Simply Hired Blog

SimplyHired.com Releases the Second Annual "Today’s Job Seeker Report"

Today, SimplyHired.com released its 2011 Today's Job Seeker Report, which is a survey of job seeker behaviors and motivations. This report is based on job seeker responses to more than 100 polls on SimplyHired.com between October 2010 and November 2011.

The Today's Job Seeker Report reveals that job seekers today are actively seeking work online, with nine out of ten job seekers using online job sites, in addition to the more traditional modes of newspapers (39 percent) and networking (36 percent). Networking and maintaining relationships with previous coworkers continue to be great ways to get hired: over half of job seekers have been hired through a friend's referral at some point in their career.

Today's top talent is looking for work they both enjoy and feel passionate about. Thirty-six percent of job seekers voted "the work itself" as the main factor that would allow them to love their job, followed by great coworkers (26 percent) and good pay (23 percent).

But, it's definitely about more than just the paycheck—63 percent of people define career success as doing what they love, more important than advancing your talents and abilities (36 percent) or making a certain salary (22 percent). And, a whopping 82 percent of people said they’d rather find a job they love with a lower pay than a well-paying job they don't like.

To learn more about what makes today's job seeker tick, please download the full report.

 

How To Handle The Five Killer Telephone Interview Questions

By Martin Yate CPC

A telephone interview is usually short, just enough time to rule you in or out, so the focus is on questions that help evaluate you quickly. Your goal is to turn it into a face-to-face meeting, so your answers need to be concise. As a rule of thumb, keep your answers to less than two minutes, if an interviewer wants to know more s/he will ask.

"Tell me a little about yourself," is often the first question. Interviewers don't want your life story; they want to know if meeting you would be a good use of their time. Answer with a brief work history showing how each project and job helped prepare you for this job; then give a profile of the "professional you" addressing your skills as they relate to doing this job well.

"What experience do you have in…?" Make any discussion of your experience relevant to this job, and the specific skills you bring to executing it well. At its core, everything you do professionally is concerned with the identification, prevention and solution of problems within your area of responsibility. Your answers can show this awareness by saying that this is always part of your thinking and by giving examples of preventing or solving problems common to your area of responsibility.

"What are your strengths?" Slant your answer toward the specific skill requirements of the job, your problem prevention and solution headset, and your possession of the transferable professional skills such as Multi-tasking, Critical Thinking, and the eight Communication skills (see any Knock em Dead book) that underlie success in every job.

"What are your weaknesses?" You can safely, and honestly, say that your greatest weakness is finding time to stay current with all the new technologies/skills required in your work, because it’s a challenge everyone experiences. Then you give an example(s) of how you have made time to develop an in-demand new skill.

"How much do you want?" If the interviewer asks about money, say that at this point you don't know enough about the company or the job to answer accurately, "I have no real understanding of the job, your company or the different benefits that could come from joining your team, so obviously my discussion of salary without this knowledge can't be entirely accurate. However, after analysis of employment sites, salary calculators and talking with colleagues, I would be looking at something in the range of $XX,000 - $YYY,000."

The telephone interview comes to an end when you are asked whether you have any questions. If you have not already been invited to meet the interviewer, now is the time to take the initiative, "The most pressing question I have is when can we meet?"

In closing your conversation, take care to ascertain the correct spelling and pronunciation of the interviewer's name, for your follow-up email.

 

Martin Yate CPC, is the NY Times bestselling author of Knock em Dead The Ultimate Job Search Guide, and Secrets & Strategies For Success. As Dun & Bradstreet says, "He's really just about the best in the business." www.knockemdead.com

The Dilemma of a Wimpy Job Seeker

By Peter Weddle

The movie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, earned quick kudos for its observations of middle school and the lessons it teaches adolescents about life there and thereafter. Its wisdom, however, is not confined to pre-high school hallways. The story has something to offer to those of us who are trying to survive another hostile and seemingly incomprehensible setting – the job market.

