ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2007 > October
October 2007
Do team-building exercises build camaraderie?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Laura Raines’ story in Sunday’s ajcjobs section is about some companies’ efforts to strengthen the bonds among their employees through team-building exercises. These companies often find that encouraging camaraderie has many positive results, including increased worker satisfaction and productivity.
The team-building exercises cited in the article went far beyond the “fall backward and see if your co-worker will catch you” sort of fare. While the activities served a purpose, they also sounded like fun! One company, for example, took its employees on a sky-diving adventure, invited them to compete at WhirlyBall and offered an enriching evening at the ballet. Another sponsored a wine- and food-tasting overnight trip to Chateau Elan.
Does your company offer team-building events for you and your co-workers? Has any of these activities been particularly creative or enriching? What benefits have team-building efforts brought to your group?
If your company doesn’t sponsor these types of activities, what do you wish it would offer? Or do you find such things a waste of time and prefer to see your co-workers only during work hours in regular office settings?
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Are you still talking? SHHH in interviews!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Recently polled recruiters sited “talking too much” as a leader in things a person interviewing for a position handles incorrectly. An interview is an exchange of information, not necessarily 50-50. Be aware of how the interview is going and respond accordingly.
The candidate is in the interview to learn more about the position and ask specific questions about the position and company to be sure it is a good match for their talents. A candidate should also confidently represent their successful career history. It is a good idea to create a story of your career with previous companies and the key points and benefits your were able to bring in each position. No need to memorize this story, but it will make the interview more familiar and comfortable if you are discussing a story you’ve been reading all week.
A recruiter is in the interview to ensure the candidate is a great match for their client. The recruiter wants to impress their clients. They are looking to be sure you are a strong candidate to go to the next stage of the interview process. Recruiters do not want to send a chatterbox, a negative person with bad things to say about past employers, or anyone that will not hold them, as the recruiter, in a positive light.
So when you go into an interview, remember it is a time to maintain professionalism and learn from the recruiter so a perfect job match is created, not a time to tell them your life story. If you feel comfortable with a recruiter that is a sign you are with a good recruiter that is doing a great job. It doesn’t mean you really connected and should tell them things about yourself that will ultimately hinder your job placement.
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Sabotaging your own job search?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometimes the devil is in the details. Over the years I’ve seen a number of job seekers who put forth a lot of effort in their search, with very little reward. In some of those cases, it’s the smallest things that have cost the candidate the job. Without even realizing it, job seekers can sabotage themselves because of these simple mistakes.
In the current job market, employers are typically overwhelmed with applicants and they are looking for reasons to weed people out. Here’s a list of common mistakes that job seekers make, which can prevent a potential employer from even considering your application.
Spelling Errors: Have someone check your work. Use a dictionary. Have someone check it again. There’s no reason you should have a spelling error on your resume, cover letter, or job application.
No Email Address: Not including an email address on your resume or not having an email address at all is a red flag. Employers will wonder about your computer literacy and may rule you out because of this.
Tacky Email Address: It should go without saying that you should not use your onehotmamma@email.com address for job search purposes. Still, employers see these kinds of email addresses everyday. Why would you do that to yourself? Get a professional email address and use it.
Inappropriate Voice Mail Greetings: If your outgoing message on your cell phone or home phone includes any of the following, change it immediately: Children’s voices, music, cutesy sayings, religious greetings, poetry, etc. Keep it simple, identify yourself or your phone number and be professional.
Incorrect or Incomplete Phone Number: Make sure you’ve typed your telephone number correctly and that you’ve included your area code. If you accidentally type a 3 instead of a 2, suddenly the employer is calling someone else.
Digital Dirt: If you have a personal website, your Facebook account, or if you’re a regular contributor to on-line blogs, you should be aware of what you’re posting. The lines between the virtual world and the real world are blurry these days. Employers are logging into social network sites and doing on-line searches about potential candidates prior to making a hiring decision. So, talking about controversial topics such as religion or politics, or posting pictures of yourself partying or scantily dressed may not create the kind of impression you would like to present to a potential employer.
In the end, it really only takes a small amount of effort to make sure that you’re not sabotaging your own job search. Most of the time you only get one shot at a job opportunity, so make sure this doesn’t happen to you!
Ever stolen anything from your employer?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Everyone sees employee theft differently. Some people believe that if they use company postage for personal mail they aren’t stealing. Others believe if they use company long distance phone lines to talk to their sick mom, they aren’t stealing.
Many believe that if they do freelance work on company hours, they aren’t stealing. Lot’s of people feel as if they use company computers (emails and internet) to look for another job, they aren’t stealing.
On the other hand, if you were in your own business and you were paying for the postage, long distance, and employees’ salaries, you might look at it differently. Because corporations are frequently owned by individuals who aren’t known personally, or even owned by the public at large if it is publicly-held, many feel that a company’s resources can be looked upon in an abstract way. People say to themselves, ‘everyone does it.’
Many times, individuals rationalize their behavior by reminding themselves that they put in an extreme number of hours so they deserve to spend a few minutes on the phone talking to family. Or maybe, because they travel for business and give up personal time with their family, who cares if you ‘pad your expenses with a few personal items.’
Wait and reconsider. If you get caught for doing something that you think is fine and the company considers ‘theft,’ you can scar your career for years to come. Taking what you believe you deserve that isn’t yours can result in being fired ‘for cause’ which is something that you will have to explain to every future employer on applications and in interviews repeatedly.
