What makes a job meaningful? What keeps an employee from changing jobs or careers? Or even what prevents job burnout? Is it money or status? Money and status are important extrinsic factors indeed. However as the sole career pursuit, money often leads to greed and short term thinking as we have recently seen in the financial services meltdown. Well if extrinsic issues don’t lead to job meaning and satisfaction, then intrinsic factors probably do, like relations with the boss and other employees, training, internal recognition, and creative projects. Here I briefly present what I see as the A, B, C, D’s for a meaningful job; Achievement, Belongingness, Creativity, and Development.
The first element of job satisfaction involves achievement. Here we are referring to the satisfaction gained by doing one’s job well, making contributions to their organizations success, and receiving recognition for above average to superior performance. Achievement can be at the individual, group, or company level. Achievement may occur in a single event or may be ongoing. Both are important. However, a company culture of achievement often leads to ongoing employee satisfaction and company success. This does not mean individual achievement should not be recognized. In fact, it is highly recommended that a high achiever be rewarded if one wishes to maintain his or her services.
The second factor of job satisfaction involves a sense of belongingness with one’s employer. Often this stems from camaraderie with one’s fellow workers, which can result in outside work activities and friendships. Employee sensitive management, particularly with one’s immediate supervisor, is also critical to belongingness. Benefits like spousal maternity leave, sabbaticals, and in house fitness programs enhance belongingness, and display company concern for the wellness of their employers. Union membership, which was once a major source of belongingness, has declined precipitously due to globalization. The once touted employee team concept has not provided the same sense of belonging.
The third factor of job satisfaction is creativity. Creativity in the workplace does not necessarily refer to aesthetic creativity, but more to innovation and originality in any field of endeavor. Placing a high value on creativity, through innovation and originality companies, like Apple Computer, have become extremely successful and very prized places to work. As with achievement, creating a corporate culture of individual and group creativity is the key element in spawning innovative and original products and services. This occurs by providing the management, facilities, incentives, and vision that allow for creativity to unfold. However, it is important to recognize by all concerned that creativity, at its core, is a mindset and a passion that must be nurtured to fully evolve.
The fourth factor of job satisfaction is development. This involves the development of an employee’s new skills and competencies within a specific company, which benefits both career mobility and company growth. MIT dean Lester Thorow stated in his “The Future of Capitalism” that in our increasingly digital economy a primary reason for costly attrition is the lack of training of new skills. Moreover, opportunities for advancement based on achievement and competency must both be available and encouraged to insure company growth and career satisfaction. Management that holds promotions or training back, due to non progressive policies or the short sighted needs of a supervisor, often loose that employee to a competitor; Unfortunately, this attitude could lead to a company’s demise.
In this age of the breakdown of the compact between employee and employer, the notion of lifetime, or even long term employment, is rapidly becoming obsolete. However, if we look at successful companies outside the US, job change and dissatisfaction appears much smaller. However, this does negate the value of American entrepreneurialism, which often leads one to form new companies that provide significant innovation and new jobs. Moreover, if an employer doesn’t offer opportunities for achievement, belonging, creativity, and development, their predictable loss of talent will cause irreparable damage to their reputation. Yet, for the most part we are becoming a free agent nation, where work has become a commodity that goes to the highest, or lowest, bidder. On the surface we tend to see this as an aspect of freedom and progress. However rapid job changes lead to career discontinuity and personal insecurity. Finally, even today many of the most successful and well adjusted individuals have spent long periods, or their entire career, at their current employer.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Irrational Expectations Vs. Resources for Renewal
If the current downturn in the employment market is part of a usual cyclical downturn of the economy, then we could just wait it out and everything will eventually resolve itself like a happy ending of a classic Hollywood movie. This would exclude the possibility of civil unrest brought on by structural unemployment and underemployment engendered by globalization and related ageism and other forms of employment related discrimination. Moreover, far from the futuristic office parks and glittering commercial skyscapes, many of formerly optimistic citizens are settling for a life of quiet desperation and sharply reduced expectations. Unfortunately, this time it really may be different.
Nevertheless, most Americans, even the unemployed and underemployed, still believe in the “happily ever after myth.” Why not? The citizenry can’t, or won’t, let go, of the notion of American Exceptionalism (i. e.; we are the best in the world in everything we see as important), which may have been the case for a good part of the post WW II period. However, cultural pluralism, market meltdowns and fundamentalism, techno-mania, terrorism and the resulting individual and socio economic fragmentation is making it harder to maintain our delusions of global grandeur and omnipotence
What can we do to stop this slide? Do we have to hit a total socio economic bottom before we start an authentic process of renewal? Catatrophising and all-or-nothing thinking will get us nowhere. And there is too much politically and culturally manufactured fear, particularly in the mass media, to envision quick fixes in the current milieu.
