Yes, I know you planned. You carefully considered your choice of degree. You got a job you were qualified for.

But you only assessed opportunities that were right in front of your nose.  

Your choices were (unwittingly) limited. Limited by your environment. Limited by the expectations of friends, family and teachers — and yourself.

Career theorist John Krumboltz called it “planned happenstance.” A bit of planning, yes. But also luck. Being in the right (or wrong) place at the right time.

How to make your own luck

Instead of fishing in a pool of limited options, you have the chance to find where the most delicious fish are swimming.

Then, when chances do arise, you will be ready, and want, to say yes.

Increase your luck by knowing the five most common reasons people stay limited: (Click here to tweet this list.)

1. You don’t know what you want

You think you need to be sure of your passion before you can make it a reality. Not knowing is paralyzing you.

You are afraid that making the wrong decision will have you go through the pain of change for nothing, especially if you are interested in a radically different career.

So you take no action at all.

The truth is, to find a career you love the action comes first, then the decision.

Find ways to test the water before diving in. Pick small, frequent actions that give you insight into potential careers, without making a commitment (yet).

Simply talk to someone already in a job you’d like to explore. Even better, shadow them for a day.

Want a creative career? Create intensively for 30 days.

Or come up with five ideas for how you might get paid for activities you already do for free, or used to love doing as a child, and implement one of them.

Learn from doing. Then decide if you want to commit.

2. You think your dream career is not realistic

It is dumb to decide you can’t do something before you’ve even tried it.

Throughout history people have made things happen, despite barriers bigger than most of us will ever face.

Maya Angelou became the first black female bus conductor in San Francisco by turning up every day for nine months, even though she’d been turned away on the first day.

Annys Darkwa came out of prison and founded a social enterprise while living on welfare payments.

Grace Quantock became a writer and award-winning entrepreneur despite living with chronic pain and multiple disabilities.

Realistic is a state of mind.

If you knew you could not fail, what would you do with your career?

3. You are too busy

We are all busy. But we are not all victims of our busy-ness.

Do you ever watch TV, use social media or go to the bar? Then you can choose to make time to work on your career.

On a scale of one to 10, how much of a priority is your career? Seven or above?

Then make time.

4. You know what you want, but you don’t know how to go about it

You are in the right place. Find one to three articles on Brazen that solve your biggest problems.

Don’t just read them, do what they suggest. Otherwise you have just found another way to put off taking action.

Try articles that help you find ways to meet potential employers or customers, use online tools effectively and apply for jobs in compelling ways.

Stick to a few actions that you will do thoroughly. Set a deadline, and find a buddy who will hold you accountable.

5. You place too much importance on a singular dream

I know this sounds backward, but taking steps toward something you deeply care about can be terrifying.

If you fail at this, what do you have left? You will have killed the dream.

The more important something is to you, the more scary it is.

The reverse also applies. The scarier something is, the more likely that you are going in the right direction.

Hear your inner critic screeching ever more loudly? Is that voice in your head telling you that this is too risky, you are not up to it, people will judge you?

Good. Then you are probably on the right track. You are worth the risk.

Adjust the details of your action plan if you need to.

But don’t stop.

Devi Clark is an author and career coach at NewLeaf Coaching, which specializes in helping career changers find work that makes a difference. She is founder of the Outsiders’ Network, a community for people who feel different from the social norm.

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The post How to Find a New Career: Avoid These 5 Mental Traps appeared first on Brazen Life.

Let’s face it, in our economy, sometimes the best play, career-wise, is to stay put. Greener pastures may not turn out so green, if they even exist at all.

This article is for those of you after that elusive goal of a promotion. Just like any other goal, landing a promotion requires strategy, patience and perseverance. You don’t have to toss out all the rules to get ahead, but you can’t sit by idly and expect it to happen for you either.

Here are five tips you can use to climb that ladder. (Click here to tweet this list.)

1. Do what you do better than anyone else

The first step is to perform well in the position you have. Don’t just do what’s expected of you: go beyond and get noticed. Will putting in some extra effort always be rewarded? Honestly, no. Sometimes your efforts will go unnoticed. But over time you’ll build a reputation as a serious worker who’s willing to put the company or team first. That will eventually pay off.

2. Find your Yoda

What would Luke have been without Yoda? Everyone needs a mentor to teach them the ins and outs of the field and company culture. Seek people a few rungs higher who’d be willing to take you under their wing. You’ll be surprised how receptive people can be. After all, you acknowledge them as experts and worthy to learn from. It’s flattering.

In addition to learning valuable skills and techniques from someone who’s been around the block, you’ll have an ally in a position to help you land a promotion at some point.

3. Go back to school

Learning new skills, keeping up with trends and becoming an expert are all sure-fire ways to get noticed by the higher ups and pave the way for a promotion. This used to mean costly courses and night school, but no more.

Today, professional development is so prevalent you can easily find an online course or seminar that fits your budget and schedule. You can also leverage the web and create your own personal learning network.

Follow the trend setters in your industry on social media. Interact, learn and grow. Before you know it, you’ll have established yourself as an expert in your chosen field.

4. There’s no “I” in “team”

Yes, it’s cliche, but cliches get their start in truth. As the structure of corporate America becomes flatter and more projects are done by teams, being seen as a team player has become vitally important.

Don’t try to steal credit or place blame. Work hard as a team member and get the job done, even if it means taking on more than your fair share. People will notice and eventually those higher up will want your drive and work ethic higher up.

By being a team player, you build your reputation and increase your value to the company.

5. Act like you already have the promotion

No, don’t start telling your peers what to do and walk into meetings five minutes late. Start asking for more responsibility. Jump in to volunteer to help a neighboring department. Willingly take on a little more than you need to to help out your boss.

Hustle means something, and the more you do it, the easier it’ll become. People will grow to depend on you. When you’ve made yourself indispensable, you make yourself promotable.

Remember, sometimes the best job opportunities are right under your nose. Put a plan in place and be ready the next time a promotion is made available.

Steve P. Brady is  a teacher, executive resume writer and career consultant who specializes in helping educators and others grow their careers. Follow him on twitter @Steve_p_Brady

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The post Want a Promotion? 5 Fool-Proof Strategies for Moving Up at Work appeared first on Brazen Life.

While that sounds straightforward, in reality it can be the hardest part of change because we often struggle to talk about what matters. We also have a tendency to deceive ourselves into believing that we have clearly communicated our hopes, expectations and desires to others when we really have not. Then we are confounded when they do not comply.

The frustration, disappointment, and apathy that often accompany the gap between “what we want” and “what we get” can be so dominant that negative emotions shape our outlook on the future. Over time, when our experience doesn’t match our expectations, we have a tendency to expect more unmet expectations. (Click here to tweet this thought.) The deep irony here is that most unmet expectations that lead to missed achievements, disappointing outcomes and relationship breakdowns were never spoken in the first place.

If we are going to create the conditions for the experiences and outcomes we seek, we have to first know what matters. While we are unfortunately well-versed in the experience of knowing what we do not want, there are four issues that make it hard for us to identify and communicate what is really important to us. Don’t let these four things stand in your way:

1. Don’t make people guess

In the absence of clearly stating what matters, you will make people guess and they will likely guess incorrectly. Most frustration and conflict in the workplace occur due to unmet needs. The irony of unmet needs and expectations is that they are often left unspoken. So when we rationalize ourselves away from clearly stating what we want, or what is most important to us in a specific situation or relationship, we may think that we are avoiding some confrontational pitfall.

The fact is we are simply digging the hole deeper by forcing other people to guess our relative perspective and priorities and to take action accordingly. And this is the reason dashed hopes, passive-aggressive standoffs and unresolved conflict in the workplace are such significant, repetitive problems. We are all pretty bad guessers when it comes down to it.

2. Don’t wait for progress to come to you

Getting what you want requires active movement toward it. It is self-deception to want something and remain standing still. Gaining the confidence to talk out loud about what matters is the first (and most important) active move. Once the picture of that desired future comes into focus and those around you are tuned in, you have to fight the attractive (but unrealistic) belief that the world will come to you. An aspirational achievement requires you to step toward it, no matter how small those first steps feel.

3. Don’t borrow other people’s definitions of success

We are often very good at wanting what others want, but unpracticed at wanting stuff that is consistent with who we are and what we value. In his 2009 TED talk, Alain de Botton, the acclaimed writer, philosopher, and commentator on work, described the challenge of distinguishing what matters to us and the noise we hear from the world:

One of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. A lot of the time our ideas about what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They’re sucked in from other people … [It] is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should … make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions.

4. Don’t say yes to distractions

Learning to go for what we want requires us to say “yes” and “no” in the right ways. In other words, we need equal amounts of courage and willingness to start and stop doing the things that are required to make something different. Saying yes to new things is a bit more straightforward than saying no because there is always a bit of risk with a polite turn-down.

However, we need to have the courage and willingness to say no, draw a line in the sand, and avoid doing things that distract from our goals. When the writer and cartoonist Hugh MacLeod said, “The best way to get approval is not to need it,” he pointed to a very important element in our effort to create the change we want to see: Be bold, then ask for permission.

When you take the time to work through these four issues, you give yourself room to focus on what matters most and separate from the baggage that often weighs you down in their pursuit. To have the experience and attain the outcomes you want, start by getting out of your own way.

Jesse Sostrin is the author of Beyond the Job Description. He writes, speaks, and consults at the intersection of individual and organizational success. Follow him @jessesostrin.

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The post 4 Things You Should Stop Doing at Work to Start Getting Ahead appeared first on Brazen Life.

Sometimes the more productive you are, the more likely you are to beat yourself up at the end of the day, even thinking, “I wasn’t very productive today.” The fuller your day is with activity, the harder it seems to pinpoint what exactly it is that you did at all.

Entrepreneurs and other enterprising people are no exception, especially with the anxiety and pressure of high standards and visions of amazing growth. Ambitious people measure themselves by their progress towards achieving audacious goals, so they often can’t appreciate a single day’s worth of tiny, incremental advancements that they’ve made.

How to Avoid the Mental Trap

Between starting Netscape, Opsware, Ning, and Andreessen Horowitz, Marc Andreessen has already done monumental work in his career. Yet he still seemed particularly at risk of falling into this familiar-sounding trap:

“[Y]ou know those days when you’re running around all day and doing stuff and talking to people and making calls and responding to emails and filling out paperwork and you get home and you’re completely exhausted and you say to yourself, “What the hell did I actually get done today?”

To arm himself against the daunting quest of making meaningful progress toward his big objectives, Marc came up with a system: the done list (which he called his “anti-todo list”, a tongue-in-cheek contrast to the much more popular to-do list).

Every time he did something useful during the day, he wrote it down on his done list, which he kept on index cards. He explains:

Each time you do something, you get to write it down and you get that little rush of endorphins that the mouse gets every time he presses the button in his cage and gets a food pellet.

And then at the end of the day… take a look at today’s card and its Anti-Todo list and marvel at all the things you actually got done that day.

Keeping a separate list of accomplishments means that when Marc takes stock of what he has achieved, he gets an unadulterated rush, free from the nagging and guilt of what’s still left on his to-do list.

Find Your Small Wins

There’s value in the act of slowing down to document your accomplishments. Capturing what you get done ensures that you don’t lose that value. As Marc notes, “being able to put more notches on my accomplishment belt … throughout the day makes me feel marvelously productive and efficient. Far more so than if I just did those things and didn’t write them down.”

Chris Savage, CEO of the video-marketing startup Wistia, writes about how magnifying your perspective on progress to count what happens day-to-day is key to generating the momentum and joy to accomplish big things. He explains this lesson concisely in two graphs:

versus this:

There’s a hard road to travel to get to big-time achievements (Click here to tweet this thought) and reaching heady dreams, whether it’s making your first million, mastering the piano, running a marathon, or building a successful company — and if you’re too exhausted every day to take stock of your successes, you’ll lose heart.

