If the script holds true, many of us are also under-employed. Work is not extremely stimulating, the pay is mediocre and, given education and experience, there is a waste of human potential and talent. In the 1990′s, the term “McJob” was popularized by author Douglas Coupland to describe low-paying, no benefit, no future jobs Generation X was taking. What can you do if all you have are a series of part-time, seasonal or no-future work?

We have had a series of temps in our office to complete some projects. I would hardly describe the work as stimulating and, if this was a full-time job, there would be no future. But, it puts a few bucks in people’s pockets if nothing else (the temps have mostly been students or recently graduated students).

It is what it is -a McJob. However, knowing what I know now, I would take the following out the position:

1. Chance to network and meet people you otherwise would not meet.
2. Make a good impression by being positive and enthusiastic about things. The impression you make by being positive, not over the top Pollyanna positive though, and having a good attitude cannot be under-estimated in impressing people in work environment.
3. Learn by doing and, equally important, by observing how successful people interact with others. Every office has an alpha dog- pick and choose the characteristics you admire about the alpha dog. If you learn one soft-skill trick from each alpha dog you meet, it will help your career development as much as any technical training can.

Number 1 is probably something most University Career Centres do not emphasize enough to grads- expand your network to people you otherwise would not meet in your normal day-to-day life. If you are a younger person, network with older people. If you have worked in one industry only, network your way to other industries (remember you are just another Jon or Mary in your industry; outside your industry, you are something new and refreshing). Again, my broken record advice is volunteer. It will be a good way to meet new people.

A friend of mine once gave some really good advice-  move from McJob to McJob after a modest period of time; the fact you are employable by many different employers says something about you and your network will eventually grow that you end up where you want to be- maybe not necessarily in the order you thought but the journey is as exciting as the destination.

Good luck.

…and here is the depressing Monday morning statistic: if the United States created 250,000 jobs a month (it created 290,000 in April), it would take 7.5 years for the country to recover all the jobs it lost before this rescission.

Where are all these jobs going to come from?

It is not, contrary to popular opinion, going to be from large and mature companies. Meeting quarterly earnings expectations of shareholders (for those companies which are public) means that expanding head-count is not in the cards. Instead, think small, entrepreneurial and immigrant based businesses as the source of your new job.

The United States Census Bureau statistics from 1980-2005 found that job creation came almost entirely from firms from 0-5 years old; without these young firms, job creation in the U.S. would  be negative in most years. In other words, the captains of industry have not been net positive job creators for more than 25 years.  New firms average 4 positions per year in the time-line studied. In 2007, 8 of the 12 million jobs created came from young businesses of 0-5 years.

In 2008, 320 of 100,000 adults opened a new business a month or a rate of 0.32% of the adult population. This is over historical norms of 0.28 %. However, among the immigrant population in the U.S., the entrepreneurial activity rate was 0.51% in 2008, again, above the historical rate in the 0.40′s. The gap between immigrant and non-immigrant entrepreneurial activity is also a historical pattern.

Quite simply, immigrants are more likely to open a business. Since young businesses are the greatest source of job creation, it stands to reason that immigrant owned young businesses are more likely to hire than non-immigrant mature businesses.

Job seekers may well rethink their job seeking options to smaller and younger firms rather than larger and mature firms. Working for smaller and younger means being able to contribute many different skills rather than mastering one small skill and thinking more like a business owner than a traditional employee (since equity is often given in compensation in lieu of benefits).

While the age of the fully-benefited job may be over, its possible replacement towards employees who work in and are asked to contribute to independent, innovative and wealth creating firms may not be such a bad thing for an economy set on consumption for the last 10 years.

(the above stats were from the U.S. Census Bureau and The Kauffman Foundation. Errors are my own)

I told my friend that we may be hiring a summer student and their reaction was “what if they are spoiled and basically useless?” (Generation Y- please hire a public relations firm. Your rep is terrible in the work place). The answer to that question may contain one of the keys to obtaining a summer job.

