Career Center | Watch your words if you want career success

By Diane Stafford / The Kansas City Star Little things we say every day can make or break our workplace image. Darlene Price, an executive coach and founder of Well Said Inc., has a list of phrases that we may

Career Center Blog | Negotiation nuances: talking money after the offer

In last week's post, I shared some recommendations on how job candidates should respond to salary questions during interviews. This week, I'll discuss some strategies to use when a viable job offer is on the table. First, a few disclaimers:

Career Center Blog | Negotiation nuances: talking money before the interview

Cold sweats. Anxiety attacks. Incoherence. What do these three things have in common? They're all behaviors you might witness the moment you corner a job candidate and ask: "How much money are you looking for in your next assignment?" In

Career Center Blog | Hard-sell job-search behavior: not wise in Seattle

As the PEMCO commercials endlessly remind us, here in Seattle we're not like everybody else; we're a little different. This statement applies not only to the way we go about networking, as discussed in my posting a few weeks back,

Career Center Blog | Is all fair in love, war and job hunting?

While many experts can advise people about the best ways to write a resume or interview more effectively, there's one career-related topic that you and only you will be able to address: your personal career morality. For better or worse,

Career Center Blog | How a positive mindset can trump the best skill set

In a struggling economy, many people looking for work make the mistake of focusing solely on a new job instead of managing their careers. I know from personal experience that when a steady income is suddenly cut off, it becomes

Career Center Blog | Job-offer negotiating leverage: signs to watch for

While employment conditions in other parts of the country still seem to be a mixed bag, I've been pleased to witness a surge of hiring in the Seattle market. In fact, I've run into numerous local professionals who have landed

Career Center | How to address pay gap with the boss

By Marie G. McIntyre / McClatchy-Tribune News Service Q: A couple of years ago, after our small construction company was hit hard by the recession, all employees received a 5 percent pay cut. Last year, the owners told us that

Career Center Blog | Advantage employee: Worker confidence on the rise

Seattle's current run of consecutive outstandingly beautiful weekends is not the only sunny news to hit the Puget Sound region in recent weeks. As the afternoons grow longer and the temperatures get warmer, there appears to be a gradual and

Career Center | Tips for improving your negotiating skills

By Claudia Buck / Sacramento Bee Good negotiating isn't a skill reserved just for CEOs and United Nations diplomats. It's useful for all of us, whether we're asking for a raise, interviewing for a job, buying a car, deciding on

Career Center | Think twice before taking employer's counteroffer

By Brian Hyslop / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Of all the hurdles in the path toward finding a new job, perhaps none is as fraught with emotion as telling your current employer that you are leaving. You know you have to give

Career Center | Play an active part in your performance review

By Maura Pallera / Salary.com Performance review season is upon us. This presents an opportunity for employees to demonstrate their accomplishments and distinguish themselves and their value to the organization. Here are some tips to make the process work for

Career Center Blog | Sweetening the deal with 'creative compensation'

One of my favorite scenes in the excellent AMC television drama "Mad Men," about the pressure-cooker life of ad executives in the early 1960s, comes from an episode called "The Suitcase." While working late, young copywriter Peggy Olson, the first

Career Center | How to boost your self-confidence

By Michael Crom / Gannett Q: With the arrival of 2012, I am looking for ways to improve myself. Like every person I know, I have my strengths and weaknesses. One thing I would like to improve is my confidence.

Career Center Blog | Sometimes a job is just a job (and other career lessons learned)

This will be my last post on NWjobs. In the three-and-a-half years I've been blogging on this site, I've learned countless lessons from the workers and career experts I've interviewed, as well as the many readers who've taken the time

Career Center | Working overtime without getting paid for it

By Rex Huppke / The Chicago Tribune Q: My daughter-in-law works for a very big company and is paid for 40 hours a week, but she winds up working about 90 hours a week with no other compensation. Jobs are

Career Center | Want a raise? Here's how to ask for one

By Joyce E.A. Russell Special to The Washington Post There have been some recent indications that 2012 might be a year in which raises and salary increases are actually possible. If so, it’s important that employees are prepared to

Career Center Blog | 2012 advice: Hold your ground on benefits

The Great Recession has been over, technically, for more than two years now, but everyone knows that it's "over" only in the minds of economists. In the real working world, where talented, qualified job seekers often take a year or

Career Center Blog | The fine line between being hard-nosed and a jerk at work

Maybe you heard about the recent study claiming that agreeable workers make less money than their more obstinate counterparts. Called "Do Nice Guys -- and Gals -- Really Finish Last?" the study makes a case for checking all pleasantries at

Career Center Blog | Answering the unanswerable salary question

There comes a point in every job interview where you get a question that feels like a no-win proposition -- an open-ended query that puts you on the spot and can possibly be the deciding factor in whether or not

Career Center | Worth the haggle: Why -- and how -- you should always negotiate salary

By Phyllis Korkki New York Times News Service Negotiate your salary? In this economy? Many job seekers would be thrilled to be offered a job at all. How ungrateful and even risky, they may feel, to haggle over salary when

Career Center | Sharing salary history is standard practice

Q: Conventional wisdom seems to be that sharing your salary history with the recruiter -- as opposed to the prospective employer -- will not result in a lower offer. However, it then follows that once the recruiter has determined your

Career Center Blog | Understand contractor compensation before accepting the role

Congratulations! You've received an offer from a Microsoft vendor. Before you accept, consider two important decisions. First, be careful before signing a non-compete agreement, and second, don't take the first compensation offer. In my last column, I described the basic

Career Center Blog | Why we need horrible bosses

We've all worked for them. The tyrant who enjoys belittling others in public. The snake who pawns off her work on you and takes credit for it. The workaholic who expects everyone else to give up their personal life just

Career Center Blog | The biggest money mistakes that young workers make

If you're fresh out of school and headed into the job market, managing money is probably the last thing on your mind. Not when finding a job and ensuring you stay employed is tough enough. But as someone who entered

Career Center | How to get the title and salary to go with your increased responsibility

By Kristen Fife NWjobs Q: I've been working at the same company for several years. I have gotten increased responsibility (including people management), and I always receive positive annual reviews, but the company has consistently refused to give me the

Career Center | Good job offer, but what about the house?

By Paul Sullivan The New York Times News Service Given the high unemployment rate, a job offer would seem a sign of great fortune. But it’s not that simple if the offer means relocating. While choosing between the prospect of

Career Center Blog | How to negotiate an extra $31,200 in less than 10 minutes

A client of mine e-mailed me last night to tell me that his negotiation strategy that we worked on last week resulted in an extra $15 per hour, equaling over $31,000 a year. How did he do it, you ask?

Career Center Blog | ForbesWoman names Seattle ninth best U.S. city for working moms

For the second year in a row, ForbesWoman.com has culled, sorted, and ranked data on the largest U.S. metropolitan areas to produce its list of the 50 best cities for working mothers. [Image: U.S. Employment Service poster from 1940s] Seattle-Tacoma

Career Center | Return to earn: How to make the most of salary negotiations after unemployment

By Marcia Heroux Pounds The Associated Press It’s important to know your bottom line in negotiations for pay. (Thinkstock) Close to a job offer? If you’ve been unemployed for several months or longer, you are likely at a disadvantage