How To Negotiate Your Salary Like A Pro

Salary is one of the toughest matters to deal with when applying for a job. A lot of times it is hard to weigh whether the answers you give will work to your advantage or not, or if the values you give are too low or too outrageous.

Questions on salary are the most crucial ones you would have to answer during an interview. You can get a job and get paid less than how much you are truly worth; or you can lose a job because your expected salary is too high. Clearly, there are just so many possibilities.

So how can you negotiate like a pro? How can you make sure that you will not only get the best job, but you will also get the job that pays you right?

• Research on the salary range. If you don’t have any idea about the salary range you can expect for the job that you are applying for, you are in great risk of being dismissed as being too demanding or you may sell yourself short. To find out about your salary range, you can check the Internet for posted job listings indicating the remuneration. You can also ask friends or former colleagues from the same industry and hold the same position as the one you are applying for.
• Be ready for an explanation. If the company asks you why you are asking for such value, you should be able to supply an answer that will be convincing enough. Aside from saying that the figure you gave is based on the salary range, you should also be able to back it up with reasons why you will be an asset to the company. For instance, if you are applying for top banking jobs in Singapore, be more specific by providing details about your previous employment and how you introduced new high net worth clients to the company.

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Job Hunting While Employed? Keep It Safe

While it is every professional’s goal to move to the next best job, it is something that should be done discreetly, especially if you want to conduct your job search during company hours. And it is completely understandable. You’re available for calls and interviews during business hours, and the companies that might want to hire you are the same.

But just how can you conduct a job search while you’re in the office? Here are the things you need to remember so that you will not be dismissed as the careless, selfish job seeker.

• Use your own email address. For one, emails in the office can easily be monitored and read by company staff. Moreover, it’s simply unprofessional to send out applications with an “@CompanyName.com” address. Use your personal email address, one that is professional-sounding, preferably with your first and last name in it.
• Don’t tap your colleagues as a network for your job search. You do not want information to leak out, so keep mum about your job search and tap your personal networks instead. Talk with previous coworkers, friends from college or relatives.

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Best Practices For Leading Your Employees To Company Changes

As the leader of your team, you have the responsibility of carrying out news and helping your team deal with whatever consequence or effect that news has. Changes in the workplace are very unpopular among employees. After all, they are so used to an everyday routine that breaking it even in a little way can create chaos and decrease productivity. Will you allow that to happen?

You need to be able to effectively guide your team through the change so that they can adjust to it as soon as possible. Here are some of the best practices that will help you lead your team through the changes in the workplace.

• Take responsibility. Whether the change came from the higher-ups, or it came as your own mandate, you need to take responsibility. Don’t tell your team that you had no choice or that the change was inevitable, as if you’re washing your hands of it. There is no way you will be able to lead your team if your attitude is dismissive of the change.
• Create a plan. Change needs to be introduced properly. At the extent that you can control it, do your best to carefully guide your team through whatever change is happening. Create a strategy that will make it easier for everybody to cope.

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The ABC’s Of Effective Resume Writing

Your resume can make or break your career. It is such an important job search tool and crafting the perfect one should be a continuous goal for you. After all, you need it not only after you graduate and when you’re looking for a job, but every time an opportunity comes your way as well. It needs to be updated because you gain experience, some of your skills become irrelevant, and the trends in job search and resume writing change too.

Here is an updated list of the important things you need to remember when writing your resume. The competition for jobs in Singapore is only getting tougher, so brush up on your resume writing skills now.

Achievements

• Don’t simply cut and paste your previous job descriptions. Go into details and word your achievements in a way that is relevant to the job you’re applying for.
• Ditch the clichés. The words “hardworking” and “team player” do not have any bearing anymore on your resume or on your success in a job search. Employers are after specifics. If you want to show that you’re hardworking, list a specific accomplishment that reflects how you worked hard and exerted all efforts to finish a project.

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How To Address A Layoff On Your Resume

No employee in this day and age will stay in a company for years. Professionals know that career advancement is achievable not by staying loyal to a company, but by staying loyal to your career goals and jumping ship if that is more advantageous.

