Archive: Randy Woods
Midwinter tax deduction reminders for job seekers
Groundhog Day is once again upon us, and you know what that means for the average worker: 6 to 10 more weeks of tax preparation, of course. (Unlike the choices of a certain Keystone State rodent, this is one prediction...
Career Inception: How to conduct a 'stealth search'
In Christopher Nolan's hyper-cerebral 2010 film "Inception," a gang of nefarious agents go to great lengths to plant subliminal ideas in the heads of powerful people to make them feel as if they created the ideas on their own. After...
Five simple ways to avoid the layoff axe
If the Great Recession has taught us anything, it is that no one is irreplaceable. A tailspinning economy and shrinking revenues can spark a panic among management, leaving even the most loyal and talented employees vulnerable to the chopping block....
Time to clean out unproductive networking contacts
Last November, talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel struck a nerve with many people when he announced his second annual National Unfriend Day, which encouraged people to delete certain "friends" from their Facebook pages who are not really their friends. You know...
Time running out on ESD's entrepreneurial training program?
For many of the long-time unemployed, the idea of starting and running their own business is a tantalizing dream of self-reliance. (Wouldn't you love to be your own boss this week and declare your own snow days?) Some of these...
How to overcome the 'over the hill' bias
In October 1984, during a televised debate with Democratic presidential challenger Walter Mondale, President Ronald Reagan gave one of the more succinct defenses of older workers ever given by a politician. When asked about whether his advanced age (he was...
Sweetening the deal with 'creative compensation'
One of my favorite scenes in the excellent AMC television drama "Mad Men," about the pressure-cooker life of ad executives in the early 1960s, comes from an episode called "The Suitcase." While working late, young copywriter Peggy Olson, the first...
Turning tables: Questions to ask hiring managers
At the end of nearly every job interview, there is a golden opportunity to make an impression that many job seekers miss entirely. The interviewer, after getting all the needed information from the candidate, will ask, "Do you have any...
Four ways to invigorate your job search in 2012
According to the rash of December predictions of job trends in the Seattle area, this coming year is expected to be just as difficult for job seekers as the previous one. As a recent Manpower survey showed, the Seattle-Bellevue area...
A little fatherly advice about finding your dream job
At least once a year, it's a good idea to find someone in your network from whom to get advice about taking the next step in your career. For me, one of my indispensable advisers was my father, Robert Woods,...
Holiday gift list: New confidence, new job
This is a week of making lists (checked twice, of course) and looking forward to a new year of possibilities. We seem to be doing well with the gift list, according to the latest figures for retail sales and other...
When describing work experience, show, don't tell
Creative. Organizational. Effective. All of these are great words you would want associated with your previous work experience. But do you want them on your resume? Not necessarily. According to the online networking site LinkedIn, those three adjectives are what...
Erasing unsightly blemishes from your resume
In most cases, the more experience you have on a resume, the better it looks to hiring managers. But are all experiences created equal? Not always. Have you had several jobs that only lasted a few months? Were you ever...
2012 advice: Hold your ground on benefits
The Great Recession has been over, technically, for more than two years now, but everyone knows that it's "over" only in the minds of economists. In the real working world, where talented, qualified job seekers often take a year or...
Don't let brain freezes seize up your interview
If the current candidates for the presidency of the United States can teach us anything about landing a new job, it's the value of preparation. Earlier this month, at least two of the nine Republican candidates have made spectacular mental...
Job skills gap is sometimes a matter of perception
When looking for a new position, it's important for job seekers and hiring managers to be on the same page. Managers must clearly state what responsibilities they are looking for in the position they are offering and candidates must demonstrate...
Blazing a more flexible career path for women
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a report from LinkedIn declaring that only about 19 percent of 1,000 professional women surveyed in the United States said they had been "mentored" in their careers. To me, the tone of the...
November program encourages hiring of returning vets
Last month, President Obama made the announcement that the nearly 40,000 non-combat security forces of Operation Iraqi Freedom will be coming home by the end of this year, effectively ending the nine-year misadventure in Iraq that cost nearly 4,500 American...
Free job-skills training program extended
In this era of draconian budget cuts and endless belt-tightening, it's good to finally see that reason has prevailed. One of the Employment Security Department's (ESD) best bargains -- the free Microsoft e-learning courses offered through WorkSource -- has been...
Acting vs. interim: Which works better on a resume?
When writing a resume, there are some words that can always help you, such as "completed," "managed" and "achieved," which let the employer know you've accomplished something concrete and measurable. Then, there are the words that de-emphasize actions, such as...
Artist Trust gives a career EDGE to creative professionals
For many people, the idea of "being an artist" often runs counter to the concept of "having a career." This is one stereotype that does have at least some basis in fact: Most artists I've met are extremely talented and...
Flat holiday hiring is reason for optimism
A few years ago, in the early days of the Great Recession, I attended an economic forecast symposium and heard an economist use a phrase that still resonates with me: "As far as markets are concerned, 'flat' is the new...
Handling the 'weakness' question from a position of strength
A few weeks ago, I wrote about some ways to address a question about salary requirements during an interview. That is always a tricky subject, but it is a reasonable request with a number of effective responses. There is, however,...
Tide still rising for Seattle tech jobs
If there ever was a time for Seattle-area job seekers to add high-tech skills to their resumes, it would be right now. In just the last week alone, several developments in the gaming, software engineering and IT fields have pointed...
Cool seasonal jobs still heating up this fall
On blustery, early-autumn days such as this, it's easy for outdoor-loving job seekers to shift their gaze from their LinkedIn profiles to the Cascades beckoning on the eastern horizon. Ski season is rapidly approaching, promising seasonal work at the region's...
Where should federal dollars be spent for worker training?
Much of the debate in the Other Washington these days is about what the federal government can or cannot do to help boost the economy. The debate is crucially important for the country, but it rarely has much impact at...
Helping businesses help themselves to create jobs
There's no denying that this has been a tough month for the idea that government can provide assistance in creating new jobs. In spite of a substantial rebound on Wall Street following the Great Recession, the unemployment rate still stands...
Part-time is still better than 'no-time'
When an employment search drags on for enough months, many job seekers turn to part-time work to help pay the bills and fill in gaps in their resumes. This may be a financial necessity for those with mortgages to pay...
A divisive decade helped unite job seekers
I don't have to ask you what you were doing this morning 10 years ago today; I already know the answer. Like everyone, you were trying to go about a typical Tuesday, only you probably spent most of it either...
How to nurture your network contacts
Don't you hate it when a friend who hasn't spoken to you in years suddenly resurfaces in your life only to ask for a favor? Nothing sours a relationship like being inconsiderate of other people's time. Now think about the...
A little enthusiasm goes a long way
In your last job interview, did you really want the job? Sure, you needed the income, along with the benefits and the cocoon of security that comes with being fully employed. But did you really want that job? And did...
Resume 'updates' should last all year long
So here we are on the edge of the big first weekend in September. Do you have any major plans? Reassessing career goals? Adding new skill sets? Emphasizing major job-specific accomplishments? Wait, did you say you were barbecuing instead? No,...
