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Thursday, August 13, 2020
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
The Benefits of a Professionally Written Resume
By Sam Bauer
Before I begin this piece in earnest, I should add a personal disclaimer which is: I love writing. I took at least three creative writing classes across three different semesters in college and those semesters were by far my favorite. It also wasn’t by accident that the vast majority of the classes I took depended upon my ability to write essays, not my acuity with synthesizing numbers.
With this in mind, I absolutely loathed writing my resume. It felt like I was trying to write a travel brochure for a town that no one had ever heard of and that also hated tourists. The whole concept of writing a resume seemed ridiculous in theory and proved to be depressing in practice. My life experiences didn’t look good on paper and trying to upsell them felt dishonest in a way I couldn’t quite articulate. So, when a friend of mine told me she had experience writing resumes and offered to look at mine, I jumped at the opportunity. The end result turned out better than anything I could have produced by myself.
Had I not had my friend as a resource, I would have eventually invested in a professional resume writer. But why? I was already “good” at writing so why not just look at some samples and get started? Well truth be told, I did. But a resume is a sales pitch for your services. It requires the appropriate language and formatting to fit that purpose. There were extra-curriculars in my college career that I thought were barely worth mentioning in a conversation, let alone a resume. But my friend reframed them and suddenly they were my strongest selling points. And the thing is, you only need to make that investment once. As soon as someone else sets up the formatting, you can simply update your resume whenever you need to because the groundwork is already there. Spend the money once on a resource that lasts.
https://www.bestresumeforyou.com/
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Who’s hiring and are they worth it?
Who’s hiring and are they worth it?
By Sam Bauer
In my previous posts, I talked about what companies are expecting from the hiring process and which companies are taking care of their workers during Covid 19. Now it’s time to tackle a more basic question: who even is hiring these days and are they worth a resume?
Before I get into the raw data, I want to first define what I mean when I say a company is “worth it”. A company that is worth it will fairly compensate you for what you are being asked to do. Working an all night shift for minimum wage with no benefits isn’t worth it in the long run because you are earning a wage at the cost of your health. All other judgment calls like career advancement and company culture are decisions that the individual will have to make on their own. But whether or not a company will treat their employees like people is a universal concern.
These companies are hiring and they have been vetted through independent fact checkers:
Cisco - 1,200 positions
NVIDIA - 700 positions
Procter & Gamble - 600 positions
Apple - 600 positions
Baxter International - 600 positions
Biogen INC - 500 positions
General Mills - 300 positions
HP - 300 positions
Texas Instruments - 240 positions
Allstate - 150 positions
The New York Times - 100 positions
Humana - 100 positions
Ford Motor Company - 100 positions
The Clorox Company - 100 positions
General Motors - unknown
*This list was made with help from Just Capital.
Monday, August 3, 2020
How has the hiring process been affected by Covid 19?
How has the hiring process been affected by Covid 19?
By Sam Bauer
There seems to be a lot of rumors flying around when it comes to hiring in the pandemic. Which is fair, considering the world economy was thrown upside down five months ago and we still haven’t felt the full impact of this pandemic. Plenty of companies are engaging in mass hiring but the national unemployment rate is record high with an additional mass of college graduates entering the workforce. With so much up in the air, it's hard to tell anything substantial about recruitment in this economy.
One tangible effect of the virus is how many companies have switched over to online interviewing and recruitment in lieu of seeing potential candidates in person. In an article by Scott Steinberg published on CNBC, He points out the impressive statistic that 84% of recruiters have switched to remote interviewing. Of that number, more than half have shifted to using online job boards to widen their search for potential employees. Places who have resisted adapting with the internet so far, seem to have gotten the message: change or get left behind when the economy starts moving in earnest.
This isn’t to say that companies don’t value face to face interviews. But the likelihood of that screening process being used for lower level positions is dwindling. Those who have been glued to the job boards might have already noticed this change. Big corporations like Amazon, Stop & Shop, and UPS have a questionnaire applicants fill out; questions about work ethic and past habits of taking office supplies. If the vacancy, resume, and answers all check out, then the process is over. Keep that in mind when applying for jobs. If you’re looking at an executive position, I wouldn’t skip out on practice interviews. But if you are a brave soul trying to be a grocery store worker in this insane time, don’t count on an interview being part of the process.
Which companies are taking care of their employees during Corona-virus
Which companies are taking care of their employees during Corona-virus
By Sam Bauer
It’s easy to talk about which industries are doing well during the pandemic. Streaming services have seen record increases in viewership, Costco’s bulk buying has become more attractive, and against all odds, people are buying Goya beans like there is no tomorrow. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is set to become the world’s first trillionaire because of Covid. But profit in those industries doesn’t mean that the entry level workers are seeing the same benefits. I’m not going to call them unskilled workers, I’m a firm believer that there is no unskilled labor, just undervalued skills. There has been an increase in worker complaints for Amazon, and it would not be an unfair assertion that the working environment has gotten worse in spite of Amazon’s continued success.
