The Power Has Shifted to the Candidate - 2

The Top 15 Changes That Are Required to Compete in a Candidate-driven Market

In addition to re-examining literally every recruiting strategy, process, and tool, you’ll need to make almost all of the following changes. These required changes are listed in the order in which they occur during the recruiting process.

1- Your recruiting strategy must shift – if you have a flexible corporate recruiting strategy, it already has a component that allows it to easily shift all of its components into “candidate-driven mode.” If you haven’t already planned for the shift, you may need to adopt a new “passive prospect” growth strategy. This type of recruiting strategy includes centralized recruiting with a focus on a strong employer brand, rapidly scalable hiring capabilities, proactive direct sourcing, a focus on employed top performers, a talent pipeline, and a strong relationship building and selling component. Because the competition is so intense, the strategy will also have to include a competitive analysis that ensures that your recruiting approaches are continually superior to those of your talent competitors.

2-Prospect and candidate research becomes essential – candidate needs and expectations will change frequently in this highly competitive marketplace. As a result, market research and survey techniques will be required in order to identify how top candidates look for a job, what criteria they use to select a target company, and what criteria they will use to select their best offer. In a candidate-driven market, your ability to fully understand and to sell prospects and candidates becomes the No. 1 new success factor.

3-Employer brand image improvement – brand image becomes much more critical in a candidate-driven market. Don’t expect recruitment advertising to work very well anymore; your targets will look for others outside the firm to say good things about you. Without a strong and highly visible viral employer brand image, you may literally have no chance of landing a single top performer.

4- Shift from active to passive recruiting tools – the recruiting tools that worked on the active prospects who dominate an employer-driven market will not work when you have to seek out and convince employed individuals (the so-called passives) to consider your jobs.

5- Stronger relationships and trust are required to poach – desperate applicants don’t require a relationship or any courting. But prospects who are in high demand (who already have a job) require a relationship that builds trust merely to get them to apply for an outside job. Obviously the power shift has already increased employee turnover. But because smart firms and managers will dramatically ramp up their retention and counteroffer efforts, it will be especially hard to poach away top employees from other firms.

6- Your corporate webpage and social media presence must improve – in an Internet and social media world, most will get information about your firm from neutral sources. As a result, your corporate web page and social media landing pages must still be judged as “stunning and compelling” by those who visit it. They must be compelling and clearly superior to your talent competitors. Authenticity becomes a critical success factor when prospects have so many choices. If you are to have a formal application process on your corporate webpage, it must be amazingly quick and painless. Using LinkedIn profiles instead of resumes to apply will give your firm a major competitive advantage in this tight labor market.

7- Position descriptions must be compelling – because top prospects have numerous job choices, your currently dull position descriptions and job ads will instantly drive them to other firms with more compelling jobs and descriptions. Unrealistically high qualifications will also severely limit applications, because of the large number of firms that are now seeking the few highly experienced/highly skilled individuals looking for a job.

8-The resume screening process must be more accurate – the current screening process which I label “we have so many applicants it doesn’t matter if we miss a few good ones” can no longer be tolerated because it may have as high as a 33 percent error rate. Sorting software and hiring criteria that have been proven (a high correlation with on-the-job performance) must be used to ensure that no qualified candidates are prematurely rejected for minor reasons.

9- Referrals are No. 1 because of your employees’ selling capabilities - referrals have become critical because we now have metrics that show that they produce the highest quality hires. But because selling prospects and candidates will become at least 50 percent harder, they must become the primary and highest-funded recruiting source. The strongest feature of referrals is that your employees are the best salespeople for convincing skeptical individuals to come work at your firm. In a candidate-driven market, your top employees are the most effective finding, relationship-building, and selling tool that you have. The target should be making referrals over 50 percent of all hires and the highest-rated source for quality of hire.

10- The mobile platform is the No. 1 communications platform – after referrals, no recruiting channel is more important than the mobile platform. Prospects and candidates must be able to do everything from applying to accepting jobs directly and seamlessly from their phones. Because it has the highest message response rate, all recruiting communications and messaging must migrate to the mobile platform.

