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.
Your New Year Career Resolution
As we close out the first week of 2022, some of us may already be lamenting that we’ve broken our New Year’s resolutions. Plans to get healthy are sidetracked by indulgence in food and wine; decisions about keeping an organized workspace become buried under the clutter on our desks. The problem with most New Year’s resolutions is that we see them as all or nothing. Either we are 100% compliant, or we are total failures. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Making a resolution is about deciding to change a behavior, and that’s something that happens gradually over time. Here are 5 tips to making your career resolutions for 2022 stick….
Things to do differently in 2022 to better manage your career
As 2021 winds down, it is only natural that we look to 2022 with renewed optimism and hope. The New Year is always a time designated for getting out of old routines and looking toward the future. We’ve all heard the adage that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insanity. There is truth in that statement. As the end of the year approaches, evaluate how you’ve managed your career and what you can do differently. Change can be scary, overwhelming, and daunting. But it’s the only way to improve. If you continued to exercise your muscles by executing the same movements and lifting the same weight, your strength and endurance would never improve. Your career is like a muscle. Without exercise, you run the risk of stagnation, at best, and atrophy at worst….
Is subtle sexism holding you back in your career?
We all know a sexist comment when we hear it. Or do we? Sure, particularly egregious ones like “I’ll have my girl run it over to you” are easy to spot and remind us of something from Mad Men. But far more common are instances of subtle, casual sexism that constantly undermine women’s credibility and hold them back….
How to have better internal meetings
Let’s be honest. Few things can be less exciting than the prospect of an internal meeting. You dread creating the request and sending the invitation, and those receiving it dread adding another meeting to their calendars. Meeting culture has become so pervasive that internal meetings are now the #1 barrier to productivity. One client told me that her company is looking to mandate one meeting-free day per week so that people can focus on their work! I don’t think that’s the solution to the problem either, because the problem is that most internal meetings are inefficient and unnecessary….
Is the customer always right?
Businesses exist for one reason: to solve market and customer problems. If you work in a business, you have customers and clients regardless of whether it’s b2b, b2c, or b2g. A great customer experience (CX) is critical to building brands, driving retention, and scaling revenue. When a business has excellent customer service and CX, its customers will pay a premium price. Think about the difference between the experience of going to Walmart and going to Nordstrom. Both are large, multinational retailers, yet the two shopping experiences could not be more different. Customer service is ingrained in the Nordstrom brand—people who shop there do so because Nordstrom is committed to providing superior experience and service. No one shops at Walmart for these reasons; people shop at Walmart because of price….
Handling bullies in the workplace
I’ve often said that the workplace can be a microcosm of middle school behavior. You have your popular kids, the “star players” who aren’t all that smart, the geeks and nerds, and the bullies. Workplace bullies are more common than you may think. A full 30% of people recently surveyed indicated that they’d been the victims of such behavior. Bullying is a form of harassment—uninvited, undeserved, and unwarranted—and should not be tolerated as with any other form of harassment. However, we all know that what should happen and what does happen in real life can be two different things. Bullies are sneaky and pull their stunts when no one is around to witness them. Also, it can be problematic to get HR and management to understand the extent of the bullying and the impact of this abusive behavior. That’s why everyone should be armed to stand up to such conduct and defuse it….
What you need to know when you’re considering the impact of the vaccine mandate
Unless you’ve been in an information vacuum for the last two weeks, you’ve undoubtedly heard that the Biden administration is going to require that employers that employ more than 100 people ensure that their employees are either vaccinated for COVID-19 or are undergoing weekly testing. This announcement has met with mixed reviews. On one side, this could be a meaningful way to mitigate the spread and mutation of the virus under whose control we’ve been living for the last (almost) 2 years. On the other side, there are concerns about employer and government overreach and bodily autonomy….
Should we discuss salary and compensation with our peers and colleagues?
This is a very interesting topic and one which has been garnering more attention recently. My short answer to the question is yes; we should start bringing salary transparency to the forefront of the narrative….
Lessons from the Governor on Crisis Management
Unless you’ve been living in an information void this week, you have heard that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment. This is not at all unexpected, as members of his party, advocacy groups, and, apparently, even his brother had been encouraging him to do so. This is a scene we’ve witnessed many times. A person in power is accused of something unsavory or illegal, and they resign before severe consequences ensue. In this regard, the Cuomo news is not particularly unusual. After all, sexual harassment is rampant in the United States. It’s more well known in some industries, such as tech, pharma, and finance, but it’s everywhere, and no one is surprised that politics and government are rife with it. Aside from following this soap opera with rapt attention, there are a few things we can learn from this—things we know already but need to be reminded of—about how to conduct yourself and your business in a time of crisis and bad PR….
It’s not you. It’s me.
Dear Hiring Company:
We’ve been together for about two months now, and I think it’s time for me to take a break. It’s not you; it’s me. You are great, and anyone would be lucky to work for you. Your products are amazing, and the people I’ve met would probably be fantastic coworkers. And in these two months, we have been through a lot. But it’s just not working for me anymore….