Preparing to communicate a resignation with your present employer can be an awkward situation, especially if you have spent the last several years of your life working there. The emotions can vary according to your experience while working with the employer. Regardless of the situation, it is always a courtesy to prepare a 1-page resignation letter to follow your verbal communication with your immediate supervisor.
If you had to select from the three categories of talent listed below, which would best describe your current situation?
• Ultra-Passive Talent – Very content where you are in your career and not even contemplating a career move in the foreseeable future.
• Passive Talent – Reasonably content with your current position, but there are times throughout the year that you contemplate a career move.
• Displaced Talent – Soon to be displaced or already displaced due to a company decision, merger, acquisition, etc.
Whichever the category you identified with, chances are you have a LinkedIn profile established. LinkedIn has become a wonderful resource for professionals to network and become connected. It has become a source for prospective employers, recruiters, and professionals to find each other. AgCareers.com made the decision a couple of years ago that there was a need to develop a community within our site specifically for upper-level and highly specialized talent to discretely navigate a career move. This community is called Elite Talent.
Chances are you know a friend or family member who has lost their job. The reasons for being let go varies – mergers, position elimination, budget cuts, downsizing, poor employee performance, insubordination, breaking company policy, etc. Regardless of the reason, being let go from your employer can be a very embarrassing life experience. In this blog, I intend to focus on how to handle being let go for reasons such as downsizing, budget cuts, and mergers.
Before I do, I just want to touch on being let go due to poor employee performance or wrongdoing (breaking company policy). The best advice I have for anyone that has lost their job due to wrongdoing is “accept responsibility for you action, focus on learning from your mistake, and move on”! As you interact with prospective employers, keep your message focused on the experience being a life-learning lesson. The movie “War Room” would be a good movie to watch or refer to a friend if faced with being let go from their job due to wrongdoing.
Research continues to support that being unhappy at work really takes a toll on individual and family life. You may be surprised to know that research suggests that as much as 70% of the working population at unhappy at work. If you represent this statistic, you owe it to yourself, family and friends to make necessary adjustments to become happier to be around – both at work and home! Obviously staying in a work environment where you are de-motivated and disengaged is not sustainable; plus it is unhealthy for you and not fair to the organization employing you. Below are two roads of choice to consider if you unhappy at work:
Planning a new career move requires a well-planned strategy. While there are several factors that can be the driving force of your desire to make a change; such as employer financial stability, limited advancement, or personal reasons. Once you begin considering a change you must also consider how active you plan to be in your search and how that impacts employer perception of you as a candidate.
Ask yourself the following questions:
If your answer to question #1 is “3-4 times each month” and your answer to #2 is that you are actively applying to jobs, you are considered as ‘active talent’ through the eyes of a prospective employer.
If your answer to question #1 is “rarely” and your answer to question #2 is “yes”, then you are considered as ‘passive talent’ or “explorers” through the eyes of a prospective employer.
Once you’ve defined your level of interest, if you are a passive candidate, odds are you intend to be more inconspicuous in your search. You should also know that from an employer’s perspective, in more cases than not, passive talent is more attractive than active talent. This is due to the stereotype that once hired, “passive talent” is likely to be more loyal and more stable than “active talent.” Noting that this does not mean that “active jobseekers” are poor candidates; they simply have to be aware of the label associated with other active talent and differentiate themselves during interactions with prospective employers. This can be done by not appearing over anxious or desperate during the search process.
According to recent AgCareers.com research, 44% of the professionals that are a part of our online community define themselves as being ‘passive talent.’ This research is supported by other online communities such as LinkedIn and Jobvite. And no doubt about it, employers today are more interested in connecting with passive talent!! So, if you consider yourself in the category of “passive Talent” and want to “keep your name out there” for the right opportunity, how do you discretely do it? Below are 5 tips to consider:
Group Interviewing has been a technique used by employers for many years now. Understanding why a prospective employer may use group interviewing will help you in preparing and performing well during the actual interview. Group interviewing involves bringing you, along with several other candidates, who are being considered for the same or similar position, in for an interview. All candidates in the group are interviewed simultaneously. The idea from the employers’ perspective is to see how well you respond and react to the other candidates. Often the employer can easily identify who are the team players and who is more likely to “roll others the bus.” Group interviewing can also be an effective strategy to identify those candidates that perform better under pressure. Employers will likely utilize group interviewing to achieve one or more of the following objectives:
So, here are a few do’s and don’ts when preparing for and participating in group interviewing:
