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#CareerAdvice : How to Negotiate a Better Severance Package If You Are Being Laid Off. A Severance Package can be Negotiated. Understand your Options and Focus On What Matters Most to You. A MUst REad for All!

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Once your employer has given you a termination notice, the chances are your tenure is over. Although there are a few exceptions, it would be difficult to save your job. “I’ve represented probably 10,000 people who have lost their jobs,” says Wayne Outten, the founding partner and chair of Outten and Golden LLP, an employee-side law firm. “The number of people where the company reversed their decision and unfired them is extremely rare.” 

Although you might be overwhelmed, the most important thing to do right now is to focus on negotiating the best terms you can and to be aware of all the options available as part of a severance package. Don’t waste time passively waiting for things to happen to you. This is an opportunity to negotiate something that is fair and equitable for both you and your employer.

“Negotiating a severance package is a difficult moment in everyone’s life, but it can be an opportunity to carve out an agreement that everyone benefits from, and it can be the next step in somebody’s career,” says career coach Paolo Gallo. “It’s not necessarily a funeral.”

Determine what is most important to you and ask for it.

Think about your goals and the employer’s needs, and where the two align. “An organization has the duty to listen to what is important to people, and people have the duty to find out what’s important to the organization, and then find a compromise,” says Mr. Gallo.

If you have considered starting your own consulting business, for example, you could negotiate an arrangement that allows you to stay on as a consultant while pursuing other opportunities. “As an HR director I signed dozens of these kinds of agreements,” says Mr. Gallo. This can help a company to decrease its staff and benefits costs, while retaining your services and institutional knowledge. At the same time, your association with the company can help you attract new clients while you set up shop.

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Article continued …

If you need time to find a job and don’t want to be unemployed while looking, you can request that your severance be paid out in installments over a period of time and that your name stays on your employer’s website until you find your next job. The vesting period on your 401(k) is the amount of time you must work for your company before you gain access to its payments to your plan. Your payments, on the other hand, vest immediately. If your plan hasn’t fully vested, you can ask your employer to pay you the difference between the full and vested balances, or you can request to delay your termination date until it vests. You can also ask your employer to cover your health-insurance costs until you find a new job.

“Don’t think about how much money you can squeeze out of the organization,” says Mr. Gallo. “Think about what else might be important to you.”

What you can negotiate in a severance package:

  • More money. You can ask for more money, although you should keep in mind the amount is often tied to how long you have been working for your employer.
  • How the severance is paid. You could request that it be paid out in installments so that you continue to get paid regularly while you look for your next job. Or if you are worried about the company’s future performance, you can request one lump sum.
  • Remaining tied to the organization. You may ask to stay on as a paid contractor while pursuing other opportunities in lieu of taking the severance.
  • Retirement plan contributions. You could request that the employer pays you the unvested amount of your retirement plan, or if you are close to fully vesting, you can ask to move your termination date until that happens.
  • Stock options. Unlike 401(k) plans and defined-benefit pension contributions, which are regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Internal Revenue Service, you can request to accelerate the vesting period of your stock options or to have them continue to vest after you leave.
  • Health insurance. If you are concerned about health-care costs, you could ask your employer to cover your health insurance until you find your next opportunity.
  • References. You could include a clause in your package that stipulates how your employer will describe your period of employment if asked for references about you.
  • Outplacement services. You can request access to services, such as career coaching, training or help with your resume and cover letter until you find your next role.
Check your contract or employee handbook—and the law.

While companies are usually not legally required to provide severance pay, some employers do, and they have policies for how it works. Read through your contract or employee handbook to make sure your employer is following its policy. If there is a discrepancy, point it out during your negotiation.

Keep in mind that employers usually pay severance benefits only after the employee signs a release not to bring claims against the company, so it may make sense to consult with an employment attorney if you have any concerns.

Negotiate with the person who has the power and inclination to help you.

In negotiating your severance package, it is important to take stock of how long you have been with your employer, what your position is within the organization and what your contributions have been. Severance pay is usually reserved for salaried employees, and those who have served the longest reap the greatest reward.

However, don’t underestimate the three P’s in this equation: power, personality and politics. In particular, you should aim to negotiate with someone who has the authority and the willingness to help you. “Talk to the right people,” says Don Wylie, a managing partner at the recruiting firm Lucas Group. “Sit down with those people that have been your mentors, your allies.” Describe why the package is inadequate, and point to everything you contributed to the company during your tenure. If you can quantify your contributions—such as saving the company a lot of money due to an innovation you contributed to, or the additional sales you brought in as a result of you winning an important client—even better. When companies lay off a large group of employees, they sometimes swipe with a broad brush and forget about the individual contributions that you have made.

Don’t hesitate to explain your personal situation if necessary. “As a general rule, nobody wants to see another human being suffer,” says Mr. Wylie. “Look at your personal financial situation and how that’s going to strain. If you don’t ask and you don’t explain, obviously you’re not going to get anything.”

Resources
  • Excerpt on Severance Negotiation.This excerpt from Wayne Outten’s book covers many of the legal and strategic aspects of severance negotiation.
  • The Compass and the Radar. In this book, Paolo Gallo offers practical tools as well as insights on the trade-offs and difficult choices everyone needs to make at some point in their careers.
What to read next

WSJ.com | December 16, 2020 | Deborah Acosta

#YourCareer : Scientists Discover The Link Between Your Personality & Degree Of Career Success. Can Personality Change Boost Career Success? A MUst REad!

