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    More Research, More Pay?


    December 03, 1998

    It's hard to do too much research about your target companies. After you've identified a field that interests you, look for associations that have news about that company, industry trends (and pay scales for Jobs in that industry), job listings, conference schedules, networking events, and prospective employers. The American Society of Association Professionals has a list of online associations. Or check out http://www.yahoo.com/Economy/Organizations/Professional/, which has an extensive list of professional associations. Both are good starting points for your industry research.

    Once you've narrowed your search down to a particular field, look for what companies are doing business in that field. Whether you use the Internet or not, don't forget to use the Yellow Pages. There are several Yellow Pages sites on the Web that have nationwide listings – BigYellow, BigBook, GTE Superpages, and American Yellow Pages, for example. Regional Yellow Pages are out there also, such as http://www.BayAreaYellowPages.com.

    For local listings, use the phone book and local Yellow Pages. The Internet is especially good for non-local, out of state listings, which your phone book doesn't cover. When using these directories, begin your search by casting a wide net, then eliminate geographic areas that are not feasible for you. If your searches are too restricted, try leaving the business name blank. As always, don't be afraid to vary your searches little by little to see what happens.

    Bell Atlantic's version of the Yellow Pages, is the most well known Internet phone directory. It has 16 million business listings, and a list of over 7,000 categories for businesses. Searches can be done by city, county, metro area, category, etc. Again, you could spend hours unearthing information here. One caveat - Everything is not on the Net! I've often found that information that wasn't online was accessible by other means, usually by just calling information.

    Many avenues on the Net are dead ends, and others lead you in time consuming, frustrating, and circuitous directions. And despite the overwhelming quantity of information, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Make sure you use All the resources available, and your findings will reflect the quality of your research

    -Mark Poppen


    More Work, Less Pay?


    December 02, 1998

    The Economy has been rolling right along, creating millions of new Jobs over the last seven years of economic expansion. At the same time, there is a documented decline in the number of bodies available to work to fill many of these new positions. Many of the new positions have been in the historically low paying service industries, and any one who ventures outside of their apartment can testify to the overabundance of help wanted signs prominently displayed in store window fronts.

    This sounds like a panacea for Jobhunters, doesn't it? So why are so many people having trouble finding work at a decent wage? Why do stories keep surfacing about qualified Job candidates struggling to find a good Job even after months of looking?

    Answers are starting to ‘trickle down' through the media, and back to the masses. What has been happening for years is the steady increase in the average workweek. During the first quarter of 1998 the growth rate in the US Economy was 5.4%. Of that amount, fully 4% is attributable to increased hours put in by current workers, according to Barry Bluestone and Stephen Rose of the Jerome Levy Economics Institute http://www.levy.org/ .

    The average workweek for a couple is now almost two days longer than it was thirty years ago. It seems like it takes two incomes to live a comparable lifestyle to our parents (who on average had one to one and a half incomes), because it's true. Families headed by workers with less than a full college degree are working nearly 20% more hours to get 4% more pay. College graduates are earning one third more than they did a generation ago, but there has been a lifestyle cost for them as well. They are working, on average, more hours as well – upwards of twenty-five percent more hours. Salaried workers at the so-called ‘good jobs' are putting in 50-60+ hour workweeks to earn less than they would if they were paid time and a half for their overtime hours above forty/week.

    So if it feels like you're swimming harder just to keep your head above water, you're not alone. Eventually the Demographic equation (fewer bodies available to work = increase in wages) that scares Economists and Corporate America alike may come to pass, but for now workers are fighting hard just to make ends meet. And the Federal Reserve Bank is looming over the horizon, ready to chop off any threat of wage increases. If you're waiting for the heralded ‘worker's golden age of high wages and decent hours,' don't hold your breath.

    Hell, workers hardly have enough time to celebrate the fact that they have a Job in the first place.

    -Mark Poppen


    Researching A Company


    December 01, 1998

    Why should you research a company before applying for a job there?

    There are several good reasons. First and foremost, the person with the ability to hire you will not look kindly on your ignorance about their company, products, services, and goals. Taking the time to find out what they do, how they do it, and why is an integral part in showing your enthusiasm for employment at their firm.

