The first time I conducted an interview was as a supervisor at Starbucks over 20 years ago. Since then, I have interviewed people for engineering teams, project managers (PM), and even a few interns. Having conducted hundreds of interviews, I am still amazed when I speak to someone who is unable to answer behavioral or situational style questions. At a Starbucks, I can understand someone not knowing this style of questioning as many people interviewing are young and newer to the job market. The same applies to an intern. At large technology companies, however, I expect a person interviewing for…

Do you ever wonder why employers ask for references, knowing full well that any references provided are going to be positive, making the entire process a waste of everyone’s time? We have all written job applications at some point, whether it be a paper application or online. Not all of them, but many applications ask for a reference. …

Here is the situation. You have written a novel and decided to self-publish the book instead of going the traditional publishing route. Now that decision has been made, there is another one to make, and that is where to self-publish the book, as in what e-reading platform to use. When it comes to self-publishing to an e-reader there are multiple options available on the market, some more popular than others. The one we are all aware of is the Amazon Kindle, which is the most popular e-reader with approximately 70% to 80% of the market share. …

History is riddled with things that seemed like a good idea at the time but turn out to be less than brilliant as time passes. For example, that time you let your friend cut your hair, going on vacation with your in-laws, texting or calling an ex after a few drinks, prohibition, getting involved in Vietnam or Iraq, and of course Daylight Saving Time (DST) — one of those few things that most every country in the world thought was a good idea at the time. Also often referred to as Daylight Savings Time.

Daylight Saving Time begins in the…

When I self-published my first book “An Expat’s Guide to Ireland” I published it exclusively to Amazon for the Kindle since they are the market leader in e-books (currently, Amazon has 70% to 80% of the e-book market). They also have the option of publishing the book for print on demand, so that buyers could get the book as an e-book or print book through the Amazon website. When doing the second edition I decided to give the Barnes & Noble (B&N) Nook and Smashwords a try. One reason for this was to see if I could increase sales by…

I lived in Dublin, Ireland for six years, moving to the country during the summer of 2013. It was after the Celtic Tiger and the 2008 Great Recession, and during the era that any view of the city skyline involved seeing hundreds of construction cranes to build the offices for the international businesses the Irish government was desperate to receive. Companies could move in, offer jobs to locals at lower wages than they would in other countries such as the US or UK, and receive nice tax incentives as well. …

Looking at the news we see stories of businesses predicting losses over the next few quarters, we see retail companies closing their doors, and airlines asking for bailouts. And for the dividend lovers, we find that many dividend stalwarts are reducing or canceling dividend payments. Almost every news story or conversation involves some mention of coronavirus (COVID-19), and the same happens when reading or watching news on business and investing. So, the urge might be to sell some shares we own in companies and put that money in the bank or under the mattress. …

Recently businesses have seen an increase in situations where they are offering someone a job and then the new hire never show up. Or perhaps they have someone who works there and one day the employee just stops arriving with no notification in advance. In the dating world when this happens the term is “being ghosted.” You go out on a date with someone, think it went great, message or call the other person, and they never respond to you. We’ve all experienced this (and maybe have even done it to others). …