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You might have noticed that some people seem to scale the career ladder quicker, while others often get stuck at lower rungs along the way. The differences in career trajectories are often a function of personality type. A body of research has shown, for example, that optimists have lower stress levels than pessimists and scoot up the success ladder faster and farther than pessimists. New sales personnel with an optimistic outlook sell 37% more life insurance in their first two years than pessimists. In two new studies, scientists reveal the personality traits that predict career success.

Five Personality Types And Career Success

The first study examined the “Big Five” personality dimensions: neuroticism, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and openness to understand their relationship to career outcomes. The results will be published in the February 2021 issue of the Journal of Vocational Behavior.

Researchers at Cleveland State University surveyed 496 employees (318 men and 178 women) in a diverse set of occupations and organizations on the five personality dimensions. Results of a statistical analysis showed that extroverted employees had greater satisfaction with salaries, promotions and overall career satisfaction; whereas workers who scored high on neuroticism (for example, moodiness, anxiety, worry, fear or frustration) were less likely to be satisfied with their careers.

Those who were high in agreeableness had less career satisfaction, and high openness scores were negatively related to salary level. The research team detected a significant negative relationship between agreeableness and salary among those in people-oriented occupations but no relationship for those in occupations not involving a strong “people” component.

Can Personality Change Boost Career Success?

A second study published in the December 2020 issue of Psychological Science found that if you make a personality change, it can lead to higher levels of job success. Dr. Kevin Hoff at the University of Houston and his research team tracked two representative samples of youth for approximately 12 years from late adolescence (about 17 years old) to young adulthood (about 29 years old). Growth in emotional stability, conscientiousness and extroversion were the personality traits that most predicted career satisfaction and success. Specifically, conscientiousness changes were linked to career satisfaction; emotional stability changes were tied closely to income and career satisfaction; and extroversion changes were linked to career and job satisfaction.

Youth who developed higher levels of conscientiousness and emotional stability during the transition to employment were more successful in aspects of their early careers. This is the first study to assess the predictive power of personality changes for a broad range of career outcomes across more than a decade of young adulthood. Overall, the findings show that personality has important effects on early career outcomes—both through stable trait levels and how people change over time. According to Hoff, “The study showed you’re not just stuck with your personality traits, and if you change over time in positive ways, that can have a big impact on your career.”

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Article continued …

Optimism And Career Success

Extroversion has a leg up on the career ladder for success in both studies. Emotional stability and conscientiousness are not far behind. But neuroticism stands out as the biggest personality obstacle to career success which matches previous findings that pessimism holds workers at the lowest rungs. While extroversion is not necessarily a prerequisite to achieve career success, emotional stability, conscientiousness and a degree of optimism are. Your mental health and mindset towards your career carry more weight than how outgoing you are. If you’re an introvert, you might find it hard to change, but you can get mental health support if you need it, and you can learn to be more optimistic.

Optimists are not smiley-face romantics looking through rose-colored glasses, nor do they possess some magical joy juice. Their ability to look on the positive side of a negative situation enables them to overcome career obstacles. When you enlarge your perspective and see gains in your losses, the upside of a downside situation, how far you’ve come in addition to how far you have to go and beginnings in endings, your positive outlook arms you with the potential for career success at the highest rung.

A second study published in the December 2020 issue of Psychological Science found that if you make a personality change, it can lead to higher levels of job success. Dr. Kevin Hoff at the University of Houston and his research team tracked two representative samples of youth for approximately 12 years from late adolescence (about 17 years old) to young adulthood (about 29 years old). Growth in emotional stability, conscientiousness and extroversion were the personality traits that most predicted career satisfaction and success. Specifically, conscientiousness changes were linked to career satisfaction; emotional stability changes were tied closely to income and career satisfaction; and extroversion changes were linked to career and job satisfaction.

Youth who developed higher levels of conscientiousness and emotional stability during the transition to employment were more successful in aspects of their early careers. This is the first study to assess the predictive power of personality changes for a broad range of career outcomes across more than a decade of young adulthood. Overall, the findings show that personality has important effects on early career outcomes—both through stable trait levels and how people change over time. According to Hoff, “The study showed you’re not just stuck with your personality traits, and if you change over time in positive ways, that can have a big impact on your career.”

Optimism And Career Success

Extroversion has a leg up on the career ladder for success in both studies. Emotional stability and conscientiousness are not far behind. But neuroticism stands out as the biggest personality obstacle to career success which matches previous findings that pessimism holds workers at the lowest rungs. While extroversion is not necessarily a prerequisite to achieve career success, emotional stability, conscientiousness and a degree of optimism are. Your mental health and mindset towards your career carry more weight than how outgoing you are. If you’re an introvert, you might find it hard to change, but you can get mental health support if you need it, and you can learn to be more optimistic.

Optimists are not smiley-face romantics looking through rose-colored glasses, nor do they possess some magical joy juice. Their ability to look on the positive side of a negative situation enables them to overcome career obstacles. When you enlarge your perspective and see gains in your losses, the upside of a downside situation, how far you’ve come in addition to how far you have to go and beginnings in endings, your positive outlook arms you with the potential for career success at the highest rung.

 

Author: Bryan Robinson, Ph.D.

…

 

Forbes.com – December 5, 2020

#JobSearch : Where to Search for Today’s Jobs -Finding Your Next Opportunity. It Might Seem Counterintuitive, but the More Experienced you Are, the Longer it May Take You to Find a Job.

