A Workover: A New College Graduate Wants a Career in Advertising

On PsychologyToday.com, I've been posting edited transcripts of callers to my radio show wanting career advice. I call them Workovers. 

Today's is a recent college graduate who'd like to launch a career as a creative in advertising. It was a fun exchange about how one might market Crayola crayons.

Career Advice for Men

In the fourth and final part in my PsychologyToday.com series on career advice for boys and men, I finally turn to career advice for men.

Helping Your Child Choose a College or Other Post-High School Option

In this third installment in my PsychologyToday.com series on career advice for parents of boys and for men, I offer advice on choosing and making the most of college as well as other post high-school options. I believe this is one of my more useful articles.

Helping Your Child Explore Careers

In this, Part II of my four-part series on career advice for boys and men, I discuss how parents can help their sons and daughters to explore career options. As usual, it's in PsychologyToday.com.

Helping Your Son Develop Moderate Self-Esteem

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I argue that moderate self-esteem is prerequisite to success and that today, it's particularly difficult to develop in boys.  I go on to offer suggestions for how to engender it.

A Workover: He Desperately Wants a Career Change But...

On my NPR-San Francisco radio program, I do Workovers: Listeners call in with a career problem.
I've been posting edited transcripts of Workovers that might interest PsychologyToday readers.

Today's offering presents the exchange I had with a caller who is an unhappy engineer and would love to change careers but is scared because he has the expenses of being married and having a child. He's also daunted by the cost and time of going back to school.

Why Planned Parenthood is a Most Worthy Charity

Politicians' twisted efforts to de-fund Planned Parenthood are reprehensible. 

In my PsychologyToday.com arrticle today, I explain why and why, in fact, Planned Parenthood is one of the wiser charities you can donate to. 

Capitalism is Ending. Now What?

A number of factors lead me to be believe capitalism is in its final stages. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I explain why I feel that way, what I believe will replace the U.S.'s hybrid capitalist/socialist model, and raise questions about what you and I might want to do in light of all that.

Three Keys to Effective Conversation

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers three potent, easy-to-explain, harder-to-implement conversation rules.

Addressing Sad Child Syndrome

There are many reasons a child could be sad and many solutions. So attempting to address them all in one brief article is impossible. 

But my PsychologyToday.com article today offers parents a key approach or two for dealing with four major sources of childhood sadness.

Addressing Sad Athlete Syndrome

We think of athletes as happy, doing what they love. But I've had clients who, despite their love of sport, suffer psychologically.  I call this, Sad Athlete Syndrome. 

I discuss how to ameliorate it in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Should You Chuck Your Career? A Debate

You have a reasonable job but don''t love it, so you wonder if that's all there is for you.

Many people ask themselves that. So in my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer an internal debate on that: If you have a so-so career, should you chuck it so you have the time and motivation to find something better?

Crispness: A Little-Discussed Key to Success

Of course, intelligence and drive are key to success. But as I think back on all my clients and friends, there's another, less discussed factor: crispness.  

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I describe what that looks like and how to become more crisp.

Is There a Topic You'd Like to Hear My Wife and I Debate?

My listeners like when I debate my wife during my radio show. Is there a career- or work-related topic you'd like to see us debate?

Pristine Pleasures

I live to solve problems. That means I live in the negative---problems are by definition negative. I live in the complex---If a problem were easy to solve, I wouldn't be needed. I live in worry: What if I miss something? What if I can't solve it?

Yet I continue to be able to stay in that world of problems, decade after decade. Why? Partly because I'm often enough able to prevail. But partly because, outside that world of problems, I get my pleasures from things abundant and free, if you look out for them. I call them pristine pleasures. 

I list some in my PsychologyToday.com article today.  Perhaps one or more will please you, or better, trigger your own list of pristine pleasures.

Vetting an Employer

Many job seekers find the job very different than it appeared when they applied for the job.  

My PsychologyToday.com article today helps you vet an employer.

Advanced Tips for Launching or Relaunching Your Career

The federal government released statistics Saturday that supported findings reported a couple of years ago in The Atlantic: college graduates are having a helluva time launching their career. 

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I attempt to offer help for those starting out or attempting to restart their career.

How Do We Really Feel About Mass Syrian and Other Immigration?

Especially when the media shows us wrenching images of struggling Syrian refugees, it's easy to support their mass immigration to Europe and the U.S. 

