While you may think to immediately turn to your calendar to throw out a few dates and times that work, remember your interview is a chance to a give a presentation that influences and persuades an employer as to why you’re right for the job. Recently, writer Kate Parham, after reviewing an Accountemps 2008 survey and Andrew Bradbury’s book, Successful Presentation Skills, determined that the best time to give a presentation is Tuesday morning around 10:30 a.m. Considering that the “best” presentation times and interview times are likely similar, then Tuesday morning could be a great time to set up your interview.  

But how do you know what date and time is the best to interview? While a time that works for you may sound like the “best” option, the “best” time is really the time that is best for the interviewer. So before you quickly respond, consider these tips before locking down a date and time for your next big interview:

• Avoid early morning meetings: Early mornings are great for holding someone’s attention, but you may want to avoid the first meeting of the morning because the interviewer may be preoccupied since she/he still has home stuff and all the things that need to happen throughout the day on their mind. In that vein, first thing Monday morning would not be ideal.
• Avoid the last meeting of the workday: The same can be said for the last meeting of the day as by then there are surely many things on the mind including priorities for the next work day, dinner plans, kids’ homework, etc. And, don’t even think about the end of the day on a Friday.
• Avoid pre or post-lunch meetings: Just before lunch or the first time slot after lunch are also problematic. Before lunch can leave you with a good interview being cut short and after lunch can find you waiting and waiting.
• Weekend and Holiday bookends are not ideal: First day back after a three-day weekend or the Friday before will only get you running behind or rescheduled. The same can be cautioned about Mondays and Fridays.  They both have their problems and you don’t want to be the victim if you can help it.
• Get the inside scoop on days/times that work well: Unless you have an inside connection at the company like the hiring manager’s assistant, there isn’t any way to know what meetings the interviewer is coming out of or going into. However it doesn’t hurt to lightly ask the assistant, “How is the day going?” or “How does the rest of the day look?”  Any clues you can pick up about the mood, the schedule, or the pressures on the interviewer are to your advantage.

You certainly can’t always pick your time, but you can definitely take just a few moments to find out when may be more ideal so that you can best present yourself.

5 Tips: Best Times To Schedule An Interview is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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Why We Need the American Jobs Act

Recently, The New York Times wrote about a merchant in Los Angeles who said that he didn’t need a tax break, instead, he needed customers – this captures the heart of how many business owners feel. The problem –  the merchant is not thinking holistically about what drives consumers to feel confident enough to walk through his door and spend their discretionary income.  At the root of the situation, it is not just about how much money consumers have, it is about their sense of confidence in whether or not they should spend that money given the state of the job market. This is why, at the core, the American Jobs Act is good.

Consumer Confidence Depends On Employment Confidence

I sit on Glassdoor’s corporate board and since 2009, the company has conducted a quarterly Employment Confidence Survey.  Two of the key issues addressed in the survey are:

• How confident are Americans in their own job security over the next six months?
• If an employee were to lose their job today, how confident are they that they could find a new job within six months commensurate with their experience and most recent compensation?   

It should not be surprising to anyone that each quarter, Glassdoor’s Employment Confidence survey results act as a prelude to what the Consumer Confidence Index reveals.  If employees are not secure in their employment, then discretionary spending tends to fall short among consumers.  And vice versa, if employees feel secure about their jobs and the economy, discretionary spending by consumers rises.  

This brings me back to why the American Jobs Act, or any action that Congress decides upon to shore up employment confidence, is more important than just spurring extra spending. The American Jobs Act is also about having corporate America find ways to show growth and productivity quarter after quarter, while not cutting payrolls to make profit numbers. (It’s hard to believe that we have become hooked on the record productivity levels coming out of the American worker.)  

The American Jobs Act Reality

Do I believe that the American Jobs Act, or any other stimulus that the government offers, is going to fix our unemployment levels and have them return to their pre-2008 levels?  No.   What happened in the Great Recession is that corporations, by necessity, finally cleaned up and rationalized the labor force against what technology and better management could provide.  Technology could have reduced the workforce many times over in the past, but human nature didn’t allow us to make the really hard draconian adjustments that could have been made.  For example, “Old Joe,” who had been around forever and who never accepted technology or new ways of doing things, but who everyone loved and cared for, was always thought of as untouchable. But the Great Recession made Joe vulnerable, and even though he was one of the last to go, he was swept out.  No stimulus package is bringing Joe back. And, as we have found out, there are a lot of Joes out there on the streets unable to find a job. Joe and the others are a different problem that needs to be thought about more broadly.

