Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

The Self-Employment Surge and How Professionals Can Best Prepare

One in two American workers are projected to be self-employed by 2020, according to MBO Partners. While the shifting economy has surely pushed some people into independent work, many have chosen it. Career goals for contemporary professionals are changing and given how quickly this trend is taking hold in the United States, today’s employees who aspire to be tomorrow’s contract workers need to prepare now to navigate this changing landscape.

To help professionals effectively transition to contract work, the Career Advisory Board, established by DeVry University, worked with MBO Partners, Inc., a provider of back office services for self-employed professionals, to conduct a new study, The Future of Work: Preparing for Independence, which examined the attributes and skills of those who are gainfully self-employed to help aspiring contractors get and stay ahead in this ever-changing work environment.

According to the study, professionals are choosing self-employment in order to control the type of work assignments they pursue (67 percent), to have a greater sense of flexibility and work-life balance (64 percent), and to follow a passion (59 percent).

“While they are young, millennials should be proactive in taking advantage of intrapreneurship and training opportunities, as well as acquiring transferable skills like project management, budgeting, sales, and marketing, in an established organization,” I said in my function as Career Advisory Board member. “This will be the foundation of a viable contract career in the future.”

Based on the research findings, we at the Career Advisory Board recommend the following strategies to help professionals excel in independent employment:

Take off the blinders: Being your own boss may sound enticing, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. Survey respondents said that in addition to having solid expertise in a particular field, successful contract workers must be self-starters who have the ability to cope with uncertainty, including an unpredictable income stream. Many contactors work remotely, have multiple clients to report to, and have to juggle multiple projects at once. Assess your strengths and weakness before jumping into contract work, make sure you have an organized action plan to help you start off on the right foot, and always keep an open mind and be able to adapt quickly.

In-person networking still trumps social media: The survey pool reported that while social media is important for contractors’ branding and reputation, it often does not generate income. In fact, just 6 percent said social media outreach led to paid project work. Therefore, create strong profiles on sites like LinkedIn and Google+, but refrain from spending too much time on these networks and make sure you still build in face time. Seek in-person meetings, attend events and workshops, and be visible to your future clients beyond your social media accounts.

Start small and look local: Although technological advances allow many self-employed professionals to offer their services globally, the majority of the respondents still obtain most of their work assignments from within their immediate metropolitan area. While it’s a good long-term goal to think about how you might leverage a larger and more diverse pool of potential clients, aspiring contractors should first embark on being visible in their local communities. It is also a good rule of thumb to start small with only one or two clients until you master the craft of contract work.

“As independence is becoming more desired in today’s economy, professionals need to stand out by building strong networks in their communities and being visible to local employers that use contract work,” says Gene Zaino, president and CEO, MBO Partners. “Use your time wisely – stay focused on your core, billable expertise and find ways to outsource other non-essential functions.”

For additional career advice and to view The Future of Work: Preparing for Independence executive summary, visit: www.careeradvisoryboard.org.

Summer is a time when job dissatisfaction tends to run rampant. The sun is shining, the beach is beckoning, and the last thing you want to do is toil away at a job that doesn’t inspire you.

When it comes to the topic of finding one’s passion, Curt Rosengren is the man with the plan. He’s been blogging on this issue longer than anyone else I know, and here’s what he had to say most recently on Wild About Work:

“Far too often when people’s careers start to get a little stale, they do one of two things. They either go into ‘grit your teeth and suck it up’ mode (after all, work IS a four-letter word, right?), or they do a swan dive out of the frying pan into the fire by making a knee-jerk job change, hoping they can leave that boredom and frustration behind.”

You probably realize by now that I do not advocate the swan dive approach, so I asked Curt for some recommendations for how you can re-energize your work without making any drastic and risky moves.

Take the cumulative view

Understand that the goal isn’t to make one broadly sweeping change that will make everything better. The goal is to juice up your job cumulatively, benefiting from the sum total effect of a lot of smaller changes.

Do an energy audit

Take a look at your job and say: “What gives me energy here? What do I enjoy?” and “What drains my energy here? What do I dislike?” The more detailed your understanding of what’s actually happening, the more potential you have to make choices and changes that will energize your work.

