#Leadership : The Downsides Of Using #PersonalityTests For #Hiring … Personality isn’t Everything, and Companies Who Rely on It to Predict #Performance can Run into Trouble.

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Finding the perfect candidate for an open role is hard work. In a competitive market for talent, companies are not settling for a standard application and interview process. They’re coming up with oddball questions, devising strange vetting methods, and “auditioning” candidates before giving them a permanent offer. They’re also making them do personality tests.

The use of personality tests isn’t new. Executive coaches have used them, and so have career placement organizations, as Fast Company previously reported. However, recently, we’re seeing more companies sell “personality tests” as a recruitment method. SquarePeg, for example, asks job seekers and companies a series of questions on traits and preferences before referring them to each other based on their results.

Traitify sells its own personality assessments developed by psychologists, marketed as a faster and more effective option to the Myers-Briggs test. Talify connects college students with jobs that are supposedly the best fit with their skills and interests, which are assessed through a . . . personality test.

But just how effective are personality tests as a tool for hiring? Neel Doshi–coauthor of Primed to Perform, How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Motivation , tells Fast Company that while it can be effective, there is a lot of danger to the practice when organizations don’t use it effectively.

WHEN RESULTS HAMPER A “GROWTH” MIND-SET

The biggest problem with personality tests, Doshi says, is when companies weaponize them. That is–when the “results” of their test is used for justification on their progress (or lack of) at the company, whether it’s getting a promotion, being tasked with important assignments, or getting the green-light to lead an ambitious project. This kind of thinking discourages a “growth” mind-set among employees and implicitly encourages blame, leading to a toxic workplace environment. It can discourage employees from trying to improve and grow, and send a message that their “ability” to do something is static–rather than something they can hone over time.

As psychology professor Art Markman wrote in a previous Fast Company article–personality is a factor that can motivate people to act, but is not the only factor. Markman wrote, “A person who expresses a strong desire to take on a particular role is likely to learn new skills and habits that will allow them to succeed in that role, even if their personality characteristics would suggest they are not well-suited to that job. That internal motivation to succeed is often a stronger force than the motivation provided by personality characteristics.”

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THERE IS AN INCENTIVE FOR APPLICANTS TO “GAME” THE TEST

Doshi also notes that when you pose something as an assessment, there’s a very real possibility of applicants trying to “game” the test, which defeats the whole purpose in the first place. Because applicants believe that this is something they will be assessed on, they’ll be more likely to answer in a way that they think the company wants them to, rather than how they actually are.  “In a recruiting process, it’s not easy to get a truly accurate lead if the questions are part of an evaluation. You see time and time again where an organization will try to assess personality. The candidates tend to see it as tests, and they’re trying to figure out how to game the test,” Doshi tells Fast Company.

THE DANGER OF BIAS

Proponents of personality tests will argue that they’re using it to combat bias. After all, it’s just more data that they can use to predict an individual’s performance, right?  However, Doshi argues that in actuality, companies run the risk of bias when conducting personality tests for hiring, particularly in regards to diversity of thoughts. For starters, certain personality traits are not relevant to job performance. But if hiring managers believe that they are, they might miss out on talents who don’t fit the personality type, but whose skills, motivations, and other attributes bring a lot of value to the company.

This example is well illustrated in the technology industry. As Bloomberg journalist Emily Chang recounts in Brotopia: Breaking Up The Boy’s Club Of Silicon Valley, during the mid-1960s, the tech industry hired two psychologists, William Cannon and Dallis Perry, to determine what kind of individuals would make successful programmers. First, they concluded that such individuals needed to enjoy problem solving. Second, they concluded that good programmers “don’t like people.” Five and a half decades later, this stereotype continues to persist, even though product gaffes have shown, time and time again, of the dangers of not having emotionally intelligent developers who can understand their users’ concerns and point of view.

USING PERSONALITY TEST AS A MOTIVATIONAL TOOL

Doshi believes that personality tests are best used as a “motivational” tool rather than a hiring tool. That is, once a candidate is hired, the personality test should be a way to have “safe conversations about your natural preferences at work.” Rather than trying to determine whether one is an introvert or an extrovert, the “test” should ask questions like, What part of your job do you find painful?

Businesses often jump to personality tests because it seems like a silver bullet, Doshi tells Fast Company. It seems easy and alluring to boil someone down to four factors–but when a company hasn’t taken the time to think about what they actually need to create a high-performance culture, they can end up running into more problems than benefits.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anisa is the Editorial Assistant for Fast Company’s Leadership section. She covers everything from personal development, entrepreneurship and the future of work.

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FastCompany.com | February 23, 2018 | BY ANISA PURBASARI HORTON 4 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : How To Tidy Up Your #DigitalFootprint Before Your First #JobSearch …You Can’t go Back in time and Not Post those Embarrassing Photos, But you Can Erase your Mistakes Before your Future #Boss #Googles You.

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When I graduated from college in 2000, social media didn’t really exist, and managers didn’t do Google background checks. I didn’t realize how easy I had it compared to today’s graduates.