New vacancies often require new training
Last week, a small ray of hope shined down on the bleak local job landscape, like a Seattle sunbreak on a cloudy spring day. The Employment Security Department's twice-yearly Job-Vacancy Survey was released, showing that spring 2011 job vacancies were...
Answering the unanswerable salary question
There comes a point in every job interview where you get a question that feels like a no-win proposition -- an open-ended query that puts you on the spot and can possibly be the deciding factor in whether or not...
WorkSource's new OCE&E building offers one-stop shopping
Back in 2009, the last time I was out of work, I have to admit that one of my least favorite job-search chores was making visits to my local WorkSource office. The staff was always very helpful and impeccably nice...
Startup job fair to run riot through Seattle
For entrepreneurial-minded people, perhaps nothing else in the English language gets the heart beating faster than the word "startup." (OK, maybe "profit" ranks a bit higher.) For those looking for fame and fortune, few places are as exciting as a...
Major help for the college major quandary
At this time of year, many young high school grads and rising college freshmen are wrestling with the same question: What are they going to choose as a major? Personally, I made use of my journalism degree immediately and have...
Underemployed and returning to the networking trenches
One of the key tenets of my Hire Ground advice to job seekers has always been to remain positive. Grumbling and negativity can spread like a plague and lead to desperation, which is deadly to any serious employment search. That...
Video resumes: Handle with extreme care
For job seekers looking to stand out from the crowd of other applicants, it's sometimes helpful to show off your creativity by trying a new technology or displaying your skills in an unusual format. This has led to a rise...
McGinn initiatives may give Seattle job creation a nudge
Many of the Mayor's proposals in this month alone contain elements that may end up adding new employment opportunities for job seekers.
Twitter-based jobs conference: Brave new world?
You knew it had to happen eventually. Since everybody these days seems to be conducting business in 140 characters or less, it was only a matter of time before the Twitter machine would take on the world of conferences. This...
LinkedIn weighs in on 'Battle of the Networking Sexes'
Looking for a lively discussion at your next career mixer? How about an argument about whether men or women are better at networking? That ought to break some ice (or perhaps ice over some people). While this humble blogger won't...
Declaring your independence via freelancing
This holiday weekend, while we celebrate our nation's 235th birthday, I thought it would be an appropriate time to discuss other forms of independence -- namely the severing of ties with an employer and the launch of a new career...
Southwest WA: Where the jobs are?
With the return of nice weather (eventually) and summer vacation, the networking calendar for July is one of the lightest of the year -- small enough to fit into a single Hire Ground post. But that doesn't mean there aren't...
Building two-way relationships with JobMatcher
One of the most useful aspects of social networking sites is the ability to build referrals and receive notifications about job leads far faster than a conventional scan of the want ads. The beauty of this arrangement is that it's...
Summer e-learning, networking opportunities to come
Before I launch into my update of job search networking and workshop events for the rest of June, I wanted to send out a reminder about a great learning opportunity that many job seekers may have missed from the Employment...
How to stay focused during lengthy job searches
They say April is the cruelest month, but when you're looking for work in the moss-covered Pacific Northwest, I'd say it's more like June. As we saw from the last few days of fantastic weather following a particularly drenching spring,...
Job-search help for returning veterans
It's already Memorial Day, so summer has unofficially arrived, at least in terms of summer vacations, if not weather. While many of us have scattered to various locations (I happen to be deep in the Methow Valley right now), we...
Turnaround coming for 'boomerang' generation?
For the last few years, the long-running joke about recent college grads was that they were first of the new "boomerang generation" -- well-educated young adults who had earned six-figure educations but were landing right back where they started at...
Manufacturing, warehousing recovers but demands patience
In the darkest days of the Great Recession, it seemed as if manufacturing in the Puget Sound region was in its death throes. The economy also devastated the container trade at the Port of Seattle, leading to more job stagnation...
Time to harvest the last networking events of spring
We're approaching mid-May already, which is usually around the time the grumbling in the Seattle area reaches a fever pitch. After seeing the rest of the country warm up to long days filled with sunshine, Seattleites are once again mired...
Taking your new career for a 'test drive'
One of the many repercussions of the Great Recession in the overall job market has been a rapid reshuffling of workers in newly defined roles. For instance, the recent slow thaw of the job market is giving a glimmer of...
Networking events to heat up Seattle's frozen spring
In case you haven't noticed it while you were poring over your weekly job-search to-do lists, it's been bloody cold outside this month. (Saturday was a nice little mirage, yes, but we're back in the usual April soup for the...
Let employers know how innovative you are
For much of the last couple of years, the economy has slowly climbed out of the deep hole of the Great Recession and returned many corporate balance sheets into the black. However, most of the multitudes who were laid off...
Two job-seeking certainties: Networking and taxes
Well, after much ado about egos and posturing, it looks like the federal government will continue to function unabated following Friday night's 11th hour "compromise" in Congress. Aren't you happy now that you can pay your income taxes to fund...
Criminal background checks: By the numbers
Last week's latest job figures showing an overall increase of 216,000 jobs last month and a four-year low (8.8 percent) for the nation's unemployment rate was undeniably terrific news for job seekers. This is some of the strongest evidence since...
Unemployed: Beware of April spammers
Before I get to the coming networking and job-search workshops for next month, I wanted to pass along a notice from the Employment Security Department about unscrupulous spammers (yes, that's redundant, I know) who are sending out misleading e-mails to...
Interviewing tips for people with disabilities
During a job interview, the most important impression to get across to the hiring manager is your ability to do the tasks required. For many thousands of job seekers in the Puget Sound region, however, there is another hurdle to...
Strengthening the bonds of community, in good times and bad
As I researched this week for the latest networking events and seminars for job seekers, I couldn't help but get pulled into the heartrending tragedy that has continued to unfold for the people of Japan since Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake. Over...
Networking tips for the job seeking engineer
In the wake of Boeing's lucrative Air Force tanker contract and a strong second quarter for Microsoft, 2011 looks to be a turnaround year for engineering jobs in the Puget Sound region. But just because hiring activity may start picking...
Riding the Boeing Bump in your networking efforts
Seattle is certainly no longer a one-company town, but it's impossible not to feel a surge of pride across the region when good things happens to a certain "Chicago-based" aerospace firm. The news last week of Boeing's come-from-behind victory in...
A little government help for job growth
It's undoubtedly tough out there finding a job these days. It's equally tough to be a public official in a state or local government trying to allocate a dwindling amount of dollars for crucial economic development programs. According to a...
Networking events shift into high gear for 2011
At the halfway point in February, the networking events around the Puget Sound region are now back in full swing again. Many organizations are holding their first meetups of the year as hiring managers begin looking to fill positions for...
Job etiquette: Don't be afraid to speed up the process
Recently, a Hire Ground reader wrote in with a "job etiquette" question. Here's an excerpt: "I applied over a month ago for a position that closed at the beginning of January. ... While researching the position further I ran across the...