Most students working at McJobs- low paying, command and control jobs requiring minimal thinking. Yet, many upper mobile students aspire to gain some experience where they can use their mind and pursue their passion. The gap between experience and desired position can be puzzling to some employers (this one in particular). Realistically, students do not have a wealth of experience to fall back on and only the most unrealistic of employers would expect a student, even one in university, to have a industry ready skill set.

In some senses, the saying “hire for skill, fire for fit” does not work in the context of hiring a summer student. Instead, what I am finding anyways, is “hire for fit and teachability” may be more adapt. In the first interview I conducted, I had to stop myself asking the typical “tell me what you liked and disliked about your prior position?” question since: (a) the experience of all candidates will be shallow; and (b) realistically, other than the co-workers, many McJobs have numerous things to dislike.

I ended up focusing more on having conversations about what they did outside of school, who they were, what their interests were etc. The candidate’s answers tend to tell the employer about their personality, their ability to interact with others and adaptability (Did they participate in group activities? Did they stay with something for a long time? Did they work their way up their interest level? Did they live anyway from home for long periods of time?).

For job seekers in their early 20′s, this says almost as much as any experience they may have. Employees don’t enter the work force, summer job or full-time position, not only with a set of skills but with a set of experiences that can help or hinder their performance.  When there is less skill to rely on, life-experience may end up being the differentiation.

It has often been a pet theory of mine that volunteering, playing sports (especially team sports) and pursing passions will give to someone certain intangibles that strictly obtaining an advanced degree alone, with no other interests, will not. I am not sure if there are any parents helping their children to find summer jobs but I hope the above is some food for thought.

Above and beyond explicitly looking for jobs posted on social media sites, the largest advantage of social media in finding a job is expanding one’s network before one even becomes a job seeker. A site like LinkedIn allows a job seeker to expand their network and stay connected (since many contacts do change jobs over time and social media has made it much easier to track people down). Well-executed blogs also allow people to build creditability on the internet to reinforce whatever is stated on a resume. Finally, there is the obvious social media sites that help you find jobs. I did not realize this but many companies now post jobs on twitter before its web page.

However, social media is a double-edged sword. Every post, comment or photo posted on the internet should be thought of as a mini-business card handed out to the world. I routinely Google anyone who has made the short list to be interviewed for two reasons. Firstly, to serve as quick and dirty diligence to confirm what was written in a resume is true. Secondly, to ensure that the applicant is not hiding anything. Although not in a job interviewing context, it is easy to vet potential vendors and suppliers by Googling their names. Although the truthfulness of some of the information should be questioned, a consistent theme, good or bad, about a person does tend to form impressions. The same holds true for job seekers.

Ideally, one should scrub their social media presence well before applying for a job. Take down those college day party photos, set privacy settings to the maximum and, if there is anything remotely embarrassing on the internet that cannot be gotten ride of easily, make sure the issue is tackled head on in the interview. Better to deliver bad news yourself than have the potential employer surprised by something later.

How then do you prove your value in the workplace?

I recently handed my employees a blank piece of paper with two headings on it. At the top of the page, there was heading stating “skills learned” and on the middle of the page a heading stating “projects worked on.” My instructions for my employees was simple. Save the sheet on your computer and update it at your convenience. However, I fully expect at performance review to be completed.