    Secondly, It can take months to find your next Job, and being unemployed will wear down both your financial and emotional assets. If you make a habit of ‘just taking what Jobs come along', then you are setting yourself up for getting fired when you least expect it, or are ready for it. By jumping into a Job that you are ill-prepared to handle, you decrease your chances of success. You also will become more likely to have trouble fitting into a corporate culture that you neither understand nor chose, and your work attitude may suffer. Trust me, if you don't like going to work, your Employer will not only notice, but begin looking for someone who Does enjoy taking company money every two weeks or so.

    Once you've decided that researching target companies is a good idea (because you want to have a better chance of succeeding, enjoying your work, and not looking like an idiot during your Interview), where do you start? The Net is not the only place to look. Use the phone! Call information for area businesses. Look in the Yellow pages for industries that interest you. The Internet is no panacea for Jobhunters, it is simply another tool in your arsenal. The Net is just a quick means of accessing information, and often will lead you into dead ends and useless sites.

    Try opening your research at http://www.looksmart.com/r?comefrom=ize-e65300&ize&e65300, which is Hotbot's Business and Finance site. Another one of the well known sites for company directories is http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/, which is part of Yahoo! Several thousand companies are profiled on http://www.hoovers.com, and http://www.companiesOnline.com/ contains thousands more, it is sponsored by Dun & Bradstreet and Lycos. Despite this seeming abundance of information, remember that the most useful information is likely to come from people working at your target company. Use the Internet as a means to access these workers to get the behind the scenes story.

    While larger companies will have press releases (and PR departments), small companies may have no web presence at all, or only rudimentary contact information. Millions of small businesses are listed in http://www.infoUSA.com/, this requires registering and paying a nominal fee. Another route to company information online is to use a metasearch engine like MetaCrawler, enter the company (or industry, or service), and see what turns up. Sometimes associations, usegroups, or chatrooms will yield useful tidbits, or lead you to a contact person that can give you the lowdown on your target firm.

    Once you have some information on a company, and a few contact names, don't be afraid to call, write, or email with informed questions. You are not only setting yourself up to Interview at the right company, succeed at the Interview process, but you are also expanding your network of key contacts. One of these people will know the person that can hire you at another division or firm in the industry you're interested in.

    -Mark Poppen


    BYO Spin Doctor


    November 30, 1998

    Desperation is the mother of indiscretion, they used to say.

    No Jobhunt is really typical, primarily because they are judged by the end result alone. Once you have your new Job, all else fades into the recesses of your cobwebbed memory banks. Like how it felt suffering through all those days of no prospects, and the peaks and valleys of near misses and lost opportunities.

    During those darkest hours before the next paycheck from some unknown provider, we are all tested on many fronts. When does persistence in going after a job degenerate into becoming a pest? At what point does confidence in your abilities to accomplish the tasks under discussion balloon into reckless overconfidence? And at what point are we willing to swallow our sense of integrity and say things that aren't true, or agree with a prospective Employer's worldview that we find personally distasteful?

    Hopefully you have a sufficient financial and moral support group that you don't have to push the envelope on these questions. Use the support groups that already exist for you - family, friends, etc. And investigate new support groups specifically for Jobhunters in your area. Not only will you feel better, but this is a natural expansion of your Jobhunting Network. Unfortunately, not everyone has all of these resources to draw upon when times get rough, and the 'get the next Job, or else' kind of mentality takes over.

    Difficult circumstances can cloud what was once a clear distinction for you between what is right and wrong. Even without financial and social pressures, how you present your character and abilities to prospective Employers is already a gray area. An instructive example from the Director of Career Services at a Midwestern college goes like this:

    • Basic Presentation: "I worked in a fast food restaurant."
    • Positive Spin Approach: "I provided quality customer service in a fast paced environment."
    • Puffery (er, lying): "I enhanced patrons' dining experience through exquisite presentation of entrees and side dishes."
    My advice, echoed by countless career counselors, is to be careful how far you stretch in stating your abilities. Employers will respect your enthusiasm and desire to learn more than your braggadocio. For advice on how to 'spin' without getting out of control, the Internet is a relatively weak source. However, there are tons of places to help you market yourself more effectively, such as:

    Tips on how to sell yourself are a dime a dozen. Lessons for determining what's not for sale come at a much higher price.

    -Mark Poppen



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