December 2007

Carnival of HR

The latest Carnival of HR is now up, over at Compensation Force. Check it out! And the next Carnival will be hosted right here on January 9. Please send me your submissions by January 7.

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new managers and authority

Becoming comfortable with exercising authority is one of the hardest adjustments for most new managers, but it’s also one of the most crucial if you want to be effective. Here’s a letter from a reader who is struggling with exactly this. She writes: I was hired to manage a team of fairly experienced sales people. […]

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Danger signs when you’re interviewing for a job

Just as a hiring manager can never be completely sure what a candidate will be like once in the job, neither can job applicants be completely sure what a company or boss will be like to work for. But just like there are plenty of danger signs that hiring managers watch for, so too are […]

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when your resume is a hodgepodge

A reader writes: I’ve never been the type of kid who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up, and I still don’t know. The truth is that I’ve enjoyed and excelled at a bunch of jobs: English teacher in Japan, receptionist, IT/data entry temp, short-order cook. I’m only 25, I’ve had 20 […]

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mob pressure to join coworkers for lunch

A reader writes: I’m a new employee at a software company. I’d thought I’d seen every eccentricity possible in the high tech workplace, but here’s one new to me: Every day at 12:30 PM one of my co-workers approaches my cube to announce, “Lunch time! We’re going to lunch!” There’s an air of importance and […]

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dealing with a bad job reference

A reader writes: Earlier this year, I was part of a mass lay-off from a large corporation. At my exit interview, which was less than 5 minutes long, my manager assured me that she would give me a positive reference, and that I need not contact her to ask each time I gave her name […]

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bosses: what do your employees complain about behind your back?

When I’m interviewing candidates for management positions, I like to ask something like: “Even the best bosses’ employees will occasionally have complaints about them. What complaints do you think the people you’ve managed have had about you?” The responses are revealing in a lot of ways. An astonishing number of people can’t answer it at […]

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how to get hired if you’re under-qualified

I’m continually surprised by how many people don’t realize that the “required qualifications” in job ads are like wish lists, not inflexible lists of requirements. Those qualifications are a composite of someone’s idea of the ideal candidate. Believe me, they will look at people who don’t perfectly match it. So when a job posting requires […]

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should I speak up more in meetings?

A reader writes: I am not sure if this is a real problem or something trivial that I perceive as a problem. So far it hasn’t yet resulted in any repercussions but it always has me worried and paranoid. The situation: I am more of a soft-spoken, mild-mannered type who considers himself a good listener. […]

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stop offering to take less money

There’s a weird sales tactic going on with some job applicants: I’ve received a few resumes recently from people who — in their cover letter, their very first contact with us — say that they’d be willing to do the job for less than the posted salary. This is clearly meant as a way to […]

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