Predict and be Prepared.

The most devastating career risk we face is getting stuck doing one thing for too long without branching out. As a result increasing the chances of unemployed or underemployed or doing work that is not challenging, being poorly paid, or nearing obsolescence.

To end this we can have a framework – Career development and being proactive about learning. The big difference is how quickly the field changes and how much one feels a need to edge their career options.

It’s useful to note that all of the following stages are generally in play at any given time. If you focus only on the future, you might starve. If you focus only on the present, you might become short-sighted and hurt long term results.

The idea is that one should have: 

a list of skills that have general value today,
a list of skills that are becoming obsolete, and
a list of skills that just might become very useful in the near future.

Essentially, it’s skill diversification, much like people diversify stock.

The Cash Cow
This is something that one is very good at and is currently in hot demand. It differs from a core competency because this is something that can make money doing for the near foreseeable future. This could be web programming (and others) in the late 1990s. This is probably Sharepoint (and others) today. It might be something else tomorrow.
There are different kinds of cows. It could be that Java programming is the thing you are best at and can easily find a variety of work for. This would fit the criterion that is laid out. You might have some that are solid, and some that are getting to be less profitable.
If you follow this general process, you will eventually have multiple focused competencies that can be used in the future. This helps ensure losses in one area can be absorbed in another. For example, if for some reason the technology that you are working in suddenly comes into huge legal problems, you are alright because you have other skills that are useful.
It helps to have some competencies be similar so that can leverage what is known, but it also helps to diversify. In either case, being able to quickly shift what is known and learnt something new is going to be a benefit. If dinosaurs could adapt to changing climates, they would have been in much better shape.

Some of the time things don’t pan out, but the rest of the time it looks like we can predict the future.

Branching out
At the same time, it is possible to learn more about surrounding fields and seemingly completely tangential ones. This is the longest view possible and also has larger potential gains. It takes a long time to become an expert in one field, and it’s helpful to understand other fields to try to be at least oriented in a certain field. Again, this branching out takes into consideration that short term and medium term needs also need to be fulfilled for success.
The overall goal is to maximize long-term value creation and ensure cash flow stays at an adequate level. The opportunities should be evaluated for their lifetime value and short term impact. Value could come in terms of financial compensation, contacts, experience, work environment, and more.

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Why a Typical Work Day is Eight Hours Long

I was working on a position for Workday Consultant and while searching in Google came across this...

Today I found out why a typical work day is eight hours long.

During the Industrial Revolution, companies attempted to maximize the output of their factories by keeping them running as many hours as possible, typically implementing a “sun up to sun down” work day.  Wages were also extremely low, so workers themselves often needed to work these long shifts just to get by, including often sending their children to work in the factories as well, rather than getting them educated.  With little representation, education, or options, factory workers also tended to work in horrible working conditions to go along with the bad hours.  The typical work day at this time lasted anywhere from 10-18 hours per day, six days a week.  This all began to change in the 19th century.

The first to suggest an eight hour work day for everyone was a British man by the name of Robert Owen, who was also one of the founders of socialism.  Owen felt that the work day should be divided into thirds, with workers getting equal time to themselves and to sleep as they do for work.  Thus, in 1817, he began campaigning for an eight hour working day for all workers, coining the phrase, “Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.”  Unfortunately, this did not catch on for some time, though throughout the 19th century a series of Factories Acts were passed that steadily improved working conditions and reduced work hours for factory workers.  For instance, The Factories Act of 1847  stipulated that women and children were to be granted a ten hour work day, thus only having to work 60 hours a week.

The eight hour work day cause was taken up once again in Britain in 1884 by Tom Mann who was part of the Social Democratic Federation.  Mann subsequently formed an “Eight Hour League” whose sole goal was to get the eight hour work day established.  Their biggest victory came when they managed to convince the Trades Union Congress, which represents the majority of unions in Britain and does so even to this day, to establish the eight hour work day as one of their primary goals, which they subsequently began to work towards.

