For many job seekers, the interview is the most stressful part of the process. As your first (and perhaps only) face-to-face meeting with the potential employer, there’s a lot of pressure to showcase your skills, your relevancy, and your cultural fit during one 60-minute conversation. The secret to doing well in an interview–and minimizing your… Read more »
Narrowing Focus to Find a Career: Harris Newman’s Job Search Story
Everyone’s job search story is different, but each individual story can inspire countless careers. We share the stories of job seekers’ successes to inspire you in your own career, get ideas for new approaches, and to help us all better understand the local job market! Harris Newman used networking opportunities to help him find focus… Read more »
Networking over Climbing Career Ladders: Brian Allbritton’s Job Search Story
Everyone’s job search story is different, but each individual story can inspire countless careers. We share the stories of job seekers’ successes to inspire you in your own career, get ideas for new approaches, and to help us all better understand the local job market! Brian Allbritton has had several distinct careers over the course… Read more »
How @Twitter Can Help You Get #Hired
I’ll be honest… When I first started using Twitter, I didn’t entirely know what I was doing. I could tell this was a powerful networking tool, but I hadn’t yet learned how to harness its power. I’ve since discovered how to use Twitter as an awesome tool for a job search. Let me show you how… Here… Read more »
If You’re Not on LinkedIn, You Must Be Retired
I want to share an amazing statistic with you: 87% of all recruiters use LinkedIn on a daily basis to find and screen candidates. What does this mean for you? It means you absolutely need a killer LinkedIn profile to maintain your credibility as a working professional. LinkedIn is the go-to networking tool for recruitment and… Read more »
What Do Employers See When They Google Your Name?
When it comes to our online behavior, hindsight is 20/20. The good news is that you can (literally) re-write your online history. I can show you how. My free online course, How to Wow and Woo Employers Online, is a three-part tutorial on how to clean up your online history and build an online presence that gets… Read more »
10 Ways to Find a Job (without using a Job Board)
Here at Mac’s List, we’re extremely proud of our job board, our community of readers, and the employers who post meaningful opportunities on the site. We work hard to make the list a value-added resource for job seekers. But the truth is this: online job boards–including our own–are just one small part of the job… Read more »
“Tell Me About Yourself” in Three Simple Steps
You know it’s coming, but it still freezes you in your tracks like a deer in the headlights. Maybe it’s right after you sit down in the visitor’s chair, across the desk from the interviewer. Or maybe it’s ten or fifteen minutes into your conversation, just when you start to think you might escape this… Read more »
Shine in Your Next Interview by Sharing Your DATA
Have you ever finished an interview and realized you forgot to mention a crucial qualification? Or realized that you forgot to tell them about your motivation to do the job? Or an essential attribute or accomplishment? Here’s an easy way to organize the essential points you want to get across in any job interview. Tell… Read more »
What Comes First: The Move or the Job?
It’s no secret that people move around the country (and, increasingly, around the world) to find better work and advance their careers. In fact, the US Census bureau estimates that nearly seven million people relocate each year in search of employment. Almost half of those people move more than 500 miles to find a new job…. Read more »
How to Land Jobs at Nike, Adidas, Columbia, and Intel
Nike, Adidas, Columbia Sportswear, and Intel are some of Portland’s largest employers, and some of the world’s most recognized brands. Jobs at high-profile global brands like these are highly sought after from applicants around the world. And that’s one of the reasons that you don’t frequently see these positions on Mac’s List. These companies don’t… Read more »
Staying Ready for the Right Opportunity: C.J. Drake’s Job Search Success Story
Everyone’s job search story is different, but each individual story can inspire countless careers. We share the stories of job seekers’ successes to inspire you in your own career, get ideas for new approaches, and to help us all better understand the local job market! Meet C.J. Drake, a communication’s professional who has had different… Read more »
3 Things Successful Job Hunters Do Differently
Job hunting is HARD work. If you’re unemployed, looking for work is itself a full-time job. If you’re employed, but looking for your next career move, it’s a part-time job. Regardless of which bucket you fall into, there are many challenges ahead. 80% of jobs are never posted online and there will always be someone… Read more »
Why Employers Don’t Include Salary in Job Posts (and What To Do About It)
Salary transparency is becoming a growing practice in the Pacific Northwest and across the country. Pay transparency laws took effect in Colorado in 2021, New York City in 2022, and California, Washington, and New York states in 2023. And Mac’s List now requires salary information on our job board listings. It’s only a matter of… Read more »
How Networking Helped Me Stay Positive: Beth Payne’s Job Search Success Story
Everyone’s job search story is different, but each individual story can inspire countless careers. We share the stories of job seekers’ successes to inspire you in your own career, get ideas for new approaches, and to help us all better understand the local job market! Meet Beth Payne. Beth used networking to get the inside… Read more »
