Memorial Day is about remembering the veterans who have given their lives for the freedoms we enjoy in the United States. On your worst day, or our worst day in this country, the freedoms we enjoy are unmatched by any other country on the earth. You may be having a bad day or what I call a bad patch, but in the grand scheme of things, you are still alive, you have the opportunity to work through issues on your job or in your job search. What price are you willing to pay to accomplish your goals?
As you remember those …read more

Your cover letter will open doors or close doors depending on how you write them. I personally believe that a good cover letter will open doors faster than a resume. I believe that if you have a well written cover letter, you will spark interest in the hiring manager or recruiter and they will want to read more about you – thus your resume.
If you just present a resume that looks like everyone else’s resume, you have about 4 seconds to make an impression and if you miss it the hiring manager or recruiter has moved on to the next …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

Tonight was the first Chicago Bulls pre season game.  You may remember months ago I wrote about how Vinny Del Negro convinced the Bulls leadership to give him the job of new head coach, even though had has never had a coaching job in his life.  Nothing, not even college basketball! 
Now that the media has gotten their hands on Vinny and we’ve been able to take a peak at the Bulls’ practices, I understand better how he got the job.  He portrayed himself as a change agent. 
When Vinny interviewed for head coach, the Bulls was a team in turmoil.  They’d just come …read more

How much of a cut in pay would you consider if you knew the job you were going to had exactly the kind of culture you were looking for in an organization?
At a block party a few weeks ago, one of my neighbors was complaining that we’re all “wage slaves”.  I didn’t entirely agree with her until this week.  I applied for a position at a not-for-profit organization where I’ve heard the culture is much more in line with my personal value system.  They called me to discuss the position but they were clearly concerned about my salary expectations right …read more

I read a great blog post the other day over at Biz Chicks Rule called “Pimped Out Politics: Is It OK If She Likes It”.  I won’t summarize the article here because I’m hoping you’ll pop over and read it yourself – it was very interesting. 
Reading Biz Chick’s post has got me thinking more about how you the interview candidate should handle a situation where you know you are getting a job offer because of the interviewers bias.  Suppose you know they are offering you the job because you are black and somehow they plan to use your race to their …read more