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 the best places to launch a career, negotiating a severance package, job hunting online, the worst thing not to do when you start your dream job, and how to make employers want you.

From Business Week: Best Places to Launch a Career
“Graduates lucky enough to land a job may find the prospect of responsibility and rapid advancement surprisingly strong. But don’t count on bigger salaries.”

Wally’s Comment: If you’re starting your career, or even if you’re not, this annual package from Business Week is worth a look. Set aside an hour or so to browse through it for ideas.

From the Washington Post: How to Negotiate a Severance Package
“As the national unemployment rate nears 10 percent, many Americans are doing something they had never imagined they would do: negotiate a severance package.”

Wally’s Comment: A good severance package can be a boon to your job search. But employers are putting less into the packages and negotiating harder. Use this article to help even the odds a bit.

From Michelle Goodman at ABC News: Job Hunting Online: Escaping the Nine Circles of Application Hell
“Next to dwindling unemployment benefits and recruiters who don’t return phone calls, the biggest gripes I hear from job seekers are about the online job application process.”

Wally’s Comment: Face it, many of the employers you will apply to will simply be rude. And, face it, many of their online application systems were clearly not designed by anyone who expected to ever use it. There’s advice here about how to overcome some of the problems and live with the rest.

From Cube Rules: The ultimate fatal mistake when starting your dream job
“When we start our jobs, it’s easy to simply coast along with whatever the manager is giving you to do. But coasting doesn’t make for success in a new job, especially our dream job. Too often, people start new jobs and then are gone from them within eighteen months. Sure, sometimes we misjudge the fit between the company and ourselves. Sometimes, we’re just wrong for the job and we should move on. But too often, we make the ultimate fatal mistake when we start are dream job: we fail to understand how to achieve our business goals.”

Wally’s Comment: OK, you got that dream job. Do the happy dance. Then get to work, both on the job itself and on your personal goals. Time’s a’wastin’.

From the Wall Street Journal: How to make Employers Want You
“Most people in the job market today would consider themselves lucky to get a single offer. Receiving multiple offers sounds like a dream, but for some, this scenario is very real. They are the candidates everyone wants”

Wally’s Comment: I confess that the title for this piece sounded more to me like the National Enquirer than the Wall Street Journal. But it’s another one of Alexandra Levit’s great columns, stuffed with good advice.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 4:33 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.