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.
Historical Feminization of Jobs and the Devaluation of the Degree
International Women’s Day is a day set aside to acknowledge women’s contributions to history, technology, business, art, and the world. It’s celebrated each year on March 8, and in conjunction with that, I generally write a blog post on the state of the gender pay gap. However, I’d like to highlight a different issue this year. I have noticed rhetoric within public discourse regarding the “usefulness” of a college degree. This argument is that college degrees have low ROI because higher education does a poor job of preparing students for career readiness, and that, given the cost of the degree, the compensation does not justify the expense. These arguments are rooted in the fallacy of incomplete evidence, which occurs when someone selectively highlights data points that confirm their position while ignoring a significant portion of related data that contradicts it. Higher education is not job training. The purpose of higher education is to enhance critical thinking skills and improve expertise in a given subject. And, although entry-level wages may have a negative relationship to the one-time expense of a degree, over the course of 40 years, those who hold bachelor’s degrees will, statistically, outearn those who don’t….
The Staples Baddie Rewrites the Rules of Retail Marketing
A charismatic associate named Kaeden (known online as @blivxx) has done more than just trend on TikTok. She has provided Staples with a masterclass in organic brand revitalization. At a time when legacy retailers struggle to remain relevant to Gen Z, this employee-led movement has fundamentally shifted the brand's perception from that of a dusty office supply closet to a creative destination….
Black History Month: Supporting Black-Owned Businesses
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives have historically been viewed as “nice to have,” rather than the strategic imperatives they are. All too often, such programs rely on peripheral activity. During Black History Month, performative companies may collect charitable donations, issue feel-good press releases, and change corporate logos. However, the world has become ever more interconnected, and consumer expectations have shifted. Narratives have changed. Supporting Black-owned businesses is not just a moral issue; it is a focused business strategy….
Impactful or Performative? Getting Black History Month Right
As we celebrate the centennial of Black History Month, I want to reflect on what this means in the context of corporate culture. What began as a crucial academic effort to acknowledge the contributions of Black Americans has become a significant touchstone for American companies. Integrating Black History Month into corporate culture offers both opportunities for meaningful progress and the risk of purely performative gestures….
From Sci-Fi to Strategy: AI and the Modern Workplace
Indisputably, popular culture’s most famous AI nightmare is James Cameron’s film The Terminator, which was released in the fall of 1984. In addition to making “I’ll be back” part of the mainstream lexicon, the film continues to resonate because it captures a fear that feels newly relevant in today’s AI-driven world. While modern artificial intelligence bears no resemblance to a self-aware Skynet, the film’s core warning about handing too much autonomy to powerful systems without sufficient oversight mirrors real concerns surrounding automation and algorithmic decision-making. As AI becomes embedded in everything from finance to defense, The Terminator serves less as a prediction and more as a metaphor, reminding us that the greatest risks of AI stem not from machines themselves, but from how humans design, deploy, and trust them….
Avoid Unconscious Biases in Hiring
Unconscious bias, the most common heuristic trap, is a significant hurdle in contemporary recruitment and often results in a homogenous workforce and the exclusion of top-tier talent. Because these biases are involuntary, they cannot be abated with willpower alone. Instead, hiring companies should design processes that create “speed bumps” to disrupt these mental shortcuts….
Streaming Past Success: Lessons in Adaptability and Humility
On a Saturday night in 1990, the internet was in its infancy, Wi-Fi was a futuristic technology, and video streaming had yet to be conceived. Consumers went to physical stores to rent VHS tapes to watch at home. By the mid to late 1980s, almost two-thirds of American households owned a VCR. VHS had achieved market dominance over the technologically superior Betamax and had driven a new culture of at-home movie enjoyment. And no one was a bigger player in this market than Blockbuster Video. Their stores sprang up all over the country and were immediately recognizable by their blue-and-yellow logo, which also adorned the company’s membership cards. It seemed as though their growth was unstoppable….
‘Tis the Season to Stay Professional During Festive Times
The holiday season brings unique energy to the workplace; year-end deadlines collide with celebrations, schedules shift, and teams try to balance festive cheer with professional expectations. It’s a time filled with opportunities for connection, but also with potential for missteps. Whether you work in person, in a hybrid model, or fully remote, practicing strong holiday-season work etiquette helps maintain professionalism, reinforce team spirit, and ensure everyone feels respected during a time that can be both joyful and stressful….
When Failure Becomes Opportunity
In your career, turning failure into success is less about avoiding mistakes and more about how you respond. Treat failure as feedback, not a dead end. Act quickly to correct the course. Heed lessons, document mistakes, and avoid mishaps in the future. Leverage your failure for innovation. Take calculated risks and celebrate learning….
Don’t Fall into a Heuristic Trap
Heuristics are mental shortcuts that our brains use to make decisions quickly. Rather than carefully analyzing a situation, we rely upon past experiences, core beliefs, and patterns to come to a quick conclusion. These solutions may not be optimal, but given the limited time and information available, they are incredibly useful. People use this sort of intelligent guesswork, trial and error, process of elimination, and experience to solve problems or chart a course of action. In a world that is increasingly complex and overloaded with big data, heuristic methods simplify and accelerate decision-making through shortcuts and good-enough calculations. Without leveraging heuristics, our brains would suffer cognitive overload….