Business Beat, Episode 8: Friendly Competition

Streamlining the Federal (US) Hiring Process

The US President has mandated hiring reforms for the federal public service and all of the reforms must by in effect by November 1, 2010. This release from NACE explains some of the changes to the process and provides several links for people looking for work with the federal government or for people who assist in researching these career opportunities

TMZ of the recruitment industry?

This article from Workforce looks at some of the bloggers and blogging trends in the HR community. The post includes the obligatory, is the blog dead? questioning, while at the same time revealing how blogs can have a big impact on big industry within recruitment.

Recruitment blogs and HR blogs can be useful for librarians, 1) if they are engaged in HR in their library or 2) if they are teaching others how to search within databases or place their information within databases used by HR.

I have to admit, I loved that description of Cheezhead as the TMZ of the recruitment industry.

More job satisfaction in the private sector?

This 2010 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey examines government employees in relation to public sector employees and found that in several areas, private sector employees experienced more satisfaction than their public sector counterparts, though the race was very close and tied in some cases.

• Both sectors tied at 86% with I like the work that I do.
• For How satisfied are you with your involvement in decisions that affect your work?, 55% positive responses for Team Gov and 58% positive responses for Team Private
• And for Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job? 72% of government respondents offered a positive response while 75% of private sector respondents replied positively.

Spotted on Government Executive.

Fallacies about promotions

HBR Magazine has an article about career development fallacies. The author looked at the CVs of approximately 1000 executives to determine how executives get ahead. She found there were four fallacies about career advancement:

• Job hoppers can hop their way into a promotion; instead stability with a company and internal promotion seem to lead up the ladder;
• Move up the ladder; instead lateral moves can offer more exposure to senior management and then into a promotion;
• A big company will lead to big moves. We have this problem in the career center: students are convinced they need to work for the Big 4 or the Big Ten or the Ivies, instead of thinking about how they will stand out better amongst a smaller pool;
• Switching industries will hold back your career; instead think how you can bring a fresh perspective. The example about salary is a little fishy, since it means some industries are bargain shopping for managers in other industries.

I have one quibble with this article: I do not know one career counsellor who advises flagrant job hopping, or even tentative bunny hopping, as a way to get ahead in a career. Most counsellors are talking risk takers away from frequent jumps based on brief infatuations with other companies or perceived slights that the job seeker takes as a sign to jump ship, instead of a sign to learn to work problems out.

However, the advice is good for career planners: stay steady, make your choices based on what you want to do and know that sometimes small can become big.