How to Handle Helicopter Parents Robert Half

How to Handle Helicopter Parents Robert HalfHow to Handle Helicopter Parents Robert HalfWhat do hiring managers have in common with youth sports coaches, high school teachers and college administrators? All these professionals are likely to encounter helicopter parents (parents who are hyperinvolved in their kids lives, holding their hands through every stage of growing up, whether the kids want them to or not).It should come as no surprise then that, as their sons and daughters enter the workforce, helicopter parents are hovering nearby to help them land their dream jobs. Helicopter parents have been known to submit their kids resumes, attempt to negotiate salary and benefits, and even show up to sit in on job interviews. As surprising as this phenomenon may be to you, helicopter parents are a reality that todays hiring managers face.Tips for handling helicopter parentsBe clear about compensation discussi ons. State in your application materials or job posting that issues such as compensation and benefits can be discussed only with an applicant. You may even stipulate that parents are not allowed to sit in on job interviews.Recognize the parents influence. Even though you want to discourage too-close parental involvement in your hiring process, realize, too, that a parent who thinks yours is a good company to work for will likely have an impact on the childs opinion of your workplace. To that end, some companies send the same recruitment package to parents that they send to the applicants themselves.Be prepared at the job fair. If parents appear at a job fair to present you with a resume, diplomatically inform them that, although you appreciate their involvement, youll likely get a better impression of their son or daughter if he or she is the one submitting the resume.Handle calls from parents diplomatically. If parents call you multiple times or attempt to go above your head, remai n polite and keep your cool. Offering a curt response will only add to your headaches. Parents who feel dismissed or disrespected - whether for legitimate reasons or not - are apt to let others know about their poor experience with your firm. In the age of social media, you dont want to give anyone cause to complain about you or your company.Robert Half has been helping companies with their hiring since 1948. Let us help you.REQUEST TALENTWhats actually going on here?Parents who insert themselves into their sons and daughters hiring process should give you reason to wonderIs the applicant mature and self-sufficient enough to conduct a job search on his own?If hired, will the parent continue to contact you and interfere?Will the applicant be able to perform the duties of the job if she had the help of a parent to write a resume or cover letter?These are reasonable questions to ponder, but dont rule out a promising applicant simply because of a parents actions. Consider following up with the candidate to gain more insight. He may offer an apology or reassurances that the third-party intrusions will end. You may even find that the embarrassed applicant didnt know a parent had interceded.

Everything You Need to Nail Your Informational Interview (and Score Your Dream Job!)

