Employers with Benefits: Investing in Talent Through Career Development

Employers with benefits

By now you’ve heard of the “gig economy,” in which workers and organizations contract for short-term projects – based on the need of the employer and the availability of individual workers. You may have heard the term “protean career” a term used to describe a career path that is managed by the individual, not the […]

MBTI Personality Test: 3 Reasons Why You Should Consider MBTI

MBTI personality test

Like thousands of companies across the U.S., you may already be using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or MBTI Personality Test.  If you are, you know that it is a personality-based questionnaire that classifies people into one of 16 “types” based on their preferences for perceiving information and making decisions.  The 16 types are often the […]

Career vs a Job: What’s the Difference?

career vs a job

Do you know that there is a difference between career vs a job? If you’re currently going to school, you are probably concerned about what comes next. Even if you are working, you might be wondering about the same thing! In either case, thinking about what job you’re going to work might be the same […]

Means to Live, But No Meaning to Live For: How to Find Meaning in Work

A book you’ve read at least once in your life – and need to read again – is Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.  Frankl describes his time in a World War II Nazi death camp, and how, while nearly everything he has is taken from him, he survives by discovering the purpose of life […]

How Do Vocational Choices Impact Career Success?

When you think about career success, what comes to mind? A paycheck, promotion, hitting your performance goals, soaring past them, having a sense of job security? Maybe it’s the feeling that you’ve finally found a job you love or are receiving recognition for your hard work. The point is, the notion of career success varies […]

Meaningful Work – It Isn’t Just a Fantasy

Work is an integral part of our lives. But, how much of it is meaningful work?   In fact, most of the world’s population spends one-third of their adult life at work.[i]  With an average life expectancy of 79 years, that means we’ll spend just over 13 years at work.[ii]   Does that number fill you […]

Trying to Figure Out Your Career Purpose? Use Expressive Writing — Seriously.

Are you trying to discern a sense of purpose for your career?   You might be surprised to learn that engaging in expressive writing about your career purpose is a tried-and-true strategy for gaining clarity.   Seriously—as Loyola University Chicago researchers Steve Brown and Nancy Ryan Krane discovered years ago[i], if you want to make […]

Soft Skills are the New Hard Skills

Employers and educators frequently distinguish between hard and soft skills without really defining either one. Reading between the lines, hard skills are generally perceived to be job-specific, like an auto mechanic diagnosing an engine problem or a dentist filling a cavity. Soft skills tend to be those attributes common across most jobs and are comprised […]

What in the World is a Psychometric Test?

You may have heard the terms psychometric test, psychometric testing, or psychometrics before, but might not really understand what they mean – other than the idea that they’re related to pre-hire assessments or pre-employment testing. To better understand what a psychometric test is, we first need to understand the field of psychometrics. The prefix psycho- […]

Using a Personality Assessment for Employment Decisions

Data collected from personality assessments are frequently used to make inferences about job applicants. While you may have heard of using a personality assessment for employment decisions, you might be less familiar with the history around using personality for hiring decisions or the different ways scientists conceptualize personality. This post aims to briefly introduce you […]