Resolutions? Not From Me!

Why do people make resolutions? I am so tired of hearing things about losing weight, quitting smoking, drinking less, attending more religious services, etc. We all know that this is a bunch of hogwash! Face it folks, we are who we are and only one person could change us. Most of us are not strong enough to push ourselves.

However........................I do have some annual resolutions every professional should abide by whether currently employed or not:

1. Update your resume at least once a year. Even if you have held the same job for 10 or more years, chances are something has changed about your duties or skill sets.
2. Do at least one thing this year to enhance your skills. This could be attending a seminar, learning a new piece of software, or reading an interesting book.
3. Find some way to make yourself noticed in a positive way by your superiors, colleagues or internal/external customers or clients.
4. Look at yourself in the mirror on the first day of the new year and ask what you may do to be the best at your job.
5. Set some performance goals by quarter and review them as the time arrives.

Have a successful and healthy 2009!!

It's Not My Job!

"It's not my job." "I don't know. " "We don't carry them here. " "Go ask someone else."

Yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the weak economy and use a gift card from a major department store. Should I mention their name? Why not! - Macy's. I wanted a package of basic men's hankerchiefs. My first thought was to check by the socks. A young lady there told me to try accessories. The lady working the floor there told me she was pretty sure they stopped selling them years ago! I asked her if she could check and she said she was too busy straightening neckties. Just down the way was a young man who said try behind the register area in men's sportwear. That area was jammed with people angry at the 2 staffers who were having a private chat in their own dialect and being rude to all. I calmly asked if they could aim me at handerkerchiefs and one grunted that they had no idea and turned away. Finally, I saw a manager roaming around and told him how disappointed I was. He grimaced and muttered about the company hiring lazy help and aimed me back where the 2 rude people were and told me to walk through their station to a rack full of handkerchiefs!

Sadly, I wish I could say this has only happened to me at Macy's. The reality is that I have had similar experience at supermarkets, electronics stores, restaurants, etc. I have also gone in big circles on the phone with AOL, my local hospital, insurance companies, Bank of America, Sprint, TMobile, etc.

Whenever possible, I get the names of those who treat me shabbily and make sure I report them as I move up the chain. Most of you probably are wondering what my point is by now. Big companies who decide to give job references will likely assign that task to someone in HR who simply pulls up performance reports. Many companies actually log the complaints made against your name and will probably find some way of giving a very non-committal reply that will put up flags. On a more local note, I once had someone with this type of attitude resign before I got the chance to dismiss her. Just a few months later, one of my counterparts at another facility called for an informal reference check. This person had lost her new job and heard of an opening and wanted back into our company. I assure you this did not take place.

Please remember that actions you take today will remain with you, in one way or another, for the rest of your career!!!

Requests?

Do you remember when the airwaves were filled with DJ's such as Cousin Brucie, Harry Harrison, Alison Steele, Vin Skelso, the Wolfman, Murray the K, and local favorites Steve Tapper, Tony Dee, etc? You could call them at almost anytime and here your favorite music played just when you wanted it?

I want you to treat this blog as a request line. It would be my pleasure to address topics related in any way to job seeking, interviewing, recruitment, etc. Please either reply to this blog or send email to hblevin58@gmail.com and I will attend to your requests as quickly as possible!

Reminder About LinkedIn

LinkedIn is growing by leaps and bounds. If you are not already signed up (free to use), I highly recommend doing so now. Employers are finding it easy to use and there are so many options such as interesting discussion groups. ways to search for jobs, ways to identify strong candidates.

I am so impressed with this service. Feel free to ask me to help you navigate the site.

Planning for the New Year

Unfortunately, I am hearing about too many friends and/or colleagues who have recently been downsized. Reasons vary from a facility being shut down to a larger company gaining control and pushing out the existing staff to one person being hired to (allegedly) do the work of 2 or 3 people who have been released. Companies are making some strange, knee jerk decisions.

