We enlisted a team of volunteers to “mystery shop” the job pages of some of America’s largest corporations. What have they learned? That applying for a job online isn’t always as easy as it looks, and the results are often less than satisfying. Based on their experience, we offer an online job hunter’s bill of rights:
Activist shareholders are trying new tactics to rein in executive pay at U.S. companies, with proposals they hope will appeal to a broader group of investors. The new strategies include simpler, less prescriptive holder resolutions that don’t dictate executives’ pay packages. Instead, the new proposals seek to more closely align executive pay with corporate performance,
For years, companies have created employee-resource groups for women and racial and ethnic minorities, aimed at boosting recruitment and retention. Now, employers increasingly are creating similar groups for gay and lesbian employees. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Morgan Stanley and Intuit Inc., among others, created groups for gay employees in the past year. The Human Rights Campaign,
Managers like to say employees leave companies because of bad bosses or lack of career growth. A new report suggests a more straightforward reason: money. In a survey of about 1,100 U.S. employees, 71% of top performers listed pay among the top three reasons they would consider leaving their employer. Yet in a sister survey
Psychology professor Richard Griffith is on a mission to stop “fakers.” To Dr. Griffith, of the Florida Institute of Technology, fakers are people who misrepresent themselves on personality tests increasingly used to screen applicants for entry-level jobs at call centers, retail stores and other customer-service positions. The tests typically ask candidates to agree or disagree
Go out and mingle with top headhunters — those gregarious talent scouts who are constantly scouring the world in search of managers to fill the top executive jobs — and these days you’ll find some most happy people.
Developing strong ties with executive recruiters can pay off. Many organizations rely on them for help in finding senior talent and negotiating job offers. We asked Kimberly Bishop, senior client partner in the New York office of Korn/Ferry International, for advice on how to initiate and nurture lasting relationships with search professionals. Prior to joining
What’s in a name? Plenty. Just ask people who have to compete against their own names. These entrepreneurs can face uncertain, confused customers, as well as harsh competition from businesses they no longer own that still bear their monikers. Consider what happened to executive recruiter Russell S. Reynolds Jr. at a recent cocktail party in
Question: I worked for a semi-famous woman, who is known for having a huge temper and being reactionary. I use her as a work reference and, during my job search, she was called by people who just wanted to talk to her — even in cases where I had not interviewed with them. At one
How’s this for a glimpse of the future? For the next eight years, the labor market will continue to shrink, and your company will increasingly come to resemble a temporary employment agency. Bright, restless recruits who believe they have nothing more to learn from your firm will move on to other employers; your seasoned managers
At the end of its last term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two rulings that offer insight about employer liability for sexual harassment. The decisions (Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, No. 97-282, and Burlington Industries Inc. v. Ellerth, No. 97-569) were both hailed and condemned-hailed for establishing new rules for such cases, and condemned
Interviewers come in many styles, shapes, and sizes. They may be trained professionals or rank beginners. They may be pleasant and encouraging or rude and opinionated.
One key to a positive interview experience involves doing your homework on a potential employer. The goal is to find as much information about the company to give you a better understanding and appreciation for their business. Here are three major resources for locating information.
Applying a dedicated and systematic approach to locating a job can simplify the process of finding a job. The goal of each process is to make contact with a prospective employer for the purposes of setting up an interview. Here are a number of a useful techniques and resources that can be used to find
As a student it is not the easiest thing to get a job. There always seems to be something , such as the employer wants some experience. The problem is you don’t have any! You need part time but they want you to work full time evenings and weekends. The best answer to this problem
The messages law enforcement personnel sent one another — more than 5,000 — were crude, referring to people as animals, using profane terms as labels — and, worst, containing some horrifying jokes implying violence. They were fired. That was in Camden County, N.J., where 11 white prison guards lost their jobs for racially insulting texts
Q: Two of my employees seem to have absolutely no interest in doing a good job. They arrive late, ignore deadlines, and drag out every task to avoid additional work. If I bring this up, they threaten to call in sick and stay out for several days. Because we work for a large retail chain,
This is mainly a guy thing, but it affects women too. They retire, perhaps earlier than expected, and haven’t a clue about how to go about living the rest of their lives. Mickie Schroeder and Jeff Jans took early retirements in April 2008, got married in May 2008 and by September 2008 were sitting
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Many American workers don’t really leave work. Emails, phone texts, pager alerts and phone calls pepper what once was personal time. And that’s not including on-call shifts or beeper time, which require workers to be ready and able to work at a moment’s notice. When is it time to call
Q: A few months ago, my colleagues and I got a new manager who makes our lives a living hell. “Kristen” has no management experience and nitpicks everything we do. She gets angry about small stuff and talks to us like we’re in third grade. She has also allowed the office to get disgustingly
