Yahoo’s Daily Ticker’s Aaron Task interviewed Harvard lecturer and PhD Paul Stoltz and co-author James Reed to find out that employers are most interested in candidates who have a certain mindset — regardless of skill set.
The authors of this study “define and quantify” what mindset means to employers. They call their findings the “3G Mindset”. It consists of the top three qualities that employers consider most important: global, good and grit. Continue reading
Let me tell you a tale of a former IT worker. He started out as a Novell server administrator, then moved on to Windows NT, then moved on to Solaris, and AIX, and Linux, and Mainframe, and middleware, and webmaster, and finally became a first line manager while also doing technical work.
What started out as a fun 9 to 5 job soon became 8 to 5 and then 8 to 6 and then 7 to 6 and then hey I’m bored on a sunny Saturday summer afternoon, let me blow into the office and get some stuff done while no one is using the system.
And then there were Easter weekends spent relocating server farms from one building to another, and Fourth of Julys spent on conference calls with the customer, and New Years Eves spent on conference bridges with dozens of people making sure everything ran as the clock ticked over.
And then there were plans with friends canceled at the last minute, and parties he never got to go to, and lunches not taken, and vacations that were basically a Blackberry and a laptop taken to another state where he worked four hours a day instead of ten or twelve. Some vacation.
None of this extra time worked was ever compensated. He never got comp time or overtime pay. It was just expected that he would put in the hours because it was a part of the job.
And then, when he thought things were really moving along, after about 15 years of constant advancement, his employer pulled the rug out from under him and laid him off. In the middle of the worst recession, ever.
What to do, what to do? He picked himself up, inventoried his skills, and talked to some guys who used to work for him when he was a first line manager. These guys were contractors, and they had the life. They did not work overtime, because they were paid for overtime. They did not worry about making sure that silly, pointless annual reviews were completed. They did not worry about process and procedure. They came in, did what they were hired to do, and they went home. The end.
So he learned the ins and outs of being an IT contractor from people who had been in the business for a good number of years… and now he passes their advice on to you.
First and foremost: Are you a corp-to-corp contractor, or are you a W2 contractor? This is a critical decision. If you are a W2 contractor, you are an employee of a recruiting or consulting firm. You will have taxes taken out of your pay, you will probably have access to health insurance and a 401(k). You will not earn paid time off for sickness or vacation.
If you are a corp-to-corp contractor, you are responsible for errors and omissions insurance, you have to pay all the taxes that a W2 employer would pay, you do not have access to any group health insurance or retirement plans and yes, you also do not earn paid time off, because you are treated as a corporate entity, not an employee. So why would a contractor choose to be a corp-to-corp contractor? Money. Plain and simple. A recruiting company looking for a contract employee will usually offer two rates: a W2 rate and a corp-to-corp rate. A junior system administrator role, for example, would probably pay $42 an hour at a W2 rate and $55 an hour at a corp-to-corp rate.
If you think you want to hang with the big dogs and be a corp-to-corp contractor, consider that the following is a list of a few of the many items you will be responsible for: computer hardware and software; office equipment and furniture; business stationery and marketing materials; web site hosting and design; costs of incorporation; marketing and advertising; car and other business travel; business entertainment; telecommunications services; accounting, legal and other professional services; and ongoing training, professional books, subscriptions, and memberships.
Scary, huh? There are people with an eye for business who can keep track of all these things and still knock out great technical work, day in and day out. If that’s not you, look for a W2 consulting gig.
You’ve decided what type of contractor you will be and have taken the appropriate steps. Now: what skills do you have to offer? Take a look at your last few positions, or your duties over the last few years if you only had one employer. What could you call yourself a “subject matter expert” in, what topics did people come to you first for answers when they had a thorny problem? Do you have any certifications or special training? Things like these will dictate how you market yourself.
If you specialize in one thing (database administration, web design, security, etc) then it gets even easier to find the right job. Employers looking for hired guns like specialists, because they (think they) know what they are getting.
If you are a generalist, you’ve got a bit of an uphill climb. Do you work on multiple platforms? Can you handle database administration and web design and system administration and network design and implementation? Look for contract gigs in all of those areas, and tailor your resume for each gig you apply for. Yes, it’s more work, but them’s the breaks. You’ve got lots of skills, and the employer who picks you will be grateful for them.
Once you have landed your first consulting job, there’s things you have to do outside of work hours. First, you have to keep prospecting for new business. Keep reaching out to contract firms, recruiting firms, former co-workers. Anyone who could possibly get you a job. Second, you have to have some sort of filing system. Get a filing cabinet and start organizing receipts, contracts, work orders, legal papers, anything related to your consulting gigs. Setup regular backups for your computers and follow the backup schedule with the fervor of a true believer. Oh, and be sure to occasionally do restores, too, so you can be sure that your backups are actually backing things up.
