Banks

My weekly journey for a regular appointment takes me along Sunset Boulevard. Nearly every block through business districts is populated by at least one bank. In some places there are four banks on each corner of an intersection, each a different institution from all the others. With your vision being assaulted by so many financial institutions, your mind starts considering what’s inside and what’s offered.

A bank is a bank is a bank is a bank, right? All of them allow you to bring your money to them to hold until you need to use it. All of them pay you interest for letting them use your money. All of them make loans to you for various types of commerce. Maybe that isn’t the case. Maybe that’s an oversimplification.

Whatever it is, another thing you begin to think about is what it’s like to work for one of them. It seems with the homogeneity of all of them, it wouldn’t make a lot of difference which one to choose. What goes on in one is what happens in another.

Vault offerS guides that evaluate various industries, among them is the banking industry. One of their recent newsletters disclosed some interesting facts about the top 50 banks that’s broken down into various categories. The look at how the 50 are ranked in 11 categories:

• Business Outlook
• Compensation
• Culture
• Formal Training
• Green Initiatives
• Hours
• Informal Training
• Office Space
• Relationships with Managers
• Satisfaction
• Selectivity

Yes, it’s a heavily job seeker instrument and there are a lot of things that go into making a choice. Perhaps when the candidate is taking a tour of the office during one of the last interviews, these qualifications are the ones that deserve to be utmost on the radar. In addition to helping the candidate make a decision, this guide and it’s statistics are also a barometer that employers and recruiters will want to have handy so that they can talk up the best features of the institution in order to win over that brass ring, the ideal candidate.

In the area of Best to Work for in 2011, the top five (according to the survey results) are

2011 RANK	2010 RANK	CHANGE	FIRM	SCORE	LOCATION
1	1		Houlihan Lokey	9.611	Los Angeles, CA
2	NR		The Blackstone Group	9.450	New York, NY
3	3		Centerview Partners	9.424	New York, NY
4	2		Moelis & Company	9.405	New York, NY
5	10		TD Securities	9.333	Toronto,

Vault tells us these rankings are “compiled using a weighted formula that reflects the issues bankers care most about, combining quality of life rankings (such as culture, satisfaction, hours and compensation) with overall prestige.” They provide their methodology for coming up with these numbers. According to the Methodology, the banking professionals who were surveyed, 38% said the company culture was the most important factor.

It’s entirely up to you as to whether you want to purchase the guides. What’s important is the fact that the information is available. Depending on how you read it, it’s a generous tool for any side of the employment desk.

It looks like not all banks are alike and don’t really do the same thing from one institution to another. They aren’t cookie cutter institutions. Do your research. Make a list of your priorities. Circle the ones that offer the most attributes on your list (or ask about them during the interview), evaluate what you have to offer, and then go after what you really want.

Make that door of opportunity a glass door so there’ll be no surprises.

It’s The Season

Has anyone looked at the calendar recently? Especially important to those who are looking for permanent work, The Season is nearly upon us. “What’s The Season,” you’re asking. The holiday season when retail businesses start hiring their seasonal workers who help serve the glut of shoppers. According to an informal interview I had with a Target manager, getting hired as a non-seasonal person (translates into “not temporary”) means you’re more likely to be kept on after January.

We got into details. First, the seasonal workers are there for about three months. The hiring period for them starts in October. By the end of the season (which ostensibly ends after January), the seasonal workers are let go. It isn’t clear whether these people realize there’s a short life to their tenure at Target but that’s the reality of their situations. Seasonal workers are not held over for more than three months.

On the other hand, Target is also hiring regular staff. Regular staff (store associates) may start off on the floor and serving customers. That’s Target’s identity – good customer service. But those non-seasonal hires enjoy a special status that people with experience and a good amount of education may want to look into as a possible plus. Target has a special niche for them. They are eligible for being promoted and designing their career path with the store, even moving into the professional ranks.

We keep listening to the monthly Jobs Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the picture isn’t good. In fact, last month, there was no positive movement in terms of numbers of new hires or new openings. That does not hold true for Target is constantly hiring, has a relatively low turnover, and is looking for good people. According to the manager, they offer very good benefits and have a very positive atmosphere.

For those of you who want to return to the Retail Industry, you may want to investigate the industry and consider applying at Target before The Season begins. If later, find a way to interview with the understanding that you’re not interested in seasonal work.

Target is hiring.

