Archive for the 'Stuff I worry about' Category


Readers’ Forum: A matter of college degrees

Monday, August 30th, 2010

In the August 31, 2010 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter, a reader asks: I am making a career change to improve my life, and I plan to pursue a master’s degree. Any suggestions on how to proceed after I earn it? The U.S. News & World Report school rankings are out again, which reminds me that it seems to [...]


Toilet paper resumes: More feels better?

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

[Some bloggers cleverly carry a theme from one post to the next. I'm not into that. Honest: I wasn't looking to flow the theme from Pissing on the applicant into today's post. Toilet paper just kinda backed up into the system when JaneA posted a comment on Readers’ Forum: HR’s #1 job: Poisoning the well?] Businesses [...]


Readers’ Forum: HR’s #1 job: Poisoning the well?

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

In the August 24, 2010 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter, a reader says: After being tested and interviewed by the senior vice president of a local company for a senior executive assistant position, they dropped off the planet and made no contact with me. I sent an e-mail to the VP enquiring why there had been no contact and the [...]


Stupid interview animals: No soap, RADIO!

Monday, August 9th, 2010

MediaBistro led me to the latest career advice in Fortune.com’s Ask Annie column: Employer’s Wacky Interview Questions. I don’t know what’s wackier: the questions, or that Annie Fisher really believes that the mission of career advisors is to come up with clever answers for them. Get this question from an Ask Annie reader: Yesterday an interviewer [...]


OMG! They found out about my air baths!!

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Reader Steve Amoia shared a Wall Street Journal article by Elizabeth Garone that might terrify you: Five Mistakes Online Job Hunters Make. (Does this mean that if you’re not an online job hunter, you’ve got nothing to worry about?) Steve writes: I’m curious about something: “Assume your future boss is reading everything you share online,” she [...]


Stanford’s top engineer: Our K-12 problem is serious

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Over a year ago, I discussed the abject failure of American K-12 schools to teach kids how to be technology creators rather than just consumers. My plea to schools: Gimme a break! Stop giving students iPods and just teaching them how to use computers — when we should be teaching them how to program, design circuits and [...]


Why HR?

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Uh-uh, Bill Taylor. I just read Why We (Shouldn’t) Hate HR on FastCompany.com. I wish Bill (one of the brilliant founders of FastCompany magazine) hadn’t questioned the intent and meaning of Keith Hammond’s original 2005 article, Why We Hate HR. If anything, it’s more valid today than it was 5 years ago because today budgets are tighter [...]


New York State: On the “B” list with TheLadders

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

This economy makes strange bedfellows. In good times, who’d want to be associated with a B-list “partner?” When times are tough, though, good organizations seem willing to hop into bed with just about anyone for a few bucks’ worth of sponsorships… Judge them by those they hang out with… IT industry watcher Winston Lawrence reports [...]


Job hopping: Career crack for losers

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Over at Business Insider, Mark Suster laid down a rant: Never Hire Job Hoppers. Never. They Make Terrible Employees. A buddy of mine sent it along and said she thinks it’s entirely one-sided from the employer’s perspective. I don’t endorse everything Suster says in his posting (he says a lot), but I think he’s generally right. Any job hopper [...]


The down side of job hunting

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

About 15 years ago, when I first started publishing Ask The Headhunter online, I met a fellow that I’ve stayed in touch with on and off. Recently we renewed our acquaintance — and I encouraged him to start a blog. He prefers to remain anonymous. He calls his blog Unemployed and Clinically Depressed in the [...]