Time management — it’s critical! You’re billing by the hour, and more likely than not, you’re working from home or at a remote location. You must develop the discipline to work during the hours you’re billing, and not “clock out” to go shopping, corral the kids, watch a movie, etc. Work hours are sacred, and not to be interrupted, because as a contractor you have lost the ability to tell your employer “my dog ate it” or “I got backed up by other stuff and I’ll have that done next Tuesday.” That ain’t gonna fly any more. You have to be better, faster and smarter than the “regular” employees.
Just so you know, sound time management will pay you back handsomely, because while you’re working like a demon during work hours, you’re also not working during non-work hours. If you are not on the clock, you are free as a bird. This is the wonderful part of the consulting gig. At the appointed hour, turn off that laptop and run for the hills! Enjoy your ability to completely divorce yourself from your job while the “regular employees” you work with suffer working unpaid overtime until they drop. Just don’t rub their noses in it, mmmkay?
Next up — mind your technology. Are you still using Windows 95? Of course you aren’t. Make a plan to keep your technology and your skills current. You can take a tax deduction (check with your accountant on the rules around this — you DO have an accountant, right?) for training and other job related expenses. Schedule time every month to visit vendor websites, in-person demonstrations, and networking groups. Budget hardware and software upgrades, and participate in beta test programs so you can see what’s coming before the general public, and your client base. Buy technical books and read them. If that’s not for you, look for classes in your field at your local community college.
Once you’ve established yourself as an IT consultant, you are free to pick and choose your assignments, concentrating on areas you find interesting and challenging. While you’re chewing on that, consider these questions to determine whether this is something you want to do.
So there you have it. You can go the W2 consulting route, and have a company pimp you out, or if you are the Gordon Gecko type, you can captain your own ship through the choppy waters of business.
Or, you can remain an employee, put in extra uncompensated time, and be under-appreciated.
The choice is yours.
If you are like me, you spent some time in your twenties jumping from job to job, and then found “the job” where you decided to settle in and hang out for a while. If you have been at your current job for more than five years, this article is for you.
While this article can apply to any line of work, my experience is in IT, so that’s my focus. What I have learned is, there’s no “career counselor in the sky” who is going to help you get the skills you need to stay employed. You can’t count on your employer to pay for classes, and you can’t count on anyone to let you know what’s going to be the industry standard in the next five to ten years.
What does this mean? This means you have to actively manage your career and your skills. Aw, man! I know. It’s a pain. But if you are considering taking a break from actively managing your IT career, just remember one word: COBOL.
While this ’50s-era programming language is still used today, it symbolizes the way a seemingly omnipresent technology can be in demand one moment and out of fashion the next.
What happened to me? I worked at one company for fifteen years, and had many different roles — system administrator, webmaster, network manager, team lead. In the end, I was laid off and left with skills that were not too attractive to employers as they once were.
What should I have done? A few things. First, I should have kept track of what skills employers are looking for, and getting trained in those skills on my own time and my own dime. I thought that because I was really good at what I did, that was enough. Wrong-O. After getting over the shock of being laid off, I took out my annual reviews where I listed all the things I had done each year, and then compared that to what I saw in listings on Dice.com and Monster.com What a wake-up-call.
Next, I should have been maintaining a network of contacts outside of my employer. I did a half-hearted job of this and did not have a strong network of people who could help me find my next job when I needed it. I ended up working with recruiters and while that worked for me, it took me much longer to find the right recruiter than it would have if I had had someone to refer me to them.
Last, I should have been looking outside my company for my next job long before I started my job search. I knew things were winding down, but I still waited to try to find a job until a point about a year before I was laid off. It just so happened that the very time I started looking for jobs was the beginning of the massive waves of layoffs during the recession, so score one for my impeccable timing.
Here are some things I am doing today.
If you want to avoid being overrun by shifting technologies, you need to keep up with news. Spend some time reading about trends in your line of business, and about trends in your line of work. I subscribe to newsletters from Microsoft (since I do a lot of work on Windows) as well as Sun, EC Council, eWeek and c|net. Keeping in touch with trends in your line of business helps you know what’s coming. Compare what you read in the press with what skills are listed in current job openings.
If you want to stay at your current employer and there’s a way to move to another department or division, that’s a great way to get some on the job training. I used this strategy several times in my career to get out of a position that was not challenging, while getting experience that would be valuable later on. These days, I am still doing technical work, but I’m also doing project manager and team lead work.
