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Work-Life Balance is More of An Ebb and Flow: Here’s Why

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Despite the resounding evidence that working long hours can be harmful to both employees and employers, many professionals still struggle to overcome their assumptions — and their deeply-ingrained habits — around work hours. What does it take to free yourself from these unhealthy patterns and reach a more sustainable, rewarding work-life balance?

To explore this question, the Harvard Business Review conducted almost 200 in-depth interviews with 78 professionals from the London offices of a global law firm and an accounting firm. They spoke with an equal number of men and women, and most of the interviewees were between 30 and 50 years old, with at least one dependent child, and in either middle or senior management roles.

According to their study, the majority of the interviewees described their jobs as highly demanding, exhausting, and chaotic, and they seemed to take for granted that working long hours was necessary for their professional success. However, about 30% of the men and 50% of women in our sample appeared to consciously resist working long hours, describing a variety of strategies they developed for maintaining a healthier work-life balance. While the details of every individual case differed, their study suggested a common mental process that consistently helped this group of professionals to change the way they worked — and lived — for the better.

At a high level, their research showed that achieving better balance between professional and personal priorities boils down to a combination of reflexivity — or questioning assumptions to increase self-awareness — and intentional role redefinition. Importantly, their research suggests that this is not a one-time fix, but rather, a cycle that we must engage in continuously as circumstances and priorities evolve. This work-life balance ebb and flow is made up of five distinct steps:

1. Focus On Your Emotions

Once you’ve increased your awareness of your current situation, examine how that situation makes you feel. Ask yourself, do I feel energized, fulfilled, satisfied? Or do I feel angry, resentful, sad? For example, one respondent described his realization that his current work-life balance (or lack thereof) was engendering some pretty negative emotions.

A rational understanding of the decisions and priorities driving your life is important, but equally important is emotional reflexivity — that is, the capacity to recognize how a situation is making you feel. Awareness of your emotional state is essential in order to determine the changes you want to make in your work and in your life.

2. Do You Have Alternatives?

Before jumping into solutions, first reflect on the aspects of your work and life that could be different in order to better align with your priorities. Are there components of your job that you would like to see changed? How much time would you like to spend with your family, or on hobbies?

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Answering The “What Is Your Desired Salary?” Question

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What’s your desired salary? It’s a question that can make any job candidate’s stomach drop, whether they’re reading it on an application or hearing it from an interviewer. And I completely understand the stress around this—you don’t want to give a lowball answer and have to settle for less money than you’re worth, but you also don’t want to seem like you have crazy-high, unrealistic expectations.

Here’s what you need to know about answering the desired salary question in the way that will benefit you most in the long run.

Define Desired Salary

Desired salary is simply the amount of money you’d like to make at your new job. It’s also the realistic amount of money you expect to make at your new job based on your level of skill and experience. (Otherwise, we’d probably all have a desired salary of $10 million.)

When a potential employer asks you this question, they’re expecting an honest, realistic answer—but giving your answer too soon could actually end up hurting your chances of making the amount of money you’re worth. More on that in a minute. First, let’s talk about how to figure out your true desired salary.

Ways To Determine Your Desired Salary

Before you can even think about giving a concrete answer to this question on an application or in an interview, you should have an actual number in mind—even if you don’t reveal that number right away (or at all). You should know what you’re aiming for so you can be confident about the salary offers you will and won’t accept. But I get that it can be difficult to land on a number or range, so here are a few factors that will help you figure it out:

1. Research Is KEY

A quick Google search can usually tell you the industry standards for salary in your desired position, and most job search websites will let you search for the standards in your geographical location as well. Sometimes pay ranges vary depending on state or region. The size of the company you’re looking at and its level of success will also affect the pay scale.

Another way to research is by asking other employees in similar roles what their pay is like, but keep in mind that it’s personal information that not everyone might be comfortable sharing. You could also ask any recruiters in the field (who don’t work at the company you’re applying to) if they can share the average salaries they see for the type of position you want.

