Archive for September, 2009

Job seeking and the strategies and preparation involved in the job search can be expensive.   Let me clarify that the frugal job seeker is one whose money conscious yet very strategic in how they manage their job search and the tools and resources they choose to use and invest in.  Like any marketing campaign, it is important to select and manage your resources.  If done carefully, you can effectively prepare and market yourself for under $500.  Money well spent.  In my own experience, the frugal yet strategic job seeker can lessen the amount of time in the job search by 25-50%.  From a finance management perspective, this is a phenomenal return on investment.  Here are some insights.

Personal Branding Consultation.  ($300) Just like a real estate home stager, a personal branding consultant can get you off on the right foot.  Home stagers provide an unbiased opinion and are trained to highlight your home’s strengths while downplaying its weaknesses.  Most consultants and career coaches including myself are willing to provide a personal branding and marketing consultation for perspective clients.  Xceptional HR provides a basic career package of a resume, cover letter, reference check, and intial consult for $300.   By meeting with an expert, you can get a feel for the market, have custom designed marketing materials, and a sense of direction that highlights your strengths and downplays your weaknesses.

Professional Business Cards.   ($50) Professionally designed business cards are essential for job seekers of all backgrounds.  I recommend using a design company to help you design your business cards instead designing and printing them yourself.  It is important to include your contact information, your professional website or LinkedIn profile url, as well as a memorable tag line or description that differentiates you from the rest.  Using color appropriately is also important.  A business card can be a difference maker that shows companies and professionals that you are serious about your professional job search.  For the seriously frugal job seeker, Vista Print offers 250 free business cards and has templates and colorful backgrounds that you can take advantage of.

Professional Dress.  ($125) A great suit and accessories can make a lasting impression.  Purchase items that you can mix and match to get the most bang for your buck.  For the ladies, purchase a nice suit that includes pants, skirt, and blazer.   Use different accessories like scarves, jewelry, and also blouses for different looks.  I encourage men to do the same with ties, cuff links, and dress shirts.  Department stores like J.C. Penny’s, Kohls, Target, and also thrift stores offer professional yet affordable options.  When making a clearance or thrift store purchase, you can have your suit tailored to fit your body type at an affordable price.  I once purchased a $350 suit at Nordstroms for 75% off.  I had it custom tailored for $75 and walked into an interview looking like a million bucks.

Networking Events.  ($25) Use Social Media sites LinkedIn Groups, Meetup.com, Wimgo.com, FaceBook events, and your network to find free networking events.  $25 includes the cost of gas to attend these events.  Since many of these events are Happy Hour Networking events, order a water with lime to save on the cost of alcohol while ensuring that you are professional no matter what the circumstance.

“GOOD MORNING HUMAN RESOURCE PROFESSIONALS!”

In my five years working in the human resources field I have met a variety of personalities.  Some have made me excited to be an HR professional while others made me want to play hooky like Ferris Bueler.  A few even prompted thoughts of violently shaking the poor attitude out of them.  Seriously people, check your poor attitude at the door!

One thing I have tried to improve upon in my career is the ability to manage my attitude and reaction to others in the workplace in order to accomplish communication.  You can never fully prepare yourself to handle everything that may be thrown at you in human resources; all you can do is control yourself.

Volunteers (That's me on the left!)

This past spring I was a volunteer coordinator for ABC’s Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition for a build here in Tallahassee, FL.  The experience was one I will never forget; thousands of volunteers working around the clock to build a house for a family in need – in seven days!  Since I was “in transition” during that time, I took the night shift from 12 am to 8am, went home, slept, got up and headed back to the site every day.  One thing that stood out from this experience was the overall attitude of our volunteers.  Each day they showed up to donate their time and had to deal with extremes – cold weather, hot weather, sleep deprivation, dust, aches, pains, grumpiness and everything else one may come across on a construction site.  Most of the volunteers have full time jobs and other regular commitments but they continued to be invested in a project they were passionate about.  Regardless of these obstacles the morale of the volunteers remained positive.  These volunteers cared about the family and were invested in their work.  Shouldn’t this be how your employees feel about your workplace?

Establish relationships with colleagues in the office that you work with on a regular basis.  You do not have to be best friends with everyone but take the time to learn and figure out what makes your colleagues tick.  What do they complain about?  What makes them laugh?  What standards do they hold themselves to?  You will begin to learn how to best present things to these individuals.  Some you may be able to be blunt with and let them take initiative to complete a project.  Others you will have to hold their hand through execution.  In the end you should be able to develop a unique delivery mechanism for any interaction with these individuals.

By establishing these relationships and learning how to handle your attitude towards your colleagues, you will take a huge step towards a happier workforce who is typically more productive.  Regardless of why you work, the attitude you portray in the workplace is up to you.  Whether positive or negative the work will still be there.  Help create an environment employees care about and are invested in.  Don’t let the Debbie Downers ruin it for everyone else!

Now come on, get to work!  Say it with me HR professionals! “Move that bus!”

Growing up in North Florida, every house in my neighborhood had a front porch.  No one had air conditioning, so the porch was the “cool place” to hang out.

Of all the porches, my grandmother’s was the best.  Nanny lived around the corner and I loved to sit on her porch. Screened with comfortable furniture, it offered a place to talk and view the world.  From Nanny’s front porch, you could keep up with everything that was going on up and down the street.  You knew who was home; who had gone grocery shopping; who had visitors and often who was visiting.  You could wave and talk to the neighbors out for a walk and sometimes invite them in for coffee.  You knew the habits of your neighbors so well that you could tell that one of them was under the weather and cook up a pot of chicken soup to take over later.

When central air conditioning came on the scene, builders quit adding front porches to homes. Looking out at my street today and the neighbors I don’t know reminds me of what we’ve missed by not having a front porch view.

When I meet someone at a dinner or party, the conversation generally involves what we do for a living.  When I explain that I work in Human Resources, the response recently has been; “So what do you people in Human Resources really do?”   I’ll ask about their HR office and in talking realize they are asking me because they never see their HR staff.

Have we been working so hard to get a “seat at the table” with management that we’ve neglected the view from the front porch at work?  Do we still know and understand the day-to-day world of our employees?  We know the law, the rules, regulations, policies and procedures. We know the business’s vision and how HR aligns with that vision, but do we know the employees and what is important to them?

Maybe when we are not at the table with management, we could be out on the front porch; paying attention to what’s happening around us; greeting people and sometimes inviting them in for coffee.   If we do, we will be better able to serve our business and have fewer people wondering “what do you really do?”