what’s wrong with “do what you love,” how employers can get your salary history, and more by Alison Green on February 13, 2014 A few miscellaneous things — 1. Advice for employers who want job candidates’ salary history I love this article from Suzanne Lucas (of evilhrlady.org). Her editor sent her my article on how job seekers can avoid giving out their salary history, and suggested that Suzanne write an article telling hiring managers how to get candidates to […] Read the full article →
my parents say I should offer to work for free for a week to prove myself to employers by Alison Green on February 5, 2014 A reader writes: I’ve read your posts about working for free (unintentionally) as part of the hiring process as a form of “spec” work for technical jobs, but I think I have a different question to ask in the same neighborhood. I’m being “advised” by my parents that “five times as many candidates as job […] Read the full article →
why is there so much bad job advice out there? by Alison Green on September 18, 2013 A reader writes: Yours is the first advice I have ever come across in job searching literature, dictating that that the job seeker should NOT end a cover letter with a promise to call in a few days and schedule a time to meet. Most of the books and articles I have read on this […] Read the full article →
my boyfriend wants to lie on his resume — and his stepfather is encouraging it by Alison Green on August 13, 2013 A reader writes: My boyfriend graduated from college this December, and despite having applied to hundreds of jobs in the past 7 months, he’s still unemployed. He’s been living with me during that time so I’ve been giving him tips that worked for me when I was job hunting and just generally trying to offer […] Read the full article →
should job candidates bring PowerPoint presentations to interviews? by Alison Green on July 19, 2013 A reader writes: A recent applicant brought a PowerPoint deck to an interview that basically walked through a presentation of her resume, information about herself, and why we should hire her. She referred to it as a “take-away presentation” and said her professors in college advised her to create one for each interview. The only […] Read the full article →
no, you should not call your recruiter at home (and other jaw-droppingly bad advice from salary.com) by Alison Green on June 25, 2013 Lots of people have been sending me a link to an awful article that ran recently on salary.com. I’d been hoping to ignore it in disgust, but enough of you have sent it to me that my attempt at just repressing it from my brain clearly won’t work. So let’s take a look. It includes […] Read the full article →
my dad is pushing me to handle a firing differently than I want to by Alison Green on May 14, 2013 A reader writes: I’d been having problems at work. It was a job I loved at first, but then things changed so much it no longer felt like the job I’d accepted. I’d come to resent my micromanaging boss and my coworkers were driving me nuts, but I tried to stick it out and put […] Read the full article →
the worst career advice you ever received by Alison Green on May 7, 2013 I recently asked readers to share the worst career advice they ever received. And you certainly delivered! A lot of bad career advice apparently comes from parents – but managers aren’t too far behind them. Here are the 10 worst pieces of work advice that readers reported hearing. 1. Say whatever it takes to close the […] Read the full article →
what’s the worst career advice you ever received? by Alison Green on May 1, 2013 There is a lot of bad career advice out there, being dispensed from parents, friends, coworkers, campus career centers, and even professional advice givers. From suggestions that you lie to get a job to being told that there’s nothing wrong with not eating a business lunch, bad advice abounds … and I want to hear […] Read the full article →
is it time to close down college career centers? by Alison Green on February 25, 2013 I recently got a letter from a senior in college asking if her cover letters were too focused on herself and not enough on the organizations she was applying to. She showed me a typical letter, which included the following (pieces redacted to protect her privacy): “As a graduating senior double majoring in __ and […] Read the full article →