It’s already weeks into 2011 and nothing, I tell you, nothing has happened. You haven’t found a new job and you haven’t won the lottery. Me either. Yes, yes I know—snow has happened. And a lot of it. Shoveling has replaced the gym three out of seven days a week but other than that, we've been at a standstill. Wasn’t the change of dates and new decade supposed to bring in all the changes we wanted? Those we resolved to make and those we magically wished would happen? Incessant snowfall and persistent unemployment plague you like those 10 or 20 lbs. that you unrealistically promised yourself …
It’s hard to believe 2010 is over and a new decade has begun—no arguments please about whether 2010 or 2011 marked that turning point. For the sake of argument, let's just call 2011 the start of a new decade and a new year with new resolutions, or likely some of the same resolutions made last year that fell to the wayside. If unemployed, underemployed or unhappily employed on Jan. 1, 2010, I'm guessing at least a few of your resolutions had something to do with career, job, money, your passions, your true calling—along with doing your due diligence and follow-up work to make these things …
It's that time of year, and if you're looking for a new job you may have decided it's the perfect time to take a little break from your efforts. Why not go on vacation like so many of the gainfully employed do? I'm not being facetious. I know many people are not working, and those that are would much rather kick back, take a long lunch and do some holiday shopping. Yet I wouldn't recommend you suspend all efforts. After all, people do land jobs during the holidays and it can often be an opportune time to take advantage of the gap left by other job hunters who did go on vacations—even if that …
The holidays are upon us and while there are always exceptions, if you are unemployed today you will probably remain so through the end of the year. As the year winds down, it's a good time to connect with people who have previously been too busy to talk to you. But even if they may be available, their minds are often everywhere but where you'd like them to be. So, what to do with these lazy, hazy days of autumn? Visualize next year's job—and make it good. Last installment I talked about pushing aside fantasy and returning to reality. Effective visualization does not consist of pondering …
I feel so close to my next job I can touch it, almost. Maybe my fingertips are still reaching only air, but in my mind I know where they're going to land, mostly. Years ago, gainfully employed, I was ready to make a move but to where I had no idea. A former colleague who'd left the media business to pursue a new career in psychology suggested I visualize my dream job and what better time than now—unemployed—to go through this exercise again? Thinking back I remember that the concept of a "Dream Job" was too broad to wrap my head around. Hmm... so many careers so little time. What made me tick…
I am currently in the tunnel, the space between good interviews and solid meetings, between conversations about potential opportunities and opportunities with, well, actual potential. Nothing is definite and there are no commitments, no promises—and still no paycheck—begging the questions, "what to do now?" and "how do I feel?" Tom Petty said waiting is the hardest part, and it often is, but when it comes to this moment in my re-employment process and my place on the path, I respectfully disagree. I am deciding to make this waiting period, "my tunnel," what I choose. Of course, it can be …
Whether filling out an application online or being asked the question by a recruiter or future employer, the question comes up often and it's often the one job applicants dread most: "How much?" Whether it's "how much did you earn in your last position?" or "how much are you looking for?" for a prospective position, the question is a loaded one and frequently even the most savvy negotiators and experienced executives in the jobseekers' pool will balk. A few years back, how much you made in your last position was your ammunition to preemptively shoot down any thought your future employer …
So, you and I or someone you know may be unemployed and worried about finances, but money can't buy happiness, right? Not true says a recent Time magazine article that claims it actually does—and that the price is lower than you might think. You don't need to win the Powerball, inherit a family fortune or even obtain a high, mid or low six-figure job. So how much money does it take to be happy? The study conducted by Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School says its $75,000 a year. I know. My jaw dropped, too. These so called happy people can't possibly live in Westchester. I am a bit …
