Induction, Deduction, and Your Career
When you look at the way something has been in the past to draw conclusions about the way something always will be, or always is, you are using inductive reasoning. A standard example of induction would be: All grass examined thus far is green. This leads us to conclude (using induction) that all future grass we see will be green and every piece of green grass we see in the future will strengthen this belief. For example, you likely believe that a flame will burn you if you touch it. Similarly, just about everyone believes that if [Read more]
Nonprofit Jobs
At the outset, I want to make a couple of observations because I think that looking for a public interest job or a job with a nonprofit is among the most interesting types of searches you can do. On the one hand, it can be exceptionally difficult, but on the other, it can be incredibly rewarding. When certain tribes of American Indians used to go into battle, they would put on face paint, and that face paint would be a way for them to look like certain animals or other figures. It [Read more]
How to Choose Recruiters, Executive Search, and Recruitment Agencies (and How They Work)
When you go to most job sites, the majority of advertisements you will typically see, will be from recruiters. However, despite so many recruiter advertisements clogging job sites, recruiters are one of the most popular (and most misunderstood) ways of getting a job. It is rare to see articles that are negative about recruiters, or information that ”tells it like it is” when it comes to giving you advice on how to work with recruiters. The reason for this is largely due to the fact that the money recruiters pay to advertise on job sites and other [Read more]
How to Turn Your Ability into Cash
How to Turn Your Ability into Cash by Earl Prevette is an interesting book that revolves around methods on controlling your negative thoughts, making the most of your strengths and abilities, and achieving your dreams. On reading this book, several secrets about the law of wealth, increasing your power to think and to build, the art of replacing wrong thoughts with the right ones, and many more have been revealed.
This book was thoroughly enjoyable as well as inspirational, and I have referred to it many times in my career. It is significant and meaningful, and I believe it can open up to you an understanding of how to make things possible in your life and career. I hope you enjoy it.
–Harrison
HOW TO TURN YOUR ABILITY INTO CASH
By Earl Prevette
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN YOU
CHAPTER I One day not long ago, while standing on the corner of a busy street in Philadelphia, talking to a friend, [Read more]
To Get a Job You Need to Get the Employer’s Attention and Be a Safe Choice
When an employer has an open position, they are generally faced with two issues: (1) it is difficult for them to focus attention on all of the applications they are receiving, and (2) they are nervous about making a good decision among the various applicants that are applying. Your objective when applying for any job is (1) to be seen, and (2) to be a safe choice for the company. You Need to be Seen When Applying to Jobs. Several years ago, a very talented professional couple invited my wife and me to their home for dinner. We had a [Read more]
Working on Sundays and Concentrating on Your Work
There is a secret to success, common among most successful people out there that I have seen time and time again: Working on Sundays. When I was practicing law, the best attorneys were always in on Sundays. When I was a student in college and law school, the best students always worked on Sundays. In my professional career, a good portion of the most accomplished executives and others I have known work on Sundays. When I say ”work on Sundays” I mean that they are working the entire [Read more]
Consciousness, Mindlessness and Your Career
“It is against state policy to pave over a deer,” said an engineer for the department. “If in fact the deer was in the work area, it should have been removed before the work was done.”
—Associated Press, August 22, 1996, reporting on road workers who failed to see, and thus paved over a dead deer.
We often fail to notice things in our immediate environment, especially things we are not expecting to see. Despite the animal’s lying right in the middle of the road, the Pennsylvania highway crew paved directly over it. Why? Because they simply did not expect to see it there.
Because we are on “autopilot” much of the time, we go through substantial portions of our lives completely unconscious of the people, places and things around us. As a result we end up tuning out many things that could make a giant difference in the ultimate quality of our lives. Our careers, social lives and happiness are largely in part shaped by thousands of unconscious decisions and observations we make throughout the average day.
When I was in college I went on a road trip with a group of my fraternity brothers. We were traveling across the Midwest on a very rural two-lane highway to go visit a branch of our fraternity in another state. We all sat quietly in the car staring out the window, as we sped towards our destination. All of a sudden we hit an animal in the road and almost lost complete control of the vehicle. When we turned the car around we realized we had hit and killed a large raccoon. Incredibly, none of us had seen the raccoon—even though we had been staring at the road the entire time. The raccoon just wandered right in front of the car, innocently enough, on that lonely two-lane highway, and ended up getting run over. How could none of us have seen the raccoon? It was one of the strangest experiences of my life. Having not seen a raccoon that was directly in front of my eyes was something difficult for me to believe. Although it sounds like an isolated event, we all actually experience situations like this in one form or another, on an ongoing basis.
Scientists who study human cognition would tell you that we probably did not see the racoon simply because we did not expect to. In a famous experiment in 1998 known as The Gorilla Experiment, researchers Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris asked various subjects to watch a video of a basketball game. The video was of two teams, one dressed in black and the other dressed in white. Each team’s players were passing the basketball amongst themselves. The researchers asked the subjects to count the number of times the white team passed the ball. After a minute the researcher would stop the videotape and ask how many passes had been made. During the video, someone in a gorilla suit would walk through the group playing the game and stand in the middle of the screen and thump his chest a few times before walking off again. Over half of the people failed to notice the gorilla. You can see the video here: http://viscog.beckman.illinois.edu/flashmovie/15.php Chabris and Simons explain that so many people miss the gorillas due to so-called “inattentional blindness.” Our brains are capable of only focusing on a few details [Read more]
Career Lessons from Mother Teresa
I have found that by examining the careers of the most successful people out there you can learn a ton of lessons. It does not matter if the person is a business person, a musician, or a religious figure: They all have lessons to teach. While I am not particularly religious one way or another, for the past several years I have been studying Mother Teresa in short on and off bursts. I purchased a video and a few books about her. The reason she is so interesting to me is that I never truly understood why she [Read more]
The Lone Drainer and Carlos the Evil Plumber
Around Los Angeles there is a plumbing service known as the Lone Drainer. The Lone Drainer typically drives around in a van and responds to various plumbing issues. To my astonishment, there are Lone Drainers all over. I even saw a Lone Drainer in Australia a few years ago. I used the Lone Drainer for the first time in 1997. The Lone Drainer showed up at our door one Saturday afternoon in response to a clogged sink. He was wearing a straw cowboy hat, which he tipped at me when I answered the door. He seemed to [Read more]
List of Job Search Sites and How to Find Job Sites
Here is a list of job search sites to help you with whatever type of job search you may be doing:
List of job search sites
In addition, I’ve also added what I feel are some good job search resources (including employers) from different industries to this list as well. However, because new job sites are launched just about every day it is important you know how to find these sites on your own without using this list of job sites I have put together for you. I want you to think back to thirty years ago, before the Internet [Read more]
