by Ronnie Ann ~ June 21st, 2010 ·
Sometimes I like to go back and look at what I’ve written over these past 3+ years (eeek!) since I’ve been blogging about work and careers. One of my favorite posts – although admittedly not my biggest traffic-getter – is about something I call job morphing. Job morphing is a way of taking a work situation – any work situation – and not just making the best of it, but finding those tiny bits of straw you can spin into something much better – occasionally full-blown career gold. In effect, it’s a self-steered path toward career change from the inside.
Although I admit I still work on these almost every day, here’s a (slightly edited) list of career and job tips from the original post: [Read more →]
Tags: career advice·career tips·job morphing
by Ronnie Ann ~ June 14th, 2010 ·
Who doesn’t want a resume that will get them a job? I’d also like my resume to make me a sandwich and clean my apartment, but odds are that ain’t gonna happen. 
So why do I bring this up? While a good resume is important, I worry that job seekers are putting way too many of their job search eggs in their resume basket – and as a result may be missing out on key things they could be doing to actually get them to that job they want so badly.
I recently got this from a reader asking for resume and cover letter advice:
I definitely need help writing resumes and cover letters that will stand out (i.e. get past the human and automated screeners) and land me a job. [Read more →]
Tags: career advice·job search advice·job search tips·jobs·resume
by Ronnie Ann ~ June 7th, 2010 ·
Readers often want to know “Why didn’t I get the job offer?” Although I wish with all my heart I had an accurate crystal ball to see exactly what happened and what the person needs to do next time to get the offer, that’s a tough question to answer. Many factors on both sides of the interview desk play an important role. And in some cases it can come down to little more than a feeling – even if you do all the right things (listen carefully, do your best to be real, stay in the moment, etc.) sometimes it’s just a matter of mutual chemistry and NOT a reflection on who you are as a person or how much you have to offer an employer.
But recently, I’ve been seeing a different type of question: I got a job offer, but why isn’t it the job offer I want? Deciding whether or not to take an offer can be excruciating. Here are some of the ways your offer can leave you wondering what to do.
Are you a good offer or a bad offer?
[Read more →]
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by Ronnie Ann ~ June 1st, 2010 ·
After looking for a job for well over a year, John finally got a real live job offer – and accepted. As a true testament to endurance (and willingness to go with the flow), he had been interviewing for this particular job for about FOUR MONTHS! And he even had to do a stint as a consultant first before the owner of the company asked John to join the firm.
John has been a regular contributor to this blog’s comments forums on 5 Ways Interviewers Make Job Seekers REALLY Angry and Stuck in the Waiting Game After 2nd Interview. Now he would like to offer some hard-won advice to job seekers everywhere running their own job search obstacle courses.
Here’s what John wants you to know to help you not only survive what seems like a never-ending race, but stay in it long enough to emerge with a big job win! [Read more →]
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by Ronnie Ann ~ May 24th, 2010 ·
I’ve watched new graduates trying to figure out how to negotiate salary requirements for their very first job after graduation. For many new grads dealing with the size of an offer (did I ask for too much? did I ask for too little? how much salary can I ask for? should I even try to negotiate salary?) is a painful process indeed – cruelly coming at the end of one of the most painful processes of all, the dreaded job search!
Here you are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the beginning of your career with (hopefully) a loooong career ahead of yourself. I’m sure salary negotiation is not what you want to think about. “How much does salary matter?’ gets mixed up with the larger question “What am I worth?” How aggressively should you negotiate your salary offer when what you really want is a chance to show how good you are? Then again, there are those pesky loans to pay off and the small matter of rent and food.
So with all that in mind, how should you approach salary negotiations in your first job??
When Suze Orman Says You Should NOT Negotiate Salary [Read more →]
Tags: career advice·salary negotiations·salary offer·Suze Orman
by Ronnie Ann ~ May 17th, 2010 ·
We’re so close to our resumes and so familiar with every aspect, often we can’t see the first branding impression it makes. When someone reads your resume, you immediately create a brand – but is it really the brand you want to create? Is it YOUR brand?
I recently met a young man (let’s call him Clint) with a degree in marketing who had done well in the first few years of his career. But he was ready for a change and looking to take on more managerial responsibility – in a major company if possible. [Read more →]
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by Ronnie Ann ~ May 13th, 2010 ·
I always feel bad when I see questions in my stats that show someone was looking for an answer I never specifically wrote about. Just now I found “What month is best for job search?” I wish I could pop out of the screen, find them, and give them an answer in the moment as to when is the best time for a job search. But we all know that would be impossible – and kind of scary.
So in case the person ever comes back who wants to know the very best month to look for a job – or in case anyone else has that same burning job search timing question, here’s my answer: [Read more →]
Tags: job hunt·Job hunting
by Ronnie Ann ~ May 10th, 2010 ·
Other than to say I did NOT make this stuff up, my lips are sealed as to how I came up with this list of things you shouldn’t do in an interview (both to protect the innocent and me). But seriously…when it comes to interviews, did I have to tell you not to do any of this?
What You Should NEVER Do in a Job Interview [Read more →]
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by Ronnie Ann ~ May 3rd, 2010 ·
In a recent exchange of comments on How to Tell If a Job Interview Went Well, the subject of how soon and how often to call an employer after the interview came up. One of my wonderful readers, CE (who recently got a job herself), was helping comfort someone anxiously waiting to hear whether she got the job.
Speaking specifically to the question of how often to call, CE wrote: [Read more →]
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by Ronnie Ann ~ April 27th, 2010 ·
Many many moons ago I found this poem in a little joke book. For whatever reason, it stuck in my head and has stayed there ever since:
Don’t worry if your job is small
Or your rewards are few
Remember that the mighty oak
Was once a nut like you!
Ah yes. That explained everything.
Of course, I was only 9 – and I didn’t have to worry about paying for stuff like rent or food. But as I sat down tonight to work on a post about job offers, for some reason those ancient and oddly hopeful words popped into my head.
I began thinking about the phrases “small jobs” and “few rewards”. What exactly do they mean? Isn’t the way a job feels in the eyes of the beholder? Just what makes a job good?
And when it comes to jobs, does size really matter? [Read more →]
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