Everything You Need to Nail Your Informational Interview (and Score Your Dream Job)Everything You Need to Nail Your Informational Interview (and Score Your Dream Job) You may elend have been on one (or even heard the term before), but an informational interview can be your ace in the hole during the job seeking process. At its core, an informational interview is a casual conversation between a job seeker and somebody who works at a company theyre interested in designed to help them gather intel on what its like working at the company and what opportunities they have available. But dont let the name fool you - informational interviews can do much more for you than just provide you with information. If you play your cards right, an informational interview can help get your foot in the door of the company youve got your eye on and eventually, may even help you land a job .Interested, but dont know where to start? Leverage this three-part strategy.Its always nice if you already know somebody who works at the company, but if you dont, getting in touch via email or social media is perfectly acceptable. Career Coach Angela Copeland recommends keeping the following points in mind when you first reach out to inquire about an informational interviewNeed a little more help drafting your outreach note? Copeland drafted a couple of templates that you can use to base your homilie off of. If you know or have already met the partie you wish to reach out to, try something like this (with specific names and details updated according to your situation, of course)I hope youre having a great day It was great seeing you last week at the neighborhood cookout. As you know, Im also an master of business administration graduate of Pepperdine University. Im a big fan of the work youre doing at ServiceMaster, and I admire the effort the company is putting in around small business development within our community.I would love the opportunity to sit down with you for just a few minutes to learn more about your career, and about ServiceMaster. Is there a time next Thursday that might work well for you? Im happy to come to your office or to meet somewhere nearby - whichever is the most convenient for you.If you havent met the person youre reaching out to, try this (again, updating names/details as appropriate)I hope youre having a great day Im writing to introduce myself to you. Im also an MBA graduate of Pepperdine University. Im a big fan of the work youre doing at ServiceMaster, and I admire the effort the company is putting in around small business development within our community.I would love the opportunity to sit down with you for just a few minutes to learn more about your career, and about ServiceMaster. Is there a time next Thursday that might work well for you? Im happy to come to your office or to meet somewhere nearby - whichever is the most convenient for you.Once youve actually scheduled a meeting with someone, be sure you get th e most out of your time, Copeland says. Research everything you can about the company and the individual online in advance. Stay away from basic questions you can easily find out on your own. A few she recommends asking in particular are Make sure to stay engaged in what theyre saying - this information will give you a good idea of whether or not the company is even a good fit for you. You may even want to take notes to reference later if you decide to end up applying. Finally, Copeland advises that job seekers avoid common faux pas like directly asking for a job, dominating the conversation with information all about you, taking up too much of their time, and expecting the person to pay for their own lunch or coffee if they are meeting you at a restaurant.The heavy lifting is generally over once youve already met with somebody, but following up with them is key to ensuring that your informational interview proves fruitful. Sending a thank-you note within a day or so of your meeting is key. As you would after an interview with a recruiter, make sure your note expresses gratitude for your interviewers time, appreciation for gaining more information and insight into the position and company, and enthusiasm/interest in working at the company.At this point, asking about open roles or recommendations is generally appropriate. However, you want to make sure you go about it in the right way - unless the person you spoke with is a full-time recruiter, filling open jobs at the company probably isnt their primary concern. To show proactivity on your part and demonstrate respect for their time, research open roles on the companys career site or Glassdoor page first to see what might be a good fit for you instead of simply asking them if they could tell you more about open roles. In your message, try saying something to the effect of I saw that your company is currently hiring for a Marketing Manager role. If you think Id be a good fit for the position, Id lov e if you could put me in touch with or mention my name to a recruiter If you cant find any open positions that seem like a good fit, though, you may just want to say something like It looks like there arent any positions that quite fit my experience and skills at the moment, but I hope you keep me in mind if something opens up Even if your informational interview doesnt directly lead to a recommendation or referral , though, dont stress - it doesnt mean you necessarily did anything wrong. As with many facets of job seeking, informational interviews can be a numbers game, where you have to go on a lot of them before anything concrete comes out of it. The good news? That kind of proactivity is exactly what you need to be successful in your job hunt - and with each informational interview you go on, youre that much closer to finding the position that fits your life.

8 Simple Steps to Make the Best Impact in a Job Interview

8 Simple Steps to Make the Best Impact in a Job Interview8 Simple Steps to Make the Best Impact in a Job InterviewOkay, so you actually made it through to the job interview congrats Your resume is perfect, youve gone through the companys website, studied their every move and now you know their work culture by heart. Your best outfit is laid out on the bed and you set your alarm to make koranvers youre there early. Now what? How do you make the best impact so that you actually land the job? Heres how in 8 simple steps1. First impressions still countTheres a little secret that most companies do now want you to know. They actually ask their front of house staff to report how you introduce yourself when you arrive for an interview shocking With that being said, courtesy always pays off so once youre inside, make eye contact, shake hands confidently without breaking someones hand and SMILE Dont mumble or speak so softly they cant hear you. This will bedrngnis get your name on the short list2. Dont talk too muchRemember, your interview is not a monologue its a dialogue. Dont lose your mind and dominate the interview just to impress someone. Find out how the interviewers view the company and what their goals are. This will help guide you when answering their questions and can often be very illuminating.3. Use a method called STARThe STAR method will ensure that nothing gets left out when answering questionsS Start with the situationT Move on to the taskA Talk about the actionR Take the dominant element and finish off with the result4. Its okay to talk about your weaknessesThe question What is your greatest weakness always comes up in an interview. If your response is, Im just not on the same wavelength if they dont have the same passion, dedication and diligence to their job, no one is going to believe you. Failures are what make us strong and unless youre perfect, youre going to have them. They want to know what happened, how you dealt with it and what you lea rned from the experience.5. View your previous work experiences as positiveWhen we go into an interview and departure bashing our previous employers, we confirm that we are indiscreet and probably a big whiner. Once we start down this rabbit hole, it is almost certain that we will not make it on the hire list.6. Forget the trivial questionsAsk searching questions instead of the trivial ones like sick pay, salary and bonuses and holidays everyone asks those questions. Dont fall into that trap Find out what the company wants from you and what they expect you to achieve in the first 3-6 months. Keep in mind that these questions might come up during the interview so stay alert and use it to make yourself stand out. Its okay to ask them what they thing their company will look like in a years time when it comes to their products, revenues, marketing or whatever you feel is relevant. This is also a good time to ask them what you need to focus on so that you can make a positive impact in y our first 3-6 months. It is also a good time to ask about any challenges this position holds and how you will need to solve them in the long term.7. Energy and Passion is a mustIn dealing with job candidates over the years, Ive seen a pretty even spectrum from the very shy to the show offs. The one thing to keep in mind is that you need to actually convey the energy and passion you have for various parts of your work such as skills sets and achievements in order to stand out. Dont get all crazy, be modest but show that these are steps on a ladder which will show your energy, enthusiasm, passion and confidence about your ability to do the job. Being passive, dull and negative wont land you the job.8. Show them the workWe can say that were organized and that we do great work but you need to show these as well if they are relevant to the interview. For example, if they ask you about a role you had in a fundraising event you headed up at your last job show them any relevant documents or online publicity that you helped to organize. These should be in your portfolio so you can whip them out in a flash. Just make sure you label them so youre not fumbling through paperwork.These simple steps will help ensure you get noticed and that you make an impact so that your chances of getting the job are much betterFollow these techniques to make sure that you are going to be noticed and that you make a positive impact. If you do, your chances of getting the job will be much better.

