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Archive for Career Coaching

View Challenges as Opportunities!

November 30th, 2019
View Challenges as Opportunities

Challenges and mistakes are opportunities for learning.  Instead of seeing an issue, error or new software as a pain, see it as learning – an ability to expand your mind, obtain a new skill, or to ensure you don’t make the same mistake a second time.  Your resistance is usually fear of the unknown, or that people will know you were inaccurate or made a misstep.  Welcome to everyone’s life, as we all make mistakes and are called on to learn new things. 

Start small, and chunk your learning into short blocks of time, creating far less stress and far more success.  That seemingly unending maze of difficulty will become shorter and easier to tackle. Embrace anything learning/training as a chance to expand your abilities, career and life, and watch your fear disappear.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Management, Career Transition, Inspiration, Job Search, Life Coaching
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Corporate America: Stop Finding Ridiculous Reasons to Downsize, Fire or Replace Employees to Boost Your Bottom Line

November 15th, 2019
Corporate America: Stop Finding Ridiculous Reasons to Downsize, Fire or Replace Employees to Boost Your Bottom Line

Well, it just happened again, and I doubt the trend will stop. Employers firing an employee without cause (they are never told why), or just making up something despite video, performance review, or other evidence to the contrary, to downsize or replace employees. If you are going to downsize, do it formally and publicly and take the hit on your reputation. If you are going to replace employees with someone cheaper, then I encourage those former employees to go onto Glassdoor and have at it in the critique section. The almighty dollar is not so important that you must wreak havoc on an employee’s life temporarily, cause heart-harming anxiety, send them into emergency job search mode, and put them into financial chaos because you want to save a buck. The worst part – it never works out, and the company will always lose down the road in loss of clients, employee attrition due to fear and overwork, and a terrible reputation. 

But Karen, you don’t understand, we have shareholders. Yes, I do, I own stock in companies, but I don’t expect them to treat employees like cattle to the slaughter because they are too cheap to do the right thing. This is never about the average shareholder, it’s about the board of directors and the officers/executives of the company who want to make more money and are the often the largest shareholders. The “for all the shareholders good” is just an excuse.

I was hoping after the economic downturn/great recession, employers would be increasingly mindful of the harm this has done. Apparently, that is not the case.

People are not “resources” or “capital” or whatever non-human reference you use. Corporate America’s consistent exploitation of downsizing, firing and position elimination to save money is both illogical and unethical. You cannot “save” your way to profit, because ultimately you sacrifice your clients and other employees on the altar of “cost saving synergies” and your bottom line.  Complaints of lack of service due to a shortage of employees or inexperienced staff are always signs of a company that only cares about short-term gain. 

Then you must hate Corporate American, you say? Absolutely not, as there are as many companies doing things right, as there are doing things wrong. Many businesses did learn after our great recession, or hired new leadership to create a better environment. I actually love Corporate America, am an avowed capitalist (as socialism creates the ultimate in inequity), and believe in the power of companies to do great good for our society! I am also a Jobseeker Advocate and WILL NOT be silent when I see shameful behavior that negatively effects my clients. I do have the responsibility of using my social media presence, industry standing and bit of a bully pulpit, to make it clear to those employing such tactics that this type of reprehensible conduct will not be tolerated.

Having said the above, there are times where in order to save a company, some employees must be downsized. Likewise, when mergers or acquisitions occur, there could be many duplicate positions and not enough other positions within the company that those duplicates can fill, so some must be laid off. I am not unsympathetic in any way to those realities. Instead, I am going after those that use firings to avoid paying unemployment (I have a list), accuse employees of absolute lies in order to make room for cheaper employees, eliminate positions without putting those employees in lateral (equally paid) positions that need filled, downsize because some board member or hedge fund investor wants to see a little more profit, or any combination of the above.

But you say, Karen, how do you know these things are really happening, couldn’t that just be your client’s opinion? After 20 years in this business, I have executive, internal employee and HR contacts you wouldn’t believe, and I can always get the real story. I then combine that with proof the clients provide me from performance reviews, client letters, awards received, and other documentation to get a clear picture. If you hear the same thing over and over again… Once can be an exception. Twice can be a coincidence. Three times is a trend.

