Fast Company

Are you sending mixed signals to diverse job candidates? Here are the pitfalls to avoid.

Are you sending mixed signals to diverse job candidates? Here are the pitfalls to avoid.

Whether the goal is to be more representative of the population at large, or to acknowledge the increasing body of evidence that diverse companies outperform those that are homogeneous, diversity is a hot topic at many companies. But the issue of diversity is complex—as layered as the business case to support it—and the time, effort, and resources being poured into diversity initiatives can be undermined by oversights or missteps.

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This week’s top stories may help you reprioritize your work and avoid overestimating your abilities like you’re prone to do.

This week’s top stories may help you reprioritize your work and avoid overestimating your abilities like you’re prone to do.

This week we picked up some old-timey productivity methods that still pack a punch, and learned why the brain may be hardwired to make us overconfident.

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Being outgoing can boost your career. Here’s what happened when this shy writer faked it ’til she made it.

Being outgoing can boost your career. Here’s what happened when this shy writer faked it ’til she made it.

I’ve always been shy. I tend to keep to myself, and I’m rarely the first one to talk to a stranger. I also hate talking in large groups; I usually just listen, and only give my opinion when asked. I’d resigned myself to the fact that I was an introvert and shyness was part of my personality, but I’ve always envied people who are friendly and outgoing.

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Ropes courses can take teams to new heights, but experts advise researching ahead and being prepared for surprises.

Ropes courses can take teams to new heights, but experts advise researching ahead and being prepared for surprises.

Imagine being blindfolded and silenced, yet still expected to express yourself. Now imagine that you have to do this with a coworker that you barely know. That’s exactly the situation Lee Esmond, vice president of integrated marketing at Mosaic, an experiential marketing agency, found herself in during leadership training on a ropes course at Soderquist Center.

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A new feature that helps employers find freelancers aims to boost LinkedIn’s premium subscriptions.

A new feature that helps employers find freelancers aims to boost LinkedIn’s premium subscriptions.

LinkedIn has created a freelance marketplace. Launched on Wednesday, “LinkedIn ProFinder” asks employers to submit contract jobs in categories such as design, writing, or financial services and promises to send them up to five free quotes from LinkedIn users in response.

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The steps and missteps one person took to achieve a dream, and how you can make it work, too.

The steps and missteps one person took to achieve a dream, and how you can make it work, too.

It’s often been said that everyone has one novel in them—and the thing that separates novelists from everyone else is that they have multiple novels in them. That, and novelists are willing to sacrifice their time, social life, and often part of their sanity to put their words to the page. But as I’ve found, it’s not just sacrifice a novelist must embrace to write that novel and get it published.

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In a summer of Suicide Squad and Ben-Hur, it can feel like big-budget popcorn flicks have never been more awful. They have.

In a summer of Suicide Squad and Ben-Hur, it can feel like big-budget popcorn flicks have never been more awful. They have.

To hear the curmudgeons and film snobs tell it, the summer of 2016 has churned out some of the most soul-crushingly awful Hollywood blockbusters in recent memory—from the superhero anti-epic Suicide Squad to the dead-on-arrival sequel to Independence Day. By the time the laughable Ben-Hur limped into multiplexes last weekend, the narrative had been solidified: The latest summer blockbuster season has been an exceptionally terrible one.

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The line between paying homage to a design classic and outright piracy is fuzzy.

The line between paying homage to a design classic and outright piracy is fuzzy.

Recently, the furniture giant West Elm and the L.A.–based design studio Commune released a collection of furniture and accessories with a midcentury-inspired sensibility. But as some bloggers were quick to point out, the “midcentury-inspired” looked more like a midcentury rip-off. The ensuing debate has raised pertinent questions about design plagiarism: Where do you draw the line between paying homage to a design classic and copying it? How close is too close?

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As black market businesses become mainstream, it’s clear that mastering illicit activities can help develop a lot of business acumen.

As black market businesses become mainstream, it’s clear that mastering illicit activities can help develop a lot of business acumen.

Moonshine. Camel milk. Cannabis. Once only products of the gray and black market economies, decriminalization is bringing a new wave of underground goods to consumers across the U.S. In Gatlinburg, Tennessee, I met with Matt O’Daniel, 26, known to his friends as ODamnit. O’Daniel had been brewing do-it-yourself black market moonshine in the Ozark Mountains before he found a job at Sugarlands as a distiller. Sugarlands was founded in 2014 in a 10,000-square-foot barn in the Smoky Mountains to cater to the growing demand for legal moonshine.

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The animated ads inject a bit of whimsy into the harsh reality of puppy mills.

The animated ads inject a bit of whimsy into the harsh reality of puppy mills.

Nine out of 10 people who buy a puppy from a store or online are getting one whose earliest days were spent in a puppy mill. They might not know that, though—the puppy they get will be cute, and happy to see them, and it might come with a fake certificate or a deceptive photo of the dog frolicking in the grass. Beyond that, drawing attention to the real issue of puppy mills—where puppies are bred in intensive, inhumane conditions—can be a challenge, just because it’s so depressing. Dogs are our best friends. Who wants to spend too much time thinking about the conditions under which they’re often bred?

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