Archive for April, 2008

Archives for Recruiters

When we initiate contact with a recruiter - or they call us - we tend to think of them as our recruiter. That’s when the communication quandary begins.

Almost always, recruiters work for employers not job seekers. A typical misconception is that although many recruiters can and often do offer career advice, technically they’re working for the other side. You don’t want to convey to them a lack of confidence about your job quest because a) they’re not your confessor and b) they must have confidence in you to present you to an employer.

Of course, you want their advice, because without them you may not get through the front or side doors of your target employer or field. And they can provide you with valuable insights into a company’s culture and management. Not surprisingly, the number one question recruiters hear from job seekers is how often should I contact you?

Archives for Perfect Job

In his new book Punching In Alex Frankel a journalist and “brand observer” recounts his recent experiences working entry-level jobs for some of America’s best-known employers: UPS, Starbucks, the Gap and Apple among others.

Unlike those of us who prefer to learn about companies by reading academic case studies or magazine articles, Frankel discovers firsthand how employees are indoctrinated into becoming brand evangelists. He gets his hands wet by whipping up Frappuccinos, delivering packages, folding merino sweaters and selling car rental insurance.

“Whenever I neared the UPS building in San Francisco I felt a strange pull inward, a longing for something I couldn’t articulate,” he writes. Frankel decides to experience “what it felt like to be part of an interconnected global workforce by becoming a piece of it.”

Does a hive-like mentality pervade American retail jobs? If so, many of the worker bees appear to be drones, but according to Frankel the chain stores look for certain types of employees. The Container Store, for instances prefers compulsive neat freaks.

Archives for Research

Let’s admit that it’s ironic to talk about talent shortages in a recession. Unemployment is rising in America, though it’s still better than in Europe. But in Manpower’s annual survey of 43,000 employers in 32 countries, nearly one-third of the companies experience difficulties filling open positions.

Globally, that’s down by 10% in a year, clear evidence that there’s more supply in the talent markets. But in the US of A the situation is more worrisome: a year ago 62% of employers said they were having difficulty filling jobs and this year only 28% shared the same complaint.

2008 Global Hot Jobs

1. Skilled Manual Trades
2. Sales Representatives
3. Technicians
4. Engineers
5. Management/Executives
6. Laborers
7. Administrative Assistants / PAs
8. Drivers
9. Accounting & Finance staff
10. IT Staff
Manpower, 2008 Talent Shortage Survey

Archives for Career Advice

Have you noticed any similarities between your dating experiences and your job searches?

What these two puzzle parts have in common is a quest for better relationships. Granted, for some of us, both of these personal quests are fraught with frustration.

But in Shawn Graham’s new book Courting Your Career, he spins the metaphor in amusing and insightful ways. Networking is matchmaking. Career fairs are akin to clubbing. Cover letters are like pick-up lines. And job boards are linked to online dating (and about equally successful).

Graham, a fellow Fast Company Experts blogger, has served as a career counselor at UNC-Chapel Hill where he field-tested this metaphor and found that it resonated well with students. When you’re looking for a job you want to work with amiable people, right?

Archives for Job Testing

If you’re applying for a job at a global company, you may be asked to take an aptitude or personality test. Hearing this, you may be nervous about your test-taking or language skills. Don’t be. We spoke to several experts in global testing, and here’s what they told us.

What Companies Want to Know. Companies use tests to determine either aptitude (such as your skills as a Java programmer) or to rate personality traits (such as your ability to work within a team or under intense deadline pressure). It’s important to remember that in most cases, the company isn’t using the test to cull applicants - it’s using it to determine for which positions applicants are best suited. Employers often realize that candidates with different backgrounds may be more or less comfortable with questionnaires or tests, explains Dr. Karine Schomer, president of Alameda, Calif.-based Change Management Consulting & Training. “The company can’t assume the U.S. mindset,” says Schomer, “where people know they need to be as straightforward as possible.”

In some countries, such as India, Schomer says, applicants may focus on discerning a single correct answer. It’s important to remember that there aren’t necessarily “right” answers and “wrong” answers - just honest answers that come from your experience and background.

Archives for Workplace

This hasn’t been a good year for jerks in the workplace. Apart from the usual controversies about egomaniacal politicians, baseball managers and CEOs, a popular new book recommends zero tolerance for assholes and a research report by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Management School underscores the toxic organizational impact of emotions in the workplace.

Experts who study emotional intelligence, also called EQ for emotional quotient, gather data proving that highly empathetic rather than insensitive people excel in business or personal relationships. The emerging ’science’ of EQ is gaining traction among recruiters and HR executives, many of whom screen potential hires for these ’soft skills’.

What hasn’t been well understood until now is how intense emotions, especially in the workplace, impact productivity and spread from person to person.

“We engage in emotional contagion,” contends Sigal Barsade, a Wharton professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace. “Emotions travel from person to person like a virus.”

Archives for Education

If you work in high-tech or pharma and collaborate with co-workers, customers, suppliers or partners located in other countries, there’s an increasing likelihood that your company will offer you some form of training to help you master cross-cultural or virtual work challenges.

Beyond those two fields, however, it’s hit-and-miss, according to top cultural trainers. Without the insights of cross-cultural training, many American managers - who often lack international travel or global business experience - face a heightened risk of project failure.

The return on investment in training global workers isn’t always evident to senior management, many of whom have never played a globally collaborative role in the organization. “What I have learned is that it’s extremely difficult to [initiate] formal training,” says Natasha Crundwell, President of People Going Global, a Washington-D.C. cultural consulting firm. “In many cases executives may not see the need for structured training.”

Yet, companies that hire third-party trainers typically approve group classes that last just one half day up to two days at most. Is some training better than none at all? Absolutely - I went through Berlitz training shortly before assuming a cross-cultural editorial management role in the fall of 2005. I came out of it with a better understanding of Indian culture, which improved my ability to absorb other information later. However, I felt eight hours was just scratching the surface.