2. Determine Your Skill Level And Experience

If you know me, you know I’m a big believer that you don’t have to get a four-year degree to get a great-paying job—and I stand by that! But education and training will still be taken into consideration at many companies, depending on the role. Having more years of experience working in a given industry will usually mean higher pay too. So, even if you don’t have a ton of education but you’ve spent years getting hands-on experience in jobs that are related to the one you want now, your pay should reflect that.

Another thing to consider is skill level. Of course, you can expect to be paid less for entry-level skill than for high skill. But skill level isn’t necessarily equivalent to the amount of time you’ve spent working in an industry—some people graduate from college with a higher level of skill than somebody who’s already been working in the field for a while. Be honest with yourself about your skill level, and if you know you’ve got a competitive edge, factor that into the amount you think you should be paid.

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Top 10 Career Success Secrets

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Interested in learning some of the top career success secrets? Once you graduate from college and land a job, your next immediate concern is how to succeed in your career. Because the world has become so competitive, doing well in your job and moving forward with your career is more important now than ever. Career advancement and recognition are on every professional’s list of goals. But what sets the exceptional professionals apart? The answer is simply willingness and a strong desire to perform well. Once you have the willingness and the right mindset, you can begin climbing the ladder.

Here are the top 10 career success secrets on how to excel at work:

Take charge
Evaluate yourself
Continuously be learning
Anticipate needs
Communicate well
Set goals to achieve
Show, don’t tell
Gain trust
Create solutions
Be compassionate

Take Charge

Today’s career requirements are highly developed and require much more than someone who won’t take risks. In today’s competitive career landscape, employers are looking for individuals who can bring fresh ideas to the table and take initiative, start new projects, pitch new solutions and create new opportunities for the business.

Evaluate Yourself

One of the best ways to achieve career success is to keep assessing your performance. Don’t wait for your annual appraisal – do it yourself. An ideal way to do this would be to identify quantifiable goals and set a timeline for achieving them. Start with setting short-term goals when you’re new to a job. Create a detailed plan to achieve these goals. Break the tasks down into weekly or even daily tasks and fill out a small form at the end of the week to assess where you’re headed and whether you need to change your strategy. You can even show your own performance report to your managers at some point to show how you’ve progressed. This will show that you understand the importance of constant self-evaluation and improvement.

Continuously Be Learning

To excel in your career, you have to be willing to learn to become a leader and accept constructive feedback. No matter what university you graduated from or what grades you had, professional life will be very different from college. Be prepared to have a million questions pop up every day regarding what you’re doing. It might take you days to get a hang of your duties at your new job, so show management that you are coachable, paying attention and always willing to learn new things.

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Business Etiquette 101

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Having a basic understanding of business etiquette rules is crucial. In The Essentials of Business Etiquette, Barbara Pachter writes about the things people need to know in order to conduct and present themselves appropriately in professional social settings. Here are some of her most important business etiquette points:

1. Standing Is Crucial When You’re Being Introduced To Someone

“Standing helps establish your presence. You make it easy for others to ignore you if you don’t stand. If you are caught off guard and cannot rise, you should lean forward to indicate that you would stand, if you could,” Pachter writes.

2. Say Your Full Name…Always!

In a business situation, you should use your full name, but you should also pay attention to how others want to be introduced.

3. The Host Or The Higher-Ranking Person Initiates The Handshake

In today’s workplace, the host or the higher-ranking person, regardless of gender, should extend their hand first, she writes. “If the higher-ranking person fails to do so immediately — often because of gender confusion — the lower-ranking person should extend his or her hand without missing more than a beat.”

Either way, the handshake must happen. “In the United States, the handshake is the business greeting. If you want to be taken seriously, you must shake hands and shake hands correctly.”

4. Wear Proper Attire

“Clothing, an important form of nonverbal communication, can enhance a person’s professional reputation or detract from his or her credibility. You want to send a professional message through your clothing choices,” Pachter writes.

Always find out what the dress code is at an event, meeting, or restaurant and make sure your attire falls within the guidelines.

