7 Your profile has been viewed by 7 people in the past 7 days.
18 You have shown up in search results 18 times in the past 7 days.
The proliferation and confounding of
Facebooks, twitter, professional society social
media, linkedin.com, emails with photoIDs and
other sites
with
search engine optimization, pay-by-the-click
marketing, Phishers and scammers
makes our online reputation management an item
of more than just awareness.
Reputation, as Holly Finn has written, was “once
a qualitative measure of our behavior.” We
need to be active in controlling and monitoring
our PR, market kred (you are the brand ‘you, inc.’)
and online presence.
As we know Google and other companies apply
analytical elements and algorithms to capture either
intentional actions or total actions and deliver
your behavior, such as it is, to a pagerank score.
More serious involvement like displayed every week
in the TV series “Person of Interest” suggests
our tracks can be merged both for good and
ill.
Even little things can yield negative impressions
to “screeners.” I received an email on gmail
recently where a person’s image (chosen by the
person) was displayed. The pose was while
dancing and the smiling person displayed a hand
gesture that could be interpreted in the wrong way.
Please let me bring to your attention a nice article by
Alison Green.
One of the outstanding things about the ACS Career
consultants program is the wisdom of training
programs that keep us informed and updated on
trends. This happened last weekend in Ft. Worth.
The first nuggets of golden information was on
Federal government employment. B. Bohnet of
calltoserve.org told about the “government
tsunami” that is about the strike as mission critical
occupation holders leave federal employment
leaving openings.
HOW TO FIND POSITIONS
There is an art to searching for positions in government
service. L. Roberson (NASA) reinforced the notion
to (1) initiate your search with broad terms, like physical
scientist or biological scientist, and narrow terms down.
(2) Develop a strategy, learn from others’ approaches and
(3) save your search terms for re-use.
(4) Plan to search weekly. Announcements come out weekly
submission windows close on Fridays.
(5) Continuously learn in this process. There are noteworthy
webinars and presentations in specific cities and websites.
WRITING RESUMES
(1) Applications are rated on a point system. Top point
getters get the interviews for positions.
(2) Note several classes of people receive special points–
disabled, vets, peace corp,
americorp/vista
(3) Input offered was to use the keywords given in the
job description. The exact keywords.
(4) Organize your resumes so that you have a master resume
and targeted resumes for different positions and save them.
Check back regularly.
Future posts will provide more information about this
outstanding program.
On-line reputation, Heiring and inheriting
IRAs and thumbnail sketches of non-
petroleum energy production technologies
are things pointed out in this entry.
HOW SEARCH IS FORMING REPUTATION
SOURCE: H. Finn, WSJ 1-14-12, “How
Google & Co. will rule your rep“ Holly
points out that reputation is a qualitative
measure of our behavior. Google and other
firms are going steps further by quantifying
reputation scores. This trend is permeating
people, places and industries.
This article is an alert to be watchful about
maintaining your online persona.
A. Lincoln: Character is like a tree and
reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what
we think of, the tree is the real thing..
INHERITED AND DONATING IRAs
SOURCE: K. Greene,WSJ IRA heirs do’s and dont’s;
K. Greene WSJ Pitfalls of inherited IRAS
The first offers a plan for giving also do’s and don’ts
and is helpful. IRS has convoluted rules that the
second article points out.
Both articles provide tips of IRA investing.
GREEN ENERGY TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
SOURCE: Wired, Feb. 2012, p 108-9
Power struggles
Very insightful panel covering two pages
offering the promise, reality and outlook of
8 technologies. Very insightful statements for 2012.
One of the things that excellent workshops bring up
and pay attention to for job seekers is the company
culture.
How do things get done around here?
What is considered important?
Should I be at every meeting or some specific meetings?
How do things get communicated? Can there be
disagreements?
What does the CEO pay attention to first– stockholders,
customers, investors, competition, employees, retirees,
even himself?
Many things spill down intentionally, unintentionally and
inadvertently (through inaction), from the wishes, actions
and words of the leadership group.
