The latest unemployment statistic of 8.1% proves what every job seeker knows: It is a tough time to find a new job.

But do the sometimes wacky ways that people find jobs (or opportunities find people) in better times still hold promise?

Perhaps.

Like science, executive search typically involves a...

When my daughter returned home from college for the Thanksgiving break, it was not home-cooking she was anticipating with glee. She had visions of the take-out food -- sushi, pad thai, tacos, and more -- that can be delivered to our New York City door in minutes.

Home-cooking may be...

I have had so many over-the-top moments as a mother in the Hover Generation (haven't we all?) that it may be hard to select just one.

I don't think it was the time when I walked around for days with a mental image of the exact shade of green velvet...

The sub-head in my copy of Saturday's New York Times today reads, "2nd Talk With Obama Persuaded Senator." The article reports that Senator Hillary R. Clinton's second interview with President-elect Barack Obama proved essential to her decision to go forward with the nomination to become Secretary of State.

Why am...

Sometimes I'm asked why I "bother" with my nonprofit boards and other volunteer work. After all, I am not a "lady who lunches," although I have met many such women and admired what they do for their causes. Nor am I "between jobs," during which volunteer work can be used...

1. A New York Woman thinks Fresh Direct (an online-ordering grocery delivery service) is better than sliced bread. She might know how to cook, but sees little reason to. She might have a spiffy kitchen, and yet not know whether she has a broiler, and if she does, where it...

Last year on Sunday, September 16, I walked out of the haunting movie Rape of Europa, to retrieve a far more chilling message on my cell phone. It seemed my 86-year-old father, who had been ailing for a few months, had been taken to the hospital, suddenly, on the presumption...

When a woman reaches a certain age - let's call it 50 - and rooms start seeming warm, she is advised to dress in layers. The implication of this recommendation is that she can add or remove layers as temperatures dictate. As with much fashion advice, this, too, is better...

I just read today of a placemat the features the colors of balanced diet, available for free, in Brooklyn, NY.

As a mid-century, middle-class American, I grew up on a diet of a paper placemats at the predecessors to today's fast-food chains. (Yes, there was a time before McDonald's.) Sometimes...

It is December 25th as I write this so almost everyone may be sick and tired of reading about or thinking about gifts to get. And starting tomorrow most will grow fatigued about reading about or hearing about the pros and cons of regifting. So here I am to suggest...

For most of my life, I never had a coffee table. I always saw a coffee table as a menace--something I would either have to walk around or walk into. Little did I know.

My furniture phobia was confined to this particular item. I did have the requisite assortment...

No call comes in more often than this one. It begins, "We want to start a search for a development director."

Today, no executive search request is more frequent -- and no search is more difficult -- than that for a fundraiser or development director, as they are...

An executive leaves a financial services giant and announces plans to spend time in academe or the philanthropic world. But does it always make sense for a not-for-profit (nfp) to hire this star?

In the course of our work with board search committees, we have interviewed a...

Every year, colleges and universities across the country challenge the hegemony of the U.S. News & World Report rankings. This year, some colleges are balking at supplying data. Recently it was reported that one prestigious university may have submitted questionable data.

I, too, used to wonder how the third of...