5. When To Say “Thank You”

“You need to say it only once or twice within a conversation,” Pachter writes. “Otherwise, you may dilute its impact and possibly make yourself seem somewhat helpless and needy.”

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The CRE Talent War Is Escalating

Leave a Comment / Blog, Employers, Industry Insights, Job Search

Companies are shifting compensation plans and recruitment strategies as the CRE talent war escalates. Since the downturn in 2020, the commercial real estate industry has bounced back, albeit amidst a shortage in qualified talent that has seen rising salaries and restructured expectations.

The Talent Shortage

The labor shortage has extended to the commercial real estate (CRE) industry, and companies are facing the reality that it will likely escalate in 2022. Already, approximately half of CRE companies report hiring challenges have impacted their company moderately or severely, according to a recent CPE 100 survey.

In the same survey, approximately half of industry leaders reported frustration with the available talent pool, stating it is adequate for some searches but inadequate for others. Additionally, a full 25% of respondents said the talent pool simply doesn’t have what they need for their job openings in commercial real estate.

As a result, many companies have been forced to shift recruitment policies over the past year or more to be more flexible and diverse in their expectations. As more and more openings chase fewer and fewer qualified professionals, the CRE talent war escalates.

Rising Compensation Expected to Continue

Professionals in all CRE roles can expect salaries and compensation packages to continue rising. Talent is at a premium, and firms must reset their expectations to stay competitive. Nearly 90% of real estate firms offered merit bonuses in 2021. Attracting CRE rockstars is requiring companies to change their work environments, as well as role expectations and pay.

One way firms are changing their expectations is in the area of diversity in hiring. It’s becoming more and more apparent that companies want to hire diverse candidates, yet those candidates come at a premium, simply because they’re hard to find. Likewise, approximately half of CRE companies are changing their talent management plans to attract younger talent.

Meanwhile, overall, salaries have yet to flatline. It is likely that companies will continue to adjust to the CRE talent war, raising salaries throughout 2022. A new trend in the CRE space is for hiring companies to offer equity, even to lower-level positions to make them more competitive.

Countering the Shortage

Creative strategies are called for to counter the shortage. Companies that allow for more remote-work flexibility and an enhanced focus on work-life balance will attract a larger pool of job prospects. Competitive CRE firms are also renewing their push for higher retention levels among existing employees. Those who recruit from within, ask for employee referrals, and actively leverage personal networks, both online and in person, will have a competitive edge.

However, while in-house HR teams and hiring efforts can still have some success, successfully sourcing from a shrinking pool in these highly competitive times requires an edge. And maintaining a working relationship with a proven CRE recruiter is a proven tactic for companies to combat this talent shortage.

Some of the key advantages of going with a professional headhunting firm include:

Trust and confidentiality
Company advocacy
Help with role structuring
Better talent access
Repeated hiring success

With the CRE talent shortage on the rise, short-term solutions won’t do. Competitive firms in the commercial real estate space are looking to the future with the assumption that the talent shortage won’t resolve in the near future. With long-term flexibility and strategic planning, future unknowns will pose less of a challenge.

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Looking to Relocate Your Job to Another State? Here Are Some Tips!

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If you are looking to relocate your job to another state, you’ll most likely need to get a new job. Don’t assume this, though—if you are currently employed, consider checking with your employer to see whether it might be possible for you to work remotely.

If you can’t work remotely or if you’d prefer not to, then the hunt for a new job begins. That can be challenging; you may not be familiar with local companies, and you may not have as strong a network of connections in the area, either.

Below are strategies you can use to search, apply, and interview so you can prepare to relocate your job to another state.

Talk About How to Relocate Your Job With Your Current Employer

If you are currently employed, reach out to your Human Resources department to see whether any offices are located in your future locale or if there would be an option to work remotely.

You’ll only want to do this if you feel comfortable alerting your company to the fact that you plan to move.

If you don’t wish to share this information, this strategy is not recommended. Instead, you could start by looking on the company intranet for any potential job postings.

Where Do You Want To Find A New Job?

