Category: Best Jobs. Brightest Careers.

What Everyone Should Know When Starting a New Job

Before starting any new experience, ask yourself, “What do I need to know?” ~ jaywren

Starting a New Job

The first few weeks in starting a new job are critical. You must establish yourself as a great hire. Moreover, while people are forming impressions of you as a new hire, you are faced with many challenges. To deal with the challenges, the first step is learning what to expect. The second step is learning how to prepare for and handle new situations.

Here are steps for gaining support and respect at your new job.

Seize upon small wins. You bring with you experience, qualifications, and skills. Use those traits and skills to draw positive attention to you. If there is a task or project that enables you to shine, take on these responsibilities. Some of these small wins can relieve you of the pressure of succeeding in areas where you feel more challenged.

Impress your boss. Do the job your boss expects you to do. Make your number one priority to do the things that your boss has told you to do and in the order in which your boss directed you. Let your boss know when you complete each task. When you are giving your boss more information than you need to give, your boss will let you know.

Build positive relationships. Create a chart of the organization. Learn who does what and who reports to which person. Treat everyone with respect. Do not poison a relationship with anyone. You may later learn that the maintenance manager is a scratch golfer who is the golf partner with a board director at the annual company golf tournament. However, do not waste your time listening to everyone who wants to talk with you. Forge relationships with people who can help you with a successful start.

Some of the people who are junior to you will help you understand your job and your new company.

Moreover, turn to others for their experience and intelligence. Often, they will bond with you over your interest in seeking their help.

Write it down. Make a list of the names, the contact information, the jobs, and the relationships of the people you meet. When your boss tells you to do something, write it down. Write the task and the action date.

Get in step. The first weeks of the new job are an orientation. You will meet new managers, new co-workers, and, perhaps, new people who work on your team. You will learn the details of your responsibilities. Moreover, you will get a measure of the authority you have in managing your new responsibilities.

Learn the company culture and way of doing things. Do not try to change things until you have established yourself in the job for which your company hired you.

Become a sponge. Avoid giving your opinion when you can listen and learn. You don’t have to try to prove how smart you are.

Be open to new ideas. A dangerous pitfall for experienced people is to do things the way they did them at their former employer.

For example, when I entered sales in the consumer products industry, I sold facial tissue, bathroom tissue, and disposable diapers. Except for facial tissue, the products I sold were daily consumer goods. Consumer demand was the same throughout the year.

When I left that company, I went to a company that sold cameras and film. The transition for me required adapting to different selling cycles and new methods of projecting sales. During the holidays, the photography retailers would sell as much in a day as they sold in a month during non-holidays. A day of film sales during the holidays was as great as a month of sales the rest of the year.

Prioritize tasks. Before starting each day, make a list of five things you want to accomplish that day.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

How to Turn Down A Job Offer

Job offers: There are many things that you need to know to get a job offer.
For some people, turning down a job offer is unpleasant. Handling the situation with confidence is often difficult.

Learning to say no to other people is critical to creating healthy relationships.
www.jaywren.com

How you turn down a job offer is important to managing your career both short-term and long-term. In the short-term, you can add the contacts you made in your interviews to your career network. If you are willing to accept the offer provided that the hiring company can change the conditions that do not work for you, you can open the doors to an offer negotiation that may get you the job that you want. In the long-term, people often reappear in your career in ways that can help you. How you turn down a job offer affects the relationships you have with the people you have met.

Getting a job offer is only part of interviewing. Interviewing is a learning process. You learn things about yourself. You learn things about the hiring company. You may learn things that help you better understand your current job.

Withdrawing from the interview process or turning down an offer as soon as you have reached your decision is better for you and better for the people who are interviewing you. You save time for everyone involved. You also lower the risk of burning bridges with the people at the hiring company.

When you turn down an offer, call the people you have met. Thank them for their time. Then send each one of them a thank you note or an email. In your letter or email, you can give them your contact information for their future reference. Put the name, contact information, and brief notes about each person in your contact manager. This information becomes part of your database for managing your career.