Translated to the area of employment we have to realize that the age of the free lunch has passed us by. Sustained recovery only begins by radically altering the way we view ourselves and our realistic possibilities for our careers and our lives. Strategic, rational, and even critical thinking need to once again begin to guide our actions. In the job arena this might require significant sacrifice to acquire marketable skills and core competencies.
This is particularly the case for unskilled high school graduates and dropouts who experience the highest rates of chronic unemployment and underemployment, which currently approaches fifteen percent plus. It’s not that those resources of renewal aren’t out there for them or all of us; rather we need to develop the motivation and “chutzpah” to go out and get them.
If we are job hunting in IT, or in almost any other field, then we need to focus on the mechanics of what will lead to a successful outcome: Do we have an appropriate skill set for the job we are seeking? Can we write a powerful resume? Do we possess strong interviewing skills? Do we know where and how to find, and research, realistic opportunities? The keys here are flexibility, tenacity, and creativity.
In this unforgiving market we often have to offer value that far exceeds a written job posting, because the competition is so formidable. The employers know that, and in this buyers market for their offerings, they can, and do, often wait for the perfect match. But this perfectionism is often a matter of semi-arbitrary perception. Bottom line; they won’t hire you unless they think you can do the job very well, and you are someone that they would very much like to work with. Given strong skills, attitude, for all intents and purposes, is almost everything if you want a successful job search.
Every day I talk to people, whose skills and/or experience are not compatible with what they want to do. One recent example involves an environmental engineer, with a private sector experience, who has been out of work for nearly a year. He wants a local government job, which he perceives as offering less stress and more job security for himself and his family He has been tenacious in his job search, coming in second in the interviewing process on a few occasions, and having had several interviews in a very tight market. At times he has been quite creative in finding potential positions. His problem is flexibility. Right now local government jobs are relatively scarce and highly political; the few mid to senior level jobs available are going to individuals with substantial experience in that specific sector.
I spent four hours speaking with him about options, but I gave up coaching and advising him because all he wanted was to be a town engineer. His lack of flexibility was crippling his job search. For now he can continue to dream of his ideal job, and there is a miniscule chance he may be successful. His chances would be much greater in a private sector job, but after a few half hearted efforts he exited from that avenue altogether. With his wife’s salary and his extended unemployment benefits he doesn’t see any necessity to change his strategy. I do wish him well, but his unemployment benefits and his wife’s patience, at least for his ideal job search, may soon expire. Still he clings to his own version of the self defined happy ending.
I could offer you several more examples of generally intelligent and rational people, who are conducting ill advised and irrational job searches. Other questionable actions like quitting a secure job in the middle of a near depression with zero prospects, or paying “big bucks” to career advisers and then doing the opposite of what they recommend, just reinforce this troubling trend.
The new world order of easy job searches and unlimited job creation has been moving away from us for nearly a decade in IT, and for more than a quarter century in manufacturing…. Our safety nets are being stretched to the shredding point. The fear that has characterized this tumultuous decade has now set its sights squarely on the diminishing job prospects of the unemployed, underemployed, and the many others who may lose their livelihoods in the months and years to come
However, if we wish to regain our optimism and cherished possibility of upward mobility, then tenacity, flexibility, and creativity, balanced by competency and rationality, is essential. Maybe our days of dream jobs and storybook endings to low stress job searches have passed. Concurrently, the vision of America of what Ronald Regan called “the shining city on the hill’ that the rest of the world sought to emulate has been tarnished as well. But, if we try very hard, we still can have rich and rewarding careers, and will find that our hopes and dreams sometimes can come true. As the cultural Icon Mick Jager once sang: “We can’t always get what we want, but if we try sometimes, we just might find, we get what we need.”
Nevertheless, most Americans, even the unemployed and underemployed, still believe in the “happily ever after myth.” Why not? The citizenry can’t, or won’t, let go, of the notion of American Exceptionalism (i. e.; we are the best in the world in everything we see as important), which may have been the case for a good part of the post WW II period. However, cultural pluralism, market meltdowns and fundamentalism, techno-mania, terrorism and the resulting individual and socio economic fragmentation is making it harder to maintain our delusions of global grandeur and omnipotence
What can we do to stop this slide? Do we have to hit a total socio economic bottom before we start an authentic process of renewal? Catatrophising and all-or-nothing thinking will get us nowhere. And there is too much politically and culturally manufactured fear, particularly in the mass media, to envision quick fixes in the current milieu.
