It has been a few weeks since I last ran a career clinic, and it is my pleasure to use this opportunity for the first ever Money and Such giveaway. I am hereby announcing a $25 cash prize giveaway. Here are the rules -
To participate in the contest, leave a one line comment on this post - no more than 10 words - by 5:00 PM Pacific Time on June 21, 2009. Your comment needs to include a useful piece of career advice. The winner will be determined by random drawing, and will be announced on Monday, June 22 on this blog. The winner must then contact me within 3 days. If the winner does not contact me, I will select and announce a new winner. The prize will be paid using PayPal.
Late addition: per reader questions, only one entry per person please. Also, please make sure there is a way for me to contact you - if you have your own blog and your contact info is on your blog, that should be fine, if not, please leave an e-mail address with your comment. Something like "shadox1 at the domain name google dot com" should be good enough to avoid spammers.
By the way, if you leave a comment, your chances of success are probably pretty high, given that I don't think I have ever received more than a dozen comments on any post I wrote here. I do hope to break that record...
To start things off, here is my own one line piece of career advice:
Careers can last for decades, build yours patiently.
And now, here are a few good career related posts that I noticed over the past week.
The Simple Dollar looked at the basic building blocks of a career. It's an excellent post and I couldn't agree more. I will take the article a step further - contrary to Trent's position in the post, pretty much everything you do is another "brick" in your career wall - it's just a matter of finding out how to apply what you are doing day to day to your career story. I am wondering if Trent was thinking of Pink Floyd when he wrote that post.
Julie of Wise Bread explains how online job boards can be used effectively. Here's is my suggestion: find a posting online, and then instead of applying on the site, find a way to get introduced to the hiring manager through a mutual connection. LinkedIn is my favorite method for getting that introduction.
Mrs. Micah offers advice for freelancers on how to charge customers for tasks that seem simple. Her point: you should charge your customers based on the value that you create, not the amount of time you spend doing the work. I am reminded of a story about a patient that complained to his dentist that he was being charged hundreds of dollars for having a tooth removed - a task that took only minutes. The dentist responded that if the patient preferred, the dentist could achieve the same result over several hours... it's all about the end result...
Free Money Finance talks about 20 things that you can do to nail an interview. It's a good list, but personally, I am not a big believer in thank you notes. Never read or responded to one that was sent to me. Of course, it could be that I am an exception. Probably couldn't hurt.
21 comments:
Who you know is as important as what you know.
Can I enter more than once?
It's never as good or bad as it seems.
Rob
Perform.
Do something you like.
Be humble day to day, but aggressive at appraisal time.
(PS and beyond the 10 words - if you're looking for another excellent pf blogger who does good career posts for your roundup, you should check out Thicken My Wallet. And no I don't write it, I'm just a fan!)
Reputation is important, be careful who you put yourself behind.
What you do lets the world know who you are.
Thanks!
shevilkenevil1 at aol dot com
Kiss ass and don't tell!
Always look out for yourself. No one else will.
Thanks all for the great comments so far. I especially like the ones by Guinness (thanks for the recommendation, BTW, I'll check it out) and Neogreen.
Finance Phi - that's a pretty cynical way to look at the world.
Know what finished work looks like; deliver only when finished.
Dammit. I just saw the one entry per commenter rule.
Don't shit where you eat
Do a good job, even when nobody is looking. It builds character and discipline.
Forgot my email address! Duncan at egaming dot co dot nz will get to me mighty fine =)
Perform no task you'd be ashamed to tell your Mom.
Not mine, but I like this: “Be remarkable.” - Seth Godin
focus on your own success, not on someone else's demise.
I don't follow this advice but I always thought it was quite funny. Depending on your career it might work for you...
"Under-promise and over-deliver."
Set long-term goals. Deliver Quality. Develop long lasting relationships & network.
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