Change is Coming | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter encourages you to anticipate change and get support now.

 

[spp-transcript]

This is going to be a quirky podcasts for me and an important one for you.  Most of the time, I talked about how you can tactically deal with job hunting – – I help you with resumes, I talked with you about how to handle interview questions and negotiate salary, a whole host of things related to job. On this show, I want to go “bigger picture.”

The bigger picture is that, when you find a job now, most of you make the mistake of thinking it’s all over. I’ve got my job. Yippee! I’m done.

What you need is someone to work with you over the course of your career who is someone you can bounce ideas off of.  Someone who can give you advice about how to handle professional situations.

You know.  A coach.  You may think you have that person place, but you really don’t.  That’s because you never call upon them.  You never reach out to them for advice.  That’s what I want to talk with you candidly right now.

If you think your professional circumstances are safe now, you are mistaken.  Change is clearly a part of our life landscape. Let me give you perspective for my career.

I started off in recruiting in 1972.  At that time, you deliver the resume by US mail. Then, he progressed to the messenger delivering resumes in your local city.  He used the messenger service.  Then you hired your own messenger. Then, this great thing happened – – the fax machine.  The fax machine is limiting the job of the messenger, just like the messenger cost jobs at the post office.  Now, obviously, we use email.

Now, we do recruiting, not by waiting for resumes to arrive in our inbox through the mail, not by waiting for fax, waiting for it to be emailed.  Now, we are finding people aggressively online using a variety of different tools where we can research people online and find them.

When push comes to shove, in that simple illustration, I probably talked about 9 or 10 different changes, all of which cost jobs.  In doing the research, you are impacting jobs at job boards.  When job boards came around, did anyone use a fax machine anymore? No.  It’s built into the software or PCs and we never use it anyway

the point I’m trying to make is that, in your career, you’re going to need to anticipate the changes in your career.  You will need to be proactive in order to position yourself in a way that allows you to stand out from others.  This isn’t simply about branding because branding is only one aspect of it.  You have to anticipate that the firm you are working for. Could go out of business tomorrow. With the change.

Now, I know a lot of you are thinking, “That can’t happen to me.  I work for Megalopolysis, the biggest and most important firm in the field.” 

Didn’t the recession teach you anything about safety, at firms?  Lord knows, there were millions and millions of people throughout the world who thought their jobs were safe and their careers were well positioned because they work for good firms.  These people all went up out on their butts.  People at Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns before that… We can go through all sorts of firms where people did great work and, through no fault of theirs. The sand shifted under their feet and they wound up being out of a job.  Painfully out of a job.

My encouragement for you is to get someone to sit and talk with.

I’m available and, yes, I do charge for the service but we can do it through LivePerson.com we are a 10 minute session may cost you less than $50.  We can get a quote acquainted and set up something quarterly where we talk.  You need someone to bounce ideas off of you has the experience that I have, is a subject matter expert around job search, who does career coaching for many many years. I want to help you.

You need a trusted advisor to work with to ensure that you don’t wind up losing going forward.  Reach out to me through LivePerson.com where I am a job search and career coaching expert. I’ll be happy to answer your questions. Happy to set up a schedule where we can work together for many years so that you are well-positioned going forward in your career and you don’t get caught short.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Advice from The Godfather” About Negotiating Salary | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter uses a memorable quote from “The Godfather” to offer advice about salary negotiation.

[spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

A Bird in the Hand . . . | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

job-offer

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter tells you a cautionary tale to remind you that a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.

 

[spp-transcript]

I want to tell you a cautionary tale, give you a warning, however you want to think of it they came from her recent experience with the job hunter.  This was a person moving to a new city.  He bought a house with his wife, wanted to move to the new location, contacted me because I have a client there, I had a position he was well-qualified for, all sorts of good stuff. 

The interview with my client and is about to get an offer. The head of the department that he is meeting with his traveling, so. The job offer can’t get signed off on right away.  In the meantime, unbeknownst to me until the last 2nd, he has received an offer from another firm.  I contacted him to let him know that my client is about to extend an offer.  My contact with that firm gets in touch with him to let them know that he’s getting an offer. All they have to do is get one last signature. They expect to have it signed off on imitator to.

