Meal interviews are multi-tasking nightmares. Although the primary purpose is the interview, there's a secondary purpose to these mind-your-manners interviews: how well do you handle yourself during a business meal? During the course of my career I’ve seen quite a few ghastly faux pas that have nixed an otherwise capable candidate. So follow these pointers and mind your manners! Drinking - No. Not even if the interviewer...

The reason hiring authorities control the interview process is because job seekers let them. From the moment a candidate begins their job search, right up until the offer – when they suddenly decide to show they’re not a push over by negotiating – most job seekers don’t realize how much they allow themselves to remain powerless. Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at this problem closer. The majority of people intervie...

Most recently we looked at the concept of giving away power in the interviewing process, why and how that happens, and a few ways to retain it instead. Now let’s look at additional reasons and ways to counter them. When you haven’t identified what you want in your next job, what you want is...a job. Each interview becomes a hurdle you feel you need to clear. Rejections become a reason to double your effort to win over every...

The market is down, foreclosures are up, your bank account is emptying, and you’re becoming increasingly desperate. With fewer companies hiring and more people competing for the same spots, your future doesn’t look too rosy. But if that’s true, why are people still getting hired? How come they are...and you aren’t? It has nothing to do with what you did or didn’t do in your last job. It has nothing to do with why you left –...

An interview is about you. Your skills, your impression of the company, your likes and dislikes, your previous experience, what you're looking for...you, you, you, you, you. But let's be honest. Who cares about their new marketing program - unless you're an employee - and the program’s success means your job is secure? Who cares about the magnificent president of the company, unless his magnificence (a distinctly, non-u...

Here’s how a job search usually takes place: you decide to change jobs. You put together a resume, which probably won’t be read by more than half of the interviewers, because it’s not put together very well. You send it with a cover letter that talks all about you and regurgitates your resume, and doesn’t sell you very well either. You post it on job boards and mail it to companies advertising in the paper, and then you w...

If recruiters are so helpful in finding people jobs, why do they get such a bad rap sometimes? We’ve all heard the stories: a candidate’s resume ended up on his boss’s desk, or the current company was called for a reference without the person’s permission. The recruiter misrepresented the candidate to the company or vice versa and wasted everyone’s time.Too often candidates aren’t any more selective about the recruiters wi...

Sending a thank you letter is as important as interview preparation. But they’re tough to write, so people either tell themselves that not sending one doesn’t matter, or they procrastinate until it’s too late and almost pointless anyway. Anyone who tells themselves that foregoing a fundamental rule of etiquette doesn’t matter, not only taints themselves in the mind of the interviewer, but misses two additional opportuniti...

What your body language says is often more important than what you say verbally, especially when the two conflict. When they’re in sync, your movements are a reflection of what you’re thinking and what you’re feeling: your conscious and your unconscious. But when they aren’t, the unconscious prevails.Why? Because while people will make themselves conscious of their words, few are conscious of their feelings and how that...

When’s the last time you responded to, or actively courted, the attention of a recruiter? When happily employed people get a call, they usually terminate it fairly quickly – because they’re happily employed. Those who are unhappily employed respond if contacted but don’t generally initiate it. On the other hand, for unemployed people, a recruiting firm is usually the very first step in the process of locating a new job....