The push for a shorter work day began earlier in the United States, in 1791, with workers in Philadelphia striking for a ten hour total work day that would include two hours for meals.  By the 1830s, support for eight hour work days was shared among the majority of the working class people in the United States, but still failed to find support among business owners.  Over the next few decades, workers continued to hold strikes demanding shorter working hours and gradually things began improving.

Momentum for the cause particularly picked up with several “Eight Hour Leagues” forming in the United States, as Mann had formed in Britain around this same time.   In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions declared that May 1, 1886 would be the first day that an eight hour work day would be made mandatory.  This, of course, was neither backed by any federal mandate nor the businesses themselves and relied on workers striking and raising a general ruckus to drive the point home.  When May 1, 1886 arrived, the first ever May Day parade was held with 350,000 workers walking off their jobs protesting for the eight hour work day.

Progress was still slow though and it wasn’t until 1905 that industries began implementing the eight hour work day on their own accord. One of the first businesses to implement this was the Ford Motor Company, in 1914, which not only cut the standard work day to eight hours, but also doubled their worker’s pay in the process.  To the shock of many industries, this resulted in Ford’s productivity off of these same workers, but with fewer hours, actually increasing significantly and Ford’s profit margins doubled within two years after implementing this change.  This encouraged other companies to adopt the shorter, eight hour work day as a standard for their employees.

Finally, in 1937 the eight hour work day was standardized in the United States and regulated by the federal government according to the Fair Labor Standards Act. It stipulated that workers were not to work more than 44 hours per week and any hours over 40 required of the worker were to be paid with overtime bonuses added to their normal pay rate.

Bonus Factoids:

Boston ship carpenters managed to achieve a set eight-hour work day in 1842, well before most other industries.  Amazingly, they managed to do this despite not being unionized.
Despite some industries in the United States, such as the previously mentioned Boston Ship Carpenters, managing to achieve eight hour work days, the average work week in the United States in 1890 was around 90-100 hours per week for most building tradesmen according to a survey done by the federal government at that time.
The Haymarket Square Rally on May 4, 1886 in Chicago protesting long labor hours got so out of hand after a dynamite bomb went off that a quick trial was taken and four men were hanged straight away, even though there was little evidence linking them to the bomb.  They were likely simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Through similar protests and lobbying as were used in Britain and the United States, Australian workers were granted an eight hour work day on January 1st, 1948.
India was, by far, one of the more progressive countries regarding labor practices.  India introduced the eight hour work day in 1912 – a full 26 years before the United States.
In the early 19th century in Britain, a series of “Factories Acts” were passed meant to help improve working conditions for workers, particularly for children.  One of the first of these was in 1802 and stipulated children under the age of 9 were not to be allowed to work and, rather, must attend school.  Further, children from the ages of 9-13 were only allowed to work eight hours per day and children from 14-18 could only work a maximum of 12 hours per day.  Unfortunately, this law was largely ignored and almost never enforced in any way.  Further, even when it rarely was enforced, the fines were small enough that it was more profitable for factory owners to break this law and pay the fine, than to follow it.  The act also did nothing for adults except require that factories be well ventilated, though it did not stipulate what defines “well ventilated”, so factory owners could easily ignore this part of the act as well.

Source : Today I Found Out

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Want People to Return Your Emails? Avoid These Words! Best time to check email?

I came across this one and want to share it.

Next time you write an email subject line, think twice about the words you’re using.


Loading your message with words such as “confirm,” “join,” “press,” or “invite” is not a good idea if you want a response, says data from Baydin, the makers of email plugin Boomerang.

Baydin recently extracted data from five million emails its users handled — either using the company’s “email game” or scheduled for later via Boomerang. It found that some subject-line words, such as “apply” and “opportunity,” got more responses than words from the aforementioned list.

Its data also suggests the best time to send emails is before work. Users who scheduled messages to read later, using Boomerang, most often wanted to deal with them around 6 a.m.

Already sending emails packed with “opportunity” at 6 a.m. and not getting a response? You’re in good company.

Baydin’s average email game player deleted about half of the 147 messages he or she received each day. Ninety minutes of the two hours he or she spent on email each day went to just 12 messages.

