How to Answer: “Why Are You Leaving (or Have Left) Your Current Position?” 

November 28, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 4 minutes

This is a question I’ve seen people wrestle with quite a bit. It’s a question you can pretty much count on being asked somewhere in the interview process. There’s a clear answer – – after all, it’s either unfolding as part of the interview process, or the event has occurred, and the person answering the question (you, the candidate) was present …

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How to Answer: “What Are Your Career Goals?” 

November 21, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 5 minutes

This is a fun topic to explore! Let’s start with WHY in the world would an interviewer even ask that question. What do you think the answer is? Multiple choice possible answers offered below:  “Because the interviewer is…”  Hopefully you answered “3”. But unfortunately, and not altogether unsurprisingly, some of the people I’ve counseled over the years actually thought the other …

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How to Answer: “Why Do You Want to Work for Us?”

November 14, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 3 minutes

Let’s start out with how NOT to answer this question! 🙂  The interviewer is NOT looking to hear these common responses (actual responses I’ve heard):  Now, for some of you, these responses drew a good laugh, but there’s a reason people actually gave these answers. It’s because the response they gave made sense to them at the time. Some people reading may not …

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How to Answer: “What Are Your Weaknesses?” 

November 07, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 4 minutes

Over the years I’ve helped many people prepare for an interview, and what I find is that most of them are nervous about what type of questions will be asked and how the answers they give will be received. Typically, we cover this by working through their STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Results) stories and reinforcing their confidence with their answers …

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Retirement: What Do I Do Now? 

October 31, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 4 minutes

So far this month in our blogs on retirement we’ve looked at factors that may influence when you retire, some considerations with your “why” in retirement, as well as aligning your expectations with reality.    Now we need to talk about the most popular topic, and in many cases what people wrestle with the most in retirement…what do I do …

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Retirement: Expectations vs. Reality 

October 24, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 4 minutes

Setting and managing expectations is one of the simplest, yet trickiest, processes on the planet, particularly if we are managing our own! People who manage others’ expectations can probably claim to be able to execute anything, provided the expectations set are realistic. After all, most of the time it’s just time and money…and those are two commodities that can be isolated …

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Retirement: The Question of “Why?” 

October 17, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 3 minutes

When I googled “why retire?”, I came across an article from “Senior Lifestyle” that outlined the 7 top reasons to retire. Here are the headlines:  While I thought some of the content was interesting and useful to consider, I believe a better answer to “why retire” comes from considering the work of Simon Sinek, noted author and speaker. He developed …

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Retirement: Caution…Timing is Everything 

October 10, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 4 minutes

In 1599, William Shakespeare first used the phrase, “timing is everything”, in his play, Julius Caesar.  While I don’t have proof to this point, given Shakespeare’s many references to Biblical truths, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had Ecclesiastes in mind. There we’re told in chapter 3, verse 1:   “There is a time for everything, and a season for every …

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Retirement: Will You Know When the Time is Right? 

October 03, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 4 minutes

When you hear the word “retirement”, what comes to mind? Here are a few fun perspectives I’ve found:  Hmmm, please read that last one again. I think there might be a couple of different angles to it. First, you could read it to mean that God’s retirement plan is not of this world and has eternal ramifications. Or, you could read it …

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Stop Obsessing About Having the Perfect Career Plan  

September 26, 2023
Written by: Dave Sparkman | Reading Time: 3 minutes

That was the headline that captured my attention in a Wall Street Journal article from 9/17/23. Basically, the premise is that while people for decades have pursued the mysterious “perfect career”, the reality is false advertising. Multiple global factors, coupled with the speed of technology and change, reinforce this point. The author ended with a great point, “Even though this (a …

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