Run on East Side Bank, N.Y. 1912 February 16. Bain News Service via Library of Congress.

Today’s Job Market: The Unemployed Stay Unemployed

Forrest ChristianCareers Leave a Comment

People make the mistake of assuming that the job market for them is the same as it is for everyone else. In today’s financial crisis influenced hiring, that’s simply not true. Steve Eddington has some interesting comments on today’s job market (“The Hiring Decision – In the Current Job Market, Who’s on First?”): As the headhunter, we have the distinct …

Lighthouse at night, (c) 2009 Martin Belam. Via flickr. (CC BY SA 2.0)

Get or Keep that Job You’re Over-Qualified For

Forrest ChristianCareers, Underachievers 2 Comments

Let’s take another gander at how a hidden high potential can either get or stay in a that low-level job. It’s counter to prevailing advice you get, so you may want to pay attention. Before I start, I have to emphasize that I’m only talking about Hidden High Potentials (HHPs) and not Normal People. Normals give HHPs advice which is …

CR on the Duration of Unemployment

Forrest ChristianCareers Leave a Comment

Calculated Risk has posted a couple of interesting graphs showing the variance in the lengths of unemployment over the last 40 years (U.S. only). It’s what I’ve been saying: you don’t want to go unemployed these days because those without jobs aren’t going to get new ones. CR’s points are worth noting: … if the level of normal turnover was …

US Jobless Rates Still Increasing

Forrest ChristianCareers, Financial crisis Leave a Comment

For my American readers, you may be interested in a recent post on CalculatedRisk where CR graphs the recent BLS data on unemployment. The interesting things for you are the positive states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Virginia. And possibly Vermont. Oklahoma looks pretty good to me too, having just talked to my old friends in Michigan. Another interesting …

Fake Smile (My son being funny with his fake smile. He makes the same face when he is showing off his muscles.) © 2007 by Eric Fleming. Via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Depressed About Work? Positivity May Not Work

Forrest ChristianChange, Underachievers Leave a Comment

Job hunters often get depressed from their hunt, and it’s probably even worse in a stagnant, depressed economy like we’re in today. One of the coping techniques that misguided but well-meaning people teach them is to use Positive Thinking. People regularly use these techniques and believe strongly that they are effective.

Nice, except that it will often backfire. [more]

Thems That Got Jobs Will Get More; Thems That Don’t Will Lose

Forrest ChristianCareers Leave a Comment

People with jobs are actually earning more. They are also much less likely to get fired than they were before. However, those without jobs are likely to be without for a very long time. No jobs are being created, and the usual pipelines are clogged with people all trying to use them to find jobs that just aren’t there. READ MORE….

Mimicking a Statue, (c) 2012 Michael Coghlan (CC BY-SA 2.0). Via flickr.

Imitate Your Interviewer To Get The Job

Forrest ChristianCareers Leave a Comment

Are you going to a job interview sometimes soon? Have a meeting with a prospective client? The other person will like you more and think the meeting went more smoothly if you subtly mimic their body language. This has long been a part of the salesman’s Influence bag, of course, and is even a goodly part of the original neuro-linguistic …