While the wimpy kid faces cafeteria bullies and hallway brickbats, the wimpy job seeker is confronted with indifferent employers and recruiters and unanswered applications. The experiences are vastly different, but the net result is exactly the same. Both the adolescent and the adult feel as if the're being shoved around by forces they cannot control and humbled if not humiliated by their inability to defend themselves.

You'll have to see the movie to find out how the wimpy kid deals with his situation. However, for the wimpy job seekers among us – and in today's job market we all qualify to some extent for that label – the following game plan will help to provide some relief.

First, you have to think back to what your mother or father taught you about dealing with bullies. You can't run away or hide from them. The only way to deal with bullies is to face them down. Or to put it another way, you have to acquire the physical and mental strength to stand up for yourself.

How do you acquire such fortitude in today's job market? You learn and then use the principles and practices of "career fitness." Like physical fitness, it’s based on two simple but powerful ideas:

• You are responsible for the health of your career, not your employer, your boss or anyone else.

and

• You have to work on building up the fitness of your career every single day, not after your job search is over.

To put it bluntly, if you’re professionally flabby or a 90 pound weakling in your field, your workplace recess (or what we adults call unemployment) will continue to be torture. On the other hand, if you stick up for yourself and correct your wimpiness, you will unleash the exceptional person you have the potential to be.

The Best Way to Correct Wimpiness

Luckily, a wimpy career is not an irresolvable condition. It can be corrected. As I describe in my book, Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System, what’s required is the daily use of a "career fitness regimen." It covers all seven facets of a healthy career and ensures that you’ll have the occupational credentials, stature and outlook for success, even in the face of a bully-like job market.

Here's a brief description of the regimen. Each of its "exercises" has four different "steps" or activities you can perform to strengthen and tone your career. The regimen specifies how to do them and, equally as important, how often, so that you maximize the benefit you receive from your effort.

I. Pump Up Your Cardiovascular System  The heart of your career is your occupational expertise, not your knowledge of some employer's standard operating procedures. The pace of change, however, makes fifty percent of that expertise obsolete every twelve months. So, keep yourself relevant and respected by constantly updating and enriching your expertise.

II. Strengthen Your Circulatory System  The circulatory system of your career is your network of contacts. The wider and deeper they are, the more visible and highly regarded you are likely to be in the workplace. To achieve that recognition, however, you have to netWORK, not net-get-around-to-it-whenever-it's-convenient.  In other words, make networking an integral part of your business (and job searching) day.

III. Develop All of Your Muscle Groups  The greater your versatility in contributing your expertise at work, the broader the array of situations and assignments in which you can be employed. So, add ancillary skills (e.g., a second language, knowledge of advanced technology) that will expand where and how your core capabilities can be applied in the workplace.

IV. Increase Your Flexibility & Range of Motion  These days, career progress is not always a straight line, nor does it always look as it has in the past or stay the same for very long. So, learn the skills that will enable you to cope with and adapt to changing requirements and circumstances. They will multiply your employment opportunities and strengthen your perceived value among employers.

V. Work With Winners  Successful organizations and coworkers aid and abet your ability to accomplish your career goals, while unsupportive organizations and less capable peers diminish it. Therefore, be as selective of the employers for which you will work as they are of the workers to whom they will offer a job.

VI. Stretch Your Soul  A healthy career not only serves you, it serves others, as well. Look for ways to contribute your expertise to your community, your country or our planet.  There's obviously nothing wrong with offering a strong back or financial support, but you make your greatest gift when you share your talent – your capacity for excellence – with others.

VII. Pace Yourself  A fulfilling and rewarding career depends upon your getting the rest and replenishment you need to do your best work every day you are on-the-job. Relearn the skills of planning for and actually experiencing leisure (e.g., turn off your Blackberry when you're lying on the beach) and focus on enjoying yourself and those around you.

