The Freeze – Perspective and Expectation

It’s 60 degrees today in Miami, Florida.  People are shivering in the streets wearing seldom-used fur coats and heavy winter boots.  In the winter months in Florida, it is generally accepted that it will still be summer-like temperatures compared to the northern states. Today, on the 3^rd of January, Floridians consider it to be freezing. 

In Virginia, it is floating around a true freezing temperature of 30 degrees and people are probably wearing the same winter clothing that the Floridians have donned at double the temperature. If it was 60 degrees today in Virginia, people would be driving with the tops down on their convertibles, playing golf in shorts, and wearing light sweaters thrilled about such warm weather in winter.

Your perception, how you view situations and circumstances, is based on your experience combined with your expectations. If your experience tells you that it should be 70 degrees in Florida all winter, having the reality be 10 degrees cooler than your expectation will cause you to feel colder than you would if you had been expecting cooler weather. In Virginia, if you expect it to be below freezing and 3 feet deep in snow, a cloudless sky and twice the anticipated temperature will have you perceiving it to be quite a “warm” day!

Consider your relationships with regard to your experience and expectation:

As a manager, do you expect your employees to rush to meet your stated objectives so your group can grow as a whole? According to your experience, have you empowered them to do so or are there unforeseen barriers to their success that you would be able to anticipate or circumvent?

As an employee, are you capitalizing on opportunities at your workplace to exceed your manager’s expectations and help your team to reach their annual goals?  Or, are you someone who is looking for areas where your manager should do more for you in your career and goals? 

These situations are based on your perspective. If you spend all of your productive time waiting on other people to meet your expectations, your life, and your career opportunities may pass you by. 

Please take a moment to share a positive example where your expectations were not being met, and how you took the initiative and the responsibility to improve the situation and facilitate efforts for the team rather than waiting on other people to meet your needs. 

Rather than simply wishing the weather were warmer, take out that fur coat and warm yourself up from the freeze!

Tags: anticipation, expectations, experience, goals, objectives, opportunities, perception, perspective, success, team

The Harvest – Taking Stock

In the retail jungle, the holiday shopping season is traditionally followed by yearend inventory counts.  On the farm, it happens right after the harvest. As professionals, we should also conduct our own yearend inventory and update our resumes with our most noteworthy accomplishments of the year. 

As illustrated in my book, TEN EASY STEPS TO A PERFECT RESUME, you want to have a good description of your company, role, and primary responsibilities as well as a brief list of your most significant accomplishments. Accomplishments are separate from your job description, what you or anyone else would be doing in your position, and they are what most set you apart from others. Accomplishments are details about what you made, saved, or achieved that are special. Relevantly describe how they, and your role, relate to the overall company structure.  Include projects you designed, led through development, and took to completion.  Describe initiatives you were involved in on a team or awards and recognition you received that show you went above and beyond the call of duty.

When describing your accomplishments it’s important to use numbers, percentages, or other quantitative descriptions to show your contribution to your role and the company as a whole. You may have found budget cuts of 10% that increased company profits by $50,000, or you led a software implementation that created efficiencies in reporting and reduced your monthly close by 2 days.  Whatever your situation, show the metric, or key performance indicator (KPI), that you affected through your outstanding performance.

Some people have a hard time bragging about themselves, so try answering these questions as a start:

• What change occurred in my company this year and how was I involved in that?
• How has my department and/or role evolved this year?
• What were the major projects I worked on and how did they affect the division/ company’s performance?

Your answers should spur your train of thought about what increased or decreased and what your part was in that change.

This process can also help you with your goal setting.  Perhaps, after you see your accomplishments on paper, you’ll realize there is a fundamental intellectual challenge that you are lacking or something you really wish you had been involved in that would have offered you personal and/or professional growth. 

Even if you are content with your current role and/or employer and not considering a job change next year, it’s important to keep your resume up to date.  Companies change over time, people take on more responsibility and taking stock of the harvest at the end of the year will make it much easier to update your resume when you do need it. Remember, your resume should be an accurate reflection of the experience that you intend to carry forward, not everything you have done, so choose your examples wisely.

