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Archive for jobseekers

The New Candidate Profiles and Their Impact on Your Job Search or Business

November 24th, 2020

How many times have you heard the statement to be careful what you post online? Well, it turns out that companies are exploiting information they can access in the public domain about job candidates, including those posts you wish you had never made. Whether full-time, part-time, contract or temporary worker, a company may wish to know just as much about an entrepreneur contracting with them for a month, as they do about a full-time employee.  While there’s a bevy of software available to scan resumes for keywords, more-and-more, organizations are seeking to create a full-fledged profile on their candidates. Is it creepy and Big Brother-esque? Yes, but an unfortunate reality the Internet has facilitated.

What information are they targeting? Old and new resumes, blogs, and social media profiles, including those posts you so often believe are private (they aren’t), certifications, licensing, professional development, academic histories and degrees, military service, awards, presentations, and papers, just to name a few.

While this offers a broader perspective on a potential new hire, the profile they develop on you can be polar opposite of what you are attempting to convey on your resume and in the interview. Hence, why what you post matters, and why those old YouTube videos of you, particularly the live videos that tend to be less than flattering, need to go. From throwing your computer out the window during a temper tantrum, doing live makeup applications with friends in high school and college, and nearly crippling yourself doing wild skateboard jumps, to smoking pot on camera, all can eliminate you from consideration for a job.  Any job! Not to mention get you featured on the show Ridiculousness. Certainly, you may have been intending to garner this attention at the time – but let it go for the sake of your career!

Ask yourself: should the company believe your resume and interview, or the comprehensive profile they developed containing contradictory information? Make them ask that question and we can guess what will happen. Ultimately, I see this technology impacting any aspect of a career, from job search to promotion, entrepreneurs, and for college admissions.

So, what can we do to stop past poor decisions from haunting us? My advice to clients is to go through their social media and to Google themselves to see what else comes up that they have forgotten about over time. First up – scrape all social media, videos, and blogs and get rid of nasty comments (particularly you fighting with others online, and political and religious insults and articles). Be sure to go back to the beginning and clean up your posts. This isn’t about stating you love a particular political candidate or God, but the negative comments and articles that cause issue. Why should a company hire someone they believe will come and start political arguments or push religion or non-religion on others? Trust me, they won’t! 

Next, get rid of excessive cussing in posts, videos, and blogs, look through your pictures and delete most of those with you drinking alcohol (a little bit is okay, but some people are way too “thirsty” in all their pictures) and definitely all of them where you are doing drugs – I shouldn’t have to say why. The fights you get into on social media with others need to go to, and so do all those personal posts on health issues and family problems.  Then find the “friends and family” that continually do the same and unfriend them. But Karen, you say, I can’t unfriend my Mom, best friend, or anyone to whom I am connected. Actually, you can, and my clients regularly do so with just a small explanation about how it can hurt their job search. If these people truly care about you, they will understand. Find the old profiles that you haven’t deleted, old resumes posted on Monster, CareerBuilder, etc., and delete, delete, delete. 

Blessedly, once something is deleted, it will be increasingly harder to find. My clients have seen a job search or career revitalized after ridding their social media of questionable content, negative political and religious opinions, and old profiles they forgot existed. The impact of having a positive overall profile cannot be underestimated with so many companies doing a “deep dive” on candidates.

I realize the temptation that exists to share this information, but do so privately with friends and family in conversation to avoid having it online where it can come back and hurt you. Lastly, always take 24-hours before responding to an email (those can also get shared out on the Internet), post, video, etc., to ensure you have a calmer viewpoint with more context, which often will make you hit the delete button. Purge the negative from your overall “public” profile, and watch your career grow and your job search reinvigorated!

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, Human Resources, Interviews, Job Search, Life Coaching, Personal Branding
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Getting Constant Rejections in Your Job Search?

October 24th, 2020
Getting Constant Rejections in Your Job Search?

Assumptions that individuals make during a job search, particularly when it comes to rejections, are rarely true. We second guess ourselves because of perceived failure. Below, I offer a more accurate assessment of what is often occurring, and a few tips to overcome it when the issue is one you can rectify. 

1) The organization interviews candidates but doesn’t hire anyone because they are too cheap to pay the going rate. Magically, days later, they re-advertise the same job with a new title at a lesser pay rate.

2) They already knew who they wanted. Job ad and interviews were for show and to meet Federal hiring requirements.

3) They are looking for a unicorn. Remember, unicorns (also called Purple Squirrels) don’t exist, and they couldn’t afford the salary if they found one.

4) The job never existed (trying to look good to the competition or testing the talent pool), or the requisition was pulled during interviews due to budgetary concerns (so it no longer exists).

