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The Best Work From Home Tips During the Coronavirus

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

In the midst of the new coronavirus pandemic, many companies are implementing voluntary or mandatory work-from-home policies. That means lots of us are dealing with an unusual challenge: working from home for the first time, full-time.

Even if you’ve done it before, working from home because of coronavirus might feel like a whole new world. Since we don’t know how long it’ll last, here are some of the best work from home tips to help you make sure that you’re successful!

1. Defined Your Work Hours

Just as you designate and separate your physical workspace, you should be clear about when you’re working and when you’re not. You’ll get your best work done and be most ready to transition back to the office if you stick with your regular hours. Plus, if your role is collaborative, being on the same schedule as your coworkers makes everything much easier.

If you live with other people, this separation is even more critical. Communicate with the people you live with to establish boundaries so you can cut down on distractions during the workday—and then disconnect and give the people you care about your full attention. Having a separate time and space to work will allow you to be more present in your home life.

2. Create A “Commute” To Work

Your commute not only gets you to and from work—from one physical location to another—but it also gives your brain time to prepare for work. Just because you’re not traveling doesn’t mean you shouldn’t carve out equivalent routines to help you ease into your workday.

Maybe you usually read or listen to music on your commute. You can do that at home. Or maybe you can spend some time with a pet or loved one. You can even add in a workout (preferably at home because of the new coronavirus, but see what is being recommended where you live) or spend some time on a hobby (again, make sure it’s appropriate given the health recommendations where you are).

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Now is the Time to Reflect on Your Ideal Career Path

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

It’s a scary time right now, and you probably find yourself having some down time due to the Coronavirus shutdowns and cutbacks. But instead of feeding the fear, put this time to better use. What is your ideal career path? What’s your next move? Are you satisfied with where you’re currently at, or is it time for a change?

Reflection, Not Fear

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the headlines, grim predictions, and banter on social media and the news. But successful people don’t focus on the fear during times like these. In fact, it is in these times that reflection and creative thinking can change your life for the better.

During the down time, take a few career quizzes. Think about who you are as a professional. Examine your current setting, and ask yourself some of these questions:

Am I successful in my current career path?
Do I enjoy working in this role?
Am I good at what I do?
Is there ample advancement opportunity in this career track?
Am I passionate about this kind of work?

Your answers to these questions may indicate it’s time for a change. Maybe you don’t have to change industries, but a different role within your industry might suit you best. Is this where you want to be in 10 years?

There’s nothing wrong with changing course in your career – in fact, it’s becoming the norm in the modern nomad economy. So if you would be happier in a different role or an advanced position, ask yourself which skills you need to acquire and steps to take. Begin formulating your strategy.

Skills, Passions, and Values

Career experts and successful businesspeople agree that the ideal career path is somewhere at the intersect between skills, passions, and values. This is where career magic happens. So how about you? What would that intersect look like for you?

First, let’s look at skills. Obviously, these are your abilities. But many of us have hidden skills we don’t even know about, because we don’t use them every day in our jobs. To find these, list your skills by three categories:

Skills you learned at work (anything you were taught in previous roles, for special assignments, etc.)
Skills you learned from formal education (college, workshops, in-house trainings, seminars, etc.)
Skills you learned from neither (hobbies, volunteer/community work, home projects, leadership activities, etc.)

Next, reflect on your passions. A Gallup poll found that 85% of employees are actively disengaged at work. If you are not working in an area you are passionate about, your disengagement will translate into less buy-in, less problem solving, and less advancement.

On the other hand, your ideal career path will directly include something you’re passionate about and thus invested in making work. If you love doing something, you will move heaven and earth to succeed at it. And you will develop the necessary skills to be good at it.

Not sure what your passions are? Ask yourself the following questions:

What am I curious about?
What makes me smile?
What engages me so much I lose track of time?
What would I enjoy doing even if there was no money in it?

Lastly, what are your values? These are the core truths and standards that drive you. Perhaps you are committed to:

Serving others
Always telling the truth
Embracing change
Doing more with less

Whatever axioms uniquely define you and your moral compass, those are your values. Write them down.

