Even if Health Care doesn't appeal to you, the Aging of America is a force to be reckoned with. If you like working for yourself, this group will be buying services at levels heretofore unimaginable. Put yourself in your parent's place (and their contemporaries). What are their concerns, fears? And what aspirations do they have before they die? Maintaining their health and quality of life is an easy answer. What are some of the less obvious answers?

That's where the real opportunities are.

-Mark Poppen

Cliches

March 04, 1999

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. You know how true this is with resumes. How many responses did your friend get when he sent out that horrible, one page piece of crap resume with god knows how many misspellings?

None, that's how many. The same standard applies to Interviews. Have you met very many people who got a substantial Job offer after arriving fifteen minutes late for their Interview? Or arrived for their Job Interview slovenly dressed, unshaven, and smelling of last night's escapades? First impressions do matter, so arrive early for Interviews, know something about the Company, and be ready with thoughtful responses to some of their more pat questions.

"Why do you want to work for OUR Company?"

"What is your greatest achievement to date?"

"Describe a project you failed on. How would you approach it differently now?"

"Tell me about yourself. What motivates you?"

Generation X'ers tend to have shorter attention spans than Baby Boomers. Recruiters targeting twenty-something Job Candidates try to keep their message short and sweet. The assumption is that the TV generation cannot remain focused for much longer than a few, er, uh, oh nevermind. While this particular behavior pattern may be frustrating to managers who enjoy giving lengthy speeches, it potentially bodes well for companies that want workers willing to try new and different methods for improving work efficiency.

Interim Services Inc. conducted a survey recently that evidenced some differences by age group in worker attitudes. Workers aged 34-51 ranked compensation ahead of all other factors in Job importance. Workers aged 18-33 responded that having a fun environment to work in was paramount followed by learning and mentoring opportunities. Younger workers were also more likely to feel positive about relations with coworkers, though they may have been reading too much into the survey question's ill-defined term 'relations'.

Everyone gets dealt a bum hand occasionally. The same is true with great hands. What matters is how you play the marginal hands you're dealt. In the workplace you'll get tons of marginal hands. You won't have the software you really need, the deadline is unrealistic to get the Job done exactly right, the parts you need don't arrive when they should.

Work is rarely perfect, and Hiring Managers are painfully aware of it. They're not exactly Interviewing Einstein's all day long, you know? So when they ask about your fallibility, don't snow them with "My greatest fault is my take charge attitude." They're looking to hire someone they can get along with, not a cliché covered in a veneer of arrogance.

-Mark Poppen

Not Net But Soon

March 03, 1999

If you're looking for a Job on the Net, you're still way ahead of the pack.

Many companies are still using traditional methods for finding Job Candidates, such as newspaper classified ads, Job Fairs, or using headhunters. But the shift in how Employers and Employees meet and mate is being ushered in at a phenomenal rate. Projected spending for on-line classified Job ads by the year 2003 is estimated at nearly $2 Billion, up from $100 Million in 1998.

The change is being driven primarily by Economics - it is cheaper to put ads on-line than in the paper. A half page ad in a medium size newspaper might cost $20,000, and the cost in a larger Newspaper could run well over $100,000. This amount can buy a lot of eyeballs on the Net these days. And the response that companies get on-line is of a higher quality than those they receive from print ads are. In 1997-98 Hewlett-Packard Interviewed 6500 people who applied with them online for Jobs, and offered 2100 of them positions. One Job offer for every three applications is a tremendous hiring ratio for a company.

If the Net saves companies money, you can bet they're going to flock to it in droves, and for more than just high tech Job candidates. Hopefully by now you're aware of some of the bigger Job Boards like Career Mosaic, Monster.com, Hotjobs, and Career Path. In the next two years there will be a lot of niche sites devoted to finding Job Candidates with very specialized skills.

One example is Career Central (originally MBA.com). Started in 1996, this site was founded by a MBA graduate who was frustrated by the difficulty in finding a Job after he finished school. While they originally targeted MBA students and graduates, they have since branched out to other students and professionals as well, concentrating on Jobs in the $50K to $150K range.