Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Should You Relocate for a Job?

In a job market that still leaves something to be desired, the question on many professionals’ minds is, “should I relocate?”  Whether your current organization offers you a transfer that sounds too good to pass up or you receive an offer from an out-of-state (or out-of-country) firm that comes just as you were starting to get desperate, relocation is an issue that must be taken seriously – especially if you have a family that will be uprooted with you.

Of course, developing a list of pros and cons is a good move when making any major decision, but careful consideration of these five questions will also aid in your thought process.

Would you move there anyway?

If this job didn’t exist, is the area in question a place you’d ever want to go?  Think about what your regular daily routine will be like in the new location.  Do the pace of life and the amenities appeal to you?   How about the people, the culture, the weather, and the traffic?  Remember that a job is only one aspect of your life, and even work that you enjoy won’t be enough to overcome the distress of being stuck in a locale that’s not a good fit.

How will the move impact your family?

Relocations are easiest when you’re at a more flexible stage of life.  Once you have a family, however, you have to think about what your spouse will do in the new city.  Will he or she be able to get a good job too?  Is this area somewhere you can envision raising your children, complete with safe play areas and good schools?  Does the relocation involve moving away from extended family and friends who make life meaningful?

For more suggestions, have a look at the full post at Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Are You Selling Yourself as Well as You Could?

For several years, I’ve been recommending that people focus on being able to succinctly and effectively highlight their accomplishments because others (i.e. recruiters, managers, partners) will judge them mostly based on their past track record of success.

It turns out that’s not exactly the case.

What You Could Do is Better Than What You Have Done

According to Heidi Grant Harvorson at the Harvard Business Review, when we are deciding who to hire, promote, or do business with, it turns out that we don’t like the Big Thing nearly as much as we like the Next Big Thing. We have a bias — one that operates below our conscious awareness — leading us to prefer the potential for greatness over someone who has already achieved it.

In a series of studies conducted by Stanford’s Zakary Tormala and Jayson Jia, and Harvard Business School’s Michael Norton, it is clear that human beings demonstrate an unconscious preference for potential over actual success.

In an experiment related to the workplace, hiring managers evaluated two equally impressive candidates who varied on one factor:  one had two years of relevant experience who scored highly on a test of leadership achievement, and the other had no relevant experience but scored highly on a test of leadership potential.  Interestingly, the evaluators believed the candidate with leadership potential would be more successful at the new company than the candidate with a proven record of leadership ability. The researchers documented this preference in laboratory and field experiments, using targets ranging from athletes to comedians to graduate school applicants and measures ranging from salary allocations to online ad clicks to admission decisions.

For more, check out the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Turn Your Temp Job Into Full Time Gold

When most people think of temp work, they picture young professionals with no or very recent college diplomas working a series of low-level administrative jobs.

I’ve recently learned that this perception is very outdated.  In New York City recently, I sat down with Rebecca Cenni, CEO of Atrium Staffing, to talk about how the new kind of temporary worker is actually a mid-level professional who takes on a short-term consulting assignment in order to bolster her portfolio and fill in the employment gap while looking for a full-time job.

According to Rebecca, large and small organizations are increasingly turning to temporary workers as a way to mitigate the risk of hiring full-time employees in what is still considered a down economy.  By working with what Rebecca calls an “applicant-centric” staffing agency, professionals at all levels can assess the market and their individual options.

For many, those options might include a 2 week-3 month short-term assignment at an established company that might be more difficult to break into as a full-timer.  During the stint, their benefits would be paid by the staffing agency.

The question I’m sure you’re asking, though, involves how you can turn a temporary assignment into a full-time and more stable job. 

Understand what you’re getting into

Unlike full-time employees, you will initially lack context regarding how you are expected to perform and why.  To combat this, research the company ahead of your assignment and ask your staffing counselor or recruiter to tell you about how to get along in this particular culture.

Check out the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog for more from Rebecca.

The Right Questions to Ask in an Interview

Obviously, an interview is a chance for an employer to ask questions of a candidate that will determine if she is a good fit for the company and the position.  However, candidates often forget that interview questions are a two-way street.

Smart candidates absolutely use the interview as the opportunity to better assess if they will be able to do their best work at a particular organization.  They know that one spends more time at work than anywhere else, and they aren’t doing themselves or the employer any favors by taking a job in which they’ll be a square peg in a round hole.

Jot Down Ideas the Night Before

It is generally a good idea to prepare a list of 2-4 questions gleaned from your online research about the company after looking at its website and recent news.  This shows that you’ve done your homework on the organization and understand its business proposition and industry.  It also demonstrates that you are serious about the opportunity and savvy enough to take advantage of this additional opportunity to sell yourself.  When you ask these questions, listen carefully.  You’ll gain critical information not just from the direct answers, but also from what isn’t said.

For more advice on how to ask good interview questions, have a look at this post on the Fast Track blog.