11- The interview process must be improved – no other recruiting process needs more revision than this one. It must be faster, painless, and you must have a remote interviewing capability. But more importantly, up to 50 percent of interview time must now be spent on selling the candidate if you expect to land a single top performer. If you are slow to assess top candidates, they simply won’t be around when it’s time to make them an offer.

12- You must speed up your hiring process – when candidates have multiple options and offers, slow hiring will mean that you will lose up to 70 percent of candidates who have other offers. Both recruiters and hiring managers need to work tirelessly in order to take every single delay out of the hiring process. For the few highly sought-after candidates, a one-day hiring process will be required.

13- Recruiting and hiring manager behaviors must change – you will need better-trained recruiters and hiring managers who have lost their arrogance and replaced it with the ability to excite and sell candidates. You will need higher-quality recruiters who are simply exceptional at selling difficult to convince prospects and candidates. Unfortunately, the demands for excellent recruiters will soon far outstrip the supply (so begin hiring them now).

14- The offer process must be faster and better – everything about the offer process will have to be made faster. In addition, offers will have to be data-driven and more personalized in order to make your offers more competitive. Exploding offers and identifying and meeting the job acceptance criteria of candidates will be essential. Salary surveys will have to be done much more frequently and they will have to be regionalized and much more accurate.

15- The candidate experience must improve dramatically – even if your recruiting process doesn’t change, the average recruit’s assessment of your current candidate experience at your firm will shift from okay to dismal, simply because the power shift has allowed candidates to expect much more. In addition, with the pervasiveness of social media, everyone will know almost immediately if your candidate experience isn’t perfect. You won’t be able to make that quantum level of improvement without more accurate and frequent candidate experience measurements.

by: Dr John Sullivan

The Power Has Shifted to the Candidate

If you are frustrated because your recruiting approaches are no longer producing great results, you will be happy to know that there is a logical reason behind it. I estimate that 90 percent of recruiting leaders and hiring managers have yet to realize that the power in the recruiting relationship, which for years has favored employers, has shifted over to the jobseekers.

The technical term for this change is a shift from an employer-driven market to a candidate-driven market. And The Recruiter Sentiment Survey by the MRINetwork has revealed that 83 percent of the surveyed recruiters have realized that the power has now shifted to the candidate.

Knowing the reasons for shift is less important for recruiting leaders and hiring managers than recognizing that when jobseekers hold the power in the relationship, your current array of recruiting tools and approaches will literally stop working.

Another interesting phenomenon happens after the power shifts.

That phenomena is that your firm’s hiring managers will begin a seemingly endless round of complaints about how candidates have “an attitude” and how there is a shortage of talent or a skills shortage. If you’ve already heard those complaints at your organization, realize that there are actually more available candidates today. But those quality candidates are now acting differently (i.e. poorly in the eyes of hiring managers) because they have already realized that the power equation has shifted in their favor. As a result, these candidates will no longer tolerate weak employer brands, painfully slow application processes, death by interview, and a distasteful candidate experience.

You can complain all you want about the shift in power, but individual firms simply can’t change the power relationship. The only thing you can do is to radically change your recruiting strategies, tools ,and approaches, so that they now better fit the new level of power that candidates now hold.

Now that the power shifted, candidates who only a short time ago would easily tolerate slow hiring, no feedback and hiring manager arrogance will simply now drop out of the hiring process or gladly accept an offer from another firm.


Six Factors That Caused the Power to Shift to Candidates

If you were a recruiter during 1999, you already experienced the last quantum shift in power to the candidate, which occurred during what was known as “The War for Talent.” If you’re curious as to why the power shifts to the candidate, here are the major factors that can cause this shift to occur. The shift occurs when:

1- The unemployment rate drops (the U.S. rate is the lowest since 2008).

2- Turnover rates dramatically increase (turnover rates went up 46 percent last year).

3- Firms are not raising salaries, so employees must seek jobs elsewhere in order to get more money (wage improvements last year barely kept up with inflation)

4- Many more new jobs are open and they stay unfilled much longer (the job openings rate increased 22 percent since July 2013).

5- he competition for talent between firms increases dramatically because, as a result of company growth, the demand for qualified talent in key jobs exceeds the supply. Firms must fight over desirable candidates who now have multiple job openings to apply to, and now that the finalists receive offers from multiple firms.

