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The Secret To Achieving Your Dreams! 

Learn the strategies to help you succeed in today’s economy. How to create and implement a strategic plan. How to navigate the obstacles that get in the way.

Free to the first 50 to register!  ($99 Value)   

Sharpen your pencil and get ready for 2010!  Join me on December 17 in beautiful Liberty Station for a morning of planning and goal setting to prepare for a great new year!  This seminar includes so much valuable content, that the regular tuition is $99. But because of the economy, we’re offering (for a limited time) FREE Admission to the first 50 people to register for the event... but you MUST REGISTER! 

To lock in your FREE ticket, be sure to register right away on the link below. You won’t want to miss this event!

Maureen Orey is a Master Trainer who has worked with leaders around the country, helping them to set and achieve both personal and professional goals.  The only investment is a bit of your time, to set your goals and make 2010 a great year!

You can register in any of the following ways:

Click here for more info: http://www.wlpgroup.com/events.html

or register via evite: http://www.evite.com/r?iid=HTQOMTBHTKECCEQQJTCN

Call 619-75-8397 or email wlpg@cox.net

“How can I best utilize my passion and strengths to best serve others and make the biggest impact?”  

If you need any support in spreading your wings, please contact me at marcy@careerswithwings.com  

Stay tuned as Careers with Wings spreads its wings to a new level in 2010 – we are hiring a PR Guru – Steve Allen Media to help us spread our message nationwide and worldwide with an emphasis on Children with Wings.  We see the huge need for our message for everyone to live their passion and purpose as our economy and society goes through a major transformation - a very exciting time.  Also stay tuned for a revamped www.careerswithwings.com website with enhanced and added services coming soon.  

Upcoming Radio Interview – Tune In  

Thursday, December 17th  6:30pm – 8:30pm EST.

Careers With Wings Author and Career Expert Marcy Morrison  goes onlinewithandrea to discuss her book Finding Your Passion The Easy Guide To Your Dream Career which provides useful tips on marketing your skills and talents as well as enhancing your current job while creating a personalized plan for success. Hosted by Andrea R. Garrison.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onlinewithandrea/2009/12/17/careers-with-wings  

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Marcy Morrison of Careers With Wings (www.careerswithwings.com) is passionate about helping others find their dream career via speaking engagements, media appearances, workshops/training, one-on-one sessions, and her book "FINDING YOUR
PASSION: The Easy Guide to Your Dream Career".    Serving as a consultant for Right Management (www.right.com) - the largest outplacement firm in the world, Marcy facilitates career transition workshops in both English and Spanish.   Marcy has held
workshops/trainings/speaking engagements for organizations including the San Diego Junior League Super Training Day, UCSD, USD, Workforce Partnership, Jenna Druck Foundation, Jaycees, and many others.  Marcy is a sought out career expert with her work appearing in MSN CareerBuilder, San Diego Business Journal, KUSI, Channel 6, Channel 10 and she was recently nominated for the San Diego Business Journal’s
Women Who Mean Business Award.  Marcy is equally dedicated to her vision of giving children and communities opportunities – or wings – to rise above poverty.  She serves on the advisory board of the Just Like My Child Foundation (www.justlikemychild.org) and donates 10 percent of her earnings to the organization.  Marcy received San Diego's North County Philanthropy Association's Volunteer Award for her work.

If you want to learn how to keep hope alive, maintain enthusiasm, and retain a positive mental attitude during your job search:

Tune in to JobRadioUSA’s episode: “Layoffs & Hope – Advice & Inspiration for Your Job Search, Life, & Career,” Tuesday December 15 th at 6PM PST

Bruce Razban – career and life inspirational author - will discuss or provide:

1. How to successfully deal with the emotional ups and downs of layoffs or unemployment
2. How to keep enthusiasm and a positive mental attitude throughout your job search
3. How to keep hope alive during a daunting job search
4. Advice, self help, and encouragement for individuals currently (or in the future) unhappy with their work lives
5. How to become a CEO of your own life, job search, and/or career

You can access the show by either dialing 347-838-9326 or visiting http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thecareercatalyst.

