Ask a Manager
WEBToday’s “ask the readers” is for my mom: let’s talk about times when someone righted someone’s else wrong (a favorite pastime of my mother).Maybe a colleague stood up to the office bully on behalf of a more junior colleague, or a new manager flagged a pay gap and got it fixed, or any other time a brave person said, “This isn’t right, and I’m going to fix it.”
all your interview questions answered - Ask a Manager
WEBA reader writes: I had a bad interview which made me realize I needed to work on my interviewing skills. The interviewer asked me the classic “Tell me about yourself,” but then noted that she had a copy of my resume in front of …
podcast - Ask a Manager
WEBA reader writes: I wanted to run a scenario by you that happened to a friend of mine the other day. He told me that one of his direct reports had asked him for a reference for a part-time weekend gig to make some extra money.
the Ask a Manager guide to preparing for job interviews
WEBIf you’re like most people, you struggle with preparing for job interviews and feeling confident going into interviews, so I have a free guide to help you. Just enter your email address into the sign-up box below, and I’ll email you the guide. If …
8 workplace rights you might not know you have — Ask a Manager
WEBMike * October 29, 2012 at 12:32 pm. The inability to use comp time (even at time and a half) instead of overtime has been a major pain at my current job. I’m a programmer and system admin but non-exempt so things like maintenance and the off hour revelation have been problematic.
how to write the perfect out-of-office message — Ask a Manager
WEBEmily K * June 25, 2019 at 3:03 pm. In my email client I can set up a different message for internal vs external contact. On the internal one I list my cell number but on the external one I do say, “If this is an emergency you can reach me by cell,” without giving the number out.
what do application deadlines really mean? — Ask a Manager
WEBAntilles * April 6, 2017 at 3:00 pm. I think it can only help you to be an earlier applicant. Yeah, I’m trying to think of any potential downside to being an early applicant rather than waiting to apply and I can’t think of one.
here’s a real-life example of a fantastic cover letter
WEBApr 9, 2019 — I often get asked for examples of good cover letters, and a reader recently sent me a great one that I want to share. This is a fantastic example of how someone without a ton of work experience (she’s still a student!) can make a compelling case for why they’d be a good hire.
how do I recover from a huge, fireable mistake at work?
WEBBRR * November 6, 2014 at 11:09 am. In addition to everything above, if you’re anything like me when I make a mistake I need to make sure to not dwell too much on it. If I keep thinking about it and replaying it over and over and analyze my future work a million times the number of mistakes I make tends to snowball.
everything you need to know about job references - Ask a Manager
WEBJamie * January 30, 2017 at 1:25 pm. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rolled my eyes because people didn’t call references for key positions. Sometimes they just don’t and it happens a stupid amount of times ime (and it wasn’t the only thing wrong with the hiring process of those companies.)