Working Girl (aka Karen Burns) was born on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and has lived/worked in Minnesota, Arizona, Virginia, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, France, and California. Now she lives/works in Seattle. She has a seriously wonderful husband, Mr. Working Girl, who has supported the whole book-writing venture from Day One. Karen's book "The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use" can be found on Amazon.com

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	Ten Ways To Ask For The Job at The Interview by Karen Burns - Apr, 2010 A lot of job hunting advice tells you to always end the interview by asking for the job. Which leads many job hunters to ask, "How exactly do you ask for a job?" Great question. You'll find 10 sample approaches below. But first, here are two major points to keep in mind: 1. When y...
	How to Keep Your Thank-You Note Out of the Trash by Karen Burns - Feb, 2010 You’ve heard it a million times: Always send a thank-you letter after a job interview. So it may surprise you to learn that some hiring managers don’t like receiving these letters. It’s a waste of their time, they say. Sounds a little curmudgeonly, doesn’t it? But maybe it’s because so ...
	Managing The Trick Question by Karen Burns - Feb, 2010 A loyal reader writes with this intriguing dilemma: How do you respond when a manager says they understand your job can be a bit boring and repetitive? This conversation was at an informal networking event. I responded by saying it’s challenging in some aspects but there are interesti...
	How to Ace the Phone Interview by Karen Burns - Feb, 2010 Many job interviews these days are conducted by phone. It’s faster and cheaper for both job hirers and hunters. HR folks especially like it because it allows them to screen more applicants in less time. A phone interview may even be your first contact with a potential employer. Phone in...
	The Best Way to Quit Your Job by Karen Burns - Feb, 2010 A majority of Americans are unhappy with their jobs, according to a recent Conference Board survey. What does this mean? For one thing, it’s a clue that as soon as this economy improves, an awful lot of people are going to be setting off for greener pastures. Now is a good time to talk ...
	Ten Tips for Playing Well With Others at Work by Karen Burns - Jan, 2010 Who would you rather work with: a genius star performer who’s an incredible pain in the you-know-what or a “merely” competent worker who’s a breeze to get along with? Your coworkers think so, too. Scary thought: You probably spend more hours of the day with your work colleagues than ...
	Branding Versus Branded by Karen Burns - Nov, 2009 There’s nothing so annoying as a buzz word and this year there’s no word out there buzzier than “branding”. As in, “You’ve got to establish your brand.” Ugh. WG keeps thinking of what Alina Tugend said in this NYT piece a while back: “What if I don’t want to be a brand? What if I l...
	Keeping A Job You Hate by Karen Burns - Nov, 2009 This is a painful issue always. But especially now. Times are tough. People are terrified about losing their jobs and not being able to find another one. So they’re hanging on to what they’ve got, whether or not they’re miserable. But hating your job is awful and feels even awfuler...
	No-Nos For New Jobs by Karen Burns - Nov, 2009 A friend just landed a new job! Woo-hoo! She phoned with the good news and then asked this question, “Do you have any tips for how I should act my first week on the job?” Ha. Of course, WG has tips. Weirdly, they seem to all be negative–what not to do. Hmmm. Anyway, here they are:...
	Tips For Electronic Resumes by Karen Burns - Nov, 2009 Your job hunt should never consist solely of submitting your resume to the online job boards. You need to be out there in the real world networking with real people. But you do still need to know how to format your resume so it can be submitted online and/or be scanned. Hence, her...
	What Is “Good” Work? by Karen Burns - Nov, 2009 Did you see the piece in the New York Times about people moving out of desk jobs and into blue-collar “trade” jobs? Apparently, it’s a thing. Apparently, folks are disenchanted with jobs that show no tangible results at the end of the day. They’re tired of being penned in cramped cu...
	Your Hidden Dream Job by Karen Burns - Nov, 2009 When deciding on a career, you have one huge limitation: You can only pursue fields of work you know about. This is why, in WG’s nsho, so many young people announce they want to be an ”athlete” or “actor” or even (eek) a ”politician.” Girls who like fashion want to be runway models. ...
	Power Hour by Karen Burns - Nov, 2009 Must. Get. Power. The good kind, of course. Agreed? To that end, here are some ideas for (nonviolent) ways to acquire power vis a vis your job: 1. Only do work you really truly enjoy. You may be downtrodden, overworked, and put-upon, but you won’t care! (Much.) 2. Feel abl...
	Should I Quit My Job? by Karen Burns - Nov, 2009 Seems like an insane question, doesn’t it? Nowadays most people are just trying to hold on to the jobs they’ve got. But say you have a really awful job. You hate, despise, loathe it. It pays like dirt, you have no chance of improving it, and it makes every single day of your life an...
	Tick, Tick, Tick by Karen Burns - Nov, 2009 Doncha hate meetings? Most do. But even though they’re often an enormous waste of time, meetings still happen in every business, every day. Consider these ways to make meetings shorter. Some are so obvious it hurts. Some are sort of mean. Only hold a meeting if it’s really necess...
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