The key is do not take it personally. Get yourself organized and into circulation as soon as possible. The next few weeks will be very quiet with not much happening until mid-January. That is actually a good thing as you have roughly a month to fine tune your presentation before hitting the market really hard. Let me know how I could help you.

Etc.

• Proofread your resumes now! I said, proofread your resumes now!!! More and more folks are competing for every job that becomes available. Do you really think anyone will hire a Chemcical Egineer, especially one who graduated for a universalty? I read at least five resumes today with absolutely horrible spelling errors.
• Old fashion networking is still a major part of job hunting. Make sure you have resumes and/or business cards with you at all times. You never know when a member of your house of worship, the coach of your child's soccer team or the person chat with on the train each day might have a job lead to share.
• Caroline Kennedy's attempt for nomination as Senator of NY makes me realize i have been around for a long time. I remember viewing her at her father's funeral on television as I was out of school that day and replaced kindergarten with watching one of the most solemn days in the history of our nation.

Quick Tip

Many people look at December as a dead month for job hunting. This is not necessarily correct! Though it may appear that every single decision maker is on vacation, some are actually working. take some shots at sending your resume out the next few things. Any hiring manager working will generally have time on their hands and might even review some resumes. As they say about the lottery, you have to play if you want to win!

The Fall Guy or the Culprit?

Sports of almost any type are among my favorite things to chat about but I refrain from using this blog as a forum. Once in a while, I am tempted to cross the line and chat sports here! My topic today is more about the business of sports, poor management and oversight, and holding onto your job.

Just in case you have been on a remote island without Internet, radio or television, you may not know that Bob Mulcahy was fired as the Athletic Director at Rutgers University this week. Mulcahy has been at RU for about 10 years during the twilight of a terrific sports management career. The big picture at RU looks great: stadium expansions, facilities upgrades, nationally ranked football and women's basketball teams, etc. A closer look reveals the deletion of sports like crew, fencing, and swimming; elimination of many other jobs across the university; lack of sufficient housing for students, etc. On top of that, very fishy deals were made under the table with coaches and Nelligan Sports was hired to manage the college's sports broadcasts. This is the same Nelligan that hired Mulcahy's son into an executive role and fired Bruce Johnson, the longtime voice of RU sports, in favor of younger announcers with a New York feel.

Mulcahy and his cronies say he is the fall guy for the RU President and Board of Governors who established the climate he worked within. My feeling is Mulcahy was totally at fault, did not care about the livelihoods and well beings of his staff, the students, and his colleagues and spared nothing to win in high profile sports. I would love to see performance appraisals during his tenure but I bet they do not exist!

New Search Engine

I just happened across a website that focuses on the southern part of New Jersey's job market. Check out www.jerseydeviljobs.com . Feel free to let me know your reactions after giving it a try!

Reference Checks

A recent situation caused me to start giving some new consideration to reference checks. I want to share some general thoughts aimed at employers first then will give some suggestions to candidates as well.

Employers beware! Most references listed on a job application are going to be positive since few people would be crazy enough to identify negative contacts (at least that is what you would suspect)! I once hired a young retail salesperson based on four glowing references. He arrived to work on the second day of training to tell me he had to go to court that afternoon as he was facing shoplifting charges against a former retail employer who was not listed on his resume. Even worse, he had a sealed juvenile record and had done time in a youth corrections center for shoplifting as well. I had gone so far as to call folks not listed as references and still did not get enough information.

Candidates beware! Many employers could give you a negative reference by simply refusing to answer questions. It is best to secure the name of a positive reference before giving it out to perspective employers. Ensure they are comfortable endorsing you and your work abilities with others. Also, all temporary and/or contract work should be verified by the company who signed your paycheck, in other words, the agency who assigned you, not the actually company where you did the work.

I hope this was useful to many of you!

Suggestion for CPA's

There seems to be a market for temporary CPA's and may firms specializing in tax preparation. My assumption is that more people are heading to professionals for assistance to ensure every penny is properly accounted for this year. While few firms will talk about employment past April 15 at this moment, worst case scenario is you will earn a paycheck through the first quarter of 2009. Best of luck to all who try this!!!