I learned about  CareerBrander.com through a friend of mine and then talked with Ian Levine, the company’s founder and CEO. He told me that his vision was to create an easy way for job seekers to brand and market themselves online. The site offers resume software (including templates as well as writing tips built directly into the software), a personal website creation tool, and business cards.  The site also offers information on social networking and financial matters.

While the cost is usually $149 for 3 months, and $9.95 per month, Ian gave me a discount code to pass on to you. The code “newc70off” provides $70 off the sign up, thus $79 for the first 3 months.  If you decide to try it, please tell us about your success!

TAGS: online tools. job seekers

I believe in assets -  of the wallet and of the heart.  Let’s take a moment to count the one’s of the heart and why we should count on them.  

I was the recipient of an extremely nurturing form of perfectionism that came from the loving hands of my 20-year old mother.  Vivien (Vicki) Baxter married my Dad William (Bill) Dickerson (with her parents’ permission) three weeks before her 17^th birthday.  When I was born, I became her real life doll and she took exemplary care of me.  Everything she did for me and with me was as perfectly orchestrated as she could make it.

Perfection had been an important and early discipline for this child bride to master.  Though she was the teenage wife of a young Army/Air Force lieutenant who was just a few years her senior, she was a military wife now – in the midst of “older women” already in their 30s! 

Her perfection for being stylishly appropriate was one of my Mom’s greatest assets.  She practiced what she learned on me.  Where did she learn this grown up sense of the life and style she wanted to provide me?  From my Dad. 

 The story goes:  A few weeks after they were married, he arrived home to change into his military dress uniform and pick up Mom for a squadron party.  He found her dressed like the 17-year old that she was – in her best pleated skirt, white Angora sweater, matching socks and black Mary Jane shoes.  Dad told her she looked beautiful and that he’d like her to save the outfit to wear when just the two of them went out to dinner because in the Air Force there was a sort of uniform for wives too.  “The older women usually wear a cocktail dress,” he said.  “Let’s go get one for you!”

 And so it was that every Friday of those early months of my Mother’s married life that my Dad would take her shopping for her “uniforms”.  One Friday it was for hats.  Another it was for shoes.  The next – for suits.  Yet another for purses and so on.   And so it was with that history and evolution of my Mother’s perfectionism into which I was born and grew up. 

My parents have been gone nearly six years now – first Mom then Dad six months later.  They’d been married 61 years.  This story is always a special memory to me for how tenderly Bill brought Vicki into the world of older – women of a certain age.

 It was this environment that taught me to recognize the value of different kinds of assets in our lives.  Money is an asset and certainly matters.  We should make deposits into our savings and retirement accounts on a regular and committed basis.  

But memories matter, too.  They’re priceless assets and should be considered valuable deposits into our emotional bank accounts.

 Here’s to your health and wealth!

TAGS: Assets, emotional assets, mothers, parents

I recently spoke with Paul Hill about a new website he’s launched with colleagues, Job Search Intelligence. You cannot afford to look for a job (or to ask for a raise) without investing some time on this site.

Why?

Using “state of the art” methodology (the statisticians involved have serious credentials!), the salary calculator guides you through a series of questions specific to:

• Where you work ─ not only state but the region. For example, if you live in New York, there’s a big difference between what you’ll be able to earn if you work in New York City rather than in Albany.

• The job category ─ e.g. financial specialists, business operations or food services (there are 24 categories in all)

• The specific job description ─ the descriptions are directly tied to the job category

• Your education level ─ if you have a college degree or higher, the calculator factors in: where you went to school as well as your major (and goes one step further to ask you, “How relevant is your degree to the Job Description you are seeking?” and even your grade point average!

• Your work experience

• Your foreign language fluency, if any

• Your credit score

• Your current salary

Once you complete the questionnaire, you immediately receive a comprehensive report that gives you , among other very useful information, a “Market Ranking” (comparison of how you stack up relative  to others seeking the same job in your geographic area), a “Salary Index” and even a “Best Region” suggestion ( good places for people seeking the kind of position you’re seeking.

Paul told me that in certain occupations, gender and race will affect compensation by as much as 30%. So the fact that the Salary Index includes a comparison number for those not impacted by gender or racial bias is particularly useful for women and minorities.

The service is free of charge to job seekers and no registration is required.