When you do turn down a job offer, give the people you have met a specific reason for why you turned down their offer. During the interview process, you will learn things about your goals and about the job at the hiring company. Sometimes when you are interviewing your circumstances change. You receive an offer from another company. You receive a pay raise or a promotion at your current company. The reason you started to look for a job no longer exists. Letting the hiring company know immediately once you have made your decision is courteous and fair.  Explain that you had not known these things before you began the interview process.

If you are taking yourself out of the running, you can build goodwill by offering the hiring company suggestions for referrals or new prospects for the job. Before giving a person’s name as a prospect, get that person’s permission. Not everyone wants to have calls about a new job.

Building a Powerhouse Reference List

Build a Powerhouse Reference List as Part of Building Your Professional Network.

It seems that most people think of creating a reference list when a hiring manager requests to see one.

Another approach is to mention to people with whom you seem to bond that at some point you, should you need a reference, you would appreciate the person helping you. At the same time, let the person know that you are available to assist them whenever needed. Then, when the time comes, you can feel confident in having people who will speak positively about your character and your work. Building a reference list becomes simply an element of building your professional network.

Having a large list of references is important. Likewise, having a varied reference list is important. Different hiring managers have different ideas as to the types of people they want to contact. This experience can make you feel real pressure to tailor your list to a hiring manager’s request. Therefore, extend your contacts and build relationships wherever you go: work, neighborhood, conventions, and across your personal and professional spectrum.

Before submitting the reference’s name, speak with the person. Get up to speed with them. Offer to help them whenever they may have a need in their careers and networks.

Do not send references with your resume. You are burdening potential employers with the stress of managing extra documents they may feel they will never need. Moreover, you are sharing access to your professional when there is no need to do so.

A little planning can help make your job change easier. Build your reference list as you make new connections.

Identify Your Career Options

Identify your career options. Develop a refined list of options by examining your interests, skills, and values through self-assessment, researching companies, and talking to experienced professionals. You can further narrow your list when you take part in experiences such as shadowing or working alongside a company employee, volunteering, or internships.

Next, list all the things you need to do to accomplish your career goals.

Here are questions to ask to create a strategy for your career.

    1. Location: Where Do You Want to Live?
    2. Type of Job or Industry: What Do You Want to Do?
    3. How Well Do You Work with Other People?
    4. Opportunities for Promotion: Do You Want to Lead People?
    5. Money: How Important is Income?
    6. Risk: How Well Do You Tolerate Risk?
    7. Do You have a Mentor or Advisor?
    8. Job Security: What are the Risks of Playing It Safe?
    9. What Education Do You Need?
    10. What Experience Do You Need?
    11. Should You Take an Aptitude Test?
    12. Who Hires People with Your Goals and Qualifications?

Salary Increases: Changing Jobs for More Money

Salary Increases: Some people recommend changing jobs every few years solely for an increase in base pay. The benefits could make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars.

Most companies give pay raises of three percent. On the other hand, in changing jobs, you could see salary increases of 10 to 15 percent. Additionally, when you change jobs and move into a job with greater responsible, you could see even greater increases in your salary.

Immediate Gains of Salary Increases

Increases in salary have a compounding impact in your income. At 12% for each job change, your salary increases look like this example.

Current Salary: $50,000
First Job Change: $50,000 + 12% = $56,000
Second Job Change: $56,000 + 12% = $62,720
Third Job Change: $62,720 + 12% = $70,246

Longer-term Gains of Salary Increases

Another powerful reason for changing jobs for salary is that, as your salary grows, the amount of your pay raises increase. In other words, changing jobs for more money not only gives you a short-term boost in income; the change affects your long-term increases. Here are two examples for comparison. In both cases, I used 3% increases you might expect at your current employer.

Base Salary: $50,000 plus 3% pay raises

  • Starting Salary: $50,000
  • First Raise: $51,500
  • Second Raise: $53,045
  • Third Raise: $54,636
  • Fourth Raise: $56,275
  • ($50,000 + $51,500 + $53,045 + $54,636 + $56,275 = $265, 456)

However, with a salary of $70,246, your 3% annual increases would look like these examples.