Since anyone can participate, feel free to share this info with other employed, underemployed, and unemployed job seekers.

 During the listener Q&A session, Bruce will reveal:

• How you can identify opportunities instead of focusing on adversity due to a temporary setback
• Why you should not internalize a layoff or displacement
• Stories of how individuals successfully dealt with and overcame work-related setbacks
• How you can create a career and life that you love

I look forward to your live participation Tuesday night. Feel free to ask questions during the Q&A segment.

Meanwhile, visithttp://www.blogtalkradio.com/thecareercatalyst and listen to any of the previous 25 career shows you may have missed.

You are going to experience both ups and downs during your job search. No matter how tough your current search is, it’s important not to lose your drive. Below are five methods you can use to keep or increase your enthusiasm.

1. Focus on the Positive: You should spend time identifying the positive aspects of a difficult job market. This could entail a decline in monthly net job losses, future incentives to entice small businesses to hire, and the upcoming end of the “worst decade ever.” Next bury the past, move forward with a clean slate, and anticipate the success you will experience during the next decade.

2. Try New Things: If you have not done so, create a list of up to 150 additional companies (predominantly small and mid-size) within a 30-50 mile radius of your home. Next contact the companies’ hiring managers (before the end of year) and request face-to-face meetings. During these meetings, discuss how you can help solve their current problems and create value. The more meetings you have, the more opportunities to generate subsequent interviews and job offers. If your current job search is stalled, you now have a new technique to execute. As a result, your enthusiasm and motivation should increase, since you have something new to look forward to.

3. Cover Your Bases: Make sure you are performing every efficient activity possible to successfully tap into the hidden and advertised job markets. Likewise, you will minimize guilt or regret since the difficulties of your current job search is not because of your actions; or due to you not taking all of the necessary actions required to end your job search. As long as you continue doing what it takes to end your job search, you will eventually achieve your desired outcome.

4. Learn From Others: You should read and/or listen to personal development books, articles, CDs, and podcasts that cover enthusiasm. You should also associate with enthusiastic individuals (including job seekers) and ask them how they consistently maintain their enthusiasm.

5. Reward Yourself: You should exercise, eat well, acquire an adequate amount of sleep, and give back. Also reward yourself for working diligently during your job search. On a weekly basis participate in activities that you love to do, that make you smile, and that make you laugh. Likewise, you will keep your energy level up which will help keep you devoted to accomplishing your job search goals.

Feel free to visit http://tiny.cc/sOADI to read How to Use LinkedIn and Twitter Simultaneously During Your Job Search.

Tuesday, December 15, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Mission Valley Sheraton

1433 Camino Del Rio S, San Diego, CA 92108 

Space is Extremely Limited CALL NOW to Register

619-672-0378

Investment:  $25   

**BONUS**First 5 people to register receive a personal 1-1 review of their resume with expert Career Coach Robert Farrell.

  Learn what resumes do and don’t do.

>Discover the top 5 secrets employers are really looking for in a resume

> Learn the most effective way to distribute your resume.

>Cut your unemployment time down significantly with these proven strategies.

We all know, of course, that the American Dream exists because we live in a nation founded on certain extraordinary principles.  Much as we take them for granted, deep down inside, every American knows that they are especially fortunate to live in a land where they are accorded an enduring right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  While most of us are very clear about what Life and Liberty mean, however, there is some confusion about the pursuit of Happiness.  And it’s that misunderstanding which causes us to misperceive the American Dream. 

The founding fathers, themselves, inadvertently provoked this situation with their capitalization choices.  They used initial caps on Life, Liberty and Happiness, when what they really meant to enshrine was a commitment to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.  In other words, what the American Dream promises is not a right to happiness, but a right to Achieve it on our own. 

What does that mean for those of us in the workforce? 

Over the past decade or so, social scientists have been trying to figure out just what happiness is and where it comes from.  While many of us think the answers to such questions are intuitively obvious, it turns out that we may be selling ourselves short.  Humans have the capacity not only to experience happiness, but to experience joy, as well.  And those two states are very different. 

