Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about how to keep looking, career malaise, can working from home wreck your career, jerk-proofing your next job, and the antidote for worry.

From Forbes: How To Find A Job When You’ve Been Looking Forever
“Eileen Wolkstein says she has never seen it this bad. A career coach in New York for 25 years, Wolkstein reports that many of her clients have been looking for work for six months, nine months, a year, even a year and a half now. Some of them are former senior-level managers who are conducting job searches for the first time in their lives, having been recruited or recommended for every post they ever had. Staying focused and determined in the midst of an ever-worsening employment picture is one of the toughest career challenges out there, Wolkstein says. But there are ways you can keep your spirits up and increase your chances while sharpening your long-term hunt for work”

Wally’s Comment: One of the toughest times in a job search is when it feels like you’ve exhausted all the possibilities. This is a great article about how to keep going.

From All Things Workplace: You Feel How? Why?
“How do you feel about your life: Bitter or Better? Your answer will color everything about your existence. At home, at work, with friends.”

Wally’s Comment: Steve Roesler zeros in on a phenomenon I’ve seen a lot in young coaching clients. By all common measures they appear to be doing well, but they just don’t feel like it.

From Anita Bruzzese: Could telecommuting be a career mistake?
“While a lot of people think telecommuting is the answer to all their problems, sometimes you have to be careful of what you wish for. At the same time, this difficult job environment may mean that you have to work even harder and smarter if you’re not in the office every day.”

Wally’s Comment: Telecommuting gets mostly rave reviews. People want to do it. There are studies that indicate it makes people more productive. But there is a dark side and Anita Bruzzese talks about it in this post. The fact is that telecommuting may be dangerous to your career.

From Bret Simmons: Jerk-Proof Your Next Job
Are you working for a jerk or even worse a bully boss?  As I wrote in my article “The Courage to Take Moral Action,”  if it gets to the point where you need to move on to a new job, you want to make sure you don’t end up in the same boat again at your new job.  There are some things you can do as you look for your new job that will help. The most important thing you need to do is to decide how important it is to you to avoid ever again working for an asshole as bad as the one you are trying to get away from.  If it is not at the top or your priority list, you will likely compromise somewhere along the way and risk eventually being right back where you started.”

Wally’s Comment: If you’re ever worked for a jerk, you know how horrid it can be. Bret Simmons suggests some things you can do to make sure you never work for a jerk again.

From Random Acts of Leadership: The Antidote for Worry

Wally’s Comment: Turbulent times create worry. Susan Mazza outlines how to put worry away so you can concentrate on the important things you need to do.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 8:38 am and is filed under Tools and Strategies for Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.