Cures for the common interview mistake

By Carlos Baldizon Martini 



Sometimes it seems that my job as a career coach more closely resembles a career “doctor” for certain job seekers who come to me with their aches and pains of job search. I try to track their symptoms so I can understand their issues and help give them a treatment plan to get them back on their feet.

Many job seekers would agree that interviews are the most painful part of the hiring process. It often leaves you with more questions than answers: “What did I say wrong? What did I forget to mention? I thought it went great — what should I be doing differently? Why haven’t I heard anything yet?”

I recently spoke with a job seeker suffering from just that. Walking through his approach to the entire interview process, we were able to identify opportunities for him to improve what he’s doing before his interview, during his interaction with a hiring manager and the steps to take once the interview has concluded.

Job seeker symptom: “I feel like I’m not connecting with the interviewer.”
Diagnosis: Failure to research the company, industry, interviewer(s) and employees.
Prescription: Candidates who walk into an interview and ask surface level, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions can come off as lazy or careless to a recruiter or hiring manger. By digging deeper into the company’s industry, competitors and what current employees have to say about the environment, you can decipher some more meaningful questions that allow you to determine whether the company is up to your standards when it comes to places you want to work. Remember – being prepared isn’t the same as being pompous. You’re not trying to grill the interviewer but instead create a great dialogue.
Job seeker symptom: “The interview feels like an interrogation.”
Diagnosis: Failure to comfortably talk about one’s self.
Prescription: An interview is a conversation. While nerves can set you on edge to feel like you’re up against the wall, take a breath and realize that you’ve made it this far. Avoid stress through practicing interviews with common interview questions. Review your résumé and consider how you can talk about each of those points with an example or story of how you reached those achievements. The more comfortable you are talking about yourself as it relates to the position, the more at ease you will be, making way for a confident interview experience.
Job seeker symptom: “Follow up is useless!”
Diagnosis: Skipping a crucial step in being memorable.
Prescription: Last month, I emphasized the importance of sending thank-you notes after every interview. If you do this and didn’t get the job it doesn’t mean you should stop sending thank-you notes. It is the essential final step to marketing yourself and is proper etiquette for any interview. If you aren’t offered the position, reflect on what you’re doing before and during the interview. You should also ask the interviewer what you can do to improve for future interviews as part of your job search. While many companies do have legal restrictions regarding feedback, any information they can share will help you better prepare for future opportunities.

If you’ve matched any of these symptoms, don’t worry — they’re common and can be cured. If you are proactive in practicing interviews and doing your research, learning how to behave in an interview and using proper follow-up techniques, you can have a healthy job search.

Here's The Incredible Cover Letter Leonardo Da Vinci Wrote In The 1480s

"Should the need arise, I will make mortar and light ordnance"

By Business Insider

By Drake Baer

Even a Renaissance man is occasionally on the job hunt.

Such was the case back in the 1480s, when a young Leonardo da Vinci was coming up in Florence.

Born the lowly son of a notary, da Vinci couldn't enter the "higher professions" of the city, like lawyer or statesman. Instead, his lot was that of a craftperson - a painter, to be exact.

Under the tutelage of Verrochio, an established artist and goldsmith, da Vinci honed the powers of observation that would drive his illustrious career.

But Florence, he realized, was crowded with artists. If da Vinci was to make a name for himself, he'd have to try another town.

So he turned his sights toward Milan, then ruled by Ludovico Sforza, who hoped to make Milan a cultural capital on par with Florence and Venice. He also had a habit of getting into wars, as one did back in the day.

Da Vinci applied to work for him, and knowing his potential patron's penchant for war, he wrote a cover letter positioning himself as a military engineer. As the best cover letters do, it tailored his career history to his employer's needs.

Here are a few of the inventions da Vinci proposed:

• "Very light, strong and easily portable bridges with which to pursue and, on some occasions, flee the enemy"
• "Covered vehicles, safe and unassailable, which will penetrate the enemy and their artillery"
• "Where the use of cannon is impracticable, I will assemble catapults, mangonels, trebuckets and other instruments of wonderful efficiency not in general use."
• Beyond weapons, da Vinci promised innovations, like tunneling beneath castle walls, redirecting the waters of moats, and methods for destroying fortresses.

"In short," he humbly proclaims, "as the variety of circumstances dictate, I will make an infinite number of items for attack and defence."

Surprisingly, the legendary artist doesn't mention his ability as an architect, painter, or sculptor until the close of the letter, and, by today's standards, it's a bit long-winded.

Regardless, the letter worked: Da Vinci worked for the duke for 16 years, completing some of his most memorable work, including "The Last Supper."

Care of blog-based archive Letters of Note, here's the cover letter in full:

My Most Illustrious Lord,

Having now sufficiently seen and considered the achievements of all those who count themselves masters and artificers of instruments of war, and having noted that the invention and performance of the said instruments is in no way different from that in common usage, I shall endeavour, while intending no discredit to anyone else, to make myself understood to Your Excellency for the purpose of unfolding to you my secrets, and thereafter offering them at your complete disposal, and when the time is right bringing into effective operation all those things which are in part briefly listed below:

1. I have plans for very light, strong and easily portable bridges with which to pursue and, on some occasions, flee the enemy, and others, sturdy and indestructible either by fire or in battle, easy and convenient to lift and place in position. Also means of burning and destroying those of the enemy.

2. I know how, in the course of the siege of a terrain, to remove water from the moats and how to make an infinite number of bridges, mantlets and scaling ladders and other instruments necessary to such an enterprise.

3. Also, if one cannot, when besieging a terrain, proceed by bombardment either because of the height of the glacis or the strength of its situation and location, I have methods for destroying every fortress or other stranglehold unless it has been founded upon a rock or so forth.

4. I have also types of cannon, most convenient and easily portable, with which to hurl small stones almost like a hail-storm; and the smoke from the cannon will instil a great fear in the enemy on account of the grave damage and confusion.

5. Also, I have means of arriving at a designated spot through mines and secret winding passages constructed completely without noise, even if it should be necessary to pass underneath moats or any river.

6. Also, I will make covered vehicles, safe and unassailable, which will penetrate the enemy and their artillery, and there is no host of armed men so great that they would not break through it. And behind these the infantry will be able to follow, quite uninjured and unimpeded.

7. Also, should the need arise, I will make cannon, mortar and light ordnance of very beautiful and functional design that are quite out of the ordinary.

8. Where the use of cannon is impracticable, I will assemble catapults, mangonels, trebuckets and other instruments of wonderful efficiency not in general use. In short, as the variety of circumstances dictate, I will make an infinite number of items for attack and defence.

9. And should a sea battle be occasioned, I have examples of many instruments which are highly suitable either in attack or defence, and craft which will resist the fire of all the heaviest cannon and powder and smoke.

10. In time of peace I believe I can give as complete satisfaction as any other in the field of architecture, and the construction of both public and private buildings, and in conducting water from one place to another.

Also I can execute sculpture in marble, bronze and clay. Likewise in painting, I can do everything possible as well as any other, whosoever he may be.

Moreover, work could be undertaken on the bronze horse which will be to the immortal glory and eternal honour of the auspicious memory of His Lordship your father, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.

And if any of the above-mentioned things seem impossible or impracticable to anyone, I am most readily disposed to demonstrate them in your park or in whatsoever place shall please Your Excellency, to whom I commend myself with all possible humility.

25 Things We Wish Someone Had Told Us At Graduation

"Drink higher-end liquor. The hangovers aren't as bad."

By Business Insider

By Leah Goldman

It's graduation time, and everyone is sharing advice for graduates.

So we decided to ask our co-workers at Business Insider, "What do you wish someone had told you at graduation?"

From where you should try to get a job, to what you should drink, to how you should spend your money, our colleagues had a lot to say.

But it's all valuable and comes right from the brains of people who have already experienced it.