Daily, I work with companies, not just individuals, who treat their employees as people, not numbers, and as valued contributors to their organization. These will be the companies that will ultimately thrive as paradigm shifts beget a new society of workers demanding to be treated as a human being. This will be the greatest gift Millennial’s and Generation Z employees bring to the workforce. However, to the companies using these unscrupulous tactics, you have now been put on notice!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Coaching, Career Management, Human Resources, Job Search, Opinion
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The Salary Gap: What We Can Do About It

October 8th, 2019
The Salary Gap:  What We Can Do About It

According to an October 3rd, 2019 article in the Harvard Business Review: Closing the Gender Wealth Gap by Nicole Torres, the trend of companies to do little to nothing in closing the gender pay gap continues. “In the United States, women who work year-round earn somewhere near 82 cents for every dollar earned by men.  But they only own about 32 cents for every dollar of wealth owned by men. Both of these gaps are far more acute for black and Latina women.” 

This article isn’t about companies indiscriminately raising the pay of women in mass to the same as men as not all experience, education, certifications, etc., are the same. It is about analyzing where the disparities are occurring. Take one of my clients, we will call her Sara. Sara works for a Fortune 500 company, holds a coveted certification that none of the men in her department possess but is required for many in her job, has a specialized and related degree that her fellow employees lack, is the go-to for challenging clients which results in overbooking of her schedule, has a stellar set of performance reviews, and has been in this department for 15+ years (longer than most of the other employees), and yet, still gets paid $30,000 less than her counterparts. Thus, why she is working with me. 

The company (including HR) doesn’t care about the inconsistency, nor does her management chain. She is just told “that is the way it is, you accepted the pay we gave you earlier” and “it was your choice to get that certification.” Really, do these particular HR and management personnel live in reality? No, they don’t, but if they analyze her pay discrepancy, they must look at all of their employees. The only thing that will force this organization to do so is a lawsuit, and it can’t be from a lone employee, it must come from many within the organization. The men in her department back her up, have asked that she be paid appropriately commensurate with her experience, skill, education and certification, and openly offered up their salaries to her for proof of the issue. These men are truly backing her up. But to no avail.

Another female client holds two certifications a large company had advertised as either “necessary or desired” in their ad, but offered her nearly $60,000 less than others in the organization without certifications. The one female employee she interviewed with stated she was embarrassed by the offer, but there was nothing she could do. The man (the manager) who interviewed her spent half the interview disparaging her experience and education, and then made her the insulting offer. Wouldn’t want to negatively impact that annual management bonus with a fairly paid employee, now would we? She turned them down. While she needed a job, she didn’t need that type of environment. 

I thank my lucky stars every day that my parents taught me I could do anything I put my mind to, and to never accept discrimination of any type. My wonderful husband instills this same belief in me to this day. So, blessedly this has not happened to me, but it has happened to too many of my clients, and that is why I have three specialized employment attorneys that I provide as a referral when necessary. 

What can we do to stop this, both men and women? First, awareness, by knowing it exists, and working to root it out. Second, ban the asking of prior and current salary. This is only used to discriminate in the salary offer phase against any potential employee, regardless of gender.  A question of “salary desired” is more than enough to give a company the proper information about your pay requirements, while the interview, talking with references, and confirmation of credentials, if necessary, gives more context on appropriate pay rate. Third, perhaps employees should start getting together where they feel a gap exists, and talk about tenure, performance reviews and salary expectations within their company. It doesn’t mean that people must tell or show others what they are paid. However, it does mean where someone sees an imbalance, they make it known to the person negatively impacted (and this isn’t always women, sometimes it is a man). Fourth, ask for appropriate salary. Do your research and know what your industry pays. Be willing to turn down or leave a job that won’t pay appropriately. Lastly, some class action lawsuits may be necessary. As much as I hate the idea of litigation, sometimes it is the only way to get a lasting change.  

Many a company around the country has been sued regarding job titles and their salary rates, resulting in compensation analysis and the awarding of back pay to employees.  Some companies just change the job titles of employees so they can get away with low-paying of their staff, to potentially sell their company (this always looks good on the books), and/or hopefully avoid a lawsuit. This is something that impacts men and women, is the potential subject of another blog post, and is merely the reverse side of the same coin concerning inequitable salary.  There is also some irony in my opening of an article this morning on TLNT.com, from EREMedia: Before You Decide Pay Raises, Do a Pay Fairness Audit by Kathleen McLeod Caminiti and Sarah Wieselthier.  

