1st Rate Blog

Yesterday I was listening to a friend of mine lament about a new co-worker of his. Apparently, the 17-year old just graduated high school and was on his third day at his very first job.  Here are the impressions the teenager already made upon his manager and...

A common thread I see with job searchers is that most are caught flat-footed when it comes to the job search. I hear all the time, "I loved this company and was planning on retiring here." The economy changed all that when businesses were forced to reduce their staff,...

According to Allison & Taylor, the leading provider of 3rd party reference checking, there is a new trend emerging for submitting your job reference list to potential employers. The press release adds that this new format for listing references will be a game...

Last year, when I had a radio show on Fox 910 in Roanoke called "Career Matters," I also produced a daily vignette the station aired Monday through Friday. The Career Matters Minute offered career advice in less than a minute. The show went off air in late 2011, but I...

The unemployment numbers are out again, and officially they show that the rate of unemployment is on the decline, down to 8.2%. But an article at the Employment Spectator, begs to differ. It states that the numbers are muted because there are 164,000 fewer people...