Coping With Cubicles

Posted by boblarson on
President, Berman Larson Kane
President, Berman Larson Kane

For many otherwise happy workers, the cubicle can be one of the most annoying aspects of the modern work life. Although cubicles give the illusion of privacy, anyone who has worked in one knows that those small walls are easily penetrated by neighbors’ incessant sounds and conversations. And not only is a lack of cube etiquette a problem, but spending most of your workday sitting in a cubicle can make you feel like your muscles have seeped into your ergonomic chair.

According to an MSN Careers article on cubicles by Susan Bryant, anyone who has resided in Cubeland knows how difficult it is to work while trying to block out coworkers’ conversations. For example, Mary Rasher, a photo editor and cube dweller for the past 10 years, said “there is always someone who doesn’t quite get that if he can hear me, I can hear him. I am forever overhearing domestic tiffs, weird bodily functions, etc. I’ve been reduced to wearing earplugs so I can concentrate. Even then, someone’s voice manages to cut through the foam.”

These complaints are common, said Hilka Klinkenberg, founder of Etiquette International, a firm specializing in business etiquette. Consequently, Klinkenberg feels that professional etiquette in a cube environment must be elevated to a higher standard than in a traditional office because of workers’ close proximity. To help make your office more cube-friendly, she offered the following guidelines:

  • Give your cube mates a sense of control over their space
    When visiting someone’s cube, knock on the walls (even if this is only symbolic on a foam wall) before saying hello. Ask permission to enter someone’s cube, instead of barging in.
  • Don’t loiter in hallways
    Your conversations freefloat among people trying to make phone calls, read or write important documents, and concentrate on their work.
  • Realize that odors know no boundaries
    Your lunch, although appetizing to you, may make someone else’s stomach turn. If you eat at your desk, take your trash out promptly.
  • Be more aware of what you are saying and how loudly you are saying it
    Assume everyone within a four-cube radius can hear you. If you need to discuss a sensitive matter discreetly, try to find an empty office or private area.

Another common complaint among cube dwellers is the feeling they are getting “cube body.” What kind of effect does long-term sitting have on you? Mary Ann Paviledes, a registered nurse and massage therapist, said in the article that her clients who sit for an extended period of time often have experienced these physical repercussions:

  • Lower-back strain due to poor posture from being seated too long
  • Upper-back strain from scrunching your neck and shoulder together while talking on the phone
  • Muscle tightness in the chest area from leaning into a desk to type on a computer
  • Sluggish circulation in legs from prolonged inactivity

Fortunately, combating these problems is easy. Pavlides recommended the following exercises for relief:

  • Get up and walk every half hour. This keeps your circulation going, gives your eyes a break from your monitor and lets your whole body move.
  • Stretch your arms back over your head and arch your body into a “C.” This helps reverse the hunched-over posture you may sit in.
  • Stand up and roll back and forth in your heels and toes. This stretches leg muscles that cramp from too much sitting.
  • Find a doorway and place your forearms against the frame. Lean into the doorway and stretch your muscles. Don’t hold this position too long, though, or you might strain yourself.

Also, make sure you have an ergonomic chair with armrests you can raise and lower to get the right fit, and your desk or table should also be adjusted to a comfortable level.

Even if your cube mates are a bunch of annoying Neanderthals, and your boss thinks ergonomic chairs are for wimps, cube nirvana is still possible. Angela Houlton, a communications administrator and resident of cubeland for 11 years, maintains that cube happiness requires a “bloom where you’re planted” philosophy.

“I keep a lot of framed photographs on my desk and favorite places I’ve visited,” she said in the article. “I also am referred to as the ‘Plant Lady’ because of all the greenery at my desk. I’m even considering a small Persian-type rug to place at the entrance of my cube to cozy things up a bit. The way I see it is, if you have to live in a cube, you might as well make it comfortable.”

Sales Manager Start-up Build-UP Drive

Posted by boblarson on

Sales Manager

 

Location: Lehigh County, PA

Type: Full Time    Min. Experience: Manager/Supervisor

 

About the position:

We are looking for a sales manager to lead both our sales and business development teams totaling 6 people.  The successful candidate will come to us from a Cloud Hosting provider, an Internet Services Provider, Systems Integrator, a SaaS business or other company in the technology/Internet space.  Technical sales experience and sales management success are keys to this role, so a track record of closing multi-million dollar, long term accounts would be expected.  We have an established, successful sales process and a strong team that we are looking to build upon. The candidate should feel most comfortable with a consultative sales approach and solution selling.  This is a new position, created because of our exciting growth. We are also looking for a candidate who has worked in a small or start-up company, and understands the strategy of selling to large companies against large, established competitors.