Related Article: Setting Goals

Tags: accomplishments, challenge, exercise, experience, goal setting, goals, Job Search, key performance indicator, performance, professional grouth, quantitative, resume, resume writing, yearend

The Path – When there’s no “Path” to your Career Path

Those of us who reach a certain age with a resume full of professional disconnects are going to be in for a hard sell.  If you’ve cut a path through the jungle over the years, it’s OK if that path has a lot of twists and turns as long as it gets you from A to Z without encountering flooded rivers or giant waterfalls.  But if your path starts under this tree and then stops one hundred yards away, only to continue from a fresh starting point over on the other side of yonder savannah, it’s going to be tough to get a recruiter to talk to you.

There are several posts on this site that talk about assembling relevant experience to address this sort of issue; my suggestion is that you turn your resume into a theme park with clusters of job experience wrapped around a single skill set, such as marketing or advertising or regulatory affairs or whatever fields you’ve delved into more than once.  I’m assuming that you’re a serial career changer like me, with the resume of a dilettante.

To me the resume and cover letter is all about getting in the door.  What I have gotten results with on a couple of occasions is a resume that stakes my profession firmly in the ground where the recruiter is searching, and then leading with all of the experience I had with the various employers I’ve worked for.  I generally flat list prior employment companies and titles, going back as far as I think is necessary to establish my credentials.  Then I’ll list my accomplishments by function: twelve years of marketing experience in this role for Company A, five years as marketing director for Company B, providing marketing analysis for Company C.

The next mini-paragraph might list my accomplishments in advertising: managing the annual media buy for Company A, closing X deals with product distributors for Company B, launching the online sales and marketing effort  for Company C fifteen years ago.  And the following cluster might talk about another skill that I’ve developed as the result of employment requirements: working with governmental agencies on policy and rules as they relate to my employer.

All of that adds up to what I discuss in the cover letter, which is management in multiple environments for various functions involving public and commercial outreach.  Given the hand I’ve dealt myself – working with media companies, for mayors in two major American cities, for a professional baseball team, for a multimedia development startup – that’s the closest I can come to a thematic approach that (hopefully) shows a path through the jungle with one stretch connected to another.  And what I’ve found is that the more programmatic HR professionals will hit the delete button, but the recruiter who is intrigued by such a mix of experience might just give me a call.

This guest post is contributed by Bob Hartzell. Bob has been writing for five years about education and other life essentials on a variety of websites.  He writes about continuing education, career oriented degrees, both the baccalaureate and the graduate degree online, in recognition of the fact that the job market has undergone tremendous changes in the last twenty years.

If you have a great idea for a jungle-themed post, let us know! Guest writers or requests are always welcome!

Tags: accomplishment, career change, Career Path, employment, experience, guest, industry change, Job Search, multiple careers, relevance, resume, skill sets

The Busy Bees – Creating A Sustainable Internship Program For Small To Midsized Businesses

So many flowers and so little time! Your small to midsized hive needs an extra set of honey bee hands for a couple of months and to cover for staff while they are out on summer vacations. There is a lot of honey needing to be made!

Students are a great resource for quick minds eager to learn. They are often up to date on the latest technology, are up and comers in the industry, and are a terrific way to screen potential employees once they are ready to start their careers.

Many colleges and universities require their students to graduate with at least one completed internship under their belts. This gives the students hands-on and practical work experience directly related to their career goals or field of interest. Employers who wish to take advantage of this pool of young talent should create a program which emphasizes professional development as well as provides constructive evaluation of the student’s performance including feedback on the program itself.

Internships are most often considered during the summer months when students will have more time to devote to their internship schedule, but internships can be offered throughout the year. School credit or pay can be offered at the company’s discretion. If the company wishes to offer school credit, they must meet the school’s requirements and submit an application to the school. This summer is a great time to think about starting a 4 to 8 week program for next summer depending on your business’ needs.

To create a sustainable internship program, you must first identify:
• Learning objectives.
• The tasks and responsibilities of the intern(s).
• Total compensation (paid, school credit, stipend, etc.).
• Supervisors/mentors who will guide the intern(s).
• People and concepts the intern(s) will encounter during their internship.
• Schedule of events not directly related to the tasks required of the intern(s) such as attending meetings, conferences, training, etc.
• Qualifications to perform certain tasks (must have(s)) which can be included in the job description
• Training and evaluation.
• Duration of internship (may be determined by whether it is paid or unpaid)
• How you will solicit interns (through the school website, various online internship databases, on the company website, word of mouth, etc.)