Why you should set spending limits on gifts for your partners

Why you should set spending limits on gifts for your mann an ihrer seitesWhy you should set spending limits on gifts for your partnersWith the holidays at hand, youre probably feeling a lot of preskoranvers around purchasing the perfect gifts. You want all of your friends and family to be totally thrilled with the items you choose for them (and, ideally, with yourgift wrappingjob too). Perhaps most stress-inducing is the process of choosing thebest-ever gift for your partner. Yes, you want them to be excited about the present itself, but you also want to be sure that your gift isnt significantly more or less big or expensive than the one your S.O. gives you. If theres a big gap between the presents youve bought each other, things can get awkward.The awkwardness isnt all in your head, either. According to a recentsurveyfromQuicken, heading into the holiday season with clear spending limits for gifts within a romantic relationship can go a long way toward making spirits brighter. Of th e 1,000 married adults who participated in the survey, nearly 70 percent said they agree on spending limits ahead of time - and those people demonstrate higher levels of relationship satisfaction as well. Of those participants who reported setting spending limits, 78 percent said they are happy with how much their spouse spends, compared to 63 percent of people who dont set those limits. Couples without spending limits are also twice as likely to wish that their spouse had spent more. And we all know that weird money vibes can create a general sense of discomfort around the holiday season as a whole. Its best to avoid those.If this data has you feeling inspired to set a holiday spending limit in your own relationship and youre not sure how to handle the conversation, weve got you Quickens chief absatzwirtschaft officer Aimee Young offers these three tips for managing spending limits.1. Dont avoid the discussion. While talking about money with your S.O. tends to be uncomfortable (an d even more so when the money in question is meant to be spent on that S.O.), the results of Quickens survey should give you the motivation you need to dive into the conversation. If you have a sneaking suspicion that holiday gift spending limits would make a big difference in your own relationship satisfaction over the holiday season, dont be afraid to bring it up. Chances are that its going to pay off2. Choose the right time to talk. Try to find time when you and your partner are more likely to be at your best, rather than when youre running out the door to work or have just gotten home and may need time to decompress, Young suggests. Consider setting a date to have this particular conversation so that both you and your partner will come to the table with a good attitude and with the understanding that theres an important discussion to be had.3. Find a comfortable way to track your goal. If you and your partner tend to come at things in a quantitative way and like to be able to tr ack and prove things, youre probably wondering how you can follow along with the progress of your spending goals without awkwardly handing each other gift receipts. How unromantic is that? Instead, use a budgeting app or online platform to input your individual spending. Yes, you and your S.O. will both still have access to the costs of the gifts youve bought, but you can handle it independently without breaking down all of the prices for each other IRL.Happy holidays - and happy spending (limits)This article was originally published on Brit + Co.

