Stepping Up Your Job Search

Over the past few weeks, we've received questions from job seekers who've spent time in prison, been convicted for driving under the influence, or been fired because of a wrongful behavior on the job. How, they each wondered, can I overcome the bad deeds of my past and convince an employer to hire me? Here are some tips to give yourself you a better chance of success.  More »

If your job search consists of just sending out your resume, your success rate will probably be about the same as putting a note in a bottle and throwing it out to sea. To land that next job, you must network every day, whether you're facing unemployment or not. Here are four ways you can accomplish that.  More »

A 58-year-old technical writer talks about the obstacles to finding work 15 months after being laid off and what he does to keep his spirits up.  More »

If you're looking for a job, you've probably come to realize that it's a jungle out there with a lot of job seekers chasing too few job openings. People who have worked in stressed industries, such as finance or newspaper publishing, have found it especially rough, with some considering a change in careers. If you're one of them, think about opportunities in three growing industries.  More »

Let's talk about references. Do you even need them anymore? If so, who should they be? And when do you hand over your reference list to the employer? This post will answer those questions, and give you the long and short of what you need to know about employment references in today's job market.  More »

True or false: It makes no sense to look for a job during the holidays because every company slows down or stops hiring until the new year. What's the answer?  More »

A 32-year-old mother was laid off a year ago from her job as a senior administrative assistant. In this post, she talks about some of the ups and downs of her job search, and what she's been doing while she tries to get back into the workforce.  More »

Getting a job is a lot like selling your house. You have to make a powerful first impression (curb appeal), you have to give off a fairly normal vibe (hide the weird stuff), and you have to make sure the employers knows there's something special about you (the wow factor). But in the end, it may just be gut instinct that matters most.  More »

Today is Veterans Day, when we stop to remember and honor the men and women who have served in the armed forces, especially the thousands who were wounded or killed. Today's service personnel may find it hard to transition to civilian work, so we offer some help in this post.  More »

If human beings were perfect, we wouldn't have so many opportunities to learn from our personal gaffes and goofs, as well as those of others. The job search offers more than enough examples, from the resume typo to the visible coffee stain on a crisp, white shirt that a job seeker unknowingly puts on display at an interview.  More »