How to Avoid Bad Career Advice: Part 2
Last time we started our review of analyzing J. Maureen Henderson’s Forbes.com article “Bad Career Advice Is Everywhere — Here’s How To Avoid It,” starting with “Does this advice reflect my own priorities?” This time we will look over Henderson’s second question.
Is this a trusted, qualified source?
Within this idea Henderson challenges her audience to examine the credentials of your source. Within the “post factual” era of information it is important to ask one’s self if the information one reads is actually useful, up to date, and correct.
Henderson tries to explain this to the reader by using an entertainment parallel. Would we treat an individual’s Amazon review of a book with the same respect as we would with LA Review of Books, most likely we would not.
Henderson also uses a common family situation to explain how quickly information can become outdated. It is not uncommon for parents to push their children into certain fields. The legal field is not only seen as a field of prestige but one in which an individual can reap huge financial rewards. But after the 2007 recession it has become an oversaturated field with few opportunities for even the most qualified individuals.
So, if one advises you to go into a field and cites guaranteed financial gain you can probably assume that (unless they are an job analyzer) their information is outdated.
Next time we will wrap up our dissection of Henderson’s article by analyzing her final question topic:
How invested is the person offering advice?
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