The 5 Questions You Should Ask an Interviewer

Trust me: it’s different now. In this economy, where unemployment is high and you have many more job seekers than jobs, you can’t afford to improvise on the interview. So yes, if you got called in to talk about a position, be psyched. But then knuckle down and do some prep work.

Find out as much as you can about the position you’re interviewing for, how the process will go, and who will be interviewing you. Research the people you’ll be talking to (use Google, LinkedIn, Facebook and real-life contacts) so you have common ground to discuss, and check out the company and the competition.

Wait, you’re not done yet. You still have to ace the interview. These five questions will pull you ahead of the pack:…

Out on the Street: Even Your Friends are Enemies

“Joe the Trader” chronicles his experiences with life after Wall Street.
After 11 years in emerging market finance, I figure I pretty much know everyone in the business. Or I know how to get in touch with them. Being so plugged in is, generally speaking, a good thing. But every now and then things can get a bit too cozy.

A few days ago, the He-Men Unemployment Club congregated at Taza, my neighborhood café in Brooklyn. Roberto, Hal and I were still actively looking for work.

“IBC bank just contacted me to build a research team,” Roberto said. “They said that they wanted a star and frankly there aren’t that many of us with a big name. So I’m pretty optimistic.”

“IBC???” I spat out a mushy mix of crumbs and coffee. “They called me yesterday for the same job.”

White Collar Day Laborers (Video)

Remember the days when you practically had to fight off recruiters? The relentless calls, the wooing lunches, the promises of huge salary jumps?

These days white-collar jobs are a lot harder to come by. They’re so scarce, in fact, that some workers have taken to the streets.

The Zen of Job Hunting

Desperately seeking employment? Spending hours on job sites, with not an offer in sight?

“Give up,” writes Peter Bregman over at HarvardBusiness.org. “Not completely. But mostly. Stop trying so hard.”

We’re totally on board with this idea. Yes, it’s a tough job market. Yes, it’s important to be looking after your career. But that doesn’t mean obsessing over your resume, growing pale and wan because you spend hours each day scouring the internet for openings.

You can get burnt out just as easily job hunting as you can on the job, generate tons of stress and waste acres of time that you could be using to network, explore other opportunities, or simply enjoy your life while you’ve got it. Indulge in your passions, or test out activities you’ve always wanted to try. Broaden your horizons–you never know what new doors will open as a result.

But back to job hunting. Bregman, C.E.O. of Bregman Partners, a global leadership development and change management firm, offers these rules:

Out on the Street: The Bucks Are Back

So extravagant pay packages are a thing of the past? The political rhetoric suggests so. Last week the Obama administration started to work on curbing “excesses” on Wall Street. The compensation structure for all financial services firms—even those who didn’t accept TARP money—is under review. The private sector is also rethinking pay big time. Earlier this year, JP Morgan C.E.O. Jamie Dimon told employees at a town hall meeting that many should be prepared to have zero bonus payments in 2009. “Get over it,” was his message.

So you can imagine my surprise when I heard the other day that a trader had been offered several million dollars to jump to another bank guaranteed for a couple of years. That’s right: several million dollars. At first I thought I’d heard wrong. It’s 2009, not 2006…

Out On the Street: The Equal Opportunity Recession

It had been a while since the He-Man had gotten together to sip lattes and catch up. As usual, the shop talk gave way to gossip and anecdotes. TJ was recounting a disagreement he had with his wife, Jenny.

“So I was on the computer late one evening. The kids were asleep and my wife was reading in bed. Or so I thought. Suddenly she walks in and says ‘What are you doing?’ I turn around and say ‘What does it look like I’m doing? I’m filling out my unemployment insurance application.’” Jenny was shocked.

“Christ, I don’t think she would have been half as mad if I was downloading porn,” TJ said…

Recession Briefing 5.6

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

More than one in five homeowners now owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, according to real estate website Zillow.com. (Reuters)

The jobless rate might be high, but, perhaps surprisingly, there is also a lot of hiring going on at major employers. Who is hiring? Hospitals, colleges, discount stores, restaurants and municipal public works departments. (New York Times)

“The U.S. economy seems to be contracting at a slower rate than it was a few months ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told lawmakers yesterday.” (Washington Post)

Recession Briefing 5.5

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Traffic congestion is down in the U.S., reportedly as much as 70 percent in some areas, as a result of rising unemployment. (NPR/Marketplace)

An artist in Glasgow, Scotland, has rigged a vending machine to distribute a free bag of potato chips every time news about the recession is broadcast on the BBC’s RSS feed. (Ellie Harrison)

Freelance is the new full-time: Freelancers now make up 26% of the U.S. working population, up from 19% in 2006. (CNN/Money)

Out on the Street: When Plan B Becomes Plan A

Last week I had eight face-to-face meetings. Four were networking, two were formal interviews and two were discussions about joining partnerships. Not one of the meetings, while still involved in the financial world, were jobs that I would have considered “Plan A” when I first lost my job in December.

When I started looking for work, I concentrated on finding the same job I had just lost—trading in emerging markets. It seemed totally logical to me. I liked my job and I had been doing it for some time.

Last week was the first in which I really accepted that getting my old job just might not be in the cards…

Best Blogs for the Recession

Why didn’t we think of the hilarious chart over at Unemploymentality.com? On notebook paper, it “graphs” the number of blogs against the unemployment rate. Jobs down = blogs up.

We don’t have numbers to back that up—as wordyard explains today, it’s hard enough to tell how many people are professionally blogging—but it at least feels true. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of new websites about budget living, job hunting, economic policy, layoffs and more. A Google search for “ unemployed and blog” turns up more than 3 million results. “Laid off and blog” gives you more than 7 million.

So how to distinguish the smart, funny and useful from blather about not having a job? Last week, we compiled a list of the Top Ten Blogs for Surviving the Recession for our friends at Blogs.com. Here’s an expanded version of that list to bookmark if you want to understand the latest news, cut your spending, or get a damn laugh.