5 Things That Have Changed in the Job Market Since Your Last Interview
Such is the rate of change in hiring practices: If you've been out of the job market for five years – which is the average amount of time people spend in a job in the U.S. – you may have fallen out touch. Your expectations for how things should operate in the job market will probably be outdated, and you'll be the equivalent of a job-seeking dinosaur! I exaggerate – We haven't...
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The Recipe for Resume Success
If you visit my website, you'll see that I've read more than 500,000 resumes. It is a frustrating exercise, because most are little more than spam (resumes that in no way fit the requirement) or are badly written – a simple recitation of responsibilities without contextualizing the work that was done. I was interviewing Ron Nash for my podcast, Job Search Radio, a few weeks ago, and...
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Feel the Power: 9 Ways to Feel Confident During the Job Interview
Sitting through an interview can be a nerve-wracking experience for even the most confident of people. It is so easy to feel as if you have no control over the process and that you have no choice but to follow the lead of the interviewer – unless you take action to claim some of your power back. If you want to feel more confident and in control during job interviews, consider a few of...
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5 Ways to Keep Your Job Search a Secret From Your Boss
There can be some benefits to letting your boss know that you are looking for another job opportunity – for example, they might offer you a raise in an attempt to keep you around. But being open about your job search can also backfire, because being seen as a flight-risk may have a negative effect on your reputation. You might be seen as disloyal, less trustworthy, and less reliable....
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Getting a Job With an Online Degree: 7 Things to Think About
For most college students, a job – or a better job than the one they have now – is the goal. This tends to hold true regardless of whether we're talking about traditional students or students pursuing their degrees through nontraditional means – the number of which continues to grow. The need to find cheaper, more convenient ways to earn college degrees, combined with new...
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How to Find a Job Without Using a Job Board
Job boards still remain an effective way to find a job, but they are only half the story. Many of the best jobs are still filled via networking and word-of-mouth referrals. These jobs, which often never make it to a job board, may account for as much as half of all open positions. If you stick to job boards all your job-searching life, you'll never access this "secret" network of jobs....
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5 Must-Answer Questions to Help You Prepare for an Interview
Interview skills come easy to some, and are terribly difficult to master for others. However, the good news is that these skills can be learned. I know this from personal experience: I have put a lot of practice and hard work into honing in my interview skill set. Today, I want to share a few questions you should practice answering before any interview. They are seemingly simply questions...
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6 Things Women Leaders Look for in Strong Female Candidates
What do today's top female business leaders look for in strong female candidates? To find out, MBA@UNC – UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School's online MBA program – performed interviews with two highly successful women: Amy Palmer, the president and CEO of Soldiers' Angels, a nonprofit that provides aid and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air...
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8 Ways to Knock Your Next Job Fair Out of the Park
Welcome to Recruiter QA, where we pose employment-related questions to the experts and share their answers! Have a question you'd like to ask? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in the next installment of Recruiter QA! Today's Question: Job fairs can be kind of odd, can't they? The purpose of this piece is to help job seekers navigate the strangeness and get...
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7 Reasons You Don't Work Here
On a number of organizational design and CIO advisory projects, I've had the opportunity to help screen and evaluate candidates for jobs ranging from entry-level support to IT director roles. When I am in the office at Systems Alliance, I am also occasionally able to participate in screening candidates for open positions at our company. In the recruiting world, candidates are...
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Are You an Expert at Job Hunting?
How many things have you truly mastered? For example, you must know how to cook to survive day to day. But does your food meet the quality of a professional chef's dishes? Similarly, you might like to travel – domestically and maybe even internationally. But how good are you at booking these trips? Good enough to book trips for others and charge for your services? In both of...
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5 Essential Tips for Building a Standout Resume
No two jobs are exactly alike – and for that reason, your resume shouldn't stay the same from application to application. Your resume needs to vary from job to job if you are going to prove to an employer that you are the right fit for their specific role. However, that doesn't mean you have to write a brand new resume for each job you apply to. You can get a step up on the competition...
