A concise and captivating guide to the many ways an interview can go wrong.
A manual focuses on improving job candidates’ interviewing skills.
“First impressions are critically important in job interviews,” writes Baum in this compact introduction to the subject, “when we have only a short time to make our best impression.” Readers who have ever sat for interviews have probably wondered if they were making one of a number of possible mistakes in subtext or signaling. The author seeks to illustrate some of those errors through a series of fictionalized characters designed to embody what not to do and who not to be. Readers meet “The Interrupter,” who’s always interjecting opinions and reactions, and Baum gives the common-sense warning: “People don’t like to be interrupted.” Readers meet “The Messy Dresser,” who shows up with wrinkled clothes and such, and again, there’s a wise warning: “Whether it is fair or not, people make assumptions about you and your skills based on your appearance.” And there’s “The Nodder,” who nods and mutters “uh-huh” no matter what’s being said, which can lead to mixed signals: “A disconnect between the message your body language sends and the words you use can make one appear to be dishonest or false.” The author adds enormous value to these insightful categories by including in each case a passage of advice for the poor interviewees who may recognize themselves in the descriptions. Baum also delivers tips for interviewers, first analyzing whether or not the trait is a deal-breaker. The author then lays down the hard facts, the “Know When It’s Over” that means the attribute is, in fact, a deal-breaker. Thanks to Baum’s experience as an executive for Capital BlueCross and vivid imagination, these fictional stand-ins cover virtually everything that could go wrong in an interview, from talking too much and name-dropping to being overly familiar or artificially casual. And the tone throughout—sharp but not unsympathetic—will be bracingly useful to interviewers and interviewees alike.
A concise and captivating guide to the many ways an interview can go wrong. (illustrations)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-950459-00-1
Page Count: 66
Publisher: Vision Accomplished, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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