Long URLs

Do you know, I had totally forgotten about the TinyURL site. When we have - say - character entry limits on some media and messaging platforms, we can go to www.tinyurl.com, paste in our long URL, and get a shortened version which will still point the user to the full address. Additionally, if we are wanting a cleaner looking link for branding/printing, to avoid breaking lines, or to make for easier sharing, TinyURLs fit that bill too.

While we don't need to create an account, if we do have one, we can also create custom alias URLs which make it easier for us to remember than thus share links... and we can use that custom link to help track clicks (although TinyURL itself does not track). 

We should note that there are also some limitations: we users are unable to see the final destination from the shortened URL, and many of us have been bitten too many times. We are only likely to click on a TinyURL that we know comes from a reputable forwarder; and if the TinyURL site is down, the link doesn't work. 

To make a TinyURL, simply follow these steps:

• Copy the long URL (Ctrl & C)
• Go to https://tinyurl.com/
• Paste the URL - Ctrl & V - into the text box
• Click the "Make TinyURL!" button
• TinyURL will generate a shortened URL
• Copy the shortened URL (Ctrl & C again) and use it where we need it.

The shortened link will work immediately and never expires. How's that for awesome?!

Sam

References:

TinyURL. (2025). The Original URL Shortener. https://tinyurl.com/

read more "Long URLs"

What is career capital?

Career capital on an individual scale is the learning and experience which we can "walk out the door" with when we transition between education institutions, organisations, and the interests in our private lives. When we work for an organisation, our career capital can be drawn on as a knowledge bank, and is a key source of value to the organisation: and a key negotiation point for us (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1996; Lamb, 2007). Career capital is not just what we do; it is also what we know; and know how to do; when to do; and why we should do it. Our career capital skills aid cross-fertilisation between roles, departments, external organisations, and across industries.

There are considered to be three ways of "knowing" (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1996; Lamb, 2007). They are - as previously mentioned - knowing-why (i.e. our motivation, our personal attachment to career, our values, and our work identity); again, knowing-how (our role-specific skills, our tacit and explicit knowledge, and our expertise); as well as knowing-whom (our professional networks, our relationships, our reputation, and our social connections).

But career capital not only relates to individuals: organisations and industries also have career capital - also known as human and structural capital - which accumulates over time (Lamb, 2007), rather like nacre being laid down in an oyster. But while we could also consider the DeFillippi and Arthur (1996) model, it is more 'usual' to use Bourdieu's capital dimensions for organisations (cited by Lamb, 2007). They are economic capital (financial and liquid resources); social capital (relationships and connections that strengthen other capital areas); cultural capital (educational and accumulated learning); and symbolic capital (industry recognition, stakeholder and public renown).

Our career capital evolves as we shift focus, and accumulate new skills, achieve mastery in some areas and begin to explore new fields. As we develop as professionals, our career capital becomes more recognisable - and financially valuable - to both ourselves and the organisations we contribute to. But our overall value will vary: expertise is dependent on industry and context (Inkson et al, 2015; Lamb, 2007)... and economic demand. 

With the shift from traditional career progression within a single organisation to portfolio careers (read more on this here), the responsibility for personal and professional development has fallen more on the individual (Inkson et al, 2015). Organisations have reduced the development and training they are prepared to invest in people because staff members may move on before the organisation gains value from the investment. Career capital is important for our personal career development and organisational competitive advantage (Lamb, 2007). I am sure we have all heard the old saw: "what happens if I train this person and they leave?" with "what happens if I keep this untrained person and they stay?" Both are a cost to the business, but industry stagnation and loss of morale - both risks with low career development investment - is likely a greater cost. 

It is our career capital which grows when we build our networks, share our knowledge, accept new challenges, learn to trust our abilities, develop mastery, and gain respect from our industry peers... and ourselves.

Sam

References:

DeFillippi, R., & Arthur, M. (1996). Boundaryless contexts and careers: A competency-based perspective. In M. B. Arthur, & D. M. Rousseau (Eds.), The Boundaryless Bareer: A new employment principle for a new organizational era (pp. 116–131). Oxford University Press.

Inkson, K., Dries, N., & Arnold, J. (2015). Chapter 10: Careers as Resources. In Understanding Careers. SAGE Publications.

Lamb. M. (2007). The components of career capital for knowledge workers in the global economy. [Master's Thesis: University of Pretoria]. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=1a69404ad618a99e87e3c7117d0e5b68ca820306

read more "What is career capital?"

To do action lists to embed CPD

With digital technologies, accessing continuing professional development (CPD or PD) is easier than ever (Drude et al., 2019). The challenge, however, lies in ensuring that our PD is sticky: that we get value from the effort of self-development, and the opportunity cost that this has in our busy lives.

But it is not only ensuring that the learning stays with us: how do organisations assess how effective our learning has been? Because, despite decades of research, accurate assessment of effective training seems to continue to elude the professional development field (Drude et al., 2019; Thalheimer, 2024). Professional development assessment is "inadequate", with most - read "90%" of - programmes using what are known as 'smile sheets', which focus on superficial yet measurable attributes of speaker performance and premises over meaningful learning outcomes (Drude et al., 2019, p. 457). It is also difficult to track whether there were meaningful changes in participant knowledge, skills, or attitudes over time (Drude et al., 2019; Thalheimer, 2024). How many courses have we completed where there has been a follow-up survey some months later (Drude et al., 2019)? I think I remember one such course survey in my career, and I would roughly complete over a hundred hours of PD annually.

To stay current in our practice, we need lifelong learning. If we don't, each year our clients progress further and further away from our practice abilities, culture, language and technology level. To ensure then that we stay relevant, we need PD: and our professional development activities must add value to our practice. And if we can't meaningfully assess whether our upskilling is doing what it should, why would/should we continue doing it?

