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Get the Job You Want with These 8 Proven Networking Tips

Leave a Comment / Blog, Job Search, Set Yourself Up For Success

Whether you’re in a dead-end job, on the beach, or targeting your dream job, these networking tips are your key to landing the job you want.

Yes, it’s a candidate’s job market right now. If you’re looking for a better job, now is a good time. If you’re unemployed, there are great CRE jobs out there waiting for you. Maybe you’re currently employed, but not engaged. A recent Gallup poll showed that around the world only about 15% of the workforce truly likes their job.

So, how do you access that vibrant job market, tap in, and get the role you really want? You’ve taken the necessary steps to properly brand yourself for your dream job, you’ve updated your resume, and you’ve identified target companies and roles to pursue. Now what?

Try These Networking Tips to Get the Results You Want

While there may be numerous available positions right now, it’s a unique time to begin a job search. Networking isn’t as easy as it once was. You want to put your best foot forward and be strategic about this. So, what’s the silver bullet? How do you make the most of this time of opportunity and network like a boss?

1. Connect with Alumni

Social get-togethers are still limited right now, but many universities have transitioned to virtual networking events. Sharing an alma mater is a strong connection that can be leveraged to uncover and explore new work opportunities. And don’t wait for virtual events. Reach out to alumni on social media – especially those working at your dream companies or in your ideal career path.

2. Discuss Goals with Friends & Family Start with those already close to you. Discuss your ambitions and goals with your friends and family. Maybe your dream job is right under your nose. Ask! Ask those closest to you who they know who might be helpful or involved in a similar position or have a connection with a particular company.

3. Ask for an Informational Interview One of these least known networking tips is to reach out to your preferred companies, even if the role is currently filled, and ask for an informational interview. Ask the hiring manager for information about company culture, required skills, and key traits to underscore in a potential interview should the position open.

4. Put Yourself Out There Seriously. Just talk. Reach out to people you already know, someone pumping gas next to you, people you meet at the gym. Be cordial. Mention that you’re in the middle of a job search. Ask them what they do, who they know. Be friendly and open a conversation. That’s what networking is!

5. Get Contact Info

None of the above networking tips matter much if you don’t follow up. Ask for an email address or phone number. Reach back out in a week or so to nurture the relationship and inquire about any changes on their horizon.

6. Get Serious About Social Networking is especially challenging in these times when face-to-face contact is limited. And there are so many spammers on social media. So, there is an opportunity for you to stand out. Reach out to former professors, colleagues, or potential hiring managers. Don’t pitch yet. Just open the conversation, and then try for a phone call.

7. Perfect Your Elevator Pitch

Develop a 30-second explanation of what you’re looking for and what you can offer a company. Rehearse it. Your elevator pitch must be pre-written and comfortable. You want to be ready on the fly when a chance networking encounter pops up.

8. Volunteer

This may be the most overlooked of these networking tips, but it can be very powerful. There are so many causes in need of your help. Your ability to be a rock star just by showing up and helping out are immense. If you are dedicated to volunteer causes, it’s likely that you are also the type of person that will excel at work. These events present immense potential for opening new relationships and growing your network rapidly.

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5 Common Resume Mistakes to Avoid

Leave a Comment / Blog, Interview Tips, Resume Ideas, Set Yourself Up For Success

Effective resumes feature killer content, consistent formatting, and an attractive design. Careless mistakes, lack of detail, and general sloppiness can hurt your chances of making it to the interview, even if you’re fully qualified for the position. Here are five common resume mistakes to avoid – and tips on how to keep them out of your resume.

1. Grammatical Errors and Typos

By the time you finish writing, editing, and tweaking your resume, it’s easy to gloss over misspellings and grammatical errors. However, those mistakes can make you seem careless to a hiring manager. Correctable slipups send the message to potential employers that you lack attention to detail and don’t check your work. It’s a surefire way to torpedo your chances of securing the job you want.

