Foremost Consulting

I write about methods people can use to help and fortify their job search and/or interview efforts, covering a wide range of suggestions ranging from the most basic to advanced techniques I use with effectiveness. I share the personality and character traits that most effectively convey confidence and will cause people to sit up and take notice of you. When I refer to attributes such as confidence, courage and self-assuredness, some think I am too demanding and ask too much of people. Not so, I am a student of human nature and my career places me in an ideal position for this. Everyone has it in them to rise above their circumstance to improve their lot in life. For those who strive for a better circumstance, there are no expendable people, and I hope my blog provides some usable material

It increasingly frustrates me to observe the growing number of job seekers who want or need a new job, but they have a strange and ill-conceived notion they don’t have to actually do anything to accomplish it. Like magic, doors will swing wide and all you have to do is conduct a few keystrokes and send your digital resume; the rest just sort of happens; right, isn’t that what we’ve been led to believe? Pretty silly sounding isn’t it, but that is the assumption by which most of us operate. More than ever people reach out to me for advice and I am most happy to provide assistance, after all, that’s why I write this blog. But more and more, people are not willing to do anything that requires real effort. Often my suggestions are dismissed as unreasonable, which is odd

I’ve been closely involved in hiring processes for a long time. I’m not talking about shuffling resumes but actually interacting closely with both applicants and hiring managers during each step of the hiring process. Methods and trends change over the years but most aspects of human interaction do not. Sadly, companies now more than ever insulate themselves, removing as much human interaction as they can and human resources departments go to great lengths to avoid you. However, at some point in the hiring process you will be face-to-face with a hiring manager and, when it occurs, that resume you invested so much time into has little further use. So when it’s your turn and you’re center stage – will you be ready? What happens when it is time to represent yourself in person; are you confident you can demonstrate why

There are two items that are on the minds of many job seekers. One is the frustration of sending a resume to a company with the understanding that there are other tens, hundreds, even thousands of resumes submitted for the same jobs. People are not stupid; they know the vast majority of resumes submitted will never be seen by a human being and are therefore never considered. The second thing about which people feel powerless is they cannot establish contact with any flesh and blood person and, especially, not a responsible hiring manager. This second concern is especially frustrating for pro-active people, who are ambitious and rightly understand emailing a resume is mostly a waste of time. Isn’t it ironic: these are precisely the kinds of people that companies claim they want to hire. I know a lot of very good

The first interview is the most critical step of the entire hiring process for you, the applicant, job seeker,  candidate, or in whatever manner you may describe yourself. To be clear, the first interview is characterized as the first face-to-face, in-person meeting initiated by a handshake. Telephone, Skype or any other remotely conducted interview does not count. In my opinion, yes, they matter and you must get through it to reach the first real interview, although those are events that are primarily meant for screening; in most professions the serious stuff occurs face-to-face. This being a blog, I cannot go into great detail, but in future blog entries I’ll address the finer points. Although styles and process can differ, there are some common and predictable, almost ritualistic features of most interviews that you can anticipate. Preparation I’m not going to advise about

For most job seekers the term interview causes increased anxiety at the mere thought of the word. I know -- I have been coaching and advising both job seekers and hiring managers for over 22 years and counting. For most people, interviewing is not something we choose or like to do, but rather cope with whenever it’s time to make a career change, either by choice or necessity. As it is and has been until recently, most of us learn our interview skills by trial and error, so that by the time we reach the middle of our careers we have for the most part figured it out. But considering the job market trends, this is not something we can take so lightly anymore; we cannot as simply write off opportunities we flubbed and say, “Eh, I’ll get it right the

Well here we go again, another year behind us and a new one ahead of us. For six years the economy has settled into the new normal. For some people it is okay, for a very few it is great, but for most the economy and jobs market seems stuck on mediocre to poor. However, often perception is reality and while a large number of people are willing to accept reality, as told to them by others, the more determined and goal oriented among us say no, we want better, we’re determined and nobody’s going to tell us otherwise. And we really don’t care what others think of our determination. If you feel stuck, if you have long felt dissatisfied, as though your career progression is stalled, do something about it. For years I have watched as people increasingly make more

Regardless of whether you are looking for a job or not, everyone should periodically update their resume. Considering the volatile employment market, have no doubts about it, the good jobs everyone wants are available for only a short time. For the harder-to-fill jobs, they call someone like me. Regardless, when you identify a job for which you may have interest and think you can update your resume and send it, or contact the company a week later, you’ll likely be too late. Now, during the holiday period, is as good a time as any as we look forward to a New Year – are you ready and able to act swiftly when / if a good opportunity presents itself? Whenever you choose to update the document that represents you, don’t simply update the same information. Drawing from more than two decades

I write this blog for the same reason I wrote my quick-reference career survival-guide handbook -- to help people improve their abilities in all things related to job search and interview technique. It encompasses the old-school methods, which work even better today than back in the day, primarily because of that which most no longer do, much less even remember to do, in our increasingly plain-vanilla, cookie-cutter everyone’s the same, point and click world. I recall that last year I was asked if I would simultaneously post my blog to a website with other people giving various advice about searching for jobs, resumes, social networking, etc. After a couple of entries I was contacted by the administrator, who suggested I soften my tone. She suggested that I am too direct and they instead wanted people to feel good about themselves; she

Does hiring slow down or stop during the holiday season and if so, is it a waste of time to do anything during that period? Different nations and cultures have their own holiday periods when business decisions seem to take a back seat. But for the sake of this blog entry I am referring to Western holiday period, relatively speaking between Christmas and the New Year. And just to be clear I am not talking about part-time holiday hiring in the retail sector. I know from many years of experience that as it relates to concentrating at work, most people’s brains begin to shut down to business matters from about the 10th of December and don’t switch back on again fully until or in the days following the first Monday following New Year’s Day. As such, most folks assume there is no