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The Case Against Résumé Writers
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2013 CommentIt seems that ever more people are hiring a résumé writer. But if you think about it, that's no more ethical than hiring someone to write your college application essay.
In fact, hiring a résumé writer is worse because the effects are worse. For most professional-level jobs, employers use résumés not just to see applicants' work history but to assess their ability to organize their thoughts, write well and produce an error-free document. An applicant who chooses to do his or her own work for ethical reasons or because he or she can't afford to hire a résumé writer is unfairly penalized. And if that candidate ends up getting hired, not only is that unfair to the superior applicants, it’s unfair to the employer and the co-workers who are thus saddled with an inferior employee. And inferior employees result in worse products and services and so, indirectly, it's unfair to society. True, the effect of a single bad hire is rarely enormous, but collectively, across all the résumés and cover letters written or heavily edited by hired guns, it is.
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8 Things Your Boss Wishes You Knew
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2013 CommentWant to get on your boss's good side and do better at work? One way is to understand her perspective, and the perspective of a manager can be very different from yours as an employee. Here are eight things your boss probably wishes you knew.
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What We've Learned From Sheryl Sandberg
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2013 CommentIf you missed May's sold-out Professional BusinessWomen of California Conference, held in San Francisco, then you also missed Sheryl Sandberg's keynote speech. Facebook's chief operating officer has caused no end of controversy since the publication of "Lean In," her self-described feminist manifesto, earlier this year.
That's because many critics (some of whom have no doubt read no further than the cover) have taken issue with her book title's seeming admonishment to women to do more than they are already doing.
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Tips for Unplugging During Vacation
Tweet Share on Facebook June 12, 2013 CommentIf you are planning to take a vacation or even a staycation this summer, start thinking and planning on how you will unplug from technology to get the maximum benefits from your time off. But how is that possible when the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers reports in its annual Internet Trends report that smartphone users pick up their device 150 times a day? These are some pointers for making your next vacation technology-free.
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Do You Know What Signals You're Sending at Work?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 12, 2013 CommentWhen it comes to how you're judged at work, you might think that the quality of your work is all that matters. But human perceptions are a lot more complicated than that, and you might send signals that you don't realize or intend.
Here are five of the top ways that you inadvertently send signals about yourself at work – and how your boss and co-workers might read them.
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How to Compete in a Freelancing, Crowdsourcing Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook June 12, 2013 CommentIf you're looking for jobs, you are intimately familiar with the tight market, but have you thought about the reasons why there may be fewer openings in your industry? It may not be because there is less work, especially if your skills are in demand. Instead, perhaps your industry is following the growing trend of hiring freelancers and contract workers to get the work done instead of advertising for full-time help. What does the workplace of the future look like?
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How to Tap Dance Around Illegal Interview Questions
Tweet Share on Facebook June 11, 2013 CommentYou've submitted a stellar résumé and shined in your phone screen interview. You've prepared stories and crafted questions that will demonstrate your skills and accomplishments when you meet the hiring manager face to face. You know in your heart that, if given the opportunity, you have the ability to succeed at the job you'll discuss. You're set to knock the ball out of the park.
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Perfecting the Job Search Using LinkedIn's 3 Newest Features
Tweet Share on Facebook June 11, 2013 CommentWhether you're unemployed or open to new job opportunities, there's really no reason not to take advantage of every LinkedIn feature. The entire site is designed to help you network professionally. The best part is that LinkedIn is dynamic. It's always changing to improve usability for job searchers and professionals. In fact, LinkedIn released three new features and enhancements to help you not only improve your professional profile but also cultivate a more robust professional network.
Why is networking important? Because most jobs are not advertised online. In a 2011 interview with NPR, Matt Youngquist, the president of Career Horizons, says: "At least 70 percent, if not 80 percent, of jobs are not published."
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Not a Morning Person? You Can Still Power Up Your Day
Tweet Share on Facebook June 10, 2013 CommentDo your consider yourself to be a morning person? (Answer honestly.) Don't feel too concerned about your reply to this question – because not many of us truly are. However, just because you might reach your physical and mental peak later in the day, doesn't preclude starting your work day headed in the right direction.
Like any workplace strategy, you must identify what works for you, and stick with the program. Ultimately, we may not all be genetically blessed with the prescribed "up at 6 a.m. and happy about it" circadian rhythm – but we can still super-charge our morning routine.
Here are a few ideas to set you on the right course.
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Social Media Job Search Hail Marys
Tweet Share on Facebook June 10, 2013 CommentYou fear the standard job search techniques won't land you a job before you're homeless. So it's time to pull out the extreme measures, the long shots, the Hail Marys.
Previous installments of this series offered Hail-Mary strategies for résumés, interviews, cover letters and thank-you letters. This time it's social media. The standard ammunition – a full LinkedIn profile with a pretty picture – isn't likely to be enough. Here's the heavy artillery but beware, like actual heavy ammunition, it could recoil on you. Nevertheless, when you feel you're a long shot, there's not much to lose, right?
Most of these tactics are applicable to all social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and if you're a fluent writer, blogging.
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