It is not a complicated concept but the point of this exercise from the employee’s perspective is as follows:

1. Employee are tracking their development. Employees tend to stagnate for a wide variety of reasons. One reason is that they are no longer engaged at work, doing the same thing over and over again for a long period of thing will make even the best of employees perform poorly.  A simple log of skills learned and experiences can tell the employee whether they are growing or just going sideways.  It can be used to show your boss that (a) what you have done; (b) assuming you have mastered the skill, you need opportunities to spread your wings which, hopefully, aligns with the business as well.
2. Employee prove value to the employer. Skills and experiences not in your job description, working on projects above your pay grade or above what your contemporaries are doing, showing how you saved money or made money, are important in focusing the employer on your value to them and the business as a whole. As I indicated before, do not assume your boss is keeping track of your career development. They may appreciate you but until you show them (see below), they may not be focusing on your worth to them.
3. It shows you actually care. A friend once described his co-worker as follows: “she actually cares about the business. How many employees can you say that about?” In my experience, more employees are indifferently carrying out their job than those who display a passion for what they are doing. An employee who is actively engaged in improving themselves and logging how they are helping the business will tend to separate themselves from their peers (the key is not to pitch this log as purely a cash grab but as wanting to contribute to the business for fair compensation).
4. It makes it easier to update your resume. I am very realistic that my employees will not be life-time employees so my deal always is my employees should work hard and, in return, I will make sure they learn enough to make themselves employable in case they do leave; it creates goodwill, potential referral opportunities and it is just the right thing to do. But part of the issue for most people who have never written a resume, or not written one for a long time, is that they forget what they did.
5. Quantify the feeling you are providing value. This is most likely the largest disconnect between employers and employees. Employees feel they are under-appreciated or valued poorly. Employers look at statistics (the larger the company, the greater the reliance on “objective” factors). A work log showing that you are carrying out the job of 1.5 employees for the compensation of 1 employee may turn your boss’ mind towards your value.

Obviously, value also depends on “soft-skills” as well. For example, do you get along with your co-workers, do your customers ask for you or does your boss like you as a person? But with so many businesses trying to do a lot with a little, you need any edge to show your value and separate yourself from others. Good luck.

Here are three to think about if you are looking for a job.

Customize your application. Word macros now make it very easy to insert a wide variety of potential employers’ details in the same cover letter. Generally, avoid doing this since it is easy for an employer to pick these out. For example, I once hired for an administrative position and received a resume that kept highlighting customer service skills.

Effective cover letters are customized, speaking to both the employer’s business and the position being sought. For example, if you apply for a  sales position in an IT company, highlight your technical skills and your success in previous sales positions.  If you do not have a large amount of experience, re-characterize your experience in an honest manner. The above-referenced customer service applicant could have told me about all the paperwork they had to process or they had to deal with their book-keeping and accounting department.

The interview begins before the formal interview. Assistants and receptionist tend to be good judges of character having to greet so many people every day. They also tend to have the ear of the boss (never ever under-estimate the worth of a good administrative assistant- they are not “mere” secretaries). How an interviewee treats the office staff has a critical bearing to an employer especially if an employer is finding any reason to cut a deep pool of qualified applicants.

For example, when I worked for a larger company that regularly hired summer students, an applicant showed some attitude to the person giving them a tour of the office. They were cut the second the employer was told about this incident. The morale of the story is be nice to everyone.

Follow up. In the last ten interviews I have conducted, two applicants actually followed up thanking me for my time, indicating they were interested in the position and they were a good fit. Think about that for a second. 80% of the “definitely interview” pile failed to take that one extra step to move one step closer to getting a job (or they were all not interested which I can confirm is not true). As an interesting observation, the two who did follow-up were both younger applicants which seems to dis-spell the myth that younger workers are apathetic job seekers.

Job seeking is like working your way up to the top of a pyramid. You begin at the bottom with lots of other people and other job seekers keep getting cut as one moves up to the next level. Where there are equal candidates on paper, it is often the small things that get you ahead.

Good luck.

How does this relate to you if you are not an employer and actually looking for a job?  What I have noticed more often than not is that employees tend NOT to ask questions about fit, corporate culture, support and expectations at the job interview. If you are looking for a job only for the monetary consideration and not necessarily for career development then I would stop reading now.

If you are looking for a career then it is important to discuss these issues during the job interview. Otherwise, although you will be gainfully employed, I suspect the employment will be unfulfilling and merely another employer on your resume.