Rather than waiting for major milestones to celebrate achievements, recognize that tiny, wonderful triumphs happen every single day. Turn that into a daily process of rejuvenation and inspiration after a hard-day’s work. Your done list will energize you and serve as a crucial method of maintaining the positive emotional balance necessary to accomplishing great things.

Janet Choi is the Chief Creative Officer at iDoneThis. Keep reading about how to keep a done list and the science behind they help you work smarter in a free eBook, The Busy Person’s Guide to the Done List. Say hi on Twitter @lethargarian or on Google+.

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The post A Productivity Trick That Will Make You Feel Happier About What You Accomplish appeared first on Brazen Life.

Yes, a large part of his envy-worthy lifestyle has to do with his profession, but as we talked, we realized that much of his success came because he’s simply not afraid to ask — for just about anything.

Now if you’re like me, your fear of being presumptuous or even rude will often override your urge to ask for things of others, especially those we work with. As I mulled over that conversation with my friends, I got to thinking about how many opportunities I’ve probably missed out on because I didn’t ask — situations that I could have improved, if I had spoken up.

Why don’t we ask for help when we need it?

Harris Interactive polled 1,019 employed Americans in their third annual Work Stress Survey, and found a 10 percent jump in workplace stress compared to just a year before. Eighty-three percent of respondents are stressed at work, with “unreasonable workload” as the second top stressor.

We have to get rid of this stifling idea that asking for help at work is a sign of weakness or failure. Start asking, and here’s why:

• Here’s a fact that will blow your mind: No one expects you to know everything. (Click here to tweet this thought.)
• Showing everyone that you’ve put in extra effort, resources and work, only to still wind up needing help, doesn’t get you any extra points; it means you’ve wasted time.
• Managers love hard work, but they hate inefficiency.
• Collaboration is, plainly and simply, a beautiful thing. Be a part of starting it.

Muse author Jennifer Winters wrote a great piece on how to ask for help at work. Here’s what she said:

The trick here is knowing when it’s time to suck it up, swallow your pride, and admit you’re stuck. My general rule of thumb is basically the “Three Strikes” rule. If I can’t figure something out after I’ve exhausted at least three other solutions on my own, it’s time to admit I need a little inspiration.

Why don’t we ask for perks?

Whether it’s time off, flex work or even a bump in salary, everything is negotiable. That is to say, you also have to bring something to the table. When you honestly feel as though you’ve earned a freedom of some sort, you owe it to yourself and your hard work to inquire about incentives that would solicit the continuance of such hard work.

This isn’t a “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” scenario; the hard work and dedication is going to have to come first. If you get a big fat “no”, you have at the very least started the dialogue on how to get there. This conversation should be directed toward how your individual goals can align with the organization’s goals to obtain whatever it is you’ve requested.

The old saying “You never know unless you ask” is far truer than a lot of us anticipate. In an article on stay interviews and best retention practices, HR Director at Webroot Melanie Williams revealed just how easy it can be for employees and companies to get on the same page when open communication is at play. Williams said, “We’ve had very few stay interviews come in with pay being the thing that makes them stay or want to leave. There were not any requests that we haven’t been able to fulfill.”

Going back to the story

That guy we were talking about at the beginning of this post? The opportunities that guy snags through his networking and willingness to inquire have all set him up with the experience he has needed to go onto the next endeavor. He’s experience and skill-hungry, and that’s what drives him to ask.

Ask and see what happens. If what comes of it instead is collaboration or goal alignment, those are a couple of pretty great things to work with. You will either get what you ask for, or gain the knowledge on how to get it; neither will come by staying silent. While most organizations or even coworkers are out to please, they aren’t mind readers and they won’t know what’s important to you — unless you speak up and just ask.

Raj Sheth is the CEO and Co-Founder of Recruiterbox.com, a Web-based recruitment software that helps growing companies manage their incoming job applications.

TalentCulture is a vibrant open online community, driven by professionals who share a passion for innovation, collaboration and a desire to advance the world of work. Join their #TChat Events every Wednesday from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. EST, or join the ongoing conversation anytime at #TChat on Twitter.

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The post Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Ask for What You Want appeared first on Brazen Life.

With the popularity of social media and the way it’s changed how the world communicates, reports news, conducts business and makes hiring decisions, some traditional practice for sharing information and insights have become a thing of the past.

Social media is an awesome tool for advancement if used wisely, but it’s not the end-all-be-all when it comes to sealing a deal, landing a gig or getting new business. (Click here to tweet this thought.) There are still some old-school — or what could be deemed as old-school in this age of Facebook updates and Twitter beefs — practices that are relevant today and can lead to big wins in one’s career.

Check out three and see how they might fit into the way you communicate and network, especially as a young professional…

Read more at Black Enterprise…

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The post 3 Old-School Tactics That Can Boost Your Career Today appeared first on Brazen Life.

You can hate ‘em, you can love ‘em, but you have to admit that in one area, they get it right: Wall Street bankers invest. (Click here to tweet this thought.)

We often invest a lot in our careers at the very beginning. You choose to go to graduate school in law or business or education, or get that certificate in something relevant. But then what happens?

Time passes.

And often, as time passes and you stay in one job or at one company, you stagnate. When you stagnate, the stock that’s you becomes less valuable on the open market.

You haven’t invested in yourself.

When was the last time you invested in your career? If you hear crickets, it may be time to rethink your approach.

Career investments come in all sizes

You don’t have to sign up for the next round of “I’ll take that MBA!” if you don’t want to. Going to school and plunking down a large amount of money isn’t the only, or even the best, investment you can make.

Here are a few investments that can pay off right away:

1. Sign up for a certification program

You can choose something relevant to your job — project management, Six Sigma, Excel — or something relevant to what you want to do next — how to start a blog, yoga instruction for beginners, whatever floats your boat.

2. Reach out

Find a mentor in your industry or one you want to be in. Invest time in yourself to develop strong relationships with people who can help you.

3. Volunteer

Volunteer at your company by asking for new tasks or projects that will be helpful to your organization — and to your acquisition of new skills. Or volunteer in your community in a position that teaches you something for your future career moves.

Whether it’s taking on the position of treasurer because you want to get into a financial or accounting position, or serving on a board and doing communications or project management, you’ll gain concrete skills and a stronger network to shine up your resume.

4. Hire a coach

They can help you figure out what you want to do next. When was the last time you really thought deliberately about your career? Considering how much time you spend at work, what is it worth to you to love what you do?

5. Read up

Pick a subject that interests you. Or spend some guilt-free time surfing the Internet. With a little digging, you can learn about almost anything  Sometimes reading up on a subject can give you the expertise or information you need — or at least give you motivation to keep going.

6. Get schooled

If you think you have your direction nailed, but you know you probably need more formal education, check out a graduate or accredited training program. Make sure it’s something that won’t completely break the bank, and that the school will help you get a job when you’re done.

Your challenge

Think about one small investment you can make in your career right now. Maybe it’s buying a book or taking that class you’ve been putting off. Maybe it’s emailing a potential new mentor or watching an inspiring TEDx talk. Pick one action you can do today to invest in your career — and do it.

The banker in you will thank you.

Christie Mims is an expert on career happiness. Want to invest in finding your passion… for free? Sign up to get access to a spanking fun workbook: 6 Simple Steps to Find Work You Love.

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The post What Wall Street Can Teach You About Your Career appeared first on Brazen Life.

Well, the situation is actually a little more complicated than that. Can you make a living doing what you love? Yes… and no. To be honest with you, it depends. Not every passion or every dream or everything you love to do has profit potential. Some dreams and hobbies make lousy businesses. Professional careers don’t exist for everything.

The trick is finding that sweet spot where what you love to do and what other people want overlap. (Click here to Tweet this thought.) Opportunity lies at the point where your passion and its usefulness to other people converge.

For a business to exist, there has to be at least two things: a product or service, and people willing to pay for said product or service. If what you love to do isn’t useful to anyone else — if it doesn’t create value for other people by solving an obvious and irritating problem or bestowing some desirable benefit — then you’re probably never going to make money doing it. Passion isn’t enough if there’s no business potential.

That said, it’s almost always possible to find a career (or make your own) in an area closely related to something you love.

No one is going to pay you to read books for fun, but there are plenty of jobs — book editor, patent lawyer, proposal writer, reviewer/critic, researcher — that require a great deal of reading. No one is going to pay you for working in your garden or taking care of your own lawn, but they might be interested in buying your flowers or produce, or in learning how to create and tend their own garden. There’s the opportunity.

The question then becomes: Are any of the opportunities related to what you love interesting to you? If so, dig deeper. If not, pick something else you enjoy and explore the possibilities there.

Getting started

If you’re thinking about starting your own business based on a hobby or personal passion, answering these questions before you continue will help you figure out if that’s really something you’d enjoy, and whether there’s actually a market for it:

1. Would you enjoy pursuing your hobby/passion full-time, or at least 20 hours a week?
2. Do you enjoy teaching others to practice the same hobby/share the same passion?
3. Do you like all of the details of your hobby, even the parts other people find tedious, boring or difficult?
4. If your passion required a decent amount of administrative work, would you still enjoy it?
5. If your paycheck depended on pursuing your hobby/passion, would you still enjoy it?
6. Have other people asked for your help related to your hobby/passion?
7. Are there enough people out there willing to pay to benefit from your expertise?
8. Are there other businesses serving this market? Would you be able to serve this market better?

It’s all about the research. Whether you dream of bringing a new product to market or getting hired at Google, you need to become an expert on everything related to your dream job.

Say you want to own your own coffee shop. OK. What does it actually mean — what does it actually require to own your own coffee shop? Do you know anything about beans, farming and growing regions? Do you know anything about different roasting, grinding and brewing methods? Do you know anything about running a retail business? Do you know if there’s a market for a coffee shop in your area? Do you know what you could expect to earn running a coffee shop? Do you know about management? Hiring? Customer service? Do you know anything about FDA certification? If not, it’s time to learn.

Clarifying your vision

As you think about your dream job and begin to refine it, here’s what you need to know:

• The history of the company, business, or product
• The education requirements and potential cost
• The working environment or physical location
• The tools of the trade
• The typical pay you can expect when starting out
• The typical benefits you can expect when starting out
• The time requirements needed to be successful
• The physical requirements needed
• The skill requirements needed
• The emotional, relational and physical costs
• The laws and legal issues associated with the job

Intimidated? Allow me to introduce your new best friend — the Internet. So much information is available to you today, and much of it is free and can be accessed within three minutes. And don’t forget to take advantage of your local library as well. There’s much to be learned from books.

In the end, these questions should challenge you, not defeat you. If they challenge your dream and your dream is still standing, it’s worth pursuing. If these questions defeat you, you need to ask yourself why. Are you settling? Are you giving up? Or have you simply discovered you’ve been barking up the wrong tree? Change demands growth, and growth demands change.

This post is an excerpt from the author’s book, Jump Ship: Turn Your Passion into a Profession.

Josh Shipp is the host of Jump Shipp, a documentary TV series offering individuals a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live out their dreams. He’s an award-winning entrepreneur named to Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30” list and is the founder of Youth Speaker University. More at http://JoshShipp.com.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

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The post How to Turn Your Passion Into a Successful Career appeared first on Brazen Life.

Talk to any group of 25-year-olds for more than 10 minutes, and this topic is bound to crop up. The idea of pursuing a passion is shorthand for loving your job, being a successful person and doing amazing work. It’s about having it all.

A lot of the time, it’s also completely ridiculous.