Good writers follow a simple rule: everyone needs an editor. The simplest way to combat spelling and other errors is to have someone qualified give your resume the once-over. You can also ask a family member or friend to read through your resume and look for any errors. To a fresh set of eyes, spelling mistakes and grammar issues will leap off the page, and a second opinion can be invaluable on your resume.

2. Being Vague

When listing your experience, you want to show both what you’ve done and what you’ve achieved. Not everyone has a shelf full of awards, and most hiring managers don’t expect them. However, if you’ve helped create value, reduced inefficiency, cut costs, or increased the bottom line, be sure to say so.

Some people may counsel you to phrase all your duties as accomplishments, but we recommend a more natural mix of what you’ve done and how you’ve helped your previous employers. When in doubt, keep it simple and be specific by using data and metrics.

3. Too Many Needless Details

Knowing which details to cut can be tough. Start by removing any information that is irrelevant to the job description. Extraneous information includes professional and educational experiences that don’t apply to the position. This “padding” won’t help you secure the job, and it can obscure your relevant experience and credentials.

Again, customize your resume each time you apply for a position. Look at the job ad and include the skills and experience it calls for prominently. Doing so will require a few minutes of editing each resume, but the extra time will pay off. A tailored resume shows initiative.

4. Lack of Focus

Employers screen your resume in as few as six seconds, so make sure your professional summary sums up your abilities in a few sentences. Include a short description below your header – one or two sentences is ideal – that draws in the reader and showcases your abilities and talents.

5. Too Long or Too Short

Too often, job seekers with a decade or more of professional experience will cram all that experience into a one-page resume. On the flip side, jobseekers with less — or even zero — relevant professional experience will try to find a way to fill multiple pages. A rule of thumb is to have one resume page per decade of work experience.

Read More: https://www.livecareer.com/resources/resumes/how-to/build/avoid-common-resume-mistakes

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Why Don’t Women Get The Top CRE Jobs More Often If Research Shows You’re Better Choosing Them?

Leave a Comment / Ask An Expert, Blog, Building Careers, Industry Insights

The lack of women in top positions at commercial real estate firms isn’t due to too many cutthroat leaders that are obsessed with the deal above all else. The problem also isn’t a lack of strong candidates or that men are naturally better leaders.

About 36.7% of people in commercial real estate are women, according to a 2020 survey by Commercial Real Estate Women Network, a networking and advocacy group for women in commercial real estate. But women only make up 9% of C-suite roles, and across all levels they earn 34% less than men. Those statistics have remained virtually unchanged for a decade.

A 2018 Pew Research study found that women see systemic barriers much more clearly than men. Just half of men, but 70% of women, believe a major reason women are underrepresented in top positions is that they have to do more to prove themselves. The same study found that more than half of Americans (57%) believe women and men have different leadership styles, but among those that do, the majority (62%) believe it doesn’t matter in their effectiveness, and more people believe women have a better approach (22%) than men (15%).

However, some representatives of this field point to a shift in company culture that’s helping create a more supportive environment to support women working in CRE to ascend the ranks. Carly Glova, president and executive recruiter at Building Careers, said that companies that promote and publicize a better work environment, including work/life balance, with HR policies and benefits that meet a larger mission statement and value, can help women succeed in this traditionally male-dominated industry. (CREW research found numerous studies showing more gender-diverse leadership corresponds with improved financial performance.)

Read More: https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/top-talent/youre-better-off-choosing-a-woman-so-why-dont-they-get-the-top-cre-jobs-more-often-108643

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How to Develop Your Soft Skills to Advance Your Career

Leave a Comment / Blog, Resume Ideas, Set Yourself Up For Success

We’ve all heard what an asset it is in the job market to know data analysis, be able to code in C++, and speak fluent Spanish. But what about being able to listen well, to manage your time like a boss, and to lead a team meeting that leaves everybody smiling afterward? While more difficult to measure and quantify, these types of skills – soft skills – are the glue that hold together any workplace.