Translated to the area of employment we have to realize that the age of the free lunch has passed us by. Sustained recovery only begins by radically altering the way we view ourselves and our realistic possibilities for our careers and our lives. Strategic, rational, and even critical thinking need to once again begin to guide our actions. In the job arena this might require significant sacrifice to acquire marketable skills and core competencies.
This is particularly the case for unskilled high school graduates and dropouts who experience the highest rates of chronic unemployment and underemployment, which currently approaches fifteen percent plus. It’s not that those resources of renewal aren’t out there for them or all of us; rather we need to develop the motivation and “chutzpah” to go out and get them.
If we are job hunting in IT, or in almost any other field, then we need to focus on the mechanics of what will lead to a successful outcome: Do we have an appropriate skill set for the job we are seeking? Can we write a powerful resume? Do we possess strong interviewing skills? Do we know where and how to find, and research, realistic opportunities? The keys here are flexibility, tenacity, and creativity.
In this unforgiving market we often have to offer value that far exceeds a written job posting, because the competition is so formidable. The employers know that, and in this buyers market for their offerings, they can, and do, often wait for the perfect match. But this perfectionism is often a matter of semi-arbitrary perception. Bottom line; they won’t hire you unless they think you can do the job very well, and you are someone that they would very much like to work with. Given strong skills, attitude, for all intents and purposes, is almost everything if you want a successful job search.
Every day I talk to people, whose skills and/or experience are not compatible with what they want to do. One recent example involves an environmental engineer, with a private sector experience, who has been out of work for nearly a year. He wants a local government job, which he perceives as offering less stress and more job security for himself and his family He has been tenacious in his job search, coming in second in the interviewing process on a few occasions, and having had several interviews in a very tight market. At times he has been quite creative in finding potential positions. His problem is flexibility. Right now local government jobs are relatively scarce and highly political; the few mid to senior level jobs available are going to individuals with substantial experience in that specific sector.
I spent four hours speaking with him about options, but I gave up coaching and advising him because all he wanted was to be a town engineer. His lack of flexibility was crippling his job search. For now he can continue to dream of his ideal job, and there is a miniscule chance he may be successful. His chances would be much greater in a private sector job, but after a few half hearted efforts he exited from that avenue altogether. With his wife’s salary and his extended unemployment benefits he doesn’t see any necessity to change his strategy. I do wish him well, but his unemployment benefits and his wife’s patience, at least for his ideal job search, may soon expire. Still he clings to his own version of the self defined happy ending.
I could offer you several more examples of generally intelligent and rational people, who are conducting ill advised and irrational job searches. Other questionable actions like quitting a secure job in the middle of a near depression with zero prospects, or paying “big bucks” to career advisers and then doing the opposite of what they recommend, just reinforce this troubling trend.
The new world order of easy job searches and unlimited job creation has been moving away from us for nearly a decade in IT, and for more than a quarter century in manufacturing…. Our safety nets are being stretched to the shredding point. The fear that has characterized this tumultuous decade has now set its sights squarely on the diminishing job prospects of the unemployed, underemployed, and the many others who may lose their livelihoods in the months and years to come
However, if we wish to regain our optimism and cherished possibility of upward mobility, then tenacity, flexibility, and creativity, balanced by competency and rationality, is essential. Maybe our days of dream jobs and storybook endings to low stress job searches have passed. Concurrently, the vision of America of what Ronald Regan called “the shining city on the hill’ that the rest of the world sought to emulate has been tarnished as well. But, if we try very hard, we still can have rich and rewarding careers, and will find that our hopes and dreams sometimes can come true. As the cultural Icon Mick Jager once sang: “We can’t always get what we want, but if we try sometimes, we just might find, we get what we need.”
Monday, May 4, 2009
IT Ghost Town: Where Have All Our IT Jobs Gone?
I have a friend named Mark, who is a software Engineer in his early fifties. Despite having outstanding technical skills, Mark has no job prospects. He’s had two jobs, only lasting three months in the past year. An offer was presented to him six weeks ago: a three month job in Denver, which is two thousand miles from his home in Boston, MA. The job didn’t offer transportation, housing or health insurance, so consequently he turned it down. He has since extended his job search internationally, but with the global recession his prospects aren’t any better than in the US.
Mark is not alone. Thousands of IT professionals face a similar fate. In the 1980’s and 1990’s IT jobs rated among the top in future growth potential. IT and CS curriculum became among the most popular and lucrative majors in US higher education; up to the bachelor’s level. CEO’s at technology companies like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison became national icons. With all that incredible buzz where and why have all our IT jobs gone? Why is our IT industry starting to resemble a ghost town of the Old West?
