Holiday Hiring: Not Just for Seasonal Help

Happy Holidays: Apply Within
This holiday season has more jobs in store than ever and I'm not talking about the usual gift wrapping, Santa's helpers and seasonal retail workers. Imagine, a lovely fall harvest, delicious Thanksgiving season and beautiful Holiday plus a new job. Now that sounds like a Happy Holiday!

Personal spending is up 2.6% from a year ago according to the Commerce Department and in return, companies like Omnicom Group's MarketSar and Red Ventures are adding staff in greater numbers than they were a year ago. The positions they have open are professional, full-time jobs that include benefits.

Hewlett-Packard | Technology & Product Management
H.P. may still be experiencing downsizing in some divisions, however, they're hiring in others. Specifically, this computer group is looking for technology engineers and project managers with specific titles including database engineer and infrastructure technology project manager. The positions are temporary and lower on the hourly scale however, they plan to keep the folks they hire on until 2011 and there's a potential for full-time sales and research and development too.  If you've got a Bachelor's Degree and 2-5 years computer science skills, log on here to see if you can snag of the computer giant's temp positions this season.

Wells Fargo | 5,000 Jobs in 60 Days
Rates are low and consumers are taking advantage by refinancing their homes and buying new ones. October showed a 21% increase in refinances and 8.5% increase in new home purchases; that means new job opportunities in Denver, Minneapolis and Charlotte for Wells Fargo. If you've got experience as a consumer loan manager, underwriter or administration manager, apply here for one of the 5,000 jobs they're adding in the next two months.

MarketStar | 1,000 Product Specialists
Focused on driving consumer sales for key clients Whirlpool, Verizon and Sony, MarketStar, based in Utah, is adding nearly 1,000 new team members.  MarketStar hires and trains product representatives on the "finer details" of consumer electronic and appliance brands and then sends them out to large retailers (e.g. Best Buy) to answer shopper questions and boost sales. The initial position is to help the company, and these top consumer brand clients, get through the holiday season however, there's a potential for top performers to land a full-time job and stay on after the season ends.  Apply here for a MarketStar product specialist position.

Red Ventures | 340 Sales & Marketing Jobs
It's not often you find a 6-figure sales or marketing job in North Carolina much less with a growing organization looking to hire 340 employees in the next two months.  As a social media and online business enthusiast, I knew this had to be a part of the company and, it is. Red Ventures does online marketing promotion for groups that are in the midst of a marketing war. That's good news for you if you're a Sales Director, Vice President or work in a related capacity.  The positions are all full-time and based in Charlotte, NC, Fort Hill and Miami.  Find out more about these careers here.

Starbucks Digital Network to Boost Your Job Search

If you're a caffeine-addicted business enthusiast like me, you probably use the free Wi-Fi Starbucks offers (as of July 1st) across the U.S. in between meetings or even on the weekends. Life just got better.

Starting today, the Starbucks Digital Network  is here. This, unlike selling wine and beer alongside mochas and frappucinos, is a concept I immediately understood and am in love with to boot. Imagine launching your browser to find the robust SDN with loads of free content from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and for job seekers, the best part is yet to come.

SDN has partnered with uber-premium professional social network, LinkedIn, to create exclusive video and blog content available to users in this channel. It gets better; the network also provides job search candidates a 30-day free trial for a premium account.

As an advocate of social networking, this is where the term comes together both online and offline and creates a powerful ability for you to take your job search into your neighborhood Starbucks. Pack up your iPad, laptop or netbook and head over to your nearest Starbucks to log on to the SDN and start socially networking - both online and offline - to land the 80% of jobs that are landed through networking.

