Improve Your Professional Life With All This Guidance

I write about a lot of things. While science and science fiction are my loves, I’ve spent more time writing about topics related to business and office or professional life more than anything else. It started with some books I wrote more than a decade ago about a retail store I once owned (which now seems a lifetime away—I mean, it was in the pre or very early social media days, so did it even happen?).

Lately, I’ve been on a kick of writing a series of articles on LinkedIn to help others, especially early-career professionals. I’ve created this roll-up post here because—well, I want to continue to spread that information. My day job is as a software systems engineer in the aerospace industry, and that’s my base experience and can’t tell you what it’s like to work in other industries or other career fields, I have a sneaking suspicion that most of my advice translates. I would love to hear if that’s true or not in the comments.

I hope this helps and if there’s something else you want to know about or are struggling with in the workplace, let me know! Topics I want to write about but haven’t yet include delegating and time management (which are related).

Resumes and Interviews

I’ve been reviewing resumes and interviewing people for… well… a long time. But 2020 saw a major increase in the amount of that and it prompted me to write these:

3 Ways Your Resume is Ugh and How to Fix it.

Nailing the Interview.

All things email!

I started my career at the same time email was becoming a thing. A lot of us had email throughout the 90s, but it wasn’t until the late 90s that people in my profession were getting PCs on their own desk which promoted the idea that everyone should email all the time. But no one ever learned the skills on how to manage email, write good emails, and probably a half a dozen other skills that are needed so we don’t drown in text of our own making. These articles are meant to help that:

How to Get a Handle on Email Overload.

Why No One Read Your Email (And What to Do About It).

Here is Practical Advice to Help Improve Your Next Email, Part 1 (of 2).

Here is Practical Advice to Help Improve Your Next Email, Part 2 (of 2).

Mentoring

I’ve played the role of mentor and mentee and in the last few years I field a lot of questions from interns and early-career employees about obtaining a mentor. Of course that meant I have a handful of things to say about the topic that is hopefully useful to others.

Advice For Your Career Growth: Find and Appreciate Mentors Now.

My Top 3 Tips for Early-Career (No, Wait… For All) Professionals.

Mentors are Everywhere: A Thank You to the Ones Who Were Mine.