Career Management Alliance Blog

I am always happy to be invited to contribute to valuable career advice projects, and Chris Perry of Career Rocketeer has put together a terrific compilation of advice for job seekers. LaunchPad — Getting a Life and Not a Job is available for sale now. My article is about the value of telling stories for job seeking. I reference my favorite book on the subject by Katharine Hansen, Tell Me About Yourself as well as my friend Ken Revenaugh’s blog, FastTrackTools.com, which offers terrific advice about communicating to enhance your status in any organization. Continue Reading »

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Learn the Top 10 Secrets Of Landing The Perfect Job And Building Long-Term Career Success, From A Nationally-Recognized Career Expert! Revealed For The First Time In A Powerful Audio Seminar. Discover How To Chop Months Off Your Job Search, Boost Your Salary By At Least 25%, Get Promoted Faster, And Never Worry Again About Job Security Or Layoffs. Continue Reading »

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Ernst & Young recently conducted a study of 669 senior finance professionals in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa focused on the DNA of a CFO. I’m wondering how much different these results would be if America had been included in the survey.

For example, our poll this week at SmartBrief for CFOs asks this question around a statistic pulled directly from the E&Y study: 73% of surveyed CFOs see their role as a destination. Only 10% aspire to be a CEO. What about you? Right now, the numbers are virtually tied. Register for the Brief and add your vote. Continue Reading »

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We need to discuss the above first. A good career conversation is going to include painful discussion. Why would you leave your company?  What would you change about your current role?  What does your boss say about your future?  What does your boss’s boss say about it? These are going to be questions you hear from me.  You may be asking them to yourself – maybe you should be.  Perhaps you self-medicate with over-the-cubicle remedies like “It’ll work out” self-talk, the ever-present – denial and unreciprocated loyalty.  If you face the pain, you know you have to take action, right? Continue Reading »

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If people in the office have pegged you for having a negative attitude, and you know they’re right, is there anything that can be done? Can you change? The answer is “Of course you can.” Attitudes can be changed, responses can be changed-people can undergo complete transformations of character sometimes. If you feel you want to Continue Reading »

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I like to learn about CRM issues in the sales world because those issues might translate over to issues with JibberJobber users.  I don’t tout JibberJobber as a CRM (customer relationship manager) even though that’s how I use it.  It is, however an awesome personal relationship manager for YOU (that is, anyone who is still concerned about their career, job security, etc.). Todd Youngblood has a post titled Three Things that Kill CRM (…and how to counter them).  The second “thing” is particularly relevant to my JibberJobber audience.  I have heard, more than once, that career coaches are concerned that their job seekers spend too much time online, and they don’t want the job seeker to spend MORE time online, even with JibberJobber.  Let’s dig into this…. Todd writes: Continue Reading »

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Imagine you're at the interview and that the interview is comprised of one question and one question alone. Here's the question: "Why should I hire you?" to which you happily communicate the following:

"Well, I am very honest, loyal, and hardworking -- and also, very dependable and responsible."

Insert period. You offer no example. You provide no explanation or detail. Continue Reading »

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Kevin writes: I have a degree in American Studies from Brigham Young University, and I struggle not only with the liberal arts degree, but with having one in a subject nobody has ever heard of. Because of this, and probably some confidence issues in an interview situation by not really being able to point out my tangible skills and how my degree can help me do the job, I have been struggling finding a job that I enjoy and am interested in. Since graduation, I have had two jobs. The first was with as a shipping department manager for a legal document processor. The company ended up going out of business and we were all laid off. Continue Reading »

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In addition to being a crazed Gator fan (is it football season yet?), I’m also a Hallmark movie mush. Yes, I admit it.  And yesterday I caught up on a few of my DVR’d flicks, including “Jack’s Family Adventure.”

Jack is an ad executive who has worked 80 hours a week for 5 years to make partner. He walks in on an office celebration to find out the “new guy” was given the title over him. Devastated and disappointed, he asks for, and gets, a month’s vacation and takes his family on an adventure. Of course, while he’s away he experiences a major paradigm shift.

I thought there were a few great career lessons for finance executives in that movie. Continue Reading »

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