Give it to me straight

Posted on July 28, 2011
Filed Under Employment, Team, The Workplace | Leave a Comment

A major concern on every employee’s mind is not what their boss or supervisor says, but what they choose not to say. I am referring to subtle critiques of performance and behavior and personal feelings about your demeanor or attitude that bosses might decide to keep to themselves. Were they embarrassed when, in that last company-wide meeting, you accidentally stuck your foot in your mouth? Or when, in a moment of whimsy, you started chirping and stalking around the office like a giant flightless bird? Or perhaps the tone of your voice grates on their nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Or maybe they quietly hate the style in which you compose emails. Read more

The specter of silence in the workplace

Posted on July 25, 2011
Filed Under Corporate Policy, Employment, Team, The Workplace | 2 Comments

Every now and again, the massive A/C unit that pumps cold air throughout my colleagues’ workspaces shuts down. With its deafening hum silenced, the workplace becomes scarily quiet. Every sniffle, every snuffle, every cough and sneeze, every laugh and every sigh can be heard across the cubicle jungle. In the silence, we’re exposed. With a collective tide of irrational paranoia sweeping across the workplace, coworkers become afraid that the silence will bring added scrutiny. In short, although silence may not paralyze the workplace altogether—in fact, common sense seems to tell us that it may engender a more efficient workforce—it can, as U.S. News and World Report contributor Andrew Rosen recently noted, stifle not only open communication, but creativity and teamwork. Read more

How to get a leg up in your next interview

Posted on July 21, 2011
Filed Under Employment, Finding a Job, Interview | Leave a Comment

Before the age of Myspace, Facebook, Google, and the Internet, job seekers had to go into interviews relatively blind. With only their resume and perhaps a vacancy announcement in hand, the 20th century job seeker had to go into interviews without much knowledge about the person interviewing them and without the convenience of being able to troll corporate websites for important information about a company’s mission or current operations. Of course, in the age of Facebook and Google, all of this has changed—most information is literally only a click away. Whether or not they know it, job seekers stand to benefit from this great proliferation of online resources and the dawn of the social network. In the Information Age, clever job seekers can get a decisive leg up in the interview process. Read more

Why 2011 may be a better year for new graduates

Posted on July 18, 2011
Filed Under Career Change, Employment, Finding a Job, Hiring Forecast | Leave a Comment

This late spring and summer 1.6 million students marched triumphantly across a stage and were awarded a diploma representing countless hours of research and studying, years of steadfast dedication, and the ingestion of hundreds of gallons of caffeinated beverages. Being awarded a college degree is often seen as an important milestone and a critical gateway to an improved life. Yet, in recent times this piece of wisdom has been called into questioned. The global economic downturn led many to wonder whether   a college degree has tangible benefits during a downturn. In fact, one Wall Street Journal article dubbed the Class of 2009 as “cursed.” As I noted in a post this past January, despite a still “rollercoaster-ing” labor market, from the standpoint of economic projections and labor trends, 2011 is looking to be the best year since the dawn of the downturn, both for out-of-work job-seekers and new graduates. Read more

Hiring statistics every job seeker should know

Posted on July 14, 2011
Filed Under Career Change, Employment, Finding a Job, Hiring Forecast | Leave a Comment

When applying for a job, have you ever wondered if the “submit” button sends your application into a worm hole through which all applications travel and are dumped into the farthest reaches of outer space? Or do you wonder if the “submit” button is really a façade, something meant to deceive job seekers into naively believing that on the other end of the button is a living, breathing human being waiting anxiously for their application? Whatever your personal feelings may be about the job application process, a hiring report compiled by staffing firm CareerXRoads in March 2011 shows that companies are receiving resumes via that “submit” button we so often question, and effectively puts corporate hiring practices under a microscope. For job seekers, these statistics provide a useful guide to creating an effective job search strategy. Read more

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