Whether for practical constraints (rent!) or more intangible reasons, finding your passion — let alone pursuing it — is an elusive goal. And yet everyone is expected to do it.

The thinking goes: if you have the courage to discover your true calling, you’ll be happy. If you’re not brave enough, you’ll wind up as an empty shell with a commute-work-die life. Talk about pressure.

Before pulling your hair out, taking yet another eHarmony-like personality quiz or crying into your pillow because Pinterest told you “Without Passion, Life is Nothing,” check out these five passion pointers:

1. You can create a passion

Computer scientist Cal Newport is fast becoming the face of the Anti-Passion Brigade—he doesn’t buy the “follow your passion” mantra. Instead, he believes passion can be created.

There is no special passion waiting for you to discover. Passion is something that is cultivated. Research shows that the traits that lead people to love their work are general, and can be found in many different career paths. They include things like autonomy, a sense of impact and mastery, creativity, and respect and recognition for your abilities.

Newport’s basic premise: Focus on a career area that generally interests you and offers value to the world. The deeper you dive into it and the better you are at it, the more interesting it’ll become — and the more passionate you’ll be.

2. Stop thinking!

Here’s a dirty little secret: No matter how hard you try, you can’t determine what your passions are by thinking about it. You have to take action.

Sign up for a class, try your hand at something new, volunteer for an assignment that’s out of your comfort zone — do anything that lets you dip your toe in the water. Through actual, hands-on engagement, you’ll be able to figure out what activities and situations light you up.

3. Following your passion might ruin it

As Alison Green of Ask a Manager says:

Turning what you love into a career can ruin what you loved about it. You might love to bake, and your friends might regularly swoon over your cakes and tell you to open a bakeshop. But getting up at the crack of dawn every day, baking 100 cakes daily, and dealing with difficult customers and the stress and finances of running your own business might have nothing to do with what you love about baking—and might sap the joy right out of it.

Before committing yourself to a passion plan, determine if the daily work realities really appeal.

4. Passion is a lifestyle issue

Finding your passion is all tied up in figuring out what kind of life you want. What lifestyle are you striving for? What part of the country do you want to live in? How much money do you need to make?

Take this pointed observation from Brazen co-founder Penelope Trunk:

I am a writer, but I love sex more than I love writing. And I am not getting paid for sex. But I don’t sit up at night thinking, should I do writing or sex? Because career decisions are not decisions about “what do I love most?” Career decisions are about “what kind of life do I want to set up for myself?”

Instead of starting with a passion, try starting with a lifestyle you want to pursue. (Click to Tweet!) From there, work backwards to figure out what career options could help you realize your lifestyle goals. This doesn’t mean you have to ignore what you’re passionate about — just put it in context!

5. Your passions (can) change

Life changes, and sometimes passions shift, too. As YouTern’s Mark Babbit writes:

Very few of us are fortunate enough to turn any of our passions into lifelong vocation. In fact, very few of us pursue ANY of our passions for a lifetime including hobbies, careers — even relationships. So, knowing this is the case for 99% of us, why is passion such a driver in our professional lives? Could it be that we’ve been sucked into “passion” while failing to realize that even our deepest passions have a limited shelf life?

If you’re not feeling the buzz anymore, don’t be ashamed to go back to the drawing board.

What’s your favorite piece of advice about the passion puzzle?

Annie Rose Favreau directs content and community strategy for a tech startup in Seattle. You can find her Twittering away at @A_Favreau.

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The post 5 Things You Absolutely Must Know About Finding a Career You Love appeared first on Brazen Life.

Researchers from The University of Texas, Yale and Harvard asked managers how they would respond to requests for a flexible schedule (in the form of a shift in work hours) in three different scenarios: male versus female employees, professional workers versus hourly workers, and for the purpose of career development versus childcare. From The Miami Herald:

Managers were most likely to grant a shift in work hours to the professional men pursuing career advancement opportunities. Male hourly workers also were likely to receive approval if they needed flexibility for family care. But the women—both professional and hourly—were unlikely to be granted a flexible schedule regardless of the reason for the request. Women were unable to use either their professional status within the organization or their reason for requesting flexibility to boost the probability that the manager would say yes.

Well, this is upsetting news on a few levels. First of all, it looks like women aren’t likely to be granted a flexible schedule even if they work up the nerve to ask for it. These results also don’t encourage women to believe that asking for a flexible schedule won’t hurt their careers. According to a recent survey from More magazine, 92 percent of women say they value workplace flexibility, but one-third consider it career suicide to ask for more flexibility in their jobs. This study only supports the notion that when a woman asks about even the possibility of a flexible schedule, she is indicating to the employer that she isn’t willing to work as hard as her colleagues.

Roy Cohen, author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide: Success Secrets of a Career Coach, said:

On Wall Street and at top law firms, asking for a flexible work schedule is often a career “killer”…it can be the kiss of death. Even at firms like Goldman Sachs, which has historically been viewed as a desirable “mommy” friendly environment, when cuts are made, women with “alternative” schedules are often the most vulnerable. In addition, when it comes to determining annual bonuses, the numbers are often based on visibility and time seen on—and in—the job. In large part, it is due to the fact that women with flex schedules are not present to engage in political jockeying. So…there is truth to the statement: out of sight out of mind.

But there are other reasons women may get turned down for their flex time requests. They may not have a prepared, thought-out presentation on why they need this alternative schedule, or they might be asking for this kind of flexibility too early on in their career. Just like asking for a raise, the strategy for changing your work schedule takes time and devotion. However, there are some simple things you can do to improve your chances of getting a flexible schedule:

Do your homework

You have to have a formal proposal when making a request like this. It’s the same as if you are asking for a promotion.

Don’t ask on your first day

Having a flexible schedule is a rite of passage in the work world. You have to be at your company long enough to prove that you’re responsible enough to get your work done, no matter where you are.

Be clear about your schedule

Don’t propose some loose, unclear schedule. It has to be realistic.

Inform your coworkers about your schedule

Make sure your coworkers and support team are comfortable with this change in schedule. If you can tell your boss that your team will not be impacted negatively by your working outside of the office, your point will be stronger.

Show your boss you’re indispensable

Just like you would when asking for a promotion or a raise, you need to show your boss that you are an asset to this company. You need to be retained, even if you’re working from home or odd hours. Show your boss your achievements to prove you’re indispensable. Even if you don’t get the schedule, he or she will be reminded of your talent.

You can also remind your boss of all the companies that do permit flexible schedules for their employees and the benefits of that. Flexible work arrangements can reduce absences and company turnover, which contributes to overall better production, according to a 2010 report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Companies with flexible work hour arrangements include Best Buy, PNC Financial Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, General Mills and KPMG LLP.

It just goes to show that if you do it right, asking for flex time doesn’t have to be career suicide.

What do you think about this study? Tell us in the comments!

Meredith Lepore is the former editor of the women’s career site The Grindstone. Before that, she was on staff at Wall Street Letter and Business Insider and was a contributing writer for LearnVest. She earned her Master’s in Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University after graduating with a degree in Brain and Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester. Meredith resides in New York full-time and enjoys reading, jogging, shopping and playing with her puppy, Otis.

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The post Why Asking for a Flexible Schedule Doesn’t Have to be Career Suicide appeared first on Brazen Life.

Then the first emails show up, and it’s go-go-go through a 10-hour firefight. By the time your last meeting has run 45 minutes late, you barely have the energy to walk to the subway, let alone plot world domination.

When are you supposed to find time to think?

Here’s what successful people know: You do have time. But you might have to get up earlier to make it happen.

The most productive time of your day

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people about their schedules over the years for my books on time management, and over time, I started to notice a pattern. Folks who’d moved beyond the tyranny of the urgent often woke up at times that most people prefer not to see.

It turns out that the early morning hours are great for getting stuff done.

Why?

First, you’re unlikely to be interrupted by an urgent meeting request or phone call at 6:00 a.m.

Second, research into the science of willpower finds that we’re best able to focus on difficult tasks while the day is young. Willpower is like a muscle, and over a long day of concentrating in boring meetings, dealing with difficult people or battling traffic, it’s simply used up.

In the morning, though, it’s fresh. So that makes the morning hours prime time for strategic thinking and work that you want to do, not have to do. Get up at 6:00 a.m. instead of 7:00 a.m., and you’ve got five hours of found time each week to bring your best self to the question of your professional development.

What would you do during that time?

Maybe you’d read the industry publications you never find time to concentrate on. Maybe you’d start contributing articles to those industry publications. Maybe you’d make lists of people in your organization or industry you’d like to meet.

You’d peruse alumni lists from your school and send emails to people you want to know. You’d brainstorm what you want your career to look like in a year or five years. You’d make a list of projects you’d like to pursue and practice asking your boss to give you a shot. You’d practice asking for your next raise until saying the number no longer makes you flinch.

If you wait until the rest of your work is done to do these things, there will never be enough time. But paying into your career capital account turns out to be much like paying into a retirement account. If you wait until the end of the month to save what’s left over, there will be nothing left over. Pay yourself first, and your wealth will grow.

Invest in your career first and everything else will fall into place. That’s worth skipping the snooze button for.

Laura Vanderkam is the author of What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast (Portfolio, Aug 27, 2013). She blogs at LauraVanderkam.com.

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The reality was, I was miserable.

I hated practicing law. I hated it every single second of every single day for five years. (And given my workload, that included weekends, too!)

It was on the eve of my 30th birthday that I finally quit. I was sick and tired of hating my work. And I didn’t want to live with the same gnawing sense of career anxiety in my 30s that plagued my 20s. I knew there was something better out there for me. But at the time, I couldn’t imagine what it was.

Running from the law to do what I loved

Without any real plan in mind, I did the only respectable thing I could think of: I packed my bags and went off to graduate school. I’ve always loved learning and had been a great student, so going back to school was the perfect escape from Alcatraz (a.k.a., the law).

I earned a degree in Human Resource Management from Cornell University and went straight on to Goldman Sachs, where I started managing corporate learning and development for technology executives around the world.

My job was all about helping people be their very best at work: team building, performance management, leadership development and coaching for success. I loved it right from the start!

To go so quickly from work I hated to work I loved was just incredible. All the negative energy I once spent on worrying myself sick and complaining about my job was transformed into positive energy and boundless drive. Even though I was making less money, work went from being drudgery to a joy. I could see the positive impact of my efforts on people’s lives every day. And I wanted to do more, more, more.

So after a couple of years, I left Goldman Sachs to start my own consulting firm to help other Wall Street firms manage people more effectively and maximize the potential of their employees.

I couldn’t have been happier. For a good eight months or so, things were literally perfect. I had great clients, I was doing work that I loved—and, I was making more money than ever before.

Then came 9/11. And right alongside the World Trade Center, my business crumbled, too. With the whole city in mourning, it seemed that team building and leadership development were the last things on anyone’s mind.

Not knowing what I wanted to do, but doing it anyway

“Now what?” I thought long and hard. But no clear answers emerged.

Instead, a million Ideas for businesses I could start, products or services I could sell, websites I could create and more flooded my brain. For each idea I had, I bought the related Web address (domain name). Before I knew it, I owned more than a hundred domain names.

One day, someone called me and wanted to buy one of my domains. That day changed my life, because I learned that domain names are like pieces of digital real estate on the Internet and can sometimes be extremely valuable.

My domain addiction only grew from there. Hundreds of domains turned into thousands. And at an average renewal price of $10 a year, owning thousands of domain names came with a hefty price tag! It’s fair to say I had become a full-fledged Internet junky. I was working around the clock to learn how to sell and trade domain names, develop websites, blog, use Google Adwords and Adsense, write Web copy and more.

