A client of mine got a verbal job offer but the job will not start until January. What’s going on here? Why can’t he start now? What’s the big deal of a of a months of pay when the hiring manager tells my client that her team is swamped with work and desperate for help?
Simple, this is [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

This post has 5 responses.

This Sunday the New York Times reported that there were only 2.4 million job openings in July for the 14.5 million unemployed.  This means there is a 6-1 ratio of job seekers to jobs – the worst ratio since the U.S. Government began tracking the data in 2000. To get this number, the Bureau of [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

This post has 2 responses.

If you’ve been between jobs for, like, an hour, you already know that wishing will get you only so far.   In fact, you might have been wishing that you weren’t on the list of people to get laid off.  So you know better than just about anyone that wishing has its limitations.
Now. Luck. That could [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

This post has one response.

In London, there is a warning printed on the loading platform of the “Tube” (subway) station.  It says “Mind the Gap” between the platform and the train – a warning to passengers not to trip as they board the train.  When it comes to job search there is another gap that comes up – the [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

Be the first to respond..

There are plenty of sad ironies around this current era of layoffs and job losses. It’s hard to just focus on one without feeling woefully inadequate about not covering all the bases. But for the purposes of this article, this is the irony of the day: Being without work gives you an awful lot of [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

Be the first to respond..

I read yet another disappointing job search advice column in a special section of this Sunday’s Union Tribune.  It was the same old tripe that gets trotted out and passed off for quality job search advice.
I call it the 1-2-3 of job search.  Which often adds up to a big zero in today’s economy.   It goes [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

This post has 2 responses.

Not that you need the assist, but let’s make this really simple anyway.  If you were desperately looking for a gallon of milk, where would you go?  To a place where other people who were desperately looking for milk are hanging out?  I’m guessing probably not. You’d probably go where there’s milk. Or at least [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

This post has one response.

Okay, so I have a quick question for you. Are you a nut? If I gave you this cup right here, would you be able to confidently take it into the bathroom, knowing that the results wouldn’t hurt your chances of a job? How do you blow off steam when you’re tense? If you found [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

Be the first to respond..

Job seekers – all job seekers – have, or at least believe they have, some vulnerability that they feel gets in the way of their ability to get hired.  Under qualified, over qualified, too old, too young, too ugly, too pretty, wrong color, wrong name, wrong town – the list goes on.  It is not [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

Be the first to respond..

It’s hard to be choosy these days, isn’t it? It’s hard to hold onto hope and high standards for what kind of job you’d like to ultimately land when you’re surrounded by messages that the job market world is coming to an end. Buy into the terrible headlines that people are losing jobs right [...]

Read the rest of this entry...

Be the first to respond..