Jobs Ahoy!!! @ The Alumni Network

With fewer jobs being available through job sites nad on-campus recruitment cycles this year, alumni networks are becming more critical for b-school students. An old saying, “It’s not what you know, but it’s who you know” rings particularly true as recruiters are deluged wth qualapplications and seemingly flawless resumes. But even a professional connection, schools are turning towards alumni as a source for fresh job offers, relying on the foundation of trust that many school networks automatically confer.

To read more on this click on to: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/mar2009/bs20090330_869479.htm

The Cycle of Hire and Fire

Not all seems to be lost when it come to high unemployment rates. As many companies have seen lay offs in large numbers, big and small corporations alike seem to have taken a liking to the hire as many as they have fired over the past few months. Boeing Co. cut more than 3,000 jobs in the first four months of 2009, most from its commercial-airplanes unit as airlines deferred orders. But the aviation giant added 106 employees in its defense arm, and is looking for hundreds more.

To read more about this click on to: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124198904713604533.html

Not getting any…think about unpaid internships

It’s that time of the year again. With most business schools getting record application for post graduate study this year, getting your dream internship for the summer is going to get more competitive.  But fret not for you can always look  working as an unpaid intern. Internships—temporary positions that pay little or no salary—are typically designed for college students or recent graduates exploring potential career paths .

To read more about this click on to :
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203577304574280201046918712.html

Building Resilient Leaders Is Critical Now – Dr. Kayes

By D Christopher Kayes, Dean’s Research Scholar & Associate Professor of Management, GW School of Business.

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, was fired from the top job of the company after leading it into a multi-billion dollar company. He would later tell a group of graduating college students at Stanford that “Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

The creative period mentioned by Jobs included developing Pixar, and many other innovations. Job’s story is about resilience. So, What is resilience? Resilience describes the ability to adapt in the face of adversity, stress, crisis and error and involves recovering from challenging experiences.

Why is resilience critical now?

Never has there been a time when resilience has been so critical to the success of leaders. The constriction of worldwide economic growth evidenced by US unemployment hovering around 8.1 percent with at least four states above 10%. Those who remain employed face dramatic budget cuts, the prospect of future job losses and reorganizations. The current crisis only heightens the frenetic, stressful, and fast paced workplace. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that over 4.4 million jobs were lost in 2007 alone, it is not overstating the case that in this generation, building resilience in yourself and others has become critical skill almost overnight.

What factors should you consider when building resilience?

Resilience is a learned behavior. Resilience is not a trait, such as hair color or height; we are not born into a predetermined level of resilience. Resilience begins with a set of attitudes and behaviors that you learn over time. The resilient ‘you’ remains open to new ways of thinking, shows a willingness to bounce back from adversity or failure, and develops an evolving set of skills that adapt to changing situations.  Specifically, resilience means that you continually develop new and varied competencies, improve your ability to assess and make decisions in a situation, all the while remaining humble and inclusive.

Four specific strategies to help build resilience.

Updating. Updating as a strategy for building resilience involves adding to or modernizing your skills to better match the current environment. Compared to prior generations, today’s workers change jobs more often, need to update skills, and may even change entire careers several times over their working lives. Updating your skills and knowledge may be one of the most important steps you can take to build resilience during tough economic times. Although the national unemployment rate hovers over 8 percent, the unemployment rate among those with a college education is only at 4 percent. Despite the economic down turn, sectors like healthcare, education, and government continue to grow new jobs.

Taking the long-term view. Western cultures hold a natural tendency to focus on the here and now, the short term. Too often, however, our short term focus prevents us as leaders from bouncing back from immediate failure. In the U.S., for example, goals tend to be short-term focused, while many Eastern cultures, like those in Japan, China, and Thailand focus on the long term. In response to the economic downturn, Japanese car maker Toyota found a silver lining, despite finding sales plummet in 2008. The downturn allowed the company to focus on retooling it offering, in preparation for 2030! It is not just leaders of large organizations that focus on the long term, leaders of all types need to move beyond short term goals, those that can be accomplished in 18 months or less, and focus on fundamental changes that take years, or even decades to accomplish.

Measured optimism. Take stock of your successes to date. Have you started or even finished a certification (or a year of Graduate school!?), worked through the difficulties of a job you didn’t like, started a business, or raised a family? These are the types of accomplishments that we often take for granted but shouldn’t. Appreciate the things you have, not those you want to accomplish. Being optimistic about the future requires being happy with our past.

Developing relationships. The best learning is about teaching others. This development can take many forms such as becoming a mentor, or coaching someone through a tough spot or a career crossroads.  Developing relationships is about creating opportunities for others to learn. Recognizing and reading the needs of others is also part of developing relationships. As we discussed in class this past fall, many studies have shown that money is often not the best or only motivator. Fully engaging in something means finding challenging and interesting work assignments and creating meaning from the work and goals you set. At its core, resilience involves creativity on the part of you, the leader!

