When Someone "Fails to Launch"

Finding a Good Job: A composite case study that embeds eight key principles and practices

My Psychology Today article today offers a first-person report that's a composite of my clients' experiences that embeds eight key principles, practical and psychological, for landing a good job. After, I call those out.

A Gentle Approach to Finding a Job

Even if you could snooker an employer, I make a plea in my Psychology Today article today for a gentle, honest job search. Not only will you sleep better and be able tell your kids how you job-searched, you’ll more likely be offered a job at which you’ll succeed, and have a boss who expects a normal human being, not a superstar.

Networking for Fast Results

Everyone knows that especially in our COVID-tightened job market, networking is key to landing a good job. My Psychology Today article today offers an approach to networking that has worked for a number of my clients.

Tough Problems: Grad school? Laid-off a lot

Today's PsychologyToday.com article is the latest in the Tough Problems series. In each installment, I present two composite questions that my clients face and my response to each.

The first question is about someone who hasn't been able to land a decent job despite a college degree and so is wondering if he should go to grad school, although he has no idea in what.

The second question comes from someone who has been "laid off" four times in six years. 

Evaluating Your Current or Prospective Job

Sometimes, it’s hard to get clear on what’s truly important in a job. So, many people default to money and status. 

The list I offer in my PsychologyToday.com article today may be more helpful in deciding whether, when today, when unemployment is at a 50-year low, to stay in your current job or to seek greener pastures. And if you're a less-than-ideal employer, perhaps it will give you a gentle nudge.

A Career Misconception

A new client came in with a common misconception: She insisted that the way to land a good job is for recruiters to tap your LinkedIn profile. (from among the 600 million!)

That strategy, like all job-search strategies will sometimes work, but it’s successful mostly when a candidate is currently well-employed doing similar work, for a very-low paying job, or for a job in high demand that requires a challenging skill set, for example, data scientist. This client fit none of those. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I describe a likely more fruitful approach.
 

Ten Ultrafast Ways to Land a Job

No one looks forward to a long job search. Sometimes, one or more of the ten approaches I describe in my PsychologyToday.com article today can avoid it. They're from my new book, Careers for Dummies.

 

Controversial Career Assertions

My new book Best of Marty Nemko (3rd edition) has been out a couple of months now and amid the nice emails, I’ve received  “questions” about some of my more controversial assertions. 

As my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer those that might interest my readers, plus my response to each query.

Ultra-Fast Ways to Land a Job

Unless you’re a hotshot, landing a job is usually a slog. Especially if you're impatient, you might want to try one or more of the ultra-fast approaches I describe in my PsychologyToday.com article today. After all, if it doesn’t work, you can always revert to the slog.

A Relaxed Job Interview

My clients have found these tips helpful in staying calm, well, calm enough in a job interview. I post all 12 tips as my PsychologyToday.com article today.

How a Career Counselor Would Look for a Job

Sometimes the advice we give isn't what we ourselves would do. For example, we might ask a client to do more than we ourselves would be willing to do.

So, for my PsychologyToday.com article today, as a long-time career counselor,  I thought it might be helpful if I described what I'd actually do if I had to look for a job

Inducing the Swoon: How an average person can land an above-average job.

In a rational world, the average person wouldn’t get hired for an above-average job. After all, the internet enables the employer to expose an opening to millions of job seekers, get dozens if not hundreds of applicants, and applicant tracking software and job-simulation testing enable employers to select the best candidate. That’s rarely an average person.

Yet average people get hired every day. How? Because the employer doesn’t care enough to do a thorough search or has irrationally become fond enough of a person to forgo a more rational hiring process.

My PsychologyToday.com article today shares tips for how to induce the swoon.

The New Job Search Principles

In recent years, I've noticed that the old job-search tactics are working less well. Three new ones are more helpful. I describe them in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Job Hunting Reinvented

Job seekers nor employers trust the hiring process.

A good candidate may worry that unless s/he gift-wraps herself in infographic or video resumes, fully primped interview coaching, and a professionally massaged resume, s/he'll lose out to a less competent but more packaged candidate.

Employers worry that resumes, cover letters, and interview responses may more reflect the candidate's willingness to dissemble and/or spend money on a hired gun than on the candidate's competence to do the job. And everyone gets good references but in too many cases, the accolades are inflated.

Job seekers that truly would be competent at their target job can offer themselves up in a way that will be more compelling.  I describe that approach in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: A Long-Term Unemployed Person Comes Close to His Dream Job

A caller to my show has been looking for a job for a long time, without success. Finally, he got past three interviews for his dream job and didn't get it. As bad, they wouldn't even tell him why. The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Making Your Job Interview More Effective, More Ethical, and Less Stressful

A job interview can be made more effective, more ethical and less stressful. My PsychologyToday.com article today explains how.

The Ethical (and Effective) Job Seeker Letter

Most letters written by job seekers or professional letter writers are sterile and often not-credible. My PsychologyToday.com article today offers an ethical and effective alternative.

The One-Week Job Search

Many job seekers are daunted by the job search: Its feared length and non-linearity. My experience with clients suggests that following a rigorous plan for one week can get everything in motion for a successful job search. I outline that one-week job search in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Letter to a Person Flailing in Search of a Full-Time Job

A client of mine called today to ask if I'd work with his daughter to help her find full-time employment. Her dream goal was for her and her boyfriend to both get jobs as park rangers, but they had tried and failed.
By the end of the conversation, I concluded that before taking her money, I'd send her a little note with some free advice to see if that would be sufficient.
But when I got off the phone, the little note became a rather detailed email. In reading it, it struck me that its advice might be relevant to many career and job seekers so I posted it on my PsychologyToday.com article today.