Conduct an online job search these days and you’re soon confronted with lots of ads, many suggesting, without actually saying it of course, that each day spent working with them will be just like dying and going to heaven, only better. But should they be taken at face value?  Is your workplace heaven? Or is it more like hell, despite what that ever so enticing advertisement that lured you there in the first place suggested? Here I take a lighthearted look at what job ads say and what they…

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Following the popularity of my original series of 20 interview questions and how not to answer them, I've once again revisited the job interview scenario and present for your delectation a bit of Friday afternoon fun:

Interviewer:  "How do you manage people?'.

Interviewee: "I don't so much manage as tolerate them to be honest" 

Interviewer: "Describe a complex problem you had to deal with"

Interviewee: "Chlamydia wasn't much fun, but…

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Way back when, my since dear departed brother and I worked together in the classified advertising department of one of the UK’s leading quality newspapers. No big deal – except that we were the only two men in a team of twenty. Were we tempted? Read on.

You would think perhaps that faced with such odds it would be hard to resist or avoid some kind of romantic liaison with one of our female colleagues. Indeed the guys from next door in production used to… Continue

Life has been very hard for many people over the past 18 months, me included. The credit crunch, the recession, call it what you will, has certainly hit home. And, working in a recruitment related role, it’s been all the more apparent that these have indeed been tough times.



One week I would be reasonably busy, the next, hardly, the following, not a bean. One minute an agency would be my biggest client, the next it would suddenly put a freeze on using freelancers and I would get no… Continue

I still remember the feeling to this day. The gut wrenching feeling that comes with redundancy is unlike anything I had ever felt before.

It was the winter of 1991. I was doing pretty well at my job. Or so I thought. I was an Account Manager for one of the UK’s leading recruitment marketing agencies and looked after…

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There are few things more daunting than attending a job interview. That's why it's good to prepare by considering some of the questions you might be asked. Just make sure you don't end up giving any of these answers....



Interviewer: What is your greatest accomplishment?

Interviewee: Finishing Phantom Mutant Death Fighter 3 for PC - and in work time too! Have you played it?



Interviewer: Could you sell me this pen?

Interviewee (shouting): Get your pens, only… Continue

It’s a phrase that has been around for years, yet different people define it in different ways. Some think it’s just about a slogan or ‘tag line’, others equate successful companies like Virgin or Google with it, But what IS an employer brand? And should it be called that in the first place?



Take a can of Coke or a Mars bar, or a Ferrari if you like. Each are made to a constant formula or recipe. They never vary. They are proper brands (or in the case of the Ferrari each car is a… Continue

All the recent furore about the alleged bullying culture at No. 10, coupled with statistics that say that 14 % of the UK’s workforce are bullied at work and 21% aware of bullying going on at their workplace, reminded me of a few encounters with office bullies and how I dealt with them.



My first encounter with an office bully happened when I was working as part of a sales team and this new guy joined as Director. From day one we didn’t really… Continue