Undercover Boss Role Reversal

Sunday night at 9/8c, CBS  airs the show Undercover Boss. Each week a different C.E.O. goes "undercover" into the trenches of his, or her, business and gets their hands dirty rotating into a series of different jobs day after day for the duration of the week. This icognito effort serves to give the C.E.O. the inside scoop on what's really going on and to ignite change at the senior management level. Last night's episode featured Bryan Bedford, top dog at Frontier Airlines, cleaning out lavatories and serving drinks as a flight attendant. Weeks past include Mike White, head of DIRECTV, installing satellites and taking customer services calls.

Your Job Search and Undercover Boss
What does this have to do with your job search or career change? Last week alone I was asked by five people, four of whom were clients and one of whom was a support person from godaddy.com (our site hosting company), how great it is to be the owner of a company.

Job searching can be long, arduous and frustrating. The process of finding a new job can lead to aggrivation and make you wonder if it's time to start your own company. If you've received news that layoffs are coming soon you might be thinking now is the time to go out on your own.

Undercover Boss Role Reversal
I thought a little Undercover Boss Role Reversal would serve well for you job seekers thinking of giving it a go on your own. Here's what the life of a Small Business C.E.O. looks like:

Sunday, 6a.m. to Monday 8a.m. (yes, this is my weekend day):
6a.m. - wake up, check email, social networks, brew coffee
7a.m. - shower, coffee #1, post to social networks
8a.m. - sales and market strategy meeting over coffee #2
9a.m. - breakfast w/the girls coffee #3, 4 and 5
10a.m. - drop off girls
11a.m. - drive to suburbs to say hi to mom, call w/beau in car, check email (coffee #6)
1p.m. - drive to farther suburb to see brother's family and nephews, confirm this week's meetings via phone
2p.m. - check email, respond to 20+ emails, play game w/2 nephews
3p.m. - help brother build roof and soffit for shed
5p.m. - dinner w/brother's family
6p.m. - give 3 nephews baths, change them for bed
6:30p.m. - drive back to city (coffee #7), check email, call w/beau
7:50p.m. - get pulled over for talking on the phone w/out headset (oyey)
8p.m. - arrive at home office, brew coffee, check email and social networks
8:30p.m. - start writing weekly column, coffee #8 and 9
9:30p.m. - finish working, sign off networks and email, prep for tomorrow
11p.m. - shut down for evening

Monday (the 'official' work week begins)
5:30a.m. - ah, the day begins, coffee starts to brew
5:40a.m. - check email, social networks, jump in shower
6a.m. - coffee pot overflows into kitchen, mess everywhere. C.E.O. becomes janitor.
6:10a.m. - mess cleaned up, head out the door to Starbucks.
6:20a.m. - walking, checking social networks and e/mail (confirm post went live at 4:30a.m.)
6:21a.m. - coffee #1 in hand. sigh of relief.
6:25a.m. - walking to office, ready to start the day.
6:45a.m. - send attorney update on legal matters
7:00a.m. - check status on new website with Tony in Egypt via Skype
7:20a.m. - call Hammad about QuickBooks question (in Bangladesh) via Skype
7:30a.m. - time for coffee #2 and review of today's news on wsj.com, forbes.com, cnn.com and msnbc.com
8a.m. - tweet today's hot topics and take my daily vitamins
8:10a.m. - call mom to say good morning

Life as a "boss" is far less glamorous, exciting and wonderful than it sounds. What is it? Motivating and Exhausting. I work more now than I ever did before and I can honestly say that Thanksgiving is just another Thursday and every other holiday is just another day of the week. I take no holidays and no days off, they're all just days of the week.

Just Do It

If you're tired of your job search think about what you truly want to do and start doing it. Get clear about what you want and take Nike's advice, Just Do It. (p.s. - all credit to Nike's brand team on that slogan).

Got The Job Search Blues?

You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, rather than buying it from the local cafe like you used to not so long ago, and head straight for your laptop. Powering it up you hope for those tiny three little words "You've got mail." Okay, you might not actually hear the words but you still hope that your inbox will hold news from one of the resumes you sent. Just one response email, today, please. You open your email only to realize that today the only offer you've received is from Viagra, and while it enhance something, it isn't your checking account.

