Just another WordPress weblog
Posted on August 29, 2009 by AtulNo Comments
We are proud to announce that the largest association of outsourcing professionals, IAOP, has adopted us as their exclusive job site. We are looking forward to feedback from you on how we can make this a better resource for you. Please send in your ideas!
Atul
Founder, Best Outsourcing Jobs
Chairman, Neo Advisory (Formerly neoIT) & Neo Group
Filed Under: General
Posted on August 9, 2009 by AtulNo Comments
By Rusty Weston
How much do you know about the corporate culture
of a prospective employer? Until you work there, you're in the dark,
right? By reputation, an outsourcing company might be known as a meat
grinder or a smaller firm as a cold and unfriendly place. Yet how
much of this reputation is true and how much of it is sour grapes?
It's imperative to discover the true nature of corporate culture
before you accept a job offer. If the company likes go-getters, but
you're a slow-starter, look elsewhere. If the company likes consensus
builders, but you shoot from the hip, maybe it's not a good fit for you.
Unless you're equipped with science-fiction powers of precognition,
your options for evaluating the culture as a job candidate or job
seeker appear limited to talking to people and power-reading on the
web. The obvious place to start, the careers section of the corporate
site, is usually a dead end. There you can read the type of gloss that
belongs on a Hallmark greeting card. If reading about the CEO's family
values melts your heart, so be it, but I'd rather know if the company
nurtures or chews up its young. And to get that kind of information you
have to dig – deep.
Headhunters
know this better than job seekers do. "There's no point in a client
attracting an individual who will not enjoy the environment," says
Andrew Kris, partner, Borderless
Executive Search in Belgium. "If the [new hire] isn't successful in the
job at the end of the day this will be considered a failure by the
headhunter."
If you have the advantage of working with a recruiter here's what to check out:
Of course, not everyone has the advantage of working with a
recruiter (or headhunter if you prefer); many workers, especially those
just starting out are likely to respond to ads or choose a company that
they know or admire. To peel back the onion, Jac Fitz-enz, Founder & CEO, Human Capital Source
in Silicon Valley suggests looking at case studies of companies that do
an excellent job of managing talent. Beyond newsstand publications such
as Fast Company, Forbes, Businessweek and Fortune, try the Harvard Business Review, HR trades and journals, such as Workforce Management
(though not all of it is free). "Those would be the first ones I would
look for if I wanted to make a change and find a company that's
somewhat enlightened," he says.
Another option is networking with people who either currently or
recently worked in the organization. Mining social media sites such as Linked-In or Xing
among others can provide you with a fast and easy source for those
contacts. You may be surprised to learn that employees and former
employees are only too happy to receive your unsolicited e-mail and to
offer you guidance.
And yet, even in the Internet age, the sniff test still applies.
"There are all kinds of non-verbal clues when you walk in the door,"
says Fitz-enz. He remembers the first time he walked through the lobby
doors at Hewlett-Packard's corporate headquarters: "There was a feeling
about the place, an aura about it … and it wasn't a little cozy room."
Fitz-enz says that you can sense the culture in the energy of the
people and in the look of the worker's eyes. "You just have to pay
attention," he says.
"Ultimately," says Borderless Executive Search's Kris, "it's
cultural adaptability that makes for success in any new organization
you move to."
Blog courtesy of My Global Career.
Filed Under: Global Work
Posted on August 5, 2009 by AtulNo Comments
By Rusty Weston
In this post-Enron era of mandated transparency, corporate annual reports offer greater insights to a broader range of stakeholders, not just investors.
Though annual reports suffer from an excess of glossy prose and
disclosures, savvy corporations realize that it's not just financial
analysts and investors reading between the lines. Increasingly, job
candidates are mining annual reports to better equip themselves for
interviews and to gauge the corporate culture.
"The strongest candidates are the ones that dig into annual reports," says Lori Blackman, president of DNL Global, a Dallas-based recruiting firm. "The job candidates' objective should be to help grow the company."
Here are some questions job seekers should keep in mind when reading an annual statement:
Profitability. The good news is you don't have to be an MBA
or financial analyst to make sense of the numbers. There are a wide
range of articles on the web and various books available about how to read financial statements and annual reports.
If
a company is privately held, it is not required to disclose its
financial results, however, few companies keep their success a state
secret and there may be press releases or newsletters available that
share the information.
Sharing the wealth. Few companies take the opportunity to
talk about what they do for employees, apart from discussions about
funding pensions or other required disclosures. This is a mistake. Job
seekers are potential stakeholders who want to know what's in it for
them, too.
