Good News for ATLiens: Metro Atlanta hiring to be ‘very healthy’ in Q4

Will's Article Pick of the Day:

Metro Atlanta hiring to be ‘very healthy’ in Q4

Metro Atlanta employers expect to hire at a healthy rate in the fourth quarter, though not as much as in the third quarter, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.

From October to December, 21 percent of the companies Manpower interviewed said planned to hire more employees, while 6 percent expected to cut staff. Another 69 percent expected to maintain their current workforce levels and 4 percent were uncertain about their hiring plans. This yields a Net Employment Outlook of 15 percent, Manpower said.

“Employers’ hiring expectations for Quarter 4 2013 are less optimistic compared to Quarter 3 2013 when the Net Employment Outlook was 20 percent,” said Manpower spokesperson Judy Leppla. “Compared to one year ago when the Net Employment Outlook was 4 percent, employers are considerably more confident about their staffing plans.”

As for Georgia, 18 percent of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees and 6 percent expect to reduce their payrolls, Manpower reported. Another 72 percent expect to maintain their current staff levels and 4 percent are not certain of their hiring plans. This yields a Net Employment Outlook of 12 percent for the Peach State.

Article written by : 

Jacques Couret

Senior Online Editor-Atlanta Business Chronicle

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Sep 10, 2013, 9:33 am  EDT

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Manpower: Metro Atlanta hiring to be ‘healthy’ in Q4

Don't Waste Your Life... Test Your Career Goals

Don't Waste Your Life... Test Your Career Goals

(Article written by Bruce Kasanoff originally for Linkedin.com - can be found here)

If I told you that the first person to discover a pink manatee would become an instant millionaire, you probably wouldn't drop everything and start searching. You are smart enough not to believe in pink manatees, and you realize there are much more sensible ways for you to succeed.

In other words, you did a quick reality check and avoided running off on a ridiculous quest for success.
Are you being as logical with your own career? There's one way to find out.

Test your goals.

The way to separate possible goals from impossible ones is to test them, in a modest way, and see what happens.

If you want to be a standup comedian, write a routine and test it in front of your friends. If that works, perform at an open mic night. If you want to write songs, write songs... then see if you can get people to stay in the room when you sing them.

If you want to go to grad school, take a graduate level course and see how well you like it.
You may be an extraordinarily gifted designer, but if you have no business sense whatsoever you will likely fail without a business partner. If this description fits you, your first test should be to see if you can convince a smart business person to collaborate with you.

If you think you can handle a much bigger job, privately test your ability to handle the job's biggest challenges. For example, write a strategic plan - masking any confidential details - and show it to a few people (outside the company) whose opinion you trust.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, build a prototype and see if anyone wants to buy it. Even better, get feedback from potential customers, then use that feedback to refine your product. When customers actually buy your product, then - and only then - will you know you are on the right track.

Slow down!

It can be easy to move too fast. You may hate your current job, or be incredibly excited by the potential of your dream. You could be tempted to quit your job before designing a product or selling it to anyone. You might want to raise money before talking to potential customers. Maybe you want to act first, and think later.
In other words, you'd like to skip the boring stuff like thinking, planning, and testing.

If you pursue your dreams without testing them, you risk wasting years of your life. Don't chase pink manatees; always test the waters before jumping in.

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More from Bruce Kasanoff: Bruce has three free ebooks available for download at Kasanoff.com. He is the author with Michael Hinshaw of Smart Customers, Stupid Companies; you can read the Introduction and first chapter for free.

 

To see more of Bruce's articles on LinkedIn, click the "follow" button below, or follow@NowPossible on Twitter.

Image credit: Manatee sketch by Tamara Fuchinsky.



Need a Good-Looking, UNIQUE Resume Revamp? Only have 15 Minutes? Don't Pay for It; Click This Here Button.

Need a Good-Looking, UNIQUE Resume Revamp? Only have 15 Minutes? Don't Pay for It; Check Out Linkedin Labs!



If, by chance, you were about to pay one of those random companies $500 to redo/revamp your resume (And let's be honest here: What were you thinking? That's 500 Wendy's　Double-Bacon Cheeseburgers you're losing on some format changes)　THEN DON'T DO IT. Here is your solution. (But feel free to send me a donation of $100 for the assistance!)

　

Stumbled across this the other day... I must say, one heck of a find. Highly suggested for those passive candidates who want to keep in touch with recruiters but don't have the time to stop working/attending to the family　long enough to spend 10 hours on updating and redoing their resume (FYI: If a recruiter asks for your resume, it means they know you will fit a role that tends to come across their desk in just a matter of time so send it to them.)

