Career Change for Academics

Our online identities are increasing in importance just as our resumes are declining.

This REALLY interesting article in the Wall Street Journal/Careers explains that more employers are going beyond resumes to source candidates for their positions.  It’s like a huge signpost pointing to the need for all of us to pay more attention to our professional online identity. Read No More Resumes, Say Some Firms and you’ll actually want to begin work on your LinkedIn profile – even Twittering, let alone updating your Facebook pages!

But beyond your online identity as a profile (which usually is a thinly veiled resume), how can you show up as interesting enough to an employer be found?  And valued?  The author, Rachel Emma Silverman, describes several creative ways that companies are using social media to find people they want, based on what they can see in their online activities.

What I see is that these creative employers are looking for candidates’ strengths that happen to match company needs.

(Full link to article -  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203750404577173031991814896.html?mod=djemCJ_h#articleTabs_comments%3D%26articleTabs%3Darticle )

For more information on finding your own strengths, come back, I’ll be posting more on that soon.

“Assessment” Tools for Discovering and Articulating Strengths

http://www.reachcc.com/360reach   360 Reach Personal Branding assessment tool (Basic tool is free)

http://www.dependablestrengths.org/   Dependable Strengths (self-assessments)

http://www.strengthsfinder.com/home.aspx  Clifton StrengthsFinder  (1.0 and 2.0)  Code accessed through several books by  Marcus Buckingham, Douglas Clifton and/or Tom Rath (Gallup organization)

http://www.cappeu.com/Realise2.aspx  Realise2 (Marketed as a strengths assessment AND development tool)

http://viacharacter.org/www/   http://www.viacharacter.org/SURVEYS.aspx  VIA Classification and Inventory of Strengths (Billed as the scientific study of character, and the “backbone” of the science of positive psychology”

Articles on (and Definitions of) Social Media and Job Search Techniques

http://mashable.com/follow/search?q=job+search+and+social+media+2012&commit=Search   (a search on Mashable for job search and social media 2012)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites  (pretty current)

http://www.job-hunt.org/social-networking/social-media.shtml  Social Media and Job Search

http://socialmediatoday.com/jorgen-sundberg/358886/how-social-media-will-help-your-job-search

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/05/09/social-media-helps-hinders-job-search-for-grads

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/onlinecareernetworking/a/socialrecruiting.htm   Social recruiting and your job search,  by Alison Doyle
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/networking/a/socialmedia.htm  How to use social media in your job search,  by Alison Doyle

http://windmillnetworking.com/2011/02/25/tips-integrating-social-media-linkedin-job-search-2011/

http://www.recareered.com/blog/2012/04/05/get-the-strongest-impact-from-your-weak-linkedin-connections/

http://www.fastcompany.com/1818177/the-unexpected-way-to-use-your-social-network-strategically

Top Social Networking Sites (and Articles, Reviews and Comparisons)

http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/

http://jobmob.co.il/blog/gigantic-linkedin-job-search-tips/

http://www.cio.com/article/508121/Facebook_Bible_Everything_You_Need_to_Know_About_Facebook

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites    (April 2012)

http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/  2012 Social networking Website Comparisons

http://jobsearch.about.com/b/2011/07/11/companies-using-social-media-for-hiring.htm

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/onlinecareernetworking/a/socialrecruiting.htm

http://www.fastcompany.com/1818177/the-unexpected-way-to-use-your-social-network-strategically article by Don Peppers

