Hiring Window Is Open at the Foreign Service

By EILENE ZIMMERMAN

Published: December 20, 2008

A RARE bright spot has appeared in a job landscape dominated by layoffs: the Foreign Service.

For the last several years, hiring in the United States Foreign Service was minimal because of a lack of Congressional funding. In addition, war has created an urgent need for diplomatic personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as officers have moved to these countries their previous jobs have remained unfilled.

So, in the last several months — with a new president on the horizon and new funding from Congress — both the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, or Usaid, are ramping back up.

Read the article

More Companies Are Cutting Labor Costs Without Layoffs

New York Times
By MATT RICHTEL

Published: December 21, 2008

Even as layoffs are reaching historic levels, some employers have found an alternative to slashing their work force. They’re nipping and tucking it instead.

Read the article

Joy! In "Where the Hell is Matt?"

It's Time Magazine's #viral video, and when you watch it, you can't help but feel joy. Sponsored by Stride Gum, its genesis has an interesting story . . .

Matt Harding is a 32-year-old videogame designer who quit his job in 2003 to travel around Asia. Along the way, he recorded and posted a short video of himself doing an elbow-intensive jig in Hanoi. That clip got passed from one person to the next and eventually got the attention of Stride Gum, which decided to sponsor two more of his trips. In his latest video, Harding visits 42 countries over 14 months and invites the locals to join in the fun. That includes everyone from some Huli Wigmen in Papua New Guinea to a group of school kids in the Solomon Islands. The sheer silliness and joy of Harding's adventures will keep you smiling long after you've watched them — and give you a serious case of wanderlust.

It has just about as much to do with jobs and internships as "Hamster on a Piano," but sometimes, you just need to smile. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Stride Gum.

Using MBTI to match college roommates

(Take a look at the comments section of this posting on insidehighered.com--the academic psychology community is *not* a fan of Myers-Briggs.)

If college freshmen knew more about their roommate’s personality type, would they be more likely to get along with one another? Some small liberal arts colleges think so and have invested in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) — a well-known personality assessment — to either match roommates or resolve conflicts between them.

Social Media to Replace Recruiters? Right, Just Like Robots Are Doing All the Work Today....

From the Fistful of Talent blog:
I love it when lame studies project the elimination of an entire industries. Ever see the movie 2001? Weren't we all supposed to be chilling at this point, allowing the computers and robots to do all the work, while we moved toward the plane called self-actualization?

Right.. I know... We're still doing the work. That sucks, but hey, it's job security.

Here's another bold prediction. Some experts see the downfall of recruiting agencies, which you and I know as "headhunters". It seems this set of experts sees the rise of social networks, combines it with how the younger generations like to connect, and concludes that soon we won't need headhunters. The social networks of the younger generations will do the work, and the employee referral will rise as the preferred alternative to headhunters.

SIS students step into virtual classroom

BY ADRIENNE FRANK

“Good morning,” chorused the three AU undergrads, as they settled into their chairs before the webcam in Hurst Hall’s Social Science Research Lab.

“Good evening,” responded their colleagues, situated in a similar classroom, half a world away.

Clearly, this wasn’t going to be your average student presentation.

For six weeks, student volunteers Kaia Range, Christal Louison, and Sara Passaro have worked with two students from the Modern College of Business and Science in Muscat, Oman, on a joint paper about the religious and cultural differences between the United States and the Middle Eastern nation. Once a week, with help from graduate student Katherine Davies and Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) staff, the students chatted via video conferencing about everything from clothing and food to education and entertainment.

The project is part of SIS professor Bram Groen’s cross-cultural communications class and during the Dec. 3 video conference, each group presented their findings.

“Now that technology has become so sophisticated, I want students to seize the opportunity to meet and share life experiences with people from all over the world,” said Groen.

“When they get out into the working world, the first thing they’re going to be asked to do is work on a virtual team,” he continued. “We’re preparing students for that.”

Thoughts on NASPAA Career Professionals Conference in Berkeley

Travis Sheffler and myself were fortunate to attend the NASPAA Career Professionals Workshop in Berkeley this week. This conference served as a great opportunity to not only share best practices with our colleagues, but to also learn about employment trends that will have an impact on our students.

