How To Spot Bad Companies To Work For

How To Spot Bad Companies To Work For 81 Bad jobs can still make you miserable after you've left. Photo by Tom Pumford What type of company do you want to work for? If the answer is “any company that will hire me”, you're off on the wrong foot. Looking back on the job you hated most, could you have known in advance? Yes No View Results The more subtle reason to avoid bad companies There are two big reasons to be careful about where you work. 1) No job satisfactioneval I've had multiple jobs that I hated, and others that I hated at times.eval I'm sure you have too: The 2016 edition of The Conference Board's annual job satisfaction survey found that only 49.6% of Americans are happy in their jobs, and that's actually the best result since 2005. Why struggle to find a job you'll struggle to keep? While this first reason is pretty obvious, the second reason is a lot more subtle but no less painful. 2) Impact on future job searches A job seeker contacted me with his biggest challenge. He had good skills and years of experience, and was getting interview invites. However, he was getting tripped up at the same point in the recruitment process each time because his recommendations weren't impressing recruiters, so it was just one rejection after another. This had gone on for 2 years. After digging a little, we realized that it wasn't so much that his recommendations were poor, it was that relations with his most recent boss had been poor. As a result, when recruiters contacted the former boss, they were underwhelmed and ultimately scared away. Unsurprisingly, they didn't go any further to reach the other, better references he'd provided from earlier managers. His one recent, bad work experience was haunting him even after it was over. There has to be a way you can avoid these situations in advance, and there is. Free bonus: The One Job Interview Resource You’ll Ever Need is a handy reference to help you prepare for any kind of job interview. Download it free now Have you ever heard of The Waiter Rule? This is what former Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson wrote for #32 of his Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management: “A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person. (This rule never fails).” Many CEOs agree. Hardly surprising, because the Waiter Rule is: Simple to understand Easy to apply And it just works How can the Waiter Rule be applied to companies? Useful, honest information about an organization is harder to find than you'd think. Company websites are marketing tools and will usually limit themselves to highlights of a company's story. Similarly, private companies will sometimes be mentioned in the media when they put out press releases. Publicly-traded companies are required to divulge lots of information but it may only be comprehensible to financial professionals or economists. Yet, you're more likely to face a small or medium-sized company or non-profit organization where even the above information may not be available. To apply the Waiter Rule, you'll need to get in close contact with potential employers who appeal to you. 4 signs to help you weed out bad employers 1) A company that charges to read your job application Whether direct fees such as application processing fees, or indirect fees such as requests for you to meet far from home, requiring you to pay your way, no company should be asking for your wallet. This is as backward as a casino that charges you to gamble, and is often illegal. Speaking of what's illegal… 2) A company that asks illegal interview questions is probably acting illegally elsewhere too, out of ignorance or otherwise In the USA, being asked your political affiliation is an attention-getter. In Israel, ethnic background has been an issue. 3) A company that requests free work during the hiring process will continue to do so after the hiring process Years ago, before a first interview, an Israeli tech company once asked me to review their unfinished product. Regrettably, I wasted a few hours giving them free consulting advice when I should have immediately turned away… which I did after the first interview a few days later. If a company won't pay for work during the application process because they aren't required to by law, there's a good chance they'll underpay when they are required to. 4) A company whose hiring process is unnecessarily complicated is a company for whom working will be unnecessarily complicated Endless rounds of interviewing are often indicator of an employer who's afraid to take responsibility for their own decisions. What about earlier signs? The only drawback with the Waiter Rule technique is that it can only help you after you've already begun a meeting or job interview, and not earlier such as before you send in a job application. However, there are signs you can look for before the application process gets that far, such as poorly written job listings. One way to check if a company is good is by reading company reviews on Glassdoor.com. In 5 Signs of a Bad Work Environment, career strategist Linda Raynier talks about looking for signs of a dysfunctional company, such as high turnover or companies that aren't in good shape financially: More reading Clues about a workplace you're not yet part of How to Smell a Bad Boss in Just One Interview Sometimes, only a deeper look will tell you what you need to know. If you follow the above guidelines, you can save yourself from job search headaches AND job headaches. Question of the article Looking back at the job you hated most, what could you have done to avoid it in the first place? Tell us in the comments. Free Bonus If you want a handy job interview resource that you can keep on your smartphone or print out for easy reference, I’ve got a special bonus for you. This free download contains: 165 positive personality adjectives to describe yourself 444 of the most popular job interviewer questions to prepare yourself with 175 questions that you can ask in job interviews to make a good impression and learn about your future employer Click the image below to get access to The One Job Interview Resource You’ll Ever Need: JobMob Insiders can get this free bonus and other exclusive content in the JobMob Insider Bonuses area. Join now, it's free!

