Nevada Jobing Community Blogs

The historic Little Church of the West is looking for an experienced organ player 2 days a week (Mondays and Tuesdays anytime between the hours of 10am and 10 pm) to play before, during, and after weddings. What a great way to get paid for your hobby and be a part of one of the happiest days of a couple's life!

Martha I. Finney helps companies improve their performance by attracting, keeping and inspiring high-passion, high-performing talent. This posting is based on the principles from her new book, The Truth About Getting the Best From People . For the full collection of her extended blogs, including, "Why I Love HR,” visit www.hrjourneys.blogspot.com. Contact her at martha@marthafinney.com 

Unless you’re one of those people who enjoy beating their heads against a wall, it’s rarely any fun to be in the job market. But if you’re looking for a job in the leadership levels, it’s even worse. Reason: Chances are almost 50/50 that you’ll be looking for another job before the year is out.  For some reason, new hires in leadership roles have an abysmal success record. And, even though the cost of recruiting, hiring, losing people of your level  – and starting the cycle all over again – is the most expensive of all the open positions, employers seem to take this hard knock as a cost of doing business. 

What a terrible waste of money, resources, precious time for all concerned.  Especially you, if you’re the one out on the street in a few months’ time.  The good news is that the power is in your hands. You can say, “This cycle of frustration stops with me.”  But that means that you have to take control of the interview (hey! Your first leadership assignment in this organization) and be willing to be the one to decide whether you might not be the best culture match (hey! Your second leadership assignment in this organization).

Here’s the problem: Even though companies are becoming increasingly aware of the real importance and impact their culture and values have on engaging the discretionary effort of all their employees, for most companies that awareness isn’t showing up in the kind of leaders they hire from the outside. When it comes to hiring people leaders, employers can be like fish. They’ll leap out of the water for anything bright and shiny, without first taking into very serious consideration what lurks between the feathers and twirly, swirly, glittering things. For fish, of course, the bad news is that there’s usually a sharp hook buried inside all that attraction. But for employers, they don’t discover that buried inside that bright and shiny resume is a set of behaviors that could destroy their carefully cultivated culture. 

I’m not implying, of course, that you’ve got a sharp hook imbedded in your resume or personality, but let’s face it, we’ve all got hooks – a branded story of who we are, what we can offer the employer, our set of leadership beliefs, the market performance of our previous employer while we were at the helm.  The problem is that if you are luring the wrong employers, there’s going to be a lot of pain, and actually you’re going to be among the 40%+ of new management candidates who lose their jobs before they’ve really had the chance to prove themselves.

I’m torturing this metaphor; I guess it’s time to get on with my point.

The more successful you were at your previous company or the greater the cachet of your company (especially as regards its reputation for an engaged culture), the greater the likelihood that you’re going to land in a new job that could make you miserable.  Like it or not, your new employer isn’t just hiring you, they’re hiring where you’ve been.  If you’ve been with a successful company that performed supremely in your marketplace and enjoyed a cadre of over-the-top dedicated employees, your new employer is going to want to have some of that mojo. And, because you’ve seen it first-hand and from within, they reason, you’re just the one to give it to them.  They’re so invested in asking the questions that will result in a job offer and acceptance that they tend to avoid those questions that could reveal you to be a bad culture fit.  Or, more to the point, the company is a bad culture fit for you.

You’ve got to do that piece of the dirty work. Sorry to have to break it to you, but that’s just the way it is. The truth will come out eventually, and believe me, you’re being back out on the street is going to be a lot more painful for you than it will be for them.

During the job interview itself, go deep into questions about the company culture. This is the first place where a big mismatch can be revealed. For instance, it’s not enough to simply know what the company’s values are. (You can find them on their website and after a while they all look the same…integrity; service; servant leadership, performance; collegial; collaborative; people-first…they very quickly appear to be the workplace versions of personal ads. Replace them with “candlelight dinners,” “puppies,” “walks on the beach,” and you’ll see what I mean.)

The trick is to ask your interviewers how those values have been demonstrated by decisions and choices in recent years. If the company really takes its values seriously, your interviewers will have plenty of stories at their fingertips. A few good questions to ask, for instance, are:

1.       Can you tell me of a time when you hired a star candidate who turned out to be a culture mismatch (if you’re really brave, say, “toxic manager”)?  How did you handle that situation?

2.       Can you think of a time when you were able to save a new hire who got off on the wrong foot culturally? What happened with that person?  Can I talk with him or her?

3.       Do you have any mentorship or culturalization onboarding programs in place, so I can be sure to hit the ground running?

4.       What exactly does servant leadership look like here in terms of behaviors and expectations? Could you introduce me to someone who is known to represent the best leadership qualities that work in this culture?

Sure. You’ll take your interviewers by surprise with these questions (unless they’ve read this blog as well…in which case they’ll recognize immediately how brilliant you are!).  Most interviewers are accustomed to asking behavioral interview questions, not having to answer them.  If they draw a blank on these questions, and can’t tell you stories to support their cultural ideals, that’s your first big sign that there could be a culture mismatch here. And that you would get zero support while trying to integrate yourself into your new team.

