Employment Digest

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Escape Your Pigeonhole

If you’re good at what you do, you may get pigeonholed. Here’s how to avoid that fowl fate.

You have to marvel at the sheer breadth of film-animation jobs that Colum Slevin has been able to talk his way into to avoid being pegged in one slot. Perhaps he picked up the powers of Jedi mind persuasion while leading the special-effects team for Star Wars: Episode III for George Lucas’s Industrial Light + Magic studios. He has been the artist who laboriously hand drew images on celluloid, the tech geek who managed the team that invented software that enables computer-generated water to “flow,” and the taskmaster who enforced tight production schedules for an army of computer-graphic artists. The variety is impressive in a discipline where specialization can often lead to spending years perfecting a single special effect.
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Enhance your career, one small step at a time

Resolutions. They’re easy to make, even easier to break.

While some people fail to reach their goals because they were unrealistic to begin with, more often it seems those dreams just get pushed aside.

The trick to staying on track is to break those big ideas down into workable goals, things you can actually imagine yourself doing, said Leslie Groene, a business coach and author of Picture Yourself & the Life You Want.

Here are a few of the most common career-related resolutions with tips on how to make them happen in 2006.
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25 great careers in the USA

Finding your dream job can be a real nightmare. Career counselors suggest following your passion, and that’s sage advice. Yet outstanding opportunities — jobs that offer high growth potential, good salaries, and intellectual stimulation — aren’t always easy to come by.

That’s why, for the second year in a row, FastCompany.com has surveyed the labor landscape to determine where the best prospects for the coming years can be found.

What’s changed in the span of just a year? Not a whole lot — but more than you might expect. You’ll find many similarities between this year’s 25 Top Jobs and last year’s list: Lawyers, financial advisors, computer software engineers, and stockbrokers all rank highly once again.
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How to work with a retained search firm. . . part one of two from the recruiter’s side of the desk.

With a new year recently begun, it is time for all of us to reassess the past year with an eye to having 2006 be better. Some of you will determine that it may be time to change positions. Others may not, but January always proves to be one of the months executives are most likely to receive calls from search firms.

After working in the retained search industry for nearly 25 years, I have reviewed more than one million resumes, interviewed more than 10,000 people and spoken to enough candidates to fill the Rose Bowl. Going through the recruiting process with a search firm is an art and skill. One gets better with practice and one never forgets——it is like riding a bicycle. The following suggestions may help your next ride be a smoother one.
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Job descriptions too often fail seeker and hirer

A really important tool for job seekers in today’s tight market is a job description that clearly and fully explains exactly what the employer wants. Especially in a classified ad.

But, unfortunately, an accurate and thorough job description isn’t always made available by potential employers.

And that can be confusing to the applicant.

“Having been downsized in 2004, I have had substantial practice in attempting to decipher what hiring managers are looking for,” said Martin McKinnell, a mechanical engineer who lives in DeKalb.
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Counteroffers: Accept Them? Ignore Them? The Answer Is Simple!

You were just offered a dream job by the developer across town, you finally got up the nerve to tell your boss that you’re outta there, and, lo and behold, he blew your mind by making you a counteroffer. What a nice compliment! Now you need some advice about when it’s appropriate to accept. Lucky for you, the answer is incredibly simple…

NEVER!

There, that was easy, wasn’t it? But wait a minute. You just got that nice compliment; your boss really wants you to stay, doesn’t he?

National statistics show that 89% of employees who accept counteroffers never last six months before getting the ol’ heave-ho. How can that be?

“No” to counteroffers.
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This is really important: Don’t fudge that résumé

With all the ruckus about James Frey’s memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” and how much of it is fact or fiction, it got me wondering if anyone was nervous about being caught red-handed with a résumé they had embellished and turned out to be part fact, part fiction.

Yes, fabricated facts on résumés happen - way too often. And too many creative résumé writers don’t seem to care that someone will find out they don’t have that degree or that they didn’t manage a department of 200 people.

If you just look at executives, 10.73 percent of executives lied on their résumé early last year, according to the Liars Index. The Index is a calculation of the percentage of lying executives created by Jude M. Werra of the executive search firm Jude M. Werra & Associates in Brookfield, Wis., says HR Magazine.
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Casting A Wider Net

High-powered executives know the bait:

“Come work for us. We’ll treat you right.”

“We really, really like what you have to offer.”

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Every day, cooing headhunters entice the best of the best to new jobs with words like these. But job recruiters are finding it’s not so much CEOs - “The Big Ones” - companies want.
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Preventing identity theft:

Everyone is at risk for identity theft, but there are many precautions a person can take to greatly reduce the chances of personal information getting into the wrong hands.

“Identity theft can strike anybody from birth to death and beyond,” said Dick Dewar, volunteer for the Identity Theft Resource Center and president of the Friends of the Library, during a presentation Saturday at the Aiken County Public Library.

Dewar said in 2002 there were an estimated 7 million victims of identity theft and the problem continues to grow.
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Fallen off your career ladder? Help’s at hand

Most Canadians still turn to family, friends and co-workers for career advice, but more and more are also seeking outside help, as working life becomes more complex.

“The world of work is not a straightforward career ladder as it was years ago. It’s more like a jungle gym,” says Robert Shea, president of the newly created Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling, and director of career planning and experiential learning at Newfoundland’s Memorial University.
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