  • Starting Salary: $70,246
  • First Raise: $72,353
  • Second Raise: $74,524
  • Third Raise: $76,760
  • Fourth Raise: $79,063
  • ($70,246 + $72,353 + $74,524 + $76,760 + $79,063 = $372,946 )

Negotiating higher starting salaries can also have a huge impact on your earnings.

Counteroffers: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

Job counteroffers are ways companies avoid losing employees at the wrong time. ~ www.jaywren.com

Counteroffers

When you resign, should you consider a counteroffer? You have packed your bags. You are ready to walk out the door. Then, your boss tries to convince stay.

Before you resign, prepare to deal with a counteroffer. You may never know when one is coming. Anticipating a counteroffer is smart. Preparing for a counteroffer even smarter. Like buying a car, dealing with a counteroffer can be a negotiation. The car salesman may try to close the sale on the features of the car. On the other hand, the salesman may be willing to sweeten the deal. More money, better working conditions, greater responsibility, or promising other changes to keep you with the company.

Pressure

Additionally, you may find the negotiations stressful. The easiest thing might be to say “I quit!” Then just walk out the door. On the other hand, as I discuss later, you may want to make a graceful exit and not destroy relationships. In this case, you will need to hear your boss out and ask for time to give a response.

During this time, you can get advice on how to handle to counteroffer. You can compare the counteroffer to the reasons you want to leave in the first place. You can consider how comfortable you will be staying at a company where you just resigned.

Risky Negotiations

There are risks in negotiating a better deal. There can be greater risks in staying with a company. You have shown yourself disloyal. Moreover, if you negotiate a better deal for yourself, remember that your boss will have to live with that deal. Maybe you will be happy, but your boss may find that the newly negotiated deal doesn’t look and feel so great as time passes. Did you get more money in the deal? Did you get a promotion? Did you get shorter hours? Your boss will have to live with these concessions.

Needs of the Company

Company hire people to fill work needs. When those needs decline, there is no reason to keep employees who aren’t needed.  At that point, well run companies fire people.

This issue goes to the heart of a counteroffer. Companies make counteroffers the company cannot afford to lose at that time. As you go through you a counteroffer, you may begin to think of making a decision with a company for the rest of your career. You see yourself as a member of a team or a family. Your boss may even frame the counteroffer as a personal matter. Your absence will be a personal loss to the company.

However, remember that people work at the pleasure and need of the employer. You may have friends at that company. Your boss may be your friend. But the issue of your employment is more than personal. It is financial and has lifetime impacts on your career and your security.

Summary

A company prefers to lose people based on the company’s timing. This concept is easy enough to understand if you follow sports. Some players are valuable in the middle of the season. They are trained and they know the playbook. When the season ends, the value of players value declines. The best teams evaluate even the greatest players on the value they will bring the team for the next week or next season. After all, perhaps much to their regret, the Red Sox sold the contract of Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

Therefore, when you are considering a counteroffer, be selfish. Act in your best interest. Companies can always find other employees, but you only have one career.

7 Steps to Starting a New Job

Starting a new job:  The first few weeks in starting a new job are critical. You must establish yourself as a great hire. Moreover, while people are forming impressions of you as a new hire, you are faced with many challenges. To deal with the challenges, the first step is learning what to expect. The second step is learning how to prepare for and handle new situations.

Here are steps for gaining support and respect at your new job.

In your new job seize upon small wins.

You bring with you experience, qualifications, and skills. Use those traits and skills to draw positive attention to you. If there is a task or project that enable you to shine, take on these responsibilities. Some of these small wins can relieve you of the pressure of succeeding in areas where you feel more challenged.

Impress your boss.

Do the job your boss expects you to do. Make your number one priority to do the things that your boss has told you to do and in the order in which your boss directed you. Let your boss know when you complete each task. When you are giving your boss more information than you need to give, your boss will let you know.

Build positive relationships.