Being able to identify your soft skills and give examples of them is a critical part of any job interview. Many people choose to list soft skills on their resume to make it stand out. If you’re having trouble identifying your soft skills – or know what soft skills you have, but want to develop them more – you’ve come to the right place. This guide will help you single out and develop your soft skills – which will ultimately lead to more successes in interviews and on the job.

What are Soft Skills?

Soft skills are character traits, personal attributes, and other non-technical abilities that help you work and communicate with other people. To develop your soft skills, some you might have to study and learn, and others might come to you naturally. Listening, communication and delegation are all examples of soft skills.

The opposite of soft skills are hard skills, which are technical abilities like knowing how to code in python, make a graph on excel, or speak a foreign language. While hard skills can be more easily defined and measured, soft skills are more difficult to measure. But that doesn’t mean they’re any less important – in fact, if you’re not a good communicator, you’ll have a difficult time even getting past the first interview!

How to Identify Your Soft Skills

At many points during your education or career, you’ve probably worked on a team. But are you good at teamwork? Are you so good at teamwork that you would include it on the skills section of your resume? Not sure? Let’s talk about identifying your soft skills.

Identifying your soft skills isn’t necessarily something you can do alone, either. Ask friends, colleagues, and even former employers which soft skills come to mind when they think of you. You can also ask them to bring up specific examples of when you used that soft skill well. You might even discover things about yourself that you didn’t know before. For example, if you think you’re disorganized, but everyone you talk to points to your organizational skills as somewhere you excel, you might want to consider changing that perception of yourself – and including it on your resume!

Here is a list of soft skills. Do you identify with any of them? Can you point to examples in your career where you used them to accomplish something?

  • Time management
  • Teamwork
  • Communication
  • Adaptability
  • Ability to perform under pressure
  • Innovation
  • Listening
  • Delegation
  • Problem-solving

Read More: https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/guide/develop-soft-skills/

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Signs You Aced The Job Interview…Or You Didn’t Ace It

Leave a Comment / Blog, Interview Tips, Job Search

You just wrapped up a job interview for a role you’re excited about. You think it went well. But wait, did it?

Now that you’ve had some time to take a breath and reflect on that conversation, the confusion and self-doubt have kicked in. You’re chewing your nails and overanalyzing every answer, offhand remark, and facial expression, searching for clues about whether or not you can expect a second interview. Were you the candidate who stood out the most from the interviews?

You aren’t alone—we all do it. The job search is filled with a lot of uncertainty, and there’s no surefire way to get inside your interviewer’s head. Fortunately, there are a few signs you aced the job interview (and conversely, there are some clues you can pick up on if it didn’t go so well).

Signs You Aced the Job Interview

Before we jump in, a friendly disclaimer: When it comes to the interview process, there’s really no such thing as foolproof signs. While the things we’re about to discuss are generally positive, they aren’t a guarantee. Similarly, if these things didn’t happen in your interview, that doesn’t mean it was a disaster. There are always exceptions.

Got it? Good. Now, let’s talk about some signs that you likely hooked that interviewer and are one step closer to landing that job.

Your Interview Ran Longer Than Scheduled

Your interview was scheduled for half an hour, but it was closer to 45 minutes or an hour before your conversation wrapped up. Chances are, your interviewer is interested in you and was highly engaged in the information you were providing.

Your Conversation Flowed Naturally

While this is easy to forget when your nerves are running high, interviews really are human-to-human conversations. Kaplan explains that if your interaction flowed more like a natural discussion and less like an interrogation, that’s a positive. Polite small talk and some friendly back-and-forth indicate that the interviewer was not only interested in you, but also felt a certain level of comfort.

Just be aware that some companies conduct very structured interviews with set lists of questions asked in a certain order to satisfy diversity and inclusion criteria or abide by other company policies, so don’t get discouraged if your interviewer seemed to stick to the script.

Your Follow-Up Email Got a Quick Response

You know the importance of sending a thank you note after your interview, and you took that advice and wrote a friendly, personalized email. That message received a response almost immediately to thank you for your time and to tell you that they’ll be in touch soon.

