Liz Ryan

Denver, CO

Guest Blogger Liz Ryan is a member of the Glassdoor Clearview Collection and a former Fortune 500 HR executive; she is the Workplace Expert for Business Week Online and the Networking Expert for Yahoo! Hot Jobs. Liz’s advice columns reach 50 million readers per month. Ryan leads the 25,000-member Ask Liz Ryan online community, where she shares business, career and life advice with members every day. She authored the book: "Happy About Online Networking: the virtual-ly simple way to build professional relationships" and is a sought-after keynote speaker. She has addressed a wide range of audiences including the United Nations, CEOs, HR leaders, and entrepreneurs.

Other ways to follow Liz: http://www.asklizryan.com | @AskLizRyan

Nine Reasons Not To Delay Your Job Hunt

Posted by Liz Ryan • February 3rd, 2010 • Comments

Who could be surprised to read in recent news that people receiving severance and unemployment benefits start their job searches later? It’s only natural that when income is flowing in, people put off the daunting and tedious job search task. Unsurprisingly, the longer unemployment benefits continue for the average person, the later the person’s job-search activities begin.

Take a look at our Nine Reasons Not to Delay Your Job Search, even if (especially if!) you’re receiving a severance check for sitting at home right now.

Tags:: Clearview Collection, Job Search, Liz Ryan, Severance, Unemployment

Are Your References Destroying Your Chance At A Job?

Posted by Liz Ryan • January 27th, 2010 • Comments

Ten years ago I was sitting in the office of my client Dan, a marketing executive. In the middle of our meeting, the conversation was interrupted when Dan’s phone rang. “I need to take this,’ he said. “I’m giving a job reference for a guy that used to work for me.”

I couldn’t help but listen as Dan dove into the reference-giving conversation, but within seconds I started to feel queasy. Poor Dan gave the most left-handed reference ever, saying things like “Jack is really good at certain things, and lousy at many others,” and “depending on the situation and the amount of responsibility, I could see him being a great hire.”

Mamma mia! I thought. With reference-givers like this, who needs enemies?

After the call, I gingerly broached the reference-giving topic. “Dan,” I said, “Are you a fan of this Jack, who used to work for you?”

“Oh, he’s a great guy,” said Dan. “I’m crazy about Jack, but I believe in giving the whole picture.”

“Hmmm,” I said. “You may want to fill Jack in on that ‘whole-picture’ business before giving any more references for him.”

Tags:: Clearview Collection, Liz Ryan, References

WHOSE CAREER IS IT ANYWAY?

Posted by Liz Ryan • January 20th, 2010 • Comments

A woman called me and said “My name is Sarah. I got laid off a month ago. I’ve been an attorney for twelve years.

“Do you want to keep practicing law?” I asked her.

“No way,” said Sarah. “I’m sick of it. I’ll tell you what I want to do. I want to be a stand-up trainer.”

“Have you done that sort of work before?” I wondered. “I do it all the time,” she said. “I build training programs for our clients, and for attorneys in our firm. They ask me to do it because I love it, and I’m good at it. I’ve logged countless hours of stand-up training time, and I get rave reviews.”

Tags:: Clearview Collection, Do's & Don'ts, Resumes

Job Seeker, What’s Your Price Tag?

Posted by Liz Ryan • January 13th, 2010 • Comments

Dear Liz,

I’m starting a new job search and the part that’s throwing me is the salary history part. I don’t want to share my last salary, which was low for my skill-set. I want to hear what they’re willing to pay, before I say anything about salary. I’ve heard that you should wait until you get an offer and take it from there. What do you think?

Thanks,

Marianne

______________________________________

Dear Marianne,

If you wait until you get an offer, the salary you’re offered could be insultingly low. At that point, it’s nearly impossible to re-start the compensation conversation on a more appropriate level. They’ve pegged you for a lower-level (salary wise) person than you are, and the worst part is that you’d have only yourself to blame. It’s essential to bring up the salary issue before things progress that far.

A great time to bring up salary is in the email or phone exchange during which the company invites you for a second interview. You can say “Oh, Thursday morning might be great, let me check….now, would this be a good time for us to synch up on compensation?”

I wouldn’t commit to the second interview until you know that you and the employer are in the same salary ...

Tags:: Clearview Collection, Liz Ryan, Negotiation

Does Your Resume Dampen Your Achievements & Personality?

Posted by Liz Ryan • January 6th, 2010 • Comments

I went to a holiday networking event with my friend Emily; we drove together in her car. It was a great event. The energy was fantastic and I saw half a dozen people I knew, and met another six or seven fascinating new folks. When I finally stopped to check the time, it was already 9:30 p.m. and time for Em and I to dash. I swept the room with my eyes and spotted Emily in the corner, smack in the middle of a five-person conversation circle.

I made my way over and stood just outside the ring, trying to make eye contact with Emily and let her know it was time to bolt. As I stood, I couldn’t help but listen to the conversation in the group. One woman in particular made me take notice. She was super-smart and funny, making great observations on everything from Google’s phone business and the Wall Street bailout to “Paranormal Activity.” Who is that lady? I wondered. I wanted to meet her, but there wasn’t time — when Emily glanced in my direction, I tossed my head toward the door. She got the message. We made our exit.