While I was making some money between a few high-paying consulting gigs and domain sales, in those days, my spending typically outpaced my earnings by a pretty good margin.

Brushing off the career exploration naysayers

Everyone around me worried that my career still hadn’t gotten back “on track.” When I would excitedly brag to my friends about my latest domain name conquests and Internet marketing exploits, they could only roll their eyes and admonish me to “get a job.”

And my poor parents—they were so disappointed. My dad gave me pep talks about how my old law firm would surely love to hire me back. (How comforting!) And my mom, bless her heart, urged me regularly to “find a job with the government, because they have such good benefits.” (Perhaps the DMV or the Post Office could use someone with my skill set?)

While my income during much of my 30s was wildly inconsistent, I was somehow never worried about my career. Whether I was making money or not, I knew I was on the right path. A path to where, I still didn’t know. All I knew was that I loved what I was doing, I loved what I was learning and I loved all the ideas, opportunities and possibilities I was exploring every day. I was happy and confident that one day it would all make sense.

And then, one day, it did.

Becoming the master of .CO domains

I had just turned 40 when I met Juan Diego Calle. We hit it off famously. He had this big idea about turning Colombia’s .CO domain extension into the world’s next great Web address.

Given all my years in the domain space, I knew better than anyone the frustration people felt with the lack of good domains. I also knew how exciting it was to find the perfect domain name for your business, brand or blog. The project captured my imagination like nothing ever had before. Although I’d never held a marketing job in my life, I convinced Juan that I could get the job done. And I’ve been doing it ever since.

We launched .CO to the world three years ago. Since then, people in more than 200 countries have registered over 1.5 million .CO domain names. In my role as VP and brand strategist, it feels like every odd skill, bit of experience and piece of knowledge I’ve ever learned is put to work on a daily basis. My work is filled with purpose as I get to work with an incredible team of professionals to help people all over the world bring their ideas to life online.

For those of you who are feeling stuck doing work that you hate, or who simply have the sense that you’re traveling down the wrong career path, I’d like to share a few words of advice:

1. Listen to yourself

If you feel anxious about going to work every day, chances are something’s wrong. Listen to your gut. If it’s giving you clues that you’re in the wrong job or pursuing the wrong career path, then you probably are.

Do something about it. You never know what incredible opportunity could be waiting for you just around the next corner.

2. Open your heart

Forget the notion that you’re supposed to be climbing some pie-in-the-sky career ladder to success. Instead, open your heart and your mind to new people, experiences and opportunities.

When you let your interests, instincts and passions lead the way, you never know what you might discover about yourself—or what interesting new twists and turns your life may take.

3. Don’t let your degrees dictate your choices

Just because you have a law degree doesn’t mean you’re sentenced to a lifetime practicing law. The same goes for HR, finance, medicine or any other field.

It’s normal to deviate from a plan you may have made when you were younger—or even one you made just yesterday. It doesn’t matter what your degree says. What matters is how you apply your education and seize the opportunities that life throws your way.

4. Tune out the naysayers

Be wary of self-appointed career advisors who may not fully understand you or your choices. It’s your life!

My friends and family thought I was crazy when I started my love affair with domain names—but it turned out to be the greatest career move of my life. Although they had the best intentions for me, had I listened, I might still be a sad and deflated lawyer.

5. Keep moving forward

Your life and career are going to be filled with mistakes and failures. Don’t get hung up on them. After all, it’s the collection of your experiences—especially the hard knocks—that make you uniquely you.

I hated practicing law, but quitting that job taught me there was work out there that I could truly love. I absolutely loved being a management consultant, but it was only when my business failed that I stumbled upon my true career passion.

Have faith in yourself, learn from your mistakes and stay focused on your strengths and passions. Most of all, keep moving forward. You can always correct course from a wrong turn; just don’t let yourself stall out.

Lori Anne Wardi is Vice President of Brand at .CO. Responsible for all matters involving brand strategy, business development and global communications, she spends her time traveling the world and preaching the bible of .CO.

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The post How a Burned-Out Lawyer Quit Her Job and Discovered Her Dream Career appeared first on Brazen Life.

My personal career panic set in during a high school career assessment. As my classmates were celebrating their bright futures as engineers, pharmacists and executives, I couldn’t wait to see my top match.

That is, until I saw the words “professional clown.”

Though there were some wonderful careers on my list (writer among them), I could not see past those two words. If wearing oversized shoes and cramming into an undersized car was my most suitable option, what hope did I have?

It’s taken time, but I now realize that feeling confused about your career path is normal at any age. When I work with interns or talk to my younger sister, their career questions frequently come with a dose of panic and the question: “What am I doing with my life?”

My response is always the same: It is okay to be confused. No one has it all figured out. Believe it or not, that’s a good thing.

Let me set your mind at ease:

You aren’t married to your college major

Choosing a major is a common source of career anxiety. It can be a struggle to balance interests with career aspirations. What if you’re not sure what you like? What does a liberal arts education really teach? What sorts of jobs are possible with a STEM degree? What if you change your mind?

Don’t get overwhelmed. Picking a college major is not a lifetime commitment. Sure, you should be sensible about the choice. College is an investment, and you want to make it a smart one. But you can learn valuable skills in any major. The presentations you give, the papers you write and the internships you do in college are valuable, regardless of your major.

Only 27 percent of US college graduates work in jobs directly related to their major. If you’re one of the 73 percent who don’t, you can still have an amazing career. Ask Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court justice, English major), Christopher Conner (CEO of Sherwin-Williams, Sociology major) or Jill Abramson (Executive Editor of The New York Times, History and Literature major).

Your first career choice is not your last

Figuring out how to get a job after college can feel impossible when you add the pressure of your entire future to your first job search. Sometimes you have to try something to realize it’s not for you. Other times, you might try something new and discover that you love it more than what you were doing before. Your career is going to twist and turn as your experience level increases.

Technology changes and cultural shifts can also impact your career. I work with editors who tell stories of working for a newspaper in the pre-Google era. After decades of working in print journalism, they had to change careers because of the decline in the newspaper industry. You’ll have to adapt at some point in your career, even if you know exactly what you want to do.

And if you aren’t crazy about your first job, you can still learn from it. Paying attention to your likes and dislikes can help ease career confusion. If your favorite part of the job is the environment, you’ll learn that company culture is something to focus on in future job searches. Realizing that you work best on solo projects could inspire you to find a position that focuses on independent work.

As you grow in your career, you’ll naturally figure out what makes you happy. If you start to feel unsatisfied, figure out the reasons behind it. If you can fix it, try. If you can’t, start looking for the next opportunity.

You don’t need all of the answers to succeed

Getting started on your goals doesn’t mean you have to have your entire life figured out. Your path from college to career might be riddled with questions, but you don’t have to answer them all at once.

As Albert Einstein once said, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

Even top-level executives go through moments of doubt. Having some career confusion is good because it means you care about what you’re doing and where you’re going.

So stop stressing, keep questioning and embrace your curiosity.

Erin Palmer is a digital content specialist who happily spends her days writing, editing and researching new stories. She has been published in The Chicago Tribune and The Huffington Post, yet she still gets excited every time she sees her byline. Interaction with readers makes her day, so reach out to her on Twitter @Erin_E_Palmer.

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The post Why It’s OK to Be Confused About Your Career appeared first on Brazen Life.

The question is: How do you make the climb without alienating everyone around you in the process?

Unfortunately, “ambition” can sometimes be seen as a dirty word, thanks to those people who’ve pursued their own by walking over others, bending the rules and generally exercising questionable tactics. But it doesn’t have to be this way. As a matter of fact, it shouldn’t.

It is possible to make your way up the chain of command without branding yourself as the office jerk—and it’s far better for your career and reputation. Here are some cardinal rules to keep in mind:

Be a rockstar—humbly and graciously

You want to stand out as someone who goes above and beyond, who can be counted on to handle any situation and exceed any expectation with the aplomb of Superman-straight-out-the-phone-booth. But you also don’t want to come across as cocky or self-centered. (If Superman had set Lois Lane down on the ground and said “Rescued you again! How awesome am I?” you can bet the romantic triangle would not be part of the plotline.)

No one wants to promote a narcissist. While an aura of confidence and can-do-ism can take you far, be careful not to dial it up so high you risk coming across as arrogant. If you do good work consistently, your reputation will precede you without the need for fanfare on your part.

Be a little selfish—but also a team player

In some aspects of your career, like salary and benefit negotiation, it’s advisable to be a little selfish. People who keep to themselves and wait for their ship to come in rarely find that it does, while those who swim out to the ship (with a proposal or great new idea in hand) often find themselves setting sail for new waters.

That said, it’s important to be a part of the team while still looking out for number one. Things you should not be selfish about include lending your time to colleagues who are under the gun, staying late if needed to push a big project through and singing “Happy Birthday” to Debbie along with everyone else in the break room, even if you have no idea who Debbie is.

No one works in a vacuum. While it’s true your career success depends largely on your performance, part of that performance stems from how well you play with others. If you’re not willing to pitch in, collaborate and be a team player, it will reflect badly on you as an employee.

Speaking of which…

No backstabbing, under-the-bus-throwing or other forms of colleague sabotage

This should go without saying for Brazen readers; you’re a more integrity-oriented group than to consider any of these actions. But, ambition can make you do stupid things sometimes—and advancing yourself at the cost of another is one of the stupidest things you can do.

Not only does it brand you a horrible person; it also burns bridges you may need to have intact down the line. That intern whose work you took credit for may one day be your executive assistant—and do you really your coffee delivered by someone with a vendetta against you? That colleague you blamed your bad numbers on could one day surpass you on the ladder or wind up as your fellow board member, and you could find yourself working with (or for!) someone who doesn’t trust or like you—personally or professionally.

You know you’re better than that. If you’ve got the skills and the work ethic needed to get ahead, stealth and sabotage are wholly unnecessary. DVR a few episodes of Desperate Housewives to get your drama fix, and keep your head high.

Absolutely no sucking up

Nobody likes a suck-up—colleagues and bosses included.

That’s right; you may think that flattering and fawning over your superiors will earn you brownie points, but in most cases, it just makes you look bad. Brown-nosers give off the impression they’re trying to compensate for something (lack of skills, perhaps?), and that air of desperation and self-doubt does not bode well for a promotion. It also puts you in a position of subservience, which is never how you want to be perceived if you’re aiming for higher positions.

If you want to make favorable connections with your officemates (and connections can certainly help a ladder climb), try healthy networking alternatives like taking a colleague out to lunch or asking the boss how his family is doing. Being friendly, genuine and interested earns far more brownie points than telling your boss for the millionth time that her hair looks fantastic today.

Kelly Gurnett is Assistant Editor of Brazen Life and runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook and hire her services as a blogger extraordinaire here.

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There are great leadership lessons for each, and I hope you get the chance to be both a big fish and a small fish…then a big fish again and a small fish again. It’s a cycle of viewpoints that increases our development.

Chris Abraham, the President and COO of Abraham Harrison Public Relations, has asked whether you’d rather be the smartest person at your local college or the dumbest person at MIT. His answer? If you want to be in the big pond, then you better have perfect scores. Yes, the big pond is a great place to swim, but beware of getting left behind. That’s right—if you can’t take the heat, then stay out of the kitchen.

So what’s the key to succeeding in the big pond?

Differentiation.

Blake Hall, CEO of Troop ID, moved his company to Washington, D.C. so that he could stand out from the crowd. He essentially made his pond small. Jessica Herrin, the founder of Stella & Dot, did the same thing with her soon-to-be-billion-dollar business. She found a niche in the jewelry and personal sales market (a big pond) and made it her own (the pond gets smaller). She made herself the big fish.

What if you’re in the small pond?

