Posts Tagged Career advice
Posted on February 4, 2010 by Tahlent Team
Finally, there’s good news for job-seekers with employers unlocking their doors. However, it pays to remember that this time round, companies are going to be very selective about the candidates they take in and will not recruit merely to bloat their hiring figures.
Last month, we discussed the steps employers must take to retain talent. This month, we train our lens on the employee.
What measures can you put into effect to help your growth and also your company?
Insight into your manager’s work ethics and expectations
You don’t always have a say when it comes to choosing your manager, so the next best thing to do is to make sure you fit in to the manager’s work ethic and expectations. Note that this does not suggest that you become a ‘yes man’ or ‘yes woman’.
If the interview offers an opportunity to know more about your reporting manager, read the signs. It is important that you understand and assimilate the power structure in your department even before you accept your offer letter. Do your research, tap into the grapevine and understand your prospective manager’s record and career highlights. What are his or her strengths and weaknesses? How have they impacted his or her career? Whom does he/she get along with and take into confidence? Understand the relationships he/she has with his/her superiors.
As an oft-repeated mantra in corporate circles goes: ‘Employees do not leave their companies; they leave their managers’.
Unscramble your offer letter
Offer letters are among the trickiest documents to understand if your grasp of accounting is not strong. Numbers indicated in your salary breakup may be astronomical but what really matters are your take-home figures, tax breaks and benefits. Consult a chartered account or taxation specialist to confirm that what you see is indeed what you get.
Where do you grow from here?
Before you jump at any offer, take a step back and consider your growth path. Ask questions about the department that you are thinking of joining, your boss and colleagues, and the importance given to that department by the company (e.g. the department’s share of the company’s annual budget allocation will give you a good idea of this). If possible, speak to company insiders to verify all that you have heard. Be very wary of a job that does not offer avenues for growth or a clearly defined career path.
Are you dispensable?
Be alert and keep your ear to the ground. Ensure that the work you do brings value to the team you are working in. Be a good team person and hone your interpersonal skills. Fine-tune your abilities and skills and understand the strengths and weaknesses of your team-mates.
Get noticed and counted in
Not every one is a born star but with time you can establish yourself as the person to turn to for a particular skill. For example, if you are a whiz with spreadsheets and statistics your colleagues will start depending on you to deliver the goods in the crunch time. Become a strong team player and make your potential for leadership well known and acknowledged by your colleagues.
While making an effort to be counted in, stay away from being part of an office clique. Cliques are not viewed favorably in any company that promotes an inclusive work culture. Be professional and never confuse acceptance in a clique with genuine networking.
Upgrade your skills
You may have been hired as a web designer but if you have a latent interest in sound recording or video editing, hone those skills by taking courses, through self-learning or by watching others at work. However, be selective of the skill you choose to upgrade by considering how it will aid your growth and enhance your employability.
Don’t forget your basics
People tend to get lost focusing on doing “high-value” work and this proves costly when they have to switch jobs. If you have worked in a company for eight or ten years, it can be easy to lose touch with the fundamental skills that got you started there. Refresh your knowledge base and revisit your basics from time to time.
Update your résumé continuously
Take care not to slack off in your new job. Once a month, reopen your résumé and update your online profile, job description, responsibilities and projects. This helps you stay in touch with your own career plans. Do not close the door to new employment opportunities.
Tags: advice, boss, Career advice, Career networking, career path, CV, Employee retention, growth, manager, offer letter, office cliques, resume, skills upgrade, tips, work ethic
Posted on January 4, 2010 by Tahlent Team
With the ill-effects of the recession fading away, employers are creating new job opportunities and looking for talent to fill positions. While finding new recruits should not be difficult, employers must focus on finding the right people for the job. More importantly, they must put in place strategies to ensure that they can retain their new recruits.
Here are few tips:
Hire right talent
Start on the right foot. Rather than make the mistake of hiring the wrong candidate to meet a target, focus on hiring the the right people. If you outsource your hiring requirements to an external agency, be clear and uncompromising about job descriptions and eligibility criteria. It’s better to delay hiring than hire the wrong person for the job.
