The holiday season is a time when many of us are trying to finalize year end work projects on top of managing personal obligations. While trying to handle holiday stress, it is easy to lose sight of your own professional goals during this time of year. Many job seekers protest, “No one’s hiring right now, anyway!” or “I’ll just start job searching in the New Year.” Whatever the excuse, the holiday season is actually a great time to focus on your own career development. Here are a few reasons why: Holiday Networking Your inclination may be to wait until sometime after the holidays to dedicate time to your search; however,…
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Handling Holiday Stress
For many, the holiday season is joy-filled and terrific. Some of us however, experience the holiday blues as we feel loneliness, reflect on the past year, and possibly dread an upcoming and uncertain new year. Rates of depression and anxiety tend to spike during the holiday season. If you are already experiencing stress in other areas of your life, then you may be especially vulnerable to holiday stress this season. The holiday season often brings twinkling lights, and at the same time long to-do lists and a variety of different stressors: Family: managing family dynamics and expectations, having them over, being separated from them or traveling near or far to…
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How Micromanagers can Deflate Your Confidence
“How do you prefer to be managed?” is a common interview question. Generally, it is answered with some variation of, “I prefer to be given autonomy on my projects and not be micromanaged.” Webster’s online dictionary defines micromanaging as “manage[ment] especially with excessive control or attention on details”. But how do you really know if you are being micromanaged? Especially while in a training position, this perception can be quite subjective. One person might label their PI a micromanager and another could describe that same person as a very available, hands-on supervisor. And what causes micromanagers to feel the need to control every project? Often micromanagers want to be involved…