Top 7 Leadership and Management Skills for Engineers

Top 7 Leadership and Management Skills for Engineers Leadership and management skills for engineers are quite different from your non-technical leadership skills. For one thing, engineering has many different sub-fields. Some are interconnected with each other and most of the time the skills needed are correlated with each other.Skills Necessary for Today’s Job MarketAfter graduation, engineers have acquired many different skills from their schools, but is that sufficient?Especially when we know having experience is the more significant part of the picture for the employer, not education or knowledge.This is why having good or great communication, leadership, and management skills are absolutely necessary for today’s job market.1. Juggling Tasks as a ManagerManagement can be broad as it involves tasks to keep everything organized, on time, and efficient. In becoming a manager one must be competent at organizing, planning, estimating, and communicating, documenting, prioritizing, self-management, disciplined, assessing and mitigatin g risks.It also involves interpersonal skills, resolution of conflicts, mentoring and coaching staff. These are just some of the skills involved in management and it applies to all engineers in this role.These skills are vital but of course, not everyone can be good or great at all of them. Engineers, especially the engineering managers must be able to communicate and speak in a common and simple language that both clients and engineers alike would understand. It is important for them to have good communication skills in both oral and written, and their manners play a big part here.2. Communication SkillsBecoming a manager doesn’t only involve communication skills, it also includes responsibility for your team’s mistakes.Engineering managers must be able to correct them and ensure that the error won’t happen again, which also includes making sure that delays and extra budget allocations are being reported.Consistency is vital in becoming a successful manager, without it, team members will have a hard time following instructions if there are inconsistencies.3. Delegation SkillsAnother skill that is part of being a great manager is the delegation skills, since a manager is handling teams and groups of people, delegating tasks is important.This involves assessing the staff’s strengths accurately in order to delegate the appropriate tasks.4. Leadership Foundation and Accountability Are SkillsHaving a strong foundation for your leadership skills is also important for polishing your management skills.Engineers who find themselves responsible for leading teams and projects are often involved with managing many tasks and are accountable for many final results and outcomes, as they could be working with many suppliers and customers.Management focuses on ensuring that the work is done while leadership is more of an interpersonal skill but on a different level.5. Interpersonal SkillsLeadership is about directing people to new places and influencing them to obtain positive results.Becoming a leader involves being persuasive with integrity, solid interpersonal skills, ability to develop trust and gain respect from others, knowing how to prioritize, being a team player, and building consensus.Being persuasive is necessary for improving processes continuously, empowering team members, attracting new clients, having good emotional intelligence, encouraging teamwork, helping others proactively, developing new leaders by supporting them and encouraging them to become one.Leaders must be willing to make sacrifices, being a visionary and strategist, acting on intuition, building strong relationships and always leave a legacy.Although not all leaders have all these skills, in order to become a successful leader one should work on achieving every characteristic of these skills.6. Ability to Recognize What Is Needed to ExecuteGreat managers and leaders should fully understand the needed competencies in order to execute projects and objectives and to de legate the necessary responsibilities to those in their team who are fit for the tasks.As for the team members, they should be open and honest about their level of interests, regarding the opportunities and the said responsibilities.Leadership and management skills are part of an engineer’s job description so avoiding it is not an option. When managers delegate tasks and responsibilities, the team members are expected to communicate any issues and concerns that may arise on the delegated assignments.7. SensitivityOn the other hand, managers must be sensitive to those issues and concerns to make appropriate adjustments. In this part of the process negotiation between a manager and the team members is important. This is part of the leadership competencies.In some companies leading and managing a team or a project is the most important part of the job and in cases like this, continuous development of one’s leadership and management skills is a high priority.Along the way leaders an d managers must be able to learn and practice newly acquired skills as it can strengthen them in becoming a more successful engineering leader or engineering manager.Howto Improve Your Leadership and Management SkillsIf you’re interested in continuing your engineering career into a management or leadership-oriented role, try the following:Take some time to review the skills listed above. Choose 5 skills you think you’re not good at including those that you feel you can further develop this year. Write down those skills and place them at your workstation or desk so that you can see them every day.If you are struggling to find out how you should develop a specific skill, consult with your manager, mentor or career coach so that you can have a step by step plan to follow. Good luck!

