Dispelling the Myths That Hold Back Seniors
Older workers are easy to typecast because the myths persevere:
Resist the Urge to Take Employees for Granted
We’ve been here before, the point in an economic cycle when managers need to take special care. The job market is awash with candidates and the competition for available jobs is intense; it’s a recruiter’s dream. This type of situation always encourages managers to become lazy about how they treat their employees. As business psychologists,
How to Gain Control Of Your Job Search
Only 25% of all positions are found through published and defined markets, such as employment ads, placement agencies and recruiting firms. Unfortunately, job seekers favor these markets even though they face less competition for the remaining 75% of jobs found through networking and direct unsolicited contact with employers.
Jumping Through Hoops: A New Job Requirement
Memo to Human Resources: I am following up on the job candidate I sent you several weeks ago. I wanted to review his status after his most recent interview. You’ll recall I met this young man through one of my professional groups. He has excellent credentials and just earned his M.B.A. He was doing some
How to use direct marketing techniques
All commercial organisations have an interest in maximising market awareness. With the development of the internet and search engines, it has never been easier to find a particular firm.Recruitment is a sector that has widely used web traffic and search engine optimisation as a way of building awareness and attracting new business and candidates. Historically,
Strategies for Moving Up
Take advantage of opportunities to learn new skills and knowledge by volunteering for special projects, attending industry trade shows and seminars. There are also plenty of opportunities outside of work to increase your skills. Taking additional coursework, working on a volunteer basis for a charity group or attending free workshops can also offer valuable experience
Taking the first offer?
First, let’s get something straight. There’s nothing wrong with taking the first job you’re offered, as long as it’s the ‘right’ job. And what with parental pressures (“We’re not supporting you any more”, “It’s time you found your own place” etc), the burden of student debts and the desire to join your peers on the
Starting salary
“Can you give us some idea of your salary expectation?” is the question that strikes fear into the heart of every interviewee. Just how do you answer? Pitch it too high and you look unrealistic and overly confident, pitch it too low and you undervalue both yourself and your ability to do the job.
Perks
To truly assess a job offer, you need to look at the whole package rather than just the size of the first pay cheque. Are you being offered the following perks?
Verbal CV
Before approaching potential employers direct, take time to brush up your ‘verbal CV’.Consider the time and effort that you’ve put into your written CV, detailing your skills and experience. Yet this could all go to waste if you’re asked to say something about yourself when you call a recruiter or meet them socially or at
Speculative letters
If, as is claimed, only 30% of the total number of job vacancies are advertised, your best bet could be to job-hunt more creatively. Many job-hunters resort to sending off speculative letters to relevant companies. And many employers would rather turn to their pile of speculative letters than spend thousands of pounds on advertising. The
Networking
Any job-hunter can develop a network of useful career contacts without a company director in the family. Networking is easy if you know how, and job-hunters who develop their own employment contacts need never be short of career advice and job offers. Here are five networking opportunities which everyone can take advantage of:
Company presentations
Company presentations are rarely a formal part of the employer selection process, but they are your crucial chance to add a face and personality to a paper CV.So what are the golden rules for impressing employers over a vol-au-vent or two?
Careers fairs
Preparation is the key to success at careers fairs as many employers interview on the spot. · Make sure your CV is ‘hard copy ready’. Many CVs are created for email use and don’t always transfer well to paper. Also, ensure your CV is appropriate for general distribution and not job specific.
The different types of tests you might encounter during job search
Assessment days Preparing for the tests you’re likely to face. Personality tests What does the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator say about you? IQ tests Tips for communicating your intelligence. Psychometric tests Feedback from employers is crucial if you want to understand your score. Faking it There’s no point in trying to outwit psychometric tests. Group tests
Seeking advice
If you had a machine in your living room that was capable of printing £50,000 or £1000,000 a year in used notes, you’d take pretty good care of it, wouldn’t you? If it needed repairing, you’d take it to a qualified, professional repairer. If you thought it could print even more money, you’d seek the
Job search strategies (Full info)
Nine-point plan Most job hunters instinctively begin their search by flooding employers with carefully crafted, but often ineffective, CVs. But since many openings go unadvertised, successful job seekers require more thoughtful approaches.
Interviews (Full info)
Be prepared Interviews can be scary experiences and the only way to quell your fears is to follow the advice of the girl guide movement and ‘be prepared’. The best place to start is by finding out as much about the company as possible. Ring the company’s marketing department and get them to send you
Covering letters
The basics When it comes to writing a covering letter, you can probably learn more from the personal columns than you can from the jobs pages. Get it wrong and at best you’ll condemn yourself to a miserable, unfulfilling 40-year relationship; at worst you’ll end up, alone and unwanted, on the job scrap heap.
Plugging CV gaps
Are you allowing the value of your CV to leak away? Take the following advice and you might be able to plug a few gaps.