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6 Things Employers Want to See in Your Resume
When you're on the job search, you are a product. If you are going to sell that product to a recruiter or hiring manager, you have to answer the same questions that any company selling a product has to answer: What does this product do? How was this product made? How can this product benefit someone who buys it? How durable is this product? Why is this product better than a...
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7 Mistakes You May Be Making on Job Applications
As anyone who has ever been on the job search knows, finding a job can be hard. Applying for job after job can grow pretty tedious pretty quickly – but maybe there's a reason you aren't getting noticed. I've made up a list of seven very common mistakes you may be making on job applications. Armed with this knowledge, you should be able to apply to jobs with your best foot forward and, at...
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Get Hired! 7 Smart Ways to Increase Your Chances of Landing Your Dream Job
How close are you to landing your dream job? Do you know that, on average, 250 resumes are received for each corporate job opening? Or Monster receives as many as 427,000 resume submissions every week? In other words, the odds are already stacked against you when it comes to getting any job, let alone your dream job. With the right steps, though, you can give yourself an edge over...
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6 Unlikely Places to Find a Job
Welcome to Recruiter QA, where we pose employment-related questions to the experts and share their answers! Have a question you'd like to ask? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in the next installment of Recruiter QA! Today's Question: We all know about job boards, LinkedIn, and the like. But what are some of the more unlikely places where savvy job seekers...
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Got an Interview? 7 Ways to Prepare Yourself Well – and Land the Job
You sent in your resume and references, and now you have an interview. What could be better? Most companies these days are laser-focused on identifying high-potential candidates who are interested in learning, growing, and earning more. In tech companies especially, the goal is to recruit candidates who have just graduated with computer science, design, and/or business degrees, as well as...
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6 Interview Mistakes That Will Cost You The Job
You have an impressive resume, and you're certain that you're a great fit for the position. Unfortunately, that's no guarantee that you'll get the job. In my experience, too many job candidates blow their interview opportunities, wasting all that time and effort and squandering any goodwill they may have had. Don't be that candidate. Instead, read up on this five common interview mistakes...
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Get Found by Recruiters on LinkedIn: 13 Steps You Can Take Today
Decades ago, when a candidate was in transition, they would personally show up to a potential employer and fill out an application. Years ago, transition candidates would compile a resume detailing both the position they were seeking and their current and past job duties. Today, career transition is different. A resume is still the foundation of your search, but it is no longer a simple...
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Resume Objectives and Headlines: Outdated or Awesome?
The other day, someone asked me about objectives and headlines on resumes, and it got me thinking a lot about how I utilize these things when writing resumes. Today, I'd like to explore whether or not headlines and objectives are right for your resume. We'll start with a couple of definitions: - A resume objective is a statement on your resume that explains to the reader what your...
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6 Things You're Doing Wrong While You're Unemployed
For many people, finding work when you're unemployed can be incredibly difficult. Sometimes, it even becomes so difficult that unemployed job seekers give up all hope and quit the job search altogether. If you recognize that feeling – if you've been on the hunt for a new job for a long time without any success – then it may be time to look inward. You may be sabotaging your own efforts...
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How to Create Your Own Job (and Pitch It to Your Boss)
It can be frustrating waiting around for the next promotion or job opportunity when you are itching to get ahead and find your dream job. Why wait? Why not create your own job opportunity and pitch it to your boss? Yes, you read that right: "Create your own job." I swear, it in't as crazy as it sounds. Surely it makes more sense to have a go at creating your own job than it does to...
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When Interviewing, Do as a Salesperson Would Do
Job interviews are sales calls, or what our friends from Glengarry Glen Ross would call, "sits." Professional salespeople make naturally good job interviewees (not all, but most) because they understand that the principles of good selling apply to an interview situation. For anyone without formal sales training, here's how you can think like a salesperson to master the ever-confounding...
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How to Analyze a Job Description Before Applying for a Job
You aren't going to get very far if you're blindly sending out your resume to whatever job openings you see. What you need to do instead is fully analyze a job description before applying. Doing so will allow you to determine whether or not you're the right fit for that company – and paying close attention to the job description will help you see the role and company for what they really...
