How Money Talks in Career Management

How Money Talks in Career ManagementHow Money Talks in Career ManagementIn the realm of career development, having significant savings and- just as importantly- having this known to your superiors, gives you an advantage, as you are not highly dependent on your present position and salary to survive. Therefore, you are in a position of power where you can comfortably leave a position willingly or at the request of your employer to find something more suitable. Benefits for When Money Talks An interesting aspect of corporate culture is that money talks. Significant savings offer these important career benefits Increased flexibility in deciding which job offers or work assignments to acceptAdded respect from your superiorsInsurance against pay cuts or unemployment Being wealthy can open the door to job opportunities and buy you the freedom to find a job thats right for you. Your employer will appreciate your focused effort to help the business succeed and may look for ways to keep you challenged and interested. Increased Flexibility When Money Talks Regarding job offers and work assignments, money talks by giving you the ability to say no. With a large schwimmbecken of savings, you can afford to decline opportunities that do not appeal to you regardless of the pay. In the words of financial writer Randall Lane, as interviewed in The Pennsylvania Gazette, the alumni magazine of the University of Pennsylvania, November/December 2010, Money, to me, is just the freedom to do what you want. On the other hand, if you do not have an ample cushion of savings, out of necessity, your options are more limited. It will be much harder to turn down a high-paying position, no matter what the downsides. It also will be exceptionally risky to resist demands from your superiors that you seem unappealing or unreasonable. Added Respect When Money Talks Money talks also in the sense that, almost invariably, an employee who reputedly has significant wealth earns considerab ly more respect from their superiors, all else equal, than someone who does not. This is an interesting lesson in management psychology. The employee who appears to need a job, especially if they may be thrust into a financial crisis by losing it, is an easy mark for unreasonable or excessive demands if management is so disposed. An employee in this position cannot afford to push back, and thus risk a poor performance review or even dismissal. This person, too often, appears vulnerable and is taken for granted by management. On the other hand, money talks in the case of an employee who is reputed to have ample financial assets. This person does indeed have the capability to say no and to push back against unreasonable bestellungs. Management, meanwhile, normally anticipates that such an employee is not a captive to the job, or to the firm. The financial cushion provided by a large pool of savings allows such a person to walk away from an undesirable situation, with few qualms. Accor dingly, management is less likely to push hard against the reputedly wealthy employee than against the one who is not. Career Insurance When Money Talks Given the danger of falling victim to a layoff, a bonus cut or a stealth pay cut, such as when producers are suddenly hit with new chargebacks for their use of company infrastructure, having an adequate cushion of savings provides insurance against the personal financial stress that otherwise might result. Many long-time corporate employees become self-employed entrepreneurs as a result of layoffs or hitting a career impasse among their current employers, and finding that because of age they have limited opportunities for suitable re-employment elsewhere. Having ample savings can smooth such transitions and provide seed capital for new ventures, where needed. Be Careful Accumulating significant financial wealth, and advertising this fact- subtly, but clearly- to management, does not give you carte blanche to become a slacker. Yo ur money talks only if you continue to perform at a high level and thus make your employers particularly concerned about losing your services if they do not treat you appropriately.Meanwhile, take note of the career rationale for changing jobs periodically. A similar effect can be achieved, in some circumstances, by regularly being on the lookout for new and better opportunities elsewhere. This can affect your reputation and may hurt your career prospects. Career Strategy One of the principal reasons for embarking on a career in the financial services industry is because of the above-average pay rates relative to most other employers. Money talks when you make a saving, rather than spending, that additional pay your top priority. Also, tap the investment expertise within your firm to deploy those savings in the most advantageous fashion, and, just as importantly, to become well-versed in the details of investing and financial planning if you are not in these career tracks yourse lf. Unfortunately, too many high earners within the financial services industry fail to internalize these lessons. A number let their spending expand to meet their income, resulting in paltry savings and expensive tastes that are hard to shake, even in extreme circumstances. Ironically, they have mismanaged their careers into letting their high-paying jobs imprison them rather than giving them financial freedom. Do not fall into this trap. Remember that income is not wealth and is constantly at risk of termination with the job itself. Learn how to manage your financial assets to protect yourself. Defense Against Credit Checks A large and growing concern for job seekers is that some employers utilize credit checks in making hiring decisions. Because of this, getting your financial house in order by reducing debt and increasing savings can mean the difference between getting or not getting a position. The basic theory is that job candidates with high credit scores generally are m ore reliable and trustworthy than those with low scores. The validity of this theory is widely disputed, yet many employers still insist on using credit checks, where allowed by law. Note, however, that having large savings and low indebtedness does not necessarily translate into a high credit score. Among the manyflaws in the FICO credit scoring methodologyis that it tends to underrate people with little or no history of indebtedness. Bottom Line When money is not a necessity, you can focus on your career to find something that suits your qualifications, skills, and interests. You will then have the freedom to perform a job that gives you a sense of purpose and meaning.

