By: Dan Schawbel on April 23rd, 2010 at 3:32 pm on Personalbrandingblog.com

Today, I spoke to Kerry Hannon, who is a nationally acclaimed personal finance contributing editor and retirement correspondent for U.S. News & World Report. Her latest book is called WHAT’S NEXT? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job.  In this interview, Kerry talks about how to find your dream job, what stops someone from finding the perfect job, tools for career reinvention, tips for finding a job, and how she’s built her own personal brand.

How does someone find their dream job? Is it “trial and error”?

No two paths are the same. Each person I interviewed for What’s Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job faced a different set of challenges. But these success stories reveal common threads. Many of these men and women were spurred to discover what really matters to them and transform their work (and, in turn, personal) lives by a crisis or loss that starkly revealed the fleeting nature of life. No one acted impulsively. They paused. They planned. They bypassed helter-skelter approaches and pursued prudent, well-researched moves.

Each person had flexible time horizons for his or her venture to make it. If necessary, these people added the essential skills and degrees before they made the leap. They often apprenticed or volunteered beforehand. They reached out to their networks of social and professional contacts to ask for help and guidance.

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Dear Friends and Clients,
Do you love your job so much that you are sure that you are on the  
right career track for decades to come? Then this issue may not  
interest you, because I am going to focus on career shifts.

By Kerry Hannon

When Christine Bonney, a 2009 graduate of Cornell University, decided last fall that she wanted to pursue a master's degree in psychology, she met with admissions officers and filled out applications, but a school's career services center wasn't on her mind. "I know it's important, but my focus was on the caliber of the program, the professors, and the location," she says.

  A recruiter speaks to attendees at a Rutgers career fair.

In a topsy-turvy housing market, it’s more important than ever to know the facts before buying or selling.
By Kerry Hannon
Read Published Article

From California to the Carolinas, homebuyers are snapping up some of the best home prices in decades. Sellers, on the other hand, grapple to get what they believe is a decent offer. The housing market may be on the mend. But things aren’t likely to change drastically overnight.

Jim and Karen Kahrl of Burke, Va., never did get the price they wanted for their $599,950, four-bedroom home. After seven months on the market, and lowering the asking price to $575,000, these USAA members gave up and decided to stay put. “We had tons of lookers, but no offers,” Karen says. Army Maj. Kevin Crooks, 35, faced that situation in the spring of 2008 when he received orders to move to Fort Sill, Okla., from Richmond Hill, Ga., outside of Fort Stewart. Without delay, he put the family’s three-bedroom, 1,400-square-foot home up for sale. Asking price: $189,000.