Many people struggle when the topic of money comes into the picture. They are concerned for asking for too much but they sure do not want to leave money on the table either. This can be a challenge for many people. What is the best way to negotiate a base salary? Well, like I have preached before you never want to be the first to offer a number. Do your best to get them to mention a number to you. You have more control when you handle it this way. However, what do you do when there is still a gap? Here are some strategies I have used to help raise a candidates base salary.

Being in the recruiting field as long as I have, I have seen my share of resumes. I have seen people make big mistakes with their resume all for the hopes of standing out among the crowd. While certain professions may admire some creativity with resumes, it is definitely not the mainstream. There is a resume layout that I use that gets results.

That goes without saying. I am sure you have heard that before, right? Are executive resumes really that important? I mean, after all, do we need an exhaustive work history or just know that they can get the job done? If they come on the approval of some pretty important people, then is a piece of paper that essential and meaningful? These are thought provoking questions, but let me help you see the whole picture.

Probably the most asked question that I get is “How do I start a new career?” This is a question that bothers many people. While I am all for having a focused resume that has a very clean background. Sure there are times when you have to train for a new career, but most times it is just applying yourself down a new career path. The reality is that things are changing drastically. Not only because of the down economy times, but also because of competition. Companies are constantly changing the way they do business in order to be more efficient and to have a wider profit margin. How does one compete in this environment?

Today, I want to share with you some free sample letters of resignation. Statistics tell us that the average American worker is making a job change (whether voluntary or involuntary) every 3.2 years. What this means for you as a career professional is that you have to get used to this idea of change. The only true way to handle change is to understand what is changeless about you. The ability to handle change will be a skill that will require development for those professionals that want to work in a corporate environment. One of the ways to manage change well is to know the proper ways to handle transitions in your career. One tool is to have a solid resignation letter that you keep in the same file with your resume. When it comes to designing a resignation letter, there are four main points for you to consider.

I was asked recently, “What does a Junior Accountant really do?” Sometimes I assume this to be a basic question. However, this blog is dedicated to be a complete information resource for accounting and finance professionals. Are the Junior Accountant jobs easy to find and are there very many out there?

Junior accountant jobs are often entry-level jobs or jobs that require less than five years of experience in the field. Junior accountants have sometimes worked as an intern in the accounts department of a certain company or have experience from a financial services company.

The following is a guest post. If you would like to contribute to CPACareerCoach.com, feel free to send your article to me through the contact us page. You will be allowed two links back to your website or blog.

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Finding free payroll software is not a big task with several online options available but it is definitely not the right solution for most businesses. Most of these programs lack important features like tracking income tax, vacation time, over time done and so on. Plus such free software often come with pop-up advertisement disturbing you from what you are trying to accomplish.

According to The GlassHammer , a website created for “women executives in finance, law, technology, and big business,” women public accountants don’t stay in the field for long. In a recent article , GlassHammer reports that many women successfully begin careers as accountants, but they leave after only a few years. And no one is sure why.

The article quotes Tammy Young, Moss Adams’ Managing Director of Human Resources. According to Young, one reason that women may not be enjoying as much success in accounting is due to lack of women leaders in the field, which means fewer networking connections, since leadership in accounting has been, historically speaking, almost all male.

You would think that candidates have their answers to the most common interview questions nailed down, right? I have found the opposite to be true. Most people do not even know the proper way to handle this simple statement: “Tell me about yourself…”

The truth is all of us can have a tendency to be a little lazy when in comes to interview preparation. We would rather just take the questions as they come and hope we can think of some good examples of the top of our heads. My goal today is to give you a few simple answers to the most common job interview questions.

Isn’t that what we all want to know? The truth is everyone is hiring. Now, wait…before you click to close this page let me explain.

From my experience, companies hire all the time. Even when it appears that they have zero positions listed on the company website and there appears to be no openings on the major job boards. Sometimes positions do not make it that far in the process. Other times HR is too busy to take take to list positions. What you need to remember is that just because there appears to be no open jobs does not mean that there is not. I have personally seen companies hire people in the middle of a recession without ever posting the job.