A quick reply is confirmation that you’re top of mind and they want to keep you engaged in the hiring process. Even better than that? There was an email about next steps in your inbox before you even had a chance to press “send” on your own thank you note.

Signs Your Interview Didn’t Go So Well

Now let’s talk about the flipside: You have this sinking feeling that maybe your interview didn’t go as well as you hoped. If you noticed some of the following signs, they could mean that you need to continue your search and prepare to nail future interviews with other employers.

Keep in mind that nothing is a guarantee, and the only way you’ll know for sure is when you get either a polite rejection email or hear that the company wants to invite you to do a second interview, an interview assignment, or another next step.

Your Interviewer Wasn’t Paying Attention

If your interviewer appears to be somewhere else mentally or you notice them looking at another screen during your video interview, Kaplan says, they might be disinterested or disengaged from your conversation.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that they were taking a quick look at your resume or their list of interview questions. So don’t place too much weight into a brief distraction or break in eye contact. That’s way different from a lack of commitment to your entire conversation.

You Didn’t Have an Opportunity to Ask Questions

If you were given the opportunity to ask questions but your interviewer provided really curt or vague answers, that’s also not a great sign for your candidacy or for that employer’s commitment to respectful and transparent communication.

Read More: https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-know-if-an-interview-went-well

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7 Helpful Tips to Engage Employees Remotely

Leave a Comment / Blog, Employers, Set Yourself Up For Success

As many CRE companies return to work, while balancing distancing measures and restrictions, it’s crucial for employers to understand how to continue to engage employees remotely. It’s hard motivating and managing from a distance, but it’s probably going to be a common reality going forward.

It pays for competitive CRE firms to get this right. Maintaining a cohesive and productive team – even through remote work – is vital adapting for the future.

Is Remote Work Here to Stay?

While many of us hoped to get back to our old office life as soon as possible, many others found they preferred work from home. And there are numerous reasons to believe working remotely will be far more common in coming years than it ever was before. Let’s look at the data:

  • Remote working has increased 140% since 2005.
  • Allowing remote work is better for employee retention, with a 25% improvement over companies who don’t allow this flexibility.
  • It’s also better for productivity, with a 24% boost over employees at non-remote companies.
  • 16% of all companies hire only remote workers.
  • 94% of professionals in CRE believe remote working will continue after the crisis is over.

It’s Not That Hard to Engage Employees Remotely

With remote work growing and becoming more normal, it’s absolutely crucial to know how to drive a positive team synergy from a distance. But how do you engage employees remotely? How do you get them excited about the mission and keep tabs on their progress when they’re not even in the office?

Fortunately, it’s not that hard. Here are some tips to help you inspire and engage your work-from-home and telecommuting employees just as well (if not better) as in an office!

7 Helpful Tips

1. Set clear expectations Don’t let employees feel alone and isolated. There is a danger they could wither on the vine without a clear understanding of their position in the team. Make sure there are written details and expectations laid out from what their working hours are to progress points and goals to achieve.

2. Communicate Clearly Professionals in the commercial real estate business already know how important it is to communicate – both with clients and internally. Effective business communication is all the more important when engaging employees remotely.

3. Schedule Regular Video Calls

There’s something about getting on a video call with your supervisor and/or fellow team members that brings you out of your shell and forces engaged creativity. Schedule them at least once a week, even if only for 15 minutes.

4. Use Chat Make sure you and your team share a chat app in common to allow for more casual back and forth. So much of the success of the in-office dynamic was water-cooler chit-chat. It just can’t be adequately replaced by formal video meetings and email exchanges. A chat app will allow for both quicker responses and more casual conversations.

5. Be Flexible Remember, the beauty of remote work is the flexibility. To really engage employees remotely, be sure you don’t try too hard to re-create the office structure virtually. Whenever possible, give employees autonomy over their schedule, etc. This helps to build trust, creative liberty, and engagement.

6. Be Sociable Virtual team building may be a challenge, but it should not be overlooked. Set up hangout times, activities, or even in-person events if possible, to stave off loneliness and disconnect.

