Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA
Develop Soft Skills – Work Smart & Live More
A friend recommended a great article in the New York Times on how to improve your job search efforts. It’s called Still Looking for a Job? It’s Time to Refocus written in March 2008. I agree with every word and have been talking about it throughout this blog. I really like the way they summarized it and thought I share. Key points are ...
If you just got a new job, congratulations! This is a tough market, so getting a job is definitely an achievement. Now another type of work begins. The first 90 days on the job is critical to building a strong foundation for success at your new company. You may say, what do you mean? I know how to work. I would say I am sure you do but starting a new job involves more than just hard work. ...
Growing up Asian, we are told that hard work is always what is needed to achieve success.Like a good Chinese girl, I followed that advice and worked my butt off at McKinsey, my first job.Fortunately or unfortunately, I learned quickly that hard work is not enough, and sometimes does not even help. ...
Literally! We all know the concept, but I want to share with you a true story of how it was used in practice for job search. My friend (Mary – a false name) was laid off just a month ago and was told her last day will be July 24. What does she do?
Mary immediately calls her old company she previously quit (to get this current job) to see if her old position is still open. (Kudos to her for being so open minded and for keeping a good relationship even though she quit) To her surprise, her old position was still open. They were just finalizing on an internal candidate when Mary called and said they were willing to consider her, but it would need for them to open the job in HR to the public in order to hire her from the outside the company. They said they will get back to her next week. ...
Which one are you – “cardboard” or “sponge”? I guess most of us are a bit of both. I personally hope I will be a “sponge” for most things in life. What am I talking about?
I am talking about our ability to learn new things as we get older in life. Take two people, let’s say they have very similar skills and experience, but ...
A true story! A good friend of mine just received a nice offer to a great job. How he got this offer was somewhat unusual. I thought I share it in case it can inspire you to look at opportunities in a new light.
Given the economy, he decided to be more open minded and look for jobs that were below his level (which is Director). He saw a manager job opening on craiglist and applied. When the recruiter talked to him and asked him if it was ok if this job pays around $___ (about 25-30% lower than his last job’s base pay), he decided to say yes. His rationale was if the job is going to be easier and possibly can be done in 35 hours a week, he can always try to get another contract gig for 10-20 hours to make up the difference. He also thought it was another chance to practice his interviewing skills. ...
I was just reading an article this week on Wired called Waste is good that triggered me to think about how it relates to entrepreneurship and job search. In a nut shell, the article says that “our brains seem wired to resist waste” – wasted energy, wasted time, wasted attempts, wasted technology, etc… , but in reality waste can be very good for innovation and significant advancement. ...