Ten things to consider when negotiating for that new job

You've done it! All your hard work getting your resume into shape, all the network interviewing and company research, posting that resume to all the right places, going through the phone screen and the real interview. You receive a phone call and the person tells you they are ready to make you an offer. Here it is...

Now what?

1. Now is your last chance to negotiate.
There are some very important things you need to consider at this point. First of all, this is your last chance to negotiate. Every penny extra you get now not only gets multiplied by every year you work at this company but it is the basis on which all future raises are based. So if you can negotiate an extra $10,000 now and work there for 5 years, that's $50,000 extra you earn, plus those 3 - 5% raises you get are added to the $10,000 meaning an additional $2,500. Chances are, your salary at your following job will be based on your ending salary at this job so the stakes keep getting higher. Negotiations you perform at this point could literally be a million dollar decision. So get it right.

2. They want you.
The people who interviewed you and several other candidates came to a tough decision. You are the person who will best suit their needs. People rarely change their minds at this point. It's not as though they are deciding between two people and will take whomever they can get the cheapest. New employees are not airfares. We are stuck with these people for the long haul and, once we decide who we want, we don't back down just because they are asking for a little more money.

3. No-one ever gives you their best offer first.
Let's say the budget for hiring a new person for this position ranges from $60,000 - $120,000. That's not unusual. Ranges can be quite large because people often have much greater than the minimum requirements for the job. The hiring manager decides they want you. She talks with Human Resources and they agree to offer you $100k. But, the economy is bad so they think they can save a little so they offer $90k. If you say yes to that, what will they think? Most likely, "What's wrong with him that I got him that cheap?" or "Damn! I should have offered $80,k."
If you negotiate and bring them up to $110k, they believe they got a better product. So it's a win-win.

4. Don't say yes right away.
The first offer you receive might be over the phone. "Bruce, we've talked it over and decided to offer you the position. Can you start in two weeks? The salary is $90,000 and you will get all the benefits we discussed during the interview."
How do you respond?
First of all, sound excited. "Cheryl. Thank you for the offer. I'm so excited to start working working with you soon. I have many ideas on how to tackle the problems you told me about."
That's good, you sound excited and didn't say no. Now for the other shoe to drop.
"Can you send me the offer in writing and I'll talk it over with my wife and get back to you tomorrow?"
Nobody expects you to agree to a life-changing offer in an instant so this is quite acceptable. Most offers in writing will give you a week to respond. You haven't said no but you haven't said yes either. You are deferring to an unseen authority, a classic negotiating strategy. Do you recognize this from the last time you purchased a car and the salesman asked you to write down your offer and he'd try to talk his sales manager into accepting it?

5. Say 'No' in a way that makes them offer more money.
You want them to offer more money before you negotiate. When you return to them the next day, start by saying something along these lines. "You wanted a go-getter in this position. I'm clearly the best man for the job. When we talked during the interview you said you were offering a competitive salary. I don't think $90,000 is competitive. Can you do better?"
Notice you are not counter-offering, just asking them to up their bid. Remember when they thought they could get you for $90k even though they thought you were worth $100k? Now is when they come up to that point. When they do, thank them and acknowledge their new position. "So you are now offering $100k in addition to the same benefits and start date?"

6. Bargain for every last cent.
Remember that $10k extra is a million dollar decision. That means that $1k is a $100k decision. So fight for every cent. If you think you can get $110k, your counter-offer should be $120k. If they offer to split the difference by offering $110k, your response should be along these lines: "Your new offer is $110k, my position is $120k, can we split the difference here?"

7. Be tough. You aren't negotiating with your boss.
Unless it's a small company and you are. In which case, be gentler since you want a good, long-term relationship with this person. But most people are negotiating with Human Resources and will be working in a different department. When negotiations are concluded, HR will tell the hiring manager, "It was tough and he negotiated hard but I finally got him for you at the best price I could." This is a compliment to you and makes the HR person look good also.

8. Now negotiate for other things.
Salary isn't the only thing on the table. Negotiate start date, review time, level of benefits, signing bonus, vacation time. Sometimes you can trade one off against the other. If the HR person is up against the top end of the range on salary, ask for a signing bonus. (Remember that the bonus won't multiply yearly like extra salary will so don't trade a $10,000 raise for a $20,000 bonus. It's worth a lot less in the long run.) But a performance bonus could multiply each year. You could trade salary for vacation either way that you prefer. Some companies have two or more levels of benefits and you may be able to switch from one to the other. And try to get reviewed in 6 months instead of a year so that your raise comes earlier.