Reading L. Roney’s article on company culture, I
thought back to many people who I have worked with
and can only recall a handfull who examined this factor
carefully. Two people I know quite well are in positions
after careful consideration and are enjoying their careers,
to the point of calling me to tell what they are doing.
They like their careers so much. In both cases, this is not their
first position. They had to do personal soul searching
to figure out what their passions were and gain confidence
to deal with whatever comes their way. Much is unpredictable.
I believe the Meridian Group offers some insight into
a number of features of corporate culture. Even there,
I missed a couple in my reading of their site and
resources. For example, the customer or customer
interactions, government interactions and regulation and
the competition are not levels of culture in their paradigm.
So if you are interested in the culture of an institution,
consider attending a First year on the job seminar or
Preparation for Life After Graduate School workshop.
It will be illuminating. [Toronto had one recently.]
A colleague and trusted consulting friend, Lisa, asked me
about a ‘recruiter’ arrangement that she was not familiar.
Question
She asked: “Do you have any experience with [recruiting firm
name withheld]? I have not. Apparently, they charge you to see
their listings, but then they ‘guarantee’ to find you a job?
It sounds a bit shady to me…”
Every once in a while a question about working with
recruiters comes up. See 1 for a specific situation
where a member was invited for a second interview with
a firm, where the first one was facilitated by a recruiter.
My response to Lisa expressed no experience with
the specific firm, however I did have several thoughts
and experiences with paid recruiter services that were
of value to members.
A paid recruiting service might not be my first choice
for a recent graduate without much work history. Although
some firms have downsized their staffing and HR departments
and may use a recruiting company to screen and service
this critical role. It is not standard practice to charge job
seekers, at this point.
There are circumstances, I shared with Lisa, where paid
recruiting service by a job seeker may be a viable route.
- experienced professional out of work for a while
- experienced professional trying to locate a position
in a different country or continent
- experienced professional who needed to find a position
quickly due to family circumstances
- professional with a troubled work history (fired for cause)
or personal life (felony violation)
The job seeker should seriously consider using a formal
contract with deliverables and time lines that is reviewed by
legal counsel.
Experience:
A client, who was dissatisfied in his current position asked if
he should work with a paid recruiter who would provide job
leads and make introductions for him. He sought out the recruiters
help, paid the fees, and in short order received more than what he
expected. Not only did he make contacts, interview and receive
interesting job offers, he was approached by his current employer
to entertain improving his assignment.
He negotiated for being able to have a more interesting position
with the same company and be able to consult with several of the
companies he made contact with.
He took a prudent risk that worked for him, at least for the short
term.
We mentioned crowd sourcing via contests and prizes
earlier as a means of encouraging innovation. The
X-Prize foundation awarded a large grant for oil
skimming technology to Elastec.
If this is something you are interested in participating
in Nature Chemistry lists an Open Innovation
Pavillion offering many competitions. This might
be just what it takes for mature scientists and
engineers to apply their ideas and experiences for
the greater good.
When we meet with job seekers and people interested in
developing their careers, one of the key messages involves
doing a self assessment so you can choose to work on
something you care for, are good at and will be happy doing.
Figure out what is important to you. Determine your key
values, interests and how you might pursue them in your
career.
That is factually true. It gets me to thinking how can I make
this more real. PBS/Nova has done this nicely.
So this blog post is a break from story telling, incidents
and factoids with recommendations.
I viewed a number of totally engrossing short episodes that I
encourage readers to click on in the Secret Life of Scientists
and Engineers series.
Eva Vertes - a cancer researcher and a runner, like me
Michio Kaku - theory of everything physicist and figure
skater (His books are terrific reading.)
Katherine Hayhoe - a climate scientist and practicing Christian
Gavin Smith - a climatologist and juggler
Molly Woodworth - a neuroscientist and cheerleader (I loved
her mathematical MIT cheer!)
