Summer Career Tune-Up Ideas Here!

It’s summertime and the dog days are here. I live in Texas, where it’s HOT, HOT, HOT and where cool ideas can provide some welcome relief from the blast furnace that we call “the great outdoors” at this time of year. Maybe it’s not so bad where you live — and for your sake, I certainly hope that’s true — but nevertheless, I find myself thinking this morning that some cool career makeover ideas might be welcome, no matter where you might hang your hat. So here goes with three pointers to interesting, thought-provoking, and (hopefully) cool ideas on a career makeovers:

1. Joyce Schwartz at SelfGrowth.com has put together a nice article entitled “How to do a Career Tune-Up Every Season” where she provides tips on personal and professional development that target the summer season in particular.

2. Pat Van Haste offers some breif and interesting suggestions for your resume in “It’s Past Time for a Resume Tuneup” where pruning out the old and adding in the new (or recent) is the order of the day.

3. Rusty Weston from gargantuan jobsite Monster.com offers up his suggestions to take on the world in his article “Is It Time to Tune Up Your Skills to Compete Globally?” Actually, AFAIK, it’s *ALWAYS* time for an exercise like this…

Not enough for you, yet? Think about picking up a used copy of The Mid Career Tune-Up: 10 New Habits for Keeping Your Edge in Today’s Fast Paces Workplace from Amazon (pre-owned copies start there at a whopping $0.01, plus shipping, for a true price floor of about four bucks). Full of more exhortations on how to examine possible causes of a mid-career slump or loss of enthusiasm, and some good advice on how to deal with same. Comes from the American Management Assocation press (AMACOM) and takes the whole job/working thing pretty seriously, and thus also gives some serious advice and information to ponder, too. Combine business with pleasure, and read it on the beach if you like. It’s cheap enough that if you don’t like this book, you can give it to somebody else or Goodwill, even, without incurring too much out-of-pocket expense along the way. Enjoy!