But it's a complicated and emotional issue. I try to explore both sides in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Integrity in a Job Search?!

It's ever harder for not-stars to land good, stable employment, so it's tempting to use such deceptions as hiring someone to write your resume and feed you B.S. answers to cover up your weaknesses, employment gaps, etc. 

My PsychologyToday.com article today makes the case that such subterfuge is not only unethical but not pragmatically in your interest.

Vetting Employers

Many people regret having taken a particular job because they didn't realize what the organization, boss, or job was really like.

The savvy job seeker vets the job and employer in all these ways:

1. Ask colleagues for recommended employers or work groups within an organization. Describe the sort of environment you work best in: fast-paced, high-level, quiet, relaxed with emphasis on work-life balance, techie, etc.

2. Read between the lines of advertised jobs. Ads that, for example, ask that the candidate be "high-energy and self-motivated" gives you a clue.

3. Check out a company on Glassdoor.com. It offers reviews of companies. Like all such reviews they're overweighted by shills and the disgruntled but if there are a number of reviews, the noise tends to cancel out.

4. During the interviews, ask questions to tease out info on the job, the boss, the coworkers, and workplace culture. For example, "What would you expect I'd accomplish in the first 30 days?" or "Every boss is different. In what way are you different from other bosses?"

5. After being offered the job but before accepting it, ask if you can visit your workplace both to negotiate terms and get a feel for the place. Hang out in the break room and ask employees questions like, "I've been offered a job here but haven't accepted yet. Is there anything you feel I should know that might not appear in the employee handbook?" Of course, you won't always get revealing answers but it can't hurt to ask.

Vetting an employer that way puts the odds of your being happy in your new job in your favor. The other component is you: your skills and your attitude. Also do a good job in those departments, and I'm betting all will be well.

Coping with Waiting

Waiting for a response can be frustrating. I offer some tips in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Musings During a Walk

I made notes of  thoughts I had while taking a walk today and posted them as my PsychologyToday.com article today.

In Praise of the One-Second Pause

Waiting one full second after someone finishes talking yields remarkable benefit to the speaker and to you. I flesh it out in my PsychologyToday.com article today. 

A Workover: A burned-Out fillmmaker, $68K in debt, needs money.

On my NPR-San Francisco radio program, I do Workovers: Callers call in with their career problem.

On PsychologyToday.com, I've been posting edited transcripts of Workovers.  Today's offering is about a burned-out and broke filmmaker.

Gaining Charisma

Alas, America is soooh much about artifice, the superficial. Succumbing temporarily to that because a client requested it, my PsychologyToday.com article today is on gaining charisma.

In Praise of Judgmentalness

 In our egalitarian ethos, we're far safer saying an idea is a "different perspective" than that it's a worse one.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I make the case that we should be more judgmental.

Addressing Refuse-to-Work Syndrome

I have had many clients who work themselves to exhaustion, often to physical sickness, even a heart attack, to support his/her family, and begs the spouse to earn more than a pittance to contribute to the family income. Yet that spouse, who claims to love the person, refuses. 

I term such people as having Refuse-to-Work Syndrome. I address the issue in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Generating Your Big Idea

At some point, most of us have hoped to do something big. But for the lack of an idea, or the competence or confidence to see it through, we've let our dream drop.

Previously, for example, with this article, I've addressed the motivation question but heretofore, haven't discussed how to come up with a big idea.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer questions to trigger your own Big Idea plus a list of mine, in hopes they'll trigger one or even make you want to attempt one of mine.

My Best Tweets: Part VI

I've posted 2,770 Tweets, each is an idea I think is fresh and useful. In my PsychologyToday.com post today, I reproduce 27 of my favorites. This group is on education, the life well-led, and a potpourri of "food for thought" ideas.

My Favorite Tweets: Part V

Every time I come up what I believe is a fresh, useful idea, I archive it as a Twitter tweet. I have posted 2,770.

For PsychologyToday.com, I've selected my favorites among them. I've divided them into groups of 20 to 25. HERE is Part I. HERE is Part II. HERE is Part III. HERE is Part IV.  

Today, I posted Part V.

A Workover: A Tilesetter Wants to Run the Business

I've been posting edited transcripts of calls to my radio program as PsychologyToday.com articles. Today's is about a tilesetter trying to go from worker bee to business owner.