9. Congratulate them when the negotiations are over
Everyone is nervous at the end of contracted negotiations and wonder if they got the best deal. You are aren't you? So put their minds at ease by telling them what great negotiators they are. Say something like, "I hadn't planned on working for you at this rate but you are such a skillful negotiator and made such a compelling argument, how could I say no? You are an asset to the company. I'm proud we're on the same team now."
That kind of a statement makes them say what you wanted them to say in section 7. "It was tough and he negotiated hard but I finally got him for you at the best price I could."

10. Don't go overboard
It's one thing to negotiate with a used car dealer you'll never need to deal with again. In that case, go for the throat and walk away if you need to. When negotiating for a job that you'll likely be in for five years, you want to remain in their good graces. So leave a little money on the table and show a little bit of a soft side. That will pay dividends when you need that promotion later or when lay-off time comes around again. You need to work with these people so treat them well.

Here's a good book to read before you go through your next negotiating round, whether it be at a garage sale, a used car lot or your next job. Just be careful about which tools to use with people you want a long term relationship with:

Fourteen steps for conducting effective Network Interviews

You've heard me talk about Network Interviews. What are they?

Simply put, a Network Interview is an interview where there is no job on the table. That may sound useless if you're the one looking for a job but many of these network interviews will lead you to that real interview where you have a real shot at a job.

Here's a statistic that hasn't changed in 30 years:

75% of jobs are obtained through networking

So while other ways of getting a job have changed, posting to career websites like Monster etc, taking over from newspaper ads, for example, you still need to spend 75% of your time networking.

What is networking? Talking with people, face-to-face, over the phone or via e-mail and learning about them as they learn about you. It's making friends. This is easy for some people and harder for others.

How do you do it?

1. Make a list
Start with a list of everyone you know, and I mean everyone. Co-workers, former co-workers, family, friends, neighbors, service providers like your mailman, dentist, doctor, bagel store owner, religious advisor, vendors from work, people in industry groups, former classmates. Check your Facebook friends, those connected with you on LinkedIn. Circle all those you feel comfortable telling that you are looking for another job.

2. Talk with them all
Tell them frankly that you are in the market for another job. Specify what industry you are targeting, which companies you're interested in and ask them if they know anybody at those companies. If they don't, ask if they know anybody else who might know someone in those companies. Your goal to is walk out of the network interview with at least three more names.

3. Expand your network to the next levelThat part was easy because they were people you know. But your goal is to expand your network. You need to now visit these people and get three names from them. How do you do that?

First of all, ask the person who gave you their names for an introduction. The wording goes along these lines: "Would you mind giving Joe a call and warn him that I'll be calling sometime this week?"

Then, when you call Joe you introduce yourself in this way, "Hi, my name is Bruce Fieggen. I'm a friend of Fred's and he suggested I talk with you." Then pause. This gives Joe a chance to say, "How is Fred?" or "Fred! He owes me $50!" or something to give you a clue on how to proceed.

4. Your 30-second spiel
Next you need to give your 30-second spiel. This is something you need to have practiced many times so you can say it cold. There are many elements to the 30-second spiel.

• It takes 30 seconds or less. You don't want to bore anyone with a long speech
• It should put the listener at ease that you are not asking them for a job, just information
• It should describe you in a way that makes the listener feel comfortable meeting you
• It should show what information you want to gain from the listener

Here's an example: "I've been managing projects in the Medical Device industry for the last 15 years in R&D, Manufacturing and Quality. I'm interested in switching to the Pharmaceutical industry and would like to talk with you for about 20 minutes about life at Hoffmann La-Roche." I just timed that at 11 seconds.

Now think for a moment about what you would do if a friend of a friend of yours, who you'd been warned would call, gave you that speech. Wouldn't you enjoy breaking your day by twenty minutes to talk about your life at work? Most people would agree with you. I've had tremendous success with this approach, conducting three network interviews a day while laid off.  Try to set up a few of these per day when you are laid off, a few per week when you are still employed but looking.