Identify your energizers

What are the underlying themes that tend to be present when you’re happiest at work? Put another way, why do you love what you love? When you feel most in your groove, what is it about what you’re doing that feels so energizing?

Consider some incremental changes

Is there anything that energizes you that you could do more of? Is there anything that drains you that you could do less of? You’re not going to turn a toad into a unicorn, but if you can even improve things by 10 percent, that’s a good start.

- See more at: http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/2014/06/23/9-ways-to-start-liking-your-job-this-summer/#sthash.teS9w4F4.dpuf

Using ROI to Build Your Case for a New Program

I recently had the opportunity to keynote the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)’s 60th anniversary conference in Chicago. After I spoke, I attended an extremely useful session from Elizabeth Ruske and Betsy Sobiech of Tiara Coaching.

Although the topic was elevating global women’s leadership, the speakers presented a simple process for planning a strategic, ROI-generating initiative that is relevant across the board. I only wish I had had 10 years ago.In the HR space, ROI can be rather elusive, and this is one reason our functions tend to get relegated to the tactical realm. For your future benefit, here is Tiara’s process using women’s leadership as an example.

Step One: Assess Where You Are

Rate women’s leadership development in your organization from 1 to 10, with 1 being that no programs currently exist, and 10 being that you have visible efforts and sponsorship for female leaders. On the same continuum, indicate where you will be by next year, and where you will be by the year 2020. While completing this step, consider that women’s leadership development might include women’s affinity groups, mentoring for women, succession planning, leadership and career coaching, learning opportunities, rewards and recognition, recruiting and hiring, company communications, and other efforts designed to attract, retain, and advance women.

Step Two: Determine the “Why?”

Look at where you want to be in the year 2020. Why do you want to be here? What is the bigger vision? Using the example of women’s leadership, this might include the fact that half of all of your college hires are women, yet by the middle management level, most have been lost or grounded. It might be the case that most of your customers are women and you need your employee demographics to match your consumer profile. Or finally, you might consider that companies with more female leaders have better overall financial performance.

For more where this came from, head over to the SilkRoad blog.

The Real Reasons Employers Aren't Responding to Your Resume

If you’ve applied to dozens of jobs but haven’t received any interviews, a warning signal should be going off. There are a number of reasons why employers don’t respond to your resume, and most of them can be easily fixed. Increase your chances that employers will respond to your resume positively by fixing these potential gaffes.

You Submitted It Online

Sending your resume to an organization with no context whatsoever is a surefire way to get lost in the black hole that is the applicant tracking system. You can apply online if it’s mandatory, but try to route your resume through a personal contact in the organization.

You Didn’t Customize It to the Open Position

In today’s tough job market, every resume should be crafted in response to the requested experience and responsibilities listed in the job description. If your resume is off target, it will quickly be put aside. So yes, this means you must have multiple versions of your resume.

For more reasons, head over to the full post at the FlexJobs blog.

 

Best Practices for Managing Telecommuters

Maybe you’re a telecommuter and the rest of your team works in an office, or maybe your team is spread out across continents and time zones. Regardless, being a good boss when your team members operate remotely requires a special skill set. Move in the right direction with these four suggestions for managing telecommuters.

Set Expectations

In any kind of virtual work environment, assumptions are dangerous and you as the manager are responsible for clearly communicating everything. Roles and team rules and protocols should be tightly defined, and your team members should understand how to touch base regularly on project statuses and how to escalate urgent issues.

Hold Efficient Phone Meetings

Send out agendas in advance so your team knows exactly what will be covered and how to prepare. Emphasize the importance of punctuality, and build trust by staying to the time allotted. Establish meeting ground rules like putting yourself on mute if you are not speaking and allow discussion time for input and consensus.

For the rest of the tips, check out the full post at the FlexJobs blog.

