Of course, there are legitimate internships which offer college credit or CEUs (continuing education units) in lieu of dollars. In essence, there is a form of payment with ongoing value to the individual. The majority of the situations are jobs for companies that don’t want to spend money. However, they want your skills. You may be reluctant to demand pay or decline because there are dozens of people in the market who will take the chance, regardless how slim, that a paying job might materialize.

Let’s look at where this leaves you though. First, your time and resources are spent without compensation. You can’t look for another job. You can’t spend time with your family. You can’t further your education. And, you spend money out of your pocket for clothes, food, paper, ink, gas, and more. You support their business, but they don’t support you. In addition, you can’t put it on your resume. Why?

If you receive unemployment, it will be viewed as making you unavailable for a real job. You lose the unemployment check if anyone finds out. If you are asked what you made, stating there was no salary makes you look like a fool or devalues your work, depending on the viewpoint of the employer. The other possibility is that a potential employer gets the impression you don’t really need a paying job. Therefore, you won’t have much incentive to work. See how this can backfire?

What about the old school chum or neighbor who wants to start a business and just needs a little help? It sounds like fun. Remember, all of the things I mentioned above apply. You spend time and resources without return. That may be fine in the short term. However, when the time comes to pull out because it’s costing too much or your situation changes, you may find yourself in the position of losing a friend too.

Alternately, you may begin to feel put upon if your business partner assumes you’ll work for free indefinitely. Casual business arrangements often turn into a major headache and develop complications no one expected, like projects that depend on you when you want out, professional bridges burned, lost friendships, and possibly even legal ramifications.

This isn’t high school folks. If you want a hobby, find one. If business is your passion, volunteer for a local non-profit or school business program. If you want to make more money, find a second job that pays. Society is litigious and friendships seldom rise above covering one’s own backside.

In the writers’ world, there are tons of “jobs” that pay only when the work is accepted or want a writer to write hundreds of words for a pittance. The problem is that time is spent producing work that may never earn a dime. Then, there are the job applications with skill tests that send every candidate ten pages to edit. When the “tests” are returned, the project is finished and no one gets hired. It’s an old scam. Spend the time to hone your skills, seek individual writing assignments, and develop a portfolio of high-quality work that fits a market you want to break into.

Other times, a company interviews a well-qualified candidate and offers an “opportunity” to work a few weeks on a special project to see whether it’s a good fit. Everything sounds professional and on the up and up. However, chances are there won’t be enough money to hire you after the time is up. They will be terribly sorry. You’ll be first on the list when they can squeeze it into the budget. They’ll assure you that you have great talent and they’d be happy to provide a recommendation–maybe.

Reread the paragraph above about working for free and how it can backfire. Meanwhile, you may have turned down interview opportunities, spent money for gas, and lost time that should have been spent on your job search. I’m sure someone someplace may have gotten a real job this way, but the odds are much higher that it won’t happen.

There’s no doubt the economic situation is rough, but don’t let desperation overrule common sense whether you are the employer or the employee.

According to a recent blog post by Interns Over 40, a paper published last year by Kate W. Strully, a sociology professor at the State University of New York at Albany, states that people who lose a job experience 83 percent greater chance of suffering stress-related health problems. Such problems include diabetes, arthritis or psychiatric issues.

Job Loss Can It Kill You is an excellent article for employers and employees. Awareness and preventive actions are the first steps toward lessening the chance that a job loss will have unintended consequences.

This is an idea that’s time has come. Like a lot of  “we’ve always done it that way” or “we have to do it that way for … reasons”, there comes a time when change is beneficial and necessary. Employees in large companies often go their entire first year of employment without having any idea what their goals  are or how their performance is being measured, right up until they have their first review. How does this help the company or the employee?

Small businesses are often in a position to implement such changes more easily. In addition, small businesses feel improvements more quickly. Yes, it’s necessary to keep records and document counseling. However, it doesn’t take any longer to do it now than it does to write a note, file it, and try to figure it out months later, after the incorrect behavior becomes ingrained. Riegger’s idea is timely and right on.

Meanwhile, since this idea may not get widespread implementation in the near future, employees need to be encouraged to ask for feedback and take constructive criticism with an open mind.  Improving the working conditions benefits everyone. Therefore, encourage your employees to be an active  part of the team and take time to give carefully considered advice when you first notice a problem.

It’s time to nix employee reviews

• 105,779,710 registered users of Twitter
• Approximately 55 million Tweets being sent daily
• 180 million unique visitors monthly
• Signing up 300,000 new users daily
• Twitter’s search engine getting 600 million searches daily

That’s a lot of potential exposure. Will everyone get tons of new traffic, a new contract, or a new job? No. Do you increase your possibilities? Yes. Just the sheer numbers say you have to cross in front of at least a few more people who can help you, hire you, or buy from you.

There’s a growing amount of research that also says people don’t support businesses that aren’t current, and that means being present on Twitter and Facebook and having a website that looks like you update it regularly.

By the way, updating your website means more than just adding content. It has to have a current look, feel, and behavior. If you don’t have the time, money, or skill to do a major update, choose simple and modern over out-of-date and huge. Then, get you Twitter and Facebook badges on it too. Let the world know you are available.

Read more and link to additional studies from the article, The Truth About Twitters Promoted Tweets.  There’s a lot more info in this article than just what Twitter has planned for the future.

My current project is to help a small business build their presence and connect their website with social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter), as well as to set up their tweets and a simple, easy maintenance plan because they don’t have time or dedicated resources. It can be done.

Link back to PennyLeisch.com for more information.