After getting some sage advice from others about this issue, I looked back on people I interviewed for non-entry level positions who had multiple employers on their resume in a short-period of time and recalled their interviews. Most of their questions were about compensation and not expectations or fit. It is perfectly acceptable to negotiate the best deal possible but, if a potential employee does this at the expense of attempting to determine whether they will be happy and gain more skills, that job will become another short stay.

As the Financial Blogger points out, the “do you have any questions?” portion of the job interview is supposed to be an opportunity to show your prospective employer that you know something about the employer (and the linked post is a perfect example of asking questions about fit and expectations correctly). It is also in my experience the part of the interview where most potential employees need to improve. Either they ask no questions or they are not attempting to see if there is a future with the employer/overly focused on compensation.

Based on my experience, if you truly want a place to work where you will be fulfilled professionally and personally, these are some questions to ask (this works better if your interviewer is not from the HR department).

1. “What skills will I learn in this position? Will these skills be learned early on or are they part of a life-long learning experience? If it is part of a life-long learning experience, can you tell me specifically how I will learn this- do you have in-house training or an external training budget?” In other words, after the first 6 months of the job, am I just doing the same thing over and over again?
2. “Walk me through the first 60-90 days of the position. Tell me how you typically incorporate a new employee into your organizations?” In other words, do you have a plan in place to make me part of the team or am I a disposable asset in your mind who you will not devote any time or attention to unless I am doing something wrong?
3. “Without naming names, can you tell me about employees who have succeeded at your organization and why they have succeed? Can you tell me about employees who have not and why they did not fit?” Essentially, you are asking your future employer to tell you about their corporate culture and who thrives and who fails. Remember that employers hire for skill but fire for fit.

These are certain probing questions. Some of you may be reading this and saying “Are you crazy? You want me to ask these questions in this job market?” The practicality of the situation is that some job seekers need the money right now worst than career development. It is entirely understandable to ask questions to get you the position and avoid the hard questions.

However, if you are interviewing from a position of strength or want more than just a mere job, then ask the above diplomatically. It is also worth noting that in positions which require a high degree of skill there continues to be a demand-supply imbalance in favor of the employee (my colleagues continue to grumble they cannot find good lawyers, accountants or mid-level trading management). In my last round of interviewing, the leading candidate asked question #1. It set her apart from all the other candidates since it showed me she was wanted to contribute.

Interviewing is a two-way street, if your potential employer cannot answer these questions then at least you know what you are getting yourself into rather than going in with false expectations. To continue the two-way street analogy, interviewing is dating on a professional basis. You would not want to enter into a long term relationship with someone unless you understanmd the expectations and your meaning to your potential significant other’s life beforehand.

Best of luck.

If you are looking for a job, there are a few things to note about your references.

Ask first. This seems really simplistic but if you do not ask and receive permission to provide a POSITIVE reference, they may be caught off-guard which tips off an employer that: (i) you do not respect people’s time; (ii) you are not prepared; and (iii) you are potentially self-centered.

There are laws about what previous employers can and cannot say about you on reference checks in certain jurisdictions. On a very general basis, ex-employers cannot lie and, fearing litigation, basically indicate when you worked and that’s it. Thus, it is important you confirm someone will give you a positive reference by asking first.

Keep it current: I tend not to call any references where the job applicant has not worked at the employer for more than a year. The memory is too stall and a lot of things have changed in the past year. If you have been unemployed for a long time, this is another reason to volunteer. The volunteer organization can provide a more current reference for you and volunteering tells the potential employer you have a strong work ethic and a sense of community- both key factors in landing a job.

You are going to have a hard time finding a job if you have no references from your previous employer. It is a troubling sign to a potential employer if you have no confidence that a previous employer will say something positive about you. If you are listing a previous employer, make sure whatever story you tell in the interview about why you left is consistent with what the employer will be telling your potential employer.

