Careers-In-Transition Blog

May 14, 2012

Carlson Consulting Group (CCG), founded in 2009, with a web-site www.careers-in-transition.com  is pleased to announce two new consultants added to their Human Resources staff with 33 years of combined experience, and the services of an Employment Law practicing attorney.  Carlson Consulting Group now incorporates expertise with almost 100 years of experience in Staff Retention, Turnover Reduction, proper Candidate Selection processes and direction in Ideal Staffing Levels, and now can provide substantial legal expertise.  In addition, CCG has interim CTO – CIO – COO – CFO – various senior level Security / Infra-Structure /  Communication professionals available for short-term assignments.

Our expert guidance in all aspects of candidate career transition including expert resume preparation and interview preparation will continue.

CCG has the expertise to provide your business with the techniques for increased employee retention.  The benefit is individual; The result is corporate wide.

Let CCG be your advocate for change at an exceptional value.

Please email jscarlson@careers-in-transition.com  or phone (248) 630 – 5555.  CCG will call or email you within 24-hours.

So you’ve starting your second week with the new company. Did you find where to park? How about the dress code? Some of the employees look like they were just dragged in from the street.  You need to dress better than these folks, of course, unless you were out with the group and everyone was “dragged in from the street.” (Actually keep this thought in mind for a future entry.)

How do the people in the new group treat you? Are you an outsider? From my perspective and experience, you will be an outsider until you start to contribute. Been there and experienced that.

What else did you learn in the first week? Have you identified the “go-to” person? Have you asked him/her a solid question? Did you get a thoughtful response, or a brush-off? And you need to find out what-keeps-the-boss-up-at-night.

Once you know the bosses issues, do you have several specific solutions for each stated problem?  You need to think about solutions and continue to refine these solutions.

As a career counselor, retention advocate, guidance professional, and HR professional who has hired or placed 1,350+ individuals including “C” level people, I follow up new hires for several months following successful employ.  What is going on?  Of major importance is “how can you contribute?”  “Was your hire good for the group?”  “What can you share and teach the group?”

Some additional ideas …

Are to listen, listen and listen some more. You need to show you knowledge, expertise and experience in small segments initially, if you can.  Avoid showing off. You need to listen and absorb what is being said. Make excessive and detailed notes. If you need to review, make a drawing showing relationships, then discuss with the “go-to” person or someone you feel is a solid expert.

If you are thrown …

Into discussions where you need to contribute, carefully plan a discussion and go for it. These first few weeks are important to set “impressions” for everyone. Be at your best with solid listening, and thoughtful answers.

If you know you …

Are going to be asked to present something, you need to prepare. Notes, drawings, maybe even ask if one of the members of the group could ask a question which would show some support.  Or better, have a slide with FAQ’s and answers to get discussion moving.

This is an opportunity where you need to capitalize.

If you need more information, please call (248) 630 – 5555 or write jscarlson@careers-in-transition.com   This is the good stuff!

Congratulations!  Way to go.  You are starting over or starting a new job.  What should you expect?

Graduating from school, several years experience or a Director level, what has changed from one of two years ago concerning job expectations and job results?

As a career counselor, retention advocate, guidance professional, and HR professional who has hired or placed 1,350+ individuals including “C” level people, the most satisfying emails that I receive are, “Jim, I got the job and start two weeks from Monday.”  Certainly individual efforts have paid off.  You got the job.  What’s next?

Each success story has a series of events that lead up to receiving and accepting a job offer.

But many of my clients continue to ask advice on protocol for starting a new job.  What should I wear?  What time should I arrive?  What happens if there is not an on-boarding document?  Will the new company pay my living expenses for the time it takes me to find a place to live?  Where do I park?

First, if you have not asked these questions and / or Human Resources have not provided answers to these types of questions, you might be in trouble.  Make a list of questions you need to ask and have answers before you start.