Rich Robinson - a nanoscientist and a portrait photographer
Erika Ebbel - a biologist and beauty pageant winner
Laurie Santos - an experimental psychologist and photographer
and many other engineers and scientists.
One of the topics only briefly covered in career management
offerings for academic positions is what to include in your
research proposals. It is part of every academic employment
application package for research-intensive and principally-
undergraduate institutions. I have even seen it referred to
in community colleges, in relation to technical education
methods and experiments.
Recently I have been working on a proposal that is shaping
up nicely. The author has identified a high interest area
of cutting edge research for a research intensive institution.
(note: it will be challenging to conduct cutting edge
research at a PUI.) She has provided a good background
and short and medium term research plans and a longer
range view where she sees her research moving.
Not all proposals are the same or need to be cut from the
same pattern. Some additional considerations could be offered
(A colleague and friend, Rich Bretz, shared his insight
which he uses in academic job search workshops.)
1. resources needed to begin and conduct the research
[personnel, facilities, institutional support, other support]
2. potential funding sources [if you have written drafts,
consider including them.]
3. start up equipment and funding [office and laboratory
space, computers, software, equipment, furniture and facilities,
supplies; range $0 - 1.5M]
4. make your proposal case with a sense of urgency,
indicating you are the best qualified to conduct the work
and have working collaborations with leaders
5. point out how the research will train both undergraduate
and graduate students as independent and productive
researchers; how will the group be organized [it does not
self organize]
6. demonstrate your originality, differentiate your
approaches from competitors
7. identify your first experiments; what is the ultimate
research group size, agency for first proposal, publication
journal?
8. share the proposal with your references, seeking their
input and advice
9. seek the fit of your research with other members of
the faculty; potential collaborations
How many times do we say your online presence is
important, yet face to face interactions are how we
interview and, bottom line, earn a position for which
we interview? Then, I say here are some considerations
for your online presence
The reason is simple. Online is both newer and
in a continuous improvement mode.
People who meet us for the first time, every time
we jointly attend a meeting, or consider us for an
appointment or a position, will seek out our online
presence.
It is not the deciding factor, in most cases. It is
almost one that is our “entrance ticket” for
consideration, or “continuing interest for
‘further consideration.’
So when I come upon a couple of ideas worth
sharing I post them. While I am not a big fan
of the personal branding initiative of Dan Schwabel
I do note there are very good ideas for scientists
and engineers presenting themselves. In his 2010
book on ‘Building your future,’ he offers, in addition
to what we have mentioned in previous posts–
namely:
- high quality image on your profile
- list of your projects or list of your publications
using industry keywords
- share your expertise, even dating back longer
than five years
- provide information revealing your passions
and involvement showing your uniqueness.
three specific improvements. Schwabel consistently
points out that we need to develop our networks
before we need them.
1. In our profiles, place industry keywords
strategically throughout.
2. In our headline, consider listing the position
you want rather than the current role.
3. Instead of a generic website or blog, list in your
profile the specific blog or the subject matter
content of the blog. [It is allowed in Linkedin.com,
I just did it.]
Six months ago when we talked about preparing for a
screening interview, he had hoped to be able to be offered
a position. Now he has the offer in hand, literally, has
taken another promising screening interview with another
top-flight firm and interviewed with a third firm.
What should I do, Dan, he asked since the first firm desires
a reply in less than a week?
OFFER LETTER
So, he provided the substance of the offer letter and benefits
package and we spoke about it. The offer describes the title,
yet does not indicate the responsibilities, assignments and
project work in a job description. It is coded in a cryptic
job description, like Structural Engineer 4.
Find out specifically what the job entails and who you report to.
The offer letter also points out that the job is for “at will”
employment. All that means is that the end date is not formally
established, according to employment law expert Al Sklover.
Mr. Sklover also provides in his information loaded webpage
key insight into the terms to look out for in an offer letter.
The offer letter indicates a salary and
“Documentation of acceptable work authorization and identity
document(s) to complete the I-9 process as required by the
Immigration Reform and Control Act.”
