I dare you to dream as we navigate these challenging times! For so many, with the holidays quickly approaching and the economy seemingly spiraling out of control. I dare you to dream!
“Many people dream of success. To me, success can be achieved only through repeated failure and introspection.  In fact, success represents the 1 percent of your work that results from the 99 percent that is called failure.”
  – Soichiro Honda
One of my students asked me about my blog today. The student wanted to know what I talk about on my blog with all of the turmoil going on with …read more

Happy November!! Things are changing at Interview Chatter once again! I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to Gina G. She has been helping me here for the last 4 months keep Interview Chatter thriving! Thank you for all of your help Gina!! Gina has decided to move on. She will be writing her personal blogs, and continuing her job search! Please make sure you leave her a comment and tell her how much you appreciate her insights over the last few months. Her email is still in the side panel.
As Gina transitions, we are also transitioning …read more

Have you ever gotten an invitation for a second interview after you’d already decided this was not the right job for you? How’d you handle it?
That’s the situation I’m in right now. After my job interview the other day I had made up my mind that this was not the place for me at this point in my career. Why? Well, I’d be taking about a 10 grand per year cut in pay to go to work for an organization that really needs some TLC. (That’s code for I’d need to put in a lot …read more

THIS IS A REPRINT FROM LAST HALLOWEEN! Enjoy your night!
I have no understanding about why we celebrate Halloween in this country. I have to believe that people don’t know what they are celebrating. So, I thought I would share a little of the history of Halloween. We say Happy Halloween”. What is that? Happy Halloween? Not! I don’t celebrate this holiday and my children have never been trick or treating. Any way.. rather than getting on my soapbox.. Here is some information for you to consider as you celebrate this “holiday.”
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Halloween has never been a Christian holiday and it …read more

President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday night at a Florida rally “this is the most important job interview you’ll ever see.  It’s the most important hire you’ll ever make”, or something like that.  He couldnt be righter.
Presidential election after presidential election we cast our vote based on where the candidates stand on the same tired old issues when in reality, none of the candidates are likely to come into office making swift changes taking away our rights.  Thankfully, we have enough checks and balances in place in this country to prevent that kind of sweeping law passing.  I’m not saying …read more

Here are a few blogs I enjoyed reading this week.
Ask A Manager on “Stupid candidate behavior: Not checking email.”
Evil HR Lady gives advice to some poor dude who was fired while waiting for an offer for a new job.
Punk Rock HR answers a reader question on “Corporate Manscaping.”
Manpower Blog talks about The Death of the Performance Review. this is a great blog for free legal advice on employement law
Great Leadership by Dan offers an Eight Step Guide To Developing Your Leadership Skills.

On Monday I turned 41. Besides feeling pretty darn old, I realized that my job hunt at 41 is totally different from what was 10 years ago. Here’s how…

I’m more concerned about the stability of the company. Before I assumed that most all companies were stable and successful. Boy, was I wrong.
I place importance on the “culture” of the organization being in line with my personal values. Working for an organization where most people are polar opposite from me on just about every religious and personal belief has really scarred me.
I’m concerned about making sure that …read more

Being fully prepared for an interview is one of the easiest, yet most overlooked aspects of the job hunt, even for yours truly.
Earlier this week I found myself sitting in the Human Resources department trying to complete an application without the data I needed at my fingertips. It made me unnecessarily anxious and I ultimately had to leave a couple of fields blank on my application – that can’t be good!
Here’s a list of things you’ll always want to bring along to the interview so that you don’t get yourself all stressed out over trying to find the phone …read more

As I’ve said before, the questions you ask the interviewer are just as important as the answers you give to the questions they ask you.  Asking great questions is just another way that you can set yourself apart from other candidates who may exactly equal on skills and education required for the job.
Here are 5 examples of good questions to ask on your next job interview.

How has the troubled economy effected your business?
What kind of challenges is the organization facing right now (particularly important if you are interviewing for a management position)?
What do you think it takes for a person …read more

I had my long-anticipated job interview this morning and although I feel very confident in my “performance”,  some of the comments from the interviewers were quite troubling.
Sometimes we go into interviews so eager for an offer that we don’t pay close attention to the clues that the interviewers give about the kind of job we might be getting ourselves into. 
Here are 4 statements that you never want to hear in a job interview.  Unfortunately, I heard all 4 of them today…

We’ve really had trouble keeping this position filled over the past 5 years.
This department has one of the highest turnover rates in …read more