Career advice

Are you making career decisions based on other’s opinions?

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No man or woman is an island, so we are all affected by others’ opinions.  Sometimes the opinions of others helps us see clearly but many times other people’s opinions can sway our confidence and our fundamental career decisions.  You begin to second guess yourself and your decisions.   You begin to make decisions based on how you think others would feel about it.  Frankly it can become a slippery slope creating unnecessary stress for you and does not help with your career. ...  read more

If you do what you love, will money follow?

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One of the advice you hear often and I listed on my last post is: Do what you love and money will follow.   Is this good advice?  Tony Robbins definitely thinks so.  Just last December on Larry King live, Tony gave this exact advice, by telling the story about  Katherine Joosten from “Desperate Housewives” did what she loved (acting) for 25 years and got 2 Emmys recently. ...  read more

Are these bad career advice?

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After writing my previous post, Good vs. Bad career advice, I found the following 12 career advice on the web that are either very controversial or considered bad.  I wanted to share them with you and get your opinion.  Do you think these are bad career advice?

  1. As a woman, you will have to work harder than guys to get the same recognition at work.
  2. Don’t job hop — it shows that you can’t decide on a career and are not dedicated.
  3. Do what you love and money will follow.
  4. You can wait to have kids. There’s no rush.
  5. Report sexual harassment, even if it’s just a minor infraction.
  6. Read business books to become a good leader.
  7. Don’t burn bridges
  8. stick with what you know especially in this economy, as this is the worst time to change careers
  9. If someone is stealing your ideas, let them
  10. Take some “vocational interest type tests” to figure out your  next career move
  11. Keep quiet if there are problems
  12. You need to walk into the CEO’s office and say ‘We need to talk about my salary today.’

I look forward to your comments.

– Lei ...  read more

Good vs. Bad Career Advice

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Nowadays, you can find career advice just about anywhere – online, offline, from friends, colleagues, your parents, mentors, bosses, career coaches, and anyone with a public blog :-).  So how do you know what career advice is good and appropriate for you?

My answer is only you would know what is good career advice for you.  Career advice is just opinions.  If you ask anyone for career advice, they will attempt to provide it, but that doesn’t mean they are all created equal. ...  read more

It’s All About Portable Job Skills

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In the baby boomer era, the myth was “if you are loyal to a company, the company will take care of you.”  Many believed that until they were laid off at 55 after 20 years of service with no good prospect to find work again.  Then for Generation X (people in our late 20s to 30s), it became “if you perform well, you will be rewarded.”  To some extent this is still true until the financial market crashed and even very talented people remain out of work. ...  read more

Definition of Success

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I was taught the definition of success in business school.  We just finished 4 weeks of pre-term (refresher courses on math, accounting etc..) before my official 1st year at Wharton began.  My accounting professor used most of the time in our last class to give us a lecture on success and what it means. ...  read more