I was contacted this past week by a reporter from HotJobs.com who want to interview me for an up-coming story they are writing. They are running a story on how the candidate can empower themselves in an interview. I don’t think that anyone would argue that companies have the ball in their court when it come to hiring. They call the shots. With all of the available talent that is out there, how do you stand out from among the crowd?

I read a statistic this week that was quite shocking! A nationwide survey was taken, and out of all of the respondents only 50.7% were satisfied with their jobs.  These numbers have been rapidly declining since the 1990’s. Why is that?

For many professionals, work has just become a way to collect a paycheck. While it is noble to support your family even if the work is miserable for you, is that really what you were born to do? It is a sad day in America when the norm is to hate our jobs and belittle management on every decision that is made.

Current economic conditions can be especially difficult for those seeking entry level accounting jobs. You may even feel that there are two major obstacles you are facing:

• No Job Openings
• No Job Experience

While these are challenging days, it is important to remember that everyone gets their start eventually. I firmly believe that your time is just around the corner. Time and chance happens to them all. It will happen for you as well.

For those wondering about career direction, there are basically four career directions you can take in accounting when starting off:

Making a good impression in the job interview is one of the most underrated skill sets for career professionals. Statistics bear that the average professional is spending 3.2 years before making an employment change. Some of this frequency of change is due to mergers, reorganizations, and down-sizing.

You must remember that you are self-employed. Whether you think so or not, you are. You have to manage your career like an entrepreneur manages his business. One skill is understanding how to handle competency based interview questions. This interview type is much more structured then the traditional method of asking questions.

Being involved in a mock interview is a very helpful tool in preparing you to land that dream job. Many of us have all the answers in our head but sometimes they do not sound as good once you speak them into existence in an interview. Going through a mock job interview will help you to nail down your story, your strengths, and better state your weaknesses.

Mock interviews can be performed with a friend, family member, or even a career agency for a minor fee.  Meeting with employment rescruiters is a great way to go through mock job interviews. Recruiters want you to represent them well in an interview so if you demonstrate to them that you are coachable, they will be glad to give you both positive and negative feedback.

Many people ask me for resume advice from time to time. We all want to have a competitve advantage over our competition. One of the major problems that I see many candidates make when it comes to their resume is that they build their resume blindly. At best, they take their old resume and add just add the most recent employer.

Besides targeting your resume to a position before you sent it, there is another important activity that you can engage in.

Observing an Accounting Resume Sample

Many people get quickly discouraged when it comes to making a resume. While it does take time, there are a few important principles that can make the process much easier.

Do a research online about resume tips and you will find a lot of conflicting advice. People that argue for and against objective statements, career accomplishments, and listing references. The truth is if you can get a few things right on your resume, you will be just fine.

How to Make a Resume That Gets Results

What makes a successful accounting resume? The sooner you can speak to your target audience the better chances you will have at getting your foot in the door. Many job searchers fail to realize that the goal of a resume is to design a marketing brochure that sells you. It is not meant to be a long, boring job description that lists out every possible job duty that you had on a daily basis.

A hiring manager is going to scan your accountant resume much like you would a marketing brochure. Make it easy for them to see your best skills and get more interviews.  

The question that I receive on my blog more often then not is: “Where are all of the entry level accounting jobs?” There is no doubt that as I write the job market is tight and it is especially taking its toll on those coming out of college. To some it seems unfair to work hard for four years, pay for an education, and when you are ready to launch out there are no jobs in sight. Still others are tired of hearing “Sorry, but you have no experience” line as well.

So, what do you do?

Today we will conclude our series on the top 10 worst mistakes that lead to a bad interview. If you take time to review all of the mistakes, then you will notice that some are not as obvious as it might seem. What candidates get frustrated with most is when they are failing at interviews but have no idea as to what they are doing wrong.