Career Tip: Rethinking Unemployment

Last month we took a look at explaining gaps in employment. We talked about explaining the phenomenon called “unemployment.” No matter how we look at it at first blush, being unemployed carries negative connotations.

Or does it? Perhaps we should start looking at periods of unemployment from a new perspective and with a new mind set. It’s time for us to apply a new definition to that word.

In the Bulletins, we have a special folder for Classes & Trainings where the Vocabulary Builders live. There, I ask members of that community to supply definitions to that week’s terms. Those definitions can be from a dictionary or merely how that person defines the term. The point is to begin understanding the way a particular person uses the term and learn new ways to interpret the terms while essentially growing to learn how to understand others.

At SHRM meetings, there is a time when new situations are presented to the members who are “in transition.” In other words, their last employment ended before they secured a new one. They are in a period of deciding whether to continue traveling along the same road (the same career path) or whether they want to try something new.

The trouble is there’s a huge world of jobs and careers. It takes time to identify which is the right new path to follow in order to make meaningful presentations of the existing skill sets that make a person qualified for that situation. Or it takes time to decide which skill sets should be exploited that will help to maximize capturing the existing opportunities.

Did you notice the new ways of expressing “job search” while not using the expression “being unemployed”? Can you come up with some other ways to talk about this time?

It’s actually a time of looking for a new door’s being opened so you can walk through it. Meanwhile, there are some other concepts that need to be conquered and vanquished. “Unemployed” sort of suggests that there’s a time of being idle, which is probably far from the case. There’s a danger in having that type of mindset during this period. Thinking of yourself as idle leads to conceiving yourself as not very worthy. That will in turn color the tone and style of responding to interviewing questions and downplaying yourself and accomplishments.

The other danger is forgetting about the accomplishments that are being made as well as the experience that’s still being acquired. When those are forgotten, overlooked, or discounted, they don’t get added to the resume. Allowing those situations to continue, we become depressed and are vulnerable to the least criticism about the short-term current circumstances.

Instead of talking about being unemployed, look at the things that you are doing. Projects for hire or voluntary projects with an organization are actually spontaneous work situations. Being the leader of a committee or the organizer of a project can be worthy of being mentioned. Remember to put it on your resume. But make the experience memorable. Talk about the statistics involved with the endeavor or the fact that you were the vanguard for many other sections of your group. Together, they made the organization a notable leader. You provided spontaneous counseling on some aspect or were involved in coordinating the establishment of something. Again, remember to include the statistics involved with the endeavor so that it has meaning and impact; it gained positive results over a particular period of time or at the end of the project or it caused a change for the better.

You haven’t been sleeping during this time that you’ve been away from the formal workplace. You’ve been doing things that have merit and deserve your acknowledging them – a bit like those awards that the woman kept in the linen closet. You have been active, gaining knowledge and expertise, and growing in your appreciation of various scenarios. You’ve been building character and strength during times of duress. You’ve been developing your resourcefulness. Start keeping a record of those projects, whether you consider them professional work or not, and list a few of them on your resume as part of the “Accomplishments” section. They were a type of work while you were looking for a more permanent, long-term paid situation during your transition.

10 Best Value Places to Live

When it comes to knowing where to live and find work, it’s difficult to find a place. We normally think of the typical big cities with large populations. We believe those meccas have a lot to offer in terms of things to do, job opportunities, nearby vacation and normal entertainment, education, and so on. This is not necessarily true.

This morning’s Wall Street Journal Report shared the 10 best value places (the slide show) to live according to a study in which Kiplinger’s Personal Finance participated. The folks at Martin Prosperity Institute came up with a list of 100 cities and then asked the Kiplinger’s team to visit the sites and narrow the list down to ten.

They came up with a surprising list. Who would expect to find a cornucopia of job opportunities, affordable living (in terms of square footage for houses), reasonably priced goods, good education, and good entertainment. Even Colorado Springs, mostly military in nature, has some great things to offer and made the top ten list, as did Wichita, Cedar Rapids, and Omaha.

If you want a little more detail than the slide show provides, you can also click into the details provided in the guide.

Good searching! Take a little pressure off of those seemingly glutted markets and open the door to some treasure troves of opportunities.

How to best explain a gap in employment

How to best explain a gap in employment.

A very useful article for getting the Thinking Cap on your head and your head in the right place. Not every interview question is an indictment of you and your history. In fact (and as author Patti  Sinacole says), each question is an opportunity. The underlying statement is that the interviewer is very interested and is opening the door to learn how well this fit may be.