Among the tips is this one from Mamta Badkar, Senior Markets Reporter

Call employers after you've sent in a job application. Unfortunately getting a job interview isn't just about your skills; it's about being the annoying kid who won't give up. Follow up, cold call, and accept that more often than not, you won't hear back.

Tip #24 comes from Peter Jacobs, Education Reporter

Make an effort to keep in touch with your friends from college. It gets trickier when they're not living down the hall from you, but it's really cool to see what people are up to - whether they're in your city, across the country, or on the other side of the world.

Enjoy, and good luck!

Read more at: 25 Things We Wish Someone Had Told Us At Graduation

      

Three ways to handle coffee-fetching internships

By Guest Contributor  

By Jon Fortenbury, Schools.com
So there you are, interning at a company in your desired field, and all they’ve assigned to you so far are monotonous tasks like fetching coffee or sorting papers. Probably not what you were expecting. Many of us have been there, and there are a variety of ways of going about handling it, some undoubtedly better than others.

Here are three ways to handle an internship where you’re not doing relevant work or learning relevant lessons.
1. Find a way to brag about it on your résumé
There are ways to word something on a résumé to make it look good without lying.
In an internship where you do non-relevant tasks like answer phones or run errands for the boss, you can still use it on your resume by applying it toward a specific position you apply for in the future. Brigham Young University gives an example of this on its website, by showing how someone could make a teaching assistant position on their résumé look compelling for a sales position. In this scenario, BYU suggested putting the following on a resume: “Tailored information and resources to the needs of 15 independent students.” Tailoring information is what sales people do, so it works while being accurate.
Fetching coffee may be difficult to brag about, but it does show your willingness to do any task your boss asks of you. Sorting papers shows your organizational skills. Answering the phone displays your interpersonal skills. There are ways to market this to your advantage, without exaggerating or lying.
Finding a way to demonstrate your skills with menial tasks could still enable the internship to be useful for you.
2. Ask for more responsibilities
It may sound nerve-wracking, but asking for more relevant responsibilities may work. It may also blow up in your face, if the boss thinks you’re undermining his or her authority. So be sure that when you go about this you do so as respectfully as possible, reiterating how much you appreciate the company’s work and your opportunity to intern there.
If this is an unpaid internship, then legally the company can’t merely have you fetching coffee. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are six criteria that must be met that determine a legal unpaid internship, summarized below:

• The internship should be similar to the kind of training found in an educational environment.
• The internship is for the benefit of the intern.
• The internship doesn’t replace employees, but works under their supervision.
• The employer “derives no immediate advantages from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.”
• The intern’s not necessarily guaranteed a job after the internship ends.
• Both you and your employer understand the internship’s not paid.

If the company where you’re interning at for free doesn’t meet those criteria, then not taking on more responsibilities keeps you in illegal status. At this point, it seems you have a legal obligation to ask for more responsibilities. Of course, this only applies to for-profit companies and unpaid internships. If you’re paid or interning at a non-profit organization, you can’t take the legal approach with your boss when asking for more relevant work tasks.
3. Do your best and then find another internship
If things aren’t panning out with your internship as you hoped, should you quit it and try to find another? Unless you’re being harassed or mistreated in some way, you should finish up any internship you’ve already started, whether it’s paid, unpaid, relevant or irrelevant. And finish it up well. But after the internship spent fetching coffee is over with, find another internship.
Lauren Berger, founder of Intern Queen, completed 15 internships during college. Most college students won’t get near this number, so don’t allow your only college internship be one where you don’t gain anything — money or valuable work experience. Internships are an excellent way to gain relevant experience, learn about career fields you’re interested in, and network with current professionals. Don’t let one bad internship solidify your experience with internships. Land at least one more, if not a few more, during college, but only after giving your current internship your best shot.

The applied learner’s key to success: Entrepreneurship

By Guest Contributor  
 

By David Zheng, co-founder and CEO of Klout Fire

Richard Branson has built an empire around the phrase “Screw it, let’s do it.”
The multimillionaire says that, when presented with an opportunity, many people say “no” or “let me think about it” because they are “overcautious” or “suspicious” of new ideas — or they simply need time to think. Branson, on the other hand, is eager to dive in headfirst and figure out logistics later.
“What is worse,” Branson asks, “Making the occasional mistake or having a closed mind and missing opportunities?”
As most born entrepreneurs would agree, the benefits of trying new things far outweigh the risk of making a mistake.
Conceptual vs. applied learners
Whether he realizes it or not, Branson is describing a fundamental difference in the way people learn. People who “simply need time to think” are conceptual learners — that is, they approach knowledge from an intellectual vantage point. Conceptual learners are great readers, and they do well with hypothetical examples.
Branson, on the other hand, is the very personification of an applied learner. He learns by doing. An applied learner doesn’t hesitate to get her hands dirty; she’s less concerned with feasibility and analysis than she is with taking action. Applied learners jump off the cliff and build their wings mid-air.
It’s not surprising that applied learners make the best entrepreneurs. Like swimming, entrepreneurship is not primarily an intellectual endeavor. It requires a combination of determination and fearlessness. A skilled entrepreneur is eager to get in over her head and figure things out as she moves forward.
If you’re an applied learner, entrepreneurship could be a powerful tool for unleashing your inner potential.
How to determine learning styles
When you’re learning something of little practical value, do you find yourself bored? And when you learn about something exciting, do you have the urge to try it out immediately?
Bonus question: When Elvis sings, “A little less conversation, a little more action please,” do you feel like he’s speaking directly to you?
If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may be an applied learner. And if you haven’t considered launching an enterprise, you should.
It’s not an easy path, though. According to the Small Business Administration, about half of all new businesses survive five years or more, and only about one-third survive 10 years or more. In the face of rapidly changing markets and technologies, an entrepreneur needs to make strategic decisions quickly and effectively.
Tenacity, flexibility and the ability to think on your feet are skills that can be explored in a classroom, but they’re only mastered through real-world application.
How to get started
If you feel ready to try your hand at entrepreneurship, there’s nothing stopping you. Develop your idea, then dive right in. As an applied learner, you’re already comfortable with learning through execution.
Here are some guidelines for leveraging your learning style into entrepreneurial growth:

• Put your baseline knowledge to use. If this is your first entrepreneurial endeavor, the learning curve will be steep no matter what. Therefore, familiarity with a particular industry — even if it’s just basic knowledge — can be a real asset. Choose a sector based on what you already know. A head start can go a long way.

• Treat everything as a learning experience. In launching a business, you’ll face a constant barrage of challenges, failures, and curveballs. It can overwhelm even the most seasoned entrepreneur. But remember this: Every fork in the road is a lesson. Even if you fail outright, you’ll have acquired new skills, knowledge, and networks. This makes you better prepared for whatever comes next.

• Find the right mentors. As an applied learner, the benefits of finding a mentor — someone with frontline experience — are tremendous. A good mentor is a coach, a guide, and a pillar of emotional support. He or she will hold you accountable, connect you with critical resources, and help expand your network. Keep yourself open to your mentor’s criticism and feedback. This relationship can accelerate your journey as an entrepreneur.

The adventure of entrepreneurship
Not every applied learner is a born entrepreneur. For some, the risks are too great. There’s little stability or job security in entrepreneurship.
But for people who choose to launch their own enterprises, the primary goal is rarely a stable lifestyle. Entrepreneurship is a chance to blaze your own trail and create something out of nothing. It’s a stimulating, fulfilling adventure.
If you’re even remotely interested in becoming an entrepreneur, go for it. The path may be challenging, but it’s filled with opportunities to learn and grow.

How to Wreck Your First Job in One Simple Text

The clash over talking vs. texting

By Sarah Browne

Alamy

It was the second week of Jen's new job. She was fresh out of college and thrilled to be working at a Fortune 500 company. She was also thrilled to be invited to an early morning executive leadership breakfast at a nearby hotel. But when none of her team showed up at the designated meeting place by the appointed time, she did what she always did in similar situations. She texted.

