I have been asked a lot of questions about what employers can and can’t disclose about a former employee’s performance and reasons for leaving the company. So, I decided to find out what the law says, as well as what in-house counsel would generally advise an HR department, about disclosures. I consulted with Carole Jurkash, a fellow University of Chicago graduate who went on to get her law degree from Yale Law...

One of the services I offer is cover letter writing. Many clients contact me and ask me to write both a resume and cover letter. I always tell them the same thing: I am happy to write a resume but let's wait until you are applying for a specific job or to a specific company to write that cover letter. Part of the reason for that is that the way I write cover letters is very customized. I need to learn about the person I am...

Do you want to drive a recruiter or resume writer crazy? Then be sure and give long rambling monologues as answers to simple questions. Just like in the movie, "Dragnet", resume writers and recruiters are looking for. "Just the facts, ma'am".If you hire a resume writer you should be prepared for an interview (some use questionnaires instead of personal interviews) in which you will be asked questions like "what kind of budg...

Once you embark upon a job search your resume, perhaps previously gathering dust in a file drawer, will become the most important document you own. Job seekers have a tendency to show everyone they know a copy of their resume; many of them seem to weigh each opinion equally and continuously edit the resume based on the most recent "great advice" they have been given.It seems like everyone has an opinion about what you need...

I have been writing resumes for more than 20 years but I have only been doing it as a full time job for the past 4 years. The past 4 years as a business owner have been a huge learning experience for me. I think that working for big companies gives you a completely different view of the world, particularly if the companies are powerful and prestigious like most of my previous employers have been.Here are a few things (good...

With the national unemployment rate holding steady near 10 percent, it should come as no surprise there is a lot of competition for jobs across the country. What is perplexing, however, is how many people have bad professional references that can derail even the most qualified candidate, according to Heidi Allison, president of Allison & Taylor, the nation’s leading reference checking and employment verification firm.“Peopl...

Unlike Facebook and the like, LinkedIn is strictly a social network for professionals with over 48 million members in over 200 countries. Working like a sophisticated online business card, members from those new to the workforce all they way to CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies utilize the free service. However, there is a right and wrong way to do it, and below are the top ten rules of LinkedIn Etiquette for Business professi...

I have worked with a lot of clients over the years and most of them tend to land jobs pretty quickly after they have a completed resume. But times are tough and it tends to take longer for almost anyone to find a job and when people don't find jobs as quickly as they would like they tend to second guess nearly every aspect of their job search.Am I wearing the right kind of interview suit? Did I offend the interviewer? Why w...

A client of mine told me that he is planning to attend a big trade show in a major city in a few weeks and that he is planning to take his resume and pass it around to his contacts there. I can't help but feel that approaching a job search in that manner seems a little bit desperate. This particular client is not, in fact, desperate for a job but handing out a resume in a non-hiring environment like a trade show doesn't see...

Resumes are straightforward documents. They should list information that describes your education, the companies for which you have worked, what your jobs were, and what you accomplished in those jobs. In addition you can include lists of certifications, patents, affiliations, and board memberships. There are some variations on this formula but that is pretty much what a resume should contain. Do you know why?Because that i...