Career Management Alliance Blog

What’s going on with today’s corporate executives?

A February 2007 blog entitled Top Talent Demands Better Work-Life Balance stated a surprising trend:

Even five years ago, the idea that a senior executive would turn down a job because it meant too much travel, too long a commute or demanded too much of their time would have been seen as absurd.

It wasn’t the first time I had heard about this emerging trend. A recent teleconference on leveraging recruiter relationships revealed that it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit for senior level executive positions in today’s corporations. The speaker, Joe McCool, a leading expert in executive recruiting, stated that he is seeing a “pendulum shift” on the work/life balance issue, i.e. fewer executives willing to make the sacrifices required to be successful at a high level in today’s corporations. This includes an
unwillingness to relocate and to work 70-80 hours a week, among other things. Joe
said management tenure is at an all time low while the demands and pressures of leadership are at an all time high. According to his research, one organization reported that 40% of high potential succession planning candidates opted out of the process voluntarily.

A bit shocking? Indeed; yet a recent survey by ExecuNet concluded that half of American execs are unhappy in their jobs and planning to leave within a year. The survey that polled 2,149 executives with average salary of $221,000/year stated that job satisfaction levels among America’s top managers were “dangerously low”, with many organizations simply unable to keep their management teams intact.

It’s no wonder that the “War for Talent” is heating up. But if you are an aspiring senior executive, this is good news. For the first time in a long time, there may be more room at the top for those willing to make the sacrifices involved in climbing the corporate ladder.

Posted by Julianne Franke

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Are you, or someone you know, feeling more and more disenchanted in your work with each passing day … have a history of quitting your jobs frequently?

While there are many reasons underlying those symptoms, career counseling can be of benefit to anyone struggling to find what they enjoy and to understand themselves better.

An article (”The Boredom Quiz“) by Joyce Lain Kennedy recently featured a 30-question quiz that will provide some insights into whether its’ the job or something else requiring attention.

A sampling of the key questions include:

· Do you avoid talking about your job because you don’t think others will find it interesting?

· Do you find it increasingly difficult to get to work on time?

· Do you sometimes sense that you’re working harder at being busy than being busy?

· Do you find yourself fatigued at the end of a physically light day?

· Do you block your job from your mind when you’re away from it?

Take the quiz to determine if job boredom is the answer as the first step in finding a solution.

Posted by Louise Garver

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If you want the opportunity to meet face-to-face with employers, a sure-fire way is to attend a job fair.

Many organizations, such as CareerBuilder.com and Women for Hire, regularly host these events, so check their web sites for schedules. In addition, professional and trade associations, diversity and disability organizations, the military, and college career services departments sponsor them. And remember to check the career-business pages of your local newspaper, as well as the nearest One-Stop Career Center for information about other career fairs in your area.

To get the best results from these events, follow the 7 steps below:

• Jot down the positions available at the companies attending the fair to make sure the job opportunities are ones you’re targeting. Also, employers often ask what job you’re interested in (they may have more than one available), and you want to know which ones they’ve posted.
• Organize a list of the employees you most want to meet and then visit their booths early on while your energy is high. However, if you’re especially nervous, consider talking first with an employer you’re less interested in, just to break the ice.
• Be early. Arrive near the beginning of the job fair so you can speak with employers when their energy is high. By the end of a 5-hour career fair, people are pretty tired and their interest has begun to wane.
• Frame your answers to the expected interview questions. Develop a 30-second introduction (”elevator speech”) to answer the “tell me about yourself” question.
• Arrange to have enough copies of your resume – on good quality paper – to leave one with each employer you’re interested in. And then bring a few extra, just in case.
• Initiate conversations with others at the job fair. This is a good opportunity to network.
• Remember to get business cards from the employers you speak with and promptly write thank you notes when you return home.

These events can open up new opportunities, if you give a job fair a fair chance.

Posted by Wendy Gelberg

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According to a recent survey by Mercer HR Consulting, mentioned on the Compensation Force blog, salary increases in 2007/2008 will average 3.5% and be approximately 5.7% for top performers. One of the best ways to ensure that your performance is rated on the high end of the scale is to take ownership of the performance appraisal process. By documenting your achievements each time you complete a significant project, milestone, or job task, you maximize the chances of your accomplishments being recognized at review time. Make sure to quantify your achievements by showing how the projects you managed helped make money, save money, save time, maintain the business, or grow the business and use numbers, dollars, and percentages whenever possible to validate your accomplishments.