　

Anyhow, this was actually featured on Linkedin.com's professional blog for a day, but then disappeared into the night for some reason... It's an additional app add on that complies you a resume from your current Linkedin Profile that looks great, can be altered as needed, and comes with unique and varying templates.

　

Basically, it's awesome. (Link below)

Linkedin Labs: Resume Builder

Radioactive conversations: how to avoid them by Joel Peterson

Radioactive conversations: how to avoid them

(Original Article Authored by Joel Peterson, Chairman, JetBlue Airways. Stanford Business Professor and posted on Linkedin.com page here.)

If there’s a ticking bomb in your personal or professional life, you already know it’s better to defuse it than to let it explode. If you don't face it head on, you risk fallout that can last months, years—or even a lifetime.

Is it a conversation with your partner about where you should live, or with your child about how she’s doing in school, or who his friends are? Perhaps at work you’ve locked horns with your boss over your own vision and priorities – and you sense it's beginning to affect your career trajectory. In any of these cases, the odds are that you don’t want to deal with it; and they don’t either.

But the longer you put it off, the fewer ticks are left before the bomb goes off. When it does, a lot heat gets released, and things get said that can’t be unsaid. Bad goes to worse. And sometimes, worse goes to radioactive.

Why hazard that kind of damage when some thoughtful preparation, and cool-headed discussion, can disarm many confrontations before they happen? Here are a few strategies that can turn tension into progress:

1. Atmospherics matter. Pick a good moment, and a good place. Make things as easy as possible on the other party. Try to catch them in an even mood. People don’t respond well when they’re hungry or exhausted, or in a location where they feel vulnerable. And have the talk in private, without eavesdroppers or referees.

2. Don’t bury the lede. Resist the temptation to start the conversation by asking how the other person is feeling. Vague overtures may seem like a good way to “test of the waters,” but may only make you seem hesitant or ill at ease. If it’s a colleague, launch the conversation with a straightforward, “I’ve been wanting to talk with you for a while about something that’s getting in the way of our working well together. I want to discuss how we might fix what’s causing it.”

3. Listen (first), listen (well), listen (generously). After opening the conversation with a clear statement of your intentions, offer to let the other party share his or her perspective before you do. It’s a gesture of goodwill and respect – and getting off to a good, unselfish start means a better chance of a good, unselfish outcome.

Then, listen like it’s your job. Have the discipline to repeat what you’ve heard (“What I hear you saying is…”). Your work isn’t done until the other person feels that you’ve understood her perspective. Beware: You may feel the explosion coming on before you get to this point. That’s normal, and in fact it’s likely why the conflict exists in the first place. But stay cool, and don’t interrupt except for clarification, or to gently ask your counterpart not to wander too far into ancient history. Good listening alone can go a long way toward solving a conflict.

4. Your turn: Be clear. Be calm. When it comes time to give critical feedback, express it in the form of concern. If you want to talk to your teenager about his behavior, try something like, “You know how much I care about you. My own experience with how the world works makes me feel that I owe you some guardrails. I’m going to ask you to trust me on this.” Granted, teens aren’t likely to jump into your corner, even with this approach. But it sets the tone for your longer-term goal -- to nourish a trust relationship where you still have some influence over an increasingly free agent.
The same goes for charged conversations with a supervisor or employee. If you’re giving negative feedback, do it in a spirit of growth and forward movement, discuss a fair plan for addressing the issue, and set up a time to reconnect and check in.

5. Don’t be the on to pull the pin. If things get heated, you may hear things like “I’ll see you in court,” “You’re such a jerk,” or “That’s it! I’m outta here!” But don’t let it be you who goes there.

The jujitsu of high-stress conversations means you want to move toward the other party if the rhetoric turns hostile. The louder, more aggressive, more threatening he becomes, the lower your volume must be, and the more you must absorb. This doesn't mean capitulating or accepting abuse; it means being the bigger person. Instead of answering a legal threat with, “I hope you’ve got a good lawyer, then,” try something like, “I’m sad you feel that way. I’d hate for that to be where we end up. Let’s explore a less destructive course of action.”

Stressful conversations are worth having sooner than later. Conducted with care, they can release pressure before it builds to the breaking point, and even make relationships stronger. Don’t put off what’s difficult now in favor of what will be impossible down the road.
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Joel's recent posts:

To-do #1: Kill your to-do list

The 10 most common firing mistakes

Be the Michelangelo of Goal-Setting

Follow Joel at @JoelCPeterson

Gordon Ramsay's ultimate recipe for business

Gordon Ramsay's ultimate recipe for business

Written by Chris Seper for Linkedin.com

I'd never watched Gordon Ramsay's shows until three weeks ago. But I'm suddenly addicted to early-run, British versions of his infamous "Kitchen Nightmares" series. All these episodes essentially feature entrepreneurs in peril. Amid the bad food, slow service and angry customers, there's a universal lesson Ramsay is sharing. Entrepreneurs, business leaders and ambitious employees need to heed the underlying advice.