How to Make the Most of a Job Fair
A job fair can be an effective way to meet hiring managers and recruiters in your community and learn about many job opportunities in one day. If you are prepared and use your time wisely, you can walk away with many strong job leads. Unfortunately, many job seekers make careless mistakes that can hurt their… Read more »
4 Resume Hacks to Overcome Unemployment Bias
Here’s an ironic, ugly, and unfair truth: being unemployed makes it much more difficult to find a job. Unemployment bias is a very real issue in hiring. Multiple studies show that employers have a bias against candidates who aren’t currently employed. In the some companies, you are automatically disqualified if you’ve been out of work for more than… Read more »
Building Relationships to Advance My Career: Jenna Hudson’s Job Search Story
Everyone’s job search story is different, but each individual story can inspire countless careers. We share the stories of job seekers’ successes to inspire you in your own career, get ideas for new approaches, and to help us all better understand the local job market! Meet Jenna Hudson. Jenna’s search relied heavily on to volunteering,… Read more »
Hiring Secrets from the Human Resources Department
The Human Resources Department: where 99.9% of all job applications go to die… often, without notice or update. Many job seekers see the HR department as an impenetrable institutional gatekeeper, keeping them from their dream job. There is certainly an element of truth to this feeling. But there are ways to successfully navigate through and around the… Read more »
12 Reasons You Didn’t Get the Job Interview
Sitting in my inbox right now is an email asking for help. In it, a job seeker indicates that she has sent out 1,884 resumes in the past four months. (That’s 471 a month; roughly 15 a day!) In these four months, she has landed a grand total of 3 phone interviews. Allow me to do… Read more »
How to Get a Job with No Work Experience
Have you ever seen a job description like this? ENTRY LEVEL JOB OPENING: Hiring recent college grads REQUIREMENTS: 5 years of experience, 6 Olympic gold medals, and superpowers. — Jordan (@jordan_stratton) July 6, 2015 Call it the employment-experience paradox: you need prior experience for the job, but you need the job to get the relevant… Read more »
Career Advice I Wish I Knew When I Was 22
When I graduated college, my professors, family and friends shared many words of wisdom about the road ahead. But, since I was 22, most of that advice went unheeded. I thought I could manage my career with a smile and my new degree. Boy, was I wrong… Reflecting almost a decade later here is some… Read more »
How to Overcome Interview Anxiety
You’ve found the perfect job opening and sent in an application. The hiring manager was intrigued by your skill set and invited you in for a meeting. Now you just need to close the deal by crushing it in the interview. Don’t worry. You got this! It’s natural to be nervous before a big interview…. Read more »
3 Steps for Writing a Resume Career Summary
Do you have a goal to change jobs in the year ahead? Are you working on your resume, or getting ready to? If so, let’s talk about the oft-debated question: Should I include an objective OR a career summary on my resume? I’m going to take a hard stance on this one… You absolutely need a career… Read more »
Forget Your Responsibilities, Focus on Your Achievements
There are many mistakes you can make when preparing your resume. But the biggest (and totally avoidable) mistake is to frame your resume around past job responsibilities, rather than professional accomplishments. Your resume exists for just one purpose: to showcase your unique value to prospective employers. When you focus primarily on previous work duties, you’re merely describing… Read more »
5 Fundamental Truths About Resumes
Let’s get it right out there: Crafting a killer resume is hard. For many people, it’s insanely hard. (This, by the way, is why the entire professional resume writing industry exists.) I’ve worked with PhDs, MBAs, CEOs, PMPs, RNs, BS’s, and just every acronym in between. We’ve worked with Olympians, Fulbright Scholars and front-line service… Read more »
From a Good Job to a Dream Job: Tak Kendrick’s Job Search Story
Everyone’s job search story is different, but each individual story can inspire countless careers. We share the stories of job seekers’ successes to inspire you in your own career, get ideas for new approaches, and to help us all better understand the local job market! This week we’re talking with Tak Kendrick. Tak already had… Read more »
Why You Need to Customize Your Resume for Every Job
Many jobseekers expend significant time and energy fine-polishing their resumes, wordsmithing the document until it is “perfect.” They then make a huge mistake by using that exact same resume for each and every job application. You wouldn’t send the same greeting card for every life occasion. Likewise, you shouldn’t send the same resume to every prospective employer!… Read more »
Should You Disclose your Disability in a Job Interview?
Up to one in four Americans have a disability—a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity. Many of these disabilities are “hidden conditions,” such as ADD/ADHD, diabetes, chronic illness, PTSD, learning disabilities, and depression. Traditionally, job seekers with disabilities have been advised to never disclose their condition. The thinking… Read more »
Does Volunteering Help You Get a Job?
I frequently hear from job seekers who ask about the role of volunteer experience in their job hunt. Specifically, they want to know if volunteering is a good way to get a job offer. This question is particularly salient for people looking for work in the nonprofit sector. Here’s the short answer: volunteering can certainly… Read more »