Tag Archives: Interview

How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success

job switcher

Make a Career Change

If you’ve been itching to make a change, but don’t know where to start, or feel like you’re stuck in a career path that no longer makes sense, you’re reading the right article at the right time.

Dawn Graham, PhD is a Wharton Lecturer and EMBA Career Director, coach, author, Forbes Contributor, and Sirius XM Radio Host. Her new book, Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success, is a resource for anyone looking to change career directions in a purposeful way.

 

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Switchers Fact: Most Americans spend around five years engaged in some type of job activity.

 

You have a unique vantage point both due to your leading SiriusXM Radio show and your role as Director of Career Management for the Executive MBA Program at Wharton. What trends are you seeing across professional job searchers today?

People want a job that inspires them! Compensation will always be important. However, professionals are willing to make some sacrifices to find work that is meaningful or flexible, or that puts them on the path to a career that is more satisfying.  Many mid-career professionals landed in a job after college and climbed the ladder, only to realize that the path they chose isn’t fulfilling. Others have discovered careers that may not have existed a decade ago and still others have experienced life changes, such as having a family, which have led them to seek something more flexible.

 

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“Lifetime regrets are more painful than delayed gratification.” -Dawn Graham

 

What is the “new normal” in America for most people in terms of changing jobs?

The great news for career switchers is that the market is becoming more accepting of trying new paths. The rise of the gig economy, portfolio careers, and entrepreneurial pursuits have opened the door to non-traditional career paths. The average tenure in a company is about 4.2 years, so long gone are the days of the 30-year retirement gift. In fact, while yearly job hopping is still frowned upon by employers, so is staying at a company for too long, especially if you’ve not shown significant progression or diversity in your assignments. After 10 years, hiring managers in new companies start to wonder if you’re adaptable enough to function effectively in a different culture, so it’s more important than ever today to pay attention to taking charge of your career.

 

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Research: up to 80 percent of employee turnover is due to poor hiring.

 

How difficult is it to change careers today?

How to Recruit Rockstars

rock stars

Recruit the Best

Jeff Hyman has hired more than 3,000 people over the course of his career as a top-tier executive recruiter. Jeff’s new book, Recruit Rockstars: The 10 Step Playbook to Find the Winners and Ignite Your Business, reveals his method for landing the very best talent.

I recently spoke with Jeff about his book and work. Here are a few ideas that will help you assemble a team of rock stars.

 

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“90% of business problems are actually people problems in disguise.” -Jeff Hyman

 

Recruiting Mistakes

What percentage of business problems do you attribute to recruiting mishaps?

  • 90% of business problems are actually people problems in disguise.
  • Hiring B and C Players can cause more problems than staffing these roles solve
    • They may do the job, but do they do it well? And if they don’t do it well, that’s another problem to fix.
    • B and C Players need to be micromanaged, which distracts the leader’s time from improving the company’s performance.
  • By investing in hiring Rockstars, you can take time away from micromanaging and fixing the problems of B and C Players

 

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“Hiring the best is your most important task.” -Steve Jobs

 

Improve Recruiting Accuracy

How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant

How to Hire Right Now

Most of us know that success in business depends on people. From an entrepreneur-led startup to a large organization, we don’t go very far without relying on individuals and teams. Some go so far as to say that the only real competitive differentiation organizations have is people.

But hiring the right talent isn’t easy. We’re often worried we may pick the wrong person.

 

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A hiring mistake can cost up to 5x the bad hire’s annual salary. -SHRM

 

As the CEO of a large company, I’m often pushing managers to fill open positions. To me, an opening that drags on too long causes all kinds of other problems. Customer needs not met, employees doing multiple jobs for too long, and milestones delayed.

Scott Wintrip takes on the topic of hiring talent in his new book, High Velocity Hiring: How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant. Through his global consultancy, Wintrip Consulting Group, Scott has worked with companies around the world to hire top talent in less than an hour. I recently talked with him about his research and his new book.

 

It’s Taking Too Long!

Why is it taking longer and longer to fill jobs?

Two factors have caused the time it takes to fill a job to reach all-time highs: the skills shortage and an inefficient hiring process.