In order for him to sign the intention to commit to working
with this firm, he needs to know whether the firm will assist
him in getting appropriate working permits to work full time
in the US; salary aside for the moment. This commitment is
time consuming and will cost the firm legal and administrative
expense. A call to the hiring representative before signing is
necessary.
In the conversation (before the deadline date), he needs to
consider asking for immigration permit support and that it
be incorporated into the offer letter.
It is also beneficial to state that he has high interest in
accepting the offer.
Now the salary. The salary offer represents the initial
negotiating position for the company. It is at best at the
40th percentile of the range of positions and is low. So,
we practiced how to artfully ask if there is anything that
could be done to bring the salary up past the 50th
percentile. The company after all is one of the leaders
in its field.
SUMMARY
So, (1) understand what the position entails and who he will
report to. (2) Seek a commitment in writing to obtain a
permit work in the US. (2a) One approach is the OPT/CPT
route through the university which requires tuition payment.
(2b) Ask if the company will pay for this. (2c) Ask it to
be put in the offer letter, as well.
(3) Then a fair compensation needs to be negotiated.
WHAT ELSE?
Report to the company that you have read the details of the
benefits package and find many components to be quite
generous. But a few questions remain regarding
requesting (4) relocation reimbursement, (5) househunting
trip, (6) 401K match, and (7) vacation. (These are not
mentioned in the benefits package document.)
So, it is quite important to seek the help of a mentor who
understands what is involved and what you can specifically
ask for.
In terms of competing offers, understand that even after you
have submitted a signed offer letter with the terms that are
acceptable for you and your family, other offers or situations
can intervene. This might bring about a request to end the
agreement which is something either party can do as an at will
employment contract.
It is always a good time to express thanks for the opportunity
NESACS has provided both with the web association and
freedom of expression in this blog.
There could be no better board of pubs or leadership in a
technical professional association.
Readers, commenters and linkers: Without you, this blog
is just a string of electrons into a ‘black hole.’ Thank you for
your meaningful use of the blog for yourself and your networks.
Especially, now, the blog’s subject examples. What differentiates
this blog from many in the technical career management field is
the examples of your situations and follow-up discussions.
Thank you for sharing your stories, asking for my help and allowing
me to reveal tidbits of our learning to the blog readership.
As always, I hope this blog meets and exceeds your expectations
every time you look at it.
We are in this struggle together. Let 2012 come with much
anticipation, bring success and significance to you. Help
someone else, too.
Lauren Weber reported in the Careers Trends sidebar
(WSJ 12-27-11, p.B5) that items [company culture,
management practices and compensation shortcomings.]
that appear in social media and such places as
Glassdoor.com and Wetfeet.com can negatively
influence the best candidates.
Glassdoor.com and Wetfeet.com seem to offer sanitized
reviews and some insight into employee attitudes. Direct
contact with your network would seem to be called for
to confirm information you find.
[We have reported the use of LinkedIn.com to
find “factual information” about firms.]
This seventh post on thinking about thinking takes
inspiration from Pier Forni’s book “The Thinking
Life: How to thrive in the age of distraction.”
Thinking is essential to humans and our survival.
In our Internet age various devices keep us
wirelessly and asynchronously connected to
everyone and many we did not choose to be
connected to. Forni outlines the urgency to
develop and place good thinking habits as
a priority. Good thinking makes having thought,
having thought leads to a wider range of viable
choices; Good choices offer the chance for good
decisions that lead to a good life that lead to
happiness. [paraphrased].
Our use of various devices and games distracts
us from focus is based on our human tendency to
enjoy the easier entertainment forms that
substitute
information for understanding
content for skill
acquiring knowledge for retention of knowledge
and
internet search for thinking, an activity of who we are.
Historically this is not the first time such human
behaviors were criticized when former habits
became diluted by innovations.
1-Plato and Socrates railed against writing which
replaced memorization.
2-The movable type was attacked as the printed
word of many items transformed mental into
textual forms.
3-The Internet and proliferation of visual information
in digital media. This is because we must have
the tool ready when we need it.
