Are you getting everything you can out of this life?
A self-less, feel-good blog about love, life, and work by career coach and existential adventurer, Cliff Flamer
A common bit of resume advice you’ll hear is that you need to sell yourself, that your focus should be, first and foremost, on the employer. You’re supposed to think about their needs, what they want to see in a candidate, who you should be. And then be that.
This sa… Read more...
I saw a great episode of Queer Eye the other day where the Fab 5 convinced these 2 charming restauranteur-sisters to bottle up their barbecue sauce and sell it. Like everyone who is touched by the Fab 5, they cried. Over a bottle of barbecue sauce.
They’d been in business fo… Read more...
If you find yourself stuck in a loop, running an unwanted pattern, prisoner to a story that isn’t working anymore, it’s time for a review…
Clients come to me with well-rehearsed stories. Job searches require them to do so. The client tells me their story, as they… Read more...
People often come to me thinking in black and white. They say…
I need to figure out if I want to stay at my job or get the hell out…
I’m not sure if I want to manage people or remain an individual contributor…
Should I keep my career in software or try aviat… Read more...
There’s this thing I do when talking to clients about their work histories. I tend to ask questions in the present tense.
Who do you report to? How is the company structured? What level of authority do you have? Who’s on your team?
Sometimes the client will stop me and … Read more...
If you’re having trouble getting started, you’re probably starting too big.
Take a page from reporters and novelists. When telling a story, they usually start with tiny details: the doorway of a building, the button of a jacket, a word, a name, an action. Big themes ha… Read more...
People come to me because, as they put it, they’re not good at selling themselves. I hear this from everyone: salespeople, marketers, actors, speech writers, strategic communication professionals, PR agents. For the majority of us – even those where selling is a centr… Read more...
Resume-writing as a profession has taught me that you can distill anything down to 1-2 lines of text.
When you’re working within the confines of 1-2 pages, that’s all you have… to share a single achievement, to explain how a company was acquired and then divested… Read more...
The most interesting clients I work with have such tangled, meandering work histories, they’re often misinterpreted as lost, noncommittal, or passion-less, when, indeed, it’s just the opposite.
It’s these folks who are so committed to their passions, to their ind… Read more...
Ever run into someone who’s in love? When they talk about the one they love, they glow. It doesn’t matter what the subject is; you get a big smile and shining light, and it’s contagious that glow. You want to be around it.
You can use this experience in other sit… Read more...