A successful internship program requires time and effort on the part of the supervisors. Drafting basic job descriptions as well as a tight, but flexible, schedule for the interns to follow is essential preparation as well as making sure that workspaces and necessary supplies have been arranged for.

5 steps to a successful program:
1. Prepare answers and materials for all of the above points so the internship period runs smoothly.
2. Orient and train the interns in your company’s business and include them in meetings with exposure to all levels of the company.
3. Utilize their skills by having them perform tasks that will challenge and educate with hands on experience.
4. Mentor– with opportunities for them to network and ask questions to benefit from others’ experience as well as shadow employees performing tasks that interns would not be permitted to complete. Research-based tasks are beneficial as well.
5. Evaluate their performance and success with required activities in the program and have them evaluate the program during and after with open communication. Follow up with the school if applicable.

Research your local colleges and universities and reach out to the deans about their internship requirements. No business is too small to have a formalized internship program. The University of Michigan’s Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute is an entrepreneurial studies program that could benefit from an internship at your startup company. Even if you are a small company you may find someone that ends up being a great long term hire. No company is too small!

Build it and they will come…and don’t forget to have fun! Interns can breathe new life into an organization with their enthusiasm. Go make some honey!

Special thanks to the recruiting department at Dixon Hughes Goodman for being a model program and the Michigan State University’s excellent website for tips on how to create a great internship program at your business. http://careernetwork.msu.edu/career-events-recruiting-schedule/hiring-interns.

Tags: aid, career exposure, credit, entrepreneurial studies, evaluation, experience, extra hands, goals, interns, internships, mentor, new hires, potential employees, practical experience, prepare, research, small to mid-sized businesses, summer, supervise, training, university, University of Michigan’s Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lu

The Smart Animals – Un- Or Underemployed? Building Skills Through Self-Education

As pointed out many times on this blog, the employment market is a jungle where only the strongest survive. Just like living in a jungle, there will be times of plenty and subsequent times of material want. Smart animals anticipate these not-so-good times by saving and storing. Conversely, when the going gets tough, they anticipate better times by preparing adequately. If you find yourself currently un- or underemployed, consider the advantages of using your time wisely, so that when success finally comes, you’ll be prepared. Aside from spending your time looking for a new job, spend considerable time building a diversity of skills. Here are a few tips for doing just that.

1. Work for free.
I know this tip sounds a bit counter-intuitive. How would working for free enable you to acquire a new job? For one, it gives you something productive to do with your time, such that when you finally do land some interviews, you can explain to your potential employer what you’ve been doing during employment holes in your resume. Whether it’s designing a website for a non-profit organization or tutoring at-risk students after school, virtually any volunteer work will be personally fulfilling and will have the added bonus of adding weight to a thin resume.

2. Read more.
Even if you do have a job currently, anyone can benefit from learning by reading. If you find that you are lacking certain skills necessary for a job that you want in the future, read up on the industry as much as you can. Figure out what computer software you need to be familiar with or what industry news you need to be aware of, and set up a routine in which you educate yourself. Whether it’s reading a “For Dummies” book, or finding all the necessary information on the Internet, self-study will keep your skills and knowledge current.

3. Surround yourself with those who currently work your desired job.
If you know precisely the kind of job you’re looking for, be sure to connect with others in the industry, even if they won’t be able to help you get a job in the future. Just being among people with your desired career will give you lots of insight into what you’ll be doing on a daily basis, and they will, at the very least, be able to give you tips on how they got to where they are. Network through friends and family, or involve yourself with communities on the Internet to find a social group that can give you the inspiration and motivation you need to keep learning and keep hunting.

4. Step out of your comfort zone and try something new.
Maybe you’re applying for a certain type of job without even knowing why. You tell yourself that this is the career you envision, but if you haven’t tried several options, you really won’t know what it is that you actually like. Step out of your comfort zone and try applying for jobs that you wouldn’t have initially considered. Volunteer in a capacity that you previously thought you were unsuited for. You’d be surprised by how multidimensional your skill set actually is if you lay aside the mindset that you’re only good for a certain industry or job type.

The most important thing to remember while looking for a new job is that you can improve yourself and career prospects without actually earning money. Many are eager to jump into the job search and make that their 24/7 pursuit. Of course, finding a job requires lots of time, but make sure to utilize your remaining time to educate yourself, to grow, and to seek new experiences.