Joy is an emotional state.  It is derived from our relationships with family and friends.  When those interactions engage and satisfy us, when they enable us to be the best of ourselves with the others in our Life, we experience joy—one of the human species’ greatest gifts. 

Happiness, on the other hand, is a cognitive state.  It occurs when we are tested by meaningful challenges that stimulate us to express and experience our fullest natural potential, our talent.  These challenges can occur anywhere, but they are most prevalent in the workplace.  In other words, our best shot at Achieving happiness occurs when we put ourselves in a position to excel at what we love to do. 

That is the essence of the American Dream.  It is a personal commitment, a determination to devote our Life and exercise our Liberty to the accomplishment of two tasks:

• To discovering our natural talent or what we love to do and do best.

and

• To working only where we can use that talent to achieve satisfying goals.

The outcome of those tasks will be unique to each of us, but the tasks themselves are the same for all of us.  They represent our right to the Pursuit of happiness. 

Those two tasks are also the key to a successful job search and a rewarding career.  Whether we’re in transition or currently employed, they enable and empower us to control our destiny, to shape it to an end that is important and fulfilling to us.  It is our right, to be sure, but it is also our responsibility.  For only we can take the first step, only we can decide to set off on our own personal Pursuit of happiness. 

Why should we bother?  Because as wonderful as the joy is in our relationships, we deserve more.  We spend at least one-third of our lives at work, and that experience should offer more than frustration, anxiety and despair.  It should be, it can be a source of profound fulfillment.  Or what the founding fathers called Happiness. 

Thanks for reading,

Peter

The movie is a poignant treatise on friendship in unlikely places, and perhaps more importantly, a powerful lesson about how best to live our lives (and our careers).  It offers an admittedly old truism, but one worth remembering: we should never put our dreams off because we don’t know how long we will have to see them come true. 

With that thought in mind, I offer my bucket list for recruiters—the things we should strive to get to while we can.  It’s an abbreviated list, so is not meant to identify everything that we might hope to accomplish in the course of our careers.  In addition, some of the goals may be beyond our reach—at least without some outside cooperation—while others are much more susceptible to our own efforts.  However, all of the goals—be they large or small—are worthy aspirations.  By reaching for them, we improve our experience as recruiters. 

How should you read the list?  Simply insert the following phrase in front of each item: “At some point in my career—and the sooner, the better—I would like .to …” 

1.  Work for a CEO who gets it.  We know they can say it—“Our employees are our most important asset” is the siren song of every CEO worth his or her salt in corporate America—what we seldom experience is one who does it.  Indeed, the limit of what many executives seem willing to invest in their workforce (and the recruiting team that brings it in the door) is just that—verbal capital or what you and I call “hot air.”  If they really believe they can’t get by without great talent, they will have to open their wallets in a much bigger way.  And those that do are the organizations for which we should seek to work. 

2.  Work with hiring managers who get it.  Too many of today’s managers think that it’s still 1952 and there’s an unlimited supply of top talent just salivating at the chance to work for them.  They are too busy to write a decent requisition, get involved with sourcing candidates or learn how to prepare for and conduct an effective interview, but they always have enough time to wail about what they perceive to be inadequate recruiting support.  If they want to see more high caliber applicants for their openings, however, they will have to get more involved in filling them.  And those that do are the business partners to whom we should devote our best efforts. 

3.  Work with coworkers who get it.  While recruiters are formally charged with acquiring talent for the organization, it is clearly in everybody’s best interest to ensure that their coworkers are as capable as possible.  Especially in these days and times, there’s no better form of security than an organization brimming with high caliber workers.  Which begs the question: why is it so difficult to get people involved in their organization’s employee referral program?  If our coworkers want to get more satisfaction and security out of their work, they will have to work harder at searching out and selling top talent.  And those who do are the employees we should celebrate and support. 