The Path Forward

Tomorrow is full of uncertainty and change. But you can help shape it for yourself. Don’t get stuck in a dead-end career path. Take advantage of this slowdown, be grateful for all you have, and take stock of where you should go next. Pause, reflect, and plan. Your career growth path is up to you.

If you need any help determining where your ideal career path should lead or just need some help getting there, please contact us right away. We’d love to listen and offer any help we can.

Be safe, everyone!

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6 Basic Job Search Tips

For those you might just be graduating college, or have graduated from college years ago, searching for a new job can be overwhelming. If you type in “job search tips”, HUNDREDS of pages might come up claiming to give you the best advice. There’s so much available (some of which completely contradicts other advice you’ll find) that it can easily overwhelm you. Which, in fact, is probably the exact opposite outcome you’re looking for when you go sleuthing for genuinely useful counsel in the first place.

We’re here to help with making a shorter list of sound, timeless job searching tips that’ll help you fine-tune your strategy so that you may sail through the process (or at least cut out some of the unnecessary time and frustration).

1. Your Resume and LinkedIn Profile Aren’t (and Shouldn’t Be) Permanent

Yes, your new resume is lovely. Your LinkedIn profile, breathtaking. However, if they don’t position you as a direct match for a particular role that you’re gunning for, don’t be afraid to modify wording, switch around key terms, and swap bullet points in and out. Your resume is not a tattoo, nor is your LinkedIn profile. Treat them as living, breathing documents throughout your job search (and career).

Tip

If you’re a covert job seeker, remember to turn off your activity broadcasts (within privacy and settings) when you make edits to your LinkedIn profile. If your current boss or colleagues are connected to you on LinkedIn, they may get suspicious about all the frequent changes.

2. A LinkedIn Profile is a #MustHave

Considering that more than 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn as their primary search tool, this is not an understatement. If you’re a professional, you need to not only be on LinkedIn, you need to be using it to your full advantage. Don’t believe me? Think about it this way: If tomorrow morning, a recruiter logs onto LinkedIn looking for someone in your geography, with expertise in what you do, and you’re not there? Guess who they’re going to find and contact? Yes, that person’s name is “not you.”

Tip

If you figure out how to harness the power of no other social media tool for job search, figure out LinkedIn. It’s (by far) the best resource we have available today for career and job search networking, for finding people working at companies of interest, and for positioning yourself to be found by a recruiter who has a relevant job opening.

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Uncertainty and Opportunity

Ghosting Consequences Can Hurt Your Career

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

If you’re guilty of ghosting in the workplace, you may think the consequences will be small or nonexistent. But think again. There are several reasons you don’t want to slight others with your indifference – even in a strong economy.

What is Workplace Ghosting?

In recent years, job seekers in all industries – not just commercial real estate – have increasingly failed to show up for interviews or for their first day of work. Many are even walking off the job without notice. Others ghost their peers and colleagues by ignoring repeated voicemails and emails, thinking it’s no big deal.

But it is a big deal. And it’s getting bigger.

According to a recent study by research firm Clutch, a whopping 71% of job seekers have abandoned a job application with no notice. And nearly half stated it’s reasonable to ghost a company during the application process. Reasons for ghosting include:

Accepting a competing job offer
Unsatisfactory response from the potential employer
Deciding against the role

The prevailing theory as to why ghosting is becoming so prominent is the job market. It’s now a job seeker’s market, and candidates go where they are treated best. A type of nomad economy has replaced the old paradigm of working forty years at the same place and getting a gold watch.

Opportunities abound, so if an interview process grows tiresome, there are second thoughts about an accepted job offer, or you don’t feel like turning in your two-weeks’ notice, you walk. But what are the consequences of ghosting in the workplace?

Negative Ghosting Consequences

1. Diminished Trust

Trust is essential in any career. Brokers must be trusted by their principals. Appraisers must be trusted by their clients. Assistants must be trusted by their bosses to handle the essential responsibilities that make their job so necessary. Trust is directly linked to value. And when you can’t be relied upon to show up or provide notice or follow through, your career value drops.

