Ken Cooper | Teaching Innovation.

If you're wondering what to do next in your career, you're hardly alone. The debate about where and how we may best feed our hunger for mastery, service, prestige, approval, safety, achievement — whatever we're after — is fiercer than ever.

Do you go after, or hold on to, a corporate job or strike out on your own? Daniel Gulati and Lucy Kellaway recently offered contrasting views. There is less need to join prominent institutions today to demonstrate our worth,...

A topsy-turvy world like the one in which we live offers us tremendous opportunities. But to tap them, we must remove the barriers within ourselves.

The crucial barriers are the ways we compartmentalize our experiences — keeping them uniquely bound to one kind of job or career. Avoid such compartmentalization. Break open those compartments and mix all of your experiences, knowledge, and skills into the precise blend that makes a new you.

Not long ago, I had a respected...

If you're applying for jobs outside your native country, you need to re-examine much of what you know about putting together a resume. How many pages should it be? What format is best? Do you send it in MS Word or as a PDF?

As a giant generalisation, Greek employers prefer larger resumes, while in Norway resumes should be no longer than two pages. In New Zealand and Italy a senior executive resume of five pages is seen as okay by recruiters.

In South Africa, you...

Work is a financial necessity for almost everyone, along with the sacrifices work sometimes demands. It can be drudgery. But work also can be fun and exciting. The competition can be energizing. Work can be an important and positive part of our lives.

I learned a lot about this from Amy Wrzesniewski and her work with job crafting (PDF). She...

Whose life am I living? I'm sure you ask yourself that kind of question from time to time. What am I really good at? What is the purpose of my work? These are not new questions. Sooner or later, we all seek answers to them.

Up to three or four decades ago, most people struggled with such questions once or twice in their lives. When they chose their line of work, or when they resolved to break from the expectations of their family.

Today, fundamental...

The answer to the headline is "never," right?

As we said in a previous blog, if you can't afford to follow your passion, then don't quit your day job. Even just a few minutes a day immersed in doing what you love is good for you for many reasons, until you are in a better position to pursue your passion full-time.

But what if you really want to pursue your passion full-time, right now — as...