Five Most Common Interview Mistakes

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most common interview mistake

Most of you know that you must arrive early for an interview.  But do you know what are the most common interview mistakes that even smart professionals make?

Today, US News posted on Yahoo finance an interesting article called 50 worst of the worst interview mistakes.  While most of the listed are pretty obvious and funny, I want to comment on five mistakes that are commonly made even by people who have fairly good interviewing skills. ...  read more

Enjoy Often and Never Retire

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Growing up, you always hear that everyone’s dream is to work hard, earn lots of money quickly and retire as early as possible  (maybe at 65, 55 or 45 if you can wing it).  Well, I say forget it!  That doesn’t sound like a dream at all. 

Imagine working your butt off at 80 -100 hour weeks for 20-40 years so you can retire early.  In the meantime, you may delay time to enjoy life; you may skip precious family time and vacations; you may delay time to find someone special; you may work your body to death.  And for what?  So you can enjoy yourself after you retire, with probably a series of health issues and nothing to do.   ...  read more

Interview tip – practice makes perfect

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It’s amazing how much children (like my 21 months old) can repeatedly do things so they can learn a new skill, like how to build a puzzle. There is no hesitation or judgment – just pure focus on repeating an action until she gets it right and sheer drive to learn more everyday.

Developing your job search skills (e.g. interviewing skills) also need this kind of practice, focus and drive, but often times as an adult, we judge too quickly on how we are doing while we learn. A simple concept of practice makes perfect is often not executed because of  constant self-criticism. To build your interviewing skills, for example, there are many ways you can practice. How many of these are you doing? ...  read more

13 Funniest Resume Bloopers

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Time to take a break from your job search efforts and check out the 150 funniest resume mistakes.  If you thought you are having a hard time with finding a job, imagine these people.  This read will cheer you up.  Here are my 13 favorites.

  1. Hobbies: “enjoy cooking Chinese and Italians”
  2. “I’m intrested to here more about that. I’m working today in a furniture factory as a drawer”
  3. Candidate stated the ability to persuade people sexually using her words.
  4. “Skills: Strong Work Ethic, Attention to Detail, Team Player, Self Motivated, Attention to Detail”
  5. Woman who sent her résumé and cover letter without deleting someone else’s editing, including such comments as “I don’t think you want to say this about yourself here”
  6. “Planned new corporate facility at $3 million over budget.”
  7. “I am a wedge with a sponge taped to it. My purpose is to wedge myself into someone’s door to absorb as much as possible.”
  8. “Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave.”
  9. Objective: “I want to play a major part in watching a company advance.”
  10. Qualifications: “I have guts, drive, ambition and heart, which is probably more than a lot of the drones that you have working for you.”
  11. Work experience: “Responsibilities included checking customers out.”
  12. Application: How large was the department you worked in with your last company? “A: 3 stories.”
  13. Education: “I have a bachelorette degree in computers.”

Enjoy this much needed break and good luck out there! ...  read more

Avoid Job Search Mistakes with Recruiters

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We all know that recruiters and headhunters are often necessary middlemen in the job searching efforts. What we may not always appreciate is just how much influence they may have on our current and future job search success.   This is especially true for $100K+ jobs.

Did you know that many headhunters have black lists kept in their databases? As you may infer from the name, if you are blacklisted, they will not consider you for any openings today and well into the future and worse, they won’t tell you that you have been blacklisted. ...  read more