2010

victory: askamanager.com is mine!

After years of harassing the owner of the domain askamanager.com to sell it to me, victory has been achieved! I finally own askamanager.com, albeit at a somewhat extravagant expense. (Side note: People need to say “albeit” more. It’s a very useful word.) So now, the question:  What to do? It was only two months ago […]

Read the full article →

what does this interview question mean?

A reader writes: Right now my current job is terrible and I’ve been lucky enough to snag an interview here and there. During the last interview, I was asked by the manager if I was currently applying for other positions at other companies. I was taken aback as the question could be taken two ways […]

Read the full article →

the magic interview question gets featured on ABC News

Regular readers know what a fan I am of this magic question to ask your interviewer: 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? I have now spread the gospel about it to ABCnews.com, and it’s mentioned in […]

Read the full article →

one complaint about bosses that doesn’t hold water

Evil HR Lady is so good that I want to link to everything she writes, but I don’t because that would be ridiculous.  However, sometimes I cannot resist. In her BNET column today, she answers a question from someone frustrated that she keeps getting poor performance evaluations and can’t get promoted. The entire thing is […]

Read the full article →

5 reasons your co-worker makes more money than you do

Learning that a coworker earns more than you do can be infuriating, particularly if you’re doing roughly the same work at roughly the same level. Here are five reasons that might explain the disparity. 1. Your coworker negotiated better than you did when she was hired. There’s a wide variation in whether and how people negotiate […]

Read the full article →

2 reasons your cover letter sucks

Two reasons your cover letter sucks: 1. It doesn’t exist. You just send your resume. Adding a three-sentence note in the email doesn’t count. 2. It exists, but it might as well not, because it just repeats the same info that’s on your resume. Think about this for a minute: Why would an employer want […]

Read the full article →

application deadlines are misleading you

You know when you see a job posting and it lists an application deadline? And then you figure you have until that deadline to apply? Well, you might not. Here’s why: A lot of job sites require the employer to list a deadline or closing date when submitting a post. There’s often no option for […]

Read the full article →

you should not do a phone interview at 55 miles an hour

I’m not sure why anyone would do a pre-scheduled phone interview while they were driving, but since I’ve recently discovered that some people do in fact engage in this behavior, please consider this a formal suggestion not to. It baffles me that this happens, because: 1. First of all, you can’t focus fully. Why, why, […]

Read the full article →