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Archive for career advancement

Communication, Communication, Communication!

November 4th, 2016

Communication, Communication, Communication

In real estate it’s all about one thing:  location, location, location.  In the ever changing business environment however, the mantra should be:  communication, communication, communication.  Those frequent business changes also necessitate flexibility in how we communicate to customers, peers, management, suppliers, and especially to our own workforce.

For those of you who are closer to the Gen-X, Baby Boomer, and Depression Era generations, we remember when communication essentially came in only three ways – written/print, phone, or in-person.  Now we have mobile/digital devices, texting and texting language, increased job jargon (just think of IT), faxes (yes, those are still used), email, IM, social media, blogs, online forums, and of course, traditional written/print, phone, or in-person.

Communication, Communication, Communication

Excellence in communication skills is a must at all levels.  We can no longer accept change-paralysis in the exposure and mastery of new devices, communication methods, and sometimes the new words and acronyms that come with a job.  Our employees should feel comfortable, and knowledgeable in their business interactions, and that means providing more training to our staff.

Every organization should either hold classes internally or send management and employees to external training to ensure their workforce has instruction in, and builds confidence in business communication skills.  Training should include courses in business writing, digital device utilization, how to write an effective email, job-related lingo, business-related text language and abbreviations, and how to maintain professionalism in business and personal social media and online forum postings.

 

Communication, Communication, Communication

Yes, I said personal and professional.  Having the discernment as to the suitability of language used in both professional and personal postings has led to many an excellent personal brand and career advancement.  When that judgment has been absent, many a career and brand have been seriously injured or destroyed.

Communication, Communication, Communication

Unfortunately many schools aren’t really teaching the difference between casual language and the more formal business language utilized in corporate America.  Awareness and appropriateness of communication can also be lacking, particularly when it comes to abbreviated messaging in texts, IM’s and social media posts.  With so much potential for misunderstanding and broken internal and external business relationships, it is up to companies to ensure their workforce recognizes the difference and uses the language of work, in all of their professional interactions.

From problem solving and conflict management to traversing everyday business dealings, good communication skills are vital for every employee.  Let’s make sure our employees and management are trained properly for both organizational and personal benefit!

 

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 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, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ 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 Management, Human Resources, Personal Branding
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Social Media, the Golden Rule, Your Job Search (and Career)

August 7th, 2013
Social Media, the Golden Rule, Your Job Search (and Career)

Job Search and Social Media

Daily I will admit shock at the posts I see on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social media.  This doesn’t even include blogs, articles (posted remarks after those blogs and articles), and comment sites (like “who called me” for 1-800 #’s).  Somehow the Internet has become a cacophony of voices wanting to list each and every complaint they have publicly, and doing so with inappropriate and vulgar language, verbal bullying, racist slurs, misspellings, misused words, truly uniformed statements, and just overall nastiness. I regularly tell my clients, social media connections and seminar/workshop participants the following:  Just because you have an opinion doesn’t mean you need to share it, particularly online. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve certainly cussed, misspelled a word here and there, and have been unhappy about something on occasion resulting in a complaint, but I avoid the sharing of all that information online.  If there is an issue, I try to go direct to the source, offline, and if, when you get right down to it the subject isn’t that important, or really isn’t going to make a difference to talk about it, I rarely say anything.  I haven’t always been this way.  As a police officer’s daughter who was taught you don’t have to put up with everything that comes your way, a staunch believer in right and wrong, and a Type A personality, I can easily walk all over someone verbally.  But to what end?  In my early 20’s I started to realize, as most do, I wasn’t the center of the universe and people’s feelings, how I acted, and what I said really did matter.

Before the Internet allowed the quick and public exchange of insults, slurs, videos, feelings, and every personal detail anyone wanted to read, individuals would often avoid excessive inflammatory statements and extreme amounts of complaint.  Typically only family and friends received these opinions and complaints, or a person submitted a letter to the editor, and there was often a governor as to what was and wasn’t appropriate!  The over-sharing environment of the Internet has unfortunately created a culture that whatever you want to say is okay.  This simply isn’t true, especially when it comes to your job search and career.

