The Shimmering Careers Blog

When you have to include a salary One of the more delicate questions for job applicants, and the one that attracts conflicted opinions from the experts, is the one posed by job postings that require applicants to specify their desired salaries. When that happens, the applicant’s dilemma is all too clear. Of the three choices available, not one is obviously correct: Aim too low and you’re liable to leave money on the table. Alternatively, employers might conclude that your low

Create Your Brand When it Counts the Most As a sales and marketing professional are you prepared to promote yourself with an effective resume that will land you an interview? The average human resources manager spends less than 30 seconds reviewing a sales resume before deciding to keep it or throw it away. Needless to say, the vast majority of resumes end up in the trashcan. In the current job market, your skills do not matter if no one reads your marketing resume. “Your bra

“Congratulations on the new job!” Life will all be smooth sailing from now on. Won’t it? Actually, starting a new job is not all unicorns and rainbows. Mixed emotions are often the order of the day. There’s a deserved sense of accomplishment that comes from getting hired. There’s also stress, uncertainty, and fear. Those feelings come naturally when you are about to start a new job in a new place filled with strange faces. You will be entering a workplace governed by unfamili

The essentials of the job hunt don’t really change according to your employment status, but employed searchers do have to consider a number of special issues that don’t affect their unemployed counterparts. 10 RULES OF THE ROAD Rule 1: Mum’s the Word The first rule of the searching-while-employed club is: You do not talk about searching while employed. The one exception applies when, and only when, your boss tells you it’s time to look for a new job. For example, layoffs have

No matter the type of company, there are certain fundamental things you need to get right in the workplace to ensure success: 1) Show up. As writer Regina Brett once said, “Most of life is showing up.” You can argue with the how much of life is showing up, but you can’t argue with the saying’s corollary: “Failure to show up is 100 percent guaranteed to be bad for your career.” It’s not just a matter of being physically present. In this context, “showing up” means being there

Research and networking complement each other in your job search. One under-used strategy takes advantage of that overlap and should be part of every applicant’s arsenal: the informational interview. Despite its value, the informational interview has become the poor relation in the family of career strategies. It gets little attention in job-hunting guides, but it should be a standard tactic for job seekers. If anything, the fact that it is so often forgotten makes it more va

Many of my clients ask what to do about age discrimination during the job search. The plain truth is if you’re waiting for ageism to disappear from the job market, one thing is certain: However old you are, you’ll grow much older waiting. Age-based discrimination may be illegal, but it remains pervasive despite its illegality. In any event, the law isn’t the recourse you need. “Failure to Hire” claims are difficult to prove, and that’s almost beside the point. You don’t want

For special situations, such as gaps in your career or frequent moves from one job to another, your resume and cover letter have to work overtime. You have to handle your resume in the right way, and you have to make especially good use of your cover letter. If you do that, you’ll keep your application in the running, and that’s your goal: Just get one step further down the road to an offer. Employment History Gaps There are gaps—and there are gaps. Not every period of unempl