Oops. It turns out that new hire Jen was on the wrong side of the Great Communications Gap. She was a texter; her new boss was a talker. She'd left a voicemail for Jen about the hotel change. But Jen wasn't in the habit of checking her voicemail. "I'm not sure it was really installed," she explained later.

If you're a recent college graduate, you may not know much about this growing Talking versus Text gap. Or maybe you do. Think about your Mom. When she wants to get in touch, does she text you? Or call you?

If she's a Baby Boomer, it's likely that she wants to hear your voice. Not your LOL or smiley emoji. While virtually every age group these days is spending less time talking on the phone, boomers are the only ones gabbing like they did when they dialed Flagstone 2-8066 on the Princess phone.

Statistics from the Pew Internet & American Life Project support this generational clash. Research says that the younger you are, the more likely you are to prefer texting. Nielsen reports that texting among 18-24 year olds --prime first job territory-- has more than doubled in recent years, from 600 texts a month to more than 1,400. Unlimited data plans accelerate this trend. And as we all know, email is so last millennium.

Obviously, this is fine in your personal life. But what about at work? Could that first job of yours be sabotaged by not being aware of the accepted communications etiquette in your office?

Career experts suggest the following:

Make no assumptions. Baby Boomers are not necessarily Luddites nor are your fellow Millennials always texting up a storm in the office. Ask your manager and your colleagues directly about the ways in which they want to be contacted.

Don't balk at the talkers. If it's your boss, that is. You're not going to convert a Talker to a Texter if she's had decades of communicating via voice. Texters frequently view phone calls as "intrusions" while Talkers are often annoyed by emoticons and abbreviations.

Luke's manager, Tina, was in the habit of calling him while she was commuting and stuck in traffic. She used that time to tap into her SUV's Bluetooth and catch up on work calls. The constant background noise, bad connections and call fails drove Luke crazy. He tried approaching her candidly but soon realized that Tina's habit was too deeply entrenched. So Luke came up with a work-around: he switched his personal trainer appointments to Tina's commute time. The rules of the gym forced him to turn off his phone.

If you do text with your managers or even another employee, avoid the BRB and shortened spellings. One of the sensitivities among non-texters relates to grammar and punctuation. Also discuss what's reasonable in terms of a texted answer. Comfortable Texters are usually rapid-fire real-time responders. Infrequent texters may consider "ASAP" to mean the next time they text. Which could mean "tomorrow."

Understand the vernacular. Texters may use the expression "talk" to mean texting or even Facebook commenting. "Oh, I talked to her yesterday" may mean texting, not voice. Employees should be clear about the type of communication they've conducted with business related conversations.

Be smart about video calls. Just because your boss prefers talking does not automatically translate into a desire for a Google Hang-Out or Skype call. Ask before you click VIDEO when scheduling a conference call.

Look to HR for guidance. In some European countries, new employee-employer communications protocols are in place. In Germany, even the government has become involved, banning certain types of after-hours communication behaviors such as phone calls. Some corporations such as VW actually turn off email at close of business. While these practices don't appear to be widespread in the U.S.,Human Resources professionals are monitoring these trends closely.

Rethinking retirement? Strategies for staying in the game and in demand

By Guest Contributor

By Kim Monaghan

In our new economy, many employees are rethinking retirement due to limited raises, drops in healthcare coverage, and wavering pensions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor force participation rate of workers 55 and up will continue to grow reaching 43 percent by 2018 and 22 percent for those 65 and over.
Additionally, The Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College follows continued trends of older workers staying employed or re-entering the workforce even after retirement. Is it all financially driven? Not necessarily. For many, now that we’re living longer, we simply want to contribute longer. So for those rethinking retirement, consider the following strategies to stay in the game and in demand.
Polish your skills
It’s a slippery slope from fear to failure, so don’t let your discomfort with new technology send you packing. Social media, smart phones and Skype are here to stay, so time has come to get “techy.” In fact, learning something new is the best way to keep the brain sharp and honed for increased functioning. But with the trend for strategic cutbacks, don’t always rely on your employer to provide skill-based training. Take the initiative by attending seminars, workshops, conferences or by investing off the job time to polish your skill set through continued education. AARP Worksearch Foundation provides resources for people over 50 and older looking for work and for additional skill development training.
Embrace a multi-generational workforce
What a better way to stay current on technological trends then to buddy with the generation born online. Making an effort to understand and embrace younger generations is not only a great way to learn from their expertise but to demonstrate you’re a team player. Trainings abound on navigating generational distinctions in an effort to help professionals collaborate effectively. Be willing to considering new approaches and priorities from younger counterparts and recognize that seniority doesn’t always equal superiority. When in doubt about lingo or logistics don’t be afraid to ask questions. After all, they’re just as curious about you.
Take advantage of resources
Staying healthy and well-informed is that much easier when you take advantage of organizational resources. Most companies offer benefits including heath tests, wellness coaching, financial planning and fitness classes are free or low cost. Get up and actively pursue these perks while you’re working and beyond by taking steps now to establish a strategy for retirement. For instance, many of my clients on the exit track work with me to develop a retirement plan that includes a benefits analysis, wellness plan and an encore career development strategy. I highly recommend any employee over the age of 50 to start working on all of these facets and routinely tweak them as you get closer to leaving. The transition to a new job, retirement or even an encore career is easier and less daunting when you’re healthy and fit and have a plan for your future in place.

Stay engaged
Avoid mentally checking out by staying in the game and you’ll see the mutually beneficial rewards of making a contribution. Mentoring younger co-workers is a great way to give and gain as older workers Savvy organizations that recognize that a lack of certain skills in younger workers can be found in their older counterparts and encourage this cross-generational imparting of wisdom. Additional ways to stay engaged might include spearheading “bucket list” projects that sometimes take flight easier when you’re affiliated with a company. Key-note speaking, formulating philanthropic partnerships, starting a foundation or even leading formalized training programs are embraced and sponsored by organizations. But probably the best way to stay engaged is to interact with others by joining groups or attending work-sponsored activities. Yes, who you know and who knows you helps keep you in demand, but more importantly having a continual sense of community is imperative for optimal well-being.

How to quit your job (the right way)