What you say matters!!!  You are not anonymous on the computer, ever.  Put that comment or video on the Internet, and it never goes away.  20 years from now search results could find a salacious comment you made or that video from when you were so drunk at the party you passed out, and so could a potential or current employer.  I get it, sometimes you are looking at a remark a person made and you think – wow, you’re an idiot, but do you really need to say it, particularly online?  Does cussing, using racial slurs or arguing empower you or feed your ego?  Does complaining about everything that upsets you or sharing every aspect of your personal life online offer a cathartic release or help you to avoid confronting the issues in your life?

No!  It only provides embarrassment years later when read and can keep you or your family and friend connections from getting a job.  Indeed your inappropriate diatribes can actually prevent others you are connected to on social media (or that link to you that somehow comes up in a Google or Bing search by an HR Manager) from getting a job.  Still think it’s all harmless?

Clients frequently ask me if they should unfriend a family or friend connection on social media who makes occasional (or regular) overly-personal, racist, outlandish, profanity-laced remarks, which my client doesn’t agree with, but they are linked to that person out of a feeling of obligation and don’t know what to do.  I say emphatically yes, and do it immediately.  I am not trying to start a family or friend fight, I am trying to preserve your job search and career.  This person has no understanding or concern about what their comments might do to others they are connected to, they just want to comment.

Yes, you could say that this blog post is a complaint. Notice the difference though in intent – I am “cautioning” job seekers about how the online culture of complaint can ruin their job search and career, with examples and specifics, not judging you because of a post online I disagree with personally.  A recent study cited nearly 10% of recent college graduates lost a potential job because of a social media post.  Those are only the people who were informed of this fact.  Think about the people that weren’t considered for a job that never knew it was due to their social media or online behavior.  Most companies will not tell you the reason you were not hired or considered for a position these days, so could the number be more like 40-50%.  What about 30, 40, and 50+ year olds, are they feeling these same affects though perhaps in lower numbers.

Remember, it’s not just what you say and do online it’s what your connections say and do.  Freedom of speech comes with responsibility whether you are 15 or 55 years old, and breeches of restraint can result in loss of a job (yours or a network connections’), or even a lawsuit.  I advise my clients to think of the Golden Rule when posting anything in an online environment.  So to quote the movie Bambi – if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all (particularly online)!

Categories Job Search
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Top 25 Interview Questions

July 17th, 2012
Top 25 Interview Questions

Job Interview

Whether you are unemployed or seeking career advancement, job searching can be very stressful. Although it’s natural to feel anxious when you’re “in the hot seat,” being prepared for that interview can go a long way towards making you feel more confident and presenting yourself in a polished way. Even though you don’t know in advance what the interviewer will ask you, if you consider how you’ll answer the most typical questions, you’ll be well on your way.

As a Certified Employment Interview Professional, I’ve found that clients who are ready to respond to the following questions tend to be most successful.

1. Tell me about yourself.

2. What would your current and past managers identify as your greatest weakness, and what would you identify as your greatest weakness?

3. What would your current and past managers identify as your greatest strength, and what would you identify as your greatest strength?

4. Tell us what you know about our company.

5. Why do you want to work for us?

6. Why are you leaving your current position or why did you leave your last position?

7. What career accomplishment are you most proud of?

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

9. If you were unable to meet a commitment or deadline, what would you do?

10. Why do you think your qualified for this position?

11. Tell us about a time you didn’t meet a company goal/objective/timeline.

12. What did you most dislike about your last (or current) job?

13. What motivates you to do a good job?

14. Tell me a suggestion you made that was implemented.

15. Give me an example of a time when you had to think “outside the box.”

16. How do you differ in what you can provide our company from other candidates?

17. Do you prefer to work in a team or individually? Why?

18. Tell me about a time you failed.

19. What book(s) are you currently reading?

20. How do you manage conflicts with a coworker? With a manager? With a client?

21. Describe/define your work style (or management style).

22. What new skills or abilities have you developed recently that you can apply to this position?

23. What do expect from this job?

24. What have you learned from your past jobs?

25. What questions do you have for me?

Be sure to bookmark this blog, as I’ll be offering some tips on the best way to deal with these questions in future posts.

Categories Job Search
Comments (1)

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