This guest post is contributed by Alisa Gilbert, who writes on the topics of bachelors degree. She welcomes your comments at alisagilbert599 @gmail.com.

If you have a great idea for a jungle-themed post, let us know! Guest writers or requests are always welcome!

Tags: advice, education, experience, guest, networking, preparation, resume, skills, tips, tutoring, underemployed, unemployed, volunteer

The Tectonic Plates – The Shifting Fault Lines Of Age Discrimination

The plates of the earth may be shifting as they do before an earthquake.

I had a conversation this week with a client that started out,
“Honestly, Carolyn, we’re looking for a little gray hair.”
When I asked them to tell me more, he replied,
“We want someone experienced to lead us out of this recession in order to emerge a stronger organization in the next three years.”
I found this completely refreshing since I hear from so many executives that find themselves between jobs with more than 20 years experience, that they feel they are being passed over for up and comers with less experience.

If you’re an employer looking for leaders, here are a few reasons you might want to join my client in their pursuit of people with more experience rather than less:

MYTH: Older workers can’t or won’t learn new skills.
REALITY: Those over 50 are proving their ability to learn new skills by becoming the fastest growing group of Internet users. Career-changers in their 40s and 50s are taking courses to enhance their skills.

MYTH: Older workers aren’t flexible or adaptable.
REALITY: Because they’ve seen many approaches fail in the workplace, they are more likely to question change. But they can accept new approaches as well as younger workers can as long as the rationale is explained.

MYTH: Older workers are more expensive.
REALITY: The costs of more vacation time and pensions are often outweighed by low turnover among older workers and the fact that higher turnover among other groups translates into recruiting, hiring, and training expenses.

MYTH: Older workers take more sick days than younger workers.
REALITY: Attendance records are actually better for older workers than for younger ones.

MYTH: Older workers don’t stay on the job long.
REALITY: Workers between 45 and 54 stayed on the job twice as long as those 25 to 34, according to the Bureau of labor Statistics in 1998.

MYTH: Most older workers are too “overqualified”:
REALITY: YOU GET MUCH MORE THAN YOU PAY FOR. It’s like getting a Ferrari for the price of a Miata. Forget the foolish business about “overqualified.” Many older workers are ready to throttle back but not ready to stop working. They will step into a non-management job after years of running the whole show and be content with that. A retired Army colonel and high-end management consultant, is happy as a clam driving a bus for the local transit authority. Would a twenty-something with no experience dealing with difficult people do as well? And if they ARE willing to manage for you, the value of their experience is exponential.

MYTH: Older workers can’t keep up with the younger generations in work habits.
REALITY: OLDER WORKERS HAVE BETTER WORK HABITS: Inaccurate stereotypes lead hiring supervisors to assume that older workers can’t perform the way younger workers do. That they will miss work or not get as much done. Deciding a candidate who’s a standout on paper isn’t worth an interview because of unsupported assumptions about age means you miss terrific talent you could have brought on board. She may have missed two days in 30 years. Don’t rely on unfounded assumptions to rule out older workers.
In a study of work habits in 39 separate organizations that included 3000 non-management workers, those younger than 26 years of age were found to be substandard in all six work habits: work standards, safety awareness, reliability/follow-through, attendance, punctuality, and avoidance of disciplinary actions. Workers in the 26 to 45 age range were average on all six. Workers age 46 to 55 were above average on four of the six categories. Workers over 56 were above average on five of the six and twice as far above average as the 46 to 55 year-olds on four of the five. If your hiring needs lean heavily on work habits, you should be looking for people with gray hair.

REALITY: THIS IS THE AGE GROUP WITH THE MONEY
The biggest irony in all this is that the over 50 crowd is the population that actually has money to spend. They own upwards of 70 percent of the financial assets. Their per capita discretionary spending is two and a half times the average of younger households. They hold almost half of all the credit cards in the United States.
You need people who think like them on your team so you can capture that business. Leave your competitors to duke it out over the twenty-somethings whose credit has just dried up.

To curry this market, you need to have a connection to it. Your marketing, strategic planning, and customer service functions need people who can relate because they are over 50 themselves.

REALITY: YOU BROADEN YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC APPEAL.
Unless you’re selling youth-exclusive products, having someone on staff who does NOT answer “Thank you” with “No problem” is a plus. If you want to appeal to the full range of customers, you need a full range of ages to serve them.