By Guest Contributor

  By Kristin Marino, OnlineDegrees.com
There are many ways to quit a job, and some ways are nothing short of epic. There’s Steven Slater, a JetBlue flight attendant, who, at the end of yet another flight where he felt abused by passengers, announced that he was quitting his job, deployed the aircraft’s evacuation slide, and slid down it with two beers he had grabbed from the service cart.
Then there’s writer Marina Shifrin, who worked all hours of the day and night creating videos for her employer, a Taiwanese animator. Fed up, she created one final video, set to the tune of Kanye West’s “Gone,” showing her dancing around the office as she describes exactly why her job is so bad. Apparently her boss was obsessed with how many views the company’s videos were getting, which makes it quite ironic that her “I Quit” video has thus far garnered 17,399,027 views on YouTube.
And then there’s Gwen Dean, who may have just eclipsed all past epic job resignations smack dab in the middle of Super Bowl XLVIII. During a commercial for Go Daddy, the 36-year-old machine engineer from Yonkers, New York had just two words for her boss, Ted: “I quit.” One of her puppets, Mr. Frank, added “Ciao Baby.” According to Nielsen, the 2014 Super Bowl garnered 111.5 million views, which makes it the most watched game, and likely the most publicly viewed job resignation, ever.
So, what did Boss Ted have to say about being told he would no longer have the services of Gwen in such a public matter? “You’ve got to be kidding. Wow. Great commercial.” In an interview with the Today Show, Gwen said he was “laughing his can off. It was super cool.”
On the surface, it sounds like a reckless way to quit a job and a great way to burn those bridges down to the ground. But Gwen actually did some things right here.
Be prepared
Before Gwen gave her turbo-charged resignation, she got all her ducks in a row. She got her website up and running (PuppetsbyGwen.com — with help from Go Daddy, of course), so the minute she tendered her resignation, she could take her business live. She also built her clientele (and puppets) in her hours away from work. Don’t wait to line the stuff up you need to make a successful transition until after you’ve quit — get ready while you are still working and earning a paycheck, whether that entails furthering your education, starting a savings account, getting the proper licenses or certifications, etc.
Get pumped … but stay realistic
Gwen left her job to pursue her passion for puppetry. While it might sound a little “out there” at first, Gwen has been doing puppetry since high school and had imagined doing it for a living since then. Even if you’re quitting for another job and not striking out on your own, it’s important you understand that every workplace has good and bad things about it and you need to be realistic about what lies ahead.
Company rules still matter
Even though Gwen quit her job on a national stage, she still followed up immediately with a formal resignation letter. And even though her employer only requires a one-week notice, she is giving two.
Keep those bridges intact and fireproof
Aside from the sensationalistic way she quit, she still kept it short and to the point and didn’t belittle her job or her boss. Because she is entering a field where some of her business might come from word-of-mouth and because she is working with children, she wants to keep things on a positive, upbeat note. Whether you are staying in your current field or trying something totally new, remember there are only a few degrees of separation between your old job and your new one. Gwen has been careful not to give her boss’s last name or the name of the company she works for because she said it’s been a good work experience.
Tips from a pro for quitting your job
Julie Melillo, a Manhattan business and career coach, suggests the following when it’s time to move on:

• Tie up loose ends. Make things as easy for the new hire replacing you as possible. If you have a system for doing things that may not be easily understood, write out instructions and leave them with your boss. If you’re training others to do your job, bring them up to speed as efficiently as you can. Leaving your workplace in a peaceful state means you’ll be remembered more positively. Leave your work station clean and organized, with clear labels for anything that could be confusing.
• Follow protocol. Make sure you follow your company’s procedure for leaving, including giving the appropriate amount of notice. Read up on your HR materials if you’re unclear.
• If you work in a profession where you have work samples or a portfolio, collect your important work samples before you go, but ask permission for anything you need. It’s usually easier to get these materials while you’re still in the office.
• While it’s fresh in your mind, make a list of your work tasks and any important details, which may be difficult to remember later on. If you want to add things to your resume in years to come, you won’t have difficulty remembering important details.
• Think about who you’ll use for a reference in the future. Before your last day, have a face-to-face conversation with each person, and ask how they’d feel about you using them for a reference in the future. If they agree, exchange personal contact information, and keep in touch with a friendly touch-base email every so often. It’s much more difficult to track people down, find contact information and ask for references later on.

How to turn your Twitter into a valuable industry resource

By Guest Contributor


By Adrienne Erin
If you already have a Twitter account, no doubt you already know the great value of this social media platform. But did you know that you can turn your twitter into a valuable resource for your industry? It’s true; you can, and there are plenty of reasons why you should want to do this. Creating an industry resource with your Twitter builds your reputation and helps you gain influence. Here are the steps to follow to make this happen.
1. Make a list of influencers
Carefully construct Twitter lists of the people you’d like to emulate. These can be leaders in your industry or field, people unanimously respected in the industry, or new up-and-comers who are rapidly gaining popularity in your field. Also, you can look at other influencer’s lists, such as Robert Scoble, to find ideas of people who should be on yours. You can even subscribe to public lists of other people on Twitter.
2. Start curating
Great industry leaders such as Maxwell Systems collect or ‘curate’ resources that will be useful for their followers. Maxwell has become well-known in the construction technology sector for being so good at finding great resources to share with their followers. So how do you find this great stuff to share? You can start by sharing the best snippets of content from the blogs that you’re already reading. In addition, you can frequently find good material from your Twitter lists.
It’s also a good idea to keep a close eye on news headlines. Watch for any breaking stories with relevance to your field or industry, and share them on your Twitter. Subscribe to newsletters that you find informative and like pages on Facebook that post interesting content. Be a student of your industry or field and make a conscious effort to always be learning.
Read books and magazine or journal articles written by experts in the field, and listen to podcasts by experts. Attend webinars and conferences, and always have a pen and paper ready to take notes. You never know when you’ll come across some inspiration for great content.
While you’re curating this content, there are two important things to consider. First, always give credit where credit’s due. If you’re using content created by someone else, be sure to acknowledge them for it. Also, try not to just pass along this information. If you’re really serious about using your Twitter to become a valuable industry resource, you should make your own contributions to the wealth of material that’s already out there.
This means that you should expound upon the material that you’re curating. Why is it so good? What makes it valuable? What are some important points that the original creator might have failed to mention? Think about and explain these things to your audience.
Another important tip to keep in mind: you should be using a tool to schedule your tweets. Buffer and HootSuite are two good ones worth checking out.
3. Build a following
Once you’ve found great influencers and have started to accrue some great content, the next step is to build your own following. One of the brilliant minds behind Tweet Smarter, Dave Larson, says that the answer to building a following on Twitter is finding a ‘Super Advocate.’ And you find this, Larson explains, by becoming a ‘super advocate’ for someone else.
This means that you do everything you can to support that person, from retweeting their tweets to commenting on their tweets and giving shout outs that praise them on your own Twitter. Why is this strategy so effective? It all goes back to the golden rule: do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. Endorsing someone else on Twitter makes it much more likely that you will be endorsed on Twitter. Remember, what goes around comes around. It pays to be nice.

Becoming an industry resource on Twitter is an essential part of establishing yourself as a leader in your industry. With the right influencers, a curation of great content and a good following, there’s no limit to what you can do!

Is job-hopping moving your career forward or setting you back?

By Susan Ricker 


Whether it’s an intentional strategy or not, some workers find themselves moving from job to job quickly in a short period of time, also referred to as job-hopping. Perhaps the job wasn’t what the worker envisioned, maybe a better opportunity came along or sometimes circumstances simply change. A new CareerBuilder survey finds that by the age of 35, 25 percent of workers have held five jobs or more. For workers ages 55 and older, 20 percent have held ten jobs or more.
While it’s not as common now for workers to stay at one company for the duration of their career, are employers more understanding of job-hoppers? More than half (55 percent) of employers said they have hired a job-hopper and nearly one-third (32 percent) of all employers said they have come to expect workers to job-hop.
But is this a move that can help or hurt your career in the long run? The answer is…it depends. Read on to learn about when job-hopping is expected and when it becomes a red flag.
New graduates may get a pass
Employers expect a higher rate of job-hopping among younger workers who are still trying to find their footing for their long-term career. When hiring a new college graduate, nearly half (45 percent) of employers expect the new hire to stay with the organization for two years or less, while more than one in four (27 percent) expect new college grads to stay five years or longer.
However, this may not be something to mention in an interview when the hiring manager asks how long you plan to be around or what your five-year plan looks like. Go into an entry-level job with the best of intentions and aim to garner as much experience as possible before pursuing greener pastures.
A phase you grow out of?
Just like new graduates, employers understand that younger workers are likely to try more jobs before they find one they can settle into for an extended period of time. However, employers become less understanding as job candidates mature. Forty-one percent of employers said that job-hopping becomes less acceptable when a worker reaches his/her early to mid-30s (ages 30 or 35). Twenty-eight percent find job-hopping less acceptable after the age of 40.
If you find yourself a veteran job-hopper, employers will expect a good reason before they consider hiring you. If this is the beginning of a pattern, prepare a convincing argument for why this is the job that you’re ready to settle into. By appearing aware of your job-hopping, as well as being able to ease an employer’s mind, you’re much more likely to show that you can bring your varied experience to the position and thrive in it.
Job-hopping by industry
Though job-hopping can become a risky career move if your employment history looks sporadic, there are some industries where it’s come to be expected. Information technology, an industry with a notable talent shortage and highly competitive recruitment tactics, has the largest percentage of employers who expect workers to job-hop.  Rounding out the top five industries are:

• Information technology  – 42 percent
• Leisure & hospitality – 41 percent
• Transportation – 37 percent
• Retail – 36 percent
• Manufacturing – 32 percent

How employers see a job-hopper
When does job-hopping become a red flag on a résumé? It depends a lot on the employer. The study shows that a significant number of employers (43 percent) won’t consider a candidate who’s had short tenures with several employers. In contrast, 55 percent said that they have hired someone they’d categorize as a job-hopper.
The difference in perspective may be what a candidate can bring to the position. More than half (53 percent) of employers said job-hoppers tend to have a wide range of expertise, and can adapt quickly (51 percent).

