Human resources and hiring managers like to see resumes where employment dates blend together and job duration reflects commitment to prior employers. Employment gaps and short-term experiences tend to be viewed as “red flags.” Questions such as “what caused this?”, “is there an issue of which we need to be aware?”, “why was there no job during this time?” become real concerns...

A question I’m frequently asked is, “What is personal branding, and why should I care?” My advice is the same regardless of career level or aspiration. Your brand is the experience that people have when they interact with you, whether that’s in person, on social media, or via your content. The number one goal of your professional life is to be the CEO of your career. To do so, you need to build a str...

Outside of keeping a positive attitude, networking is the most common tip given to job seekers. Do it well to gain referrals, leads, and advice. With hundreds of books, and countless blog posts, dedicated to networking, you’d think this topic would be easy for most to master. You can read over and over that it’s who you know that counts. Unfortunately, what may seem like a simple and straightforward task of m...

You may have received training in any number of subjects, whether on-the-job training (OJT) or training through an offsite trade school, certification course, or college program. Job training usually helps you to achieve at least one of the following goals: Perform your job (for example, safely operating a forklift or using a new software) Prepare for a promotion (for example, leadership training) Improve the way...

Companies really do hire employees between Thanksgiving and mid-January. There are a number of reasons why November, December, or January could be luckiest months in the job search for you. You should not pause your job search during the holiday months. Use the holiday season to improve your job search. The notion that job search gets harder this time of year is a myth. Job search websites such as monster.com have someti...

There is a theory out there that postulates that traditional job interviews don’t give hiring managers or recruiters an accurate read on a candidate’s likely performance in a certain role, largely because interviews can be too brief, formulaic, formal, or riddled with bias. Some organizations are taking a scientific approach to interviewing in which they control for obvious variables. For example, some orchestra...

Are you giving off the wrong signals and unknowingly decreasing your chances for landing the job? Despite the booming economy some candidates have trouble getting in the door. Why is that? Perhaps because they seem too risky to hire. Hiring managers are looking for qualified candidates who can add value. As much as possible, they want to avoid those who cause problems, and who can blame them? Releasing a troublemaker is...

Many of my clients ask what to do about age discrimination during the job search. The plain truth is if you’re waiting for ageism to disappear from the job market, one thing is certain: However old you are, you’ll grow much older waiting. Age-based discrimination may be illegal, but it remains pervasive despite its illegality. In any event, the law isn’t the recourse you need. “Failure to Hire&rdq...

Ninety-five percent of Fortune 500 companies use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or talent management system to organize and track résumés. Companies readily admit that many qualified candidates, as many as 70%, are screened out before their résumés are reviewed by a human. When you submit your résumé online, it is screened by a bot, if it can’t read the inform...

If job postings are windows into the working world, maybe somebody needs to clean the glass, because it can be awfully hard to know what you’re really seeing! That’s why the first letter in REAL stands for “Read between the lines” when you read job postings. In this post I’ll tell you how to do that, as well as how to Evaluate the fit, Apply with an advantage and Learn from the experience so...