I write this post for my colleagues caught up in the turbulent world of buyouts and are wondering if they have a future in another industry or career. I also have a long-standing debt to my students who need guidance to write a CV and be confident about getting a job when they lack work experience.
There are a number of google sites about competency-based CV. Sometimes they are called skills-based or functional CVs or a combination of both. It is differentiated from a chronological CV which outlines work experience according Continue reading ‘Competency-based Resumes: Taking Stock of your Expertise instead of Employers’
An HR manager raised this question recently in one of our conversations. “How come the graduates now already ask about promotion possibilities when they have not yet started work? I have not even given them a job offer yet!
I must admit I do encourage my students to be prepared to ask questions when they are interviewed. The selection process is very costly for both the company and the applicant when there is no chance for leveling of expectations, when mutual opportunity to inform and to ask is lacking. Continue reading ‘When Applicants Ask Questions or Why Pay more Attention to your Selection Process’
“We ate out” is the common answer I get when I individually ask my friends what they did for their birthdays. It is no wonder restaurants and fast-foods vie for the title of “your family’s favorite dining place.”
“I bought…” is the usual opening line when I ask them what they did for their children on their special occasions. Neither is that surprising as even Obama after letting his daughters and the entire world know that “I love you both more than you can imagine” told them straight away “and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us.” The Continue reading ‘Creativity Audit: Do your Employees Always Outsource their Family Life?’
I meant to be positive in these bad economic times. I still am, notwithstanding the somehow negative title. In fact, I am positive that the economic crunch will make some individuals give up several families and stick to one. You might ask: Is Avic going to start moralizing? Well, besides the fact that I have never stopped, I think we really have to be practical these days. Money is not in abundance and money is a resource that recedes even if you stop moving (For example, even if I stop typing on my keyboard, Meralco will continue charging me electricity for the laptop power.) So I can say that unless a person has a secure job and an elastic income, having two or more families would not be Continue reading ‘“It’s their personal business”: The High Costs of Turning a Blind Eye to Extramarital Affairs in the Workplace’
In the spirit of finding something good in apparently bad times, I propose to re-visit the term leadership. Many of my students believe that leaders are born. In this sense, the marketing adage is true: the first mover has a large advantage. The first school of thought that preached the Great Person theory is still the most popular. This theory says that the leaders have special traits that distinguish them from the others and that makes them assume positions of responsibility. In reality, this theory would hold water only if leadership qualities were limited to physical looks and temperament. You are born either with good looks that can attract millions of followers even only in Facebook, Continue reading ‘Revisiting “Leadership”: The Eight Tests of a True Leader in Times of Retrenchment’
I get different signals about the effects of the US crisis in the local scene. I heard that the corporate and government executives are optimistic that we will not be so affected by it as much as we were hit by the 1987 Asian crisis. The shopping mall owners are happy with the Christmas sales. Even the high end stores were happy to earn sales as consumers were still buying. However, besides the fear of the unknown due to predictions that the crisis will hit us sooner or later (in March? or did I hear in May?), the reality of crunch time is felt in small businesses. At least three HR managers told me last weekend that they are very busy with company restructuring and retrenchment. Continue reading ‘The Positive Side of the Economic Crunch: From Work-Life Balance to Life-Work Balance’
In the Philippines, like in our neighbors in Asia, the family takes precedence in our dreams and goals. We work hard in order to support the family needs like, for example, to give good education to the children. The irony is that, because we want to earn more and not just earn, the family is not given priority time. It is true that a family will starve if all the members simply spend time with each other having a good time. (Even a wealthy family who can afford to have a vacation all year round also need to earn money to sustain their lifestyles in the long run. And in these unstable economic times, only a callous individual will go partying all day and night.) But it is also true that Continue reading ‘The Dilemma of Wanting a Balanced Life and Earning a Living’
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