Thinking is hard work and takes energy and
seems counter cultural. In fact, a better balance
and judgement of use is called for. Forni offers
we should think a lot, be aware of the needs of
others and care for others. In this sense, there
is personal civility component as we give full
attention to people.
Burmeister and Tierney’s book Willpower offers
suggestions on how to make personal progress
on the exercise of thinking. See more in the comments.
Geoff Smart and Randy Street published a handy
book outlining critical questions mid-career
and senior level professionals should be
prepared for.
They cite early in the book “Who: the A method
for hiring” Jim Collins’ line: “the most important
decisions business people make are not WHAT
decisions, but WHO decisions.”
They define a “player” as a candidate who has
at least 90 per cent chance of achieving a set
of outcomes that only the top 10 per cent of
possible candidates could achieve.
They point out four sources of these “players”:
- referrals from trusted networks
- referrals from employees
- friends of the firm
- trusted recruiter sourcing systems.
Smart and Street cover quite a range of interviews
and tactics to select top talent–
1. four kinds of interviews and their questions
screening, top-grading, reference, selling
2. red flags to look for in interviews
3. behaviors Marshall Goldsmith seeks to avoid
4. legal traps.
Comments contain question topics.
Striking examples of learning from the failures of
a series of cause and effect correlations in treatments for
human disease and disorders are given in Wired,
January 2012, p. 102 - 109, by Jonah Lehrer.
‘Trials and Errors: Dead end experiments, useless
drugs, unnecessary surgery. Why science is failing us.’
Lehrer writes about unintended consequences in:
- cholesterol lowering torcetrapib (Pfizer)
- B vitamins reducing homocysteine-linked cardiovascular
problems
Situations from more information from tests not producing
expected outcomes in:
- non specific back pain caused by swelling or degenerated
discs, revealed by MRI
Lehrer offers these as breakdowns in scientific correlation.
However, I offer that the ‘business perspective’ of correlation
and the ’science perspective’ of correlation are different.
Harford states this more clearly in his book, ‘Adapt’.
Harford’s arguments in Adapt that scientific experts are
continuously humbled by what they predict or believe and
the truth or outcome. Lehrer, while a very compelling writer,
might be overstating the case made by linking a series of
correlations to the development of a business outcome.
There are things to learn though in Lehrer’s article about the
industry and approaches to meet customers’ needs.
Lehrer provides examples where a change in R&D
approach is what job seekers should consider in
companies to work for. The business paradigm has
limited validity in complex scientific correlations such
are used in traditional pharmaceutic development.
SMALL INVESTOR SUGGESTIONS
SOURCE: J. Zweig, WSJ 12-10-11, p. B1
“How small investors can get stomped“
Article advises several noteworthy investment
axioms. (1) avoid open-ended orders
That means no market orders. Use “limit
orders with sell above a set price and buy below
a set price.” (2) Confirm each trade and
immediately follow up and report errors promptly.
OFFICE POLITICS
SOURCE: J. Pfeiffer, WSJ 10-24-11, p. R6
“Don’t dismiss office politics– teach it“
So many times I have heard and felt the
dislike of politics. The use of influence without
formal authority or how power gets worked out
on a day to day basis are examples. Data,
information, goals and issues play a role. The
article touches on a proactive perspective that
politics is universal and can be taught. Goal
oriented effective networking and understanding
how actions and behaviors are read and
interpreted.
Interesting perspective.
SCAMS, ‘SMISHING’, ‘LIFEJACKING’
IN CELLPHONES AND SOCIAL NETS
SOURCE: K. Blumenthal, WSJ 12-17-11, p. B8.
“Think before you Click“
Cybercrime and malware have cruel, unexpected
and unwanted outcomes. With a puchline:
“All scams have an emotional hook,”
this article offers some preventions we should
consider.
It helps sometimes to put yourself in someone else’s
shoes. That happened when I was IM’ing with Nick
the other day.
“Do you have a moment for a question?” he asked.
