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How You Think About Work
Tweet Share on Facebook June 30, 2009 Comment (3)There are plenty of ways to think about work. For many people, it is just something you do to make enough money to have some fun, go fishing, or party-hearty. I understand that.
For others, it's just something you do to make enough money to cover the basic necessities of family life. Nothing more.
Given that you're a reader of U.S.News, I am guessing you are neither, and that you want more out of your work life--whatever "more" is for you.
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The No. 1 Question Your Resume Should Answer
Tweet Share on Facebook June 29, 2009 Comment (40)The vast majority of resumes I see read like a series of job descriptions, listing duties and responsibilities at each position the job applicant has held. But resumes that stand out do something very different. For each position, they answer the question: What did you accomplish in this job that someone else wouldn't have?
So sure, it's great that you were hired for a job with, you know, a job description. But what I want to know is what you did with that job. Did you just go through the motions and turn in an acceptable, but not particularly star-quality, performance? Or did you do an unusually good job, one that impressed your boss and coworkers and made them devastated to lose you?
The typical advice about resumes suggests showing what you accomplished by using numbers -- "increased sales by 40 percent," "instituted cost efficiencies that reduced overhead by 20 percent," or whatever. But what if you have a job where what made you great isn't numerically quantifiable?
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Whose Side is HR on, Anyway?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 25, 2009 Comment (5)I received an inaccurate performance appraisal from my incompetent manager and I wrote a detailed response (actually, longer than the original appraisal). I have some questions:
- Is it likely that the company will change the review rating?
- How does HR feel about employees who submit review responses?
- Even if the ratings are not changed, will the fact that I wrote a coherent, objective response be noted in my manager's HR file?
- My husband is a manager at a big company. He tells me HR is not my friend, that that they will protect my manager before me. Is this true?
I don’t know you, your manager, or your company policies, so this is going to be a general answer--your mileage may vary.
Changing the rating: It’s likely that your company has a formal review process. Just writing a response will not get a rating changed. You’ll have to officially request a review and a hearing. Will it get changed? I’ve seen it happen, but more often then not, the answer is no. Employees are often the worst judges of their own behavior. I’ve never had an employee say, “Gee, I’m average or below average.” Every employee thinks they are above average. This, of course, cannot be true.
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Why a Career Change Shouldn't Wait for the Recovery
Tweet Share on Facebook June 25, 2009 Comment (2)I recently had a conversation with a woman who was unhappy in her job. As we talked about whether it made sense to think about changing careers, she echoed a common refrain: “I’m just lucky I have a job in this economy.”
Is she fortunate to have a job? Yup. But being lucky to have a job and having the ability to set in motion the wheels of a career change have nothing to do with each other. Most of the successful career transitions I have seen have unfolded over the course of many months, even years. Which means you don’t have to jump ship to get started.
Let’s say you realize you’re on the wrong path, and you decide it’s time for a change. You may not be in a position to jump into something new right now, but you are in a position to start taking steps.
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7 Digital Job-Hunting Mistakes
Tweet Share on Facebook June 24, 2009 Comment (5)As if job hunting wasn’t hard enough already, the Internet has added a few new twists to the process. Specifically, there are now more ways to shoot yourself in the foot. Beware of these digital faux pas:
Not having an electronic version of your résumé. Savvy job hunters go a step further and put their résumés in PDF format. These look more professional and they can’t be altered.
A silly E-mail address. If your E-mail is something like "ilovekittycats," you’ll appear unserious and unprofessional. ( Also, did you know some hiring managers say an AOL account makes you look out of touch? It’s true.)
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In Defense of Bozeman
Tweet Share on Facebook June 23, 2009 Comment (6)There was big news this week out of the city of Bozeman, Mont. Seems that job applicants were asked to supply Bozeman officials with the usernames for their social media accounts, as well as the passwords, as part of the background check process.
Commentators piled on Bozeman city officials, ultimately leading to Friday's announcement that they were no longer asking for such information. It was a win for HR and the privacy-concerned everywhere.
But since most of us just got the rabid version--“Can you believe what Bozeman just did?!”--I thought I would come to their defense.
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Why Your Weekends Aren't For Work
Tweet Share on Facebook June 22, 2009 Comment (8)I recently blogged about things that I like more in my 30s than I did in my 20s.
Looking back on my "younger years," I can also see many differences in my attitude towards work. One of the big shifts is how much time I spend thinking about work when I'm not at work.
Over the years I have been able to re-train myself to eliminate work thoughts when I'm off the clock. I have found that this has improved my home life, reduced the feeling of dreading Mondays, and led to a better career experience overall.
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How to Build Credibility at Work
Tweet Share on Facebook June 22, 2009 Comment (9)One of the most important types of capital you can build at work is a reputation for being highly credible. It takes time to build it, and you can significantly undermine it through even a single bad move.
Here's how to build unshakable credibility:
Never, ever lie. Never. Not only that, but go one step further. ...
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Obstacles Are Starting Points, Not End Results
Tweet Share on Facebook June 18, 2009 Comment (1)Have you ever run smack into an obstacle--brazenly sitting between you and something you want--and let it stop you in your tracks? Most of us have. Sometimes we even create the story line, that if what we wanted were possible, we would never have encountered that obstacle to begin with.
But here’s the thing--very few things in life worth having will just drop into your lap. Everyone runs into roadblocks. So, what distinguishes the people who overcome them, from the people who give up?
One differentiating factor is how they look at the challenges they encounter. For one, an obstacle is a stopping point, while the other treats each obstacle as a starting point. One wastes time and energy railing against the fact that an obstacle exists, while the other accepts that obstacles are just part of the game and sets about figuring out what the road around it looks like.
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Relax, Job Seeker. Hiring Managers Understand.
Tweet Share on Facebook June 18, 2009 CommentI've been putting together my resume and begun to fill [out] applications. My current job has become way more demanding than was originally explained to me, and my manager has since admitted that she intentionally misrepresented the work load when she hired me. I'm fine with working longer hours, but I stated that I should be compensated appropriately for my work and despite several flawless reviews, my salary increase has been "under review" for two quarters. To add insult to injury, in the meantime, I was permitted to hire a direct report, who was hired at the exact same pay as myself. At this point, I can handle staying in my current position for as long as I need to but it just seems like there are too many uphill battles to fight with management for this to be a permanent job for me.
So, until now, every other job change I've had has been for some obvious reason (leaving school, relocating to a new area, end of contract, etc.) So, I don't know what to say when asked my reason for leaving my current company. I know that if I were interviewing a potential hire who told these stories, I might begin to wonder if they were a problem employee. At the very least, it would cause me to look harder at a few of the other applicants. I want to tell the truth, but I know there are better ways to communicate the truth.
You are assuming that people leave companies only when they're forced, for reasons such as the ones that you've listed. But people change jobs all the time, and for more minor things than you've listed.