6- Prospects, applicants, and candidates all realize that they now have multiple options, so they raise their expectations.


When that power shifts and prospects and candidates raise their expectations, currently effective “active-job-seeker” recruiting approaches like career fairs, print ads, large job boards, walk-ins, and your dull corporate career site will simply stop producing quality hires.

by: Dr John Sullivan

Tax Mistakes to Avoid

Here are some tips on what to avoid doing for the 2015 tax season:


1- Waiting to0 long to file

2- Filing the old-fashioned way

3- Forgetting to update your household status

4- Deducting too many or not enough business expenses

5- Forgetting to file all the required forms

6- Forgetting to closely track any charitable contributions

7- Failing to keep your paperwork organized

8- Make math errors

9- Going off old or incorrect numbers

15 jobs with the highest starting salaries

Salary potential shouldn't be the sole thing that attracts you to a major in college; things like passion, interest, and aptitude should also be considered. But it's still nice to know which degrees pay off the fastest.

1. Petroleum Engineering
Median starting pay: $102,300
Median mid-career pay: $176,300

2. Chemical Engineering
Median starting pay: $69,600
Median mid-career pay: $116,700

3. Computer Engineering
Median starting pay: $67,300
Median mid-career pay: $108,600

4. Nuclear Engineering
Median starting pay: $67,000
Median mid-career pay: $118,800

5. Computer Science & Engineering
Median starting pay: $66,700
Median mid-career pay: $112,600

6. Electrical & Computer Engineering
Median starting pay: $66,500
Median mid-career pay: $113,000

7. Electrical Engineering
Median starting pay: $65,900
Median mid-career pay: $107,900

8. Aerospace Engineering
Median starting pay: $64,700
Median mid-career pay: $107,900

9. Electronics & Communications Engineering
Median starting pay: $64,100
Median mid-career pay: $113,200

10. Materials Science & Engineering
Median starting pay: $64,000
Median mid-career pay: $105,100

11. Computer Science (CS) & Mathematics
Median starting pay: $63,200
Median mid-career pay: $101,400

12. Mechanical Engineering
Median starting pay: $62,100
Median mid-career pay: $101,600

13. Industrial Engineering
Median starting pay: $61,900
Median mid-career pay: $97,200

14. Software Engineering
Median starting pay: $61,700
Median mid-career pay: $99,800

15. Computer Science
Median starting pay: $61,600
Median mid-career pay: $103,600

Here are the best cities to get a job in 2015.

10. Minneapolis
Unemployment Rate: 3% (as of November)
State Unemployment Rate: 3.6% (as of December)

Encompassing 11 counties in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the metro area boasts its Chamber of Commerce boasts its diverse economy, including agriculture, food processing, computing, printing and publishing, large- and small-scale manufacturing, health care, arts and entertainment as well as medical instruments, education and finance.


9. Boulder, Colo.
Unemployment Rate: 3.2% (as of November)

State Unemployment Rate: 4% (as of December)
Just 40 minutes outside of Denver, Boulder is the state's 11th largest city. As the home to Colorado University at Boulder, the city has long been an affluent, vibrant center of research and education, with multiple national labs and tech concerns helping to contribute an unemployment rate that's 2.5 points lower than the national average.


8. Fort Collins, Colo.
Unemployment Rate: 3.2% (as of November)
State Unemployment Rate: 4% (as of December)

Roughly one hour north of Denver, Fort Collins is the regional economic center for Northern Colorado. Fort Collins capitalizes on the presence of Colorado State University, which is helping to drive innovation through research and development as well as jobs in the local economy. The town is also the home to the Budweiser touring plant, where the brewer's famous Clydesdales horses reside.


7. Omaha, Neb.
Unemployment Rate: 3% (as of November)
State Unemployment Rate: 2.9% (as of December)

Warren Buffett may have put Omaha on the map but this town has become the poster child for vibrant Midwest towns, with its low unemployment rate, strong economy, solid population growth, particularly from young professionals, and continued livability to set a gold standard.


