Career Cube Blog

“I have the same goal I’ve had ever since I was a girl. I want to rule the world.”
-Madonna Louise Ciccone

Popularity: 2% [?]

Career development is not always about moving up in the organization. It’s more about constantly improving yourself and getting the most out of your job and work life. Regardless of whether or not you are interested in promotion right now, you are interested in standing out at work. To stand out in a good way, you need to be aware of the consequences of what you think, say, and do.

WHAT TO THINK, OR NOT

* Think you can (and will) succeed:

People have confidence in us when we have confidence in ourselves, and few things lead to success like self-confidence. We gain confidence as our skill and knowledge grows. The trick is to have confidence to try new things, when immediate success isn’t as likely as when we do things we’ve already mastered. To do this, go slow. Create self-development plans that ease you into a new task. It is easier to overcome small mistakes, and small wins keep you motivated and moving forward.

* Think good thoughts about performance feedback:

Performance feedback — particularly in review meetings — are our chance to talk to our manager about where we are, where we want to be, and how we might get there, in our job and in our career. Your attitude about receiving positive and negative feedback will help determine the outcome — whether the feedback is more developmental and future-focused or evaluative and focused on the past. Help your manager give you constructive feedback that helps you grow and reach your goals.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

There is much talk about Interviewing Styles: The Directive Interview, The Behavioral Interview, The Stress Interview, The Qualifying Interview, The This Interview, The That Interview. Articles outline different styles, list typical questions for each and tell you how to prepare for them, as well as suggesting appropriate answers.

That’s all well and good, but there’s an obvious question here that begs to be asked: how do you KNOW which style you’ll encounter? When you phone to schedule the interview, do you ask, “Oh, by the way Mr. Interviewer, what interview style do you use? I’d like to study that one and ignore all the others.”?

I absolutely endorse asking questions that you need to know the answers to (when it’s the appropriate time)……but THAT question is obviously an exception!

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Popularity: 17% [?]