Career Articles

By Sylvia Hepler

If you're unhappy with your current job, it may be time to consider these 10 important factors that indicate a bigger change is needed. When is it time to leave your job?

Thinking about leaving your job and actually doing it are two very different things.  While everybody has some bad days at work, you need to pay attention to symptoms like regular sleep disruption, constant fear of termination, physical and/or emotional illness, alcohol and drug use to cope, and chronic unhappiness.  If you are experiencing even one of these, you probably should consider a job change NOW.  Take a look at the following specific indicators and see which ones resonate strongly with YOU:

1.  You are bored, stale, and stuck.

Your alarm clock rings in the morning, and you push the snooze button twice.  You groan when you think about facing the day.  Once at work, you watch the clock and give in to every distraction that comes your way.

2.  You no longer support the organization’s mission, philosophy, and/or culture.

You find that you are trying to convince yourself that you can still work for this company despite the recent mission shift, growing philosophic differences, and/or unwanted culture changes.  You tell yourself that the misalignment doesn’t really matter, yet you feel like a fish out of water every day.

3.  You conclude that you are not well suited for your job.

You have the right skills, but you don’t like the work.  Although people regularly compliment your expertise and productivity, they have no idea how drained you feel while working to reach your goals.  You are tired of smiling and pretending that all is well.

4.  Your professional growth has stagnated where you are.

Your boss doesn’t offer you development opportunities such as attending conferences and seminars, signing up for online webinar trainings, or registering for college courses.  Further, your boss doesn’t take the time to invest in you through mentoring and coaching.

5.  You find reasons not to expand your skill set.

Although you realize that you could do an even better job if you learned an additional skill, you make excuses for choosing to get by with the skills you already have.  You look for work-arounds, dodge situations that require the needed skill, and/or tell yourself that you lack the time to learn something new.

6.  Your morale is low.

You discover that you are simply not motivated.  People ask you why you never smile.  You procrastinate about starting projects.  You only do what is expected and nothing more.

7.  Other people don’t respond favorably to you.

You notice that coworkers avoid you.  When you voice your opinions or provide input to conversations, people seem to resist your contributions.  When they see you in the hallway or in meetings, they ignore you, pretend you don’t exist, or treat you badly.

8.  You resent the work.

While you do your work and submit it on time, you know you harbor a negative attitude about it.  You frequently feel overwhelmed, and you “fight” all the responsibility you shoulder.  You think about how unjust it is that you appear to be carrying a bigger load than many of your peers.

9.  You resist the changes coming down the pike.

As your boss outlines certain departmental or organizational changes slated to go into effect within the next few months, you silently reject them—even if you know they will be positive and beneficial to everyone involved.  You decide that you don’t want to make these changes because they require effort you’d rather not expend.

10. You have stopped making a positive difference and being a positive influence.

You go to work and do your job, but you don’t go out of your way to add noticeable value to relationships, situations, and the overall culture.  You do what is expected of you—nothing more.

 If you see yourself in one or several of the above indicators, it’s probably time to take action.  Create an exit plan, set a time frame, and seek support for your big move.  Staying around for another year isn’t going to serve you, your colleagues, or your company.  Face the fact that you are no longer fully engagedArticle Submission, and muster the courage to cut the cord.

---------   

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sylvia Hepler, Owner and President of Launching Lives, LLC, is an executive coach based in South Central PA.  Her ideal clients are persons in management positions:  corporate, nonprofit, and business owners.  Her company mission is to support executives as they solve problems, develop leadership skills, and increase balance in their lives.  Sylvia offers three programs, any of which may overlap depending on client need:  First Class Management Program; Change, Loss, and Grief Program; and Career Development Program.  Her professional background includes:  extensive nonprofit management/leadership, public speaking, business writing, retail sales, and teaching.

Source: www.ArticlesFactory.com

By Kev Woodward

OK, so your CV was good enough to get your the interview - with these top tips you can take some of the stress out of interviews and free your mind so that you can beat the other candidates on the day.

Getting a new job can be stressful but with a systematic approach to planning you can really increase your chances of success. Alongside the more obvious attention you must give to the details of an interview, what to wear on the day and ensuring you arrive on time, etc, time and effort should also be given to preparing mentally for the interview.