6. Provo, Utah
Unemployment Rate: 3% (as of November)
State Unemployment Rate: 3.5% (as of December)

Provo, Utah is the third largest city in the state and roughly 45 minutes south of Salt Lake City. It's the hometown of collegiate powerhouse Brigham Young University which provides Provo with a highly educated workforce, and has helped attract and retain companies like Google GOOGL Fiber, Novell, Ancestry.com, and Adobe ADBE as employers in the area. - Provo was recently named Outside Magazine's No. 2 Best Town in America, based on its vibrant economy and access to outdoor recreation.


5. Odessa, Texas
Unemployment Rate: 2.8% (as of November)

State Unemployment Rate: 4.6% (as of December)
Oil is the lifeblood of Odessa, Texas, which is probably best known to most Americans for its rich high school football tradition. Recently pegged by Forbes as one of the fastest growing small cities in the U.S., this small West Texas city has impressive job creation rate continues to outpace the expansion of its burgeoning population.


4. Sioux Falls, S.D.
Unemployment Rate: 4.2% (as of November)
State Unemployment Rate: 3.3% (as of December)

Less than three hours from Omaha, fast-growing Sioux Falls is a regional economic engine which consistently ranks in the top tier of small cities for job growth. Though popular for financial services companies due to its lack of state corporate income tax, the state's largest city has been diversifying beyond that.


3. Rochester, Minn.
Unemployment Rate: 2.6% (as of November)
State Unemployment Rate: 3.6% (as of December)

Health care dominates Rochester, Minn., the state's third-largest city. Rochester, located less than two hours south of Minneapolis, is home to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic.


2. Fargo, N.D.
Unemployment Rate: 2.2% (as of November)
State Unemployment Rate: 2.8% (as of December)

Fargo is North Dakota's largest city. The city's job growth and income gains have outpaced the national average. Most impressively, job growth has kept pace with Fargo's double digit population growth over the last decade.


1. Lincoln, Neb.
Unemployment Rate: 2.1% (as of November)
State Unemployment Rate: 2.9% (as of December)

Nebraska's second largest city is also its capital. Lincoln is ranked No. 6 on Forbes' list of Best Places for Business and Careers. The city, located approximately one hour from Omaha, has a "killer combination" of low unemployment, strong job growth and low ratio of applicants to open jobs.

10 surprsing jobs you can do from home

Most people think of telecommuting as something that cubicle dwellers request, but more and more employers are looking for new hires who seldom, if ever, come in to the office in the first place.

One reason is that having employees set up their own home offices can save companies a bundle in real estate, utilities, and other overhead costs. If everyone with a portable job and a desire to work from home (or from the road) did so just half the time, U.S. employers could save more than $700 billion a year, according to a study from research firm Global Workplace Analytics.

A sampling of 10 telecommuting positions, filled through the site last year:

Senior pharmaceutical scientist -- Oversee development and results of clinical drug trials.

Fish biologist -- Monitor tagged salmon and maintain database of statistics. Some travel required. (Upstream, maybe?)

Environmental engineer -- Design equipment and processes to prevent or reduce air pollution.

Director of international sales -- Develop sales strategies and manage customer records.
U.S.-based, travel required.

Senior branding/naming expert -- Evaluate market research and name new products. Seven years' branding experience required, MBA preferred.

Chief public affairs officer -- Manage national public relations and internal communications. Oversee staff of 125.

Chief operating officer -- C-level department head to do strategic planning, business development. Some startup experience required.

Chief executive officer -- Oversee daily operations and long-term strategy for statewide chain of assisted-living senior homes. Regulatory experience preferred. Travel required.

Vice president of sales -- Based in the U.K. Seven to 15 years' experience in financial services account management required.


Considering a career change? How about something like this?

Ohio Valley Beer Ambassador -- Coordinate and attend events in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky to promote beer and spirits. Candidate must be "very outgoing." Translation: Party animal preferred.

9 things you should think twice about before purchasing

While you don't have to be a billionaire to purchase any of the items on this list, most of them are luxury items that usually only people in the upper tax brackets can afford. All of these expensive items however are things that you can do without regardless of your budget.

What follows, in no particular order, is a list of 10 things that you probably shouldn't buy...

1-Bicycles
This choice definitely deserves a caveat. For regular bikers an expensive bike is a great investment, if you live in the suburb but expensive bike thefts are on the rise in places like New York City.


