Can't Find a Job? Think Outside the Box

This is a tough job market but there are jobs. With all the downsizing and layoffs, employers still have specific needs. This article is written for people of all ages who have specific job skills. These may be internet skills, technical skills, writing skills, proof reading, translation, being a virtual assistant, transcriptions, catalog layout, logo creations... I am just pulling these descriptions out of my head but these are jobs that are out there - posted on the web. There are thousands of opportunities. You just need to know how to access them. You need a Treasure Map.

The job market is changing. Optimistically, the shift that is occurring is an evolution. It is not bad but it is different from the work place that we all know. The world is moving very fast. In this technical age the needs in the workplace change faster than employers can adapt. Employers are trying to meet the needs of the market that they service. When you add unions into the mix, it gets very complicated because union rules and contracts are specific and the talents currently needed, require flexibility.

We initially focused on people wanting to live abroad and make a global income. This is appealing to the renegade Baby Boomers that are ready to retire now. This also appeals to the retirees that have seen their retirement portfolios "tank" with the recent economic down turn. Dr. Debi Yohn has lived abroad throughout her professional career and she has a very optimistic perspective. She advises people to "Think Globally".

Dr. Yohn and her husband, Winton Churchill (yes, he is related to Sir Winston) have a consulting business that coaches people of all ages to think globally, take control of their destiny and make a global income. Recently, this has gotten the attention of young college graduates that are having a difficult time finding a professional job. Many of our graduates do not have a work history but they have the skills. A college student often has computer skills and technology skills that surpass the baby boomer. Many were almost born with a lap top across their infant seat.

"I encourage young adults to use the Internet to develop their global income. It will look better on a resume than working at Starbucks plus this kind of experience will fine tune the technical skills needed in the current business environment." Yes, this gives the "geeks" a clear advantage but we help everyone discover the talents they can put on the global market place to supplement their income or to create an income.

Living outside the borders of the United States is adventurous but not for everyone. If you work on the global market place, you can work anywhere. This removes daily commutes, the need to wear suits and pantyhose, and the need to live in high rent areas. It gives individuals the freedom to live where they want. This can be in another country, a cruise ship, an RV, an isolated area and for those happy where they are, they can just stay home in their pajamas.

People of all ages can create profiles that attract businesses looking for their specific skills. There are monthly membership programs with weekly assignments with each week building on the week before. For those in the fast lane and need to come up to speed quickly, there coaching programs with one on one coaching. The business environment is changing but there is work out there that needs to get done.

So, put your skills on the global market place and take back control of your life and your income. You will no longer be dependent on large corporations and governments. You will be in control of your destiny. Find your serenity and your passion while earning a global income. That may be where your next job is. So get those shoes off and look outside the box.

Dr. Debi Yohn, Co-Founder of BareFoot Consultants and Counseling Psychologist, teaches you how to put your skills on the global market and increase your income 30% to 70%. This reduces your dependence on flaky governments, teetering financial institutions and oppressive employers... all of whom have too much influence on your life today.

Grab your FREE report "5 Ways to Put you Skills on the Global Market Place and Tap into your Global Earning Power". Go to http://barefootconsultants.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Debi_Yohn

Hire the best candidate every time!

One of the most challenging tasks for managers and executives is putting a selection process together that truly selects the best candidate for a given position. If you polled 100 companies, you would likely find that each company has its own distinct process and that the results over time from that process have been mixed at best. The most important aspect of the hiring process is its predictive value: the ability to predict the future job performance of a given candidate. So what hiring practices have the highest predictive value? Decades of research on selection processes has resulted in extremely valuable knowledge about the utility of various selection methods and the superiority of specific selection assessments for making the best hiring decisions.

Research over the past 25 years has shown that variability in work performance among incumbent workers is very large. One way to standardize this variability is by measuring the dollar value of output. The accepted formula to measure the dollar value of output is a 40% standard deviation of the mean salary of the job (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). For example, if the average salary for a job is $40,000, then superior workers (those producing in the 84th percentile for their job, or one standard deviation above the average) produce $16,000 more than an "average" employee and $32,000 more than a "poor" performer. Therefore, managers can increase the economic value of candidates hired by creating a process that reduces the inherent variability among performance of those hired; i.e. by improving the likelihood of hiring a 'high performer.'