The “gotcha” trend in reference checking is to call co-workers or supervisors who are not on your reference list and to ask questions (welcome to a world run by TMZ). This may not be particularly fair but it reinforces the old saying that you should never burn any bridges in life. If the employer comes back and asks you why an off-reference list person gave you an indifferent reference, avoiding bad-mouthing the person and indicate you never saw eye to eye on matters.

If you truly left on terrible terms with your ex-employer, be pro-active and bring it up in the interview. On a factual basis, tell your interviewer what happened without being bitter and what lessons you have learned. Then list a former co-worker as a reference who can attest to the context of why your last employment experience did not go well (“Charlotte had a difficult boss but she fought through it to be a productive part of the team”).  It is better than the potential employer being surprised during a reference check.

Brief your references. If you are past the initial screening interview, you may want to speak to your references on the type of job you are looking for and what the employer is asking. If they keep probing about your technical skill or lack of experience, your reference should be able to address those questions constructively (“she’s carries herself far beyond her years” or “he picks up things quickly and learns a lot by observing”).

You may want to have a friend call your references to see how they perform and what they say. Most people do not give references for a living so sometimes the wrong things are said out of nervousness (“Jim’s a great guy. We use to close up every Friday night drinks in the company lounge just drinking and talking until they kicked us out.” Oops.)

Avoid bunching your references to one employer or organization. This may be harder for young workers looking for a job but the cold hard truth is that employers look for any reason to reject a candidate. References from one employer, especially in  a job where you did not work long, could raise suspicion that you were a one hit wonder or you have no life outside work.

Try to spread your references among employers, suppliers, customers and community organizations. It shows you are generally well respected by many different groups. In the legal profession, the best references are often from opposing counsel who respected how you conducted yourself.

Best of luck.

What I have found interesting though is how many people do not find jobs because of some self-defeating job searching strategies. If you are looking for a job, I hope you can learn from the experiences of others:

1. Follow the instructions. I advertised a job on a job board asking for salary expectations. Of the first 11 resumes I got, only one actually answered the question. The potential employer thinks: “If you cannot follow instructions before you get the job, how will you follow instruction as an employee?” I understand you can low-ball yourself speaking about salary before you get the job but a simple “I would like to discuss salary expectations with you after I understand the position better and understand what value I can bring to your organization” would have been a perfectly satisfactory response and showed you can follow instructions.  Follow the process or you are merely giving an excuse to a potential employer not to even look at your resume.
2. A resume is not a list of job duties. It is a marketing document about your accomplishments. It is not particularly impressive if you were the assistant manager at the Gap and you greeted customers and supervised staff. What is more impressive to a potential employer is if you helped contribute to that Gap store being the top selling store in the region and you lead a sales staff that stayed together a long time attesting to your leadership qualities. Job searching is personalized marketing. Use action words in your resume to show your value.
3. Put something interesting about your work history or yourself in your resume. It is a conversation piece in interviews. You read enough resumes and they all seem the same. You attend enough interviews and the answers seemed canned too (so are some of the questions, he writes guiltily). Everything and everyone just blurs into one. But you end up with something slightly unorthodox- emphasis on slight- and it stands out. I ended up interviewing someone simply because they had such an interesting work history. On a separate occasion, I had a long conversation with a person on their hobby of long-distance swimming (think large bodies of water).
4. The more you can make your interview into a conversation the better. A first interview is a like a first date. It can either be punctuated by a series of awkward silences  or it can be a free flowing conversation. Everyone gets canned interview questions from the top 50 most common interview questions. Be prepared for them. The number of younger job seekers who flub even the simplest of questions was astounding; I asked someone what they liked doing outside of work and they could not answer the question other than “I like to go out.” The more you can move the question from a strict Q & A format, the better off you will be especially if you can begin to guide the conversation to highlight your strengths rather than reactive to questions given to you.
5. Be careful on the use of email on follow up. Emails lack tone, subtly and nuance. Someone who was hiring at the same time as I was asked me if a job applicant’s follow up email seemed pushy (…and, yes, please do follow up. Another deadly sin of unsuccessful job searches). As it read, it could have been interpreted that way; the applicant was trying to convey how good of a fit they were for the position but it read at times as if they were trying to brow beat the employer into hiring them. You want to stand out from other applicants for the right reason. A hand written note or a well scripted voice mail may help you better than a plain old email (which could go into spam anyways).