Now, for all you job seekers out there that fit this bill, here are the caveats:

• You must be comfortable with your computer skills. You can’t rely on having as large a staff of direct reports as you may have had in the past so make sure you can function self sufficiently.
• Don’t try to negotiate every job opportunity that comes your way into something that’s perfect for you before you even start. There are four or five more of you that can do the job if you seem too demanding before you even start. Instead, take the time to make yourself an exact fit for what they want. If it’s a mutually beneficial situation you’ll be able to make changes and adjustments to your schedule or personnel roster AFTER you’ve proven yourself first.
• Be flexible. Companies need adaptable, creative, amiable people at all levels. Just because you’re used to doing something a certain way in the past doesn’t mean you can’t learn a new trick or two that can create efficiency.
• Express a high energy level. If you’re carrying around a few extra pounds, get some extra exercise. The loss of just a few pounds does miracles for your confidence not to mention your appearance.
• Be prepared to commute longer than you might want or even move should the job demand. No one wants to move or commute and while the economy is improving, executive jobs don’t grow on trees.
• Network. Regularly interact with people at levels above and below your job title as well as within related areas of expertise. Going to an event filled with IT professionals when you’re a CFO makes you the big fish in a small pond. You’ll learn about companies you’ve never even heard of, and who knows if they don’t have just the perfect opening for you!

Certain myths about older workers (50+) may allow potential employers to hesitate in hiring them, but most employers realize the true value in hiring employees who have been around for a while. The tectonic plates in the earth are responsible for much of the shaking and rumbling that major cities on a large fault feel every year. You don’t have to be young to be a shaker and a mover in a company and employers know that a truly experienced and wizened worker with “a little bit of gray hair” can lead their companies back into a “boom.”

From Four BIG Reasons to Hire Older Workers by Mary Lloyd.
And The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA
Download this fun handout!

Tags: 50+, age, demographics, economy, experience, interviewing, Job Search, Older Workers, recruiting, training

The Snake – Shedding Your Skin

In my recent article for the American Library Association, I offered some tips for moving from one industry to another. Just as snakes shed their skin, professionals sometimes need to shed some of the work they’ve done in order to land a new job.

Snakes shed the outer layer of their skin as they outgrow the old one, and even those that are not growing shed; replacing their worn scales with new, healthy skin. Some snakes shed every few weeks, others shed only about once a year. A new layer continuously develops below the surface of the old skin preparing for use. The snake begins the shedding process by rubbing its nose against rocks or other hard objects to start the separation of the old layer from its lips, and then crawls out of its old skin. This is why the old skins are often found intact where they were abandoned.

Whether your need to shed your old skin comes from economic pressure or from a desire for new challenges, any professional seeking to change industries need to first consider these points:

1. Determine What You Like to Do Most

You’ll have more success selling yourself to others if it’s for work you love to do. Employers are looking for what you’ve done in the past five years, so you will have to create links to a new industry by drawing from your most recent employment first.

Within that recent experience, identify the transferable skills. Everyone has them, and employers are looking for them, so determine what measurable, comparable skills are your strengths. Is it Excel? Managing sales teams? Technical writing? Cataloging? Focus on the skills you like.

2. Ascertain Who Else Uses that Skill Set

Take your transferable skill set and look for similar keyword strings on the Internet. Remember to use synonyms. What is “budgeting” to one company may be “forecasting” to another.

3. Consider Your Geographic Mobility

Some areas of the country are hard hit by the economy; others are not. Consider moving to a new area where there is greater demand for the industry you are moving in to. Your chances of finding a job in a new city with lower unemployment are much higher.

While most companies do phone interviews to start, you may be asked to interview in person within a few days. Being in or near the city where you are looking for work is always easiest. Many of us have friends and relatives across the country willing to help out; there are lots of people looking for short-term roommates.

4. Make Yourself Relevant — and Accessible!

Write your resume with the future in mind. Use all the related keywords you’ve found to re-tool your job descriptions. E-mail address and cell phone are fine for contact information, and use a local address on your resume whenever possible.

Obtain interim employment wherever possible. You’ll meet people who need help immediately who can also help you network. Taking temporary employment shows that you have a good work ethic and are serious about learning a new industry.