Let Me Fast-Forward

The applicant asked me about my client and whether they are reliable.

They took the time to call you to let you know this was going to happen. I don’t know this person to be a liar.  I would say it is going to happen.

I gave him my best judgment.

I also want to say I didn’t know he had another offer until after this.  He emailed me on a Friday evening to say that based upon what you’ve heard from the HR person is going to turn down the offer he has and wait for my client.

The horrible thing that happened is that the head of the department decided not to sign off on the offer.  Now, this person is out of a job and cannot recover that other job offer. He has to find something and he is moved to his new city.  He has no income.

Consider that a lesson.  What you do instead is 1 of several things.  To be clear, I did not ask him to turn down that other offer.

The lesson here is that a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush.

The way to handle that situation is:

  1. Accept the offer and set the start date a week further out.  In this way, you can install a weeks time for my client to have come back.  If my client hadn’t, he would have gone off to that original job.  Then, if my client came through, he could have made another decision if you thought that made sense.  Not my choice. His choice.
  2. Stall the acceptance of the original offer and try to wait for my client.  If pressured, ultimately accept, delay the start a little bit… You get the idea.

You don’t turn down offers based upon a hope, awaiting in the prayer.

What you do is turn down offers when you actually have something, not necessarily what in writing, but have the oral offer, when you being told that the offer will be put in writing, etc..  Not before then.  Especially in situations like this where he was going to be stranded without a job at the time working really needed to be positioned.

Again, my advice is a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush.  Stall as long as you can. Delay starting as long as you can if that other offer is the preferred job.

If it isn’t the preferred job, it doesn’t matter!  In this case, it was. The money was going to be significantly better.  The work was going to be significantly better.  You get the idea.

You don’t turn down something for the hope that something will come through because, as happened here, sometimes it doesn’t.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you?

 You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

A Cute Salary Negotiation Tip | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses a cute tactic he uses when negotiating salary for someone.

 

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you today about a little salary negotiation tip that came to me a while back. I use it from time to time when working with clients when the candidate is about to get an offer and I am negotiating salary on behalf of the client.

I found an interesting thing.  Every once in a while, instead of using an expected round number that ends in zero or $5000 like $80,000 or $85,000, I pick a different kind of number.

I might say something like, $87,500 or $112,200.

Things that are a little irregular.

Why?

Because it is not a number that they are used to hearing so it gives them reason to think, instead of instantly responding with EA or née.  In those cases, it’s May because firms always try to push down the amount. It is very rare that someone increases the amount.

He gives them reason to hesitate. And, as a result, we get into an actual conversation, rather than knee-jerk reactions.

Try.

That you are asked what salary you are looking for, try saying something like $122,200.

“How did you come up with that number?”

“Well, I did some research on the web.  I took a look at the value for what I do and found that this was the mean for the range that you are looking.”

“What was the range?”

Of course you can come back and say, “$117,000-$125,000 per year.”

When all is said and done, making them hear an unusual number causes them to deal with you differently than everyone else..

Don’t fall into the predictable pattern.  Try doing something a little bit different.

When I’m asked to submit a consultant, I’m asked what rate I charge for the person.  I don’t say, for example, “$100 per hour.”  I will say $”$101.75 per hour for this person.”  He gives me a little room to negotiate, of course.  Again, it is a different kind of valuation then just say $100.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

What Interests You About This Job? 2nd Version | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

toughinterviewquestions

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this question in a style that makes people believe you.

 

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This really isn’t the top interview, the people don’t answer it in the right way.  The question is, “What interests you about this job opening?”

On the surface, you can list 4 or 5 different things that you like about the job.  That’s the easy part of this answer.  The hard part is that people forget the demonstrated enthusiasm and passion when they talk.

As a result, they speak in a relatively flat way.  Instead, if you said, “What interests me about this job opening?  Man!  There are 3 or 4 different things that are really terrific about!”  You say, with a lot of “juice” and then go off to list those things that you really love about the job, having speeded up your speech, having her eyes brightened, a smile on your face as you talk, it’s not just simply what you say, that’s good to communicate, it’s how you’re saying it.