 

Responsibilities:

  • Hire and train Salespeople/Business Development people
  • Conduct weekly Pipeline reviews with Sales team
  • Conduct weekly activity and planning reviews with Business Development people
  • Attend sales calls and provide coaching to salespeople
  • Review selling strategy on deals and help salespeople make adjustments where necessary
  • Keep sales processes up to date
  • Manage BD people to lead generation quota
  • Manage salespeople to sales quota
  • Assist in closing sales deals

 

Requirements:

  • Three to five years of experience in a Sales management or leadership role in the technology/Internet industry
  • Experience managing teams that both close deals and do lead generation
  • Verifiable track record of success

About our Client :

  • A leading managed hosting and cloud provider, delivers secure, high performance and reliable hosting for businesses worldwide. Expertly provides compliant solutions for e-Commerce, Healthcare, Financial Services, SaaS and more. With domestic and international data centers, has the global reach to support even the most complex hosting environments. Company is PCI, SSAE 16/SOC 1, SOC 2/3, ISAE 3402 and Safe Harbor compliant and provides HIPAA guidance and assurances.

 

The small but incredibility important print:

Client offers an outstanding benefits package including medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k) plan with a generous company match, department and individual training budgets, bottomless coffee, cappuccino, and snacks, company provided lunch once a week and  bagels EVERY Friday! We are an equal opportunity employer and we embrace cultural diversity.

 

forward resumes to: larson@josbl.com

 

 

Gray is the New Best Hire

Posted by boblarson on

Gray is Good at Some Companies

Traditionally, many employers have viewed older workers as inflexible, less productive than their younger colleagues, and more expensive because of higher salaries and health-care costs. When hard times force layoffs, older workers have often been the first to get the ax. But now, according to an article gray is good at some companies which are taking concrete steps to retain older workers.

In the process, these companies are rooting out age bias and setting up complex flexible work arrangements tailored to meet older workers’ needs. They are also seeking out older workers and retirees with needed skills.

For employers, the writing on the wall is hard to miss, the article pointed out. Workers 55 and older are growing four times faster than the work force as a whole. This age group accounts for more than 20 percent of the labor force, up from less than 16 percent in 2006, Bureau of Labor Statistics show. In the same period, people in the prime working years, ages 25 to 44, will shrink to 43 percent of the work force from 46 percent now.

Some companies are recognizing that older workers are repositories of hard-to replace knowledge critical to their businesses. For example, as workers retire, he said, companies worry about losing relationships with long-time suppliers and distributors.

In addition, as the work force ages, so do customers, who often prefer to deal with older workers. At Home Depot, older employees serve as a powerful draw to baby-boomer shoppers by mirroring their knowledge and perspective, said Dennis Donovan, executive vice president, human resources, for the retailer. Similarly a big Australian financial services concern, recruited over-45 workers as financial planners, among other roles. Older clients, a spokeswoman said, prefer advisers with experience.

The new attitudes come as age-discrimination complaints are falling, the article noted. Although some serious cases do remain, preliminary Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data show age-discrimination complaints to the commission decreased.

Other companies are encouraging older workers to continue part-time, offering up to three months’ unpaid time for vacation during the winter months, and making phased retirement more broadly available–allowing workers to slowly shift out of the work force and cut their hours for awhile before retiring, according to the article.

 

 

TREND TOWARD LIMITING WORKPLACE EMAIL

Posted by boblarson on

 

Bob Larson, CPC
Bob Larson, CPC

TREND TOWARD LIMITING WORKPLACE EMAIL

The next time you peek at your email on your “day off” give some thought to workers in Germany, where companies like Volkswagen and Deutsche Telecom have adopted policies that limit work-related email to some employees on evenings and weekends. If this can happen in precision-mad, high-productivity Germany, could it not take place in the U.S.? According to an article in The New York Times, it not only could, but it should.

