Employment Digest

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Looking for Jobs — in All the Wrong Places by Jan Canon Looking for Jobs — in All the Wrong Places Most job seekers, in my experience, have limited ideas about what kinds of jobs they’re qualified for and where they can seek new opportunities. The first restriction comes about for two reasons: 1) none of us has much experience with a variety of jobs, so we don’t know what skills are required or if we have them –we know what our parents, siblings, neighbors or friends do for work, but beyond that we’re all fairly ignorant about what’s available– and 2) there are so many different names for the same jobs at different companies, it’s confusing and difficult to identify those we could do effectively. As for finding jobs, again it’s lack of experience and information that keeps us limited when we’re looking for something new. We all know about the want ads, whether in print or on the Internet, but beyond that there isn’t much information. Here are some ideas to help in the search for new jobs – looking beyond the want ads. Read the rest of this entry »

When boomers and Xers meet, expect clashes

They are the generation of women who grew up with John Kennedy, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and Watergate. They are well-educated social crusaders, determined to gain equality in the workplace.

They are the baby boomer women who taught their daughters to believe they could be anything they wanted, that they didn’t need to get married or have children to be fulfilled and a valuable member of society.

And when that Generation X entered adulthood, it was not quite what anyone expected.
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Career change: How to make it happen

These days, everyone is a career changer. No one is going to keep the same career for 40 years. How boring. People change, so careers should change.

But why do people have to be so incompetent about it? There are a lot of ways to orchestrate a career change. You should do it in a way that doesn’t undermine your first career, and you should look like you’re running toward something instead of away from something.

Make a list of the reasons for changing careers. What do you want from your new career that you’re not getting from your current one? The list will be very revealing.
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White-Collar Blues

In 1867, E.L. Godkin published an essay in North American Review trying to explain why the United States lacked the “intense class feeling” of European nations. Godkin, editor of the then-fledgling Nation magazine, might have been surprised by the past year in American journalism, which saw The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times each devote a series to the problem of class in America today. While each series had its strengths, each was bedeviled by a vague definition of class. What, after all, is class? Is it a cultural identity, an economic position, an income level? Does showing how lives are shaped by economic factors mean that “class matters,” as The New York Times titled its series? Or does class necessarily involve some idea of politics? Each series brimmed with statistical data and illustrative anecdotes, but often it was hard to know how to connect all the numerical indicators of class with the fragmentary narratives of individuals’ lives.

Are there ways to write about class that avoid these pitfalls? One exemplary alternative appeared back in 2001: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich has spent most of her life reporting about class in America. But in Nickel and Dimed, she went undercover in the world of low-wage workers, getting a job as a waitress, a maid, and a Wal-Mart “associate.” By discussing her own experiences among the ranks of the working poor, Ehrenreich was able to write about class — about the monotony of a bad job, the daily struggle to survive, and the fragility of the social position of people on the bottom — in a way that escaped the narrative of upward mobility and the statistical measures of class pegged to it.
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So, you want to be the boss?

In some work environments, boss is a four-letter word. “Demands on bosses are radically different than they were 10 years ago,” said Michael Merenda, professor of strategic management and chair of the management department at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics. “The demand on today’s leaders is a lot greater. With global competition, the threat of terrorism and the rapid rate of change, bosses are more challenged than ever to keep up with their field and stay connected with their workers.”
Workplace demands on bosses continue to shift in the direction of not just making management more responsible for the bottom-line profits, but in also knowing their market and assuming responsibility for the performance of their team - making the role of boss one of walking a thin, but not always coveted, line.

Jim Concelman, manager of leadership development at Development Dimensions International, a global human resources consulting firm, said new bosses have an opportunity to get things right from the start.
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CEO search: How to land the big one

As anyone who has ever gone fishing knows, reeling in the big ones isn’t easy.

You’ve got to figure out where prize catches are likely to be found and when they are hungry enough to bite. And it takes just the right bait as well as patience to snag a coveted heavyweight before someone else does.

That’s a perfect analogy for the process of finding and landing a new chief executive officer, top recruiters say. Companies are increasingly having to look outside their industry and outside Canada to lure the top talent they need.

But at the same time, the pool of prized candidates is shrinking, so those in demand can afford to be very choosy about taking the bait, the recruiters say.
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Overweight job hunters ‘lose out’

Overweight people were said to lack self-discipline
Overweight workers find it harder to get jobs than their slim counterparts, an online survey suggests. The magazine survey of 2,000 personnel officers found most preferred to offer jobs to workers of a “normal weight”.

Half of those polled by Personnel Today thought obesity affected productivity. A similar number believed overweight people lacked self-discipline.

The magazine’s editor Karen Dempsey said it suggested hidden discrimination and overweight people were missing out.
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Boomer retirements looming

The workers who run the Lower Colorado River Authority’s hydroelectric dams refined their skills with decades of on-the-job training. And when they leave, they’ll take all that experience with them.

That day isn’t far off. The looming loss of older workers’ skills brought Andi Handy, the authority’s executive manager of human relations, and about 30 other business and government officials to IBM Corp.’s offices Tuesday in Austin.

Given the fact that the leading edge of the baby boom generation turns 60 next year, there’s a massive collection of workers and experience that could soon leave the workplace. By 2025, almost a quarter of the U.S. population will have passed their 60th birthday.
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A good resume versus a great resume

In today’s tough market, it is hard enough to land a job — let alone imagine and launch the career of your dreams. The problem is that while people are scrambling for success, they don’t take the time to figure out what job is the right fit or what their true calling is. The Play of Your Life author Colleen Sabatino helps yet you started on the right foot, right here.

There are clear differences between a good resume and a great resume. A good resume is a glorified application. This type of resume explains to the hiring manager the following information in this order: dates of employment, companies, titles held, and job functions. It concludes with when and where you received your education. It is good because the hiring manager can get a clear summation of your past experience and education. A great resume is a marketing brochure. This resume highlights the scope and depth of your experience. It describes the expertise you have developed throughout your career that relates to your future employer’s needs. A great resume communicates a compelling reason for the prospective employer to need and want your services. Read the rest of this entry »

Blogs can boost, wreck careers

About 10 million Americans write blogs, ranging from the confessional and edgy to the technical and mundane, says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Thirty-five million read them.

For businesses, blogs and other forms of personal Internet communication constitute a new frontier fraught with promise and peril. On the one hand, companies are scrambling to use them as a recruiting and marketing tool, and are encouraging some employees to blog. On the other, they are wondering how to deal with the damage that current and former employees and dissatisfied customers can do on the Web.
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