Additionally, what if we are undertaking self-directed learning? How do we assess our learning in that case: without any framework, not even smile sheets? Rather than simply taking notes, a potential approach could be to create and periodically review action-oriented to-do lists. This moves us from comprehending material to taking action and building our learning into our practice (Drude et al., 2019). We focus instead on making practical changes, working with our clients, to apply our learning (Drude et al., 2019). Although this is a suggested solution for self-directed learning, I think this is a solution that works for any training: we practice it.

Further, the Career Development Association of New Zealand has a great set of skills and experience we need in a competency framework (online here; see image accompanying this post; CDANZ, 2025). We can use the framework to evaluate where our practice needs a bit of a refresh, and seek out appropriate training. This doesn't need to be complicated: it could be as simple as popping an annual note in our diary to find training in a particular topic area.

Even action-oriented to do lists are relatively easy to organise: if we use a hardcopy diary or planner, write the action on a post it note and move it back each week until we have practiced the item. If using a digital diary, create an event and do the same. This is not inappropriate 'practicing' on clients: this is a considered exploration with an appropriate client, trying a new method together, and to see if it adds value to the client, and to you. Co-discovery of potential solutions, in a safe and measured way.

Good luck with practicing good practice!

Sam

References:

CDANZ. (2025). Competency Framework. Career Development Association of New Zealand. https://cdanz.org.nz/ModularPage?Action=View&ModularPage_id=27

Drude, K. P., Maheu, M., & Hilty, D. M. (2019). Continuing professional development: Reflections on a lifelong learning process. Psychiatric Clinics, 42(3), 447-461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2019.05.002

Thalheimer, W. (2024, October). The New LTEM Reveal [slide deck]. https://woexgg.clicks.mlsend.com/tf/cl/eyJ2Ijoie1wiYVwiOjIzMTM0NCxcImxcIjoxMzc4ODY5NDMwMDk1NzIxODQsXCJyXCI6MTM3ODg2OTU2NDk2MzU2NDIxfSIsInMiOiJmZTNiZTVhMzVlMzVhY2UwIn0

read more "To do action lists to embed CPD"

Networking and informational interviewing

Our current labour market is volatile; career paths less clear; educational choices more broad; with a vast quantity of advice being available... which tends to be of variable quality or applicability. That is where I find informational interviewing comes into its own: we can go and talk to a 'real' person, who has gained experience, training, and education, and who now do a real job. A couple of recent posts has looked at this topic (here).

Informational interviewing is a technique where the interviewer contacts "a previously unknown person (usually a career model), conducting background research (on the person, occupation, and organization), meeting the person for between 30-45 minutes, and acting in a professional manner" (Kanar, 2020, p. 2, citing Decarie, 2010). While Kanar (2020) suggests that the interviewee is unknown to the interviewer, initial interviewees in New Zealand tend to be family friends, then the circle moves outwards as the interviewer seeks different or more specific information. Those already in the field of interest tend to connect us with others in the field: we literally use our networks. 

Not only does undertaking interviews with family connections and then onto others in the field helps us to build networks, it also helps those of us about to enter the workforce realise just how critical networking is in helping us to find our next opportunities. Those of us who tend to end up in interesting roles have often developed our own self-efficacy in networking because we collect people along the way via our professional experience across organisations. 

Deliberately building networks is an excellent professional development skill to hone. Broad networks can be immensely useful when changing roles, when changing fields, or when changing country. We never know when chatting to someone in an airline queue, alongside the sportsfield, at a cafe, at a gallery opening, or outside the meeting room at a job interview might lead us to our next rewarding role.

Not only can informational interviews help to better match us with jobs, and build our career preparedness skills, undertaking the interview also boosts our networking self-efficacy (Kanar, 2023). The more we practice, the better we get - now there is a surprise!

Sam

References:

Kanar, A. M. (2023). Effectiveness of informational interviewing for facilitating networking self‐efficacy in university students. The Career Development Quarterly, 71(2), 147-159. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12318

Kanar, A. (2020). Increasing student engagement in human resource management courses through informational interviewing. Journal of Human Resources Education, 14(3/4), 1-13. file:///D:/+Customer%20Files/Lecturing/CD%20Articles/Kanar%20-%20Increasing%20student%20engagement,%202020.pdf

read more "Networking and informational interviewing"

APA citing webinars

I will often use webinars, or show clips from webinars, in my teaching (with permission, of course). The citation is completely as we would expect with APA (i.e., Author, date). If we want to quote what the author said, we simply add a time stamp for the video - but we do that using US time notation, which is a colon separator, not a full stop; presented as "(Author, date, xx:xx)" (Mueller, 2023).

However, the APA reference for webinars is a little more involved:

• We use the presenter's name as the Author (and as usual, family name, then first name initials so we degenderise the entry). Treat multiple authors as normal (i.e. presenters separated by a comma and an ampersand before the final author).
• Then we have the date that the presentation occurred in brackets: year, month, date (YYYY, Mmmm dd).
• The title of the webinar, with [webinar] in square brackets at the end of the title, and before the full stop.
• Then the name of the organisation or the webinar hoster or publisher, followed by a full stop.
• Then the URL the webinar is located or streamed from.

So that's (Mueller, 2023):

Presenter, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of webinar in sentence case [Webinar]. Publisher/Sponsor. URL

Or:

Presenter, A. A., & Presenter, B. B. (Year, Month Date). Title of webinar in sentence case [Webinar]. Publisher/Sponsor. URL

It is easy when we know how.

Sam

Reference:

Mueller, J. (2023, June 7). How to Cite a Webinar in APA. https://www.wikihow.com/Cite-a-Webinar-in-APA

read more "APA citing webinars"

Google Calendar and ics appointments or events

If you use Google Calendar because you are working across multiple platforms - as I do - then you may find the following tip helpful about creating appointments based in Google Calendar when you are sent a Outlook ics file.