Well, any good big fish leaves his or her mark.

Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts, presided over the foremost leadership organization for girls. (Talk about a small pond of organizations!) She wasn’t satisfied with just keeping the organization running; she actually overhauled the Girl Scouts and espoused leadership development for all. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work, among other honors. She started the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute after retirement and is now a small fish in the big pond of leadership training.

There are advantages to every pond size

I’ve been both the small fish and the big fish, and I’ve loved and struggled with both.

As a small fish, I enjoy the freedom to be a “freshman” and work on career, leadership and growth at a pace that’s as quick as I can make it. I love having mentors, being able to ask questions and absorbing content from dozens of departments. There’s no pressure to succeed at everything because I’m the small fish!

On the other hand, the big fish is a fun position, too. I set the standards, I do the mentoring. The success or failure of the strategy is on me, and that pressure forces me to get up every day and be great. I have to be self-taught. That’s much different from being taught. But know that both will teach you something.

So go be the big fish… but also enjoy being the small fish. Whichever one you are, know that it’s not the size of the pond that matters; it’s whether you swim with purpose.

How have you been a big fish? A small fish? Tell us in the comments!

This post originally appeared on Levo League.

Bethany Miller is a business executive, professional pilot, military officer and avid traveler. She has a B.S. in Atmospheric Science from The Ohio State University, an M.B.A. in Global Business from Georgia Institute of Technology and is an advocate for leadership development and global awareness. She’s easily won over with good coffee, dark chocolate and travel-size products. Follow her on Twitter @LearnLeadRepeat for business and leadership or @BethanyJJMiller.

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The post Is It Better to be a Small Fish in a Big Pond or a Big Fish in a Small Pond? appeared first on Brazen Life.

Do you have to be a young woman sitting in a cubicle to apply Sandberg’s advice? Not at all. Even if you’re still finishing your college degree and have no idea what you want to do with it yet, the book is still applicable to your developing career.

It’s counterintuitive to think you should “lean in” to your as-yet-to-be-determined career path, but leaning in is exactly what college students and recent grads should do. And here are three ways you can do it:

1. Focus on being heard, not liked

How many classes have you sat through where you smiled, nodded politely and generally showed the professor you were paying attention—but never raised your hand or spoke up?

Unfortunately, being likable and being successful are not the same thing. High GPA aside, star student status is really determined by how well your professors know you. Whether in school or at work, aim to be heard and not always liked. Ask challenging questions and voice your opinions.

Good professors and managers respect and will remember those who speak up, and they’ve got fantastic insights and contacts to offer your future career. It’s the connections you make now—when you’re floating from one career idea to another—that will help anchor you for the long haul.

2. Develop a lasting relationship with a mentor

Hopefully you’re involved in a few different student activities, or you’ve spent some time with administrators and professors at your school. If you’ve already graduated, think about the higher-ups at your current job—or even your parents’ friends. Find yourself a mentor.

Mentors are people who can and want to help guide your life and career. Since you don’t know what you want to do, aim to find someone who will be completely honest with you, who has a variety of experience and who you can count on to be there for years to come.

3. Fake confidence till you make it

One of the biggest lessons from Lean In is that people’s own lack of self-confidence is what really holds them back—far more so than outside influences.

When you don’t know what you want to do with your life, you probably lower your own expectations of yourself, fail to set big goals and stop being ambitious.

If you don’t know where you’ll be career-wise in the foreseeable future, apply self-confidence, set big goals and be ambitious about figuring it out. Make career exploration your job, and jump in full-force rather than leaning back.

College students and recent grads face far too many obstacles from external forces. Employment for 20-somethings in today’s barely recovering economy is still high, and the majors most schools offer rarely match the jobs employers have to offer. Why add your own internal doubt and uncertainty to that already heavy load?

Lean In tells us to choke down the fear, buck up the self-confidence and just go for it already. That’s advice we can all use.

Brie Weiler Reynolds is the Director of Content and Community at FlexJobs, the award-winning site for telecommuting and flexible job listings, and a former college career advisor. At FlexJobs, Brie offers job seekers career and work-life balance advice through the FlexJobs Blog and social media.

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The post Not Sure What You Want to Do With Your Life? Lean In Anyway appeared first on Brazen Life.

“Every day ordinary people do extraordinary things.”-Bob Richards, Olympic Pole Vaulter

Creating your own badass career doesn’t have to be as out there as saving lives, building schools in Africa, setting up libraries around the world or any of those making-a-huge-impact-everyday types of jobs. Your career just needs to be meaningful to you. Because living a meaningful life is badass.

Here’s how to create your own badass career:

1. Seek out passionate people

Inspiring people inspire others. As Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and personal development coach, says, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” So banish the “Debbie Downers” in your life.

If you want a fulfilling career, hang out with people who are fulfilled. It doesn’t matter if you don’t share their same passions. Passion is contagious; infect yourself. Figure out your “why.”

2. Develop a side hustle

A side gig is a way to generate income outside of your day job. Launching a side hustle will give you the financial resources to explore other job options. Your day job will no longer feel like a ball and chain. A productive side hustle will free you up to try new things without having to worry about the next promotion or getting downsized.

3. Consider the unconsidered

I never thought I’d fly helicopters until I took a ride in one. Growing up in Alaska, it’s common to fly, and I had my fixed-wing pilot’s license. I flew as a hobby, but the only aviation job that occurred to me at first was piloting a commercial airliner, which wasn’t appealing to me. It wasn’t until I considered other options that I realized flying could actually become my career.

Carve out time to try new things and dig deeper into fields that interest you. You never know what might come of it.

4. Define your ideal job

It’s important to know what you want in a career. What would a day or week or month at your ideal job look like? Do you need a lot of social interaction? Then working from home may not be for you. Do you need a steady paycheck? Then the variable income of freelancing or consulting may be too uncertain to be enjoyable. Do you want a location independent career? Or to only work part of the year? Use your side-hustle as an opportunity to try out different career options.

I thought it would be fun to own a bookstore—until I worked in a bookstore and realized it was more about stocking shelves than helping someone find the perfect book. Identify what you want before looking for jobs that can offer it.

5.Tap into your network

Share your ideas with friends. Let them know you’d like to find out more about whatever you’re interested in. They’ll often be able to direct you to people who know someone in that field. Be valuable. Connect with people both online and offline. Be authentic and share your interests with them.

6. Start before you’re ready

We often want to wait until we have it all figured out or we are completely prepared. But we’ll always be less experienced than someone. So stop comparing yourself to others. If you commit to doing something, by the time you get there, you’ll have figured out how to do it.

I started blogging to build an audience for my novel. My blog has led to freelance writing gigs and teaching classes on social media. You won’t always know exactly where you are going or how you’ll get there. That’s okay. Pick your best guess direction and start today.

You already are badass. Now create your badass career.

Lorena Knapp is an EMS helicopter pilot and writer living in Alaska. She blogs about flying and creating your own Big Life today at Big State, Big Life.

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Millennials already have a reputation for being immature, lazy and entitled. We have to fight against those stereotypes every day, so certain bad habits are more than just an annoyance; they are holding us all back.

Here’s what you should stop doing if you truly want to be taken seriously at work:

Watch the way you speak

I once overheard a coworker say, “I have a widdle question.” Now that phrase is the first thing I think of every time I see her. She is a smart woman and a capable worker, but the baby talk is forever branded in my mind. So, unless you actually work with babies, using infantile language will take away all of your authority.

Baby talk isn’t the only language culprit. Pay attention to the way you speak and figure out whether you’re making any verbal faux pas. For example, using the word “like” incessantly can dilute your message and make you seem less intelligent. (Like, this sentence is, like, not as easy to read because, like, I keep stopping the flow of the words by adding words that are not, like, you know, necessary.) Breaking your bad speaking habits will make it much easier to establish yourself as a professional.

Never play dumb

Dumbing yourself down is a terrible move, both professionally and personally. Sometimes we play dumb in an attempt to make those around us feel smarter, but lowering your intelligence is not the way to boost someone’s self-esteem. You are not doing the other person or yourself any favors by pretending you’re less intelligent than you really are.

A former boss once told me that playing dumb is just part of the corporate world. Don’t buy into that. Companies aren’t looking for empty-headed employees. And, if they are, do you really want to work there? You don’t want to be a know-it-all or the person who always gets the last word, but having ideas and opinions is a good thing.

Don’t treat your cubicle like a dorm room

Your professional image is built on many factors, from your work ethic and interpersonal skills to your wardrobe and cubicle walls. Since you will spend so many hours in your workspace, adding personal touches to your cubicle can improve your mood. However, there is a big difference between a few homey touches and making yourself totally at home.

Tasteful photos of your family are appropriate. Pictures of a shirtless Channing Tatum or Kate Upton in a bikini are not.

And décor is not the only factor that can make you look unprofessional. Throwing your belongings all over the place, letting your stuff overtake a coworker’s desk or leaving dirty dishes out are behaviors that will make your peers lose respect for you. No one wants to have a meeting at a desk covered in Cheetos crumbs.

Stop using text language

Professional correspondence should not read like a text message. Whether you are contacting a coworker or client, you should use proper English. Abbreviations and other slang can make you look silly and alienate readers who are unfamiliar with the phrase. Your work emails represent not only you, but your company, so don’t pepper them with “lol”s or “smh”s. Besides, the reader doesn’t need to know you are laughing or shaking your head. Who cares?

Eliminating slang and text message vernacular extends to conversations and presentations as well. Your proposal is not going to carry the same weight if you start the pitch with, “Aight, peeps, here’s whassup.” Even if you are saying it ironically, you will seem immature. You don’t have to sound pretentious; just be work appropriate.

Credibility is so important when it comes to moving up the ladder. Don’t let thoughtless habits hold you back. Remember, your workplace shenanigans can give all young professionals a bad reputation. Let’s break the negative stereotypes. Be yourself, but be professional.

Erin Palmer works as a writer and editor with New England College Online Business Administration Degree Programs. She writes about career and education tips for the emerging business professionals of the Millennial generation. Erin can be reached on Twitter @Erin_E_Palmer.

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How did they land in these careers? And how can we follow in their footsteps?

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: “Follow your passion” is misleading. Even if it seems like certain people were destined to write, play golf or study the stars, it isn’t because they were born with these interests.

The cultivation of passion

Consider Cal Newport’s arguments. Newport is a computer scientist and author of four books about passion. He doesn’t buy into the “follow your passion” mantra. In an interview with Joshua Fields Millburn, Newport says, “There is no special passion waiting for you to discover. Passion is something that is cultivated.”

So let’s examine an equation I’ve developed with this in mind:

(curiosity + engagement) x time = passion

We start by being curious. From a young age, we’re drawn towards the things that we’re curious about, and as we get older, we’re expected to hone in on one that particularly appeals to us.

This is where most of us get stuck, because we’re afraid to pick something “wrong.” But remember what Newport said: “There is no special passion waiting for you to discover.” In other words, there isn’t a “wrong” choice because there isn’t a “right” choice, either. Pick an interest and roll with it.

Once we’ve picked something, we acquire knowledge about that subject, which requires more curiosity. We pick up some books, read articles and watch videos about our interest. We choose majors in college that allow us to explore our interest more deeply. This gets us acquainted with its world, but we don’t stop there.

The importance of the company we keep

Besides acquiring knowledge the traditional way, we also need to meet other people engaged in our interest. This serves two purposes. First, it’s easier to gather detailed knowledge from people than from static media. Second, social engagement revolving around our interest reinforces our commitment and fuels that interest even further.

There’s a reason parents don’t want their kids hanging out with the bad crowd: we become like the people we hang around. “People’s lives,” says Anthony Robbins, a world-renowned life coach, “are often a direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group.”