Are you moving to northern Connecticut, for example? Jobs in Hartford, Worcester, Boston, and other cities may be feasible—even though only one of those cities lies within the state of Connecticut. When you enter locations in job search engines, go beyond the new state to neighboring ones if they are nearby.

If possible, spend a weekend in your new destination to determine which cities and nearby company locations may be an option. Think through where you’ll want to live, and how long of a commute you can handle.

If an in-person visit isn’t an option, take to the internet—online maps can be helpful and you can also use social media to gain insights into commute times and favorable work locations that may be hard to discover using a map alone.

Inform Your Network

Reach out to your contacts to tell them about your planned move—this includes friends, family, and current and past colleagues. If you’re still in the exploratory stages and haven’t yet given notice, hold off on telling your current colleagues.

Ask contacts whether they know of any open jobs or have connections in the new location. If they do, ask for an introduction and set up informational interviews with these new contacts.

On LinkedIn, look for contacts who are working in your future state. A friend from college might wind up being a good lead. You can also use LinkedIn to learn more about companies in the area.

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MUST HAVE Leadership Skills for Workplace Success

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What Makes an Effective Leader

Effective leaders have the ability to communicate well, motivate their team, handle and delegate responsibilities, listen to feedback, and have the flexibility to solve problems in an ever-changing workplace.

Employers seek these skills in the candidates they hire for leadership roles. Strong leadership skills are also valuable for all job applicants and employees because they can lead to workplace success.

Whether you’re starting out in an entry-level position and looking to move up the career ladder or you’re seeking a promotion, your leadership skills will be among your most valuable assets.

Workplace Success Leadership Skills

Here are some leadership skills that can help lead you to workplace success.

1. Communication

As a leader, you need to be able to clearly and succinctly explain to your employees everything from organizational goals to specific tasks. Leaders must master all forms of communication, including one-on-one, departmental, and full-staff conversations, as well as communication via the phone, email, video, chat, and social media.

Leaders should establish a steady flow of communication between themselves and their staff or team members, either through an open-door policy or regular conversations with workers.

A large part of communication involves listening. Leaders should make themselves regularly available to discuss issues and concerns with employees. Other skills related to communication include:

Active listening
Clarity
Facilitating group conversations
Public speaking
Reading body language

2. Motivation

Leaders need to inspire their workers to go the extra mile for their organizations; just paying a fair salary to employees is typically not enough inspiration (although it is important too). There are a number of ways to motivate your workers: you may build employee self-esteem through recognition and rewards, or by giving employees new responsibilities to increase their investment in the company.

Leaders must learn what motivators work best for their employees or team members to encourage productivity and passion. Skills related to effective motivation include:

Allowing employee autonomy
Asking for input
Mentoring
Open to employee concerns

3. Delegating

Leaders who try to take on too many tasks by themselves will struggle to get anything done. These leaders often fear that delegating tasks is a sign of weakness, when it actually can be a sign of a strong leader.

Therefore, you need to identify the skills of each of your employees, and assign duties to each employee based on his or her skill set. By delegating tasks to staff members, you can focus on other important tasks. Some skills that make a good delegator include:

Allotting resources for employees
Assessing employee strengths and weaknesses
Defining expectations
Teamwork

Ream More: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-leadership-skills-2063782

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The Pros and Cons of a Commercial Real Estate Career

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When it comes to happiness and job fulfillment, a commercial real estate career can be quite rewarding. But it’s not for everyone. If you’re considering a switch to find your dream job in CRE, you’ll want to know everything you can to ensure you’re making the right move.

Let’s explore some of the many reasons people fail or succeed in a commercial real estate career, and whether or not this is the right job for you.

Finding Your Fulfillment

Fulfillment in your career is the prize to win. And the recent slowdowns and shakeup of our world as we know it have offered us a chance to step back and evaluate what we want out of our lives and work. It’s a perfect time to reflect on your ideal career path.

But maybe you’ve already identified commercial real estate as the field you want more than anything to dive deep into. You’ve analyzed your key skills, experience, passions, and values. But do you know what you’re getting yourself into?