The reason I begin all my appointments in Google Calendar is because I work across four devices, and I want all of them to remind me of the same things at the same time (I invite my work self and my home self to all appointments that my Google self sets up - and sometime soon I will find a solution where I don't have to manually add all three of me, but that is a problem for another day!).

To return to the "we have been sent an ics file" in Outlook. We don't add it to Outlook. Instead, we download and save the ics file on our device. Then:

• We log in to our Google calendar
• Over on the top right of the page, we click on the Settings icon (as per the image accompanying this post)
• We select Settings from the drop down list
• Then, in the Settings page, from the left-hand menu bar, click Import & Export (about half-way down the list)
• Click the blue "Select file from your computer" button and navigate to the downloaded ics file
• In the next blue button, we select the calendar we would like to add this event to (the default is our primary calendar).
• Click "Import"

Then we are done!

Sam

References:

Google Calendar Help. (2025). Import events to Google Calendar. https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37118?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform=Desktop

read more "Google Calendar and ics appointments or events"

Legal profession stages and barriers

Over time, our occupational preferences and competencies, along with our life situations, evolve (Super, 1980). The theory of career stages can be seen in many industries around the world, including the legal profession in Aotearoa New Zealand.

For example, the stages involved in becoming a Barrister in New Zealand include completing a Bachelor of Laws degree, taking a Professional Legal Studies Course, gaining a certificate from the New Zealand Council of Legal Education, holding a current Law Society practising certificate and obtaining a certificate of character from the Law Society (New Zealand Law Society, 2025). All these elements being satisfactorily completed enables legal professionals to eligible for admission to the roll of Barristers and Solicitors of the High Court of New Zealand.

More women than men are entering the law profession (Dyer & Jones, 2008). While the gender distribution practising law is fairly evenly spread for now (New Zealand Law Society, 2020) the roles within the field held by men and women differ. It appears that "Women make up 52% of lawyers working in law firms with more than one lawyer", yet "contribute just 34% of the directors and partners" (New Zealand Law Society, 2020). It seems also that "Women far outnumber men in the in-house and community law centre sectors but are under-represented as [King]’s Counsel[s]" (New Zealand Law Society, 2020). It seems likely that the establishment stage (Super, 1980) may differ between men and women, so influencing their career development opportunities in the longer term.

Research has found that female lawyers tend to be initially placed in administration roles in law firms, unlike men who are given more challenging work (Dyer & Jones, 2008). Further, women are "less likely be to be linked to training and development opportunities necessary for advancement” (p. 34). Anecdotally, women returning to work after maternity leave in this profession struggle with workload and networking expectations.

The number of women entering the profession should guarantee change (with roughly 60% of graduates each year being women), but it will probably require many of the old guard to retire before that change is truly felt.

Then perhaps everyone will be able to progress through the stages as their ability evolves, rather than because they started on a lower step than everyone else.

Sam

References:

Dyer, S., & Jones, D. (2008). Young law and management students’ perception of their future career. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 33(2), 33-44. https://www.nzlii.org/nz/journals/NZJlEmpR/2008/3.pdf

New Zealand Law Society. (2025). Admission. https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-lawyers/joining-the-legal-profession/admission

New Zealand Law Society. (2020). Diversity in the New Zealand legal profession: At a glance. https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/138567/Diversity-in-the-NZ-legal-profession.pdf

Super, D. E. (1980). A life-span, life space approach to career development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 16(3), 282-298. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(80)90056-1

read more "Legal profession stages and barriers"

Excel number formatting on trim

I was recently trying to trim a page number from a journal title in some imported text data, to log in my articles database. I wanted Excel to automatically recognise the imported data as a number, and it wouldn't. I wanted a one step auto-function, rather than me having to apply another step to the text clean-up.

Grr.

However, a quick DuckDuckGo search found a nifty formatting formula (Exceltip, 2014) which we can apply alongside a trim: we specify value in the function. Even better, if we are after a standard number format, we don't even need to specify exactly what type of value we want.

Our formula looks like this: =VALUE(LEFT([cell reference],[number of characters we want to trim])); so for my purposes, this was:

=VALUE(LEFT(Q3,4))

And I got my page range, formatted as a number, all in one step.

Result!

Sam

References:

Exceltip. (2014, October 20). Make LEFT Function recognize a number in Excel. https://www.exceltip.com/excel-text-formulas/make-left-function-recognize-a-number.html

read more "Excel number formatting on trim"

Corporate career open access articles

Continuing our series on getting access to peer-reviewed journals when we are outside a university subscription system (read more here), this time we consider a few journals helpful to those of us who specialise in the corporate career field: i.e. those of us in organisational development, career mapping, leadership, corporate coaching, strategic development, and organisational fit.

• Organisational Dynamics, here. This is a ScienceDirect publication (a marque of Elsevier) which publishes in the corporate space with an HR focus. Those of us who work with adults who are established in their careers may find the research content useful. 
• The Human Resource Management Review is also open access, here. This is also a ScienceDirect/Elsevier publication in HRM, industrial/organisational psychology, human capital, labour relations, and organisational behaviour areas. 
• Asia Pacific Management Review, or APMR (here). Focusing on corporate and management issues around the Pacific, this journal has some open access articles, while others have only the abstract available. It is worth a look.
• Similar to the APMR, the Human Resource Development International Journal has some open access articles. Again, this can be a bit hit and miss, but it too is worth a look here.
• Lastly, there is the Journal of Human Resource Management or HRMJ, which has a number of open access articles here. This too is an international journal, and is the flagship publication for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. 

There are also databases which list open access journals by DOAJ here and ISSN here. 

