Employment Digest

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Online Remark Can Now Sink Job Candidate

When a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company’s president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois.

At Facebook, a popular social networking site, the executive found the candidate’s Web page with this description of his interests: "smokin’ blunts" (cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana), shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in vivid slang.

It did not matter that the student was clearly posturing. He was done.

"A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have?" said the company’s president, Brad Karsh. "Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly?"

Many companies that recruit on college campuses have been using search engines like Google and Yahoo to conduct background checks on seniors looking for their first job. But now, college career counselors and other experts say, some recruiters are looking up applicants on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Xanga and Friendster, where college students often post risqué or teasing photographs and provocative comments about drinking, recreational drug use and sexual exploits in what some mistakenly believe is relative privacy.

When viewed by corporate recruiters or admissions officials at graduate and professional schools, such pages can make students look immature and unprofessional, at best.

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A new wrinkle in the rat race

Seasoned professionals are turning to botox injections and other minimally invasive cosmetic procedures to buff up their career prospects.

“I am an executive coach, and I know that when you are more attractive, others talk to you more," said Fay Mandell , 61, of Pawtucket, R.I., who gets botox injections every four months. “So, I recommend cosmetic procedures to the business people and executives I coach."

Dr. Leonard Miller , a plastic surgeon who teaches at Harvard Medical School , said career pressures are a key reason why such procedures have increased dramatically over the past five years. “People want to stay competitive," he said. “So, we’re seeing business people who are in their 40s, 50s, 60s."

TV shows like ABC’s “Extreme Makeover " and FX’s “Nip/Tuck " have helped make cosmetic restructuring more acceptable to the general public. A recent Monster.com survey of 21,552 online visitors found that 53 percent believed that cosmetic procedures such as dental veneers or plastic surgery would enhance their careers.

Older professionals who might shy away from extensive surgeries with lengthy recovery times are turning to minimally invasive or nonsurgical procedures to lift sagging skin, remove under-eye bags, and plump up laugh lines to help them hunt for jobs or compete at work.

The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reports that in 2005, the number of male patients seeking nonsurgical or minimally invasive procedures had risen 60 percent since 2000. The number of female patients rose 30 percent.

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Have You Lost Your Compass?

Often artists are deterred from pursuing a career in the arts because of a belief that they can’t make money as artists. With thousands of people making livings as artists, I don’t understand how this myth is perpetuated. But just today, I met a young woman whose parents refused to pay for her to go to art school, thinking she wouldn’t be employable after that kind of education. They did help her go to college and she studied humanities, which her parents thought would lead her to law or teaching. Her parents are proud that she is gainfully employed — at Disney — a company founded by an artist!

Often artists give up on their dream even before they get started. And some neglect their personal art when they get jobs as artists. Luckily for us, some don’t. Some, like Richard “Doc” Baily, are compelled to create, no matter what. Their instinct, their very being needs to create. I talked to Doc Baily at a visual effects bakeoff at the Motion Picture Academy on Jan. 19, 2005. I believe I first commented on the sparkling red cowboy boots and cape he was wearing. I emailed him after the meeting and invited him to a seminar I was giving on goal setting and following your dreams.

Doc replied

Pretty much everyone I know is doing more or less what they want to be doing now. I don’t hang with people who have lost their compass. Stick with the winners.

Dr.

Doc never lost his compass, and he sought the company of associates who followed their muses and used their gifts. I saw Doc Baily at this year’s bakeoff but didn’t take the chance to say hello again. I wish I had. Richard “Doc” Baily died April 20, 2006, at age 53. Some believe it is a shame to die at the early age of 53, but Doc Baily had 53 years of following his dream, doing what he loved to do, following his compass. The real shame is leading a long life and spending it doing what you don’t want to do.

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Thin line between fib and fake

Despite the risk, résumés are full of sins of omission – and commission In recent years, high-profile executives have crashed and burned for falsifying their résumés.

Earlier this year RadioShack chief executive David Edmondson stepped down after the company said it was investigating claims in his résumé that he had earned two college degrees.