There’s a persistent talent shortage that’s pervasive across all industries. For example, when you look at middle-skill roles (jobs that require education beyond high-school and below the level of a four-year degree), there’s a gap between the number of jobs and the number of people to fill them. According to the National Skills Coalition, middle-skill roles account for 53 percent of jobs in the United States. However, only 43 percent of U.S. worker have current skills at the middle-skill level.

Copyright Scott Wintrip. Used by Permission.

Qualified people also have more employment choices than ever, including the option of doing their own thing by joining the “gig economy” as freelancers. Because of this, an increasing number of people are leaving the traditional workforce. When you combine this with increased globalization, borders will matter less, creating a talent competition unlike anything we’ve seen before.

The old way of hiring—keeping a job open until the right person shows up—doesn’t work when there’s a people shortage. A reactive process keeps a job open for weeks or months. To have the people they need, organizations must permanently change their hiring strategy by engaging in the new way of hiring: actively cultivating top talent and then waiting for the right job to open.

 

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“Dating and hiring have a lot in common.” -Scott Wintrip

 

Avoid these Hiring Errors

21 Tips for A Successful Job Interview

How to Have A Successful Job Interview

If you have had experience interviewing others, you may have seen some surprising things. I know I have:

  • The candidate who stopped mid-answer to answer a text. And then did it again.
  • One man had resumes with him and handed me one that was stained with coffee.
  • On several occasions, the interviewees asked questions so basic that it was obvious that they hadn’t even done a cursory internet search on our company.
  • One person, incredibly late for the meeting, started aggressively by asking why we didn’t have enough parking to accommodate all visitors.
  • I vividly recall someone so negative about their prior employer that it made me pause.
  • And there’s the person who took the time to write a thank you note, but sent me the wrong one (he was obviously interviewing elsewhere).

There are some basic interviewing tips that are worth noting. I like this infographic by Company Folders of 21 tips. It may seem basic, but it’s a great checklist to review before your next interview.

Because it’s great to be memorable. But only for the right reasons.

Interview Tips

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“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” -John Dewey

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“Success depends upon previous preparation.” -Confucius

6 Entrepreneurial Lessons from Evan Carmichael

Leadership Lessons from Entrepreneurs

Evan Carmichael is passionate about helping entrepreneurs. He built and sold a biotech software company at 19. He raised millions as a venture capitalist at 22. And then, he started EvanCarmichael.com as a website to help entrepreneurs. He is, by his own admission, “obsessed” with this passion.

His YouTube channel has millions of views and is the leading channel for entrepreneurs. You may have seen during one of his numerous media interviews or his many keynote speeches.

Recently, I caught up with Evan in Madrid, Spain. Having followed his career online, I wanted to learn more about the entrepreneurial mindset.

Even if we don’t own a business, what can we all learn from entrepreneurs? Here are a few lessons from Evan that inspired me. Since I am all about encouragement and empowerment, I wanted to share some of his most inspiring words.

 

6 Lessons from Entrepreneurs

All of us should:

  1. Embrace the entrepreneurial mindset.

This is a mindset of dissatisfaction with the status quo, of solutions, of challenge, and of driving to a more sustainable, successful place.

 

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“Entrepreneurs have a dissatisfaction of the world around us.” –Evan Carmichael

 

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“Entrepreneurs are the crazy ones who see a better future.” –Evan Carmichael

 

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“Entrepreneurs are the solution providers who want to make the world a better place.” –Evan Carmichael

 

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“Most of our global problems could be solved by entrepreneurs.” –Evan Carmichael

 

  1. Adopt a mindset of empowerment.

We should aim for a feeling of empowerment. It’s not about a title or a position. It’s about how we think. Finding a way to make a difference and to drive change is key to success.

 

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“You don’t need permission to have an impact.” –Evan Carmichael

 

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“Leaders of organizations empower teams to take risks.” –Evan Carmichael

 

  1. Assess and take appropriate risks.

Some entrepreneurs bet everything, but you can be pragmatic. You can take measured bets. Evan’s take on risk was eye opening. He thinks it’s “crazy risky” to assume you will have your job for 25 years and that your company will still be around. “Why not bet on you?” is a challenge we should all learn from.

 

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“Betting on yourself is one of the best bets you can make.” –Evan Carmichael

 

  1. Embrace failure.

Failure is a subject I love to study because it is a component of all success. Evan adopts failure as part of the process, as something to embrace and encourage.

 

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“Failure is feedback.” –Evan Carmichael