Once again I came across someone who tried to not-so-patiently to explain why networking in job search would not work for their personality type. They were a technical person who suggested those in technical trades are more comfortable facing a keyboard and screen than facing another person in a networking conversation. Further, they suggested that [...]

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My college roommate and I have known each other for over three decades – which is an astounding fact because neither of us has aged one minute. And we pretty much have nothing in common. Except for two things: We love to tell each other amazing stories about other people’s bad behavior (especially around customer [...]

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A few weeks ago, Duncan and I published an article called “How to Network Without Sounding Phony, Lame or Desperate” on the AOL/Careerbuilder site.  At last count, there were 73 responses, most of them angry, resentful, hopeless and raging. One commentator simply wrote, “Blah, blah, blah, blah.”  How’s that for effectively moving the conversation forward [...]

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The announcement by the Bureau of labor Statistics  that the Unemployment Rate is 10.2% is grim news indeed.  Of course, those in the news business who figure if bad news sells, worse news should sell even better have taken the “if you think that’s bad, look at this!” approach.  Brian Sullivan of Fox Business News [...]

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The nerve of them.  You ask a simple favor. Send your resume to one of their contacts.  Forward to you the name and number or at least the email address of their friend, or colleague, or somebody they thought could use your skills or talent.  It was even their idea and they promised they would [...]

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(This post is based on some of the principles included in the new book, Unlock the Hidden Job Market: 6 Steps to a Successful Job Search When Times Are Tough which I wrote with Duncan Mathison. For a free sample chapter, click here )
If you’ve been following my posts, you’ll know that I’ve been writing [...]

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In recent weeks I’ve been watching events unfold in Sedona  — that whole James Arthur Ray thing and how people died in an ersatz sweat lodge.  I suppose for many people, a terrible event such as this (where people paid $9,000 for the privilege of dying a horrible death, surrounded in the gloom by their [...]

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Them:   So, tell me about yourself.
You:       What do you want to know?
Them:   You know, a little bit about your background.
You:       Well…I started out as a child…
Them:   Zzzzzzz….
Well, maybe not actually snoring.  But I did once doze off while listening to a client back in the days when I was a [...]

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I was poking around a few of my favorite job sites this morning, and discovered that a particular company was announcing that it was hiring.  Great! So what’s the problem?  One of my dear friends had just been laid off from that very company not one month ago. Oh.  Ouch. Chances are excellent that candidates [...]

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My friend Patricia Varley is probably the only person I would call a natural networker. Her worldly possessions have been in storage for most of the last 10 years as she goes where her heart tells her to (always beautiful places: Hawaii; Aspen; Naples, FL;  San Diego; hey! Why not?). Jobs and projects fall into [...]

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