4.  Work with an applicant tracking system that gets it.  Recruiters may be responsible for processing a lot of information, but that is by no means their most important accountability.  In addition to acquiring top talent, they also have a fiduciary responsibility—they must ensure that they invest their employer’s money wisely.  To do that, they need accurate data on the source of their applicants, and they rely on their ATS to get it.  Unfortunately, however, the rudimentary technology offered by many ATS vendors is simply not up to the task.  If these vendors want to help recruiters get smarter about where to spend their recruitment budget, they will have to upgrade their source identification capability.  And those that do should be the vendors from which we buy our systems. 

5.  Work with applicants who get it.  Unfortunately, a lot of applicants today think that the question we want them to answer is “What have they done?”  And, of course, the insight for which we’re really looking is “What can they do?”  For us?  Right now and in the future?  The fact that they’ve been in the workforce for twenty or thirty years doesn’t mean a thing if their skills and knowledge are that old, as well.  If they want to get considered by us, therefore, they will have to bring themselves up-to-date.  And those who do are the prospects we should pursue most aggressively. 

The notion of a bucket list, I suppose, can be off-putting at first.  It can seem … well, a bit pessimistic.  On the other hand, if we see it as our horizon, as the future toward which we would like to journey, then it is as hopeful an outlook as one can have.  It affirms our ability to better our condition, to reach for the richest and fullest experience we can have in the one-third of our lives that we spend at work. 

Thanks for reading,

Peter

With 2009 winding down, it's the perfect time to  reflect on all you have accomplished this past year and turn your focus on your goals for 2010. While you are enjoying time with your friends and family this season resist the urge to postpone your job search until after the new year. Many job seekers will be easing up on their job hunting strategy during this time, which means less competition for you! The new year also tends to bring new training classes and new hire orientations, so employers will be focused on filling those seats before year's end. So, here are a few tips we have gathered to help make your holiday job search even better:

"Hiring the “Write” Way by Paula A. Sassi, Master Graphologist

Learn how handwriting analysis can help you discover the skills and aptitudes of your potential employees. By correlating strokes in the writing with vocational types, you can
discover what job categories best fit each applicant. Find out if they are an enterprising, social, investigative, realistic, conventional or artistic type or even a combination of these categories. Handwriting analysis can definitely add one more tool to your employment selection
process when you are trying to select a winning team.

About the Presenter:
Paula A. Sassi, Certified Master Graphologist, has worked professionally in the field of handwriting analysis since 1980. Owner and director of her own corporation, Paula serves a diverse group of clients in the area of personnel selection, behavioral profiling and compatibility
analysis. Top businesses and corporations seek her services for help in hiring and promoting personnel as well as in conflict resolution. Author, lecturer and teacher, Paula offers you one sure guarantee, you will never look at handwriting quite the same again.

Join us this Friday to have a little fun & learn a little!

Date: December 11th, 2009
Topic: Hiring the “Write” Way
Learn how handwriting analysis can help you discover the skills and
aptitudes of your potential employees
Presented by Paula A. Sassi, Master Graphologist

Time: 11:30am-1:30pm
Location: Lomas Santa Fe Country Club
1505 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach, CA  92075

Dress code: NO DENIM

Members: $40.00  Register

Non-Members: $55.00 Register

But, of course, this year is different.  Hiring activity is still way down, so there seems to be little reason to worry about how prepared we are.  And yet, there is.  The pace may slower than we would like, but the economy is picking up steam.  A recovery is on the way.  And it’s for that recovery that we should be preparing right now. 

I call such activity “precruitment” because it includes the steps we must take to ready both ourselves and our organizations for the rigors of a reenergized War for the Best Talent.  It’s the preparatory actions that are essential for recruiting success. 

What do they entail?  The following checklist isn’t all-encompassing, but it will get you started. 

Workforce Planning

Review the 2010 budgets of your organization’s strategic business units and confer with their leaders to determine:

• the likely demand for talent over the next 12 months

and

• any new kinds of talent required by changes in strategies, product or service mix or the marketplace.

Assess the internal supply of talent to see who might be appropriate and available to meet the expected demand. 