What can be fixed is stabilizing the employment market where it stands now and using the American Jobs Act and/or other programs to boost Employment Confidence.  If we can provide a feeling of stability that American workers are not going to have to be concerned about more job losses and that their pay is secure, then we will see a return of consumer confidence that will allow for the customer to walk into the door of that LA merchant. 

So, the best we can expect, and it is a good thing, is that a tax break here and there to an employer and an incentive to hire someone that is unemployed, when they need to hire, can potentially cauterize the wound.  But until that happens and we become employment confident again, it won’t feel very good for anyone.

Is The American Jobs Act A Good Move? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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But, not all new technology is good for us. 

I recently ran across QuitMyJob, a website that embraces the power of the Internet to help you quit your job, and I stood back in shock to think that someone thinks this is a good idea. This site is an example of how not all technology is good for your career. While it’s tough to give your notice, it’s far more respectable to have the courage and respect to resign the right way than to have someone do it for you. 

If you are interested in alienating yourself from your current boss and company (which would then severely hinder your chances of securing any future job references), then this is a great tool.  But, I suspect few of you desire to actively burn bridges on the way out the door, so I wouldn’t recommend that this technology be adopted. (I hesitate to even highlight the site as I know someone somewhere will be quoting PT Barnum: “Any press is good press.”)   But, the similarities to Mr. Barnum to this service hold up, as using someone else to help you quit your job versus having the courage  and respect to do it in the right way, might mean that it’s more about creating the spectacle than anything else.

So how do you know what technology is good for your career and what is not? Here are a few guidelines:

• Technology should provide you with information that helps you to prepare and to avoid being blind-sided
• Technology should give you the tools and data to accurately represent who you are
• Technology should effectively and efficiently speed up a process
• Technology should NOT make you less human or less approachable

I am sure that I am oversimplifying, but common sense is a good filter to use.  Think about how technology is being used and always consider if you were to be on the receiving end of a new technological service: How does it make you feel about the person sending it? What is the benefit to the person using the service and to me? How does this service make us better as a society?

Not All Technology Is Good For Your Career is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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How do we explain this rise and what does it mean to today’s HR Leaders?

Some of the reasons job satisfaction may be on the rise include:

• Recent company success. As companies have recovered and benefited from record productivity numbers, and thus very strong earnings, it could be that the success of the company bleeds into job satisfaction and the aligned belief that company outlook is improving just makes it better.  Having something to celebrate is in itself a good thing.
• Reinvestment in employees. Whether forced to do so or not, some companies have begun to provide compensation increases and have reinvested in employee benefits.  The past few years, specifically 2008-2010, will be remembered as the “lost years” because of the loss of jobs and compensation. The rise in employee satisfaction may be a reaction to employers committing to getting salaries back to where they were.
• Increase in hiring: Companies are beginning to hire back a few positions and that must feel good to the worker who has been carrying the load of two or three of their lost co-workers.  While we all adapt, the elasticity of employee productivity is not infinite and there is a breaking point.  Just the recognition of this and a few strategic add-backs can go a long way with morale and job satisfaction.

These could all be contributing factors, but I fear that there is another reason and while it looks better now, the time-bomb continues to tick. Could it be that we are just tired of waiting for something to improve that isn’t likely to happen? Rather than go crazy waiting for Godot, are we now just settling into a new reality and accepting that this is the way it is going to be? Instead of letting frustration and defeatism become the drivers of our psyche, are we instead lowering our expectations and finding a lower gear to be satisfied with?

While this seems like a reasonable coping mechanism, can it be sustained or are we just masking the impossible to keep masked?  I call it the “talking in the shower” question.  What are we saying to ourselves in the shower?  Are we really satisfied or are we still asking, “why?” and “what can I do to get out of this mess?”

If you are an HR leader, you have to ask the same questions and do the best you can to put yourself into the minds and hearts of your employees.  Don’t try and fool yourself that everything is okay and that your employees really are more satisfied.  The study of geo-politics will show that many times what seemed okay on the surface was an unrest and dissatisfaction that could not be kept under wraps.

From one HR practitioner to another, let’s be sure that we are doing our jobs and digging for the underlying truth behind employee satisfaction and the real solutions to keeping and retaining top talent.  We’ve got a lot of people counting on us to do so.

Employee Satisfaction Rises; What It Signals For HR Leaders is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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For those of you gunning to be in that top job someday, consider these tips so you keep your eyes open and train yourself to always evaluate how each opportunity can contribute to your long-term career success:

• Ask Up: Seek out the most senior person you know that is in the position that you aspire to reach and ask them what jobs they wish they would have become involved with that would help them to better prepare.  Also ask what skills and areas are most important to know to succeed in their job.  What you hear back may be the jobs you want to look out for in the next few years.

