Tag Archives: employee

Overcoming The Painful, ‘Tell Me About Yourself’, Interview Question

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The Wrong Response

There are many ways to respond to this question correctly and just one wrong way: by asking, “What do you want to know?” That tells me you have not prepared properly for the interview and are likely to be equally unprepared on the job. You need to develop a good answer to this question, practice it and be able to deliver it with poise and confidence.

The Right Response

To help you prepare, I spoke to a number of career coaches on how best to respond when faced with this question. Heed the career advise that follows to ace this opener:

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Improving Employee Retention NOW!

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In a down economy, employees have fewer opportunities to take a job at another company, but entrepreneurs would be remiss to take their fingers off the pulse of company morale simply because employees have fewer options. “Companies that don’t think about [employee retention], that basically rest on their laurels and think ‘the economy will take care of us, where are they going to go?’ Those are the companies that, as soon as the labor market picks back up, their turnover rates are going to go from 5 percent to 50 percent and it will happen overnight,” says Mark Murphy, author of The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention and CEO of Leadership IQ, a Washington D.C.-based executive education firm.

So what’s one of the biggest reasons people quit their jobs? “One of the major reasons is being dissatisfied with their supervisor,” says Linda Argote, a professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon and editor-in-chief of Organization Science. And in the cramped confines of a small business, that relationship can create even more of a strain. “In bigger companies there are more opportunities to move to other jobs if you’re dissatisfied with a particular supervisor but like the firm, whereas smaller companies may have less options so they run the risk of losing the employee,” Argote adds.

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How A Temp Position Can Build Your Career

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Whether you are the lone temp, or working with other temps, temporary work is a hub for opportunities and conversation.

More often than people realize, a temporary opportunity turns into a fantastic long term career. When you are working in a company on a contract, you should look at the position as a working interview for future opportunities.  Those opportunities don’t necessarily always come from the company your at but by word of mouth.

I can honestly say, while I own my successes, word of mouth is what gave me the initial chance to prove myself. I didn’t come in with a specific skill set, I came in with great recommendations on other projects and learned as I went. People gave me the opportunity to grow my skills because of what they had heard about my work ethic, personality, networking abilities, etc.  I know that I am not unique.  You can turn a ho-hum position into a life long journey of successes as well, if you want.

What I suggest ::

1.  Get to know everyone in the company, and let them get to know you. What are their career goals? Where did they come from? How long have they been with ‘said’ company?  What other companies have they worked for?

2.  Work your tail off and show how committed you are.  You don’t have to be committed to a company necessarily ..but you do have to be committed to doing a great job on the assignment – to the end.

3.  Show interest for more. Get involved in networking events. This may take a bit of your free time but it will pay off.  Everyone knows someone who knows someone.  Get out there and meet those 2nd and 3rd connections.

4.  Finally, connect to all of your temporary co-workers on LinkedIn.  Request recommendations from them. Keep in touch with them long after your assignment.  As your career develops, so will theirs.  Those contacts may pay off big in 5 years.

Bottom line?  Take advantage of every opportunity that you are given.  Nothing is minimal unless you insist it to be.  The opportunities are out there and the time is yours.  Do as I did/do…. OWN IT!!!

LinkedIn:: Using It To Its Full Potential

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With more than 100 million users, LinkedIn is the most popular social network for professionals as well as one of the top social networks overall. Are you using it to its fullest potential? While Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+ have been generating the most buzz lately in the social media world, LinkedIn is a powerful platform that often gets underutilized or put on the back burner.

The truth is, LinkedIn can be extremely useful — especially when you’re aware of all the little hidden tricks that don’t get nearly enough exposure as they deserve. To help you master LinkedIn, below is our ultimate list of 20 awesome tricks you’ve likely overlooked.

20 Hidden LinkedIn Tricks

1. Claim your vanity URL. Make your profile look more professional and easier to share by claiming your LinkedIn vanity URL. Instead of a URL with a million confusing numbers at the end, it will look nice and clean like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelavaughan. Do so by going here and clicking “customize your public profile URL” down on the right-hand side.

Example :: www.linkedin.com/in/ShannonEckroth

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