1. Employers, you need to give yourself ninety days to assess a new employee.

2. Employees, you need to be aware of what the employer is looking for during your initial period of evaluation.

3. Job seekers, you need to be aware of what you are saying and where some of the employer/interviewer questions are leading.

4. Take some advice from this article and don’t operate in panic mode if you are already unemployed.

How to Hire New Employees During A Recession

Some postings are obviously written by people for whom English is a second language. Even so, if a person isn’t fluent in the language they are using–especially if that is the language used in the media and audience they are addressing, they need to get help. In other cases, I can’t decide whether what I see is carelessness or poor skills or both. Spelling and typing errors run rampant. Posting for discussions in professional groups on Facebook or LinkedIn isn’t the same as throwing together a quick email to your friends. You won’t make points with the agent who happens to read your post if your work looks like it was written by a first grade student.

Another issue is blatant disregard for the group rules and the annoyance of the group members. There are new marketing “gurus” that teach people how to use the groups to market themselves. The problem is that most of what they are teaching can get you banned. It may work for a while. On the other hand, it may annoy the members so badly that the only responses you get are a lot of angry comments. I’ve seen it happen. Some groups are very proactive.

These groups are set up to discuss professional issues and offer helpful information. Admittedly, some of them are not well monitored. In those cases, people tend to drop out or just turn them off. Obviously, you can’t sell something to a group that isn’t reading your posts. All members need to take responsibility for abiding by the guidelines.

One other issue I see a lot is misdirection. If you want to sell your skills in investment writing or your expertise in restoring antique cars, you need to belong to groups where you will find customers. For example, peer groups of other writers are for learning the trade or asking for advice about resources. They are not your target audience. In fact, some of them are likely to be your competition.

The wide variety of media that’s growing daily is confusing. It’s also widely misused. If you misuse it, you waste time that can be used to grow your business. Slow down and read some tutorials. Take it one step at a time and don’t go overboard initially. A presence is good. However, all visibility is not equal. Poor choices can hurt your image and take a long time to overcome. Move cautiously.

Interview Tips

Older workers, who are going back to work, may not know that many interview questions that used to be routine are now illegal. However, this also applies to job applicants of any age. Don’t volunteer information about family, age, or health. If those questions come up, it can be awkward because you know you probably won’t get the job if you tell the interviewer his questions are illegal. So you can handle it several ways. You may nicely respond that you prefer not to discuss information that’s unrelated to the job. If you are not comfortable doing that, use a friendly, positive tone and say, “I’m sure I won’t have any problem meeting your expectations”, or “I’m totally prepared to devote my time to my job”.

Resume Distribution Services

Don’t blast resumes to hundreds of companies that may not have an opening for someone with your skills. I’m sure there may be a success story someplace from someone doing that, but there are a lot more failures. A simple delete is all it takes, and your resume is never seen. You usually waste time and money paying for that type of service.

]]> http://pennyleisch.com/wordpress/2009/12/11/interview-tips-for-older-workers/feed/ 0 http://pennyleisch.com/wordpress/2009/09/16/do-video-and-high-tech-resumes-work/ http://pennyleisch.com/wordpress/2009/09/16/do-video-and-high-tech-resumes-work/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:11:00 +0000 pjleisch http://pennyleisch.com/wordpress/?p=24 It seems that the only people who say high-tech resumes with videos, slide shows, and dancing elephants work are the people who produce them.  Of course, there are exceptions for people in specific industries where those things are common. Those people know who they are. For the rest of the world, these techniques can spell disaster.

There are strict standards in most HR departments. One big issue is age. Nothing can reveal age as quickly as a photo. All HR departments and hiring managers guard against possible discrimination challenges for race, age, obesity, physical disability, and more. In some cases, an interviewee is automatically disqualified for voluntarily providing that type of information. This is a good example of why you need to be aware of the laws and understand that you may not help yourself by divulging additional information.

What do you think happens when the video shows a person with black skin, white hair, too many pounds, or with children screaming in the background? All of those things can be factors in discrimination.  It’s even worse if you happen to be the person who lost your hair at 25 or who has an MBA and looks twelve-years-old. Don’t stack the deck against yourself people. In many professions, you will have one or more phone interviews before an on-site interview. The missing hair and the youthful look will be a lot less important by the time the search has narrowed to the last few candidates and you have remained among the top prospects.

You business owners also need to be cognizant of the risks of these new resumes. Don’t accept them without talking to your attorney or an HR professional. Too much information up front can cause you to pay a hefty price later. There are job seekers out there who look for opportunities to sue unsuspecting employers.

Another point to consider is the time it takes to review video and multi-media resumes, along with the potential for incompatible formats. There are hundreds of applicants for every job. If your resume takes extra time, it’s likely to get bypassed instead of getting extra attention. If the resume goes to a small business that uses a Mac and you send a resume in an incompatible PC format, your resume will never be seen. If you must show off your skills, don’t include personal video of yourself. If you must display your accomplishments in slide shows, include the information on your written resume too.

Because so many employers run searches to check out prospective employees on Google and social media sites, I don’t recommend posting photos of yourself while you are job hunting. If you have photos on your sites and your status changes, it’s easy to update the site. Many people post an old photo of themselves as a child. Others use a photo with a hat that makes them look like a mystery food editor. You can select an angle or profile that doesn’t give too much information. Some use a photo of something that shows a hobby, such as a flowers, bicycle, pets, local scenery, etc. There are tasteful ways to personalize the site without giving too much away.

I realize everyone expects a photo of a business owner, but business owners usually aren’t searching for a job. Photos really do add that personal touch that makes you seem more accessible. However, if you are searching for a job, you need to think like the employer. You can look human without giving away information that it’s illegal for them to obtain before hiring, and that may get you disqualified simply because you revealed too much too soon.

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