2-Vacation Homes
The negative cash flow associated with vacation homes despite the potential for positive cash flow through collecting rent is reason enough to think twice about purchasing that exotic getaway.

Maintenance costs like insurance, utilities, marketing and other expenses will be a constant drain on finances if one does decide to purchase their future retirement home.


3-College Textbooks
After paying tens of thousands of dollars in tuition each semester to go to college it would be pretty silly not to do the reading for your courses. However, there are cheap alternatives to buying new books from your campus bookstore. Buying used books, renting them, or checking them out at the library could save a student (the parents) hundreds of dollars a semester.


4-Snowmobiles/ATVs/Jet-Skis
Unless you live somewhere where using a snowmobile on a daily basis is a necessity, then snowmobiles definitely fall into the 'rather rent than own' category.


5-Designer Denim
Designer jeans from brands like True Religion and Balmain can run you thousands of dollars, while denim from Levis that will last you years can cost under $100 and the quality of denim between the brands is pretty much the same.


6-Recreational Vehicles
Recreational Vehicles also fall into the 'better to rent than own' category due to the potential for a minimal lack of return on investment.


7-Extended Warranties
Most items like electronics already come with a manufacturer's warranty that covers most product flaws and malfunctions.


8-Boats
With the maintenance costs and upkeep being so exorbitant the old age saying is that the happiest two days in a boat owners life is the day he purchases the boat and the day he unloads it, is often proven to be true.


9-Time Shares
Besides the fact that it is often more cost effective to rent a time share than buy it, time shares come with a bunch of hidden costs, and owners should expect to lose 50% of their investment upon resale.

Gas prices -vs- driving time

The slide in gasoline prices won’t put more Americans behind the wheel.

It estimates that it now takes a 25% to 50% plunge in gas prices to increase car travel just 1%, compared with a 12% drop in the mid-1990s. (Prices have fallen 28% from the 2014 peak.) And it estimates that gas prices next year will average 23% less than this year’s average, and increased fuel economy will balance out an increase in miles traveled and other factors, leaving consumption in December virtually unchanged from a year earlier.

The reasons for this drop in what economists call price elasticity aren’t particularly new. The EIA lists five possible explanations:

People are driving less, period. This is measured by the vehicle miles traveled per capita. Growth slowed in the late 1990s — and has declined in recent years. Before the peak, hit in 2007, U.S. travel behavior closely tracked economic growth; that is less so now.

More retirees as baby boomers stop working. Retirees tend to drive less than those who work.

The trend toward living in urban areas. Those people tend to drive less than those in the suburbs and rural areas.

Teens aren’t as excited about driving either. They are delaying getting their drivers’ license — or skipping it.

A smaller percentage of the typical household budget is being spent on gas, which could make drivers less sensitive to the ups and downs in price.

Best places to retire over seas

Retirement around the corner? Thinking about that adventure you never had time to take....deciding on the best place to retire abroad is not easy but here are the top 9 places to consider:

*Algarve, Portugal
Estimated expat population: 100,000+

*Cuenca, Ecuador
Estimated expat population: 5,000+

*Ambergris Caye, Belize
Estimated expat population: 2,000+

*Dumaguete, Philippines
Estimated expat population: 5,000+

*Barcelona
Estimated expat population: 35,000+

*George Town, Malaysia
Estimated expat population: 40,000+

*Chiang Mai, Thailand
Estimated expat population: 20,000+

*Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Estimated expat population: 40,000+

*City Beaches, Panama
Estimated expat population: 2,000+

Wishing all a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

From: black-Peak Technology, Inc.

Signs of Improving U.S. Job Market

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- More than five years into the economic expansion, the signs that economists look for to herald the pickup in pay that has long eluded American workers are starting to emerge.

Wages and salaries climbed last quarter by the most since 2008 as a dwindling number of unemployed per job opening approached a tipping point. Amid rising profits and sales per employee, some companies have a cushion to boost compensation.

Evidence of a rebound in employee earnings is appearing in certain industries and regions, including Texas and North Dakota, that are riding the energy boom and the strengthening homebuilding market in the U.S. Southeast. While plenty of slack remains in the economy, raises are likely to filter to other areas as job creation whittles away at U.S. unemployment.

