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When a job isn’t what you expected

You’ve been on the job six weeks, and your responsibilities aren’t what the boss said they would be. What should you do?

By all means, speak up. “If you don’t say anything about your frustration with the situation, you’re simply implying your consent,” said Francie Dalton, president of Dalton Alliances, a communications and behavioral consulting firm in Columbia, Maryland.

What situations warrant concern?
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Make your resume lean and mean

Wordy resumes, post-interview etiquette, stressed out workers, and yawning on the job, these are a few of the hot topics around the water cooler this week.

If you’re job hunting, you should make sure your resume doesn’t overwhelm those you’re trying to impress. Think lean and mean, not novel length. And cut out the overly-personal, cute and irrelevant.
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Companies recognize graying workers’ golden touch

“We don’t want that experience walking out the door,” says a research director. The Dallas Morning News Fort Worth, Texas-based RadioShack Corp. says it hires older workers because they know how to relate to customers, have a strong work ethic and are role models for younger employees.

The 63-year-old engineer is too busy diving into murky waters to inspect locks and dams for Stanley Consultants.

“I’m having too much fun,” he said. “As long as I’ve got the energy, I’m sticking with this.”

His bosses are glad he feels that way.
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Achieving success doesn’t always mean climbing the career ladder

In the workplace, we often believe only those who move up the job ladder are successful. But that’s a misnomer, because some of the happiest, most valuable workers have been in the same job for years. In decades past, it was common for an employee to work for the same company for 30 years or more, possibly doing the same job during that time. Today, we see employees jump from employer to employer every couple of years, nabbing more money and more responsibility and more prestige. But the question is: Are these workers really happy with their choices?

Many are, but many are not. With increased responsibility and salary often come increased stress and a feeling that the career has become a runaway train where the individual feels a loss of satisfaction and direction. But what if someone decided to jump off that train? What if the person decides to fulfill his or her dreams by staying in the same job, and electing not to move up?
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Internet’s changing recruiting practices

It’s a radical concept, but it’s fast gaining credence: Resumes aren’t very useful. Sure, it’s nice to have a person’s life on one piece of paper, but how do you tell 10 Ivy League graduates with 10 years’ experience apart? How do you know if they really are all Ivy graduates?

Research has shown about one-quarter of resumes contain lies or errors, and a full one-third of resumes submitted for jobs paying $50,000 or more include false information, Allan Schweyer, executive director of the Human Capital Institute, told New England HR executives recently.
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The Many Challenges Of Hiring A Friend

Heidi Flammang knows the best and the worst about hiring friends.

The worst happened a few years ago, when a close friend whom Flammang had hired to help with her fledgling business and whom she trusted “inherently with my life and livelihood” turned out to be a thief.

Eventually she fired that friend, but meanwhile another friend - someone she’d known since the age of 12 - began working for her. “I was very hesitant and very tentative,” said Flammang, who runs Camp Bow Wow, a dog day care and boarding franchise based in Parker, Colo. “I took baby steps and brought her on to help temporarily.”
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The End Of Management?

The end of management just might look something like this. You show up for work, boot up your computer and log onto your company’s Intranet to make a few trades before getting down to work. You see how your stocks did the day before and then execute a few new orders. You think your company should step up production next month, and you trade on that thought. You sell stock for the production of 20,000 units and buy stock that represents an order for 30,000 instead. All around you, as co-workers arrive at their cubicles, they too flick on their computers and trade.

Together, you are buyers and sellers of your company’s future. Through your trades, you determine what is going to happen and then decide how your company should respond. With employees in the trading pits betting on the future, who needs the manager in the corner office?
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Try tweaking your resume

Are you looking to change industries? If you are not garnering the interest you think you should, your resume could be the problem. Here are five tips for better results:

Functional vs. chronological A chronological resume typically begins with an objective, followed by career history and academic achievements.

For an industry changer a functional resume is best. This highlights your functional strengths; your skills that are transferable. These strengths can be conveyed at the beginning of your resume in key phrases, in your written objective, in a list of leadership skills or stated accomplishments. Your potential employer now has the opportunity to picture you in their market. Here is an example:
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Survey: 32% of execs say job seekers stumble in interview

Job seekers who agonize over their resumes and cover letters might consider working on their interview skills instead.

About one-third of executives said job candidates make the most mistakes during the job interview, according to a survey of 1,400 chief financial officers by Robert Half International, the staffing and consulting firm in Menlo Park, Calif.

Interview blunders range from the obvious faux pas — arriving late — to not knowing enough about the company and position to which you’re applying, said Paul McDonald, executive director of Robert Half Management Resources, a division of Robert Half International.
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Hiring Smarter as the Workforce Gets Older

The U.S. workforce is growing steadily older. From 1930 to 1970, the median age went from 26 to 28, an increase in age equal to about two weeks per year. From 1970 to 2003, the median age increased from 28 to 36, an average increase in age of roughly three months per year. This amounts to an increase in aging of about 600 percent.The increasing age of the U.S. population will continue for many years into the future, barring any massive shifts in people’s birth rates or longevity.

The workforces of Japan and most European countries are aging much faster than the U.S. workforce. The workforces of China and India are also growing steadily older.The increased age of the workforce will have significant impacts in terms of the kinds of candidates available to staff future jobs. People change as they get older, and these changes will create fundamental shifts in workforce capabilities. Few people over 40 could or would want to perform the jobs they had when they were 18.
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