Author Profile
David Lindskoog's articles
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3 Tips
Do you ever get the impression that as workplaces become more diverse, they also become more complicated, challenging, perhaps overwhelming? You…
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Be Your Own Hero: How to Embrace Adventure in Your Career
Heroes: they’re in our books, our movies, our video games and our imaginations. They occupy the central role in most,…
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A New Approach to Networking
Networking, in the employment sense of the word, can be a tiresome task. It’s most often an obligation, not something…
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Applying Chaos Theory to Career Development
You may have heard about the Chaos Theory, a mathematical theory that was developed, among other applications, for use in…
David Lindskoog's blog articles
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Saying Goodbye: My Last Post
One day, my boss casually mentioned to me that he had spoken about blogging to someone at a national career…
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Self-Monitoring and Career Advice
Do you often find yourself looking to others for cues on how to act in social situations? Have you ever…
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The Growth of Beards in the Workplace
Over the last few years, I’ve made a custom of watching the Oscars. I say over the last few years…
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Favourite Quotations
I have had three quotations displayed on my office wall for years. I occasionally catch students glancing up at them…
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What Is “Career Development,” and Why Does It Matter?
ContactPoint.ca, a popular resource in the world of all things career development in Canada, is currently asking an important question:…
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Job Boards: Fit to Be Tied?
It’s impossible to talk about the job search process these days without mentioning job boards. Though they’re now widely considered…
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Santa and the “Career Question”
I don’t remember how it happened, but when I was about eight or nine years old, I figured out the…
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Words to Eliminate from Your Resumé: Part 2 – “Work”
This is Part 2 of an ongoing blog series on words that should never appear on your resumé. Missed Part…
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Words to Eliminate from Your Resumé: Part 1 – “History”
Resumés are often regarded as a kind of life history. It’s an intuitive enough position—after all, what’s a resumé if…
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Openness to Experience: Three Stories
In my last blog, I wrote about the concept of openness to experience: what the term means, how it originated,…
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Openness to Experience: A Desirable Quality
How open to new experiences are you? I recently had a conversation with some students about “openness to experience,” and…
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The Keynote
This week, I have the pleasure of being a keynote speaker at the new student orientation at SFU’s Surrey campus. I’m…
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Career Advice You Shouldn’t Take
Conventional wisdom says it’s not hard to hit a stationary target, especially if you’re standing mere feet away. That’s why…
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Terrible Ways to Choose Your Career
How would you respond if I advised you to choose your career based on a tarot card reading? How about…
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Blogging: Year(ish) in Review
Look at that—it’s somehow already August, with September coming sharply and inevitably into view. Around the university where I work,…
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Is It Luck?
Last week I wrote about strengths, and proposed both traditional and original formulations of the concept that is so central…
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Defining Strengths
What is a strength? Ask the average person how they would define the word and you’re likely to hear responses…
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Change Is Good
As the saying goes, change is the only constant in life. It affects our lives as pervasively and relentlessly as…
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Five Career Lessons from Bob Ross
If you’ve ever succumbed to the black hole that is daytime television, you’ll know that—unless infomercials, bad game shows and…
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So, You Survived Your First Year. Now What?
About eight years ago today, I was asking myself the same question. Having completed my first year at the University…
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Public Transit Rage & Intentionality
Public Transit Rage & Intentionality I could write a whole post about public transit frustrations. Delays. Breakdowns. Track violations. Buses…
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Stop Learning from Rejection
Rejection. There’s no feeling quite like it. In fact, rejection probably ranks in my top (bottom?) five list of worst…
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Job (Re)Search: Part Five – Results, Analysis, Discussion
Phew! We’re almost there—I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’ve almost covered the whole research…
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Job (Re)Search: Part Four – Data Collection (Get Some Career Action)
Part one of this series focused on operational definitions. Part two was all about asking The Question. In part three…
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Job (Re)Search: Part Three – Be Your Own Ethics Board
Is there anything more exciting than research design? There may well be, but you’re unlikely to read about it in…
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Job (Re)Search: Part 2 – The Question
I’ve been writing about the similarities between engaging in an effective work search and conducting a research study since… well,…
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Job (Re)Search: Part 1 - Operational Definitions
If you’ve ever taken a course on research methods, you’ll be familiar with the term “operational definition.” Simply put, an…
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Summer Jobs: It’s Not Too Early
Ah, the Monday after reading week. The faces on the bus seem a little bit longer, the sky seems just…
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Reading into Reading Week
It’s got to be one of the happiest weeks of the semester. A shining beacon of hope amidst academic despair….