2. Damaged Relationships Relationships with others in our industry are vital to our career success. The hiring manager you ghosted after the first interview may well be your boss at another job. The recruiter you stopped replying to will remember your name next time you are on the beach.

3. Uncertainty While the CRE job market remains strong, and by all signals will continue strong for the near future, you never know when it will change. Developing and nurturing a reputation of trust and follow-through may not seem that important right now, but it will be vital to your career next time things swing the other way. Just a few years ago, it was the employers ghosting candidates because they had their pick. A few years from now, that could very well be the case again.

Additionally, as employment specialist John Feldmann points out in Forbes, respect and the Golden Rule should be our number-one consideration in the workplace. You might score a really good job by taking an offer after already accepting another. But is that the kind of team member you want to be? Is that the kind of reputation you want? Isn’t your career about more than getting ahead for the moment at the expense of others?

It’s not just about ghosting consequences in the here and now. It’s about being considerate to others, knowing full well that it will come back around to you.

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Unlimited PTO: The Pros and Cons

Leave a Comment / Blog, Employers, Job Search

There are three paid time off options to offer your employees: traditional, flexible, and unlimited. While there are pros and cons to all three options, unlimited PTO is a swiftly growing trend for many of the most competitive companies. Here’s everything you need to know about this popular policy.

The Pros:

Easier for HR departments

It’s important to note that paid time off is not purely vacation. This can include bereavement, sick days, vacation time, parental and family leave, short or long-term disability, and holiday pay– and keeping track of each of these allotments can become a logistical nightmare for HR departments. With unlimited PTO, while there should still be a system in place for approving time taken off, HR departments will not be bogged down with tracking and reinforcing hours taken and hourly limits of each category.

It’s surprisingly cost-efficient

Assuming employees don’t abuse the policy (which hasn’t historically been an issue– check the “con” list below for more information on this), unlimited amounts of PTO can save your company money. When there exists a specific amount of time that can be taken off, many employers will have to pay out the vacation days that aren’t used by the end of the year (or the end of employment, in some cases). With unlimited PTO, you will not be expected to pay out your employees for any vacation days not taken.

It’s a recruitment tool

As aforementioned, many larger and competitive companies are offering this PTO policy as an attractive recruiting tool. Unlimited vacation sounds good to everyone– including top candidates. In fact, in a recent PTO survey, 51% of participants indicated they would take a job for 10% less pay (all else being equal) if unlimited PTO was available.

Learn More: https://www.zenefits.com/workest/unlimited-pto/

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The Importance of a Mentor

How To: Stand Out in an In-Person Interview

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

So you made it past the application, the phone interview…congratulations! Now you’re probably wondering how to stand out in an in-person interview? Coco Chanel says, “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” Sure, conventionality is safe and familiar, but is it memorable? Not always. But here’s a secret: they’re not mutually exclusive. You can be a traditionally professional candidate while still infusing extraordinary aspects to your interview. Be bold with your approach, and aim to not only be the most memorable candidate, but the best one too. Here are some ways to stand out in an in-person interview that the Building Careers RE team loves!

Nail The “Tell Me About Yourself” Question

This will be one of the first questions you receive, and it’s a stellar opportunity to set the bar really high. Many people struggle with this expansive question, but if you can craft a narrative that speaks to your strengths, experiences, and interest in the job, you will be five steps ahead of the competition.

Find a Common Interest

Connecting on something in common is a great way for your interviewer to remember who you are. If you find a shared interest in documentary films, or maybe a love for a preferred app, take the time to make this connection clear. Just be aware of when it’s time to move on.

Learn more ways to stand out in an interview here: https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/11-unusual-ways-to-stand-out-in-a-job-interview/

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The Cost of a Bad Hire and How to Get it Right

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

Every hiring manager knows there is a cost to making a bad hire. There are indirect and direct costs – both very real and tangible – associated with bringing someone on your team who just doesn’t fit. But few in the CRE industry have ever stopped to calculate just what those costs are or put the thought into getting it right the first time.