This means acknowledging that you are likely to be one of several candidates with similar skills and experiences. It is also well worth remembering that many employers use a scoring system at interview, which means that each candidate is asked identical questions and then scored against the employers expected answer for that question. Your objective therefore is to score the highest, which may only mean stating one or two more points within each answer than the other candidates.

A good way of achieving this is to consider what questions you are likely to be asked - this is much easier than you think. For instance, interviewers will often ask you to 'outline your career history' or 'summarise your career to date' as a means of relaxing you. If you prepare in advance for this you can ensure that your answer includes the most important elements of your career and particularly those that are most relevant for the job you are applying for. In addition, because you start the interview well you will gain in confidence and are more likely to settle quickly into the remaining interview.

Likewise if you look closely at the job description or summary and the essential criteria of the job you have applied for, you will be able to put yourself in the place of the interviewer. This will allow you to think about the types of questions they are likely to ask that will highlight that you have the particular skills or experience they are looking for. These are most likely to be the behavioural type skills such as those associated with managing people, communicating or using your own initiative.

Make a list of the sorts of questions you are likely to be asked and then write down your answer, including a good example of when you demonstrated this skill either in a previous job or in a vocational situation. What you will find is that the same sort of answer can be applied to several different questions. This is important because at interview you are unlikely to be asked the questions exactly as you have prepared them, but you will be able to adapt your prepared answers to a number of different questions. Another worthwhile point to remember when you are developing your specimen answers (particularly to scenario type questions) is to apply any of the well documented management planning cycles; for instance PDSA. For example if you were asked how you would deal with an incident between two staff members you could apply PDSA as such;

    Plan: Think about your approach with each staff member and what you would need to ask each of them to establish the facts about the incident.
    Do: Meet with the staff members and ascertain the facts.
    Study: Consider the information received take senior or specialist advice.
    Act: Implement any action plan necessary to prevent a recurrence.

Equally you can use this same approach if you were planning to describe how you would go about implementing a new project or change to a work practice. Once you have been through the job description and written yourself a list of questions and specimen answers that include personal examples, start to get used to asking yourself the questions. It is really important that you talk out loud - ask the question and then answer it - this way you get used to projecting yourself well and speaking at an appropriate speed. Whilst this feels slightly bizarre, it really does work and can be done in places such as the carComputer Technology Articles, bath or shower as well as in more formal practice sessions. Once in the interview you will find that as soon as you start to speak you do so easily and with confidence. You will generally find that a large proportion of the questions you have planned for are asked in one form or another. Overall remember that it is often the smallest gap between the successful applicant and the other candidates and that attention to detailed preparation ahead of the interview will give you the greatest chance to come out on top.

Source: www.ArticlesFactory.com

By Joseph Chackery

Interview mistakes costing you multiple job offers.Mastering some techniques is guaranteed to increase your interview success.

We are currently facing one of the toughest job markets ever, and competition for the few jobs available is fierce! There is no margin for error when going on job interviews, and getting hired comes down to performing at near perfection.

A job interview is the first and most important step to secure a bright career in your life.  There are certain things you will want to plan and prepare in advance to make your interview a success.

The following tips will guide you through in preparing and presenting yourself for a job interview.  Just bear in mind that you will never get a second chance to make a first impression; therefore, it’s to be noted that you will want to do your best on preparing for your interview in advance.

1.    What you wear on your interview is most crucial, the appearance how you dress up to face your interviewer is very important.  Once you have selected your outfit, ensure it’s cleaned and pressed in addition to selecting appropriate shoes to match with your outfit – just wear them and see yourself or ask for the opinion of your friends.

2.    Read your resume once again for any missing points and add them at once.  Your skills and work experience are the important part that you should never miss to project in the resume.  They may pick things out from it and ask you to elaborate. Even though you may have a previous job experience listed, the interviewer may ask you to explain to test your actual knowledge at that job - and you’re responsible for providing an answer.

3.    You should always greet your interviewer with a smile and firm handshake. If you do this right, you will set off the right energy and the chances of the interview going well will increase.