With the nearly trillion dollars spent on the dubious Y2K scare, coupled with the hundreds of billions lost on the dot com bomb, the answer to the job loss query appears clearer. One major causal factor can be related to the up to 30% increase in IT salaries from 1996 to 2000 peaking in a recently globalized economy. The cost of US, IT labor rose too high to remain competitive; once the IT, and related jobs bubble burst. Moreover, with the growth of the internet and global call centers the floodgates were opened to outsource IT jobs. Jobs gushed to India first, and then to almost any politically, stable low cost of living area in the world with IT talent.
As a consequence, in the nearly four year information technology recession from 2001 to 2005 the US lost nearly 5% of its IT jobs. Larger losses occurred in the more portable software development and call center support jobs, with only strong growth in the defense sector. If you factor in the earlier predicted annual growth of IT jobs in the area of 5%, then the declines based on projected growth in IT jobs in 2000 was in actuality, around 30%.
In addition, the “in-sourcing” of a huge number of moderately lower cost, highly skilled H1-b workers from 2000 on led to the loss of up to 50% of the estimated jobs to American born IT workers, based on government data. In-sourcing, a form of temporary and permanent immigration employment has always been an intermittent socio-economic part of the American Experience (e. g. the nineteenth century Chinese railroad workers). But, such a large increase of highly paid foreign workers in a specific sector like IT is unprecedented.
What are some of the other negative results of this massive downsizing of IT jobs? IT became a less desirable career for US college students, therefore causing a precipitous decline in the number CS and IT graduates. Also, the previously predicted 5% plus annual growth in salaries declined from 2001 to the present levels of a 1 to 2% increase; less than the rate of inflation. For older workers like Mark, there is was no increase or a lower salary, if unemployed in their next position. A recent study conducted by researchers from Wharton Business School concluded that the impact of the H1-b’s led to an average 6% lower salary for US IT workers. Posted on the internet, five days later this controversial study mysteriously disappeared.
All may not be gloomy on the IT job horizon. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that there would be a 30% increase in the number of IT jobs from 2006 to 2016. However, this was before the deep global recession that began in 2008 and engulfed us, leading to IT job losses that may not abate until 2011. Based on recent experience, job growth may only reach 15 to 20%, and the majority of those increases will be the result of in-sourcing. Even more ominous is the possibility that the average IT workers older than forty may never be able to work in IT again, particularly with the exponential rise in health insurance costs.
What can be done to reinvigorate the ailing American IT industry? Can we rise above the ugly xenophobia and ageism resulting from globalization, which has plagued IT for a decade? Unfortunately, in our post union and protectionism era, IT workers have little or no collective leverage to improve their situation on a large scale; and corporations have relinquished their loyalty to local workers to survive globally.
However, on an individual and team level there is a glimmer of hope. Creative solutions may spawn new jobs in areas such as green energy technology, health care, as well as new, unforeseen employment opportunities just over the horizon. Moreover, the new Administration, unlike their predecessors who were adverse to technological innovation does have a vision of IT, which will lead to additional funds funneled into large-scale projects. At the core, American ingenuity and tenacity may, and must prevail to avert a “ghost town scenario.”
This revitalization of the IT industry will not be easy. In the near term, salaries may remain stagnant and globalization will continue to accelerate. But, with focus, fortitude and the inventiveness that characterized its golden age, the United States IT industry must restore its enthusiasm to reverse its decline.
However, for people like Mark who built the American IT industry into a global powerhouse, the future may pass them by; unless they can maintain a commitment to quality, reclaim their vision and acquire the latest IT skills.
Regaining the "American Dream" for the IT industry will be no easy task. But, this is America, where an abandoned "ghost town" can be resurrected and flourish. Any endeavor thought impossible here by many, is still possible for the dedicated and committed few; even those over fifty.
Mark is not alone. Thousands of IT professionals face a similar fate. In the 1980’s and 1990’s IT jobs rated among the top in future growth potential. IT and CS curriculum became among the most popular and lucrative majors in US higher education; up to the bachelor’s level. CEO’s at technology companies like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison became national icons. With all that incredible buzz where and why have all our IT jobs gone? Why is our IT industry starting to resemble a ghost town of the Old West?
With the nearly trillion dollars spent on the dubious Y2K scare, coupled with the hundreds of billions lost on the dot com bomb, the answer to the job loss query appears clearer. One major causal factor can be related to the up to 30% increase in IT salaries from 1996 to 2000 peaking in a recently globalized economy. The cost of US, IT labor rose too high to remain competitive; once the IT, and related jobs bubble burst. Moreover, with the growth of the internet and global call centers the floodgates were opened to outsource IT jobs. Jobs gushed to India first, and then to almost any politically, stable low cost of living area in the world with IT talent.
