Tag Archives: American Management Association

Four traits that will advance you in job search and career

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Looking for work today takes more than a good resume, a polished elevator pitch and some professional Tweets.

It requires a mindset of adaptability and creativity – and great communications skills. It requires thoughtful solutions and problem-solving aplenty, as well as an ability to get things done, or motivate workers to compete projects or goals.

The American Management Association identified four key traits – the 4Cs – as increasingly important to employers. They are communications, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. They are the very traits that will impress and help land your next job.

Here are four ideas on cultivating those from four posts or articles I wrote recently:

  • COMMUNICATIONS. My Glassdoor.com piece on starring in a Skype interview offered nine tips for making the most of the Internet phone service. My favorite: Give a dog a bone, and get rid of other distractions just before and during the interview. The advice also included practice and practice some more. But the main message is: Learn to communicate effectively, with new tools and old ones.
  • CREATIVITY. After the interview, comes the hardest part: the waiting. If you want to make those days or weeks feel more productive and less dismayingly long, read my Glassdoor.com post. Candidates can use their creativity to come up with many smart ways to stay connected and offer valuable information or assistance after the interview.  Pennell Locey at Keystone Management offered a half dozen ideas to expand the interview and advance your chances. Use your creativity liberally and suggest audacious approaches and amazing ideas.
  • COLLABORATION. This trait is the glue of organizations, and includes the ability to work well with much older and much younger people. My AARP Bulletin piece shows how 50-somethings can learn from the interns; yet 20-somethings also need to show their ability to work in inter-generational teams. You could show your collaborative approach by sending thank you notes after the interview, or by giving a hiring manager a hand folding up her table after the job fair. You may not be on the team yet, but you want to appear a team player.
  • CRITICAL THINKING. This may mean having a deep knowledge of a subject, or it could spring from a curiosity and thoughtful inquiry. I wrote about the power of great questions for Fortune.com - and managers who use questions to engage, motivate and learn. Not only are they engaging in critical thinking in asking the right question; they are encouraging it in their team.  A job seeker could use similar techniques to learn how a manager thinks or what the critical needs a client has or what opportunities or openings are likely to blossom in coming weeks. Look past the easy, obvious answers and engage your how does that change things? and what next? thinking.

Certainly, there are other ways to cultivate the 4Cs – and also my fifth one: A can-do, problem-solving approach. That upbeat attitude of action gives anyone an aura that’s appealing.  So show them these five traits from the get-go – in your cover letter and in your early conversations with the HR manager.  You could even come up with an example or story of success in each of these crucial Cs, which used correctly, will win you an A as a job candidate.

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Love your job or your co-worker – or maybe love the dogs, your best clients

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Everyone, it seems, loves something or someone at their job.
You read that right: Love is all around us during our work days, whether we acknowledge it or not. So if you do not want to read one of those sweet, sexy, seasonal Valentine’s Day Posts, skip this one and come back later in the week. Otherwise, read on for more on office love, trysts and sought-after jobs.
Despite layoffs, bigger workloads and grumpy bosses, more than half of American workers say they love their jobs, according to a Randstad online survey of 1,008 adults who have full- or part-time gigs. Two-thirds of them report it’s the work itself that makes their jobs wonderful. Those who hate their jobs are more divided on reasons: the job, the pay and their employer were all cited equally.
If you’re not feeling the love just yet, maybe these facts, gleaned from a variety of surveys and sources, will warm you up:

