Recently, I attended a session where psychologist Ken Nowack talked about the ins and outs of management feedback at work. Dr. Nowack’s research looks into how managers and supervisors who deliver feedback badly can actually cause physical harm to the employees they’re criticizing or advising. Study after study proves that how feedback is delivered directly…
Someone asked me the other day why I do what I do, why I work with students, speak on campuses, research and write about the usefulness of the liberal arts in business, why I offer consulting services—all to connect liberal arts students with careers in business. I have two answers to that question: 1) There’s never been…
At Whittier College, Director of Career Planning and Internships Linda Ross told me a scary story, the kind of story I can picture liberal arts students sharing around a campfire after all the marshmallows are roasted. It goes like this: Fifty graduate students at a nearby university, pursuing master’s degrees in something like “Student Affairs,”…
I teach in the School of Business at Portland State, a class called “Advanced Business Communication” aimed at helping about-to-be accountants, supply chain managers, marketing staff, financial analysts, and operational managers be better writers and speakers in their future jobs. I’m always happily surprised by the business students’ level of engagement, not only about my class…
I review a lot of students’ résumés, and I find myself dispensing similar advice résumé after résumé. So I thought I’d share a few suggestions with you here from my perspective as (1) someone who sat on the hiring side of the desk for a couple of decades and (2) a champion of liberal arts majors looking…
My youngest brother is a firefighter. Or I guess I have to say now he was a firefighter. The department recently forced him to resign. It’s complicated, and I’m not going into the reasons here because they’re not the point. “I’ve been a firefighter my whole life,” he said to me on the…
Some recurring parts that people play on projects are important to know if you want to borrow any of this vocabulary for your job application. They include: stakeholder, project administrator, team lead, testing coordinator, business analyst, quality assurance. Let’s start with “stakeholder,” because without these people, projects don’t exist. If you’re a reader…
