Career Advice from Your Favourite Holiday Characters
The holiday seasons are upon us and we’re awash in the magic of Christmas, Hanukah, Love Actually, my parents’ Awesome Semi-Pagan beliefs, and, of course, Festivus. As we share stories of holiday joy with friends and family, it’s important to…
Four Ways that Tough Feedback Makes Work Better
Our team has written quite a bit about feedback – both how to give it and how to ask for it and act on it. But in our day to day work, we are often confronted with input and criticism…
Three Problem Solving Traits of Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is struggling to make money in movie theatres around the world because it’s fine, not awesome. The film follows Harrison Ford’s iconic, world-saving, colonially/neo-colonially-problematic, whip-slinging, problem solving character and his estranged goddaughter, Helena…
Five Ways to be a Better Career Influencer
Last week I joined my fellow CERIC board members in a planning session that focused on the future of our charity, which is purposed with advancing career development in Canada. We fund and publish research, share learning and build community…
Three Professional Lessons from Barber Shops
I go to Uptown Barbers in Vancouver’s (Mt. Pleasant ‘hood to get my hair cut every six weeks or so. Marco and Ben – the two barbers who I most often visit – deliver haircuts as good as the banter…
Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s Career Advice is Dangerous
Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is dangerous. He blows up relationships like he blows up planes. My theory is that his career advice is dangerous, too (not unlike another action hero I’ve written about before). Here is some evidence from the original…
Six Professional Lessons From Six Movie Side Hustles
We tend to remember Indiana Jones as a Nazi-fighting, world-saving, rough-and-tumble adventurer, not as a Professor of Archeology. We tend to remember Erin Brockovich as a feisty, community-minded legal aid who held corporations accountable, not as a single mom. And…
Eight Professional Lessons from the Movie Chef
Last week I re-watched Chef – written, directed and starring Jon Favreau – on Netflix. The film is about Carl Casper, the head chef at a high-end Los Angeles restaurant who loses his cool, loses his job, loses a lot…
Three Professional Lessons from Edge of Tomorrow
Edge of Tomorrow is a science fiction action film featuring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt and a bunch of scary aliens. The film tells of the story of Major William Cage, a public relations officer with zero combat experience, who…
10 Career Development Questions About The Last Dance
Like tens of millions of people around the world, I’m watching and loving The Last Dance. The story of Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls is one of realized potential amidst spectacular circumstances. For me, the viewing experience is…