5) Expectations on length of job search may be unrealistic. An average job search prior to COVID lasted approximately 23 weeks, and even now, despite increased hiring, is still 21 weeks. Those numbers are direct from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) A-12 Table. Additionally, current Total Unemployment according to BLS U6 Table is at 12.3% for September 2020 (that is the genuine number looking for work and unemployed, and not just those on unemployment benefits). 

Many a client or potential client comes to me expecting a one-month job search, and as you can see, that isn’t typical. Putting an irrational “target date” on your job search is a guaranteed recipe for disappointment and creates undue stress. 

6) Applying for any and every job that looks good, instead of a focused job search on one to three job types/careers. Determine the one to three careers you truly want and have the skills to pursue. Create a tailored resume and cover letter for each career (tweaking for every application). Stick to them for success.

7) Not dressing appropriately for the interview. Nice blouse, or shirt and tie, and please, put on real pants for video! We haven’t moved to a “casual everything environment” and jobseekers are still expected to dress appropriately, whether a video or in-person interview.

8) Poor camera and sound quality or utilizing a questionable background for video interviews. Test your sound and camera quality with a friend prior to that first interview. Also, it should go without saying that pictures of pot leaves, pot plants, political figures or slogans, smarmy or inappropriate sayings, liquor and beer bottles littering the area, too many religious items, Star Wars (sorry collectors) and Barbie items, etc., will ensure you won’t be invited back. Keep it simple, keep it professional, and see a good result. Don’t forget to look at the camera during the interview, not the screen!

9) Have a nervous “tick or tell” that happens when you are interviewed? Do a mock interview with a friend in HR or use an interview coach. Either party should offer constructive feedback that includes tips to mitigate the issue(s).

10) Offering negative answers to questions, especially when it comes to current or past employers/bosses. Try running your answer by friends who are hiring managers or in HR, to ensure you aren’t torpedoing yourself without realizing it.

11) You played the one-page game. Most resumes are actually two, sometimes three pages, depending on the experience. Tell a story with your bullet points, education, adjunct information, etc., of success in your career.  Employ the necessary keywords and key phrases throughout your experience and supplemental detail. 

12) Your social media is a hot mess. All that info to get rid of in a video background on my #8 applies to your social media. It isn’t private, they are checking, and it will cost you the job.

Things you can do to help yourself:

–Remember that your length of job search in no way reflects the value you have or will provide to an organization.

–While your job search may be taking longer than expected, it doesn’t mean that you are unemployable. Understanding that it takes several months for most people to get a new job, should give you comfort in knowing you are not alone. 

–Stay away from negative friends, family and acquaintances who are judging your job search. The irony of their judgment frequently becomes clear during their next job search.  If you can’t fully avoid the person, limit your exposure. (See my article “Give Jobseekers Your Support, Not Your Judgment” on LinkedIn.

–You can, when necessary, take a less than desirable job to have income. Do not allow that situation to end your job search. You have merely taken a Stop-Gap Job to meet financial needs, and this does not have to be a permanent relationship. Keep on searching!

Sometimes a job search takes longer than we anticipate or want. Never allow expectations to get in the way of your search, as they create frustrations and impede your progress. New jobs are advertised daily, so don’t permit current disappointment to keep you from applying and networking your way to your next job. Never give up, never surrender!

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, Interviews, Job Search, Networking, Personal Branding, Resume Writing
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Why People Really Leave Jobs

October 7th, 2020
Why People Really Quit Jobs

Despite the supposed studies to the contrary, this is spot on. The number one reason people literally flee their current job, will quit on the spot without notice, or have zero engagement and just wither away until fired or laid off, is due to a bad manager. Over 20 years of coaching and writing resumes for my clients, and always digging deep as to the reason they are leaving, this is the number one reason people leave.

When will Corporate America start promoting those with management and leadership talent from the start? When will they provide ongoing training to all of their management? When will they eliminate the lazy promotion of people who are “good at their last job,” into management roles? From micromanagement disasters, to nasty egomaniacs, to the disengaged manager allowing their employees to languish, these bosses are like having a giant mower constantly cut you down until you become a bitter, resentful employee, or quit.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employees-dont-leave-companies-managers-brigette-hyacinth/?trackingId=LsFCTTMfSK2la1Yf0QQ6EA%3D%3D

Categories Career Coaching, Career Management, Human Resources, Job Search, Talent Management
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Video Interviewing Tips

August 13th, 2020

I was recently ask (along with several colleagues) to answer the following question for the National Resume Writers’ Association’s Expert’s Blog: I’m deathly afraid of video. How can I still do well in video interviews given my fear of the camera? Here is my response and a link to all the responses:

Karen Silins, A+ Career & Resume, LLC

Here are my best tips to help you feel more confident: Test your connection, computer camera and lighting ahead of time. Avoid loud spaces and use an appropriate background. Be early, and have your resume, cover letter and job ad in front of you. Dress as you would for an in-person interview. Look in the camera, not at your picture in the monitor/screen. Have a glass of water nearby. SMILE!