What does the optimal process look like? Almost 100 years of employment research concludes that the most valid single predictor of future job performance is General Mental Ability (GMA). Among the various assessment procedures used across all types and levels of occupations, GMA has the combined highest validity and lowest application cost (Moscoso, 2000). As a stand-alone assessment technique, a work sample has slightly higher predictive validity but is much more costly than a measure of GMA. For professional-managerial jobs, GMA predicts roughly 34% of performance success in that job. For lower level administrative jobs, it predicts 26%. For this reason, any selection process should use some measure of general mental ability as a primary differentiator between candidates. From there the question is which procedure(s) will add substantial incremental validity above GMA without prohibitive costs?

Assessment Centers (AC's), a strategy employed by numerous selection processes, meet the first criteria but not the second. A 1998 review of hundreds of assessment procedure studies found that AC's have substantial predictive validity themselves but only add a 2% increase in validity when combined with a measure of GMA. In other words, applicants who score well on measures of intelligence typically also perform well in AC's, so there is little to no additional value in putting candidates through expensive assessment centers, which typically cost thousands of dollars per candidate.

On the other hand, both work sample tests and structured interviews offer the same predictive value as GMA, and significant incremental value when used in conjunction with GMA. A well-designed work sample test will predict approximately 29% of a candidate's performance and a structured interview can predict 26%. Additionally, the incremental value of each is 27% and 24%, respectively. Averaged across occupations, a measure of GMA plus a well-designed work sample test will predict 42% of a candidate's performance; GMA combined with a structured interview will predict 40%. A further advantage of both of these processes is their versatility in the selection of entry level or experienced workers. However, work samples are easier to create for lower-level workers, who typically have much more tangible results compared to higher-level managers. For example, it is much easier to use a work sample to count how many widgets a line operator produces than it is to measure how well an HR director handles a conflict situation.

For this reason, structured interviews typically are used in place of work samples for candidates at the manager level or above. Structured interviews are highly versatile in that they offer a fixed format, can be designed through a job analysis, and may have an accompanying scoring manual. Conventional structured interviews typically consist of a series of questions focusing on job responsibilities, knowledge, and achievements in previous jobs; however, they generally are not based on a formal job analysis. Two types of structured interview techniques that do rely on job analysis are the Situational Interview (SI) and the Patterned Behavior Description Interview (PBDI). In the former, the interview questions involve specific work dilemmas designed to elicit the applicant's intentions as a measure of their future behavior. The PBDI, in contrast, is based on the premise that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Candidates are presented with some criterion relevant to the job and are asked to recall a relevant past incident and to describe their specific behaviors in that incident. One added benefit of the PBDI, also referred to generally as behavioral interviewing, is its flexibility in allowing candidates to use examples from community engagement, volunteering experiences, and educational history in addition to examples from work.

Regardless of the format, both conventional and structured interviews demonstrate significant predictive value. In fact, research has shown that the structured interview is one of the best predictors of job performance and training proficiency, and it generalizes across occupations and organizations.

In economic terms, the gains from increasing the validity of hiring methods can amount over time to literally millions of dollars. Many organizations rely solely on unstructured interviews for hiring decisions. In a competitive world, these organizations are creating an unnecessary disadvantage for themselves. By adopting more valid hiring procedures, specifically a combination of general mental ability and either a work sample or a structured interview, they could drastically improve their competitive advantage.

Our selection assessments at Roselle Leadership Strategies, Inc. include four ability tests aimed at calculating a candidate's true GMA, as well as personality tests, proprietary open-ended sentences and a structured interview aimed at determining how a candidate is likely to act and perform on a day-to-day basis. Our primary objective is to reduce the variability in performance of employees hired in order to increase dramatically the economic value of each hire, specifically, and of the organization, generally.

Works Cited

Kataoka, H.C., Latham, G.P. & Whyte, G. (1997). The relative resistance of the situational, patterned behavior, and conventional structured interviews to anchoring effects. Human Performance, 10, 47-63.

Moscoso, S. (2000). Selection interview: A review of validity evidence, adverse impact and applicant reactions. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 8, 237-247.

Schmidt, F.L. & Hunter, J.E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 262-274.

About the Author

With a Master of Business Administration Degree from the Opus College of Business at the U. of St. Thomas, a Masters Degree in I/O Psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a Specialists Degree in Compensation Management. Ben is Managing Director of Roselle Leadership Strategies, Inc. Website: www.roselleleadership.com Blog: http://leadershipstrategies.typepad.com/blog/

10 Steps to Landing a Job During the Recession

Ten ways to find a job in ten days.

