Blog
Debra Wheatman, President of Careers Done Write, provides expert insight to the job search process that puts your career in gear with tips for interviewing, networking, job search strategies and how to create a winning resume and cover letter.
Architecting Your Professional Life: Why Your Career Deserves More Strategy Than Your Vacation
We will spend roughly 80,000 hours of our lives at work. That is about one-third of our entire adult existence, second only to sleeping. Yet, most people do not devote intentional time to planning out their professional paths. Most people spend more time researching hotel reviews than mapping out their next five years of career growth. We obsess over optimizing a seven-day trip to ensure maximum enjoyment, but treat our daily work life as something that simply happens to us by default. Breaking this cycle and taking control of your career architecture is essential for several critical reasons….
The Invention and Evolution of the "Career"
The concept of a career is so deeply woven into modern identity that it feels like an ancient human constant. In reality, it is a relatively recent invention, forged during the 19th and early 20th centuries as the Industrial Revolution restructured human labor. Before industrialization, most people did not have careers; they had trades, land, or regional livelihoods determined by inheritance, guild regulations, or social status. The word career itself traces back to the Latin carrus (a wheeled vehicle) and the French carrière, originally referring to a horse’s racecourse. It was not until the early 1800s that the term was applied to a person’s professional trajectory—a metaphor for a single, forward-moving track….
Leverage the Overton Window to Manage Your Career
Navigating a corporate career is as much about managing perception, influence, and alignment as it is about operational output. While hard skills and domain expertise set a foundation, long-term advancement often depends on understanding the unwritten boundaries of organizational culture. In political theory, the Overton window describes the range of ideas, policies, and discourse considered acceptable by the general public at any given time. When applied to the corporate world, the Overton window represents the spectrum of behavior, innovation, and communication deemed safe, professional, and strategic within a specific company….
The Case for Keeping It Simple
Albert Einstein once remarked, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." While often cited as a clever aphorism, this sentiment holds profound truth, particularly in the modern job market. In an era defined by information overload, specialization, and cross-functional collaboration, the ability to distill complex ideas, processes, and outcomes into accessible terms is one of the most powerful professional catalysts available. Far from being a mere communication trick, simplification is the ultimate litmus test for genuine comprehension and a highly prized asset across nearly every industry….
Don’t Jump the Shark. Embrace It!
When Jaws went into production in the summer of 1974, twenty-six-year-old Steven Spielberg was on the precipice of disaster. The shoot, budgeted at $4 million with a 55-day schedule, ballooned into a 159-day ordeal costing over $12 million. At the heart of this nightmare was “Bruce,” the nicknamed full-scale mechanical shark. Built to terrorize audiences on the open ocean, the hydraulic monster suffered continuous breakdowns: its pneumatic hoses corroded in saltwater, its skin absorbed water and sank the rig, and its jaw mechanics frequently jammed….
Artificial Fibers & Artificial Intelligence: Finding the Right Blend
In the 1970s, you couldn't escape polyester. It was hailed as the miracle fiber—cheap, wrinkle-free, indestructible, and capable of holding the loudest, brightest geometric prints imaginable. From the iconic double-knit leisure suits to everyday office wear, synthetic fabrics promised to liberate us from the tyranny of the iron. But the initial utopian dream quickly hit a wall of cold reality. 1970s polyester didn't breathe. It trapped heat, retained odors, felt scratchy, and, when exposed to direct heat, was prone to melting….
How to Handle DARVO in the Workplace
Have you ever pulled a colleague aside to address a missed deadline, or spoken up to a manager about a pattern of undermining behavior, only to walk away from the conversation feeling like you were the one who did something wrong? If you left the room feeling dizzy, confused, and suddenly forced to defend your own tone or work ethic, you didn't just experience a difficult conversation. You likely encountered a highly effective manipulation tactic known as DARVO….
Reclaiming Your Career from Parkinson’s Law
We often confuse being busy with being effective. If we have eight hours to fill, we will fill it with minor details, extra formatting, or unnecessary research to feel like we put in a full day's work. In the modern corporate world, this manifests as endless email threads, over-engineered slide decks, and back-to-back meetings that could have been handled in a single message. We treat our workdays like expanding balloons, stretching tasks until they consume every waking hour, leading to burnout without necessarily driving meaningful results….
From Peer to Boss: The Survival Guide for New Managers
Congratulations! You got the promotion. You’ve traded in your old responsibilities for a shiny new title, a bump in pay, and… a sudden, overwhelming wave of imposter syndrome. First, take a deep breath. What you are feeling is completely normal. Transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager is one of the sharpest learning curves in any professional career. To help you navigate the messy, rewarding, and chaotic first few months, here is a practical guide to surviving and thriving in your new role….
Innovation Is Not Found in a Calendar Invite
You are familiar with exhaustion of the modern workday: a back-to-back gauntlet of calendar invites that leaves you staring at your screen at 5:00 PM, wondering when you will actually have time to get your work done. Meetings and meeting culture can stifle innovation, reduce productivity, and be a significant pain point for your team. In its push for cross-functional alignment, corporate culture has made a critical error. “Meetings" and "collaboration" have become conflated. Relying on meetings as your primary vehicle for teamwork is often the very thing stifling true innovation. To build high-performing teams, leaders must understand where meetings fail and how genuine collaboration happens….