September 2010

should I work for free to get experience?

A reader writes: I’m an engineer with a technical job in the pharmaceutical industry. However, I really want to work as an engineer at a large corporation that produces chocolate and confectionery products. I have some relevant training and plenty of transferable skills, but no direct experience in the food or confectionery industry. I am […]

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help, my bullying ex-boss is out of control

A reader writes: A year ago, I took a part time job while my daughter was at school. It was for a pet-sitting company walking dogs. I was an independent contractor. While I knew the owner was passive-aggressive, I learned to just limit my contact and did what I had to do and developed a […]

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over-sharing in your out-of-office messages

A reader writes: I work in R&D for the computer industry, where technical staff have few meetings with customers and generally are given a fairly flexible schedule. It’s not uncommon for people to send to a broad team mailing list (~20-50 people) messages like: “I’ll be in around 10:30. The contractors are just starting to […]

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should you point out a typo when applying for a job?

In a comment on an earlier post, one commenter asked whether it’s helpful to point out proofreading errors in a job post: Should an applicant point out the typo and suggest if they were in the job last week, they would have caught it before the ad went live? I’ve seen this done well, and […]

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loads of career advice without leaving your couch

If you’re in the job market, this is something you should know about: the Career Summit. The Career Summit is an virtual career conference that lasts for three weeks (October 26 – November 17). If you’re like me and hate leaving your house, the greatest thing about it is that you don’t even have to […]

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guilt over leaving team behind as I leave a toxic workplace

A reader writes: I’ve been in a fairly toxic workplace for two years, and in one week I’m finally done with my contract and am moving on to greener, and saner pastures. This is all well and good, except I’m leaving behind a small team of people who I’ve grown very close to while I’ve […]

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there’s a high likelihood that your job postings suck

Someone recently sent me this link to a job posting as an example of a company that finally got a job ad right. What’s awesome about this ad is that you can actually read it and understand what the job is all about. There’s no incomprehensible jargon, no sentences that sound like they were lifted out […]

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