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Finding the perfect job takes time, patience and the right resources. It takes people around nine weeks, on average, to find a job once they start searching, according to Indeed.com. The time it takes for you may vary depending on your industry, location and level of experience. It might seem counterintuitive, but the more experienced you are, the longer it may take you to find a job, because employers may see you as overqualified.

But there are some ways you can make the search more constructive.

1. Network.
One of the most powerful things you can do when searching for jobs is actively network. It can be awkward and, for people who aren’t naturally outgoing, requires a bit of courage and initiative.
  • Start with friends and people you know. Get a feel for creating rapport with those you are already comfortable with in order to have some ice-breakers ready to go when you expand beyond your social circles.
  • Find people who have similar jobs to the one you are seeking. Let them know you would like to learn more about their jobs and see if they know of any openings in the industry. The more you make connections, the easier it will be to gather intel on what is available.
  • Force yourself out of your comfort zone. Start reaching out beyond your immediate circle once you feel like you have a good rhythm. You don’t need to contact 10 people right out of the gate. The first couple of cold calls are always the hardest.
  • Know that people genuinely enjoy your interest in them. Don’t feel like you are imposing on people by asking about their jobs. Steve Dalton, author of the “Two Hour Job Search” told us, “It’s an old maxim that ‘interested is interesting.’ They take a reciprocal interest in you because you have good taste in who you listen to speak, and that’s where jobs come from.”

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Article continued …

2. Start your search with online job boards.

Looking at online job boards is an efficient way to find opportunities. Most employers use one or more of them to find candidates.

Glassdoor: Glassdoor is known as a resource for researching a potential employer. You will find ratings and reviews of different employers on a range of topics, such as compensation, company culture, how generous benefits are, and what employees think about top executives.

Indeed: Indeed’s main function is as a search engine for jobs. It also happens to be one of the most popular sites for job candidates, which makes it attractive to employers trying to cast a wide net in search of potential candidates. It has other value-add offerings, such as a salary comparison tool, allowing you to look at compensation trends among different industries. It also allows other users to review companies, providing insights into what it might be like to work for or interview at certain companies.

Ladders: The selling point of TheLadders is that it only features vetted jobs with annual compensation of $100,000 or above. It offers a well-curated index of jobs by industry and skill specialism. It also allows you to filter by the highest-paying companies in each industry.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn markets itself as a “professional social network” where, aside from job listings, you can potentially reach decision makers at the companies you wish to apply to. Candidates can get an edge by looking at the profiles and posts of those who they might be interviewing with for insights into their career paths. Since users’ profiles are always available to view and the platform is used for networking, LinkedIn allows potential employers to find you whether or not you are actively seeking a new job. This sets it apart from other job sites.

SimplyHired: This site can flag job openings to you based on your location. It also offers a resume-building tool with a number of templates and formats specific to your career. Employers aren’t charged to post jobs on SimplyHired, so the quality of the jobs may not be quite as high as on other boards.

Upwork: If you are looking for freelance gigs, there are a wealth of job opportunities on Upwork, particularly if you have technical or design skills. The platform is well designed for bidding on jobs and communicating with those commissioning the work.

ZipRecruiter: ZipRecruiter’s key features include an option to message with employers through the site and a one-click application option. The platform will also let you know when employers are looking at your resume.

Key takeaways from job boards

  • Different boards have different features, so it makes sense to use more than one to take advantage of the resources they offer.
  • Researching a potential employer can help you decide where you want to work.
  • You can streamline your search using boards that cater to certain pay levels, or based on employee and interviewee feedback.
3. Get an inside track by joining a professional organization.

Professional organizations can be a useful way to network with people in your industry and give you access to jobs that might not be widely found on the job boards we mentioned above. JobStars has a list of professional organizations you can use as a starting point for finding one relevant for your search.

4. Get someone to be your job advocate. Work with placement agencies and job recruiters.

Agencies and recruiters can maximize your search potential by actively looking for work for you. Once they have familiarized themselves with your skills and experience, they can be an additional resource pounding the pavement to help you land your dream job.

Keep in mind agencies and recruiters will receive a fee from the employer for placing you, and companies only work with a preferred list of agencies and recruiters. This can work both for and against you, depending on whether the job you are hoping to get is one they have been approved to recruit for.

You can find lists of recruiters and agencies by industry on JobStars. Other websites where you can find recruiters include SearchFirm, Online Recruiters Directory and Recruiterly. For creative jobs, a great place to look is Aquent.

 

WSJ.com | November 11, 2020 | Anthony DeRosa

#YourCareer : Companies Don’t Care About You: The Days Of Corporate Loyalty Are Over And It’s Time To Take Control Of Your Career. A MUst REad for All!

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We all understand that corporations solely care about revenue, profits and their shareholders. CEOs and top brass hyperfocus on their own financial interests. It’s hard to blame them, as this is how the game is played.

Lately, it seems that the chasm between the uber-wealthy and the average American family is the greatest we’ve seen since the bygone era of robber barons. The top 1% are thriving during the pandemic, while the rest of us are desperately trying to survive and eke out a meager living. More than ever before, a small group of powerful CEOs and executives have usurped the lion’s share of their company’s money by awarding themselves lavish salaries, stock options and bonuses.

The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have enhanced the chasm between the average worker and the upper echelon. This marks the beginning of the end of corporate loyalty. It’s obvious that we’ve been forced into a new era of free agency. The companies clearly don’t care about the workers and now the workers need to care about themselves.

