An Interview Type for All Situations

You arrive for your job interview only to find you’re sitting across a long table with three managers firing questions at lightning speed.  What you thought would be a friendly exchange of Q&A turned into a group inquisition.  The only thing missing was a bare light bulb swinging above your head!  While the one-on-one interview is the most common, employers use a variety of interview formats depending on the step in the interview process, job level, responsibility and stress level. Continue reading…

Your heart is pounding.  Your head is spinning.  You feel a rush of adrenalin better than a 20-year-old scotch on the rocks or checking off all the winning Power Ball numbers on your lottery ticket.  Is it a date with Justin Bieber? No!  It’s an ad in the newspaper’s jobs section for your perfect job!

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It Wasn’t My Fault! Free Online Resources for Legal Advice After a Termination

It’s a fact that the economy has taken its toll on workers across the board. Executives, managers, salaried, hourly, male, and female and every other protected class of workers have suffered layoffs, terminations, reduction in hours, plant closings and the difficult task of finding another job. Continue reading…

Lights, Camera—Skype!

Just when you thought you had the job in the bag, they want to do one more interview with the sales manager on the opposite coast – via Skype. Yipes! You feel confident in 3-D, but the camera flattens you out and adds 10 lbs! The interview is scheduled two days from now, so there’s no time to lose the weight and hire a makeup artist. No worries. With some planning and on-camera tips, you’ll ace this interview, too. Continue reading…

Temporary or seasonal jobs can help get you over a financial crisis caused by a job loss.  The extra income pays the bills.  You can also gain needed experience or learn critical skills at a temporary job that in turn can help you find a new job.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is too many unrelated temp jobs in a relatively short period of time can spell disaster for your resume.

Instead of helping you get another job, they can lead you far away from your area of expertise.  The more unrelated jobs you have since your last career job can make you appear less serious about getting back on the career track and farther removed from the latest innovations and issues in your profession. Continue reading…

Robert Blake starred in a television series in the 70’s called “Baretta.”  He played an undercover detective with “issues” but effective in finding the bad guys.  The intro and theme song, sung by Sammy Davis, Jr., gave a warning—

 “Don’t go to bed with no price on your head, No, No (Don’t Do It).

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. (Don’t do it)”

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What’s the sweetest sound every heard?  The sound of your iPhone ringtone with a prospective employer on the other end.  Your resume fought its way to the top of the pile, sang your praises and everyone danced!  The HR manager tangoed his way to the phone to schedule your interview and now you are doing your own victory dance.  Not so fast! You’re merely entering the next phase of your job quest, so roll up your sleeves and get working. Continue reading…

Fresh out of college with a degree in IT, you start looking for jobs in your local area, but nothing really excites you.  You fire up the laptop and up comes the Google home page, ready for some more job research.  Then it hits you.  Google!  The Ultimate Dream IT Job.  Why not go for the top and work for Google?

Where would you really like to work?  Focusing your job search efforts on a company you would love to work for makes a lot of sense and saves time and energy.   It takes just as much time to fill out their online application as it does for any other company, so Go For It!   High profile, Fortune 500 companies hire people every day, so it may as well be you! Continue reading…

16 Questions for the Interviewer

For over seven years as a Human Resource Director in three different companies, I interviewed hundreds of candidates at all levels.  The Managing Director at one large resort/hotel insisted that I interview every candidate before they were hired, even after several interviews with other hiring managers.  By the time they reached the other side of my desk, they already passed the resume/cover letter test and had scored well at other interviews.  One thing that I looked for was the number of thoughtful questions a candidate had prepared for me.  If they had no questions, I wondered if they had done any research, just wanted a job, or lacked the confidence or interest to make sure the job was going to be a good fit for them. Continue reading…