Job Advice Blog

There is a fine line we all try to walk between being an effective team player and a pushover. Many of us either do everything we possibly can to help out, or do nothing but the bare minimum. Neither of these are the ideal way to go about your job. If you are too willing to help out you will get used by opportunistic employees, if you are not willing enough- you may find yourself out of a job entirely. The key is to be a team player- and to find a balance between these two extremes.

Communication is complex, multi-factored, and difficult to master. One of the benefits of resume’s and interview questions is that you get to tailor your communication beforehand, but this is not enough to guarantee that you get hired. When it comes to the interview one of the most important aspects of your communication is non-verbal, your body language will help determine whether or not you actually land the position. Today we are going to look at some of the good things you can do with your body, as well as some of the dangerous ones.

Now, you might be saying, “hard skills are industry specific!” and while you are not wrong, there are some that escape that pigeonhole. These are the ones we are going to look at today, the ones that are useful no matter what field you are going into.

In our age of computers our personal and professional live are being drawn closer every day. There is no better example of how this happens than social media. We often start our accounts with the idea of keeping up with old friends, seeing what’s going on around town, or just as a place to store and share pictures- so it is easy to forget that you are also creating an online character reference. As you search for jobs, I recommend that you think of your social media presence as exactly that- a character reference. Imagine that your web presence is meeting a future employer to talk about you- here’s what you don’t want it to say.

While hard skills will determine whether or not you are qualified for the job, your soft skills will get you the job offer. It is important to note, however, that not all soft skills are created equal, and today we are going to look at which soft skills you should be making note of on your resume, and how to show those skills to your potential employer.

During the first round of resume intake the average hiring manager or recruiter takes roughly 6 seconds to look over every individual resume. Go ahead and count to six right now- that is all the time you get to make your impression. This may seem unfair, or ridiculous, and to a large extent it is! But, you can make it work in your favor. Knowing that you only have six seconds to get yourself across gives you a leg up on the competition that might not know this, and also can give you some ideas about how what your resume should look like.

There are few things more demoralizing than finding out you’ve been passed over for a promotion or project, only to find that one of your co-workers has snagged it, especially if you feel like you are more competent or capable than your colleague. Moments like these can break careers. Everything goes well until your envy rears its ugly head, and then your productivity goes down the drain. Today we are going to look at how to keep the green monster that is envy at bay, and how to get back to being a dynamite employee.

When we sign up for internships- whether they are paid or unpaid- there is at least a little shred of hope that we will turn this internship into a job. Sure, the experience itself looks good or feels rewarding, but at the end of the day everyone else is walking home with a lot more money in their pocket. Today we are going to look at how you can get there as well, how to turn your internship into your job. Turn your internship from a learning experience into an extended interview with a few simple tricks.

If you are in sales, the interview is the perfect place for you to show what you can do. An interview is not dissimilar from a sales pitch, and you are the product that you are selling. The products assets are its communication skills, its knowledge, and its experience. These are the things you need to sell to your hiring manager, and we are going to look at the best ways to do that. We are going to look at some things you should be able to do, whether or not they come up directly in the interview.

You walk out of the office building feeling elated, having just nailed an interview. You went back and read all of the Job Advice Blog’s interview tips, and saw just how well they work in action. You get home, wait a day, and really want to know about this job. Then you get the dreaded call, they went with another candidate. Normally you would understand, but you felt like you nailed everything this time, so it is an extra sticky and bad feeling. What do you do with it?