Useful Office Lessons from Chinese Street-Vendor Sales Persistence

Useful Office Lessons from Chinese Street-Vendor Sales Persistence Useful Office Lessons from Chinese Street-Vendor Sales Persistence Selling and sales resistance are like a river and its bank- more or less inseparable, even though the former is always exerting an eroding force on the latter. Also, like a rushing river, high-pressure selling is persistent, indeed relentless and often suffocating.For a given level of (un)interest in what is being pitched, why will persistence inconsistently pay off- sometimes closing the deal, otzu sich times closing it off? In answering these questions, it may be very important to note the difference between the duration of persistence and its rules. Often, the rules and factors of persistence determine the outcome more than the time invested. For schooling in such rules and factors of persistence, a very good place to stspecies is where I traveled in 2012 the streets of China.Souvenirs of SouvenirsOf curse, visiting any tourist area anywhere in th e world means running gauntlets of vendors and touts. That comes with the holiday territory. Here in Yangshuo, a magnificent karst-mountain ringed, Li River-side sleeping beauty that has been awakened by the kiss of tourism, this once sleepy town has been transformed into a national treasure and souvenir of itself.By this, I mean that, at some point, anyone with open eyes and a logical mind should notice the very peculiar paradox of salesmanship here The locals sell souvenirs as souvenirs of the tourists experience of souvenirs. What, before the selling starts, look like charming lanes, peaceful promenades and quaint narrow streets, have been transformed into crowded souvenir shooting galleries, in which the trinket vendors take their best shot at the shuffling tourists foolish enough to slow to a near sitting-duck halt. There are so many stalls, vendors and souvenirs leaching into the streets that the only experience to survive as a memory of surviving that gauntlet is that of pass ing, eyeing, dodging, handling, haggling over and buying or refusing souvenirs.Grandmotherly Lessons in PersistenceGiven that this can be a tough sell, the sales techniques have to be very good- or very desperate. Here in Yangshuo, persistence, and lots of it, is a bit of both. What is interesting from the recruitment standpoint- since, after all, selling is a form of recruiting, namely, of customers and clients- is how often it works and how often it fails. Even more interesting is why.You dont have to be selling souvenirs to appreciate how persistence is often necessary and how it can badly backfire or wonderfully succeed. It has worked and failed with me as the target in about equal proportions. Reflecting on why the deal has been sealed in some cases but not others, when my interest level in the souvenir was equal- often equally negligible, I have speculated that the outcome of sale vs. no sale has been determined by factors and rules of persistence unrelated to whatever interes t I had at the start or end of the pitch.The supply hintergrund vs. the demand background Think of supply and demand (in this instance of dealing with a souvenir vendor or, for that matter, with anyone who is persistent) in terms of the supply and demand psychological, social and economic backgrounds. These are like the two appearances of a Necker cube- the cube that appears to be receding to the left or to the right, depending on which orientation seems more obvious at the moment. When I resist the persistence, it often is because I am focusing on my demand-side considerations, e.g., I dont need it, dont want it, could find it more cheaply elsewhere and have no friend who would want it as a gift. Perceived only through this supply-side filter, the persistence quickly becomes annoying.On the other hand, if I shift to supply-side considerations, e.g.,why anyone would persist not only in this particular sales pitch, but also in this jobhow much the little money it costs will viscerall y mean to the vendorhow the supply of feasible alternatives may be very limited for the sellerhow many mouths will be fed by the sale of a trinkethow much of a rest the stooped 80-year-old flower vendor could earn for herself with one saleI am more likely to buy- especially since, set against the backdrop of such supply-side constraints and pathos, the greater the persistence, the greater the likelihood of a sale, since the persistence is perceived as a measure of need and desperation, rather than as cause or measure of increasing resistance and annoyance.Back home, the same principle can be applied in the office, as well as the street to make the sale, to snag the client or the candidate, consider whether or not there are some supply-side background factors unrelated to the need for or quality of what you are selling that will seal the deal. Work those into your presentation, or otherwise make them apparent.For example, in pitching a job, it might be