I wasn’t going to do it, but as a Torontonian it’s about time I blogged (however tangentially!) about our fearless — or should I say feckless — mayor. Yeah, that’s a pretty tame way of describing him. He has a lot to deal with, and I wish him luck. In today’s National Post, The Blatch… Continue Reading
Author Lynn Coady was awarded the Giller Prize last night for her short story collection, Hellgoing. I’m encouraging everyone to read her backlist, which includes several novels with memorable characters — no one captures Maritime life like her (she was raised in Cape Breton). Congratulations, Lynn Coady. It was a long time coming!
Freelancers must build their client lists and deliver excellent service. Of course, you can’t deliver excellent service if you have no clients. To get ideas on building my client list, I started attending seminars and reading career advice books (that’s when I discovered Asher). At a recent EAC seminar, “How to Be a Successful Freelancer,”… Continue Reading
This post is part of a continuing series about job-hunting the Donald Asher way. In step 1, you identified your job targets. Now that you know what job you’re looking for, it’s time to find the employers who will hire you to do that job. That’s right — you’re ready for step 2: identifying raw… Continue Reading
This year’s International Festival of Authors features Marisha Pessl, author of Night Film. I haven’t read this book yet, but it’s full of creative extras, including a “Night Film Decoder” app that can be downloaded and used to scan images in the book (print or e-book) that unlock multimedia content. I love innovative stuff like… Continue Reading
I just returned from dropping my daughter off at the local subway station, where she and her fellow Girl Guides are selling cookies. They do this every year, and I was struck by the memory of walking her to the station last year. I tore my ACL last October, and walking was excruciating. The subway… Continue Reading
Donald Asher’s first step in a job search is identifying job targets. A job target has 3 components: industry, function, and title. Before doing anything, you need to know what job you’re looking for. You will not contort yourself to fit posted jobs; you will go after the jobs you want. Go crazy with your… Continue Reading
I just tweeted my first TwitterStory this morning. All 10 posts are 140 characters or less. The spacing was more cramped in my actual Twitter posts. Here it is: I’ve always been a sucker for a girl who gets her hands dirty, and this girl’s hands were plenty dirty. It was the first thing I… Continue Reading
I recently discovered the books of career expert Donald Asher. In Cracking the Hidden Job Market, Asher offers a step-by-step approach to conducting a job search. The approach has 7 steps: Identify job targets Identify raw leads Convert raw leads into lists of names of specific people Turn a name into an appointment Sell in… Continue Reading
I’ve complained before about the lack of quality copy editing being done in the newspaper biz. A lot of copy editing is contracted out to Pagemasters, and, well, you get what you pay for. Here’s the opening sentence from a movie review in today’s National Post: Among the relationship the enhanced transparency of the online… Continue Reading