Be a Squeaky Wheel (Updated)

So you’ve been applying for jobs—perhaps hundreds of them—with no response. Not even the courtesy of an automated email to let you know your resume has been received, right? What do you do? Chalk it up to yet another dead-end? Or act like a squeaky wheel and get noticed?
You’ve probably heard the saying “the squeaky [...]

Uncover Hidden Jobs Through Federal Business Opportunities

At any given time, the Federal Business Opportunities website has tens of thousands of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) that allow vendors to bid on the opportunity to provide goods and services. By law, the government is required to conduct an open and competitive bidding process for any purchases meeting certain criteria. (The federal regulations for government contracts are [...]

How to Find Hidden Jobs From Last Year’s Job Applications

As promised, here is the second part of Tuesday’s post, A New Year Requires New Job Search Techniques.
How many of you applied for dozens, if not hundreds, of jobs last year? If you’re like most people, chances are pretty good that your resume went into the stratosphere, never to be seen by the overworked eyes of our [...]

What Do Employers Remember About You?

Imagine you are a recruiter or hiring manager at a job fair. An attendee (that is, a job seeker) walks up to you and says:
 “So what have you got for me?”
Yikes!
Remember our posts here on developing and practicing your elevator pitch? Well, if the reason you’re at the job fair is to be considered for [...]

More Useless Career Advice From The New York Times

In her New York Times article, “No Response After an Interview? What to Do”, Phyllis Korkki suggests that, if you don’t get a response within two months after an interview, “you may interpret that as a nonresponse.” 
Say what?? TWO months??  Has the bar been lowered so far that two months is now considered an appropriate [...]

Job Seekers: Body-Slam Your Competition

As job seekers look for ways to stand out from the crowd—and as recruiters continue to whine and complain about the increasing volume of resumes of unqualified candidates filling their inboxes—job seekers today need to be more innovative with body-slamming their competition.
I use this term figuratively, of course.
Yes, job searching these days is a contact [...]

Surging Start-Ups and Little-Known Firms

One of my mantras (or, as some call them, rants) is to look for work where it is least expected. Or, put another way, determine ways to track down the so-called “hidden” or unadvertised jobs, and build a direct path to the hiring manager.
In a recent post, we talked about jobs with venture-backed companies.  In [...]

The Elevator Pitch — Are You Ready for Action?

Wikipedia defines an elevator pitch as “an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project… that can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds and 100-150 words).”
In today’s world, job hunting needs to be treated as a contact sport that requires solid action plans, follow-through, and [...]