Listen To Your Coach

A friend asked me last night for some advice in his job situation.  He’s been there only a short time, and interested in long-term salary increases and other promotions, etc. He was, in effect, asking me how and when to negotiate your next moves within a company.
How to do this?
LISTEN TO YOUR COACH
Your “coach” in [...]

Time for a Change

I received an email today from a dear colleague that starts with “I don’t even know where to begin…”
Me, too.

Today marks my last day as an employee of SOS Engineering & Technology, and my last day running the Orem, Utah branch of their company. Tuesday, I will begin working in the recruiting department of [...]

How (not) to Lose

Job Searching is emotional.

And, sometimes, things simply don’t turn out as you planned it. But, like most things in life, its not what happens to you, but how you react to what happens that matters. And, yes, there is a right way and a wrong way to handle job-search defeat.
… and there’s also [...]

How to Handle a Pay-Cut

Hopefully, it won’t happen, but when times are tough, a company might come up with a need for executing a pay-cut. There are a few ways to look at this:

At least you’re not being fired.
Maybe this is negotiable.
What an opportunity to find something new!

Yahoo Hot Jobs posted a great set of questions you should investigate [...]

Employers Helping with Relief from High Gas Prices

A recent survey concerning the effect of high fuel costs on jobseekers and recruiting revealed some interesting information:
“Almost a third of respondents said that fuel costs have affected their recruiting efforts, as job applicants are less willing to make lengthy commutes. What’s more, eleven percent of candidates are seeking higher salaries, purportedly due to high [...]

Appreciating Your Interviewee

Bottom-Line Up Front: Most managers don’t prepare well for their interviewees… That’s why most managers suck at it make mediocre hiring decisions.
You’re a busy professional. You have a lot on your plate, your team is working overtime, and that ugly deadline is fast-approaching.
Finally, the recruiter calls you with an interviewee. They send over the [...]

Utah County Job-Fair/Open House 7/23

We are hosting a job-fair/open house tomorrow (July 23) from 4pm until 8pm at our offices in Orem, Utah. If you are curious about the Utah Technical job market right now, or you know someone who is, send them by!
We’ll be taking resumes and conducting interviews, and likely playing some pretty mean Mario Kart [...]

4 Telephone Interview Tips

A friend called on Saturday, frantic, because they have a telephone interview Monday morning. They had never had a telephone interview before, and her nerves were getting to her.
The key is to control what you can control, knowing that you are as ready as possible. Here are some other tips to help you out:

Attend [...]

Utah Jobs Growing

Matthew Reinbold was kind enough to use a few of my comments in a recent piece on Utah Job Growth at UtahPulse.com.
Here’s some of the takeaways:
“Unemployment is still below the generally-accepted measure for ‘full-employment’ of 4-5%,” Robert Merrill, Technical Account Manager for SOS Engineering and Technology, said. “This means that people who would otherwise choose [...]

4 Factors Creating Utah Workforce Funk

There’s no question something interesting is happening with Utah’s professional/technical workforce right now, and I think there are no less than four competing factors at play any business-owner should be paying very close attention to:

Real and Wage Inflation
Intense Competition for Talent
Corporate cost-cutting
High Energy/Commute Costs

The hardest part to pin-down is that the economic indicators show a [...]