The Career Clinic Blog

One man’s trash is another man’s violin.

That will be all.

Comment (0)

When you don’t know where you’re going you may as well hang out where you are.

If you’re making okay money where you are, so much the better. And if you can save a great big chunk of that? Genius.

Because one of these days you might know exactly what you want to do with your life, and the money will come in handy.

What if you’re just out of college and you know what you want to do, but you aren’t sure if you can make a living at it?

My money’s on this comic strip.

Good luck!

Comment (0)

Someone I interviewed for the show recently said he doesn’t understand the big deal about birthdays. So you went another year and didn’t die. So what?

Sometimes that’s a big deal. That’s what.

A couple of summers ago I was shopping for classy flip-flops--a contradiction in terms, I suddenly realize--and was bent over the railing of an escalator surveying the floor below me. A woman who was going down the other side made eye contact with me, and there was something about the look on her face that made me straighten up…just in time to keep from being hit hard by the wall separating the two.

By “hit hard” I mean something much, much worse. Gruesome. Life-ending. I’m serious. I don’t know what it was about the design of the escalators--or the recklessness of yours truly--but it spooks me to think about.

You might be wondering if I’m afraid of escalators now, the way many people are afraid to fly after a particularly turbulent ride.

I’m not.

I feel only gratitude for the reassurance I apparently still have some work to do here.

Comment (0)

You know those vignettes you can sample by using the audio player on our home page? They’re outtakes from the talk show. They run on XM Satellite Radio, on the American Forces Network, and on many of the stations that carry The Career Clinic.

They’re one reason I still listen to every word of all our interviews. I’m on the lookout to flog myself for one too many “uhs” or “ums,” granted--but I’m also mining them for vignettes. I select sound bites, Darrell times those and preps them for broadcast, and I write scripts around them.

It doesn’t take long to write the scripts. Or rather, it doesn’t take me long. Darrell struggles with that part of his job. It just isn’t his thing.

“How do you do that?” he just asked. “How do you crank out ten scripts in twelve minutes?”

I shrugged. I thought about it. And I decided I probably thrive on the twenty-five words or less contest aspect of it. Telling a story in as few words as possible is fun for me.

The reason I mention it is the sudden bounce in my step from Darrell’s compliment. I stood up straighter, and I went about my other chores this evening feeling better about myself.

It reminds me of sharing with a friend how many times in a typical day Darrell and Katie and I tell each other way to go on something. “You’re kidding,” she said. She couldn’t remember the last time she told her husband he’d done a good job on anything.

It’s so simple. Notice what’s good, and tell someone how much you appreciate it.

What would happen if you did it more often?

Nothing bad!

Comment (0)

As a reporter for a radio station in the small town where I still live, it always amused me when people assumed I was a Democrat--or a Republican. It happened equally often. Maybe they thought since I hadn’t bashed their side, I was on it.

I’d been trained by a journalist to be a journalist--to take notes on what happened, and to share those without sprinkling my opinions over everything.

That’s a good way to go about life, isn't it? Notice what happens, but don’t decide how you feel about it right away--and, more importantly, look for opportunities to keep that to yourself.

Darrell and I once attended a party where the hosts were openly liberal. Still, we were surprised when another guest--joining us at the dinner table for what we assumed would be small talk--opened with, “So. Are you Democrats?” As if that would determine the course of our conversation. It did, but not in the way I bet this gentleman imagined.

A woman once agreed to be on our talk show before she realized it airs on Radio America. I could almost hear her sigh pop up from the screen as we continued our exchange. “Oh, well,” I imagined her thinking. “You can’t have everything.”

A man once told me he’ll never read my essays on the Huffington Post because, well, it’s the Huffington Post.

Radio America and the Huffington Post?

Here’s hoping I’m a difficult gal to peg!

Comment (2)

“Life is too important to be taken seriously.”

That’s wisdom--or at least, I’d call it wisdom--from a new book, The Dude and the Zen Master.

Jeff Bridges is one of the authors and this little gem is worth lingering on, I think…

“Kevin Bacon and I recently worked on a movie together, R.I.P.D. Just before we’d begin a scene, when all of us would feel the normal anxiety that actors feel before they start to perform, Kevin would look at me and the other actors with a very serious expression on his face and say: ‘Remember, everything depends on this!’”

I’ve had a little bit of a thing for Kevin Bacon ever since his character in A Few Good Men teased Tom Cruise’s character about the not-so-strong witnesses he had in reserve. “And handsome, too,” Cruise’s character fires back. Bacon’s character cracks up. To think he might be as playful in real life? Oh…

It reminds me of a story I once heard about a bus driver who, when asked how long the trip was going to take, said the following: “I don’t know. We’ve never made it.”

Who can you make laugh, today?

That’s the Lord’s work.

So help me God!

Comment (0)

“If I had mapped out my career,” says Sheryl Sandberg from Facebook, “I would have missed my career.”

Sheryl was quoted in the Huffington Post recently, quoting another woman--Lori Goler--who also has a big job at Facebook. Sheryl says Lori has a great metaphor for careers: “They’re not a ladder, they’re a jungle gym... Look for opportunities, look for growth, look for impact, look for mission. Move sideways, move down, move on, move off. Build your skills, not your resume. Evaluate what you can do, not the title they’re going to give you. Do real work. Take a sales quota, a line role, an ops job. Don’t plan too much, and don’t expect a direct climb.”

Maps, plans, recipes--to some of us, they’re just different words for boring.

What about you? Would you rather try to map everything out? Or feel your way?

Comment (0)

How do you want to be remembered?

My friend Jim played the accordion in college. I mean, all the time. I’ll never forget heading back to the dorm for a meal or whatever, to be greeted by his music wafting through the courtyard.

Is that where I got the idea ordinary days are anything but?

What a gift.

I hope he realizes how much joy he brought into the world that, decades later, still lingers.

Comment (0)

What if we measured our success by how people feel when they’re around us?

That will be all.

Comment (0)

Do yourself a favor. When you find yourself singing because you’re in such a good mood, notice what you’re doing.

Then, do more of that.

Gradually you’ll have a life you love.

A longer version of this little nugget of advice recently appeared in the Huffington Post.

A friend of mine calls a personal essay the new resume. “If I were to hire someone,” he told me, “I’d prefer that he hand me an article about himself like you wrote. I would like to know how he got from wherever he started to where he is now.”

Career consultants are fond of reminding job hunters they’re in the business of telling stories.

Make them good. Not just because they’ll get you the job. But because--as Callings author Gregg Levoy would say--when your life flashes before your eyes, it’ll hold your interest.

Comment (0)