• Lean Towards What Seems The Hard and Risky: There are certain jobs that are just harder than others, or so they might appear at first.  It may not be that they are difficult, it could be that they are the job that no one wants because others haven’t succeeded or just don’t like them.  Sometimes the jobs that are the hardest and most risky are the jobs that are the best for us.  If we only lean to the easy, we will never build the muscle that needs to be built strong for the long haul.

• Shoot For The Gaps: Even without ‘asking up’ you already know where you need to develop to be better.  Certain jobs are going to fill in those gaps and others won’t.  If you know that in a more senior role you will be required to speak publicly, a gap or weakness for you today, then you have to take the risk and learn what you need to grow.  Think about the jobs today that fill those gaps, not tomorrow. 

There will be a day not too far off in the future that someone is going to be evaluating you for the bigger and more senior role.  They will be asking the question you should be asking today of yourself, “Are you ready?”

How To Know If You’re Ready To Move Up The Corporate Ladder is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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As the horses prepare, the trainers and owners are deciding what jockey they want in the Kentucky Derby.  While at the same time, jockeys are evaluating what horse will be best for them to ride.  A jockey has to believe the horse can not only win the grueling Kentucky Derby, but also has the speed to win the Preakness and the endurance to complete Belmont.  The jockey needs to gauge the performance of the horse and assess its potential for the future.

As trainers and owners choose a jockey, and a jockey decides on a horse, it’s a concept similar to the job search process. Employers look to choose the right candidate, and a candidate decides on a job that’s best for their career.  If you are a job seeker, you want to ensure your chances that the job you take is one that can satisfy your short and long-term needs.  With the most recent Glassdoor.com Employment Confidence Survey, 38% of employees reported that they plan on changing jobs within the next three years; it is timely to think through, not gamble on, the kind of career horse you are going to join before you commit.

Here are three questions to consider so you can win your own Triple Crown career:

• Can you fall in love with the product or the service that the company provides? Let’s face it, if you are going to work long hours and put in the extra effort, then you need to be more than just “in like” with the company.  If you don’t feel the urge to brag about the company to your friends and family, then it’s probably not a good idea to join.  But, if you can fall in love with the company and what they do aligns with your passions, then you will at least want to run hard once you are on board.

• Will you want to run hard for those who you work with? While no one likes everyone, can you see yourself liking a lot of the people around you?  Your next move should be to a company where you feel like the employees are your kind of people. If you are going to spend many hours on the job, then being aligned and liking the people is a big deal.   More often than not, this is what makes us run a little faster than we normally would.

• Will you be developed and grow for the long run? It’s hard to know this going in, but this is always key.  You want to at least feel the job you are choosing is one that you will be able to ride for your long-term growth and development.  The best way to find this out is to see how others have grown, or not grown.  Use Glassdoor to see what employees say about the company, and don’t be afraid to go to someone on LinkedIn who previously worked there and had a similar job to find out about their experience.

There are jobs that are Triple Crowns for each of us out there.  We just have to get better and better at choosing them.  I know someone who has worked for the same organization for almost 40 years.  When asked why he stayed in one place that long he says, “Why leave when you have everything you ever dreamed of in one job.”  He won the career Triple Crown on the same horse! If we could all be that lucky.

How To Choose A ‘Triple Crown’ Career: It’s More Than Placing The Right Bet is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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If you’re thinking about seeking out a new job, first consider where you are now, how much you are invested in the company and why you want to leave. Take time to make a prudent decision – don’t just follow colleagues out the door because it seems the thing to do after these last three dreadful years.  Check out these questions to determine just how invested you are at your current company and if a job change is a smart move right now.

• How many people from the company would you want at your wedding? – It doesn’t matter if you are already married or will never get married, the limited invite list is a great litmus test for how much you enjoy hanging with the people at work….or not.

• When was the last time you bragged about the company to your friends outside of work? – We brag about the things we are into.  Think about it:  If we are into the TV series  “Justified”  then we tell everyone about it and try to get them to watch too so we can talk about what happened in the latest episode.  Do you do the same with your job or your company?

• What do you really care to know about your boss and/or the CEO? – If you are curious about who the people are behind the roles, or not, then that tells you something.

• What’s in the weekend wardrobe? – Are you wearing the company logo-wear out on the weekends?  If the closet is full of your company clothes then that says that you do care.

• Do you ‘dislike’ or ‘kinda like’ the competition? – I once worked at a company where we were given doormats of the competitions logo.  Almost every house of my co-workers, mine included used these on their front stoop.  If you work for HP but run all Apple at home….well, ‘nuff said.

• Have you memorized the Company Values, Mission and Vision statement? – If you really are into the company, you go all in.  If the values, mission and vision statement mean something to you, you will take extra effort in your work and care at a deeper level what the company does and how well company does it.

