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…

Continue

Remember before all this online technology shenanigans when we just turned up to work - to work? Did we insist that we had access to Pac Man, Pong or Space Invaders, or any of the other trivial pursuits you care to name, during working hours? Of course not. Then, when the good old 'Messenger' came along - Yahoo, AOL etc. - and enabled us to chat with strangers at our will - did we insist that our new distraction of choice be installed on our PCs in the office? No. So why, pray tell, is there…

Continue

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

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

I originally wrote these observations with the intent of making some kind of HR Top Trumps game out of them. I thought it would make a nice leave-behind gift for recruiters, but as I am no illustrator I stuck to the verbal descriptions.



Let’s face it, From the person who stinks the office out with their lunch, to the colleague who hijacks the office diary to sneakily block book dates for the coming year's vacations, to the very helpful character who leaves guidance notes… 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