Six Ways to Avoid Blowing Your Job Interview

For nearly five months, I’ve been trying to fill a few positions at our human capital firm, and along the way I’ve learned quite a lot about the many ways job candidates can blow their job prospects—obvious and not so obvious. In this still-challenging economy, it is not what the company can do for you, but what value you bring to the company. You should focus addressing any issues that could keep your candidacy from moving forward, and try NOT to shoot yourself in the foot with one of these moves.

Being Arrogant

Hiring managers want people who are confident—but most also want team players who work well in groups. There is a very fine line when it comes expressing confidence in an interview and what hiring managers see as being arrogant or cocky….

The Dust Clears, Women Rise

At Recessionwire, we call it “She-orientation” — a powerful, society-wide shift in which women are coming to play an increasingly important role in determining our economic, cultural, and political path. The trend has become evident in recent discussions of how to get more women into corporate boardrooms.

It may be that more skirts on Wall Street would have prevented the financial crisis. The dominance of adrenaline-fueled males on the Street, some argue, creates an atmosphere with less restraint and circumspection than an Animal House-style frat party…

Job Market Best in Year and a Half, Gallup Says

We’ll see what sort of effect the Dow bustage has on this bit of positive news, but according to polling company Gallup, the job market is back to where is was at the end of 2008.

Wait, 2008? Wasn’t that a few months after Lehman went bankrupt, Fannie Mae had to get rescued and Congress approved the $700 billion bailout? Well, yes…

The Upside: Era of New Frugality?

My Granddaddy Mitchell was a ‘Depression Man’ if there ever was one. He did not like to spend money. Ever. The term ‘eating out’ was not in his vocabulary. Nor was the word ‘vacation’. Each year at Christmas, he gave my sister and me a leather bag containing greasy-feeling pennies and nickels collected over a year’s time. His philosophy: you worked and you saved. Period. Granddaddy always seemed a little extreme, but today, his thrifty ways are back in style.

The Great Recession has given birth to a long-term trend of more disciplined and discerning shoppers, according to a new survey by Booz & Company. The study shows that frugality is “becoming entrenched consumer behavior that is reshaping consumption patterns in ways that will persist even as the economy rebounds.” Spending on beauty products is down, along with clothes, shoes, household products, and mobile phone service. Booz found that shoppers are less impulsive, do more research, and are more likely to clip coupons.

“Frugal behavior is now considered trendy,” said Matt Egol, a Booz & Company Partner. His colleague Andrew Clyde added that “this more cautious consumer approach to spending began even before the recession came into full swing but has since picked up speed.” Clyde further observed that “as the economy recovers, marketers need to better target their strategies to preserve the value of existing brands, and avoid destroying value through too blunt a competitive response across segments.”…