Top Advice on Customer Service Skills for Resume

Top Advice on Customer Service Skills for Resume The Bad Side of Customer Service Skills for Resume Often, customer tafelgeschirr representatives must catalog their interactions with clients. When it has to do with sales, call center representatives do cold calling and accept calls from those who wish to purchase the item or helfende hand. Mail clerks also need to continue to keep records on the mail that arrives in and out and make certain the mail is delivered to the appropriate place. Offering excellent customer support includes showing your company is dependable and consistent as time passes. A terrible customer experience at any moment in the customer lifecycle can destroy your relationship. The customer tafelgeschirr department of a company or an establishment is necessary to assure that the guests understand they have somewhere to go to whenever they have questions or they would like to raise certain matters with respect to the operations of the company or the experie nces they are having regarding the services they receive from the company. It is essential that you can type quickly so that customers do leid need to wait and that you fully grasp the principles of working with a computer and software so you can properly perform your job. In case the customer is experiencing an issue with a certain product then a great working understanding of the item can resolve the issue quickly. When a business is seeking to hire, they want a person who will seek out problems until they become urgent and your job on an interview is to express that youve got exceptional problem-solving skills. If youre in a position to demonstrate that youre a dedicated employee, then your resume has a greater possibility of making its way to the peak of the stack, above applicants with the exact saatkorn skill collection. Hard skills have a tendency to be more technical, and each business or sort of job will often have its personal essential set. If youve lost your job, you must earn a work search program. Type of Customer Service Skills for Resume Customers are likely to find angry. Employers want to realize that you have what it requires to be successful at work. They are likely to favor applicants who do not need extensive cash-handling experience. Customer service workers have to be resilient. It is an important part of every business. To be honest, it is a critical part of any department within a company and is more so in departments that are in direct and constant contact with customers. Excellent customer service leads to customers that are delighted with the service they received, but who may not go on to offer feedback or reviews for you as well as the organization. You might find it helpful to practice your customer service abilities. If you would like to apply as a customer service personnel, we may give you downloadable samples of consumer service resumes. The secret to good customer service is to deal with the customer as you would desire to get treated in case the tables were turned. It is an impossible task to offer decent customer service and have inadequate communication skills at the exact moment. If you would like to showcase your organization skills, obtaining a tightly structured resume certainly helps. Everyone can benefit from improving their customer service abilities. Possessing good organizational skills will provide help. Keep in mind, the majority of the special skills that you place on your resume ought to be job-related skills taken from the work description and your best transferable skills. What You Dont Know About Customer Service Skills for Resume However proactive youre, you will not ever be able to acquire before every customer issue. A defective product might be the consequence of a manufacturing issue outside your control, but if the matter is something which you can improve within your organization, then spend the criticism to heart and work to produce the matter bette r. One of the absolute most important customer service skills to have is being in a position to choose whether a man or woman is being honest or attempting to deceive you. When a customer arrives to you to resolve an issue, you have to have the issue solving skills required to effectively handle the issue accessible, regardless of what it is. Spanish is an extremely valuable language to understand in the customer service field. Read through it a couple of occasions and youll probably spot three or four essential skills mentioned many times throughout the document. Its fast and simple to use. You must be conscious of the job functions of a customer service personnel for you to be aware of the competencies regarding their work processes, which you might write in your resume. Enable the customer know what steps youre taking to remedy the circumstance. Some customer service resume samples are offered online, and they could have the ability to give additional beneficial tips re garding inclusions, but they might not always have the most optimum structure. A top quality sample customer service resume will incorporate numerous suitable key terms and phrases that could comprise phrases like customer satisfaction, customer retention, processes or efficiency, based on the particular job. The Key to Successful Customer Service Skills for Resume Very good communication and active listening skills have a tendency to go together. Even if youre not able to present your customer what he wants, by establishing rapport hell truly feel a degree of satisfaction with the experience. Perhaps your skill set is entirely different. By developing a suitable attitude and comprehension of people that you will see methods to further improve your customer service abilities. If a worker isnt concerned with the success of the company, he is not likely to worry about the happiness of the customer. Improving employee engagement is another way to be sure customers have an exce llent experience. Customers shouldnt be interrupted when theyre speaking and the employee should wait until theyve finished before responding.

