One of the hardest things to do during a job search or even during a difficult time at work is keeping yourself energized and positive. Here again is another example of how our basic honesty as financial folks gets in the way of our success.If you ask a financial guy how he is doing, you t...

I don’t know if any of you remember the movie Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, but Raymond had a method for dealing with his pain. He kept a journal. Anytime someone hurt him, he wrote it down in his book.I don’t remember if he ever referred to his book or reread it for enterta...

It sure is romantic to think about a job offer out of town with a full relocation package as a way to start over again. And, in many ways and for some people, it just may be your ticket to a life of sheer happiness for you and your family.However, for most people I have known over the year...

Since much of what we do in The FENG is about job search, I thought it might be appropriate to make a few suggestions to everyone about what to do when you do actually find a new job.I’ll be blunt. Job search is primarily filled with uncertainty, highs and lows and activities like making n...

I have often said that a member’s visualization of his new job is his last job on his last day. In a sense, how could it be any different?As accountants, we value our history more than anything else. This “rear view mirror” approach to life is one of the many things that can cause us to li...

You have to kind of feel sorry for folks who have never been unemployed.I know it may sound strange to say this, but if you have never been knocked down, you may not know that not only will you get up again, but that you may be a better person in many ways when you do. I hope that members ...

When they stopped paying me, that was bad enough. But, when they had the security guard escort me from the building and dump my few personal belongings on the sidewalk, I decided enough was enough. I just wasn’t going back to work at THAT place anymore.If you have a sense of humor and thin...

According to a survey that Bruce Lynn completed late last year, only about 30% of our members have ever been to a chapter meeting. In a word, those of you who have never attended a meeting of The FENG are missing out big time. (And no, we don’t wear funny hats or actually have a secret han...

For those of you who remember the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, there was a memorable scene where Butch and Sundance were cornered on the edge of a cliff and the only way out was to jump into a river and float away. As you may recall, Sundance was reluctant to jump, and only wi...

No matter what the crisis, it is a natural human instinct to try to put your life back together again.When it comes to the end of a long job search, the instinct is no different. Understand that you have been in crisis. And the crisis probably didn’t begin at the exact moment you lost your...

A few times each month I get a good news announcement from one of our members that begins with: “Please stop the newsletter, I am starting a new job on Monday.”It is at these times I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Starting a new job on Monday and already this individual is ready to di...

Although you wouldn’t know it from the influence it had on his thinking, one of the little known facts is that Charles Darwin actually didn’t spend all that much time in the Galapagos Islands.The Galapagos Islands cover a rectangle of about 125 miles from North to South and about 175 miles...

Deciding whether or not to stick with a job you have just taken is a difficult choice indeed.Whether your job search has been long or short, the realization that you have made a mistake is enough to cause you sleepless nights. I know because it happened to me.After 9 years as CFO of an adv...

I’m not sure why people tend to lose their common sense when it comes to job search, but they do. Were it not for this tendency, the organizations that feed on the unemployed wouldn’t exist. And try as we might to put them out of business, new miscreants arise out their ashes.I fully under...

So much for the “little engine that could!”Give me an opportunity to obsess about some problem and I can guarantee you that not much will get done. First, I won’t be able to get a good night’s sleep, and then in my grogginess the following day, it will be suitably difficult to focus on any...

I have given much thought over the years to how sailing is a lot like life. In dreamy meditation at the wheel of our sailboat, I have often thought about the unseen and uncontrollable forces affecting our progress and how through the skills I have acquired at her helm I have been able to m...

If looking for a job the first time wasn’t hard enough, going at it a second time after only a short break can be in some respects even harder.Sure, bringing your resume up to date isn’t all that difficult. There is the issue of how to deal with a short period of employment, but once you h...

Many years ago Lily Tomlin had a skit on Rowan and Martin's Laugh In where she played Ernestine, the telephone operator. This was one of her great gag lines.In much the same way, those of us who make a lot of phone calls are in the same pickle.I’m not sure if people just never call their p...

I don’t know if any of you feel as I do, but when I have a cold or the flu, it is at once annoying and thoughtful that those who care about us are constantly checking up on us.Thank goodness I’m not sick very often, but when I am I prefer to be left alone during “the cure.” Human beings va...

One of the more interesting ideas floating around these days is giving up. I can’t say I am an expert on this topic, other than to say that I have heard about it at length from others. Not that they have actually bought into the idea; just that they were talking about it.As you all know, I...

If only each of us had a crystal ball (highly polished of course) that we could call upon over the course of our lives. The problem is that we don’t.I once heard a very nice presentation on how to get a good start in a new job. Parachuting in at the top is always difficult, and the speaker...