There is a theater to interviewing and answering interview questions well.  Here, the theater is about excitement.  You want to have joy in your voice as you answer questions.  This way, people know that you really are excited about this job. Often, that’s the tiebreaker between you and your competition.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

Marketing Yourself Like a Headhunter | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter speaks with you about marketing yourself just like headhunters market themselves.

marketing-yourself

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Let’s talk today about what headhunters do in their work.

Answer.  They are doing business development work to identify potential clients that want to hire. [/spp-transcript]

How are they doing that?

There are a variety of different ways but the primary way is called:.  They are networking.  You’re trying to find people who will give them a name, phone number and/or email address of someone to reach out to who is hiring.

More often than not they are doing what is called telemarketing.  They are on the phone, presenting themselves as human beings who have skills and capabilities that can help an organization fill positions.

Telemarketing works.  It is still the most effective way that salespeople sell.  They may get leads in a variety of different ways but being on the phone, causes them to do the sale.

You need to be doing the same thing.

How do you get those leads?  There are a variety of different ways.  You know about LinkedIn. Have you considered data.com? Spoke.com?  How about zoominfo.com?

These are all sites that provide you with names and the position of potential hiring managers.  In this way, if you are going to submit your resume to affirm, you can use a backdoor way to reach out to someone and present yourself as a human being, different than just a resume submitted to an applicant tracking system.  Different than just a resume that submitted or referred by someone.

They can hear you on the phone, even if you are just leaving a voicemail.  It’s an opportunity to present a case for yourself.

Again, I just want to encourage you.  Get on the phone.  Don’t just simply rely on applicant tracking systems, emails or even introductions.  Reach out to people so that they know something about you.  They get a sense of your enthusiasm, passion and excitement for what you do, just from the tone of your voice.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

The First Things to Do If You Are Laid Off | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses the first two things you need to do if you are laid off.

 

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Let’s talk about that moment in time when you’ve been told that you are going to be laid off.  Maybe, your firm is being acquired.  Maybe businesses just bad.  Whatever the circumstances are, I want you to hear this.

The 1st thing you do is collect names, phone numbers and email addresses from everyone that you can in order to maintain contact in case you need a reference.

You want to make sure that you have the personal information from folks so you can stay in contact with them.  In this way, like I said, if you need a reference, they are available to you.

The next thing you wind up doing is you sit there with your wife, husband, partner, or just yourself. If you live alone and figure out what expenses you can cut back on.  I really mean this.  Working to save money?

Get out your credit card bills. In natural electric bills. Your water bills… All sorts of bills that you have and start to examine what should I be spending my money on.  For example, if you have a mortgage payment. Okay. You’ve got rent. Okay.  We are not talking about saving money there.  There are unnecessary expenses. Almost everyone has.

Cutting back on those expenses NOW. Especially if you’re getting a severance, is so smart.  Doing so, gives you additional staying power in your job search, so that in case the search runs longer than you think it will, you don’t have to take anything out of desperation.

You can interview well. You can look at opportunities for what they are instead of saying, “Oh my God! I need a job!  I really need a job. Help me!  I’ll take anything!”

If you can stay in the job market. If you needed to for an extra 2 months because you cut back on spending, and gives you a huge advantage in the desperation quota.

Again, get everyone’s personal email addresses and phone numbers. Then, from there, figure out where you can cut back on your costs, just in case

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

Why Are You Making So Much Money?

job-interview-intro__1303750811_5965

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this tricky interview question, both when times are good and when economic times are not good.

 

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I think today’s tough interview question is hysterical but there was a legitimate purpose to it.  The question is, “Why is your salary so high?”  

Even if they don’t say it in that sort of voice that sounds serious and accusation all, you will hear it that way.

There are 2 ways to answer this question.

Firms are suggesting with this question that their budget for this job  is less than what your current salary is.