But others will be so relieved to discover that you recognize the importance of a culture fit for managers, that – assuming everything else is in place – they’ll be falling all over themselves to hand you the keys to the 60% Club. That’s the club you’ll want to join. There’s staying power there.

A special note from Martha:  If you’re a manager, your company is counting on you to be an engaging leader. But what exactly does that mean? And how do you do engagement? Just because you’re brilliant at your technical skills, that doesn’t mean that you’re a natural at people skills. New managers need a book that can help them figure it out in simple, straightforward ideas.

That’s why I wrote The Truth About Getting the Best From People. It’s a book made up of 49 short, simple truths designed to help new managers understand how their beliefs and behaviors directly impact their employees’ passion factor on the job.

Click on the title and check it out! I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Our mission is to prepare children to become self-reliant, productive individuals;

to teach them to think, speak, and write with clarity, precision, and independence;

and to inspire them to embrace challenge and find joy and self-worth through achievement.

We know an education is made up of much more than just a good classroom environment, adequate school supplies, a fun playground, and a nice teacher. Challenger School's educational philosophy (why we do what we do) and methods (how we do what we do) are really what set us apart from other school programs. Follow the links below to find out more about what drives us, how Challenger began, and how you can join our team.

<b> We are now hiring for Preschool and Elementary teachers. We are also looking for Morning and Afternoon Extended Class Teachers and Lunchroom Supervisors!</b>

Please see our ads on Jobing.com!!

As a Human Resource professional there are great local organizations helping our profession.  The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) has a motto 'Serve the Professional and Advance the Profession'.  The local Nevada SHRM chapters follow this same motto.  If you are not already a member of your local SHRM chapter follow the links below to find your local chapter:

Southern Nevada HR Association - www.snhra.org

Northern Nevada HR Association - www.nnhra.org

These are wonderful local organizations all Human Resource Professional need to be a part of.

From all of us here at Jobing.com, thank you to all of the HR Professionals that supported us at the National SHRM Conference in Chicago.  Our teams were amazed by the feedback that was given to us!  From stopping by the booth in the Exposition Hall to stopping by the Navy Pier and helping us celebrate, we were so excited about meeting you in the windy city.

As we all get back to Las Vegas and get back to work building a greater community, please remember that you always have a friend in Jobing.com!!!

Thank you to the entire SHRM Conference Employees and Volunteers team and the countless hours put into yet another spectacular conference.

In service,

Jobing.com Las Vegas 

Jobing.com Career Expo is around the corner and we are signing up employers right now and job seekers are also welcome to sign up now!  If you are looking for a high energy, full service event with a professional load in and load out process this is the event for you.  We make sure our employers and job seekers have a phenomenal experience and we are there to ensure this happens.  Our next event is August 26th from 2:00 – 6:00 and of course a networking social with complimentary prizes for our employers.  Please call (702) 948-0979 and we will get signed up today for our next Career Fair and if your a job seeker please register on the site.

Hello Las Vegas Community!

At Jobing.com our mission is to connect great local jobseekers with great local employers.  That's what we do and now more then ever we have found a great way to get you more in touch with employment related events in our community.  

Job searching is a full time gig and keeping up with everything isn't easy.  So, we've developed a community events page that lists all employment related events, job fairs, open houses, seminars, you name it. 

Take a minute to visit the page and let me know what you think.  Also, if you hear of an employment related event that you'd like placed on the calendar for the benefit of your fellow job seekers, send me a quick email at david.dickens@jobing.com  Enjoy!

Average, common, run-of-the-mill, unexceptional, mediocre, plain, standard, unremarkable, status quo....

During presentations to employers I often ask this simple question, "What is Your Cool Factor?"  How do you stand out?  Suffice to say most don't think about it enough to truly work and promote their cool factor or what makes the extraordinary.

As job seekers and actually in life as well, are you extraordinary or ordinary?  Have you settled for status quo or are you working each day to become the very best? 

When I think about ordinary I always think about the job interview.  Its the one time we have to stand out from the rest and to show our cool factor. Did we wow the interviewer or are they thinking we are just standard?  I recall an interview I attended years ago for a very fast paced motivational speaker.  She was looking for an assistant to aid her day.  I had no experience doing this type of work but I knew I had what it took to not be mediocre at it. I had to stand out. I had to show her that I wasn't ordinary.  At the time, I still fit into my Dad's 1960's red plaid suit jacket.  I showed up wearing it.  Ordinary?  Not a chance!  It blew her socks off and the guy she was interviewing in an Armani jacket almost fell off the couch.  But I wasn't run-of-the-mill. Now I wouldnt recommend showing up to an interview in loud clothes but I think you get the idea to find the way to say Goodbye Ordinary.

What can you do today to be ABOVE-AVERAGE, EXCEPTIONAL, EXTRAORDINARY, REMARKABLE, AMAZING AND PHENOMENAL!!??