This is not like a Cosmo or Men’s Health quiz where a certain score makes you rabid about your company and a lower score symbolizes it’s nothing but a job to you.  That said, these can be indicators of whether or not you are ready to leave the company for someplace else.  There is no shame in tenure and longevity with a company.  If you are growing, developing and are really into what you do, then there is no reason to think you have to make a change.

Signs You’re Ready To Change Jobs is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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• Be consistent on what you value – From the day you accept a job, through promotion discussions, relocation conversations and performance appraisals, clearly articulate what is important to you about your job.  If salary and other forms of compensation are a driver for you, then say so. Don’t send mixed messages and then get upset when the pay increase doesn’t come.

• Spell out your dreams and desires – There is nothing wrong with being very specific about what you dream about doing or being in the future.  As much as you like to think that people who manage your career remember and reference earlier conversations, the old adage that someone has to hear it six times to remember it, holds true here.  There is nothing wrong with expressing your dreams to your boss, HR and whoever else asks.

• Explain what it is that can make you better – If you have a complaint, turn it into a positive improvement suggestion. If you could work more productively or better, make these suggestions in a way that makes them measurable.

• Write down your career map and keep it handy – Without a map (or GPS) you can end up anywhere.  So why not have a career map that you carry, pull out and show when someone talks to you about what your future.  Arguably, most career maps can look like a NYC Subway Map, but that’s okay, as there are lots of ways to get from downtown to uptown, you just want to make sure you come out of the subway you are at the right stop.

• Follow up career conversations with an email – Things get said in career conversations that are best followed up, clarified and codified in an email.  Start this email thanking your boss for the time and then say, “This is what I heard and I just want to be sure that I heard correctly.”  If you get back a commendation for your good listening and follow up skills all the better.

If you are clear about your job, you may never have to get loud.  While the squeaky wheel gets the oil, it is also the first wheel to be replaced when the squeaking comes back.  So, let’s be clear!

How To Get Your Boss On Track With Your Career Path is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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Up until recently it was hard to see the career paths of others who have the same educational background or experience. The sphere of visibility many times stopped at the exterior walls of your company or companies where you previously worked. It was hard to gain any advantage of pattern recognition with such a small sample size.

As transparency has become more and more the norm, each of us are getting the Internet’s advantage which allows us to easily share information with other people, most of whom we will never know. This week LinkedIn announced they are using their database of experienced people and sharing the information with college age users so they can see possible career paths. What is great about this is that these career paths are numerous and validated by lots of people who have gone through a similar career experience.

However, it would not be a good idea to think of a career path as a linear route because too many variables will arise that will disrupt the straight line or throw up barriers and detours.  However, think about a career path as a subway map. Like a subway ride, you will get from point A (today) to point B (end of your career) but you will likely change trains, go out of the way for a little while, have to wait at a station or two for the next train, and sometimes sit in the heat, cold or the dark while the train is stalled or waiting for another train to pass or get out of the way. Even so, like it is valuable to study a map before going somewhere unknown (even Google Maps or MapQuest are not perfect), the same can be said for studying the career paths of others to see if you recognize patterns applicable to you, or for when you feel lost, you can see how someone else found their way forward.

Your Career Is A Subway Map: Why It’s Ok To Branch Out is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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I was recently helping a senior executive in a job search. I made the referral to a search firm who had the perfect job for this executive. The recruiter was very enthusiastic and quickly scheduled interviews that accommodated the candidate’s scheduling needs. The CEO changed his schedule and others on his team in order to meet the candidate’s request. The candidate flew in, interviewed and received a true first-class experience with the best of everything. The feedback was positive and the CEO wanted to continue on with the discussions but was “troubled” by something that he couldn’t put his finger on.

After a week, the CEO and the recruiter were talking and the CEO said that he had figured out what was bothering him; he had been left with the feeling that after all of the accommodations that had been made for the candidate a spirit of gratitude was missing. The candidate came across as being too self-centered and disconnected to the culture of the company.  The CEO told the recruiter that a thank-you note from the candidate after the interview could have rectified the feeling and would have gone a long way. The sad part was the candidate really wanted the job and had no idea that this small detail could have made the difference in getting the job.

It’s a small example, but it is a real example that the small stuff does matter.  So think about what you can do to come across as someone who is detail oriented, and is thankful for the small things that are done for you. Don’t miss the opportunity to show the company, whether you want the job or not, you are appreciative of the experience and the time and energy they expended on you.  That lasting impression could be the difference between what the people you meet say about you, or not say about you in the future.

Why You Should Sweat The Small Stuff In A Job Hunt is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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