Strong team player
While interviewing candidates for the job, look beyond the CV. Study attitude in addition to aptitude. Do background checks with the aim of finding out if the person you are looking to hire is a good fit with your work culture and ethos. Carefully consider if he or she will get along with the current team. During recruitment interviews, ask probing questions to learn more about his or her outlook and orientation with regard to teamwork and collaboration.
Communicate policies clearly
The recession has made employees more and more suspicious of company policies. More often than not, they will make plans to leave you sooner if they suspect that you are not being clear in communicating your policies. Ensure that official communication reaches all employees through an official channel. If necessary, have these policies reiterated to them through a special point of contact.
Work-life balance is critical
Employees have realized that a healthy work-life balance is their right. If your company does not already take measures to encourage this, it’s time to review your policies. Provide that your work environment and policies are accommodating of the needs of your employees’ family time and needs. At the same time, ensure that employees are made accountable for the time they spend away from the office by putting in place efficient time management and reporting measures.
Give recognition and share positive feedback
Happy employees are more productive. Put in place measures to encourage and reward performance at various levels. Commend exceptional performance widely across the organization. Groom leadership by inviting top-performing employees to contribute to important, high-visibility initiatives.
Tags: advice, Career advice, communication, Employee retention, employee satisfaction, feedback, happy employees, official communication, recession, recognition, retention strategies, rewards, Talent, tips
Posted on November 29, 2009 by Tahlent Team
Have you often looked at designs or illustrations in magazines or on websites and thought you could have done them better? It’s time to explore if you have a yen for graphic design.
Graphic design is actually a very broad discipline and includes typography, illustration, product design and web design among others. There is a demand for graphic designers in all streams of business – from advertising, web development, publishing, product design and retail to information technology.
Fundamentally, a graphic artist or designer has one clear-cut task: to communicate visually with clarity, creativity, aesthetics and insight. To become a graphic design, you need to have an aptitude for design, art or drawing. If you were good at art back in school, you have a good reason to test if your creative juices will flow with a little encouragement.
Graphic design is fun and challenging, but it is hard work. To get started, it helps to learn the fundamentals of graphic design from an institute or through self-study. If you want to be formally trained and take up a serious career in design, look up your local university or art school for courses in graphic design. If you want to do a part-time or after-work course, there are several institutes offering short-term or long-term courses that will help you learn the fundamentals within a short time. Many of these courses also let you work on dummy projects or even live projects once you are a little more experienced.
If you do not have the budget to invest in education, turn to the Web. A simple search will lead you to countless free tutorials that teach you everything from basic principles to full-fledged complex techniques for print, audio-visual and online media.
If you have access to a computer, you may want to consider investing in software to aid your learning. Most graphic design is done digitally these days, and software is available to make anything from line drawings and sketches to full-fledged movies and 3-D presentations. Depending on your budget, you may choose to purchase licensed software such as the Adobe suite (including the latest versions of PhotoShop and Illustrator) or simply turn to the Internet to download freeware and shareware.
Make sure you save copies of your work on CD. Even better, once you are ready you can create a profile on Tahlent and showcase your portfolio.
Once you learn the ropes, get on the Internet and seek out discussion forums where you can interact and collaborate with designers of all stripes. Within a short time, with enough dedication and persistence, you will be ready to enter the world of graphic design as a budding professional.
Resources:
1. Graphic Design 101
2. Free tutorials and instructional sites
3. Graphic design principles
4. Licensed graphic design software: PhotoShop and Illustrator from Adobe
5. Open-source design software resources: Free Art Software and SourceForge
6. Excellent open source and free alternatives to Photoshop
7. 10 Principles of effective web design
8. Web 2.0 design style guide
Note: Tahlent does not accept responsibility for the content of the third-party resources mentioned above.
Tags: Career advice, college courses, education, employment, forums, graphic design, graphic designer, online courses, photoshop, resources, Tahlent, Talent Network, tools, web design