“It isn’t at all uncommon for hiring managers to look at Facebook or Instagram to see what type of person the candidate is. You can gauge what someone’s like from an interview, but only to a certain extent,” says Callum Williams, a senior recruitment consultant at FRG Technology Consulting. “The attitude [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][the applicant] displays once they have the job could be entirely different, so social media can offer valuable insight at times.”

If you’re entering the workforce now, you were raised in an era where social media has been ubiquitous. Your posts from high school might come back to haunt you when a prospective employer searches your accounts.

Of course the best way to stop embarrassing posts from coming on to the radar of a prospective employer is not to post things that you wouldn’t want your boss to see in the first place. But if you’re reading this article, it’s clearly too late for that. So here are some steps you can take to reduce the chances that your past online activity and digital footprint will hurt your job prospects.

MAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS PRIVATE

As soon as you enter the professional realm, or enter the phase of looking for your first professional job, it’s time to privatize your social media profiles. Yes, it feels good to have hundreds or thousands of followers, even if you don’t know 90% of them, but is that dopamine high you get when you snag a new follower worth it if your public social media account stops you from getting a job?

Here’s how to make your Facebook profile private, make your Twitter profile private, and make your Instagram profile private.

 

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REVIEW YOUR TIMELINES

Of course, there are times when it’s beneficial to have public social media profiles when hunting for a job. This is especially true if you’re looking for a job in the media, where your social media profile can serve as an addendum to your resume.

But even if this is the case, you’ll still want to scan through all your social media posts and remove any photos or comments that could cast you in a negative light. Such posts include anything that makes you look petulant, nasty, or immature. Obviously get rid of “funny”/potentially embarrassing photos, and comments that could cause offense. As far as posts about politics go, it’s okay to stand by your political views, just don’t leave any posts up that demonize the other side simply because they disagree with your point of view.

CONTROL TAGGING

Of course, sometimes you can appear on social media despite not posting the content yourself. This often happens when our friends or family tag us in content they post. These tags with our names can often show up in Google searches, especially Google Image searches, as most tags are applied to photos.

“Be conscious of the things you are tagged in,” warns Williams. “Friends have a habit of tagging you in pictures and videos that you would rather not share with the world. Ask them to remove the tag or remove it yourself.”

Besides asking friends to untag you, most social media sites also give you the ability to disable other people from tagging you in the first place. Here’s how to control tagging on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

FIND AND CLOSE ANY OLD SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

When we think of managing our social media profiles, we generally think of the current big three social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, chances are that many of us have digital footprints floating around online from other platforms that we’ve long since abandoned. I’m talking about old platforms like MySpace or Friendster or abandoned social media profiles on services like Google+, or from that time we created a Flickr account just to post our pics from that wild trip to Cancun.

You might not even remember how many abandoned social media accounts you have. To find them, Google your name to see what comes up (check past the first page of results) or try a service like Deseat.me, which aims to help you find all your forgotten online accounts. Any accounts you do find, either make them private or close them down completely.

Not sure if a certain post might hurt your job prospects?

“If in doubt about a historical social media post, consider the first impression it would give a stranger,” says Williams, “and be mindful that the standard of a hiring manager is higher than that.”

FastCompany.com | February 23, 2018 | BY MICHAEL GROTHAUS 3 MINUTE READ

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Your #Career : Five Things To Do When You’ve Exhausted All The #JobBoards …If your #JobHunt has Stalled, Try One of These Tactics to Get Out of your Rut.

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You’re scanning the job boards daily, but there just aren’t any new listings that catch your eye or fit your experience level. But you don’t have to let your job search grind to a halt just because the pickings seem slim.

There are a few other things you can do to keep things moving, even when there’s not much out there.

1. SET UP AN INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW

Informational interviews are underrated. The goal is to get a hold of someone who works at a company you’re interested in and just learn the inside scoop. They aren’t the one who’s making any hiring decisions, and maybe there isn’t even an open position there that you’re currently gunning for. It’s purely for research and networking.

After you’ve spent some time trawling job boards like Glassdoor, Indeed, and Monster, you’ve probably assembled a shortlist of employers that appeal to you, even if they aren’t hiring right now. And as career coach Sarah Vermunt put it recently, “If there’s an organization you know you’d like to work for, you’d be crazy not to try for an informational interview with someone who works there.” So, she suggests, “reach out to someone who is doing work that is similar to the work you want to do. That’ll give you a true picture of the work–the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

As you plan your next move, these informal conversations can arm you with crucial intel about where the market needs really lie, which organizations are thriving and which ones might actually be pretty toxic, and a few smart ways to position yourself for openings when they finally do crop up.

Read more: Yes, You Need Informational Interviews–Here’s How To Land Them

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2. UP YOUR LINKEDIN GAME

This one is a no-brainer. When you send out a job application, you’re knocking on employers’ doors; when you optimize your LinkedIn presence, you’re inviting employers to knock on yours. Scan your LinkedIn profile for any incomplete fields, discrepancies, overwritten chunks of text, extremely basic skills, and meaningless industry jargon–all of those things are turn-offs to recruiters and need to go.

Take a little time to personalize your profile so it highlights what’s genuinely unique about your experience. For instance, if you’re a software engineer, your headline should specify what kind, and your skills field should list all the languages and coding tools you know. At the same time, balance out any the human side, too, so you don’t come across as a soulless robot with only great technical chops. Explain what you’re passionate about and what types of problems you’ve solved (and why those wound up helping your team, your organization, or your customers).