Groundhog Day check-in: Job hope springs eternal
With the winter midway point of Groundhog Day nearly upon us, I think a certain Pennsylvania-based rodent might look favorably on its outlook for Seattle for the next six weeks and beyond -- not just for our warmer weather, but...
Knowing when to shift gears in your job search
As the economy continues to stagnate, it has become an almost too-convenient excuse for people to give up on their job searches. Employment experts often say that unemployment rates don't reflect the true number of people who have been searching...
Exploring new paths at the 2011 career crossroads
The new year is still new enough that almost anything seems possible. After a dreary few years, there seems to be hope that the local job market may soon begin to show sustainable growth. Some economists are saying that 2011...
Podcasting your way to a new job
As any good networking expert will tell you, job seekers who are discussed among their peers will have a leg up in terms of finding employment. In the last decade, the advent of blogging has been the easiest and cheapest...
Networking for the miracle comeback win
If there's one thing Americans can agree upon -- especially after the recently expired decade of divisiveness -- it's that everyone loves an underdog. To surmount impossible odds and beat an overconfident opponent is a theme that is practically spliced...
Make your Boxing Day list of year-end thanks
I've always liked the idea of Boxing Day. For those unfamiliar with obscure holiday customs of the former British Empire, Dec. 26th traditionally has been a day off for the laboring classes, during which the wealthy provided charitable gifts for...
Temp, trade hires may lead job revival in 2011
This week, as greater Seattle gears up for the last-minute shopping binge, most job seekers are pretty much already on holiday from their usual full-time "jobs" of looking for work. With hiring managers either planning holiday parties, on early vacation...
Help from Down Under for gaming job seekers
Over the last few years, the one local job market that seems to have weathered the storms of the Great Recession has been Seattle's interactive media sector. Earlier this year, a joint study by the Washington Interactive Network (WIN) and...
Confidence still rising for 2011 job growth
All relationships -- even the ones that seem destined for long-term commitment -- have their bumpy days, where everything seems to fall apart. Friday was one of those days for the on-again/off-again romance between private-sector employers and the nation's workforce....
Good news/bad news/good news about holiday networking
Like the last two holiday seasons, this new one -- still in it's infancy -- looks like it will come packaged in the now-familiar mixed bag of economic indicators. On one hand, there is optimism for a healthier economy in...
Turning that seasonal job into a permanent gig
Many people looking for work this time of year are taking a detour from their regular job-seeking activities to don new name tags and tie on color-coordinated smocks as extra seasonal retail help for the holidays. The vast majority of...
Controlling job-seeker mood swings via networking
Welcome to the holidays: The season of the Uncontrollable Mood Swing. It's known as a time filled with joy, family and peace, but it's also the time of darkness at 3 p.m., miserable weather and shopping stress. No to mention...
Seattle ranks high on managerial hiring index
A few days ago, we saw a dramatic example of change, with Republicans picking up a whopping 64 seats in the midterm elections to take back control of the House of Representatives. Here in this Washington -- in the Seattle...
Avoid the rush: Get your pre-holiday networking done now
We're on the verge of November, and that means networking activity will start heating up in the next couple of weeks before the holiday season kicks into high gear. Usually, the holidays are the time of year when hiring tends...
Setting your course for a jobs recovery in 2011
With the midterm election looming, there has been a disproportionate amount of focus on the past in recent weeks. The relentless and misleading campaign ads both for and against Patty Murray and Dino Rossi have saturated the airwaves with endless...
Rely on your network to dig you out of your hole
This week, as the TV cameras of the world focused on the 33 Chilean miners emerging, one by one, from what could have been their tomb, half a mile below the surface, I marveled at not only their immense collective...
Microsoft offers a free boost to your IT skills
For those searching for work, especially in a new field, one of the toughest barriers to entry is the need to retrain for new skills. Many jobs -- even those at technology firms -- require a wide range of interpersonal...
These October networking events are a 'fall classic'
Hey job seekers! I'm away this weekend celebrating my wedding anniversary down on the Oregon Coast. But I'm not one to leave my readers hanging as the fall networking seasons gets into full swing. The first half of October is...
Matchmaker, matchmaker, find me an internship
The leaves are changing. A chill is in the air. The kids are back in school. Time to start thinking about summer. Not the swimming-pool, shorts and sunglasses kind of summer -- I mean summer internships. Since the needle on...
Freelance Nation: Surviving the new reality
Most livelihoods have taken a huge hit during this stubbornly persistent recession, but few professions have been as much of a punching bag these days as journalism. Seemingly every day, we hear stories about the imminent demise of magazines and...
A headhunter's advice on changing, advancing careers
Since well before the Obama campaign co-opted it in 2008, "change" has been the watchword in the employment arena. Most workers will change not only their jobs several times over their lifetimes but also their careers, either by choice or...
Networking events to help you ride out the storm
While assembling a list of job search events this past week, I've kept one eye on the breathless coverage of Hurricane Earl as it freaked out half of the Eastern Seaboard and thought about how the media so dearly loves...
T-Mobile turns to social media for seasonal hiring
Late August is not a time most people are thinking about "ho, ho, ho" and mistletoe. But at Bellevue-based T-Mobile USA, the holiday season is just getting under way as it prepares to make its seasonal hires in the next...
Plugging into demand for health care IT jobs
It's no secret that health care is one of the few growth areas for job seekers, both locally and nationwide. For decades, the health care industry has gone through chronic and well-documented shortages in nursing and in physical therapy personnel....
Prepare for landing: Late-summer networking events
OK, have we gotten it all out of our systems now? This wave of workplace catharsis that has rippled across the country in the days since our new 15-minute folk hero, Steve Slater, famously grabbed those beers and pulled the...
Avoiding the 'job-hopper' label on your resume
It's a fact of modern life that the typical American worker will change jobs often over the course of their careers. In a Bureau of Labor Statistics study of the careers of baby-boomers over the last 25 years, the average...
Job search events to get you through the 'dog days'
As we turn the corner into August this weekend, we officially enter summer's "dog days." While we Seattleites are blessedly free of the infernal heat and humidity that usually stifles the rest of the country this time of year, August...
Social network feature rewards those who follow
Most companies these days are looking for good leadership qualities in their job candidates. But to get to that all-important interview, sometimes it's good to be a follower. The social media landscape has made the act of following -- friends,...
Private sector provides encouragement for job seekers
Before getting into the list of job-seeker events for the rest of this month, I thought it was necessary to point out some recent jobless figures this week that may have gone unnoticed amid the good news down in the...
Networking tips for the video-game job market
To gamers, it seems like a natural progression: After mastering every nuance of their beloved video games like Halo or World of Warcraft in their teens, game aficionados learn some C++ programming skills in college and land jobs in Seattle's...
Events to help you declare your job-search independence
There may be a lot of rockets' red glare and bombs bursting in air this weekend, but for many Seattleites looking for work there has not been much worth celebrating these days. The latest job creation figures from the Feds...