The Job Search Intelligence site is absolutely the best site I’ve seen ─ the quality of the datasets, the specificity of the information required and the excellence of the report it generates ─ lead me to recommend it without hesitation.  As I’ve written before, good information is critical for women when they negotiate compensation.

TAGS: benchmarking salary, compensation, salary, salary sites

Even though the job market is ugly, don’t sell yourself short. Marty Orgel made the point recently in The Wall Street Journal that answering the inevitable interview question about salary requirements is tougher than ever. Marty recommended the same salary sites that you read about here right at The Thin Pink Line back in July, 2008.

TAGS: benchmarking salary, compensation. gender wage gap, salary sites

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Cleo Thompson, Executive Producer of ‘“Closing the Gender Gap: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future”.  She had the vision to take her firm’s commitment to women more public and to make it accessible to others though a film.

This thought-provoking film includes interviews with thought leaders from business, academia and politics who encourage businesses to think strategically about the issues that impact women in the workplace now and in the future as a business imperative.

PwC’s Global CEO Sam DiPiazza comments:

“There is no doubt that the global economic picture in 2050 will look very different from today. In addition to economic change, we are going through a period of huge social transformation. The leading companies of the world in 2050 will be those that have found ways to create opportunities for women throughout the organization all the way to the top. They have no choice – the fierce battle for talent means they need to use every resource they have to its full potential – and that includes women.”

Very impressive indeed when a global company renowned for its emphasis on talent management takes the lead to educate other organizations about the importance of retaining and promoting women as a business strategy. Not just a “nice to do” but a “must do”.

I have talked with many women who work for firms that still do not provide the tools and resources to support women who aspire to senior and executive roles. And even some of the firms that do, don’t take the next step ─ to hold executives accountable for results. If you work for a company that hasn’t made the right kinds of investment in women, I suggest you share the link to the film with your colleagues.

And for companies who have started on the journey, there is no doubt that the economic crisis will provide a temptation to cut back on gender initiatives in place currently. Don’t wait until it is too late; share the link to the PwC’ film with whomever holds the purse strings in your firm. You may be able to help them to stave off a bad decision with the solid information the film offers.

Thanks, PwC!

TAGS: business case for advancing women, investing in women, women's initiatives

I read a disturbing statistic the other day─ people are much more likely (almost 50% more likely) to lie when using email to communicate than they are when using snail mail. Hmmm.  The results of study were published in a paper titled,  “Being Honest Online: The Finer Points of Lying in Ultimatum Bargaining”, co-authored by Lubia Belkin (Lehigh University), Terri Kurtzberg (Rutgers University) and Charles Naquin (DePaul University).

Kurtzberg commented:

“These findings are consistent with our other work that shows that e-mail communication decreases the amount of trust and cooperation we see in professional group-work, and increases the negativity in performance evaluations, all as opposed to pen-and-paper systems. People seem to feel more justified in acting in self-serving ways when typing as opposed to writing.”

While the sample size was small (48 MBA students at Lehigh University) and the findings limited to comparing email with traditional written communication, it made me wonder about implications for negotiation.

I’ve been concerned for awhile that the ubiquitous use of email as a method for people to communicate means that all too often, rather than pick up the phone or meet n person, people negotiate via email. I’ve asked groups with whom I’ve spoken why this is case.

(more…)

TAGS: email, Negotiation, negotiators

You don’t have to be leading the meaning to be concerned about the engagement level at the meeting. Any time you have a speaking role, you need to be thinking about how to compete with “Blackberry Obsession” as well as sleep deprivation for people’s attention.

Suggestions:

Share the stage — think carefully about the information you need to disseminate. Don’t default to the standard “tell” format is another way that makes sense. For example, if you need to report on your team’s progress on a project, structure the report by asking other members of the team to cover certain topics.

Benefits:

• people tend to pay more attention when they know they will be speaking
• a variety of voices/styles is more interesting than one voice alone
• people always find information more interesting when it is facilitated from them rather than told to them

Make it easy for people to contribute. For example, if you are communicating news about changes in the organization, you might encourage participation by providing some information and, rather than asking a closed question, (”Do you have any questions?), ask an open question instead (”What questions do you have?” Or “What are your reactions?”.