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Article continued …

Here’s a great example exemplifying the callous, nonchalant behavior of corporate executives toward employees. In late March, Covid-19 hit the United States hard. A then record-setting 3.28 million people filed for unemployment benefits for the week ending March 21. At the time, it was the highest level of claims in reported history. Those numbers seem quaint now, as more than 60 million Americans have filed for benefits since then. Due to the drastic health, economic and job-loss crisis, prominent CEOs—many from financial services and Wall Street—promised that they would not lay off workers through 2020. Six-plus months later, a number of these companies are now laying off employees.

Here are just some of the large corporations that have changed their minds about their pledge to hold onto workers:

  • Citigroup: “Citigroup will continue laying off roughly 1% of its global workforce, the company announced on Sept. 14. The cuts end a previous commitment to pause layoffs amid the pandemic.” A cursory search of Citi’s online job postings shows that around two-thirds of the listings are outside of the U.S. This reflects an ongoing trend of Wall Street banks relocating jobs to lower-cost cities within America and to other countries.
  • Goldman Sachs: “Goldman Sachs is cutting 400 jobs, or 1% of its workforce, after briefly pausing job cuts amid the pandemic, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 30.”
  • Wells Fargo: “On July 9, Bloomberg Law reported that Wells Fargo is preparing to cut thousands of jobs,” and has plans to start chopping “more than 700 commercial banking jobs.”
  • Deutsche Bank: “The bank announced it was restarting job cuts—part of an 18,000-position cull it launched last July but paused…as the coronavirus crisis bred uncertainty.”
  • HSBC: “HSBC resumes 35,000 job-cut plan, ending [Covid-19] ‘pause.’”
  • Salesforce: “Salesforce started to lay off 1,000 of 54,000 employees on Aug. 26, according to the Wall Street Journal. The news comes one day after the company posted record sales. In March, CEO Marc Benioff pledged a 90-day freeze on layoffs.”
  • LinkedIn: “LinkedIn said it would cut 960 jobs, or 6% of its global workforce, on July 21. The cuts will impact hiring and sales positions.”

Some of the companies focused on a 90-day commitment; although, the spirit of the intent was for the year. To be fair, at the onslaught of the outbreak, it wasn’t conceivable that the pandemic would still be in place seven months later nor did they foresee the rampant damage caused to the economy.

Since then, companies across all industry sectors executed massive layoffs. For instance, Disney recently let go of about 28,000 workers and the airlines plan to terminate about 35,000—if the government (U.S. taxpayers) doesn’t give them another $25 billion after the initial $25 billion bailout.

Without any empathy, corporations ruthlessly cut out middle managers to save money and hire younger, less-expensive workers. To squeeze even more money out, they’ve relocated jobs from big cities, such as New York City, to lower-cost states and foreign countries to pay people a fraction of what their predecessors earned. When companies run into trouble and file for bankruptcy, they lay off thousands of workers without any hesitation. The executives and CEOs who mismanaged the business remain and continue to collect fat paychecks.

Large sums of money have been allocated toward technology, robotics and artificial intelligence. The goal is to eventually replace real-life human workers with sophisticated technology. Robots don’t take coffee breaks, vacations, eat lunch, gossip or argue over sports and politics. They dont require health insurance nor do they talk back or call in sick.

Predictions of AI taking over jobs are so great that former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang called for Universal Basic Income to be paid to Americans. Yang’s thesis is that once tech takes over, millions of Americans won’t have the skills to hold a decent job. Their only answer is for the government to provide a living income to help them get by. While on a podcast with Yang, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that—fairly soon—AI will write better code than his current software engineers. His dire forecast is that tech will eat the lunch of everyone and no one is safe.

A large number of iconic American companies filed for bankruptcy protection during the course of the pandemic. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, but somehow, the top brass paid themselves millions in bonuses. It rises to a level of incredulity when a CEO gets to cash in for driving their company into the ground.

It looks like conditions will worsen. With millions of Americans out of work, companies can aggressively dictate the terms. They’d think, “Why shouldn’t we lowball salaries and increase the demands of employees? Where else would they go? With less opportunities available, people won’t have a choice but to accept whatever they can get.”

As the job-loss crisis continues to grow and millions of people look for work, corporate management will feel free to summarily dispatch employees at will. Managers will realize that they don’t have to deal with a difficult worker, as there will be a line of people forming to take the person’s place—if fired. There won’t be a need to offer larger wages and better benefits, as there will be someone else who would gladly take the job to put food on the table and a roof over their family’s head.

It used to be that you could graduate from high school, find a decent job, afford a nice home, two cars and raise your kids in a quiet, bucolic suburban neighborhood. You would work at the same company for most of your adult life and receive a pension when you retire. If your children wanted to go to college, it was affordable and cheap—by today’s standards. If you didn’t desire the higher-education route, it was deemed perfectly respectable to pursue a trade or become a blue-collar worker instead of going to college.

The reality is that this new post-Covid economy could be harsh, cold and unforgiving. To battle back against this, you need to view yourself as a free agent. You can make your own destiny and shouldn’t solely rely upon your employer.

The key is to become thick-skinned, resilient and self-reliant. You will have to be mentally and emotionally tough to deal with all of the new challenges. You will have to constantly learn, reinvent yourself, pivot, acquire new jobs, start side hustles and find new ways to create value.

It might seem scary at first, but there is the sweet taste of freedom when you accept that you can control your own fate and don’t have to depend upon the whims of a large, faceless and uncaring corporation.

