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!
The Personal Gift of Play and Sleep
The pandemic virus variants continue to raise our stress levels and while vaccines give us hope, it will take a lot for us to navigate the next several months and beyond. As we head into the holidays, consider the gift you can give yourself to honor what your immune system needs to be proactive about […]
Don’t Underestimate Holiday Hiring as You Plan Your Next Career Move
I have a client pursuing a career reinvention who recently said she was going to lay low until after the holidays because she didn’t think hiring would happen until the new year. I encouraged her and any job seeker to activate now since the career market has an urgency like never before to recruit and […]
Why Women Should Ask for a Raise
Women’s earnings relative to men’s have stagnated at 73.2%. Research tells us that women feel a great deal of apprehension about the idea of negotiating for a raise in a current job or asking for a higher salary with an initial job offer. The fact is – it’s necessary for women to negotiate now more […]
Set Smarter Goals
Many people set goals at the start of a new year but why wait if you are ready to take control of your future and your career destiny now. Resolutions are powerful tools and can take your career to the next level but most people get stuck on the follow-through of the goal and it […]
Let Your Strengths Blossom
One of my favorite new resources is Ivy Sea www.ivysea.com Founder, Jamie S. Walters is a visionary author and culture shift leader helping women to reclaim their feminine Mojo and express is to the world. Jamie takes you beyond business as usual and offers individuals and organizations help in transforming unhelpful perceptions and patterns of […]
How to Get Time on Your Side
Everyone seems to be looking for work/life balance but what I have come to learn is that I can do it all, just not all at the same time. Finding more time in life is part strategy and part learning to say no. Laura Stack, author of Find More Time and Leave the Office Earlier […]
Create a Vision Board to Discover Your Passion
One of the first steps in finding a career that you love it to identify what you are passionate about. Many people have a hard time identifying this so creating a vision board can be a way to help you focus. This treasure map, or creativity collage is simple to construct and can really help […]
Nurturing Junior Employees
Great leaders are not always great managers and finding a boss that is willing to nurture and grow their staff is becoming very difficult. Supervisors have a responsibility to get their job done first but they also need to take part in shepherding the next generation in the work force and empowering them to grow […]
Establishing Your Home Office
Many organizations are rewarding and retaining employees with more flexible work hours and the option to work from home. Some professionals work exclusively from their home office and others enjoy the perk every now and then, but unless you have a designated space, the work-from-home situation can be more difficult than not. Home based workers […]
Use LinkedIn to Nurture Your Network
Of all the social media sites, I use LinkedIn most frequently to make professional connections and to inform my network about my career updates and accomplishments. I have joined several groups and participate in discussions, post comments, and develop new relationships through my growing network of career minded individuals. The beauty of LinkedIn is that […]
When and How to Say Thank You after an Interview
Over the years I have facilitated a myriad of job searches and conducted countless interviews with hundreds of candidates. This summer is no different as I have been involved in multiple searches for a variety of new positions. As the selection for one position in particular draws to a close, I am in shock that […]
The Difference between Noble and Ignoble Failure
While I was researching the concept of failure, I came across a fascinating article by John J Sviokla who pens the blog Daily Innovation. John shared his insights about failure, accountability, and how it impacts the workplace. Dave Pottruck former co-CEO at Charles Schwab was fired in 2004 because he did not turn the company […]
Failure is Your Best Weapon
If you want to succeed, you have to be willing to fail – and to fail a lot! If we don’t fail we never stretch out of our comfort zones or take risks. With each missed step we learn things along the way that help us make better choices and achieve greater success in the […]
Mastering Small Talk Part II
Debra Fine’s company – The Fine Art of Small Talk is focused on teaching professionals conversational skills for use while networking and speaking with clients. The objective in all professional encounters should be to make a good impression and leave people wanting more. To do that you must be bright, be brief, and then be […]