“More workers are pursuing opportunities with various companies to expose themselves to a wider range of experiences, build their skill sets or take a step up the ladder in pay or title,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “While building up a wealth of experience is a good thing, make sure that you’re staying with a company long enough to make an impact and provide a return on the investment they’ve made in you. Employers may be more understanding of job-hopping today, but most employers are still more likely to hire the candidate who has a pattern of longer tenure with organizations.”

11 things the military teaches you about leadership

By Guest Contributor 


By Alison Griswold, Business Insider
Does military experience translate to leadership and business savvy?
A glance at today’s most successful corporations would suggest that it does. Many of the biggest names in the business world — Verizon’s Lowell McAdam, FedEx CEO Frederick Smith, former General Motors CEO Daniel Akerson — have military backgrounds.
In 2005, a comprehensive study of S&P 500 CEOs by Korn/Ferry International found that more than 8 percent of top execs were ex-military officers, which is nearly triple the 3 percent of U.S. men who serve as officers.
What does the military teach that helps these ex-officers climb to the top of major corporations? We combed through interviews with many of them to find out the biggest lessons about life, business, and leadership they learned from the service:
1. Always look sharp.
Years out of service, FedEx CEO Frederick Smith still keeps up the tidy appearance he learned in the Marines. “Even in a blue pin-striped suit, I still make sure that the right-hand edge of my belt buckle lines up with my shirt front and trouser fly,” he’s said. “I shine my own shoes, and I feel uncomfortable if they aren’t polished.”
2. Take good care of your people.
Former General Motors chairman and CEO Daniel Akerson says military service taught him to lead by example and “to take good care of your people.”
3. Assemble diverse teams to get a range of perspectives.
Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky, a former captain in the U.S. Army, says military training taught him the value of working with diverse teams. “I quickly discovered no one had a lock on the right answers,” he told DiversityInc.
4. Invest in relationships for the long term.
The relationships formed in the military are “lifelong” and “serve you well in a business career,” says Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, who served in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps.
5. Be willing to listen to everyone.
Michael Morris, the former CEO of American Electric Power, has said that the military developed his “willingness to listen and formulate an opinion that incorporates as many people’s ideas as possible.”
6. Stay calm under pressure.
Morris also likes to compare a CEO to a pilot in bad weather — it’s up to him to keep his cool through a storm so his passengers (or shareholders and employees) stay calm. “The last thing you want is to appear to be rattled,” he says.
7. Act decisively even with limited information.
David Morken, CEO of Internet and phone services company Bandwidth, learned to “operate in the fog and to execute and decisively engage when you don’t have access to a complete data set” from his time in the Marine Corps.
8. Carefully plan out the logistics.
Robert Myers, CEO of Casey’s General Store, says his time in the Army made him a perfect choice later to run the company. The company’s founder figured no one was more qualified to head up a distribution chain than a former military logistics officer, CSPnet.com reports.
9. Lead with integrity.
“Veterans have special abilities and common traits, including discipline, maturity, adaptability, and dedication,” John Luke Jr., CEO of MeadWestvaco and a former Air Force pilot, has said. “They operate with integrity and high ethical standards in all that they do.”
10. Be, know, and do everything you ask of those below you.
“When I was attending the Drill Sergeant Academy, I was taught to always ‘Be, Know, Do,’ when dealing with subordinates,” former U.S. Army Drill Sergeant and Argo Marketing Group CEO Jason Levesque tells Business Insider. “Be the expert; know the job; do the difficult [tasks]. Your subordinates will follow you and, best of all, try to emulate you.”

11. Give 100 percent of your effort.
Robert McDonald, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, explains that his time in the infantry convinced him to always commit to something 100 percent. “If you’re going to be in the Army, go into the infantry,” he says. “If you’re going to be in marketing, work for P&G. You don’t do things halfway.”

Working moms and dads: The divide between salary and job titles

By Guest Contributor

Mother’s Day and the soon-approaching Father’s Day are opportunities to appreciate the hard work that goes into being a parent and providing for a family. Those parents who hold down a job while raising a family face a complicated set of responsibilities and challenges both at home and at the office.

In a new CareerBuilder survey examining the professional and family roles of working parents, workers’ salary, title and job satisfaction are evolving year to year. This shift is partially due to the workforce’s increasingly favorable view of flexible schedules and work/life balance. However, the survey sheds light on the remaining gender gap and the career challenges faced by working parents who are also the sole financial earners in their households.

To gain better insight and learn about the career turns of working parents, consider these findings from CareerBuilder’s annual Mother’s Day survey.

Salary and title by gender
Choosing a career path that can support a family’s financial and time demands is a challenge every working parent faces, though not everyone chooses the same route. While many households have two parents that work, others have one sole financial provider, and the survey reveals some noteworthy characteristics of these parents.
Thirty-one percent of working moms and 37 percent of working dads reported that they are the only earners for their households. While working moms and dads who are sole financial providers are equally likely to work in a management position (20 percent), more men reported holding a senior management role, such as a CEO, CFO, Senior VP, etc.

The survey findings also point to a significant disproportion of men and women in other job levels within a company. Working dads who are the sole earners are nearly twice as likely to report holding a professional or technical role — 57 percent compared to 28 percent of working moms. Working moms who are the sole earners are twice as likely to report working in an administrative or clerical role — 52 percent compared to 23 percent of men.
Working dads who are the sole earners also tend to be in a higher earning bracket. They are four times as likely to earn six figures, while working moms who are the sole earners are nearly twice as likely to earn less than $35,000:
Earn less than $35,000 annually

• Working moms who are sole financial providers: 38 percent
• Working dads who are sole financial providers: 21 percent

Earn $100,000 or more annually

• Working moms who are sole financial providers: 6 percent
• Working dads who are sole financial providers: 24 percent

Job satisfaction by gender
While working moms earn less than working dads, they tend to be more content in their jobs overall.  Seventy-eight percent of working moms reported they are happy in their current roles at work compared to 73 percent of working dads.

