Career Tools

This podcast recommends keeping an ongoing Delta File, a private journal where you record organizational practices you find objectionable so that when you eventually reach a position of greater influence, you'll remember how those decisions felt from below and avoid making the same mistakes yourself.

This is our guidance that gives examples of cover letters for particular roles.

This is our guidance on how to accept a job offer.

This cast describes how to keep your current employer from finding out about your search for a new job.

This cast describes how to decide which jobs to apply for.

This cast gives our most fundamental career advice: get results and build relationships.

This cast gives our most fundamental career advice: get results and build relationships.

This is our guidance for how to create accomplishments for your resume that will be compelling to the people deciding whether to bring you in for an interview.

This cast tells you how to create and use a Career Management Document, the ideal tool for managing your career and making it easy to update your resume.

This cast tells you how to create and use a Career Management Document, the ideal tool for managing your career and making it easy to update your resume.

This cast gives our guidance on answering illegal interview questions.

While not all bosses do, smart and effective bosses usually name someone on their team as their "Number Two." Being a good Number Two is good for your career. Here's how to do it.

This cast explains our guidance on what to do instead of multitasking.

This guidance on ethical behavior serves as the foundation for all Career Tools, Manager Tools, and Executive Tools content. The principles outlined here are the underlying assumptions that inform every recommendation we make.

What is this Horstman's 3rd Law of Interviewing? We'll Take 90% Less Ability for 10% More Attitude Every Day of the Week.

What is this Horstman's 3rd Law of Interviewing? We'll Take 90% Less Ability for 10% More Attitude Every Day of the Week.

Part 2 of our recommendations about calendar management.

This cast describes the first of our recommendations about calendar management.

Our Hall Of Fame guidance on work-family balance.

This cast is about interview preparation, and the need for ethics and candor during the process.

Our Hall of Fame guidance on how to prepare for your review.

One of the skills that so many professionals could be so much better at with such little work is relationships with executive recruiters. The fact is, recruiters play important roles in corporate life, more today than they ever have before, and not just at executive levels. This is particularly true in the technology space.

One of the skills that so many professionals could be so much better at with such little work is relationships with executive recruiters. The fact is, recruiters play important roles in corporate life, more today than they ever have before, and not just at executive levels. This is particularly true in the technology space.

In this podcast we talk about how to make your technology work for you, and how you can spend less time on email while getting more done.

In this podcast we talk about how to make your technology work for you, and how you can spend less time on email while getting more done.

Time management is a fallacy. Time doesn't need you to "manage" it - it's been getting along just fine without you for billions of years. We can't manage time. What we CAN manage is what we do with that time. And yet, the overwhelming evidence is that professionals and managers do NOT "manage what they do with that time."

Time management is a fallacy. Time doesn't need you to "manage" it - it's been getting along just fine without you for billions of years. We can't manage time. What we CAN manage is what we do with that time. And yet, the overwhelming evidence is that professionals and managers do NOT "manage what they do with that time."

At least once in your career, and perhaps as many as five times, you're going to have to resign from a position. And this is one of those tasks or responsibilities that no one talks about, no one knows how to do, and therefore… many do it poorly.

At least once in your career, and perhaps as many as five times, you're going to have to resign from a position. And this is one of those tasks or responsibilities that no one talks about, no one knows how to do, and therefore… many do it poorly.

We suggest you Build and Maintain Your Network. It only takes THREE SIMPLE SKILLS, and we'll walk through them.

No matter your role or stage of career, don't think for a moment that someone else is managing your career. Those days are long gone. YOU are managing your career. What you do - not only in job skills, but also in what we call "Transition Skills" - will be the primary determinant of your career success. You're not going to have the richest, most rewarding series of roles and opportunities by allowing someone in HR to know enough about you to get you where you need to be. And succession planning won't save you either.

Your resume, regardless of the baggage associated with it, is probably your most critical career management document. While it's not something you ought to leave lying around on your desk for others to see, that doesn't mean you ought to treat it like something you dust off only when you really need it. It needs to be reviewed quarterly, believe it or not.

Your resume, regardless of the baggage associated with it, is probably your most critical career management document. While it's not something you ought to leave lying around on your desk for others to see, that doesn't mean you ought to treat it like something you dust off only when you really need it. It needs to be reviewed quarterly, believe it or not.

What you can do to help your manager when they get their engagement survey results.

What you can do to help your manager when they get their engagement survey results.

Building a network in a digital world - a 2025 update to "Building A Network".

Our guidance on the benefits of pursuing financial security instead of job security.

Our guidance on identifying, tracking, and communicating the metrics that reflect your true professional value—so you can improve performance, support your resume, and demonstrate impact to your organization.

Our guidance on career growth strategies for High C’s

Welcome to a special episode of Manager Tools. Today, you're listening to the live recording of our 20th anniversary podcast, captured in front of a fantastic audience of managers and leaders just like you.

Career growth comes from leveraging your strengths and at the same time managing and mitigating your weaknesses. We all have a wide array of strengths, but choosing which ones to use first for career growth can be overwhelming, so in this podcast, we’re going to suggest just four targeted strategies that work with your natural tendencies as a High S to accelerate your growth.

Our guidance on career growth strategies for High I's.

Our guidance on career growth strategies for High D's.

Part 2 of our guidance on the pitfalls of data analysis.

Our guidance on the pitfalls of data analysis.

Part 2 of our guidance on professional note-taking - and what to do with your notes once you’ve taken them.

Our guidance on professional note-taking - and what to do with your notes once you've taken them.

Our guidance on what to do with the money when you get a raise.

Our Hall of Fame guidance on what to do if you’re being asked to work in an office after working at home and you’d prefer not to.

Our guidance on documenting your progress when you want to be promoted.