What Robbins is saying is that we set the bar for our lives based on how those around us set theirs. If we’ve picked the violin as the passion to cultivate, but we don’t hang out with other musicians, there’s nobody to compare ourselves to or to share our thoughts and experiences with. On the other hand, when we join a music scene, we meet people who become our mentors and peers. They cheer us on and hold us accountable.

Engagement, engagement, engagement

But all this curiosity and social context would be worthless without consistent engagement.

This is where the passion equation really comes to life. Engaging with our interest regularly and repeatedly makes it more interesting, plain and simple. The more interesting it becomes, the more it evolves into a passion.

“Whatever we focus on actually wires our neurons,” says Kare Anderson in a Harvard Business Review article. “Whatever you pay attention to—or not—has a huge effect on how you see the world and feel about it.”

Cultivating our passions requires prolonged interaction over months and years. During that gestation period, the passion becomes more and more anchored in our minds. If we’re in design, we begin to see the interconnectedness between our art and the message we’re trying to convey. If we’re in accounting, we begin to internalize the relationship between the balance sheet and cash-flow statement.

Consistent engagement drives our curiosity and social engagement as well. We must be consistently curious about our chosen passion and the things surrounding it, going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. We must also meet new people often, comparing notes, inspiring one another and holding each other accountable.

What the passion equation tells us is profound: we’ve been stuck because “follow your passion” is wrong. Passion is nothing more than curiosity and engagement over time. The truth is, we’re the leader, and passion is the follower.

Now, go “discover” your passion!

How did you discover yours?

Ryan Chatterton is involved in many community projects, writing, reading and cultivating his various passions every day. He is currently showing college students and recent graduates how to hack their way into first-time jobs at Get Any Job.

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Even the most independent among us have people who influence our decision-making, whether consciously or not. I learned this lesson in my first job as a babysitter. One of the families I worked for was awful. The job came with low pay, a messy house and out-of-control children. I hated working for them, but I did it anyway on many occasions.

I didn’t need to keep saying yes when they called. I had enough business without them, but I kept returning out of guilt. They would say they didn’t know any other sitters, and I would feel bad. I was ready to move on but let personal feelings keep me there much longer than I should have.

Variations of this scenario happen all of the time, in every industry, for every age. Whether you realize it or not, there is probably someone in your life right now who is keeping you from taking that next step in your career.

Here are some of the most common culprits:

1. The Bully

A coworker, boss or even a lowly intern—anyone who uses schoolyard tactics to scare people away from an opportunity qualifies as a workplace bully. The bully will start rumors about company layoffs or complain about how it’s impossible to find a job. A bully demeans your accomplishments and publically points out every tiny mistake you’ve ever made.

Bullies can hurt your career progression simply by making you feel like trying to advance your career is a hopeless pursuit. Worse, bullies may even go out of their way to make you look bad to superiors. Chasing after an opportunity is worth your time, so don’t let a coworker convince you otherwise.

2. Your Mom

Mom doesn’t always know best. When it comes to your career, you are the authority. No one knows your abilities and ambitions better than yourself. Your mom (and the rest of your family and close friends) may want you to succeed, but that doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about.

Every time my mom finishes reading a book, she tells me, “You could have written that!” Though the sentiment is kind, it’s not quite true. Will I get a book published someday? I hope so. Will it automatically be a worldwide phenomenon like the Harry Potter series because my mom said so? Not as likely.

Parental support can go in the other direction, as well. When I decided to major in Writing, several family members thought I was crazy. They wanted me to choose a more “stable” career path. Your family loves you, but you are the person who will live with your decisions. Follow the career path of your dreams, even if it seems out of reach. If you work for it, you can get there.

3. The Bandwagon Fan

The bandwagon fan is the coworker who jumps ship every time a better opportunity comes along. This type of person gets excited at the start of every new project or position, but the motivation fizzles out as soon as the honeymoon period is over. Starting a new project with this person can be risky, because you will be left picking up the pieces if your coworker bails. Make sure the follow-through is there before beginning.

Watching the bandwagon fan jump from job to job could also be a bad influence on you. It’s easy to get caught up in the initial enthusiasm of the bandwagon fan when he or she starts proclaiming the greatness of a new position or company. This type of person often tries to bring others along when moving, so proceed with caution. Do your own research about the job before making any decisions.

4. Your Workplace BFF

Having friends in the workplace can help keep you engaged and improve your mood during the workweek. However, work friends are not always the best people to advance your career. Friends enjoy your company and know your talents. They may not want to lose you to another opportunity. They might even deter you from pursuing a new job with another team or a different company.

Even if friends don’t actively try to prevent you from making a change, it’s easy to let your decision be overly influenced by loyalty to friends and comfort with a job. While these are important factors, they should not be deciding factors. You need to consider the opportunity as a whole—where it fits into your desired career path, who you’d be working for, all of those important details.

Your friendship can survive a career move. If it can’t, then, to quote my mother, “They weren’t a true friend to begin with.”

5. Yourself

When it comes to career roadblocks, you are often your own worst enemy. There are many forms of self-sabotage that can keep you from moving forward. Bullies, work friends, family and bandwagon fans might influence your choices, but in the end the person responsible for your decisions is you. (Click here to tweet this idea.)

The best way to stop hindering your own career progress is to figure out the cause. For me, the offender is usually fear. The worry that I won’t be able to succeed has kept me from even trying on more than one occasion. To gain the confidence I needed to get over my fear, I first had to acknowledge it.

Determine who or what is holding you back. Once you know the issue, it will be much easier to solve.

Erin Palmer is a contributor for U.S. News University Directory. She writes about master’s programs, including No GMAT MBAs. Erin can be reached on Twitter @Erin_E_Palmer.

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We all have secret desires to succeed and be recognized—hey, even envied a little.

So here’s a question for you: Do you have a line in your resume stating you’re on a board of directors?

Wait, you say. I have no experience, no connections, no way I could possibly do that! The truth is, many professionals don’t think of offering their services to a board until late into their career. But they could’ve reaped the career benefits of being on a board long before that.

Why sit on a board?

Here are seven reasons to consider it:

1. You’ll rub shoulders with leaders and influencers in your industry or community. You know what that means: new work opportunities follow.

2. When you’re engaged in something other than your work, people have a different perception of you. There’s a positive shift in your reputation and credibility.

3. Boards are like mini-organizations. It’s a place where you can shine and expand your leadership skills.

4. Your communication skills will dramatically improve.

5. You’ll get ideas for your own business and career.

6. You’ll find mentors and build political capital.

7. You’ll enjoy the fulfillment that comes from giving back to the community.

Now, how to land a seat?

A few smart moves:

You’ll be surprised at how far you can go by following a few easy steps. (But don’t kid yourself; I didn’t say quick steps.)

First, reflect on what causes you believe in. Sometimes the best opportunities are the ones that line up with your passions. Next, list the special skills you can bring to the board, like marketing, finance, coaching or IT.

Now it’s time to target companies. Who do you know in your network? Don’t be shy to ask for a referral.

Don’t know anybody? Develop a list of target companies by tapping into director registries available on the Web. Good places to start include The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) or Board Connections (for Canadians). Catalyst serves as a resource for women executives, but this page offers a comprehensive list of organizations that can be helpful in the pursuit of a directorship for both men and women.

Once you’ve selected a few companies, look at the bios of the current board members. Do they have directors who already bring the skills you offer? When is the year-end, and when does the board come up for election? Timing your application is part of a savvy strategy, so aim at gathering as much information as possible about the boards you’re interested in.

Paid or unpaid director?

Don’t expect to be appointed to a public company board seat and receive $200,000 in annual compensation and stock options.

When you start your search, you will find many more available positions if you’re willing to work for free. Penelope Trunk offers a series of questions to help you decide if working for free is a good option for you, including:

1. Who are you going to work with on the board?
2. What’s the scope of the projects you will be handling?
3. How will you be able to leverage your experience on the board?

Bottom line: serving on a not-for-profit board can give you a taste of whether you enjoy being a board member.

Are you ready to raise your game? Sitting on a board isn’t out of reach for you. You can do this!

Laure Cohen’s blog is http://www.SheMeansSuccess.com about true and tried advice to help women achieve success. You can tweet her at @laurecoh.

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All of your past experiences, failures, triumphs, moments of confusion and misdirection now seem to coalesce perfectly in a moment of clarity.

You’ve finally recognized your passion, your life’s purpose, what you ultimately want to be when you “grow up.”

You begin to consume information like it’s your last supper. You stay up until the wee hours of the morning reading every book and website about whatever it is you’re passionate about. Sleep is no longer important to you. You subscribe to all the relevant email lists. You study the major gurus in your niche. You spend obscene amounts of money on information products that promise to give you the ultimate secrets of success.

And then something happens.

Suddenly, you start going to bed at a reasonable hour again because you’re tired. You’re no longer able to read articles all the way to the end anymore. You stop reading right before you get to the part where you’re challenged to do something with what you’ve learned. Your inbox has become so crowded with information, you put the emails in a file labeled “read later”… except that’s full, too. You start making excuses for why you’re not putting as much time into your project.

What happened?

Well, my friend, you seem to be suffering from an acute case of Information Overload Disorder with Passion Avoidance tendencies.*

A less technical way to describe this phenomenon is that you’ve become overwhelmed and started questioning your ability to manifest your vision. You’re afraid that you don’t have what it takes to make it happen. You’re afraid you might fail.

You aren’t alone. There are many like you out there, myself included.

The moment I realized I could use my passion for writing to create a business that would also allow me to inspire others, I became an information junkie. I read everything, watched everything and tried to learn everything.

Even though I was acquiring so much new knowledge, I was also becoming more and more unfocused. I was overwhelmed with the all the things I thought needed to be done.

To be successful, I felt I needed to:

• automate my email list
• develop a giveaway
• create several information products
• become an affiliate marketer
• write a book
• …and THEN launch a coaching business.

Whew!

It was all too much!

After a while, I started avoiding the very thing that had given me so much joy in the first place: writing. I spent less time creating great content and more time reading about how to create great content. Eventually I got to the point where I was so discouraged, I couldn’t even do that anymore.

Finally, I had to self-administer a stiff dose of reality. “Alana,” I asked myself, “why are you so focused on information products when you only have seven people subscribed to your email list… and one of them is yourself? You’re not there yet!”

Touché.

Fear will make us think we are not capable, we don’t have the skills and we will never be prepared enough. It’s so much easier to distract ourselves with busy work than it is to face our fears. We may not be actively working on our project, but we convince ourselves that at least we are doing something. We justify our inaction by telling ourselves there’s no such thing as too much knowledge, right?

At some point you have to stop reading, analyzing and planning. These things are relatively easy. What’s far more difficult is taking action. Because it requires courage to take action.

It’s time for an intervention

Here are your next steps:

1. Go on an information diet. No new more books, tapes, videos, programs—and no cheating!

2. Create a short list of actionable steps that you can do NOW based on the information you have already absorbed. This is where it gets tricky: actually do them. Consistently. No excuses.

3. Slow your roll and focus on where you are right NOW. Are you trying to build traffic? Then don’t worry your pretty little head with developing a week-long teleseminar. Are you just now building a blog? Start writing consistently. We expend so much energy trying to get there—that idealized future image of ourselves—that we lose focus.

Challenge yourself to get really good at being here, wherever your project or business is in the present moment, because where you are is exactly where you’re supposed to be.

*Note: Information Overload Disorder with Passion Avoidance tendencies is not a real mental health disorder. You’ll be fine. Trust me. I majored in Psychology in undergrad.

Alana Mbanza is freelance personal development writer on a mission to bring more passion into the world. Follow her on Twitter @AlanaMbanza.

