Career Center | How to return to workforce after lengthy gap

By Marie G. McIntyre / McClatchy-Tribune News Service Q: For 18 years, I stayed at home to care for a child with special needs. My son now has an independent living arrangement, so I am in the process of looking

Job Calendar | Resume and cover letter workshop

This free WorkSource workshop will help give your resume and cover letter that boost to get the job you want.

Career Center | 11 reasons you didn't get that job

By Aaron Gouveia / Salary.com You thought you nailed that interview, but weeks have gone by without a peep from the employer. Wondering why? Here's a list of common interview mistakes, one of which may have been your downfall. Arriving

Career Center Blog | Leave no questions unanswered in your application

You've filled in all the online application boxes, wrote a customized cover letter, submitted work samples and sent in references. You even managed to toss in a few LinkedIn recommendations for good measure. It may seem like your job application

Career Center Blog | To stand out, focus on 'why' instead of 'how' or 'what'

The changing nature of today's job market has caused many job seekers to fiddle almost daily with their resumes to cater to specific audiences. From past work experience to lists of relevant skills to job-specific training programs, the variations of

Career Center Blog | Good grammar: Don't communicate without it

In college I was required to take an editing course as part of my major. It so happened that the professor who taught the course that year was known far and wide as the most strict, fearsome and unsympathetic editor

Career Center Blog | Get your cover letter and resume in synch

Ask most job seekers which document they spend the most time on and they will likely say their resume. True, the resume is an essential element of the job-search arsenal and is deserving of much attention, but it is almost

Career Center Blog | Contact info: New rules for the modern job market

If you're a passing sports fan of almost any stripe, you've probably heard the name John Wooden. Coach Wooden, arguably the most revered sports coach in history, led the UCLA men's basketball team to 10 national championships in a 12-year

Career Center Blog | How job seekers should manage the big "O": Overqualified

So you want a job. You need a job. You've identified some openings or employers that sound interesting, even exciting. Maybe you are contacted by some of these employers for an interview. There's just one problem: Based on the job

Career Center | What a cover letter can still do for you

By Diane Stafford / McClatchy Newspapers Hiring professionals are divided about cover letters. Some don’t read them. Others do. Because job hunters don’t know which camp their application will land in, most career advisers recommend including cover letters. Brad Justice,

Career Center Blog | 5 job-hunting concepts that have outlived their usefulness

While I'm far from a credentialed historian, I've been studying the process of job hunting for a great many years now. My perception is that up until the year 2000 or so, the landscape didn't change much. While there were

Career Center Blog | Job seekers: No need to highlight that work gap

I know a lot of people who are in the midst of dispiriting and anxiety-ridden job searches. Whenever I talk to one of these job-hunting friends, I hear the same questions over and over: Am I at all appealing to

Career Center Blog | Cover letters: Go big or go home

Long, boring cover letters: time of death, 2011. While there's still some dispute about the exact role that cover letters play in the modern job-search process, the prevailing wisdom is that the good old-fashioned cover-letter format, as we've known

Career Center Blog | How to use hand-drawn pictures to ace an interview

Want to stand out in your job interviews? Use pictures. That's the advice of Dan Roam, international best-selling author of The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. Roam's latest book, BLAH BLAH BLAH: What to

Career Center | Today’s cover letter: Even paperless, a good one can give an advantage

By Cody Ellerd Bay Special to NWjobs The rules used to be simple: To apply for a job, you’d craft a cover letter, print it on nice paper, and drop your letter and résumé in the mail. Now, however, it’s

Career Center Blog | UW, Virginia Mason are hiring, but competition is fierce

While the health care industry is definitely hiring, competition is fierce and out of hundreds of applicants, only a handful are getting interviews. Understanding how companies function and communicating your value in accordance with their needs can greatly increase your

Career Center Blog | Does anybody read cover letters anymore?

A question I've been getting a lot lately at my resume seminars is: "Are people reading cover letters anymore? I haven't had much response from them. Should I include one with my resume or not?" In the past year, I

Career Center Blog | Reaching a hiring manager: Flattery is the key when you have to do a "cold call"

Yesterday I spoke at the Washington State Bar Association's monthly Job Seeker Group. An attorney came up to me and asked how he should approach hiring managers when he finds an opening on a company's website. Approaching a cold lead

Career Center Blog | How to get a job at LUMEDX (and how not to)

There are job seekers who research company e-mail addresses and spam them with their resumes with the hopes of getting a job. These techniques won't help you land an interview with LUMEDX, a medical software company in Bellevue, says Josh

Career Center | Should you send a cover letter? Definitely maybe, say hiring professionals

By Diane Stafford McClatchy Newspapers Don't you wish there was The Rule for job applications? Unfortunately, there isn't. Take cover letters. Should you write one? What should it say? How should you send it? I asked several human-resources professionals

Career Center | Write a great online cover letter

By Robin Ryan Special to NWjobs Hiring managers agree: Good cover letters are very influential. Many people forget about cover letters when applying online, but taking time to craft a good one is a wise job-hunting strategy to employ.