I just returned from the National Resume Writers’ Association annual conference where I heard career professionals Murray Mann and Makini Harvey speak about multicultural recruiting. There is a great opportunity for multicultural candidates to embrace their diversity and showcase their differences to hiring managers in an effort to build a strong diversity brand and be found for current openings. Here are some of my key tak...

I’m headed out to Dallas to present a hands-on workshop on social media strategies for job seekers to my colleagues at this year’s National Resume Writers’ Association Conference.Resumes are an important marketing tool, but I believe that a resume is naked without a corresponding social media strategy. Over 90% of recruiters perform Internet searches on candidates before making a hiring decision, and more than half of emplo...

Last week a tornado ripped through parts of Queens, New York. New Yorkers aren’t exactly used to tornadoes and the event really took us by surprise. The storm passed through the neighborhood where I grew up and I still have many friends and family there. Several of them posted pictures of the storm’s aftermath on Facebook to capture the devastation.One friend shared a picture of a weeping willow tree that had been broken i...

I was recently interviewed by CBS news about unpaid internships. There was a time when the only people who sought out unpaid internships were students who wanted to gain valuable work experience and were willing to forgo a salary to get it. But in today’s economy, more and more adults with long career histories are considering taking an unpaid internship as a way to get a foot in the door, transition into a new industry, le...

My daughter landed a plum internship this summer as an assistant to a musical director and casting director for the national tour of a very well known Broadway musical. On her first day she observed a typical theater audition, cattle-call style and in less than eight hours learned what it takes most people decades to learn about interviews. Here were her take-aways.1. Having strong skills in multiple areas makes you a bette...

According to the most recent report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more employees left their jobs voluntarily in March (1.9M) than were laid off (1.8M). You may be wondering why so many are quitting their jobs in what is still a volatile economy, but the reality is that people quit their jobs despite economic indicators for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the reasons employees tell me they quit their job...

Many people think that networking during a job search means calling everyone you know and asking them for a job. They associate networking with being pushy, overbearing, and an overall pest. People often shy away from networking because they don’t want to be labeled as this type of person. But research shows that 70-80 percent of all jobs are filled through networking. How can this be so, if networkers are such an annoying,...

When hiring managers read resumes, one of the first things they look at is dates of employment. If they see multiple short employment stints, they will often assume that you are a job hopper, question your ability to stay at one company for long, and move on to the next candidate.Often people’s choppy employment record may be caused by several factors beyond their control; but unless the story behind your job changes is mad...

Everyone needs an elevator pitch which is a quick overview of who you are and the value you can bring to an organization. This overview of your competencies was coined the elevator pitch because the message should be succinct enough to deliver to an important decision maker if you had the chance to ride up in an elevator with him or her.The elevator pitch is also the perfect response to many interview questions including:T...

I recently spent two weeks touring college campuses with my daughter. I quickly became fascinated with the process...everything from the information sessions to the student guided tours to the admissions requirements made me think about what hiring authorities at companies could learn from the college admissions process.What struck me on these tours were six things that schools practice routinely that you would think would...