In 2002, Sandra Baldwin, the former president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, resigned after admitting she didn’t have a doctorate.

George O’Leary had been Notre Dame’s football coach for five days in 2001 when he was exposed for embroidering his academic credentials and college football career.

Legendary broadcast newsman Edward R. Murrow is alleged to have embellished his résumé when he was in his 20s, including giving himself a master’s degree from Stanford University.

When Charlie W. Tomlinson Jr. of Chadds Ford, Pa., was looking for a job last year – after spending six years as director of marketing and business development with Winner Automotive Group in Wilmington – he sat down and created a new résumé.

Tomlinson, 58, deliberately left out his age and the year he graduated from college.

“I don’t think it’s fraudulent – I just didn’t want to focus on my age. That’s the closest I ever came to fudging,” said Tomlinson, who is now director of marketing with NuCar Connection in New Castle.

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Coming out of retirement won’t be that easy to do

We hear a lot about how unprepared American workers are for retirement, but their bosses may be just as flat-footed.

Questioning about 1,000 U.S. companies and 5,111 adults this year, Harris Interactive found a gap between what employers think older workers want and what they actually do want in their second careers.

And those differences will affect how workers plan their financial lives after their first careers are over, experts said.

Financial advisers say early retirees often dream of a second career in a completely new field, for example, only to have those caviar dreams dashed by financial reality.

Steve Moode, 64, of Chicago retired two years ago from a corporate human resources position, but realized he still had plenty of energy to work. Some soul-searching and a few sessions with an outplacement firm sparked a few ideas for jumping into a completely new field. He considered starting over in advertising or food service.

"Then I realized I’d have to start at ground zero" in both salary and position in either of those ventures, Moode said. Instead, he leveraged his corporate experience and took a job as director of employee benefits at the University of Illinois Medical Center. The job is full-time, but is less demanding than his corporate career was, he said.

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How to write a truthful resume that stands out

According to Richard Bayer, COO of the Five O’Clock Club, the country’s leading career coaching/outplacement counseling company, lying on resumes has reached an all-time peak from little fibs about job titles to exaggerations regarding responsibilities to fictitious claims of advanced degrees. And, with resume padding getting press attention, employers are stepping up efforts to weed out fakers.

As Bayer says, "There is no reason to lie. The slightest inaccuracy on your resume can come back to bite you in the face and disqualify you for a position you have the skills and experience to win honestly. To distinguish yourself from the competition and make your resume stand out from the crowd, you need to highlight and reposition your accomplishments so they accurately reflect what you are capable of doing."

Here are research-based suggestions for writing a truthful resume that stands out:

- Brainstorm and rank your accomplishments. List them as bullets in the summary section at the top of your resume. Leave off responsibilities that are not important.

- Don’t lie about a degree. If you attended college, but didn’t graduate, list the name of the school and your major area of concentration.

- Use a descriptive job title. Make sure your title accurately reflects the scope of your duties. Often the title a company assigns to a job is not a true indicator of the responsibilities of the position.

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Preparation key to successful job interview

Interviews can be nerve-wracking, but there are ways to calm those nerves.

"The No. 1 mistake in an interview situation is lack of pre-interview preparation," said John Montemayor, the Career Center coordinator for the College of Arts and Science at USC Upstate.

"A lot of students don’t do research on the company (they are interviewing with), and they aren’t anticipating the types of questions that will be asked of them," said Montemayor.

Darrin Goss, the assistant dean of students and director of career services at Wofford College, agrees.

"One of the key things I tell my students is to show interest during an interview. One way to do this is to do your research and ask great questions," Goss said.

Goss encourages job seekers to know something about the organization — who are they marketing to, what their products are, etc.

For example, if interviewing for a position in a bank, visit a branch of that bank to get a feel for the culture.

"It’s not only about them finding out about you, but about you finding out about them, too," Goss said.

Montemayor encourages students to look at their resume before an interview to think about possible red flags that may come up. Examples include job-hopping or too much time between jobs.

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