5. Meet them
Set them up as coffee breaks in the company cafeteria or a nearby Starbucks. Dress up like it's a real interview. Do not go over the 20 minutes you set for the meeting. Even if it's going well, we need to respect the other person's time. The last thing we want is for them to walk back to their office and find that they spent 45 minutes with you and are now scrambling to make their next meeting on time. What you say, when the 20 minutes are close to being up is something along these lines: "Thank you so much for your time and all the great insights. I know you're busy so I'll be on my way now."

6. Go Dutch
Removing all awkwardness from these meetings is essential. You're not asking for a job, they're not offering one. If you pay for the coffee, they'll feel like they owe you something. If they pay, you feel like a beggar. If you're getting coffee from a Starbucks, this is easy, you order first and pay, then step aside as Joe orders. If you are sitting down and being served, specify separate checks up front.

7. Ask them about themselves
Ask about their life at their company. How did they get their job? What do they like and not like about it? What trends are new? Where is the company expanding, contracting? Which departments are good to work for?

8. Get more names

The goal of every network interview is two-fold. Get more names and impress everyone you meet. Eventually someone will know of an opening and has met you and realizes that you would be a great person for that position. He/she puts you in touch with that hiring manager and you're in!

9. Improve your marketing

The second time I used this technique, I had been in the Medical Device Industry for 6 years and was looking to move into Genetic Engineering. But, after talking with about five people who gave me the same answer, I realized that this move would require me to go back to school for a Masters or PhD in the field before trying to get that job. I realized that I needed to change my tactics and decided to stay in the Medical Device field instead. I saved a lot of wasted time.

Having this kind of conversation in a Network Interview setting is pretty easy. After they've told you about them and you've shared about yourself, you can ask them where they would see you fitting in their company, which department, what group of people etc.

10. Give as much as you get 

Even though they have a job and you don't, the Network Interview is a two-way street. In the hundreds of Network Interviews I have given and accepted, the flow of information has always been two-fold. They are curious about you, companies you've worked for that they may be thinking about moving to, hobbies, sports, places to live, the list goes on. As soon as you've done a few of these and realized that you've given as much information as you've received, you'll feel better about asking for the next one.

11. Be careful showing off your resume.

Have it handy just in case they ask for it but don't flourish. Remember, this is not a real interview and you don't want your new friend to feel ambushed. But if they ask to see it so you can explain your background better, do so. Then ask how you can change it to improve your chances at a job in their company/industry.

12. Thank them.

Don't forget to thank them for their time, the names they offered and any advice they gave. Send a thank-you note the next day, e-mail is fine.

13. Let them know where you landed

Chances are that only one of the fifty people you networked with knows where you ended up but the rest are curious. When you land that new job, send out a mass e-mail, (bcc so they don't have each other's addresses) thanking them all again and showing the results of their efforts. Offer to meet with them or any of their friends any time.

14. Continue Networking

Conduct Network Interviews with others who are looking for a job. Become known as someone who is connected. Remember about it being a two-way street? Every Network Interview you conduct helps you out as well.

Read on about negotiating for that job you finally get. And look back at a previous post about how to effectively post your resume.

Ten Steps to Nail that Interview

So you finally get called by one of the companies you've been targeting or even some place you've never heard of. They're interested in you and want to interview you. Congratulations! The resume has done its job, the company found where you posted it, now it's time to get to work and land that job.

1) Get to a land-line: I know that a lot of young people today don't have land-lines but consider this: They are looking at you and nine other people to interview for that job. They're looking for a reason to eliminate seven of you so that the hiring manager thinks the recruiter did a good job of finding her people who match the job description without burdening her with more than three interviews. What are they going to do with the person who is trying to shout through bad reception, while driving or in an area with a lot of background noise? If your cell-phone is on your resume and they call you at an inconvenient moment, there is nothing wrong with saying something along these lines: "Sorry. You caught me at a bad time. Can I call you back at this number in half an hour?"

2) Get through the phone screen: Remember that the recruiter's goal of a phone screen is to reduce her bank of candidates from ten to three. Don't give her a reason to reject you. Sound eager, available, friendly and professional. Don't box yourself into any corners. If they ask you questions about which of two options you prefer, claim to be interested in both and eager to hear more. Don't give away any personal information that might spark anyone's prejudices. Make the recruiter feel comfortable that the hiring manager is not going to come up to her after the interview and ask, "Who was that jerk you made me interview?"