Unless you’re looking to move into an entirely different career (and start over from zero), avoid training yourself in something entirely new. It’s more efficient to build on what you already know — for example, if you are a data base analyst, learning java or c++ so you can code stored procedures is a great way to extend your skills. Again, look at Dice and Monster and see what skills are listed in current job openings. That’s your clue when thinking about what training to sign up for. I like to keep an eye on the offerings at the local community college — the price is right and the time investment is small. I was lucky to take a c++ class taught by one of the people who wrote the language, and now is teaching the language in her retirement.
I emphasized my participation in beta programs (Windows 7, anyone?) and the breadth of my knowledge. When someone asked me why I stayed at my last job for such a long time, I told them that the work was challenging, and because technology kept changing, it was like having a new job every year, without having to start over at a new company. I told them how I made a difference for my former employer, by saving money, eliminating outages, etc.
Instead of a chronological resume, try writing an experience resume. This type of resume documents the value you brought to former employers — projects completed, deadlines met, budgets managed, costs saved — rather than the particular skills you used to accomplish those goals. You can include your skills, of course; they’re part of your history in the industry. But don’t present them in such a way as to indicate they’re the reason you should be hired.
Guyz!
I have completely checked out of my job emotionally, and that means that on Thursday and Friday, I just didn’t show up. This is bad. It’s not how I was raised and it’s not who I am or want to be. I have deep personal issues that need to be addressed so that this doesn’t happen for the next place. Here’s the problem. When you’re gay, and you parents are Mr. & Mrs. SuburboWASP, they usually send you the following message: you don’t have to BE perfect. You just have to look as though you are. What they don’t realize is that sending this message is incredibly destructive and can do horrible lasting damage, because it installs a very powerful button that other people can push, long into adulthood. It surely plays hell with your self-esteem.
It’s done damage to the perception of my professionalism, because the untenable and unchangeable fact is that the CFO is my de facto boss (even though that’s point blank illegal). The conflict of interest in such an arrangement is so obvious a kid could see it. If I’m responsible for enforcing the rules, and the guy in the best position to break them is capable of hiring or firing me and dictating my compensation, I’m in a bit of a bind.
I could almost deal with this if he wasn’t undermining me at every turn. So, I dropped my standards to the level of his expectations. And I blame my boss-on-paper, the CEO, for knowing about this situation and doing nothing about it. But at the end of the day I’m responsible for me. And when you quit, you should at least tell the guy who signs your paycheck.
It’s done a bit of damage to me and the Cap’n, as well, although he’s got the patience of a saint and is one of the kindest, most generous men who ever lived. (He ain’t perfect either, but being late to a dinner party shouldn’t trigger an uncharacteristic screamy rage-y meltdown in the car. And it was his fault, but still.)
Lessons For My Crasstalk Friends: It’s clearly time to make some changes, but recognizing that I require and deserve to be treated with respect is a real good start. Add to that the concept that I should tell people who don’t / can’t / won’t respect me to f-off very clearly rather than being passive aggressive.
Never – ever – give an unethical person so much power over you that he causes you to lose self-esteem, self-respect, lower your standards, or compromise what you know to be true. Certainly don’t let them drive you to do self-destructive things. It’s just wrong. I do enjoy a cocktail, but my limit is two. Friday night was a full-on Barfy Billyburg Barfly Booze Bacchanal. Unacceptable for someone my age and it ruined my Saturday, too. I even got the side-eye from Crocker Kitty Edmund – I’m told I picked him up and sang “Sweet Child O’ Mine” in his face and he hates loud noises. Then I puked in the guest room bathroom and he stepped in it. No more ‘tinis for me for a while.
So, my fellow Crasstalkers, this little Internettythingamabob that we have here has definitely been – and will continue to be – a safe spot for me to vent, brag, observe and complain, and that’s the fault of all of you. I’ve never been a part of such a diverse, fun, funny, brilliant club in all my life, and it’s making my wee crisis a lot more… wee. Thanks for that.
Interview 2 with the I-bank is on Tuesday. Wish me luck, because I think I need it.
Update – After taking the weekend to chew it over, and to rehydrate after a rollicking Saturday AM hangover, the Cap’n and I reached some conclusions. We’re going to just take this as it comes – if they can me (which would be bad for their business), Cap’n will take overtime to keep us afloat.
In this installment of the DoW’s simple rules we look at how to win at LinkedIn.
Those are the basics. Sound off with your own suggestions in the comments.