“Oh, wow. Looks like it’s completely dead! At this point, it’s not even worth saving. You might as well just buy a new computer.”

“Really, we can’t just fix it? It’s only 2 years old!”

Have you ever had that conversation before? It’s pretty common at retail establishments like Best Buy. Sure, they sell services. And services are pretty high margin. But if they can convince you to get a new computer with a monster surge protector, anti-virus installation, customization, and a service plan – that’s a much better sale for them!

How can you avoid that situation altogether? I will go over how to diagnose both software and hardware issues.

I’ve already given advice on how to make a resume competitive by giving some real life examples of how I changed my friend’s resume. There are so many factors that go into a job offer: A killer resume and cover letter, a great interview, a satisfactory online reputation checkup, etc.

Last week, I went over how to manage your online reputation (including using a service to do it for you). I wanted to go over a few more ways to really tweak your resume. My last post on resume tweaking went over things like putting quantifiable results instead of qualitative results and using more precise language. This post will be a little more general, figuring you are about to apply for a job.

Multilevel marketing scams and Pyramid schemes are nothing new. However, the speed at which these scams can spread is getting quicker and quicker because of the proliferation of the Internet.

When you combine this fact with the state of the economy, it should be no surprise that scam artists are alive and well. Whether they are advertising to you on the Internet to buy a Google advertising cash kit or conning your grandparents into paying $2500 to get rid of their mortgage debt, a bad economy means good business.

The internet seems to be a hard thing for some people to understand. Companies frequently forget that bad customer service stories can reach millions of people in less than a day. Individuals seem to forget that a potential employer can Google their name and find all of their tweets about how much they hate their job and find all of their blackout drunk Facebook pictures.

People in the know call this “Brand Management.” With the proliferation of technology, the brand being sold is YOU. Your online reputation needs to be modeled and crafted exactly as you would like others to see you.

That’s right, you can’t expect to just perfect your resume in order to get hired quickly, you need [...]

After a crazy investment bubble, people always say “Well, that was obvious… saw that one coming!” I heard people say that frequently once the dot com bubble burst. And once again when the real estate bubble burst recently.

However, it’s easy to say these sorts of things AFTER the fact. As obvious as it may seem, it isn’t. As they say, history repeats itself… and for good reason!

Bubbles are Bound to Burst

Time and time again throughout history, bubbles form and bubbles burst. What have some of the big investment/speculation mistakes been?