While many find CRE a highly stimulating and fulfilling career path – whether in the investor or brokerage side – some prefer a more traditional and predictable career path. CRE isn’t for everyone.

But for those who crave more control over their time and finances as well as the potential for a healthier work-life balance, a commercial real estate career may be just right.

Why People Choose a Commercial Real Estate Career

Yes, CRE can be a challenge. And we’ll get into the cons of this career path. But when you interview people on this road and ask them what drives them, you’ll find some common denominators. Among the most common motivations are:

Money: Always high up on the list for any career path, the potential for a lucrative future is high for focused and driven professionals in CRE. From being a property manager to a role on the investor side, there are several paths to making a better paycheck in CRE.
Time: While there may be occasional 10- or 12-hour days, the flexibility in how you spend your time is greater in CRE than in many other occupations. You’re generally not chained to your desk, and you will have more availability for the things that matter most in your life.
Freedom: You truly are your own boss in many CRE roles. A commercial real estate career can be substantially liberating – particularly for brokers, those focused on leasing, and those who work their way into upper management positions.

Pros and Cons

CRE is a double-edged sword. There are pros and cons. While you may make more money and have greater control over your time and decisions, you’ll also be called on to problem solve and be at the mercy of investor or tenant schedules more often than in other careers. Some find they just can’t handle the ups and downs of this high-energy field.

Teamwork and relationships management is highly valuable in commercial real estate. Not good working with others? You probably won’t do well in CRE. There is a high level of reliance and interconnectivity in this space that enables good networkers and collaborators to thrive, while lone rangers tend to fail.

When considering if a commercial real estate career is right for you, it’s helpful to know there is high potential for specialization. The diversity of roles is one of CRE’s greatest advantages.

You can utilize your analytical side to work in a financial capacity through support acquisitions, asset management, development, etc.
You can feed your inner social butterfly in working more on the person-to-person side, building relationships, managing properties and closing deals.
Or you can unleash your creativity to scale operations to new markets an employ cutting edge strategies and technologies.

One thing is sure. If you don’t have patience, drive, and a high tolerance for change, don’t consider this field. But if you thrive on long-term investments and excitement from the ups and downs, you’ll love a commercial real estate career.

And if you’re wondering where to start, here’s a quick guide to beginning your job search in these changing times.

Sources:

· Now’s the Time to Reflect on Your Ideal Career Path | Building Careers (buildingrecareers.com)

· 7 Practical Tips for a Healthier Work-Life Balance | Building Careers (buildingrecareers.com)

· 3 Biggest Reasons People Pursue Commercial Real Estate Careers | Massimo Group (massimo-group.com)

· Building Career | How to Choose the Best CRE Investing Career Path (buildingrecareers.com)

· How to Begin Your CRE Job Search in this New Environment | Building Careers (buildingrecareers.com)

· Is a Career in Commercial Real Estate Right for You? – Verity Commercial

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How to Land Your First Job

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

As you’re about to enter the work world, you might be so excited about the possibilities that lie ahead you haven’t given much thought to, well, actually landing one of those possibilities. A job search — especially your first one — can be tough work, wading through the unfamiliar waters of resume writing and job search sites, plus intuiting exactly what a potential employer wants while sidestepping interview landmines.

Relax! This is a totally doable task with this first-job guide at your side. Here are a few tips on how to land your first job:

Where to Start

Before you even think about submitting your resume to a prospective employer and land your first job, you have got a lot of work to do. You’ll need to tailor your resume to the job, reconnect with your references, come up with keywords to help you hone your search, create some business cards, and so much more.

How to Look for a Job

It’s not enough to search for an entry-level job. To find the right job for you — and to increase your chances of scoring an interview — you have to employ some job search strategies. For example, did you know that Monday is the best day of the week to look for a job? Or that you should always schedule interviews for the morning? Networking can prove to be very helpful as well! These tips and tricks will get you in the door and land your first job.

