We're All Replaceable - Are You Prepared?

I recently read an opinion piece in the New York Times by Dan Lyons, who worked at a software company where it was a matter of routine to . In the article, he details how involuntary turnover (i.e., getting fired or laid off) was the norm. The fact that you could be fired on any day for any reason was routine.

Rough and tumble corporate cultures are nothing new. There was an article last summer, also published in the New York Times, about the bruising culture at Amazon, where they detailed the employees' tears that seemed to be the norm, at least at the time of publication. I myself have worked in an environment where the management model was capricious, to say the least.

While not every company is a meat grinder, the truth of the matter is that deliberately tough work environments exists, and employers aren't necessarily selling themselves as best-in-class places to work. They demand results, and the agreement is simple: We give you a paycheck, you work in the environment we choose to foster.

Websites like Glassdoor will show you reviews of companies' work environments by former and current employees. My guess (and it's just a guess) is that this increased level of transparency has led some companies to embrace the fact that working there isn't going to be a Shangri-La. It's kind of freeing for executive leadership, in a way -  if people know you're not too worried about employee engagement, you can focus that energy on producing results.

Going back to the opinion piece mentioned at the beginning of this post, the detail that really caught my attention was that Lyons' employer evaluated employees in their appraisals with a metric called VORP - value over a replacement player.

This is a baseball statistic that general managers use to decide when to trade or cut their players. In other words, if there's a second baseman on the market who can do the same jobless, or deliver better stats for the same pay, it tells the GM that they may want to make a change at second.

This, according to the article, is transparent to employees, they can tell immediately how much the organization values them. What's scary about this, in my opinion, is that Major League Baseball is a truly elite work environment - at any given point, there's only 750 positions available at the highest level. And these players are paid elite money to deal with the uncertainty - and the level of performance they are expected to deliver.

The average MLB player knows the odds - there are hundreds of thousands of people competing for his job. And his career averages 5.6 years in length. Longevity isn't necessarily part of the equation.

But the fact that this practice has entered the mainstream should serve as a wake-up call to employees in general. We are all replaceable. There is always somebody ready to come along and do our job.

The best thing to do, is to be prepared.

• Be self-aware. Are your skills up to date? How about your soft skills, do you get along well with others? Your employer and coworkers are aware of your strengths and weaknesses, and you should be, too. If you realize you're lacking in a certain area, work on developing your skill set. Make the time, it's worth it.
• Know where you stand. Have regular touch-bases with your manager. Engage in open dialogue about your performance and expectations. Make sure you're both aligned.
• Keep your resume current. And your LinkedIn profile, too. Change may come faster than you anticipate, and not necessarily on your terms. You need to be ready in case opportunity knocks.
• Always. Be. Networking. The worst time to start building up your connections is when you need a job. You should have that network in place and give it some TLC. Pay it forward - help people in your network when you're in a position to do so, so that others have a reason to give you a solid. Be nice to people, it pays dividends.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Get an Internship – At Any Age!

Internships are a great way to gain real-world experience in the workplace.

For those who don't know what an internship is, It's a short-term job (usually about 10 to 12 weeks in duration) where you get the opportunity to roll up your sleeves and learn some real-world skills at an employer. And the company gets the chance to try out some new talent without the long-term commitment.

An intern may or may not be paid for their time at a company, but real payoff for the intern is obtaining academic credit and some hands-on work experience they might not get in a seasonal job flipping burgers (which I did several summers - I probably should have done more internships).

There's written that says you need to be a wet-behind-the-ears college kid to get an internship, although it helps. In fact, this year Robert DeNiro starred this year in a movie as a 70-something intern in the fashion industry.

If you're serious about pursuing an internship, you'll need the following:

• Availability when the internship is offered. It's usually a full-time or part-time gig taking place during standard business hours.
• A healthy sense of modesty. The office intern holds a prestige level somewhere below a recent graduate hire. Often below the janitor or receptionist, too. You need to be willing to do whatever is asked of you, no matter how mundane the task. Without being insulted.
• Eagerness to learn. Most of the time an internship will offer meaningful work that enables you to build real-world experience. Be open to new assignments. Ask for new ones when you've completed the first round. The goal is to learn not just technical skills, but how the office environment functions, and excellent work habits.
• Willingness to work for peanuts. The pay you would receive during an internship will often stink - or be nonexistent. Remember, the work experience is the true compensation, as it will help build skills and potentially prepare you for that full-time job after graduation.
• Academic credit. Most companies offering internships are willing to do so if you can get some sort of credit for your work, or if it at least contributes toward your learnings.
• A clear sense of what type of internship you seek. Don't pursue marketing internships if you're an accounting major - unless you plan to change career paths. Seek an internship that will give you the experience and skills you desire.

Okay, you're good with everything an internship entails. How do you snag an internship, even if you have more than a few gray hairs?

• Enroll in an academic program related to your area of interest. It doesn't necessarily need to be a full degree-bearing program. Sometimes participation in a certification program may be sufficient for an employer to take the plunge.
• Set aside the time you need to do the internship. You need to be available when the internship is offered.
• Visit company websites and apply. Often, major corporations will post internship positions on their corporate sites. Or, they will post them with college career centers. Start submitting your resume!
• Find corporate recruiters on LinkedIn and send them your resume. A well-worked cover letter stating your reasons for applying may put you into consideration.
• Learn the lingo. This goes equally for college students and older folks. You need to understandthe terminology used in their workplace. You want to speak their language when the recruiter calls you to learn more about your interest.
• Demonstrate the value you can add.  Do you have particular skill sets which the employer may find valuable during your internship? Make sure to sell the heck out of them.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Answers to Your Questions- Why Do Companies Advertise Job Openings When They Plan to Hire Internally?

Sometimes, they just gotta...

“Why do companies post openings when they know they are going to hire someone internally? I have lost out to many positions because the company already had an internal candidate in mind. The companies I have applied to are big and small, public and private.  I have started to ask if there are any internal candidates applying for this role and the answer is usually yes.”

I love this question, because it addresses a widespread frustration among job seekers. Remarkably, there are several reasons why a company may post a job opening to the outside world while they have an internal applicant in the wings:

• Company policy requires them to post every job. Every. Single. One. The bad news is, this frustrates external candidates to no end. The good news is that the company values internal movement and promotion of employees over external applicants, and gives internal applicant a chance at mobility. Should you get the job, at least you know you hit a high bar and you’ll get the same consideration for future opportunities.

  1. Union rules. Some collective bargaining agreements have it written into their contracts with companies that all jobs be posted for internal employees.

  2. The company wants to see who else is out there. Maybe the internal employee is good – but not that good. Often the posting rules indicate that, all qualifications being equal, the internal employee receives the nod. But if the external applicant holds better qualifications, the outsider gets the job.

  3. The hiring manager hopes a specific internal employee will apply. Sometimes the internal employee may be asked to apply, but ultimately decides she’s happy in her current role. It happens. And if the company hadn’t advertised outside, they wouldn’t have any candidates in the pipeline.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.