New Airplane Passenger Screening

A new method of screening airplane passengers for signs they may be dangerous is 20 times more successful at catching deceptive passengers than the screening method traditionally used in the U.S. and other countries, a new study suggests.

The new method is based on asking passengers open-ended, conversational questions, whereas traditional screening methods focus on observing people's body language.

In the study, which was funded in part by the British government, 204 mock airplane passengers — including acting students and undercover police detectives — were given cover stories, and asked to attempt to deceive security agents in real airport screenings in Europe. As an extra incentive, the mock passengers were given money if they successfully avoided detection by the security agents.

Trained security agents who used the new, conversation-based screening method successfully detected 66 percent of the mock passengers. On the other hand, security agents looking for signs of suspicious body language — such as lack of eye contact and fidgeting — detected just 3 percent of mock passengers. [5 Cool New ID Technologies]

The latter method is widely used in airports in the United States and the United Kingdom, even though it has not been proven effective in real-life settings, the researchers said.

In the new method, called Controlled Cognitive Engagement (CCE), security agents engage in an informal conversation with passengers, asking them open-ended questions. Based on the passenger's responses, the agent asks questions seeking information that the passenger should know if his or her account is true.

But the agents are not necessarily interested in the accuracy of the passenger's responses — rather, they are looking for changes in the passenger's behavior, such as increasingly shorter responses, or evasive or erratic responses, the researchers said.

For example, the agent might ask the passenger about the people that person is visiting, and how long it takes to get to the airport from where the individual lives.

Halloween

Wishing everyone a safe Halloween this year-

Black-Peak Technology, Inc.

The 10 Best Jobs - Pay Raises & Growth - 2014

10. Astronomers
Average annual salary: $110,450
One-year opportunity growth: -18.0%
One-year salary growth: +14.5%


9. Law Professors
Average annual salary: $105,080
One-year opportunity growth: +2.2%
One-year salary growth: +5.1%


8. Genetic Counselors
Average annual salary: $63,590
One-year opportunity growth: -1.0%
One-year salary growth: +12.0%


7. Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers
Average annual salary: $101,350
One-year opportunity growth: +9.0%
One-year salary growth: +3.0%


6. Pediatricians
Average annual salary: $157,610
One-year opportunity growth: +1.1%
One-year salary growth: +1.9%


5. Personal Financial Advisors
Average annual salary: $75,320
One-year opportunity growth: +4.6%
One-year salary growth: +11.6%


4. Reinforcing Iron and Rebar Workers
Average annual salary: $51,010
One-year opportunity growth: +12.7%
One-year salary growth: +11.1%


3. Dentists
Average annual salary: $163,450
One-year opportunity growth: +1.0%
One-year salary growth: +5.5%


2. Psychiatrists
Average annual salary: $178,950
One-year opportunity growth: +3.4%
One-year salary growth: +3.2%


1. Family and General Practitioners
Average annual salary: $176,530
One-year opportunity growth: +9.8%
One-year salary growth: +2.6%

Quote of the month....

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

-Confucius

The "rules" of a new job....

When you’re new to a job, you’re subject to a whole different set of rules than you are once you’ve been there longer. Actions that might go unnoticed six months down the road can raise concerns about your work ethic, reliability and judgment. Here are eight things that you shouldn’t do when you’re new to the job – but might be OK to do later.

1. Asking for vacation time during your first few months.
In most cases, taking time off soon after starting a job will raise eyebrows. Exceptions to this are if a close family member is seriously ill or if you cleared the time off before accepting the job.

2. Complaining to your co-workers about your new boss.
Frankly, it’s not great to complain to your co-workers about your boss no matter how long you’re been at your job – but when you’re new, it comes across as especially tone-deaf.

3. Bad-mouthing your old job or old boss.
Once they know you better, your new co-workers might be thrilled to hear your war stories about your crazy former boss or your nightmare cubicle-mate at your old job. But if you share that stuff when you’re new, you’ll just come across as someone willing to bad-mouth colleagues.

4. Taking long lunches before you know the lunch culture of your new workplace.
This sometimes trips up people coming from a workplace where hour long lunches were the norm and are moving to an office where people take half an hour or simply eat at their desks. When you’re starting a new job, it’s smart to observe the lunch culture for a few days until you have a feel for your new office’s norms.

