How healthy is your career? If you're like me, it's been a while since you asked yourself this question. Nevertheless, it's a question every higher education professional should ask themselves.
In Peter Weddle's book, Work Strong, he makes an interesting analogy between physical health and career health...
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Join HigherEdJobs.com Author in Residence Peter Weddle as he blogs about topics from his recent book Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System. Unlike any book club you may have joined, this one is led by the author and is focused on helping YOU in your career in academia. Each month, Mr. Weddle will blog from a chapter of his book. Read the chapter (if you have time), follow the blog, and then post how the topic makes you reflect on your own career in higher ed. Grow, share, and have fun!
About the Book
Peter Weddle's book, Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System, has been called the What Color is Your Parachute? for the 21st century. It explores what it takes to achieve and sustain career success in the modern American workplace. Using physical fitness as a metaphor, it introduces both a new way of looking at work and a regimen of practical activities to increase the strength, reach and endurance of one's career.
Blog
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
How’s my career health? Good, I think...
by John Ikenberry -
Monday, March 08, 2010
Who is Guiding Your Career?
by Rob FreedmanThe second chapter of Work Strong brings up how to analyze your career's health. There is an assessment in the book, the Career Fitness Evaluation (p. 55-57), that I hope many of you took this opportunity to fill out. Use this assessment piece to reflect upon your career and the direction it is headed. Are you working smartly and in your own best interests? Are you feeling happy, valued, and connected to your working community? You need to figure out who is guiding your career... -
Thursday, February 25, 2010
How Do You Measure the Health of Your Faculty Career?
by Andrew HibelPeter Weddle's case for and method of evaluating the health of your career are excellent. However, there are many different career paths faculty members take. These paths often vary based on discipline, institution and desires. Most uniquely, faculty may have tenure as a part of their employment. As I read through Work Strong, I found myself wondering how many different ways faculty measure ... -
Monday, February 22, 2010
Peering into the Looking Glass
by Peter WeddleI've been "in transition" several times in my career, so I understand just how lonely, frustrating and... well, demeaning that experience can be. And yes, today's difficult economy is certainly a cause for the difficulties many people are now confronting. That said, however, I think it's also true that a significant number of people who are unemployed today are suffering from career illnesses of which they are unaware or, worse, are ignoring... -
Friday, February 12, 2010
Perhaps the Grass is Greener in Academe
by John IkenberryPeter Weddle paints a pretty grim picture of the 21st century employer in his book, Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System. While I agree many corporate employers engage in inhumane activities that show little regard for their employees, I believe most colleges and universities are more compassionate toward their employees... -
Monday, February 08, 2010
Re-imagining Ourselves as Career Athletes
by Rob FreedmanThe first chapter of Work Strong, "How to Keep (Bad) Employers from Kicking Sand in Your Face," discusses the bullying nature of the modern American workplace. Peter engages the reader in a discussion about how best to work with or around these bully employers. Peter challenges the modern American worker to stand up for themselves and realize that nobody is going to be a better advocate for you and your career than yourself.... -
Friday, February 05, 2010
Today's Job Report
by Peter WeddleThe continuing loss of jobs in the U.S. economy-20,000 in January and over 8 million since the recession began--suggests that this recovery will be unlike any we've ever seen. We thought the 1991 and 2001 recessions were strange because they led to "job less" recoveries. Well, this recovery will be ca candidate for "Ripley's Believe It or Not"... -
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Publish, Perish or Ponder: What will Faculty look like in 2017?
by Andrew HibelI found myself pondering a lot about faculty while reading this month's Work Strong section. I thought about our interview with Professor John Thelin and his advice about working in Academia. He said "Consider your work in higher education ... -
Friday, January 29, 2010
A Bit of (Hopefully Useful) Background
by Peter WeddleNow that we've started our discussion about successful career self-management in the 21st Century, I thought I'd pause and tell you a little bit about my book and this blog.
First, the book. Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System is a different kind of "career book" in at least two respects... -
Friday, January 29, 2010
What's Going On in the World of Work?
by Peter WeddleConsciously or unconsciously, many-maybe even most-Americans see the world of work as an orderly system. They believe if you do X, you can expect Y to happen. Or to put it another way, if you invest the time and effort to get a doctorate, you should be able to get a good job-or at least a job-in academia.
As many of us have discovered, however, that's not at all the way things happen...