Go a head and talk about the projects that you’ve been working on (just a few, mind you) during your “unemployment” and toss in a few anecdotes about the volunteer projects that could have been considered either internships or another type of employment situation.

These types of interview questions are simply pulling open the door of opportunity. Remember to have your own screening and clarifying questions so you can assure yourself this is indeed a good match.

Vocabulary Builder: Budget Issues

I usually post a weekly Vocabulary Builder to the “Classes & Trainings” folder of the Bulletins portion of my site. The psychology is that people use terms but they don’t always mean the same thing to different people or in different situations. The result is strained, or even no, communication but a lot of confusion.

To remedy that, especially for the sake of having a good exchange during an interview (showing off your skills) and then for the long haul on your permanent job during those times at the water cooler or (more importantly) during department meetings, I started the Vocabulary Builders.

During the time when these Vocabulary Builders were static and lived in the Career and the Recruiting Tips newsletters, the definitions were provided in the body of the newsletter. Things changed when the exercises moved to non-static mode. I now ask for members to provide how they define the terms. In that way, we can (1) gain an understanding of how others interpret the word(s) or term(s) and (2) gain more meaningful communication.

Now that our history lesson about the Vocabulary Builder is out of the way, here’s this week’s exercise regarding Budget Issues:

Vocabulary Builder: Budget Issues

Congress and the President are having some strong conversations right now as we consider various methods to put the budget (and economy) back on some good footing. While getting into a debate over which strategies are best and which is the best Party to follow isn’t necessarily right for this post, it would be good to get a common ground understanding for the terms being used during your next conversation on the subject.

How are you defining these terms?

• discretionary budget item
• debt service
• static calculation of revenue (without taxation)
• partisan
• nonpartisan

Incidentally, which branch of governnment is the one responsible for creating the economic environment in which we live and work?

• President
• Congress
• Judiciary

You can use the Comments section to provide your definition of one or all of the terms (and/or) respond to the challenge question. You can also go to the Bulletins and respond there.

Most Popular Jobs

Payscale published a new article on popular jobs and promote it in their current newsletter. The article’s title is “10 Most Popular Jobs and What They Pay.” There are some interesting things to note about these ten job titles. Let’s take a look at them and then I’ll leave you to explore the content of the article.

The first thing that stands out is the order of the jobs. They’re ranked by degree of satisfaction for those who are in the occupations. The first six are all in the “helping” field. Let’s call them humanitarian occupations. One has a bit of overlap into environmental issues. They are

• Operating Room Nurse

• Physical Therapist
• Environmental Engineer
• Athletic Trainer
• Dietitian
• Elementary School Teacher

The first three jobs rank in the 80th percentiles as far as level of satisfaction. My observation in regard to satisfaction is that the jobs offer a lot in the way of feeling as though your work has a lot of relevance. The other thing is all of those jobs merit pay of $61,000 or more per year.

The next three jobs drop to the 78% to 79% in terms of job satisfaction. Likewise, the level of pay also drops, hovering between $49,000 to $39,000. In other words, these people are pulling salaries of between $3,205 to $4,083 per month. It doesn’t appear that the money is what’s making them unhappy but something about the actual work. This, in light of the amount of dollars paid, means there’s some serious research and soul searching that needs to go into considering the work. It would be wise to do some informational interviewing, not for the sake of getting leads as much as learning the inside scoop about daily demands, ability to reach personal goals and desires, amount of bureaucracy involved in delivering on the services, additional training involved in actually reaching a desired plateau, amount of effort required to find a place to work.

The next four jobs are more in the way of technical occupations. They deal more with numbers and data than with people and concepts. They remuneration they draw is essentially all over the map. While the one at the lowest end of the spectrum commands $58,000, the one at the top draws $70,000. However, the satisfaction ratings range from 71% to 76% for

• Intelligence Analyst

• Computer Networking/IT Systems Engineer
• Dental Hygienist
• Technical Writer

These are definitely not callings for people with a heavy creative factor. Still, there is room in all of these occupations for people with diverse interests and talents, depending on how the callings are cast and the setting. You just need to open your mind to the related industries, and how your particular talents can be used to help you blossom in that particular setting.

Additionally, these are generalized job titles. There are related and even lateral situations that call upon similar if not the same skills but are either stepping stones to the ultimate goal (and learning plateaus) or are related careers in and of themselves. You have to research the options and what’s available as you either embark on your search or else fine tune it.