Know your value and don’t be afraid to ask for more in the salary negotiation phase, regardless of what they offer you initially. If you don’t ask, you will never know if you could have gotten more money. Show them proof of salary research based on your true years of experience (not cobbled together, but actual length of unquestionably related experience – your biggest selling point). Use several of the free salary tools online to create a balanced report based on your industry, state and city, education/certifications/training, and years of experience. This includes what their company typically pays as is often provided via a Glassdoor.com search. If you feel lost in doing this type of task, or have difficulty identifying your true experience and value, contact a resume writer or career coach with experience in this area, who can help you.

Before you ever walk into an interview (or do a phone interview), you should understand the benefits you can bring to an organization, and know the bonus skills and experience you provide that might be of additional advantage.  Do your research and find out everything you can in the interview about their culture. Get a tour of the facility, meet other employees and find out tenure rates (particularly in the department where you will work), and take your time, don’t be rushed into a decision. Any company that demands you accept or reject their job offer while sitting in the interview chair is a company that will treat you poorly. ASK QUESTIONS – never let an interviewer tell you to hold your questions until the end of the interview as you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. If you do your due diligence from the moment you start a job search, chances are, you will find a job that is satisfying, that won’t cause your heart to sink every Sunday evening, or stress you out 24/7.

In closing, money isn’t everything. If you chase it, there will never be enough. If that is all you want in your job, you will never be satisfied or happy. Besides, what we really need and what we want are often very different. You must view the whole picture, not just a part of it. Wonderful colleagues, a great boss, good benefits, a decent commute, feeling like your work makes a difference, enjoying the work you do, and being treated as a person not a “resource,” can beat a high salary any day of the week! 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Management, Careers, Human Resources, Interviews, Job Search
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50 Shades of Privacy

September 20th, 2019
50 Shades of Privacy

Let’s face it, we already knew our online public data was being used for targeted marketing purposes and for public search information (both paid and free). What about data analysis for your company’s use? Are you comfortable with that potential? What if that supposed “free data” was being used to determine if you were going to leave your current company? Well, the fact is, this is currently being done, and the courts are protecting it.

LinkedIn has recently been in a legal tiff with HiQ Labs, a San Francisco-based company that analyzes free data like public LinkedIn profiles to identify the potential of employees to leave a company. Here is what HiQ says about their Keeper technology:

“Keeper is the first HCM tool to offer predictive attrition insights about an organization’s employees based on publicly available data. The solution turns those attrition insights into consumable, easy-to-deploy action plans so HR and business leaders can retain their key talent.

By identifying risk early, addressing potential issues proactively, and deploying remedial actions quickly, Keeper drives immediate business impact across organizations – and provides a built-in feedback loop so you can communicate your retention win to management.”

Both organizations have great points in their arguments presented to the courts. LinkedIn discusses an expectation of privacy for their customers. Essentially, they are stating that their clients shouldn’t have their information harvested that they entrusted to LinkedIn. 

I also, have zero doubt, HiQ’s intention with their Human Resources program is as stated above. It is a great idea to determine if valuable employees might be wanting to leave, and why, then take action to retain them in an organization.  And their argument that they are using data in the public realm only is absolutely correct. 

What is problematic is how Corporate America will really use this technology. Just as companies troll the online world for those using Monster or Indeed for a job search, or mentioning they are unhappy with their current company on Facebook, this is yet another tool to target those that might leave with downsizings, position elimination, and dismissals (often falsified to avoid paying unemployment). Is this the fault of HiQ? No. They are merely providing a service. It does however beg the question, when is enough, enough in protection of our personal data online, public or not?  

There are other issues though that might not have been put forth in this legal tussle. First, how are rankings of employees made? Red, Yellow and Green are nice, but how accurate is the data; does it look at the age of the information or how long since it has been updated? What about inaccurate data online? While HiQ would not want to give away the algorithms that detect retention issues, it is scary to think you might be putting something on your LinkedIn profile or elsewhere online in the public realm that is problematic without knowing it. You could be a person that is in no way unhappy with your current job, but an algorithm could have you targeted for termination in some form. Please do not blame a company for coming up with technology to try to stop employee loss. HiQ does offer the ability to have your data eliminated from their database, which is comforting. Still, could having your info deleted from their system be an “alert” to HR that you might be looking? 