Another day on the job search, what's a job search candidate to do? Here are some tactics to get you through the job search blues and lighten your spirits along the way.

1. Focus your frustration -  Match.com and Monster.com might as well be sisters. If you're posting your resume on Monster and hoping the right employer will find you, you might be waiting until 2012. Take your frustration and focus it on a niche site, like SalesLadder.com (aka JDate ), where a particular group is looking for someone just like you. You'll have better results although you still need a catchy headline.

2. Work It Off - I know, I know, this is exactly what you're trying to do, work. There is more way than one to work it off. Get out of the house and walk, run, bike or snowshoe. A study published on WebMD concluded that just 10 minutes of exercise improves mood, helps you feel more clear-headed, reduces feelings of fatigue and increases vigor. Sitting for 30 minutes has no effect on mood.

3. Give Back - While you're out, walk on over to your local community outreach center and volunteer. It's good for your soul, and your job search. According to World Volunteer, 73% of employers would recruit a candidate with volunteer experience over one without and 94% of employers believe that volunteering can add to an employee's skills.

4. Smile - Remember the old adage 'fake it until you make it'? Well, if you're not happy yet, smile until you are happy. There's now science that suggests we can fool our brains into thinking we are happy simply by smiling. I'm a believer in this and I live it by smiling as often as possible. Don't believe it? Fake it until you do.

September Unemployment Numbers Give Little Insight

The U.S. Dept of Labor released the September unemployment numbers under speculation that America's employment situation has continued to get worse. The speculation proved to be just that, as the numbers show no change staying at 9.6% in September, the same rate as in August. Some economists chose to rely on more relevant data as these numbers show the employment situation for the previous month and today's market is changing on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

A recent survey conducted by Monster.com shows that there's been a 1% increase in Job Board postings as of late, however it still remains a fact that networking is how 80% of the jobs are landed in today's market (ABC News). Adding to this news is that about 80% of employers surveyed by Manpower last month reported that they would not be increasing their hiring in fourth quarter.

"It's the toughest employment market in most our lifetimes, and hopefully it won't get any worse." said Richard Wahlquist, CEO of American Staffing Association. "But it's not likely to get any better in the coming months."

3 Questions Every Candidate Should Ask in the Interview

During my morning coffee today, I logged on to my LinkedIn profile  to peruse the job postings of the day for a few clients I had in the back of my mind.  As I was on there I realized it had been a while since I answered any job seeker questions and made a quick mental note to go back this afternoon and do so.

We all know how great mental notes are when you're past the age of...mmm...sorry, must have gotten a pretzel crumb stuck in my throat there. I digress. In any event, my crackberry reminder beeped to remind me that I wanted to post an article I read this morning on Yahoo! Finance about the drop in jobless benefit applications. Somehow in my insane entrepreneurial mind that told me that I needed to head back to LinkedIn and do some question and answer posting.

Meet Carl. A candidate who posted the question "What questions are good to ask in an interview?" If I had a dollar for every time I was asked this question, I'd have a whole lot of dollars. This is such a frequently asked job search question, I have dedicated: a sub-chapter of my book, "Career Sudoku: 9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game", created a Do-It-Yourself Impressive Interview Kit and professional speak at conferences around the country on Impressive Interviewing in Today's Market.

It occurred to me that it's been a while since I wrote about this on my blog. What's a candidate need to ask in today's interview? Here are a few questions to get you started.

Six months from now how will you know you hired the right candidate?
This question elicits information on how your performance will be measured in the position. If the interviewer is unsure in their response, proceed with caution. Your performance may be measured subjectively rather than objectively at this company.

Listen carefully as the answer also provides insight into what characteristics the hiring manager is looking for in a new team member.

