Video: What Motivates Us to Work? Constant Progress and Sense of Purpose, Not Money or Joy.

What motivates us to work? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn’t just money. But it’s not exactly joy either. It seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely presents two eye-opening experiments that reveal our unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our work.

It’s become increasingly obvious that the dismal science of economics is not as firmly grounded in actual behavior as was once supposed. In “Predictably Irrational,” Dan Ariely tells us why. Continue Reading

8 Ways to “Manage Up” — without Your Boss Knowing You’re Doing It

Beverly Flaxington

A Gallup poll (here’s the link) of more 1 million employed US workers showed that 17% of employee turnover is because of a bad boss or immediate supervisor. But the poll also concluded that 75% of all turnovers are influenced by managers — that is, a bad manager is often the tipping point in an employee’s decision to leave.

In my consulting and coaching work with employees, we spend far too much of our time working on “managing up” — helping employee deal with a difficult or incompetent boss. Oftentimes the boss has an unpleasant manner. The boss is a bully or a poor communicator. Sometimes the boss is disorganized and blames their employee as a result for any ensuing problems. Continue Reading

The History & Statistics of Job Boards

Job boards have been and continue to be an important resource for both job seekers and employers.  Industry experts and those who used job boards in the early days probably have a better understanding of how far this job search method has come, but what about the job seekers and employers of today?  The following infographic takes you through the history of the job board industry and more, including the top 10 job board niches. Continue Reading

Despite 500,000 Leaving Employment Market, Job Openings Surge by 300,000

Last week’s employment report was quite disappointing as only 88,000 net jobs were created. The unemployment dropped from 7.8 to 7.7 percent, but the reason was that some 500,000 people left the labor force. If you’re not employed and not looking for employment then you aren’t counted in the ranks of the unemployed. Some of those who left the workforce came from the increasing number of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age but pretty clearly many came from those who would prefer to be working but gave up their search after reaching the conclusion that it was fruitless.

Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a report that should provide some comfort to those who are still looking for work as well as those who stopped but may re-start their search. According to the BLS, there were 3.9 million job openings on the last business day of February, up from 3.6 million in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The hires rate (3.3 percent) and separations rate (3.1 percent) were little changed in February. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the nonfarm sector by industry and by geographic region. Continue Reading

The Hype Over Job Board Matching Technology Is Just That: Hype

Garbage in, garbage out photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Perhaps prompted by a recent article by Bloomberg about on-line job search software getting smarter, it seems that a lot of attention this week is being devoted to matching technology being used by job boards. In theory, matching technology makes a lot of sense as it would allow employers and job seekers to save time finding each other and reduce the noise by reducing and perhaps eliminating contact between employers and job seekers whose needs are different. But is theory the same as reality?

A number of people in the job board industry for whom I have tremendous respect are writing that candidates should be able to just submit their resume and have it turned into a search query. Some even advocate taking the search entirely out of the hands of the candidate by using computerized algorithms to “read” jobs posted by employers and resumes posted by candidates and then returning to the employer a list of what the software considers to be highly qualified candidates. The problem with either approach and especially the latter is that they assume that both are forward looking, the job posting is well written, and the resume is well written. The problem is that for the software to work properly all must be true yet generally none are true. Continue Reading

The women’s 5-step guide to get noticed at work

Women working together on a business project. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

We’ve all heard the old chestnut: Part of the reason why women don’t earn as much as men is that they simply don’t ask for raises as often. As it turns out, that’s just not true. New research by nonprofit business group Catalyst has found that women ask for raises just as much as men. Continue Reading

Looking for bliss? University professors have it

Professor teaching from the blackboard. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

If you are looking for a career that offers zen-like tranquility, it may be time to pull out the sewing machine — or the drill press.

Well, tranquility may not necessarily be what you get with a drill press, but their operators reportedly have one of the lowest-stress jobs in the nation. Along with seamstresses and eight other occupations, drill press operators made the cut on the 2013 list of least stressful jobs, according to CareerCast.com. Continue Reading

Choosing the ‘Write’ One: Writing Samples 101

If you are interviewing for a writing job, it is a good idea to bring a variety of writing samples just in case a potential employer is interested.  Learn more in the following post.

Whenever I go on an interview, I carry a folder full of writing samples and copies of my resume. You’ve probably heard that employers often ask for writing samples during an interview even if they hadn’t asked you to bring or send them beforehand. I’ve been in this very

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Choosing the ‘Write’ One: Writing Samples 101

4 Tips for Designing a Resume That Will Get You Hired

While the information on your resume can qualify you for a job, how it is presented is also an important factor for consideration.  In the following post, learn four tips to make your resume more attractive to a potential employer.

You’ve read all the advice for writing a stellar resume and applied all the tips for great content. You’ve spent hours reviewing and perfecting it line by line. Friends have checked and double checked your spelling and grammar. But you’re still not getting callbacks. Is there anything else you can possibly do to improve your

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4 Tips for Designing a Resume That Will Get You Hired

Ideas for Making the Most of Your Next Networking Event

The following post has tips to make your next networking event a success.

Have you ever had one of those terrible networking event experiences? You know the ones—where you sit in the corner the whole time because nobody is interested in talking. Or perhaps you strolled in and suddenly realized everyone was more prepared than you. You didn’t even bring business cards! Networking events can be great experiences if you

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Ideas for Making the Most of Your Next Networking Event