So many questions, which now in the age of AI will be even more impactful regarding privacy. I suppose this article is merely a warning, to again be careful what you communicate online. To remember that nothing you put online is private, no matter what you are told. And now, to keep your information current and without opinion regarding anything job related, lest you become the focus of unwanted attention.  

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Exploration, Career Management, Career Transition, Careers, Human Resources, Interviews, Job Search, Opinion
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Know Your Value

July 8th, 2019

“We often don’t realize our true value until after we negotiate a salary and benefits package.  Know your value, don’t just take that first offer.  Show them you are multifaceted and provide cross functional experience that is worthy of a better offer.  Most companies will give you more, you just need to ask.” – Karen Silins  

Categories Career Coaching, Career Management, Career Transition, Careers, Interviews, Job Search
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What is Capacity?

June 6th, 2019
Freedom

I have recently gone on an interesting journey. One that was unexpected and quite enlightening. If you already know me, then it is obvious I have more certifications than I need, but I love learning. So, when I saw a new certification called Certified Capacity Coach, I was intrigued. My certs all surround resume writing, career coaching, interview coaching and assessments. What would I do with a Capacity Coaching cert, and what the heck did that mean? I will answer those questions throughout this article.

Admittedly, at first, I was a bit dubious. My coaching is definitely outcome focused and I border between coach and consultant. There is no “get the crystals out, light the candles, and sing Kum Ba Yah” in Karen. Regardless, I just dove in and gave it a shot. The first three weeks were rough, and I was still not sold. It felt a little “hippy dippy” and that was not my style at all. But when I allowed myself to see past my bias in my feelings, I discovered a very unique skillset I was about to add to my coaching. 

Some things were inherent to my coaching style already, but I never thought about them as part of my “style” until this coaching class. I learned to ask myself the question “what is it like when you don’t have all the answers?” Certainly, I knew this in dealing with coaching clients and in my own life, and was willing to admit it and go looking for answers. However, I never thought about various situations where it may have led me to feel inadequate or worried as to my qualifications – or as I call it – the Imposter Syndrome. This is where my classmates came in, coaching me to see the worth in feeling those emotions, and how to leverage them with my clients. While I have never been afraid to admit to a client that I have weaknesses to bolster their trust, in my personal self-assessment, I probably made it “less than” it was or used it to bash myself depending upon the situation.

Now I am set free to say, yep, I screwed that up, and here is what I learned from it, and that is just fine. After all, mistakes aren’t there to create problems, but to teach us, expand us, and better us going forward. Giving myself more compassion in my personal life will enrich my coaching and my writing, as I am probably hardest on myself with my writing of blog posts for my own site. Meanwhile, I have truly engaged my “Controller” to clear all the clutter, both in my home/office and mind, cleaning up and clearing out excess paper and stuff. With the help of my fellow coaches I have developed a more targeted set of goals, combined with compassion that doesn’t allow the Controller in me to sabotage my forward motion, and won’t allow “fight or flight” to constrain my progress.

So, what does capacity mean? It means FREEDOM. The freedom to be more connected with clients.  The freedom to be compassionate to myself and not just my clients.  The freedom to always frame failure as learning.  And the freedom to go after loftier goals that can actually create more capacity (or freedom) in my life. FREEDOM means peace, it means being more productive, it means more clarity, and most importantly it means a more abundant life. 

Oh, and as a side note, I write articles and then make myself crazy with rewriting, rereading and sometimes not posting for months (or ever). I challenged myself to write this new post on the subject of Capacity in one morning, did so in 45 minutes, didn’t initially review it, just wrote it and sent it out to my class. I even read it back to my class as well the same day (again without reviewing). Now comes the goal of only reviewing once prior to posting on my blog. Update: I only reviewed once, a couple of months later, and posted. Freedom is a blessing!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Management, Inspiration, Life Coaching, Opinion
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  • View Challenges as Opportunities!
  • Corporate America: Stop Finding Ridiculous Reasons to Downsize, Fire or Replace Employees to Boost Your Bottom Line
  • The Salary Gap: What We Can Do About It

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