4 New Years Resolutions Every Woman Should Make - Classy Career Girl

4 New Years Resolutions Every Woman Should Make The New Year is upon us, and women all over are still making their resolutions. While many of us won’t be able to keep our resolutions, there are some promises we should really make an effort to keep. It is up to every woman to make the most of her life no matter what the circumstances are. You may not have realized the importance of a New Year’s resolution. Maybe you are at a loss about which resolutions are best to make. Worry not, though; we’ve got a list of constructive and women-centric resolutions below that could serve to enhance your life. 4 New Years Resolutions Every Woman Should Make 1. Look At What You Want If a woman has a family of any kind, she usually looks at what they want before her own wishes. This year, focus on what you want. If you take the kids to Disneyland every year and are sick of it, book a spa vacation for yourself now. Leave the kids with your husband or a relative and enjoy some time for yourself for a change. 2. Start Earning (If You Aren’t Already) More women than men are homemakers, regardless of whether they do a job or not. However, if you aren’t earning yet, get on your feet and do so. Even if you’re all right with someone else financially supporting you, you should have some savings of your own. It doesn’t matter if youre a trophy wife or your husband/father earns a lot, or that you can’t leave the house. It’s never too early to start on the road towards independence. Financial freedom is something every woman should have. This would give you the courage to walk away from a relationship if it gets abusive, or support others when they need you. Give lessons, sell your crafted items, or work part-time. Your own earnings would give you a glow like nothing else! [RELATED: All the Resources You Need To Reach Your New Year Goals] 3. Get Checked Up Women are notoriously self-sacrificing and usually would not look out for themselves, especially when it comes to health. We care more about our parents, our significant others, our children, and even our friends more than we do ourselves. This year, however, it’s time to change things up. We must remember that one cannot pour from an empty cup, so a visit to the doctor is imminent. This does not mean just a regular check-up, but also a proper analysis by a gynecologist. We need to make sure everything is in working order down there! Many women suffer from excruciating period cramps every month, yet don’t realize that this isn’t the most normal thing. Severe cramps during that time of the month could signal something much more serious, like endometriosis. Hence, take out the time for a thorough medical checkup. Get that blood work done, see what vitamins you need to take, and get a doctor to look at your reports. You may be able to do away with a lot of worry, pain, and frustration this way. And don’t forget the regular pap smear! This could catch many cancers very easily and have them out of you before you know it! 4. Spread Positivity Unfortunately, many women have a habit of bringing other women down. This may or may not be voluntary on our part, but we should resolve to take a closer look at what we’re saying. Even if it’s our best friend, we shouldnt be so quick to say that they’ve put on weight or let themselves go. When all is said and done, we don’t know what the other woman has been going through. This year, we should make a conscious decision to only let positivity shine out from our words. We would not comment on the first thing we see, but check to see if we would like to have the same comment about ourselves. If not, then we should look for something that is positive and affirming, and say that instead. For instance, instead of asking a woman why she isn’t married with kids yet, ask her how she’s doing. If you know she recently got a promotion at work, congratulate her and ask how her new position is going. Wrap-Up… New Year resolutions are more than a tradition. They are a way of assessing ourselves and trying to better our future. We can all agree that women are very much concerned about self-improvement in any way, shape, or form. So don’t wait any longer! Put these resolutions on your list and see how the coming year works out for you.

