Maybe you saw the early warning signs: budget cuts, hiring freezes, key projects getting placed on hold. Or maybe you were caught completely off guard. Lay-offs in November seemed impossible, cruel. No company would lay people off just before the holidays, right?
If there is one career cliché that is overdue for retirement it is that of the corporate ladder. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a powerful image. I like the idea of always reaching higher in my work. If we aim high, stay focused and keep climbing, we rise, right? But ladders are also narrow, unstable and unforgivingly linear. Try to step sideways on the ladder and you’re going down – with a crash.
For Minnesota's Accounting and Finance Professionals, September is the Perfect Time to Start Looking
Today’s Minnesota jobs market favors candidates, but finding a job can still be a daunting prospect for many applicants. For ‘first time’ job seekers one of the most difficult aspects of the entire hiring process is salary negotiation.
Everyone, no matter who they are, from the office rookie right up to the President of an organization, makes mistakes at work. When you are a manager or a leader of a team, however, those mistakes are magnified. As a leader, whatever the reason for your error, it is vital that you are accountable and own up to your error.
Whether you’ve been in the full-time work force for a week or a couple of decades, you’ve probably noticed that there is no shortage of “career advancement” advice out there. But have you noticed that most of that advice is pretty narrow? So narrow, in fact, that it goes in one direction only: up, up, up. Any great career coach, recruiter or mentor can give you solid advice on how to ascend the all-important promotion track. But what if you love what you’re doing right now? What if you don’t have the skills – or the aptitude – to take on that job one rung up the corporate ladder? Conversely, maybe you’re one of the growing number of successful professionals who are more than qualified to succeed in that bigger job – but you just don’t want it. You may fear that it would rob you of precious family or social time.
As a candidate, you’ve probably gotten plenty of advice on how to get your resume past the ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems, those AI-powered screeners most employers and recruiters use these days).
That’s all very useful. But how will your resume fare in the next round? How do you survive the human scan?
You’re looking for your next career move, and you’ve drawn up a list of target employers. How many of those are small companies that may not have the obvious pull of an instantly recognizable brand like Apple, Google or Microsoft?
Big doesn’t necessarily mean better in career terms. Here we present some of the advantages of working with smaller organizations:
You have an interview lined up. You’ve rehearsed answers to typical questions and you’re fairly confident you’re prepared for whatever the hiring manager will fire your way. You may know what you should say, but are you certain about what you shouldn't?
