Employment Digest

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Are your job references holding you back in your career?

Question:
I was downsized from my job at Merrill Lynch a couple years ago. For the first 6 months I didn’t want to work anywhere but Merrill Lynch so I applied to many jobs listed on their corporate website. A little over a year after the layoff, I found a job working at Merrill through a temp agency. This was going very well but on the thirteenth day someone in the recruiting department found out and I was told my assignment was ended.

Later I applied to Morgan Stanley and talked to two Operation Managers who were interested and told me to email my resume to them. The next time I talked to them they had gone from hot to cold. One of them asked me what had happened at Merrill Lynch after I had previously told him that I was downsized. I wonder if the HR people at Merrill Lynch have disseminated any information outside of Merrill Lynch to other HR personnel or to a web board. I say this because it seems like I am up against a stacked deck with everything that I apply to.
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Career Assessment Tools & Tests

Help plan your future with these self-assessment and career discovery tests.

What if you’re not sure of what kind of job or career you want? Not sure what to do with your life? Need some career direction? Spend some time here and take one or more of the following self-assessment tests to give you a better idea of your attitudes and interests as they relate to possible career choices. Read Online Career Assessments: Helpful Tools of Self-Discovery for more information about how best to use these assessments. And, finally, read our Career Assessment Do’s and Don’ts for useful tips and advice.

And if you are debating the power of self-assessment, read some of these career assessment success stories.
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An Aging Workforce’s Effect On U.S. Employers

The aging workforce creates a challenge for employers seeking to retain top-notch people, and an opportunity for workers who may want to earn a few extra bucks in retirement.

About 76 million baby boomers, or those born between 1946 and 1964, are set to retire in large numbers by the end of the decade. Boomers make up about one-third of the U.S. workforce, and there aren’t enough younger workers to replace them. Labor shortages in key industries will force a radical rethinking of recruitment, retention, flexible work schedules and retirement.
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IBM launches workforce consulting services

IBM today launched a new consulting service designed to help businesses plan for critical changes in their workforces as more of their most highly skilled baby boomer workers retire — taking their knowledge with them.

Using advanced analytical software tools to review a company’s workforce, IBM’s new services initiative will offer insights to help companies cope with the knowledge drain, according to Edward Vitalos, an associate partner with IBM’s Business Consulting Services Human Capital Group. The problem, he said, is that as critical employees of the baby boom generation retire, companies don’t usually have other skilled workers who can seamlessly fill the jobs.
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How to get in the best workplace

If you pay attention to the business media, you undoubtedly have seen more than one article about the country’s employers of choice. From Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list to Working Mother’s “Best Companies for Women of Color” feature, there is no shortage of help for professionals looking for reputable employers.

Locally, you may have come up with your own list of “best places to work” based on company reputation or local reports. So how can you get your foot in the door with the employers you respect and admire?

While they probably have more résumé traffic than other employers, there are still ways that you can put yourself at the top. Mark Mehler, co-founder of recruiting and technology consulting firm CareerXroads, offers some worthwhile tips:
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Career path hits age gap

What’s your idea of a career nightmare? Is it long hours and low pay? Or a micro-managing boss and disrespectful co-workers? For the vast majority of workers under 45, new research shows it’s the latter.

Today, people very much want to love what they do. And they want a considerable amount of freedom to get the job done their way.

Problem is, says former advertising executive Sally Hogshead, author of the research as well as the new book Radical Careering, there’s a generation gap.
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The Best Way to Organize Your Job Search

Question:
How do I organize my job search?

Answer: Label 17 file folders with the headings below. Using them is easy. Review all the folders every day for a few weeks until you get the hang of it. This system will make your job hunting life much easier:
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Be Your Own Mentor

In today’s fast-paced working environment companies don’t always have a straightforward plan for their employee’s personal and professional growth. Even if they do, chances are it’s a pretty low priority. To be sure you’re successful and growing in your career you often have to take matters into your own hands.

A lucky few of us have mentors that can guide us down the right path. A good mentor can show you the ropes, point out potential pitfalls and be a sympathetic shoulder to lean on. If you have access to a mentor don’t take them for granted. Make sure you pay attention to them. Make sure you listen to their advice. They may not be around for long.
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Who you are and why they need you Who you are and why they need you

Some see job hunting akin to playing the lottery. They send the same resume to various employers, close their eyes, and hope luck will tap them on the shoulder with an interview invitation. Career counselors agree shrewd applicants send their resumes routinely, understanding results are dependent on efforts.

In the words of Elbert Hubbard, “There is no failure except in no longer trying.” Even so, there a few strategies job seekers can employ to increase their chances of receiving a response from a prospective employer.
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Secretive Searching

Recruiter calls at work create a new dilemma for targeted employees. Do you talk or not? Oh, to be among the wanted. That’s what many workers out there say when they hear friends or colleagues moaning that they don’t know what to do when a recruiter — or headhunter — calls them at work to tell them about an exciting new job.
But to be among the wanted: It can be a tricky balance of checking out an opportunity yet remaining loyal to an employer. And it’s particularly difficult when one is sitting at that employer’s desk, talking to a recruiter on the telephone. So sneaky. So underhanded.
So common and so necessary.

Recruiters often happen upon workers in one of three ways:
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