Indeed, limiting workplace email seems radical, but it’s become a trend in Germany. At automaker Daimler, for example, in addition to limiting work-related email on evenings and weekends, employees can set their corporate email to “holiday mode” when they leave for vacation. Anyone who emails them gets an auto-reply saying the employee isn’t in, and offering alternate contact details. Incoming email is deleted so employees don’t return to filled inboxes.

“The idea behind it is to give people a break and let them rest,” a spokesman for German automaker Daimler told Time magazine. “Then they can come back to work with a fresh spirit.”

In contrast, in the U.S., white-collar cubicle dwellers complain about email for good reason. They spend 28 percent of their workweek slogging through the stuff, according to McKinsey Global Institute. And they check their messages 74 times a day, on average, according to Gloria Mark, an authority on workplace behavior. And lots of that checking happens at home.

Jennifer Deal, a senior research scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership, surveyed smartphone-using white-collar workers and found that most were umbilically tied to email a stunning 13.5 hours a day, well into the evening.

Some workers don’t even take a break during dinner, peeking at the phone under the table, according to research cited in the article. And many even check it in bed in the morning. What agonizes workers is the expectation that they reply instantly to a colleague or boss, no matter how ungodly the hour.

So as a matter of sheer human decency and workplace fairness, reducing the choke hold of after-hours email is a laudable goal, the article pointed out.

The few North American firms that have emulated Daimler all say it is surprisingly manageable.

At the Toronto office of Edelman, the global public relations firm, managers created the “7-to-7” rule, the article noted. Employees are strongly discouraged from emailing one another before 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. They can check email if they want, but they’re not to send it to colleagues.

Even start-ups are experimenting with email limits. Book Riot, a website for book lovers, has eight full-time employees who mostly work remotely, in different time zones, on often hectic schedules. They all agree: Email someone whenever you want, but don’t expect a reply until the recipient is back in the office.

“It’s understood that if someone has a crazy idea at 3 a.m. and sends it, that’s their problem that it’s 3 a.m. — you respond when you want,” Rebecca Schinsky, the site’s director of content, told the newspaper. At the Boston Consulting Group, when a team of stressed-out consultants began organizing “predictable time off” — no-messaging zones during their off time — their total work hours dropped by 11 percent, yet the same amount of work was accomplished.

Why would less email mean better productivity? According to the article, it’s because, as Deal found out, endless email is an enabler. It often masks terrible management practices.

When employees send a fusillade of miniature questions via email, or “cc” every team member about every little decision, it’s because they don’t feel confident to make a decision on their own. Often, Deal found, they’re worried about getting in trouble or downsized if they mess up. In contrast, when employees are empowered, they make more judgment calls on their own, using phone calls and face-to-face chats to resolve issues.

 

When email is seen as an infinite resource, people abuse it. If a corporation constrains its use, each message becomes more valuable,  and employees become more mindful of when they write.

Granted, not all late-night email is bad. As Ms. Deal found, employees don’t like being forced to reply at 1 a.m., but they appreciate the flexibility of being able to shift some work to the evening if they choose. And they don’t mind dealing with genuine work crisis that crop up during leisure hours. At Edelman in Toronto, employees try not to bug others in the evening – but if a client emails with a time-sensitive issue, they’ll respond.

Changes to email use just can’t happen through personal behavior though, the article pointed out. The policy needs to come from the top.  If the boss regularly emails a high-priority question at 11 p.m., the real message is, “At our company, we do email at midnight.”

More than a century ago, blue-collar workers fought for a limited workday with an activist anthem: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.” According toThe New York Times article, it’s a heritage we need to restore

Disclosing Pay in the Job Search

Posted by boblarson on
President, Berman Larson Kane
President, Berman Larson Kane

When should you divulge your salary to a prospective employer? According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, many businesses want to know an applicants’ latest pay during the early stages of the hiring process. But that often can present a dilemma with no simple solution. If you dodge premature pay inquiries, you might be taken out of the running for being too secretive; if you divulge every cent you earn, you might risk being viewed as overqualified or inexperienced.

“There’s no way of knowing for sure if disclosing or withholding is the best strategy,” said Jack Chapman, author of Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1,000 a Minute, and a Wilmette, Ill, career coach. “You’re dealing with potential rejection either away.”