Strategically network in your desired geographic areas and industries. Join LinkedIn groups and look for job fairs or conferences where you can meet people who work at your target companies. Eighty percent of jobs are obtained through personal networking, not ads or employment agencies.

Consider retooling your skill set by retraining — many state and local governments provide assistance in this area. Contact your unemployment office and your local library to find out about programs offered in your area.

5. Follow Up … then Follow the Golden Rule!

One hundred percent of people leave a first message, but fewer than 15 percent will call a third time. Don’t give up. Keep trying to reach people who may have information for you. (Give them a few days to call back between messages, though.)

Do Unto Others

When you do find a job, make yourself available to others who may need your help and would benefit from the story of your journey.

>>>Based on the overwhelming response to this article, I’ll be hosting 2 interactive webinars this month with a focus on CHANGE:

CHANGING INDUSTRIES 

Learn how to specifically extract relevant experience from your background in order to change industries.  Please join me for a roundtable discussion of EXACTLY how to transform your resume into something that will translate from one industry to another.  The first 10 people to register will receive one on one telephone resume consultations prior to the webinar and have the option to participate as confidential “before” and “after” examples in the webinar.

CHANGING CAREERS 

We will layout unique executable strategies for people seeking to move their careers in a new way altogether.  Explore ideas to help you in choosing where you want to go and making an individual roadmap to get there.   Again, the first 10 people to register will receive a one on one telephone consultation prior to the webinar and have the option to participate as confidential “before” and “after” examples for other participants.

JOIN ME AND OTHERS FROM ACROSS NORTH AMERICA THAT WANT TO SHED THEIR SKIN!  The best way to get new ideas is to participate!

Carolyn Thompson

Tags: accessible, advice, career, careers, changing careers, changing industries, discussion, economy, experience, free consultation, geographic mobility, golden rule, ideas, interim employment, interview, job descriptions, keywords, managing, networking, new career, new industry, new job, participation, resume, retraining, skills, temporary employment, tips, transferable skills, unemployment, webinar

The Wildfire – Rebuilding After the Blaze

The economy lately has been a little like the California wildfires that recently littered the news; hot and cold areas, hopping from hill to hill, changing directions without warning, rapidly igniting then ultimately extinguishing, leaving destruction and devastation in its wake, yet opening up opportunities for re-growth and rebuilding.

Last week I had the occasion to interview a fantastic candidate; Carl Adams.  Carl was recently the Senior Vice President of Finance and Treasurer with a large publicly traded local company and is now looking for a new position.  A CPA who led a staff of over 40 professionals, we got to talking about best practices of hiring, and I thought about how similar hiring after a downturn in the economy was to rebuilding the jungle or a forest after a fire.

Plant strategically- when rebuilding a forest, or a team, you need to think about the growth path and what the landscape will look like down the road, as people grow and evolve in their jobs.  Don’t choose a large group of similarly experienced people without a clear growth path for the future laid out.  You’ll end up losing them when you can’t promote them all at once. 

Instead, compliment your own strengths and weaknesses to build a team that will grow together, complement each other in their skills, creating a harmonious group with differing levels of expertise and experience.

It may still look barren now, but the strongest seeds have survived and will sprout into amazingly resilient plants. None of the variety and color has been lost in the heat of the flames. Don’t pass up opportunities to hire candidates who will strengthen your team and your company. A good candidate will require a little room to grow and show what they are made of and fill up the gaps.

Follow one simple rule that is a surefire strategy for success when evaluating people – Ask yourself: does this person have 75-80% of what I’m looking for?  If the answer is yes, then the remaining 20-25% is their growth path that they need to see in order to remain engaged long term. This one idea will ensure every person you hire has a growth path and will ultimately result in longer-term employees and less turnover. 

Back to Carl Adams…if you’re interested in seeing a copy of his resume, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Check out my webinar on Goal Setting! http://www.carolynthompson.net/settinggoalsforsuccesswebinar.htm

Carolyn Thompson

Author of TEN EASY STEPS TO A PERFECT RESUME…available on Amazon.com!
and TEN STEPS TO FINDING THE PERFECT JOB…available on Amazon.com!  

