Thought patterns of success

“When you go from feeling energized, excited and in control of your work to feeling an overwhelming compulsion to achieve and produce, you’ve tipped from helpful harmonious passion into harmful obsessive passion.” Read this interesting HBR article on how to remedy the situation from Elizabeth Grace Saunders:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/the_thought-patterns_of_succes.html

A dating agency for job hunters!

Looking for a job on the web is set to get more like using a dating site as reliable psychometrics are used to sift candidates… Keep an eye on this stuff as it’s a growing trend! And my thanks to Angus McDonald for drawing my intention to this ere.net article:  www.bit.ly/x9QkBw

The first 90 days

I was recently reading The Interview Question You Should Always Expect (HBR Blog), which as the title suggests is written from the perspective of the job candidate, and it reminded me that it’s also the killer question for any interviewer. Afterall it’s not where the candidate has come from that makes the difference, it’s what they’re planning to do next… Not sure what I’m talking about? Read the HBR article.

How do you weigh an elephant without using a weighing machine?

Isn’t it refreshing to know that people are still being asked ridiculous interview questions. Follow this link to find some real crackers:

http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-research/the-25-weirdest-interview-questions-of-2010/520

And a couple of my personal favourites: ‘When was the last time you cried?’ and ‘Do you prefer cats or dogs?’ In the first one you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Admit to blubbing on a regular basis and you’ll be labelled as wet and over-sensitive, and of course if you don’t cry at all you’re just  a hard-nosed and uncaring sort of person. Cats or dogs? Well, it depends on which the interviewer prefers. Try and spot the pet hairs on his/her clothing and see if that provides a clue. Joking apart, I thought we had got over all this stuff – interview questions should relate directly, unambiguously and fairly to the job in question.

Picture credit: Tom Curtis/Freedigitalphotos.net

How many successful entrepreneurs would fail an IQ test?

If you would like to be part of some research to find out, follow this link. Online survey designed by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic of Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Interesting footnote: Tomas was the resident psychologist on Big Brother!

Google job mania

You think you’ve got problems! Google recently received 75,000 job applications in a single week. OK, they reckon to have 6000 vacancies coming up, but that’s still heck of a number. Why the recruitment drive? They’ve decided to take on both Facebook and Apple. Not sure who my money would be on, but I’m surprised they didn’t apply their considerable brain power to designing a better recruitment process. This one was surely crying out for rigorous ‘self-selection’, right at the start.

Check out this Bloomberg article.

No work experience, no graduate job!

High Fliers Research conduct an annual survey of UK graduate job prospects. This year, whilst vacancies are set to rise, recruiters report that one-third of this year’s positions will be filled by graduates who they already know – either through work placements, internships or sponsorships. In addition two-thirds of employers say that graduates with no work experience at all are very unlikely to get through the selection process, and thus have little or no chance of receiving a job offer.

This is sobering stuff and highlights the need for all undergraduates to seek out placements or acquire meaningful work experience. It also means that many will need to work on their interview technique, and to practice psychometric and situational judgement tests (see my SJT post). All of these assessment methods are becoming increasingly popular for selecting placement students and interns.

Overused buzzwords

Do you have a LinkedIn profile? Well the guys at LinkedIn obviously had a rather boring Christmas because they’ve worked out the top 10 profile buzzwords, and also produced a breakdown by country.  Actually it’s quite interesting stuff and probably a reflection of the sort of thing people put on their CVs, let alone a business networking site. Have a look:

http://blog.linkedin.com/2010/12/14/2010-top10-profile-buzzwords/

That’s snow way to behave

Snow! Planes grounded, trains derailed, roads blocked. And yet some people still stagger into work, unbowed. Others, given the slightest hint of sub-zero temperatures, pull the duvet up and abandon all hope – until someone suggests a snow ball fight, then everyone’s outside, eight years old again, pelting friend and stranger alike. I draw two main conclusions from this: putting aside fool hardy attempts to get to work, if you hate your job that much, look for a new one. And isn’t it sad that it takes a bit a snow before we can drop our reserve and have some fun.

Photo credit: Dan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Want to change your job?

If you’re fed up and thinking of pastures new you’re in good company. Surveys suggest that up 60% of us would change our jobs if we could start again. This and other career change statistics on the Headstuck blog…