When weighing what to do, job seekers need to use their best judgment. In doing so, experts say, it helps to take into account the desired job’s level, the duration of the vacancy, the extent of rival contenders, the scarcity of your skills and your insight about the openings’ salary.

And candid money talk with outside recruiters is almost always a good idea, the article pointed out. “Blowing off the compensation question creates bad chemistry with the recruiter,” cautioned Patricia Cook, head of an executive-search firm in Bronxville, N.Y. Thirteen times during her recruiting career, Ms. Cook has encountered qualified prospects that refused to tell her their pay. When she presented the 12 women and one man to corporate clients, none became a finalist.

Before baring your bucks to a recruiter, though, try to persuade him to gauge your worth. You might ask, “What’s the most money that my skills would command in the marketplace? If the number falls short of your latest paycheck, you can provide solid reasons why you’re not being paid more. If you appear relatively underpaid, describe hefty raises and bonuses that you pocketed during boom times. Emphasize that bad business conditions rather than individual performance were to blame.

You can also turn the tables on a nosey hiring manager, according to the article. Inquire about the budgeted salary range for the targeted spot when the salary question comes up. Say whether that range matches your qualifications and personal needs; perhaps indicate your current salary range at this point or the range you are seeking. You could also consider expressing eagerness to negotiate your next package once it’s clear you’re the preferred pick. A good “postponing phrase speaks confidence in being hired,” Chapman’s book suggests.

But this ploy doesn’t always work. A corporate trainer wanted to avoid revealing his pay when he sought employment with a New York area information-services company. “I did try to get around it by saying, ‘I’m hoping for a fair offer,’” the Long Island resident told the newspaper. He also asked about the projected pay range.

Ignoring his query, the head of training insisted on learning his current salary. He said he was paid about $114,000 a year. Offered $118,000, he requested a slightly larger sum. The concern abruptly dropped its offer. “We’re not happy you asked for more money,” one official told him. The trainer now wonders whether he divulged his compensation too soon.

Taking all things into consideration, it can still be very tempting to exaggerate your pay package. Despite the potential pitfalls they can face, numerous job seekers inflate how much they make, typically by including their bonus target and the value of perquisites, the article noted.

On the other hand, during a difficult job market, Bill Davidson actually did the opposite to land job interviews. The former information-technology director applied to be a project manager at Postini in San Carlos, Calif., which was offering $88,000 for the position. He informed the e-mail filtering concern that his last cash compensation totaled about $100,000 when the real number was $140,000.

Davidson accepted the $88,000 post; a month after he joined Postini he said he admitted his deception—without repercussions.

As a rule, though, you should never fib your way into a new workplace, the article pointed out. “People will pull offers for a clear lie about pay,” warned Lee E. Miller, co-host of “Your CareerDoctors.com,” an Internet radio show. And finding a lie about pay is quite easy. Job seekers should always keep in mind that some companies require final pay stubs or income-tax forms to verify salary.

ADVICE ON REFERENCE CHECKS AFTER FIRING

Posted by boblarson on
Bob Larson, CPC
Bob Larson, CPC

If you’re dismissed from a job, it’s always important to leave a former employer on good terms and not burn bridges that one may need to cross in the future. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen, especially if there’s been a difficult relationship between an employee and a manager and/or bad feelings over a contentious issue that led to the firing, such as a less-than-satisfactory work performance or problematic conduct.

Whatever the reason, involuntary termination can be difficult to bounce back from and fired employees need to be prepared for their former boss to be contacted and what they are liable to say to the person checking references.

Here from an article published by the website Examiner.com are some points that job seekers should consider when trying to find employment after being dismissed:

  •   A job seeker should rewrite their résumé to emphasize talent and value over work history. Questions are sure to come up about why the job seeker is unemployed, with honesty being the best approach to answering those questions. Then the job seeker can explain how the skills listed on their résumé will benefit the prospective employer despite that negative point in their work history.
  •   The whole point of providing references is to back up what a job seeker claims about their experience for the position. Unfortunately, their former employer is not likely to do this. To counteract what the employer may state, the job seeker can ask former colleagues that are familiar with their work to serve as references. If they are willing to help, former coworkers can provide valuable input to a prospective employer.
  •   Job seekers can be proactive and ask their former employer what will be said about them during a reference check. The employer may be agreeable to writing a neutral reference letter.  At the very least, the severed employee may be able to negotiate with the employer that only verification of employment is provided.
  •   Many unemployed workers turn to freelancing when job prospects become slim or they decide to take their career in a new direction. Many companies find it beneficial to hire freelancers for specific tasks instead of creating a full-time position to handle these tasks. Job seekers can network through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to find freelance opportunities, socialize with like-minded workers and to promote their credentials. Again, former coworkers may be asked to provide references for the job seeker’s skills.