To read or hear podcasts by Dr. Kayes, log on to www.theoaktongroup.com

Linking with the Linked In

By Shalini Dua, Chief Correspondent

Looking for that elusive job / internship? Well, LinkedIn may have the answer to all you career search options. Many individuals had their first online networking experience through purely social sites like MySpace and Facebook, and as the first generation of users had to navigate the murky waters of online etiquette through trial, error and feedback from their peers. Linked In, a pioneer for the online networking for careers niche is no exception. However, the stakes are much higher.  A mistake can ruin future opportunities.  So although it’s amazing the number of connections that can be made online, some discretion should be used when using professional networking sites such as Linked In. Here are some specific tips we found at The Business Blog and ezine articles.

1. Be professional: This one sounds so obvious but it’s the little things that can turn people off. Be clear and concise in your writing and make it interesting. If you can’t hold people’s attention they are never going to find out what exactly it is you do.

2. Keep it professional: No one needs to know all of your hobbies or any truly personal details. The ‘what are you working on?’ option is not equivalent to your Facebook status. Make sure it is regarding a substantial project.

3. Privacy Settings: Be familiar with the privacy options and make sure you are comfortable with them.

4. Invite only the people you know: It is tempting to invite anyone to your network, who looks like they have the connections you need, but unless you have an actual relationship don’t approach them. Building a good relationship is what linked-in is all about and that person is going to help people they have had contact with in the past before they are willing to help a stranger. Building a small network of individuals who know your work and are willing to help you and vice versa is going to give you a much stronger payoff in the long run.

5. When establishing a connection: If it’s not someone you are in touch with on a regular basis, remind people of how you know them, or how you’ve been connected. As above, establishing that relationship is key in getting and holding your audiences attention.

6. Be honest: Don’t lie about your experiences for a couple of reasons. First, you may connect with an old boss or co-worker who can see these exaggerations and spread that opinion to others. Second, you may be asked to perform this task at the next job or at least speak intelligently about it to a contact made through Linked In. A lie will not only make you look bad but reflects negatively on the person who connected you. Lying on Linked In can get you into trouble.

7. Do Unto Others: Make sure to pass along the good karma. Even if you haven’t felt the benefits in this tough economy, help anyone in your network when you can because you never know when it will come back to you.

 
References: http://www.intuitive.com/blog/etiquette_for_linkedin_and_the_professional_networking_world.html

 

 

Blog On…Get a Job

With competition so fierce for every open position these days, even the smallest edge can make the difference in landing you that interview or even a job. One way to gain an advantage: Start a blog about your profession or industry.  Recruiters are now Googling blogsites to find the ‘perfect fit’ for vacancies in thier respective companies.

Read more at : http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-blogging_your_way_into_a_job-807

Tweet tweet, its me…Your new job!!!

Social networking may have had its highs by allowing you to get connected to those long lost classmates and childhood friends, but increasingly people and MBA students are starting find high uses to land that elusive job in this recessionary job market. The popularity of Tweeter may have risen with the likes of President Obama and other fellow political leaders using to air their opinions, now “tweeting” is also catching up with students to find jobs.

Read more at : http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/07/twitter-tweet-jobs-leadership-careers-employment.html

Job Street still has Hope, and it’s called Consulting

– By Ritwik Donde and Brent Mosley, Co-Editors, Business@GW

 

Exit Goldman Sach and Morgan Stanley; enter McKinsey, Bain and the Boston Consulting Group.

Instead of ‘multi-million dollar financing deals’ and ‘mortgage-backed securities’, it’s now all about ‘value creation’ and the ‘five forces’. The shocking decline of investment banking is well documented. Banks have been slashing their workforce and turning away resume-toting, well- dressed finance and MBA graduates by the dozens. Where are many of these potential bankers heading? The answer: Consulting.

According to an article in the BusinessWeek, while the consulting industry shrank significantly during the 2001-2003 period, it has been experiencing slowly increasing growth since. In 2007, total global revenues for management consulting were expected to exceed the $300 billion mark. “When the times are good for the economy, they are good for consultancy, and when times are bad for the economy, they are still good for consultancy,” says Andrew Johnson, Principal at CRA’s Global Industrial Practice. He was speaking at a recently held seminar by The George Washington School of Business Career Center and Consulting Club. As per a February 2009 study by research firm First Research Inc, the US consulting services industry includes just over 250,000 companies with combined annual revenue of nearly $400 billion. Major companies include IBM, Accenture, Deloitte, McKinsey, Electronic Data Services (EDS), and Affiliated Computer Services (ACS). The industry is highly fragmented as the top 50 companies account for around 25% of total industry revenue. The average consulting firm has fewer than 10 employees and annual revenue under $1 million; 75 percent of consulting firms are one- or two-person operations.