Be careful of the phone interview faux pas
In recent years, so much has changed in the job interview process that it's getting hard to recognize some of the old stand-bys. Printed want ads and resumes sent by snail mail are following the dinosaurs into obsolescence. Now,...
Extra daylight hours for extra June networking
One of the best things about living in Seattle at this time of year is the copious amount of daylight we can enjoy each day. It's surprising how much activity one can cram into a day when the sun doesn't...
Don't let the 'unemployed' stigma hold you back
In an ongoing crisis, such as this country's appalling unemployment rate, some job seekers begin to see bad news around every corner. When a weeks-long job search starts to be measured in months and years, it's easy to let fear...
Summer job blues? Get help with teen Interview workshops
Summer's here and the time is right for...looking for work. Sorry, but according to the latest jobs figures, it looks like the "dancing in the streets" part of the summer may have to be put on hold--especially if you have...
Support your local library, find job-search tips
It's a holiday weekend, time to relax, recharge and prepare for another week of job hunting. You'll need the rest because, even with this short work week, the summer season of job-search seminars and networking events is kicking into high...
Who's Hiring? MicroGreen Polymers
Over the last few weeks, I've written about economic indicators pointing toward a coming surge in high-tech jobs and growth in the construction and manufacturing sectors. While most of these reports talked about statewide job increases, they were light on...
So many networking events, so little time!
It's late May, so, besides trying to help people find work in the Seattle region, much of my time for the next three weeks will be spent flitting from theater to theater to see as many Seattle International Film Festival...
Beating the resume-tracking numbers game
One of the most common mantras that is drilled into every job seeker's head is "personalize." Personalize you cover letter, your networking, your interviewing techniques to make a connection with hiring managers and convince them that you are the exact...
Construction jobs build hope of sustainable recovery
For most of the last two years, when there was news of yet another bad report of job losses, it was a safe bet that the leading industries were construction and manufacturing. After the housing bubble burst in 2007 and...
Networking events that mix business with pleasure
As Seattleites, we can be a bit stand-offish at times. Perhaps a little distant. But when the weather is nice and the days are long, it's like we all turn into garrulous Californians. How else can we explain the large...
How to help, not hover, over your kids' job search
Right on cue with the nice weather, the kids are coming back from college, like the swallows of San Juan Capistrano. Many graduation ceremonies will begin this weekend and will run throughout Seattle in the coming weeks as thousands of...
Microsoft offers job skills program for returning vets
The ads for the U.S. military always show young, energetic, motivated people learning technical skills, discipline and the value of taking on new challenges. While at least some of this may be true, the ads don't tend to dwell on...
Casting a wider net to find networking opportunities
When compiling my weekly roundup of job-search events, it's always gratifying to find a few new listings thrown in with the usual weekly or monthly regulars. This coming week, I discovered a whole array of job-search activities down in Tacoma...
It's time to take job-growth momentum seriously
On Wall Street, traders are tense as the market seems to react spasmodically to the weakest of economic rumors. On Broadway, tourists are nervous after a string of bomb scares. On the Gulf Coast, environmentalists are anxiously awaiting the desperate...
How your resume can help you change careers
One of the trickier aspects of our current Great Recession economy is that it has forced many people to consider changing careers to find better job prospects. For some, this can be exhilarating, for others, it's terrifying; most experience a...
Celebrating our maritime and labor heritage this May Day
Happy May Day, everyone! May 1st has been claimed by many cultures and organizations, celebrating everything from the advent of spring to religious rituals to international socialism. This year, by happy coincidence, the labor-themed holiday has another layer of significance...
PRforPeople celebrates a year of promoting professional brands
When people look for work, the first impulse is often to send out as many resumes as possible, packed with as many facts and skills as possible, to let employers know they are out there. But by doing this, have...
The calm before Washington's nursing shortage storm
The last few years of this recession has provided all job seekers a harsh lesson in the realities of market economics. However, one labor segment - nursing - seems to defy the conventional laws of supply and demand. For decades,...
Events roundup: Change in the air for tech workers?
Can you feel it? It's not just the springtime Seattle air (which does feel fabulous). There's a sense of optimism that is creeping back into the job market -- especially in the tech sector. After a few months of very...
'Green jobs' movement hits mid-life crisis
Forty years is about the right time to expect a mid-life crisis. Having experienced a mild one recently, I can recognize some of the warning signs: An acute awareness of the passage of time, a sober measurement of past disappointments...
Where to go to find financial help for tech training
In this era of bank failures, high unemployment and shaken confidence in Wall Street, the common wisdom is that new federal stimulus packages and tax breaks are needed to revive our workforce. While government will certainly play a big role...
Networking events for the young - and young at heart
Another spring week, another packed schedule of networking events and job fairs. As summer inches closer and the job market continues its slow thaw in the region, the events of the coming week are slightly skewed toward younger workers who...
Jewish networking group teaches professional development
When times are tough, it's natural for people to band together into groups with a common purpose. Most of these networking groups have been formed around certain professions, neighborhoods and age ranges. Ben Meyerhoff, a former sales executive, has taken...
First buds of the spring job fair season in bloom
As we finish dotting the decimals and checking the boxes on our Form 1040s this week, it's easy to note a change in the air. Now that we have the freakish hailstorms of last week out of our system, we...
Last-minute tax tips for job seekers
If you're like me, you're looking at the calendar for next week and marveling at how quickly April 15th has sneaked up on you. Because this is the last weekend to go through your W-2s, 1099s and Form 1040s, here...
Five ways to maximize your tweet power
Have you tweeted yet today? If so, did you get more out of it than a few marginally funny forwarded video clips, some lunch-menu updates from friends or perhaps a few hundred re-re-re-retweets from a long-obscured author? Hire Ground readers...
Spring renewal: Eastside networking on the rise
With spring comes hopes of revival. This week, signs of new growth abound, not just in the daffodils and tulips, but in the job market as well. The Labor Department chimed just in time for Easter with its latest report...
What a year it's been -- No foolin'!
Today marks a full calendar year since I carved out my little cyberniche with this Hire Ground column. So far, I've posted more than 140 entries about interviewing tips, networking events, resume advice, development of interpersonal skills and some random...
Don't forget second--and last--impressions, too
It's no surprise that making a first impressions is critical when you first meet a hiring manager. That's why the candidates who tend to land jobs are the ones with combed hair, nice suits or dresses and positive attitudes---at the...
Empowering women to take charge of their employment future
Did you know that we are in the last few days of Women's History Month? I've never paid much attention to the increasingly arbitrary "special month" designations that are supposed to raise awareness of certain cultures and causes, but I...
Summer-job prospects expected to stay at '09 level
For the last couple of years, our measure of what is considered a "good job market" has taken some lumps. While Wall Street seems to have bounced back quickly from its 2008-09 bender, the nation's unemployed are still acutely feeling...
Work like a full-timer, think like a freelancer
While many job seekers these days are actively seeking full-time positions at conventional employers, the tough economy is causing many of them to think like entrepreneurs. The demise of the conventional activity of "scanning the want ads" is just about...
