We have two jobs now. ‎ The truth about work in 2023 and beyond is that we all have two jobs now: 1. We have to do our jobs as thoughtfully and effectively as we can, and 2. We have to manage our careers, too. When I was a young HR person, we only had one job to do. Back then, you got a job and kept it. You might change jobs only every 10 years, or maybe not even that often. Doing your job well, excelling at it and getting promoted at work used up 100% of your professional energy. We rarely thought about changing jobs. Now, we have no choice but to think about our careers.   We Ha ..read more

What does it take to become an amazing career coach – and how would I know if I’m suited to career coaching? Do you need certain qualifications to become a career coach? Could career coaching be a good next step for you? Career coaching is more popular now than it’s ever been. People need help and support at every stage of their careers, from young people starting their working lives to folks who’ve been in the workforce for decades. Career coaching clients have questions like these: How do I decide what kind of work to do next? How can I brand myself to get the attention of recruiters and ..read more

The post The Why – Liz Ryan on Broken Hiring Practices appeared first on Human Workplace ..read more

1. What are the working hours? 2. What are your expectations around taking work home/working additional hours? 3. How much travel is required in this job? 4. What constitutes a typical workday here? When do people generally start and finish their workday? (a different question from Question One) 5. What are your expectations around “reachability” after work and on the weekends? 6. What are the items on your list of things the new hire should fix or make happen in the first six months? 7. What are your thoughts on work/life balance? 8. How do you handle performance and salary reviews her ..read more

Q. Hi Liz, can you ask your readers to explain their résumé gaps more fully on their resumes? We see so many résumé gaps in the resumes we receive. It’s good to know what the person was doing during that time off work. A. If I were applying for a job with your company, there are lots of things I would like to know about you and whoever else runs the organization. I would like to know what your past employees think about you. I would like to know if you’ve ever been accused or found guilty of wage theft, sexual harassment or discrimination. I would like to know whether you are a good perso ..read more

Hi Liz, I’m a senior account executive for a manufacturing firm. I’ve been with the company for 3.5 years. I’ve never missed my quarterly target. My boss and I traveled together two weeks ago. We were stuck in the airport because our flight was canceled. We went to the airport bar.  Three drinks in, my boss was tipsy.  Let me add that my boss is a nice person but wimpy. She doesn’t stand up for her team members, or even for herself. So after three drinks she suddenly says, “You should be a territory manager by now. Amelia loves you. George says why promote you and spend the money bec ..read more

Q. What is the most common résumé mistake? A. You can’t call it a mistake because countless books and articles tell us to do it, but the most unfortunate thing people do when writing their résumé or updating their LinkedIn profile is to brand themselves as more junior AND less interesting than they are For instance, folks list their skills or the tasks they know how to perform instead of explaining about how they used the skills or performed the tasks in a way that had a positive impact. Here’s an example of the standard approach: Experienced administrative assistant with MS office experience ..read more

Our society bombards you with reasons not to believe in yourself, especially when you are job hunting: Maybe you don’t have a “perfect” résumé. Maybe you don’t have the educational background some people think you should have. Maybe you’re older than someone thinks you should be, or younger. Maybe you have a disability, or don’t look like the picture of the perfect candidate someone sees in their head. Maybe you have gaps on your résumé, or a string of short term jobs. Maybe you’ve changed careers too many times for someone’s taste. That’s fine. People who don’t want to hire you should hire so ..read more

Can we lay to rest the idea that asking candidates about their employment gaps will alert you to whether someone was terminated from a past job (and is therefore ineligible for employment with you)? First of all, asking someone about their “gap” tells you nothing about whether or not they got terminated from their last job. Secondly, people get terminated every day for essentially no reason because in the United States, that is completely legal. Thirdly and maybe the most important point is that there is such a thing as an energetic mismatch, and an energetic mismatch will get a good employ ..read more

For years we were taught that management has to do with forecasting, budgeting, planning and controlling. Managers were taught to manage, not to lead. New supervisors and grizzled management veterans were taught how to assign work to subordinates, how to evaluate their teammates’ work, how to counsel people on performance problems and how to hire and fire staff members. Everything we were taught about management assumed that the manager would know what to do and was calling the shots. These days we understand that the old-fashioned view of a manager’s duties is wholly insufficie ..read more