The nightmarish restaurants all have their own unique problems. But one thing typically vexes them all: things are just way too complicated. Often it's a menu with too many entrees. Other times, it's recipes with too many ingredients. The complexity of these restaurants keep owners and employees from fulfilling their core mission: to create great food efficiently enough to feed a lot of people which, in turn, lets them feed themselves with the with money they make.

In one episode, Ramsay challenges a stubborn chef to a competition to make broccoli soup (6:44). The chef pours 16 ingredients into his version, it takes forever to make, has a sewage color and, worst of all, you can barely taste the broccoli.

Ramsay's version? Broccoli, water and salt. It was a lush forest green. The other chef admitted it tasted much better. Best of all, it was quick and inexpensive. It is a dish that can be done better, faster and cheaper.

So much of what we do in business is broccoli soup. Once the company has identified the need and built its plan, it's time to make the soup. But so many of us are well educated, ambitious, academically curious and eager to show it. So we wind up tossing all of our mental ingredients into every broccoli soup we make. It's the ultimate trap. We recreate the wheel instead of relying on our systems. We wind up feeding fewer customers and, as a result, struggle to feed ourselves.

There's another downside, too. When it does come time to make your company's version of a soufflé, you can't pull it off because you've spent so much energy complicating the simpler products.
Some are turned off at the simplicity. But there is also a magnificence in executing a plan with such focus and efficiency and "feeding" so many people.


Call it the KISS principle. Call it good systems. But in the end, we're making broccoli soup. Find the need, create a recipe, and keep serving.



To-do #1: Kill your to-do list!

To-do #1: Kill your to-do list

(By Joel Peterson for Linkedin.com)

Most executives sit atop a mountain of to-do’s that never seems to get any smaller, no matter how furiously they work to cross things off. One young entrepreneur I work with was struggling with a list that contained 25 “pressing issues.” She wanted to improve her web site, craft a workable budget, reorganize the sales force, update pricing, replace the head of IT, prepare board documents, start employee reviews and a dozen other vital tasks.

That many giant projects stacked on top of one another can be a fearsome thing to behold. So I suggested she put the list aside for a minute, take a deep breath, and pull out a clean sheet of paper. Next I told her to try this exercise:

• Fit every item on the Big List into one of three columns -- tasks that benefit Employees, Shareholders, or Customers.
• If any of the tasks doesn't fit in one of the columns -- cross it off. Be ruthless.
• Rank the remaining tasks by order of importance, and assign all but the top one in each column to your team members.
• The three remaining tasks -- one in each group – are your new priorities.

As hard as this can be to do, the idea is a simple one: To-do’s aren’t goals – they’re tasks. If you’re a CEO (or a team leader), your job is to figure out what winning looks like. In the above example, balancing the needs, wants and expectations of all three core constituencies became the guiding principle for this young leader as she found her bearings. Not ticking off to-do's.

Your most important job as a leader is to keep your team focused on a clear, compelling and limited set of big goals – no more than three. Yesterday I shared a few ways to make your goals exciting, unselfish, and memorable. You’re the guardian and evangelist of your organization’s priorities – it’s up to you to keep them high up and in neon letters so all employees can see, from C-level to the street level.

At Microsoft, that meant putting “a computer on every desk and in every home.” At Amazon.com, their Kindle seeks to offer "every book, ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds.” Pepsi famously wanted to “Beat Coke.” At jetBlue, we strive to be “America's favorite airline by bringing humanity back to air travel.”

If you’re splaying 25 to-do’s across 10 columns like my young friend did, no one will know your priorities – because you won’t have any! You’ll end each week exhausted, wondering if you made any progress. And your team will lose steam.

It's clarity and boldness you want: when employees can actually believe in what they’re spending so much of their lives doing, they’ll feel energized and excited, because they know what they’re doing matters. If you can give them a “line of sight” from their jobs to the big goal, you’ll find invigorated employees accomplishing remarkable things.

Clear, inspiring goals to empower your people and connect them to your business -- that should be #1 on a your (very short) list.

