This Is Not The Career I Ordered™ Blog
Savvy Professional Career Wisdom by Caroline Dowd-Higgins
This is Not the Career I Ordered is read by thousands of careerists around the globe. With savvy tools, inspiration, and resources, this timeless book empowers you to enjoy your career, and love your life!
A Teamwork Reboot for the New World-of-Work
Change is ubiquitous and the world-of-work is evolving at a relentless speed. Hybrid work environments, labor shortages and 55% of Americans looking for new roles has made creating team culture a moving target. It’s time to rethink how you lead a team or contribute as a colleague, and as you would expect emotional intelligence tops […]
Can You Hear Me Now? Active Listening 101
The human attention span has decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2022. Goldfish have a 9 second attention span. Ponder that. The over-stimulation of too many meetings and not enough process and creative time have exacerbated the situation. The good news is that active listening is a learned skill we all […]
Have You Put in 10,000 Hours?
A well meaning friend mentioned that my book success and growing national speaking engagements happened so quickly. While his comment was innocent, what he doesn’t realize are the years of hard work and preparation that have gone into these projects that have laid the ground work for what is coming to fruition right now. Malcolm […]
The 5 G’s of Effective Communication
Kathleen Oliver, COO of Oliver Winery shared her 5 G’s of Effective Communication. These quick and easy tips will empower you to communicate more wisely with your colleagues in and out of your organization. May the communication force be with you!
How Do You Live the 80/20 Rule?
Recently I featured a career reinvention story about Lisa Montanaro who is a solutions expert and Principal of her company LM Organizing Solutions, LLC. Lisa has found her true career passion as a professional organizer even though she taps her transferable skills as a former practicing lawyer on a regular basis. Her new book The […]
Would You Be Happier With More Time or Money?
In the spirit of sharing great resources, my friend Chris sent me an amazing article by Alice LaPlante from the Journal of Consumer Psychology about the value of time and money. Professors Jennifer Aaker and Melanie Rudd of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Cassie Mogilner of the University of Pennsylvania discuss how time […]
What Now? What Next?
The career development journey is an exciting one but the overload of new information, opportunities, and ideas can often lead to analysis paralysis. With the myriad of possibilities you can get overwhelmed if you don’t have a system in place for choosing what action to take. Tai Goodwin, the Career Makeover Coach suggests two simple […]
Why Everyone Needs a Business Card!
A business or personal card is your ticket to effective follow-up when networking. Learn why everybody should take advantage of this essential career tool.
Pursuing a Raise
Most women would never dream of asking for a raise – they simply wait for performance review season and accept the allocated raise (if any) established by the company powers that be. I challenge you to think outside of the box and introduce the concept of a promotion if you have gone above-and-beyond in your […]
The Power of Networking with CDH
Learn to demystify networking and use it to your best advantage in your job search or career management. Check out my new video and consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel for regular new video posts. http://www.youtube.com/user/cdowdhig?feature=mhee#p/u
The Law of Attraction
Two years ago, Deborah Stephens, a friend and mentor on my personal Board of Directors sat me down and asked what I wanted to accomplish professionally in the next 5 years. She asked me to be very specific and envision my future goals so I could develop strategies to make them happen. At the time, […]
What’s Whipsering to You?
I taped the last episode of the Oprah show and watched it with pen in hand since I knew she would be sharing some amazing wisdom worth repeating and I wanted to take notes. My biggest take-away was that nobody but you is responsible for your life. As Oprah eloquently said – “You are responsible […]
Are Your Nurturing Your Network?
Networking is a skill and it can be hard to keep up with the extended book of contacts you worked so diligently to develop. The follow-up step is the key to maintaining strong professional relationships since the one-and-done effort leaves people feeling ill-used and less than willing to share their time and expertise with you […]
Knock ’em Dead Core Career Strategies
As my blog audience grows I have had the great pleasure of connecting with some of the amazing career development professionals in the field. Martin Yate, a household name in this industry and I had a great conversation recently about his new book. Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of 11 job search and […]