I hope you find these organisational career development open/semi-open access journal sources useful. Next time we will move onto another of the six remaining specialist areas (Counselling; Disability/mental health/rehabilitation; Career development programmes; Research; Policy; and Supervision; CDANZ, 2019).

Sam

References:

CDANZ. (2019). Competency Framework. Career Development Association of New Zealand. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tudpuDOP8vc9tG5cE_HjSn2DiRp7xBTM/view

read more "Corporate career open access articles"

DOTS to SODI

The DOTS model, developed by UK educators, Tony Watts and Bill Law (1977) proposes four task quadrants which we must each develop; those of decision learning, opportunity awareness, transition learning, and self-awareness (read more here). Today this model has been reorganised as the SODI model, in order of where the learning is likely to arise first: self-awareness; opportunity awareness; decision-making (and - potentially - planning); and implementing plans (Graduate Careers Australia, 2023; Mi et al., 2021).

Interestingly, the four DOTS components (Watts & Law, 1977)  - opportunity awareness, self awareness, decision-learning and transition learning - were created four years before publication (Andrews, 2014, p. 33) and was not called DOTS until "someone thought about rearranging the four elements into an order that produced an easily remembered acronym" (p. 33). Earlier, DOTS was known as "the NICEC objectives" (p. 33). 

The DOTS model is now past its 45th birthday: and while the names evolve - "self-development; learning and work exploration; career planning and career management" (Andrews, 2017, p. 12) - the model's premise remains largely the same. We need to know ourselves; know when to make a move; be able to make a balanced decision, and know how to plan. 

And speaking of planning, Bill Law (co-founder of the DOTS model) thought that the model was shy of planning, and needed strengthening (Andrews, 2027, p. 12).  He also thought that we ask students "to deal with quite challenging and complex ideas before we have helped them to acquire more basic knowledge and skills", and that "we ask young people to make career choices before they have enough to go [i.e. make an informed decision] on (p. 12). True. And remains true.

What others have done - and I have been unable to find an original source for this work - is to reorganise and rename some DOTS elements so there is better 'flow'. We still lead with self-awareness, and next comes opportunity awareness; followed by decision-making and planning; and lastly, implementation (Mi et al., 2021). This is the SODI model. More straight-forward naming still is to "know yourself", "explore options", "get focused" and "take action" (p. 5), though I don't think that KEGT is going to be a winner.

New Zealanders use SODI. The Australians call it SODA (implementing becomes "Acting and planning"), which you can read a little more about here.

It would be interesting to know who did the reorganisation/renaming. If anyone knows, please message me!

Sam

References:

Andrews, D. (2017). ‘A giant from whose shoulders we might all see further’: Bill Law’s contributions to careers work in schools. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 39(1), 11-15. https://hubble-live-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/nicec/redactor2_assets/files/63/NICEC_Journal_39_Oct2017.pdf

Andrews, D. (2014). Careers education: Tony’s legacy. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 33(1), 31-36. https://hubble-live-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/nicec/redactor2_assets/files/80/NICEC_Journal_33_Oct_2014.pdf

Graduate Careers Australia. (2008). A Career Planning and Development Model: Using the SODI Model for Self-Assessment. https://www.graduatecareers.com.au/files/content/view/full/372/

Law, B. & Watts, A. G. (1977). Schools, Careers and Community: A study of some approaches to careers education in schools. Church Information Office.

Mi, N. D. Q., Giang, D. T. T., & Duy, P. N. (2021). Empowering learner autonomy by data-driven career development planning. In T. Dieu, N. Minh Hung, N. Xuan Huan, L. Thi Kim Hoa, L. Huu Son, D. Phu Hung, L. Hung Tien, & L. Dinh Phung (Eds.), The 1st Van Lang International Conference on Heritage and Technology Conference Proceedings 2021 (Vol. 2406, No. 1, Article 020035). American Institute of Physics. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0067047

read more "DOTS to SODI"

Burdening factors

I read an interesting article recently which mentioned the concept of the "burdening factor" (Oksa et al., 2023, p. 1740). The implication being that over time, a task becomes too onerous for the benefit it conveys. A burdening factor - effectively a stressor - has been subdivided for the world of work into three psychological burdens: those of "overload, monotony and non-specific factor[s]" (Truhlarova et al., 2020, p. 4). This is where: 

• overload includes "time pressure, [...] high responsibility, [... and] problems and conflicts. 
• monotony includes "low contentment, [...] mind-numbing work, [...and] monotony. 
• "non-specific factor[s, or] stress response[s]", effectively a catch-all for hard to define items, and includes "nervousness, [...] mental satiation, [...] exhaustion and [...] long-term bearability" (p. 4)

German research found that nurses "wanting to do even more for the patients [...were met with] such a burdening factor that they [could...]not realise their own demands", due to the burdening factor of time (Bernburg et al., 2023, p. 10) - or overload, if we are to use the groupings by Truhlarova et al. (2020). 

Burdening factors may fall more on women than men; as more women are nurses, teachers, and career development practitioners (Furbish, 2002; Lowery-Kappes & Young, 2023; Phillips, 2011); which are also lower paid fields (Phillips, 2011), and where time is not generally made during work hours for staff to undertake professional development (Bernberg et al., 2023; Phillips, 2011). In order to stay in our professions, our work duties expand beyond the paid working day.  

Not only is PD yet another burden in an already busy life, but logging the PD becomes an additional burdening factor. Thus "[r]ecord keeping [is...] seen as a chore and these employees also felt that the employer was the beneficiary and not" the person who had undertaken the CPD in the first place (Phillips, 2011, p. 56), with "many [being] discouraged and put off by having to record their own CPD", and that "since having to record the activities they actually did less" continuous PD (p. 57). What is interesting is that the PD being reported here is being reported to the employer, not to a professional organisation; so it is easy to see why having to again log the PD hours feels even more burdensome for the individual. 

