should I work for free to get experience? by Alison Green on September 30, 2010 A reader writes: I’m an engineer with a technical job in the pharmaceutical industry. However, I really want to work as an engineer at a large corporation that produces chocolate and confectionery products. I have some relevant training and plenty of transferable skills, but no direct experience in the food or confectionery industry. I am […] Read the full article →
help, my bullying ex-boss is out of control by Alison Green on September 30, 2010 A reader writes: A year ago, I took a part time job while my daughter was at school. It was for a pet-sitting company walking dogs. I was an independent contractor. While I knew the owner was passive-aggressive, I learned to just limit my contact and did what I had to do and developed a […] Read the full article →
informational interview when you’ve already applied for a job by Alison Green on September 29, 2010 A reader writes: I recently applied for a job with a closing date of a week and a half ago. A colleague of mine also applied to this organization (for a different position) and was told by a representative from this organization at a career fair today that the best way to “keep himself in […] Read the full article →
over-sharing in your out-of-office messages by Alison Green on September 28, 2010 A reader writes: I work in R&D for the computer industry, where technical staff have few meetings with customers and generally are given a fairly flexible schedule. It’s not uncommon for people to send to a broad team mailing list (~20-50 people) messages like: “I’ll be in around 10:30. The contractors are just starting to […] Read the full article →
how to answer employer’s worry about your previous self-employment by Alison Green on September 28, 2010 A reader writes: I just called a hiring manager to see what the status of my application is. He informed me that I made it to the next round, but that his concerns about hiring me stem from the fact that I have been self-employed for the past five years, and he is not sure […] Read the full article →
should you point out a typo when applying for a job? by Alison Green on September 28, 2010 In a comment on an earlier post, one commenter asked whether it’s helpful to point out proofreading errors in a job post: Should an applicant point out the typo and suggest if they were in the job last week, they would have caught it before the ad went live? I’ve seen this done well, and […] Read the full article →
calling on readers again: lazy coworker in a medical setting, with tenure by Alison Green on September 27, 2010 Our earlier experiment with throwing a reader’s question out to other readers to answer was a huge success (who knew so many of you are librarians?), so let’s try another one: I am a pediatrician in a training program at a medical school to become a specialist. One of the faculty members of our division […] Read the full article →
loads of career advice without leaving your couch by Alison Green on September 27, 2010 If you’re in the job market, this is something you should know about: the Career Summit. The Career Summit is an virtual career conference that lasts for three weeks (October 26 – November 17). If you’re like me and hate leaving your house, the greatest thing about it is that you don’t even have to […] Read the full article →
guilt over leaving team behind as I leave a toxic workplace by Alison Green on September 26, 2010 A reader writes: I’ve been in a fairly toxic workplace for two years, and in one week I’m finally done with my contract and am moving on to greener, and saner pastures. This is all well and good, except I’m leaving behind a small team of people who I’ve grown very close to while I’ve […] Read the full article →
there’s a high likelihood that your job postings suck by Alison Green on September 25, 2010 Someone recently sent me this link to a job posting as an example of a company that finally got a job ad right. What’s awesome about this ad is that you can actually read it and understand what the job is all about. There’s no incomprehensible jargon, no sentences that sound like they were lifted out […] Read the full article →