For more current, and very lively, discussions of job search, resume techniques, cover letters and anything job-search related, look at LinkedIn’s  Career Central Group – managed by Phil Rosenberg (an uber-connector, recruiter and prolific writer of inflammatory articles on related topics)

http://www.preptel.com/resources/   company has developed an ATS-look-alike computer process (called Resumeter) to “grade” resumes for “Fit” with a job description – claims that ATS determines the keywords and phrases used (for Resumeter™, sign up for 7 days free – normally $25/month after that)
…Articles of particular interest on the resources part of the site  “Technology: Foe or Friend?”
Information cited:
…At most companies, computers read your resume, not humans.
…About 75% of resumes are discarded for low word match..
…More than 20% of resumes have formatting issues (per machines).
…Only 1% of total applicants get an interview.
…worthy of a news flash: Today, most employers no longer share your résumé with hiring managers. Hiring managers receive a summary report generated by Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software that removes bias-causing problems, tracks EEOC compliance and performance, and supposedly levels the playing field across the applicant pool. Regardless of how your clients are getting into the company – friend, job board, recruiter, or online application – everyone goes through these ATS systems
….A survey of more than 300 biotech and health care job seekers showed only 20% knew the importance of keywords and the correct way to use them strategically in a résumé. About 80% knew the importance of doing pre-interview company research, but none of them thought about using that research to devise and derive keywords to use in their résumé.
— Quotes above from http://www.preptel.com/resources/   by Jon Ciampi

Also see  http://wordle.net   Word Cloud tool

For continuing information on the topic later, see Seattle Career Trainer   ( http://seattlecareertrainer.com/blog/ )

Outline of talk to the grad students of the UW School of Pharmacy PORPP, May 6, 2011.  (Note: two additional pages of good information sources have been added, and if you were there and have further questions, please do feel free to call.)

Basics of Job Search, Resumes&CVs, Interviewing&Negotiating

Last month, I wrote “Why Academics Need a Career Plan B (And Maybe Plan C)” for Job-Hunt, and unfortunately, it’s already time to update it. The University of California-Berkeley emailed everyone on campus this week that 280 more jobs have been eliminated, beyond the 500 already cut from the system. (It should be noted that nearly half are retirements and “voluntary” separations, but the salient point is that those jobs no longer exist.)

Apparently these cuts had been planned even before Governor Jerry Brown proposed another $500 million in cuts to the UC system. (Newspaper articles have stated that no jobs being cut came from faculty or campus police positions, nor were undergrad student jobs eliminated.)

But these cuts are merely part of a longer series – with more to come. Late in September last year, five sports programs were also cut at UCBerkeley: baseball, men’s rugby, men’s and women’s gymnastics and women’s lacrosse – with an expectation of saving $4 million a year. In November, tuition was raised to $50,649 (including fees and room/board) for out-of-state students – and this is after Berkeley had raised tuition 30% for 2009.

So far, most of the cuts have affected staff positions, rather than faculty, police and mental health counselors, and I assume that most colleges and universities are trying to “save the academic core” of the institution (a phrase I first heard in a university email from the then-President of the University of Washington, yet another institution affected by cuts by the local state legislature – and anticipating more.)

But at some point, in some states, at some institutions, the cuts will go into the bone and faculty will find themselves on the block, too. Best to start checking out the alternatives….

(If you’re looking for more depressing news on this dismal topic, search the Internet for UC Berkeley job cuts 2011, or university layoffs 2011, or …you get the picture, right?)

A survey by CareerBuilder, one of the larger career/recruiting companies, reveals “stronger employment trends” in 2011, and it is echoed by a number of positive employment reports in various local Business Journals (see below).

While the figures are not extraordinary, with only 24% of employers surveyed saying they plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in 2011, they are at least on the up side for a change. Only 13% anticipate hiring part-time employees, but 34% plan to hire temporary and/or contract workers.

The top 10 “functional” areas (across all industries) for hiring are, in order:  sales, information technology, customer service, engineering, technology, administrative, business development, marketing, research/development and accounting/finance.

More employers in the West plan to hire in 2011 than those in the Northeast, followed by those in the central US and South.

Here are some of the positive articles I’ve seen recently, thanks to the Business Journal regional editions.

