Career Development

What does it take to get ahead in the modern working world? Does it just take hard work or does it take kissing up to the right people?

Building a successful career requires continuous forward movement. When considering whether to accept a job, you should always ask yourself: Where will this job take me? Will it lead to a better job in a few years or is it a dead-end job?

You have finally found that new job and you are excited about making a good first impression. You don't want to get off on the wrong foot and head down the wrong path.

Managers are often told they need to be empathetic and people-focused to get ahead in the modern business environment. But if you really want to get to the top, you still need to be a numbers' person.

If things just aren't working out for you, it may just be time to admit that you need to choose a different career path. In which case, these tips could prove very useful.

In an unstable economy, taking risks can be seen as foolish. But success occurs only when people chances. And despite what critics you might encounter, now might be a great time to take a risk.

Diane's unit is plagued with poor morale and disorganization – a large part of which is due to her lazy boss. Dr Rob Yeung has some suggestions to help her deal with him without upsetting the applecart.

The first day of a new job can be stressful for anyone, so here's advice for getting through the first day and starting off on the right foot.

If you're planning on changing jobs at the moment, make very sure you want to do it for the right reasons. A better strategy may be to ride out the economic turbulence with your current employer.

Job-hopping may boost your salary in the short term, but too much career chopping and changing can eventually harm a worker's financial prospects.

The real reason you may hate your job may have nothing to do with your boss at all. Instead, hating your job may have more to do with picking the wrong career for the wrong reasons.

History is full of people who had to spend years working awful jobs before becoming great and changing the world.

So you are sitting in a cubicle, but you dream of having that nice corner office with a great view. How do you get there?

If you're serious about getting to the top of the corporate ladder, the chances are that somewhere along the way you're going to need the services of a head-hunter.

Managers like to think of themselves as decisive and assured, but when it comes to looking for a new job, many turn into quivering jellies of uncertainty and indecision.

Have we really become so gullible as to believe that the more complex our jobs sound, the higher our value and the greater our net worth? Or have a lot of us just forgotten what it is we supposed to be doing?

Managers may weep at office politics, despair at the latest initiative from on high and worry about poor performers. But half have also experienced moments of real clarity about their role and how they are meant to lead.

One unfortunate side effect of our busy working lives that it is easy to lose sight of workplace relationships. As a result, we forget that our personal and professional success depends as much on the quality of these relationships as it does on how effectively we perform our tasks.

Is your boss just difficult to deal with? If so, what do you do about it? How do you handle talking to the person who could, in theory, have you fired or destroy your career? This piece on Monster.com has some ideas and suggestions.

Germans, French and Greeks swear by it. The British and Irish think it is over-rated. And for Americans it is virtually unheard of. What are we talking about? Job loyalty, of course.

For many American servicemen and women, making the transition into civilian work is proving just as challenging as serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Why do so many women struggle with "being political"? They possess all the skills they need to succeed in the political arena – but all too often, no-one has taught them the rules of the game. So here's a crash course in how to play the game without becoming a man in a skirt.

Susan loves her job as a teacher, but the pay just isn't enough to ensure financial stability. But with a baby on the way, should she look for a job with better prospects or keep her peace of mind but continue to live paycheck to paycheck?

Senior executives are more loyal than you might expect, with half expecting to work for no more than seven organisations during their entire career.

Umesh is torn between staying in his current job – which has its good points despite the problems – and accepting a more senior role with a smaller rival. Recruiter Steve Huxham helps him consider all the options.

Are you about ready to quit? More importantly, do you want to quit, but you don't want to pour gasoline and then set fire to the bridge behind you? There is a way to resign and not ruin everything, as revealed in this piece on the eponymously-named I-resign.com.

The twists and turns of working life sometimes reflect life inside a casino. The cards you're dealt so often offer the promise of untold wealth and riches and yet the odds are always stacked in favour of the house.

For the ambitious manager it's no longer who you know that is important. It's not even what you know. It's "can you prove it?" that counts, new British research has suggested.

Thinking about a new job? What about trying temporary work instead? After all, temping isn't far off from the world of consulting, though you have less paperwork and lower overheads.

Six out of 10 U.S. hiring managers looking for college students to fill internship positions and if they play their cards right, many of these are likely to be offered a permanent job.

With every merger or acquisition, as many as 15 per cent of employees (that's more than one in six) in the combined organization can expect to face the axe. If you don't want to be a statistic, you need to know the smart way to survive being bought.