Tags: candidate, economy, experience, goals, groups, growth, job growth, new hires, skills, strengths, turnover

The Tree – Sometimes You Should Use Paper

Almost every day I receive an email that says something like “think before you print”, or “print responsibly to save a tree”.  I was thinking about this, particularly this week, when we had our first run in with a “diploma mill.”  I’d heard about this on 60 Minutes, but never came across one until this week.  While verifying a candidate’s education, an alert came up that their degree was from an unaccredited institution.

This became a huge exercise in research as to what is an accredited institution.  The Department of Education ( www.ed.gov) and the Council for Higher Education Association (www.chea.org) maintain current databases on accredited universities.  I called CHEA and was helped immediately by the first person that answered the phone.  She was amazingly well informed and was able to verify that not all online universities are fully accredited educational institutions.  I was dumbfounded that someone could obtain tuition reimbursement from a publicly traded company to complete a degree with an unaccredited institution.  Essentially, the candidate threw many thousands of dollars of tuition down the drain with an institution that claimed to be accredited, but is only accredited as an “online” institution.

There are reputable on line universities and distance learning opportunities such as the University of Phoenix.  If you’re considering making an investment in online education,  make sure you check with the Department of Education or the kind people at the Council for Higher Education to ensure sure your investment in your future is protected. 

Even if it means buying books, turning in papers and taking notes in an actual spiral notebook, and taking a little longer to get through all your classes, completing your education is not the time to be worried about saving a tree.

For the past 20 years while I’ve been a recruiter, we’ve gone to the university registrar directly whenever possible to verify education or to obtain transcripts.  It’s unfortunate that these disreputable organizations exist, taking people’s money and not giving the education in return for their financial and time invested.  This person lost out on a really great offer because of this situation and now we’ve changed our policies to use The National Student Clearinghouse (www.studentclearinghouse.org ), a third party verification service, before approaching the university directly for transcripts.

Check out my webinar on Job Searching! http://www.carolynthompson.net/jobsearchwebinar.htm

Carolyn Thompson

Author of TEN EASY STEPS TO A PERFECT RESUME…available on Amazon.com!
and TEN STEPS TO FINDING THE PERFECT JOB…available on Amazon.com!  

Tags: accredited institution, advice, education, experience, verification service

Bug Bites – First Impressions in the Jungle

I remember my first jungle visit very well.  I was reminded of my experience for weeks with the thousands of bug bites that overran my entire body.   Little did I know that my lightly scented daily moisturizing lotion was an immediate attraction for every type of biting fly, mosquito, spider, and gnat in the entire continent of Australia.  But, I learned from that experience.  The next opportunity I had for a jungle visit, this time in Puerto Rico, I skipped the lotion and had a great visit to the rainforest canopy and floor that didn’t leave me itching for weeks.

First impressions count. 

The last couple of weeks have been incredibly busy in our office.  Lots of new jobs coming in and MANY people who have been looking for the past few months called to tell me they had gotten offers and were moving on to new positions.

As the job market begins to pick up, it’s increasingly important to mind your p’s and q’s with regards to making first impressions.  You don’t EVER get a chance to take back that first meeting.  A friend of mine, Therese Baker from Abbtech, said to me the other day: you’ll never have the same conversation with the same person twice.  It got me thinking about first impressions, so next week, I’m presenting a webinar on the subject of making a great first impression; I hope you’ll join in on the discussion register here. 

In the meantime, keep these points in mind today as you meet someone new. Whether it’s a meeting at work, an interview, or a charity event you’re attending.  You never know who you are going to meet and where that meeting might lead, so make every first impression count:

·         Be yourself, at ease, and appropriately dressed.

·         Be on time and smile. 

·         Have good posture, grooming and be confident without being cocky.

·         Make meaningful small talk-find something in common with everyone.

·         Have a confident handshake

·         Use the person’s name when you can.

One of my close personal friends today is someone that I met randomly in the hallway at work ten years ago.   Had he never stopped me to ask directions, we never would have had the exchange that we had the second time we crossed paths again later that day.  Make each conversation you have meaningful and positive.  You never know where it will lead!

For a Webinar on how to make a GREAT first impression visit: http://www.carolynthompson.net/makingagreatfirstimpressionwebinar.htm

Carolyn Thompson

Author of TEN EASY STEPS TO A PERFECT RESUME…available on Amazon.com!
and TEN STEPS TO FINDING THE PERFECT JOB…available on Amazon.com!  

Tags: advice, experience, first impressions, interview, jobs, webinars