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!
Building Trust and Inspiring Others as a Leader
There are hundreds of books on leadership and just as many philosophies, which can make it overwhelming as you strengthen new leadership muscles or hone your style as a seasoned professional. A common denominator appreciated by modern workers is when a leader builds trust and inspire others. Narcissism is no longer tolerated and savvy leaders […]
Forest Bathing is Good for Your Life and Career
I was driving to work one morning when I heard a fascinating NPR story about forest bathing and how a retreat to nature can boost immunity and mood. If you have not heard about the trendy concept of forest bathing, the study of the practice dates back to the late 1990’s when a test was […]
Knowing When To Say No
The question about whether or not work/life balance is possible continues to plague many professionals. What I have learned from amazing women around the world who seem to “do it all” is that you have to pick your opportunities and work smarter – not harder. Angela Jia Kim is featured in my book and has […]
Business Sense and Sensibility
I just finished reading Mireille Guiliano’s book: Women, Work, & the Art of Savoir Faire and it is filled with fabulous advice about being a professional woman in the world of work. Mireille was the former CEO of Cliquot, Inc. known best for their luxury champagne. This French born business woman has savvy tips to […]
Take a Seat at the Table
The recent TED – Ideas Worth Spreading video featuring Sheryl Sandberg is going viral and that’s great in my opinion because she addresses why we have too few women leaders in the career world. As the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, Sheryl manages the social media giant’s sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy […]
Taking The Plunge for a Career Do-Over
As I read my Sunday newspaper, I came across a poll in the Parade Magazine insert that reported 61% of people surveyed would choose an entirely different career if they were given the option to do it all over again. The time is now for you to take action and become the change agent for […]
Your Contacts Really Do Count
I received a wonderful email from Lynne Waymon, CEO of Contacts Count. www.ContactsCount.com She read my most recent Huffington Post article and heartily agreed about the value of connecting with others in a job search. Lynne has built her business on helping people put the tools of networking to work by reaching business and career […]
To Blog, or Not to Blog:That is The Question
I had a wonderful opportunity to present a tele-seminar to career coaches at major universities recently. One of the seasoned career counselors listening in asked how important it was to blog and who should be doing it. I started blogging about a year ago with a very clear goal of building a foundation and a […]
The Scoop About Using Social Media in Your Job Search
I interviewed Dan Schawbel, author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success and was very impressed with his branding techniques for job searchers. While he also agrees in the power of in-person networking, he recommends the following incredible social sites to help job seekers get noticed in the cyber job arena. […]
Can You Really Conduct a Social Media Job Hunt?
Perhaps I’m old fashioned but I still believe that the power of in-person networking is the best resource for job hunting. But I am also plugged into technology enough to know that job seekers need to capitalize on social media to amplify their search strategies. Muriel Vega from Pink Magazine says – “It’s not only […]
Recognize Your Peeps
In this economy, minimal cost of living raises aren’t a given for annual increases in many organizations. Some have frozen increases for the foreseeable future, including the federal government. It’s easy to get down about being overlooked for promotions due to budget issues even though your performance has been stellar. There are still many ways […]
Simple Tips for Happiness
I’ve learned so many things from my mentors, clients, students, colleagues, family, and friends over the years. My goal in this post is to share the best advice I’ve received coupled with some insight from the Life & Happiness blog to help you thrive in a state of happiness more often than not. Happiness is […]
Holiday Career Coaching – Family Style
In my December Huffington Post column, I wrote a piece about capitalizing on family over the holidays to get some motivational career coaching. You can check out the full article http://huff.to/h7IrVQ but here is a summary of the salient points to tap into your family’s ideas and inspiration. Over hot chocolate turn the fireside chat […]
Social Media Mistakes
I received some great feedback from readers who took the plunge and started using social media to plug their products and services, or market their strengths as a job candidate. As a social media newcomer myself, I have been studying up on social media mistakes to be sure that I am not making them as […]
