With the 10,000 character limit on these posts, I'll have to break these job seeker tips into several posts. This is just some stuff I've learned over the years.

One of THE biggest obstacles to getting a job is drug use. A friend of mine was a chief engineer at Bell Helicopter. They needed to hire 50 engineers for a special project. They posted the job openings, brought in their candidates, narrowed the field, and selected their 50 finalists. They sent them for their pre-employment drug screen and 45 out of the 50 failed the drug test. These were college educated professionals.

I interviewed at Union Pacific Railroad in 2004. They did group interviews with anywhere from 40 to 60 candidates at a time. The HR rep told us, "You will be tested for drugs. If you have anything in your system, and you will know if do, then get up and leave the room now. You have NOT failed a drug test at this point. The record will simply show that you declined to be interviewed at this time. You can reapply later. If you test positive, you will never work for UP or any railroad ever. All positive tests must be reported to the NTSB. "

Then what he said next floored me. He said, "We've had people in these group interviews in the past and have had every single person in the room get up and leave."

Folks, you have to be ready to go to work. Get yourself clean and stay that way. You can pump your fist and stomp your feet and declare that marijuana should be legalized all you want. And you'll still be unemployed because employers won't hire you if you test positive. Alcohol is legal. You can't drive drunk or show up for work blitzed. Even in states where it's legal, you're closing the door to the majority of jobs if you insist on smoking dope.