THE question. Everyone has at least one. THE question you don’t want to answer in an interview. Why do you have a two-year work gap? How do your skills in technology management translate to business development? Why have you had four jobs in two years? Why did you leave your last position? You spend hours crafting your resume or hire a professional resume writer to
Let’s keep you out of the job interview garbage pile. If your interview preparation consists of reading lists of interview questions and memorizing answers, please read this first. Now that you know what NOT to do, here are useful questions to ask yourself. What are the three top strengths that make me valuable in this position? What do I bring to the table that differentiates
Almost every day, someone asks me about how to prepare for a job interview. Are the lists of questions I find on Web sites and blogs really the ones employers ask? Are the answers they give the right ones? Am I really expected to memorize those answers? How much do I need to know about the company before my interview? Can’t I just wing it?
Before you can leave the traditional job search behind, you have to know: What you want to do. Where you want to do it. For whom. If you have no idea what you want to be when you grow up (a very common feeling for career changers), try this exercise: Close your eyes and imagine your perfect day at work. What would you be doing?
“I want a general resume.” “I want to keep my options open and cast as wide a net as possible.” “I don’t want to leave out any possibilities for positions.” “I am very versatile, so my wide variety of skills will appeal to a lot of employers.” I hear one of these almost every day. They make perfect sense if you are using the old
The Career Thought Leaders Consortium, the industry’s leading think tank for the now, the new, and the next in careers, conducted a nationwide online survey of job seeker behavior to uncover success factors. While many surveys identify the most effective job search methods, this research is groundbreaking in that it uncovers what causes job seekers to be optimistic and effective in the job search or,
I recently worked with two clients whose career problems could have been all in the past — if only they’d left them there. “Dawn” was obsessed with her ex-boss. We had trouble writing her resume and preparing for her interview because she couldn’t think or talk about her accomplishments without going into a tirade about the injustices she suffered from the old tyrant. I sympathized,
Job titles are like book titles. They are the first step in finding what you’re looking for. Knowing the most commonly advertised job titles in the United States is valuable for your job search. And you’re in luck, because WANTED Technologies Corporation just announced a list of the top 50. This is useful information in several ways. For example, if you design and maintain Web sites, you will
In rural North Dakota where I grew up, a story is told about sisters who rode a horse to their one-room country school every day. When a sudden spring storm blew in, they lost all sight of landmarks on their way home. The prairie path was obscured, and they became hopelessly lost. Instead of guiding the horse, they let go of the reins and focused
When you feel stuck in your career, the first step is to determine what is holding you back. The next step is to plan how to make the changes to free up your options. Check out 10 reasons your career may be stalled to see if you recognize a scenario that is keeping you from reaching the success you want. In Top ways to get your