I’m deathly afraid of video. How can I still do well in video interviews given my fear of the camera?
NRWA Experts Blog
Categories Career Coaching, Interviews, Job Search
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Give Jobseekers Your Support, Not Your Judgment

February 25th, 2020

I recently commented on an article shared via LinkedIn regarding the emotional anxiety faced by job seekers. Please read the post below and the article link if you know someone who is in the midst of a job search and could use your support.

“Amen, this is a huge issue and something that people who are in a current job often don’t appreciate, even if they have been through a job search recently.  It seems that once we are working again, those memories of how hard it really was fades.  Jobseekers can often be judged as lazy or “damaged” when their search takes longer than others expect. 

Support a person in a job search, listen with empathy to their stories of frustration.  While we shouldn’t allow anyone to wallow in their disappointment, an empathetic ear can be energizing, and help them to no longer feel alone.  You may be the one person who makes the difference and helps them keep moving forward to a new job. ”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/02/17/we-need-to-openly-talk-about-the-mental-and-emotional-anguish-faced-by-job-seekers/#7727b9b2c27c

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, Job Search
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The Importance of LinkedIn: How to Use It Effectively

January 15th, 2020

My clients regularly ask the following question:  Is LinkedIn actually necessary?  Yes, it is, and let me share why with a few statistics. 

–Percentage of Recruiters that use LinkedIn to vet candidates:  94%

Sourced from “22 Interesting LinkedIn Job Statistics (2019) by the Numbers” DMR Business Statistics and Craig Smith from Expanded Ramblings.com

–LinkedIn is popular with employers, given that its primary focus is professional networking.  Jobcast found that well over 93 percent of companies use LinkedIn to connect with and hire new talent, but less than half of all job seekers, just 36 percent, actually have a LinkedIn account.  Furthermore, just 14 percent of users reportedly check their account on a regular basis.

–73% of Millennials found their job through social media (with primary sources being LinkedIn and Twitter).

Sourced from “11 Social Media Recruiting Statistics to Make You Rethink Your Current Strategies” Study by Aberdeen Group and Jobcast and posted on CareerProfiles.com

Just these stats alone should have people clamoring for a free LinkedIn membership.  It should also underscore the value of creating a good profile and visiting LinkedIn at least weekly for profile updating and most importantly – networking!  So, what do you need to do for LinkedIn to be effective?

  1. Have a great picture. No selfies, dark pictures, photos you cut other people out of, old photos, etc.  Also, SMILE, there are a lot of grouchy-looking people on LinkedIn.  Smiling creates a connection, and the “I’m mad at the world” or “don’t care” look, chases people away.  Have someone you know take several photos of you in front of a nice bookcase, interesting brick or tile work, or beautiful artwork.
  • Make sure you fill out the Intro Section (where your photo resides), and that includes using the “job title” area to showcase some keywords and key phrases (you have 100 characters to use). 

Example One:  Senior Project Manager, PMP, Lean Six Sigma, Agile, Risk Management, Scrum, Jira, Mavenlink. 

Example Two:  Administrative Coordinator, Reporting, Process Improvement, Training, Workflow, Change Management.

  • Fill out the remainder of your profile completely, including the Summary, Employment (similar to your resume), Education, Skills (using industry and position-related keywords and key phrases), Volunteer Experience (you participate in), Certifications, and Accomplishments which consists of:  Honors and Awards, Organizations, Courses, Publications, Languages (besides English), Projects, and Patents.
  • Join applicable groups, particularly local groups where you can network, see additional local jobs advertised, and ask questions. 
  • Be a participant, not an observer.  Share great news from your company, invite people to an event, share an article, publicly congratulate a colleague on a promotion or accomplishment, share an inspirational quote, and congratulate connections on Work Anniversaries and New Jobs, etc.
  • Get and give Recommendations, not just Endorsements.
  • Build those connections.  While you don’t want to spam people with lots of invites, you don’t need to know everyone directly that you connect with on LinkedIn.  That’s the whole idea of this platform – six degrees of separation to make connections.  Invite or accept invites for quality of contact, completeness of profile, and use it to find those you have lost touch with over time.  Don’t be fooled by those who tell you that in order to have success with LinkedIn you must have 500+ connections.  That is overwhelming to most people.  Start with 30, that unlocks a certain amount of detail for your use, for free.  Build to 50, then 100, and the next thing you know, you will have a robust group of connections and access to copious free information via this dynamic tool.  

Check your LinkedIn several times a week and be active on a consistent basis.  In essence, if you want your LinkedIn to work for you, you have to work your LinkedIn.  This doesn’t mean spending hours of time on it.  Just 10 minutes, three times a week will be sufficient.  You can build a great group of connections and stay up to date with your profile, while proactively managing your career, business or job search.  To your success!

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 numerous 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, Interviews, Job Search, Networking, Personal Branding
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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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