How to handle another tough interview question It sometimes happens that you make a move, regret it and look back fondly at a company you were with, sometimes years ago. When you re-apply to a past employer, you can expect to be asked about your motivation for wanting to return.

You hear about a job and get invited to an interview, but you've been to a couple where they ended up hiring internally and you don't want to waste your time. What can you do, is it acceptable to ask a recruiter if the job is going to be filled internally?

How to handle another tough interview question This question always has you scrambling for an answer, it touches a raw spot and can be humiliating, but you can turn it around by facing and using the facts of the matter.

It sometimes happens that you make a move, regret it and look back fondly at a company you were with, sometimes years ago. When you re-apply to a past employer, you can expect to be asked about your motivation for wanting to return.

At the Secrets & Strategies career management group on LinkedIn this week, they were talking about some jobs guru who claimed cover letters are a waste of time and how you'll get more interviews if you stop using them. Another authority was cited as saying that hiring managers are peeved when they don't...

In a recent CBS article about exit interviews that encouraged you to share your real thoughts and feelings with the exit interviewer, I was the lone dissenting voice.

I've been writing about job interviews, from both sides of the desk, for twenty-five years and without a doubt, the toughest interview question going the rounds in 2012 is, "Your job exists to help your employer achieve and maintain profitability. How do your efforts support these goals?"

You want to get into conversation with recruiters and hiring managers as quickly and as often as you can, because initiating conversation is the fastest route to job interviews, job offers and out of this damn job search.

Commit to your dreams and the plans that bring them to life We all make New Year's resolutions to do better professionally, to get a better job, a promotion and to make more money, but all too often we fail to harness these dreams to a workable plan of action. The world of work is no longer as secure as it...