Favorite Friday Job Search advice from Kung Fu Panda (Kung Fu Panda 2 is coming out)

Favorite Friday Job Search advice from Kung Fu Panda (Kung Fu Panda 2 is coming out) I LOVED Kung Fu Panda when it came out. I think I watched it about 8 times.  Each time I watched it I pulled out ideas for life, for the job search, for career management. Kung Fu Panda 2 is coming out, so I wanted to share an old post from November 17, 2008, titled Kung Fu Panda and Your Career. In this post I shared 8 things I learned from Kung Fu Panda, and how they relate to YOUR career. Enjoy! Favorite Friday Job Search advice from Kung Fu Panda (Kung Fu Panda 2 is coming out) I LOVED Kung Fu Panda when it came out. I think I watched it about 8 times.  Each time I watched it I pulled out ideas for life, for the job search, for career management. Kung Fu Panda 2 is coming out, so I wanted to share an old post from November 17, 2008, titled Kung Fu Panda and Your Career. In this post I shared 8 things I learned from Kung Fu Panda, and how they relate to YOUR career. Enjoy! Favorite Friday Job Search advice from Kung Fu Panda (Kung Fu Panda 2 is coming out) I LOVED Kung Fu Panda when it came out. I think I watched it about 8 times.  Each time I watched it I pulled out ideas for life, for the job search, for career management. Kung Fu Panda 2 is coming out, so I wanted to share an old post from November 17, 2008, titled Kung Fu Panda and Your Career. In this post I shared 8 things I learned from Kung Fu Panda, and how they relate to YOUR career. Enjoy!

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese Heres What Managers are Doing Wrong When Trying to Implement Change

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese Here's What Managers are Doing Wrong When Trying to Implement Change No organization these days can afford to ignore the fact that change has become a permanent part of the business landscape. Those who are not prepared totransform quicklymay find themselves left behind. But research finds that even when organizations embrace change management, theyre falling short. Specifically, astudyby the Katzenbach Center at Strategy (formerly Booz Co.) found that 48% of change initiatives fail because companies lack the skills to ensure that change can be sustained over time. Further, the study found that only 54% of major change initiatives are successful, which can be costly not only financially but in how it adversely affects the company culture and employee engagement and productivity. Management guru Peter Drucker once said that half of the leaders he met did not need to learn what to do they needed tolearn what to stop doing. So, heres a look at what leaders and organizations are doing wrong when it comes to change management and how to fix it. 1. Asking for too much. Among the biggest obstacles to successful change cited by respondents in the survey is change fatigue. In others words, workers are asked to take on too many changes at one time. This can occur when a change is rolled out with little planning, or rushed along to meet a deadline or pressures from senior leaders. Managers also can cause problems when they eagerly embrace theideaof change but quickly abandon it when things dont go smoothly. They begin to blame others, which quickly leads to disillusionment and fatigue among the teams. The fix: Culture is critical. The survey finds that even though 84% agree its critically important, less than half believe their companies do a good job of managing culture. This underscores the need for a more holistic approach to change. Companies need to find a way to implement change that fits with the existing culture so that it doesnt overwhelm workers and seem forced or contrived. Before asking workers for too much too soon, leaders need to think carefully about how they drive and sustain change if theywant change initiatives to succeed. 2. Managers lack the right skills.Change efforts often cant go the distance because those in charge of leading them lack the necessary abilities to reach the finish line. There is often doubt and confusion among employees when faced with new initiatives, and they (read more here)

