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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 14, 2006 / 14 Adar, 5766

Career passion requires foreplay

By Marty Nemko

Nemko
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Few people expect to have an orgasm just by looking at someone. They know that foreplay is required. Yet career seekers somehow expect that, immediately upon considering an appropriate career, they'll feel "Eureka, I have found it": "Oh, dentist. That's it.! Perfect! I know I'll love it."


For most people who end up passionate about their career, that's not how it works. As with sex, foreplay is usually required before passion erupts.


Here are the four steps in career foreplay:


Step 1: Choose a career. After a reasonable amount of career exploration, choose something, even if you're not passionate about it.


Step 2: Become expert at the career. Get solid training. That doesn't necessarily require a prestigious university. In fact, many less prestigious institutions provide more practical career training.


More important to your training is that you make the most of the program: choosing courses and professors most likely to teach practical skills, asking career-related questions in class and during professors' office hours, selecting term paper topics most likely to make you proficient, and choosing fieldwork and internship assignments with master practitioners.


Becoming expert usually also requires on-the job training: asking a good supervisor or coworkers to observe or review your work and answer your questions, attending workshops from your professional association, reading professional magazines, Web articles, and books written by master practitioners.


Step 3: Customize the career to fit you. A career is like an off-the-shelf suit: it won't fit well unless you tailor it. So, for example, let's say you're a manager in a dashboard manufacturing plant. If you're naturally good with your hands, try to spend as much time as possible fixing problems on the factory floor. If you're more of a people person, maximize the time you spend on helping your employees to be productive. If you love investigation, spend time researching new ideas. If you're more of a word person, focus on writing and verbally presenting plans and reports. If you're more entrepreneurial, work on creating collaborations across divisions or with other firms. If you're more of a detail person, focus on creating and evaluating budgets, surveys, and other quantitative data.


Step 4: Find people who value what you do. After you've become expert at your career and tailored it to maximize your strengths and preferences, your current employer and customers will probably praise you and pay you well. If not, find another employer who will, or become self-employed.


After the four steps of career foreplay, many people can expect to experience career passion, even in a field as unsexy as dashboard manufacture.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

400+ of Dr. Nemko's published writings are on www.martynemko.com. Comment by clicking here.

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