Job Security & Today’s Economy

April 25th, 2008

As a guest on a national radio talk show a while back, I got a call from the mother of two young college men. She wanted her boys to avoid the pitfalls of reorganizations and job instability that seem to be rampant in today’s economy. She asked me what they should major in “so they will never lose their jobs or be downsized.” I said, “Tell them to go into nursing.”

I wasn’t being flip. Downsizing, also called “workforce reduction,” “negotiated departure,” “restaffing,” and a host of other euphemisms, is the trend as companies adapt to an increasingly global economy and shrinking profit margins. “Firings used to be done with surgical cleanliness,” according to employment guru Harvey Mackay. “Now they’re called restructurings, and they’re done with a meat cleaver.”

But even in today’s economy, there are areas of job growth. These include healthcare, education, government, and some technology sectors. Hardest hit are manufacturing, transportation, construction, and retail. Mortgage brokers and loan officers aren’t doing so well now either.

The South is the strongest area in the country for job growth right now, while the Midwest is the hardest hit because of its broad manufacturing base.

Yes, there is a screaming need for nurses. In fact, many hospitals and health care organizations are importing nurses from other countries because it’s so difficult to find enough nurses in the U.S. But you don’t need to become a nurse to increase your job security and avoid the “meat cleaver.” Update your skillset and target the growing sectors.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Posted in Job Search | No Comments »

||||||||||

Education and Your Career

April 22nd, 2008

Back in 1990, when I first began writing resumes and providing career consulting, I saw a number of retired Fortune 500 corporate executives who were seeking part time consulting positions. The majority of them had no formal education beyond high school, and every one of them said that anyone with just a high school diploma starting out in business today would never be able to climb the corporate ladder the way they did. They were right.

If you are wondering if finishing that bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree will be worth it to you in the long run, the evidence says overwhelmingly that it will. Never in U.S. history has a person’s educational level been linked to earning capacity as it is today, according a 2002 study by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The study, which compared earnings to education levels from 1975 to 1999, found that the gap in earnings for people with different education levels has grown significantly over the years. Back in 1975, for example, full time workers with a bachelor’s degree earned approximately 1.5 times what workers with only a high school diploma earned. And employees with an advanced degree, who earned 1.8 times the earnings of high school graduates in 1975, averaged 2.6 times the earnings of workers with a high school diploma in 1999.

The study indicated that gender and race can also play a part in the earnings gap, but across the board people with higher levels of education earn more than people with less education. According to the study, this growing earnings gap is attributable to the supply of labor and the increasing demand for skilled workers.

Several years ago I met with a prospective client in his early thirties and reviewed his work history of mostly short-term, dead-end jobs. Needless to say, he was very discouraged, and I suggested he begin taking college classes and work toward a degree, no matter how long it might take. He protested that it was not feasible; he just couldn’t afford to go to college. My insistence that he could not afford NOT to pursue his education and that, in fact, there are government grants and other loan options that would more than pay for themselves in the long run, fell on deaf ears. I wish I’d had this study back then to prove my point. A college degree can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income over a lifetime, and is well worth the time and expense.

In another instance I did some outplacement for a manufacturing subsidiary that was closing its doors due to a reorganization. The company offered tuition reimbursement to its employees, and among the clients I worked with, two stand out. They were both about the same age, they had both been with the company for 20-years, and they were both plant managers. One of these clients took advantage of the tuition reimbursement program and slowly but steadily took classes at night, earning a bachelor’s degree in 15-years. The other had nothing but a high school diploma and never took any classes. He thought his job would last a lifetime. He was wrong. Do I need to tell you which one fared better in the job search?

There are, of course, companies that will consider hiring a person who has industry experience, and if you see a job for which you are well qualified, but the ad says a degree is required and you don’t have one, send a resume anyway. You have nothing to lose, and I have known people who’ve been successful in landing the job because of their skills and experience, in spite of not meeting all of the education requirements.

