Have you ever gotten an invitation for a second interview after you’d already decided this was not the right job for you? How’d you handle it? That’s the situation I’m in right now. After my job interview the other day I had made up my mind that this was not the place for me at this point in my career. Why? Well, I’d be taking about a 10 grand per year cut in pay to go to work for an organization that really needs some TLC. (That’s code for I’d need to put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears.) Don’t get me wrong, the opportunity sounds sexy and I’m just the kind of person they need – I’d totally nail it. It’s just that I’m not willing to invest that much of me... [Read more]

President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday night at a Florida rally “this is the most important job interview you’ll ever see.  It’s the most important hire you’ll ever make”, or something like that.  He couldnt be righter. Presidential election after presidential election we cast our vote based on where the candidates stand on the same tired old issues when in reality, none of the candidates are likely to come into office making swift changes taking away our rights.  Thankfully, we have enough checks and balances in place in this country to prevent that kind of sweeping law passing.  I’m not saying that where the candidate stands on these issues is unimportant, I’m just saying that at this time in... [Read more]

Here are a few blogs I enjoyed reading this week. Ask A Manager on “Stupid candidate behavior: Not checking email.” Evil HR Lady gives advice to some poor dude who was fired while waiting for an offer for a new job. Punk Rock HR answers a reader question on “Corporate Manscaping.” Manpower Blog talks about The Death of the Performance Review. this is a great blog for free legal advice on employement law Great Leadership by Dan offers an Eight Step Guide To Developing Your Leadership Skills. [Read more]

On Monday I turned 41. Besides feeling pretty darn old, I realized that my job hunt at 41 is totally different from what was 10 years ago. Here’s how… I’m more concerned about the stability of the company. Before I assumed that most all companies were stable and successful. Boy, was I wrong. I place importance on the “culture” of the organization being in line with my personal values. Working for an organization where most people are polar opposite from me on just about every religious and personal belief has really scarred me. I’m concerned about making sure that my personality is a “good fit” for the company, and theirs with mine. These days I’m more interested in investing more of... [Read more]

Being fully prepared for an interview is one of the easiest, yet most overlooked aspects of the job hunt, even for yours truly. Earlier this week I found myself sitting in the Human Resources department trying to complete an application without the data I needed at my fingertips. It made me unnecessarily anxious and I ultimately had to leave a couple of fields blank on my application – that can’t be good! Here’s a list of things you’ll always want to bring along to the interview so that you don’t get yourself all stressed out over trying to find the phone number of a place you worked at over a decade ago – I’m just sayin! 5 copies of your current resume. Complete address and phone number of all previous... [Read more]