Author Archives: Joyce Richman

Stop Doing That

September 28, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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“Stop doing that.” “You’re wrong.” “Do what I tell you.” “Because I said so…” If that’s a sampling of what you’re telling your employees and all you’re getting for your effort is turnover, follow your own advice and stop doing that. Times have changed. Back in the day, as they now say, employers ruled and employees obeyed. If employees did as they were told (as most did) without questioning rules or rulers, they stayed and Continue reading →

Imagine Your Interview

September 4, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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I just got your message marked urgent. You have an interview tomorrow morning; you want to know what to do; and you want to know it now. For starters, relax. You’re so uptight you’re likely to shut down the interview along with the interviewer. Go for a walk, jog, or swim and think about how you want to be on that interview. Image your calm, cool, and collected self driving to the meeting, knowing where Continue reading →

He Wants More

August 28, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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The caller wanted help with his job search. He said he had been at it for more than a year and couldn’t land anything that he wanted to accept. I asked him why he was looking for a job and all he could muster was why he was leaving one. I asked him what he does best and all he could tell me was what he does most. I asked him how he adds value Continue reading →

Who Needs a Career Coach?

August 21, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Who benefits from career coaching? Employees and job seekers who are lost, confused, frustrated, and stuck; who’ve been downsized, merged and acquired; who have questions, want answers, and need direction. Are you a likely candidate? Here are some descriptors that might help you decide. “I’m lost. Where am I supposed to go with my career? I’m working but waking up to the fact that time’s passing and I don’t have anything to show for it.” Continue reading →

Try Again

August 14, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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If you’re willing to think through your answers and select the responses most likely to lead where you want to go, you can turn a potentially difficult interview into an honest, open exchange of relevant information. When you’re asked, “why were you fired?” don’t play victim or blame the person who fired you. Accept accountability for your role in the outcome and connect your strengths to what employers want and say they need. Why did Continue reading →

Rise & Shine

August 7, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Rise and shine. I understand you have a job search to conduct, a position to secure and a success story to write; that the company you’re in and the job you’ve had were good enough when you signed on, but that’s changed. What happened? “When I got this job I had a college degree and three years experience under my belt; I was just beginning to realize that I had something to offer an employer.  Continue reading →

Ouch!

July 31, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Job applicants seem to complain a lot when they describe how they feel they’re treated during and after their interviews. I thought it only fair to get some candid perspective from prospective employers and the applicant situations that bother them. Here are just a few: Our interview committee was so impressed with a job candidate we wanted to make him an offer on the spot. The hiring manager insisted that we check references first and Continue reading →

Start & Stop

July 24, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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If you want to start doing something, you need to stop doing what was getting in the way. Some of these ideas might get you going or encourage you to adopt a few starts and stops of your own: Start focusing on long- term objectives and figure out strategies to get there. Stop focusing on short- term goals at the expense of what’s important, long term. Start focusing on your total presence, your confidence, capabilities, Continue reading →

Tell Your Story

July 17, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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The interviewer asks you to describe your strengths. You respond by reciting a ready list of tidy, scouts-honor phrases. “I’m loyal, honest, hard-working….” Are you making points with the interviewer? Probably not. She’s heard the same or something similar from everyone she’s asked. Rather than parrot words that may be true but sound like the National Anthem of all Job Seekers, advance your candidacy. Describe your attributes in ways that demonstrate your understanding of what Continue reading →

Q&A

July 11, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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“I’m intimidating. I know it. I don’t like it. I’ve never known what to do about it. Believe me, I’ve tried. It’s my personality. My whole family’s like that. My mom’s direct and my father more so. My brothers and sisters are all competitive go-getters. We earned our stripes around the kitchen table. Every meal was a potluck of competing voices and spirited debates. We argued about everything you shouldn’t; from politics and religion, to Continue reading →

For Moms and Dads

July 4, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Moms, Dads, your grown kids are home for the holidays. Some of them are gainfully employed, making tons of money. They’re beautifully groomed, happy, healthy, generous, and kind to small animals. They’ve not only met your expectations, they’ve exceeded them. Others have returned home, not for the holidays, but for the duration. As kind, good, well groomed, respectful and generous they may (or may not) have been in the past, what’s been leeching out lately Continue reading →

The Biggest Struggles

June 27, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Many of you struggle with your job search because you don’t know the career direction that’s best for you. If you’d like to stop spinning and start mapping, pay attention to your interests and hobbies. Do you love music and hiking? You probably want jobs that enable you to work in harmonious places and open spaces. Do you like acknowledging others and organizing social events? You’re likely to enjoy coordinating projects and activities for the Continue reading →

Travel and Job Seeking

June 20, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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What does job search and foreign travel have in common? Having recently returned from a business trip abroad, I’m not only brimming with fresh perspective and chock full of new learning, I see connections I’d earlier have missed. The learning: Airline personnel, flight cancellations, impatient travelers. When the few are assigned the work of the many and there’s a critical intersection of the few, complicated by a critical interruption of the many, chaos reigns.  The Continue reading →

Three People

June 20, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Three people, three challenges. The names aren’t theirs, but the stories are. And many of you share them. Daniel doesn’t know how to describe his career dilemma other than to say he is, “… lost, clueless, and stuck. I can’t get started because I don’t know where I want to go. I don’t want to interview because I know I’m flat. I’ve been told I act like I don’t care if I get the job.  Continue reading →

The Dream

June 13, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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You’re having a struggle. You’re trying to identify the career direction your life should take and despite your best efforts you can’t figure it out. You’ve sought advice from your best friend to your dad’s business partner; you’ve read self-help books, walked in the woods, read the want ads, and nothing’s helped. Then, one night, you have a dream… You’re standing in the great check-out line of life, and you’re handed a clip board and Continue reading →

Selling Yourself Like a House

June 5, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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If you were getting ready to selling your home, and to buy one, instead of leaving a job and looking for onea job, I bet you’d do whatever you could , that was affordable and within reason., to be successful. If you were buying a home, you’d do the same. You’d begin wby doing a ith a full house inspection, eyeballing the interior and exterior of your space to figure out what works and what Continue reading →

School is Starting

May 29, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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There’s something about the sights, smells, and start of fall and the school year that can get the kid in you revved up for what’s to come. You have to repress that urge to run out and buy a new lunch box, backpack and notebooks, because you’d look a little silly, given your age and station in life. If you’re a job seeker, your search can feel more like the first day of school in Continue reading →

Lucky Enough

May 22, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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I’m at the beach. It’s raining. Not sprinkling. Showering. Misting. Or any of the displays that suggest wait-a-minute and the sun’s bound to come out.  This is a rain that’s going to stay for a while. I better get used to it. It came advertised. I saw it on the weather channel, read it in the paper, I heard it from forecasters who added their personal and chipper “don’t bother going to the beach this Continue reading →

Rude Behavior 2

May 15, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Last week I described a job candidate I’ll call Sam, who was flabbergasted to find he’d been eliminated from competition because the interviewer viewed his behavior as unacceptable. This is Sam’s version of what happened: Sam had a busy morning and as a result, was late getting to his interview. When he arrived, the receptionist asked him to wait for an escort to Human Resources. Several minutes passed before he was accompanied to the interviewer’s Continue reading →

Rude Behavior

May 8, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Bummer. You’ve spent weeks practicing answers to the toughest questions, days improving your resume, hours finding the right thing to wear, only to learn you weren’t made a job offer because the interviewer said you had bad manners. “Bad manners! Can you believe it?” slumped the client. “Tell me what happened”, I said politely, while correcting my posture and rejecting an overwhelming urge to remove a piece of celery from a niche somewhere between my Continue reading →