As a consequence, in the nearly four year information technology recession from 2001 to 2005 the US lost nearly 5% of its IT jobs. Larger losses occurred in the more portable software development and call center support jobs, with only strong growth in the defense sector. If you factor in the earlier predicted annual growth of IT jobs in the area of 5%, then the declines based on projected growth in IT jobs in 2000 was in actuality, around 30%.
In addition, the “in-sourcing” of a huge number of moderately lower cost, highly skilled H1-b workers from 2000 on led to the loss of up to 50% of the estimated jobs to American born IT workers, based on government data. In-sourcing, a form of temporary and permanent immigration employment has always been an intermittent socio-economic part of the American Experience (e. g. the nineteenth century Chinese railroad workers). But, such a large increase of highly paid foreign workers in a specific sector like IT is unprecedented.
What are some of the other negative results of this massive downsizing of IT jobs? IT became a less desirable career for US college students, therefore causing a precipitous decline in the number CS and IT graduates. Also, the previously predicted 5% plus annual growth in salaries declined from 2001 to the present levels of a 1 to 2% increase; less than the rate of inflation. For older workers like Mark, there is was no increase or a lower salary, if unemployed in their next position. A recent study conducted by researchers from Wharton Business School concluded that the impact of the H1-b’s led to an average 6% lower salary for US IT workers. Posted on the internet, five days later this controversial study mysteriously disappeared.
All may not be gloomy on the IT job horizon. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that there would be a 30% increase in the number of IT jobs from 2006 to 2016. However, this was before the deep global recession that began in 2008 and engulfed us, leading to IT job losses that may not abate until 2011. Based on recent experience, job growth may only reach 15 to 20%, and the majority of those increases will be the result of in-sourcing. Even more ominous is the possibility that the average IT workers older than forty may never be able to work in IT again, particularly with the exponential rise in health insurance costs.
What can be done to reinvigorate the ailing American IT industry? Can we rise above the ugly xenophobia and ageism resulting from globalization, which has plagued IT for a decade? Unfortunately, in our post union and protectionism era, IT workers have little or no collective leverage to improve their situation on a large scale; and corporations have relinquished their loyalty to local workers to survive globally.
However, on an individual and team level there is a glimmer of hope. Creative solutions may spawn new jobs in areas such as green energy technology, health care, as well as new, unforeseen employment opportunities just over the horizon. Moreover, the new Administration, unlike their predecessors who were adverse to technological innovation does have a vision of IT, which will lead to additional funds funneled into large-scale projects. At the core, American ingenuity and tenacity may, and must prevail to avert a “ghost town scenario.”
This revitalization of the IT industry will not be easy. In the near term, salaries may remain stagnant and globalization will continue to accelerate. But, with focus, fortitude and the inventiveness that characterized its golden age, the United States IT industry must restore its enthusiasm to reverse its decline.
However, for people like Mark who built the American IT industry into a global powerhouse, the future may pass them by; unless they can maintain a commitment to quality, reclaim their vision and acquire the latest IT skills.
Regaining the "American Dream" for the IT industry will be no easy task. But, this is America, where an abandoned "ghost town" can be resurrected and flourish. Any endeavor thought impossible here by many, is still possible for the dedicated and committed few; even those over fifty.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Ageism:The Wounded Lions of Employment Winter
Ageism, or more precisely, age warfare, like class warfare, race warfare, and the "so called" battle between the sexes, do all unfortunately exist. Often the age issue gets the least press; particularly in the US, because there is hardly any economic and media support relating to those over age fifty. With the exception being marketing medications like Flomax, Viagra, antidepressant and anti-Alzheimer drugs, which are continually advertised in print and on television.
In the workplace, particularly in this millennial downturn, there is an irrefutable correlation between age and unemployment in certain industries like high technology. I estimate that more than 70% of the recent layoffs are for people in the age range of forty and over. This statistic is based on my reading of thousands of resumes from unemployed workers in the last year.
One approach to counteracting ageism in the workplace is to have indispensable skills. I have a close relative who was begged to work until he was seventy (the company, a Fortune 50 conglomerate, had a retirement requirement policy for employees at age sixty-five), so he was picked up by their international division. Now, he is eighty-five and still receives occasional calls to consult on his area of expertise internationally, which are steam turbine generators. Perhaps, another proactive method in circumventing ageism is self employment. But most people, no matter what their age, have neither the indispensable skills, nor entrepreneurial inclinations to be self employed.