‘Sure.’ Even though the dinner call was coming…
He asked in another IM. “I feel so fortunate, I will
be speaking with MOS [not the real name] representatives
this Friday in a panel telecon interview. This as you
know is the second interview with them after my site
visit there. How do I ask if I have the job?”
Hmm. Usually telephone interviews are not ones
that lead to job offers. Especially if they are with
larger companies and involving different interviewers.
Although that is the “$5″ question, ‘two things–
it doesn’t sound like the right timing and don’t
ask it that way.’ I typed in the following IM.
I suggested that near the end of the interview, consider
asking “what is the time line for your hiring decision?”
and is there anything further you need from me
that will help your decision?” Don’t shy away
from indicating that you are “very interested in the
position and helping the company satisfy customers
and be profitable.”
Then he asked in a following IM: “I am interviewing
for other companies. Should I tell them?” The
response in a following IM was: “It is not critical
to share this information. It is honestly up to you
to tell them, if they ask you. It is quite possible
that they are looking at other candidates to fill the
position.”
“Do I ask: How much do I make?”
” No, no, no. But, be prepared to know the range of
salary you would expect to make from surveys,
recognizing the differences in industries, positions,
and locations in different regions of the country.
[or internationally]”
Understand that salary is only one component of an
overall compensation package. Several things are
more important to some people based on their
personal and family situations. So, negotiations
will likely occur. In most cases benefits packages
are listed on companies web-sites. But know what
you and your family require.”
He was grateful for the conversation and better prepared
he said.
Then I offered, you ‘may be asked to come again
for an onsite interview.’ “A third interview,” he remarked.
‘Yes. In fact in one interviewing interaction I had 4
different occasions to interview people– screening,
two days for onsite interviews [some people were
not available on the first day] and, when my wife and
I returned for a house hunting visit, I met for dinner
with my new manager.’
Interestingly, one of the items taught in our Professional
Development seminars last week was “reverse mentoring.”
This is mentoring students do for their teachers or
proteges do for their mentors. Drew sent a link to a
thoughtful article on Linkedin networking; Naimish
clarified what Zhaoshuo told me about Linkedin offering
a tool on your personal profile page that tells you how
many times and specifically who has looked at your profile.
Pretty cool, eh?
I can’t say this enough. The Deep Nishar article emphasizes
that each one of us is DEEPLY RESPONSIBLE, sorry for
“shouting,” for our own careers and career path. No one
else. On top of this, even more than ever, positions are not
formally advertized or, if they are, it is for a short time or
asynchronous on a web-page. Networks and employee
referrals pop to the top as the method of choice to obtain
desired positions.
Face the facts, the least helpful time to start your network
is when you need it the most. The network never sleeps.
You may not be in the loop or paying attention or
connected. So make it a formal practice to focus your
attention on goals involving learning about, participating
in and committing to others in your network. It is not
helpful if it is passive. Have a “committed network.“
And have it before “crunch time” when you need one.
Ilya Posin’s article about goals and working to meet them
goes hand-in-glove with Nishar’s piece. It is too easy to
become distracted and achieve little or nothing each day.
Set goals, break them down into tasks and work on them in
prioritized order, using the best tools in a focused way
that works for you.
What do you do in your LinkedIn.com profile when you
are not sure whether to include items or not… Run an
experiment and get feedback. LinkedIn allows us to
change our profile and see if it impacts the number of
“hits” in people who view the site. Look on the middle
or bottom right side for the panel:
7 Your profile has been viewed by 7 people in the past 7 days.
18 You have shown up in search results 18 times in the past 7 days.
326 Connections link you to 3,807,342+ professionals
5,630 New people in your Network since December 12
There was an inviting item in C&ENews this
week for unemployed chemists who worked
at firms who used SciFinder and had an
enterprise wide license for SciFinder. It is
provided as a means for unemployed workers
who have lost their positions AFTER JANUARY
1, 2011 to stay current in their disciplines.
This resource needs to be applied for via the
link above or 1 .