Talent Management. In General Electric Co's annual report,
Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman & CEO, devotes considerable space to human
capital initiatives. "We don't want thematic leaders who move from
subject to subject," Immelt writes. "They can't build. All of our
compensation and succession planning values long-term commitment." I
don't think you have to be a Kremlinologist to read between the lines: GE wants depth, rather than breadth, in its leaders.
Home grown preference. Honeywell states in its annual report
that 65% of its top positions are filled with internal candidates. As
an outsider entering the organization, would you have a harder time
than a long-time Honeywell employee of jumping to the next higher level
within the organization?
Global Strategy. If the company lacks offices, customers or
suppliers beyond its home country, it lacks a global strategy. A
company that boasts of growing international revenue is committed to
sustaining a global presence. Both Honeywell and GE, for instance, will
see nearly half of corporate revenue come from outside of the U.S. this
year.
Global Diversity. While GE is one of the standard-bearers for
global growth and human capital investment, Pepsico is unrivaled for
its commitment to global diversity. From its Indian CEO Indra Nooyi, to
its "Ethnic Advisory Boards," to its discussion of diversity and
ownership culture, Pepsi 's commitment is more than skin deep. Does the
potential employer simply talk a good game?
Good Citizenship. Baxter touts its place on a list of "100 Best Corporate Citizens" by Corporate Responsibility Officer
magazine. A wide range of employers engage in innovative philanthropic
initiatives. Aflac, for instance, established a children's cancer
center in Atlanta and sells 'plush' ducks to raise money for hospitals
that treat children with cancer. Again, does the employer have anything
to tout and if not, why not?
While you could ask a hiring manager or a recruiter many of these
questions, assuming you're granted an interview, you might be better
served to kick the tires first. If the company is committed to talent
management – it's in the annual report. If it's not there, perhaps that
should tell you something about the company.
Of course, annual reports are just one tool among many. Paul Zellner, Managing Director of Russell Reynolds, a
recruiting firm in Chicago, recommends listening to replays of
quarterly analyst calls for a discussion of key business issues facing
the company. If you want to impress a hiring manager or recruiter,
Zellner says, prepare yourself to express this idea: "This appears to
be your [company's business] issues … Here's where I have been
helpful in solving these kinds of problems."
Reading annual statements, which are typically available in the
investor section of a corporate website, is a bit drier than surfing
business articles or corporate brochures. But, in effect, job seekers
should view themselves as investors -potentially investing the best
years of their lives in this company.
Blog courtesy of My Global Career.
Filed Under: Jobs
Posted on August 2, 2009 by AtulNo Comments
By Rusty Weston
Will working abroad fast-track your career? The answer has often
been yes for men, but a question mark for women who used to be passed
over for foreign assignments.
In the book Get Ahead by Going Abroad
authors C. Perry Yeatman and Stacie Berdan contend that women are
better suited for foreign assignments than men – and they have the
results to prove it.
"It comes down to a couple of personality traits as well as skills,"
says Berdan. "Women have great communication skills, team building, and
adaptability – the things we have noticed successful women overseas
have." According to their research, "The success rate is 15-to-20
percent higher for women as opposed to men. That's pretty astounding."
A former media executive, Berdan says that her career blossomed as a result of a successful overseas assignment
that began in her late 20s. Berdan, who consults multinationals on how
to prepare employees for overseas assignments, moved to Hong Kong the
day after she was married. Her "trailing spouse" to use the vernacular
of globe-trotting executives, is a writer who could work from anywhere.
Often it's the trailing spouse – particularly those that don't work -
who torpedoes an otherwise invaluable career and life experience.
Berdan and Yeatman say that their personal experiences, combined
with several hundred interviews in preparation for the book, revealed
to them that women possess soft skills that can make a foreign
assignment successful. It's also true that these two network with a
lot of successful people. Berdan's co-author, C. Perry Yeatman is a SVP
of Kraft Foods, who had the experience of working in Singapore, Moscow,
and London.
In researching the book, "83% of the people said [their foreign
assignment] was successful," says Berdan. "Everyone said it was hard
and had their share of failures along the way. Many were very personal
stories a lot to do with gender stereotyping and female roles around
the world. "
Berdan's former employer, WPP
is an example of a company that understands how to manage
globally-distributed employees. "They have 70,000 employees all over
the place and they treat them like global employees, not expats," she
explains. She says that unfortunately many companies have HR
departments that lack empathy for workers on foreign assignments. "If
you have never been in the situation," of working overseas, she says,
"It's hard to understand how crazy" life abroad can be.
How do you know if you're ready
to embark on a global career or a foreign assignment? The authors
suggest that you ask yourself these questions first – if you can answer
yes or even "somewhat" to most of them, you may have right aptitude to succeed.
Do You Have the Right Stuff?
(From Get Ahead By Going Abroad - Harper Collins)
Blog courtesy of My Global Career.
Filed Under: Global Work
