Ask a Manager

A reader writes: I’m in a bit of a pickle. I was invited by email to interview with an organization that I really liked. They asked for my availability on two days, and I responded thanking them for the opportunity to interview and giving my availability (not free on the first day but free all […]

A reader writes: I’m job hunting, and a few times now I have received a request to come in for an interview within a day or, in today’s case, within hours of applying. Is this a red flag? The last company that I interviewed with who did this turned out to pay hourly minimum wage in an industry that […]

More and more employers are conducting initial job interviews over Skype or other online video services, hoping to get a better feel for candidates than a phone conversation might allow. But interviewing well via video requires a whole different type of preparation than a more traditional phone screen does. Here are 10 tips to ensure […]

We’ve had a few letters recently where people have felt misled by a job interviewer’s apparent enthusiasm for them, and then were angry and/or confused when things ended up not working out. So I hereby present a guide to what your interviewer says, what you’re hearing, and what it really means. What the interviewer says: […]

Last week, I posted a link to my U.S. News column about questions that job-seekers wish they could ask their interviewers, but don’t feel comfortable asking. Since then, my editor there suggested that I do a second version explaining how you can get the information through other means— so there’s now an updated version of […]

A reader writes: I am long-distance job hunting. I’ve been very fortunate to have two interviews with two different companies, both via Skype. Although I did fairly well in both interviews (one resulted in an offer, which I turned down), I found Skype incredibly awkward. The video didn’t align well with the audio, there were […]

A reader writes: Suppose I go to a job interview and it so happens that I know one of the other candidates and his work. Would it be acceptable to comment on it and say in what ways my work is superior to his/theirs? Like, compare pieces of achievements? Noooo. It would come across as really obnoxious […]

I recently had an email exchange with a reader who was disappointed that she didn’t get a third interview that she was expecting with an employer. I think she’s speaking for a lot of job-seekers in her confusion and frustration, so I asked her if she’d let me reprint our exchange here. She agreed — […]

A reader writes: I’m employed at a university in the deep South. I recently attended an orientation session for students nearing the end of their schooling. One of the speakers at the orientation was from the career center, and she was promoting their services, which includes interview prep. As an example of what they can teach […]