5. Pushing the envelope on business expenses.
As the new guy, there’s no faster way to torpedo your reputation than asking to stay at a more expensive hotel during business travel or rent a nicer car.

6. Using bawdy humor.
It might never be OK to do this in your workplace, but there are certainly some offices that have a higher tolerance for risqué humor than others. Wait until you have a much better feel for your new office’s culture before breaking out even borderline jokes. Even then always proceed with caution.

7. Spending time on Facebook or other social sites.
Once you’ve proven yourself as someone who works hard and produces high-quality work, it might be entirely fine to take the occasional Facebook break. But when you’re new on the job, being spotted on time-wasting sites is likely to make your co-workers – and especially your manager – worry about your work ethic. This behavior may not be acceptable later either, it’s always good to ask co-workers or watch their behavior before logging on.

8. Calling in sick during your first month, unless it’s truly dire.
Rightly or wrongly, if you call in sick while you’re new on the job, your manager is likely to worry that it’s going to be the start of pattern and that you’re not reliable.

Best Stress Relievers

One thing that can help you get some relief, is the fact that no matter how many commitments, responsibilities, and unfinished jobs you may have, you can only do one thing at a time. The way to get many things done is, to focus on one at a time and relax for a while, before you start the next one. Here are some of the best workplace stress busters.

Talk it Out
Talking to somebody, especially a close confidante, helps you relax. Especially, if you both are in the same boat and are under the same levels of stress at work. Your worries get divided by two. Having company helps. Being alone, all the time, freaks you out, which heightens stress levels. Talk and laugh about your predicament and chill out with your buddy. If you are an entrepreneur and your own boss, you need some good advisers around you, who know things and make sense. If there are none such at the workplace, let there be someone at home, who is a friend, philosopher, and guide you can talk to.

Hit the Gym
Working out is a great way of relaxing. If your workplace has a gym, take a break from work and work out for a short while, in the gym. If you do not have a gym around, just go to the terrace, get some fresh air and do some push ups or sit ups. Punch the air around you and let it all out.


Meditate
No matter how much chaos reigns around you, there is a tranquility zone, which you can enter any time you want. It is within you and it can be reached through meditation. Take a break and find a place at work or outside, where you will not be disturbed. You can even do this right there in your cubicle. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and let go of all thoughts and if you must have any, think about the best things in your life.

Let Music Calm your Nerves
Taking a break and listening to some of your favorite music is also a great stress buster. Music has the power to take you into a whole new world, away from your daily worries. It is a great way of chilling out.

Take A Walk
Stepping out of your workplace and taking a quiet walk, also helps. If there is a park around, go in there. Have some snacks sitting on a park bench. Move around, look at the world around you and forget your worries for a while. Let your legs get some exercise and mind some relief. A walk works for me, as it also clears my thoughts about things. You could listen to music while you are at it. Try it out.

Sleep Soundly
If you have had a sound sleep (at least 8 hours), you automatically reduce the stress that builds up from a tired and sleep-deprived brain. No matter what happens, get your eight hours of sleep. You will be fresh as a daisy when you wake up and ready to take on work and pretty much anything life throws at you. Having adequate sleep will surely help.

Let there Be Laughter
Where there is laughter, there is no stress. That is a very simple rule. Do not take life too seriously. Smile and be merry, that you are alive. Crack some jokes around in the workplace, once in a while. Smile, when you see people around. It spreads positive energy. Life is too short, enjoy it while you can.


Have a Life Beyond the Workplace
One of the prime reasons of stress at work is making work, your life. If you are going to think about nothing other than work all the time, there is bound to be stress. If you do not get a life beyond work, in which you can chill out, you will face a burnout problem, some years down the line. So, switch off thoughts about work after you leave office and get a life beyond it. Work hard, but party hard at times too. Have a social life and a work life, and keep them apart.

The top 10 most affordable for renters:

Homeownership isn’t for everyone. Some, including many young adults, simply don’t have the money for a down payment on a house. Others covet the flexibility of renting, which makes it easy to move across town for a better apartment or cross-country for a better job.

