Interviewing can be both frustrating and arduous because throughout the process, you receive little or no feedback except for the obvious: if they want you back, they contact you. If they don’t, frequently you never hear from them again. But after a first interview the reasons for not being asked back are numerous, and quite frankly, usually they’re about you: lack of experience, poor interviewing skills, inadequate pre...

I found a very depressing site the other day. It came up when I googled the phrase "I hate my job.” It's full of people complaining about what they do for a living. And it's more than just venting. Much of it is not only hostile, it's hateful. Very few seem to be doing anything about their circumstances except finding fault. Are they expecting to walk into the office one day and find a significant change has taken place?In...

Job hunters can be very passive: posting resumes on job boards instead of frequently searching them; letting inept recruiters contact them instead of finding recruiters who make things happen; being too optimistic about a job prospect, saying "I might as well check it out - why not?" and then saying "I knew that. Why did I bother?"; wondering why so much time passes with so few results.Almost every candidate could be twice...

One of the reasons candidates are disqualified from consideration is the use of phrases that are trite and ambiguous. Two of these are "the right opportunity" and “a reputable company.” They aren't impressive, and their meaning is relative and subject to interpretation.Because people go on interviews without searching inside themselves for why they’re changing and what their ideal job would be, they fall back on phrases...

Ever been offered a job with a company you thought had a great reputation, was well respected, and for which you’d be proud to work? And you accepted the offer and began working - only to say to yourself a few weeks later, "Hey, wait a minute. This isn’t what I want! This company has some problems!"? But it’s only been a few weeks, so you stick around. Two months later, not only are your feelings the same, they've intens...

Ever been fired and it was a complete surprise? If you have, it shouldn’t have been. You missed the cues. Whether you created it or the company decided it, you lost control of your career. Frequently those two are intertwined, and if you don’t dissect the experience, you may recreate it.A Gallup poll found that 77% of Americans hate their jobs. To me, that’s not a surprising discovery because most people, before they...

To each job seeker who has struggled to cram his resume onto one page: I hereby give you permission to exceed that limit. The “one page” caveat is outdated and unnecessary…unless of course you don’t have enough experience or accolades to spill onto a second page, in which case one page is sufficient. On the other hand, resumes of senior executives can be – and often should be – 3, 4 or 5 pages to sufficiently convey the d...

There is much talk about Interviewing Styles: The Directive Interview, The Behavioral Interview, The Stress Interview, The Qualifying Interview, The This Interview, The That Interview. Articles outline different styles, list typical questions for each and tell you how to prepare for them, as well as suggesting appropriate answers.That's all well and good, but there's an obvious question here that begs to be asked: how do yo...

An interview is about you. Your skills, your impression of the company, your likes and dislikes, your previous experience, what you're looking for.....you, you, you, you, you. But let's be honest. Who cares about their new marketing program - unless you're an employee -- and the program’s success means your job is secure? Who cares about the magnificent president of the company, unless his magnificence (a distinctly, non-un...

An interview is a two-way street. It’s never a good idea to go in without prepared questions and you should be able to easily come up with 15 - 20 first-interview questions to ask. But these five - in some form - should always be asked. Not only will they help you to ascertain if the job for which you are interviewing meets the criterion of your perfect job, but the answers, when put together, will give you a fairly accur...