We need simple ways to undertake and to record PD. Make it easy, not hard, professional organisations! 

Sam

References:

Bernburg, M., Harth, V., Groneberg, D. A., & Mache, S. (2023). “Always Look at the Clock”: Psychosocial Working Conditions in Outpatient Care—A Qualitative Study. Healthcare, 11(23), 3043, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11233043

Furbish, D. S. (2002). A Snapshot of New Zealand Career Practitioners. Australian Journal of Career Development, 11(2), 13-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/103841620201100204

Lowery-Kappes, H., & Young, S., (2023). The Shape of Career Practice in Aotearoa NZ [slidedeck]. CANNEXUS23 Conference 23-25 January 2023. https://cannexus23.gtr.pathable.com/meetings/virtual/q32dbm9cxwNqDYAnd

Oksa, R., Kaakinen, M., Savela, N., Ellonen, N., & Oksanen, A. (2023). Social media use in professional organizations: boosting and draining workforce. Behaviour & Information Technology, 42(11), 1740-1757. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2022.2094833

Phillips, M. (2011). The role of self-direction in Australian sonographers' professional development. [PhD Thesis, Deakin University]. https://dro.deakin.edu.au/articles/thesis/The_role_of_self-direction_in_Australian_sonographers_professional_development/21099964/1/files/37440574.pdf

Truhlarova, Z., Stech, O., Voseckova, A., Klimova, B., & Kuca, K. (2020). Assessment of mental burden of family caregivers of persons with health disabilities in the Czech Republic. Social Sciences, 9(6), 95, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9060095

Image created with https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/film-collage-generator

read more "Burdening factors"

How to cite and reference TV shows

Ah, the tricky work of correctly APA citing TV shows! It was only when writing a recent post that I realised that I hadn't written an entry on how to formulate the reference for these! And while we think this might be quite simple, in practice, it usually turns out to be slightly more difficult than it appears on the tin.

But the APA 7th edition publication manual will guide us (American Psychological Association, 2019). In the Reference Examples chapter, Audiovisual Media section, the notes suggest that we could use specific writers and/or directors for particular episodes of a series; or we could use the Executive Producer for an entire series (American Psychological Association, 2019). Or - I am guessing - whatever is the simplest to find and use.

So, if we keep our main objective front of mind: that we aim to give our reader a guide back to the source, then keeping our reference as simple as possible will assist us in making an optimal decision. But there is another consideration: what are the conventions for other media types? In the last post, explaining how to reference films (here), we might remember that the director becomes the 'author'. That is something to consider in finding our components for referencing TV shows.

So let's look at the components for citing the series, Get Smart. I turned to Wikipedia (2025) and the Get Smart Wiki (2025) and found the following information:

• Directors: Gary Nelson, Bruce Bilson, Don Adams, James Komack, Earl Bellamy, Howard Morris, Paul Bogart... and the list goes on
• Producers: Jay Sandrich (1965–66), Arnie Rosen (1966–67), Jess Oppenheimer (1967), Burt Nodella (1967–69), Chris Hayward (1969–70)
• Executive Producers: Leonard B. Stern, Arne Sultan (1968–70)
• Writers: Mel Brooks, Buck Henry, Gerald Gardner, Dee Caruso, Stan Burns, Mike Marmer... and this list too goes on and on
• Dates: 1965-1970
• Title: Get Smart
• Production Company: Talent Associates; CBS Productions

My best guess for a simple reference for the entire series is:

Stern, L. B. (Executive Producer), Sultan, A. (Executive Producer, 1968–70). (1965-1970). Get Smart [TV Series, 1-5]. Talent Associates; CBS Productions.

Thus the citation would be:

(Stern & Sultan, 1965-1970)

I hope this helps!

Sam

References:

American Psychological Association (2019). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (7th ed.). Author.

Get Smart Wiki. (2025). Get Smart. https://getsmart.fandom.com/wiki/Get_Smart

Wikipedia. (2025). Get Smart. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Smart

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Soft skills? Non-cognitive skills

I have posted about Zeil before (here), but a blog post last year suggests their "data reveals what in-demand personality traits are worth in the New Zealand job market", noting that "A good place to start when looking for a rewarding career is to look at your personality strengths, often referred to as ‘soft skills’" (Mowbray, 2024).

Now, "soft skills" is an interesting term. What are they, really? Well, they are also known as "non-cognitive skills", "socio-emotional skills, soft skills, transversal competences, social competences, ‘21st century skills’, [k]ey competences, generic competences, or even basic and life skills" (Cinque et al, 2021, p. 7); to which we could add "flexibility, team spirit, communication, motivation, critical thinking, adaptive, multi-tasking and innovative responses, well-being, social and collaborative problem-solving abilities" (Staboulis & Lazaridou, 2020, p. 3943); and "a variety of behaviours, personality characteristics, and attitudes with academic skills, aptitudes, and attainment" (Gutman & Schoon, 2013, p. 8). So quite a list, then.

From these definitions, it appears that non-cognitive skills aren't really 'soft' at all: these are personality characteristics which employers seek in employees. Characteristics such as punctuality. Lateral thinking. Initiative. Attention to detail. Dedication. Persistence. Trouble-shooting. These skills are the difference between 'a pudding that takes up space on a seat' compared to a 'go-getter who drives projects forward'. It seems obvious which person appears more employable.