Do you know what you stand to lose by bringing the wrong CRE professional onto your team? Some estimates range as high as $840,000 per bad hire. Have you thought through what it takes to make the right hire and avoid those costs?

Let’s break it down piece by piece to help you avoid the cost of a bad hire and invest in only the right talent for your team.

The Direct Cost of a Bad Hire

The direct cost of making a bad hire is pretty easy to calculate. How much are you paying them in salary, incentives, and benefits? Multiply this by the amount of time they worked ineffectively and unprofitably for you.

Do they have a $100,000 annual package? Did they manage to burden your organization for two years before getting cut? Then you’re out $200,000 in compensation you could have invested elsewhere. That’s $200,000 you could have applied to profitable channels and personnel that instead you wasted on someone who wasn’t a team player or couldn’t cut the muster.

It stings, doesn’t it?

The Indirect Cost of a Bad Hire

The indirect costs are bit trickier to establish, yet they’re very real costs that hurt your business. And they usually are far more substantial than the direct compensation costs.

Time: You’ve spent time interviewing, hiring, and training. And it was all for nothing. That’s time you will never get back.
Productivity: This is different from business to business, but it usually looks like reduced time to market, missed deadlines, misdirected efforts, extra training time, etc.
Employee Engagement: Studies show that the cost of a bad hire includes decreased employee morale and engagement. While difficult to quantify, engagement is crucial to team success. And a bad apple can zap it right away.
Opportunity: Great CRE companies are built on extraordinary people – personalities who make the difference and create and leverage opportunities. A bad hire means so many missed opportunities for growth, better insights, new perspectives, relationship connections, and more.

How to Make the Right Hire

So how do you get it right and avoid the cost of making a bad hire? What does it take to find that rockstar for your team who will be a net gain for your business for many years to come? Here are a few tips:

Hire for culture and attitude, not skills. Remember, skills can be taught. Find someone who has the right outlook and cultural fit for your organization.
Ask interview questions that actually work. Stay away from the cute questions that don’t really get to who this person is, how do they think, and are they in line with your values. What kind of animal they see themselves as is irrelevant.
Do your due diligence. Candidates always look best up front in the interview process. Call their references. Dig into their past achievements. Verify everything.
Don’t make snap decisions. Consider all the data. Don’t rush the process. If need be, partner with a qualified recruiter who specializes in your field. The savings you will incur making the right hire will more than offset their fee.

The cost of making a bad hire is crippling. Your business can’t afford a mistake this big. Invest in the future of your business with a foolproof hiring process.

Sources:

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6 Ways to Set Yourself Up for Success

Leave a Comment / Ask An Expert, Blog, Set Yourself Up For Success

In the Forbes blogs “The Top 6 Actions That Promote Career Success” by Kathy Caprino, she does a great job at highlighting just that. We loved the article so much, we wanted to share some of the points she made.

#1 You Need to Gain Clarity

Bar none, this is the most important action if you want to achieve anything significant in life. You must understand exactly what you want and what matters most to you – what you’ll give up everything for. It can’t be some vague, nebulous notion like “I want to do something meaningful” or “I want to make a difference.” That’s a great start, but you need to drill down deep and peel the layers to understand what “meaningful” signifies to you, personally and specifically.

The reason so many people fail today to create fulfilling and exciting careers is that they simply won’t do the inner and outer work to determine how best to “connect the dots” – to uncover their unique talents, skills, and passions, and find the right career fit that will draw on those talents and passions. They also won’t do the work to see how they are contributing to and co-creating their problems and challenges. As I learned in my marriage and family therapy training, “greater awareness equals greater choice.” Successful professionals commit to increasing their awareness of who they long to be in the world, how they want to be of service, uniquely, and what’s in the way. When you’re clear about that, and believe you’re worthy of your visions, doors will open and new opportunities for your growth will emerge.

Learn More: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2012/11/13/the-top-6-actions-that-promote-career-success/#286883bc1811

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