Job search phone phobia is very common. Here are some ideas that could turn your phone into the feather-light tool it should be and not a 500 lb weight.There are many types of phone calls. The calls that give people the most trouble are the "Introductory Calls”. The purpose of the call is to make you known. The goal is to get an appointment or at least another call of longer duration. This type of call is infamously known a...

"I Feel Like a Failure at Job Search. I've done everything I know to do, from everything I've read about job searching and from all the advice from friends, my schools career office and online sites...it's been months and I've been to all the career fairs and applied to every opening I could find in 6 New England states, NY and NJ and I'm still jobless seemingly going nowhere."HAVE you done everything...REALLY?Aside from co...

Yesterday’s Baby-Boomers, today’s mature workers, may be facing for the first time a bias towards younger workers. Good News! They don’t have to.Is there a bias towards the younger worker? If so, then our one-time “Baby Boomers”, today’s mature worker, may for the first time be facing age discrimination, yes? Well...only if you can prove it. The question then becomes ‘what good would it do you if you did...a job with th...

Running out of ideas on how to stimulate your network?Are your one time ‘good contacts’ harder to reach today? Let me be blunter: Has your network abandoned you?How often you can use your network contacts and for how long, IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU. If you leave that up to them and it becomes “work” for them, expect ‘contact’ it to be infrequent at best and short-lived.It’s human nature to want to help others (we just don’t a...

Dear Rob,I see workplace bullying as an increasing trend...especially, since it happened to me. It happened at my previous job with my supervisor. She would humiliate me and degrade me, while upper management did nothing. I ended up getting laid off when cuts were made. What can one do to protect themselves from this?Response by Rob Taub:You cannot easily protect yourself from being bullied. We have nothing to do with the b...

An hourly employee of a company that employs a lot of people to do a lot of the same kind of work, complained that he felt as though his employer held his job hostage. “Why is it if I want to go to a ball game or concert, I can’t ask for the time off on short notice when there is obviously enough coverage to accommodate it?" One might respond "Hey, build a bridge and get over it!" I won't, because I understand the frustrati...

High Self-expectation + Tenacity ≠ Arrogance. On the other hand, ‘high self-expectation + tenacity’ minus a well-developed ‘communication sense’ might.Has this happened to you? Has your enthusiasm and focus on being the best you can be, either in an interview or one the job ever have this effect? I am not suggesting you completely ‘curb your enthusiasm’ during an interview or on the job but rather that you work on d...

Number 10: The position for which you are interviewing is vacant. Well run companies don’t create vacancies. Before letting someone go or sensing if someone wants to go, they will be ready with a replacement.Number 9: When asked how the company measures its success in the market, the Interviewer offered a self-constructed analysis based purely on unclear assumption, meaning...he was making it up! Number 8: Interviewer could...

These are not average times; and for that reason, companies are not looking for “average” people. That makes sense. So you need to be a “Standout”, and it may be easier than you think.Here, think about this: You go and get more education and additional credentials thinking “I’ll be more marketable” and get back to the business of job searching and you still find yourself in line with 100's if not 1000's of potential job c...

From blatant...“greatest weakness”; “weakest attribute”; “most significant failure”...to soft...“what might your previous employer say...?”...even softer...“you certainly seem to have a lot of strengths, but we understand no one is perfect...” The question will come one way or another, everyone knows it, yet still befuddled by it.There have been many Rules of Thumb developed over the years, from making light of the question...