Keep up the work!

Vuledzani Malelelo

I am studying BCom (Economics and Econometrics). I would like to become an investment banker as investment is one of my modules, or work in the finance department in the government.

So, you’ve submitted a killer Curriculum Vitae and supporting documents. You are ahead of the pack by a mile. You are thrilled about the employer requesting an interview later this week.

What do you do next?

The interview is the most stressful and important part of job hunting. This is where the employer makes a decision about whether you will be hanging out with them in their office or hanging out somewhere else!  Flub it here and all your efforts from networking to application will go down the drain.

1.  Dress for success

It goes without saying that you must look the part.  We expect trainee accountants to be formal, professional and slick.  We may not expect the same from a circus clown.   Dress in your best attire for the interview.  It is the one time that you are allowed to splash out on yourself without feeling guilty about it.

2. Research Rocks

Never go to any interview without researching the company.  Without research, you are starting the interview on the back foot.  How do you realistically expect to provide quality responses without knowing the company?   By dropping a few tidbits about how well you understand the company, you are creating a bond with the interviewer about what matters to them.  Research rocks the interview.

3. Watch Your Body Language

Some interviewers are well versed in body language.  Throughout the interview, they are looking for hints about your personality and character.  They are wondering why you play with the pen every 65 seconds or roll your eyes at their questions.   Pay attention to defensive body language, whether you are looking down at the floor, folding your arms or avoiding eye contact.

4. Confidence

Walk in with the confidence of a candidate that has already been hired.  Respond with the confidence of a professional that knows their stuff.   When talking to the interviewer, let them know that you are confident about yourself and value.  Even when you are stumped for a response,  remain confident and cool.   Employers draw inferences, rightly or wrongly, from your confidence or lack of it.  Nobody wants to hire a candidate that comes across as being unsure of who they are and where they are going.

THE OTHER LOVE

If you believe the marketing machine, February is the month of love. You are supposed to rekindle the flame, show that you care and do something romantic.  I’m not here to talk about your loved one though.

What about your other love?

Your loved ones may let you down but your other love is (was) always there. Unfortunately most of us have discarded the other love. We have given up on ever finding it. We have limited our horizons to what others have told us – “it can’t be done” and “the world doesn’t turn that way”. 

Of course, I’m referring to your work – the other love that has been extinguished a long time ago. Several studies have shown that the majority of employees are disengaged in their jobs.  They hate their boss and/or their career.  They are gatvol of their work.   If you hate Monday mornings and love Friday afternoons,  it is time to do something about the other love.

This did not happen overnight.  Let us take a step back.

When did your work suck?

Was it the day that you enrolled for any degree, never mind that you had zero interest in that field? Or did it occur when you pushed yourself to learn something that you didn’t want to do. You ended up excelling in what you don’t love.

Did it happen when you started a business, selling something that you had zero interest in? Or did you lose it when you
began working on 100 other things in your business instead of what you loved doing?

When did your work suck?

Share your experience over here and something may happen this February.

Job + Skills

In today’s competitive job market, employers are inclined to find talent that can contribute to the growth of the company through their skills, rather than their qualifications.  While qualifications are required, employers are placing increased emphasis on skills.  When job hunting, you must factor in the skills that the employer is seeking for that job.

The following 5 skills stand out

1.   Research Skills

Job seekers should possess the ability to research not because they wanted to land a job in a research company but in order to do research in the course of their daily activity. If you pitch up at an interview with no/poor research of the employer, you can write this yourself off making it to the offer stage.

2. Thinking Skills

Many organisations have employees that can’t or won’t think. You should not be one of them. Employers need talent that can think under different situations and formulate solutions to their challenges. Of course, if you think too much, you may ask uncomfortable questions!

3. Technology

With the advent of information technology, the majority of job openings require people who are computer literate.  Employers do not necessarily need talent who are graduates from technology or IT.   Rather they need talent that understand technology in the context of their field of work and can use it to advance the organisation.