This article was written to help job seekers find a job in this recession. It is geared towards job seekers that work with headhunters, third party search firms, and recriuters. It can help you find jobs on the market in your industry whether you are looking for a sales job or technology job, this article can help you find a recruiter, has interview tips, and will help you negotiate your job offer letter. With the recession there are a lot of job seekers, and this article includes how to find a job during the recession.

1. Prepare yourself. This involves rewriting your resume and buying the right interview outfit. Practice your interview in the mirror and prepare for tough questions, such as an interviewer asking you to describe a time you helped your company when you didn't have to, or what your weakest trait is. Make sure you have your resume on hand when you do finally attend the job interview, along with any presentation papers that you feel will help you land the job.

2. Find a recruiter. Go to a recruiter directory to find a list of recruiters in your area. Once you are at the recruiter directory you should be able to do a search by industry or location. It is important not to narrow your industry too much, as you want to keep an open job search so you don't limit your results. Let the recruiter know if you are willing to relocate, that way they can search for jobs for you in other areas, with will expand your options dramatically. Go on a reputable directory to find a recruiter in your area. One good recruitement directory and staffing resource is http://www.therecruiterdirectory.com

3. Get all the job details. Be sure to ask the recruiter you are working with for specific details when they have an interview scheduled for you. Good questions to ask are if there are if this is a replacement position or a newly created job title. If it is a replacement position be sure to inquire as to why the previous employee did not work out. You can also ask if there are other candidates in the pipeline for this position and if there are other candidates who are no longer being considered. If there are, why didn't they make the cut? What does the recruiter recommend you do to avoid that problem? Keep in mind the recruiter is on your side, and while they want to be sure they hire the right person for the job, it makes their job easier if you get hired.

4. Presentation is everything. Many people don't realize how important presentation is when going to a job interview. Not tucking in your shirt could literally cost you the job. Your resume should be carried in a briefcase, folder, or something similar. Shoving your resume in your pocket does not look good when applying for a job. Even if you are applying for a casual job, you are gong to want to dress professional for the interview.

5. Arrive on Time. Make sure you have the right company directions. Arrive early, not on time. If you plan on arriving on time there is a good chance that there will be something unexpected, such as traffic that will make you late. Plan as much as you can ahead of time, and even find alternate routes 'just in case'.

6. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Make sure that you have are applying to several different jobs. Not only will you get hired sooner, but you may even find yourself in a position where you have multiple offers. That is always the best case scenario, as then you can pick your favorite company and/or compensation package.

7. Concentrate on what the company wants first. The last thing you want to do in an interview is ask about the compensation package and benefits first. Remember, the company probably has several people interviewing and will choose the person they think is the best, not the candidate who likes the comp package the most. Remember, you are trying to sell your resume, experience and services to the company. While asking questions about how the company works shows interest, asking about the salary is not something that should be brought up until the offer letter is presented. Feel free, however, to ask the recruiter. They are a third party and want to make sure they have a good match between employer and employee and that includes what the company is paying and your salary expectations.

8. Do Your Research. Be sure to research the company and what they do. If you have questions about the company that show you have done your research, chances are the hiring manager will be impressed. If you ask a bunch of questions that show you have no idea as to how the company works, that will come off less than impressive.

9. Follow Up. Be sure to get the interviewers e-mail address so that you can send them a thank you e-mail to follow up. Let them know that you enjoyed the interview and look forward to working with them, even if you haven't been hired yet. Tell them you were impressed with the interview and their organization and be sure to include why. Inquire as to what the next steps will be. Follow up with the recruiter and find out if they received feedback. If you did not get the position, ask the recruiter why so that you may use that advice for future interviews.

10. Don't Reject, Negotiate. If you like the organization you interviewed for, and could see yourself working there, don't outright reject an offer that doesn't seem realistic. They might be just giving you a lowball offer to test your waters. Let the job recruiter know what your minimum conditions are and ask for a counter offer. Be careful going too high, don't forget there is a chance your counter offer will just be rejected and that will be the end of it. Ask yourself if you can afford to take that chance in this economy. Keep in mind there aren't that many companies hiring right now and it is very hard to find a job. Another technique is to gently mention the other offers you have on the table to the recruiter.

About the Author

Jackie has been writing articles for years, and is an expert when it comes to human resources.