September 2012

update from the reader whose cubicle was giving her migraines

Remember the letter-writer last month who was getting migraines from sitting next to large windows, but her boss wouldn’t let her move to another space? Here’s her update. So, after I wrote to you, I got in touch with Human Resources and my university’s ombudsman. Human Resources had still been working on the issue in […]

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short answer Sunday — 7 short answers to 7 short questions

It’s short answer Sunday — seven short answers to seven short questions. Here we go… 1. I’m interested in a second opening at a company where I’m in the final stages of interviewing for a different position I’m currently in the process of interviewing with a good large corporation. I’ve interviewed with the recruiter, the […]

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when job candidates shoot themselves in the foot

I want to share two letters from readers who hire, about bad experiences they’ve had with job candidates recently. Here’s the first: I received this today from a candidate who had difficulty with our online application: “I just filled out an online application. I entered a document that was too big and was told to […]

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do not use a video resume

A reader forwarded me this email from a job applicant, which she notes was “sent after we posted a job listing with the explicit instructions to follow a link and apply through our online form”: Here’s my video resume – it highlights my experience, qualifications, etc.: (LINK REDACTED) It’s about 2 minutes, then it downloads my […]

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men, women, and advice-seeking

95% of the time, when someone writes in with a question about a situation that their spouse or significant other is dealing with, it’s a woman writing in on behalf of her boyfriend or husband. It’s nearly never a man writing in on behalf of his girlfriend or wife. Is it because it’s a care-taking […]

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an ode to the bad managers of my past

Posts this week have included some reprints of older posts that I still love. This post concludes our reprints and was probably my favorite post ever. It was originally published on October 7, 2008. I never had a mentor. Once a boss promised to teach me how to manage people, but then she promptly disappeared […]

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hiring manager won’t give me colleague’s email address

A reader writes: I have an interesting situation. I was recently flown to another state for an engineering position. I met with 3 engineers, and one hiring manager. After the first interview with one of the engineers, I realized that I forgot to get his business card. So at the end of the day, I […]

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