Talent Alley

While dining this week with the CEO and owner of a nationally recognized SEO firm and the CIO of a large Cleveland institution, the topic turned to business and the current challenges facing both organizations. Not surprisingly, both declared that their single biggest challenge was finding and hiring talent. Finding and hiring bodies to occupy [...]

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I’ve received a number of questions and comments about my previous post in the Toughest Interview Questions series: Why Should I Hire You? that suggest that some more detail and explanation is in order. The reason the question is so difficult for job seekers, and so revealing for employers, is that it requires the candidate [...]

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Looking for work in a miserable economy can be traumatic, ego-bruising and depressing. Even highly experienced and skilled individuals will likely face repeated rejection as they try to find a new job, leading to self-doubt, despondency and despair. I was reminded of the frustration that job seekers face when I received a phone call this [...]

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Telephone interviews are nerve-racking. Candidates receive no visual feedback – either positive or negative – from their interrogators, feel pressured to perform and all too often are unprepared to provide the answers that will elevate them to the next level of the job hunting process. When you don’t get an invitation to meet face to [...]

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The single most frequent question I receive from job seekers immediately after their interview is: should I follow up with an email or with a letter? My answer: an unequivocal “Yes.” The most important thing is to send some kind of follow up after your interview. Despite that fact that every career guiding book, blog [...]

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It is a near certainty that job seekers today will encounter the dreaded telephone interview during their job search. Knowing what to expect and how to prepare for the telephone interview can provide job seekers with an enormous advantage, but too many candidates make common mistakes that knock them out of consideration before getting a [...]

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Let’s face it, the person you need to impress the most during the job interview process is the manager you’re going to be working for. They are the only ones who can say those magic words,” You’re hired. When can you start?” From the hiring manager’s perspective they are looking to determine three things. Are [...]

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Most employers don’t get much practice interviewing potential hires and rely on the historical standby questions that are detailed in every job interview book ever written. However, those managers who are more adept and skilled at interviewing candidates will likely adopt behavioral interviewing to sort out their prospects. Behavioral interviewing cuts through the banalities of [...]

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I was reminded today when I read a terrific post on the importance of storytelling in corporate branding at Beg To Differ of the crucial importance of storytelling to job seekers who desperately need to set themselves apart during the job search process. The importance of the personal story was perfectly illustrated to me last [...]

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Most first job interviews are conducted via telephone. Once your resume has caught the hiring manager’s attention, and they believe that your qualifications match their needs, they will typically call you to determine quickly if you have the potential to fit into their organization. It’s essential that you be ready for that first call because [...]

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