Specificity matters, but so do soft skills like emotional intelligence–no matter what your role or industry.

Read more: If You Can Only Spare 15 Minutes A Week For LinkedIn, Do This

3. GO TO A NETWORKING EVENT

I know–everyone hates hearing advice like this. But when you’re coming up dry in your search for openings, it doesn’t hurt to hit up a networking mixer–even one that you know will be short on leads. The reason? When you’re looking for a job, you need to actively seek out opportunities to practice discussing your experience, professional goals, and passions.

So even if it’s pretty much guaranteed that you aren’t going to meet your next boss at that networking event, the exercise in introducing yourself to strangers and talking articulately about your career is a valuable one. Feeling iffy about it anyway? Grab a friend or coworker and make networking a team sport.

Read more: How I Learned To Stop Hating Networking Events (Mostly)

4. CHECK YOUR SOFT SKILLS

Recruiters are interested in your people skills, not just your technical know-how. As Susan Vitale, chief marketing officer for iCIMS, recently told Fast Company, “Hard skills are what you do, and soft skills are how you do it.” And some of the top capabilities in that category, according to Vitale and other talent professionals in the space, include adaptability, problem solving, and verbal communication.

Some job seekers who repeatedly get called in for job interviews but miss out on offers may find that they’re falling short on some of those key soft skills. It’s sometimes easier to nail down a candidates’ technical capabilities before meeting them; soft skills are harder to suss out. So giving recruiters and hiring managers reason to feel confident that you’re emotionally intelligent in addition to being a world-class marketer is one way to get a leg up when new openings finally do get posted. In the meantime, take a few minutes to dial up those soft skills on your resume–here’s a handy formula for figuring out how.

Read more: These Are The 5 Soft Skills Recruiters Want Most

5. CHANGE YOUR THINKING ON JOB-SEARCH DEADLINES

One of the reasons a long, mostly fruitless job search can feel so frustrating is because the outcome you’re looking for–a really great job offer–isn’t something you can bring about all on your own. No matter how badly you might want a new job by next month, there’s nothing you can do single-handedly to guarantee you’ll get one by then. As The Muse’s Alison Cardy explains, “When you tie a deadline to something that’s not within your power, you set yourself up to feel defeated if it falls through.”

Read more: Two Simple Tricks For Staying Positive In A Long, Hard Job Search

Looking out for your mental health is crucial at times like these, when positivity can be in short supply. One trick Cardy suggests is rethinking the way you’re setting goals and deadlines as a job seeker. So commit to sending out 10 job applications over the next two weeks, for example, or to grab coffee with three contacts by the end of the month. “By connecting the deadline to your personal efforts,” Cardy says, “you give yourself the opportunity to feel successful just by meeting it–and that confidence boost can mean a lot during a tough search.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rich Bellis is Associate Editor of Fast Company’s Leadership section.

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FastCompany.com | February 22, 2018 | Rich Bellis

#Leadership : Take These Steps To Boost Morale After #Layoffs …The #Employees who Remain After a Round of Layoffs will Likely have High #Anxiety. Here’s How to Lessen the Impact & Get Everyone Back on Track.

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You might think that employees who survive layoffs feel lucky or valued, but a study by outplacement provider RiseSmart finds that surviving team members have unique challenges that can hurt their productivity, and 43% of companies are not prepared for the impact.

“Most of the focus is on the employees who are leaving, and that’s understandable,” says Dan Davenport, president and general manager of RiseSmart. “Not enough attention is paid to the impact on the surviving employees by companies.”

Anxiety and a drop in morale are commonly felt, says Davenport. “Employees wonder what’s going to happen next,” he says. “They’re also worried about their former coworkers who are leaving the organization, wondering if they’ll land on their feet. This can lead to a loss of productivity.”

Companies need get in front of the potential impact by putting a plan in place, says Davenport. “You can’t eliminate the impact on productivity and morale when you have a layoff, but you can do a lot of things to minimize impact,” he says.

HAVE A GOOD COMMUNICATION PLAN

Start by sharing as much information about the layoff with the survivors as possible. Most managers aren’t adept at delivering this kind of information, so provide training when necessary, says Davenport. “They need to understand how to address the team,” he says. “Prepare them with messaging and notification training to make sure the process is a smooth one and doesn’t lead to legal liability.”

Be transparent about what is happening, how many people are affected, and how positions were selected, Davenport continues. “Reducing headcount is a business decision,” he says. “Explain how laid-off employees are being cared for, and be transparent about the future. Talk about what to expect when going through stages of transition and how work will be distributed, and discuss the possibility of future layoffs.”

Not delivering the right message or even ignoring it altogether can have a sizeable impact on business; 70% experience a negative impact on future talent acquisition efforts, and 81% report a negative impact on brand, according to the study.

 

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HELP EMPLOYEES DEVELOP RESILIENCY

Another tactic that can help surviving employees move forward is offering lessons in resiliency, suggests Davenport. Consider holding mindfulness training in the office, such as meditation or journaling classes. Learning how to “build in a pause” when reacting to situations will help employees learn how to process information and take out emotion before they react. Engaging in gratitude exercises, such as by journaling, can also increase positive emotions and reduce stress.