  • Four in ten people say they’ve experienced an office romance, according to an American Management Association survey of members. Almost one-third of them ended up married to their coworker. Another four in ten say their fling finished fast.
  • Almost a quarter of men say they’ve had an office fling compared to only 15 percent of women, according to Vault.com’s annual survey. I guess those ladies must be going into overtime on office romances.
  • Nearly one in ten workers currently have identified a colleague they’d like to date, the same amount who  asked out someone in the last year, according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual office romance survey.
  • Only about half of the AMA members polled say they have a written dating policy, and most forbid dating someone at a higher or lower level than you. One-fourth of those in the Vault survey say they dated someone below them at their organization, and almost one-in-five have dated a boss.
  • One-third of the 2,000 people who answered Vault’s poll say they’ve experienced a “romantic encounter” in the office. Whether this means a kiss in the copier room or something more erotic, we don’t know.
  • More than one-third of those who have a ‘work-spouse’ discuss their at-home sex lives with that person, according to a Captivate Networks Office Pulse survey.  Captivate’s survey of 600 also indicates that one-tenth of workers ended up in a romantic or sexual relationship with their ‘work-spouses.’
  • Jobs we’d most love to have:  Simply Hired says the top five clicked on job titles are administrative assistant, customer service representative, receptionist, project manager and material handler. The most searched keywords include part-time, internship and sales..
  • * Some jobs have love written into their descriptions. In the government’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, only a handful – veterinarians and animal care workers, counselors and psychologists – have love in their listing. Most require a love of animals.

The real message here:  Money doesn’t bring us love.  Pay may be a crucial reason to work, but it doesn’t mean we’re happier in our jobs. That comes from work we adore, a great friend at work, a dog at our feet or a lover in the next cubicle.

More:  Show your passion, and make your career sizzle. Advice from career coach Chandlee Bryan in my blog post on Glassdoor.com .

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Teens: Make yourself a standout to land a starter job

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The teen job market this summer was as dreary as a week of rain when you’re vacationing at the beach. The percent of young people, ages 16 to 24, who worked was the lowest level in 62 years and millions just decided it was too tough and didn’t even attempt to search for work, new government statistics show.
Only 48.9 percent of all youth held jobs – the lowest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping records in 1948. The jobless rate for young adults was 19.1 in July, almost double the level of 2007.
Despite all that many teens did land jobs, including a handful at our Mity Nice Italian Ice cart in Ann Arbor.  (Seven  part-time workers spent at least a few weeks hawking lemonade and Michigan-made mango and cherry ice from our shiny silver cart.)

Teens who land jobs even when the world economy is wickedly out of whack must be standouts and lucky. They have these characteristics:

-A positive attitude. More than enthusiasm and more than a million-dollar smile, this shows up as joy, energy, a can-do, willingness to tackle anything approach. Be friendly, engaged, cheerful, outgoing, curious and you will improve your chances of being hired – as well as your everyday life. Not everyone has this approach baked into their DNA, but most people can learn to muster it up and put it on like a work uniform or lipstick.

-Persistence. This may show up as determination and dedication to finding a job. It may show up as volunteering every week at a homeless shelter or a Girl Scout troupe. It may show up in finishing high school in five years after family or health troubles. But that dogged determination leads to success.  Albert Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

-The 4Cs – communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. These traits were identified by an American Management Association survey as increasingly important to employers. Most 17-year-olds will have developed one or two of these but may not yet have proficiency in three or four.  So be sure to highlight them in your resume and interview.

-Extras in their resume. One of my Mity Nice hires this summer was class president and ran a blood drive at school. Another had three jobs this summer to help pay for her gap year in South America.  Head cheerleader or president of the Honor Society or Key Club, these extracurricular activities demonstrate an ability to juggle multiple tasks – and leadership abilities.

-People who believe in them. We hire people based largely on recommendations and referrals at Mity Nice.  We want to hear that the youth is hard-working and smart from neighbors, teachers, members of their church or synagogue and coaches or mentors. Teens who have believers are going to be more confident and more capable. They’re also going to have contacts who will advise them and help open doors to opportunities.

So what if you’re among the one-fifth of teens who did not land a summer job but desperately wants one this winter or spring?  Now is the time to start developing yourself and your skills and your network of believers.  Now also may be the time to start thinking about a small business you could establish over the next year.  (More on that soon.)

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MORE INFORMATION:

For more on the teen employment picture, read the BLS report here.
For my blog post on creating a first resume (for teens), check out WorkingKind.com archive  and also my Washington Post piece .

What can you learn from summer interns? Read my Glassdoor.com blog post on the traits interns have that are coveted by employers.

Need help with your tone and approach to hiring managers? Read my Washington Post piece on striking the right tone.

I hope to add more resources for young job hunters in coming weeks and months. Feel free to recommend websites, books, articles for teens and work. – VLE

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