3) Do your homework: Learn as much as you can about the company before you get there. Check out their website, any news on the Web about them. Find out who the key figures are. There might be articles linked somewhere that a person interviewing you has written. Or speeches that they gave in the past. Flatter them by telling them during the interview that you read the article or know about the speech. Ask pertinent questions about the article or speech. Prepare two questions that you can ask when, at the end of the interview, they ask, "Do you have any questions for us?"

4) On time is late: Make sure you arrive about twenty minutes early. That will give you time to park and get settled before arriving. Then ask the receptionist if there is any paperwork you need to fill out before starting your interview. If so, get it done and be ready five minutes before your scheduled time. If not, just tell the receptionist you are here early but ask her not to announce your arrival until two minutes before your scheduled time. Better yet, find out during the phone screen if there is any paperwork you need to fill out and try to get it in advance so that you arrive with it all nicely typed in.
Never arrive late. If you are concerned about traffic, getting lost etc, allow an extra hour. You can always sit in your car or a local coffee shop for an hour before going to the receptionist.

5) Dress for success: Always dress one step above the way you will dress on your first day. So, if they are

10 things to do with your resume to get that interview

Now that your resume is perfect, what do you do with it? During my last post about resume writing, you ended up with an outstanding resume. I also told you the purpose of a resume: To get an interview. This post will concentrate on getting to that point.

1. Create a few different 'flavors.' Since everyone is looking at your resume electronically these days, and you are probably open to a few different job options, make a few different versions of your resume geared to the different options available to you.
2. Post it up on the job boards. Monster, Career Builder, Dice, Six Figure Jobs. All of these career sites and more are free to the job applicant. Use them. Look at it from the perspective of the person looking to hire someone. They have to pay to use these sites so they usually sign up for only one or two of these services. If you are posted on one and they are looking at the other, they'll never find you.
3. Update your LinkedIn profile. More and more people are looking first on LinkedIn to find people. It's free and considered less 'commercial.' Make sure that has your latest resume available. Better stick with only one flavor here though.
4. Post it on professional organization's sites. It is unlikely you'll get a job through these sites but it only takes a few minutes and you never know.
5. Don't forget your college's site. The career placement center should have a database available for job fairs or companies looking for workers. Make sure they have your latest copy. And ask if other universities have a sharing program with yours. Get your resume up on the sister college's sites as well.
6. Apply to every organization's job posting board. If you have a list of target companies, upload your resume to their job board, even if they don't have a specific job listed for your skill-set. Typically they'll look to see who is on their job board with the skills they need before they post the job opening.
7. Verify that the resume looks good once it's on the sites. If you followed my advice and used Times New Roman font 12 point and no fancy stuff on your resume, you should be fine. But if you have anything weird in there like crazy tabs and other formatting, your resume might look terrible once it has been uploaded. All sites have a review button that allows you to see what your resume looks like once it's uploaded. Use it! I'm always amazed when the search terms turn up a resume that is unreadable because there is &%20%& between every word rather than a space.
8. Update, update update. When a company searches for a certain set of search criteria, the results are sorted for them primarily by age of resume. So if you have better skills than someone who placed their resume on the job board a week after you, their resume will show up first. So do the following: Every week, add a space or take away a space from your resume so it looks like it has been updated recently. That way, you'll always end up first in the searches. It doesn't take long, just do it every Monday morning.
9. Apply for job openings. If your target company has openings that fit your skills, apply for this. Add a cover letter that shows how you meet their requirements using a table. See below for details.
10. Use a requirements table. People hate to read paragraphs but love tables. Convert their job requirements into a table with their requirements in the left column and sections from your impact statements filling out the right column. Title the columns: Requirements and Experience. Watch how it works for my ideal job:

Requirements	Experience
Ability to recruit and train excellent project managers	Created recruiting arm of Q Pharma, developed systems to streamline recruiting process, resulting in a steady stream of excellent employees
Ability to recruit and train excellent project managers	Formalized training of in-house employees, ensuring that Q Pharma employees appeared at client site fully ready to take on the responsibilities required of them.
Set up and manage Project Management Office (PMO)	Built Project Office, instituting methodologies, standards, metrics and policies and ensure adherence to procedures; achieving recognition for CSSC as a company that embraces project management
Manage Programs	Program manager for major pharmaceutical clients, overseeing nine project managers and twenty projects
Establish methodology for planning projects	Facilitated over 200 project kick-off / planning sessions, gaining clients’ support through their understanding of the complexities of each project and their roles within the projects
Experience managing projects in the pharmaceutical industry	Led three teams designed to maintain $80M/year market share, maintaining contracts between teams and senior staff.