The ten highest average salaries containing a corresponding non-cognitive skill identified by Zeil are listed as follows (Mowbray, 2024):

$103,676	Ability to work in a team
$100,960	Being able to take charge
$91,239	Flexibility
$87,506	Problem Solving
$83,328	Listening
$79,226	Communication
$72,047	Interpersonal skills
$69,063	Managing your time
$61,271	Customer Service
$56,230	Strong Work Ethic

It would be helpful to know how Zeil put this list together. Most of us are more likely to work on our team work skills as the return is twice as high as the bottom-most non-cognitive skill (work ethic). I also find it interesting that a strong worth ethic only aligns with roles where the average salary is only slightly more than minimum wage. Perhaps employers may say that while they want a strong work ethic, they are not willing to pay for it...? 

Anyway, an interesting list!

Sam

References:

Cinque, M., Carretero, S., & Napierala, J. (2021). Non-cognitive skills and other related concepts: towards a better understanding of similarities and differences (No. 2021/09). JRC Working Papers Series on Labour, Education and Technology. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/236541/1/176491032X.pdf

Gutman, L. M., & Schoon, I. (2013). The impact of non-cognitive skills on outcomes for young people. A literature review. The Institute of Education [UK]. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10125763/1/Gutman_Schoon_%202013%20Non-cognitive_skills_literature_review_.pdf

Mowbray, A. (2024, February 24). 10 highest paying soft skills. Zeil. https://zeil.com/blog/articles/10-high-paying-soft-skills

Staboulis, M., & Lazaridou, I. (2020). Non Cognitive Skills as the new metric in recent labor markets–Case Study: The impact of social media in promoting and developing skills. In INTED2020 Proceedings (pp. 3943-3950). IATED. https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/63049452/stab_laz_INTED2020_912020200422-93961-m2nhd4-libre.pdf?1587554861=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DNON_COGNITIVE_SKILLS_AS_THE_NEW_METRIC_I.pdf

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No body to incarcerate

There is a saying attributed to UK peer and - as Lord Chancellor, head of the courts - Baron Thurlow, which I had heard along the lines of corporations having "no soul to save and no body to incarcerate" (Stibbe, 2013, p. 126; Achbar & Abbot, 2004, 12:46). When I went looking for that particular quote, I ran across the following - also presented as a quote: "Did you ever expect a corporation to have a conscience, when it has no soul to be damned, and no body to be kicked?" (Coffee, 1981, p. 386; King, 1977, p. 1); and even more stirringly, Baron Thurlow reputedly whispered an aside, "[a]nd, by God, it ought to have both" (p. 386, citing Menchen, 1942, p. 223). 

But I was confused. Which was the actual quote? 

"no soul to save and no body to incarcerate" (Stibbe, 2013, p. 126);

Or

"no soul to be damned, and no body to be kicked?" (Coffee, 1981, p. 386).

First I went looking for Coffee's sources (1981); Mencken (1942), and King (1977). I found King, who had simply listed, as quote on page 1 of the text, exactly what Coffee had cited. I could not find a 1942 version of the Mencken book. I found a 1962 edition, which contained the following:

"'A corporation is just like any natural person, except that it has no pants to kick or soul to damn, and, by God, it ought to have both!' Ascribed to an unnamed Western judge in ERNST and LINDLEY: Hold Your Tongue, 1932" (Mencken, 1962, p. 223). 

So this one was apparently not Baron Thurlow; but an anonymous judge (who could be Baron Thurlow, but perhaps the author themselves was unsure so erred on the side of safety). In seeking Mencken's sources I hit a dead end; when I went looking for the Ernst and Lindey text I could only find an updated edition, from 1950, which did not contain this quote. Hmm. Perhaps Coffee had conflated the two entries, and ascribing the King source to the Mencken quote?

So I went looking for the quote which I had remembered: roughly no soul to save or body to incarcerate, this time using Wikiquote. And I found:

"Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned; they therefore do as they like", citing Poynder (1844, p. 268) with the clarification that "This is often misquoted as 'Did you ever expect a corporation to have a conscience, when it has no soul to be damned, and no body to be kicked?'"

Ah. Now this sounded roughly right. I went looking for Poynder (1844, p. 268) in the Internet Archive (here) and checked the entry. It read as follows:

"LORD CHANCELLOR THURLOW said that Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned; they therefore do as they like", citing "Miscellaneous".

It is worth noting here that, in the preface, Poynder said "Where an entry is marked as 'Miscellaneous' it may either be referred to the desultory reading which had only left its impress on the memory, and where the precise authority could not be recovered; or else may be considered as original matter now first commended to notice" (1844, p. iv). Brownie points are owed to Poynder for admitting the potential for the vagaries of memory. However, I still think I will go with his account, as Poynder made a business of collecting quotes, publishing two volumes, and he was a partial contemporary of Thurlow (who lived 1731 to 1806; Poynder 1779 to 1849; Wikiquote, 2025). I could be wrong, of course in my assumption, and will keep my eyes peeled for any earlier evidence.

We do need to be careful in attributing sayings, but having so many out of print books searchable online is an amazing assist for quote-hunters everywhere.

Sam

References:

Achbar, M. (Director), & Abbott, J. (Director) (2004). The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power [documentary film]. Big Picture Media Corporation.

Coffee, J. C. (1981). "No soul to damn: no body to kick": An unscandalized inquiry into the problem of corporate punishment. Michigan Law Review, 79(3), 386-459. https://doi.org/10.2307/1288201

King, M. (1977). Public Policy and the Corporation. Chapman and Hall.

Mencken, H. L. (1962). A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources. Alfred A. Knopf.

Poynder, J. (1844). Literary Extracts from English and Other Works; collected during half a century (Vol. 1). John Hatchard and Son.