3 Ways to Prepare Your Clients for the Progression Question

3 Ways to Prepare Your Clients for the Progression Question “How can I progress from this role?” is one question that can send a shiver down the spine of a hiring manager in an interview. Many interviewers still tear their hair out if they believe that the candidate is already talking about leaving a role they haven’t even been offered yet. Well, according to Thomas International, 52% of millennials consider career progression as their main priority when job searching. If this is the case, interviewers are going to continue to come up against the progression question time and time again. First things first: career progression means different things to different people. For some, it’s all about the salary; for others, it could be learning a new skill. Once the interviewee has answered the question about what progression means to them, the client can tailor their own response accordingly. Here are a few ways you can help your client manage this question when they’re next asked by a candidate in an interview. 1. Lateral career paths If your client uses a career ladder to mark progression, it’s time to start educating them about a big change in business thinking. The career ladder clearly lays out a hierarchical structure the employee should follow, with promotion meaning another step up to the next rung. However, many huge corporations like Google and Toyota now adhere to a flat business structure as a rule, to great success. Instead of moving ‘up’, many people are moving sideways or diagonally into roles which aren’t in their traditional path. Your clients can benefit from an ambitious candidate by moving them laterally within their own company. For example, if the candidate is interviewing for an events job and wants to know where their career can take them, your client could talk through the opportunities available in sales, marketing or communications. The candidate will then leave, satisfied they have multiple options to grow within your client’s company, and your client doesn’t feel tripped up by the question. 2. Special projects and committees If there are opportunities to set up special projects or committees within your client’s company, these can also act as a way for a candidate to learn new skills and gain experience in a different area. For example, are there sustainability, corporate social responsibility or social committees within the client’s workplace? If your client is hiring a PA, for example, projects might include helping the operations team manage an office move or working closely with the marketing team on a large-scale event. Encourage your client to talk about these business activities during the interview so the candidate is aware of all the available opportunities to learn new skills. 3. Flexible job descriptions As recruiters, we know there are occasions â€" with some clients for certain jobs â€" to send a range of candidates with differing experiences and skills. Often, this is because there has been a change in the structure or the client is reorganizing a team. In these situations, having a flexible job description makes it possible for the client to shape the job depending on who they meet. If a candidate has a specialized skill, such as a second language or advanced PowerPoint, your client can identify it in the interview and talk through how that skill might be incorporated into their job description â€" and the progression that ensues as a result. For example, a second language might open the doors to work with international clients, and their PowerPoint prowess might enable them to work with a design team on their creative presentations.

5 Reasons Why Active Candidates Are Perfect for Startups

5 Reasons Why Active Candidates Are Perfect for Startups Employers and recruiters tend to prefer passive candidates because they have the right skill sets, have the right qualifications and have a history of good employment. But for a startup working environment, could active candidates be the ideal  employee? When it comes down to it, what you want to hire is the right person with the rights skills at the right level. But when you enter the market with your  startup, the budget is often an issue. So hiring the ideal employee isnt always possible. So Im going to make a case for active candidates, and why they are exactly what a start-up needs. 1. Active candidates are more hungry Because an active candidate is out there in the market looking for their next role, hiring them would mean you would be getting an individual ready to go. The Polling Company finds that 70% of talent acquisition leaders believe that active candidates have better motivational drive than passive candidates. When a candidate has a genuine  interest in a job, then you have hit the jackpot. As long as they have the right skills and ambition, they really dont have to have the wealth of experience you think they need. 2. Active candidates are receptive to change Activate candidates are generally found to be much more motivated to make a change in their lives, hence the reason for actively seeking out a new role. The business direction in start-ups, or even SMEs, can change quite often. One day you might be a content marketing agency, the other your a recruitment marketing agency. So you need candidates who not only are open to change, but are driven by it. 3. The hiring process can drag out with passive candidates When hiring passive candidates, you will need to be doing a lot of persuading and enticing. Active candidates make themselves easier to find and easier to get in contact with. More so, activate candidates would be ready to ready to go right now, For a startup, it would be ideal to hire people who can start quickly because of the speed at which the business is operating in. 4. Passive candidates can be more expensive Furthermore, while the process of hiring a passive candidate, who I agree would have better  job experience than the active candidate your considering, is dragging out. You will more often than not find yourself having to offer a higher salary than expected because the passive candidate will know they are a wanted commodity. 5. Being passive doesnt mean youre a superstar Forbes report that some managers and CEOs are biased against unemployed candidates because they believe that only bad employees get laid off or fired. But honestly, it takes a lot of guts to look for a new role and new challenge. Employers and recruiters, in my opinion, favor passive candidates because they dont want to take the risk. Hiring a passive candidate is the easy way out. You could say that the very best employees are already employed. But as John Feldmann says in his article Active vs. Passive Candidate: Recruiting on Baseless Merit, There are few employees who are lucky enough to retire without ever having experienced a day of unemployment. So as a recruiter or employer, I implore you to  consider active candidates when it comes hiring for startups. The hunger and flexibility an active candidate would bring could be the catalyst your startup needs!