Despite popular belief, according to the article, former employers have few limitations when it comes to what they can share in a reference check. Although many employers limit the amount of information they share, this is mainly a business decision from a risk management perspective. In short, it keeps employers from facing possible litigation if only documented facts are shared, such as verifying employment, dates of service and possibly eligibility for rehire.

Some employers may not release information in a reference check without a signed release from the former employee, the article pointed out. But in most cases, there is nothing that prevents a former employer from stating anything during a reference check as long as it is based on documented, verifiable facts.

If a jobseeker suspects that a former employer is giving bad references they could, for example, engage a professional reference checking service to call a former employer on behalf of them. People employed by these services know the right questions to ask and how to listen for subtle cues from the employer. Once the reference check is complete, the job seeker should have a better understanding of the reliability of their references.

A job seeker may wish to consult an attorney if negative or false information is received from a reference checking service, the article noted. One option is a ‘cease and desist’ letter. While not all negative feedback is unlawful, the letter should demand that the bad references be stopped because of the negative impact on the job seeker’s ability to find a job. If a former employer has given false, unlawful or misleading information during a reference check, the job seeker may be able to take legal action for such actions, such as discrimination or

Be Alert for Signs of a Bad Boss-to-Be

Posted by boblarson on
President, Berman Larson Kane
President, Berman Larson Kane

Be Alert for Signs of a Bad Boss-to-Be

Many job applicants ignore warning signs about their boss-to-be. Yet recognizing the type of person you will be working for is one of the most important factors that should be considered when deciding whether to accept an offer, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.

So keep a sharp outlook during a company’s courtship for hints that your hiring manager will morph into Ivan the Terrible Boss. According to the article, here are some common warning signs:

Easily Distracted: He arrives late for your twice-postponed interview. He can’t find your resume in his huge pile. He frequently interrupts you to take calls, check email or glance at his watch. Clearly, you or your coveted position isn’t his highest priority.

Poor Interaction: She offers a limp handshake, scant eye contact and shallow answers to your detailed questions about business. She stays seated behind a huge desk, arms folded cross her chest, and relegates you to a lower couch. This isn’t exactly someone committed to collaboration.

Me, Me, Me: The hiring manager talks solely about herself, giving current and former associates no credit for their accomplishments. The head of one major Philadelphia non-profit group spent much of his 30 minutes with a prospective fund-raising manager bragging about his feats there. When the newly-hired employee began work at the organization, she found the boss abusive. “He would scream at me in the middle of meetings in front of board members,” she told the newspaper. “I went into a very bad depression while I was working there.”

Negative Buzz: The fund-raising manager had checked out her would-be-boss with other community groups, but ignored their hesitant responses. She now believes that “if references aren’t effusive, that’s a warning sign.” It also helps just to look around the office. If no one appears happy, think twice before pursuing the job any further.

Wrong Line of Inquiry: Your interviewer wants to know your marital status, but he doesn’t ask much about your relevant skills. Intrusive personal questions could signal problems ahead with discrimination or workplace harassment. Meanwhile, a lack of serious talk might mean an aloof boss.

Stress Overload: How well a boss-to-be copes with stress during your interview speaks volumes about what it would be like on the job. Melissa Payner once turned down a middle management post with a New York retailer because the frazzled hiring manager repeatedly barked orders to his assistant, the article noted. “I felt as if he was looking to me to be the solution to his stress—almost to be his savior,” recalled Payner, president and CEO of Bluefly.com, an online fashion, accessories and home furnishings concern in New York.

Melissa Dantz, an advertising professional, missed signs twice that a hiring manager would be a bad boss.  She accepted a job at a Boston-based ad agency, even though the owners failed to divulge their marriage to each other until after her job interview. She left after nine months, largely because she was expected to cover for the owners when they fabricated staffer names to show potential clients the tiny agency was larger than it was.