What do you see at the Top 3 challenges in this position?
Set yourself up to win before you even land the job starting when you ask this question. The answer to this one gives you the functions to address on days one through ninety of your new position. This is also good information to use when formulating answers during a second interview and in writing your personalized thank-you note.

If you had one piece of advice to give the person coming in to this position, what would it be?

I love this question. It always takes the interviewer by surprise, a good surprise. It also elicits some of the best "insider" information and can quickly get to the root of a company's culture.

Real Life Story: One of my clients had a day of back-to-back interviews and asked each person she met with this question. Her most surprising answer came from the last person she met with who said, "Eat oatmeal." When the interviewer saw the surprised look on her face, he elaborated. "everyone here eats oatmeal every morning. If you want to fit in right away, bring oatmeal and eat it every morning. It's the easiest way to fit in."  She wasn't sure if he was serious. She scanned the office as she was being walked out and noticed 3 large containers of Quakers Oats around the office. A few weeks later she was sitting in her new office eating a nice big bowl of oatmeal and chatting up her new colleagues who were all delighted to see that she, too, loved oatmeal. What a coincidence.

Interview questions are a way to make connections both during, and after, the hiring process.  The guy that gave her the inside scoop on the oatmeal has become one of her closest colleagues and has helped her establish everything from new accounts to procedures along the way.

Career Coach Confession: Candidates that walk in with at least 4 to 6 questions written down in advance on a pad folio convey confidence, interest and motivation.

Women's Wage Gap - Is this really news?

Women in Washington, D.C. make an average of $54,000/year (they ranked #1) compared to women in Puerto Rico who make an average of just $20,000/year (they ranked last). Hold on to your hats though because the ladies in Puerto Rico are pulling in 103.3 cents for every one dollar man makes compared to just 88.2 cents in Washington, D.C.

Okay, I'll admit that these stats and facts are interesting but is it really news? The whole idea that this is something "new" is a bit insane to me. As a Hispanic woman, I've known that I make less than white men for a long time (read: over 17 years). Why is the media so up in arms about this? By the way, as a group, Hispanic women are the lowest paid professionals.

Here's the skinny on what American women really make, by ethnicity. According to the U.S. Census Data, updated, and released, in September 2010:

Rate per white male dollar:
All Races, women | 77 cents
White, non-Hispanic, women | 75 cents
Black, or African-American women | 61.9 cents
Asian women | 82.3 cents
Hispanic women | 52.9 cents

Interestingly enough, I just read a new report, apparently released on Tuesday from another government agency, that gives different figures from those above. Is it surprising that two government agencies have different figures for the same data? Of course not. Then again, they have different dates on this data so I'll cut them a bit of slack.

The Government Accountability Office released their report after 20 years of data showing that, as of 2007, women earned 81 cents to every one dollar a male manager earned, up from 77 cents in 2000. Only problem is that this information is already three years old. Thanks for the timely data, GAO. Oh yeah, this is the report that the national and local media outlets are all hyped up over. Hey, Bloomberg, anyone bother to notice that three year old wage data is about as relevant as three year old unemployment numbers. Oh wait, it's not relevant. Women don't make 81 cents/dollar; we make 77 cents/dollar.

Here's a little proof for that pudding. My book, "Career Sudoku: 9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game" was published on July 14, 2010. The statistics about this wage gap issue, including the breakdown by gender and race, are listed on page 206 and address head on how to take the bull by the horns and negotiate your way to a better paycheck.

The one piece of insight the GAO report had was what having children does to a woman's paycheck. As Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, (Democrat, New York) said, "When working women have kids, they know it will change their lives, but they are stunned at how much it will change their paycheck."  Just how much does it change their paycheck? According to the GAO report, mothers earned 79% compared to fathers, and their married, childless colleagues earned 83%.

Career Coach Confession: This news is not at all surprising to a Hispanic businesswoman and recovering Fortune 500 executive. I do think I'm happy I don't have kids just yet though. (sorry, mom)