7. Mix It Up

Gallop found that the optimal mix for employee engagement is 3-4 days remote and 1-2 in office. When possible, engage employees remotely by bringing them back to the office a day or two each week. They’ll appreciate the change, and you’ll find managing and engaging them to be much easier and automatic.

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Questions to Ask to Have More Meaningful Conversations at Work

Leave a Comment / Blog

Have you ever sensed that someone has more to say but isn’t able to say it? Perhaps your direct report insists that everything is “great!” despite her impossibly heavy workload, or you notice the same few colleagues stay silent during the weekly Zoom check-in. Or you know a project needs work, but struggle to empower your colleagues to give you some much-needed feedback to improve it. Failing to understand our conversation partners is a struggle for many of us, especially in virtual settings brought on by the pandemic, but it can lead to subpar work, support, and collaboration, and weaken relationships overall. When we are unable to cut through the superficial and get to the deep stuff, we may quickly find ourselves operating on faulty or incomplete information, stuck in place, uncertain of how to proceed and make progress. So, how do you have Meaningful Conversations at Work?

Ximena Vengoechea is a user researcher in Silicon Valley, they’ve faced this challenge in many conversations. Their job is to understand people’s needs and motivations, and what they think and feel about the products my team builds, and research sessions—typically hour-long conversations with a group or an individual—ensure we don’t get overly attached to an idea that sounds good but won’t actually serve its intended audience. Many participants struggle to be honest and vulnerable with researchers at the beginning of a session, thanks in part to a very real and very human desire to please. Rather than be critical of our work, they may sugarcoat their responses, be overly enthusiastic, or keep things brief and vague to avoid hurting our feelings. But Vengoechea’s job is to gain insight, not flattery, so they’ve learned how to break through and uncover what others really need to say.

The listening skills I’ve acquired have been crucial to my development as a researcher, but also as a professional. Which is why Vengoechea wrote Listen Like You Mean It, an essential guide to improving your listening skills that is chock-full of practical tips and hands-on exercises to help you listen with empathy, humility, and understanding, and ultimately build stronger relationships.

The next time you sense someone is holding back or keeping you at arm’s length, use what Vengoechea calls connecting questions to navigate these moments with grace and encouragement. Connecting questions are questions, and sometimes statements, neutrally framed to elicit an open response, without suggesting or biasing toward a particular reply. They give our conversation partners the wiggle room to answer as much or as little as they’d like—without projecting our experience or assumptions onto them—and therefore help you delve into deeper territory, draw out reluctant talkers, and create meaningful conversation on and offline.

There are three types of connecting questions you’ll want to leverage in conversation: exploratory questions, encouraging questions, and reflection questions.

Read More: https://www.fastcompany.com/90619993/3-kinds-of-questions-to-ask-to-have-more-meaningful-conversations

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If You’re Stuck in a Job that’s Not Inspiring You, It’s Probably Because of This

Leave a Comment / Blog, Set Yourself Up For Success

What motivates you to leap out of bed in the morning?

Affirmation Words | Approach Life and Career in the Same Way

Talking to career seekers all day, I can tell you that not everyone is motivated by what you think they might be. Some people just want to work 9-5, punch out and go home, while others want a powerful title, which may come with additional working hour requirements. Some see the learning opportunities in a role, while others are aiming to get paid solely for their current skill set.

Whatever your motivations may be along your career path, make sure they are yours and yours alone. Most importantly, as describes in this article, make sure where you are in life aligns with your values and not what society may be telling you is important. Do you!

Ready to find that inspiration? Read the full article here: If You’re Stuck in a Job that’s Not Inspiring You, It’s Probably Because of This

Originally published by Zoë B in the Huffington Post Blog on Feb 18, 2016

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Carly Glova Sits in on University Panel to Talk about NAIOP

Leave a Comment / Blog, Building Careers

After years in the commercial real estate industry on the finance and acquisitions side, most recently with BioMed Realty, I have turned my passion for career matchmaking into a full-time (and overtime!) career. Employees are what fuels your company, perpetuates your culture, and are the resources that serve as the heart and soul of growing your business. Don’t you want to share that success with the best people possible?

