Whether you are a career coach, counselor, advisor, educator, or parent, your values and beliefs can affect how you interact with females and males. And, ultimately it may affect how you guide a student, client, or your child in exploring their career options. These options include careers traditionally held by females or by males. Take the quiz below and jot down if you respond never, rarely, sometimes, or always to each question. … Read more

It’s natural for you to be concerned about upcoming interviews. But when you explore the dynamics of those conversations, some of the anxiety will go away. This post helps you do just that.

When it comes to folklore about how to manage your career (and there are tons of it!), the interview often gets center stage. That maybe because of the false assumptions about the subject.

Assumption one: the interviewer is very prepared for the process.

The truth: most interviewers aren’t trained for interviewing at all. According to Adam Grant, Associate Professor of Management at the Wharton School “Many managers do no better than random chance in selecting high performers.” (October, 2011)

Assumption two: there are 10 (or is it 15?, 20?) “magic” questions I have to memorize the answers to in order to do well in the interview.

The truth: while some questions are common, it’s hard to believe anybody has gotten a buy off on the magic set of questions as they apply, unchanged, to every career field in every industry in every sector all across America.

And even if the idea is true, you’d have to not only memorize those questions (and an answer for each one), you’d have to recognize them no matter how they were expressed and respond well no matter which order they came in.

It’s no surprise if we leave the interview in the hands of the almost-always-untrained interviewer, what we get is an interrogation. But what you both want is a collaboration.

You want to know the most pressing problem they have as it relates to your career field. After all, if you don’t know what they need, you can’t tell if you can help them.

You’ve had those successful collaborations all your work life. Your boss asks you to solve a problem. You speak with her to find the basic information you need to start working on the solution. You propose ideas. She responds. Soon there is an agreement about what you are going to do, why you’re doing it, and how your work benefits the organization.

That—by definition—is an interview!

Entire books are written about the interview. My purpose was just to introduce a key idea. Make every interview into a collaboration by asking about the key problem the employer needs solved.

When you do everybody wins because the discussion is on ground comfortable to you and the person you’re speaking with.

It’s all about our favorite conversation: how you’re going to help the organization make a lot more money than it takes to recruit and retain you. You know. It’s the same conversation that made your career successful.

Learning new things is just great for your self-esteem and confidence, let alone your employability. That’s why I’m a huge proponent of life-long learning. I recently interviewed Stephanie Carter, from G5 Leadership, to discuss how G5 is democratizing, otherwise expensive, leadership training. I’ve been watching and following this training since late 2011 and I love it. The video quality is excellent and the speakers are top rate authors and experts. Check out our interview here… ... Read more

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The graduate and entry level job landscape is as competitive as ever and job seekers are having to go the extra mile to stand out from the crowd. With an average of 23 applicants per job across the UK (and double that for entry level positions) , an interesting CV with compelling work experience is critical if you’re looking to get noticed. Internships at blue chip companies will certainly help, but expect them to be as competitive as the regular job market. So, without further ado, here is Adzuna’s top 5 under-rated experiences that could help you land you a job:                         ... Read more

Every once in a while we need a re-alignment.  And whether yours come from the chiropractor or is self-inflicted, the process can open you up or drive your attention down a more singular path. I’ve decided that February is going to be my re-alignment month. Why? As a blogger, entrepreneur, marketing coach, author, career strategist, speaker I’ve worn a lot of hats over the last few years.  It’s been an amazing journey full of unexpected surprises, great opportunities and, as you might expect, a few frustrations. But, just like in job search, we have to be ready to push through the frustrations and obstacles in our path to get where we said we wanted to go in life. So what does a realignment mean for me and how can you use the idea to help re-energize the things that are important in your life right now?       ... Read more

Every week I see hundreds of resumes sent to me for a free evaluation. Most of them start with an Objective indicating what that individual is seeking. Then they list the various roles and responsibilities they have held in the past. Where this style of resume was successful 5 years ago, it isn’t going to work in today’s market. You used to be competing with about 200 other resumes for the interview. Now you are competing with about 600. Companies can’t bring in 100 people for interviews and they can be choosy, so your resume better make you stand out.       ... Read more

These days, with the economy in turmoil, the Canadian labour market is flooded with executive resumes for senior-level professionals looking for work. The current market has created an unfortunate situation for thousands of job seekers. Many of them are highly experienced and successful – and yet they find themselves in need of a new position.               ... Read more

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JustJobs would like to congratulate all of the wonderful applicants who wrote compelling scholarship essays in this first December round of submissions. The… ... Read more