Create a chart of the organization. Learn who does what and who reports to which person. Treat everyone with respect. Do not poison a relationship with anyone. You may later learn that the maintenance manager is a scratch golfer who is the golf partner with a board director at the annual company golf tournament. However, do not waste your time listening to everyone who wants to talk with you. Forge relationships with people who can help you with a successful start.

Some of the people who are junior to you will help you understand your job and your new company.

Moreover, turn to others for their experience and intelligence. Often, they will bond with you over your interest in seeking their help.

Write it down.

Make a list of the names, the contact information, the jobs, and the relationships of the people you meet. When your boss tells you to do something, write it down. Write the task and the action date.

Get in step.

The first weeks of the new job are an orientation. You will meet new managers, new co-workers, and, perhaps, new people who work on your team. You will learn the details of your responsibilities. Moreover, you will get a measure of the authority you have in managing your new responsibilities.

Learn the company culture and way of doing things. Do not try to change things until you have established yourself in the job for which your company hired you.

Become a sponge.

Avoid giving your opinion when you can listen and learn. You don’t have to try to prove how smart you are.

Be open to new ideas.

A dangerous pitfall for experienced people is to do things the way they did them at their former employer.

For example, when I entered sales in the consumer products industry, I sold facial tissue, bathroom tissue, and disposable diapers. Except for facial tissue, the products I sold were daily consumer goods. Consumer demand was the same throughout the year.

When I left that company, I went to a company that sold cameras and film. The transition for me required adapting to different selling cycles and new methods of projecting sales. During the holidays, the photography retailers would sell as much in a day they sold in a month during non-holidays. A day of film sales during the holidays was a great as a month of sales the rest of the year.

Education and Your Job Search

Education requirements vary. The requirements vary by the job type. Additionally, education requirements vary from job sector and from one employer to the next. This article shows you how to prepare for presenting your education to get the maximum interviews.

Understanding Education Requirements

Knowing the education requirements of any job is important. Before going to a job interview, attempt to get a job description. Here are some places to find job descriptions.

  1. Job boards and job search engines
  2. Recruiters
  3. Hiring company websites
  4. Direct contact with the company’s human resources department or from the hiring manager
  5. A jobs search with your favorite search engine

Do You Need a College Degree?

In some companies, college degrees are not a requirement.  Some of the most successful company founders don’t have a degree. In the tech sector, airlines sector, construction and home repair sector, sales positions, and other roles often don’t require a college degree.

On the other hand, many companies require a college degree. In some professions, a college degree plus college credentials or advanced degrees are requirements. College requirements are important in many fields. Additionally, credentials or certifications may be required.

Some organizations have specific training for their new hires. Furthermore, these companies train you in specific skills that last you throughout your career. In working for a company that is well known throughout your industry as a training company makes you more marketable.

However, a college degree may prove helpful to move into leadership roles for these positions. Please do your own research through job listings to find the education requirements.

How Important is Your College Major?

The importance of a college major depends on the industry. Accounting, finance, chemistry, engineering, physics, biology, and other majors often qualify a person immediately useful for specific jobs.

On the other hand, some positions do not require a specific college major.

I majored in English. Then I entered Naval Officers Candidate School. The math and science I studied in college were sufficient to give me a basis to study Navy navigation and tactics. When I went aboard the ship, I continued to receive training on the operations of the ship. A year into my service, I qualified as a Navy bridge officer (Officer of the Deck). Additionally, I was promoted to a position as a public affairs officer. My studies in journalism and English gave me the groundwork to develop the skills to manage the shipboard radio and television station, the ship’s newspaper and cruise book, to write daily press releases Additionally, I was able to develop the skills to coordinate and escort VIPs like the Bob Hope and his troupe of performers and technicians.

Should You Get a Degree?

For students who are making a decision whether to go through devote four or more years and spend thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars to get a degree, I want to share my thoughts.  Graduating from college did two things for my career. I got a key to let me through doors marked, “Degree required.” I gained acceptance into business circles and social circles where having a college degree meant credibility.

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