employer “appalled” by candidate’s questions to HR by Alison Green on December 15, 2009 A reader writes: I’ve been working in a freelance position that is project based for a few months with a medium sized company. They have been working towards hiring me on more permanent part-time basis. The position would include working on an event basis but also office hours, and include similar but not exactly the […] Read the full article →
does the order of interviews reveal the manager’s thinking? by Alison Green on December 15, 2009 A reader writes: I have recently had a few interviews and I wonder if the order in which interviewees are meeting with the potential manager might have any meaning to it. I learned that I’m the first one to interview and that there are more people coming later on in the same day or on […] Read the full article →
should you take on extra work without extra pay? by Alison Green on December 14, 2009 A reader writes: I am an administrative assistant at a 10-person marketing company. My new boss just asked me to take on a project that my coworker used to do. I’d be willing to do it, but I wonder if I should. Is it a bad idea to let him give me more work that […] Read the full article →
negotiating for flex time by Alison Green on December 13, 2009 A reader writes: I live in New Jersey and applied for a hard-to-fill job job in Maine. The company is very interested in hiring me for the position even though I have not visited them yet. All our conversations thus far have been by phone, e-mail, and Skype. We have already discussed benefits and salary. […] Read the full article →
receiving conflicting instructions from boss and boss’s boss by Alison Green on December 13, 2009 A reader writes: I’m a sales rep and we need to make x number of presentations a day. My boss has a looser definition of what a presentation is than his boss does. My boss has given me different direction than his boss has given our department. My boss’ direction leaves the integrity of his […] Read the full article →
a tale of two interview mistakes by Alison Green on December 11, 2009 In phone interviews, I always ask the candidate to tell me what he or she knows about the job so far. It’s surprising how many people reveal in response that they either have a complete misunderstanding of what the job entails, maybe because they haven’t bothered to read the job description since applying two weeks […] Read the full article →
a great question to ask your interviewer by Alison Green on December 9, 2009 On a phone interview today, when I asked the candidate what questions she had for me, she asked me this: Thinking back to people who have been in this position previously, what differentiated the ones who were good from the ones who were really great? This is the sort of question that melts an interviewer’s […] Read the full article →
dealing with possible racial discrimination when interviewing by Alison Green on December 8, 2009 A reader writes: I have a general question regarding minorities and employers. I am an African-American female, who like many Americans is out of work and looking, which means continuously applying for jobs. I can say with full confidence that I fit the requirements, but when it comes to filling out voluntary EEOC questions that […] Read the full article →
how to find a mentor by Alison Green on December 7, 2009 Having a mentor, especially at the early stages of your career, can be invaluable. You get someone who can advise you on career decisions, help you navigate tricky situations, and even just suggest ways to succeed at the more mundane aspects of office life. There’s a lot of advice out there that tells you to […] Read the full article →
recent grad in despair over job market by Alison Green on December 4, 2009 A reader writes: I’m a recent college graduate. I apply to countless job postings per day. Most of these are through online job boards (monster and craigslist). In recent months I have gotten crafty and researched (via google and linked in) those in the department I would like to work for and emailed them directly […] Read the full article →