Surfing (F)un-employment

Resume scanning software. Ghastly. Gone are the days of the whimsically written resume and the manual review. Toss in a handful of keywords, delete the word creative, and voila, maybe someone will pay attention to you. Fortunately, the way to evade being passed over by the robots is to add more robots. I popped my resume over to Jobscan  and threw a few job descriptions into the other field. I haven't updated my resume in a while (whoops), so it was expected that I only matched the descriptions at about a 56 percent rate. If you're new to seeding your resume with keywords, this is a great place to test what words work for you.

You're un/under-employed, so you're cutting costs for the holidays. Cue the avalanche of Pinterest-flavored posts on jar-based gifts . Lucky Charms marshmallows? Another take on granola? Pepper vodka? Spare me. Why am I so Grinchy about handmade gifts? I love hand-knit beanie and scarf presents.... It's the lack of thought as to real cost. Yes, you might be able to give a thrifty gift by saving all of your spaghetti sauce jars and mass-producing your family gifts. However, the time that's required to put together all these glass container concoctions (not to mention the cost of materials) may actually be more expensive than seeking out a just-as-sentimental gift from Amazon. If you're still bent on a whimsical DIY gift, here are a few more personalized suggestions: Note cards that feature your (good) photography. A useful yet creative gift. Handcrafts exclusive to you. If you're a champion knitter, by all means, knit something spiffy. If someone knit m...

I've been wanting to tackle this topic for quite a while, but with much apprehension. One of the hallmark of bad bosses is you don't want to speak ill of the defunct, lest it affect your career. Nobody wants to be the whiner. And especially in this economy, unless you're in horrific conditions and subject to daily abuse you want to keep your job until you can flip to something better. Tons of horrible boss lists exist , imploring supervisors to dial back that narcissism just a bit, please. Other articles warn jobseekers about managerial red flags . But sometimes you just have a bad boss and you didn't recognize it at first because you were so desperate for the job. Or maybe you are the boss and don't realize how callous you are to your employees. Are you a bad boss? Do you: Require inhumane amounts of unpaid overtime Treat interns like slave labor to prop up your (dying) business Scream at/around underlings; making them your personal psychiatrists Belitt...