Identify the gaps in talent that will have to be met with external recruiting and during which quarters in 2010 those requirements will likely occur. 

Review the size and skills of the recruiting team to determine if additional permanent or contract recruiters will be needed to address all requirements, whether they are expected to be filled with internal mobility or external recruiting.  Begin laying the groundwork now to acquire the staff resources you will need in the future. 

Reputation Management

Assess the credibility and persuasive power of your organization’s employment brand and takes steps to remediate it, if necessary. 

Reenergize your Employee Referral Program by training your coworkers on (a) the key elements of your employment brand and (b) how best to articulate them to high caliber prospects outside the organization. 

Research online documents, blog commentary and postings at Web-sites that publish “employer evaluations” to determine what’s being said about your organization.  If necessary, devise a strategy to counteract negative points of view and implement it right away. 

Asset Management

Review the following to ensure posted content is accurate and up-to-date:

• the career area on your organizational Web-site;
• your organization’s Facebook page, if it has one;
• your organization’s LinkedIn group or profile page, if it has one.

Launch a promotional campaign (or reinvigorate the one you already have) to encourage interest and participation in your Employee Referral Program. 

Launch a relationship marketing campaign to reconnect and develop greater familiarity with the individuals whose resumes are stored in your applicant tracking system database. 

Push your applicant tracking system vendor to upgrade its technology for identifying the source of your candidates.  (You’ll be surprised—and horrified—at how rudimentary and thus inaccurate many of these systems are.) 

Research changes that have occurred among the 100,000+ job boards and career portals currently online to update your list of the best sites for acquiring the best talent for your organization.  Negotiate posting rates now while volume is low and deals can be made. 

Resource & Process Management

Secret shop your recruitment process to determine where bottlenecks or behaviors might detract from the candidate experience. 

Eliminate the single greatest source of frustration among job seekers by ensuring that your auto-responder is working and that you are acknowledging the receipt of every application and thanking every applicant.  In addition, add a notice to the career area on your Web-site and on every job posting that asks candidates to include the address of your auto-responder on their “white list” so that your message gets past their spam filter. 

Conduct a review of best practices in interviewing for both hiring managers and recruiters.  Where possible, do these sessions at the same time to foster a collaborative spirit among the two groups. 

Develop a “Leader’s Checklist” and distribute it to all hiring managers to reacquaint them with the tasks involved in your recruiting process and who is responsible for accomplishing them. 

Meet with your recruitment ad agency (or your own staff) to review:

• the tone and content you want to see in your job postings;
• which social media tactics you want to see executed and where;

and

• other sourcing strategies you are likely to employ (e.g., campus visits, career fairs).

Also, solicit their input on alternative methods you might use to differentiate your employer and its outreach to talent. 

There are, obviously, many other steps you can take to get ready for the recovery, but attending to workforce planning and reputation, asset, and resource and process management are among the most important.  They are, as well, the key elements of successful precruitment. 

Thanks for reading,

Peter

That’s especially apparent in the subset of social recruiting we call networking.  Social or professional networking online now clearly falls into two general categories of activity.  They are probably best described as content and contact networking.  Both can help you access high caliber passive prospects for your organization, but each is performed differently. 

Content Networking 

Content networking occurs in the discussion forums on job board and association Web-sites, in blogs on corporate sites and in Google’s newsgroups.  These destinations attract visitors who share a common career field or occupational interest and like to communicate and commiserate with each other about it.  The interaction is social—a community of sorts does form—but it’s primarily based on the topic being discussed. 

In most but not all cases, the members of these communities are passive prospects.  They are not looking for a job.  More often than not, however, they are interested in advancing their careers.  Indeed, that’s why they are engaged by the content.  They want to be smarter in their career field and better able to put their occupational interests to work.  Said another way, they are top talent. 

The only way to connect with these prospects effectively is by practicing the Golden Rule of Networking.  That axiom is simple yet inviolate—you have to give in order to get.  In other words, if you want the participants in these discussions to consider your openings, you have to first contribute to their content. 