The bottom line is, due to these scary emerging trends, you need to look out for yourself. Even if you’re gainfully employed, it’s imperative to keep your eyes open for new opportunities. Prepare a just-in-case Plan B, C and D. Start networking right now and don’t wait for the dreaded call from human resources asking for a quick meeting. Update your LinkedIn profile and résumé. Learn new skills and technologies required for our changing economy. Find secondary tertiary ways to get an income stream, so that you’re not entirely dependent upon a salary. Get active on social media, reach out to recruiters, research new types of potential careers, attend online career-oriented events and do whatever it takes to hold onto your job for the time being.

 

Forbes.com | October 12, 2020 | Jack Kelly 

#JobSearch : I Was The Perfect Fit! Why Wasn’t I Hired? (Reasons Why)

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How many times have you felt you were PERFECT for that role, but still didn’t get it? You went over the interview in your mind a hundred times, noted how easily the conversation flowed, how they interviewer would nod enthusiastically when you described a certain experience or skill. They seemed excited when they said they would get back to you soon.

Then you got the email that you weren’t chosen. Safe to say, I think we’ve all been there.

I’m a firm believer in if you didn’t get the job, something better will come along. Through the years, some of our clients have come back to us to tell us about interviews they nailed and were sure they got the job. But didn’t.

However, there are various reasons companies may choose a different route:

They decided to hire internally. As unfair as it sounds, they may have already had a front runner in mind but posted it anyway to see if there is someone better.  Some companies HAVE to post externally due to contract constraints or affirmative action plans. Federal contractors or government agencies may have to post externally as well.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of the article:

You were overqualified.  Perhaps they think you won’t do tasks you deem “beneath you”. While it’s unfair for them to assume what you will or won’t do, it is a common concern. They may also fear that you will be bored at the job—especially if you’ve been on an impressive career track. Or, that after a while, you will leave and they’ll be back to square one.

You were underqualified. Thinking you’d be great in a role and actually having the experience to master the role are two different things. Read the job description thoroughly and make sure you have the experience to apply for the role.

They already had another candidate in mind. It’s possible they already found their choice but they had to have a certain amount of candidates to interview to fill their candidate roster. It might be a company policy that X number of people need to be interviewed before a choice can be made.

Your online presence wasn’t professional or up-to-date. Hiring managers check your social media profiles to learn more about you. Turn on your privacy settings if you have personal pictures or information on there. Also, if you haven’t updated your LinkedIn profile in a while (or years!), now is the time to do it. Lack of LI presence can hurt you as well. Get it up to date.

You shared too much. I’ve talked with recruiters who said the candidate told them their life story—the good, bad, and ugly—and in the process turned off the recruiter. Keep the conversation on the company, their pain points, how you can help them, and that’s it. Don’t talk about your jerk boss, your sick parent, or a personal health problem. They really don’t want to or need to hear it. Keep it professional.

You didn’t know enough about the company. Be very prepared when you go to the interview. Research the company, its mission, what they do, what they sell, or what they are about. Research the role, figure out their pain points. Have questions ready to interview the interviewer, questions like, “What should I know about the role I am seeking? Do you have any other insight?” Be both knowledgeable and inquisitive.

Whatever the answer, you may never know. You might have done everything right and still did not get the job. It might have been narrowed down to you and someone else, but they went with the other person because they had more strategy experience.

Either way, you gave it you’re all.

About two months ago, an operations exec said to me, “You know, after three rounds of interviews, they finally told me I wasn’t chosen. So, I reached out to a few old colleagues that resulted in a round of interviews with a company I was never interested in and an industry I wasn’t very familiar with. But they liked me and saw what my vision was for their company–and hired me. It has been the best job I’ve ever had.”

FSC Career Blog Author:  Ms. Erin Kennedy, MCD, CMRW, CPRW, CERW, CEMC, is a Certified Professional Resume Writer/Career Consultant, and the President of Professional Resume Services, named one of Forbes “Top 100 Career Websites”. Considered an influencer, she is consistently listed as a “Top Career Expert to Follow” on Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

FSC Career Blog |  March 30, 2020

Hate Your Job? Stop Complaining And Take Action

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As a career coach, I hear every complaint under the sun as to why someone doesn’t like their job. I also see people get into the rut of constantly complaining about the situation without feeling empowered or responsible to do anything about it.

But it’s a new decade, and a perfect time to seek new opportunities. According to Glassdoor, in January, there are 22% more job applications started on their site than in a typical month. Take advantage of a fresh new year to create your own fresh start.

Below are some tips to help you transform your current career roadblocks into guides for taking action.

1.    Assume abundance vs. limited options. This is the first thing that needs to be tackled. The mindset that there are no options is the number one reason that people throw their hands up and take on the role of a victim. Though there are definite roadblocks that people face such as geography and experience limitations, we are experiencing a great job market at the moment. Even in tougher times, opportunities exist that go beyond your geography due to the accessibility that online businesses and work from home options that are available.

 

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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2.    Look at where job growth and demand are already abundant. Glassdoor is a great resource to get you thinking about what’s possible. They’ve just released their annual report that reveals the 50 Best Jobs in America. They’ve researched which jobs based on earning potential, job satisfaction and job openings. It’s a great place to get ideas of where you might want to invest some time and energy.

3.    Align your career choices to your personal purpose. Though job growth and market trends are insightful of where the job market is going, it shouldn’t solely dictate your career decisions. The clearer you are on what your individual purpose is, the more proactive you can be in building a career that supports that. People who are clear as to how their job supports their individual goals tend to have higher levels of job satisfaction. If I know this job is really about creating time for me to be with my family over rapid growth, then I’ll enjoy a more low-key environment. On the other hand, if I’m all about taking on complex challenges then long hours will feel worthwhile.