How to Discover the Right Keywords to Include in Your Resume

Have you ever heard of applicant tracking systems? It’s when a company uses a computer program to filter through applications and resumes, weeding out the candidates who aren’t a fit — simply because they didn’t use the right words. That’s right: your resume could be chucked in the proverbial trash before it ever reaches a human’s eyes, all because you didn’t use a word the system was searching for. How do you know which words to use? A good place to start is the job description.

Determine What Employers Are Looking For

Depressing statistic: recruiters and hiring managers only spend an average of six seconds reading your resume. (We know, it hurts.) That’s not a lot of time to capture their attention. That’s why it’s so important to know what potential employers are looking for in those few precious seconds, and put them in your resumes. Consider: technical skills, soft skills, examples of impact, certifications, and quantifiable success.

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Finding a Good Mentor

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What is a mentor? A mentor is someone you admire sets aside time to meet, sharing how they accomplished their goals, cheering you on and giving you feedback and advice. The right mentoring relationship can be a powerful tool for professional growth — it can lead to a new job, a promotion or even a better work-life balance.

One of the trickiest things about mentoring is that it’s often informal, and that can make it difficult to find an entry point. Since we know that women and people of color face discrimination at higher rates than white men do in certain fields like STEM, it can be especially helpful for women and people of color to intentionally seek out mentors.

Here’s how to find a good mentor, make the ask and make it work (formally):

1. Finding a Good Mentor

Know your goals (both short and long term). What do you want to accomplish professionally in the next three months? Can you do it in your current role or will it require you to switch jobs? The more specific you are with your goals, the easier it will be to find the right mentor. One strategy to create effective, easily achievable goals is to work SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timebound. Envisioning your dreams this way allows you to break down lofty ideas into individual goals that are easier to accomplish through short-term steps.

Who do you look up to? Whose job would you like to have in the next five, 10 or 15 years? Is this person inside or outside your workplace? Who is your immediate role model where you work? Keep a running list of the jobs and people you are visualizing. Consider an identity-based mentor in your organization, especially if you need to talk about issues you’re facing as an underrepresented person in your professional surroundings.

Do the research. You may or may not be able to ask one of those people to be your mentor, but what are the stepping stones to get to someone in a similar position? Take notes on the path that person took to get to where they are today.

Be cognizant of your existing network. The more aware someone already is of your work and abilities, the more effective they will be at mentoring you. Think about whether someone is already informally mentoring you — can you ask them to help you? If someone isn’t aware of your work or you’ve never talked to them, look for a connection. Make sure the person you are thinking about also has the expertise you’re looking for. (We’ll talk more about this in the next section.)

Recognize the difference between a mentor and a sponsor. For example, mentors give advice on but can’t give you a new job, raise, or promotion. In contrast, sponsors can do that for you. They can be a boss, recruiter, or even employer in a new industry. Don’t expect mentors to be sponsors, but they can put you in touch with sponsors. Mentors can also be in your life for the long-term, while sponsors are often more short-term.

2. How to Make the Ask

Have an elevator pitch ready. Be clear of your goals and why you think this person is the right mentor for you. Be up front about your time-commitment, what you’re willing to put into the relationship and what you expect from them. If you’re clear about what you need from the start, communication will flow smoothly. You can even practice this elevator pitch to other people before asking the possible mentor.

Make sure it’s the right fit before asking. You can feel this out by having informal meetings where you discuss your goals and trajectory, before asking them to be your mentor.

Mention what you like about the person’s work, especially if you’ve never met. Say your boss introduced you to a possible mentor and neither of you know each other. Do the research about the possible mentor’s work. Then open with what you like about their work. That will show that you have a thoughtful approach.

If it’s a cold email, it’s okay to start with the informational interview ask. But again, be specific about what you like about the person’s work and why you want to meet. Why is talking to you worth their time? If you’ve never met before, consider starting with a phone call and work with the person’s schedule. Keep in mind that informational interview requests are common. The way you stand out, as we mentioned before, is showing you did the research about their career and being specific and honest about what you’re asking of them.

Before COVID-19, asking for mentorship was best in-person. Video is just fine now. When you feel someone is the right fit, do your best to make the ask with more than just a phone call or email. It shows that you will be open to feedback in the long term.

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