Where you can take your IT career

Where you can take your IT career Where you can take your IT careerPosted August 27, 2012, by Vivien LuuSo youve finally levelled up in the world, and youre looking to invest your XP. Why not increase your IT skills? The -10 in street cred is a ritterlich trade-off for the +50 in one of the biggest and most topical industries around. Despite what everyone thinks, working in IT involves much more than simply asking people whether theyve tried turning their computers off and on again. In fact, IT (now known as ICT, for Information and Communication Technology) is such a diverse industry that you could be doing anything from developing the latest version of Angry Birds to untersttzunging multi-million dollar Wall Street transactions.IT is such a vast, complex and fast-moving industry that it pays to have a specialty, and adding extra IT strings to your bow can also add extra padding to your pay packet. So how do you pick a specialty? Technology and Systems Administrator, Simon Abes house, says its important to find what youre most passionate about. Its a matter of what you find interesting or exciting, says Abeshouse. IT has so many different opportunities that it can cater to pretty much anyones interests. Here are six broad areas to considerIT SupportDesktop support this is where the rubber meets the road. Desktop support is well known as a common starting ground for young tech heads looking to make a break into the industry. In this role, you are the link between the user and the technology. Serving time in a support role gives you a fundamental understanding of the technology and its place in the business world a crucial piece of knowledge if you wish to go further. One course that could get your foot in the door of desktop support is the CompTIA A+ 2009 course. Application/systems support despite falling under the support heading, application/systems support doesnt have a whole lot to do with desktop support. App support teams are often specialis ed in a particular program or platform and will work with desktop support engineers to resolve an issue with their program. If you become highly specialised in a system or application like Oracle or even some legacy systems, this is where the big bucks are.SecurityOne word hacking. It even sounds cool. And believe it or not, you can get a formal qualification in it. But beware, young Padawan you must use your powers for good and not evil. Large corporations have a lot of information to protect, and will pay good money for effective IT security solutions. From maintaining firewalls to network vulnerability testing, IT security is always changing and always necessary. But before anyones base are belong to you, youll need the right qualifications, such as a Cisco Certified Network Associate Security (CCNA Security).DevelopmentThis one is for the creators. For the kids who loved Sim City and Age of Empires. Development, as the name suggests, involves developing new technology be it ap plications, systems or hardware. In the corporate world, this usually ends up being application development creating programs that serve a niche business need. But land yourself a role with developing giants such as Microsoft or Google and youll be creating the next generation of computer gadgets. A Diploma of Software Development could see you on your way to becoming a development guru.Project managementManaging projects is an integral part of ICT if you wish to avoid any Leeroy Jenkins-esque situations. One of the great things about ICT is the constant change new technology, new methodologies, new training. Project managers are the people who organise and implement behauptung changes. As an added bonus, you dont really need to know much about the nuts and guts of computers. In fact, many project managers have no IT experience at all, so getting a few IT-related quals under your belt such as the ITIL V3 Foundation for IT Service Management will give you a competitive edge.Edu cation and trainingWhile Aperture Laboratories is officially closed for business, there are still plenty of other places that are looking for people who wish to invest in teaching ... for science, you monster. Providing education and IT training is an important area in the industry. In fact, most large corporations behauptung days have an IT learning and development team who specialise in delivering training to the general staff on any range of systems, both third party and in-house. So if you recently took an arrow to the knee and have hung up your adventuring boots, why not try your hand at teaching? Share your knowledge and share the love.CommunicationsSee that little device in your pocket the one that takes pictures, plays music, surfs the Internet and, oh yeah, lets you make phone calls? Well that little guy is the result of a booming communications industry. Probably the most rapidly expanding area in IT, communications covers a plethora of specialist areas, from mobile smart device development and support to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) implementations like Skype. Its an exciting area, and the possibilities are endless.See our full range of IT qualifications and specialisations.IT ResourcesSystems analyst sample resumeSystems analyst sample cover letterCareer Insider StoriesBrett Raven - RedBalloon Chief Technology OfficerInterested in becoming a?Management ConsultantMarketing OfficerProject ManagerSystems AdministratorHelp Desk OfficerPopular Career Searchesgovernment funded IT courses onlineit qualificationsgov funded IT courses brisbaneit certification courses in demand melbournefast track career in itIT CoursesBachelor of Cyber SecurityEnquire Online Enquire OnlineGraduate Diploma of Data ScienceEnquire Online Enquire OnlineBachelor of Applied Information TechnologyEnquire Online Enquire OnlineAssociate Degree of Applied Information TechnologyEnquire Online Enquire Online Vivien LuuViv is a writer who enjoys researching and writing about cre ativity, how the human mind works, and neuro processes. She values creativity above all else and admires people who pursue their career dreams, no matter the sacrifice. In her spare time, she binges on HBO shows and epic fantasy novels.Related ArticlesBrowse moreEmployment trendsFuture trendsWhats the Difference Between a CX, UX and UI Designer?What are the differences between CX, UX and UI Designers? The who does what of these design roles can become a little blurred and overlap at times but each has a distinct skill set. Find out the differences and why these roles are in-demand in 2019.Future trendsThe Revolution of Artificial Intelligence What is artificial intelligence? Whats the future of AI? Which countries are ahead in the AI race? What impacts does AI have on your industry? We answer all your questions in one handy infographicCover lettersInformation Technology5 Tips for Writing an IT ResumeYouve got all the right qualifications for the IT role of your dreams but every job application you send disappears into a puff of smoke. No call back, no feedback and no interview. We can help