For much of the past seven years, I dished out career and job-search advice through a weekly newspaper column. “Network, network, network,” I said. “Keep your resume up to date, ready to post online and easy to adapt to a variety of jobs.” “Join professional organizations.” “Research alternative careers.” “Follow your bliss.”
During the blackout of 2003, the electricity went out along much of the East Coast, but the light bulb over my head clicked on. I had been unhappy for most of that summer. I was frustrated by a lack of progress in my reporting job at the Wall Street Journal Online, wanted to be nearer
Question: I worked for a semi-famous woman, who is known for having a huge temper and being reactionary. I use her as a work reference and, during my job search, she was called by people who just wanted to talk to her — even in cases where I had not interviewed with them. At one
WITH DEMAND FOR SENIOR MANAGERS ON THE RISE as the job market and economy heat up , a flurry of counteroffers are expected to rain on executives who give notice this year. “Counteroffers always go up in a climate like we’re now seeing, and my clients are now talking about candidates they’re trying to recruit
The chief financial officer (CFO) of a Midwestern insurance company bumps into the HR director in the men’s room and asks how his new benefits administration strategy is shaping up. Before the HR director can respond, the CFO declares his belief that benefits administration should be outsourced to avoid spending money on the new technology
Job Search Tips Searching for a job in today’s environment can be challenging at best. Most people complete their education and end up working in a completely unrelated field. The fact is that we have to work to pay bills and support families. This means that sometimes we take jobs we don’t necessarily want to
The messages law enforcement personnel sent one another — more than 5,000 — were crude, referring to people as animals, using profane terms as labels — and, worst, containing some horrifying jokes implying violence. They were fired. That was in Camden County, N.J., where 11 white prison guards lost their jobs for racially insulting texts
Q: Two of my employees seem to have absolutely no interest in doing a good job. They arrive late, ignore deadlines, and drag out every task to avoid additional work. If I bring this up, they threaten to call in sick and stay out for several days. Because we work for a large retail chain,
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Many American workers don’t really leave work. Emails, phone texts, pager alerts and phone calls pepper what once was personal time. And that’s not including on-call shifts or beeper time, which require workers to be ready and able to work at a moment’s notice. When is it time to call
Q: A few months ago, my colleagues and I got a new manager who makes our lives a living hell. “Kristen” has no management experience and nitpicks everything we do. She gets angry about small stuff and talks to us like we’re in third grade. She has also allowed the office to get disgustingly
Social psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson wants you to find someone at work who has known you for a long time and ask them to complete the following sentence: “If I didn’t know you better, I’d think that you were … .” Most of us would hope to hear things like “a movie star” or “an
SEATTLE — Expedia has laid off an undisclosed number of employees in the wake of its acquisition of one-time rival Orbitz. Expedia said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week that employees will be cut from Chicago-based Orbitz as part of a restructuring resulting from a merger of the two companies. Expedia, based
Good news for summer job seekers: Jobs should be more plentiful this year and a majority of employers have jobs paying more than $15 per hour, according to a new report. The $15-per-hour wage has been highlighted this week by thousands of demonstrators at McDonald’s headquarters, where workers demanded higher wages for frontline employees at
WASHINGTON — Employers shrugged off worries about the U.S. economy downshifting, adding a whopping 271,000 non-farm jobs in October and raising worker pay in the process. The unemployment rate in October dipped slightly to 5 percent, and measures of stress in the job market continued improving, the Labor Department reported Friday in a solid monthly
WASHINGTON — A burst of hiring last month accompanied by strong wage gains suggests that the U.S. labor market remains solid and increases the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will make its first interest rate hike in nearly a decade next month. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that employers across a broad spectrum
The job search can be riddled with frustration. Believe it or not, some of this frustration may be tied to common job search myths. Several of these little monsters are floating around in dark clouds waiting to rain on your job search parade. Let’s shake a few of them out of the clouds, debunk them
When you leave a job interview, you should have a solid understanding of what the role entails, whether you’ll be a good fit for the team, and enough information to make a smart career decision. But far too often candidates will ask questions that just scratch the surface of these topics, or (gasp!) ask no
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that more than 200 businesses will offer approximately 5,000 job openings at the Syracuse Career Expo on November 5. The event will be held at The Oncenter, located at 800 South State Street, and will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. “We have a large number of companies
Q: A supervisor who reports to me never gives more than the minimum effort. “Rick” is so lazy that his emails don’t even contain complete sentences. Despite being a salaried employee, he refuses to work more than eight hours per day. If it’s time for his shift to end, he will walk out in the
Recruiters and hiring managers have seen every trick and gimmick in the book when it comes to interviews. Sometimes they work – but when it comes down to it, whether you’re wearing purple stilettos stilettos or looking the interviewer in the eye, it’s the content of the interview that matters in the long run.