We heard from a panel on corporate social responsibility(CSR). This is a very hot relatively new career area. Raj Sapru of Business for Social Responsibility said that although there are some expectations that some corporations may cut back in this area due to the economy, he feels that they will generally continue sustainability efforts due tho their long-term investment in it. He also sees CSR as a good opportunity for public policy students because of their expertise in regulations.

Dr. Frank Benest, the former city manager of Palo Alto, California and now with ICMA, spoke about what he deemed an "historic opportunity" for millennials to find opportunities in local government due to a large exodus of baby boomers who are now retiring. He predicted that today's economy may constrain hiring somewhat for the next two years, but that a strong hiring trend for millennials will persist.

Nick Ellis the managing partner of Bright Green Talent, a green recruiting firm said that DC is a hotbed for environmental jobs, especially with the incoming Obama Administration. He also stated that transferable skills are very important because the green industry is such a nascent one. It is also one of the few where salaries are rising.

Hearing from these practitioners provided me with a small ray of hope in such trying economic times.

Taking One (Percent) for the Team

From insidehighered.com

At Brandeis University, faculty are considering whether to voluntarily forgo 1 percent of their salaries next year to prevent possible layoffs of support staff.

“It’s not painless for us, but it’s not a huge hit to take,” said William Flesch, the Faculty Senate chair and a professor of English literature.

Lawyers are still vetting the details of the proposal but, in short, interested faculty would contribute to the cause either by forgoing 1 percent of their paychecks, or via a charitable contribution to a reserved Brandeis fund. Faculty would volunteer individually and anonymously (“only the payroll office would know,” Flesch said), without any cuts to their listed base pay. And, to avert concerns about freeloading, contributions would kick in only if there is a critical mass of willing faculty — if those who volunteer collectively earn at least 30 percent of the total faculty salary pool within the College of Arts and Sciences.

Virtual Meditation Rooms for Peaceful Sounds

Need to destress at work today? Gaiam Life has virtual meditation rooms with peaceful images and sounds that could help you on stressful days . . . or hours . . . or minutes. Try the forest room for birds softly singing or the water room for sounds of surf. There's even a link on how to meditate for beginners.

Gaiam Life was created by the eco-friendly product company, Gaiam, and describes itself as a, "first attempt at using the Internet as a gathering place to communicate our values and to provide people with a gathering place to share thoughts, ideas and feelings about the world we live in and our relationship with it. We hope that our microcosm of the world community is a nurturing, supportive, positive destination for people seeking health, wellness and sustainable living." They are based in Boulder, Colorado, and currently have one position open on their careers page for an applications specialist.

FACEBOOK: Just because you end up in the National Archives doesn’t mean that it will become public information.

So you're thinking of applying for a position with the new Obama administration. You've answered the incredibly personal questionnaire and promised that there's nothing embarrassing in your online presence, or maybe you admitted there was, but promised that you could explain it.

Um . . . where will all this end up? Afraid that your life will be an open book? Eamon Javers soothes your worries in this Politico piece about who keeps all these records from 15,000 applicants. The upshot is that while, yes, they may be in the National Archives, they probably won't be public.

Photo by Takomabibelot.

Job Search Tips from Indeed.com

Our fearless leader, Katherine Stahl, forwarded these online job search tips from powerful job search engine, Indeed.com. Friendly reminders include . . .

• cleaning up one's act - from online profile to cover letter typos
• choosing job sites carefully
• keeping it focused by NOT applying for everything
• avoiding scams

We give our students similar advice, but this is nicely updated to include the online world.

Students Face Financial Challenges as Family Budgets Shrink

Here's a story from The Daily Californian (UC Berkely's student publication) that's not such new news. Students are working more hours, on top of their full time loads, to help pay for college. High school seniors are looking more at application fees in deciding where to apply, not just the bottom line. But the one bright spot is that FAFSAs, based on the previous year's tax returns, can enable families not previously eligible for aid to have help for the next academic year.

Photo by Matt Glaman

Lenders Worry That Colleges Don't Yet See All the Dangers

The nation’s student-loan companies remain deeply worried about their financial health. They may now be worrying just as much, however, about the willingness of colleges to recognize their own financial peril...