Usually the catch-words that you hear about older American workers are that they are more loyal, reliable, friendly, and disciplined: kind of like a well behaved golden retriever. But when I, as a fifty-plus year old deal with non-Europeans or non-Americans in general, I receive more respect, which I don't ask for. Perhaps, they have more stable traditions, and are just more comfortable in who they are and where they are going. This is not to say that all Americans, or Europeans act in this manner, but the majority do. Many people themselves in this age group, through a kind of brainwashed self-fulfilling prophecy, buy into the notion of their vocational and socio-cultural inferiority based on age.
Fifteen years ago there was the public perception that people aged sixty-five or over, would be able to work in a high capacity, as long as they wanted to. It seems apparent today that this is not the case; unless you count being a greeter at Wallmart or bagging groceries in a supermarket as a high level of employment. Perhaps, this expected trend was aborted by the recent, rapid onset of outsourcing and globalization. The case can also be made for the ease in subrogating cheap foreign labor to a developing country; meeting the bottom line for an American CEO who’s only loyalty is to his stockholders and his net worth
I recall reading that you can evaluate the strength and value system of a culture in how well they treat, and accept as equals their older and sicker members. On that basis our American culture is sick indeed. What is paradoxical about ageism in the American economy is that many of the people, like IT workers, who are being “aged out” here have skills that are still in demand globally, which could be effectively utilized remotely to offer tremendous economic value to the developing world and elsewhere. Consequently, globalization could begin to improve, rather than detract from the employment prospects of older American workers.
In my opinion, there are at least three plans of action that should be taken to speed up the globalization of underutilized American skills, especially for the older workers.
1. The American media, in particular, must portray a more positive image of people aged over forty; to make them more attractive to the global marketplace.
2. A clear and comprehensive vision of a “global village” needs to play a major role in the realm of employment, so that underutilized American technical and professional expertise can be remotely placed; just as the skills of Asian technology workers are remotely employed by companies from the United States.
3. The most idealistic plan is to get the policymakers and the citizenry to realize the obvious: globalization leads to the leveling out of global labor costs and a lowering of the quantitative standard of living in richer countries like the United States.
However, if there is a shift to a more qualitative standard of living that uses less resources and luxuries then we could begin the arduous process of combating the deleterious effects of ageism and poverty in America. And then most of the developed world in turn could provide meaningful employment to the skilled, semi-skilled, and chronically unemployed in the US and elsewhere.
Moreover, this movement to a more qualitative and frugal utilization of human and natural resources could go a long way in alleviating looming global eco-calamities such as global warming, and the myriad of severe socio-cultural, political, and economic upheavals that may follow.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Recruiting a need-for-greed mentality in a down turned economy. It's all about the money after all, or is it?
If we, as professional recruiters hope to best assist our clients in achieving a career renaissance, then the recruiters who often place them need to regularly review their own renaissance values. In doing so they need to look beyond their purely personal financial and ego gratification, and instead facilitate a situation that leads to the greater good of the job-seeker’s and hiring company's mutual growth and satisfaction.
As in most sectors of the economy, recruiters are sometimes subject to the need-for-greed in their desire to make a quick dollar (placement) and then run; having little, or no consideration for the potentially, negative impact of their actions on the career and life of the candidate, or the success of the client company. Of course, the majority of recruiters do not fall into this category, but in all honesty we generally got into this field to make a decent living, and not to become saints. Well, maybe not all of us…
Recruiters at quasi-ethical or unethical firms are particularly subject to this practice of greed. Harassed by their manager (who often are intimidated themselves by their owners), junior recruiters are harried to make their numbers add up in greater placements, or else face being fired. They (the junior recruiters) are acculturated into this ends-justify-the-means mindset and in so doing are forced to objectify and dehumanize their clients. Why not? It's all about the money after all, or is it?
As luck would have it, the third firm I worked for was based on the principle of establishing long-term, ethical relationships with their clients. We not only made money, but valued friendships with our clients, too. There were even occasions when we would advise a candidate or a client company to pass on a potential placement if we did not think it was in the best interest of the client or the company.
What about letting a bad placement go by when you are struggling in a tough market like today. Well, if recruiters and agencies had created good will in good times and managed their money wisely, then they wouldn't have this problem. This isn't a question of candidate/client control. Most candidates and companies will naturally gravitate to a mutually satisfying hiring situation. We need to have the self control, intuition and, maybe a touch of wisdom to set up the right parameters, offer guidance and skill, and let the good placements happen as they should.
One, positive aspect about a recession is that it tends to weed out the questionable (unethical) characters in recruiting, and as we have seen, in many other types of business as well. Am I advocating a socialistic approach to recruiting? No. I'm stating that although ethical capitalism may be an oxymoron for many, it isn't to me.
