Interviews are always pretty difficult. You’re nervous. You don’t have a lot of personal space. You’re forced to answer multiple questions back to back with no time to rest. And your whole professional future seems to depend on this one tiny thing. Terrifying! So it’s easy to understand why so many interviewees depend on cliches
Abstract This series of three case studies describes a program of applied research on writing evaluation conducted in a large utility company. Two of the studies employed represented workers as subjects while the third utilized management employees. Reliability of ratings was examined several ways, including generalizability analysis, coefficient alpha, and Pearson r. Validity of writing
Many employers are moving beyond the traditional resume by using web-based tools to screen and assess job candidates’ ability and aptitude and to boost candidate quality and productivity.
An internship program that is mutually beneficial to employers and interns doesn’t just happen. It’s up to HR to plan carefully for success.
Disabled employees need not follow regular procedures to achieve reasonable accommodation A U. S. Court of Appeals has held that an employer cannot require a disabled employee to follow the regular procedures for requesting a transfer. It was up to the employer to find her a reasonable accommodation, and to implement it.
We take our employees to lunch for their reviews — do we have to pay them, too? When an employee is taken to lunch, and given their scheduled review, is this considered their lunch break (unpaid) or should they receive an additional break that day and be paid for the time during the review?
How many hours per week can a salaried employee be required to work? I am from the state of Florida where I work in a store as a manager. I was hired with the understanding that I would be required to work 45 hours/wk. Is there a limit to how many hours I am required
At some point in our lives, we come to a place where we long to uncover our mission — a lifelong assignment that evolves from deep within our soul. My father, the son of a New England minister, described one’s mission in life as a “calling.” A calling isn’t exactly a job; that’s something you
For members of the jobless tribe, good impressions are becoming tougher to make during interviews. My advice isn’t the kind found in the slew of available career guides. Mine is an anthropological perspective. The subject of my study is that daunting hump in the interview process: the Untrained Interviewer.
Executives in Fortune 1000 companies, as well as executives in transition, often are unaware that with the backing of a private-equity firm they have the potential to run their own business, and in so doing build considerable personal wealth.
In a recent edition of The Wall Street Journal, columnist Gerald Seib wrote that the campaign against terrorism is “slow and hard for good reason.” After spending a day providing advice to participants in a job fair in Fort Worth, Texas, I sensed that the nation’s other war — getting America back to work —
Maybe it’s the English major in me, but over the years I’ve derived more practical wisdom and guidance from the world’s great works of literature than from self-help, career and management advice books. I’m an employment counselor by vocation. I’m no snob — I glean words to live and work by wherever I find them.
You’ve sent your resume to numerous employers for account-management roles. The phone rings, and you have an in-person interview for a sales role at a top company. First, congratulations on your upcoming interview. More importantly, in this competitive environment, how do you prepare? Every day I coach candidates on techniques to help them ace their
If you haven’t had a promising interview in the past six months, you should consider the possibility that you aren’t a top candidate. In this job market, it isn’t good to be anything but a top candidate. Hiring managers who have openings are besieged with resumes, many from outstanding candidates. So if you aren’t outstanding,
At age 35, Paul Gauguin was working in a bank. A year later, he chucked that job, along with his wife, his children and his prosperous but predictable Parisian existence for a tumultuous life as an artist in southern France and then Tahiti. It was a life he later described as “ecstasy, peace and for
Switching from a military to a civilian career is a big step. It also can be extremely difficult. Military officers may be highly qualified for many business positions. However, their backgrounds are so different from those of typical executives that employers often can’t tell if — and where — they’d fit. To start with, military
By payroll size, the biggest U.S. employer isn’t General Motors Corp. or Wal-Mart Stores. It’s Manpower Inc., a temporary services firm in Milwaukee, which employs 760,000. Manpower sends all types of employees into companies to fill temporary roles ranging from traditional filing and typing to complex computer, marketing or finance positions. Because these jobs aren’t
Switching from a military to a civilian career is a big step. It also can be extremely difficult. Military officers may be highly qualified for many business positions. However, their backgrounds are so different from those of typical executives that employers often can’t tell if — and where — they’d fit.
Despite the corporate layoff announcements piling up, the overall employment picture is still quite healthy. What better time to go into business for yourself? If you’ve yearned for the freedom of being your own boss, be warned: Experienced independent professionals will tell you that there’s little that’s “free” about being a free agent.
Wendy Brawer was an English teacher in Japan vacationing in Bali when she noticed how peaceful, rural hideaways were turning into tourist hotels. When she returned to the U.S., she was determined to shift environmental attitudes. She eventually hit upon the idea of helping communities create maps of their ecological and cultural resources. In 1995,