“I think they’re in trouble,” said Daniel M. Meyers, president and chief executive of the First Marblehead Corporation, a leader in the marketplace for private student loans, of the institutions he visited during a recent tour of college campuses.

“I wish to say that I saw schools' being way more proactive and way more concerned about their current revenue picture,” Mr. Meyers said. “But I haven’t seen too much of it.”

"Lowball" job offers -- from WSJ

Responding to lowball offers
Job seekers are finding salary offers are getting smaller as the economic crisis continues, and many are being offered less than they currently are earning. "We are on the cusp of a trend," says Mark Royal, a senior consultant at Hay Group. If you still want the job, experts suggest carefully crafting a counteroffer asking for a faster pay review or inexpensive perks instead. The Wall Street Journal (free content) (12/2)

from US Chamber of Commerce

Poll results: Does your organization use social-networking sites to vet job candidates?
From last week's poll:

• 10% said yes -- we look everyone up on the major sites, as a matter of policy.
• 48% said yes -- it's something many hiring managers do, although it's not official policy.
• 38% said no -- we're just not interested in what people put on those sites.
• 4% said no -- company policy bans workers from accessing such sites while on the job -- including hiring managers.

Private Sector cuts 250,000 Jobs

Reuters reports that jobless claims are at a 16 year high, and the economy isn't expected to start recovering until later next year.

Watch an AP Video summarize the situation. Read Paul Krugman's assessment of the "depression economy."

Photo by cliff1066.

Students and Families Finding College Unaffordable

The annual report, Measuring Up 2008, from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found that while family income has risen 147% since 1982, the cost of college has far outpaced those gains by increasing 467%. Student borrowing has doubled, and we are at a point where older Americans are more educated than younger Americans. The US ranks 10th in the world now in terms of population with post-secondary education.

What may be even more illustrative is the percent of family income that goes to college education compared to ten years ago, and the statistics that lower income families actually receive less aid that upper income families. The New York Times has an excellent summary if you want to start with an overview.

Nonprofit Hiring Freezes

Our own Robert passed this information along. From The NonProfit Times:

Almost one in five nonprofits that responded plan a hiring freeze while 13 percent plan a reduction in their marketing budget, 8 percent a reduction in staff, and 6.5 percent a reduction in programming. More than 21 percent
responded with “other” changes, which included among other things, a four-day work week, 5-percent cuts in all budget areas, not hiring a major gifts officer, a one-year wage freeze, reducing health insurance benefits, and postponing the announcement of or at least reviewing plans for a capital campaign.

And of course Joan passed along the sad news about the Everett Public Service Internship Program closing down.

Photo by Stewart Heath.

Malcom Gladwell's 'Outliers'

Malcom Gladwell’s new book, Outliers, was released last week. I read it over the weekend, on the theory that I had roughly 60 days — 90 at the outside — before I’d heard it referenced at so many conferences that mere mention of the central anecdotes would cause me to reach for a hotel pen and stab myself in the eye as a distraction from the pain. I believe the medical term for this is “Thomas Friedman Syndrome.”

From Chronice of Higher Ed
Kevin Carey is the research and policy manager for Education Sector.

Fearing the numbers With the job market pendulum swinging away from them, job candidates are reluctant to reveal their salary histories and demands

Washington Business Journal - by Jennifer Nycz-Conner Staff Reporter

When Robert Williamson finished his master’s in business administration in the early 1990s at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, he believed his shiny new credential came complete with the promise of a job for life.

“That’s not been the case,” said Williamson, who asked that his name be changed due to a continuing job search. “It’s been disappointing, and quite frankly I’m embarrassed, if not ashamed … that I’m out of work.”

Williamson, a management consultant who moved his family to the Washington area in 2002 from the San Francisco area, once had a minimum salary requirement of $200,000. He scaled it back when he entered government consulting and is about to lower it again, after being laid off from BearingPoint Inc.

Although job candidates have always dodged the inevitable salary question presented by hiring managers, their reasons for doing so are changing with the slowing economy. When employers were struggling to find talent, job candidates would typically avoid giving an opening number to negotiate a higher salary. But now that companies are slowing hiring — and in some cases laying off people — the pendulum has swung toward employers. Applicants who are willing to take a pay cut are afraid of getting screened out on salary alone. They are worried less about gaining salary increases — and more about just getting a salary.