Source: Link

"When a milker leaves I lose one cow"

Recruiting the right employees is easy. But the challenge is to motivate and retain them. Retaining the right employees in the right place is the secret of any organisation's success.

Usually the employees are loyal to their organisations. But they become unhappy job-hoppers when they feel that they are not valued and not given enough challenges and opportunities.

It is true that everyone is looking for better prospects and the present organisation is often only a pole-vault to jump into better pastures. The CEO to the frontline executive, all are waiting for the right opportunity to migrate.

Employee turnover is costly and it makes the organisations less efficient and productive. If we want to retain the top performers we need to know why people leave. The reasons for leaving may be many.

1. Lack of opportunities and challenges

For many young and bright employees of today money is not a concern. They are looking for more than compensation packages and benefits. They want challenges and job satisfaction. If you want to retain

them, offer them not money but challenges and risks. They thrive in challenges and love risks. They look for job satisfaction and contentment in their work. Job satisfaction comes out of their relationship with the management; it's the effect of good work environment and is the fruit of their commitment to a vision.

2. Lack of management support

One of the main reasons why people quit is the lack of support from the top management. The top management itself is often not aware of what is going on and not sure of what decisions to be taken. The

victims of their poor communication and management are always those at the bottom. The only thing they communicate well is to tell the employees that they are responsible for every failure. If you want

your employees to be loyal to you, support them when they need you. Be visibly present by their side in their struggles and appreciate their victories.

3. Lack of monetary rewards

For many people today telling, "I don't care about money but I need challenges" is a fashion. Most of the employees are there with you because of the rewards you give. When they feel that they are paid less than what they deserve, when they feel that you are not faithful to your promise to increase their package, when they feel that you don't reward hard work and commitment its time for them to bid you bye. Better compensation and benefits will always keep them by your side.

4. Lack of career development possibilities

No one likes to be in the same place for long. People long for new experiences, changes and growth. Once they know that their present organisation doesn't provide them opportunities for their career, personal and professional growth they feel suffocated in that rigid system. In such a dissatisfied atmosphere they long for liberation and when the right opportunity comes they pack up and leave you.

5. Lack of visionary mangers

The supervisors are one main reason why many employees leave. Supervisors and mangers are often shortsighted and fail to place the right employee in the right place. They make a highly talented person become a failure and the employee alone is made accountable for the losses. The management should consist of visionary people who are able to assess the potentials and strengths of the employees and give them the right opportunities and right challenges where they can excel. It must create a positive work environment where people are rewarded and recognized, where free and open communications exist and where people feel excited and thrilled to work.

6. Lack of friendly atmosphere

Often our workplace is so boring with so many serious people around. The workplace should be a home where people smile, relax and enjoy working. Every morning the person should long to come to work.

Friendly and homely place is a must if you want to retain your staff. The management is so much caught up in the web of profit and revenues that it looks at people only as a means to higher profits and forgets to look at them as persons. Listen to the employees, respect them and make work fun for them if you want them. Provide an employee-friendly environment where they can participate in decisions making, execution and evaluation.

7. Lack of freedom

If the employee can't express his ideas and thoughts freely in the organisation he won't last there. We must create an atmosphere where people feel free to contribute their ideas, criticize the existing systems and try out alternatives to make their work more productive and satisfying. There should be freedom for him to use his talents and skills. There should be freedom to make mistakes.

We need to invest in building up retention if we want our organisations to be successful. Recently I read about a dairy manager who said: "Every time a milker leaves I lose about one cow."

We have recruited the best talents; now it's our duty to motivate and retain them for the health and success of our organisations.

Dress For Interview

While the college campus may be the perfect forum in which to exhibit your flair for the latest in fashion style, the interview is not the place to do so. With very few unusual exceptions, sandals and sweatshirts are out. Oxfords and business suits are still in. A necktie is still a fact of life in interviewing. Even though many companies have relaxed the internal company dress code, interviews still follow the conservative standard. Don't buck the trend.

Unfortunately, most college grads are woefully underprepared with proper interview dress. They feel they can "get by" with what is already in their wardrobe. Usually not. Dress for the world outside college is quite different from the campus scene. Remember that stylish is not conservative. You should be doing the talking, not your clothes.

