2018 was a great year for iHire, with record amounts of viewers visiting our 50+ sites to find their next great career opportunity or look for articles to read. To celebrate our success, we put together a list of our top career advice articles for 2018. However, the ten articles below represent more than just the best career advice articles – there’s something for employers, too. Check out what your peers were reading in 2018.

1. How to Respond to a Low Salary Offer

Nothing’s worse than making it all the way through the job application process, nailing the interview, and being offered the position you wanted only to receive a lowball salary proposal. This article provides some simple advice to help navigate the situation, from making sure your expectations are realistic to negotiating for a higher salary or alternative compensation like more vacation days.

2. How to Reconnect with Old Colleagues without Being Awkward

Maintaining a strong professional network is essential to your career development, but losing contact with past colleagues and coworkers is a common problem. If you need to get back in touch with former teammates and/or previous supervisors, check out our list of dos and don’ts and take advantage of our networking email samples.

3. How to Explain Resume Gaps in Employment: 6 Real-World Examples

Extended periods out of the workforce can make a job search difficult regardless of the explanation. We’ve offered advice on how to handle the situation in your cover letter, but this article supplies guidance on how to explain gaps in employment on your resume as well as specific tips for common scenarios such as being unable to work due to a long-term illness or taking a career hiatus to care for a family member.

4. Applying for a Job Without all the Qualifications? Here’s What You Need to Know.

In this current candidate-driven market, certain advice like “don’t apply for a job if you don’t have all the qualifications” is no longer true. This article breaks down the difference between desired, preferred, and required skills and offers insight into what recruiters and employers are actually looking for when reviewing an applicant’s resume.

5. When is the Best Time to Apply for Jobs?

Each individual is unique, but everyone has a particular part of the day where they feel more productive. Find out about the science of timing in this article and learn how the time of day can impact your performance. Understanding the best activities to complete during different parts of the day can help you maximize your efforts and lead a healthier life.

6. 10 Funny & Inspirational New Year Memes for 2019

Although iHire is known for publishing some of the best career advice articles, not all our content pieces need to be serious. With this blog post, we decided to ring in the new year with a look at some funny and inspirational memes for 2019. If you need a break from the job search or just want a quick laugh, these memes will make you smile.

7. Want Better Job Matches? Tell Us What You Don’t Want to See

Need a quick tutorial on how to get the best results from your iHire job search? This blog post provides tips on how to leverage a little-known feature that helps power our iMatch technology: negative skills. By letting iHire know what you don’t want to do, our system will highlight opportunities that more closely match your dream job.

8. 2018 Winter Olympics – US Olympian Day Jobs That May Surprise You

Every four years we marvel at Olympic athletes and their superhuman abilities, but we often forget that they’re also normal people with families and day jobs. We researched the 2018 Winter Olympics US team and put together a list of their interesting occupations which includes a classical guitarist, market analyst, real estate agent, and a roller derby competitor.

9. The 5 Types of Hiring Biases that Could Be Ruining Your Recruiting Operations

Up to this point, we’ve focused mainly on our best career advice articles from the past year, but now it’s time to turn our attention to our library of employer resources. This piece focuses on the common interview biases that can impact a recruiter or hiring manager’s decision making and offers advice on how to minimize the impact that preconceptions can have on the hiring process.

10. 5 Types of Pre-Employment Tests & How to Use Them

We’ll finish our list of popular articles to read on the iHire site with this reference for employers about pre-employment tests. Recruiters and hiring managers need to be extra careful when administering a pre-employment testing program to guard against claims of discrimination, but – when done correctly – this type of pre-screening can mitigate your chances of making the wrong hire.