Notice that sometimes I'll repeat requirements to emphasize my experience in this area. Requirements I don't meet, I'll simply leave out of the table. Your cover letter should introduce the table in the following way:
As you can see from my attached resume, I meet the requirements of this position perfectly. I have highlighted some of these matches below.

Read the next post for advice on how to interview well. I also added a post about Network Interviews and negotiating your salary when they offer you the job.

10 steps to make a standout resume

Here's the resume writing advice I promised you:

1.  Know the purpose of a resume.
     It's designed to get you an interview, not a job.
     So exaggerate. This is no time to be humble. Present yourself in the best possible light.
     If three of you worked together to accomplish something, take credit for it in the resume. Explain your role fully in the interview. The resume did its job of getting you in for the interview.

2.  Use lots of key words.
     Most resumes are called up electronically these days.
     If your resume does not contain the words used to search for viable candidates, you will never be considered.
     The best place for these key words is in the middle of an impact statement showing what you did with that particular skill.
     If you can't do that, add a section to your last page titled "Skills" and add the key words there.
3.  White space is your friend.
     Nobody wants to read a big, black block of text. Break it up so it's readable.
     Don't dual justify your text, left justifying will open up white space on the right.
     Use bullets to break apart paragraphs.
     Have sections that lead the reader to easily find what they want to read.
     Place one inch margins all around your text.

4.  Use as many pages as you need.
     Long ago the one-page resume was in vogue and no-one went over two pages. Those days are over!
     By limiting yourself to one or two pages you are probably cutting out key words that could pull your resume out of the pile
     Or you are using text that is too small or eating up your white space.
     Resumes are read, distributed and searched electronically; most people don't pay attention to how long they are.
     Here are the new rules of thumb:
          One page if you are a recent graduate just entering the market. But, if you've had some relevant internships that give you experience, go ahead and move halfway onto the second page.
          Two pages until you've worked for five years.
          Three pages until you've worked ten years, then you can move on to four pages.
     But you are putting your less important information on the last pages: Education, Training, Patents, Publications etc.

5.  Write your purpose in a way that solves people's problems.
     A lot of people have a purpose statement along these lines: 'Looking for a job that allows me to use my skills in blah blah blah' or 'To use my skills to obtain a challenging position...'
     Remember, the person reading your resume has a problem. They need to solve this problem by hiring someone to do the work.
     Word your purpose statement to reflect that you are there to solve problems.
     Taking all the above into account, word it along these lines: 'I specialize in ...' or 'Blah blah expert with experience solving such and such
     Remember you can have multiple resumes out there so don't be afraid of limiting yourself by 'specializing' in an area.

6.  Don't use the job description style to describe your accomplishments.
     90% of resumes I see use the job description style and I hate it! Look below to see why.
          Review and approval of process validation protocols.
     So what does this exactly tell us about this person? Only that this was part of their job.
     Whenever you see one of your impact statements, ask the question: 'So what?' If it's not obvious from the statement that you were good at that part of your job, revise it. Watch what happens when I make fun of the above statement:
          Review and approval of process validation protocols...took so long reviewing and never approved anything so they fired me.
     Probably not what you want to say about yourself. So let's show you how to pep it up.

7.  Power up your impact statements by showing your results.
     A good impact statement has three elements to it.
          Problem: This is the reason you were hired in the first place. It is often implied. Documents require review, product needs to be built, sales need to be made, etc.
          Impact: This is what you did about the problem. This is your power verb, more on this later.
          Result: This is the part most people miss on their resumes.
               This is why your last company loved you!
               Try to make it a number of some kind, dollar figures are the best.
     Remember, companies don't hire you out of the goodness of their hearts, they pay you $100,000 a year with the hope that you will earn them significantly more than that. So if you can show in your impact statements where you have saved them $200,000, made sales of $500,000, introduced product that sells for $1,000,000 a year, you are worth the salary. 
     Here's an example from my resume: 

·      Invented, optimized and patented an algorithm that removed inaccuracies caused by fiber-optic kinking, eliminating 90% of clinical failures.