Maternity and paternity leave
Financial concerns, demanding roles and the pressure to stay on top at work may be influencing early returns from maternity or paternity leave. More than one third (34 percent) of working moms who had a baby in the last three years didn’t take the full maternity leave allotted to them by their companies, up from 30 percent last year and 26 percent in 2012. One in five (22 percent) took a leave of one month or less,  while 11 percent took two weeks or less.
More than half (54 percent) of working dads who welcomed a new baby in the last three years didn’t take the full paternity leave offered by their companies. Half of working dads (49 percent) took two weeks of paternity leave or less, 21 percent took five weeks or more while 22 percent didn’t take any time off. Working dads were twice as likely to work while on leave at 21 percent.
Some new parents couldn’t completely leave the office behind, even with a new baby in the family. Ten percent of mothers and 21 percent of new dads say they worked while on maternity and paternity leave.
While employers are beginning to embrace work/life balances, thanks to the rising acceptance of flexible work arrangements and telecommuting, working moms and dads continue to make sacrifices and manage personal and professional responsibilities.
Stay-at-home parents returning to work
Moms and dads are on a 24-hour shift, seven days a week, and the skills developed as a parent to teach, troubleshoot, manage multiple priorities and arbitrate are very transferable to corporate environments. If you’re a parent getting back into the workforce or first joining it, incorporate what you learned from those work experiences at home.
The majority of employers (65 percent) believe that parenting can qualify as relevant experience for the workplace. Aside from patience, the top work-related skills that employers said people acquire as parents include:

• Ability to multi-task – 64 percent
• Time management – 58 percent
• Conflict management – 49 percent
• Good problem-solving skills – 48 percent
• Mentoring – 40 percent
• Budgeting and managing finances – 34 percent
• Negotiation – 33 percent
• Project management – 25 percent

A career comes with its own challenges, and adding family responsibilities to the workload will require an adjustment period for parents and employers alike. New parents need to communicate their needs and have a frank conversation with their employers. Employers need to encourage this dialog and find ways to accommodate their employees’ changing needs. Collaboration between both parties can help working parents have happy and successful careers and home lives.

How financial services job seekers can overcome the skills gap

By Guest Contributor


By Kevin Knapp, CFO of CareerBuilder
Nearly half of financial services companies are struggling to fill certain positions, despite plenty of potential candidates that could have a positive impact in these roles. According to a new survey by MoneyJobs.com, CareerBuilder’s job site for finance and accounting professionals, 47 percent of financial services firms have open positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates and 49 percent cite a skills deficit as a reason for vacancies.
Financial services organizations require a high caliber of employees due to the technical expertise required and the high impact information they deal with, but the fact that almost half of financial services companies grappling with a hiring issue requires a deeper look. For job seekers, becoming aware of and overcoming the concerns of these hiring managers is the most effective way to secure a job and help close the skills gap.
When pursuing a role in financial services, consider these actions:
Be realistic about salary and don’t forget the benefits
Thirty-seven percent of hiring managers reported gaps in expectations around wages as the top contributor to long-term unfilled positions.  Too often companies are restricted by budget concerns to address it by simply increasing compensation.
Currently, only 19 percent of financial services employers think their organizations offer “extremely or very” competitive pay. Only 42 percent said they would consider increasing compensation for tough-to-fill roles while a third (32 percent) said they would not. Twenty-six percent said they’ve already increased compensation.
To trounce the pay issue, decide on several wage levels you’re willing to accept using market data, not water cooler rumors on what you might be worth in the marketplace. Also, make sure you take into account other job benefits that employers are offering that may make up  for a lower cash paycheck  Remember that employers are more willing to open their pocketbook for known impact players so accepting lower compensation up-front and then proving your worth by exceeding expectations once you are on the job is often the best route to a higher salary rather than waiting for that “ideal” offer from the outside to materialize.
Search for new skills on and off the job
When employers cite a skills gap as their roadblock to finding qualified employees, they may mean that the employee can’t meet their overly specific job requirements (32 percent) or that the candidate has education gaps in particular areas (29 percent).
One encouraging fact to think about: A majority (55 percent) of financial services employers believe training should be equally shared between employers and workers. In fact, 27 percent say the bulk of the responsibility should fall on the employer. Perhaps more surprising is finding that 37 percent of employers provide technical skills training on-the-job.
In the application process, communicate to employers your willingness to learn.  Many employers are more apt to take a calculated risk on someone who might not have the specific skills today but has demonstrated an eagerness for self-improvement.  If you notice many job postings requiring the same software knowledge, mathematical abilities or business know-how, consider pursuing the education needed to obtain these qualifications.
Point to the bottom line
The skills gap isn’t specific only to financial services — this issue is being seen across the workforce. In a separate CareerBuilder survey, 1 in 4 employers admit they have lost revenue due to extended job vacancies. The average company can lose more than $14,000 for every job that stays open for three months or longer. One in six companies lose $25,000 or more.
In addition, employees are affected by positions left open for too long. Workers burdened with heavier workloads have lower morale (41 percent), produce lower quality work (30 percent), certain work never gets done (40 percent) and work that is done is not delivered on time (34 percent).
When a company sees how much revenue they’re losing due to a vacant position and how much they can save by investing in new-hire training, the appeal of candidates who have big potential but offer different skill sets than they expected suddenly goes up.
Don’t put it off.  Take advantage of recent job growth
In a separate nationwide survey of financial services hiring managers and human resources professionals, 35 percent of financial services employers are increasing full-time headcount this year compared to 2013 — 11 points above the national average and up from 27 percent in 2013.
Job growth in financial services is expected to outpace job growth for all occupations in 2014, which is good news for workers of all experience levels. An industry quickly adding new jobs makes room for workers with less qualifications to gain experience and affords opportunities for more seasoned workers. Those contemplating opportunities in financial services may want to take advantage of the current market conditions now before they invariably shift again.

Navigating the skills gap may bring an extra challenge to a job seeker’s search, but those workers with the desire to make it in the competitive financial services industry will undoubtedly be able to overcome this issue.

Working for a startup: Is it right for you?

By Robert Half


Beginning your information technology career at a startup company may sound like a dream job. There’s the opportunity to hop aboard a fresh venture, have your voice heard and skills appreciated and shoot up the ladder. You also have the potential to make a difference, a bunch of money and important decisions that could steer your own future and that of the company.

Working for a startup is very different from being part of a large, established corporation. Hot, young companies often break the mold in terms of business ideology, culture and modus operandi. On the flip side, startups typically demand 110 percent of each team member’s passion, perseverance and dedication. What’s more, they’re notorious for their lack of guarantees.

How can you gauge whether you should work for a startup? We’ve all heard stories about ones that changed the world, made millions overnight and showered their team with unbelievable perks. But what is working for a startup really like? Here are five things to expect.

1. Inspiration
Working for a startup is exciting. You’re building something from the ground up, and the fruits of your labor could become something truly meaningful. You’re surrounded by passionate, hardworking people who are rooting for the company to succeed. If you have your own ideas for launching a business someday, working for a startup is the ideal training ground.
2. Intensity
Most startups are built on their founders’ determination … and piggy bank. And because they’ve devoted so much time and energy to their “baby,” many founders expect you to do the same. Make-or-break goals, irregular hours, heavy workloads, tight deadlines, close-knit relationships and plenty of ups and downs — working for a startup is rarely part time or halfhearted. If you’re ready to give it your all, a startup may bring out the best in you. However, if you have other major commitments or like being able to clock off at five o’clock on the dot, this culture may not be for you.
3. Empowerment
Besides putting your IT knowledge to excellent use, you’ll have a hand in shaping not only the company’s products but also its culture, goals and values. Your opinions, outlook and personality will be crucial to building the company. Your input will be welcome, and you’ll be given greater responsibility and decision-making capacity than you’d get at a “traditional” company. What’s more, you can bet you’ll have a great chance of road testing and refining your ideas in real scenarios.
4. Variety
As startup teams are generally small and dynamic, you will probably wear several hats. If you’re keen to venture into new territory, startups can offer a spectrum of experiences. You could find yourself programming, interviewing job candidates, leading a brainstorming session and giving your input on product design — all in the same week or even day.
5. Risk
Startups are risky. Seed funding doesn’t last forever. If a company takes off within that make-or-break period, it’s cause for champagne. However, money may run out before the venture sees a profit, or the product or service may never gain traction with consumers. You can win big or lose big through no fault of your own.
Working for a startup: Pros and cons
While every company is different, the following advantages and drawbacks are fairly standard elements of a startup:
Pros

• A cool, open-minded work environment
• Being part of a close-knit, dynamic team
• A large amount of responsibility and decision-making capacity from day one
• Opportunities to grow quickly and move up in your career
• Greater transparency than in many larger companies
• A chance to be part of something potentially major from the beginning

Cons

• Irregular hours and the need to be “always on”
• Less-than-spectacular pay and benefits, especially in the beginning
• Little job security
• A lack of structure and direction, and unclear roles

If you believe working for a startup might be right for you, look at it from all angles: What is important to you? What do you want to prioritize? What are you prepared to compromise? Are you ready to take the risks? You may find it helpful to make your own pros-and-cons list and speak with others who work for a startup. If a new company has offered you a job, do your homework. And don’t be afraid to ask — the startup and yourself — plenty of tough questions before saying yes or no.