Ideally, you are receiving feedback on how you are doing against your job goals throughout the year, but in reality, this doesn’t always occur as frequently as most
employees would like. By consistently recording your successes throughout the year, you can improve your chances of garnering a more lucrative increase at review time.

Posted by Barbara Safani

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Last week, I had several clients bring in their professional resumes for a critique. For the most part, I thought their resumes were good. “So if my resume is good, how come I’m not getting interviews?” they asked. While this post won’t delve into that question, it will offer some questions you can ask yourself as you critique your own resume.

For starters, pretend that you are the Hiring Manager…so put on your Hiring Manager’s hat and start asking:

• Does your resume reveal a phone number or personal e-mail where you can easily be contacted?
• Does your resume clearly state your professional focus? In other words, what do you want to do?
• Does your resume contain a Qualifications Summary or a Profile (30-second sales pitch) that 1. aligns with your target goal and that 2. captures the best of your experience, education, and employee traits that are relevant, essential, and supportive to doing the job? In other words, why can you do what you say you’re interested in doing? And does your Profile prove it?
• Have you branded yourself as a professional who is competent, proficient, or expert at delivering something of value to the organization? In other words, have you convinced the reader to sample your brand?
• Does your resume sound like you? In other words, does the reader get a clear sense of who you are? And when they interview you, will the “real” you align with the “paper” you? Or, is there a cavern between the two?
• Does your resume state where you reside and where you’ve worked, or is that data missing from the document?
• Does your resume communicate a feel for how much you are worth?
• When the Hiring Manager reads your resume, do you honestly think it will evoke a WOW or a WASTEBASKET response?

In short, if you were the Hiring Manager, would you pick you out of the Resume Pile? Have you made it easy for the Hiring Manager to choose you? Have you thought about the who, what, when, where, why, how and how much of you as it relates to you and your resume story?

posted by: billie sucher

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More and more the virtual world is taking on many of the activities of the real world – for business and enjoyment. When it comes to work, we have online job boards, e-networking sites and now virtual job interviews. This week there’s a job fair going on in a virtual world called Second Life, an online community where people or their avatars “congregate” for enjoyment, work and business.

To learn how it works, you can tune in on npr’s web site and listen to (or read) Kathleen Schalch’s report on “Virtual Recruiting for Real-World Jobs.” Dave Lefkow, CEO of Talentspark (and former VP at Jobster.com) is interviewed by Avie Schneider on the virtues of virtual recruiting in the companion Q&A piece on “Adventures in Virtual Recruiting.”

The job fair is organized by TMP Worldwide, a recruitment-advertising firm, and includes recruiters from Accenture, EMC Corporation, GE Money and US Cellular. Although the venue is different, some of the same rules apply to virtual job interviews.

Apparently, a Second Life interview is similar to instant messaging or a phone interview, but is not a substitute for an in-person interview. There seems to be an advantage to a virtual interview. Second Life can serve as a warm-up because candidates are able to hit the backspace button when they start to answer the interview question. Now don’t you wish you could do that at your next face-to-face interview?

Don’t get too excited, though, there are only about two dozen or so companies currently recruiting in Second Life—and many digital issues to overcome before this becomes a key part of the recruiting process.

Posted by Louise Garver

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News articles have reported another scam targeting people whose resumes were posted on Monster. Because of a security breach, the contact information from millions of resumes was captured, in particular, the email addresses. People who have posted resumes receive a “phishing” email that appears to come from Monster and encourages people to install some job-search software. People then receive either of two harmful programs. One enables the thieves to record passwords when the user performs online banking transactions, thus providing the thieves with access to people’s bank accounts. The other program locks important files so the user can’t access them until paying a “ransom” fee of $150 to unlock the files.

The source of the security breach appears to be from one of the employers that uses Monster and not from Monster itself. Nevertheless, if you have a resume on file with Monster, be on the lookout for a bogus message from Monster and don’t install the alleged job-search software the message promotes.

As always, caveat emptor.

Posted by Wendy Gelberg

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I’ve been involved in the career business for a little while and I’ve encountered hundreds, probably thousands, of different scenarios relating to career transitions. And I’m usually prepared for just about anything and everything…so this was a surprise.

“John” arrived at my office 25 minutes late for his appointment. He’d called with a valid reason for lateness, though, which was better than his no-show a couple of weeks ago due to an emergency circumstance, so he said.