“It’s important to help employees keep their focus on the future,” says Davenport.

HOLD ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE MORALE

Finally, arrange events where employees can get together and share feelings, suggests Davenport. “Employees need to feel safe and comfortable in sharing,” he says. “It takes three months or longer for your surviving team to return to productivity. If you don’t do anything, it can take longer.”

Share your vision of the company’s future and connect each individual employee to the goals you have set, Davenport says. Offer career development, provide coaching, and encourage mentorship programs.

“Employers need to understand that employees who remain will experience the same stages of grief and loss as the employees who were let go,” says Davenport.

FastCompany.com | February 21, 2018 | BY STEPHANIE VOZZA 2 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : The Big Changes Ahead For #BoomerWorkers …Boomers & #GenXers : Your Working World is in for Major Disruptions Between Now & 2030, According to a New Report from the Management Consulting Firm Bain & Company.

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Boomers and Gen Xers: Your working world is in for major disruptions between now and 2030, according to a new report from the management consulting firm Bain & Company. “The depth and breadth of changes in the 2020s will set apart this transformation from many previous ones,” said the report, Labor 2030: The Collision of Demographics, Automation and Inequality.

But here’s the bigger surprise: Some of those disruptions will make it easier for people in the 50s and 60s to keep working, find jobs and start businesses, the Bain forecasters say. Now that’s a noteworthy trend.

Hanging On to Older Workers

The main reason for the good news, according to the Bain experts, is that the abundance of labor seen since the 1970s — due to boomers and women entering the workforce — is winding down. Bain foresees labor force growth in the U.S. slowing to 0.4% a year in the 2020s. With workers in shorter supply, the Bain analysts say, employers will be eager to hang on to the ones they have and entice applicants, including older ones, to join them.

“Baby boomers will remain an important pool of talent through 2030, when the youngest cohort of that generation will only be 66,” the report said. This view echoed what I heard last May when I asked futurists Katherine LY Green, of Green Consulting Group, and John Mahaffie and Jennifer Jarratt, founders of Leading Futurists, what they expected for older workers in the coming decades.

Companies looking to innovate and scale within their businesses “will often find that skill among workers who’ve been around the place awhile,” said Andrew Schwedel, a partner in Bain & Company’s New York Office and head of the firm’s Macro Trends Group, which published the study.

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More Flexible Employment for Boomer Workers

“The war for talent” means companies will be innovating like crazy to make compelling offers to workers,” said Schwedel. He anticipates not only more demand for flexible work arrangements from employees and job applicants, but more need for a flexible workforce in general.

To keep older workers, there may be “more opportunities to retool your skills, and maybe even a new generation of employee benefits,” said Schwedel.

Also, the Bain report said, “as competition talent increases, standard employment offers may disappear.” Companies offering an identical package to the three generations of the labor force in the 2020s could “be vulnerable to poaching from employers willing to make more focused offers” with a custom blend of compensation, benefits and hours.

Whither Age Discrimination?

Age discrimination by employers, Schwedel said, won’t disappear, but it will change. “You may not see employers offering older workers traditional employment. We’ll be seeing the rise of more part-timers and independent contractors.”

The ability to work longer will be a huge help to many Americans in their 60s without enough retirement savings to let them live out their longer lives in comfort. Bain’s dire view: as things stand now, only about the top 20% of older households are likely to have enough savings to support a traditional retirement. The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis just came out with an even gloomier report, saying that 40% of older workers and their spuses will be “downwardly mobile” in retirement.

Inequality Among Older Americans

One big question, Bain says, is whether people in their 60s will physically be able to keep working.

“If you’re well-educated, and high-income, you will probably manage to keep working into your 70s if you want,” said Schwedel. “But if you’re blue-collar, with less than a high-school education and health problems, you’ll have a tougher time.”

The bottom 40% of older households “may see their income and workforce participation decline due to health reasons,” the Bain report said.

What About the Robots?

And those robots we’ve been told will be coming to take our jobs? Automation may be reason to worry for many, but it could possibly spell opportunities for your career, and for your investment portfolio.

Bain believes the rapid spread of automation may eliminate as many as 20 to 25% of current jobs — equal to 40 million displaced workers. Hardest hit: workers currently making between $30,000 and $60,000 per year.

“But some people will benefit” from automation, said Schwedel.

The Good News for Entrepreneurs

For example: entrepreneurs. “Automation will make it much easier for a small business to access scale in ways it was hard to do in the past,” said Schwedel. “You can rent from Amazon Web Services, use UPS to do your logistics and hire Salesforce.com to run your sales.”

The report also noted that now “entrepreneurs can use social media postings, targeted search engine ads and email newsletters to launch businesses at a fraction of the marketing budget previously required.

Other beneficiaries from automation, said Schwedel, are “people in managerial roles requiring professional expertise and who have the ability to work with new technology and use it to increase productivity — like data scientists.”

Similarly, “if you are a financial adviser, automation will dramatically increase your productivity, it won’t necessarily eliminate your job. The financial adviser industry has not found it economical to serve clients with smaller portfolios, but it will become more economical when technology extends their reach.”

