151 Quick Ideas to Deal With Difficult People

106Seek a Colleague’s Advice

A longtime friend who had just received her PH.D. called me in tears. She was convinced her former adviser, with whom she frequently clashed, was hamstringing her efforts to land a university teaching job. She said she had applied to 70 universities. Some seemed interested in her, she said, until they conferred with her old school. She had given up.

I reminded her that the country has about 2,600 accredited, four-year colleges and universities. She had only contacted a fraction. With so many other schools out there, she was declaring defeat prematurely. Before she sent out another application, I suggested that she have a candid sit-down with her adviser to see if they couldn’t reach a truce and hammer out a new response ...