How are employers viewing job candidates with decreasing FICO scores and tarnished credit reports?
Please post your comments. You can also email me privately at TrishHoffman@gmail.com.
Look forward to hearing from you!
Trish Hoffman
Disclaimer: Dear Job Hunter does not offer job opportunities, guarantee work or future employment opportunities. Sorry!
In the Summer 2010 issue of Connecticut College Magazine I read an article by Rachel Harrington in the Lives section. It’s about Nicholas Leichter (Class of ’94), who founded Nicholas Leichter Dance, a New York-based contemporary dance company two years after graduation.
In the article Leichter is quoted as saying, “When you’re younger, you want to focus solely on passion. But as you get older, it’s really important to be multifaceted.”
Leichter says he would like to just dance and teach, but also must work on fundraising for his dance company. He apparently has passion for his work.
His story and that quote made me think… Can we spend our careers without being passionate about what we do every single day? Without passion, isn’t work…well, just work?
Webster defines “passion” as a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object or concept.
Webster defines “work” as an activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something.
So what if we connect the two? Let’s see if we can come-up with the answer...Working is an activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something with a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object or concept…
Wow!! I am not rewriting Webster, just looking for ways to make us realize passion prevails!
Another good example…I recently attended the National Association of Securities Professionals (NASP) conference where I met Dr. Michael G. McMillan. Dr. McMillan is the Director, Curriculum Projects at the CFA Institute in Charlottesville Virginia. He was on a panel moderated by Ginny Clarke, author of the upcoming book Career Mapping.
That panel underscored the importance of networking, education, career planning and developing a 10-second elevator pitch. Dr. McMillan stressed the need for having passion to excel in life personally and professionally. Without passion, it is just work!
Dr. McMillan joined CFA Institute in October of 2008 after more than a decade as a professor of accounting and finance at Johns Hopkins University's Carey School of Business and George Washington University's School of Business. Before that he was a securities analyst and portfolio manager at Bailard, Biehl, and Kaiser and Merus Capital Management in San Francisco, California.
Dr. McMillan said he always returns to academia. It’s his passion!
And therein is the lesson…you NEED to look for your passion!
In today’s shrinking job market with millions of people looking for work, it is hard to place passion at the top of the list when listing pro’s and con’s for a new job.
We better like what we do because we are spending an awful lot of time doing it!
A Dear Job Hunter recipe: Try mixing in one-third passion with two-thirds work, maybe that’s a step in the right direction and maybe, just maybe that’s when we’ll be good at what we do and our work will be good to us!
Please post your comments below. If you would like to comment privately, please email me at trishhoffman@gmail.com.
Trish Hoffman
Today’s a rainy day in Chicago. As I put on my heels to head outside, my partner said…your nice shoes are going to get soaked! As I jumped the puddles in an effort to stay dry and save my soles, I started to think about today’s column and asked myself:
How can Dear Job Hunter help readers remember the obvious when job hunting to save their souls?
I didn’t have to go far to seek out an answer or two…my trail started with a newspaper article from the WSJ, which in turned sent me searching….you guessed it…online.
It seems paying jobs aren’t the only things being affected…internships are too. Jay Walker of the Wall Street Journal, citing the National Association of Colleges and Employers, writes “the number of interns that employers planned to hire declined 20.7% between 2008 and 2009.”
Walker also says, some students delay graduation to be able to take advantage of internships in order to receive school credit. Others that strike-out on landing an internship may have just decided to graduate without one.
This phenomena is a bit surprising to me as I would think companies would take advantage of this somewhat “free labor” during these tough economic times. One problem could be that many schools have gotten rid of their recruiters, whose job it was to assist students seeking internships. Those same recruiters would also interact with companies offering those type of positions.
So without that conventional way of finding an internship, many students are being forced to get creative about finding a company that is offering internships.
One option…social media.
Every-time you turn around, you hear how social media is the place to find a new job; a place to research a company you want to work for; or a place to actually read what insiders have to say about a company. Apply those same social media principles when you hunt for an internship. AND, remember to check the company’s actual websites.
Take time to search for companies with a Facebook page and LinkedIn profiles.
Now is also a good time for me to mention the other side of the coin when it comes to things like posting your info on Facebook. It never ceases to amaze me at what personal info people post on their pages. Remember, perspective employers can access that fairly easily, so watch what you write….what may be funny today, may not be funny tomorrow in the job world!
In a separate article written by Joe Walker in the WSJ entitled Firms Invest Big in Career Sites, he writes that many companies are spending big bucks on their websites to not just find good candidates, but to stay ahead of their competition.
So Dear Job Hunter suggests you stay ahead of the game and look at the big picture by making a wish list of where you would like to work…then go to the specific company’s website and search all social media outlets for that company.
If your field seems too full to land an internship or a paid position, consider branching out. For instance, if you have studied finance at school and a financial institution isn’t hiring or offering internships, then consider branching out and apply for a job in a completely different sector that still involves a form of finance…like a retailer, a developer, or something on the business side of Hollywood.
Dear Job Hunter wants to know what your biggest challenge regarding your job hunt.
Post your comments here on Dear Job Hunter or email me privately at trishhoffman@gmail.com
Trish Hoffman
While researching for today’s column, I found so many dismal stories about the job market…and for those searching for work I don’t have to tell you the market stinks.
According to Mort Zukerman of the Financial Times, one in six Americans are out of work…that means 6.7 million people! The longer someone is out of work, the harder it is to get a job…anywhere!
When the recession started in 2007, there were less than two job hunters for every job opening. Just twenty months later more than six people applied for the same job. Today, we are told we are in a better position with just 5.6 people applying for the same job according to the chart published by the Economy Policy Institute's Economy Track.
Are we counting all job hunters, even those who have given up hope? Is that sector of the job hunting market even traceable? Reports say Americans do want to work…there just aren’t enough jobs to go around, according to a story by Lawrence Mishel, who writes in The Huffington Post.
So how do you separate yourself from the pack and get noticed?
Last week I placed a good friend of mine, career expert Ginny Clarke, on Oprah Radio. Ginny appeared on the Derek Ashong Experience. Most recently, Ginny was a partner at the global executive search firm, Spencer Stuart. Today, Ginny is an executive consultant directing people to stand out in front of the pack during a job search.
The number one item on her list of things to do is to be sure to make your search for a job a full time job. Another must-do is to write your elevator pitch and get out there and network, network, network...so let’s get you started!
In Ginny’s blog she says, “One of the most important parts of managing relationships and effective networking is being able to tell someone about yourself in only a couple of minutes – the length of an elevator ride. What exactly would you say if you found yourself on an elevator or at a cocktail party with the hiring manager for a job you really want and you had 2-3 minutes?”
Ginny Clarke’s Do’s and Dont’s…
You can read more tips from Ginny at www.mycareermapping.com.
Please comment right here on Dear Job Hunter, or email me privately at trishhoffman@gmail.com
Trish Hoffman
