it through. The value of a well-earned degree is no longer what it once was; even a well-qualified individual has a hard time getting a well-paying job. The only way to get ahead of your competitors is by setting yourself apart. Sounds easy, right?

It would be wonderful to have a career that fits us, where we always use our strengths! Gallup affirms that if you are lucky enough to be able to do so, you will be six times as likely to feel engaged in your job. However, sometimes we don’t know what our real strengths are or how to properly use them in the workplace to our best advantage.

Negotiating your first salary presents a major challenge. You have not been trained in the art of negotiation, face strong competition, have a deep emotional connection to your work, and often feel some insecurity about your talents. The following discussion is designed to help you obtain the salary you deserve.

Does getting out of bed, making coffee, and showing up to your computer sound like the perfect commute? Telecommuting is becoming more common, with employers realizing its money-saving potential and the popularity of telecommuting with workers.

You've spent your career being the A-list go-to person in your department or company. Awards hang on your wall, and the company exec pops in to personally to commend you and offer a handshake every so often. You're in good standing with an admirable track record. Does your résumé reflect that?

MYTH: “Your resume is your primary marketing tool, and it needs to include detailed information about dates, duties, titles, companies, and industries where you have been employed in the past — plus the year you graduated from college, and what you majored in, and if you omit anything, it makes you seem suspicious."

When beginning a new job or career, many of us feel pressure to have all of the answers. The thinking goes that the best people at the company always have the answers. The people at the bottom don’t, and the worst thing that can happen is to be caught without one.

You can differentiate your candidacy in a powerful way by having and communicating a USP — i.e., Unique Selling Proposition. In the context of reality-based job-hunting methods, what the hiring authority wants most is the result she or he will get because of your education, experience, and capabilities.

When it comes to professionals seeking marketing, PR, and advertising careers, your resume is not your first impression — your social media footprint is. I mean, if you can’t market yourself, how could I possibly trust you to market my company?

While it is not uncommon to hear quite a bit about people that are considered slackers and how this can impair their careers, what about workaholics? There are people that some consider to be workaholics, but aren't. These people just have a good work ethic and want to save for retirement or another event.

Presenting yourself as a creative professional comes with a special kind of pressure. You are representing not only yourself, but yourself plus the work you’ve done. Not only is your appearance and performance examined, but things that you create with your hands, heart, and mind are judged as well.

In this age of email, IMing, tweeting, and Google Hangouts, face-to-face communication is becoming increasingly rare. One of the unintended consequences of that fact is that young job entrants have developed a kind of situational Asperger’s Syndrome, that variant of autism spectrum disorder characterized by poor language selection and a lack of ability to “read” the faces of others or respond to their visual cues.

It has become more and more common that companies are conducting video interviews. With so much work done outside the office, it makes sense to avoid travelling conflicts and get right down to business. Whether you feel you’re good in interviews or not, there are a number of tactics that are best used in this situation.

Most of us have been there at one time or another. You start a new job and make sure that you’re on time for the first few weeks. Before you know it, whether by accident or plan, being at work at 8 a.m. turns into showing up at 8:03 a.m., 8:05 a.m., 8:10 a.m., and so on, and you are being reminded of what your hours truly are.

With steep competition for jobs (with at least three people for each opening, most likely more) and so many ways for your competitors to stand out in their job search, it’s even more important to find effective ways to stand out in the job market. Hokey tactics like printing your resume on colored paper, using strange fonts, or calling an employer too often are all frowned upon. But job seekers, feeling desperate, don’t know what else to do. Add to the mix the increase in the use of social media, and figuring out how to separate yourself from your competition can seem overwhelming.

Every few years (or whenever the need arises), we engage in a loathsome activity that is about as pleasurable as getting a root canal at the dentist. It’s called updating our résumé. So why is this process so painful?

Everyone wants to succeed in their career path. Henry Ford said, “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” Unfortunately, not everyone moves forward together, and not everyone in our lives is positive about us moving forward in the career path we have chosen, whether they intend to be that way or not. Or they are simply negative about their own life course and in the process can inadvertently cause our own negative feelings to creep up.

Relocation is undoubtedly exciting as a change of scenery usually is, but it can also be difficult. There are a million different reasons why people find themselves uprooted from one city and deposited in another. But there’s one common thing that everyone who has relocated shares: Starting over from scratch.

It can be tricky sometimes to decide when to take an issue to human resources. After all, they walk the line between protecting you and protecting the company. It’s important to make sure that you are approaching human resources with an appropriate issue or you may be putting your job in jeopardy.

