By Phyllis Weiss Haserot and Holly EnglishDespite the desire by many professionals at some time in their careers to have more flexibility in their working arrangements, particularly now that technology makes it so much easier, decision makers and even the candidates for flexibility themselves resist such arrangements.The deterrents to faster progress are perceived fears and uncalculated costs and benefits.

As companies struggle to comply with new rules and regulations stemming from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and regulatory bodies, a trend toward employing Chief Governance Officers is emerging. It is estimated that about 60 publicly traded companies now employ CGOs, charged with ensuring the company is complying with an ever growing list of new requirements. Robert Lamm, Computer Associates International’s new director of corporate governance, told Investors Business Daily that in the two weeks it took him to drive up the East Coast to start his new job, there was a whole set of new

Reprinted with Permission from By Kerry L. Johnson, Ph.D. It's Carl's sixteenth cold call. He's had fifteen rejections in a row. "There must be a better way," he says to himself. "I might as well be calling right out of the telephone book." As he dials, his secret hope is that he'll get either a busy signal or no answer. He wonders if there's a job that doesn't create so much emotional distress. There has to be a better way!If you're still making cold calls to get business, you undoubtedly don't enjoy it. There is a better way. Learn how to use referrals.

With accountants increasingly under the microscope in the wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other reforms, it appears that the finance professionals implementing the reforms are cashing in.The Association for Finance Professionals (AFP) recently released the results of a new survey looking into compensation of accountants and finance professionals.

At a time when any sign of economic recovery is welcome, the slight increase in expected fourth quarter hiring of accounting and finance officials made news this week.Robert Half International Inc. commissioned the survey of 1,400 chief financial officers in companies with 20 or more employees. The survey found that, nationwide, 8 percent expect to add staff in the final three months of the year and 7 percent plan to make cuts. This net 1 percent gain is better than the equal split Robert Half predicted for the third quarter.

Re-published with permission from White-Collar Crime Fighter, www.wccfighter.com.The fact that a person has been convicted of fraud does not mean that he or she will commit fraud in the future. Nor is a perfectly clean record any guarantee of future honesty. The good news: There are warning signs in a job candidate's background which often indicate the probability of dishonest behavior. You can uncover these signs by:Deciding in advance what elements in a candidate's background would rule out hiring him or her.

Giving employees something to smile about at the office may be as simple as offering them more control over their time, a recent survey suggests. One-third (33 percent) of workers polled said greater schedule flexibility would result in increased job satisfaction.The survey was developed by OfficeTeam, a leading staffing service specializing in highly skilled administrative professionals.

With competition for good jobs at an all-time high, candidates who conduct their job search as a sales campaign consistently win out over those who don’t. When job seekers practice the skills of sales experts they learn to apply the strategies of a sales presentation to their job interviews. To get to the top of the candidate list, you’ll need these three essential sales skills:Pre-interview preparationFinding and using the interviewer’s “Hot Buttons”Closing on the next step of the interview process1.

By, Deborah Walker, CCMCI had an interesting conversation a while back with a hiring manager who made a comment about the surprising number of resumes she gets from people seemingly overqualified or from unrelated industries. Most of the resumes she tosses aside with disinterest. I share her comments in case you fit the profile of candidate she mentioned. If so, there are steps to take to make certain your resume is seriously considered when applying for position outside your industry or for which you are overqualified.Address the issue in your cover letter.