Take Deloitte for instance. According to its latest published results, worldwide, consulting is a big business, making up nearly 45% of its $20 billion in global revenue. In 2006, it totaled $8.9 billion, according to Peterborough-based Kennedy Information. And it hasn’t taken long for the other firms to do the math, and quickly rebuild their own consulting arms. KPMG Worldwide last year sold $5.3 billion of consulting, a 12% jump from the year before; PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) $3.7 billion, up 20%; and Ernst & Young $2.4 billion, a 2% increase.

Industry players feel that there are certain verticals that not feeling the pinch despite the downturn in the economy in the consulting business. “Healthcare is not seeing a large shrinkage as it is better insulated than any other industry verticals. While the business from early stage venture capital-backed life science companies has dried up, there is major business coming in from large scale highly funded product companies who are close to launching newer products in the market,” says Stephen Chan, Director, Boston Healthcare, a boutique Washington DC based consulting firm.  Communications consulting is yet another vertical that seems to be shining in this failing economy. “As we look towards more change in the country due to the new government, we expect business opportunities for communications consultants to rise to help companies come to terms with this CHANGE,” feels Grant Zallis, Global Director of Talent and Recruitment at Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates. He further quantified his explanation by saying that his company expects a 4-5% growth this year despite the downturn.

All this means that there is still a glimmer of hope for the MBAs graduating this year. Consulting firms have long wrestled with investment banking firms for top MBA talent. Now that financial services is less appealing to rising business leaders, consulting firms are expected to find themselves competing for MBA talent more frequently against Chinese companies and Fortune 500 companies that are flush with cash.  “More than ever before, we are looking at MBA grads with problem solving skills who are good at building long term relationships with vendors and are ready to embrace CHANGE,” says Victor Reyes, Principal at KPMG’s Business Performance Services practice. Reyes said that although consulting has seen opportunities for growth, corporations are being more selective  than before about how they use consultants and cutting back on consultants on some projects. Interestingly according to a recent study by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) on the 2008 MBA Graduates said that nearly 92% of MBA graduates enrolled in business schools across the United States are looking for a career change to management consulting.

Having said this, not all is good for this industry. The present downturn, sparked by problems within the financial services industry, has swiftly and significantly reduced consulting opportunities among banking and insurance clients. Some smaller boutique firms that serve financial services clients may have trouble surviving in 2009, particularly if banking clients remain hunkered down while trillions of dollars of capital continue to idle in global money market funds.  Yet, as these industry players assert, some practices and firms have almost found new ways to become flush during this challenging environment.

Those that do can count on having more clients pick up the phone when it rings—in both good times and bad.

World’s my Playground: Fortune’s Top 10 companies to work with

Rank # 1: NetApp

Business: Specialises in proprietary network storage and data management.

Rank #2: Edward Jones

Business: Offers financial products at an individual investor level. Currently serves more than 7 million clients.

Rank#3: Boston Consulting Group

Business: Global management consulting firm and a leading advisor on business strategy.

Rank #4: Google

Business: Focused on Internet search, media and advertising services.

Rank # 5: Wegmans Food Market

Business: Regional supermarket chain

Rank # 6: Cisco Systems

Business: Cisco hardware, software and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible — providing easy access to information anywhere, at any time

Rank # 7: Genetech

Business:  This leading biotechnology corporation is considered the founder of the biotech industry.

Rank # 8: Methodist Hospital Systems

Business: A leading US hospital, this acute care complex serves over 40,000 domestic and international patients every year. It is also a comprehensive teaching hospital, with leading specialists in every field of medicine

Rank # 9: Goldman Sachs

Business: A bank holding company that engages in investment banking, securities services and investment management.

Rank # 10: Nugget market Inc.

Business: Family owned, upscale supermarket chain

To read more click on : 

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2009/feb/02slide1-best-companies-to-work-for.htm      

We are toppers!!! Go GWU

 What’s your MBA really worth? Well, a lot depends on what you mean. In their marketing materials, elite business schools focus on starting salaries, which can be quite impressive. But what about 5, 10, even 20 years out? For a long time, that’s been terra incognita—a no-man’s-land of guesswork and supposition. Not anymore. According to a research conducted by BusinessWeek magazine, after 20 years, graduates of three schools have cash compensation that is double, or more than double, what today’s students make at graduation, and none of them are high-profile schools: Georgia Tech, University of Connecticut, and George Washington University.

To read more click on:

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/feb2009/bs2009029_859361.htm?campaign_id=related_AK