This is not to say that you need to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. Go for quality over quantity. One or two well-chosen business suits will serve you all the way to the first day on the job and beyond. Then, when you are making some money (and have a chance to see what the standard "uniform" is for the company), you can begin to round out your wardrobe. For now, no one will fault you for wearing the same sharp outfit each time you interview. If you desire some variety within a limited budget, you might consider varying your shirt/blouse/tie/accessories as a simple way to change your look without breaking your wallet.

For those of you who need a quick review of the basics, follow these guidelines for successful interview dress:

Men and Women

Conservative two-piece business suit (solid dark blue or grey is best)

Conservative long-sleeved shirt/blouse (white is best, pastel is next best)

Clean, polished conservative shoes

Well-groomed hairstyle

Clean, trimmed fingernails

Minimal cologne or perfume

Empty pockets--no bulges or tinkling coins

No gum, candy or cigarettes

Light briefcase or portfolio case

No visible body piercing (nose rings, eyebrow rings, etc.)

Men

Necktie should be silk with a conservative pattern

Dark shoes (black lace-ups are best)

Dark socks (black is best)

Get a haircut; short hair always fares best in interviews

No beards (unless you are interviewing for a job as a lumberjack!)

Mustaches are a possible negative, but if you must, make sure it is neat and trimmed

No rings other than wedding ring or college ring

No earrings (if you normally wear one, take it out)

Women

Always wear a suit with a jacket; no dresses

Shoes with conservative heels

Conservative hosiery at or near skin color (and no runs!)

No purses, small or large; carry a briefcase instead

If you wear nail polish (not required), use clear or a conservative color

Minimal use of makeup (it should not be too noticeable)

No more than one ring on each hand

One set of earrings only

If you are still not sure how to dress for the interview, call them and ask! That's right--call the employer. But this is one time when you do not want to call the Hiring Manager--instead, ask to be put through to Human Resources and say:

"I have an interview with _____ in the _____ department for a position as an _____. Could you please tell me what would be appropriate dress for this interview?"

Sure, you run the risk of someone in HR thinking you are a social imbecile, but that's a lot better than having the Hiring Manager distracted by inappropriate interview dress.

While many work environments have shifted to business casual as the work standard, business suits are still the interview standard. When in doubt, it is almost always better to err on the side of conservatism.

One final note on interview dress: while it goes without saying that your interview clothes should be neat and clean, very few interviewees give the same time and attention to their shoes. Shoes? Yes, shoes. I am aware of at least one Corporate Recruiter who forms first impressions based solely (pardon the pun) on shoes. This person does not have a shoe fetish--he subjectively judges that those who pay attention to details like their shoes are also likely to be diligent in their work life. And it is not just that person's opinion. Many have said that you can judge a person by their shoes. You will find that many ex-military officers (many of whom have found their way into management positions in corporate America) are especially aware of a person's shoes. It is not enough to be clean, pressed, and ironed. Make sure your shoes are conservative, clean, and polished.

11 Ways To Ruin Your Chances Of Getting A Job

It’s no secret that working with a headhunter or recruiter can be an effective way to advance your career.

Headhunters often have access to jobs that are not advertised elsewhere and can speed up the hiring process between an employer and potential candidate.

The trick, however, is understanding how a headhunter operates.

As a HR, it is always surprising to me that even senior level job seekers often don't know that ‘headhunters’ work for the companies, not the candidates.

Clients sometimes say: ‘I'll just contact a headhunter who will get me a job.’ Headhunters aren't career counselors...they're motivated by earning the commission.”

To find out how to increase your chances of landing a job through a headhunter, we spoke with several executive recruiters and career coaches to get the low-down on the errors job seekers make.

Holding back information can make you look sneaky.

It’s important to be as honest as possible with your recruiter about your career, preferences and anything else that could affect your job search.

Job seekers sometimes fail to tell their recruiter when their company, position, or compensation preferences change. Second, job seekers hurt themselves by not telling recruiters about personal obligations and other things that might interfere with their job searches.