     Sometimes you can't use dollar figures or numbers; still try to indicate your worth somehow. Let's see what we can do with the above statement.
          Reviewed and approved process validation protocols, maintaining a consistent 2-day turnaround, while adding FDA perspective.
     See how much better that looks.
     What if you don't know the numbers? Just guess. As long as you are in the right ballpark and you can show how you arrived at your figures during the interview, you'll be fine. Remember, no-one else can prove your figures wrong.

8.  Start each impact statement with a power word.
     When people read a resume quickly, they start at the top and scan down the left column.
     So make it stand out by throwing in power verbs at the start of each sentence.
          Designed, Created, Trained, Managed, Invented.
     Mix the power words up by using a thesaurus. Nobody want to scan a resume that says, 'Designed, Designed, Designed, Designed...'
     Indent the second line of a two line sentence to ensure that words like and, but or with don't line up with these power verbs.

9.  Limit your impact statements to the things you're most proud of in your job.
     Don't try to show off everything you did at your job. Let's face it, most of what you do at work is boring.
     My resume represents about the top 5% of my efforts.
     If you highlight the things you did that you were most proud of, three things happen:
          a. It's easy to come up with powerful impact statements.
          b. When you talk about them in the interview, you become animated.
          c. You don't bore your reader with the mundane details of your last job.

10. Limit your impact statements. 
     to three per job if you have more than three jobs, five for your most recent job.
     to five per job if you have less than three jobs.

     A good impact statement may take an hour to wordsmith until you have it down. Do two or three a day until the whole resume is ready.

Stay tuned for posts about posting resumes, phone interviews, real interviews, networking and negotiating.
And if you want to see my resume for an example of how it all comes together, click below:

Bruce's Resume

Unemployed need not apply

Here's a trend that frightens me. Companies are hiring, but not those who are currently unemployed. I have a lot of good friends who are out of work due to the lousy economy, not through any fault of their own but they are being discriminated against by hiring organizations who are assuming that these people are no good.

Ads like those shown above are appearing in papers and job boards around the country showing the blatant discrimination. According to yesterday's Times article:
"Legal experts say that the practice probably does not violate discrimination laws because unemployment is not a protected status, like age or race. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently held a hearing, though, on whether discriminating against the jobless might be illegal because it disproportionately hurts older people and blacks."

Even if it is declared illegal, this won't stop companies for simply sorting resumes for people with current work history or length of time lingering on the job boards. The latter, by the way, is currently a default search criteria within the job boards. Anyone searching for candidates will have them presented with the most recent uploaded resumes sorted first.

So here is my first piece of advice to anyone unemployed and reading this article. Update your resume weekly on the job boards and reload it. This update could be as simple as adding or removing an extra space that no-one sees. The job boards will think it is new and sort you out ahead of someone who uploaded their resume two weeks ago.

But this type of thinking is very short-sighted. Here are four very good reasons to pick up people who are unemployed rather than currently employed, if both have the same skills.

1. Unemployed people are eager to get out of this state so they will be more likely to accept a lower starting salary than someone with a current job
2. They can start right away, not having to give up to two months notice
3. Their previous supervisors are available to give references, rather than having to maintain confidentiality with their current supervisors
4. They are so eager to get started again, they make ideal employees

You can weigh these four advantages against the only disadvantages such as their having not-perfectly-current skills and the risk that they were laid off for incompetence and the advantages will come out on top.

And here's my second piece of advice: To address any skills lag, spend some of your unemployment time and the training dollars offered by the state to take a relevant class in your field.

But the graph that really shocked me is the one shown below. Look at how long the unemployed are staying unemployed these days:



Wow! That curve doesn't show any signs of letting up either. I remember the two times I was laid off, in 1993 and 2001, both previous peaks and I was out of work for five months each time, around the average. I really wouldn't want to be in the shoes of anyone unemployed today.

So what can I do to help? I've been giving my presentation on resume writing and interviewing a lot and spending a good deal of one-on-one time with friends getting their resumes in shape. But there are those readers who are not close enough to hear my words of wisdom so I'll place them up on this blog for everyone to see. Even though it doesn't strictly fall in the categories of Project Management or Leadership, I'll make my next post all about how to update your resume, post your resume, conduct effective Network Interviews, Interview and Negotiate for a good job. Hopefully my readers and friends will jump to the head of the pack in the next hiring rounds.