The interesting thing about these statistics is that PayScale doesn’t tell us how or where they derived these numbers. It isn’t clear whether these are data representative of the East Coast, Midwest, or where. Ohio wages are definitely going to be different from New York and California. Likewise, Detroit and Macon will also have a particular slant. The other unfortunate thing about PayScale is they don’t respond to questions either by phone or by email. So we’re left to take in the information and just puzzle things through for ourselves.

Where should you look to learn about related careers and jobs? Try the Occupational Outlook Handbook or the Career Guide to Industries that are published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Related Articles:

• 10 Sexiest Jobs

• The Average American Wage: Who Earns It?
• How to Make Any Job Better

Median Salary by Company Size – Country: United States (United States)

Compare your salary: Get a free Salary Report

Career Tip: In the Positive Mode

Going through a job search while unemployed has its pitfalls. If we’re not careful, they can easily consume us. One of the things that feeds them is becoming discouraged and then allowing bad habits to invade our routine. Avoid them as much as possible.

It’s extremely important to stick to the formalities of the brick and mortar workplace in attitude, dress, and speech. Otherwise, we lapse into complacency and a too-relaxed attitude about ourselves and our work. We lose credibility and create mountains to climb, instead of small hills, to our summit of success. Staying ready to go and ready to present the professional side of yourself is critical.

Keep yourself to a schedule. This includes maintaining records, developing materials unique to your endeavors, as well as housekeeping. Make certain that you stick to the regimen of rising at the same time as you would to go to work. Put shower and dress in the same time frame as brush your teeth (and hair). Grooming is important. A little make-up, well-trimmed hair (facial and head) do wonders for attracting people to you. Be certain you get enough rest at night. A well-managed look accompanied by a well-managed schedule makes a powerful statement about the positive you.

Make a budget for yourself and stay within it. Be certain to include a small amount for some type of entertainment – even if it’s a small as a latte, a bouquet of flowers, a new CD/DVD, or a bottle of fragrance. It’s encouraging to know you really do have some financial margin available that’s devoted to a little bit of enjoyment.

Make a point of attending at least one morning business meeting per month and dress appropriately. “Go out” doesn’t need to be all day; an hour or so is sufficient to create a break in being a household hermit but also keep you circulating in the public. It lets you see what the trends are in your real world so you’re in gear for immediately starting things.

Make certain you dress in business casual attire and go out at least three times per week. Wearing business casual doesn’t mean you have to break the bank. Two tops and two bottoms can be interchanged so that you always have a different look. Wash and wear is more sensible than dry clean only (which should be used sparingly).

Keep up your reading about current affairs (newspaper), literature (international or national magazine), and industry chatter (industry journal or newspaper). It’s good grist for conversations as well as keeping you well informed. It’s also useful to keep up your recreational reading in whatever areas interest you. The more well rounded your reading, the more informed and interesting you are.

When we keep ourselves well groomed, we feel better physically and psychologically and therefore do a better job. It attracts people to us because we make them feel better about themselves, their environment, and the choices they make for themselves. Speaking of physical, it’s good to make time for exercise (at least walking) 10 to 20 minutes each day. It keeps the body well tuned, under control, and also promoting a positive attitude.

The interesting part of all these recommendations is the vast number of ways that they can be accomplished. What are you already doing to stay in the positive mode. Given what was discussed here, what types of things can you think of doing to make it happen for you?

Using Your Skills and Networks

Job search can be a real challenge. Sometimes it’s handled well and people seem to bounce back from a short-term setback with zeal in what appears to be no time. Others have a long detour and a lot of learned lessons that leave the apprentice not too well for the wear.

There’s talk that jobs in the Midwest are short on availability. Even though rents are much lower there than New York or Los Angeles, affordable housing is simply a pipe dream if you’re homeless or living on the streets.

Yet, today we have a story about a man who’s in the Midwest and homeless. It seems he’s in the right place at precisely the right time with just the right skills and definitely more than the required motivation. This man with the golden voice just got Opportunity buried into his lap thanks to his using his voice, the training he got in refining that skill, and the community on Reddit to advance his opportunities for housing and a career in the industry that he loves.