The career lessons I wish I knew when I was younger

It’s a statement you know you’ve said to yourself before: “If I could go back five/ten years, I would change X, Y and Z.”

You probably have a handful of changes you would make, know some questions you would answer differently, and have actions you’d take a lot sooner. And you’ve probably imagined how different your current situation would be.

If you could go back in time and talk to your younger self, you may bring up the idea of investing in Apple or Google. You might toy with the idea of telling yourself to invent Facebook. You may even decide to give yourself the winning lottery numbers for all those jackpots you’ve missed (no future judgment). But what lessons from the working world would you pass along? How would you ready yourself for your future career?

This week, we posed the same basic question to the members of our social communities: If you could give your younger self one piece of professional advice, what would it be?
Here are just a few of the common threads that emerged.

1. Focus on establishing connections.
“Network! Who you know will open doors to what you know.” – Louise O., via LinkedIn
“Maintain a high-quality network of peers. You might not need it at your current job, but it will be instrumental in helping you find your next one.” – Kim S., via Google+
“Join your industry associations and be an active member. Grow your network, become a subject matter expert and contribute content, and regularly refresh your résumé to include accomplishments that support your professional value/brand.” – Deborah O., via LinkedIn
“Don’t burn bridges.” @imjusttrynaeat, via Twitter
2. Think about what success means to you.
“Success is not measured by how much money you make, but how you inspire others to notice what you do because your career choices never got in the way of your life choices.” – Ilada W., via Facebook
“At the end of the day, despite everything that was said and done, it’s YOU that has to look in the mirror and say, “I made this decision. I can live with it.” – Steve R., via Facebook
3. Be easy to work with.
“Be sincerely nice. People remember that.” – Paul M., via Google+
4. Just do you.
“Go with your passion. Don’t let anyone else talk you out of what you really want to do. Listen to what people say but, in the end, follow what is in your heart.” – Lori S., via Google+
“Do not be discouraged by critics. Fight harder for success because at the end of it all you control your destiny.” – Nene S., via Facebook
“Do what you love.” – Pierre G., via Facebook
One thing to remember: You don’t have to go back in time to make changes for the better. You’re in the driver seat, and you don’t need to be driving a DeLorean DMC-12 with a flux capacitor to improve your current situation.

Take a moment to ask yourself what career advice you’d hope to impart on your younger self. But don’t stop there — we have a few follow-up questions for you: Am I currently taking my own advice? Why not? How am I going to change that?

Respect at work: How to get it back if you’ve lost it

By Robert Half


First, it’s the tardiness and extended lunches. Then, you notice assignments are taking longer than usual to complete. You start hearing more phrases like “I can’t” or “That’s not my job.” It’s time to face the facts: You’re a manager who’s losing respect at work, and you need to make some changes quickly — before your clients and employees decide that it’s time to go elsewhere.
When workers respect their managers and feel respected in return, they are more creative, motivated, energized and, ultimately, productive. Employees place a high value on having a manager they can respect and learn from.
If you need to re-establish yourself as a leader whom your employees hold in high regard, here are some tips:
1. Remember, appearances matter
Perhaps you’ve taken the casual dress code to an extreme. While it would seem odd to wear business attire when the company culture calls for jeans and T-shirts, try upgrading your work wardrobe to earn respect at work. You want to project an approachable yet polished image.
2. Communicate
The importance of employee communication cannot be overstated. Managers who don’t listen to their staff won’t know what’s going on in the office, including why they’re not respected. By setting up regular feedback sessions, not only will you convey to your workers that you value their opinions, but you also will get a better sense of their strengths and weaknesses.
3. Demonstrate your trust
Empower employees to take ownership. Encourage them to take risks, but make sure they know that you’ll back them up if things don’t turn out as expected. Show that you trust their good judgment.
4. Watch your mouth
Pay attention to your words and actions. If you’re getting less respect at work, it could be because you haven’t been behaving in a professional manner. Keep your language respectful and clean, be discrete when it comes to personal issues, and don’t openly criticize other workers or managers.
5. Know when to keep quiet
Tirades may earn fear, but never respect at work. Deal with sensitive work issues or frustrations at a private, individual level rather than broadcasting them during meetings. But the opposite is true when it comes to praise: Be generous and public when thanking people for a job well done.
6. Transfer your knowledge
As a manager, you have the potential to be a valued mentor and teacher. Instruction can be either direct, such as working with a staff member to improve a speech, or indirect, such as leading by example. Bonus: By transferring your knowledge and helping workers succeed, you are training the company’s next generation of leaders.
7. Be open-minded
Put your preconceptions aside and listen to an employee’s proposal with an unbiased perspective. If there’s a conflict, avoid making assumptions. Be fair, don’t show favoritism and give everyone the same chances to succeed.
8. Stay involved
Don’t be a hermit in your office or socialize with just senior management. Earn respect at work by making a point of chatting with workers in a casual setting, such as an office party or after-work drinks with the team. Get to know your employees, and let them get to know you.
9. Be transparent
The unknown is scary. Put yourself in your staff’s position. If the company has had to tighten budgets, they’re going to wonder if layoffs are coming, for example. When change is on the horizon, keep your employees in the loop as much as you can.
10. Know the limits
If workers are still disrespectful after all your attempts, or if one or two bad apples ratchet up their level of disdain, you need to take more drastic action. Let them know their behavior is unacceptable, and explain why it’s important to maintain a proper level of respect at work.

It’s not easy to gain back respect at work once you’ve lost it, but it is possible. Start by having a higher regard for yourself and your workers, which will likely lead them to reciprocate. And who wouldn’t respect that?

How to love the work you do

By Susan Ricker


There are plenty of benefits to loving your job, which can reach far beyond the actual hours you’re on the clock.
As Ray White, author of “Connecting Happiness and Success,” says, “When people love what they do, they are happier and more successful. They work longer hours, make more friends at work, spend most of their time thinking about how to do things better and talk to everyone about what they do, which provides them with lots of diverse ideas on how to do their job even better. Their job becomes intertwined in their life rather than separate from it, and they excel because of it.”
Even if you don’t love your job, there it can still have a positive effect on your life. . “The job may not be your passion,” White says. “It may just enable your passion. Your job can be how you earn enough money to surf or play music. So you are not passionate about the job, but you are passionate about what it enables you to do. The key is to put your job into the perspective of your passions or dreams.”

Craft your job
Whether you’re passionate about your work or what it enables you to do, there are ways to improve your career outlook and how you spend your time in the office. White suggests “job crafting,” or reshaping the responsibilities you hold, as well as your attitude toward them.
“How can you make adjustments in your job so it leverages your strengths, calls on your passions and changes the boring and routine tasks?” White says. “I often use the example of our janitor who doesn’t think her job is to clean bathrooms, it is to keep the ‘kids’ — her name for our young workforce — happy and productive. She makes sure they have coffee in the morning, clean dishes and re-arranged furniture to help them be productive. Last week she pulled furniture out of an old storage room and set up shelves for the people whose desks were getting overcrowded. She changed her job to be something she was passionate about.”
This kind of attitude adjustment can be as large or small as you’re willing to try. “As part of job crafting, you can also turn boring routine tasks into contests with yourself or others,” White says. “If you did 100 entries yesterday, how can you do 150 entries today and maintain the same quality?”

