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Tailored to Fit

man straightening tie for a good fit

How can you tell if a job is a good fit for you? Inevitably, some choices we make about taking certain jobs are guided more by necessity than preference; sometimes we just need to bring a period of unemployment to an end. Sometimes this works out well for us, and we discover that a job or company ‘grows on us’ over time. But sometimes it’s the opposite. There are things that just don’t feel right, and we start to look elsewhere again. This can lead to a career history marked by short hops at a string of jobs, which can be difficult to address and defend in an interview. Read More

A Series of Unfortunate Events

woman jumping between rocks for job hopping

Can job hopping hurt your chances of landing jobs in the future? Sometimes in our working lives, things just don’t work out. Maybe the job turned out to be something other than what it seemed. Sometimes there’s a personality conflict with someone that just can’t be overcome. Other times, the company switches gears at a bad time for you – making a change that means your job no longer exists. Read More

First Aid Kit for the Newly Unemployed

hand of a sinking person looking for help because they're unemployed

Becoming suddenly unemployed – no matter how it happens – is traumatic. We’re thrust from a comfortable routine into the unknown. Financial uncertainty compounds the stress. And we don’t always realize, until we’re in this situation, just how much of our self-identity is wrapped up in the job we hold. If you’re in this situation right now, I am very truly sorry. You’re grieving a loss, and there will be some tough days yet to come.

The best possible way to overcome (or at least lessen) what you’re feeling now is to start doing things that will shorten the time to full recovery: the first day of your next job. And that’s what I’d like to share with you here: a four-step ‘first aid’ plan that will get you back on your feet sooner.

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The Ten Commandments of Resumes

resume commandmentsYour resume is the single most important document you will use when you’re looking for a job. Far more than your cover letter (which – despite the name – almost every recruiter reads last, if at all), it is your resume that will determine whether you’ll be invited to interview. Given its importance, I’ll be spending more time here talking in detail about various parts of your resume. But as an introduction, I’m here today to share ’10 Commandments’ of resume writing. The things you must and must not do, if you want me to consider taking the time to interview you.

DO: Make it easy to contact you.

Name, phone number, and email. If you want to include your mailing address you can, but if a recruiter is going to be replying to you by email that’s not necessary anymore. Pro tip: if your email address and outgoing voicemail messages don’t sound professional, fix that.

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If You Were a Tree …

Let me man wandering in trees thinking about trick questions in interviewsget this out of the way first: I hate trick questions. In all cases, but particularly in interviews. I don’t like them, I don’t ask them, and I don’t like it when people ask them of me. I have a strongly-held belief that an interview should be an honest, professional conversation between two people, with the intent of determining whether a given job could be a good fit for the person. Trick questions turn that into a sort of game, and it’s the worst kind of game because only one of the players knows the rules.

If you’re interviewing for jobs, I can promise you two things. First, I’ll never ask you one of these questions if I happen to end up on the other side of the desk from you. Second, I’m almost sure that someone, somewhere, will ask you one of these kinds of questions.

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