Category: Career
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At my old job, newly-hired employees would have to participate in a game that involved asking colleagues weird questions in exchange for company-branded swag. The last two times I was cornered, it was with the same question, “When you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?” I wanted…
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Last week, I had a preliminary interview with a media conglomerate for a role that sounded great on paper. I was a little surprised to get tapped because I don’t have a journalism degree, haven’t interned in a newsroom or paid my dues at The Ortonville Independent or a place like that. I worked my…
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Recently, I tweeted: “Everyone wants to know how you got from A to B, but they hate it when the answer is “Worked hard and had talent.” “I COULD give you “five easy steps to get from A to B,” but you’re gonna pitch a fit when step 1 is “Learn how to excel at…
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I spent most of March revising a book proposal after an editor and a literary agent cold-emailed me to ask if I had anything in the works on that front. I dusted off the proposal I wrote in 2010 and never submitted and spent a couple of days wallowing over all the water that’s flowed…
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Recently, I saw one of my favorite new artists live. Before the show, I busied myself with reading reviews of her latest cd – a pretty radical departure from her debut – to see if my opinion that she’s taken a turn for the Stevie Nicks (a very good thing in my books) was shared by…
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When people ask what it’s like being an entrepreneur, I usually joke how running your own business is like a crash course in handling rejection. There are sales you don’t make, clients you don’t land, proposals that go nowhere, offers that get turned down. If you don’t make the ask, you don’t get the work…
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A friend and I are working on a collaboration. She’s actually a friend I couldn’t have had five years ago, or even two years ago. We’re wildly different in a lot of ways (and not just because her hair is as crazily curly as mine is stick-straight) and utterly complementary in a lot of others.…
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I’ve been a brat – an ungrateful wretch, even – and it’s only dawning on me now. I’m a validation junkie. Land a new client, write a piece that goes viral, get invited to speak on radio or be interviewed in a national newspaper and I’m on cloud nine – at least for 10 minutes.…
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I started a business. It’s called Secret Agent Research. This is how it happened. A few months ago, I was sitting in my windowless office in the middle of nowhere. I had just received a stellar annual review and my boss was going to recommend that I assume more management duties, but he warned me…
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A piece in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye the other day – a third of New Yorkers are now spending over half their income on rent. Think about New York. Think about what an amazing city it is. Now, think about handing over 50% of your pay check to a landlord every month.…
Generation Meh 