How can you do that?  By being the expert you are.  You know more about what employers are looking for in their field than they do.  You have a much better understanding of how to interact with a group they consider exotic and hard to understand: recruiters.  And, you have a more realistic sense of what employers will pay for certain kinds of expertise and different levels of experience. 

So, don’t pretend to be someone you are.  Be yourself.  Then, when a participant’s contributions to the discussion single them out as a gem of a prospect, you can reach out to them privately and they’ll know who you are.  You will have established the familiarity and trust necessary to move even the most passive of prospects into a more active frame of mind. 

Contact Networking 

Contact networking occurs on professional networking sites such as LinkedIn, Ryze, Yorz and Ziggs.  These sites enable people to build out their connections in the workplace and thereby enhance their stature in their profession, craft or trade and/or make themselves “findable” by recruiters.  While the groups within LinkedIn and similar sites do facilitate content networking, most of those who join these sites do not participate in them.  They are simply interested in creating passive links that may prove helpful to them right now or at some point in the future. 

The majority of those who sign on to professional networking sites would normally be passive prospects.  In today’s economy, however, it’s likely that a significant percentage are, in fact, active job seekers.  As in the real world, they are forging connections with others in the hopes of bumping into or being referred to a recruiter with an opening appropriate for them. 

Networking in such a population, therefore, is basically an exercise in doing old-fashioned cold calling by email or InMail.  Just as executive search consultants have done for years, it involves moving through concentric circles of contacts to uncover candidates for an open position.  With the exception of the first circle—your own direct connections—the contacts are not personally known to you.  They are, instead, leads that may either identify a genuine prospect or provide yet another lead to someone else who could be. 

The key to successful contact networking, therefore, is two-fold.  First, as with cold calling, the activity is basically a numbers game.  You have to keep pouring a lot of contacts into the top of the funnel in order to reach even a small number of legitimate prospects at the bottom.  Second, you have to know how to message with clarity and impact.  Long and windy communications are unlikely to be read so active job seekers are more likely to apply when they shouldn’t and passive prospects are unlikely to read them at all.  In effect, you have to find just the right balance between speed and engagement. 

While we are still developing the best practices for both content and contact networking, these tools already represent some of the more mature applications of social recruiting.  They are not, however, a substitute for the array of other sourcing methods we employ to identify top talent.  They enable us to tap the power and promise of the social Web, but they incur a cost—the time commitment of the recruiter—that must be carefully managed within the context of your overall recruiting strategy. 

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Visit www.twellow.com and register (if you are new to Twellow) by clicking on the Register for Free link (in the upper right of your screen) and inputting your Twitter screen name, password, and email address. Otherwise, just log in.

In the search field (at the top center of the screen) type the name of a targeted company. Let’s assume that Southwest Airlines is one of my 20 targeted companies. Likewise, I typed Southwest Airlines in the search field.

Next view the results. In my case, there were 44 matches including the official Twitter account for Southwest Airlines, profiles of employees including corporate recruiters, profile of the former CEO, and so on.

Click on the profiles of interest and click the follow button to add these individuals and/or companies to your group of followers on Twitter.

In my case, I clicked on the official Twitter profile of Southwest Airlines and on the Click here to visit this user’s Twitter page link under the profile.

Next I viewed some of the company’s tweets and viewed the Twitter list (located under the Lists area of the company’s profile) created for the company’s employees.

Most importantly, when you conduct a basic search for other companies like Pepsi, there will be thousands of matches or Twitter profiles for both employees and non-employees. Viewing all of these matches to locate company insiders is not efficient.

Likewise, you need to conduct an advanced search on Twellow. To accomplish this: go back to www.twellow.com, click the Search tab in the top center of the page, and view the search tips.

Now let’s assume I wanted to locate Pepsi employees who work in marketing. Likewise, I typed @(bio,extended_bio), Pepsi, marketing in the search field. Afterwards, I located the profiles for a marketing manager, international marketing director, and VP of marketing at Pepsi. These are three individuals I can follow and contact to ultimately generate referrals to other individuals of interest including hiring managers.

