Banks Go through Stress Tests. Why Not Your Career?
This is not a post about burnout or stress management. This is a conversation about a different kind of self-care. Time to time, we hear about banks undergoing stress tests to determine how they would fare in the face of difficult economic scenarios. What if you put...
Federal Government Trends: Contracting, HR, Budget & IT
While it is valuable to know what is trending, it is critical to contemplate what benefits your future and what empowers you to fulfill your personal potential. Assess viable options. The Federal Government offers opportunities in Contracting, Human Resources, Budget...
New Learning at a Higher Level
“Each of us are the Chief Executives of our learning.” - Dr. Terrence Roberts For each of us, the process and opportunities to advance come with some form of a requisite series of achievements. These can be accomplishing advanced college degrees, new certifications,...
Outsourcing Can Lead to Increased Government Efficiencies
Nothing drives innovation like challenge. The silver lining in the cloud of fiscal strain facing many local governments is that nothing drives innovation quite like challenge. The great recession has produced buzz phrases that are already growing tired, from “doing...
Treat Your Professional Identity Like Metadata
Big data is a hot topic. Mega corporations like Google and Amazon glean huge volumes of information about their customers’ interests and spending patterns. The furore over the Edward Snowden revelations propelled the word metadata from the private lexicon of IT...
Working for USAID
A master’s degree in international relations provides the foundational knowledge and professional skills you will need for a career in the field—which may include a service career in the government and nonprofit sectors. Students in these programs gain an in-depth...
New Technologies Graduates Need to Know for Government Employment
We have all become increasingly aware of the use of data by the federal government. From national security to health care to education, data and new technologies are playing increased roles in what federal agencies do. But increasingly, municipal governments are also...
5 Tips for GRE Preparation
It’s definitely not the SAT. As the portal for entry into most graduate programs, the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is another academic animal altogether—and something you’d better be sure you’ve prepared for before you pull up that first question. As Neil Seltzer, the...
Putting the Meat in Team
There is a growing trend in the private firms of staff development which has shown signs of success. The lunch meeting with a potential new team member to see how the person interacts with potentially new coworkers has been on the rise. The theory behind the concept...
To Gap Year or to Not Gap Year?
Gap Year. Recently these two words have been used, thought about, and planned around more than ever, but what is a gap year actually? Most people understand a gap year to be time spent post-graduation before pursuing more schooling, jobs or other exciting...
Hiring for Cultural Fit
They just didn’t work out. The hardest part of selecting a new hire is figuring whether or not they will fit into your organization. A strong resume and skill set are impressive but most hiring managers would agree that long-term employee success depends on whether a...
Reach Your Goals Twice as Fast with Half The Effort
Naturally, everyone wants to be more successful by reaching their goals. Whether you want more money, more customers, more profits, better health, or whatever result you’re looking for—what you’re really trying to do is create a new reality for yourself. Let’s...
The Pursuit of Significance in Mentoring
“No one can teach anyone anything of significance,” wrote the famed psychologist Carl Rogers in his classic book, On Becoming a Person. This philosophy is the foundation of effective mentoring. I learned a lot of insignificant things in grade school. Even today, I...
Recruiters and Older Job Seekers
We all know being an older Job Seeker is just a state of mind. Most of us are ready to contribute right now, regardless of our birth generation. However, it seems there is continuing bias against workforce veterans… and that relevancy as a candidate is perhaps...
Public Policy: The Good & Bad
Local, regional and even national public policy brings both opportunity to grow and evolve, and on occasion, a related opportunity to step back to a previous position or place if a policy doesn’t work. Two excellent illustrations of ‘the choice after the choice’ I...
Boomers and Millennials: Gen-X to the Rescue!
As many are aware, the generations have aligned on the American workplace like the planets in some science fiction movie. However, this does not have to alert us to the doom of the known world as with so many of those movies. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good...
Why Women Should Not Shy Away From Leadership Positions
It is a well-known and controversial topic that nationally, we are lacking women in leadership positions both in the public and in private sectors. The campaign to ban the word “Bossy” has received plenty of media attention as has the one encouraging women to lean in....
HR Innovation Plan 2014
Our CEO Stan has started taking Xanax, an anti-anxiety pill Why is he worried? The revenue stream from new products is only “semi wow “due to limited innovation and feeble leadership provided by R&D Chief Comrade Carl Marks and his hapless team. Since Comrade Carl...