In my continued efforts to check the pulse of the job market, and monitor emerging trends and hiring practices, I try to run a "career poll" approximately once per month that touches on a specific aspect of the employment scene and how people feel about it. This past month, the survey question I threw out there was: “Do you think checking references is still a useful and relevant step in hiring somebody today? If not, [...]
After running some terrific career-related polls over the years (like this one here) that have attracted up to 500 responses, I'll confess -- ha ha -- this most recent poll of mine laid an egg! After hanging out there on LinkedIn for 30 days, the survey only attracted 14 responses, so either it somehow didn't end up gaining the usual amount of exposure on the system OR the question being asked simply wasn't as compelling [...]
While I normally try to run a different "career poll" each and every month, it's been a slightly longer window than that in this last go-round, due to the holidays and other factors. This being said, however, I'm excited to finally have the chance to share the results of my latest poll with you -- since this survey not only received a sizable response from among my clients and regular blog readers, but also stimulated [...]
Given that many of my clients are of the Baby Boom generation, and out there for seeking work with 20-30 years of experience under their belts, I get a lot of questions related to age discrimination. These individuals often wonder to what extent they might be passed over in the hiring process, entirely due to their age, and whether there are steps they can take to mitigate potential discrimination to any degree. As a result, [...]
This was an interesting one. Given the vast range of opinions floating around the employment world about resumes, and the fact that most job hunters seem endlessly insecure about them, I wanted to survey the masses and see what the most common gripe was about resumes today -- perhaps offering some insight as to what my readers should emphasize (or avoid) in their OWN materials. Here's the question I threw out there: “Aside from typos, [...]
Ah, the age-old question. What's the best way to find a job? Should one rely mostly on published advertisements? Work through recruiters and placement agencies? Attend job fairs? Hand out resumes at every networking event in town? Produce a funny YouTube video? Wear a sandwich board? Pull out the phone book and cold-call every employer within a 20-mile radius? If there's one thing I can tell you, a diversified mix of different activities is almost [...]
It's the perfect time of the week to dissect this latest poll of mine, given that Monday mornings are famous for the "Monday morning quarterback" concept, where sports fans throughout the world look back on how their favorite teams played over the past weekend and engage in all kinds of criticizing, critiquing, and second-guessing about the strategy their team followed, in retrospect. The connection? In case you haven't noticed, hindsight can be 20/20 with one's [...]
No question about it. Job hunting can be an emotional roller-coaster. If you're "normal" in any sense of the word, and have found yourself looking for work, you're inevitably going to experience a gamut of emotions ranging from nervous to scared to angry to jubilant on a daily (or hourly!) basis -- depending on your progress and how much family/financial support you happen to have behind you. Just out of curiosity, though, I wanted to [...]
Had another poll catch fire on LinkedIn this past month, attracting 342 votes from people around the world, versus last month's poll which (for whatever reason) only compelled 42 people to speak up and cast their vote. Still not sure why some of these surveys take off so much more than others, but hey, the more the merrier! Here was the question I posed: “Aside from compensation, what is the single most important priority you'd [...]
If the job market were an independent business, I'm fairly certain its "compliant department" would be woefully overrun by now. There are clearly many aspects of how the hiring process works today that aren't sitting well with people on both sides of the fence -- including both job candidates and employers alike. In an attempt to inject a bit of spring-like optimism into the discussion, however, I posted a question last month asking people to [...]