Did I never make a placement, particularly when I first started out in the business, that I was not proud of, or out of (a la Ayn Rand) "enlightened self interest"? -- Of course not. But, those placements often led to short tenures at the client company, an occasional fall off, or even a firing, accompanied by a lost fee; let alone the additional anger, embarrassment, and general negative feelings that often followed.
Despite the advent of technological based recruiting, which many seem to see as a panacea to insuring the continued growth of the recruiting industry, particularly of the contingency variety; if we don't add considerable value to a placement, beyond being a surface, but shaky match, then there may be a precarious future for the entire recruiting business. Some recruiters are already well aware of this paradigm, and their business will generally thrive over the long term. Others on the other hand don't realize the inevitable negative impact of their actions, and often eventually leave the field out of frustration and dissatisfaction, which can cause irreparable damage to the credibility of everyone involved in recruiting as a whole.
As in most sectors of the economy, recruiters are sometimes subject to the need-for-greed in their desire to make a quick dollar (placement) and then run; having little, or no consideration for the potentially, negative impact of their actions on the career and life of the candidate, or the success of the client company. Of course, the majority of recruiters do not fall into this category, but in all honesty we generally got into this field to make a decent living, and not to become saints. Well, maybe not all of us…
Recruiters at quasi-ethical or unethical firms are particularly subject to this practice of greed. Harassed by their manager (who often are intimidated themselves by their owners), junior recruiters are harried to make their numbers add up in greater placements, or else face being fired. They (the junior recruiters) are acculturated into this ends-justify-the-means mindset and in so doing are forced to objectify and dehumanize their clients. Why not? It's all about the money after all, or is it?
As luck would have it, the third firm I worked for was based on the principle of establishing long-term, ethical relationships with their clients. We not only made money, but valued friendships with our clients, too. There were even occasions when we would advise a candidate or a client company to pass on a potential placement if we did not think it was in the best interest of the client or the company.
What about letting a bad placement go by when you are struggling in a tough market like today. Well, if recruiters and agencies had created good will in good times and managed their money wisely, then they wouldn't have this problem. This isn't a question of candidate/client control. Most candidates and companies will naturally gravitate to a mutually satisfying hiring situation. We need to have the self control, intuition and, maybe a touch of wisdom to set up the right parameters, offer guidance and skill, and let the good placements happen as they should.
One, positive aspect about a recession is that it tends to weed out the questionable (unethical) characters in recruiting, and as we have seen, in many other types of business as well. Am I advocating a socialistic approach to recruiting? No. I'm stating that although ethical capitalism may be an oxymoron for many, it isn't to me.
Did I never make a placement, particularly when I first started out in the business, that I was not proud of, or out of (a la Ayn Rand) "enlightened self interest"? -- Of course not. But, those placements often led to short tenures at the client company, an occasional fall off, or even a firing, accompanied by a lost fee; let alone the additional anger, embarrassment, and general negative feelings that often followed.
Despite the advent of technological based recruiting, which many seem to see as a panacea to insuring the continued growth of the recruiting industry, particularly of the contingency variety; if we don't add considerable value to a placement, beyond being a surface, but shaky match, then there may be a precarious future for the entire recruiting business. Some recruiters are already well aware of this paradigm, and their business will generally thrive over the long term. Others on the other hand don't realize the inevitable negative impact of their actions, and often eventually leave the field out of frustration and dissatisfaction, which can cause irreparable damage to the credibility of everyone involved in recruiting as a whole.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
An Effective Resume Guide
An Effective Resume
To understand what makes a resume effective, think of what it has to do. It has to attract the eye of a prospective employer, immediately communicate why you’re qualified, and tell something about who you are—inside of a minute’s time! That’s all you can expect from a typical, busy manager.
When you’ve seen as many resumes as we have, you can compile a long list of misguided resumes that won’t even get that minute: five-page resumes; graphics created by somebody with no graphics skills; brash resumes; sarcastic resumes, presumptuous resumes—the list goes on, which is too bad, because it’s not that hard to create a good resume, if you keep a few simple tips in mind.
1) Keep it short. This will take some work and time. Rework it until it says as much as it can about you in the fewest possible words. One page is ideal, but if you have an extensive work history, you’re justified in going on to a second page.
2) Make it attractive. This is the “attract the eye” part. Attractive in the world of resumes equates to clean. You can achieve this by the judicious use of white space, headers, bold face, underlining and italics. You don’t need more than that.
3) Tell a story. This is the story of your professional life. A prospective employer should be able to follow the thread of your career summary, and it should make sense. Detours are OK—most of us have at one time or another detoured into a different field—but in a resume, treat these like spice: you don’t want too much of them.