How to build a personal brand in five days
Getting the attention of college students is always difficult, but it's especially hard to do toward the end of March, when basketball overtakes their brains. While it's important for graduating seniors to get serious now about networking for jobs, you...
A 'Super Tuesday' of networking events
Perhaps it's fear of the coming St. Patty's Day hangover. Maybe it's due to the one-hour shift to Daylight Saving Time. Whatever the reason, we have a mashup of networking events and seminars this week that all happen to occur...
Grooming new hires with Microsoft's MACH program
Anyone who's been through an interview for a full-time job at Microsoft knows that the process is one of the most rigorous you'll ever encounter. Full of problem-solving questions and riddles, the sometimes day-long interviews are designed to keep you...
Advice to help you break away from the job-hunt pack
For this week's roundup of networking and job-search events, I'm pleased to announce a new entry into the regular stable of weekly and monthly offerings. Joe Perez, a professional resume consultant and CEO of Writing Wolf, is holding a new...
Oscar gives pink slip to 'Up in the Air'
We all know the real purpose of the Academy Awards show last night: To discuss who was wearing whom and dish endlessly on what on earth Actress X was thinking when she chose Gown Y. But allow me to digress...
TGIF: Friday reports point to healthier job market
If it's Friday, it must be employment report time. For much of the last year and a half, the government's policy of releasing the latest job figures at the end of the week seemed like a cruel plot to ruin...
Olympic spirit continues in March networking events
The Games are over, the Olympic flame is out, but the partying is surely still going on this morning up north following yesterday's thrilling overtime hockey game pitting the United States against Canada. Although American hockey fans are still feeling...
Local retailer bucks trend by adding jobs
After a week that saw more bad news on the economic front, with higher-than-expected jobless claims, I feel it's important to point out some positive news this weekend about a retailer that is actually hiring and growing, not just for...
Mediabistro offers new job-matching service
One of the many professional hats I wear in the new part-time economy is that of a freelance writer. Finding new writing and editing gigs is never an easy task, but in recent years the pool of available jobs has...
Five events to boost your social networking skills
February is the shortest month of the year, but it's no less packed with networking events. I hope everyone enjoyed their vitamin D boost from this surprisingly sunny weekend. Now let's get back to work on that job search with...
Where to find green summer jobs, internships for teens
Most of the focus at Hire Ground is on getting jobs for adults in the Puget Sound region. But for those job seekers who are parents of teenagers, sometimes just getting the kids out of the house and into gainful...
Census jobs will start adding up this spring
In the next two and a half weeks, expect to see a notice in the mail about the United States Census, the decennial project that takes stock of every man, woman and child in the country. This Constitutionally mandated head...
Two days of advice and networking for job seekers
With the President's Day holiday, the job-seeker networking event schedule has been somewhat shortened this week. But the next 48 hours will still offer a host of great opportunities to mingle with potential job contacts and get advice on how...
You may want a new job, but are you ready?
Sometimes in life, just wanting something more than anyone else may be the secret to success. But when looking for a job, just wanting it may not be enough--you have to come better prepared than the competition. Perhaps you've been...
ProLango offers three new free job seminars for 2010
For much of the last year, I've been in touch with Paul Anderson, founder of career development firm ProLango Consulting, about the various job-seeker workshops and seminars he runs in the area. His energy is infectious, and his focus on...
Four signs our recovery may not be entirely 'jobless'
It's been a long road to stability during this alleged "jobless recovery." The path over the last two years has been filled with small signs of hope for an increase in hiring, usually followed by an depressing report about more...
Can you turn your tweets into a real career?
A few weeks ago, I received a notice from Indeed.com about the the Top Job Trends of 2009, which listed the 10 fastest-growing employment sectors in the country. Normally, lists like this are predictable, and this was no different, with...
Networking events to warm up winter's half-way point
As we approach the midway point of winter, with Punxsutawney Phil getting ready to awaken in Central Pennsylvania, I'm going to avoid the whole idea of looking for my shadow and jetting off to Miami Beach this week. Before you...
More career opportunities for gaming in 2010?
After years of hype as being "recession proof," the once-high-flying video game industry came back to earth last year, with console sales dipping by 8 percent and PC game sales down a surprising 23 percent compared to the record year...
Networking cures for the real 'Blue Monday'
Last week, I read a few articles about the "Blue Monday" phenomenon--the name for the third Monday of January, which a British psychologist said was the day when the post-holiday-season depression hits the hardest for most people. This dubious anti-holiday...
Do hiring managers know your 'emotional IQ'?
Ever wonder how some people manage to sail through the job search process? Even though you plan your answers meticulously and research positions as much as possible, there are some people who seem to know how to make a connection...
This week's events to help get you back to work
Many workers this weekend are enjoying a three-day holiday weekend to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But for those on the job hunt, there is no such thing as a holiday. Luckily, during this short work...
Are you boring hiring managers with your bio?
First impressions, as we all know, are lasting ones. It's important that your introduction, be it a cover letter or informational inquiry, practically jumps off the screen. Why is it, then, that so many informational bios written by job seekers...
Job seekers: Take Conan's message to heart
I like to provide practical advice about real issues facing job seekers here at Hire Ground, but please bear with me for a moment to comment briefly about a fantasy world--by that I mean Hollywood, specifically late-night TV. Over the...
How to reinvent your career for 2010
As all the gymnasium and weight loss companies know all to well, January is the month to capitalize on everybody's need to make lists, get organized and start on new regimens in a surge of reinvention. The record of success...
Is the 'call-back' an endangered species?
I got an e-mail from a long-suffering job seeker the other day that is a clear sign of our times--only I can't quite tell if it's good or bad. "Somebody actually called me back to tell me I was no...
Six ways to create a 'new you' before getting that new job
The recession of 2008-2009 left a lot of workers depressed and upset about the external economic forces that have made their job searches so difficult. But with the dawn of 2010, perhaps it's time to start looking inward to discover...
Job searching in 2010: On to bigger, better things
As we break out our new calendars that we got for Christmas, it's customary that we take a moment to look back at the highs and lows of the previous year and reassess what it has meant to us. Well,...
Five songs to help get you through your job search
During this "no man's land" week between the Christmas and New Year's holidays, I chatted on Facebook with my esteemed NWJobs colleague Michelle Goodman about work-themed songs that have helped keep us sane through the Awful Aughts. There are a...
A closer look at job numbers bodes well for 2010
Sometimes, after hearing nothing but rotten news all year about the state of the economy, it's easy to assume that every new development is an omen of more bad things to come. Even the relatively positive news -- such as...
Networking event advice for social wallflowers
'Tis the season to be social. Even if you're unemployed and not attending a corporate sponsored holiday party, chances are you've been to many holiday gatherings in the last two weeks where the conversation has shifted to the subject of...
Last chance to get in some pre-holiday networking
It's the time of year when shopping, party planning and tolerating relatives takes up about 80 percent of our brain capacity - a time when many job seekers take a break from their career planning activities to dip into the...
