Career lessons from 2008′s stars

What do President-elect Barack Obama, Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, and MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow have in common?

They gave us good examples of how to advance our careers in the new year. You can read more about it in “Career Do’s and Don’ts from 2008.”

The article has become a fun annual tradition for me at Yahoo! HotJobs, and I received more examples/lessons than I could use in the article. Here’s a great one from my neighbor Pat Mayfield, who is president of Pat Mayfield Consulting in San Francisco.

The lesson: “Don’t be at the airport when your ship comes in. When unexpected and unplanned opportunities appear, quickly react and take the detour. Lost opportunities can rarely be recovered.”

The example, of course, is Tina Fey stepping in to impersonate Gov. Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live” after she was tapped to be McCain’s running mate. Those detours from Fey’s “30 Rock” show did more than her Emmys to advance her career this year.