---
Joel's recent posts:
"The 10 most common firing mistakes"
"Be the Michelangelo of Goal-Setting"
Follow Joel at @JoelCPeterson
(Photo: romanlily / Flickr)



March Madness: How to Play the Job-hunting Game to Win

March Madness: How to Play the Job-hunting Game to Win (By: Lou Adler)

It’s hard to win a game when the rules are made up after the winner is chosen.

In hiring this is pretty much the state of affairs. While there are some written rules, no one really follows them. If they did, there wouldn’t be many great people being hired. Unfortunately, most active job-seekers play the wrong game, and then become frustrated as their losses pile up. Recruiters make things worse, since they each use their favorite unwritten rules. Hiring managers compound the problem since most don’t even want to play.

So if you’re serious about a getting a better job, or any job for that matter, you first have to figure out which game is being played. Then you must do everything you can to break the rules and use your own instead.
(Special Note: I’ll be describing some game-winning strategies at a special webcast for job-seekers on March 28. )

The Biggest and Dumbest Rule of Them All: Using Skills-Infested Job Descriptions.

Possessing a list of skills, experiences, and academics using some arbitrary metric is the default rule. HR embraces this rule contending it’s the required legal validation (it isn’t) and sets it in stone, or at least in the HR handbook and ATS system.

The problem with this rule is that having the skills and experiences listed is no guarantee of successful on-the-job performance. A bigger problem is that using this rule eliminates the possibility of considering diversity candidates; light, but high-potential candidates; and top performers from other fields as possibilities.
From a practical standpoint, this default rule is broken every day. People promoted into these same jobs internally are hired based on their performance and potential, not their absolute level of skills and experiences. External candidates who are vouched for by current employees because of their exceptional performance form the second biggest group of people hired who don’t possess all of the skills.
So if you’re a job-seeker who is a top performer, but doesn’t meet the default standard, you’ll have to figure out a different way to get into the game.

The Second Biggest Rule: even if you get the interview, there are no rules for how to select the best candidate.

Techies overvalue tech. Senior managers overvalue their intuition. Less-skilled interviewers defer to their superiors. Candidates are assessed largely on their presentation skills, not their ability and motivation to do the work. And everyone is affected by first impressions. These errors are magnified when using a skills-infested job description, since it allows something other than the actual job to be the benchmark. The actual debriefing session is largely based on an up-down voting system where a safer “no” vote carries more weight than a yes, rewarding the weaker interviewer, since they can never be proved wrong. In these same sessions emotions and feelings are more persuasive than evidence. As a result, the person ultimately selected is often the compromise and least offensive candidate, not necessarily the best person.

There are other rules in the hiring game, but these are the big ones. Throughout my search career I attempted to impose some degree of order to this anarchic-like process. This was the genesis of Performance-based Hiring, based on the idea of defining the actual work as the standard of excellence rather than skills, and the use of a structured evidence-based assessment process rather than individual bias. I’ve been called wild ‘n crazy as a result.

We’ll be discussing how to play the game at the March 28 webcast, but to get ready here’s some quick advice:

1. Unless you’re a perfect fit for the job, don’t apply directly. It will be a waste of time. Some machine will spit you out as unqualified long before some recruiter gives your profile the 15-second review.
2. Use the backdoor to apply. First find out who the hiring manager or department head is. Then send this person a letter (yes, letter) and an email with a link to your LinkedIn profile. Make sure the line under your name on your online profile says you've accomplished something remarkable and job-related, like, “just finished training 12 sales reps and all of them made quota the first year!” In the letter, describe your 2-3 biggest accomplishments that roughly compare to the open job. Suggest that you’d like to arrange a 15-minute call to see if your background matches the company’s hiring needs.
3. Ask about the real job during the first five minutes of the phone screen or interview. If the interviewer is a box-checker, you’ll have no chance if your skills and experience are a bit off the mark. In this case, quickly ask something like, “Rather than wasting a lot of time, could you tell me about the big challenges or problems involved in the job? I can then give you a quick summary of some of my related accomplishments. Then if it makes sense to get serious we can arrange a more in-depth discussion."
4. Find someone credible who can personally vouch for your performance. A book could be written on this technique, but the idea here is that's it's better to be referred by someone rather than applying.

Of course, these aren’t all of the rules, but when someone is using flawed rules, or none at all, you might as well create your own. At least this way you’re more likely to be evaluated based on your ability and past performance, rather than on some arbitrary criteria and the quality of your first impression.
______________________________________________________
Lou Adler (@LouA) is the Amazon best-selling author of Hire With Your Head (Wiley, 2007) and the award-winning Nightingale-Conant audio program, Talent Rules! His latest book, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired, is now available as an Amazon Kindle eBook. You might want to join Lou's new LinkedIn group to discuss hiring related issues.

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