4.    Be well prepared and get enough practice answering to the most common interview questions. If you don't know what these are, do your research.  You'll want to have your answers ready and practice them to make your interview a great success.

5.    Don't completely memorize your answers so they come out rehearsed, but have a clear idea of what you are going to say. When you are asked, you want your answer to come out intelligently and natural. Be open to other questions as well and really know what you can offer to the company.

6.    Research the company and the job position you are applying for. Write down any questions you may have about either so you can ask during the interview. If there any requirement of the job that you are unsure of, you should definitely ask during the interview. It always looks nice when you go into an interview with intelligent questions. It shows you put effort in preparing for the interview. However, never ask questions just to ask questions. The interviewer will see right through that. Your questions should be genuine and relevant.

7.    Find out the type of interview you will be going on. There are several common types of interviews such as one on one, group, and behavioral. You shouldn't assume you will get a certain one. Don't be afraid to ask your recruiter what kind of interview will have if you don't know. The interview will be more beneficial to both parties if you are prepared.

8.    Print out the directions to the interview and be on time. Allow enough time to get there and anticipate traffic. It's ok to be up to 10 minutes early, but no more than that. Otherwise, the interviewer may not be ready for you. Bring the phone number of your interviewer just in case you get lost or are going to be late. If you are going to be late, call to let the interviewer know.

Your job interview is the most important step of the job hiring process and you don't want to mess it up. Follow these tips and you will successfully know how to prepare for a job interview. Interviewers can tell whether or not a candidate has prepared for it or not and they will appreciate it if you did.

Source: www.ArticlesFactory.com

By Paddy Phillips

Rejection is never pleasant, but when it’s a job it can be even harder, because you may worry about your financial situation or your future.

Rejection is never pleasant, but when it’s a job it can be even harder because you may worry about your financial situation or your future. This is especially true if it’s your dream job, as you may be concerned that you will never achieve it, but it can be equally worrying if you are rejected for something like customer service.

There are a number of things to remember to help deal with job rejection, the main one being to not take it personally. The rejection is not a measure of your professional worth. Employers are inundated with applicants for any given job, even the specialised ones like a software architect, and the odds are that someone will be more suited than you, either through experience, qualifications or their personality matching the job better. What this also means is that you will be better than everyone else in a different working environment. Remember that you can be an outstanding professional who just wasn’t the perfect match for that particular role.

With this in mind, it’s important to keep it all in perspective. Employers consider many factors when deciding whom to employ, many of which are out of your control. It isn’t all down to your CV and wearing a nice suit on the day. Knowing this should help make it easier to handle the rejection.

Something else to remember is not to bring up the past. It’s easier said that done, as people tend to have a habit of remembering past rejections and failures when a new one occurs. It’s important not to do this though because it will only make you feel worse. Instead, focus on all your achievements and the positive things in your life. This will help increase your confidence to try for another job.

It’s also a good idea to ask yourself questions. This doesn’t mean interview yourself in preparation for an interview (although it is a good idea to ask friends or family to do this), but rather recollect the interview in your mind and ask yourself what you would have done differently, what you learnt from the process so you are better prepared next time, how you would have presented or handled yourself differently and so on. These questions will make you an even stronger candidate in the subsequent interview.

You may also want to consider asking for feedback from the employer. This is the same principal as asking yourself questions, but by getting specific feedback from the employer you will be able to address key areas that an employer is looking for, some of which may not have occurred to you. This will not be so useful if you were rejected solely because someone else was a better fit than you, but if it’s because of something you did (or didn’t) do within the interview, or a customer service related issue, then you can address it for your next time.

One option that some may consider worthwhile is hiring a careers coach. This is not for deciding what your best job would be, but is to increase your confidence in a supportive environment. A coach will also advise you on an action plan of achieving your goals and give you excellent pointers on how to improve your chances of success when in an interview.

Ultimately, it’s important to bear in mind that rejection is a natural part of the job search. It’s extremely rare to get offered the first job you apply for, so don’t let it affect you too much. The main lesson is to acknowledge that rejection is normal, work out how to improve your CV and interviewing techniqueComputer Technology Articles, and keep applying.

Source: www.ArticlesFactory.com