Employment Digest

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You do have to prove yourself to get ahead

I was leaving the set of a television station news show where I had given my 3½-minute opinion when a young worker trotted up and whispered, “Can I ask you a question?”

She steered me down a hallway, looked coyly to her right and left, then in a low voice, asked, “How do I get them to give me a promotion?”

I’m used to this. Wherever I go, everyone has a career stumper they think I can diagnose and then prescribe a solution. I just wasn’t used to the reaction I got from this 25-year-old after giving her my point of view.

She couldn’t understand why management wouldn’t let her be an anchor - her dream job - after two years of working there. They kept telling her, “You have to prove yourself.” She kept insisting, “I know I can do the job.”
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Web of connections

Employers are turning to the Internet to fill jobs, putting them in touch with applicants 24 hours a day.

Using the Internet for a job search has become as routine as a morning cup of coffee.

So say the results of a study conducted by Direct Employers Association. The nonprofit group of more than 200 employers and operator of JobCentral.com found that the Internet produced 51 percent of all new hires in 2005.

That included 21 percent who found their jobs through employers’ own career sites on the Web. The other sources included general Web job boards, specialty online job sites and social networking sites.
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Successful job hunts require more than just a resume

Many baby boomers can still remember the days when applying for a job often involved long hours in front of a typewriter, painstakingly crafting cover letters to potential employers and stuffing them along with a resume into envelopes for mailing.

Technological advances have expedited the process. Thanks to computers and the Internet, today’s jobseekers can apply for dozens of jobs in a day, submitting their credentials in a matter of seconds, not days.

One thing hasn’t changed, however, and that’s the anxiety some jobseekers have about whether and when to follow up to see if a prospective company has received their resume and whether the boss is interested in hiring them.
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The company’s owner, who turned out to be a micromanager, is, I later discovered, an alcoholic with drunk-driving charges on his record who does not do anything to get his addiction under control. After lunch, you can smell alcohol on his breath from a desk away. The owner has a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality – in the space of 15 minutes.
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The Hidden Job Market

In the past two weeks, I have been offered jobs as a barback (or bartender) at an English pub, a nude dancer in a gay club, an exotic dancer in an “international male revue,” and a manager-in-training for a large retail apparel store doing $2 billion a year.

And I didn’t apply to a single one of them.

There’s a lot of talk about the “hidden job market” — how 80 percent of new available positions in any large metro area are never advertised. I always thought this statistic was a little far-fetched — until recently.

I learned of these jobs through the often-championed “networking” — from friends, ex-coworkers, classmates and friends. All through business school, people have been telling me, it’s not so much what I know but who I know that will land me the really good jobs. Well, I finally believe them.
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How faked resumes can haunt you

Regardless of the details surrounding the resignation of David Edmondson as RadioShack’s CEO, the controversy underscores the fact that resume lying has practically become an assumed practice in the public and private sector. (Remember FEMA’s Michael Brown?)

Human resource managers say they are continually amazed at how many people think they can get away with faking their backgrounds, especially in this age of Web transparency. So common is the practice, in fact, that at least one professional actually recommends that candidates do fabricate portions of their resumes simply to give themselves a competitive chance.

The "Fake Resume Guide" offers tips on how to "tune up" your resume for this very purpose. "Once you realize the extent that people go to in fabricating their resumes you start to realize that those that don’t lie on their resumes stand to lose jobs to those that do," said the guide’s author, Derek Johnson, who is identified in a press release as a former executive recruiter.

Can false identities be that far off?

Workers caught in Transition:

There is life after getting let go from your job. So, downsizing has jumped out of the newspaper headlines onto your dinner table?

Now that the ax has fallen, how will you find work in Michigan - one of the worst economic climates in the nation?

There is life after being let go, experts say. And it begins with the deal you work out with your former employer - if one is offered.

When given a choice about how separation package cash is doled out, one fi nancial planner suggests the Steve Miller Band approach: Take the Money and Run. With employers increasingly filing for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy to minimize debts or, in some cases, ending promised benefits seemingly at their whims, downsized workers might be smart to get all they can up front.
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Know when it’s your time to leave job

After almost a decade, one of my good friends ended his career in journalism Friday.

There’s no more reporting, writing or editing for him. He wanted a change, and he’s found one.
He’s picked up jobs in a health-care office and at a technology company, and he plans to go back to school to study computers.

While my friend made the decision to switch jobs, some workers aren’t so lucky in this time of downsizing and corporate restructuring.
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Don’t jump to any conclusions

Being labeled a job hopper once was considered a bad thing. These days, serial job hoppers may catch a perception break.

Job market experts say some employers are less inclined to look unfavorably on frequent job changes. But be forewarned: Lenience is often a generational thing.

I asked two Kansas City human resource consultants, Leigh Branham and Ted Richmond, what they hear about job hoppers from their corporate clients.

Resumes that show frequent job changes — say, four jobs in eight years — still will raise questions, they said. But if applicants are prepared with good justifications for their nomadic job trail, hirers’ doubts may be overcome.
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Interviewing becoming more important as you try to find job

Ah, the ‘90s—how we miss them. Those were the days when workers ruled, and the labor market was so tight companies were willing to overlook lack of experience, glaring resume problems and even weird personalities.

“When companies have an opening, they’re being very particular,” said Larry Cinco, president of Management Recruiters of Melbourne, Fla.

First assignment: Disavow yourself of any notion that interviewing is easy.

“Preparation is 95 percent,” said Lisa Maile, of Winter Park, Fla., who gives lectures and seminars on interviewing and professional image. “You have to do 19 times as much work to prepare as you do during the interview. The interview is your payoff.”
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