By Trina

Recently, a few posts on Brazen Careerist about work-life balance have caught my attention. Many people have strong opinions on the matter. Jake on Jobs is of the “work now, play later” mindset. He says, “…Work/Life balance is not something 20-somethings should be worried about. Instead, my suggestion is to work your butt off until you find a job that doesn’t feel like work.” Whereas Jenny Blake talks about looking at your overall quality of life, “…part of the reason I was feeling so tired was that I let work completely take over my life…the more I let things that energize me fall out of my routine, the more tired I become, and the less able I am to perform high-quality work.” My stance: I don’t think you can get to a place where it doesn’t feel like work unless you have a good quality of life. In other words, good personal life is complementary to good work life.

By James

What is success? How can I be judged as successful? These are 2 questions that I have been asking myself over the last couple of months.

I’ve been in my first ‘proper’ job for 18 months now and often wonder to what yard stick I should measure my progress. Although I’ve had performance reviews and set and achieved goals, I still struggle to ascertain whether I’m being successful.

First off, I suppose that it’s necessary to define success, a word which probably means something different to every one of us. For me, success is being the best I can possibly be in things that I choose to do. For example, I won’t consider myself a failure if I don’t participate and win the Tour de France this year. I have no intention of entering and therefore none to win.

On the other hand, I will be deeply disappointed if I don’t get…

Guest Writer - James Shelley

You have seen them thousands of times before: hungry, forlorn children on the television screen. And then, like a divine ray of numerical hope, up flashes a promising 1-800 number and the opportunity to “sponsor a child” in a developing country. You do not even have to be watching TV to encounter this humanitarian plea: child sponsorship organizations promote at concerts, put ads on Facebook, plaster billboards and syndicate material through the most distained communication medium in the world: junk mail.

It is hard to argue against the benefit of child sponsorship in the eyes of a fly-infested, belly-extruded child. What kind of cold-hearted bastard would not hand over their credit card number immediately? Very real and natural instincts provoke us with an emotional response (which, not ironically, the producers of these ads know full well as they go for your emotional jugular). However, this article exists…

By Daniel

The people that get their agendas accomplished in meetings do not necessarily have the best ideas, but are the best communicators. People that are probably very smart can be written off, because they can’t convey their thoughts. The promotion may not go to the guy that deserves it, but the employee that communicates his successes consistently and effectively. The truth is, communication skills are incredibly important and college is one of the best places to develop it.

What do we actually learn from college?

To be honest, in many cases, it’s not the material we pay so much for; it’s the thought process that we develop.

As much as I hated this concept in college, it got me the grade. In most courses, writing for an A was not necessarily writing what I wanted. It was writing what the professor was looking for. Figuring out what to put on paper required me…

By Will

Back in the good old days when the world wasn’t under the constant threat of being destroyed at any moment by pollution, terrorism, war, economic disaster etc and the word Apple was actually synonymous with the fruit, young job seekers sought out good, solid, reputable companies to work for. The type of company that gave you a job for life where you could start at the bottom and work your way up the ladder. My Grandad had two jobs his whole life - one with the army and one with a national telephone company. I just read an article about two guys from my home town; they just sold their first software company for an estimated $5 million dollars; not bad for a 17 and 19 year old. I think its fair to say the game has changed.

So how do companies attract and retain top talent in an era where the talent recognises their own worth and are prepared to walk to if they are not getting challenging work and decent opportunities for advancement? Enter the Graduate Development Program (GDP).

By Trina

During our development program, we had a C-level executive come to discuss leadership with our class. He made it clear that when it comes to success, the failures we endure are just as important as the wins, and failing is essential to being a great leader. He told us that if we hadn’t experienced a big failure in our lives, one would be coming soon. He was right on.

A fear of failure spans every generation. Not too surprisingly, many have said that millennials do not know what do with failure. For many of us this is completely true, because we haven’t had much experience with it. Most of our parents saw to it that we were on teams whose mottos were “everybody wins” which is precisely why I have a box full of “participant” ribbons (I just wanted to be on the team…). We have seen mainly positive or neutral feedback thus far. It is when we get out in the corporate arena that the potential for failure begins to mount.

By James

If you are one of the fortunate ones this spring, you still have you job. This is in stark comparison to the hundreds of thousands of people who have been let go during the current economic downturn (or crisis, recession, catastrophe, whatever you want to call it). Even if you have your job, it is very likely, especially if you live in a large city, that you know someone who is no longer employed.

Being made redundant during a time like this is a lot different to being sacked or ‘moved on’ in other times. The current environment means that even the best of employees are not safe if their company is affected by one of the big bank failures or a whole host of other reasons.

By Rachel

Your working environment can have a lot to do with whether you or stressed or not. Here are some helpful hints to reducing stress at work.

1. Positioning your desk- if you have any influence over what position your desk is at work, keep these things in mind.
1. Do not have your back to the door or your back toward people. It is a natural human reaction to be more stressed when you don’t know what is coming up on you. If you give yourself a clear view of what is surrounding you, your body is more able to relax.
2. If at all possible, make sure you are not directly facing someone else. For example if you share an office, having your desks pointed toward each other is a more aggressive and stressful environment….

By Daniel

We all want to be successful. It’s the dream we’ve had since childhood…

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

From the poem of Dr. Seuss to the business moguls we admired in college, the common theme is that of the self-made man - The lone journey from rags to riches. As we drive up the corporate ladder there is an obvious focus on proving ourselves and showing that alone we can move mountains. In recent experiences, however, I’ve realized that the path to success wasn’t meant to be achieved as a one man army.

Strong friendships can be forged in the early years of our corporate development. New found change and new found stress seem compounded as we muddle our way in discovering who we are. Every man is in need of a good friend and these friendships are what become the catalyst for personal change and the foundation to achieve our dreams. There have been epic friendships that have shaped our world in every corner of history. What they’ve taught us, is to hold onto the friendships we’ve developed and to start opening our eyes to the friendships that can become larger-than-life.