September couldn't have come at a better time for me this year. For most, spring marks a time of birth and new beginnings but for me it's always been autumn. Kids return to school and families return to routine. It's Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish New Year (5771 if you're wondering). It's also the month of my wedding anniversary (our 12th – silk and linen are the traditional gifts for whatever reason) and with a birthday in August I've recently turned a new age. My fabulous and flattering 10-year-old daughter says I look 33 so, for this purpose, we'll go with it. I am so ready! For what you …
During my job search I have fantasized about having a government job perhaps protected by the CSEA – Civil Service Employees Association – little to no stress, little to no thinking, a protected job and paycheck with guaranteed increases, crazy concepts like longevity pay and better than the French work hours. Those people are out of there by 4:30 p.m. every day. A job like that gives you a lot of time to spend on everything except work. Not such a bad life I imagined. Okay, with government jobs, there are few six figure salaries, no glamorous perks like seats in your company's corporate box …
Pass the Skinny Girl Margarita Mix please! I don't need to tell you it's hot out there and if you're in the transitional boat like me I don't need to tell you the job market still pretty much stinks like the heat infested rotting detritus on the shores of the beach. With nary a breeze to relieve the oppression of high humidity, 90-plus degree day after 90-plus degree day, I have to say I'm feeling good but I don't know why. Perhaps my elevated mood stems from the excitement of an upcoming family vacation at a beach in another state where I won't see or hear about Snookie or The Situation. …
With the economy in a tailspin and showing no real signs of recovery, job hunting is a competitive sport. What you've done, what you know and especially who you know are the points on your scorecard. However, how long you have been job hunting matters a lot, too. The new sport needs trainers and Lives in Transition, a program organized by Rye Presbyterian Church, has stepped up to meet that need without charging fees to its financially challenged members. The program is run by volunteers and is designed for people experiencing career transition, providing support, networking and information …
Following Patch.com's decision to change the name of my column "Not So Simply Hired"' to something that didn't aggravate Simply Hired, I began the arduous task of creating a new title that was equally catchy and appropriately expressed the column's sentiment – dealing with joblessness and the process of seeking reemployment. Unfortunately renaming, much like finding a new job, was a much more difficult process than I would have first imagined and I soon realized it was an analogy for the situation about which I write. Of course changing the name of my column created no real loss with the …
Not sure whether to be flattered I was noticed or annoyed – I'm thinking annoyed - but SimplyHired.com contacted me and my Rye Patch editor requesting we "tweak" the name of the column because it might portray their website in a way they hadn't intended. I've been discovered, so I had a moment of excitement realizing that my column showed up in a corporate marketing department's "Google alert." Remember my previous column about giving yourself credit? Well, I don't have a heck of a lot new to add to my credit list this week so I'm taking this and counting it. The email came from the company'…
At a recent meeting for one of the job search and support groups in which I participate, we were talking about giving yourself credit, often a challenge for the unemployed. Did you make five new networking contacts? Did you have any informational interviews? Schedule any? Apply for a job or two? Rewrite your resume for the umpteenth zillion time? Find a fantastic article about your industry, post it on LinkedIn and then engage in a rollicking debate about its merits? No? You didn't do all of those things or three of those things or any of those things? Then what kind of professional …
Looking for a job is a job in itself. Everyone has heard it--to be successful at finding a new job you must treat the hunt as you did your work , meaning you must go at it at least eight hours a day, five days a week, if not more. It sounds brutal at first but it's true…at first. Then it's just brutal. After the first few months of a job search the daily grind of job hunting becomes not only impractical but deadly. Maintaining the dogged diligence of the hunt's early days will put both your objective of securing a new job and your mental health at risk. Those darn career coaches, so many of …
"It's not age discrimination," a career coaching professional recently told a room full of highly accomplished, 40 plus unemployed executives of whom I am one. "It's salary discrimination," he said. "You're too expensive." Really? This was shocking news. Like last season's boots at DSW, the longer the unemployed sit on the shelf the cheaper we get, our clearance rack sticker colors changing each week that passes without a job offer. Remember how in dating "It's not you, it's me" meant it was you? Well job hunting, especially for the forty plus crowd, has its own code language. I've …