So who is taking care of their workers? Forbes does have an exhaustively researched list of the best companies to work in every industry. Unfortunately, it was written in 2019 and doesn’t factor in a global pandemic. Just Capital created a ranking system for the top 100 US companies committed to their workforce but even better, it has Covid Corporate tracker, which allows you to look up most major american corporations and see what benefits they are offering their stakeholders (links below). Time to do a little cross-referencing and see which names pop up the most.
- Facebook*- offering paid leave to parents who need to take care of children out of school.
- Zillow*- allowing employees to work from home for the rest of 2020.
- Cisco- commits to no layoffs during 2020.
- ServiceNow- commits to no layoffs and plans on creating 1,000 US jobs.
- Black Rock- commits to no layoffs and no pay cuts even if employees can’t come back to work.
- Microsoft*- offering back up care for the children and elderly relatives of workers.
- Alphabet*- offering financial assistance and paid sick leave.
- General Mills*- offering back up care and financial assistance.
*Companies that appeared on all three lists
I’d like to end this post with a huge thank you to anyone who does independent fact checking. You are
amazing and criminally underappreciated.
Monday, July 27, 2020
Cheap Technology to help with Virtual Interviews
Cheap Technology to help with Virtual Interviews By Sam Bauer
With Covid 19 still in full swing, many companies have opted for virtual interviews instead of in person ones. This does have some benefits, such as only having to dress professionally from the waist up and being able answer difficult questions in the comfort of your own home. But there are some major drawbacks, the biggest one is that these interviews often rely on third party technology. Not to mention the extremely unfair fact that your technology is part of the interviewer’s first impression of you, regardless of the position that you are applying for. I had an interview a few weeks ago, where my tiny computer could not handle the responsibility of running Zoom with 5 other devices connected to the WIFI. Needless to say, it did not go well. To help with that, I found 5 pieces of technology to help bolster the tech you most likely already have (i.e. your computer and phone). The best part? They are all 25 dollars or less.
(Disclosure: I am not a computer expert so do your research before you decide if this list is right for you)
Cyber Acoustic Headphones: They might look like something straight out of a computer lab and they sure don’t look as fancy as Bose or Samsung headphones but you don’t need them to be. They work with both computers and smartphones, so if your phone is your only option you’ll still manage to look professional without asking the interviewer to repeat themselves.
Price: $9.86
Cat8 Ethernet Cable: If your laptop is your only option and it has an ethernet port, I would 100% recommend getting an ethernet cable. Most of us are living with other people so bandwidth might get dicey when it comes time to interview. An ethernet cable means you get first dibs on the WIFI rather than your family watching netflix in three separate rooms. Just remember that this isn’t foolproof. Too many devices or large downloads will clog up your internet access despite your priority access.
Price: $8.99
Wansview PC webcam: This is the more expensive item on the list but it is also the cheapest on Amazon and it works with almost every operating system under the sun. Even though cameras usually come built into most laptops sometimes the resulting image isn’t flattering. This camera is a cheap upgrade and like I said, no matter what computer you have this will work with it.
Price: $23.79
Phone Stand: If you don’t have access to a computer, then most likely you’ll be using your smartphone in the interview process. In that case, a phone stand is pretty self-explanatory. Both you and the interviewer will have uninterrupted views of each other and you don’t have to do the whole thing one-handed.
Price: $10.95
Performance Troubleshooting: If you’re worried about how your device will handle whatever interview software the interviewer is using, troubleshooting software is an easy way to find out. Trust me, finding out the day of your interview that your computer can’t handle the software is embarrassing and annoying. Most computers already have troubleshooting software installed but they don’t always work as advertised. Just in case, I found a list softwares that are easy to download, free, and are a bit more sophisticated than the pre-installed variety.
Price: Free
https://windowsreport.com/troubleshooting-tools-software-windows-10/
Saturday, July 25, 2020
How to Maintain your Mental Health while looking for Jobs
How to Maintain your Mental Health while looking for Jobs
Written by Sam Bauer
Let’s be honest with each other; the job search process is soul crushing. I know because I’ve been doing it for the past two months, ever since I graduated amidst a global pandemic. My peers, much more accomplished than I am, have been glued to the jobs boards just as much as I have. And on top of that, social convention dictates that you must handle this growing sense of panic and failure with grace and humility. Unless we as a society change the way we handle hiring and firing, this is the reality that faces anyone trying to find a job.
Here’s some tips that have kept me (somewhat) sane during the job search:
Acknowledge just how discouraging this process is. Absolutely no one thrives under constant rejection and you shouldn’t be expected to either. Your feelings of anxiety and frustration? Totally valid.
Do not job search all day every day. Allot a specific time every day to look on job boards and apply but once that allotted time runs out? Do something else. Job searching all the time means neither you or your brain get a break to emotionally process which, trust me on this one, does not speak well for your mental health.
Invest in a staffing agency.
Recruiters can help.
Try and be kind, especially to yourself. If you let a rejection get the best of you for a day, forgive yourself. Sometimes doing your best on a particular day means only being able to operate on 50% of your potential. That should still be commendable even if it doesn’t feel like it.
www.BestLogicStaffing.com HELPING BUILD A BETTER WORKPLACE
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