Renting is an especially popular option in big cities, where career, social and educational opportunities tend to be clustered and populations tend to be more transient.

in a 2013 census, here are the top 10 cites most affordable to renters:



1: Raleigh, NC - Average monthly rent: $640
Renter population: 31.8% (132,947 out of 417,485 households)
Median household income for renters: $34,567
Cost of living: 7.4% below the national average
Rental vacancy rate: 11.7%


2: Las Vegas, NV - Average monthly rent: $776

3: Dallas, TX - Average monthly rent: $813

4: Tulsa, OK - Average monthly rent: $600

5: Birmingham, AL - Average monthly rent: $685

6: Austin, TX - Average monthly rent: $983

7: Memphis, TN - Average monthly rent: $711

8: Dayton, OH - Average monthly rent: $763

9: Omaha, Neb - Average monthly rent: $674

10: Richmond, VA - Average monthly rent: $883

Is your job endagered? See the list below....

CareerCast posted its report on the 10 most endangered jobs for 2014, and the theme this year seems to be PAPER.

According to recent studies, a “dramatically lower demand for paper” is due to a number of factors, from people reading the news on their tablets and smart phones, to shopping catalogues moving online, and people using email and social media to stay in touch rather than writing letters. Going paperless doesn’t only affect printing workers, who can expect a -5% hiring outlook, but also lumberjacks and mail carriers, who have hiring outlooks of -9% and -28% respectively.

The 10 most endangered jobs were calculated using data from CareerCast’s 2014 Jobs Rated Report, and from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some of the jobs are threatened by longer term trends, such as newspaper reporters, who have a hiring outlook of -13%. According to the report, “Layoffs and furloughs in the industry are commonplace.”

Please see the list below:

MAIL CARRIER
Median Salary: $53,100
Hiring Outlook: -28%


FARMER
Median Salary: $69,300
Hiring Outlook: -19%


METER READER
Median Salary: $36,410
Hiring Outlook: -19%


NEWSPAPER REPORTER
Median Salary: $37,090
Hiring Outlook: -13%


TRAVEL AGENT
Median Salary: $34,600
Hiring Outlook: -12%


LUMBERJACK
Median Salary: $24,340
Hiring Outlook: -9%


FLIGHT ATTENDANT
Median Salary: $37,240
Hiring Outlook: -7%


DRILL-PRESS OPERATOR
Median Salary: $32,950
Hiring Outlook: -6%


PRINTING WORKER
Median Salary: $34,100
Hiring Outlook: -5%


TAX EXAMINER AND COLLECTOR
Median Salary: $50,440
Hiring Outlook: -4%

If you’ve ever written a cover letter, you’re likely familiar with the pressure of trying to present yourself as the most professional, knowledgeable, qualified candidate in what will surely be a sea of competition.

By following a few fundamental rules and focusing on just a handful of key elements, you can make your letter (and by association, yourself) shine:


1. Remember, brevity wins

Often, in our eagerness to showcase our experience, skills and enthusiasm, we become long-winded. Avoid the temptation to expound upon every last detail that demonstrates how you’re the perfect fit for a particular job.

Instead, be brief. Seriously, two or three paragraphs are all that’s needed. Recruiters and hiring managers are ruthless skimmers, and verbose cover letters only communicate that you have no idea how their world works.


2. Display nuggets of knowledge

Understand your audience and write for the particular company you’re applying to. Again, with brevity in mind, let your reader know that you’ve done your research.


3. Keywords are key

It seems like the world is driven by keywords. Without littering your cover letter with jargon, include keywords in the natural flow of your writing.

4. Connect the dots

Cover letters exist simply as a means of introduction — a way for applicants to connect their experience and skills to the requirements of a position and thereby spark just enough interest to land an interview.

It’s important to make these connections explicit for the reader, especially if your qualifications may not be immediately clear. Briefly and concisely explain how what you’ve done in the past makes you uniquely qualified and immediately valuable.

5. Show yourself

Within the bounds of professionalism, it’s perfectly fine to convey a bit of personality in your cover letter. Without being too informal, write the way you speak, add a bit of humor, or include a relevant quote.

6. Proofread obsessively

I believe it was Dr. Seuss who said, “Proofread standing on your head. Proofread sitting down. Proofread in the country. Proofread all over town.” It’s so true. Proofing and editing what you’ve written is absolutely essential.