It’s not the my cell is so high per se, there are the obvious parts of doing such and such type of work and the less obvious parts.” Then you go on to a full-court full-blown defense of what you’ve done and how you went about doing it, as well as everything that you do beyond you job description that demonstrated why you are an extraordinary employee for your current organization.  This is an answer that you need to think about in advance to explain why you justify the money when times are good.

Now, let’s look at how to answer this question. When times are bad, the market’s collapse for what you do and you are definitely earning more than the market is willing to pay.

When times are bad you have to go “humble” on them.

“The reality is I was paid more than market value, my firm chose to do that and who am I to argue with that!  I understand that now the market is at such and such level for this kind of role (and then you mentioned the salary range) and I am fully prepared to come down to that price range.”

Again, when times are good, you go in talking about all the extra things that you do; when times are bad, you may start off by talking about some of those extra things as well and then shift gears and be humble and saying, “Yes, I understand I was being overpaid for what I do and I understand that the range for this kind of role now is between such and such and such and such and I am prepared to accept the salary offer in that area.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

The Two Magic Words to Use in an Interview & The Story Behind The Story | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

I discuss how to prepare for your interviews, how to improve your resume, and the two magic words to use during your interviews.

 

[spp-transcript]

Let’s talk today about preparing for an interview.  This tactic can also be used for improving your resume dramatically. But, at a minimum. If you haven’t done this before and had just been sending out resumes, it is the gold that will help you excel on your interviews.

Here’s what you did.  You go back to your resume and go bullet point by bullet point and ask yourself the question, “What’s the story behind this statement?”  I made the statement that I did such and such.  What’s the story, what events occurred?  Put in you, talking to a friend or family member about what it is that she did and how you went about doing it as well as what you stepped into at the time.  Prepare yourself with the story behind those facts.

This is an approach that works extremely well and resumes and will help differentiate you from the competition in your resume.  After all, if you just lay out a resume as if it were job description (I do this. I do that.  I am part of a team that does this or that.),  Your resume becomes boring.  But if you put some life into it by giving some texture to it, by contextualizing what you did and giving a bigger impact at your organization, it has enormous results and you will get many more interviews.  When you tell the stories behind the story on your interview, you will stand out from the competition.

I also want to teach you the 2 magic words to use on your interviews to really differentiate yourself.

I’m sure you’ll be asked about what you did and how you went about doing it on your interviews.  You’re the 2 magic words to use on your interviews:

“For example.”

Then you talk about what you stepped into.  Those 2 words, for example, go a long way to allowing people to see you for what you did and what you accomplish at your previous organization.  It allows you to speak freely about what you’ve accomplished and doing it in the way that audiences love– stories. People love stories.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

Is There Any Type of Person You Would Not Work With? | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

interview-pic

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this complex question, “Is there any kind of person you would refuse to work with?”

 

[spp-transcript]

Today, I want to talk with you about 1 of those tough interview questions… And this 1 is a tricky one. So I want to spend a little time answering it.  The question is, “What kind of person would you refuse to work with?

I know if I were asked that question, I know there is certain personality types that come to mind based upon certain people I have worked with in the past.  However, you can’t initially talk that way.  You can come to that later on, but initially you have to say, “You know, I am not the CEO of this firm yet, I want you to understand, that the firm hires people for the best of their abilities.  Other certain types of people have more difficulty working with?  Absolutely!  2 types come to mind right away.  Know it all’s and liars.  They are really hard for me to work with because know it all’s talk down to me in a very patronizing way.  I don’t think I have to explain myself with liars.  But, at the same time, I have to trust that this organization is doing its best to staff.  So, if I rented the difficulties with people like this, I would go to try and create situations where we can air our differences and have someone adjudicated.  In this way, my difficulty or their difficulty doesn’t become damaging to the work at hand.  That there is someone there who can manage it if we just can’t get along.  I am not an argumentative sort. But, like I said, I have trouble with lawyers.  I have trouble with no withdrawals.  Many people do.  That’s probably how I would handle.  At the same time, I trust that the firm is trying to hire people to the best of your ability and I’ll work with anyone.”

That’s the way I would answer it, starting off by acknowledging that you work with anyone, but that there are 2 personality types that you would struggle with and that you will look for an intervention. If it became so difficult to work with this person.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes