I came into work yesterday after taking a couple of days off. This time I decided not to work while I was off – no checking voicemails, no e-mails, no paperwork. Nope, just totally unplug.As expected, when I returned to work, I was immediately swamped with things to do. A couple of hundred e-mail messages to return. Twenty-two phone messages to return with a recording that my mailbox was now full. Interviews with job candidates. A full slate of meetings for the day. A couple of presentations to prepare for later in the week. And, to top it all off, a staff meeting with my team at 9 AM.

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I was talking over lunch with an HR colleague of mine who heads up college recruiting at another company. She shared with me an amazing story that has huge implications for advancing your career in HR.Apparently, she was looking to hire a Human Resources master’s degree candidate for a lucrative, full-time position in her organization. The job was in a prestigious HR fast track, entry-level leadership development program. Job had just about everything you’d want. Great pay. Great benefits. Great company. Great location. Awesome future. A job most HR folks I know would have killed to get right out of school.

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Welcome to our blog! On this blog we’re going to share blunt, no BS , street-smart strategies for advancing your career, impact and income in HR. This is not the same kind of warmed-over stuff that you’ll find replicated on a jillion other HR blogs or from some high-priced consultant. They don’t work every day with clients who are pressured every day to meet quarterly and often unforgiving targets for profitability, productivity, sales and costs. These are those same clients whose bonus, annual performance rating or job may be in jeopardy if they don’t deliver. And to be brutally honest with you, these are also the same clients who need Human Resources but who have come to view many folks in HR as the speed bump to their success.

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