Nevertheless, you are bound to find limitations everywhere you look if you don’t have that bachelor’s or (increasingly) master’s degree. I have had countless clients tell me how unfair that is, and in many ways they’re right. There are capable, knowledgeable, accomplished job candidates with minimal education who have much more real-world experience than some people with multiple degrees. It doesn’t matter. Fair or not, that’s the way the world is, and it’s not going to change any time soon. In fact, in today’s economy, with unemployment levels growing, unemployment for people with college degrees is just 2%, according to Career News.

So no matter where you are on the education scale, you might want to look into more schooling. The payoff could be considerable.

~Anne Follis, CPRW

Posted in Education | No Comments »

||||||||||

Power Pack Your Job Search!

April 10th, 2008

Updating Your Job Search Strategy

If you’re like most job seekers, you invest the majority of your time and precious resources in scanning Internet job boards and responding to ads in the newspapers.

Reality check. Estimates vary, but if that’s the strategy you’re using to find a job, indications are that your likelihood of success is around 10 to 13 percent. No wonder people get depressed and quit before they find a job. It can be like pounding your head against a brick wall.

The problem is that there are a lot more people looking for jobs these days than there are jobs available. (I’ll bet you already figured that one out!) Consequently, there are literally millions of resumes posted on the various job boards, giving new meaning to the term “needle in a haystack,” and when an ad hits the newspaper, it’s not uncommon for an employer to to receive hundreds of responses, if not thousands.

So if your primary strategy for finding a job is to surf the Internet boards and respond to newspaper ads, you are competing with dozens, hundreds, thousands, and in some cases millions of other applicants, making the odds against you pretty overwhelming. No wonder you’ve begun to feel as if you’re dropping your resume into a black hole! There’s got to be a better way.

There is, but it’s going to take some hard work and initiative on your part. If you enjoy sales and marketing, it will be right up your alley, because for this little window of time (i.e., while you are trying to find a job), you are in sales, and the product you’re marketing is you. And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, there are lots of other “products” out there. Some of them are cheaper, some of them are smarter, some of them are older, some of them are younger, some of them have more experience, and some of them have less. It would be nice to think that the most qualified applicant will be the one who lands the job, but it frequently does not work that way.

Put yourself in the position of the person doing the hiring. You have an opening you have to fill within two weeks. You have two hundred resumes to review and counting. You would love to shut down the office for the next fourteen days until you’ve settled this matter, but that’s not at all practical. And so you get the awful job of sifting through resumes and calling people to come in for interviews while still performing all the other functions of your position. And you would rather submit to a root canal without an anesthetic.

And then some eager beaver (let’s call him Joe) gets a hold of you on the phone. Actually, he’s been calling for weeks. He’s talked to your assistant and sent you e-mails and dropped off his resume and then dropped off another copy “just in case the first one got lost.” Finally, he calls early one morning before your assistant gets in, just as you are facing the prospect of going through all those resumes. He is pleasant and polite and to the point. He tells you briefly what his skills are, he expresses an interest in your company, and he asks about employment openings.

On the one hand, this call is a little annoying. On the other hand, you look at the growing number of resumes and think, “This guy seems to know a little something about what we do around here, and he’s awfully eager.” And at a subconscious level you’re even thinking, “If he works out, I won’t have to go through all these resumes.”

He presses a little bit. “Would it be possible for me to come in and speak with you? I promise I won’t take up too much of your time, but I would appreciate just a few minutes to introduce myself and present my qualifications in person. Would today be okay or would sometime later in the week be better?”

What would you say? If you’re like the hundreds of hiring managers I’ve talked to who have been through this, you’re likely to say something like, “I’ve got a little time this afternoon if you can be here at 3:00.” So Joe gets a crack at the job, while the 200 applicants who simply submitted resumes and then sat around twiddling their thumbs hoping for the phone to ring may very well be history.

What made Joe stand out? Is he smarter or more qualified? Not necessarily. He was simply the one who called the right person at the right time.

But, you say, how can you possibly know when to call whom?

You can’t. And so what you do is make a volume of phone calls (I recommend 10 to 20 or more a day) and persist through a thousand stalls, rejections, and maybes until you touch base with the right person at the right time who says yes. It’s that simple. And that difficult.

