On my earlier posting (How to Make More Money), reader Svetla posed a comment with a list of six challenges that she believes prevent her from making more money at her job. After describing an abominable skinflint of a boss, she asks how she might justify a raise in the following situations. It’s a thought-provoking question that deserves a [...]

Discussion: March 2, 2010 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter
The Q&A in today’s newsletter is a biggie: What are the hot spots in your job and your career that present opportunities for you to goose up your compensation? And, when you encounter such an opportunity, what should you do?
This is the topic of a new book I’m writing, and [...]

What do your kids learn in college? Lots of people ask the question only when they see the tab for higher education. It’s a good question. A better question is, do they learn How?
I’m a big believer in education for its own sake. Anything you learn is something that might “grow you,” and it might [...]

Discussion: December 15, 2009 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter
A reader asks:
I am a mission-driven person (and a turn-around expert) who shares a fair number of beliefs from the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works style of business and project management. Even today, this is still an “out of the box” style of management and is not exactly listed [...]

Discussion: November 10, 2009 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter
A reader asks: How do I tell my boss that I am overloaded with work and can’t accept additional projects without letting an existing project slip?
How to Say It: Bosses hand out assignments but often don’t realize the cost a new assignment exacts. It’s your job to tell [...]

It’s a question that comes up a lot, but we’ve never discussed it here. In today’s newsletter, in the Readers’ Forum, a reader asks:
I’ve been quite successful in my field (Information Technology) and I’m trying to move up the corporate ladder. I read conflicting things about MBA degrees. Should I get one? Will it pay [...]

Lots of folks work on contract, not on salary. It’s easy to net out less money when expenses go up and your client isn’t sensitive to it. Should you get paid a higher rate when that happens?
I work as a contractor for a company and I have a pretty good setup. However, my expenses have [...]

Thanks to Mike Urbonas for sharing this “… my ass!” moment…
Mike Stankus, sales guru over at STM360, did an informal survey asking, Does work need to be your top priority? It seems Jack Welch thinks it does, and lazy-ass women who don’t give it all up for the corporation deserve what they get.
Stankus quotes Welch: “There [...]

We don’t often talk about employee relations — so let’s do it more. A troubled reader submitted this:
How do you get people to stop making negative comments about other employees? I worked for a company last year and had several employees on my project who I discovered were trashing others — and they were really going after one employee in [...]

In my last posting I criticized The Wall Street Journal for its history of producing sophomoric and self-serving career advice. The newspaper publishes advertorials masquerading as articles. They are largely intended to drive readers to the Journal’s job listings. So much for editorial integrity.
But there is good advice to be had in lots of business [...]