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How to Ace an Unstructured Job Interview
You'll know when you're in a typical structured interview: The interviewer will be holding a questionnaire and referring to it quite regularly. The interview will be highly focused, which is, of course, the whole point. Because structured interviews are so common – 88 percent of employers use them – most career-focuses sites advise candidates to prepare for these situations. What...
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8 Career Trends for 2016
With the New Year here in full force, many employees are setting their sights on new goals, new jobs, and new careers. One question I keep hearing is "What's new in 2016?" Let me answer that with a quick rundown of eight important career trends we'll see in 2016: 1. Multiple Careers It's becoming more and more common (and acceptable) for employees to switch jobs every 3-5 years....
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The Best Places to Work for Medical Sales Professionals [Infographic]
We have good news for those of you in – or looking to join – the line of medical sales: MedReps.com has just released the results of the "Fifth Annual Best Places to Work in Medical Sales Awards." Topping MedReps's list are Johnson Johnson, Medtronic, and Stryker. Just what makes these companies great places to work for medical sales professionals? According to the professionals...
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The Top 25 Flexible Jobs With the Most Growth Potential in 2016
"One of the things people don't realize about flexible jobs is that they exist in practically every career field," says Brie Reynolds, director of online content at FlexJobs. "Most of them are jobs you'd recognize – but there's still a feeling that flexible and remote jobs are only for certain professions, like writing and consulting." To help dispel the myth that flexible work –...
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4 More Vital Questions to Ask Before Your Next Interview
Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of asking and answering certain questions before you even set foot in the interview room. If you really want to gain an edge over the competition, you'll need to do some serious research on your potential employer – and that means doing more than just skimming the company's website. The best kind of background research you, as a candidate, can...
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4 Vital Questions to Ask Before Your Next Interview
As if it's not enough that you have to answer a load of tough questions at your next interview – and devise some good questions of your own to ask – you now find out you have to ask a few questions before even setting foot on the prospective employer's premises! No matter how frustrating it may seem, I can't apologize for putting you through this exercise. Walking into an interview...
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4 Clever Ways to Get Interview Feedback From Unresponsive Employers
We always encourage our readers to obtain interview feedback after failed job applications – no matter how painful that might be. Why? Because when you put aside the negative emotions it might rouse in you, interview feedback can show you where you can make improvements to your interview technique, which will increase your chance of getting hired the next time around. Acquiring and...
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Expert Interview: Lawyer Jane Woodcock Shares Her Unlikely Career Path
Ed. Note: Jane Woodcock is head of the personal injury department at the U.K.-based law firm Hudgell Solicitors. Here, she speaks to Simon Wilson, a senior solicitor at the firm, about the unlikely path that lead to her law career. If you're interested in a career in law, you'll definitely want to see what Woodcock has to say. Our American readers should also note that, given that the...
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How to Build a Strong Resume: A Guide for Students
Great resumes don't just happen: They are carefully orchestrated. Anyone who has talked to me or read any of my writings on hiring should know that I think attitude should be a major consideration in the hiring process. The logic behind this is simple: The skills needed to be successful in a position can be taught, but attitude cannot. Furthermore, bad attitudes can be destructive to an...
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3 Tips on Landing an Automotive Engineering Gig
Dirty, dull, and dated: That's the perception many still have of the auto industry, but that picture is very far from reality. Today's auto industry is truly high tech and offers diverse career opportunities, especially in engineering. From electrical systems to sound engineering, the expertise needed to design and manufacture cars and trucks is vast. Vehicles are now one of the most...
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Shake a Thousand Hands: a Better Way to Network
I am a volunteer with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections. Every week, I go inside prison walls to facilitate a fellowship under the auspices of the programs office and the Protestant chaplain. I have been doing this for about a decade. Recently, as an extension of this fellowship, I had an opportunity to participate in the distribution of Christmas gifts to the men incarcerated at the...
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Writing a Cover Letter That Works for You
I often discuss resumes, and as important as those are to your application package, the cover letter is equally critical. Writing a cover letter that works for you is important because it will show recruiters and hiring managers why you want the role and demonstrate your specific interest in the company. The cover letter is where you can wow employers with your true colors, perhaps through a...