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Most of us sleepwalk through our reviews. You walk in. Sit down. Listen to the boss speak. He tells you how great you are, but budgets only have limited space this year. You nod. Say stuff like “I understand,” “that’s okay,” “the economy is tough,” all this low-confidence verbiage. At the end, you get up, shake hands and go back to your cubicle, two percent raise in hand, to text your spouse about how disappointed you are.

What just happened? You got your handout and settled back into quasi-contentment. Let’s change that.

How to Take Control of Your Review

It’s called YOUR review because it’s about you. Your accomplishments, career path, happiness, etc. When you zombie through it, the focus shifts away from you. You have the potential to gain so much more by finding the confidence and building the mindset to do more.

So here are a few tips to help you do just that:

1. Research beforehand

The worst thing you can do at your performance review is to be unprepared. If you are, you’re lost.

Instead, research and brainstorm:

• New ideas to implement for your position.
• Steps that could improve the department as a whole.
• Everyone’s favorite: SALARY. (How much should you be making? Use these sites to figure that out.)

You could focus on just one or all three of these areas, whichever you’re most passionate about. The important thing is that you show the boss you’re ready.

Think about how impressed you would be if someone said, “I believe if we implement this new idea, it would increase this department’s morale and efficiency. By the way, I took the time to do the research beforehand to show you how it would work, if you want to take a look through it.”

Who would say no to that?

2. Say “thank you” and smile

Always show your boss you appreciate everything, including your (measly) two percent raise. Thank him for his guidance and for allowing you to thrive in your position.

Also, smiling will further relax all parties. Never be confrontational; be thankful.

3. Express your desire to be a top performer

Show your ambition to be a top performer, and ask how you can help make your boss’s job easier. If you can think of examples based on your research, this is a perfect opportunity to offer them.

Figure out where you can insert value beyond your job description. You’ll be surprised by the results!

4. Have stories handy

Your boss is busy, so he doesn’t have the time to remember every detail about your time at the company. That means it’s up to you to have the meat of your material ready to go.

Prepare three to five stories about how you helped the company, saved them money, made them money, got your boss out of a stressful spot or whatever other positive moves you made. These don’t need to be long, just 10- to 15-second stories that show your value. People like stories because they draw them in and give them examples. Plus, they’re more likely to remember your skills if they’re part of a story.

5. Use the right words to negotiate

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You to Be Rich has awesome scripts on negotiation. He says the use of words is critical in keeping the ball in your court.

When you go to ask for that bump in salary, you can say: “Thank you for the raise. It’s been a great experience for me, and I’m excited to take on those new tasks we talked about. I’d like to discuss further the salary adjustment, if I could?”

You can then pull out your research and share the numbers, saying, “It would be great to find a fair adjustment that could work for us both based on the results I’ve mentioned.” Ramit develops these scripts by testing certain words for responses and studying the results.

6. Follow up regularly

If you don’t hear a definite answer to your salary proposal in a week, send a quick, friendly email saying you would be happy to meet to discuss anything further. If a couple of weeks go by, take a minute to go visit your boss in person and calmly reiterate your value.

7. See the positives if the answer is “no”

You might come up empty. But consider what you have going for you now. Your boss knows you’re different from everyone else. You took charge, and your boss will remember and respect that.

If you’re a top performer, the boss will want to keep you, so the next time will probably end up differently. You’ve built your self-confidence, and you have the knowledge you need to wow your boss the next time around.

What has helped you succeed during your performance review?

Joe Cassandra is the Founder of the 7Minute Entrepreneur, where he shows you how to attack your life with the mindset of an entrepreneur in the areas of personal finance, careers, starting your own business and much more. You can follow him on Twitter.

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I work full-time at my dream job, and I didn’t finish college. Instead of earning a degree, I studied what I enjoyed and started working in my field when I was fed up with school. With a little hard work and curiosity, I was able to gain experience and skills that prepared me to do the work I love.

Here are some of the steps I took early on that now woo clients so effectively they don’t even bother to notice my level of education:

Work for free

Taking an internship is probably the most traditional way of developing credibility before seeking your first “real” job or clients. Plain old volunteering can be just as valuable. Both help you gain experience in the field, fill a resume, gain references and build a portfolio of work. You can build a resume that focuses on relevant work, downplaying the fact that you weren’t paid.

Be sure to take advantage of networking opportunities in internship or volunteering positions. When you do good work for someone for free, they’ll be eager to return the favor, so be nice and keep in touch with them. They’ll be the ones to recommend you for paid work or to vouch for your experience and skills to a potential (paying) employer.

Start a blog

If you approach it correctly, a blog is a brilliant way to create a position for yourself in your field.

The benefits are most obvious for writers: blog about what you want to write about professionally to show potential clients or employers your skills. For non-writing careers, a blog can help you establish expertise, find clients, connect with industry experts and back up the claims in your resume.

Talk about what you DO, not what you HOPE to do

The way you introduce yourself in your resume, your bio or in person can either distinguish you as a professional or quickly mark you as a newbie. Note this simple difference in language:

• Don’t say, “I’m hoping to start a career in social media marketing.”

• Tell them, “I help clients connect with their audiences and grow their influence through social media platforms.”

The difference in these statements is confidence in your abilities. The second one lends the illusion of experience, whether you have it or not, and shows a potential client or employer exactly what you can do for their company.

Take every opportunity to learn more

When I was first out of high school, I worked in retail and food service. I quickly surpassed older and more experienced coworkers to snatch up supervisor and management positions because I paid attention and understood the manager’s job even when I didn’t have to.

In any job, you can pick up the skills required for higher positions just by paying attention and asking questions. Do this without being asked, and take on a little extra work in exchange for the valuable lessons, and you can gain and show off competencies that your counterparts may be still toiling away in school to learn.

For the skeptics

Before you say, “Well, Dana, maybe your industry doesn’t require a degree,” let me clarify:

I’m a journalist. I compete with other writers who have degrees in a myriad of related fields. I have hired (and passed on) and supervised interns with master’s degrees in journalism, creative writing and more.

It’s not easy to start your career without the typical education, but it’s possible. A university path isn’t the best for everyone, and you should know you’re not doomed if you don’t cut it in college. Figure out the best way to forge an education that’s right for you, and use these tricks to prove to your industry that you’re ready to rock it.

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) really is a journalist. She writes for SF Weekly, Laughspin and SevenPonds, and she shares resources, tips and tools for writers in search of a path through DIY Writing.

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Gen Y came out of college exploring one job to another (to another). But when the recession hit, many said the days of job-hopping were over.

Yet there’s no reason to be scared into longevity at your current position. Here are 10 reasons to keep job-hopping:

1. Job-hopping allows you to widen your choice of jobs, not narrow it

When you have more experience in a wide range of positions, you’ll be able to increase your skill set. As long as you’re comfortable and adept at describing your transferable skills, you can easily act as a chameleon and morph from your current position to your dream job.

However, if you don’t know what transferable skills are, you may need to stay put.

2. No need to impress people you’ve never met

Many people, primarily HR managers, warn against job-hopping so you can theoretically impress another HR manager in the future—one you haven’t met yet. Besides the fact that you probably won’t be on the same career path a few years from now, let alone in the same industry, there’s no reason to build your career around what HR managers want.

Instead, impress yourself. Keep your own commitments and promises, and you’ll be fine.

3. Loyalty no longer exists

Your company is not loyal. Your boss is not loyal. Employees are never put first. More than ever, every job is unstable. It’s now more secure to build your own unique career from scratch.

So don’t show loyalty to a company that is not loyal to you. Now, that doesn’t mean ignoring your work or being disrespectful to the people who put money in your bank account, but it does mean being realistic in your career planning.

4. Job-hopping is a precursor to the future of careers

Careers are no longer linear. Instead, you will piece together positions and opportunities to fully form your career puzzle. You’ll have six to eight jobs before you’re 30, and you certainly won’t settle into the same company for the rest of your life after that.

As the idea of careers shift toward more contract work and portfolio careers, you can prepare by realizing results quickly and providing massive value.

5. Your network—not your resume—gets you jobs

When you job-hop, you expand your network tenfold. You meet more people: coworkers, managers, partners, influencers, leaders. And it’s your network, not your list of positions, that will get you in the door at the next job.

While you can and should apply with your cover letter and resume, when your network can recommend you for a position, it is much easier to advance your career.

6. Get a substantial raise and title upgrade

It’s better to find a new job that pays well and has a great title than to try and convince your existing company to give you a raise and a promotion. After all, you signed their contract. And it’s cheaper for them to keep you in your place.

When you ask for a raise, you’ll likely only receive a two to three percent increase. When you job-hop, the typical increase in income is 20 to 30 percent. Enough said.

7. You don’t know what you like until you do it

A slim minority of us fall right away into careers that are representative of our dream jobs. Everyone else gets stuck in jobs we hate.

While you can try to journal and vision-board your way into a soul-enriching career, it’s quicker and more effective to try several different positions until you discover what you truly enjoy. Action is quicker than thought—so don’t guess; go out and do.

8. Companies don’t move as fast as results

From startups to large corporations, every organization is fighting against some sort of barrier, whether it’s lack of money or lots of bureaucracy.

You may bring stellar results in the first three to six months, but by the time a year rolls around, your plate is likely devoid of challenge and meaningful work. Job-hopping means you always have relevant tasks to work on and can continually create positive impact.

9. The recession is a great excuse for high-performers

Naysayers warn Gen Y not to job-hop since it supposedly looks bad. But when Negative Nancies hunker down, it’s the perfect opportunity for high-performers to get out and fight. The recession is your excuse, as a high-performer in particular, to take risks and reap big rewards.

If it doesn’t work out, well, it’s been a bumpy ride for everyone. But the odds are in your favor.

10. Your talent is desperately needed

If you love your job, then for goodness sake, hold onto it with all your might.

But the truth is, the majority of Gen Y is disillusioned and dissatisfied with their careers. The longer you stay in a position that doesn’t fulfill you, the longer you cheat the world of your unique talents and gifts.

So whether you love picking out an accent pillow or get pleasure from financial projections, go on: get after it!

Rebecca Thorman’s blog Kontrary offers tips to create the career, bank account and life you love and is a popular destination for young professionals. Her goal is to help you find meaningful work, enjoy the heck out of it and earn more money.

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That’s a lot to give up—including free access to the fabulous Cosmo beauty closet. But a year and a half ago, as I looked down the road, I saw that I was approaching a key turning point in my career. If I wanted to try something bold and different, I had to grab the chance sooner rather than later. In other words, it was time for me to do some serious career management. In January, I told my boss I would be leaving towards the end of the year to focus on being an author, speaker and entrepreneur.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in doing our job that we lose sight of our overall career. But you need to be a relentless architect of your career. You have to manage your career—and your success—as well as you manage your job.

You may have thought that by doing your job really well, you were also taking care of your career—and to some degree that’s the case. But in many ways, they call for different skills and tasks.

Here are some key strategies to make sure you’re managing your career brilliantly:

1. Demonstrate your upward mobility.

Try to imagine how your boss might describe you to someone. If the description is less than fabulous, consider why and then kick your butt quickly into gear.

Start going to meetings with big, bold ideas, give your full attention to projects, volunteer for new assignments or stuff your boss is too busy for—and then knock it out of the park. Get a new haircut and a couple of great outfits to signal that you have your mojo back.

And don’t be afraid to verbalize your intentions to your boss. I got a note from a staffer after she received a promotion, and she ended it with the phrase, “Someday I want to be you.” It was the first time I realized how fiercely ambitious she was—and I liked that.

2. Be ready.

If you don’t have the right skills (public speaking, social media, whatever) for the next big job in your sights, get them.