Now every day I have the pleasure of getting to know folks in the commercial real estate industry and learning what their motivations are, what their idea of success looks like, and how they work best. I wake up every day excited to be able to make a difference in the trajectory of local commercial real estate contractors, consultants, developers, investors, and managers. I accomplish this by finding these companies the right mix of talent, personality, and drive that will blow their business out of the water.

I am also a NAIOP member so I can surround myself with smart, successful, go-getters. NAIOP provides advocacy, education and business opportunities by connecting members in a powerful North American network in the commercial real estate development and investment industry. NAIOP is an amazing resource for our industry, and along with the wealth of information and experience that NAIOP offers, there is never a shortage of excitement within the organization.

Here is the most recent event where I was able to sit in on a University Panel and had the chance to connect with students:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/0e3ifwL2TFE1S51WuupZjrrKgWaqrHB8tpq4AXAFPyN-DqfmvTsGs_bl6JoZR94FFZ0DJ-PEvi9FC1lC.RpDTJK8RUhOuSVfT?startTime=1615938785000&_x_zm_rtaid=9B3LfY4-SYWuHuUFyc8B2w.1616438184210.a7d684745e20ae58c3f169cb56140905&_x_zm_rhtaid=369

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Key Steps to Successfully Conducting a Behavioral Interview

Leave a Comment / Employers, Interview Tips

There’s nothing worse than a bad fit. There are many hidden costs associated with hiring the wrong person. Successfully conducting a behavioral interview is a great way to sift through the fluff and open up key areas of compatibility in a potential new hire. If your CRE company is interested in improving your interview game, read on for key steps to incorporate into your process.

What Is Behavioral Interviewing?

Traditional interview methods ask how a candidate may react in a given situation. After all, a hiring manager is after key information to ensure the candidate is qualified for the job. So, questions in this mode directly ask what the candidate’s responses might be.

However, conducting a behavioral interview is different. In this mode, the hiring manager asks how a candidate has already responded to a situation like this. What specific solutions did they innovate? How did they adapt in a previous incident on the job?

The premise is that a new hire will act according to their set patterns or previous record. If you can look into their past, you’ll more accurately predict their future.

The Process of Conducting a Behavioral Interview

Boiled down, there are basically three steps to nailing this interview approach:

1. The first priority with this approach to interviewing is identifying the skills and experiences required for success in your agency or organization. What key traits or skills do you find common among others who have been successful in this or a similar role? Valuable traits to look for may include:

  • Confidence
  • Adaptability
  • Focus
  • Integrity
  • Enthusiasm

2. Second, craft a list of interview questions that solve for these skills and traits. If communication is important, ask for a specific example of their clear communication. Some effective interview questions you might ask while conducting a behavioral interview are:

  • Describe a time when you had to work with a person whose personality or work style differed from yours.
  • How have you anticipated a problem in the past and successfully taken steps to prevent it?
  • Have you ever faced a looming deadline with multiple priorities? How did you balance them to meet the deadline?

3. Thirdly, evaluate candidate responses and ask detailed follow-up questions. Behaviorally-based interview questions have been around for decades, and job seekers may prepare polished answers in advance. Rather than simply asking what they did, follow up with detailed questions about why they did it, how they did it, and how their colleagues might have described the incident.

Additional Helpful Steps

In addition to the three process steps described above, here are more helpful steps you can benefit from in conducting a behavioral interview more effectively:

  1. Write a job description that solicits candidates who excel in the traits and experiences at the top of your priorities.
  2. Review the hiring documents (resume, cover letter, application) with your target traits in mind prior to the interview.
  3. Narrow down the talent pool with a phone screening that discusses your most crucial target traits or qualifications.
  4. Ask multiple questions about a high-priority trait for a multi-dimensional understanding of their qualification in that area.
  5. Partner with a high-performing recruiting firm to ensure a pool of qualified talent and for help with often overlooked interview tips and practices.

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