Welcome to the Stewart, Cooper & Coon Blog ! In this publication, you will find articles and thoughts about job and career change issues. Our goal is to post something new as often as we can. We welcome submissions from contributing authors. Please submit any articles or thoughts to: blogeditor@stewartcoopercoon.com . Our blog is "content rich" and the articles span a wide variety of subjects covering job search and career change. We look forward to your readership and possible submissions.
Unemployment Continues To Rise: This means that more an more people are seeking fewer and fewer positions. U.S. employers slashed jobs and unemployment rose to a nearly three-year high, offering the latest signs that the economy has fallen into a recession.
"The job market is a lagging indicator," said Arpitha Bykere, economic analyst at RGE Monitor.com. "We can expect the picture to get gloomier. We won't see a positive picture any time soon, even if the economy recovers."
Earlier this week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made his bleakest and bluntest assessment on the economy's condition. The central bank chief told a joint congressional committee that a recession is possible in the first half of this year. The Labor Department now estimates that the economy has shed 232,000 jobs in the first three months of this year. The above information was extracted from an article by Chris Isidore CNNMoney.com senior writer:
Whether you are employed, unemployed or in the process of being unemployed, today, an executive's financial picture can be very bleak because of lack of income and monthly expenses. Therefore, the longer your job search lasts, the more expensive it becomes to your short-term cash flow and to your long-term retirement income strategy. If you want to see how much you are losing for each day in your job search go to, scroll towards the bottom of the page and fill in the blanks:
http://www.stewartcoopercoon.com/executive_placement/executive_placement_dilemmas1.htm
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Job Search Information
Source: Execunet - www.execunet.com
ExecuNet Exclusive: Search Firms Increasingly Turn To Internet Search Engines
Continuing a research trend that has surfaced for each of the past three years, nearly 86 percent of executive search consultants indicate their firms are using Internet search engines to uncover information about potential executive-level job candidates. A recent ExecuNet survey of 118 search consultants also reveals that slightly more than 44 percent of responding recruiters have eliminated a potential candidate from further recruitment consideration because of something they found online as returned by a search engine. That's nearly 10 percentage points higher than the number of search engine 'disqualifications' reported
by search firms in 2006.
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Article: Decision-Making "Rules"
Contributed By: Leslie Noyes, SCC Campaign Director and Executive Coach
Socialization: "Just because you've always done it that way doesn't make it incredibly stupid and that is because you don't know, what you don't know."
To explain how (socialization) works we watch an experiment. A caged group of monkeys is confronted with a bunch of bananas on bungling from the ceiling. There is a ladder placed invitingly just under the bananas. Immediately some monkeys rush to the ladder. As soon as they start to climb it they are all hosed down, not just the monkeys on the ladder but all the monkeys in the cage.
As they don’t like water they leave the bananas. One hussy monkey tries again but the same thing happens, all of the monkeys are hosed. Now they watch each other to make sure no one comes near the ladder. Then one monkey is replaced by a new one unaware of ladder-water misery. He sees the bananas and rushes to the ladder, but to his surprise is beaten up by the other monkeys.
Now a second monkey is replaced by a new one. He approaches the ladder and is beaten up. The first new monkey who himself had been beaten up participates in the mugging because he wont permit another monkey to do something he himself was not allowed. This continues until all the monkeys are replaced by new monkeys none of them having the experience of being hosed down or even having a faint idea about it.
The reason why they won't permit each other to reach for the bananas has become of a metaphysical nature, it is simply not done.
Reference: http://www.zenska-mreza.hr/prirucnik/en/en_solution_8.htm
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Article: Behavioral Interviewing
Author: Ron Venckus
Behavioral interviewing systems have been around for many years, however over the last few years the use of this type interview program has been increasing. At this time when job descriptions are developed, the job skills and job knowledge level is identified and along with those, a company is indicating what competencies/behaviors/traits are desired. The competency/behaviors desired, are in tune with the company’s culture.
The first question that jumps into your mind, most likely is, what is behavioral based interviewing? According to Quint Careers, the premise behind behavioral interviewing is that the most accurate predictor of future success is past performance in similar situations. Behavioral based interviewing is touted as providing a more objective set of facts to use in making employment decisions.
The big difference in behavioral interviewing, than other interview systems, is that the interview questions are dealing with your character and the questions, along with your answers tend to be picked apart so specific behaviors can be identified. By the way, the phrase “specific behaviors” is being used because it means that the interviewer wants to “hear” the actual behavior. Please keep in mind that some executive level positions will require a visit with a corporate psychologist and these folks will be almost totally interested in your behavioral make up.
The business world is using the terms, Competency or Behavior and these are interpreted as your personal skills and traits. Do not confuse the word competency when it is used in conjunction with an interview. It means more than job skill competencies. Your personal behavior, what you use to get work done and your job skills and knowledge are two different issues. An important question to ask when an interview is being scheduled is, WHAT TYPE OF INTERVIEW SYSTEM ARE YOU USING? [READ MORE]
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