However, there are times when leaving a company isn’t by will, but because of a layoff. Aside from thinking of how you can recover from suddenly losing a job, you also need to deal with having to explain the situation to your future employer. Here are some tips to address a layoff in your resume:

• Be honest about it. One major indicator of a layoff is the gap between two jobs, or the fact that you do not have a job while you’re on a job search. If an interviewer asks you in the future if the cause of the gap between jobs is a layoff, there is no need to lie. Simply state that the company downsized and unfortunately, you were one of those who had to go. It happens. And if the company you are applying into does not understand that, then you’re better off with another company.
• Indicate temp jobs and projects you had while you were looking for a job. If you volunteered, worked as a consultant, or took part-time banking jobs while you were looking for a permanent job, the prospective employer will see some positivity in your being laid off. You were productive and gained some additional work experience even when you lost your job.

• Use positive terms. For instance, instead of indicating that your job was terminated, you can simply put the number of years that you spent working for the company. Now if you’re asked if you were ever terminated, then that’s the time to talk about it.

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Name Dropping During Interviews – Does It Work?

Should you or shouldn’t you? And if you should, how do you do it? A lot of job applicants’ way of small talk with the interviewer is by dropping names. For instance, if they found out that the interviewer used to work in a company where he or she knows somebody, the namedropping may go something like “Oh, you worked at [company name]? Maybe you know [friend’s name]?”

While it is nice and may make you more comfortable during an interview, name dropping actually has some disadvantages, and it may not work for you to get the job. Here are some reasons why.

• The interviewer might actually not know the person you know. That will be too awkward and tough to recover from. And among all the people in the universe, it is your interviewer that you do not want to place in an awkward position. After all, he will decide whether or not you pass the interview.
• The person you know may not really know you. If your interviewer says that he, in fact, knows the person you’re talking about, he might go and ask that person. Now if the person you mentioned is a senior and you know him by name and not on a more personal basis, then you will just place yourself in another awkward position.

• The interviewer might know the person, but not in a very good way. So if you speak highly of the person, you might be dismissed as somebody who is unable to judge a person’s character correctly.
• The person might be working in the company, and he might have a not-so-good performance and reputation. It is much better to speak about a person who’s doing well with his job, instead of having to go through an awkward minute of hearing statements like “Yeah, well she got fired last month.”

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Building Rapport With People At Your Workplace

No man is an island. Even software engineers who seem to face their computers all day every day, need to face the fact that they have to interact with their colleagues. Professionals in sales jobs are not the only ones who should learn how to build rapport since they deal with clients, suppliers, and other stakeholders.

Establishing rapport, therefore, is an integral part of anybody’s career. You need to embrace social interaction, and you need to make it easier for yourself and for your coworkers to work together. There is no job that does not require interpersonal communication. Here are some tips that will help you build rapport in the workplace.

• Why so serious? Joker in Batman said that, and maybe for a good reason. Being a manager does not mean that you should be dead serious all the time. You have to loosen up and let go of your crisp suit sometimes. Have light conversations with your coworkers. You do not want to be the manager who only talks to his staff when there are work issues and urgent projects.
• Maintain eye contact. Whenever you talk to somebody in person, make sure that you maintain good eye contact. Doing this shows that you’re interested in what the other person has to say. You may be an introvert, but rapport is a skill that can be learned, not a talent that you’re simply born with.

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The Truth About Top-Level Posts And Six Ways To Get There

You want to know the truth about top-level positions? Getting there is a different process altogether – it requires a different set of strategies. If you think you’ve already brushed up on your job search skills and that you’re ready to take your search to a higher level, you might be wrong.

From the use of achievement statements to describe your job responsibilities to creating an executive profile that’s tailored for the position, there are just so many things you need to revamp on your existing resume and new approaches to adopt. Here are ways to help you land a top position in a company:

• Detailed list of accomplishments. You simply can’t say that you’re an expert in the finance industry. You need to have some proof in your resume. List your achievements and contributions to your previous companies. Use achievement statements to highlight, for instance, your experience in managing high net worth clients as a wealth management advisor. You can describe your main responsibility by saying something like: “Managed a team of accomplished wealth management professionals who delivered the full range of investment and private banking to high net worth clients.” This achievement statement will convince an employer that you can do the same for their company.

• Highlights of technical and soft skills. You need to be able to show that you’re the complete package. Emphasise both your accomplishments as a technical professional and your achievements as a hardworking sales manager.  For instance, if you’re applying for a sales director job, you need to highlight related experiences and achievements, such as leading a team of 10 sales representatives who always exceeded the quota set by the company.

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