Make connections
Improving how you do your job and how you see your responsibilities is a critical first step in loving your job. But what else can you do to ignite the passion? White recommends looking for the connections. His challenge to job seekers and workers alike: “Do they connect with the vision and values of the company? Does the company purpose give them something bigger than themselves to pursue, for example, an alarm company making the world safer? Do they connect with their friends and teammates at work? Can they be passionate about helping their co-workers succeed or help their team complete a big project? Can they connect with all the things they can learn on the job or the opportunity for travel and/or career advancement? Can they get excited about the opportunities for them to take on and accomplish huge projects with seemingly insurmountable challenges?” These are all questions you can ask yourself, and if you don’t like the answer, you have a great jumping off point for what to change.

The bottom line is not to look at everything you hate about your job, but to find what your job provides for you. After all, as White says, “It is not about the job; it is about how they look at the job and how they choose to create the connection between their jobs and their lives.”

How do employers test an applicant’s skills?

By Susan Ricker  

 

Have you ever looked at a job posting and thought, “Yeah, sure, I could do that”? Or applied to a position that you’d like but didn’t necessarily have the skills for? This is one of the biggest reasons employers have a series of tests to weed out applicants that may not be ready for a role’s challenges.
“According to the Department of Labor, any assessment used during the employee screening and selection process is a test. And any test used must be job-related,” says Ira S. Wolfe, president of Success Performance Solutions and author of “Perfect Labor Storm 2.0”. “The inherent problem with most testing is that it focuses on what the applicant accomplished in the past. And many managers focus on the ‘hard’ skills — the technical and administrative skills.”
As Wolfe points out, though, employers need to test how the applicant will apply these skills, and that they can repeat their success. “While the interview and references are still important tools, work samples and pre-employment testing are playing a bigger role to assess future performance and potential to adapt and grow.”
Read on to learn more about how employers can adequately test the skills of their applicants, and to find out how you can prepare to ace these tests.

1. Following instructions and demonstrating creativity
Ashley Schwartau, director of multimedia production at The Security Awareness Company, was responsible for hiring a new production assistant earlier this year. In order to find the best match for their team, she first assessed candidates through emails.
“When we posted our ad, there were five requirements for them to send us when they replied,” Schwartau says. “Anyone who didn’t follow the directions we didn’t even look at since that’s a pretty basic skill. But then since a couple of our requirements were on the more ‘informal’ or ‘fun’ side, we looked at how much thought and creativity the applicants put into their responses. Some of them were so creative, we put those in the ‘maybe’ stack.”

2. Proving experience through examples
Next, Schwartau gauged the applicants’ work history by viewing their online portfolios. “A lot of the things in the portfolios are obvious school pieces, where they had a lot of time to complete an assignment and were given specific instructions. So that can tell you how literal a person follows rules given to them, how they think when given specific parameters, etc.”
However, Schwartau’s team also expected candidates to display creativity through their own ideas and work, not necessarily what was assigned to them. “It’s important to look for other pieces, like personal projects, or stuff they’ve done on their own just to learn something. Many of the applicants didn’t have those things, and when we spoke to them on the phone or in person it became clear that they lacked a certain creative spark. They weren’t going to go out and learn how to do stuff without being told or asked. So they wouldn’t be good for our team.”

3. Explaining the process and meeting demands of the job
Having an end product that employers like may not be enough to get the job if you can’t also work within their workflow demands. Demonstrating passion for your work and being able to complete it within the role’s demands is essential. Schwartau says, “Get them to show you what they are most proud of and find out why. You can find out how long they spent doing something and what they went through to figure out how to do it.
“We saw this beautiful series of posters one applicant had done as his semester-long project and they were great. Lots of detail and his own illustrations included. Very modern, fresh look. But then we thought about it — it took him four months to do something that we would need to turn around in a couple weeks. After speaking with him further, it became clear that deadlines and a quick turnaround were going to end up stressing him out and he might be overwhelmed by the pace of our chaos. His skills weren’t up to the challenge.”

4. Showing problem-solving skills and knowing resources
A favorite adage in work and life is “If you can’t explain it, you don’t really understand it.” While you may have work experience and an interest in a role, if you can’t explain the processes to complete it or offer insight to particular projects, you’re not bringing much to the position.
Schwartau elaborates, saying, “When a project comes across my desk, I immediately start thinking of all the ways we could handle it from a broad branding approach, down to the ‘which buttons will I click in InDesign to accomplish the effect I want?’ approach. So we posed a few hypotheticals to the candidates and asked them to describe the process they would take to handle the approach. For example, if someone says they’re going to use Photoshop to create what needs to be a scalable vector logo, you know they don’t know what they’re doing. And always ask them what their favorite font is. If they name a regular system font or have never heard of places like dafont or 1001freefonts then maybe they don’t know that half a designer’s job is going out and looking for the right pieces and tools to complete the job. That comes up during the ‘how would you handle this project’ question a lot.”
It may be a lengthy process to secure a role, but demonstrating your skills and abilities and meeting the challenges of an employer is an exceptional way to ensure that both the employer and employee understand the expectations of the position.

4 job search tips from Google

By Anthony Balderrama


Earlier this year, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman interviewed Laszlo Bock, Google’s senior vice president of people operations. Basically, he’s the person in charge of hiring all the bright minds at one of the biggest technology companies in the world. Not a bad gig. At the time, Friedman wanted to understand Google’s hiring process.
More recently, he sat down with Bock again to find out what advice he would give all job seekers, not just those trying to work at Google. After all, not everyone can or wants to work for a tech giant, but finding out how one of the world’s leading companies evaluates job seekers can only help your own search.
He gave some great advice and insight into how he views applicants. We’ve picked four tips that we think are most important and helpful to anyone looking for a job:
1. A good résumé relies on a simple formula
According to Bock, your accomplishments should be framed as action items: “The key is to frame your strengths as: ‘I accomplished X, relative to Y, by doing Z.’”
Listing your daily activities are not that important without context. Instead, bock tells Friedman how to make a hiring manager care about your work history:
“Most people would write a résumé like this: ‘Wrote editorials for The New York Times.’ Better would be to say: ‘Had 50 op-eds published compared to average of 6 by most op-ed [writers] as a result of providing deep insight into the following area for three years.’ Most people don’t put the right content on their résumés.”
2. Interviews are about your communication skills
“Most people in an interview don’t make explicit their thought process behind how or why they did something and, even if they are able to come up with a compelling story, they are unable to explain their thought process.”
Bock says you should be explicit about what you have to offer. Tell them what you have to offer, give them a story about it and then explain how that story was relevant to your skills. Don’t make the interviewer do any guesswork.
3. Creativity + logic = desirable worker
You might not expect a tech giant like Google to be equally passionate about creative minds as they are about analytical, logical workers. Yet, Bock says someone who has the right balance of both creativity and structured thinking is a rarity.
If you think about the success of Google or any company, you quickly realize they rely on innovative ideas and people who can carry them out. All businesses need employees who are trying to stay ahead of the competition with new ideas, but ideas don’t magically turn into successful ventures. You need strategy to carry it through.
4. Make the most out of college
College is a a commitment that takes up your time and money. Don’t just coast by with no goals in sight. Bock tells Friedman, “The first and most important thing is to be explicit and willful in making the decisions about what you want to get out of this investment in your education.”

Once there, said Bock, make sure that you’re getting out of it not only a broadening of your knowledge but skills that will be valued in today’s workplace. Your college degree is not a proxy anymore for having the skills or traits to do any job.

Basically, his advice comes down to being specific. What have you done? What can you do? What will you do? You’ve only got a hiring manager’s attention for a few moments — don’t waste a second of it being vague or assuming they’ll understand what you really meant.