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How to Avoid Death by Class Presentation
My first experience with public speaking was through a (voluntary) school program that coached us on the basics of speech-giving,…
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From Paper Calendars to iTunes U
When I first entered university in 2003, my dad was fond of reminding me of what his academic experience was…
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Youth Unemployment Is Everybody’s Problem
Four hundred thousand of anything is a lot. For context, it’s the approximate number of apps that exist for an…
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Writing: The Process vs. The Paper
If you’ve ever committed yourself to any kind of regular writing, you’ll know that inspiration—a creative force that is for…
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Twitter-piphanies
When I first started using Twitter, I was decidedly underwhelmed. I had no idea what all the fuss was about,…
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You’re Not Perfect: Don’t Over-prepare for Job Interviews
Congratulations − you’ve got a job interview. All that hard work you put into crafting the perfect, attention-grabbing resumé and…
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The Venn Diagram That Might Put Me Out of Business
I mentioned in last week’s entry that I would discuss the job interview process today as part of a series…
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Recruiting My Replacement: Part 1 – The Shortlist
As a career advisor, I see a lot of resumes. Despite the fact that we have a very diverse student…
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Slaying Small Talk
As I’ve said before in my blogs, I really dislike small talk—and, unless I’m a terrible judge of character, most…
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Men and Their Moustaches
Movember is here. With it, simultaneous cries of joy and lament (from guys and their partners, respectively) echo across Canada,…
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Busting Three Myths about University Success
I write this post today not just as someone who advises university students regarding career choices for a living, but…
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The M&Ms in Your Trail Mix
I’m not even sure why I keep buying them, but I always seem to have a giant bag of trail…
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Three Thanks
It’s customary at this time of year for Canadians to express their feelings of gratitude for the people and things…
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Tortoise Beats the Hare Every Time
Did you happen to look around on Monday morning and notice that the world was just a few steps behind…
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Why Networking Doesn’t Work
Try suggesting to someone that they go out and “do some networking,” and see what kind of response you get….
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A Long September
And there’s reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last I can remember the last thing…
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Why Volunteering is More Important to You than your Job
If you’re familiar with the professional social networking site LinkedIn, you’ve probably heard that members can now add a “Volunteer…
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Five Ways to Get Involved at School and in Your Career
I’ve gone on at length in the past about how taking meaningful actions of any kind is really the best…
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Listen Up
Hearing is easy, but listening can be hard. In just about any helping profession you may go into, you’ll hear…
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Lessons from my Psych Degree
One of the many reasons I pursued psychology as a discipline is my fascination with human behaviour (as frustrating as…
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Feeling Wordy
Infuriated. Enthused. Nonplussed. Serene. Trapped. Overwhelmed. Feelings and words—simple, right? I was talking with my fiancée last night about the…
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Want to Live Longer? Coworkers to the Rescue!
I’ll go ahead and say it – coworkers are what make or break a job. My assertion doesn’t just arise…
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On the Arts and Margaret Atwood
What’s that you say? There aren’t any careers in the arts? It’s not a promising sector? There won’t be any…
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A Delicate Balance
As nice as it can be to have time off, I must say that it feels good to be back…
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If Only Life Were a Fantasy Series
I’m still on a bit of a vacation, so I’m holding off on the serious career-related articles for another week…
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The Price Is Right
There’s just something about “The Price Is Right” that screams pleasant non-productivity. Maybe it’s just that it’s been such a…
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A Practical Look at Chaos
My post last week was an adventure into the magical land of theory—a wonderful place full of ideas and untold…
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It’s Chaos Out There!
I recently obtained a copy of The Chaos Theory of Careers: A New Perspective on Working in the Twenty-First Century,…
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Considerations on Generations
When I first started my job at SFU Career Services, I believe I was the only “gen Y” member of…
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Dreams of Stanley
Of course there are more serious topics to write about (as Philip illustrated in his last entry), and probably even…
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The Labour Labyrinth
Generation Y career expert Lindsey Pollak recently posted an article on some changes that this newest generation of employees are…
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Relocation, Relocation, Relocation.
When something big happens in hockey, it’s bound to be the primary topic of discussion all over this country. The…
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What’s It Not Worth? The Real Value of Post-Secondary Majors
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently highlighted a major report released by the Georgetown center, titled “What’s It Worth? The…
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Six Common Résumé Tips to Avoid at All Costs
I recently read a blog post on the topic of how the writer disliked articles that are simply lists—you know,…
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University Angst? Don’t Hate. Participate.
I’ve done some writing in the past about post-secondary education as an institution, and some of its many problems. I’m…
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Isn’t All Networking Social?
One of the hottest topics in the career practitioner field these days is the issue of social networking. Given the…
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The Last Exam Blues
Did you hear that? It’s the sound of thousands of graduating students breathing a collective sigh of relief following the…
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Procrastinate or Prepare? It’s a Matter of Type
I have a piece of advice for you today: don’t run a 10 km race without at least a little…
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Introducing: David Lindskoog
Coincidence is a funny thing. I can’t tell you how many personal blogs I’ve started that went really well for…
