Candid Career & Job Search Advice: Guy Kawasaki interviews Penelope Trunk

Check out this blog post by Guy Kawasaki – a friend alerted me to it yesterday.  I found some very interesting stuff here regarding career, job search and the reality of the current workplace:  Ten Questions With Penelope Trunk: Career Guidance for This Century.

Kawasaki does some Q&A with author, Penelope Trunk. Her book, Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, sounds intriguing.  Kawasaki asked some great questions and gets some brazenly honest answers.  For instance, she addresses reporting sexual harrassment in the workplace, pointing out the reality of “retaliation”, which she says is illegal but hard to prove.  Surprisingly, she advises victims not to report harrassment unless they are in physical danger.  According to Kawasaki, she says, “I am not saying this is okay. But I’m saying that if you care about your career, you’ll do everything possible to not report. Most women are not in the position to sacrifice their career—and their earning power—in the name of trying to bring down one harasser.”  That sure does bring up mixed feelings for me.  However, she does make some valid points about the reality of the workplace.

Kawasaki remarks that his favorite Trunk answers are #7 and #10, but I like #2 and #12 because I consistently find that people don’t realize just how much it’s all about attitude, likeability and the projection of confident self-esteem. And that applies to success in the job search as well as in the career.