Make your invisible work visible — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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For most of us, our career and work skills are hidden from all but our immediate co-workers and clients. Most of our friends, family, and certainly our loose connections and strangers often have no idea what we do for a living or how we accomplish it. As you might imagine, this can make it very difficult to move forward in your career. This is especially true in a world where visibility of both ourselves and our skills is a major tool in attracting opportunity to us. While you may be doing great work, if no one knows about it — internally or externally — that work is not benefiting you in some very important ways. To make it work better for your, you need to make your invisible skills, talents, and accomplishments visible to the outside world.
Read Make your invisible work visible — from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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Categories: Audio, Podcast, Show Tags: advice, audio, career, careerplanning, education, job, planning, Podcast, work
Career change requires small actions, not dramatic ones — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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There comes a time in every career when you need to make a change. You need more challenges. You need a new manager or company. You need something different that will allow you to continue to grow and thrive. In the midst of this, you can often feel that you need to take some dramatic action. You need to quit your job, go back to school, move to a different city or country, divorce your spouse, go off the grid. The truth is, though, that while dramatic actions may seem the best way to jumpstart your career, it is the small, individual actions you take every day that bring the most change. Dramatic actions change your life for the moment. Small actions change your life for a lifetime.
Read Career change requires small actions, not dramatic ones — from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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Categories: Audio, Podcast, Show Tags: advice, audio, career, careerplanning, education, job, planning, Podcast, work
Ebb and flow in your career — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Just like everything in life, there is an ebb and flow to your work and your career. There will be times when your career is in a relatively steady state — simply something that you do on a daily basis. At other times it will be moving forward like a river in flood or an angry sea, pushing you about and, hopefully, driving you forward. Knowing how to act in each of these scenarios is important to your overall well-being as well as the success of your career. If you don’t know how to manage these periods of ebb and flow, you could be doing yourself and your career a great disservice.
Read Ebb and flow in your career — from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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Mighty oaks from little acorns grow — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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In our lives and careers we are most often concerned with the big issues — the big project, the big money, the big success. Unfortunately, this often means that we too easily lose sight of all the small pieces that make up the larger successes. Ignoring these smaller aspects can almost ensure that the bigger successes never arrive. Failing to focus on the small, day-to-day decisions you make can stunt your career and leave you wondering why big success never seems to happen to you.
Read Mighty oaks from little acorns grow — from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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Who are you making happy? — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Often in the past here at Career Opportunities I have talked about the concept of self-preservation. I am a firm believer that in order to help others, you need to be in a good place yourself. Thinking about yourself. Doing what you need. Building the life and career you deserve isn’t selfish, it is simply stoking the fires that will warm those around you. Anyone who spends their lives pleasing others only will eventually find themselves filled with resentment and anger and lacking the energy to do anything at all. I don’t want any of you to find yourself in this position. I want you to grow in both success and happiness.
Read Who are you making happy? — from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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Don’t ask the same question twice — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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If you want to truly endear yourself to your family, your co-workers, your boss, you business partners, your investors, everyone — endeavor to never ask the same question twice. When you ask a question of anyone, no matter who, make sure you capture the answer to that question for future reference. Even if you think you might never need that answer again, write it down. The fact is, you never know when or if a question is going to pop up again, so always err on the safer side and take notes so you never have to ask that question again.
Read Don’t ask the same question twice — from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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Categories: Audio, Podcast, Show Tags: advice, audio, career, careerplanning, education, job, planning, Podcast, work
50 is just a number –– from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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The day has arrived. I can no longer pretend I am 25 anymore, even if my mental age seems stuck around that time. This weekend I turned 50 and while it certainly wasn’t unexpected, it can be a little challenging sometimes. This is especially true when you notice that some people begin to treat you differently. Knowing only your age, they think you might not be hip and cool (like I ever was) and very, very set in your ways. They might expect you to be conservative, careful and overly critical of the changes around you. Those of you who know me though , through these podcasts and elsewhere, know that I constantly fight against such issues, I try to keep my mind open, my thinking fresh and my curiosity turned way, way up. This is what I think it means to be 50.
Read 50 is just a number –– from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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Carefully consider the career advice you receive — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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As a long time career writer, I read a lot about careers. I follow career advisors and HR professionals on social media, read their blogs, browse magazines and other sources. One common source of career advice are human resources (HR) professionals. They are often consulted for inside information on what it takes to get hired, how to approach the hiring process and more. Unfortunately, I find that a lot of guidance and advice they give is often designed to make their life and work easier, not build the career you deserve.
Read Carefully consider the career advice you receive — from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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Attend college to develop a life and career, not just get a job — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Even in this year of 2014, I still meet lots of people, either just entering college or just finishing, who think that their time in college was intended to just get them a job. Like following some class rubric, they put in the time, check the checkboxes and expect to be hired within weeks. While I don’t think a college degree ever necessarily worked this way in the past, I think it is even less true to today. You don’t go to college to get a job. You go to college to learn facts and skills that you can apply to any number of jobs when the time comes. You never can tell what curves you will be thrown in your life and trying to learn just those items you need to a specific job could leave you unemployed once you graduate.
Read Attend college to develop a life and career, not just get a job — from the Career Opportunities Podcast
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What works for others might not work for you — from the Career Opportunities podcast

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If you are like most people, you are constantly researching, reading and watching to find ways to make your career and life better. You read blogs, listen to podcasts, watch videos to see how others have achieved success — more importantly — how you might achieve success, too.
While it is certainly important to learn as much as you can, you should hold one, fundamental thought in the back of your mind. No matter how much success someone else has achieved, what worked for them might not work for you. Each of us is unique, with our own set of wants, needs and desires. Therefore our methods can and must be different, too. Sure we can take advice from others, adapt their behaviors, try on their methods and tactics, but there will times when we simply can’t use their information, simply because of our own unique differences.
Read What works for others might not work for you — from the Career Opportunities podcast
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
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