useful to insinuate into the pr esentation the effort it takes to have adequately presented such a huge and diversified company. In attempting to stimulate candidate demand, the presentation actually also smuggles in an indication of the considerable supply-side effort that went into it, to create respect and empathy for the recruiter.2. Persistent effort vs. persistent pitch Persistence in the effort to sell something is one thing persistence in using an unvarying pitch or angle is quite another. Irrespective of whether a supply or demand backdrop perspective is operative, persistence of effort with/without persistence of pitch can be a determining factor in whether or not the vendor can clinch a deal.Apart from the freshness of varying the spiel while persisting, the charm, intelligence and entertainment factors in a varying sales presentation that is no less persistent in duration than a merely repetitive sales chant may be enough to tilt the scales into the buy zone.Moreover, varying the argument for the pitch may succeed where grinding repetition will fail, much as drilling for oil in more than one place usually does. The difference is that between a shift to looking for a soft spot and wearing down a rock of resistance by trying to drill through it.As a bonus, the wit, charm, intelligence, grit or creativity manifested in a medley of sales pitches delivered with the persistence of a mongoose tackling a cobra can come across as proof that financially contributing to the preservation of such an engaging vendors genes is a good investment in the human gene pool.3. Self-satisfaction vs. guilt Reassuring ourselves we are nobodys fool can be an enormously satisfying experience (and, as an emotional objective, one of the driving forces behind haggling and bargain hunting everywhere in the world).For persistence to cause a prospective buyer to give that up and instead buy requires emotionally remotivating him or her, through a motivational reversal not unlike that described in Michael Apters m etamotivational reversal theory (which I have elsewhere cited as a dynamic behavioral model governing the interactions of a stick-fetching dog and its master).In terms of reversal theory, persistence can succeed if it causes a switch from mastery to sympathy- which is equivalent to a shift from being nobodys fool to being sympathetic or compassionate.According to the theory, all of us act, feel and shift along various spectra defined by four polar opposites, viz., serious-playful, masterful-sympathetic, conforming-rebellious and autic-alloic (self-interested vs. altruistic) . To make persistence pay off, talent for inducing such a shift or a spontaneous shift in perception really helps.For example, with consistent indifference to buying passion fruit from a cone hat-festooned womans 120-pound load of various fruit, I was nudged into the guilt zone when I focused on the fact that the weight she was carrying in her basket pole surpassed hers. I bought five. That was a case of a revers al in perception.Another very old woman, obviously well into her late 70s or even maybe her 80s, got me to change my mind and jump from the self-satisfaction pole of the spectrum to the guilt and compassion pole by doing one simple, primal thing softly misting over.Her far-too-tired eyes went bleary, as though on the verge of weeping. It seemed spontaneous to me, but when, in other instances, it isnt, its precisely the kind of deal-making talent that can induce a metamotivational reversal from mastery to sympathy.4. (Un)Skillful use of sub-text In any sales narrative, there is much more going on than pure sales presentation and persuasion. As important as the need or desire for the product or service, the costs and benefits of these, the clarity of the information presented, the convenience of the timing, the reputation of what is being sold and the vendor, there is the X-factor how we feel about the seller (in addition to or instead of pity for their supply-side circumstances). fru chtwein importantly, as everyone knows, but many forget, making the prospective customer or client like you (in the sense of enjoying you, rather than becoming like you) helps- a lot.One especially persistent vendor got me to buy a souvenir photo album of Guilin by, in effect, pretending she was deaf or that I was mute, charmingly ignoring all of my reasons for not buying.She never, unlike almost all stall vendors, attempted to counter my points instead, she merely sidestepped them, gently papering them over with more soft spiel.She got the sale because she sold me on her. Her clever indifference to what I was saying was the sub-text of our narrative, and in the end the glaubenszeugnis that successfully got across to me.