Before you moan and groan and say you can’t do it, it’s not your style, let me reiterate. In the past, the approach to getting jobs was passive. You submitted resumes and waited, hoping for a response. Since back in the good old days there were more jobs than people to fill them, you usually didn’t have to wait very long, and this approach worked most of the time.

But we’ve already established that the world has changed — a lot — and today the onus is on the job seeker. You must take an active, persistent, aggressive approach to finding the job you want. If you don’t do it, no one will. That I can guarantee. And my experience has been that for many people, the process can be exciting and empowering. Rather than submitting helplessly to the whims of the job market, which can be the most depressing experience of a lifetime, you are taking control of the process for yourself.

~ Excerpted and updated from the book Power Pack Your Job Search! by Anne Follis, CPRW. For more information, go to CareerHappy.com and click on “Power Pack Your Job Search”

Posted in Job Search, Networking | No Comments »

||||||||||

Negotiating a Salary Offer

October 24th, 2007

Since raises are based on current earnings, the salary you accept will determine your salary for the rest of your history with the company. If you accept something that is $5,000 below what you should receive, you’ll be $5,000 or more behind in raises, promotions, and bonuses for your entire tenure with an organization.

If you receive an offer that interests you, don’t be afraid to negotiate. A company invests a lot of time and money selecting a candidate. They don’t want to lose you now, so you have some leverage at this point that you will probably never have again.

You might begin a negotiation by saying, “Thank you for the offer. I’m very interested and would like a day to consider it. Is the salary fixed, or is it negotiable?” If the interviewer indicates that there is room to negotiate, say that you will think about it and call back the following day with an response and possible counter-offer. If they say the offer is not negotiable, I also recommend that you say you’ll think about it and call back later. I’ve known many a job seeker who lived to regret a hasty response, pro or con.

You can also negotiate paid leave, benefits, and other perks. I have a client who is a well-qualified nonprofit executive, and she gladly accepted a very low paying position with an agency that could ill afford to offer her any more money. Fortunately for them, she didn’t care about the money. She wanted more time off, and so she accepted the offer with the caveat that she receive six weeks of paid vacation a year. The company agreed, and everybody was happy.

As every sales representative in the world will tell you, all they can say is no. In fact, many employers expect job applicants to negotiate salary and other benefits, and deliberately make offers a little (and sometimes more than a little) low. I have actually had hiring executives tell me they are disappointed when a candidate accepts a position with no attempt to negotiate a better offer. So keep that in mind, and don’t be afraid to ask for more.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Posted in Salary | No Comments »

||||||||||

Deciding Whether or Not to Accept a Job Offer

October 24th, 2007

No matter how desperate you may feel, don’t rush to accept an offer if it’s not what you want. Accepting a job offer is a little bit like getting married. Once you take the plunge, you determine your course for many years, possibly the rest of your life. If you decide you hate the position, or the company, you can either bail out or hang in there, but neither is good for your long term career — or your emotional well being!

Consider any offer very carefully, and make sure it’s what you want before you accept. In fact, I recommend that you never say yes the day you receive an offer. Tell the employer that you’re interested, but you’d like to think about it and return the call the next morning with your answer. That gives you the chance to consider the job opportunities, decide if this is what you really want, and also about what you would like to negotiate (salary, vacation days, paid leave, benefits, or all of the above) prior to saying “yes.”

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Posted in Job Search | No Comments »

||||||||||

Employment Agencies & Recruiters: An Important Consideration

September 10th, 2007

There’s a saying in the employment industry: Agencies and recruiters do not find jobs for people, they find people for jobs. In other words, with very few exceptions, they don’t work for you, they work for the employer. Since people in this business are normally paid on a commission basis, it is a volume industry that usually has a rapid turnover of clients.