Google the phrase “confidence is,” and you’ll get several cute results. Confidence is sexy, confidence is key, and — my personal favorite — confidence is the new black. Everyone has a clever way of communicating the value of confidence, but in an interview, there’s only one that matters: Confidence will make or break your chances of landing the job.

There is little doubt that today's job market has changed dramatically. Companies are constantly hiring and firing, and people no longer expect 'life-long' careers at a single organization, ending with a fat pension. Instead, we're living in a 'gig economy' where one to five-year stints is the norm. So how does one embrace this environment and plan their career in a market that's becoming ever more unpredictable?

It is very easy to kill your chances of getting the job during an interview. If that is what you are hoping for, simply follow these simple rules.

Paying close attention to recent research into various workplace issues that impact employee productivity is crucial if you want your office to help you be more creative. Walking into any creative agency, it's not likely that you'll see stale colours and environments with a boring corporate touch. Creatives simply cannot bear spaces devoid of a stimulating design. Here are five small changes you can apply to your office right now and enjoy a greater creative output.

A GPS doesn't hem or haw. You input where you need to go, it maps the route and delivers. If you miss a return, it doesn't yell or stress. She simply tells you to make a U turn when possible.

Are you just a data point in the job search statistics? Are you one of the five million people who reportedly sent a résumé to Walmart, or one of the 250 people who applied for a typical corporate opening? Why would you expect your résumé to get more than the six seconds the average recruiter spends on them?

As content marketing roles evolve, brands and agencies alike are starving for individuals who can write, edit, manage a blog, and secure publication placements. So how does a candidate prepare to land a job in this field?

Almost everyone in an office performs their duties satisfactorily, but only a few of them will be considered for advancement when the opportunity arises. Those few are employees who have succeeded in standing out in the office.

For many professionals out there, whether actively seeking employment or a career change, or for those who consider themselves passive candidates, a hacked-together profile is often the extent of their digital presence. In the best case scenario, a candidate might have a strategically composed profile complete with well-thought-out headlines, compelling job descriptions, and a nice profile shot.

Our clients in career transition often ask us whether they should apply for internships as well as jobs, paid or unpaid, especially when they are just out of college or making a transition into a new career path. There are obvious pros and cons to working for free or having a short-term gig. And the argument can be made that internships are just a way for employers to just take advantage of free or low-cost contract labor.

Choosing a career is a much more complicated process than taking a simple career test. We have clients come to us often who want to find that ideal job, and have read a book or taken a career assessment only to still feel lost. It’s frustrating, understandably, because we all want to be successful and happy with our choice of career.

The question on the mind of every job seeker I meet is consistently, "How do I stand out and get noticed in this job market?" For a lucky few, the traditional resume-cover letter combo can sometimes get the job done, making it to top of the application pile and wooing the attention of hiring managers. But for the majority, it's a struggle of understanding the strategy behind self-promotional marketing, making sure you have the best tools for the job, and of course, a little bit of luck.

No matter the justification, there are millions of different reasons and circumstances as to why people end up having “bits and pieces” of jobs on their résumé. But what ends up happening is that these brief stings end up being seen as potential liabilities or else scream “job hopper” to potential employers. You need to be smart about how you handle these and help solidify your background into something an employer can digest. Here are some approaches you might want to consider in order to take the sting out of short-term jobs.

Most job hunters could gain access to more job opportunities by marketing themselves directly to the hiring authority, keeping in mind that what might well influence them sufficiently to want to meet you is something that is almost never mentioned in job postings.

“I’ve never been fired. I’m that good,” proclaimed the young art director to those of us sitting around the table in the bar. Our creative director’s shoulders slumped and he breathed heavily. I wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere else — this wasn’t going to be pretty. The rest of the creatives around the table were all of a sudden very interested in their drinks or ceiling tiles or something other than looking at what was about to happen.

I have a love/hate relationship with spring cleaning. I positively dread the thought of the work involved, but admittedly get excited at the thought of a brand new start to something. Whilst in the midst of it, I inevitably have a mental collapse at the thought of tossing something seemingly precious, but in the end, revel in the cleanliness, sleekness, and “un-clutter” that abounds.

This is a message for ad agencies, marketing firms, consultants, freelancers, and everyone who buys or sells a service. Hmmm. That means you and me. Almost always, a freelancer or consultant is asked what their "hourly rate" is.

I’ve had 12 jobs in 21 years of writing for a living. (That’s not counting freelance during those “in between jobs” phases.) Clearly, if it’s one thing I’ve learned about, it’s job-hunting. And a good résumé has always been an essential part of the hunt.

