Career Development

Managers concede that favoritism plays a big role in deciding who gets promoted, however few will admit to playing favorites.

Most weekday mornings David Herbert, 44, is out the door by 4:15 a.m., hoping to get a jump on the 74-mile slog from his home southwest of Olympia, Wash. to downtown Seattle. Rather than fight traffic the entire way, the information technology manager drives 45 miles to Tacoma, boards the 5:35 a.m. train for the one-hour ride to King Street Station then takes a bus for the final 20 minutes of his commute to the office.

Penelope Trunk knows something about risk. A nationally syndicated columnist, Ms. Trunk shocked the business community when she revealed intimate details of her personal life on her blog. At the time, many weren't sure this was the right move, but the blog shot up in popularity and eventually garnered over 30,000 subscribers.

"With the country's unemployment hovering around 10%, many professionals are on the hunt for the perfect job. But what job? What industry? To the rescue are online career-assessment tests that aim to help workers (and daydreamers) identify suitable jobs and work environments. We took four tests to learn what fields are a good fit for a longtime reporter: the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Kolbe A Index, the Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential (MAPP) test, and a service called Careerkey. "

Occupational Employment OOQ Winter 2009

College career development centers are regularly faced with the challenges of increasing their visibility to students, establishing more collaborative relationships with faculty members, and developing more employer contacts. Recently, the Starr Career Development Center (SCDC) at Baruch College (City University of New York), under the guidance of its Director Dr. Patricia Imbimbo, has developed a critical tool to assist in meeting all these challenges, the Starr Sub Program.

"he Career Counselor's Handbook (2nd Ed.) by Howard Figler & Richard N. Bolles. Ten Speed Press, 2007, 301 pp. ISBN 9781580088701. $19.99 Both Figler and Bolles have over six decades of experience in the field of career development, and both have written best sellers about the subject, including The Complete Job-Search Handbook (Figler, 1999) and What Color is Your Parachute? (Bolles, 2009). Figler and Bolles have combined their experience to produce a practical guide with The Career Counselor's Handbook. The book includes a discussion of the history and definition of career counseling, a sample of tools, tips for dealing with difficult clients, an overview of the values that shape career work, and guidelines for establishing and maintaining a career in this field."

"A new educational credential could prove to be a time-efficient and cost-effective means to help launch a career change. The National Work Readiness Credential (NWRC) is based on an employer-defined standard of the critical skills needed by entry-level workers in a variety of fields."

"Binkley writes how this year, brightly-colored or patterned stockings - think purple, lace, punk-shredded or leopard patterned - are all the rage among fashionistas. But is this haute hosiery appropriate for the office?"

"Social justice and advocacy has been a current professional issue in the field of career development for over a decade. Although various professional organizations have attempted to focus on providing career development services to diverse individuals, some sociocultural groups remain underserved. For the purpose of this paper, an underserved population is defined as a particular sociocultural group that is historically marginalized and faces disadvantages based on their sociocultural identities. In an effort to offer our services to underserved populations, career practitioners and researchers may need supportive resources to expand career development knowledge and practice. "

"Years ago I had a very demanding, harsh boss. Sometimes, I would get so demoralized or overwhelmed that I would duck into the bathroom and cry, though I made sure to never burst into tears in front of my boss or colleagues."

"There are two things Clint McElroy knows about community-college students: A huge number of them don't stay in school. And many of them-who are often the first in their families to go to college, and who must juggle work and parenting-don't understand how to balance all those demands while studying at the college level."

Ten years ago, Facebook didn't exist. Ten years before that, we didn't have the Web. So who knows what jobs will be born a decade from now? Though unemployment is at a 25‑year high, work will eventually return. But it won't look the same. No one is going to pay you just to show up. We will see a more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative and far less secure work world. It will be run by a generation with new values - and women will increasingly be at the controls. Here are 10 ways your job will change. In fact, it already has.

"Maybe you feel that your employer does not care about your career growth due to the lackluster economy and perceived high unemployment rate. Maybe you feel that there are no good job opportunities out there, so why bother looking? Maybe you feel that you need to stay where you are and just deal with it. "

March 2010 Employment in New York

"It came down to two final job candidates for a new vice-president position. One had better experience but came across as arrogant. The other had a more self-effacing personality, which is why Adam Wallen, CEO of BIO2 Technologies, a medical-device start-up based in Woburn, Mass., chose the less qualified candidate. "

Workforce Weekly March 5th, 2010

"A new report from office-space company Regus PLC says 64% of U.S. employees will be working the week between Christmas and New Year's, with 56% actually coming into the office. But is anyone really productive? According to the survey of more than 12,000 employees worldwide, just 39% of U.S. respondents say they expect workers to actually do much work."

"Like many workers, Ivelisse Rivera, a physician at Community Health Center, Middletown, Conn., feels stressed-out by mounting workloads. And she didn't expect to get much help during her employer's annual staff meeting last November-just the usual speeches on medical issues."

With the unemployment rate hitting a new 25-year high Friday, many workers and layoff victims in the worst-suffering industries are looking for safer sectors.