4.    Shift to listening for the opportunities and guidance vs. obsessing over your grievances. If you find yourself hating your job, don’t waste your time complaining. Instead, tune in to what the situation is challenging you to do. Should you be going back to school to set you up to qualify for the job you want? Do you need to speak up and make sure your viewpoint is heard? Do you need to finally take that step you’ve been afraid to take towards your dream but risky career path? This isn’t about falsely sugar coating your situation. It’s about using your experiences as a compass vs. getting sucked into a victim mindset.

5.    Take one step at a time. Too often, people are waiting for all the pieces of the puzzle to be perfectly clear and understandable. That’s no way to make things happen. Instead, know what steps you can take while you figure things out. You can usually start reaching out to people that may have more information on what you’re looking to do. At the very least, you can start to look up websites, send away for information and read up on companies or jobs that you’re interested in.

Author:  H.V. MacArthur

Forbes.com | January 15, 2020

How to Write a Thank-You Letter After an Interview.

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A Guide to Writing a Memorable Thank-You Note

Sending a thank-you letter after an interview might seem old-fashioned, but it’s just as important to write one as ever. One survey from TopResume showed that 68 percent of hiring managers say that a candidate’s decision to include or not include a thank-you note after an interview affects their final hiring decision. But while sending a thank-you note has become expected, it’s not enough to simply send a note that says “Thanks for chatting with me” — you need to put some thought into it. In this guide, we’ll show you how to write a thank-you note that will impress interviewers and increase your odds of getting a job offer.

When to Write a Thank-You Letter

Writing a thank-you note to your interviewers shows that you are gracious, humble and thoughtful — all important qualities for potential new hires to possess. That’s why you should write a thank-you letter after every interview within 24 hours. You don’t want to risk having recruiters or hiring managers think that you’re cocky, ungrateful or absentminded.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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Who to Write a Thank-You Letter to

In general, it’s a good idea to share a thank-you note with everybody you interviewed with individually, from recruiter to hiring manager to potential colleague. If you don’t already have their contact info, request it from your main point of contact throughout the hiring process (likely the recruiter), explaining that you’d like to thank them for taking the time to speak with you. If you had a panel interview, you might want to save your time by sending one email to the main interviewer with everybody else CC’d.

If you spoke to many different people — say, you presented to a room of 10 or more — it’s probably not practical, or a good use of your time, to include each and every one of them. In this case, you can follow the same procedure you would in a panel interview: Send one note to the main interviewer with several of the key players CC’d.

Formatting Tips & Tricks

There are an infinite number of ways you can write a thank-you letter. And while there’s no one right way to do it, there are a few tips and tricks you can keep in mind while drafting your note.

Email vs. Handwritten

Handwritten letters have a certain charm, but in most cases, a thank-you email is the best choice. Why? For one, an emailed thank-you can arrive instantaneously, while a postmarked note can take days to arrive. For another, handwritten letters might feel like a bit much. So when in doubt, send an email. Exceptions could occur if a) you’re close enough that you can simply drop off a handwritten letter, b) you’re applying to a very traditional or old-school organization and c) if you have a prior relationship with an interviewer (say, if they were your former coworker at a previous job).

Length

Don’t feel pressured to send a five-paragraph essay — thank-yous should be short and sweet. Just as you don’t want to spend too much time writing one, your interviewers don’t want to spend too much time reading one. After all, they’ve got their own jobs to stay on top of. Make your thank-you letter long enough to cover everything you need to say, but short enough that it only ends up being a few sentences long.

Voice & Tone

When it comes to writing thank-you letters, professionalism is the name of the game. Avoid slang, typos, excessive exclamation points, emojis, etc. But you don’t need to sound so formal that you come off as stiff. Opt for clear, concise language, not the longest word you can find in the thesaurus.

Thank-You Letter Template

According to Glassdoor contributor Caroline Gray, every thank-you letter should express gratitude for your interviewer’s time, enthusiasm for the role and appreciation for learning more about the opportunity and company. The following template does all three — read on to see it in full and learn more about each component.

Dear [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Interviewer’s Name],

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me [today/yesterday]. I loved getting to hear about [interesting thing you learned from this person], and was especially impressed by [quality or trait of the company or team that made you even more eager to work there]. Our conversation reinforced my excitement to join [company] and help you all [achievement you would support in this role]. I look forward to hopefully working together in the future.

Best,
[Your Name]

  • Intro: Avoid a generic term like “to whom it may concern,” or something overly formal like “To the attention of Mr. So-and-So.” Using “Dear” plus the person’s first name works just fine.
  • Thank Them: Show your interviewers that you’re considerate and appreciative by thanking them for taking the time to get to know you and educate you about the role.
  • Get Specific: Mention something in particular that you really enjoyed learning about in your conversation, such as the go-to-market plan for their newest product or their insider perspective on what kind of person thrives at their company.
  • Compliment Them: A little flattery never hurts, as long as it’s not excessive. Bring up one thing about the company or the team that you were really impressed by, such as the team’s infectiously positive attitude or the company’s dedication to community service.
  • Highlight Your Eagerness: Let your interviewer know that you’re excited about the opportunity, and also show how you would add value to the team.
  • Close the Letter: End with a farewell line — such as “best,” “cheers,” “sincerely” or another professional, yet approachable choice — and your full name.

Now, you’ve got everything you need to write an amazing thank-you letter — so get writing, and good luck!