4. Communication skills

From a tea lady to a CEO, communication skills are a non-negotiable.  Talented as you are, you won’t go far without excellent verbal and written skills. Employers need talent that expresses their thoughts and are clearly understood by others. If you’ve ever attended a death-by-powerpoint-presentation, you will understand what happens when you don’t have this skill.

5.  People / Team Player Skills

The modern working environment consists of (dysfunctional) personalities,  that have to work together for the benefit of the organisation. To get your job done, working with others as a team player is part of the game.

Regret!

You know the drill. At the start of each year, we are briefly energised to make it a better one.  Research has shown that the top resolutions include finding a job, starting a business, and losing weight.  While I can’t help you on the last one, I can make a difference in the preceding two.

Honestly, what will be different this year?

Think about it for a minute. I am sure that you have already skimmed enough articles about resolutions to last you for the rest of this decade.  Perhaps, you have made the same or new resolutions this year.  You are worried about sustaining them throughout the year. Or trashed the idea of resolutions so that you won’t be disappointed again! Nothing will be different this year UNLESS  you approach it differently.

No Regrets

If you are up for it, 2013 can be a wildly different year for your career or business.  I am inviting you to make it the year of No Regrets.  The Macmillan English Dictionary defines regret as “to feel sorry or sad that something has happened”

We regret the way our career or business has turned out.  We regret not having done something, when there was time to do so.  We regret missing opportunities, only to watch others capitalise on them.   We regret what we did not do or never got around to doing.  We regret having given up on what really mattered to us.   We walk around with regrets and worse, continue acting in ways that sow the seeds of our future regret.

Regret extracts a heavy toll on three fronts.

1. We lose time  (years and decades)
2. We lose money (opportunities, earnings, revenue)
3. We lose value  (playing a 2nd rate version)

Regret sucks.

Let us break this cycle and clean up our regret box. To move past the regret, we must be willing to own it.

Question:  What is your biggest career or business regret of the past five years?  Please post it below.

Are You Working Harder this year?

Have you noticed that South Africans are working harder this year compared to years gone by? I’m excluding those individuals that sleep on the job, pretend to be working or report to their company Facebook each morning.

If you are unemployed and serious about changing it, you are likely to be working full time, from searching for positions to mining your network. Many rejections, no pay and no annual leave.

If you are holding down a job, you have lots to deal with: higher workload due to the latest round of retrenchments, meetings after meetings, picking up the slack for incompetent co-workers/boss, fickle clients, endless deadlines, red tape & administration, squeezing in training and development and the mountains of email, that torment our working lives. You have deferred work-life balance, until you have the time for work-life balance. Your work doesn’t leave your life with much breathing space

Working harder doesn’t necessarily translate into higher performance or pay. Your employer is wringing out those productivity gains, for the same or less pay.

Are you working harder this year compared to last year?

30 Seconds to put SA on the map

Show the world that South Africa is a country filled with opportunity and that our universities and business schools are world class.  In this way, just 30 seconds of your time could also help give $50,000 to Equal Education and $50,000 to a women in leadership initiative to be launched in 2013.

Dr Adrian Saville has been nominated for the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Business Professor of the Year Award.  There are 206 nominees from some of the world’s largest and best-known business schools. He is the only nominee from Africa.

Getting onto the shortlist for this award would send an incredible message to the world about our continent, South Africa, our universities, our business school and our people.  It also will add to the message that, despite the challenges, South Africa can deliver world class outputs.

30 seconds to vote.

Step 1

Click here: businessprofessoraward.com

Step 2

Register using the box at the top right

Step 3

You will receive an email (check junk mail) to confirm your registration

Step 4

Then vote (either by scrolling down on the first page or finding me under “S”)

CLOSING DATE

TODAY (Friday 23 November at 7.00pm (SA time)

Graduates? Demand? Where?