Stibbe, A. (2013). The Corporation as Person and Psychopath: Multimodal metaphor, rhetoric and resistance. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines (CADADD) Journal, 6(2), 114-136. https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/681/1/The%20Corporation%20as%20Person%20and%20Psychopath.pdf

Wikiquote. (2025). Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Thurlow,_1st_Baron_Thurlow

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More on catchphrases

Our family were collectors of catch phrases from popular media which somehow managed to anchor in our collective psyche. As we have created our own families, those habits have endured. I have written about catchphrases before (here), but that post reminded me about our family habit, and I began to note some favourites as I encountered them. I have collected some of these phrases in this post. 

Such as this line from The Castle where the Kerrigan family are served rissoles at the dinner table: "Yeah, but it's what you do with it" (Sitch, 1997, 11:23). I always impute a 'darl' onto the end of that particular line, although the 'darl' occurs in the earlier exploration of the sponge cake "What d'you call that, darl?" (2:40). Not to mention the classic place to store precious presents from the family: "This is going straight to the pool room" (8:20), "Looks like everybody's kicked a goal" (18:06) about seasoning on chicken, and "We're going to Bonny Doon" (23:36). 

I also love the phrase "A fish goes rotten from it's head" (from the Turkish, "the fish stinks first at the head", Porter, 1768, p. 27). Why? Because it implies that as the leaders are, so shall the followers be. Good leadership will inspire good followership. A stink will create a stink throughout. 

"I love it when a plan comes together" (Hasburgh & Cannell, 1983). Ah, the A Team. Gone but not forgotten.

Which leads me to "Ah, it's the old [XXX] trick" from Get Smart (Stern & Sultan, 1965-1970); the "cone of silence" (which morphed into the 'cone of shame' for pet post-op self-harm prevention); and "Sorry about that, chief" the latter being our father's favourite stock phrase. 

Then there was the Fabergé organics shampoo: the ad which had Heather Locklear saying "I told two friends about it, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on" while the screen divided into two, four, eight, sixteen and so on Heathers (ewjxn, 2020, 0:07). 

Or how about "Thunderbirds are GO!" (Anderson, 1966). Nothing like telling people that, to galvanise us all: darned near sixty years on.

And then there is the often mis-quoted opening crawl from the first Star Wars movie, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....", which I always remember as long, long "ago, in a galaxy far, far away...." (Lucas, 1977). 

Not to mention from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, John Cleese's French Maitre'D character offering Terry Jones's Mr Creosote: "And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint" (Monty Python, 2025), before Mr Creosote explodes, first verbally, then physically. 

And the Life of Brian (1979). So many to choose from here! John Cleese as a Roman Centurion "Wha's this then" and proceeds to give Brian a Latin grammar lesson (24:47). Mandy, mother of Brian, saying "He's not the messiah! He's a very naughty boy!" (1:05:34). "Only the true Messiah denies His divinity!" Brian retorts "What?! Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right! I am the Messiah!" whereupon his followers say "He is! He is the Messiah!"(1:01:50). And finally, where Eric Idle sings "Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad; and other things just make you swear and curse. When you are chewing on life's gristle; don't grumble, give a whistle! And this'll make things turn out for the best -" (1:29:43).

"...and always look on the bright side of life" (1:30:04).

Sam

References:

Anderson, S. (1966). Thunderbirds Are Go [puppet film]. Century 21 Productions.

ewjxn. (2020, March 4). 1984 Fabergé Organics shampoo "Heather Locklear told two friends" TV Commercial [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Hyxmj1Yf6Dk

Hasburgh, P. (Producer), & Cannell, S. J. (Writer). (1983). The A-Team Series 1 [Lt.Col. John "Hannibal" Smith catchphrase]. NBC.

Jones, T. (1979). Life of Brian [film]. HandMade Films; Python (Monty) Pictures.

Lucas, G. (Writer, Director). (1977). Star Wars [Episode IV: A New Hope]. Lucasfilm.

Monty Python. (2025). The Meaning of Life Script - Part VI: The Autumn Years. http://www.montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Meaning_of_Life/10.htm

Porter, J. (1768). Observations on the Religion, Law, Government, and Manners, of the Turks (Vol 1.). J. Norse Bookseller.

Sitch, R. (Director). (1997). The Castle [film]. Working Dog Productions.

Stern, L. B. (Executive Producer), Sultan, A. (Executive Producer, 1968–70). (1965-1970). Get Smart [TV Series, 1-5]. Talent Associates; CBS Productions.

Wikipedia. (2025). Monty Python's Life of Brian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python's_Life_of_Brian

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Writing and reflection

If we aren't familiar with reflective writing, but want to give it a try, there is a simple exercise we can do. Over four days, taking maybe quarter of an hour each day, we write our deepest feelings - i.e. expressive writing - about an emotional or challenging time we have experienced (Pennebaker, 2004). That's it. 

If you haven't read Pennebaker's 2004 book, it is worth getting a copy. The practical techniques it contains in what is largely a workbook range from Julia Cameron-esque morning pages to writing using a mirror; from dancing prior to writing to close handwriting examination; from covering our writing as we go to using nonverbal expressions (Pennebaker, 2004). If we write about our crises - effectively confide to paper/screen - that act seems to improve our health (Pennebaker, 2004). After trauma, the research appears to show that the act of 'confiding' is very beneficial for us, leading to fewer doctor's visits (Pennebaker, 2004). The research indicates that even this type of short-term focused writing is beneficial: strengthening immune systems, improving scholarly performance, and potentially improving lives (Pennebaker & Smyth, 2016).  If you want to dig more into the research, read Pennebaker and Smyth (2016).

While I know there is value in actually writing by hand, I am not someone who will do that. I have been a keyboard warrior since 1989, and I know I will not hand-write if I can possibly avoid it. So for me, using 750words to write each day provides my safety valve, and my confidante for emotional processing (read more on my 750words experiences here). 

