Careers: The Workplace

When Rejection Starts Feeling Personal I have heard from people who became convinced they were being blacklisted because the same pattern kept happening over and over. They applied for jobs they were clearly qualified to perform, sometimes inside the same company and sometimes throughout the same industry. Their résumé looked strong, their experience matched the

When Everybody Starts Coming to You There comes a point at work when you may look around and realize everybody seems to be coming to you. Your supervisor comes to you when something needs fixing because they trust you to handle it. Coworkers ask for your help, and before long, other departments begin depending on

The Number That Caught My Attention A new report caught my attention because it says nearly one-fourth of the American labor force is what researchers call functionally unemployed. That number sounds almost unbelievable when the official unemployment rate is only a little over four percent. In July 2026, the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity

What At-Will Employment Really Means I have heard people use the term at-will employment as though those three words give an employer unlimited power over a worker. The usual explanation goes something like this: your employer can fire you at any time, for any reason, and there is nothing you can do about it. That

What I Came to Understand About Education The older I get, the more I understand that education is about much more than what happens inside a classroom. We are usually taught that you go to college to earn a degree, learn a profession, and hopefully find yourself a good job. All of that is true,

The Interview Is One Stop, Not the Destination One lesson I have learned about looking for work is that we can give one interview entirely too much power over our emotions. We walk into that room hoping this particular company will recognize our experience, ability, and potential. We prepare our answers, put on our best

What Are You Looking for in an Employer? There is one interview question that sounds simple, but I have come to see that it can reveal a whole lot about both the applicant and the employer. The interviewer may ask, “What are you looking for in an employer?” or “What would your ideal company be

Interviews Are About Value, Not Fancy Words I have learned that a job interview is not really a contest to see who can use the biggest words. The employer is trying to determine whether the person sitting across the table can solve problems and contribute to the organization. A candidate can have an impressive résumé

When Work Friendship Feels Like Real Friendship One thing I have learned about working with people is that spending eight hours together can make strangers start feeling like family mighty fast. You see the same faces every morning, drink coffee together, complain about the same problems, and laugh about things nobody outside the workplace would