Benefits:

• when you ask questions, you invite people to speak up; generally, they rise to the occasion
• when you ask open questions (those which can’t be answered by one word or one phrase answer), you make room for people to take the conversation in a direction that is useful to them

Once you’ve asked your question, wait for an answer. There is nothing that shuts people down faster than a person who answers her own questions. It takes people a bit of time to formulate an answer to a question; don’t preempt them!

TAGS: demonstrating leadership, keeping people engaged, meetings. leadership

Whether you employ one person or one thousand people, you need to find the right person for the job(s) you do have.  Here are some tricks we use in our office to increase the likelihood of hiring that right person:

1.  Write down the 5 – 7  most important characteristics for success on the job.  That’s characteristics, not qualifications.   People are far more likely to fail if they don’t have the characteristics needed to succeed in the job and your company culture.  If you’re looking for someone who thinks of their feet, is able to multi-task, and is great with customers be sure to prepare questions that will enable you to observe those behaviors.  For example, don’t ask, “Can you think on your feet” (who is going to say no?).  Instead, throw out several questions in quick succession and see how agile the candidate is in responding to them.  If they get flustered, they most likely won’t think on their feet in the real situation either. 

2.  When advertising, provide your company website somewhere in the ad (in your e-mail address is perfect) and request a cover letter along with a resume.  Now you’re looking for a few things:  did they go the extra mile and look up your company on the internet before responding? Did they provide the cover letter? If so, was it well written and geared toward your job?  If the answer is no to any one of those questions you may have someone who will only do what’s needed and not much more.  They go to the bottom of my list.

3.  E-mail a short pre-interview questionnaire to further narrow the field of those you have an interest in.  We ask questions like why does this particular job appeal to you, describe how you handled a difficult boss or customer, and how would your last boss describe you?  You’d be surprised how many people don’t bother to answer.  Cross them off my list entirely.  Those who do answer have now provided further evidence of their ability to write — and think. 

4.  Conduct initial telephone interviews.  Some people look great on paper but this way of blind interviewing gives you an idea of how they communicate verbally.  If possible, have them call you at a pre-scheduled time.  This will give you an idea of how punctual or responsible they are.  In my experience, one in four candidates doesn’t call at all.   The list is dwindling. 

5.  Observe and document behaviors, not just answers.  It’s true that actions speak more loudly than words.  If a candidate is lethargic, speaks so slowly that you want to pull the words out of their mouth, or so quickly that you can’t understand them it’s all grist for the mill.  If I have a position that requires one of those behaviors it’s a good thing.  Otherwise, behavior at the extremes rarely yields a valuable employee in the long-term. 

TAGS: hiring, interview techniques, Interviewing candidates

We at the Thin Pink Line get feedback that readers like the combination of “news you can use” and commentary on current events from women’s perspectives.  You too can get positive feedback about your communications if you follow the same guidelines Carol, Kathleen, Liz, and I use:  balance the big picture and the details.  We know that some people like ideas, concepts and theory while others like practical tools and tips, so we mix it up.  Here are 3 easy tips for how you can do the same for more powerful communications in your work setting:

1.  Prepare for every presentation you make — and remember that every time you open your mouth or prepare a written communique it’s a presentation.  Think about the two or three most important things you want people to take away and keep your message focused on just those.  You’ve heard me say it before: short sounds confident. 

2.  Do your homework.  My 7th grade science teacher, Hans Selye, used to tell us, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”  I never forgot that (and that was quite a while back!).  Regularly reading professional journals, newspapers, and magazines (my favorite is The Week) keeps your mind agile and open to new ideas.  It also helps make for sparkling party conversation.

3.  Brainstorm ideas with people who think differently than you.  If you know you’re an “idea person” who has difficulty communicating the tangible benefits of your ideas, talk to someone who’s good at it and ask for help in synthesizing your concepts for crisp communication.  Conversely, if you tend to get bogged down in the weeds, look to those who are always coming up with new ways of approaching old problems for help in assessing the bigger picture. 

Make yours a great week-end. 

TAGS: business communication, Communication Skills, influence with impact

I had dinner recently with a cousin; she mentioned how difficult it is for her to manage all the demands on her time.  I shared this matrix (inspired by Steven Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) with her:

Here’s how you can use this tool to keep your focus and accomplish the things that are important to do: (more…)

TAGS: career cache, focus, Stephen Covey, time, ways to work healthy, Women at Work