This cast concludes Career Tool's recommendations for answering questions about your career history.

1. TELL THE TRUTH! Truth is Not Your Enemy – An “Answer” Is
2. Decide on an Answer and Practice
3. Above All Be Honest
4. Short, No Blame
5. Matter of Fact Delivery
6. Add In Follow Up Information
7. Stop Worrying About It

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This cast describes Career Tool's recommendations for answering questions about your career history.

We get questions all the time from members who feel that their career history is less than stellar and they have concerns about just what to say when asked "why did you leave this job?" or "what prompted that decision?" In fact, sometimes they go as far as not interviewing because they are so concerned about this question.

The good news is that there is a way to answer this question, and that actually, though it is often asked, it's much less important to interviewers than you might think. The art of answering it is to assign it it's proper importance in your mind, decide how you're going to answer and concentrate on the parts of your interview which demonstrate your competence. You might get a minus point here, but the rest of your interview can add up to so many positive points that it becomes irrelevant.

1. TELL THE TRUTH! Truth is Not Your Enemy – An “Answer” Is
2. Decide on an Answer and Practice
3. Above All Be Honest
4. Short, No Blame
5. Matter of Fact Delivery
6. Add In Follow Up Information
7. Stop Worrying About It

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This cast describes the importance of external interviewing in career management, and how to begin to handle the interview.

This cast started the same way our cast on internal interviews as a career management strategy did. Back then, we had gotten a question from a member who was being asked to interview for a particular job in his company. He called to ask what to do. He was wavering. Mark was STUNNED – OF COURSE you interview! It was one of those academic creep moments that we have pretty regularly.

For the record, for those of you who don't remember, we said: ALWAYS say yes, at least in part because saying NO is a significant career statement. And, you can yes to the interview and say NO to a forthcoming offer.

In this cast's case, Mark got a call from a competent and sharp engineer, who had been asked to interview at another company for a sales position. He wasn't really sure about sales (no engineer ever seems to be, much to most of their unknown chagrin), and wondered too about the location. As Mark was walking him through the basics, he thought, hey, we haven't done this cast yet; I'm such an idiot.

1. GO!
2. This is Career OPPORTUNITY Management
3. Don't Worry About Changes In Specialty Or Industry As Much As You Think
4. Be Quiet About It

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It seems that a lot of people still don't realize that we're all managing our own careers now. Yes, your organization has some say and power in the equation. But that ability to influence our choices is often misunderstood as managing what job we're in, why we're in it, and what other jobs we can have.

In today's cast, we conclude our conversation on Horstman's 3rd Law of Interviewing. As always, if you're new to Manager Tools and haven't listened to the first part, you may wish to go back and listen to that first.

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Lately, we've gotten lots of questions from our 28,000+ members about our interviewing series. Because of the uncertainties many are facing today, we thought it might be helpful to return to our guidance on interviewing.

Horstman's 3rd Law of Interviewing: We'll Take 90% Less Ability for 10% More Attitude Every Day of the Week.

When the market is tighter than normal (it's mostly supply driven and not demand based right now), organizations are even more particular about hiring the very best they can find. Sure, hiring companies want great backgrounds, with great accomplishments. But if you're interviewing in the next six months, what ability do you have to change your accomplishments?

What you can change is your preparation, and your attitude of energy and enthusiasm in the interview. As we like to say, here's how.

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This cast tells you how to handle requests for your references when engaged in a job search.

Even though "References Available Upon Request" is no longer a good idea, reference CHECKING is on the rise and will only increase in the coming years. It seems like since resumes don't include the age-old line -- the why of which we'll share -- somehow far too many job seekers are caught off-guard by reference requests. Ahh, Horstman's Christmas Rule!

We'll tell you how to manage and share your references in this cast. And hey, if you're maintaining your network, this one is EASY!

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This podcast is the second of two on the subtleties associated with being interviewed during a meal.

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This podcast details all the subtleties associated with being interviewed during a meal.

We have NO EXCUSE for why we didn't do this podcast 2 years ago. We get this question all the time, so much so that we're making it part of the standard weekly show rather than restricting it to the interview tool. Meal interviews are becoming more and more common, even as they become ever less intelligent as a tool.

This cast describes a simple way to handle a group interview.

Interviewing is one of the real tragedies in most companies. It's so easy to do it well (once you get over the Horstman Curve), but so few are willing to take the time. Oh, sure, everyone wants to complain about lousy output (low retention, poor performance, attitude difficulties, etc.), but no one seems to be willing to think systemically about the problems.