(A few days later, I gave that book to another much older grandmother struggling to sell oranges downriver, encouraging her to resell it- a case of what comes around, goes around.)In this respect, itinerant Chinese vendors are among the best at making me receptive to them. The stall vendors are pretty good too, but are far more scrappy and vociferous, like noisy carnival touts. Bad combination abrasiveness and persistence.Although far from any corporate office, the low-key wandering vendors, on the other hand, mostly follow many rules of executive-level business practice, while following some framed for the streetalways be politespeak softly or confidentlysustain eye contactremain physically non-threatening (e.g., by approaching slowly, avoiding overly expansive gestures and maintaining a friendly smile and posture- limiting the gestures to persistent product thrusting and dangling)look long-suffering, but not overly self-pityingdo not employ entrapment- giving the product and then demanding paymentpersist, but accept no when given either a real reason for it or a cold adamant brush-off.Most of these can be adapted or refined for productive application in urban offices.5. Bait and Switch In its customary usage, bait and switch means hooking a s ales prospect with one thing before switching the pitch to another (usually costlier product or service). However, there is a second sense of bait and switch very germane to the art and rules of successful persistence. It is the idea that, while baiting- in the sense of arguing with or relentlessly hounding- a prospect, at some point it will be smart to switch from baiting (in this confrontational sense) to something completely different. Specifically, it is a switch to an approach that is less likely to trigger a defensive response, e.g., to a mention of some previously unstated benefits of the product or service not covered in the defensive rationalizations and objections of the prospective buyer.The great danger in trying to overcome the stated objections of prospects is that they are likely to become even more adamant, because of the theirpride (in always being or trying to be right)cognitive dissonance reduction (manifested as a tendency to minimize, ignore or counter the count er-objections to the sale)resentment (of perceived aggressiveness)irritation (in being repeatedly contradicted and/or with the unvarying argumentative sales approach).Although the street vendors of Yangshuo need no encouragement to be persistent or much coaching in how to do it well, many of the rest of us need both, and not only on the supply side of things. In particular, sometimes we have to learn how to (intelligently) persist on the demand side of our lives- for example, to learn how to persist in considering whether or not to make a buy (e.g., of a stock, to ensure weve carefully and thoroughly considered it).The same goes for this analysis of persistence. If youre not sold on it, dont give up just yet. Try a little harder and longer.Your persistence just might pay off.at least for me.___________________Note This is one in a series of articles by Michael Moffa on the scene and on the job in China.Photo The Art of Persistence (Michael Moffa)

9 Common Interview Questions (And How To Answer Them Like a Pro)

9 Common Interview Questions (And How To Answer Them Like a Pro)9 Common Interview Questions (And How To Answer Them Like a Pro) Glassdoors Third Annual Compensation Audit Finds No Gender Pay Gap Lets admit it, weve all laid awake the night before an interview frantically trying to read the employers mind. With the number of job applicants who are actively seeking on the rise, being prepared to answer these questions has never been more important. Youve taken the first step and landed the initial meeting, but now what?You can put your mind-reading skills to the test all you want, but theres no way to know exactly what will be asked(Well, unless you do research on Glassdoor )However, there are a few common questions to think about that can help you better prepareIts difficult to think about where you want to be in five years when youre currently trying to figure out where you want to be right now, but its important for interviewers to understand where you want to take your career. Explain what your plans to contribute to the company would be if you were to land the role.Focusing on your efforts to improve yourself over the next five years is a good way to show employers that youre ready to grow with them. Are you willing to put in the time and effort to further your education? How would you implement a plan to be successful?Odd, yes, but this is not a trick question. Whether youre applying to an entry-level role or an executive position, this question is more about the interviewer gaging your thought process. Its not about a right or wrong. Its about thinking a response out loud, coming to a conclusion and showing how you think critically and solve problems, says HR expert Susan Underwood. A good response would be something like Well, for every CEO, it will be different, but depending on whats most important to business, the bottom line or whats going on that day, thats like ly what the CEO should be checking first, so it will likely vary by day. For me, I would check what is of