When we finally got together, my first query was “how can I help…what are your goals for our session today?” John indicated he “wanted a job” and he didn’t care what kind — as long as it was a good one with good benefits. I asked him if he’d like to continue in the same line of work. (He’s a well-trained, experienced professional). “I don’t care what line of work I do — I just want someone to hire me and pay my benefits.” “And I want you to do my resume so I can get the good job with the good benefits.”

Therein lies the gist of my post. How can you find a good job if you don’t know what job you want? How can you target a goal if you don’t have one? Why would you pay someone to revamp your resume when you have no idea what direction you’re headed? Why should an employer hire you if you have an “I’ll do anything, I just need a job with benefits” mentality?

To the best of my professional ability, I tried to convey to John that our time together would be much better spent getting some clarity, focus, goals, direction and purpose before he invested any money with me for a resume. Well, that was exactly what he did not want to hear. He grabbed his papers, headed out the door (slamming it), muttering “I’ll let ya’ know when I figure it out.”

I have been in John’s place before. And it’s a difficult place to be. I also know that nothing worked for me all those years ago until I absolutely stopped, and then started over, with a clean slate and with a different perspective about everything that I was doing, being, and thinking. What John said as he abruptly left my office was honest and real…and I hope, for his sake, he does take the time to figure it out. Step One.

posted by: billie sucher

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Feeling overwhelmed with the interview process? You’ve read all the books, practiced the “right” responses but still haven’t felt good about the way you’ve performed in an interview. If that’s been your experience, you’re not alone.

Interviewing has never been more challenging as companies are increasingly using tough “think-on-your-feet” behavioral questions. You can’t find the “right” answer to a behavioral question in a book. So how do you go into an interview feeling prepared?

To help my clients with this dilemma, I developed a model I tagged the “RSP” Model. The acronym is a bit “hokie” sounding, but it’s fairly easy to remember the acronym, just think of RSVP without the V. The important thing is to remember the three basic themes that the letters represent. If you use this as your guide, no matter what question is directed to you, you’ll be able to answer on target.

To cover these three critical components, make sure your responses to every interview question are:

• Relevant – to the job you are applying for,
• Specific – with details showing scope and backed up by an example if possible,
• Positive – turn around any negative question into a positive, ALWAYS end on a positive note.

The last thing you say for each question is what sticks in the interviewer’s mind, so use the opportunity to close with a statement that reflects why you are excited about the job and are a fit for the position.

If you would like more information about the RSP Model, with sample questions and responses, send an email to jfranke1@bellsouth.net . A short summary of the process can be found in the October 24, 2005 QuintZine , an online publication of Quintessential Careers.

Posted by Julianne Franke.

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Business Week recently published a double issue that is a “must read” for those interested in the 21st C. workplace. The Future of Work: how we will master technology, manage companies, and build careers in the era of the global, 24-7 workplace offers facts and conclusions based on a summer 2007 survey of 2000 American middle managers. Some random points of interest:

• The modern workplace resembles a design studio, where core values are collaboration and innovation
• More than 1 in 4 workers age 55 and older say they never expect to retire; only 1 in 10 under age 30 say the same thing.
• Job satisfaction in the U.S. has fallen by 12 percentage points in the last decade – a record low.
• Multinational companies are having trouble getting people to work well together: e-mail and telecommunications are expedient, but complex teams are more productive through face time.
• Dow Chemical is one of the companies trying to stave off a brain drain created by the expected retirement of 30% of its workforce over the next 5 years. Dow is offering flexible hours, three-day workweeks, and an open door to retirees who want to return to the workplace.
• India is trying to keep its talent in-country. Accenture Ltd. assigns a career counselor to each employee and offers continuing education through a range of 10,000 courses.
• Sustainable careers are those that involve deep relationships with customers and extensive knowledge of market conditions – another boon for Boomers…

This issue includes a piece by Diane Brady called, Creating Brand You. The author identifies Estee Lauder as an employer offering personal branding training as a means to strengthen employee loyalty and engagement. The author claims that Generation X types are more skeptical of the value of branding than are the Boomers and younger Gen Y’ers. She reminds readers of all generations that “your co-workers aren’t just your colleagues. They’re your audience.”

Those interested in achieving change in the 21st C. workplace should check-out this issue – we can discuss and debate the issues raised for weeks…

Posted by Karen P. Katz

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