Career Q&A: “How Explain Long Employment Gap?”

“Matt, I’m really struggling here.  How do I explain being out of work for almost two years now?  Is this stretch between jobs going to prevent me from ever getting hired again?” Over the past few years, as the economy has continued to dawdle, more professionals than you might believe have found themselves out of […]

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LinkedIn Tip: Visually Map Your Network

Pop quiz — what does the weird splotch of color below represent? Answer: Why my network, of course!  C’mon, isn’t ‘t it obvious? For those who haven’t discovered it yet, LinkedIn recently introduced a new application called “InMaps” that does something quite remarkable.  It connects (once you give it permission) to your LinkedIn account, reviews […]

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Time for a New Mug Shot? Or Makeover?

Was it Andre Agassi who always used to tell us that “image was everything” on those annoying camera commercials? At any rate, while I think he perhaps exaggerated the point slightly for advertising purposes, there’ s definitely something to be said for projecting a winning, confident image throughout all of your professional endeavors — especially […]

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Success Story: It Takes a Village

Just had another successful job hunter kindly send along some insights, thoughts, and wisdom about his “journey” to share with all of you, via my blog.  Here are the sentiments he passed along: “Matt, as you may recall, I had worked for a single newspaper company in various financial roles ever since college (21 years).  […]

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Career Poll: How Increase Job Hunt Accountability?

In keeping with my “poll of the month” tradition, here’s the latest career-related question I threw out back in December — along with the associated results it attracted and a wee bit of analysis on the topic… “What step would likely help most in terms of increasing your job search accountability and resolve, heading into […]

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Are Fee-Based Career Sites Worth It?

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” That’s what my mother always told me, growing up.  I’m not sure, though, whether she’s updated this cardinal rule to keep in step with the times.  For example, even if I continue to refrain from saying bad things about somebody else myself, is it […]

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Success Story: It’s a Numbers Game

While it’s too early to predict whether 2011 is going to be a “bear” or a “bull” market in terms of the job landscape, I’m encouraged by several clients of mine who have already reported landing new positions over these past few weeks. One of these transitions, in fact, relates to an article I wrote […]

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Seattle Employers: Top 10 “Most Saturated” List

No question about it, networking is still the single most effective method that professionals in transition should be using to generate job leads — and I don’t for one second want to “disincent” people from reaching out to everybody they know, including myself, to seek introductions and referrals to various companies of interest. At the […]

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Interviewing: Don’t Bury the Lead!

Having role-played hundreds of mock interviews over the years with professionals seeking to improve their presentation skills and increase their “batting average” for closing offers, there’s a tendency I’ve started to notice that’s pretty fascinating. Nine out of ten times, minimum, the people I’m interviewing bury the lead whenever I ask them a question.  What […]

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Your #1 Professional Obligation

Two words: professional development. While some may find this surprising, I encounter quite a few professionals who seem to have completely overlooked the importance of building a structured regimen of training, continuing education, and professional development activities into their overall job search game plan.  Perhaps they’re assuming they’ll find a job so quickly that they […]

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