This is a particularly tough job market for younger workers. Nurseb911 has some great tips on how younger workers should look for a job. I would whole heatedly agree with his first tip: market yourself. Network to expand who you come in contact with and you never know what opportunities may arise. For those who have bad connotations of the concept of networking, I do not mean glad handing everyone, kissing babies and saying “let’s do lunch” to everyone you meet. I mean just expand your circle.

Finally, one last thought. If you have given up looking for a job for a while,  please volunteer at a local charity. Having volunteer for one myself, charities need money but they also need talented and energetic people who can lend a variety of skill sets.  From an employer’s viewpoint, it also shows you have a heart, have energy and you are embracing new opportunities rather than have them come to you (not to mention the networking opportunities). Best of luck.

If you are in this situation or your company may soon be facing the prospect of bankruptcy or receivership, do you have any rights?

Under the Canadian Wage Earners Protection Program, any employee who is NOT: (i) director or officer; (ii) in a managerial position; (iii) have a controlling interest in the business; or (iv) did not have an arm’s length relationship with the foregoing, can be eligible to receive payments for unpaid wages. However,  employment must be terminated due to bankruptcy or receivership of the employer.

Assuming one falls within this class, an employee is eligible for unpaid wages (including vacation, severance, disbursements, bonuses and, as decided by a B.C. case, union dues and health care premiums usually paid by the employer) for the six months period preceding the date of the employer’s bankruptcy or receivership if it occurred before July 8, 2008.

The maximum amount an employee can be paid is effectively the greater of $3,164.00 or 4 weeks of the maximum EI earnings (currently $3,254). It is actually a bit more complicated than that but this is the effective maximum rate.

Here is where things get a little more difficult. Suppose the business has little to no assets  and the trustee in bankruptcy or receiver receives little for liquidating the assets of the business to satisfy creditor claims. In this case, is the employee still eligible for the maximum eligible amount?

Much to the dismal of secured creditors, employees have a “super priority” of $2,000 maximum over and above secured creditors, other than registered equipment financiers, and the government. In plain English, IF (see below why this is in capital letters) the assets of the business are not enough to satisfy the creditors, all the employees have to be paid up to $2,000 each before the creditors receive anything (lender side bankruptcy lawyers are up in arms over this). The employees may not be paid their maximum but they could be eligible for up to $2,000 each before the creditors.

This works well in theory but many businesses that go under were basically using government remittances (EI and CPP) to fund the business in its last days. These “source deductions” are held in trust for the government (they were never the business’ monies to begin with) and the trustee or receiver is basically liquidating assets to satisfy the govenment’s priority. Thus, in some cases, this $2,000 super priority may be a hallow victory which looks great on paper but does not match business reality.

The other catch is that trustees and receivers administer the program and have a duty to not only account for any unpaid wages to an employee but to also deduct source deductions if and when the unpaid wages are paid. In other words, trustees and receivers are co-opted tax collectors.

More information on the Wage Earner Protection Program can be found here. Just remember that employment matters falls under provincial jurisdiction except when the business is bankrupt which is when the Federal government asserts jurisdiction. Thus, questions as to employee rights outside of bankruptcy should be directed to the province or to a qualified lawyer.

For American readers, the following is a quick and dirty article on employee rights during bankruptcy in the U.S. (bankruptcy and employment benefits are also a federal matters in the U.S.) and a fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Labor on employee benefits during bankruptcy (especially important for those with 401K).

Best of luck.

Special thanks to my regular columnist, Mom2KG, for research support (the errors are my own).