Should Job Candidates Explain Their Resume Gaps?

Q. Hi Liz, can you ask your readers to explain their résumé gaps more fully on their resumes? We see so many résumé gaps in the resumes we receive. It’s good to know what the person was doing during that time off work. A. If I were applying for a job with your...

Boss Got Drunk And Spilled The Tea

Hi Liz, I’m a senior account executive for a manufacturing firm. I’ve been with the company for 3.5 years. I’ve never missed my quarterly target. My boss and I traveled together two weeks ago. We were stuck in the airport because our flight was canceled. We went to...

The Most Common Resume Mistake?

Q. What is the most common résumé mistake? A. You can’t call it a mistake because countless books and articles tell us to do it, but the most unfortunate thing people do when writing their résumé or updating their LinkedIn profile is to brand themselves as more junior...

Affirmation For Job Seekers

Our society bombards you with reasons not to believe in yourself, especially when you are job hunting: Maybe you don’t have a “perfect” résumé. Maybe you don’t have the educational background some people think you should have. Maybe you’re older than someone thinks...

Asking Candidates About Their Resume Gaps

Can we lay to rest the idea that asking candidates about their employment gaps will alert you to whether someone was terminated from a past job (and is therefore ineligible for employment with you)? First of all, asking someone about their “gap” tells you nothing...

Ten Reasons to Consider Independent Consulting

If you’ve never thought about working for yourself as an independent consultant (either part-time or full-time) I don’t blame you. I never thought about it either.  In fact, when people would sometimes tell me, “You should be a consultant!” I’d recoil in horror.  I...

How to Deal with Requests for Free Consulting

Dear Liz, I’ve been consulting on my own for almost four years. I need a polite but firm way to parry requests for free consulting, which arrive constantly. One person asked me to critique her business plan “as a professional courtesy,” although I had never met her...