The following year, Dantz took a job with a suburban Boston event-production firm even though the officer interviewing her disparaged the prior incumbent. At work, that supervisor acted condescending toward everyone. Dantz quit after seven months. “The toll on my self confidence from the bad boss experiences was tremendous, and in retrospect avoidable,” she told the newspaper.

Despite the difficulty at times in recognizing bad-boss types, there are ways to hone your bad-boss detective radar. If job seekers “were just a little more attentive, they could save themselves a lot of grief,” suggested Dory Hollander, president of WiseWorkplaces, an executive-coaching firm in Arlington, Va. The Wall Street Journal article offered the following guidance issue:

  • First and foremost, prepare a list of ideal traits you would want in your next supervisor, and a second list of what bothers you most about your current one. Keep both in mind while quizzing present and past staffers about the boss-to-be. During your hiring interviews, ask direct questions about the boss’s leadership style and philosophy.
  • Trust your gut. If your stomach aches throughout the interview with your boss-to-be, share your feelings afterward with a coach or friend so you can separate bad-boss anxiety from routine job jitters.
  • And finally, don’t let job-hunt desperation cloud your radar screen. Melissa Dantz, now an international marketing manager for a shoe manufacturer, vows to never again let financial pressure “dictate the necessity of accepting any job offer.”

At Work It Pays to be Likeable

Posted by boblarson on
President, Berman Larson Kane
President, Berman Larson Kane

@ Work, it Pays to be Likeable

The time-worn adage that nice guys finish last isn’t exactly true, according to an article in USA Today. In fact, growing research shows that likable employees may have more success on the job and that likability can even trump competence.

A study in the Harvard Business Review found that personal feelings toward an employee play a more important role in forming work relationships than is commonly acknowledged, the article pointed out. The study also indicated that this is even more important than how competent an employee is seen to be.

“We want to work with people that make us feel good to be around them,” said Tom Sanders, author of The Likeability Factor, which explores how having an appealing personality can positively influence life and careers. “Likability is the tiebreaker in almost anything.”

Likability is hard to define, but Sanders said people gravitate toward others who deliver psychological benefits. In other words, likability is the ability to produce a positive emotional experience in someone else, such as making co-workers feel good about themselves.

The Harvard Business Review study also found that employees don’t want to work with someone who is disliked, and it almost doesn’t matter how skilled they are. Indeed, co-workers who work with a likeable colleague are more comfortable with them, so work tends to be more collaborative.

“Organizations have traditionally focused on competencies and thinking ability of their staff,” Susan David, a psychologist and researcher at Yale University, told USA Today. “There is growing recognition, however, that job effectiveness can be undone if an employee is not likable. Being proficient at job tasks is of little comfort to the organization if an employee alienates clients or other staff.”

Research has also found that customers’ perceptions of the employees they deal with can influence their overall feelings toward a company. Nearly 60 percent of customers say that, when faced with rudeness, they take their business elsewhere, even if it means going out of their way or paying a higher price, according to a study by Eticon, a Columbia, S.C.-based provider of etiquette consulting for business.

Further, likable employees–especially those with skills in relationship building–are also more likely to get bigger pay raises and promotions, the article pointed out.

Some employees say likable employees are so important that they won’t hire anyone they think may have an attitude. Richard Laemer, chief executive of New York-based RLM Public Relations, said “no matter how experienced someone is, if they’re mean to people, they’re pretty much useless. I can’t work with someone who isn’t nice.”

But there can also be a downside, the article noted. Likable employees who lack skills or are seen as pushovers can lose out on management opportunities or can be seen as a liability, said Alexandra Levit, author of They Don’t Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something’s Guide to the Business World.

For example, managers who are too likable can get too social with their subordinates, blurring the line between boss and friend. And younger Generation X or Generation Y employees can also try so hard to be liked that they come across as overly enthusiastic.

“There’s a tendency of young people, and even midcareer people, to say ‘yes’ all the time. In an effort to please, they do get pushed around. They get assigned too many tasks,” Levitt said. “Likability can be dangerous. Young people can be too enthusiastic, and it can irritate management. You can be too ‘rah rah.”

