Marine Sgt. at New Orleans, La. By Howard R.Hollem. Library of Congress collection via Flickr.

How Having Closed Sector vs. Open Sector Career Affects Your Success

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Guy Benveniste had a great thought in article from 1977 about “Survival inside bureaucracy” that are even more relevant in today’s New Economy / Creative Class work-world. Benveniste postulated that there were three different types of careers: Closed sector Open sector Location-dominated Closed sector careers are what my father generation expected. Your entire career is within a single company; or, …

Yardmaster in railroad yards working, Amarillo, TX, 1943. By Jack Delano via Library of Congress Collection (LOC)

Know Who’s Really Your Customer — THE Secret to Success

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A parable. Of sorts. Just then a young man came up to Forrest to test him, saying, “Sam Walton, the late billionaire who founded Walmart, taught us to succeed already.” “Well what did he tell us after he became a billionaire?” Forrest asked him. And the young man answered him: “Sam taught us thusly: ‘There is only one boss. The …

Man sits apart. By Mead Schaeffer, c. 1933. Good Housekeeping magazine?

High Potentials Are Farther From Normal Than You Might Think

Forrest ChristianCareers 1 Comment

In my post about “Why You High Potentials Get Missed in Your 20s“, Michael Bates commented that “When the curves are so close together, all sorts of mistakes are possible, including a high-potential’s misjudgment of his own potential.” This is kind of true and kind of not. Let’s take a look at it in more detail. First, let’s talk about …

Man sits apart. By Mead Schaeffer, c. 1933. Good Housekeeping magazine?

Why You High Potentials Don’t Get “Tapped” in Your 20s

Forrest ChristianCareers, Underachievers 1 Comment

I’ve written before about the importance of being “tapped” for bigger and better things when you are in your 20s if you are a very high potential on the Jaques scale. During my research for a recent project on intelligence testing, I discovered that Gillian Stamp, the bioss founder (and ex-BIOSS and London School of Economics professor), said something along …

Luck Does Not Determine Your Essential Character

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I like to point out idiocy by “experts” when I see it. And management writing in Harvard Business Review is usually such a fertile field! Today, let’s look at idiocy about luck and being a great strategist from Hans H. Hinterhuber and Wolfgang Popp (“Are You a Strategist or Just a Manager?”, Jan-Feb 1992). As Moltke observed, the good strategist …

That Bad Job Can Destroy You. Forever.

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Did you ever stop and think of what that bad job, the one where you don’t fit and is so stressful, is doing to you long term? You should. Because it could be destroying any future you have, even your very soul. After the second Great War, many of the orphanages were severely understaffed. A researcher studied what happened when …

Conductor checks his watch to find out how much time remains at the Bloomington, Illinois, stop on the Turboliner run between St. Louis, Missouri, and Chicago. Photo by Charles O'Rear for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1970). (NARA record: 3403717)

Have You Stayed Too Long?

Forrest ChristianCareers, Underachievers Leave a Comment

Why won’t they ever leave?! You know the person I’m talking about. The one in your crew who comes to the party and then doesn’t leave. You drop hints, even change into your pyjamas, but the only way to “the party’s over” through their thick skull is to physically shoo them out the door. There’s very little more aggravating than …

Higher Education Bubble (video and infographics)

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Education News has put together an video and accompanying infographics about the Education Bubble Crisis. They don’t separate out undergraduate from graduate education, but the basic principle the cite still applies: you need to do some real research into what your potential field actually pays. 25 years ago when I went to university these numbers were a bit harder to …