The trick is to understand the nature of the person on the other side of the negotiating table, and push for what is a fair deal based on your research and gut feeling about this company.

Red Flags (from our vault)

April 19, 2000

When Recruiters, Staffing Manager, and Employers are inundated with Resumes, they often take shortcuts to weed out potentially 'bad' hires. It is up to you to figure out what some of 'resume faux pas' are, and correct them before your resume comes across their desk.

Resume red flags to avoid:

• Resume doesn't list dates of Employment (years/months), and contact person/company is missing.

• Resume contains overload of 'Hobby and Other' information.

• Resume is filled with qualifiers in skills section, e.g. 'worked with', 'familiar with'.

• Resume chock full of course listings, seminars attended, etc.

Furthermore, busy Hiring Managers also have a quick screen methodology when deciding whether your resume makes it through the first hoop, or goes down in flames. Roughly put, it is based on the following criteria:

• Resume shows career growth, with increases in responsibility at each stage.
• Resume is free of typos, grammatical errors (shows you pay attention to details).
• Resume is professional looking (shows you care about how things appear).
• Resume has detailed descriptions of skills necessary for previously held Jobs.

You may wonder how it is that Hiring Managers can have such lengthy list of items for screening out Job candidates when the Unemployment rate is so low. It's because the Unemployment rate for the better Jobs is much higher than for the crappy Jobs at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. You probably have a nice collection of rejection letters to prove that the Unemployment rate has had little effect on your own Jobsearch.

Think about what the Hiring Manager is looking for negatively, to screen you out - and positively, to separate you from the rejection pile.

Just Shut Up (From Our Vault)

April 18, 2000

We live in an enlightened age for workers - the unemployment rate is at an historic low, 'empowering' workers is all the rage, and everyone from top level managers on down are busy trying to open up 'the lines of communication'.

While that all sounds great, if you buy into it, remember this: caveat emptor is the rule of the day. The overall unemployment rate has absolutely nothing to do with your Jobsearch. What matters is whether you are unemployed - some jerk in Ipswich getting a Job doesn't really help you any. And Unemployment rates are mostly make believe, the Department of Labor has been cooking the books for years by arbitrarily taking whole segments of the US population out of the counted workforce to make the numbers more palatable to voters.

Managers will 'empower' workers only insofar as it serves their purposes for increased productivity. Anything beyond that smacks of altruism, and should be regarded with a healthy dose of skepticism.

And should you really tell your boss and colleagues exactly what you think? I don't think so, Lucy.

Especially when someone at work has just criticized you. Rather than freely responding with the first thing that comes to mind, now is the time to realize that discretion is the better part of valor. How many times has someone jumped down your throat for something that you know isn't your fault, or even your responsibility? More times than you'd probably care to remember, I bet.

This is one instance where your first gut reaction is most likely the wrong one. We all have built-in defense mechanisms that react before thoughtful consideration occurs. Words spoken in anger can create lasting workplace grudges that you may never overcome, and in the case of persnickety supervisors they are a potential kiss of death for career upward mobility. If you think before you speak, you have the opportunity to get to the root of the problem and solve it, rather than ruffle more feathers.

Controlling your response puts you back in charge of the exchange, allowing you to guide it toward a win-win resolution that benefits both sides. Responding to criticism with short, non-defensive questions that enlarge the scope of the discussion can divert much of your anger and the potential hostility of your accuser. They could be criticizing you because they just caught flack for something, and they are passing the buck. Or they may be poised to respond to your predictably angry response with an increasingly nasty retort - you'll be better served by taking a moment to assess the situation and defusing the invitation to verbal brinkmanship.

By responding to criticism and harsh words at work with requests for explanations, you are taking one of the most important steps toward learning how to survive office politics - shutting up when talking won't do you any good.

Purpose (From the Vault)

April 17, 2000

What is your purpose in life, anyway?

In the best of all possible worlds, your Job should reflect some of your deeper aspirations and goals. Your actions do have an effect on the world and the people around you, so simply working to pay the bills leaves most of us irritatingly dissatisfied. Some of our stress from work (or being out of work) stems from the gut feeling we have that there should be more to life than just connecting part A to part B all day long. Even Jobs with more intellectual stimulation can leave one feeling slimy and used (Marketing comes to mind).

At some point you need to ask yourself, what do I really want to do with the rest of my life? This is not so much a mid-life crisis question as it is a whole-life question. Your answers to the following questions may help get you started in the right direction - they helped me a little. Answer yes or no to these questions:

1. Do you look forward to the first day of your workweek?
2. Do you have clear career and life goals?
3. Do you feel your life has been worthless?
4. Do you think your daily tasks are satisfying?
5. Would you drastically change your life if you had only a few months to live?
6. Have you seriously considered killing yourself?
7. Do you feel that your Job gives meaning to your life?
8. Do you think that you have inner peace?
9. Are you happy?
10. Can you define your life purpose?
11. Does your career reflect your purpose in life?
12. Do you do what you should rather than what you want?

Of course, there aren't any right or wrong answers. However, if you feel worthless, unhappy, have no purpose or meaning to your life, and think about offing yourself to the point of making plans, then you should address these issues with close friends. Develop some perspective on life - there is always someone who is worse off than you are. That's why misery loves company, it assuages our deeper senses of aloneness.

I'm reminded of a 60's anthropologist who was studying in Africa, and showed members of an impoverished tribe some pictures of Depression era dustbowl families. The pictures showed the families in front of their homes with their ruined farms in the background, and no one in the pictures was smiling - a grim look seemed fixed on all their faces. Even when apprised of the Depression era difficulties these families faced, none of the Africans could understand why these people seemed universally sad. Their poverty and living conditions were not dissimilar, what was different were their expectations. The Africans reveled in their membership in a family and community, and no raised expectations that things should be any different.

If you really want to know the meaning of life (and your purpose in it), watch Monty Python's movie of the same name. Their priceless advice? Be nice to people, don't forget to treat yourself well, have a warm bath occasionally, and don't take things too seriously.