Overall, though, most employers agree that likability is a very important attribute and that it can clearly help employees when performance is lacking. “You can provide training to compensate for missing skills, but it’s almost impossible to compensate for personality,” added Tory Johnson, CEO of New York-based Women for Hire, which provides career fairs for women. “ It’s never worth hiring someone you dislike, or someone who’s likely to be disliked among staffers.”

     

 

FOLLOWING UP AFTER AN INTERVIEW

Posted by boblarson on

 

President, Berman Larson Kane
President, Berman Larson Kane

FOLLOWING UP AFTER AN INTERVIEW

Comparisons between job hunting and dating are common, and never are they truer than when it comes to the follow-up after the initial interview or first date, according to an article fromCareerBuilder.com.

After either meeting, if you’re interested you want to let the other person know, but you don’t want to appear desperate. You also don’t want to feel foolish if the employer or the date had no intention of contacting you again.

On the other hand, what if the employer or the date is waiting for you to make the first call? If you don’t follow-up promptly, it might indicate a lack of interest and you might miss out on a great job or a great romance.

In the case of the interview, the article noted, you end up asking yourself many questions and imagining hypothetical situations. “If I follow up now, do I seem desperate? If I wait too long, will they think I’m lazy? What if I’m the front-runner but I bug them and they cross my name off the list? What if I’m tied with someone else and my initiative gives me the edge?” There are so many questions and no definite answers to any of them.

As with dating, job hunts don’t have rules set in stone and careful navigation is always key. At best, you need to do what feels right and see what happens; ultimately you have to use your judgment and hope for the best.

Here, from the CareerBuilder.com article, are three possible methods for following up with an employer after an interview and ways to know if you’ve crossed the line from eager to annoying:

1. The thank-you note is necessary after an interview, and no job seeker can afford to forgo it. Thank-you notes tell hiring managers that you respect their time. They have packed schedules and can afford to spend time interviewing only a select group of applicants, so your note acknowledges how grateful you are to get some face time.

 

Appropriate: An e-mailed note on the same day of the interview shows that you are courteous and don’t dawdle. For most employers, e-mail is the acceptable form of thanks because e-mail is a part of everyday business life and arrives quickly. A handwritten letter can be sent as a supplement to the e-mail if you want to stress your gratitude or you know the interviewer is old-fashioned.

 

Overkill: If you’re going to follow up with a letter after your follow-up letter, think again. You already said thank you, so what else do you need to say? Both you and the hiring manager know that another letter is your way of asking, “Did I get the job?” So don’t clog the hiring manager’s inbox with more notes unless you want to be thought of as a pest.

 

2. The phone call is daunting and may not be the correct move in every job situation. In fact, many job postings specifically state, “No phone calls.” Unless you’re feeling brave, you might want to skip it.

Appropriate: Unless you were specifically instructed not to call the hiring manager or another contact, you can make the call after an appropriate amount of time has passed. In this case, if you were given a deadline for when a decision would be made, let it pass and wait a few extra days and then make the call.

 

Overkill: The phone call is one of the easiest ways to sabotage your image. Call once, when appropriate, and don’t call again unless you’ve been told to. Phone calls are a nuisance in a way that letters and e-mails aren’t. You can decline to open a message or just read it and ignore it. A phone call is harder to ignore if it requires the hiring manager to screen his or her calls once you become a repeat offender. If the company wants you, it probably won’t forget to call you.

 3. The pop-in visit causes you anxiety when your in-laws do it. Your place is a mess and suddenly you’re forced to entertain people who you might not like very much anyway. Don’t do that to an employer if you want to be considered for a job.

 

Appropriate: Stopping by to visit the company is rarely acceptable. Unless you have an explicit indication that you’re welcome to show up uninvited, which would actually imply that you are invited, showing up in person is inappropriate. This follow-up is one case where once is almost certainly too much.

Overkill: When you show up and the hiring manager or receptionist gives you a look that says, “Why are you here?” you’ll know you’ve crossed a line. Employers are busy — they have schedules, meetings, clients and tasks. By showing up unannounced, you not only disrupt their routine but also imply that you are more important than their obligations and deserve their immediate attention.

Of course, the article noted, you’re bound to meet someone who broke one of these rules and impressed the hiring manager by his or her audacity. Just be aware, though, that by doing so you’re risking your professional reputation and could be removing yourself from the running for a job where you were a top candidate.