Opportunities for Investors

That could also be good news for the many middle-income Americans who want financial advisers to help manage their money but are often snubbed.

“From a micro standpoint, anything related to automation will generate investment opportunities,” said Schwedel. Bain forecasters see four types in sectors such as energy, health care, aerospace, retail and infrastructure:

1. Core platform providers providing the essential enabling technologies for the next phase of automation. They include “the physical building blocks, such as high-dexterity robotic hands” and the “analytical or control building blocks, such as machine learning systems and the application program interfaces that go with them.”

2. Systems integrators combining the building blocks to create function systems by assembling sophisticated hardware and software components in one integrated package. Think drones that drop off packages.

3. Businesses that figure out how to adapt automated systems to discrete uses. Example: delivering a package to a customer’s house.

4. The collateral infrastructure that enables new automation systems. Bain believes this may be nearly half the total investment that the next phase of automation will require.

Why Higher Taxes May Be Coming

One more thing the Bain forecasters say may be on the horizon: much higher taxes. That’s because there’ll be more older Americans requiring government benefits such as Medicare and Medicaid and fewer younger Americans working and paying taxes.

Tax increases of 15 to 25% per U.S. worker by 2030 “could be required to offset changing demographics and inequality,” the Bain report said.

“We’re not prescribing policies,” said Schwedel. “We’re not saying whether taxes should go up or by how much or what type.”

The researchers just believe taxes may go up if trends play out the way they expect: lower economic growth, surging health care costs, rising income inequality, lagging wages, a cyclical downturn in the second half of the decade, a decline in interest rates and major job displacement. An alternative scenario if those trends come true: increased government benefits.

 

Forbes.com | February 20, 2018 | Next Avenue

Your #Career : How to Follow Up on Your Job Application…. Meticulously, you Complete the #OnlineApplication, attach your #CoverLetter and #Resume & Send Everything Off! Now What?

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You’ve invested a lot of time in your job search – researching job openings, identifying companies, perfecting your resume, and sharpening your interview skills.

Now, you’re ready to take the first big step. You’ve found a perfect role just opened at your dream company. Meticulously, you complete the online application, attach your cover letter and resume and send everything off!

Now what?

You should proactively follow up while keeping in mind that dozens — even hundreds — of other resumes also are flooding the same HR department, making it difficult to personally respond to each applicant.

This doesn’t take away the value of sending a courteous and concise follow up. In fact, following up (the right way) may be just what’s needed to distinguish your application from the pack.

Consider these steps to follow up after submitting your online application.

Step #1

If a contact email is provided, make note of this along with the date you submitted your application.

  • Approximately one week after submitting your application, plan a brief courteous email check-in to confirm they received it. Use this opportunity also to reinforce your enthusiasm for the role.
  • If another week passes and you still have not heard back, then another short, one- to two-paragraph note is in order, indicating genuine interest in the position and inquiring about next steps.
  • You may also use this second follow-up to reinforce how you envision using your skills to solve a potential challenge you suspect — or even know — the company is facing. Keep this “solution” very brief (1-3 sentences). The power of this “future impact” proposal is to trigger a connection between your value proposition and their pain points.
7 Ways to Get Recruiters & Job Offers to Come to You

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Step # 2

If a contact email is NOT provided during the application process, then you will need to be a bit more creative.

  • Search the company site to locate contact names that are related to the particular role or division for which you applied. If you find a name but no method of reaching them, then make a note of the name.
  • Next, research that person and company name online, and when you locate them, hunt for an email address. Using the email address, conduct the follow-up similarly (but not exactly the same) as mentioned above – brief, polite and enthusiastic notes indicating you have applied to a role in this person’s company.
  • Communicate that upon researching further, you discovered this person may be a person of influence, and perhaps even is the one vetting resumes for the open job. As such, you wanted to reach out with a brief status inquiry while further expressing your interest. Be careful not to imply an expected response, and that your intentions are simply to express further interest in the role.
  • If you have a name but cannot locate an email, then perhaps a call into the company reception desk will help. Indicate whom you are trying to reach and simply request the best way to email them. Search Facebook or other social media sites to unearth more information.
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Applying for jobs at smaller or mid-sized companies may provide a more direct route to following up as often key leadership/ownership are listed, along with contact information, directly on the site.

Whether emailing or phoning, keep your tone upbeat and professionally passionate, indicating that you would love to explore working for this company. Be specific to prove your sentiments are credible. And always be prepared to walk away from the conversation and move on to the next potential opportunity, without leaving a trail of angst or pressure in your wake. Stay positive, which will not only serve your job search well, but will also help you move more confidently throughout the process.

 

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Your #Career : These Are 6 Red Flags That You Shouldn’t Take The Job….If you See One or More of these Warning signs During your #Interview, Maybe this Isn’t the #Workplace for You.

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The average job hunt takes the better part of three months, according to job search platform TalentWorks. That’s a long time to have your mind focused on how to land the interview, prepare, and make the best impression to get hired. So, it’s no wonder that, once there, many job seekers overlook red flags that they may not be courting the greatest place to work.