There's much more to the Career Fitness regimen, but this brief summary provides an outline of what it takes to correct wimpiness. As with a physical fitness program, you'll need a bit of courage to get started and a bit of determination to stick with it, but if you do, you'll see an amazing transformation in yourself. The job seeker who used to get pushed around in the job market will be replaced by a hardy individual with the strength, reach and endurance to succeed.

 

Peter Weddle is a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal, CNN.com and National Business employment Weekly. He is the author or editor of over two dozen books, including Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System and The Career Activist Republic. For more information, please visit www.Weddles.com.

 

BOOK GIVEAWAY!
Want to read more job search and career management advice? Peter is giving away a free copy of his book Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System to the first five people who comment on this blog post! Make sure to enter your email address in the Email field when posting your comment.

Defining the "IT" Factor in a Great Employee

By Calli Tapler

When levels of employee engagement are stagnant, great employees can seem few and far between. Employee engagement may be defined in many ways, but simply stated, it is the level of connection an employee feels to his or her company, thereby impacting their behavior and performance.

While employee engagement has remained stable over the past several years, Gallup found that only 28 percent of U.S. employees are engaged. Employee engagement is a critical driver of a company's success and when engagement is high, talent, customer loyalty, and performance follows. Research shows employees are more likely to stay engaged if they work with other great employees.

It follows that identifying and keeping great employees is crucial, so how do you identify the elusive "It" factor? Turns out, the answer is simpler than you think.

While the "It" factor for any one organization or job may vary, the anchors do not:

1. High levels of engagement: Great employees are typically those that feel high levels of engagement within the organization. Even the most technically skilled employees -- those you would think have "It"-- can flunk in this category.

I once worked with the most amazing administrative assistant. She was extremely efficient, great with details, and was often three steps ahead of her boss. Her skills were incredible. After working for months on a week-long employee celebration ensuring every detail was covered to perfection, her boss failed to thank her publicly (or privately) for her hard work and dedication. She felt undervalued, overworked, and under appreciated. Over the next several months, I watched her level of engagement drop as well as her performance.

2. Personal characteristics aligned with company culture/values: Accountable, loyal, innovative, adaptable, positive attitude – the list of qualities any one employer values goes on and on. Chances are the qualities have a high degree of similarity among organizations, but what give you the "It" factor at one organization may vary at another.

Take for instance the organization rooted in tradition, valuing age and tenure more than fresh ideas, and attached to the notion of paying one's dues. I once worked for a company like this. Being a brand new employee -- as well as being young -- was no easy feat. About a year into the job, I remember sitting in an executive level meeting when one of my new coworkers piped in with her opinion on how to handle the topic at hand. The silence was palpable and her "outburst" was blatantly ignored as though she never said a word. A brand new employee with forward-thinking ideas is not likely to stand out as the "It" employee at this firm.

3. Identifiable at all levels: Great employees aren't limited to leadership roles or those positions at the top. "It" employees are found in the front lines doing hard labor as much as they are found in the C-Suite with executive titles. Great employees know the value they bring to the table, and work to give their best to their employers no matter what their role.

How do you identify an "it" employee at your organization?

 

Calli Tapler is a director at TruYuu, an online service that helps people present themselves as more than just a resume to employers. You can connect with Calli and the TruYuu team on Facebook and Twitter.

SimplyHired.com Releases December Employment Outlook

Today, SimplyHired.com released its December Employment Outlook highlighting national and local market forecasts, as well as industry and employer trends.  

According to the report, nationwide job openings increased for the fifth consecutive month, up 2.7 percent month-over-month and 7.4 percent year-over-year. Most industries and occupations experienced job growth. Average job competition decreased, most likely a combined result of a slight decrease in unemployment and a slight increase in job openings due to seasonal hiring. (See additional seasonal jobs in a recent blog post from SimplyHired.com about companies hiring for the holidays.)

Openings for transportation jobs increased significantly in November, likely in anticipation of higher demand for freight transport during the holiday season. Specifically, jobs for drivers, pilots and transportation workers grew 31.4 percent.

For more information, read the full report and press release.