Tired of hoping to win the Resume Lottery in order to generate interviews? There’s a long-proven formula used by direct mail marketers that you can adapt for use in generating interviews. Known as AIDA, it lets you get interviews based on factors that you can win on, rather than those that are commonly used to screen you out.

Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” While this quote is inspiring and easy to say, in reality it can be harder to actually implement, as we all know.

If you find yourself in this kind of situation (it happens a lot more than most of us would like to think), the best tactic is to proactively reinforce your desire to meet/exceed the performance expectations and ask for help from the supervisors on formulating a plan on how to get there.

If you think recruiters don't have the time to properly read your cover letter, you'd be surprised. In fact, a cover letter says a lot about a person — after screening the resumes of potential candidates, hiring managers usually turn to cover letters to see if a candidate will fit into the company’s culture and whether their competencies match with those the business is seeking. Here are six of the most common cover letter mistakes to avoid if you want to pass the initial screening and improve your chances of being considered for a position.

Workplace dynamics aren't what they used to be. Turns out, crafting a stellar resume and nailing all the interview questions won't guarantee you get the job. A study conducted by Duke University researchers revealed a steep positive correlation between appearance and compensation.

You’ve heard the phrase, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” This is how it feels when you’re constantly almost the right candidate for the job. You’ve got the skills and experience, but you’re passed over for someone with just a little more of whatever the employer wanted.

If you do a lot of freelance creative work, you might wonder what set you on the freelance path in the first place. In the old jobs-a-plenty economy, the answer might have been creative freedom, or indecision about how you wanted to spend your future and who you wanted to spend it with — the old failure-to-commit problem. Or perhaps you were just using the freelance life as a way of getting your foot in the door when you were just out of school or in the midst of a career change.

It's safe to say that during the last few years, radical changes in the global economy inspired quite a few interesting trends in job markets. One of them is a growing interest in career transitions. Even when facing high unemployment rates, workers today are often willing to change the course of their careers. Retraining might become a part of the process, and knowing when and how to retrain is crucial for a smooth career transition. Here are four tips on how to retrain and successfully change your career track.

Being in the right work environment is as critical (if not more) to enjoying your work and being successful at your job than any other component to consider. It is so important, yet many people are not in a work environment that allows them to thrive and be fulfilled. Moreover, half of the clients I work with are actually in the right role or in a job that truly is a fit for them, but their work environment is not a fit. They’re miserable.

Do you feel like you're always being interviewed but you never get the job? Believe it or not, you should count yourself lucky. Only between four and six people get called in for an interview for every batch of 100 resumes. Obviously you're doing something right on your resume and something wrong in your interview if interviewing has become a career for you.

Would YOU like a job you can do from home, in your jammies, on your own schedule? Doesn’t that sound great? Then consider becoming a freelancer! Just know — there’s no starting salary, no benefits, no support staff, and no free coffee. And no clients or leads. But if you follow my exclusive, six-step program, you too can answer the “what do you do?” question by saying “I’m freelancing right now” (instead of “I got laid off” or “I’m between jobs”) — and really mean it.

Thinking of making a career change immobilizes most people with fear. Whether you are aiming for a slight adjustment or a dramatic shift, altering your career path in any way can be overwhelming. And let’s face it — conducting a job search is not anyone’s idea of a good time. Often, job seekers choose to ignore the challenge instead of face it head-on. As a result, they end up years later in the same job they do not enjoy, wondering where the time went.

When considering a new path in your creative career, you have to look at what makes sense in today's world. Changes in technology, along with other influences, have a big impact on the growth potential for some industries and career options. Remember that every industry has marketing, advertising, public relations, digital and social media opportunities, or even entire departments. Should you get specific about the niche you want to enter, instead of remaining either broad-scoped or agency side?

​Which excites you more? A job with long-term security that you can really sink your teeth into, or a job with an impressive pay packet and a dash more risk?

Whether you're looking for new employment or trying to move up within your organization, there is all kinds of advice out there. ​Although taking career advice is fine, you will need to use your judgment and see whether that particular advice is best for you and your career goals.

Sometimes applying for jobs feels like casting baited hooks into murky waters in the hopes of catching a big fish. Similarly, applicants push résumés out to job boards and recruiters, eager to hook a recruiter and land an interview. But with so many applications flowing into recruiters’ inboxes, how can job seekers make their résumés stand out in a sea of applicants? Here are 12 vital steps to creating a standout résumé: