Excited and anxious to begin the job search, many graduates may erroneously believe the credential alone will carry them. Not so. Employability is a term that defines both the traits and the skills of the individual being considered. Rather than job or industry specific, these competencies must cut horizontally across disciplines and culture, and span the various verticals of hire from CEO to front line worker. The winn...

As the ink was drying on the recent Washington Post article flagging unemployment lows at 4.4%, I couldn’t help hearing the distant screams of employers fearing that it would continue to spiral downward. Business is already lamenting the trends of shorter hire cycle times required to grab the available talent while in tandem complaining of the expensive raising attrition rates…some positions looming higher than 40% as boom...

As parents prepare to send their children to college this fall, many may find that they are confused about college and their child’s career. Educational entities are not in the business of justifying the education you choose or finding your child employment once they send you the bill. So it is important to justify the education that children are obtaining and be realistic about the loans they receive to acquire it. Let’...

While we are celebrating a robust and healthy workplace, it becomes easy to allow our careers to coast. Choosing to become a non-active participant however may place a risk to our careers. Here are 5 warning signs and how to use them to your best advantage.You have been in your job longer than anyone in the company If you have not received an opportunity for promotion or some cross-functional movement within the last thre...

In the late 1990’s, our business reputation was such that many unlikely organizations hired us to speak on the message of diversity. Atypical to the usual banter of the time, our approach was all encompassing (race, gender, cultural, generational and socio-economic); we were repeatedly invited to "change the thinking" of many a static group. Those days have passed and we now see challenges within the workplace that appear...

As 1.4 million college graduates enter the legitimate job market within the next year, the main question employers will be asking is, "How skilled and prepared will this workforce be?" Without a clear strategy or focus, it is likely that this first "real" job will last only a year for many. Just long enough to put it on the resume. Why? Dissatisfaction and lack of motivation on the job are the two primary causes. Far t...

While diversity has been a welcome and much celebrated addition to our nations’ workforce, its entrance in many work environments has not been an easy one. The Society of Human Resource Management just published a brief article on the "Prevalence of Office Slurs" affecting race, ethnic, age and…yes, still gender, stating that the incidence of inappropriate sexual remarks rose 4 percent in the last year. While it would b...

In reference to the recent celebrated book that shattered the expectations of our beloved Oprah, there are a million little events that happen in our careers that are often forgotten rather than over-embellished. A recommendation that I extend to my coaching clients…keep a work journal. As the beginning of a career portfolio, this work journal captures the great value found within the incremental pieces of the career: vari...

Only in recent history has a woman’s success even been considered a realization. Although women have the controlling share of the current “spend”, racking up over 2.5 trillion dollars in revenues through women-owned business, we still tend to struggle with the concept of our own career success. While we may look successful, the psychology of success for women runs much deeper. Our very nature assigns our gender to find th...

Lost career opportunities happen every day. The two most critical opportunities are those that promote our greatest value to others. We send in a resume for the perfect job, and present an imperfect resume. We identify a contact with a desired company and present the wrong approach. Moving away from the idea of the job into the ideal of the career is often not the easiest thing to do. The success of a career requires...