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How to Request Flexible Work and Still Get Hired
Flexible work really matters to the millennials. A recent study conducted by PwC found that, after training and development, the thing millennials want the most from their jobs is flexible work arrangements. Flexible work outranked other perks, like cash bonuses, free healthcare, and more vacation time. And it's not just the millennials who like flexible work: Some estimates say that as...
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4 Ways to Jump-Start a Dead Job Search
It's frustrating, I know. You've been searching for a new job for weeks now – months even. Interviews are few and far between, and the interviews you do get are nothing you actually want – but hey, they're job opportunities, right? And at this point, you'll take what you can get. So you entertain these opportunities you don't really want because, well – you need a job! It's a...
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8 Red Flags That Will Kill Your Chances of Landing a Job
Welcome to Recruiter Q&A, where we pose employment-related questions to the experts and share their answers! Have a question you'd like to ask? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in the next installment of Recruiter Q&A! This Week's Question: When you're hunting for a new hire, what are some of the red flags that will disqualify a candidate immediately? Whether...
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The Business Writing Mistake That's Making You Look Bad
There's something you may be doing every day that's making you look old and out of touch -- and, you probably have no idea what it is. It's not your clothes, or your hairstyle, or the AOL email address (although, those might not be helping either!). What you're doing is more subtle than all that. Worst of all, it' something that you learned was correct in school. How or why would you...
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What's the Business Case for You?
You can't be distinctive without being selective. Selective organizations and their leaders look to the strength of the "business case" before investing precious resources in new opportunities. Whether it concerns people, priorities, or projects, the business case includes a dispassionate and balanced assessment of the relative benefits, costs, and presumed impact of the potential choices....
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The Importance of Building Your Online Presence Now
I often browse LinkedIn, connecting with people in the industry or reaching out to my clients to stay in touch. If I don't see someone I know on LinkedIn, and I go to ask them why they don't have a profile, I always seem to get a similar response: "Oh, I'll set one up later. I don't need one right now, so there's no point." Well my friend, you are wrong there. You do need to establish an...
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Searching for a Flexible Job? Here are 50 Roles You Haven't Even Thought of Yet
When you think "flexible job," what usually comes to mind? Probably some sort of telecommuting role, right? Something in content marketing, maybe – it's pretty easy to write some blog posts and run social media accounts from any laptop, isn't it? So, if you're in search of a flexible job opportunity, you may spend all your time looking for roles like this. As it turns out, in doing so,...
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Turn Your Job Rejection Into a Learning Opportunity
Despite your brilliance, your thorough preparation, and your deep desire for the role, there will be times when you're not successful in the job hunt. As much as these rejections might make you want to yell and scream or curl into a ball and lick your wounds, there are better ways to handle the situation. Why People Get Rejected First, you need to know that the reasons why people get...
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5 Tips on Growth Hacking Your Way to Job-Hunting Success in 2016
The term "growth hacking" was coined about five years ago by marketing guru Sean Ellis, and it refers to a multi-step process used to create growth and increase sales for a company. As it turns out, though, growth hacking isn't just for organizations. The concepts behind growth hacking can actually be very useful for job seekers, too. For example, here are five ways you can growth hack your...
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4 Common Resume Red Flags and How to Fix Them
Have you checked your resume for red flags lately? These are potential "question marks" on your resume that, at best, will cause employers to grow suspicious of you as a candidate – and research suggests that such suspicion is very hard to shake off. At worst, these red flags may even cause employers to immediately dismiss you as a candidate without even taking a second look. If your job...
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5 Bad Habits to Break on LinkedIn
I've written previously about some of the basic LinkedIn faux pas that I've noticed in the course of growing my professional network and building my business. In general, these were obvious things that people simply forget to do, like adding a picture or capitalizing their name. Now, I'd like to get into some deeper advice geared more toward those of you who are real LinkedIn...
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How to Re-Enter the Workforce After a Lengthy Break
Raising children, going back to school, personal tragedy – no matter why you had to take a lengthy break from your career, the prospect of re-entering the workforce can be terribly intimidating. Many people who have taken long breaks from the workforce find themselves facing unique challenges when it comes to landing a new job. Luckily, there are ways to overcome many of these obstacles and...
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