Some suggested questions are:
-  What documents are needed for me to start?  (Driver’s license, Social Security Card, passport, etc)
-  What is the dress code?  (What you wore to interview and your observations should assist.)
-  What is the pay delivery?  Find your first official payday and pay periods for the balance of the year.
-  Vacation policy.  This should be spelled out in the offer letter.
-  Holiday policy.  This should be spelled out in the offer letter.
-  Parking.  Where?  Is there a special rate for employees?
-  Any special letters required for admittance?
-  Were you provided a phone number and who to contact in case of emergency?
-  What’s the name / contact number of your assigned employee buddy?  Or is there one?
-  What will you need to sign up for company benefits?

Critically, has anyone sent you all this information?  Human Resources? Are you able to call an information number before starting to answer these questions?

This is also critical….Do you know the length of the orientation program?  If it’s one day and done, it may be too late and you will need to keep your eyes and ears open.  If the Orientation Program is six months with an assigned employee from the group you are joining to answer questions, an “employee buddy,” this is a good sign.  If the orientation program is one day and over, be certain you establish a relationship with the Human Resources person who brought you on-board.

You need an advocate and you need someone to answer questions. If the on-boarding / orientation process is six month or longer, chances are good you selected a progressive company.

If you need additional assistance, please phone (248) 630 – 5555 or visit http://www.careers-in-transition.com    This call or email could be significant.

As a career counselor, retention advocate, guidance professional, and HR professional who has hired or placed 1,350+ individuals including “C” level people, the “churn” for all positions in many fields has not stopped.

You made it through the last several years of the economic downturn.  You worked the extra hours, you completed projects on time and within budget.  Your production was good.  Your attitude at times was just okay since you had to pick up work load from staff around you that had been cut.

But something happened last week that was unsettling.  You were not invited to a weekend outing sponsored by the new CFO.  Other people, including several of your peers were invited. But not you.

You smiled during lunch breaks when your colleagues spoke about the event.  You chose not to say anything, but excused yourself and went back to your office / cube and wondered what was going on?

What should you do?  When should you panic?  Should you panic?

Subtle events often are a precursor to a major event.  Not being invited to a weekend event may be worth noting.  But one event does not a pattern make.  But in itself, one item could not be significant.

However, if in a staff meeting if you are not called on, like you have been in the past, to comment  on for a comment on a project, that could be another signal.  Or if you have personnel taken from your project to be assigned to another project…… That could be another signal.  Or completing your current project and looking at your upcoming workload and there are no other projects for you to work on. That could be a real signal.

In preparation for this type of circumstance, for every person I work with, there are two calendar dates of significance:          Jan 1st and July 4th.  Why?  For everyone, the importance of having an updated resume is critical;  Modifying, tweaking, adding, reviewing,…. your up-to-date resume is critical.  you must have an updated resume at all times.  Period.  The twice a year gives a good time to reflect and it’s easy to remember a holiday.

On those two dates and in between, you should also be reading business newspapers, watching the news, paying attention to companies in your field that are doing well.  Keep current with a company where you would like to work.  Network to find a former colleague in a target company.  Ask around.

Do not ever be caught wondering what is going to happen if you lose your job.  Never be caught without a resume and a plan.  The plan may need to be modified several times.  But do not get caught without a plan.  You need a plan that can immediately be put into place for a job search.

At the start of the downturn, many people that got downsized took several months off before initiating a job search.  That was wrong then and is so wrong now.

If your job ends, your resume should be read to go; Your targeted companies should be highlighted;  You will need to get your references alerted that they will be getting a reference check because you are on the job market again.  (p.s. be certain your references will give you a “positive” reference.)

If you need additional assistance, please phone (248) 630 – 5555 or visit www.careers-in-transition.com    This call or email could be significant.

As a career counselor, retention advocate, guidance professional, and HR professional who has hired or placed 1,350+ individuals including “C” level people, I’m in a unique position to see companies and candidates from 360 degrees. The good, the bad, and what really works are all a part of my observations over the past years. I will never meet some of the people other than through on-line interview sessions or just phone conversation. Others I meet face-to-face. A huge percentage will share with me what has worked, and what can work to be successful.

One of my clients wrote me and then spoke with me several weekends ago. She said in short, everything she would look for in a job was offered in a phone interview and then substantiated in a face-to-face interview. It was a small firm, but even after interviewing, the job seemed To Good Too Be True.

As I listened, I thought, are you crazy? Take the deal, get your offer letter signed and returned to the company and be happy as a can be!   The company liked you that much.

Her hesitancy is not the first time I’ve heard hesitancy in recent job offers. Points she brought up to me include:

- She would be required to move. There were some overhead expenses covered, but still a move.

- The new position was still in-state, but the commute time would be about five hours.

- The company was about eight year’s old, privately held, no good way to verify company statements.

- The position would be a contract-to-hire opportunity, with a four month review period before becoming a direct hire.

- The compensation was less that she had made previously, although the job title was the same.

What to do?  For those of you that think the economic downturn is over, it really is not over yet. Mary (not her real name) is a living example of the continuance of the downturn.

First, there are jobs. Job hunting may be needed, but there are jobs. Looking in all the right places is beneficial. There are jobs. Next, if you find a job, you may need to relocate. If in-state, you still have the benefit of commuting weekends which is reality today. Some “consultants” have done this for years.

It has been proven smaller companies are creating jobs. I don’t know company sizes, but smaller companies are where the economy is growing.

If you need to verify a company’s financial health and stability and it’s not published, use every means possible even if it requires an extra trip to the location of the new job. Visit the local coffee shop, stop and ask the local newspaper what they know, try and find people who can tell it like-it-is without bias. But ask before you accept.

Contract-to-hire is today…. This will not change. It’s “Try-Before-You-Buy” in many situations. Get use to it. You may need to set up a company, or maybe the firm will take care of taxes. But this is reality of today’s jobs.  Finally, and this is a large point of consideration, compensation today is less that what you made. I’ve heard this over an over again. This is the reality of the new age and you may need to accept a lower salary.

The outcome of our discussion was Mary revisited the town and went several places to ask about the company.  She took the position. It’s been over two weeks. I think the prospect of working and supporting her family was significant.

Don’t shy away from opportunities even if they are a stretch. You may find out the job was not as bad as it may have seemed. If you need additional information or other helpful guidance from a many year professional, please view www.careers-in-transition.com or phone (248) 630 – 5555.

As a career counselor, retention advocate, guidance professional, and HR specialist who has hired or placed 1,340+ professionals, I’m keen on assisting professionals find the best compensation possible. Because I work with companies, there is no intention to bankrupt a company.  My intention is going to revolve around a “fair wage.”

Normally, individuals on an employment contract are one-on-one conversations.  The largest groups of individuals asking questions fall into three categories:

College Graduate.   If you are a recent college grad, go to career services and see what salaries are being offered for graduates in your field of study.  The amounts shown are somewhat cut-and-dried at this stage in your job search.

Two / Three Year Experience.   This is a little more tricky, but very doable.  You still may want to inquire at career services from your university to see what salaries graduates in your field of study are receiving today.  If there’s been an increase and if your performance has been above expectations, use this “specific fact” to justify your salary negotiations.  When you have the evidence, the case is easier to justify.

Four / Five Year Experience.     Now this is more difficult.  We lived through difficult economic times.  Blah, blah.  And jobs have been difficult to have and to hold.  Blah, blah, blah. If your work effort has been significant, if you have delivered projects on time (or earlier), within budget (or improved), and your performance ratings have been significant, all the information and memos / emails / notes / letters of recommendation and cliff notes you made with days / times praising your great work must be shown to your manager.

This is crunch time for you and crunch time for the company.

Outstanding performance with supporting documentation and performance reviews go a long way in providing factual information to do one of two things:

First, if you seek a career step / promotion and have the documentation to show you have the qualifications, your manager should have come to you with the news of a promotion, not you going to him/her.   In today’s environment, the annual increase of 3% just doesn’t do it.  The corporate Human Resources people sometimes call this “broad-banding” with the result of flattened job titles and a defined salary range.  In order to receive a decent salary increase, you probably need to be promoted.

Next is more severe.  If you get no action from your manager, very quietly begin exploring the job market.  Do not trust anyone with the fact you are looking, just quietly begin a search for a new job.  We live in a free market, and unless you are under contract, we live in an “at-will” employment situation.  That is, you can leave the company or the company can dismiss you.  It’s at-will.

See what comparable positions are paying.  You may need to phone a target company or find a staffing firm you trust.  But get good input to make a decision.  Check out the obvious sites and inquire with your specifics.

This move is up to you and can be a means to boost your income, find a better atmosphere to work and begin earning a decent wage.  You need to do your homework on what positions are paying in your specific area of expertise.  Then the next step is up to you.

If you need further discussion or have a question on how to prepare for an increased salary, please call (248) 630 – 5555 or visit www.careers-in-transition.com

As a career counselor, retention advocate, guidance professional, and HR professional who has hired or placed 1,340+ professionals, I’m keen on working with companies facing staffing issues.  A somewhat constant theme is underperforming employees even in today’s economy.

Say you are a member of a six (or ten or twenty) person group and one person just doesn’t pull his/her share of the work load.  The lack-of-contribution is in every assignment, in every meeting, in every day work.  This person is does not or can not execute the job responsibilities that have been assigned.

What do you do as an employee?

There are potential three actions plus one, but only one has credence. Those actions are:

Do Nothing.  Put up a poor performing associate, pick up the slack so the group does not suffer, and live with the person.  In your business experience, have you had to work with a poor performer?  Do you feel sorry and just kick performance-lacking-output under the rug?

Address The Individual.  Do you think it’s your responsibility to ask a fellow employee that is under-performing if they need help?  This “help” could be a temporary “crutch” and solution when you ask.  Maybe this individual has a family/child problem and can’t focus.  Maybe that temporary ”crutch” is a once-a-week problem that you can recommend a solution to solve.  But is this your responsibility?

See The Manager.  Are you comfortable going to a supervisor and complaining about someone’s work? Do you think this is risky?  Do you think it’s your responsibility to “tattle” on a fellow worker?  What makes you think you know the quantity of work is not up-to-expectations?  There are many choices to make when you decide to go to the  supervisor / manager of the area and complain.   In my estimation, in today’s business climate, this is a difficult decision.

Should you ignore the problem and let the supervisor / manager make the decision?

If you are a relative new-comer to the group or an experienced individual, going to the supervisor / manager could be a fatal move.

Instead, my comment is two-part:  If sub-standard performance is obvious to you, it may and should also be obvious to the supervisor / manager.   Let them do the job they are hired to do.

Or if you find yourself doing two jobs, see if the other group members feel the same.  If there is agreement, several of you should go to Human Resources with a level of confidence that HR will interact with the manager to resolve the status of the under performing individual.

This way, you are not a part of the problem or the solution.

You do your job.

The “presumed” under-performer has their day.

The manager does his/her job.

If needed, Human Resources do their job.

In companies or corporations and in today’s economic times you may not want to “make waves.” That’s the reason to go to Human Resources.  The confidential relationship from Human Resources should make you feel comfortable and make this is a good decision.

(p.s.  If you had a good experience when you on-boarded, use that Human Resources person.)

If you need further discussion or have a question on how to handle an under-performing employee, please call (248) 630 – 5555 or visit www.careers-in-transition.com

Stanford University offered three of their most popular computer science courses to the public this fall, online for free. The courses were so popular that Stanford’s doing it again in January.

This time they’re offering 7 computer science courses:

Computer Science 101 http://www.cs101-class.org/
Machine Learning (one of the offerings this past fall)
http://jan2012.ml-class.org/
Software as a Service http://www.saas-class.org/
Human-Computer Interaction http://www.hci-class.org/
Natural Language Processing http://www.nlp-class.org/
Game Theory http://www.game-theory-class.org/
Probabilistic Graphical Models http://www.pgm-class.org/
Cryptography http://www.crypto-class.org/

And two entrepreneurship courses:

The Lean Launchpad http://www.launchpad-class.org/
Technology Entrepreneurship http://www.venture-class.org/

No tuition, no textbooks, no set class times (students get a week to complete the assignments).  I hope this is still valuable, even though I a few days late.

As a career counselor, career guidance professional, and HR professional who has hired or placed 1,340+ professionals, I’m with business clients constantly.  Where is the line drawn or is there a line drawn between culture and strategic planning in companies today?

Let me propose some definitions.

First, “culture” will be the term is used in corporateAmerica. For anyone who has anthropological tenants, this is not a scientific definition.  Briefly, I want to use the term “culture” interchangeably with “corporate culture.”  My premise is simple when stating corporate culture in a company, large or small, that company has a corporate culture, good or bad, visible or invisible.  If there are more than two people in a company, there’s a corporate culture.

Next,  “strategic planning“ from a corporate level used in business today has a myriad of definitions and literally hundreds of books on the topic.  I really don’t plan on redefining an understanding of mission statements, vision statements and the rest.  Companies pride themselves on establishing values that blend into a Mission Statement.  “Endeavor To Persevere.”  “We Promise A Safe Journey.”  Whatever.  Look around.

How about tactical planning?  If a strategic plan is developed, someone has to put together a “how-to-get-it-done.”  Get a clear strategic plan; Put together a road-map of how to get there.

But in some of my business travels, I continue to see……  ”revolution not resolution.”

In my corporate, mid-sized and small firm experience, all the planning will be wasted unless there is a solid, socially pro-active, engaged, and interested work force.  The work force must be one:  That is employees need to be most proud of accomplishments (large or small); People must feel safe; There must be an atmosphere that allows people to do their best work; The environment must allow people to take risks knowing they will be supported for “revolutionary” thinking; And an atmosphere that allows people to be appreciated.

These points (above) must be in place before executing strategic planning.  And surprisingly these items related to Corporate Culture are not geometrically proportional to company size.

My business experience has seen “granite-grinding” between various levels of supervisor-employee relationships from the top of an organization to the lower level.  If a company wants to succeed, this granite-grinding or lack-of-cooperation between manager and subordinate at all levels has to be eliminated! Everyone can talk about The Big Picture and The Corporate Planning Budget” and on an on, but how?

If goals from strategic and tactical planning are to be achieved, these goals must be absorbed, incorporated and understood by everyone in the company.  In other words, goals need to be a part of every employee’s culture, where culture has a true and an embraced definition for all employees.

Many young companies today foster revolutionary thinking.  For example, managers sit with other employees. There are few offices and fewer walls. There are “stand-up” meeting areas to hold discussions.  White boards are prevalent.  Few employees have titles. There may be several ping-pong tables.  Or chess boards. And comfortable, lounge type chairs.  These firms have a relaxed dress-code unless positions are public-facing,  Open discussion happens. Employees are encouraged to share thoughts.  There is “Do Not Erase” white boards where ideas are started, commented, shared, without ownership.

So then the question, What Wins? Culture or planning?  When empowerment is in effect, the tug-of-war between Culture and Strategic Planning is a win-win.

You may read this and now are asking, how do we get there?  The first step in successfully orchestrating a positive culture begins with careful selection of new hires.  A firm needs to interview in depth and with staff that have; you guessed it, the proper corporate culture.

If you need further discussion or have a question on how to introduce or re-introduce culture into your firm, please call (248) 630 – 5555 or visit www.careers-in-transition.com