Bring these things up at the last minute, and they can be a deal-breaker. Why? Changing the game at the last second with a hiring company makes you look sneaky or complicated for no reason at all.

Providing a vague description of your accomplishments makes it harder for a headhunter to place you.

Leave out the jargon.

Show specific and measurable results.

Don't make me as the listener/recruiter/prospective employer have to translate what you're saying into how it will benefit me or fill my needs. Talk to me in terms of my needs and what you will do for me.

Don’t assume that a headhunter will do all the work for you.

The biggest misconception a job seeker makes is that they assume because a headhunter agrees to meet them, that headhunter will find them a job. 

And then, job seekers tend to put all of their eggs in a headhunter’s basket. Unfortunately if the companies that headhunter works with don’t pick up on their resume; it’s out of headhunter hands.

A headhunter's job is to find the right candidate for the client (company) who hired the recruitment services - not to find a job to every single job seeker who contacts the recruiting firm.

Not tailoring your resume to a specific job tells a recruiter that you are either lazy or the wrong candidate for the position.

Whether you’re using a headhunter or applying directly through a company’s website, gear your resume towards the position.

There is nothing wrong with having different versions of your resume as long as everything you list is truthful. If you are applying for a position that requires event planning experience, then be sure to include all information that’s relatable. 

A job summary should consist of 4-5 sentences on what you can bring to the table.

Don’t waste time by applying for jobs that you are not qualified for.

Be realistic about the jobs that you apply for.

Don’t apply for jobs that you want or think you can get (when you know you can’t) … rather apply for jobs that you are qualified for.

A poor online reputation will torpedo your chances of getting a phone call from a headhunter.

Recruiters don’t work for you, they work for the employer. When they submit a candidate they are putting their reputations on the line. They are risk adverse, so make their lives as easy as possible so that that don’t consider you to be a risk in any way, shape or form.

Remember to monitor your online presence on networking sites such as Facebook and by simply Googling your name. Another way to keep track of what shows up about you online is to create a Google Alert for your first and last name.

The best time to contact a headhunter is when you are employed.

Headhunters don’t typically work with job candidates that are unemployed.

Companies don’t pay them big money to present workers that aren’t gainfully employed. In this market there are many good workers on the sidelines, yet companies still want to see candidates that are gainfully employed and on the 'top of their game.' This is why we tell workers to never quit their job until they have a new one."

These days, you never know if your job could disappear tomorrow, Anticipate the problem before it happens by networking and responding to headhunters, even when you're happy with your current job.

It is not a headhunter's responsibility to tell you what you're good at.

The biggest mistake most job hunters make when they approach a headhunter is not knowing what job they want.

It's not a headhunter's responsibility to tell you what they think you might be good at -- that's the job of a career counselor. The headhunter's job is to find that opportunity. When the job hunter says that they are 'open to new opportunities' a headhunter hears, 'I'm clueless.’”, “They’ll ask you to 'send  a résumé and you'll never hear back from them."

Not revealing your compensation requirements or being inflexible is a huge turn-off.

Headhunter typically ask for this [a job seeker's required compensation] in the first or second phone call and it is usually to make sure that the candidate and the position in question are in the same ballpark,

"If not, there is no sense in wasting anyone's time so it is best to make this as clear as possible early on. It is usually the least-experienced candidates who resist this."

“More companies now prefer to try an employee out as a contractor, with the possibility of hiring them full-time.” Job seekers should be open to various forms of compensation.

Not personalizing your cover letter practically guarantees your letter will be recycled.

They get hundreds of cover letters every day and they are more likely to respond to a personalized cover letter addressed to them, also make sure you have the correct spelling and gender of the person to whom you are writing.

"If you can’t do some research to market yourself as a candidate, why would they think you would take the initiative for the client?”

Don't harass the recruiter.

Following up with a thank you note or email to remind the recruiter of your skills is appreciated.

What is not appreciated are numerous phone calls or emails requesting an update on your status.

Being assertive is a good thing, but be careful of coming across as desperate.

"Even if you're unemployed, the secret to getting a job is acting as if you don't need one."