Career

Career

Show Your Work, and You Might Get Lucky
ByMike McBride January 28, 2026January 27, 2026 Reading Time: 2 minutes

The post is written by a developer, and he’s got good advice for anyone looking for that kind of work. I’m not a developer, but I can say with some confidence that this advice applies to everyone. In this job market, who you know is everything.

Scratch that. It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you and your work. The more people who see your work, the more likely you are to land a job. It’s not always that simple, but it sure increases the odds. Maybe for the rest of us, it’s not about having a GitHub repository for our projects, but about writing a blog, being involved in user groups, or volunteering with your industry’s educational resource.

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Career

How much do interruptions hurt productivity?
ByMike McBride December 12, 2025December 12, 2025 Reading Time: 1 minute

Think about it: if you’re getting interrupted by email, calls, instant messages, etc., every three minutes, and it takes longer than three minutes to get back to focused work, there is none. That is the reality for many people in the workplace. And then we wonder why projects get off schedule so easily. Project tasks require focused time that doesn’t exist.

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Career

Worth Reading – Why Starting Networking Conversations Feels Hard (and How to Fix It)
ByMike McBride December 3, 2025December 2, 2025 Reading Time: 2 minutes

As Greg points out, it’s pretty standard for us to appreciate it when old contacts reach out. I’d add that it’s pretty standard for people at events to enjoy the stranger who tries to welcome them into a conversation rather than ignore them.

Yet most of us go about life depriving people of that enjoyment because we somehow believe they won’t enjoy it.

There’s no evidence of it.

The holidays are a great time for reaching out, by the way. A quick, happy holiday wish can go a long way.

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Career

Worth Reading – Communication Isn’t Part of Your Job. It’s THE Job.
ByMike McBride December 1, 2025November 30, 2025 Reading Time: 2 minutes

If you’ve felt this way, I encourage you to consider that communication is a skill you can learn. Writing, speaking, presenting, training, etc., are all variations of the basic skill of communication. If you can learn how to articulate your ideas, you will likely find more success in your career. If you’re willing to teach your employees this skill, you’ll get more involvement and better ideas, rather than just hearing from the loudest voices on your team. It’s worth the effort.

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Career

Worth Reading – Purposeful Work Boosts Engagement, but Few Experience It
ByMike McBride November 24, 2025November 23, 2025 Reading Time: 1 minute

I would suggest that another partial explanation is that many jobs and businesses don’t involve work that feels purposeful because the work has no purpose. Too many jobs exist solely to make more money for CEOs and investors. They don’t sell anything that helps society. Employees don’t benefit directly from business improvements, and those same CEOs justify all of the efforts by talking about how much the stock price went up. That seems to be the entire point of the organization. That’s the purpose.

It’s not easy to feel like your work has a purpose when the real purpose is to make some number go up. It’s hard to be engaged with that.

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Artificial Intelligence | Career

Worth Reading – AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
ByMike McBride November 10, 2025November 19, 2025 Reading Time: 2 minutes

I think we might need a variation of the Dunning-Kruger effect to describe the people who weren’t smart enough to realize the AI was wrong when it told them their ideas were brilliant.

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