“It is important for people to slow down and realize that it’s a two-way interview, because the job is only going to be a great experience for them if it’s a good fit,” says Carisa Miklusak, CEO of recruitment automation platform Tilr, based in Cincinnati. And there are often a number of clues about the job, company culture, and leadership if you just know what to look for, she says.

Here are six red flags to watch out for.

ATTITUDE AND APPEARANCE

You may be nervous, but take a moment to look around and observe your surroundings. What you see may tell you a lot about the company and its people. “From the time that you walk in, it starts with the receptionist. As you’re walking through the office, do people seem friendly, do they try to engage with you, say welcome, say hello, make eye contact?” says Tonya Salerno, principal staffing manager at WinterWyman, based in New York City. People who are happy in their work are generally curious about and friendly to newcomers, she says.

Also, take a look around the office. It doesn’t have to be prime office space, but do you get a sense that people have pride in their workplace? Are common areas tidy or in disarray? Does the place look clean? Do people have personal effects in their work space? Does it look inviting?

“I believe an office is like a second home, and that I should take pride in the space and the people with whom I would be working,” says Salerno.

 

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LACK OF PREPARATION

When you sit down with the interviewer, do you have a sense that they know who you are? Has the interviewer reviewed your resume and have some familiarity with your background? If not, they may not be taking the job search as seriously as you are, or it may be a sign that the company has a lot of turnover and doesn’t invest much time in replacing people, Miklusak says. The interviewer should be familiar with the job for which you’re interviewing and have at least a basic familiarity with your background.

HYPOTHETICAL AND SITUATIONAL QUESTIONS

Miklusak says one of her best “job interview hacks” is to listen for hypothetical or situational questions. If an employer asks, ‘How would you react in a situation like this?” listen to the question, she says. “The interviewer is asking because you are likely to be in a situation like that, or in some type of situation where one could make a parallel between the question and the situation.”

So, if an interviewer asks you how you would react if you were in a chaotic situation with little direction, it might be a test to see how you manage disorder. But, it could also be that the interviewer is trying to figure out if you can manage the organization’s way of operating.

A QUEST FOR ELUSIVE CHANGE

If your interviewer talks about how the company is ready for change or needs change, ask a few questions, says Sarah Connors, principal staffing manager and team leader at WinterWyman. Get more information on what needs to be changed, how long it’s been that way, and most importantly, how ready they are to change it.

“I’ve had candidates get excited to be the person to truly impact change at a company, just to find out later that the managing team isn’t ready to change things. So be sure it isn’t just an ideal they’re paying lip service to, but a reality they want you to help deliver,” she says. Or the company may put the responsibility for changing things on you without giving you the resources you need to be successful.

IMPROPER QUESTIONS

There are a number of questions that interviewers aren’t allowed to ask by law. Yet a 2017 Associated Press and CNBC poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that more than half (51%) of those who have been on at least one job interview have been asked at least one inappropriate or personal question. Questions about marital status, medical history, and disabilities topped the list. If interviewers aren’t aware of basic employment law, that could be an indicator that they’re lax in other areas, too.

“It can be a real cultural flag. For example, if a lot of people are asking you if you have kids. It’s either a super-friendly family place, or they want to put you on a plane 100% of the time and they’re real concerned if you do [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][have children],” Miklusak says.

COMFORT QUESTIONS

If an interviewer asks about your comfort level with certain factors, take note, Miklusak warns. “This question is a huge flag, ‘Do you think you will be comfortable here because . . . ‘ and then the because is something like, ‘Most of the people are younger than you’ or ‘This is a pretty male-orientated sales team,’” she says. Look for what the interviewer is trying to indicate about the culture. Such a question may reflect a flaw, lack of diversity, or issue that has been a problem in the past.

By keeping an eye out for red flags, you can keep focused on finding a job that will be a good fit for you—and more likely free of unpleasant surprises.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gwen Moran writes about business, money and assorted other topics for leading publications and web sites. She was named a Small Business Influencer Awards Top 100 Champion in 2015, 2014, and 2012 and is the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans (Alpha, 2010), and several other books.

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FastCompany.com | February 20, 2018 

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#Leadership : 6 Things #SuccessfulPeople Do When they Return From a Long Weekend… An Extra Day Off Makes Snapping Out of Weekend Mode that Much Harder.

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• Some people across the US received some extra time off thanks to Presidents’ Day.

• Business Insider spoke with several productivity and work experts to get tips on how to bounce back from a long weekend.

• They recommended hitting the ground running on your first day back.

Some people around the US receive an extra day off for Presidents’ Day to commemorate the individuals who have served in the White House over the centuries.

There’s a lot to be said about how you should— or shouldn’t— spend long weekends. But it’s equally important to plan out the days that follow a long weekend.

When you’re coming back from some time off and you have a shorter week to get everything done, it usually helps to hit the ground running.

With that in mind, here are six things that successful people do first when they return from long weekend:

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They get to work early

They get to work earlyPhalinn Ooi/flickr

When it comes to some holidays, almost everyone has time off. So you won’t be falling behind by showing up to work at your usual time.

But coming in early is a good idea if you want to be as productive as possible after a holiday weekend.

“That will mitigate the workload avalanche and give you a head start, sans distraction,” Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and the author of “Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job,” tells Business Insider.