“Emily,” I asked in the car, “who was that ...

Tags:: Clearview Collection, Job Search, Liz Ryan, Resumes

It’s Not You: Recruiting Is Broken!

Posted by Liz Ryan • December 23rd, 2009 • Comments

It’s hard to tell which is more painful: the traditional Radio Silence treatment that job-seekers get from employers, or the terse, unfriendly email message containing some variation on the sentiment ”Your background does not meet our needs, but feel free to apply again. (Or drop dead – either way.)”

Corporations spend millions of dollars on branding campaigns designed to endear them to consumers and business buyers. So why do they post a job ad, receive hundreds or thousands of resumes, and then actively ignore and even insult the vast majority of those respondents? They do this every day. You begin to wonder: do the Marketing chiefs at these companies, and their peers in HR, believe that people who apply for jobs don’t buy products and services, or have friends and family members who do? It’s incomprehensible, but it’s clear: the recruiting function is broken, in all but a very few hiring organizations.

Why do CEOs allow HR people to trash their brands in the talent community? Maybe CEOs don’t understand that it’s a viral world, or that smart employees have plenty of choices when choosing where to work. Maybe they don’t care. Maybe they’ve decided that it’s the most docile and uncomplaining job-seekers, versus the smartest and most creative ones, who’ll be ...

Tags:: Clearview Collection, Job Search, Liz Ryan, Recruiting

Are Transferable Job Skills the Booby Prize?

Posted by Liz Ryan • December 16th, 2009 • Comments

A man came to see me, and he told me his story. He’d just sold a business that he’d launched with a partner nearly twenty years ago. When his partner retired, my client had stuck around to grow the business, and he’d done a great job of it – so much so that the proceeds from the sale of the business made it possible for him to retire on the spot. “But I don’t want to retire,” he said. “I want to work for at least one more company, and I don’t want to have to start it from the ground up. Too much work.”

The gentleman wanted to job-hunt, and he wanted some advice. “Do you have a resume?” I asked. “I have one,” he said, “but I’m not crazy about it. A resume-writer put it together for me, according to what I hear is the latest resume-writing fad.”

“A new resume fad?” I asked. “I can’t wait to hear about that.”

“Skills!” said the CEO. “Transferable skills. My resume is loaded up with ‘em.”

“Oh dear,” I said. Resume fads take ages to die, and the skill-based-resume fad is going strong. The poor gentleman’s resume was crammed with skills from one end to the other, from Leadership Communication ...

Tags:: Clearview Collection, Job Skills, Liz Ryan, Resumes

Stop! Don’t Send That Resume

Posted by Liz Ryan • December 9th, 2009 • Comments

When you spot a job that looks interesting on Monster or CareerBuilder or anywhere, it’s logical and tempting to apply for it. The job ad says “Apply Now!” and you think: I’ll do it!

It’s not a good idea to apply for the jobs we spot online – at least, not in the moment. It’s better to stop, reflect, and draw up an action plan to make your resume send-off count.

For one thing, the black hole is the last place we want our resume to be. When we spot a job that looks great for us, we’ve gained some valuable information – e.g., the knowledge that Vandalay Industries is hiring a Market Research Analyst. We may decide to apply for the job. If we do, we can almost always find a way to avoid pitching our resume into the black hole (i.e. the Receptacle Most Likely to Chew it Up and Spit it Out).

If we think the Vandalay Industries job is a good fit for us, it’s worth our time to do some research and learn more about the company than the skimpy bit of intelligence the job ad itself provides. If we think we’re a fit, we owe it to ...

Tags:: Clearview Collection, Cover letters, Liz Ryan, Resumes

Seven Holiday Tips For Job Seekers

Posted by Liz Ryan • December 2nd, 2009 • Comments

It’s no fun being on a job search at this time of year. For one thing, your ability to enjoy the holiday season might be dampened – or even drowned entirely – by the overwhelming reality that you’re not working although you’d like to be. Your holiday spending may be curtailed a little or a lot, adding to the discouragement load (“If I were working, I could buy my wife/kids/boyfriend a really great gift.”) It’s easy to feel stressed about what the New Year holds in store, job-search-wise; and on top of all that, you’ve heard the rumor that employers shut down their hiring engines during December. So what’s an end-of-the-year job-seeker to do?

Here are seven tips to make your December job-search time profitable and to pump up your emotional-energy fuel tank this month. Take a look!

Keep the Engine Running: For starters, ignore the bad, old advice says that companies don’t hire people in December. Are you kidding? December 31 is the most popular fiscal year end on the planet, and the old ‘use it or lose it’ budgeting rule applies to new-hire salaries as much as it does to office supplies. Plenty of hiring managers are under the gun to fill ...

Tags:: Clearview Collection, Holiday parties, Job Search, Liz Ryan, Networking, Resumes, Seasonal Jobs

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Liz Ryan

Nine Reasons Not To Delay Your Job Hunt

Are Your References Destroying Your Chance At A Job?

WHOSE CAREER IS IT ANYWAY?

Job Seeker, What’s Your Price Tag?

Does Your Resume Dampen Your Achievements & Personality?

It’s Not You: Recruiting Is Broken!

Are Transferable Job Skills the Booby Prize?

Stop! Don’t Send That Resume

Seven Holiday Tips For Job Seekers

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