This is Why Being Broken Rocks!! CareerMetis.com

This is Why Being Broken Rocks!! â€" CareerMetis.com Original Image Source â€" Depositphotos.comBeing broken is the best winning “strategy”.The stereotype of success these days is based on the notion of perfection; flawlessness that people believe is somehow responsible for yielding consistent brilliant results.Successful business strategies are described as ones that get it right the first time. They have amazing insight at the outset to predict with uncanny accuracy what people will desire in products and services.evalAnd their creativity unleashes the imagination of the crowd who flock in ridiculously long line ups to buy the latest and the greatest.Successful people are portrayed in elegant attire, sporting a body image devoid of any unsightly signs of the ordinary.Their body image exudes the winner’s attitude and destiny.Does anybody buy this?Does anyone really believe that incredible business performance is a function of getting it right the first time, or that physical perfection is the necessary precondition to personal s uccess?There are no silver bullets to success in my experience.Rather, success is normally achieved Here are 6 reasons why being broken will get you where you want to go and why being beautiful, while a fashionable notion, is a non-starter for capturing the prize.1) If you’re broken you know that the future “never unfolds as it should” Broken prepares you for the journey of change that every new idea is destined to endure. Broken implies imperfection at the outset, and this is the reality of virtually 99.99% of the solutions we create to the challenges we face.There are very few immaculately conceived plans and strategies that produce the exact results expected; every plan is flawed in some waywithdegrees of imperfection that are realized only when the real world does not conform to the assumptions made about it â€" actual product sales, for example, rarely mirror their original forecast.So if you enter the race to win knowing full well that your plan is flawed in some way Peo ple who assume their plan will work are not prepared to shift when it doesn’t; their feet are stuck in the mud, unable to recover from unexpected body blows.2) If you’re broken you know action speaks louder than wordsBroken demands action. Broken can’t be productive by pontificating or exercising the intellect; by merely thinking about what has to be done to create a higher level of performance and better results â€" the brain can’t DO anything.The only way better outcomes are produced is by taking decisive action in the face of uncertainty; without knowing if what you do will produce the result you want.Broken promotesthe strategy of trying); making as many attempts as you can to accommodate the impact of real-world events on your plan, because if you don’t try, little happens in terms of returning to winning ways.You get stuck believing that eventually, your original plan will see that light of day.“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again , but expecting different results.”â€" Albert EinsteinBroken demands that you act first and think second and that you TRY incessantly.3) If you’re broken you know you have to work harder than othersBroken requires hard, excruciating and often painful work. Broken can’t be fixed by sleight-of-hand or by finesse; the appropriate solution often cannot be found neatly or elegantly.Successful broken strategies are not produced by sophisticated algorithms that cleverly manipulate the independent variables at play, rather they are created by hard work put in by individuals who are unafraid to get dirty.Original Image Source â€" Depositphotos.com4) If you’re broken you know that you’ve got to constantly keep movingevalBroken requires competence in juggling. Broken solutions are rarely singular; they’re not produced by a single cause.For example, an underperforming product rarely happens because of one breakdown in the go-to-market chain. It’s not just a price, customer communi cations, supply or value proposition issue but is most likely a mixture of all of them to varying degrees.Fixing broken, therefore requires a balancing touch to skillfully mix a bit of this with a bit of that â€" revise the value proposition to communicate uniqueness among the competition, adjust the price accordingly and modify customer communication tactics.Broken generally requires synthesis and integration; a TWEAK mentality that applies many potential solutions simultaneously rather than rely on the traditional sequential approach ofTry this Study the results Try something else.eval5) If you’re broken you know that you will make mistakes and you must learn how to turn them to your advantageBroken creates insane loyalty.evalThe popular notion is that getting things right the first time is the ultimate goal; avoiding mistakes and errors is the way to achieve high levels of performance.In business avoiding mistakes eliminates the need for rework which in turn mitigates against margin dilution.In one’s career, when you don’t make mistakes your veneer as an unblemished professional is maintained.Well, I’m afraid to say that mistakes are here to stay â€" humans and technology don’t always perform the way we expect â€" so we need to find a way to leverage them for success.Being broken forces us to do just that. It prepares us for the fact that events will not always go the way we intended, and it drives us to salvage something from the screw-up that will place is in a better position than if the mistake never happened.Being broken makes us recovery experts. It teaches us that there IS a way to turn a soured event into an amazingly successful experience. It teaches about the power of surprise and the unexpected.6) If you’re broken you know you must depend on relationships with othersBroken results in a deep respect for relationships because if you don’t have a circle of trusted friends you’re disadvantaged.Broken people understand they can’t ac hieve anything substantial as an “only child” but rather through the collective efforts of their tribe.Broken is real; beauty is superficial. Real delivers results; beauty is a distraction.

