As a child of honest, working class parents, I was taught to always tell the truth.  However, every rule has its exception.  If my mother hated a friend’s new hairstyle or dress, she would nevertheless gush that she loved it.  Once the lady was out of earshot, my mom explained that her “little white lies” […]

Most of us raised in the post-World War II “fattened calf” years, and most of our children, could not have envisioned the current economic wasteland sweeping America from sea to shining sea.  Into this desert has strolled new opportunities; albeit, half a world and more away.   Overseas, labor and production costs are cheaper than […]

There is a concept that holds that the universe contains everything we need, essential to our survival and happiness, and that the universe, in turn, is contained within each one of us.  Although a best seller entitled The Secret hinted that this concept is largely unknown, it is actually an ages-old hypothesis with its roots […]

A perversion of Albert Einstein’s famous theory states, “All things are relative.”  Indeed they are, and people’s attitudes toward work are no exception to that concept:  business environments breed various types of employees.  Despite my many years of gainful employment, it is two specific categories of worker that keep me scratching my head.  These are the […]

With the current economic crisis, more jobs are at risk of “going away” than in the past twenty-six years.  In attempting to save money and cut costs by reducing their workforces, employers are manufacturing reasons to push hardworking people out of their jobs.  In better times, people held jobs for far longer periods of time […]

In today’s economy, many displaced workers are finding themselves pursuing new industries and careers to which to apply their talents.  For a growing number of mature workers, their searches may land them into positions that take them outside their respective comfort zones.  One common scenario for the mature job candidate finds the recently hired worker […]

In today’s business world, truth is not a commodity in great supply.  As our economy tanks despite massive infusions of public capital, evidence surfaces that those with whom many, great and small alike, have entrusted savings, retirements, and other monies have defrauded them.  Bernard Madoff, convicted of masterminding the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, and R. […]

In today’s depressed economic environment, finding a job, any job, is often a Herculean task.  Finding the right opportunity – the one that brings with it the right compensation, benefits, location, advancement potential, and balance between personal and professional lives – may be likened to finding the proverbial “needle in a haystack.”  If you want […]

The Latin expression “Caveat emptor,” translated “let the buyer beware,” is an enduring reminder that, throughout recorded history, purchasers of goods and services have always had responsibility to perform “due diligence” to ensure the fulfillment of their purchase expectations.  Had the modern job market existed in the time of ancient Rome, sages of the era […]

Too often, an initial review of your resume by a prospective employer is more about uncovering liabilities and eliminating you from consideration than it is about identifying why you might be a highly qualified candidate for the particular opening.   For that reason, your resume should be constructed in a way that eliminates mention (if […]