highest priority first at that given time and respond accordingly.As much as we want to seem perfect when we walk into that conference room, employers know that its just not possible. Its difficult to be put in such a vulnerable position with this question when the process of interviewing already has your nerves in knots. Heres the most important key to answering this question always be honest.Honestly recognizing a fault and showing what steps youve taken to improve upon this weakness demonstrates that you have the ability to look at yourself in a critical manner, fix your mistakes and move forward. Employers will see beyond the weakness youve mentioned and see the important steps youre taking to better yourself.Its easy to get bogged down by this question, wondering what the scenario is and whether you would be required to put on your Olivia Pope white hat to save the day. B ut this question is often presented by interviewers who want to get a sense of your personality and how you resolve challenges, especially if the company or field youre seeking to work in is high-pressure.The key, according to Underwood, is to know how to juggle multiple tasks and find what needs the most attention first and address it. Walk through a few problem-solving steps that you have taken in your current role and expound upon those. Remember, the worst thing you can do is give a one-word response or say I dont know.This is a common question that can be asked in many different ways. Being prepared with a list of strengths that you want to discuss can have you prepared to answer many forms of What are your strengths? Making this list is most productive when youre aware of what strengths will best fit with this position. Im sure youre a speed demon when it comes to texting, but if youre applying for a heavy machinery position, then it isnt worth bringing your texting game int o the interview.Once you have an idea of what skills will be beneficial to this position, find strong action verbs to best describe yourself. Give specific examples to show how these strengths have contributed to the growth and well-being of previous companies or how you would implement them in this position.Proceed with caution Dont blurt out the first negative comment about your current manager who you think has it out for you. Its always a good rule to stay positive in an interview, even if you want to tell your current boss to take this job and shove it. What are some reasons for leaving your current job that show youre motivated, goal oriented and interested in bettering yourself?Again, tread lightly with this one. Often times, we are so eager to get a job that well commit to anything, but be sure you can deliver on your promises. Conversely, this question should not deter you from the role. Just because a recruiter or hiring manager asks you whether you would work holidays and weekends, does not mean youll spend every Saturday night in your cubicle. Use this question as an opportunity to show that youre a team player , willing to fill in when needed, but also dig into what would require employees to work on holidays and weekends. Dont be afraid to be honest if you prefer to not work on certain days for religious reasons, or if you would work holidays but from home. This is the perfect time to dig into the roles requirements and managers expectations.Instead of trying to impress with this kind of unexpected question by saying Rambutan or Dragonfruit, just keep it simple. Choose something that you can provide an explanation for without dying of laughter. Something like A pineapple because I am unique, always stand out and Im sweet on the inside. If youre stumped as to why the hiring manager even posed the question, Underwood offers insight.Glassdoor hears from a variety of employers that challenging interview questions can help them learn more about a job candidate, and in some cases, help them sort through a great candidate versus a good candidate. For instance, if you have three final candidates for a job and all of them are great on paper, how they answer and respond to a tough or challenging question can give the interviewer some added perspective into how they solve unexpected problems, which arise in almost any job at any employer.This is a question where you can show off just how much prep work you put into this interview. Researching a company , job descriptionand employer will help you be able to authentically answer this question. Wanting to join a company because of attributes that werent specifically stated by the employer will show motivation.Just because youve done your research doesnt mean you need to be overly crafty with this response. Just be honest Does this feel like the right step in advancing your career? Do the companys goals and values match yours? Is there a specific connection you have to the positio n or company?Think of positive reasons that will demonstrate why you feel this is a right fit for you and, in turn, why they should feel youre right for the job.