5 Reasons Why Companies Should Outsource Their Recruitment

5 Reasons Why Companies Should Outsource Their Recruitment Recruiting a new member of staff can be a time consuming task and hiring decisions shouldnt be taken lightly. You need to think realistically whether your team have the time an expertise to find the best individual to join your business. If the answer is no, then you may want to consider outsourcing your recruitment. After all,  it is a recruiters job to find the best candidate available, so they will be equipped with the experience and resources to fill the position quickly and efficiently. If youre not sure about whether you should outsource your recruitment or not, here are a few reasons it could benefit you. 1) Focus can remain on business Taking time out to focus on recruiting new employees can result in neglecting your usual job, that could be important to the running of the company. By outsourcing your recruitment, you can leave the job  to the recruiter while you attend to your usual business. 2) Improve the quality of hires You may find that you have trouble finding and recruiting  qualified candidates by yourself and this isnt necessarily a reflection of your company or the salary being offered, and rather an indication that you arent searching in the right place. Recruiters are experts at seeking out  the best  candidates on the market. They know where to look, what qualities to look for in an individual and how best to approach  people about a job; making them qualified to  speed up the process and improve the quality of hires. 3) Reduce costs Hiring can be expensive. From the labour required, to posting ads on job boards and conducting background screening, the costs can really mount up quickly. By using a recruitment agency the cost is all rolled into one, so could reduce spending in the long run. Outsourcing recruitment can also save staffing costs of an in-house recruitment team, as well as reducing the chance of losing money to a bad hire. 4) Keep up with demand Fast  growing companies may find it hard to keep up with the recruitment needs and demands that they are facing, as they dont have the time and resources to manage it in house. Recruitment agencies will be better qualified for handling a high volume of roles at one time, as well as having the advantage of being able to dedicate all of their time to it, rather than juggling it alongside other duties. 5) Reduce turnover rate A poorly run recruitment process could be to blame for a high turnover rate which can have financial  implications for a business, as well a disruptions to productivity and ongoing projects. A high turnover may not necessarily be a reflection on your company in general, as it may just indicate that candidates just arent a very good fit for the company, would could come as a result of a poor recruitment process. Recruiters are  well practiced in assessing what kind of people will be suitable for a certain role and the company culture, so could assist in placing individuals who are better suited to the business and will stay in the job for longer. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

Experts Debate LinkedIn Profile vs. the Executive Resume - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