They scrutinize their to-do lists

They scrutinize their to-do listsJacquelyn Smith/Business Insider

Productive people know that long, unwieldy to-do lists are essentially useless. There’s no better time to start cutting items from your list than the day you get back from long weekend.

“Now that you’ve spent a good bit away from your desk, you have tangible proof that those tasks you’re always putting off aren’t holding up your ceiling,” freelance reporter Kevin Purdy writes in Fast Company.

They double check their schedules

They double check their schedulesPhil Parker/Flickr

Don’t forget to double check your schedule. Remember, you’ll likely be dealing with a shortened work week. Don’t try to cram too many items onto your weekly schedule, or you might wind up burning yourself out.

They check in with people

They check in with peopleFrancis Kokoroko/Reuters

If you’re back from a national holiday, odds are most of your coworkers and clients will be in the same boat as you.

Still, it’s not a bad idea to check in.

“Take the time to connect with one or two clients to let them know they’re top of mind with you and that you’re back if they need anything,” Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of “The Humor Advantage,” tells Business Insider. “It’s a simple customer service touch point that can make a big impression.”

What’s more, if the long weekend ate up a Monday — a popular day for meetings— schedule in some time for your team and direct reports to meet up, even if it’s just for a few minutes. You want to make sure everyone’s on the same page now that you’re all back in the office.

They organize their inbox

They organize their inboxAP/Jerry Lai

Beware of spending too much time responding to the emails you missed over the weekend.

“It’s easy to get sucked into the vortex of responding to every email without considering whether it’s the best use of your time on the first day back,” Kerr says. “Don’t confuse email activity with productive work, so be strategic and only respond to email that are time sensitive.”

They focus on work

They focus on workLeon Neal/Getty

It’s important to be able to shut off your “work brain” over long weekends. You want to enjoy your time off, after all.

It’s equally important to snap back into a work-oriented mindset when you return to the office. Successful people are able to make the switch and avoid any unproductive post-long weekend dillydallying.

DON’T MISS: 11 things unsuccessful people do over long weekends

SEE ALSO: 8 things successful people do after getting back from vacation

 

 

Businessinsider.com | February 19, 2018 | Áine Cain

Your #Career : The Fastest Path to the #CEOJob, According to a 10-Year Study…Some People’s #Careers Take Off, while Others’ Take Longer — or Even Stall Out.

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Common wisdom says that the former attend elite MBA programs, land high-powered jobs right out of school at prestigious firms, and climb the ladder straight to the top, carefully avoiding risky moves. But our data shows a completely different picture.

We conducted a 10-year study, which we call the CEO Genome Project, in which we assembled a data set of more than 17,000 C-suite executive assessments and studied 2,600 in-depth to analyze who gets to the top and how. We then took a closer look at “CEO sprinters” — those who reached the CEO role faster than the average of 24 years from their first job.

We discovered a striking finding: Sprinters don’t accelerate to the top by acquiring the perfect pedigree. They do it by making bold career moves over the course of their career that catapult them to the top. We found that three types of career catapults were most common among the sprinters. Ninety-seven percent of them undertook at least one of these catapult experiences and close to 50% had at least two. (In contrast, only 24% had elite MBAs.)

Through these career catapults, executives build the specific behaviors that set successful CEOs apart — including decisiveness, reliability, adaptability, and the ability to engage for impact — and they get noticed for their accomplishments. The catapults are so powerful that even people in our study who never aspired to become CEO ultimately landed the position by pursuing one or more of these strategies.

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Go Small to Go Big

The path to CEO rarely runs in a straight line; sometimes you have to move backward or sideways in order to get ahead. More than 60% of sprinters took a smaller role at some point in their career. They may have started something new within their company (by launching a new product or division, for example), moved to a smaller company to take on a greater set of responsibilities, or started their own business. In each case, they used the opportunity to build something from the ground up and make an outsize impact.

In his late twenties, “James” was hired in a strategy and business development role inside a multibillion-dollar marketing and communications business. Early in his career, he was offered the chance to build out one of the new businesses. It felt like a demotion, or at best a lateral move, to be handed a blank org chart and a highly uncertain future. “It was zero revenue when I stepped in, and we built that business to $250 million,” he says. By building a new business from scratch, he picked up essential management skills, such as running a P&L, managing a budget, and setting a strategic vision — all critical prerequisites to becoming a CEO (over 90% of the CEOs we studied had general management experience). Thirteen years later, he found himself the CEO of a $1.5 billion education and training business.

Make a Big Leap

More than one-third of sprinters catapulted to the top by making “the big leap,” often in the first decade of their careers. These executives threw caution to the wind and said yes to opportunities even when the role was well beyond anything they’ve done previously and they didn’t feel fully prepared for the challenges ahead.

Take, for example, “Jerry,” who at age 24 joined a $200 million business as a senior accountant. Eight months after being hired, he was offered the CFO position, leapfrogging the controller who hired him. Though he was young and still learning the ropes, he embraced the challenge with gusto. “I was very young for my level, and I was given responsibility ahead of my readiness,” he says. As CFO, he gained insight into a broad set of functions and proved his ability to thrive in a new, uncertain environment. Within nine years, after a stint as COO, he landed his first CEO role.