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#BestofFSCBlog :Got Kids? Important Skills to Develop for Success in 2020 & Beyond. Must Read!

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For workers across all sectors, the ground is shifting quickly. The way that people used to build lasting careers, often through becoming “deep domain experts,” is no longer enough to guarantee a future. New technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are supplanting many traditional roles and changing many others. As the McKinsey Global Institute puts it,

“All workers will need to adapt as machines take over routine and some physical tasks.”

This doesn’t have to be bad news. In fact, the changes underway can bring new, exciting opportunities for everyone who’s ready and willing to grow and develop new skills. 

Through my work at Filtered, a company that takes a technological and human approach to recommending learning opportunities, I’ve come to see which skills are indispensable — and most likely to empower you to succeed in the decade ahead.

Understanding ‘power skills’

For years, workers have been hearing that data science and other related skills are in extremely high demand. (“You probably should have majored in computer science,” Quartz once said in a headline.) 

That demand remains. Organizations need technological know-how to stay on top of new trends and to try to fend off against disruption. But these are no longer the skills companies need most.

The most important skills today are those that are usually called “soft” skills. Now, some call them “power” skills or “behavioral” skills.

These skills include collaboration, communication, creative thinking, work ethic, teamwork, networking, decision making, positivity, time management, motivation, versatility, problem-solving, critical thinking, and conflict resolution.

“Executives’ views regarding the priority of critical skills have taken a turn from digital and technical to behavioral,” IBM’s Institute for Business Value reported recently in a survey of thousands of executives. The top four skills that executives deem most critical for today’s workforce are: agility; time management; teamwork and effective communication.

How to Identify and Develop Soft Skills

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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Why these needs will last 

Change is happening at an unprecedented pace, as technological progress (including digital transformation) and global political unrest make for a highly unpredictable world. Smart businesses recognize that it’s very difficult to know how they’ll have to pivot in the future. Change really is the only constant.

At a time like this, what organizations need most are individuals and teams that can adapt and grow, helping the business to survive and even thrive. This is why developing a “growth mindset,” an ability to act mindfully, and a high level of resilience have become much more pragmatic and important than ever. All these power skills can, in fact, be learned and improved. 

In-demand technical skills

Of course, traditional skills, sometimes called “core skills,” will also continue to give you a leg up over competitors as you work to build a career, so it’s important not to neglect them. The IBM survey found that the most critical are “analytics skills and business acumen,” followed by “technical core capabilities for STEM” and “basic computer and software/application skills.” That last category includes Excel, which I advise everyone to become proficient at.

Interestingly, foreign language proficiency is in IBM’s top 10 as well. Even with technologies like Google Translate helping people have conversations across different languages, the ability to effortlessly communicate with people around the world and understand nuances and turns of phrase can go a long way in helping build relationships — which remain the purview of humanity, not machines.

Impressive Skills to Include on Your Resume

How to learn

The world is filled with learning resources, from articles to TED Talks, podcasts, infographics, well-chosen Twitter accounts and, of course, books. Fortunately, many companies are investing heavily in making resources available for their employees. Just as importantly, some businesses are carving out time in workers’ schedules to allow them to develop new skills.

Still, for workers this process can seem overwhelming. With a world of resources available, where do you begin? 

Some top employers are taking new steps to help with this. Understanding the need to offer long-term career paths, they’re starting to focus their learning resources specifically on the kinds of skills they need. They’re aligning their self-directed learning cultures with changes underway inside the business. They’re saying to employees: here are the skills we expect we’ll continue to need in the years ahead. And here are some tools to help you learn them. It’s as though, rather than being dropped into a field of learning and told to walk in any direction, employees are given a digital map with GPS and multiple destinations available.

I recommend that workers actively take advantage of these opportunities. And when you interview with new companies, ask them about their skill needs and learning resources. The more you show an interest in developing the skills needed for the future, the more desirable a candidate you become — and any company will be lucky to have you.

Author: Marc Zao-Sanders is co-founder and CEO of Filtered, which helps individuals and companies learn to become more productive. 

 

GlassDoor.com | January 6, 2020

How To Manage Your Career For The Next Decade — Three Career Trends To Watch In 2020 And Beyond.

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I have been watching careers as a consultant, recruiter and career coach for just over 20 years now. In the first 10 years, I focused on big changes in entry-level recruiting, specifically the decrease in organized campus recruiting for a more diffuse hiring process that required new entrants to the workforce to be proactive about managing their careers from day one. The second 10 years, those changes moved up into experienced recruiting, and the 24/7 job search became a harsh reality for every professional.

Today’s professionals still need to be proactive and manage their careers 24/7, but also need to manage for different careers altogether. Here are three career trends to watch in the next decade:

Everyone is an entrepreneur

Freelancing is on the rise – 1 in 3 Americans freelanced at some point in 2018, and 28% of freelancers are full-time compared to 17% in 2014. This is a career trend that is hard to undo since employers benefit from getting the specific resources they need when they need them (and save on the increasingly expensive benefits costs of traditional employees). Freelancers also report being happier than traditional workers.

The fix? Even if you stay in traditional employment, you will compete with freelancers. The most hirable professionals will manage their career (and job search) like the freelancing entrepreneurs. You have to sell yourself harder – you will need more than a resume to get hired. You have to be more targeted with your networking. Like a business, you will benefit from the publicity and will need to build a brand.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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Reskilling is the must-have skill

AI, robotics and Big Data are some of today’s big disrupters, but there will be other disruptive innovations that add brand-new jobs and make other jobs obsolete. It is not a matter of if your job will change, but when. Today’s professional needs to know how to proactively change careers, not just search for a job in the same career –your original career choice may cease to exist or be unrecognizable.

