Career Management Alliance Blog

If so, what do you see – and what industry are you in?

 

My daughter who attends NAU is always complaining about the high price of gas and how difficult it is to keep her tank full with the current prices. Once again, that got me thinking on how an empty gas tank could relate to our career journeys. I then realized that we all have inner “gas Continue Reading »

 

Some career professionals feel the inclusion of salary requirements makes it too easy for HR managers to exclude individuals from candidacy. Unfortunately, this is very true. But when the hiring manager asks for salary requirements (btw, only include it when asked to do so), you run the risk of excluding yourself from candidacy by failing to disclose that which was asked for. Either way, you are presented with some risk. Including salary requirements into a cover letter isn’t difficult; but understanding whether a prospective employer is seeking salary requirements or salary history is important to understand. Salary requirement is expected salary, while salary history covers starting and ending salary for each position, and may also include commissions, bonuses for performance, stock options, and so on. Since a salary history is in-depth, it’s usually contained within a separate sheet rather than the cover letter. Continue Reading »

 

Recently I was asked this question..."So who do I network with when I am trying to find a job?" I offered my client a few ideas and have since expanded the list. Listed below are a few people, places, and things that you may wish to consider in building (and sustaining) a vibrant network. Feel free to add to this list what has worked for you in your quest for a new opportunity: Accountant, advisors, alumni, advocates, attorneys, associations, athletic events Bankers, barbers, books, blogs, Bing, bookstores, bloggers, brokers, business professionals Career fairs, consultants, counselors, coaches, clergy, Chambers, conferences, community members, causes, contractors, councils, classrooms, career advisors, colleagues, co-workers, consultants Continue Reading »

 

Jon writes: I have a question that wasn’t answered in the section of your article on post-interview thank-you letters. What if I am not interested in the job? I had gone to the job interview, and realized that I would like a job somewhere else. I would still like to send a letter to maintain good relations with the company, but I was looking for some guidance on how to go about doing that. Continue Reading »

 

A crew of visionaries arrived in Sydney Australia last weekend…not amazing news until you consider that their sail boat was built entirely from 2 liter plastic bottles and other recycled materials. All equipment is powered through a combination of wind, solar, bicycle generators, and trailing sea turbines. The purpose of the eco-expedition is to draw attention to the ways in which plastics and other waste is impacting the oceans. An innovative, inspiring model of increasing environmental awareness. Continue Reading »

 

U.S. salary increase budgets are remaining historically low, but projections for 2011 show a modest increase, according to The Conference Board annual salary increase budgets survey report, released July 13, 2010. For the second straight year, the median salary increase budget in 2010 is 2.5 percent. Projections for 2011 show a modest increase to 3 percent. The largest year-over-year projected increases are in the diversified services industry-with a projected 2011 median salary increase budget is 0.5 to 3 percentage points higher than the actual 2010 budget-and in the diversified financial services industry-with a projected 2011 median salary increase budget is 0.5 or 0.63 percentage point higher than the actual 2010 budget. Among other sectors: Continue Reading »

 

Here are some effective strategies for increasing and improving your OIO:

Own your name.

The first strategy is to own your name. Go to a domain registrar such as GoDaddy.com or Register.com and for less than $10.00 register a domain in your name – www.yourname.com. Note: your name may already be registered, particularly if you have a common name. If this is true in your case, try registering a domain with your middle name or middle initial. Once you have a “yourname” domain, you can build a web site, establish an online career portfolio, or write a blog – all of which are easily searchable by your name. Continue Reading »

 

49% of Canadian executive resumes have significant issues hampering readability. As a leader and innovator in the Canadian resume writing industry, Graham Management Group (GMG) actively keeps a finger on the pulse of the market. In the largest research study of its kind, we evaluated 1000 randomly selected resumes that we received from senior executives, managers, and other $100k+ professionals. Almost half of the resumes we received had significant issues hampering readability. These days, employers and recruiters have very little time to read resumes. They may become impatient and frustrated with resumes that are not concise and direct, and may not even make the effort to read them completely. Resumes must be crisper, tighter, and more compelling than ever. Continue Reading »

 

Recently I stumbled across a primer on common career management misconceptions. Managing your career isn’t rocket science, but it is challenging to get in front of, and drive, your career rather than finding yourself reacting to a trigger event. The author says ...

Most people do not believe in career management, they only believe in career damage control – which means when something goes wrong they will fix it. Until then, most people don’t bother to manage their careers to prevent disasters from occurring in the first place.

Isn’t that a truism for many of the problems / challenges we face. As long as it’s small and isn’t causing pain, it either doesn’t make the To Do list or it keeps being recycled from one day to the next. It’s only when the pain becomes unbearable that we decided to do anything about it, and then the solution seems monumental. We’re now in reactive, rather than proactive, mode ... running hard to try to get in front of the boulder that is threatening to flatten us. Continue Reading »