Next, I wanted to locate all the marketing and product managers on Twitter located in Dallas Texas. Likewise, I typed (”Dallas”) “marketing manager” | “product manager” in the search field. I retrieved one match.

In conclusion you now know how to locate advertised jobs, targeted companies, and individuals of interest on Twitter. Next week, I will discuss how to use both LinkedIn and Twitter to be introduced to hiring managers for both advertised and potential hidden opportunities.

I admit, I have a personal bias against Wal-Mart, and won’t shop there.  Why?  Because of their employment practices. 

By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 2, 8:22 pm ET

BOSTON – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $40 million to 87,500 Massachusetts employees who claimed the retailer denied them rest and meals breaks, manipulated time cards and refused to pay overtime, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

The settlement — believed to be one of the largest of its kind in the state — seeks to resolve a class-action lawsuit filed in 2001. It comes less than three months after the world's largest retailer reached a deal with state prosecutors to pay $3 million to settle complaints that it didn't give its Massachusetts workers proper meal breaks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091203/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wal_mart_wage_settlement

Wal-Mart continues to defy good employment practices and apparently doesn’t care about the money it has to spend to resolve these issues.  Is this the kind of company you want to promote?  Are the savings worth the cost?

I believe in being flexible when times call for it, it is obvious that Wal-Mart has a consistent practice in place and feels it is entitled to disregard employment law as long as the profits are rolling in.

As times get tougher, employment best practices often take a back seat to expediency and employees are less likely to speak up or take any legal action.  This goes back to the “be lucky you have a job” management philosophy.  And if an employee doesn’t like the practice, he/she risks a job; possible denial of Unemployment if fired for cause or the first to be on the lay-off list.

If other companies start following Wal-Mart’s lead in fear-based employment practices, as employees we have lost a great deal of power; earning power, and personal power over our working life.  De-motivated employees do not seek additional responsibilities, or challenge themselves to do the best job possible.  They wait for the first opportunity to leave.

So, this holiday season, think of where you shop and what the company stands for.  We can regain some self-respect by following our own value systems and promoting companies that treat their employees as assets to the company. 

Happy Holidays!

How are you using your network?
a.  People I know from my old job know I am looking - but I haven't talked to people outside of my current professional circle.
b.  I sent out a blanket email to everyone on my email list - but nobody responded.
c.  I am not sure where to start.  People know I am looking, but I don't know how to get the help I need from them.

If any of the statements above describe you, you may benefit from revisiting some of the basics of networking:

Be a giver:  The best networkers I know are amazing at providing value to the people they are connected to at every opportunity. Whether it is sharing an interesting article, a piece of new information, a new contact - they always collect and share what is of value to others. Give to your network and it will give back to you.

Ask for help:  Once you are connected and begin bringing value to your network, there is a strong chance those in your network will want to help you back.  Have a clear, short statement to share with people in your network (personally - not in a spam email) about what you do and what type of job/contact/help you are looking for.  Good examples are:

example 1.  I am a materials engineer and I am looking to make a contact with someone who works in the XYZ industry.
example 2.  I have worked at salons for 10 years and I am looking for small business owners to talk with about what I need to do to get started on my own.
example 3.  I have recently graduated with a liberal arts degree and I am looking for an entry level position with a growing company.

Act on help and follow-up:  The most important step of networking is to use help that is offered to you and thank the person who has provided it.  This means you need to reach out to the contacts you have been introduced to, read the information people have shared, or go to the events that people have told you about.  After you've received help or information, follow-up with your contact and send a sincere thank you.  Include specifics about what was most helpful to you.  If the help lands you a job or something of substantial value, a thoughtful gift or dinner might be a nice gesture too!  Gratitude is great to receive and makes it more likely that a person will help you again in the future.


My next blog post will uncover opportunities for improvement in Interviewing ...

Karen Austin is a Certified Job and Career Transition Coach (JCTC) and resume writer for Jobing Career Services.  For more information about Jobing Career Services or to get professional help writing a resume - email resumereview@jobing.com or visit our information page at www.jobing.com/careerservices.