Companies and recruiters won’t tell you they aren’t going to hire you because you were fired, but it happens every day.
Think of it this way. What if your babysitter turned in a receipt for a movie you didn’t approve? What if your landscaper made a long distance phone call on your dime? What if a general contractor working in your house, took stamps off your kitchen table to mail his bills?
Would you think these people had stolen from you in some way, no matter how small? When you take what isn’t yours, trust is broken. When trust is gone, relationships fail, professionally or otherwise.
Weighing your strengths & weaknesses
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s the dreaded interview question: “Tell me about your weaknesses.” No one wants to admit that they have a tendency to forget things, or that they have a bad temper. So, most of the time people choose a benign weakness and talk about how they’ve worked hard to overcome it.
However, how many of us, if we’re completely honest with ourselves, really work that hard to overcome our weaknesses? I would bet that a large majority of us focus very little on our weaknesses.
Ironically, this lack of focus can actually be an effective way of improving ourselves and increasing our effectiveness on the job.
A famous example of this involves pro golfer, Tiger Woods. He has said that one of his weaknesses is shooting the ball out of sand traps. His strengths include his precise swing and his ability to driving the ball long distances. As he works toward improving his game, Tiger directs his energy toward improving his accuracy and focuses on driving the ball straighter. By doing this, he avoids the sand traps altogether.
If you’re great at organization, but you tend to take on too many projects, think about how you can focus on your organizational skills to accomplish every day tasks. By developing this strength, you can increase your odds for success by planning time for each project and setting realistic goals for yourself.
While it’s important to be aware of our blind spots, we tend to have more energy for those things at which we excel. By harnessing this energy and passion for our strengths, we positively reinforce our good habits and keep ourselves from falling into life’s sand traps in the first place.
How have you used your strengths to succeed?
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Swearing at work…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“What is your favorite curse word?” I love that question when it is asked by James Lipton (or Will Ferrell doing a great imitation of him!) on the Actors Studio. Most of the actors who are interviewed have their answers bleeped out. We all laugh. Why? It validates that sometimes an off limits swear word is the best way to release a particularly strong feeling or emotion.
What about at work though? Is it okay to swear? Officially and according to most policies and rules of business etiquette, it isn’t. But reality and experience tell me it may not be so simple.
Don’t assume those you work with are comfortable with bad language. At one company, employees were asked put money in a jar in the office every time they cursed! I imagine that cut down on the amount of profanity flying around that place!
At another organization, it was perfectly acceptable to swear when frustrations boiled over.
Here are unwritten rules about swearing that I have observed:
- It’s okay to curse in the field but not in the corporate office.
- Its fine for men but women are seen as “crass”
- Men should clean up their language when women are around.
- If some words slip out when with others acknowledge it and apologize if you offended anyone.
- Leave your “potty mouth” at home!
- Swearing occasionally is okay but doing it a lot means you have an anger management problem.
Dumb job interview moves!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Not preparing for a job interview may be considered dumb, but I’m talking about the interviews when you’ve asked yourself, “What was I/he or she thinking?”
As soon as some people walk in the door for an interview, they can be ruled out for various reasons: dressing incorrectly for the type of job, dressing in a sloppy manner or even looking like they just came in from an all-nighter.
Interview candidates lose points in just a few minutes by the way they answer the questions. When I asked a candidate why they were interested in the customer service job once, he responded with “the company has good benefits!”
In another instance, the interviewer was actually so nervous about holding the interview that he or she took a sedative and fell asleep during the interview. Even though the interviewer was at fault for the bad interview, the poor candidate didn’t get the job!
Which side of the desk were you on when a dumb move was made in an interview? Were you the hiring manager or the interviewee?
Were you dumbfounded when it happened or were you incredibly embarrassed about your dumb move?
What’s your get-rich quick scheme?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Oh come on….do tell!
Almost everyone has a dream or fast scheme that will instantly make them overnight sensations.
Have any hair brained ideas about getting rich quick? Sick of working for Corporate American and have a plan to fly solo?
What your all-time goal in order to actually stop working so hard? Spill your strategy or do you just desperately want to win the lottery so you can quit your job?
Can Facebook help you bring home the bacon?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week Stanford instructor B.J. Fogg taught a class on how to develop Facebook applications for the first time but tuition for the class is $2,500.
Despite these hefty fees, students were sitting on the floor in the classroom. All seeking a chance to develop a cool application which can then be sold.
Think this is a good strategy or a developer’s dream without a good business model?
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Transform your mortgage résumé!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With more than 60 lenders going bankrupt and 25,000+ workers laid off in the mortgage industry, it is a good time to freshen up your résumé if you are in this industry. Here are some crucial points to remember when updating your résumé.
Be sure you provide increases with numbers and percentages on your résumé in regard to your performance. Did you increase your market share? How were you ranked? How much did you originate? These things matter to employers if you are moving around within the mortgage industry and show your success if you are changing to a new sales occupation.
In addition to providing numbers on your résumé it is important to show how you were able to accomplish these numbers and successes. If you have a résumé with all numbers and no explanation, it becomes more difficult for the prospective employer to understand how your skills can transfer into their organization. Be sure to provide the how behind the numbers. You will see the interest in your résumé peak as you provide information that will separate you from the others.
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