How organization can make job searches more productive
As employment searches stretch from weeks to many months in this difficult economy, an extra hassle that job seekers are facing is the constant juggling of schedules. Especially during the holidays, when shopping lists get longer, kids are out of...
Should you disclose your salary requirements?
One of the most frequent questions I get here at Hire Ground is how write the perfect cover letter. This is, of course, impossible to achieve as every hiring manager is looking for different skills and character traits depending on...
Encouraging jobless data provides hope for 2010
Call it an early holiday present. Or look at it as another empty statistic. No matter how you interpret the numbers, it was hard not to feel a little yuletide cheer yesterday after reading the latest national unemployment report and...
Holidays are no time to slack off on networking
OK, the leftover turkey's gone, the Seahawks are toast, the Christmas lights are hung - you're officially out of excuses for avoiding the resumption of your job search activities. "But it's December!" I hear you cry. "Everyone's too busy holding...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Labor's Loss: What roles will unions play in Seattle?
It's now been more than two days since Boeing's momentous announcement that the second 787 line will fly south to North Charleston, S.C., instead of Everett. Last time I looked out the window, the sky had not fallen and lights...
Approaching the 'unapproachable' for job leads
After sending out countless resumes, squirming through interviews and slowly building up your network, it's tempting for job seekers to fantasize about cutting out the "middleman"--about walking right up to the CEO, offering a firm handshake and talking about how...
For us, by us: Home-grown networking events
Each month, a new wave of national job fairs blows through town on their grand tours, many of which have little to do with the Seattle job scene and are of dubious merit to local job hunters. But as October...
HR experts see brighter skies for coming quarter
Of all the fiscal quarters in the year, the fourth has got to be the hardest to predict and analyze. Since the holiday season is such a crucial sales time for most businesses, any spike in hiring or increased sales...
Hiring continuing to pick up in IT sector
Lord knows the last thing out-of-work people want to hear right now is anything about "trickle-down" economics, that much-derided Reagan-era theory that financial incentives for the wealthy will eventually funnel down to the rest of society. This idea, however, is...
Use your network to find limited seasonal jobs
For those who were counting on getting some extra income for the holiday shopping blitz, it may be time to come up with a Plan B. According to a new survey released this week by Aon Consulting, 44 percent of...
Seattle ranks high in clean-tech job potential
One of the most frequently cited solutions to the current employment crisis in this country is the alleged rise of the "clean technology," or clean tech, sector. In a perfect world faced with growing energy demands and aging infrastructure, clean...
Reminder: Back-to-back job fairs this week
If you haven't ironed your best interview clothes, better make some time for that tonight. The fall job search season is kicking into high gear with two back-to-back job fairs this week. In the spirit of October's athletics-heavy calendar, both...
Ski resorts hold job fairs for upcoming season
Gaze at almost any horizon in Seattle this weekend and, with the exception of Mt. Rainier, you will be hard pressed to find a single snowflake on the local mountain ranges. It doesn't exactly get you jazzed about hitting the...
Seattle slowly rising in job market competition index
Sometimes when the daily grind of a job search gets you down, it's comforting to take some of Garrison Keillor's Lutheran advice from "A Prairie Home Companion" and realize that, no matter how many times you've been rejected by a...
Tips on tapping the hidden job market
Last week's dispiriting news that the nation's unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent dealt a staggering blow to the theory that the economic recovery we are (allegedly) experiencing will come with new job opportunities. It now appears that this will, indeed,...
Tips on conducting a stealthy job search
As most out-of-work job seekers know, the search for employment is a full-time job in itself (with really lousy benefits). But what about those who are currently holding a job but are looking for a new one? I am often...
Five steps to take control of your job search
For most job seekers, the routine is numbingly familiar: See an ad, respond to an ad, wait for a response, repeat. It happens every day in every market across the United States. Unfortunately, it's one of the least efficient ways...
October rolls in with networking, job fair events
There's one nice thing about the blustery days and lengthening, rainy nights of early fall: It gives you fewer excuses to avoid knuckling down and concentrating on your job search. With October right around the corner, Seattle networking organizations are...
'Tis the season to think about holiday hiring
In a year that has had some notable extremes regarding the job market, I noticed another one a few weeks ago. It was late August, in the thick of the back-to-school sales frenzy, when I saw it on TV: the...
Engineering heads list of fastest-growing green jobs
Of all the miracle cures that have been proposed to heal the nation's economy in the last few years, the so-called "clean tech" industry may be the most disappointing so far. Countless "green" companies endorsed a bright future, full of...
Picking the right job-interview attire
Of all the things job candidates have to worry about before a job interview, the least important would seem to be attire. After all, common sense dictates that a conservative look is the best bet: A classic suit-and-tie combo for...
How to stay off the recruiter 'blacklist'
It's hard to believe in this economy, but apparently there is something out there called an "arrogant job seeker." In spite of the crippling 9.2 percent unemployment rate for the state in August, many recruiters are reporting a spike in...
New Job Center opens for tech workers
Yesterday's Back to Work networking event, sponsored by the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), not only brought together 350 of the region's top tech job seekers and career placement specialists, it also was the launch pad for a new online...
Improv classes keep job seekers on their toes
Maybe it says something about the state of the local job market when professional comedians start acting as career consultants. While seeking employment in this economy is no laughing matter, many local job seekers are turning to the improvisational theater...
WTIA, F5 offer support to tech job market
One of the few bright spots in Seattle's dark 2009 job market has been the relatively active technology sector. Just last week, recruiter Matthew Allen of Vertical Move told me he has seen a significant rise in hiring activity among...
Putting Tacoma (and Seattle) back to work
As it has been for more than 100 years now, Tacoma's loss appears to be Seattle's gain. Tacoma managed to secure the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the 1870s, but the City of Destiny's fortunes have seemed to...
Labor Day: No day off for job seekers
Today is traditionally thought of as the end of summer--a day for the final barbecue, a time to dig out the football jerseys from the back of the closet, the last chance to hit the beach before the kids hit...
Jobnob is coming to match workers with startups
Well, those positive vibes about the economy surely didn't last long. Yesterday, I wrote about some rare good news about a possible rise Seattle-are tech jobs, but this morning's report about a 0.3 percent rise in the national unemployment rate...
Recruiter sees hints of tech job revival
Yesterday morning I had a little chuckle over the tongue-in-cheek Seattle Times headline, "In case you missed it, recession now over." MarketWatch's Greg Robb, wrote about how the Institute for Supply Management's purchasing managers' index had risen above a critical...
Top 10 in-demand college majors for Class of '10
As if we needed an another reminder, those of you who were awakened this morning by the unexpected chilly showers (with real raindrops, not the usual drizzle) probably realize by now that fall is well on its way. The changeover...
All a-Twitter about job search workshops
How does the old saying go? "Do as I say, not as I do"? It's kind of a silly philosophy, especially for someone who purports to be doling out career advice, but it's been in the back of my mind...
