Things We Like + Think Are Smart

This is painful to admit, but we don’t have the answer to every question. (Please, don’t tell anyone.) Because we want to be your one-stop-shop, we’ve compiled our resources here for your perusing pleasure. There are things that we think are funny, and helpful. Most of it is smart with useful advice (and mostly, they’re things we wish we had thought of first). We’ll continue adding things to the list as we find more, so keep checking back!

The Dream Job

• The Incalculable Value of Finding a Job You Love – The New York Times
• In Choosing a Job, Focus on the Fun – The New York Times
• Finding a Job That Works for You – The New York Times

Confidence

• The Confidence Gap – The Atlantic “What doomed the women in Estes’s lab was not their actual ability to do well on the tests. They were as able as the men were. What held them back was the choice they made not to try.”…“If we keep at it, if we channel our talent for hard work, we can make our brains more confidence-prone. What the neuroscientists call plasticity, we call hope.”
• Women, Stop Volunteering for Office Housework! – The New York Times

The Funnies

• An Honest Intern Application Letter – McSweeny’s
• Sorry for the Delayed Response – The New Yorker

Returners

• Leaning (Back) In: What Happens When Stay-at-Home Mom’s Return to Work – Vogue
• Why 43% of Women Leave Their Jobs, and How to Get Them Back – The Atlantic

Goals

• How to Crush Your Habits in the New Year With the Help of Science – The New York Times
• Study Finds Bad Bosses Could Turn You Into a Great Boss – Science Daily
• This 75-Year Harvard Study Found the 1 Secret to Leading a Fulfilling Life – Fast Company

Changing Direction

• A Big Life Change is More Planning than Magic – The New York Times
• Why I Tell My MBA Students to Stop Looking for a Job and Join the Gig Economy – Harvard Business Review
• Quit Your Job – The Atlantic
• It Turns Out the ‘Gig Economy’ Has Shrunk Since 2005 – Bloomberg
• What To Do When You Think You’re About To Get Fired – The New York Times

Leadership

• When Leaders are Hired for Talent but Fired for Not Fitting In – Harvard Business Review
• Five Proven Ways to Increase Your Influence with Senior Executives – LinkedIn
• Climbing Down the Corporate Ladder without Alarming Your Boss – The New York Times
• Power Causes Brain Damage – The Atlantic

Retirement

• A Retirement Plan with Less Golf but More Satisfaction – The New York Times “The real icing on the cake is this: If you realize that you aren’t going to retire, then maybe you don’t have to keep working at a job that’s slowly driving you insane.”
• At Intel, A Retirement Perk That Can Kick Off A New Career As A Paid Fellow – NPR

College Stuff

• Colleges Really Need to Rethink the Career Advice They Deliver – The Atlantic “In a follow-up attempt to qualify what a “good” visit to a career-services office looks like, Gallup spoke with graduates about their experiences. So-called “non-traditional” students—older students who may have worked prior to enrolling in college, for instance, or who might be raising children—said that the offices frequently offered only basic interviewing tips or resume guidelines, where what they really wanted was more personalized assistance.”
• Why It’s Fine to Job-Hop for a Few Years after College – The New York Times “The key is whether you can explain convincingly to potential employers that each move was made with your career development in mind.”
• 6 Things New Grads Should Know Before Joining a Startup – Harvard Business Review

Happiness

• More Money, More Success, More Stuff? Don’t Count on More Happiness – The New York Times “We pass up life-changing experiences because we’re on track to become partner. We skip meaningful time with our families so we can respond to one more email. I assume this is all in pursuit of something out there that we think will make us happier.”
• Are you Happy? – Man Repeller
• A Better Kind of Happiness – The New Yorker “Indeed, this malleability is perhaps the most encouraging quality of both Little’s core project and Aristotle’s eudaemonia, because it makes finding happiness a real possibility. Even the most temperamentally introverted or miserable among us has the capacity to find a meaningful project that suits who we are. Locating it won’t just bring pleasure; it might also bring a few more years of life in which to get the project done.”
• The Glossary of Happiness – The New Yorker
• The Differences Between Happiness and Meaning in Life – Scientific American

Burnout + Unhappiness

• Burnout is Caused by Mismatch Between Unconscious Needs and Job Demands – Science Daily
• Most Americans are Unhappy at Work – Forbes

Generational Stuff

• Millennials in the Workplace: They Don’t Need Trophies but They Want Reinforcement – Forbes
• What Happens When Millennials Run the Workplace? – The New York Times
• Everything You Need to Know About Your Millennial Co-Workers – Fortune

Intentionality + Introspection

• How to Live Wisely – The New York Times
• Want to Find FulFillment at Last? Think Like a Designer – The New York Times
• 8 Ways to Make Meaningful Small Talk – goop
• Most Food Tastes Better When We Prepare It Ourselves, Study Says – The Wall Street Journal

Authenticity

• Conformity vs. Authenticity in the Office – Chicago Tribune
  
• Be Yourself, but Carefully – Harvard Business Review “Authenticity begins with self-awareness: knowing who you are – your values, emotions, and competencies – and how you’re perceived by others. Only then can you know what to reveal and when.”

Work/Life Balance

• Eight Moms Who Work in Fashion on the Work-Life Balance – Man Repeller
• MR Round Table: That Elusive Work/Life Balance – Man Repeller

Relationships at Work

• Friends at Work? Not So Much – The New York Times