Archive: November 2009
Is your name hurting your career?
On a scale of 1 to 10, the name Michelle Goodman rates a 4 in the originality department. Although not an earth-shattering setback, going through life as sort of a Jewish "Jane Smith" hasn't exactly been a boon for me...
Day of thanks has special meaning for job seekers
For most of my life, I've never been much of a Thanksgiving fan. It's not that I feel ungrateful for the support I've always received from friends and loved ones. But the idea of celebrating good fortune in life by...
Survival jobs: Something to be thankful for
In the past year and a half, I've spoken with dozens of workers who've gone from writing loans, press releases, or software manuals to driving a school bus, ringing up groceries, or hawking cell phones at the mall. While these...
What time is best to bring up time off in an interview?
Since most of this holiday week will be spent by hiring managers either taking the whole week off or clearing their decks so they can get out early, it seems appropriate to talk about a sometimes touchy subject: Whether or...
More ammo for employees hoping to telecommute
A few of you have wisely asked for scientific proof you can use to help make a business case for working a more flexible schedule or telecommuting to your job. A new study by a team of industrial organizational psychologists...
Quark offers custom-designed business and resume cards
If you're looking for a job, odds are you don't have much of a budget for creating flashy promotional materials. But that doesn't mean you have to look unprofessional at your next networking event. Desktop publishing firm Quark is giving...
Do you suffer from "sitting disease"?
I'm not much for reading (or heeding the advice of) women's magazines. But a friend sent me a recent Women's Health article that had me leaping from my chair. Apparently sitting on your duff and staring at a computer screen...
Where to stay dry while you pound the pavement
A glance at the weather report shows that for the rest of this week, there's an 80 percent chance of monsoon and a slight chance of Biblical flood. But that's no excuse to stay home and scan Craigslist again. Since...
Protecting your office against workplace violence
If you've been following the headlines lately, you might think that workplace shootings are the rule rather than the exception. But according to the Workplace Violence Research Institute, nothing could be further from the truth. "A much more common cause...
Helping job seekers by 'paying it forward'
The more I immerse myself in the job-search world, the more I start believing in karma, or at least the kind of nonreligious, Western style of cause-and-effect karma. Treat other people with compassion and respect and, chances are, good things...
Lending a hand to returning veterans on the job front
Today we take our annual break in our busy schedules to honor the service of our country's roughly 2.7 million active and reserve military personnel. But this year, Veterans Day has been made even more poignant in the wake of...
When CEOs and social media don't mix
If you follow social media news, you've probably heard about Chip Conley, the 48-year-old CEO of Joie de Vivre, a 3,000-employee company that runs a collection of boutique hotels in California. Apparently Conley likes to get personal on Facebook and...
Tear down those walls and start networking
Twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall fell, an event that shocked the world not only for its remarkable speed but also for the nonviolence that surrounded it. The most concrete symbol of the Iron Curtain, which most people expected...
In search of the Eastside networking community
While perusing my usual list of job-search and networking events around the Puget Sound region this week, I couldn't help but notice that, with the exception of Lesa Keller's Job Seeker Club, nearly all of the organizers hold regular job-search...
Should you mention your upcoming vacation in an interview?
Earlier this week, I received an e-mail from a job seeker concerned that an upcoming vacation he'd booked ages ago might cost him the "perfect fit" dream job he's interviewing for this month. When I say this guy has an upcoming...
The upside of office gossip
Much of what's written about office gossip makes it sound as though no good can come from sharing juicy tidbits about those we work with. Earlier this week, an article in the Science section of the New York Times discussed...
Don't let the economy curtail your career development
Hey, did you know that November is Career Development Month? That's OK, neither did I. But you can bet that the nearly 135,000 unemployed people in the Seattle area have not just career development but also survival on their minds...
Recession ethics: Has the definition of honesty changed?
Corporate theft is nothing new. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), U.S. employers lose 7 percent of their annual revenue to employee theft -- from inflated expense reports and abuse of corporate credit cards to out-and-out embezzling....
Events to help you 'fall back' into good job-search habits
Have we all enjoyed our extra hour this morning? The end of Daylight Saving time means the days of 4 p.m. sunsets are fast approaching. Instead of using today's time change to scarf down your remaining Halloween candy, perhaps it...
Karen Burns is the author of The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl, a career guide based on her 59 jobs over 40 years in 22 cities.
Lisa Quast is a certified career coach, mentor, business consultant, former corporate executive and author based in the Seattle area.
Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.
Former contributors
Matt Youngquist is the president of Career Horizons, a career counseling firm.
Natalie Singer is a Seattle writer, editor and small-business owner.
Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide."
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