A client recently sent me a screenshot of a text message he had received. It went something like this:  We’ve received your resume and are very impressed. Several recruiters have also recommended you. We would like to offer you a job you can do from home in your free time. Daily pay ranges from $300-$900, and you will be paid daily via direct deposit. Please contact us via WhatsApp.  This, dear readers, is an example of a job scammer. A job scam is a fraudulent work offer intended to mislead people seeking legitimate employment. Often, the objective of scammers is to deceive job see ..read more

Dear Deb: I have been laid off for over 6 months and am beginning to feel a bit hopeless. Compounding my feelings is that I have been getting multiple interviews, yet no offers. The interview processes that I’ve encountered are nothing like anything I’ve seen before in my career.  I recently went through 7—yes 7—rounds of interviews for a role for which I was more than qualified. The first round was with the recruiter. Second round with the hiring manager. Third round with other members of the team. Fourth round was a panel interview for which I had to prepare a presentation. Fifth round ..read more

The 2018 film The Post tells the story of attempts by journalists to publish the Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force’s report, now colloquially known as the Pentagon Papers. These classified documents detailed the United States’s 30-year involvement in the Vietnam War and its ostensible and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to rid the world of communism.  One of the film’s main characters, played by Meryl Streep, was Katharine Graham. Katharine Graham began working at the Post in 1938 as a beat reporter. Her father, Eugene Meyer, was the publisher of the pa ..read more

Mansplaining is alive and well and can be seen everywhere, from the driving range to X (formerly Twitter). Every woman has endured mansplaining at some point. It’s as if these men just can’t help themselves or restrain their mouths. The portmanteau describes the act of a man’s unsolicited explaining, generally to a woman, something he thinks he knows more about than she does — occasionally at anesthetizing length — whether he knows anything or not. Mansplaining reveals itself in many forms. For example, instead of admitting that he doesn’t know something or asking a person to elaborate, the m ..read more

Much of the career advice out there focuses on interview preparation for candidates, specifically on how best to formulate answers to typical questions. But just as important—maybe even more important—are your questions during the interview.  Any parent knows that asking a teenager, “How was school today?” will not get any meaningful response. You might get a grunt, “Okay” or “Fine” in response. This is because the question is meaningless. It does not ask anything specific, nor does it indicate a genuine interest on the part of the person asking. It also tells your kid, “I have no idea h ..read more

Founded in 1910 by feminist Clara Zetkin, International Women’s Day is a day to recognize women’s contributions to industry and society and their work outside of the home. Many women who have impacted American history are well known, such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth. However, too many pioneering women have been left out of the conversation for too long.  How well do you know the history of women’s contributions in the US? Are any of these names familiar? Rachel Carson: Carson was the founder of today’s environmental movement. In the late 1950s, she wr ..read more

We hear and engage in fallacies every day. They often form the keystones of our arguments. These logical fallacies are leaps of logic that lead us to an unsupported conclusion. People may unintentionally commit a logical fallacy due to poor reasoning or intentionally to manipulate others. Common logical fallacies include the red herring, ad hominem, causation/correlation, straw man, and the anecdotal evidence fallacy. However, there is one particularly insidious fallacy that we want to take extra care to avoid, and that is the one known as the Abilene Paradox.  Put simply, the Abilene Pa ..read more

There is truth in that tired business adage that “what gets measured gets done.” If you want to stand out among the crowd, you must ensure that you include metrics on your resume. The average amount of time spent “reading” a resume is a disheartening 7.2 seconds. That’s right—when a recruiter looks at your resume, she scans it for keywords and superstar accomplishments. If you want to grab the recruiter’s attention, adding metrics to your resume is one way to do so quickly. Tips for how to add metrics to your resume The purpose of including resume metrics is to create a more compelling story ..read more

Dread going to work? Worried you’re going to lose your job? Feeling burned out or left out at the office? How do you know when the trouble is just a little blip you’ll soon get past, or when it’s time to dust off your resume and start perusing job postings?  Check out these signs that you might want to consider leaving your job: You dread going to work. Sunday evening blues are normal. But if you truly dread the approach of Monday, it might be time for you to consider leaving your job.  You feel like you’re in the wrong place. If you spend your time daydreaming about the job you rea ..read more

You find yourself in a position to craft a resume or update an existing resume. This can be a daunting challenge for many people. So much resume advice floats around out there, and so much is outdated, outdated, or simply flawed. I’ve worked with thousands of clients across a myriad of industries, and I’m going to share with you my top 10 tips for effectively and efficiently writing a winning resume: Understand the purpose. Contrary to much advice out there, the purpose of a resume is not to inventory the tasks you perform in your current or previous roles. It is to showcase your brand valu ..read more