The fix? Sure, you can research what the hottest jobs are right now, but those jobs will invariably change, and the requirements for individual jobs continually change. Rather than focus on what skills you need right now, make it a habit to continually reskill over time. Build a professional development plan, and budget it into your regular calendar. If it’s been a while since you have learned something new, start with something you enjoy even outside your career – learning how to learn, being comfortable as a student/ beginner again and building a love for learning are all helpful skills to have.

The new retirement age is never

People live into their 70’s on average, but peak earning years are your 50’s and 40’s (pay growth for college-educated women peaks at 40!). You need to be a good money manager to bank those earnings and stretch them as inflation increases and your average salary decreases over 20-30 years. 67% of seniors would prefer to not be working or to work fewer hours. One upside to working longer is that you could choose to move into a new career you enjoy.

The fix? Manage your money as closely and proactively as you manage your career. Manage your career for the ebb and flow of peak earning times and periods of unemployment and underemployment. Pursuing FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) is one way withstand career volatility. Reskilling and embracing an entrepreneurial approach (as noted above) will also help with career longevity. Since you need to focus on longevity, you also need to guard against burnout and keep yourself engaged and excited about your work. Finding success stories, like this 104 year old artist who sold her first painting at age 81, can help.

You have choices for where to take your career

It might sound scary to think about working longer, but it also means you have the time to build a career you love. It could be a lot of work to reskill, but it is also an opportunity to learn different things. It takes a different approach to manage your career like an entrepreneur, rather than an employee but it puts you in control.

Today’s professional has choices. Does that make you feel overwhelmed or excited? Are these trends an obstacle course to endure or an adventure to begin? How will you choose to approach this new decade?

 

Forbes.com | January 5, 2020 | Caroline Ceniza-Levine

What To Do When Your Career Is Disrupted Later In Life. A Stable Job for Life is Arguably a Thing of the Past.

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Despite the various proclamations that we are living in an age of increasing footloose behaviors and we are going to have multiple careers throughout our life, the prospect of losing one’s job still has many of the pangs associated with other forms of grief. Indeed, losing your job is perhaps the toughest thing you can ever face, with damage not only in the immediate aftermath but over a prolonged period of time.

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Overall, 31% of job seekers aged 55 and older report they have been looking for work for 27 weeks or longer.

Around 50% of American workers over 50 years old are at risk of redundancy. The research, which was conducted by ProPublica and the Urban Institute, grimly tells us that this cohort is being pushed out of jobs held for some time before retirement causing the kind of financial damage that is irreversible.

Acting now

At the later stage in your career, the chances are that you may have developed a degree of financial security, and this can hinder your efforts to reinvent yourself as it removes the sense of urgency that is required to successfully transition into a new career. What is more, you may also be lulled into a false sense of security by the skills and experience that you have built up over the years.

Valuable though these skills may have been in your old career, there’s no guarantee that they will be equally valuable in your new one. This narrow focus and intense specialization may have worked in the past, but careers are changing, and the stability and security that typified the work-life when you were growing up are increasingly being consigned to the dustbin of history.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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Now, skills such as adaptability and agility are far more important, with organizations relying heavily on cross-functional teams where collaboration and emotional intelligence will come to the fore. Here are a few things you can do to make a successful transition:

  1. Forget your titles – Chances are that your old career came with a good dose of prestige, with titles and all that came with them attached to your seniority. Those are lovely, but they are holding you back from moving on.  It is far healthier to think akin to a film director who goes from project to project. Your past work was nice, but this is a new you, applying yourself in new ways.
  2. Develop your portfolio – As you will no longer be able to rely on your title to open doors for you, it is important that you start to develop a portfolio of projects to showcase your skills. In this transitionary period, these can be projects outside of work. Not only will they give your life a renewed purpose, but you will almost certainly develop a wide range of invaluable skills too.
  3. Adjust your outgoings – If you have high expenses, it can be tempting to jump into the first opportunity that presents itself, just to get some money coming in, but it is quite likely that this will be a bad choice. If you can build up some savings so that you can go for the right opportunity rather than the first opportunity then you are likely to be happier in the long-run.
  4. Embrace the unexpected – Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) has become a bit cliched in the business world, but the essence of uncertainty and volatility do nonetheless ring true.  You will need to be agile and open-minded to make the most of your new-found freedom, so consider fresh ways to stretch yourself and develop new skills.
  5. Develop a love of learning – When you achieve a certain level of seniority it is tempting to rest on your laurels, but the world waits for no one, so it is vital that you are learning each and every day. There are countless opportunities to do this, from books, blogs and massive open online courses (MOOCs). You might even find mentoring young people can be a great way to learn from them as much as they from you. Admit where your knowledge has holes and work to plug them.

The chances are, your previous status gave your life a certain narrative, with your role and title key parts of that story. Now, you have the opportunity to craft a completely new narrative, and it is important that you spend time thinking about what that is. When you meet people, this is your point of entry into the conversation. You will be telling this story as your introduction to you to each new person you meet.

A stable job for life is arguably a thing of the past, so the ability to pivot one’s career and adapt to the changes in the market are likely to be valuable skills to learn. If you have to learn them later in your career, then so be it. In this way, the stability in your life comes not from your employer, but from within you, which is an altogether healthier place to be.

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