Journal

Being the new hire with tons of “great ideas” won’t always endear you to your team. Here’s a better way to have an influence early on.

Being the new hire with tons of “great ideas” won’t always endear you to your team. Here’s a better way to have an influence early on.

You’d probably be lying to yourself if you said you’ve never gone into a new job and resolved to outperform your team’s expectations. You have plenty of good ideas and want everyone to know that you’re a genius of sorts.

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You weren’t planning to have to look for a job, but now you’re unexpectedly out of work. Here’s what to do.

You weren’t planning to have to look for a job, but now you’re unexpectedly out of work. Here’s what to do.

You liked your job. Or at least, you were comfortable in it. It didn’t feel like time yet to start looking around—but fate intervened anyway: You got fired. Your job was cut in a sudden round of layoffs. Maybe your partner or spouse landed a new gig you’ll both need to move for. Or maybe you were dissatisfied already and just hit a breaking point that you hadn’t yesterday. Whatever the case, now’s the time to kick your job search into high gear.

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To-do lists get a lot of flack, but the simple act of planning has some psychological and productivity benefits all by itself.

To-do lists get a lot of flack, but the simple act of planning has some psychological and productivity benefits all by itself.

For a long time, I resisted to-do lists. I wanted the flexibility. I felt that if I kept a list, it would tie me down to a particular set of tasks. Gradually, though, I came around. The busier my work life became, the more crucial it was to have some sort of running agenda on hand. Before long, I even started adding some of those items onto my weekly calendar. In other words, I’d reluctantly become a planner.

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Risk management, perspective, and creativity are career skills these execs learned while chasing storms, sculpting ice, and playing soccer.

Risk management, perspective, and creativity are career skills these execs learned while chasing storms, sculpting ice, and playing soccer.

All work and no play can make life pretty dull. But for some, play is more than a weekend game of golf or a night out at the movies. It’s a project that fuels a passion. From chasing storms to teaching soccer, these six business leaders make the most of their nonworking hours.

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Slumped in exhaustion on the floor of a phone room, Jenny Blake realized her five-year career at Google had hit a plateau.

Slumped in exhaustion on the floor of a phone room, Jenny Blake realized her five-year career at Google had hit a plateau.

I was midway into my five-year tenure at Google when I found myself curled up on the floor of a small phone room, unable to muster the strength to reach my arm up to the top of the desk, pick up the phone, and cancel my next back-to-back meeting. I felt light-headed and nauseous.

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19-year-old Connor Krukosky has been collecting computers for years. His latest relic helped land him a job.

19-year-old Connor Krukosky has been collecting computers for years. His latest relic helped land him a job.

The IBM z890 Mainframe computer weighs 1,500 pounds and stands over five feet tall. When it was first unveiled in 2004, it cost over $300,000. At that time, the z890 was a cutting-edge solution that helped midsized enterprises run their businesses. A 2004 ComputerWorld article described it as small, but by today’s standards it’s a big honking computer, and it’s for anything but personal use.

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