Searching for a Job When You Have a Disability - Sterling Career Concepts

Searching for a Job When You Have a Disability Searching for a Job When You Have a Disability Approximately 20 percent of U.S. adults have a disability, according to the CDC. Many of these people are fully capable of working but are either uncomfortable with looking or dont know how to start. Learn how to look past the disability and find work you love to do with these suggestions. You are an important part of the workforce and employers are missing out on what you can do for them. Learn About Your Rights Your first step is to learn about your rights as a person with a disability. You are not a disabled person, but a person with unique qualities that may or may not be accounted for in the standard working world. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) sets out the guidelines for how employers should treat you. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing businesses to adhere and acknowledge these guidelines. Reviewing the EEOC guidelines will get you ready to face employers in your job search. Tap Into Online Resources A few online searches will uncover many beneficial resources from how to start your job search to how to manage your disability in the work place. The Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER) provides articles on how to handle yourself in an interview and when to discuss your disability. Helpful information can come from various places. Laser Spine Instituteâ€"an innovative minimally invasive surgery center that has helped more than 40,000 patientsâ€"features motivational videos on their Youtube channel that discuss how people with debilitating back issues were able to resume their work life. The Lapekas HR Consulting website discusses how employers should interview a person with a disability. This gives you a chance to see the process from the interviewers side, and prepare potential answers accordingly. Disclosure of a Disability One of your major concerns is likely when and how to tell a potential employer about your disability. This is something you will have to evaluate on a case-by-case basis, says Diversity World, because each employer will be different. Some companies openly advertise that they accommodate all types of disabilities, while other companies have never taken on such a person and dont know how. Employers look for people with the right skills to do the work. So one rule is to sell yourself on your skills and abilities first, before you disclose your challenges. If you visit an online job fair or apply to positions online, you have the opportunity to present yourself and skills to qualify for the position. It may first come up when setting up an interview. For example, you may discover the interview is held on an upper floor and there is no elevator for your wheelchair. Or you may have a hearing impairment and need the assistance of a sign-language interpreter. You can make this a positive experience by helping the business address these issues, showing them you take initiative and dont let your challenges get in the way. In the no-elevator situation, tell the recruiter you use a wheelchair and ask if they would meet with you on the first floor for the interview. In the hearing-impaired situation, tell them you have access to people who can do the interpretation and you could give them the information or set them up yourself. The EEOC requires employers to make reasonable accommodation for you. But when you offer to help, you show that you wont let anything stop you, a valuable trait in any employee. Guest Author :  Robert Lake Robert is a caregiver who helps patients recover from back surgery.

Synonyms For Resume - Know What to Use to Describe Your Skills

Synonyms For Resume - Know What to Use to Describe Your SkillsSynonyms for resume abound on the internet, and the terminology is difficult to decipher. When you are reviewing hundreds of articles and e-books, you don't want to find yourself jumping from one method to another when it comes to preparing your resume. If you are unsure of the best ways to prepare a resume, it's time to read some article on this topic.First, let's talk about the various things that you can use to prepare your resume. The first step is to define your career goals. This will help you determine what you should put on your resume. Also, this will help you to put in the skills and education you have already acquired.Next, make sure that you use only the information that is relevant to your job position. There is nothing worse than a resume that has little or no relevance to your position. The key is to know your job position, and focus on the skills that you can provide to your prospective employer.When prepar ing your resume, you need to understand that the cover letter is a key part of the entire package. This should be written in a professional sounding manner. You want to make sure that the letter stands out from all of the other generic cover letters, so remember to write something that will grab the reader's attention.To properly greet the potential employer, you want to incorporate your name and contact information. It is always a good idea to leave some space between your name and your contact information. Next, you want to tell the potential employer why they should hire you. Many employers are attracted to someone who has a strong and passionate personality.The last thing that you want to do is to thank them for their time! You want to express your gratitude by acknowledging that you have the ability to show a prospective employer your best traits. By thanking them for their time, you show them that you were hired for your qualities, not your title.One of the most commonly used synonyms for resume is resumed. It is important to have a clear picture of what you want to accomplish and the skills you want to display to a potential employer. This will help you write a great resume that will help you get hired.Using synonyms for resume will save you time and allow you to focus on the crucial part of the job application process. It also helps you to focus on writing a resume that is truly valuable. You can always tweak the content of your resume to better suit your needs, but it will be a waste of time if it does not provide any tangible results.