It was interesting that about the time that the golden-voiced Ted Williams story was going viral on YouTube late yesterday afternoon I was talking with a cab driver about those who are down on their luck but cheat or use shortcuts to pull themselves out of trouble. I observed that in those cases, the person will take on the traditional opportunity. Unfortunately, they scam the system by injuring their own self in order to gain short-term, not very profitable tools to gain income and relief. The self injury provides a stream for the short term (maybe three to six months), creates a Worker’s Comp record for them, and decreases their credibility. Ultimately, they keep finding themselves back in the same circumstances or maybe even worse. Meanwhile, their alternative paths to empowerment make those who are willing to provide a hand up or an open door become jaundiced and leery, thereby making them unwilling to repeat the generosity lest they be exploited again. Those who have genuine desires and goals, not to mention talent, are left to struggle against the stigma and prejudice.

Not so in the case of Williams. He’s using his intelligence to help him leverage himself and his talents to beat down the prejudices and stigma toward a person in his temporary circumstances and start his journey down the road to his personal success as he defines it. He’s availing himself of the assistance provided by his virtual network on Reddit to gain the reach he needs to market himself.

His story is so refreshing that it makes me wonder how many other real and virtual communities are actualizing these and other types of connections with referral opportunities for their members of whatever age or background.

Career Tip: Display the Awards

The Kennedy Center Honors are on tonight. I’ll admit it for each of us. The thoughts emerged spontaneously and could not be suppressed. (Aren’t you glad there are writers and career coaches like me who can admit the thoughts for those who wouldn’t dare admit them?)

“I’ve done a lot of work; toiled against odds; overcome insurmountable circumstances; come from humble beginnings. Why can’t I be acknowledged for what I’ve done?”

First, there’s scale. People like Oprah, Bill T. Jones, and the other honorees for tonight and award shows throughout time, are about the ones who have publicity agents of some sort who go about trumpeting the accomplishments as well as making those times when they fell on their faces look like a prat fall done for effect. The publicity agent gets paid for bringing attention to the right things and milking the incident for as long as necessary to put a halo on the celebrity. That’s scale. The celebrities (and politicians) are the bigger than life entities. They need the time to focus on their principle endeavors while some specialist puts a twist on the various acts to play up their importance to the ones who count, be that agents, producers, publishers, hiring managers.

Uh, hiring managers? Yes, and co-workers and on and on. That’s where scale comes in. We who do not walk on clouds still need agents of some sort. Those people who trumpet our accomplishments for us to the ones who count – co-workers, managers and supervisors, friends and associates. And we need to have the gumption to trumpet a few of those for our own selves (mind you, not all of them). There, it’s helpful to have certificates and plaques and trophies that attest to our accomplishments. Then we can put them on the mantle, the dining room sideboard, the walls, inside linen closets.

Wait a minute! Did I say “linen closet?” Yes, I did. There’s the story of the woman who had awards, degrees, certificates, trophies, of all manner for numerous accomplishments. And these were only a few of the ones she’d earned. (Emphasis on the word “earned,” please.) The reason she put them inside the closet was because she was aware of how uncomfortable they made her family and friends when they saw them. She didn’t want to create jealousy or envy (such horrible emotions) and she didn’t want to embarrass the people who were special to her. Earning each one took a lot of work in order to merit it but she never spoke of the work and merely brushed off any references to the awards if anyone became aware of them.

Then a day came when she sat in the closet and looked at all of those awards staring at her, accusing her of neglect. It wasn’t neglect of the awards. They were properly perma-plaqued, framed, or whatever else was appropriate. The bronze pieces were polished on a regular basis. But that day, she looked at the awards and realized she was hiding the awards and also hiding her accomplishments.

How could she rise to the heights she deserved if she literally hid everything she’d done to deserve, to earn, the next step in her life and the limelight and the accolades that she merited. It was time for her to come out of the closet with the awards.

With that type of disclosure, however, comes a new responsibility. That is the fierceness to stand up for yourself in the heat of pressure and attempts to make you feel unsure of yourself. That is the time to draw on the inner knowledge of all the steps that led to that moment in time of the crisis, the testing of the leader (of whatever level) and know with a certainty that you are extremely capable. You know the answer or at least how to find it. You have the confidence to follow it through.

Make certain some of your accomplishments are listed on your resume – the ones that pertain to the position you seek. Make certain your agent (be it your supervisor, best friends, social network) promotes some of your coups (so you don’t have to do it for yourself and sound like a braggart). Remember to reciprocate at appropriate times.

Most importantly, stop putting your awards in the closet. Display them!