Five ways to stay positive in your job search
As any job-seeker over the last year can tell you, there comes a point when you hit a wall. For those who are out of work, there is usually a burst of activity in the first few weeks as networks...
Job Seeker Network forms 'tribe' for the Eastside
At last Thursday's Seattle Job Social event, the view of the pink-orange sunset over Puget Sound was a breathtaking sight from the 76th floor of the Columbia Tower. At least I think it was breathtaking. I only caught a few...
In case you missed it: Unemployment rate falls
For the last 48 hours, much of the local news outlets have covered the story of a single local resident who may soon be out of work. After a surprising (but still unofficial) third-place finish in Tuesday's primary, Seattle Mayor...
Seattle Job Social moves to Columbia Tower
The monthly Seattle Job Social event is movin' on up. To a de-luxe apartment in the sky. Well, actually the Columbia Tower Club to be precise, so that's about as high as you can go in this town. After spending...
Strengthening your network with the Seattle Chamber
As you build your network of contacts for potential job leads, you may not have thought of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce as a possible source. After all, most of the work performed by the average chamber is to...
Join local networks before looking for greener pastures
One of the symptoms of a sluggish job market is the tendency to cast sideways glances at what looks like greener grass on the other side of the fence. After months of rejections and dead ends, it's easy to think...
Stand-up advice for your next sit-down interview
As you walk into a corporate boardroom for an important job interview, probably the last thing on your mind is comedy. You don't want to start spinning off into a bad "Saturday Night Live" skit in front of your potential...
Job search workshops: Get a jump on the fall season
I always like to say "be careful what you wish for." After surviving more than a week of furnace-like heat in the Seattle area, Mother Nature seems to have overcompensated with a little blast of autumn. Those who had planned...
National jobless numbers offer glimmer of hope
If our current economic climate made any sense, this morning's announcement that the country's workforce lost 247,000 jobs in July would be greeted as terrible news. And it is terrible. But in light of the 443,000 job losses suffered in...
Pell Grant offers job-training assistance
As we continue to struggle through this tight job market, many people who have found themselves unemployed for several months are considering going back to school for training in another field. Of course, this education comes at a cost that...
Koda: Social recruiting help for Gen Y
For young Generation Y job seekers out there who are trying (and failing) to gain traction on online social networks, another Web option is emerging that says it is based on "relationship-building" rather than mere job leads. The new site,...
Networking icebreakers: Get out of your own head
Earlier this week, when I was addressing the Job Club at the North Seattle WorkSource office, I thought about all the advice I had seen and repeated about the importance of networking--of getting out there, pressing the flesh and striking...
Cool networking deals for job seekers
Before I get into the list of upcoming job search events, I want to give a shout out to the attendees of today's Job Club at the WorkSource office on the North Seattle Community College campus. I had a great...
Help for those returning to the workforce
Have you been out of work for an extended period and need to jump back into the game? Are you interested in learning how to expand your web of contacts but are not sure how to break the ice with...
Defending Generation Y: The rise of the 'slash-career'
Everyone has an opinion about the future of the so-called Generation Y demographic, aka the Millennials, aka These Kids Today. The knock on teens and young adults of 2009 is that they have a sense of entitlement; that they're impatient,...
Peer referrals: A matter of trust
When you land a job with an employer, there are a lot elements that must be taken into account before the dotted line is signed. The employer and potential employee must consider salary, skills, job requirements, work history, flexibility, education...
Jobbernaut returns with robust Job Fair
Many Hire Ground readers have told me they are not fans of job fairs, saying they typically have only a handful of companies, few high-paying jobs and are staffed mostly by human resources people, not hiring managers. And they do...
Starting salaries hold ground for grads
In my continuing efforts to find as many silver linings as possible in the black, cumulonimbus clouds of this recession, I came across some moderately encouraging news from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) about recent graduates looking...
Getting noticed: How big is your intellectual footprint?
Earlier this month, I attended the PRforPeople presentation, held each month by Xanthus Communications. While the casual meet-and-greet in South Lake Union's Patricia Cameron Art Gallery was mostly aimed at self-employed people and small-business owners, the words from speaker Eric...
Some don'ts for first-timers in job market
With the national unemployment rate edging ever closer to 10 percent this summer, it's no secret that finding work is tough out there. But for the recent wave of college grads piling up on the job market the outlook has...
Events to accelerate your job search
Another gorgeous weekend is almost upon us in Seattle. Although the sunny skies may be tempting, it's important for job seekers to stay focused on their goals. Next week, there is a week-long lineup of events (at a wide range...
Personal branding: Don't forget to be interesting
So you have accounts with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. You've got a blog about your interests. You're going to local networking events. Here's one other thing for your checklist: Are you boring people? I recently spoke with Boston-based media and...
Last chance to sign up for free resume course
Late last month, I wrote about an exclusive offer for a free resume-writing course by communications expert Rod Mattson of Mattson Communication. For the first 10 Hire Ground readers who sign up for the two-hour workshop by the end of...
Providing career independence for returning vets
As we kick back this weekend to fire up the barbecue, soak up this impossibly great Seattle weather and watch people blow stuff up in celebration of our nation's freedom, I can't help but take a moment to reflect on...
Recruiters: You are what you tweet
If you've spent any time on Facebook or Twitter, you know the dangers of posting too much information that you would never want your boss or a potential hiring manager to see. But the wonderful thing about social networks is...
PRforPeople: Finding a brand strategy for job seekers
If you have a product or service that's ready to sell on the market, one of the first things you want to do is to create a comprehensive marketing and public relations campaign. The same is true for job seekers...
After a day at the fair, don't forget to follow up
In the last couple of weeks, there have been a number of job fairs in the region. No doubt many readers have passed by the booths, firmly shaken hands and dropped off resumes with the dozens of employers that took...
More free resume advice for Hire Ground readers
When it comes to selling your expertise to potential employers, there's only one person who knows your strengths and weaknesses best: yourself. You can talk to experts about how to write "the perfect resume" that will get the attention of...
Career Fair Lessons: Know your employers
While the number of employers at Tuesday's Seattle Career Fair at Seattle Center was less than encouraging, there were some glimmers of hope that the job market may finally start showing a pulse in the Puget Sound region. But according...
Job Search: Make a full day of it
Most days, job seekers work a full day creating their own schedule, planning a list of phone calls, doing research on employers and attending networking events. Tomorrow, however, several area employment specialists have a busy day all planned out for...
A mid-year assessment of Washington's job market
One good way to find out where jobs are lurking in a troubled economy is to analyze data about recent job numbers and drill down in search of certain hiring trends. Since I'm no expert at number crunching, I contacted...
Summer Job Fair: A snapshot of local job prospects
The relative success or failure of Tuesday's Summer Showcase job fair at Safeco Field depends on whom you talked to at the event. For the few companies that were offering jobs, the fair was a great place to sign up...
Summer Showcase job fair comes to Seattle
These days, with competition for new jobs more fierce than ever before, the effectiveness of the old-fashioned "cattle call" style of job fair has begun to wane. As I've mentioned several times before in Hire Ground, networking with colleagues and...