Since your chances of finding a job through an agency or a recruiter are remote (the best estimates are only 10%), don’t invest a disproportionate amount of your time and resources in this area. If you learn of a job that interests you though an agency, or if you hear of a recruiter who may have some good leads, by all means look into it, but keep the main focus of your job search on networking your contacts and calling / following-up with prospective employers. These techniques are far more likely to provide success in your job search.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Posted in Employment Agencies, Recruiters | No Comments »

||||||||||

How to Locate the Right Executive Recruiter for You

September 10th, 2007

The best resource for finding an executive recruiter is the Directory of Executive Recruiters by Kennedy Publications. It’s bright red in color, retails at about $50, and can be purchased online or at your favorite bookstore. It has every recruiting firm in the U.S. and is cross-referenced by specialty and location. It is updated annually.

Websites that might help you locate a recruiter are BrilliantPeople.com, ExecutiveAgent.com (executive recruiters by field and location), heidrick.com (retained recruiters, $150,000+), and recruitersonline.com. You can also checkout the Website of the Directory of Executive Recruiters book: executiveagent.com.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Posted in Recruiters | No Comments »

||||||||||

Job Service: State Employment Offices

September 10th, 2007

About 2,000 local state employment offices, sometimes called “Job Service,” exist throughout the U.S. These offices are part of a nationwide federal network called The United States Employment Service (USES). Most of them provide assisstance to workers at a variety of levels — blue collar, clerical, management — and they have access to job listings. Some people have found these services to be of help. They’re worth checking out, although their success rate has been estimated at only about 10 to 15 percent.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Posted in Employment Agencies | No Comments »

||||||||||

Recruiters: Finding Your Way Through the Jungle

September 10th, 2007

There are athousands of recruiters nationwide, also known as executive search firms and “headhunters.” Many of them specialize in placing professionals in mid-to upper-level positions, which means that blue-collar and clerical workers, as well as new grads, are likely to be wasting their time when approaching these firms. In addition, if you’re changing careers (say you’ve been in manufacturing and you’d like to get into public relations), it’s not likely you would be a good candidate for this kind of service because recruiters are looking for people who are accomplished in a specific field. Remember, most recruiters are paid on a commission basis, so the emphasis is on volume. For the most part they’re looking for applicants they can place quickly and with relative ease.

Executive search firms are paid by the employer and fall under two categories. About 20 percent are “retained” firms, which conduct personnel searches for companies and are paid whether they place a candidate with the employer or not. The rest are “contingency” firms, and they’re paid only when they send a client to an employer who is subsequently hired.

Like many employers, executive search firms get hundreds of resumes every week that they cannot use, and the initial screening can be very quick and cursory. If you appraoch them, do so as you would a prospective employer. Make sure your resume and cover letter are polished and professional, and if you get an interview with a recruiter, dress the part and be prepared.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Posted in Recruiters | No Comments »

||||||||||

Employment Agencies: Full Time

September 10th, 2007

Private agencies that place people for permanent positions charge a fee, often a percentage of the first year’s salary. Sometimes the fee is paid by the employer, sometimes by the employee, and sometimes it’s divided between the two.

People looking for jobs normally contact these agencies in response to an advertisement, and some companies regularly use certain agencies. The agencies screen prospective employees, perform reference checks, and generally save companies a great deal of time and money, while only about five percent or less of the people who walk into employment agencies hoping to find a job ever do. Clearly this is a service of significant benefit to the employer, even though you may be the one who foots the bill. So before you go for an interview, understand the fee arrangement. If the fee is not paid by the employer, make sure you’re willing and able to pay it in full if you accept an offer.

To help you determine if you are working with a stable and reputable employment agency, ask how long it has been in business, not just as a nationwide chain, which some are, but how long it has been in your area. Franchise offices may be of particular benefit if you’re looking to relocate. Ask your employment counselor how long he or she has been with the company and how long he or she has been an employment counselor. Since these are commission jobs, there can be a great deal of turnover. One of my clients had an experience in which he went to an agency, filled out the forms, took the tests, submitted to a screening interview, and called back a week later, only to find out the counselor who had interviewed him had left, and no one there could find the client’s records.

Of course, there are a number of highly reputable agencies, as well as competent and caring professionals in the field. Indications of stability include the CPC designation (Certified Personnel Consultant), and membership in the National Association of Personnel Consultants.

~ Anne Follis, CPRW

Posted in Employment Agencies | No Comments »

||||||||||

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »