Salary | Career Musings

How to Clue into a Company’s Corporate Culture

November 28, 2011 by daisy Leave a Comment

While companies put on their best face and say all the right words when trying to lure talented candidates, candidates need to be their own detectives and conduct due diligence to find out if the culture or the face of the company aligns with their values. Fast Company gives some advice on how to clue in to a Company’s Corporate Culture and save yourself from headaches.

Go beyond the company’s website in your research, and perform a Google search. Also look for them or their employees on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Instead of focusing on the job title, the salary and that corner office you hope to occupy, take a step back and pay attention to the small things.

Arrive 20 minutes early for the interview so you can see the happenings. Listen carefully to what employees are saying to each other; pay attention to their mode of dress and how they treat each other.

Take a mental snapshot of your new boss’s office to see what’s important to him or her. Too many pictures of politicians when you are not the least bit interested in politics could be a sign.

If you need specific answers to a burning question, ask your prospective boss to tell you a story, much like a behaviour-based interview. “Tell me a time when…. “. This could be quite revealing.

After leaving an interview, sit down and make a list of everything you learned, and flag anything that is of concern to you. If something is bugging you, seek clarification before you accept the job.

If you are close to accepting the job offer, but still have questions, arrange an informal meeting with the new boss over coffee or lunch. Size up how he or she interacts with others. That will give you a good clue as to what to expect.

What are your thoughts? Add your own comment below.

Source: Fast Company

Image courtesy of Jaunehibisbus

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Filed Under: Job Search Tagged With: boss, candidates, corner office, corporate culture, corporate fit, Daisy Wright, dress code, employees, interview, job seekers, job title, salary, talent

Client Lands Job Posted on Twitter

October 13, 2011 by daisy Leave a Comment

Her recent email read “Remember that job posting you sent me about a Bilingual Marketing Manager where they asked me to translate my résumé to French? I want to let you know that I got an offer and I accepted it. I am very excited since there will be a lot of interesting challenges and I am getting everything I want – salary, vacation and benefits. Thank you for all your help and I will keep in touch.”

This message was from a client with whom I had been working for several months. She was having a tough time finding a marketing manager’s position and thought that nine months was unbelievably too long to be looking for work. At times in our conversations I could sense her frustration, but I reminded her gently that job searching could be a slow and tedious process, but if she kept her head up and continued doing the right things she would eventually land the job she wanted. I also told her that giving up was not an option. She hung in there and got the job.

How did this happen? As part of the job search strategy, I encourage my clients to invest time in social media. I do, and it’s not not for social reasons, although that happens. On Twitter, for example, I follow hiring managers, recruiters and job boards, and participate in Twitter Chats with HR professionals, recruiters and leadership coaches to keep abreast of industry trends. Through these channels, I sometimes become aware of job opportunities and if I find that someone in my network seem to be a match for some of these opportunities (whether they are clients or not), I forward the information to them.

This Bilingual Marketing Manager’s job is a great example. It was posted on Twitter by Monster Canada (@Monsterca). When I read the requirements, it sounded perfect for my client so I forwarded it to her. She translated her résumé to French as the company requested, and after a couple of interviews and several weeks of waiting (because of the summer holidays), she landed the job with “everything she wanted…” as noted above.

Looking for a job is a full-time job, as it’s often said, but it requires various strategies to achieve success. The other point is that you may have a great résumé, but if you continue to use ineffective job search methods or rely on one particular strategy, it will not help you land the job of your dreams. Therefore, plan to incorporate social media tools like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ into your job search toolkit because that’s where employers and recruiters hang out these days. Job boards are still around, but the companies behind these boards are extending their reach via social media. If you are an early adopter ready to jump on the social media band wagon, you will be way ahead of your competitors and achieve your job search goal.

And, don’t buy in to the concept that there are no jobs! Jobs are out there, but you need to assess your skills, employ a variety of tools, be deliberate with your search and visualize yourself sitting at the desk as an employee at one of your target companies! Remember, “Whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve.”

I hope you have gained some value from this post. Share your comments below, or connect with me if you need to discuss how you can move your career forward. I will be pleased to have a chat with you!

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Filed Under: Job Search Tagged With: benefits, bilingual, Bilingual Marketing Manager, career coach, employers, Facebook, French, Google+ job seeker, hiring manager, HR, job boards, Job Search, leadership, LinkedIn, marketing manager, recruiters, resume, salary, Social Media, success, toolkit, twitter, Twitter Chats, vacation

Sharpen Your Negotiation Skills and Get the Salary You Deserve

September 23, 2010 by daisy Leave a Comment

Salary negotiation is not an easy task for many people, but it’s even harder when you are a newcomer to a country. The case study below shows how a little bit of research and some coaching strategies led to job search success for one client.

My client and his family arrived in Canada two months ago – July 2010. We began working together months before he left Asia, and by the time he arrived, he had had his professional resume, cover letter and other related resources ready to begin his job search.

His first interview was in response to a job posting for a temporary position as Senior Research Advisor with a major Canadian institution. The position required a Masters Degree or a PhD, and he has the latter. After his second interview he was sent an email with a preliminary offer, but there was one glitch; the hourly rate was not quite what he was expecting. He asked me to help him prepare a negotiation strategy as he wanted to accept the offer, but at a higher pay rate.

I asked him to consider questions such as: What’s the minimum he would be willing to accept? What was most important to him – the money or the experience? How important would the experience be for him as he moves his career forward? What would he do if they stuck to, or withdrew the offer? I advised him to research the pay rate for similar positions so he would know where to start his negotiations. I also advised him to have a Plan B just in case they said they couldn’t raise the offer. He was also concerned about hours of work and benefits, considering it was a six-month temporary position. We brainstormed on how he would handle those issues if and when they came up. At the moment, the money was the sticky issue.

With all bases covered, I helped him to craft the following response:

Dear Mr. ________:

Thank you very much for your email indicating that you would like to offer me the temporary position of Senior Research Advisor. While it would be a privilege for me to work for ___________, and contribute my knowledge and experience to the position, I find the hourly rate of $24, lower than I had expected. Having met with me twice, I am sure you have recognized the value I would bring to __________. Would you consider raising the rate to $28? If you could do that, I would accept your offer.

Not only did they consider his request, but they offered him $30 per hour – $2 more per hour than he had asked for, and $6 more than their original offer.

Careful research, understanding his value, and a little bit of coaching helped him to ink the deal. He could easily have accepted the first offer on the basis that he was new to Canada and should take what was offered, but he did a few things right. First, he researched the salary range for similar positions. Second, he sought help, as this was a new arena for him, and third, he presented a counter-offer, knowing that his offer could be rejected. He took a risk and his efforts paid off, and he will start his new job in two weeks.

What do you think of this approach? What additional advice would you have given him? Please add your comments below.