July 2008

illegal interview questions?

A reader writes: I am a legal assistant/secretary with 18 years of experience. I am in the process of interviewing for a position with several law firms in the small southern city where I currently live. Repeatedly during interviews, I am being asked the following questions: Do you have children? Where do you live? Is […]

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recent grad frustrated by job search

A reader writes: I’m a new reader of your blog and I’m already fascinated. I had no idea there was such a wealth of excellent career advice out there. I got my B.A. at a prestigious university over six weeks ago, and since then I’ve been actively pursuing a job in government, law or policy. […]

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how to resign gracefully

I get a lot of questions from people who are nervous about the best way to tell their boss they’re resigning. Fortunately, there’s a basic formula for doing it well: * First, be sure resigning is the right decision. Don’t do it in a huff, to make a point, or in the hopes that it […]

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what is a good excuse for missing a phone interview?

What’s a good excuse for missing a phone interview? I’m not talking about needing to reschedule it; I’m talking about not bothering to reschedule it and simply not picking up the phone when I call you at the prearranged time. In general, I feel like nothing is a good excuse for this, short of a […]

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obnoxiously aggressive recruiters

My blood is boiling after reading about the high-pressure recruiting tactics being recommended in a post over at ERE.net. The article recommends really aggressive sales tactics and game-playing. Here’s a sample: “What’s the compensation?” When someone asks, don’t tell! Say, “Before I tell you that, I’d like you to think about the best jobs you’ve […]

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how to mentor someone

Is there anything better than spotting someone relatively inexperienced but smart, driven, and generally awesome, and helping them along in their career? I think it’s one of the most rewarding things about managing (second only to having the power to make things run well rather than your department or organization being at the mercy of […]

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10 mistakes employers make when hiring

I’ve written a lot about the mistakes job applicants make in the hiring process, but it’s often no better on the employer’s side. Here are the 10 biggest mistakes I see companies make when hiring. 1. Flakiness. They say they’ll get back to you this week and you hear nothing. The job description seems to […]

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job rejections and vitriol, part 2

About a year ago, I wrote a post about how a small fraction of job applicants respond to rejection notices with outrage, rudeness, or general vitriol, and gave a few real-life samples. Some background: My organization emails rejection notes to all applicants we don’t offer a job to. It’s a friendly and polite letter, and […]

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unfair performance evaluation?

A reader writes: I have worked in HR for seven and a half years, working my way up from an HR Assistant to a Senior HR Assistant and 3 years ago to a Recruiter. I hire employees for about 30 departmental managers. I have always had excellent yearly performance reviews, most years being ranked 4 […]

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