Senior Job Seekers are Least Prepared to Fill Open Positions

According to the second annual Job Preparedness Indicator research study, released today by the Career Advisory Board established by DeVry University, senior-level job seekers are the least prepared to fill available positions in today's market.  One-in-five hiring managers say that few senior candidates have the right mix of skills and traits to serve their needs, and in particular are lacking in higher-order abilities such as strategic perspective, general business acumen, and global competence.

Developing these skills is a must, but tenured candidates can also modify their approach so that hiring managers see them as more markeable and capable of filling open jobs.  Suggestions to this effect include:

• Look carefully at senior-level job descriptions and brainstorm specific examples of how you’ve performed at least 75 percent of the responsibilities in the past.  Play up any experience you have liaising or working directly with international colleagues.

• Use LinkedIn actively.  Don’t just slap up your profile and forget about it.  Join groups for senior-level professionals in your field, and ask and answer member questions.  Set a goal of meeting at least 5 new senior-level contacts a week, and engage them in high-level industry conversation.

• Take the spec approach.  New consultants are sometimes asked to take on a project on spec, meaning they do the work gratis so the company can evaluate their worth as a paid asset.  Even if you aren’t asked, proactively identify and solve a problem facing executive management and present your solution in interviews and other conversations.

• Raise your pay expectations:  If you are satisfied with making a salary well below your true earning potential, you are literally underselling yourself.   Use payscale.com and salary.com to research the incomes of people who do what you do with your amount of tenure, and when asked, confidently cite a number in the middle.

One final piece of advice: As a senior-level candidate, you cannot rest on your laurels simply because you've been in the workforce a while.  Earn hiring managers' confidence and buy-in by demonstrating that you are invested in keeping your skills fresh and in learning and growing in a new position.

Find a Job in Two Hours

I recently had the opportunity to meet a talented career consultant, Steve Dalton, at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.  Steve has written a new book called The 2-Hour Job Search.  I know what you’re thinking: is he trying to become Tim Ferriss 2.0?  Well, there are certainly worse goals.

I mention Steve because he has a refreshing view of the job search that applies to most if not all of us fully employed folks.  Steve says that because we are so busy, we need a job search plan that allows us to move our goals forward without devoting 40 hours a week.  For Steve’s top tips for cutting the time you spend on your job search way down, have a read of my post over at the Fast Track blog.

 

How Not to Get Fired Like the Yahoo! CEO

Last week, Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson was called to step down from his position following a scandal involving his credentials.  An investor recently discovered that on Thompson’s resume, the ex-CEO claims he graduated with a computer science degree from Stonehill College, when in fact he finished with an accounting degree.  A computer science degree did not even exist at the school at the time.

When the truth came out, Thompson blamed a headhunting firm for misrepresenting his education when he was in the process of being hired by eBay in the mid-2000s.  It didn’t work.  The firm fought back by providing Yahoo! with a copy of Thompson’s original resume – fake degree and all.

A while back, I talked about how to cope productively in the wake of scandal.  And cope productively Thompson did not.  For all of the details about what he did wrong and how you can avoid it, check out my recent post on the Quickbase blog.

How to Be an Effective Spy

Increasingly, managers and recruiters are being encouraged to assess cultural fit during the hiring process in order to ensure that candidates will assimilate well.

If you’re a job seeker, though, there are things you can do to determine whether you are a good match and help the company out. After all, it's just as important for you as it is for them; you will not be satisfied or productive in an environment that doesn’t support your values and vice versa.

The best way to do this is to spy...but how?  Check out my post at the AMEX OPEN Forum for the particulars.

How to Get from College to Career: Advice from Lindsey Pollak

My good friend Lindsey Pollak recently released a terrific new edition of her well-loved book, Getting from College to Career.  In the midst of the craziness of having a new book and baby, she generously shared some thoughts about what college grads can do to improve their careers in 2012:

What made you decide to do a new edition at this time?  

We’re living in a time of such rapid change in the world of business and careers that five years ago, when the first edition of Getting from College to Career was published, feels like “the old days.” At that time the economy was good and we were at the very, very beginning of social media and smartphone usage. I decided to write a revised edition of the book to make sure that readers would have the most up-to-date, relevant and forward-thinking advice for their job searches and careers.

 What's the most important piece of advice readers should take away from the new edition?

The most important piece of advice in the new edition is the same as the original edition: take action every single day to find a job and build your career. More now than ever, the people who succeed are the people who take consistent action. Momentum matters.

The good news is that today’s job seekers have so many more tools they can use to take action – LinkedIn and Twitter have both grown tremendously over the past five years, more organizations are providing job postings by social media and text messaging and Meetup.com and other technologies make networking opportunities more plentiful.

 How has job hunting changed in the five years since you launched the original edition of Getting from College to Career? What new tips have you added?