In the current difficult economic environment, it is hard to believe that graduates are always in demand. But if you check the recruitment activities of any parastatal, large corporate or NGO, you will find opportunities. There are recruitment programmes for fresh graduates, ad-hoc openings and graduates-needed-yesterday positions.  Sure employers may not be employing graduates but the truck load, but they are certainly opportunities to join their bus.

Graduates Checklist

Irrespective of the job and requirements, graduates that are demand display the following:

1.  Geninue qualification from recognised educational institution

2.  Solid work ethic – hard working, diligent, reliable

3.  Excellent verbal and written communication skills

4.  Integrity

5.  Team Player – relate and work with others

6.  Analytical Skills

7.  Self motivated & takes initiative

8. Embraces and adapts to change

9. Basic Computer Literacy – switch on and use a computer, MS Office

10. Attention to detail – finer stuff that other graduates miss.

If you satisfy the long list above, you should join the ranks of graduates that are always in demand.

Retirement

Who stole my Retirement?

This year, I will be delivering a paper on Who Stole my Retirement – challenging participants to rethink the concept of retirement in the context of the generational workforce. The retirement landscape is shifting with unprecedented implications for the generations – baby boomers, X and Y. The relationship between the work we do, the rewards we get and the role of retirement requires greater consideration.

Baby Boomers:  the first class to “graduate” into retirement

The first batch of Baby boomer entered retirement in 2011 and with each successive year, new waves will be joining them. Baby Boomers are headed for a rocky retirement and I will be exploring the key issues.

Generation X:  the first class of retirement “guinea pigs”

While Generation X are two decades away from retirement, the majority of retirement reforms will significantly affect their nest egg.  From restructuring the industry to tax deductions for their retirement fund contributions, they are the unwilling guinea pigs.

Generation Y:  the first class of “non-retirees”

Generation Y are shaking up the workplace and retirement is no exception.   They have a distinctively different view of their future careers & wealth, and don’t plan to join the previous generations in a retirement village.  Lots happening here that is overlooked  by regulators and employers alike.

All generations have a vested interest in retirement and “retirement”.  Making it work is the challenge.  If you are attending this premier conference, drop by and let us chat about retirement in your organisation.

Job Hunting

There was a time when a person was job hunting, they had to buy the newspaper every day and search the job section. The advent of the internet has radically changed the traditional, offline job hunt.  It has created unprecedented opportunities for job hunters to identify, target, connect and secure the job across borders.  The internet has the reduced the friction in the job hunting process – employers can quickly make you aware of their vacancies and you can apply online, no need to post, fax or visit their office.

You can job hunt online, not just for permanent employment, but also freelance, fixed term contracts, project, part-time and volunteer opportunities. As long as you have access to the internet, you can start your job hunting online.

Types of Job Hunting Sites

There are three types of job hunting sites online

1.  Recruitment Sites

Employers and recruitment agencies have their own, dedicated sites to recruit talent. On these sites, you will find only the jobs offerred by that employer or recruitment agency.

2.  Job Portals

A job portal carries jobs only from employers and recruitments that have chosen to list their jobs on that portal.

3. Job Aggregator Sites

A job aggregator site brings together jobs from (1) and (2)

Joining up

From the candidate side, the standard procedure, is to

1.  E-mail your CV for an advertised job or

2. Open a job seeker account, complete the online registration form and upload your CV.  During the registration process, you have to provided detailed information about yourself (e.g person’s name, age, address, contact number and identity number) and career (e.g name of employer,  reason for leaving).   Depending on the process, they will require informaton about your educational background, employment history,  preferred work and relocation.  When it comes to pay, they will require information about past/current package, package components and the expected package. Finally, some sites, will not allow you to complete the registration process unless you provide ALL of the required information,  marked by that irritating  “*”.  This forces you to provide information, that may not be in your best interest at a later stage in the job hunt (e.g when it comes to negotiating pay).

Bear in mind, that when you register on the employer/recruiters job site, they can collect highly targeted information during the registration process.