• Optimism creeps into forecast Sacramento Business Journal  01/06/2011
• 10 jobs in most demand in 2011 Triangle Business Journal  01/02/2011
• More employers expect to hire in 2011 Sacramento Business Journal  01/02/2011
• Hiring outlook rises for 2011 Baltimore Business Journal  12/29/2010
• Hiring picture brightens for 2011 Wichita Business Journal  12/29/2010
• Careerbuilder report optimistic on hiring Dallas Business Journal  12/28/2010
• Industries Seeing the Biggest Pickup in Hiring CNBC.com 30/12/2010

Be of good cheer in the New Year!

NCEEA-Trends in Resumes & Cov lts

This was actually a presentation for the NCEEA Conference in Seattle, WA, in April of 2010.

In a blog post*  titled, “Some Higher Education Facts, Good and Bad,” Mike Mandel looks at the share of U.S. college grads with advanced degrees (rising to 35% by 2008), but he found that the percentage of doctoral degrees had decreased somewhat.  Looking a little farther, he found that the change in “real pay” to holders of doctorates had decreased (by 10%!!!!!) between 1999 and 2008.

Check out this graphic!
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2010/01/12/phdearnings.png

Furthermore, in the same time period, the real pay to those with professional degrees had decreased by approximately 3%.

The real pay of those with master’s degrees had increased by a mere not-quite 1% and those with bachelor’s degree had increased maybe a tad-bit more than 1%. (Despite what we’re told is a low current rate of inflation – that’s not much of an increase.)

And that’s not even counting what has happened to the economy since 2008.

In noting the decrease in percentage of PhDs being granted, he mentioned the “relative undesirability of the PhD.”  Uhhhmmm – it’s really hard to hear that phrase.  But, I guess I have to agree that advanced degrees seem not to be paying off in salary expectations – or, these days, in occupational stability either!

If these figures are accurate, here’s more reason to avoid incurring debt while you’re in grad school, even if you love being there. If you don’t love being there, but you’re accumulating debt because you expect to make big bucks in a stable job – is it maybe time to reconsider??

* Mike Mandel’s blog is at http://innovationandgrowth.wordpress.com/2010/01/

Here’s another article that SHOULD ignite some controversy – but I’m afraid the author may be right.  IS it normal for grad school to change otherwise normal, well-adjusted, functioning adults into paranoids?  DOES grad school change personalities (negatively)?

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Banality-of-Academic/49194/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

Is it possible to humanize grad school?

Freedom to Learn, by Carl Rogers, the great humanist-psychologist, was published in 1969. I can still remember my thrill when I read the chapter on what grad school COULD be like. He advocated positive support for all grad students once they were admitted. That meant treating them from the beginning like colleagues-t0-be, who could be mentored, and guided to become great learners and teachers.

What the article linked (above) assumes is that (paranoid) grad students are reacting to being treated like competitors-to-be, with suspicion, and being critiqued and tested continuously, at least until the degree is conferred (and after too, if they are seen then as competitors-for-real).

My take is that the way grad students are being treated is analogous to the way those suspected of having committed crimes are treated in much of the non-US world – guilty until proven innocent. Or, lacking until proven able – which, in grad school, is pretty serious as a suspected crime.

Carl Rogers did not subscribe to a survival-of-the-fittest model of graduate education. He assumed that every single one could produce great scholarship, and he invited teamwork-like collaboration among the members of the intellectual community to support grad students through their learning and transition, rather than making it an ordeal to be survived.

Since I read that chapter, quite a few years ago, I have wondered if there are any academic departments around the country following that enlightened model.  Please let me know if you have experience of one of them…..

Check out this series of comments by the “intelligencia” when they opine about how many students should dance on the tip of an ivory tower (imagine the metaphor). Well, what the Chronicle folks actually asked was, “Are Too Many Students Going to College?”

http://chronicle.com/article/Are-Too-Many-Students-Going-to/49039/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

The experts all seem to assume we’re talking about undergrads, but the question applies equally to graduate education, and I’d like to see a discussion of THAT. It might even raise the level of the verbal fisticuffs.