4) Keep it focused. Keep a strong focus on your goals, incorporating parts of your background to illustrate them. A statement of your goals is one of the clearest indicators to a prospective employer of whether or not there might be a match.
5) No mistakes, please! A resume with a mistake in it is a traveling billboard advertising your carelessness and inattention. Proofread it. And ask somebody else to proofread it. Watch for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Check how the dates follow one another: does the chronology make sense?
6) Online Considerations. You need to take into account resume-scanning search engines. They will be looking for keywords and key-skills, for example "J2EE," "C#," in the IT job world. Make sure that you include these key terms near the top of your in a separate skills section. Also, you need to put these skills in the specific job context that you used them. Although your resume may become slightly longer, this can offer you a better match.
To understand what makes a resume effective, think of what it has to do. It has to attract the eye of a prospective employer, immediately communicate why you’re qualified, and tell something about who you are—inside of a minute’s time! That’s all you can expect from a typical, busy manager.
When you’ve seen as many resumes as we have, you can compile a long list of misguided resumes that won’t even get that minute: five-page resumes; graphics created by somebody with no graphics skills; brash resumes; sarcastic resumes, presumptuous resumes—the list goes on, which is too bad, because it’s not that hard to create a good resume, if you keep a few simple tips in mind.
1) Keep it short. This will take some work and time. Rework it until it says as much as it can about you in the fewest possible words. One page is ideal, but if you have an extensive work history, you’re justified in going on to a second page.
2) Make it attractive. This is the “attract the eye” part. Attractive in the world of resumes equates to clean. You can achieve this by the judicious use of white space, headers, bold face, underlining and italics. You don’t need more than that.
3) Tell a story. This is the story of your professional life. A prospective employer should be able to follow the thread of your career summary, and it should make sense. Detours are OK—most of us have at one time or another detoured into a different field—but in a resume, treat these like spice: you don’t want too much of them.
4) Keep it focused. Keep a strong focus on your goals, incorporating parts of your background to illustrate them. A statement of your goals is one of the clearest indicators to a prospective employer of whether or not there might be a match.
5) No mistakes, please! A resume with a mistake in it is a traveling billboard advertising your carelessness and inattention. Proofread it. And ask somebody else to proofread it. Watch for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Check how the dates follow one another: does the chronology make sense?
6) Online Considerations. You need to take into account resume-scanning search engines. They will be looking for keywords and key-skills, for example "J2EE," "C#," in the IT job world. Make sure that you include these key terms near the top of your in a separate skills section. Also, you need to put these skills in the specific job context that you used them. Although your resume may become slightly longer, this can offer you a better match.
Monday, April 13, 2009
It is now critical to have a trusted and well-informed professional, career consultant close at hand.
Whether you are employed, unemployed or contemplating a career change, we can advise you on such issues as resume preparation and interview techniques. However, our primary mission will be to present and analyze attitudes, approaches, insights, and macro socio-cultural and economic trends, which affect you and your career. Our emphasis will be on the software and IT career environments. In addition, we will touch upon all fields and levels of employment.
By offering you differing perspectives on career development issues, it is our intention in future posts to provide you with valuable insights and tools to optimize both your career and life situation. For example: we will help you to cope with the stress and sadness that often accompanies job loss. Moreover, we will assist you in both accelerating your reemployment process, and in making the most beneficial, new job decision. Our expectation is that this will maximize your career development and lead you to a true "Career Renaissance."
We possess over twenty years of experience in career placement; mostly in the IT and engineering fields. We also bring to you an expansive and varied background in Human Resources, psychology, socio-cultural scholarship (e.g. at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, et al) and, most recently, in career and life coaching. Through our extensive experience, we are uniquely qualified to offer you advice and support to realize your career and life goals.
Sincerely,
Michael Jay Sullivan
By offering you differing perspectives on career development issues, it is our intention in future posts to provide you with valuable insights and tools to optimize both your career and life situation. For example: we will help you to cope with the stress and sadness that often accompanies job loss. Moreover, we will assist you in both accelerating your reemployment process, and in making the most beneficial, new job decision. Our expectation is that this will maximize your career development and lead you to a true "Career Renaissance."
We possess over twenty years of experience in career placement; mostly in the IT and engineering fields. We also bring to you an expansive and varied background in Human Resources, psychology, socio-cultural scholarship (e.g. at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, et al) and, most recently, in career and life coaching. Through our extensive experience, we are uniquely qualified to offer you advice and support to realize your career and life goals.
Sincerely,
Michael Jay Sullivan
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