Job Advice Blog

For many of us being successful is far more complicated than thriving in the work place. Despite overwhelmingly positive performance reviews, a promotion or two, and pleasant relationships with co-workers, some of us still feel like we are not really capable of doing the job. This feeling is a symptom of what researchers Clance and Imes from Georgia State University refer to as “Imposter Syndrome.” If on paper you are a model employee, but deep down you feel like you are a fraud- you suffer from Imposter Syndrome. If you are constantly worried that someone will “find you out” you suffer from Imposter Syndrome. But don’t worry too much, Imposter Syndrome is not terminal, and if you follow some simple advice you will be able to overcome it with relative ease!

The worst thing that you can do while between jobs is stagnate. If you give up and stop pushing, learning, and growing it will not only take longer to find a job, but the waiting will be more painful. This is why periods between full-time employments are the perfect times to pick up new skills. This could mean signing up for a class, buying a couple books, or just devoting a couple hours each day to utilizing free online educational resources (of which there are many!). These days the most useful hard skill (by far) is programming. If you know how to code you can be useful at pretty much any company, and can even find ample work as a free-lancer!

There are many aspects to searching for a job that are intuitive, but there are also many times where our intuition steers us in the wrong direction. This can be extremely frustrating, as we take action that seems like it would increase our odds of getting hired only to find diminished results. Today we are going to look at some common ways that our intuition wrongs, and look at some alternatives to taking intuitive action.

When we go into a job interview it is easy to forget that it is a two-sided street. We often think of job interviews as exclusively a chance for the company to determine if you are competent enough to work for them, but it is also a chance for you to see if the company is competent enough for you to work for them! The interview is your opportunity to see how the company is run, and see if you even would like working for them. There are many companies that you do not want to work for, so today we are going to look at ways to tell if you are interviewing at a company that you should not join.

As children we are taught to apologize when we have clearly wronged someone around us. After punching our brother, stealing a playmate’s toy, or throwing a tantrum we apologize. These were good examples of the proper use of an apology, the crime was obvious, all people were aware of the situation, and we attempted to show genuine regret. In the modern adult world, the word sorry does not have this kind of clarity. Often we will say sorry whenever any situation is less than ideal- regardless of whether or not we have anything to do with it. This seems rather benign, but can actually damage your career a lot! Saying “sorry” makes people assume that you are responsible for the issue, even if you had nothing to do with it. Today we are going to look at some common work place situations where we shouldn’t apologize (but often do!).

These days automation plays a role in nearly every field. Some automated machines drive mass transit, some perform simple and repetitive tasks, and some throw away resumes. In large companies it is not uncommon to use an applicant tracking system (or ATS), a program that scans resumes and decides whether or not they deserve be seen by human eyes. Hiring managers for large firms love these, as it saves them a lot of time and hassle to be able to skip all the incomplete, inconsistent, and inane resumes. As a candidate, however, these ATS can be terrifying. Today we are going to look at some ways to keep the ATS on your side, so you will at least be seen by human eyes.

Nothing is more frustrating than knowing that you failed to accomplish something, but having no idea why. This is part of why not getting called back for a second interview is so frustrating. Assuming you didn’t make a large blunder that you can point to during the interview, it can be pretty tough to figure out where you went wrong. It could be something that happened during the interview, but it could also have nothing to do with the interview itself. Today we are going to look at some common pitfalls to avoid, and make it easier to get a second interview!

There are a lot of little stressors that follow us into our job interviews. There is a sense that we have to be able to show that we are a good fit, know a lot about the company, and perhaps even be able to guess the number of windows in New York City. Having to prove yourself in all of these different ways part of why interviews are so stressful! In reality, however, most hiring managers (and most people in general) are really only looking for two things- warmth and competence.

Self-aware people are generally more successful than their blind-to-self counterparts. Being capable of seeing your patterns, fears, desires and anxieties makes adapting to them possible. One of the best ways to develop self-awareness is to check in with yourself from time to time. Today we are going to look at some questions you can ask yourself in order to get to a better sense of how you work. Try making a point of asking yourself these questions on a regular basis, if not nightly, at least weekly. You may be amazed at how much easier everything is with a little extra self-knowledge.

A job search is not immune to slumps. There may be times where nothing seems to be panning out the way you expected, or even to your baseline hopes. Jobs you once thought of as beneath you are ignoring you, maybe interviews become increasingly stressful and less fruitful, or maybe you are only getting lowball offers. Though it can be tempting to give up after all of this, stick in it just a little longer. Today we are going to look at some tips for making your slumping job search stand tall again.