Link Love: March 14, 2010

March 14, 2010 by 2 Comments

What a week! I announced the winners of my Career Coaching for Word Nerds contest, and have my very first appointment scheduled for this coming Wednesday. I’m way excited to start helping people find career fulfillment, and am also interested in seeing how the balance of editing, writing, and coaching shifts in my own life.

Not only that, but I managed to tear myself away from the computer twice this week in order grab drinky drinks with fellow entrepreneurs. On Monday, I met up with a former colleague who just resigned from her full-time job in order to throw herself into full-time freelance writing. As we’ve both been on the editing and writing sides of the table, I had a great time talking freelance strategy with her, and sharing on-the-job stories. And on Thursday, I headed to Ginger Man for happy hour with two fellow tweeps who had driven up from NC for a short vacation. So great to put faces to tweets!

I’m not sure yet whether this Sunday will be lazy or productive (I have an ebook to work on, and a new copywriting client) but, before I decide, let me give you some weekend reading:

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More on Mentors

March 3, 2010 by 4 Comments

The other day, I wrote a post on mentors, and where you can find them. I wrote it as part of a round table Holly Hoffman was putting together on her blog, WorkLoveLife. Well, the round table is finally up! Head on over to read 21 other posts about mentors. Among my favorites:

Related: 6 Ways To Find Your Next Mentor

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6 Ways To Find Your Next Mentor

March 1, 2010 by 6 Comments

[Image via]

Back in January, Betsy Lerner — brilliant author of The Forest for the Trees — wrote up a quick post in which she remembered two of her early mentors. And then, a week ago, Holly Hoffman brought up the topic again. All this mentor-talk got me thinking back on my own favorites, and how important they’ve been to my career success.

I myself have never had one single, larger-than-life figure playing the part of mentor (talk about pressure). Rather, I’ve approached mentorship in much the same way career expert Marci Alboher does: as an ever-shifting collection of people I surround myself with…people I feel I can learn from, no matter what stage they’re at in their career. I highly recommend this approach.

Why do you need a mentor? Because you shouldn’t be working in a vacuum, stumbling along your career path without outside inspiration or guidance. Why do you need multiple mentors? Because it’s silly to rely on a single person, when an entire community can provide much better support, and a greater diversity of insight and advice.

So where can you find this army of advisers?

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My 5 Favorite Things In: Test-Drive Your Dream Job

August 14, 2008 by 5 Comments

When I first stumbled upon Brian Kurth’s Vocation Vacations website, I thought it was just about the best idea I’d ever seen. As someone with so many interests, she doesn’t know quite what to do with them, the opportunity to go on a vocation vacation and experience an entirely new career for a limited period of time was incredibly attractive.

Of course, vocation vacations sound an awful lot like internships, and you don’t need to pay for the opportunity to intern. Reasonably enough, Kurth agrees that there are other  (free) options for checking out the viability of a new career path, which is where Test-Drive Your Dream Job comes in. After the jump, my five favorite things about this book:

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