Career Resources

Expert Career Advice

Who is Peter Weddle?

Peter Weddle is a recruiter, HR consultant and business CEO turned author and commentator. Described by The Washington Post as "... a man filled with ingenious ideas," he has earned an international reputation, pioneering concepts in Human Resource leadership and employment. He has authored or edited over two dozen books and been a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, The National Business Employment Weekly, and CNN.com. Today, he writes two newsletters that are distributed worldwide and oversees WEDDLE's LLC, a print publisher specializing in the field of human resources. WEDDLE's annual Guides and Directory to job boards are recognized for their accuracy and helpfulness, leading the American Staffing Association to call Weddle the "Zagat of the online employment industry."

Weddle's Syndicated Content

The Job Seeker With the Dragon Tattoo
By now, you've probably heard of Stieg Larsson's best sellier, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. For those who haven't yet read the book, it's (sort of) a murder mystery intertwined with the self-identity quest of a young woman with distinctive body art. While all of the plot's secrets are revealed by the end of the tale, one question is never addressed: what's the meaning of the dragon tattoo? The answer is especially important to job seekers.

How to Succeed in Applying for a Job
There are now over three million job openings posted on job boards and social media sites on the Web. And, the conventional wisdom is that applying for those opportunities is simply a matter of clicking on the Submit button. Unfortunately, however, there's a bit more to it, at least you want to get interviewed and possibly hired.

The Standout Skill
Do you want an advantage in the job market? There is one skill that CEOs today believe is both in critically short supply and critically important to their organization's success. If you have this skill, it is virtually certain that you will get the attention you deserve from employers, regardless of your profession, craft or trade. What is this standout skill? Leadership.

Job Search Entrepreneurism
Personal branding is all the rage these days in job search books and seminars. According to these sources, you can't be successful without a strong brand. It's good advice, but also only partially true. While a strong brand is necessary for success, it cannot produce that outcome by itself. What's needed is a more comprehensive approach that I call job search entrepreneurism.

Optimize Your ROL - Your Return on Luck
According to Jim Collins, the author of Great By Choice, the difference between companies that are merely good and those that are considered great is often how they use luck. Good and bad luck happens to every company, he believes, but only those that optimize their return on luck - their ROL - are able to excel. I think that's true for job seekers as well.

The Sound of Silence
A chart topping single way back in 1966, the Sound of Silence is a haunting song about a dark time in this country. For many job seekers, it aptly describes the experience of applying for jobs in today's troubled economy. They send off their resume, and all they get back from employers is a thundering nothing. Fortunately, however, it doesn't have to be that way. There are steps you can take that will produce a response.

The One Word You Should Avoid in a Job Search
In today's highly competitive job market, the worst word you can use is "can." I realize that's a stunning turn of events for a people who have historically seen themselves as the "can do" nation. Nevertheless, what employers now want from candidates is a verb they believe has far greater potential. The word they want to hear is "will."

The Smart Resume
Faced with increasingly more able competitors around the world, employers are now seeking workers who can make a difference on the job. They describe these individuals as "A" level performers or with the more general term "talent," but what they really want is nothing more (or less) than smart workers. How can you prove you deserve that description? First, of course, you have to be at the state-of-the-art in your occupational field. Then, you have to promote that fact using a smart resume.

An Investment of Caring
There's a view these days that successful networking is based on a very simple mathematical formula. A lot of contacts equals a lot of employment opportunities. If that were so, however, all of those who are now feverishly connecting, friending and following would be happily ensconced in a new job instead. Networking is important in a job search, but what many people are doing today is "notworking" and, as a consequence, wasting their time.

Make Yourself Indispensable in Today's Economy
A college economist recently opined that we have entered the era of "the disposable worker." Employers can and will toss out workers whenever they no longer need them or can find someone better. What he didn't say, however, was just as important. We have also entered the era of "indispensable talent" and that gives all of us the power to find and hang onto the job of our dreams.

