job searching advice

I have always said that the worst job in the world is looking for a job. I mean, if you pin me against the wall and tell me there are actually worse, then yes, I guess I’m exaggerating. Working down a salt mine in a country with deficient safety standards is doubtless quite a bit worse. The point is, looking for a job IS a job. There’s no money coming in – in fact, it costs you to dress up and travel in for interviews – and you don’t necessarily get the satisfaction of doing good work the way you

Scenario 1: I’m intelligent – if you don’t believe me, just ask my mother. I have great skills, good experience. I’m a team player. Why, then, would I need a staffing service to help me find a job? Scenario 2: I’m intelligent – see Scenario 1…. I have great skills, good experience. I’m a team player. WHY CAN’T I FIND A JOB? Scenario 3: I went to a staffing service once, the Scuzz Bucket Employment Agency.  They were awful, lied to me and then stopped returning my calls. Why would I risk going to another? Basically, the answer to that

Last week I wrote about whether it was advisable to look for a new job in such a volatile economy —  and the answer was, basically, “Depends how strongly you want to move.” This week I’d like share my thoughts on New Year’s Resolutions. You may or may not have made any, you may or may not have kept to them or broken some of them. (Side track – at Lent each year, I give up dieting, and I always find the inner strength to stick to it). Let’s assume that the relevant 2013 resolution was to find a new

It’s a judgment call. If you took no risks at all in life, you’d never leave the house – and even then you could fall down the stairs. If it weren’t for bad luck, some people would have no luck at all. So…what’s an unhappily employed person to do? First, take a few minutes to think through why you’re wanting to leave. Reasons, alas, abound. `      a)      You work in the Accounts Payable Department so you can see that your firm has a serious cash flow   problem.         b)      You work in the Chairman’s Office and

End of year ≠ end of job search Btw, ≠ is mathematical for “does not equal”. But you all knew that, right? Don’t give up on looking for a job just because it’s End of Year/Holiday Season. I touched on this in a previous thread – it’s always some sort of holiday, Thanksgiving, July 4th , your parents’ 40th anniversary,  and you can’t afford to stop looking.  You have to keep the antennae waving around if only because there will be other job seekers out there who decide that this is the ideal time for them to be sneakily sending

I could make this a very short blog this week by writing “Are you INSANE?” and leave it at that. But let’s try to figure out why all those Internet pundits who get paid to write Human Resource/recruitment/life coaching articles based on common sense seem to have lost theirs. Here are the arguments for holding off. You might already have seen rubbish articles on the Internet along these lines. You’re tired out from looking, and just feel stale. It’s a jungle out there. Take a break. The economy will be a lot better by 2013. (Depends who becomes President, doesn’t