The two biggest changes since Getting from College to Career was published five years ago relate to the economy and technology.

In 2007, there were plenty of available jobs for recent grads, so my advice focused on figuring out what you wanted to do and taking the steps to get hired into a full-time position. Since 2008, job openings are much more scarce so I added a lot more advice on alternatives to full-time employment, such as freelancing, post-college interning and taking on project work.

The recession has also meant that job seekers have had to become much better at marketing themselves to employers. I don’t think the phrase “personal branding” appeared once in the original edition and now it’s everywhere. Job seekers need to be able to tell a clear story of what makes them unique and how that uniqueness will benefit an employer. Generalists are out; specialists are in – even at the entry level.

In terms of technology, Twitter didn’t even exist when I wrote the first edition and now it’s a crucial tool for career research and networking. In this edition I also include recent grad-specific advice on using LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Apps, Skype and other tech-based tools for job seekers. Of course, technology is moving so fast (just look at the skyrocketing growth of Pinterest!) that job seekers need to keep an eye out for new tools that could help them stand out and get hired.

You interviewed a number of successful professionals and asked them to share what they wish they'd known before starting their careers. What answers most stood out to you?

I was really struck by the number of people who credited their success to two things – their relationships and their passion. Yes, a lot has changed over the past five years, but these are two elements of a successful career that are timeless: build and maintain authentic professional relationships and find a career where you’ll be doing work you love. I expect I’ll be giving that exact same advice five more years from now and fifty years from now.

In addition to being an author and speaker you serve as a global spokesperson for LinkedIn. Can you share your top LinkedIn tips for recent grads?

Absolutely! LinkedIn is a very important tool for recent grads and far too many of them are still not aware of how valuable professional online networking can be at the beginning of your career. Here are my top five LinkedIn tips for recent grads:

1. Write a profile headline that displays your desired career. Your headline does not have to be a job title. The best student headlines clearly promote who you are and what you want to do when you graduate. For example, "Honors Student & Aspiring Public Relations Associate." Or “Pre-MBA Finance Major Graduating in 2013.”
2. Include a ton of keywords in your profile. Recruiters search for candidates by keywords, so make sure your profile is full of them. Find relevant words and phrases in the job descriptions of the positions you want and then pepper them throughout your Summary, Specialties and Skills sections.
3. Connect with everyone you know. Build your network by sending personalized LinkedIn connection requests to everyone you know -- friends, family, neighbors, classmates, everyone. Next, send each personal a customized message (no mass emails!) to tell them you’re job hunting and to explain what position(s) you’re looking for. Request some advice or a phone call to talk further, or ask if they can refer you to anyone they know in your desired field.
4. Join your alumni group. Join the LinkedIn group of any college, university or graduate school you’ve attended. Once you’re a member, you’ll begin to receive updates on the activities taking place – discussions, job postings, event announcements and more. Jump in and start participating, just like you did in college!
5. Search the Student Jobs Portal. The Student Jobs Portal is a collection of all entry-level job postings on LinkedIn. Search by job function or check out postings from featured companies. When you apply for a job through this portal, the employer will be able to see your full LinkedIn profile along with your application.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try Again

Abraham Lincoln is widely considered to be the most admired president in the history of the United States.  Listening to the Gettysburg address or talking to your high school teachers, you’d think he could do no wrong.  Except he could, and he did.  Let’s take a look at Honest Abe’s lifetime record:

• Failed in business (age 22)
• Defeated in legislative run (age 23)
• Failed in business, again (age 24)
• Sweetheart died (age 26)
• Had a nervous breakdown (age 27)
• Defeated for Speaker of the House (age 29)
• Defeated for Elector (age 31)
• Defeated for Congress (age 34)
• Defeated for Congress (age 39)
• Defeated for Senate (age 46)
• Defeated for Vice President (age 47)
• Defeated for Senate (age 49)

Lincoln was elected president at the age of 51, by which time he had suffered 12 major defeats!   A lot of people his age would have disappeared from public life and retired on a rural estate somewhere.  But not Lincoln.  He went on to shepherd the American Civil War to a satisfactory conclusion and was in great part responsible for abolishing slavery in the U.S.  He was so beloved that we still celebrate his birthday and display his face everywhere.  Just think where this country would be if he had been consumed by despair that success wasn’t coming quickly enough.

I Get Knocked Down, But I Get Up Again

If you talk to any Fortune 500 CEO, you will get an earful of all of the mistakes and mishaps that occurred before they were able to reach their current level of achievement.  The difference between high achievers and everyone else is that the high achievers keep getting back on the horse every time they fall off.  They give themselves time to recover, they think through the mistake and learn from it, and then they move on to the next thing.

We’re struggling with a tough business climate right now.  You are likely trying a lot of ways to get ahead in your organization, and many of them won’t work.  But by recognizing that defeat is all part of the process, you will be able to sustain your motivation until your next big break.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.