Career Center Blog | Tax advice for job seekers, no foolin'

Sometimes I think the cruelest April Fool's joke of all is when you look at the calendar and realize that it's already April 1 and you haven't started your taxes — and that it's no joke! Well, I guess

Career Center Blog | Coming home whole: PTSD doesn't have to end a career

A few weeks ago, President Obama mentioned in his State of the Union speech that, through the course of this year, 34,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan will be brought back home as part of an overall strategy to remove all

Career Center Blog | Shiny new year brings new job training programs

Well, we seem to have made it. After briefly going over — then being pulled right back from — the dreaded "fiscal cliff" over the New Year's holiday, job seekers in Washington state and everywhere else can breathe a little

Career Center Blog | Veterans get VIP treatment for career assistance

To be a soldier, one must develop the discipline and endurance to take on any challenge. It also means you are part of a team that always has your back. U.S. Army veteran Ryan Shannon of West Seattle learned these

Career Center Blog | What presidential debates can teach us about interviewing

The job candidate had loads of experience, the skills to tackle tough challenges, a track record of making smart decisions under pressure and a long list of references from respected peers. During the early selection process, he seemed to be

Career Center Blog | Investing in job seekers, both today and tomorrow

As most of the candidates running for local and national office have stated during this long election season, something needs to be done to create jobs during this country's painfully slow economic recovery. While some insist that this is solely

Career Center Blog | Vets reinterpret job skills in manufacturing program

Finding the right job is like finding the perfect mate; sometimes a matchmaker can help find hidden similarities between two parties and pair them up. For the resurgent Puget Sound manufacturing sector, one of these matchmakers is Thomas McLaughlin, who

Career Center Blog | Preparing vets for the bumpy transition to civilian job search

If the roaring hydroplanes and the screaming F/A-18 Hornets overhead weren't enough to remind you, we just enjoyed another Seattle Seafair this weekend. While strolling on the waterfront past the mighty U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships, I couldn't help

Career Center Blog | Health-care training may be a good career investment

If there's any certainty about searching for a job in today's market, it's that long-range predictions will always be unreliable. But as we mark not only 2012's halfway point but also our nation's 236th birthday this week, it seems a

Career Center Blog | Sharing the layoff burden with good government

As much I hate to remind you, we're only a few weeks into our official presidential election year, and we still have more than seven months left to withstand the overheated rhetoric about "job creators," no-tax pledges and Etch-A-Sketch gaffes.

Career Center Blog | Where should federal dollars be spent for worker training?

Much of the debate in the Other Washington these days is about what the federal government can or cannot do to help boost the economy. The debate is crucially important for the country, but it rarely has much impact at

Career Center Blog | Helping businesses help themselves to create jobs

There's no denying that this has been a tough month for the idea that government can provide assistance in creating new jobs. In spite of a substantial rebound on Wall Street following the Great Recession, the unemployment rate still stands

Career Center Blog | WorkSource's new OCE&E building offers one-stop shopping

Back in 2009, the last time I was out of work, I have to admit that one of my least favorite job-search chores was making visits to my local WorkSource office. The staff was always very helpful and impeccably nice

Career Center Blog | McGinn initiatives may give Seattle job creation a nudge

A year and a half into Mike McGinn's term as mayor of Seattle, he hasn't made a lot of friends. His continued opposition to the downtown tunnel project, his tough stance on downtown parking and his environmental activism have made

Career Center Blog | A little government help for job growth

It's undoubtedly tough out there finding a job these days. It's equally tough to be a public official in a state or local government trying to allocate a dwindling amount of dollars for crucial economic development programs. According to a