Also, check out online the jobs you think you want. What are the full descriptions and necessary requirements? How can you position yourself to be a better candidate for those jobs?

3. Get out there—in person.

When you’re starting out, you network out of necessity to find a job. But further along in your career, it’s easy to let networking fall off because of time constraints. You need to keep it going at full throttle.

Ahead of any event, research key people who might be there. Approach them with specific talking points. (For instance, start with “Your article in X trade publication was terrific” and then ask a question about it.) Join conversations by first listening to what’s being talked about and then being inquisitive. Later, send new contacts links to info relating to what you discussed.

4. Volunteer to be on panels at events.

This is a great way to show people how much you know. (But be super-prepared and get media trained.)

5. Think “sponsor,” not just “mentor.”

A mentor gives you advice. A sponsor opens doors.

A mentor can also be a sponsor, but the bottom line is that you need to cultivate relationships with people who will make key introductions for you and not just dispense wisdom. (Studies, by the way, have shown that men are more likely to have sponsors than women.)

And you can’t wait for a sponsor to drop into your life. You need to cultivate these relationships. And you then have to be gutsy enough to ask for help—such as requesting an email introduction to a potential boss.

6. Take on one thing a week that nurtures your success.

For instance, attend a speech by someone in your industry or write a blog about your field. Go on YouTube to hear a motivational speech by someone wickedly successful, like Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg. And use this kind of time, too, to develop your “Big Mouth list” (all the people you email with important professional news about yourself).

7. Do the math—and then be strategic.

In many fields, there are points when you need to reach a certain level of achievement, or it’s not gonna happen. As a senior editor in my early 30s, I did the math and began to see that in the magazine field, if you didn’t make it to an editor-in-chief job by your late 30s or early 40s, the chances got really slim. That helped me start focusing on how much time I had and laying the foundation for it to happen.

8. Tap into your envy.

Let’s pretend for a second: A colleague just got offered a great job somewhere else. How irritated are you, really?

If you’re still thriving at your job, you probably will not be bothered by the person’s departure. But if you find yourself hating the person, it’s a warning. Allow your envy to point you to the fact that you’re overdue for a change.

9. Go for it.

When the right job comes up, you must ferociously go after it—even if it’s in your company. Tell them why you want it and what you will do for them.

I know of an executive magazine editor who heard about an editor-in-chief job when the company was in the final round of interviews. She called the contact person and was told that the company president was leaving that day for an overseas trip and wouldn’t be able to squeeze in an interview with her. The editor said she would be willing to accompany the president in the limo to the airport and maker her pitch on the drive. She did—and she got the job. Now that’s going for it.

Kate White is a world-renowned bestselling author, career expert, motivational speaker and consultant to Hearst magazines. Longtime Editor-in-Chief of Cosmo, her newest book, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know, is on sale now.

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To stay on course to receive your own professional laurels, you will need tenacity and a continuous training routine. And like the athletes in London, your quest will be international in scope, as you compete with talented workers from around the world in the global employment marketplace.

To help you shake off setbacks, here are five tips for creating a career training regimen that will launch you off the starting block and onto the path to career gold:

1. Master the fundamentals

Swimmers for the U.S. Olympic Team spend 45 minutes on their swim drills just to grasp the basics. Likewise, you should continually sharpen three key business skills: crafting your resume, networking, and interviewing. Keep a list of your accomplishments to make annual resume updates easier.

Up to 85 percent of jobs are found through networking, so practice developing contacts in person and online. Participate in professional organizations and social or civic groups, and reach out virtually through LinkedIn and other social media sites. As you perfect your “elevator speech”—who you are, what you do, and your professional achievements—you will be prepared to pitch yourself as soon as you hear the starting gun.

2. Training breeds success

U.S. Olympic swimmer and gold medalist Natalie Coughlin trains for five hours a day and has won a medal in every Olympic match she’s competed in. Establish a firm training plan for your career that includes practicing your craft and continuously developing new skills, to ensure you’re ready to adapt to a changing workplace.

Orient yourself toward lifelong learning, and make plans to return to school (if that’s truly the right move for you) or obtain additional certifications that will position you for the best opportunities.

3. Be prepared to sacrifice

U.S. swimmer and 10-time medalist Gary Hall, Jr. sold his car to raise funds for a plane ticket to attend the Olympic trials. Similarly, workers who return to school for career advancement know all about sacrifice—juggling work, family, and classes can take a toll. But the rewards of higher education and continuous skill improvement are great.

Apollo Research Institute data indicates a college graduate’s return on educational investment can be as much as 53 percent, depending on the field of study. As Lance Armstrong said, “Pain is temporary . . . If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” Likewise, persisting to graduation is an accomplishment that endures.

4. Develop big goals

While it’s essential to keep your eyes on the prize, it’s also important to remember it typically takes many small steps to achieve major goals. For instance, World Judo Championship gold medalist Kayla Harrison determined which competitions she would have to win to become a top-fourteen competitor and qualify for the Olympics. She then set a daily training schedule to help her reach each mini-goal while building her motivation.

Likewise, imagine yourself as “You, Inc.”—the CEO of your own career. Do you want to be a senior executive in five years? Or perhaps start your own company? What will you need to know and be able to do to fulfill that dream? The goal you set today may seem impossible, but establishing a series of smaller, achievable milestones can cement your progress.

5. Seek experts when you need help

U.S. track and field competitor Lolo Jones lost her chance to medal in the 2008 Beijing Games when she caught her foot on a hurdle. To avoid repeating this error, she had a team of 22 scientists and technicians observe her running form.

Canadian speed skater Cindy Klassen was sidelined in 2008 after winning five medals because of extensive orthopedic surgery on both knees. But she was able to return to the ice despite time off and constant pain by retraining to focus on technique over power. Coaching, therapy, and expert analysis are all part of an Olympic medalist’s journey to greatness.

Similarly, seeking a mentor in your field can help you learn from an industry leader and provide institutional knowledge about your company. Meeting regularly with a group of your peers also can expose you to different approaches to career development, and help you learn how others have persevered through the same challenges you currently face.

It takes perseverance and dedication to make it to the medal podium. But a disciplined commitment to your career will help you overcome setbacks and reach your professional goals in record time. As revered college basketball coach John Wooden said, “It’s not so important who starts the game, but who finishes it.”

Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti is Vice President and Managing Director of Apollo Research Institute and a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford University Media X Program. She is also the author of Society 3.0: How Technology is Reshaping Education, Work and Society.

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So you’ve landed what you thought was going to be a great job. But you find yourself working fast and furious without any real clarity about what’s expected of you, what your priorities are or how well you’re doing. You’d like to broaden your skills with maybe a course or an industry conference… but good luck getting support for that. You’re a high performer, so you’d hoped to use this gig as a stepping stone to bigger things, but your manager is clearly not interested in your career advancement.

You start to look for a new job, something that will be a better fit, something with a future. But how do you know the new scene will be any better?

Here’s a one word answer for you: ask. That’s right — ask about career development during the interview.

The interview process isn’t only for potential employers to learn about you. It’s also a great opportunity for you to dig a bit on topics like:

• Does the company have any kind of process for giving employees feedback? How often does that happen? Is it formal or formal? How does it work?
• Do employees have goals? How are they assigned? Are employees’ goals linked to their managers’ goals or to the organizations’ goals? Are there other ways your boss can communicate performance expectations?
• Will your bosses support employee development? How? Is there funding for you to attend conferences, trainings or other development opportunities?
• How does compensation work? Is your pay tied to performance? Does the company use formal salary scales or make it up along the way?
• Does the company support and encourage internal promotions or lateral moves for career development? Do they have a formal succession planning program or a program aimed at grooming people for career progression?

The answers to these questions will give you several important clues about what it might be like to work at the company. What you’ll learn:

Is this a good employer?

Companies who value their employees, who want to attract and hire great people, and who want to excel in their sector know it’s smart to invest in their teams. And really — size has nothing to do with it; it’s more a matter of whether they see their people as a valuable asset or a necessary expense.

A ton of research shows companies with mature talent management programs outperform their peers in the industry. If the company is enlightened enough to invest in programs, tools and resources to properly manage and develop their staff, they’re likely a good bet to be your next employer.

It’s up to you now. Figure out which of these elements are really important to you in your career right now, then ask how they handle them. Look for things like regular feedback opportunities, goals and clarity, funding and support for development, compensation and rewards that are tied to performance and whatever else matters to you.

Oh — and guess what? A progressive company is going to think you’re a candidate that’s invested in growing and getting results when you ask these types of questions.

Now gauge the responses. If the company doesn’t seem to have any formal talent management programs, chances are you won’t get the career development and growth opportunities you’re looking for. So you might want to sit tight.

Is this a good manager?

Let’s face the harsh reality folks. Even in companies with great programs that support employee performance and development, there are lousy managers. And on the flip side, even if the company doesn’t have formal programs, really good managers make sure their employees have goals, get feedback, are developed, get rewarded and progress.

So find out what the hiring manager thinks about things like performance reviews, giving feedback, coaching their employees. Ask them how they view their role as a manager.

You’ll get a sense of whether they’ll be committed to your success or not. Remember, a lot of people get promoted to a management role because they were good at their previous role, not because they have good people management skills. And many managers never get any training or support in how to be good people managers.

Where would you rather work?

Given a choice, would you rather work for a company that values its people and invests in them so that employees AND the company can grow… or one that thinks employees should just figure it out for themselves?

Obviously you won’t always have the luxury of choosing to work for a great employer; sometimes you just take what you can get. But if you have the opportunity and option, wouldn’t it be sweet to work for a company that will support your career progression? And if they won’t, wouldn’t you want to know that at the outset?

Sean Conrad blogs about talent management trends and best practices for Halogen Software.

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Many employees are well aware that their current employers offer educational benefits, such as tuition reimbursement for work-related courses. In fact, at least half of all American workers get some sort of educational benefit from their jobs, according to an article in U.S. News & World Report.

What many employees don’t know is how to pursue these opportunities—or justify them to employers—during economic downturn. Times are tough. Employers are recession-weary. And many organizations are struggling to stay afloat—let alone afford unexpected, extra expenses. As a result, it can feel more uncomfortable than ever to approach an employer about paying for additional education.

“Regardless of the economy, additional training can lead to important win-win results for both you and your company. Even if your education funding proposal is rejected, your employer will still take note of your interest in advancing yourself, and that can pay off down the line, if not right away,” says Katy Piotrowski, author of The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement.

To considerately and effectively approach employers about their financial support for your continued education, Piotrowski recommends the following strategies:

1. Lead with your employer’s interests

Ask, “In what areas would you like to see the team develop their expertise this year?” Listen carefully about the skills your boss is looking to add to the team’s toolbox. Then, as you evaluate training programs, aim to incorporate your employer’s needs into courses that will also help you achieve your personal career training goals.

2. Provide hard data about how your improved education will result in increased productivity and opportunities

Acquiring just one new technique can result in thousands of dollars in savings or additional revenue for the company. Contact the class or program instructors for ideas about how your training may ultimately benefit your employer’s profitability, and incorporate this info into your proposal.

3. Guarantee a good grade

Many businesses won’t cover employee education costs unless they receive a “B” grade or higher. Offer a similar guarantee to your employer to prove that you’re serious about success in the classroom.

4. Promise to stick around for a set period of time

One primary objection employers have to paying for education is that team members leave shortly after earning their degrees. Discuss plans for remaining a key player for the long-term to help both yourself and the company achieve win-win results.

5. Offer to split the cost

Times are tight, especially now. If you encounter objections about a weak bottom line, suggest that you split the cost 50/50. Some educational subsidy is better than none at all—especially if you improve yourself in the process.

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