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teaching and being taught, and links

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this on this blog or not, but I spent a fair amount of time as a part-time schoolteacher for both middle school and college freshmen as a substitute teacher and later as a graduate assistant. I taught intro to calculus and accounting in grad school and substituted for [...] Read more »

how to become a successful consultant

I’ve preached the gospel of “going it alone” for years on this blog, and I stick by it. I’ve seen far too many of my colleagues hung out to dry by the corporations they work for to think that being an employee is a good career path.  But being a consultant has one ugly secret, [...] Read more »

learn one lesson: who is the client?

Whether you work as an employee, a consultant, a small business owner or an entrepreneur you probably find yourself in a client relationship from time to time. In my case, I’m always serving a client. Over time I’ve realized that a good question to ask yourself, as someone in client service, is “who is the [...] Read more »

average career salaries

If I could travel back in time and give myself a little bit of career advice, I’d spend some time talking to young Steve about earnings over a lifetime of work, or average career salaries. The median elementary school teacher salary in the US, for example, makes about $51,000 a year.  The median attorney salary [...] Read more »

stupidifying the corporation

I grind my teeth at work when I hear the phrase “dumbing it down.” I heard it once when an employee of my client, a Fortune 500 company, said he was making a presentation to a division CEO. My coworker, a middle manager, had to explain some accounting issues to the CEO and said in [...] Read more »

5 Best Websites for Job Seekers

  It can be difficult to discover careers in an unstable economy, but without the power of the internet, job searching can become even more difficult.  Some job sites can help:  these five job search websites make the process easier for the unemployed or underemployed – or even someone simply looking for a better opportunity. [...] Read more »

the dead end of home ownership

the American dream I’ve known more than one guy with the following life story: working at a corporate job as a middle manager, married with young-ish kids and settled in normal sized house in an acceptable neighborhood. Maybe the kids are really young, even though he’s in his forties; like me, a lot of men [...] Read more »

job junkie

Dr. Drew – the famous radio/TV addiction-specialist doctor of Loveline, Sober House and Celebrity Rehab fame – has a layman’s definition of addiction: it’s any activity that you continue engaging in despite adverse conditions. Hits it right on the head, I think. If you keep drinking after a DUI, you’re addicted. If you keep doing [...] Read more »

networking is not about quid-pro-quo

Quid-pro-quo means “something for something” and in a capitalist society we’re trained to think about this rule governing almost all transactions, both commerce and personal. Just as we expect to hand over $1 for a pack of gum, the guy selling the gum expects to receive that $1. Most people say “I love you” with [...] Read more »

full-time employment is uncertain, and links

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that most people want to hold on to their own idea of reality as long as they can. If you believe in a particular religion, or you have particular political beliefs, or dietary beliefs, etc. – you cling to it as a matter of fact [...] Read more »

work-life balance is a false choice

photo credit: pshutterbug Everyone understands that being engaged in your work, life, family and self is key to a happy life. Nobody thinks that you’ll be perfectly fulfilled without a balance – everyone needs to be happy with their family, but you also need outside interests. Everyone needs to feel like they are a contributing [...] Read more »