Career Coach. Management Consultant. Writer. Marketer. Accountant.
Let me put my old person hat on for a second…
I’ll skip the part where I talk about how I walked to school uphill in the snow BOTH WAYS, but… back in my day, I remember debating people which format was best for studying for the cpa exam — live, in-person, online, or self-study (cd-rom at that time).
The same debate goes on and on about the study hacks and all that good stuff but something I read yesterday triggered a thought I haven’t been able to shake. [Read more…]
This idea randomly popped in my head today about the similarities between Dr Pepper, Baskin Robbins, and the world of management consulting.
The answer: flavors. I’ll explain.
Many will recognize Baskin Robbins as having 31 flavors of ice cream but fewer probably are aware that Dr Pepper supposedly has 23 flavors making up that sweet nectar.
Similarly, most people think of consulting as one thing. Those people would be woefully incorrect in that assessment. [Read more…]
So I was walking to the client office from my hotel in San Francisco recently when it dawned on me how pedestrians mimic the behavior of some struggling careerists.
Here’s what happened… [Read more…]
I already know some people are going to take offense to this, but that doesn’t make what I’m about to say any less true.
Let’s get right into it.
No matter where you work, you’re going to be asked to do some sort of charitable act. Maybe you call it give back, or community building, or reinvest.
At Pepsi, we had a relationship with the United Way. For Accenture, it was technology education at a number of local schools.
Those are great causes (in theory – I’ll get to why in a second) and if your interests align with those, then you’re set.
Now what if you are treasurer or board chair for a non-profit that doesn’t have a formal relationship with your company?
The answer? Don’t do this.
You only have so much time in the day and as a strategic careerist, you want to double dip as much as you can. I remember at Kellogg looking at courses and seeing which ones counted toward more than one of the majors I was pursuing.
If career advancement is priority for you, I suggest you look at your charitable activities the same way. Don’t just check the box with doing something. Do something impactful. Do something in a leadership capacity. That’s how you set yourself apart from you peers.
Am I a cold blooded capitalist? Perhaps.
Am I right about what I’m saying? No question.
In the end you’re your own person and can do whatever you want to do but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
If you’re hankering for more of EB’s corporate rules of engagement, you have 2 days left to apply for my Success Factory coaching program.
Yes, there is a refundable application fee to reserve your spot. Go to the link below to learn more:
https://ericpbutts.com/success-factory/
– EB
You ever wake up and you have that one thing on your calendar that has you feeling all kinds of nerves?
Too much angst to eat.
Heart pounding when you let your mind sit idly thinking about it for too long.
Or maybe you just get the sweaty palms as eloquently immortalized by Eminem in the movie 8 mile (such a good song).
Well that was me leading up to my first martial arts test tonight. I’m happy to report I survived despite being terrified I was going to freeze up in front of everyone including my wife.
If you know that feeling in your stomach that I’m talking about, then I have two words for you that are going to help you make moves in your career: don’t panic.
As it turns out, it’s really hard to focus when you’re panicking.
And as I’ve said before, if you can’t focus, you’ll make unnecessary mistakes. Those mistakes will cost you career progression, which equals money and the related recognition you know should be well within your grasp.
There’s another piece to this though.
The fact is getting outside of your comfort zone is a good thing. It’s one of those things you know is working when you feel it. It’s basically muscle confusion for your brain and all those sensations you feel are just your brain letting you know you’re transforming.
When there’s an opportunity to learn something new, embrace the chance. Acknowledge the fear and discomfort but don’t let yourself be paralyzed by it. Charge through it and see what happens when you’re on the other side.
As it turns out, I’ve gotten pretty good at helping people push themselves in this way. If you want to experience for yourself, you can apply for the success factory coaching program for another week. Who knows, if I get promoted from a white belt that might go to my head and I raise the price of coaching too. Head on over and apply now:
https://ericpbutts.com/success-factory/
Have a good weekend.
– EB
Let’s talk about focus.
It’s easy to get distracted by what’s happening around you. Maybe people are getting preferential treatment.
Aside from you only being able to control so much, you worrying about what somebody else is doing can have a real negative impact on your performance.
When we were in taekwondo this (the same session I wrote about a couple of days ago), something else interesting happened. [Read more…]
As many of you know, I recently attended the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Conference in Detroit. During the two-day job fair, I came across a lot of hungry young professionals trying to figure out this whole career thing. While there, I realized I’ve discussed the importance of showing up to conferences and job fairs and my own experience in turning a job fair into a management consulting job offer, but never really talked about what to do once you’re *at* the job fair. I’m going to change that now and share the 5 keys to job fair success. These have held true since I was in the recruiting process several years ago, and they are just as true today. [Read more…]
It’s scary isn’t it?
But at the same time it feels pretty good.
You know what I’m talking about – putting up that out of office and going off the grid.
It’s interesting, it seems the more you move up the ranks, the more scary this is, until you’re the big boss. Read: partner in consulting speak. I think the campus hires often may not have enough responsibility to be concerned. Or the prioritization of career over vacation may be heavily skewed toward the latter.
If I had to visualize it, I think it would look something like this:
You might be thinking this is about to be another post about millennial entitlement or something like that but it’s not. It’s something entirely different. Instead, I want to talk about why it’s important to take that time off and why the new generation gets it right.
I’m sitting on a plane right now thinking about how I want to get this (vacation) right this time and more importantly why I NEED to, and so do you.
A couple of weeks ago, someone sent me a question asking what I thought is the least amount of time someone should stay at a job before having two consecutive job changes. In other words, how long should you wait before you can consider job hopping? [Read more…]
What if I told you I had the answer to one the oldest career advice questions?
And that the answer shouldn’t be that surprising but it’s one you need to hear anyway?
Or that my answer applies to practically any industry, at least any job that requires you to interact with your customers or co-workers in person.
Even in 2018, that still covers… just about everyone.
So the question I’m talking about: what’s the best way to accelerate your career? [Read more…]