Get a Tax Break On Your Home Office

For small business owners, sole proprietors, and telecommuters, the question of how to deduct your home office on your annual tax filing is a valid one. The answer can also be somewhat complicated, which is why many people don’t bother to take the deduction. But please read on. Taking steps to deduct your home office from your taxes can be a major money saver. These are the “in a nutshell” rules from the IRS:

• Your home office is considered the primary place in which you conduct trade or business.
• Your home office may or may not be attached to your residence; it may be a separate structure on the property used exclusively as a home office.
• Your home office is where you meet clients, customers, or patients during the normal course of business.

For more in-depth advice, head over to the full post at the FlexJobs blog.

How to Easily Customize Your Resume

In an era in which you can send off 100 resumes in just a few minutes, I’m always getting the question, “Do I have to customize my resume to each job application?” Sorry folks, but the answer is yes. Here are three ways to customize your resume each and every time.

Hiring managers get so many resumes that they will easily discard the resumes that don’t meet their specifications exactly. Fortunately, though, you don’t have to reinvent the resume wheel every time you apply for a new position. Follow these simple tips for a perfectly targeted resume.

#1: Match the language in the job description

Pluck out the keywords in the job description such as “initiative,” “teamwork,” and “creativity,” and intersperse these throughout a new version of your resume. The hiring organization’s applicant tracking system will zero in on your resume because it contains the words and phrases the system was instructed to look for.

For the other two essential tips, head over to the FlexJobs blog.

Should You Ask for Flexibility Upfront?

The first question to address on this topic is—should you bring up work flexibility in an initial job interview?  And in general, the answer is no.

Here’s the thing. Hiring managers want to believe that you’re a candidate who is enthusiastic about the job and willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. They don’t know you from Adam, so immediately broaching the perfectly legitimate question of flexible hours and benefits may portray you as a slacker in some old-school employers’ eyes.

You will also be in a better negotiating position if you bring up work flexibility after they’ve already decided they want to hire you. This means that you don’t discuss the issue until after you have an offer in hand.

But what if it’s a deal-breaker?

Let’s say you don’t want to waste your time with a company that doesn’t give a little in the work flexibility department. In this case, first check out their website to try and find information about flexwork benefits. If the organization is touting flexwork arrangements as a reason it’s a great place to work, then you may be in luck.

For the rest of my advice, have a look at the full post on the FlexJobs blog.

Yes, You Should Show Freelance Work on Your Resume!

By 2030, nearly 50 percent of the American workforce will consist of contract employees. In other words, freelancers. Indeed, we’ve come a long way since a freelancer was a writer who wrote and edited corporate publications. Today, freelancers encompass nearly every role in every industry.

Given this trend of legitimacy and the modern pace of career change, why would it be weird for a freelancer to pursue a full-time, more traditional opportunity? I don’t have the answer, but I do have a suggestion for how you can make your recent roster of freelance jobs make you appear less like an aimless job jumper and more like a serious-minded careerist.

Create your company.

When putting together your resume, come up with a name for your own company the way other self-employed individuals do. Mine, for instance, is Inspiration at Work, and I am the president and CEO. List your company as you would any other, and include quantifiable results from your key projects. These can be organized chronologically or by skill—just be consistent.

For the full post, check out the FlexJobs blog.

The Right Way to Make Connections on LinkedIn

LinkedIn, which years ago was known as Facebook for old people, is now the top social network for professionals. It boasts more than 200 million users and is used by the majority of the Fortune 100. If you’re not on it every day, you need to be. And there are some tricks to making connections on LinkedIn.

When I was new to the business world, you had to attend in-person networking events to meet anyone. But then, along came the marvelous invention of LinkedIn, and suddenly you can interface with an exponentially larger number of contacts in a fraction of the time.

There is, however, a right way and a wrong way to meet new contacts on LinkedIn. Here are a few dos and don’ts.

Don’t wait for people to find you.

Although this will happen eventually, it’s much more efficient to proactively connect with people by searching for former colleagues and business associates (the search function is on the top of every page). When you start typing a person’s name, a list of potential connections appears. You can also find connections by perusing the “People You May Know” section, as well as your current connections’ profiles.

For more where this came from, have a look at the full post at the FlexJobs blog.