The founders of 750words, Buster and Kellianne Benson, designed a web platform for us to pour in our daily Julia Cameron-esque morning pages, also drawing on the work of Pennebaker (2004). A hand-written page is roughly 250 words; morning words are three pages: hence the 750word daily target (Benson, 2024). Most days I would write maybe twice that amount. But I have managed to write pretty much every day, and when I wrote this post I was on an unbroken 2100 day streak.

The interesting thing is that people who write on the 750word platform often write testimonials and inspirational notes. Buster has collected the 11,000 notes written by members of the platform, analysing them, and found that they fell into roughly four categories: observations; orientations; decisions; and actions (Benson, 2024). They make an interesting collection of feedback to read on Medium (here). 

If you can't keep a diary; if you struggle with writing reflection that goes deeper than the superficial; have a crack at 750words. You may unleash your untapped trauma processor.

Sam

References:

Benson, B. (2024, December 4). I analyzed 15 years of testimonials from users of 750words.com to learn how their private journaling habits have helped them: Or, how I plan to get around the task of marketing my site by letting people speak for themselves. Medium. https://medium.com/750-words/i-analyzed-15-years-of-testimonials-from-users-of-750words-com-to-learn-how-journaling-helped-them-9665c93814e8

Pennebaker, J. W. (2004). Writing to Heal: A guided journal for recovering from trauma. New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Pennebaker, J. W., & Smyth, J. M. (2016). Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain (3rd ed.). The Guilford Press.

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UK Bitesize Careers

The BBC has a series of podcasts on careers, called "Bitesize Careers" targeted at school leavers, which can be listened to on BBC Sounds (here; Thistledon, 2024). BBC Radio 1 presenter Katie Thistleton interviews a range of interesting and inspiring people - including students and career practitioners. As well as on BBC Sounds, the Bitesize Careers podcasts can also be found at a range of locations, including Amazon (here) and Podchaser (here). 

However, this is not simply a series of British career-oriented interviews. The podcasts themselves are beautifully supported by a wide range of career resources (BBC, 2024a) including information about jobs using particular school subjects; careers in a range of sectors; skills and attributes (called 'qualities'); paths from secondary school (University, Apprenticeships and other post-secondary options; BBC, 2024c); and a great section called tips and inspiration (BBC, 2024d). There is a list of careers from "A to Z"; a range of quizzes which students can select from; and toolkits for putting together CVs, application letters, and preparing for interviews.

Yes, some of the material is so context-specific to the UK as to be of little value to school leavers in Aotearoa (such as the section on choosing a University, which bears little resemblance to the New Zealand system; BBC, 2024d) but other sections are fabulous (such as five questions to ask yourself about your future job; BBC, 2024b). Many of the sections are supported by video, and I was very interested to see just how specialised the UK apprenticeship system is, and what professions can be entered in this way (BBC, 2024d; scroll further down the page for the apprenticeship section). More of this type of job entry here would be fabulous for so many of our rangatahi.

All in all, this is a rich site, and well worth a stroll around.

Sam

References:

BBC. (2024a). Careers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/careers

BBC. (2024b). Careers: Help! What am I good at?. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z4t3qyc#z9xsdnb

BBC. (2024c). Careers: Help! What am I good at?. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/groups/cm5m6rkdwyvt

BBC. (2024d). Tips and Inspiration. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/groups/cj13rxxpq0vt

Thistleton, K. (2024). Bitesize Careers [podcast]. BBC/Redbrick Media. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0h80c73

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The Barnum Effect

The Barnum effect, named after the US circus entrepreneur P. T. Barnum, is where we take general personality statements as being uniquely and specifically attributable/applicable to ourselves (Mugglin & Frederickson, 2024). So - for example - this is where we read a horoscope published in a newspaper and manage to make it meaningful to our own lives via mental gymnastics and a forced-fit.

We are so good at buying in to a test, and 'believing' what we are told... rather than taking the sales pitch with a grain - or gob - of salt (Gonthier & Thomassin, 2024). We most often find the Barnum effect appears in those who are invested in the results of astrology, numerology, tarot, and those 'personality' tests which lack scientific rigour (Gonthier & Thomassin, 2024). By rigour, I mean research attributes such as validity, reliability, replicability and generalisability (Maula & Stam, 2020).

We humans are born with credulity: we are programmed to believe. The analogy is clear: the prediction of such personality test instruments is alike to fortune-telling, and there is indeed a "sucker born every minute"- a phrase which, although attributed to P. T. Barnum, cannot be verified as being said by the man himself (Saxton, 1989, p. 335).

Research has found that we "tend to believe in bogus personality profiles", and even worse we are "often unable to distinguish between bogus feedback and [our] actual profile on a test" (Gonthier & Thomassin, 2024, p. 1). As we get older, we tend get more cynical; perhaps because we realise that there is only a 'man behind the curtain' (Baum, 1900), as opposed to some mystical insight into our own nature. Because of our tendency to 'believe' when told something confidently, we must deliberately apply our BS-detector, and consider whether what we were told is actually true, or whether we would like it to be true.

Factual reality is more enduring - and useful to our own development - than enjoyable fakery.

Sam

References:

Baum, L. F. (1900). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. George M. Hill Company.

Gonthier, C., & Thomassin, N. (2024). Getting students interested in psychological measurement by experiencing the Barnum effect. Teaching of Psychology. Advance online publication, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/00986283241240454

Maula, M., & Stam, W. (2020). Enhancing Rigor in Quantitative Entrepreneurship Research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 44(6), 1059-1090. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258719891388

Mugglin, G., & Frederickson, J. (2024). Personality statements and the Barnum Effect [Poster Presentation 49]. Science Research Symposium, Bethel University, Arden Hills, Minnesota, 11 April 2024. https://spark.bethel.edu/science_symposium/spring2024/schedule2024/49/

Saxon, A. H. (1989). P. T. Barnum: the Legend and the Man. Columbia University Press.

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