How wrongs can go right in job interviews
As I've read through tips from local interview experts, I can't help thinking back to one of my first job interviews, right out of college. At first it seemed like a disaster, but it wound up leading to one of...
New cyber-rules for resume writing
You think you know everything there is to know about resume writing? Fuhgeddaboudit, says Paul Anderson, a career and psychology expert with Kirkland-based ProLango Consulting. "The algorithm for resumes has changed significantly, even since last October," he says. The most...
Job search help for returning military veterans
It's tough out there for anyone looking for a job these days, but the recession has been especially hard on those men and women who have returned after serving their country in the U.S. Armed Forces. According to figures released...
Finding hope amid the tough employment news
Today, the U.S. Labor Department released figures indicating that 14.5 million people in this country are out of work. This adds up to a national unemployment rate of 9.4 percent in May, the highest it's been in the last 25...
Try diversifying with a 'portfolio career'
If this economy has taught us anything, it's that the rules of searching for jobs have changed in the last nine months. For decades, common wisdom held that resumes should show a long, steady arc of employment and ever-increasing responsibilities...
Five ways to make the most of your next interview
Job interviews have to rank high on the list of stressful situations for most people. After all, those few minutes talking about your work history and answering questions at a boardroom table have the power to alter your career path...
Free job-search seminar offer for Hire Ground readers
More good news for Hire Ground readers out there. A few days ago, I mentioned an upcoming Job Seeker Seminar that is taking place next Wednesday at the Federal Way. Today, the host of the seminar, Rod Mattson of Mattson...
Microsoft, WorkSource offer career training vouchers
Anyone who's interviewed for a job at Microsoft knows that the company's interview questions are legendarily challenging. But in its quest to find the best people in the region's ever-shifting pool of talent, the Redmond giant is also giving back...
Interviewing seminars that are not to be missed
I hope all of you Hire Ground readers had a chance to relax for a few days and reflect on the freedoms we enjoy in this country over Memorial Day. Though the summer weather beckoned, the film geek inside me...
A few good vibrations for job seekers
As all job hunters know these days, looking for work is an endurance test. A friend of mine just found permanent work after a 50-week search and countless dead-end applications. Part of her success, however, came not just from her...
Cool job ideas for the summer
With Memorial Day right around the corner and the weather miraculously cooperating for once, no doubt many tireless job seekers are yearning to get away from their job boards and spend some time outside. With an organization called Cool Works,...
Gimmicky resumes may not be worth the risk
You know the competition is fierce out there. You really want your résumé to stand out. So you decide to include some kind of eye-catching gimmick to make the hiring managers sit up and take notice -- something like including...
For many job seekers, it's back to school time
The current economy has obviously worried a lot of professionals in the Puget Sound region, whether they are employed or not. A recent Washington State Workplace Confidence Survey, conducted by Harris/Decima teleVox, showed that about 40 percent of gainfully employed...
Job search workshops, webinars and networking events
As we move into the longer days of late May, the job-search world is heating up (even if the weather isn't exactly cooperating yet). In the next week, there are three not-to-be missed events for employment seekers--a workshop, a networking...
The top 10 industries looking for temp hires
For an increasing number of job seekers in this economy, the road to full-time employment is taking a detour through temporary or project work. While this is hardly an ideal career path for some people, it can often lead to...
Customizing your resume to fit your audience
In a typical job interview, many candidates are looking to make a strong impression right off the bat and to use the rest of the 30 minutes or so to make the best possible case for why they should be...
Biznik's "Shine" video networking event May 6 in Fremont
Are you deciding to set up your own business? Need an eye-catching way to help get yourself noticed in the job market? Then you'll want to drop by the Fremont Studios tonight between 5 and 10 p.m. for the Biznik...
Look to your library for job search help
These days, job seekers are looking for every possible online tool to find steady employment. But, as many readers have pointed out to me, one of the best, most overlooked tools has been around since the founding of our nation:...
Glassdoor's peek inside the job interview process
How many times has this happened to you? You find a great job and manage to secure an interview. You study the company's history and prepare a list of knock-out answers in your head to every possible question you can...
Staples offers free printing and resume help
A couple of days ago, I blogged on Hire Ground about the rise of the pocket résumé among many job seekers who want to be ready to network at a moment's notice. The same day of that post, I heard...
Always be ready with your 'pocket resume' card
The days of handing out paper résumés at job fairs are slowly going the way of the dinosaur. But that doesn't mean printed materials are becoming obsolete, they're just being updated for a more sophisticated, 24/7 networking environment. Witness the...
Permanent networking: Creating a full-time job search community
If you're reading this blog, chances are that you're in the process of finding a new job. But even if you're happy with your current employment, the fragile state of the economy may well force you to change your career...
Don't be passive: Let companies know you're there
For many job seekers, the age-old method of scanning the listings in the internet job boards has been a relatively low-impact, low-reward method of finding a job. It may take dozens of résumés before you get a single nibble, but...
Are we getting too much interview 'homework'?
I've been thinking these days about how the recession has altered the balance of power in the job interviewing process. In a healthy economy, it seems that the employer's need to find skilled labor should be roughly equal to the...
Five ways to 'recession-proof' your job search
With state unemployment rates reaching 9.2 percent for the month of March in Washington state, it's clear that we have a long way to go before the region recovers fully from the recession. But this economic news does not mean...
Socialize first, ask job-search questions later
Those who approached Lincoln Square's The Parlor billiards hall in Bellevue last night at 6 p.m. didn't have to read the news reports to learn about the recent dismal unemployment report released by the state that same day. A line...
Seattle Job Social: A new kind of networking event
At many networking events these days, the average job seeker is apt to meet plenty of other like-minded individuals with 30-second "elevator speeches" at the ready. But finding a real, live company representative to whom they can make their pitches...
Online job search: A tool, not a lifestyle
With the advent of online social networks a few years ago, it seemed like a golden age of networking was dawning, where business contacts could be made in a snap and your work history could be seen by a vast...
Biznik wants to hear the story of your career
Do you have an interesting story about your career? Are you itching to let others know about your creativity and potential? If so, a new video project by a local networking group may be your ticket to stardom--and out of...
Know what to expect with unemployment claims
For those of you who have found yourself jobless in the last few months, you're probably all too aware of the Employment Security Department's (ESD) Unemployment Benefits Web site, www.go2ui.com. And if you haven't been there yet, don't feel left...
Easy ways to accentuate the positive after a layoff
If you're like me, you don't like to be told to "just cheer up." Nothing plasters a frown on my face faster than hearing someone tell me to "snap out of it" whenever I'm troubled by something. And being out...
Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.
Matt Youngquist based in Bellevue, is a recognized expert in career coaching, job hunting and professional networking.
Natalie Singer is a Seattle writer who covers workplace issues, work/life balance and self-employment.
Former contributors
Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide."
Paul Anderson helps professionals in transition find their desired employment.
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