Make Yourself a "Will Do" Candidate
Americans are a "can do" people. We pride ourselves on getting the job done. It's a trait that's stood us in good stead for centuries. We've relied on it to create the nation in the Revolutionary War and to save it in World War II, to build the world's most modern economy and to put the first human on the moon. If we depend on it to find a job, however, we'll likely see our hopes dashed and our dreams cancelled.

Bring More Than Your Lunch to Work
If you believe the educational system and reality television, only a select few of us have talent. They are the exceptional kids placed in the Gifted and Talented programs at school and the singers, acrobats and dancers on America's Got Talent. The rest of us are out of luck. At least, that's what the conventional wisdom would have us think. But, don't. It's wrong.

The New Car Rule of Career Education
It's a longstanding rule of thumb. A new car loses ten percent of its value the minute you drive it off the dealer's lot. It doesn't matter whether you've bought a Mercedes or a Chevrolet, your vehicle's worth starts declining as soon as you start to use it. The same is true with training and education in our careers. Its employment value begins to degrade the nanosecond we complete the coursework.

A New MAD
Most Americans over the age of twenty-five remember the life-or-death struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. Our security during those dangerous times depended on a strategic balance called "mutual assured destruction" or MAD. Today, we have another form of MAD, one that is most accurately defined as "mutual assured distraction." Instead of ensuring our wellbeing, however, it portends to undermine our job security and ultimately our career success.

How the World of Work Has Changed
This column is the third in a three-part series focusing on what recruiters want from job seekers. The first column explored how recruiters work and why, while the second discussed how to stand out with recruiters (for all the right reasons). If you missed either of them, they're both available here.

How to Stand Out With Recruiters
This column is the second in a three-part series focusing on what recruiters want from job seekers. The first column explored how recruiters work and why. If you missed it, you can read the column by clicking here. This column will address an equally important topic: How to be a standout candidate with recruiters.

How Recruiters Work and Why
Recruiters. From a job seeker's perspective, they are a strange tribe. But maybe they aren't as weird as they might at first seem. Maybe there are good and important reasons why they do what they do. This column is the first of a three-part that will explore what recruiters want from job seekers. If you're in transition or think you ever will be, make sure you read all three.

The Two Best Ways to Find a Job All in One
A recent survey of 200 large employers in the U.S. identified the top two ways they recruited new employees. Number one was referrals; number two was job boards. Between them, those two sources accounted for over half of the people the organizations hired in 2010. While these findings are helpful, however, they also raise two important questions: First, how do you find out which job boards employers are using and second, how do you make referrals work for you?

The Dilemma of a Wimpy Job Seeker
The movie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is just now hitting theatres, but already it's earning kudos for its observations of middle school and the lessons it teaches adolescents about life there and thereafter. Its wisdom, however, is not confined to pre-high school hallways. The movie has something to offer to those of us who are trying to survive another hostile and seemingly incomprehensible setting - the job market.

Two Halves Are Better Than One
In a job search today, half of the game is mental. So is the other half. You can't will yourself into a new or better job. Employers have a say in the outcome. But, you can will yourself into a position where employers will make the right decision for you.

The Metatarsal of Career Success
Scientists were thrilled to announce the other day that they had found a metatarsal bone in a skeleton that was millions of years old, proving that our earliest ancestors had been able to walk erect. While this bone in our foot was important to our early evolution, however, we need a very different kind of support to stand tall in the 21st Century workplace. We have to have just as much strength at the other end of our bodies - in our minds.

The iPhone Proposition
Apple's iPhone has captured the popular imagination. Even among those who own a competitor, it has come to symbolize sleek styling, innovative features and ever more useful capabilities. That perception and the reality it celebrates are a perfect model for those of us who are in transition and looking for a new job or employed but searching for a better opportunity.

Tiger Job Seekers
There's been a lot of debate recently about the phenomenon of "tiger moms." While the call for tougher parenting may be controversial, however, it does raise an interesting idea. In this job market, in this economy, maybe what we need is tougher job seeking. Maybe, the key to success is to refashion ourselves as tiger job seekers.