Experts Debate Profile vs. the Executive Resume

Why Salary and Job Negotiation is Like Buying A New Car - Pathfinder Careers

Why Salary and Job Negotiation is Like Buying A New Car - Pathfinder Careers Why Salary and Job Negotiation is Like Buying A New Car Two years ago, I bought a new car.  I was pretty excited, because it was the first one I had purchased in about 5 years we all know that giddy feeling!  All the new bells and whistles looked especially  shiny, and  I was pretty stoked about having such a sweet ride with all the new technology add-ons. But unfortunately, something bad happened along the way to happy car ownership. The vehicle ended up being a complete and utter lemon. I kept making the 40-minute round trip back to the dealer trying to get the problems fixed, but to no avail. Frustrated, I realized that it was probably best to dump the problem vehicle and bite the bullet buying yet another car in hopes that starting from scratch would be the best option. So here I found myself in the dealership yet again. Most of us grit our teeth in dreaded anticipation of the grueling negotiation process on the actual price of the car.  Me? I actually like it.  It tests my mettle and gives me the opportunity to practice the art of negotiation.  Being relaxed about the process and not caving to emotion helps me understand my negotiating strength as well as my emotional stamina all valuable skills. Weird, huh? But if you think about it, the parallels between salary negotiation and buying a new car are actually uncanny: You each want a deal to happen.  Car dealerships want to move inventory and you need a vehicle and similarly, you want the job and they have brought you in for the interview because they think you could be an asset to the organization.  Thats what brings you both together. Each of you should have a good idea of what your end product is worth. The employer has a finite line that they wont cross in terms of what they will and wont pay in salary and you have to be the same way.  Know your value, and stick to it.  Otherwise, it will be a mistake youll live to regret even for years to come. You both are trying to get the other person to tip their hand on what their final number really is. Its the big dance, actually, like to adversaries slowly circling each other and trying to find out the others weak spot. The weak spot being what that number is and how it can be worked to considerable advantage in the final deal.  Be fair, but also be cautious when disclosing that final number.  Give yourself (and the employer or car dealer) a little wiggle room to be reasonable, but stick to your guns. Each of you are trying to highlight the selling points of what you have to offer.  Like trade-ins with a few dents, sometimes our work history has a few dents too, so we are working hard to polish up the rest of our background to make it outshine those imperfections.  Make sure your selling points are standouts to justify your value. Keeping emotions out of the negotiation game is paramount to getting what you really want.  The moment that you reveal how badly you want something, youve just made it infinitely harder to actually get that because you have just handed over significant negotiation power over to the other person its call the law of supply and demand otherwise known as not putting all of your eggs into one basket.  Just like that moment when you start to WANT that car or job more than anything else in the WORLD you have made an emotional connection that can tear at your good sensibilities and cause you to make decisions youll regret later like taking a lower salary. But the one place that many job seekers dont pay attention to is this: They arent willing to walk when the offer, value, or fit isnt right. Of course, its one thing to walk when you are discussing buying a car; but a job interview represents your livelihood and has much more on the line in terms of life impact than the car decision. But why not treat it the same way?  Survival jobs aside, how many times have you taken a job and ground your teeth later that you KNEW you should have walked away and declined accepting the position?  These are the jobs where our hair is on fire, our stomachs churn with acid, we have sleepless nights, and our therapist is getting wealthy from all of our sessions.  Those are the jobs that make us sick every single day, and we hate going to work. And the kicker? We know in our heart of hearts that we should have held out for a better deal. Salary and job negotiation is just like buying a new car you need to be savvy about what it is that you offer, know what you bring to the table, and be very clear on your final number and what you will/wont accept as the final deal.  Keeping these in mind can help you keep your sanity as well as negotiate to a better outcome. What happened to me today at the dealership?  I got a square deal.  I got a fair price on my trade-in and on the new car.  The dealership still made some money, but they were in the ballpark of where I wanted to be. I walked out with what I wanted at a price that I liked, and they got some profit and moved some inventory off the lot.  Creating win-win scenarios are what successful negotiations should be all about!

Make Your Resume Stand Out From the Crowd

Make Your Resume Stand Out From the CrowdIf you have been on the job hunt for some time, then your resume is probably going to be your last chance to impress anyone hiring for the first time. The question then becomes, 'How can I make my resume stand out from the crowd? How can I create an interview that will actually get me the job?'There are some things you can do in order to make your resume stand out from the crowd. First of all, it needs to be creative. This means that you need to know your topic, but more importantly, you need to know what you want to say in your resume. An ideal resume will be one that goes beyond simply listing a job title and a company, or the position, as your job description. Instead, it should have information that can help you become the best that you can be. Creating your resume that way will make it more likely that the hiring manager will be impressed with you and want to hire you.Another thing you can do to make your resume stand out is to consider p ersonal details. If you have a large number of people applying for the same job, it can be tempting to include information about yourself. However, you may not want to include things like your last name, social security number, and location. Instead, include your hobbies, the jobs you have held in the past, and any family history that could be relevant. Personal details that are relevant to the position for which you are applying can help you show your personality. Include things that are important to you so that when you talk about the person for whom you apply, it seems like a more natural conversation.Finally, one more thing you can do to make your resume stand out is to make it interesting. This doesn't mean that you need to use fancy words or boring pictures. You just need to make it different from everyone else's. You can include humor, detail, and even things about yourself that you think will be helpful.There are a lot of things you can do to make your resume stand out from the crowd. By following these steps, you will make sure that your resume is your best chance to land the job you are looking for. Creating a compelling resume that combines these three steps will lead to a job that is beyond your wildest dreams.