Are you what it says on the tin? Or do you live in the shadow of your own resume? I received a CV from a candidate (let’s call him John). My eyes lit up. A complex search had just become much easier. His CV was powerful, positive, succinct. But unhappily John was not. His responses…

Can you be too flexible? Are additional discretionary duties a normal part of a job description? A contact of mine has recently started a new job. Everything went smoothly, the whole search process completed in record time, a contract was presented and signed, a draft job description included in the on boarding programme, a corporate…

Women and appearance in the workplace I’ve come across a lot of material recently about how women should conduct themselves in the workplace ranging from: smiling (too much/too little,) speaking up (too late/too quiet/too much,) stretching the rules (not enough/taking advantage,) flirting (do/don’t) and it just seemed to me yet again that women are in…

Career advice for women? Seriously? My good friend Silvana Delatte sent me this link from Business Insider about a laminated sheet supposedly issued by the HR department of Citibank on how women sabotage their careers. If this is not a spoof (which I suspect it might be) then it makes interesting, if not incredible (as…

One story on women and workplace bullying A few months ago I wrote about a client who I called Jane. She sparked my interest in workplace bullying, specifically in the bullying of women by women. It was enlightening and eye-opening. I shared my discovery experience of the whole process via a series of posts, which hopefully you…

Can careers be launched from the university of life without a formal degree? Graduates are flooding the market in ever-increasing numbers to very uncertain job prospects, many with significant debts to pay off for the privilege. Employers are sifting through thousands of applications from candidates with soft degrees covering courses as disparate as puppetry to…

Can mentoring reduce employee attrition? I have recently been approached to act as a mentor to a few younger people at different stages in their professional lives. Apart from the fact that I started to feel really old, the thought of being singled out to share the benefits of my somewhat lengthy experience with younger,…

Dorothy and the suspect search consultant On average, women use twice the number of words per day than men. Women maintain eye contact while speaking for twelve seconds vs. a man maintaining eye contact for three seconds. Women supply detail to build rapport , men speak directly in short sentences going straight for the bottom…

Recently I have had conversations with three very different individuals who wanted to return to the workplace for a range of reasons: Maria had recently lost her husband and saw returning to work as a way of supplementing her income and giving structure to her new life as a widow. Bob had suffered badly in…

How do changes in workplace language effect us and what is the impact of swearing on the %!@x* job? I am no stranger to the odd expletive. I was recently defrauded by a client and I have to confess that my vocabulary was related to the legitimacy of his parentage, rather than “dash and oh dear”.…