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Will This Résumé Tip Get You the Job?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 6, 2008 Comment (3)Job seekers often feel like their tireless search for the perfect job is matched by an endless quest for the perfect résumé. Should my font be consistent? Is Garamond too much? What should be in bold? Did I describe my current job correctly? And what about my objective statement?
To that end, G.L. Hoffman of the What Would Dad Say blog, has a fresh suggestion (supported by research that says HR people reportedly spend only 15 seconds on a résumé):
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3 Things You Should Know About the Jobs Market
Tweet Share on Facebook June 6, 2008 Comment (2)Three points about the labor market:
1. The unemployment rate is up—because more people are looking for jobs.
The unemployment rate climbed by half a percentage point to 5.5 percent in May, the Labor Department reported today. There were 8.5 million Americans reported as unemployed last month.A year ago, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent and there were 6.9 million Americans out of work. So is it all due to the economic downturn? Probably not. Zubin Jelveh reports that young workers have entered the labor force and are looking for jobs:
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America’s Most-Wanted Employers
Tweet Share on Facebook June 5, 2008 Comment (1)Where do undergraduates most want to work? Google, the Walt Disney Co., Apple, Ernst & Young, and the State Department.
And where do M.B.A. students want to work? Google, McKinsey & Co., Goldman Sachs, Apple, and the Boston Consulting Group, according to a survey by Universum Communications, a research firm.
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What Does a Three-Minute Office Rage Look Like?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 5, 2008 CommentEver wondered what your office would look like three minutes after a coworker totally lost his mind in a fit of office rage? A dramatic, but apparently real-life, video of man-vs.-copier/computer/coworker is circulating on YouTube. The Wall Street Journal's Business Technology Blog concedes that it could be staged but finds this cell phone-camera version is pretty convincing.
See the mess here:
Note: That guy was not particularly original. This man lost his temper first.
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A Checklist for Every E-mail You Send
Tweet Share on Facebook June 5, 2008 Comment (12)E-mail is not generally a deeply considered form of correspondence. It's a quick take, a snappy rebuttal, a last-minute lunch invite, or—sometimes—a stunningly inappropriate rant.
For help improving the thoughtfulness of our digital letters—here's a checklist from marketing whiz Seth Godin.
Some of my favorites from the comprehensive, 36-item list:
16. Is there anything in this E-mail I don't want the attorney general, the media, or my boss seeing? (If so, hit delete).
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Why It's Rough to Be Working in Ohio
Tweet Share on Facebook June 4, 2008 Comment (4)Here comes some good news about the national employment market.
From Bloomberg:
A private report today indicated that companies in the U.S. unexpectedly added jobs in May by the most since January. The 40,000 increase followed a revised gain of 13,000 for the prior month that was more than previously estimated, the report from ADP Employer Services showed.
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Why Getting the Job Isn't Everything
Tweet Share on Facebook June 4, 2008 CommentWe all go to great lengths to get the job we want—new haircut, professionally drafted résumé, sessions with a career coach, and follow-up thank-you notes. But let's not allow desperation to lead us into such nebulous (possibly criminal) waters as this:
A Florida businessman who was reportedly rather interested in earning $300,000 a year as CFO of a packaging company has been charged with forging letters under the guise of a being a Securities and Exchange Commission attorney and sending them to an executive search firm. The recruiting firm had questioned the businessman about the status of an SEC investigation into his conduct at a previous employer.
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Do You Have a McClellan in Your Office?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 4, 2008 CommentDo employers everywhere need to start worrying about Scott McClellanites?
From Fistful of Talent:
Instead, I'm here to point out that every workplace has their Scott McClellan(s). Not whistle-blowers—those folks speak up while they are in the belly of the ship. No, the workplace equivalent of Scott McClellan is the individual who leaves the workplace and then turns negative toward your company, your leadership, etc. They do this by keeping in contact with the employees who remain, via phone calls, E-mails, or simply maintaining social ties with their workplace friends. Then they vent that you don't know what you are doing.
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A Chance to Find Out Why Your Job 'Sucks'
Tweet Share on Facebook June 3, 2008 Comment (2)Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, written by former Best Buy-ers Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, has been getting lots of attention. Rightly so. They advocate a "results-only work environment" whose premise is that employees should be required to get their work done but shouldn't be forced to adhere to any semblance of a traditional 9-to-5 schedule. Basically, the how, when, and where of how you get the job done are up to you. If you want to shop for groceries at 9 a.m. on Monday—fine. From Ressler and Thompson's website:
"In a "Results-Only" company or department, employees can do whatever they want whenever they want, as long as business objectives are achieved. No more pointless meetings, racing to get in at 9:00, or begging for permission to watch your kid play soccer. No more cramming errands into the weekend, or waiting until retirement to take up your hobbies again. You make the decisions about what you do and where you do it, every minute of every day."
If the idea intrigues you (and why wouldn't it?), then you may be interested in this: Ressler and Thompson are hosting a tele-seminar today (Tuesday, June 3) at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Pamela Slim, author of the excellent Escape From Cubicle Nation blog, will also be offering her work wisdom.
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