I recall hearing a story years ago that one of the drivers of the technology revolution and dot-com boom was the hard economy of the 1980s — facing shaky job prospects, the best and brightest were more inclined to strike out on their own and innovate instead of serving corporate bosses. I haven’t seen data proving the recession forced people…
Some of the decisions I have made this year — choosing a part-time job over full time so I could launch my own business in a tough economy, spending two months in New Orleans when we have a cozy place in a great Brooklyn neighborhood — don’t make sense to some people. Ditto our choice not to have children, not…
A mutual friend introduced me to Heather Newgen when Heather was moving to New York from LA last year. After trading several messages, we met for the first time in New Orleans — I was there on our semi-sabbatical and Heather was shooting a TV pilot she’s pitching called The Voluntourist. I was impressed by her passion for this new…
I got my first job when I was 16, and before that, I’d been babysitting since middle school. Working for other people is something I’ve had decades of practice doing. Working for myself is new. So I was glad to stumble onto Lorena’s Epiphany, a blog by a Lebanese freelancer with good pointers on how to be successfully self employed.…
I stumbled onto this satirical post recently on Cassie Behle’s blog. It says in part: Because the onset of case of the Mondays’ symptoms almost always appear like clockwork Sunday, some workers often confuse a stubborn hangover for the disease. Doctors nationwide have seen a rash of workers coming into the office and mistaking the two, and are urging workers…
I have always been a girl with a plan. I lived life like a chess game, thinking through how my current move will ripple through three moves ahead: Getting good grades in high school would help me get into college Doing internships during college would help me land a job after graduation Taking a job at a small newspaper would…
Earlier this week I wrote a post headlined “Feel the fear and do it anyway,” about not letting fear limit our decisions. I’ve been reflecting on major forks in the road in my life and how often I have self limited by taking the conservative path — what my husband, John, calls being a good girl. If a…
“Feel the fear and do it anyway” ~ Susan Jeffers I’m blessed to have some fabulous people in my life, including career coach Kim Ann Curtin. Kim met with me recently to help me strategize about where my career is headed and how to get there. As we talked about various possibilities, Kim asked what I was afraid of. My…
This is an encore for one of the very first posts I wrote on this blog, reflecting on January 2001 — 10 years ago this month. One day I was laid off, the next my mom was diagnosed with cancer, which would kill her six months later. My mom has been in my dreams a lot lately, I think reminding…
It’s easy to see why Four-Hour Workweek is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestseller – working four hours a week and having a comfortable lifestyle is just short of winning the lottery in terms of fantasy freedom. After I heard author Tim Ferriss speak at MediaBistro Circus, where he shared many of the ways he’d marketed…
This post continues an occasional series on writers — how and why they write, what inspires them and how they overcome challenges like writer’s block and rejection. Previously we’ve heard from Jim Ottaviani, Lara Zielin and Jennifer Worick. Today’s Q&A features Bruce DeSilva, a retired journalist now putting his writing skills to work in longer form. From his bio: Bruce…
A former colleague of mine at University of Michigan, Tony Collings, brought an amazing reporting resume to Ann Arbor– he was a CNN correspondent for 16 years, following time as a Wall Street Journal reporter in New York, an AP reporter in Moscow, London and Bonn, and the Newsweek bureau chief in Bonn and London. I learned how to do…
More magazine has an article in its April issue headlined “The power of micro change.” I just returned from a work trip and one of my guilt airplane pleasures is photo-heavy women’s magazines. Glamour is a go to, and I try to mix it up with some others I wouldn’t typically read at home: Vogue, O, Real Simple or anything…
Do you long to retire early and enjoy a life of leisure? Not so fast. A study from the national Health and Retirement Study followed about 12,000 retirees and found that those who worked part time or on a temporary basis were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, lung disease, heart disease, stroke, arthritis…
The New York Times had a story this weekend about professionals who decided to make lemonade out of the lemons of their unemployment — they moved to Colorado to work hourly wage jobs on the slopes: AMONG the skiers hitting the fabled slopes of Aspen this winter, you will find an investment banker, an information technology specialist and an international…
Recently I blogged about how overwhelming it can be to choose a career path when you have loads of interests. (That post is here, if you’d like to check it out.) It’s like author Keith Ferrazzi was reading my mind, or reading my blog, because just a few days later his e-mail newsletter was headlined “Target Your Dream Job in…
Because our society doesn’t generally pay well for creativity, many people who aspire to act, sing, paint or write have a day job to pay the bills. They might aspire to that glorious day when they’re discovered and can quit the practical job, supporting themselves solely on their art. Richard Russo, a Pulitzer prize winning novelist, got to do just…
I’ve pretty much worked in the same field since high school — I got a job pasting up newspaper pages using X-Acto knives and hot wax when I was 17 and I’ve earned my paycheck from something related to writing or media ever since. This week I met a friend of a friend who is studying criminal justice after getting…