If you don’t expect this kind of opportunity to fall into your lap, you are not alone. However, what we heard from these sprinters is an attitude of “You make your own luck.” Seek out cross-functional projects that touch numerous aspects of the business. Get involved in a merger integration. Ask your boss for additional responsibilities. Tackle tough, complex problems. Above all, make a habit of saying “yes” to greater opportunities — ready or not.

Inherit a Big Mess

It may feel counterintuitive, and a bit daunting, but one way to prove your CEO mettle is by inheriting a big mess. It could be an underperforming business unit, a failed product, or a bankruptcy — any major problem for the business that needs to be fixed fast. More than 30% of our sprinters led their teams through a big mess.

Messy situations cry out for strong leadership. When faced with a crisis, emerging leaders have an opportunity to showcase their ability to assess a situation calmly, make decisions under pressure, take calculated risks, rally others around them, and persevere in the face of adversity. In other words, it’s great preparation for the CEO job.

“Jackie,” the CEO of a transport company, didn’t wait for the big mess to find her. She sought it out. “I liked working on something that was a mess and needed to be figured out: IT, cost, tax. It didn’t matter,” she says. “I got the ugliest assignments. I could unscramble them and figure out an answer.” By stepping up and risking her career on the jobs nobody else dared to tackle, Jackie proved she could deliver results for the good of the company. She landed her first CEO role 20 years after day one in her first job.

While there is no single path to the CEO seat, these career catapults can be replicated by anyone who aspires to a leadership position, and could be especially powerful for those who may find it harder to get to the top. Women, for example, take 30% longer to get to the CEO role, according to Korn Ferry.

Accelerating your career through these catapults doesn’t require an elite MBA or a select mix of inborn traits, but it does require a willingness to make lateral, unconventional, and even risky career moves. It’s not for the faint of heart. But if you aspire to top leadership, you might as well get used to it.

                                                                   Harvard Business Review | JANUARY 31, 2018

Elena Lytkina Botelho, Kim Rosenkoetter Powell, Nicole Wong

Your #Career : Add This To Your Resume After Deleting Your “Objective” Statement…A “Performance Summary” Puts a Fresh (and Tech-Savvy) Spin on an Outmoded #Resume Feature.

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Since most resumes are written to cast a wide net, they basically just recite everything the writer has done, but this approach dilutes the all-important data density that makes your resume discoverable. In order for recruiters to find your resume in the vast databases they search through, you need to focus on a specific target job, then get the role’s relevant keywords front-and-center where ATS, or “applicant tracking systems,” will detect them.

And as it turns out, one of the best ways to do that is by resurrecting–but with a twist–the dusty old “objective” statement you’ve been told dozens of times to cut.

Related: How To Trick The Robots And Get Your Resume In Front Of Recruiters

WHY YOUR “OBJECTIVE” DOESN’T MATTER

No one reads resumes for fun–only when there’s a specific job to fill. That means recruiters and hiring managers are fixated on the skill requirements of the job openings they’re looking to fill. Consequently, a resume that starts with “Objective” and focuses on what you want out of your career as the opening paragraph does nothing to help you. After all, nobody really cares what you want at this point (save that for negotiating an offer), so putting that right up top wastes prime ad space.

Headlines of all kinds, including the one at the top of this article, act as signposts, telling the reader what’s ahead–and that holds true on your resume, too. So replace “Objective” with a more relevant and compelling heading: “Performance Summary” or “Career Summary” tends to work well. Right away it flags for the reader that you’re going to tell them what you can do or what you’ve already done, rather than what you want.

Under this heading, highlight your capabilities as they relate to the demands of the target job, using the words, phrases, and acronyms listed in job postings for the type of role you’re angling for. Make sure you include objective criteria for your customers’ needs, too. That helps your resume’s discoverability by ATS, and it grabs the reader’s attention.

Related: Try These Resume Templates For Every Stage Of Your Career

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WHAT GOES INTO YOUR SUMMARY

To write a good performance summary, you need to get inside the heads of your prospective employers’ customers to discover what they collectively want. Yes–think past the hiring managers and recruiters for a second, and consider the organization’s end goals instead: the people it’s trying to serve.

I’ve laid out some tips for doing this in one of my books, but for present purposes, the gist is just to think about your own capabilities as they relate to customer needs. How can what you do directly help them? The answer to that is the basis of your performance summary.

Here’s an example:

Performance Summary: 9-plus years of marcomm experience in new technologies executing high-impact, cost-efficient, media outreach for brand awareness, b2b marketing, and business and public-policy audiences. Expert in crisis communication and corporate reputation maintenance. Bilingual.

  • Five years managing disbursed internal and external communications teams.
  • Adept at developing marcomm strategy with teams spread across all EMEA cultures.

Note those keywords that are likely to get swept up by an ATS: “marcomm” for “marketing communications,” “b2b” for “business-to-business,” “EMEA” for “Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.” And the bullets help you quickly break out a couple of key highlights.

Using employers’ language to describe your capabilities, wherever you can, creates a tightly focused document that establishes a clear match between your skills and employer needs. That, after all, is your resume’s real objective.

Martin Yate is the author of  Knock ’em Dead: The Ultimate Job Search Guide.