It’s wild to believe it’s already the end of the year. While I love this season, it’s getting harder and harder to think of new and exciting ideas for gifts for my friends and family. The latest ideas I’ve had have been largely experiential and it has been scientifically shown that giving these types of gifts make your relationships stronger.

I was recently quoted in the Monster Jobs Blog post “Why Gen Z is the Perfect Match for Skilled Trades” - it was fun to give Lily my perspective on why these types of roles might be a good match for Gen Z candidates.

Behavioral Interview Questions can sound intimidating, but they're simply asking a candidate about a specific situation. I find that many folks rely on their own personal interview question bank, sticking to those that have worked well for them. Similarly, job seekers are often asking "what are the most commonly asked behavioral interview questions?" and only preparing to answer those.

I challenge you to come up with some of your own questions that are more specific to a particular part of the role or value that is important to the company. Let's play Behavioral Interview Question Madlibs!

If you're struggling to find someone to fill an open role and are on the verge of feeling desperate, this is the post for you. As a volunteer Chair of the House Corporation Board for my sorority, I was in this position the summer of 2022. It certainly wasn't my first time urgently (read: within a month) hiring a new House Director, but I decided to take a new approach that resulted in hiring a candidate who continues to perform as our best House Director hire to date. This is advice I would give any entrepreneur or scrappy small business who needed to find a quality hire - fast!

I’ve been intrigued by everyone talking about having AI mock interview you and using that feedback to work on your interview skills, as well as the fact that so many companies are using AI these days to identify and narrow down their overloaded candidate pool. I conducted my own small study, and these are the takeaways I hope both job seekers and hiring managers will find helpful when considering using AI for their own purposes.

Whether you also have memories of sorority recruitment, you're getting ready to go through sorority recruitment (yay!) or you'd just like a peek into what it was like, this article is for you. Keep in mind I was an active member of my sorority back in the early 2000s, so I'm sure there have been vast improvements since then - this is just based on my experience.

There's a need for better interview questions: I can't tell you how many times I had to answer the same questions over and over during recruitment, predominantly- "Where are you from?" to which I would say, "Seattle" and they would always say "Seattle Seattle?". I understand this is an icebreaker question, but come on, you have my application. You know where I'm from. I would've loved to speak more about my extracurricular activities or what I was most excited to focus on in college.

Hire Possibilities’ Carolyn Illman was featured on The Forage article “15+ Fun Jobs that Pay Well (and how to find one that’s right for you” for entry level job candidates

Taking a break in your career is becoming more common – a LinkedIn survey from 2021 found that 62% of job seekers reported having a gap on their resume. Whether you become a full-time parent, leave a toxic work environment, or care for a family member, the “old school” view is that employers don’t want to hire someone with a break due to potential “rusty” skills. I challenge this belief and offer tips for job seekers and hiring managers to overcome this mental block. Learn how to embrace your career gap and present it as a time of growth and skill enhancement.

Hire Possibilities featured on the Manifesting Clarity podcast.

Hire Possibilities featured in a Bored Panda article about what to do if you’ve messed up in a job interview.

Hire Possibilities on the Power to the People Pleasers podcast talking about how people pleasing doesn’t help you in interviews.

Happy Holidays from Hire Possibilities