People who rise up organizations understand the unspoken rules of success – they know that what gets them paid every month is not going to get them ahead. They understand the secret of career helium.

They say that animal lovers end up looking like their pets. But now it seems that looking like – and being like – your boss can be pretty significant for your career, too.

Italian management consultants have come up with a unique recipe for boosting your management career. Forget business books, what you need to do is watch more movies.

The idea that workers who have lost or left their jobs are happy to travel anywhere to find new work is a myth – in fact the vast majority will do their utmost to ensure they don't have to uproot themselves or their family.

Fred has been on the graduate programme at an international bank for almost two years but feels that the programme is not meeting his expectations and that he has been treated like a temp wherever he's been posted. Patricia Soldati offers some advice.

High-flyers seem to intuitively understand how to gain access and how to enhance and sustain their leadership positions. They're aware of the hidden truths that fast-trackers have used for ages, rules which, if used correctly, can rock your professional world.

Kirsty is a graduate high-flyer whose first job in an international law firm isn't panning out the way she had planned. But is this down to misunderstanding and miscommunication or something far more serious?

Kirsty is a graduate high-flyer whose first job in an international law firm isn't panning out the way she had planned. But is this down to misunderstanding and miscommunication or something far more serious?

Kirsty is a graduate high-flyer whose first job in an international law firm isn't panning out the way she had planned. But is this down to misunderstanding and miscommunication or something far more serious?

Kirsty is a graduate high-flyer whose first job in an international law firm isn't panning out the way she had planned. But is this down to misunderstanding and miscommunication or something far more serious?

While earning a bit of cash over the summer never goes amiss, what students really value is work experience that leaves them better equipped to land a permanent job when they leave college or university.

Thinking about Katie Couric and the woes at CBS News, it struck me that what she has done is what many other successful people do - make a shift away from an area of tremendous achievement - only to find that career changes don't always turn out as planned.

Getting promoted, especially into that first management job, can be a nightmare, one that is made all the worse by a lack of support and training. Which could be why so many people just don't want to be managers.

Millions of Britons are unfulfilled and miserable and want to quit the rat race by the time they reach their mid 40s to devote the last two decades of their working lives to more compassionate careers.

Let's be blunt here. When your employer encourages you to formulate a personal development plan, they're not doing so out of some new-found concern for your welfare. So why not spend a half-hour really thinking about your future?

It's often suggested that knowing what it is that drives your values, work preferences and passions will automatically lead to exciting, viable work possibilities. But as anyone who has struggled with changing their career direction can tell you, this is not the case.

His wife is pressurizing him to earn a higher salary by finding another job but he's burnt out and wants to do just the opposite. What can our experts suggest?

In spite of daily evidence of its wisdom, pro-active career management is still rare. It is easier to take the path of least resistance and hope for the best. But there is a compelling ROI for always being ready.

Almost half of Canadians so worried about being left behind by younger rivals that they would consider cosmetic surgery to keep their careers on track.

The big accountancy firms in the U.S. are keen to trumpet their adoption of work-life balance and flexible working arrangements. But look more closely and this new-found concern for their employees is revealed as little more than window dressing.

So you want a career change and you want to pay your bills and operate in the real world without living hand to mouth. You want work you care about and the capacity to earn a good living. Here's how to achieve it.

Many employers in Asia-Pacific are at risk of losing their most talented people as disillusionment with career prospects and management styles leads them to look for opportunities elsewhere.

Before you start to climb the career ladder you might want to reflect on the fact that the only thing more stressful and challenging than securing a long sought-for promotion is going through a messy divorce.

Keen to work from home? Great idea - just as long as you're happy to be labelled unambitious and keen to make your sceptical, office-bound manager resent you.

For most of us, making significant career change doesn't just happen, it emerges as a result of thoughtful work executed in a meaningful sequence.

January is traditionally one of the most popular times to move jobs, and this year looks like it will be no exception, with nearly half of British employers saying they plan to hire new workers in the coming months

Imagine you have a reputation so strong - and convey it so well – that rather than look for new opportunities, the marketplace comes to you. In our new world of work, your reputation, or personal brand, is the currency that sets you apart.

With retention problems growing and four out of 10 U.S. hiring managers expecting to increase their headcounts, the new year looks like bringing with it bigger paychecks, more opportunities for promotion and a greater sensitivity to work-life balance issues.

The New Year has traditionally been one of the most popular times to move jobs, but with three quarters of U.S workers saying they want a change, 2007 is likely to be even busier than usual