Counterpoint Dont Apply For Jobs Online

Counterpoint Don't Apply For Jobs Online 55 Just because you're shown a path doesn't mean you need to take it. This is a guest post by Roderick Lewis. It is not easy for today’s job seekers: social unrest, crippling debt, and mass layoffs. Whether you are a current student, recent graduate, or restless professional, you’ll find that the burden of your job search is borne by you, and you alone. Don’t expect any favors or tips from the companies for whom you want to work â€" especially the “so-called” great places to work. Their objective is to survive and prosper in an increasingly competitive global market that has nothing to do with your desire to get a job. You bear the burden of trying to figure out what’s fact versus fiction as you begin your quest towards getting hired. Standing in the path of truth and transparency will be a plethora of vague job postings, ubiquitous job boards, flashy career sites, gatekeeping recruiters, and propaganda-wielding employer brands â€" oh my!eval It’s enough to strike a sliver of fear in even the most intrepid job seekers. Getting extended an employment offer these days is not for the faint at heart. You need a sound strategy, executable tactics, and an ability to avoid job search tar pits in order to get the ultimate prize â€" an employment offer.eval It’s all a game â€" a shell game But not like any shell game you have ever seen. In this game, you do not know the rules, and there is no user’s manual. Yet, you’ll be expected to play along until the music stops and you’re the one who is left without a chair to sit on. Welcome to the corporate recruitment game: where lies are disguised as half-baked truths, obfuscation is the norm, and transparency is the exception. It’s a wonderful game indeed â€" for the employers that play it, of course. Why? Because they get to cherry pick the best applicants from the daily harvest of online job applications while maintaining their positions as employers of choice. And for all those hundreds of thousands of job seekers who don’t get selected for an interview â€" let alone the courtesy of an email rejection â€" they will be left scratching their heads wondering if it was even worth their time (and effort) to apply. But no one ever said you had to play the same game as everyone else â€" you just need to play better than everyone else. What is the point of the formal recruitment process? Is it: to get an interview; or to get a job? Most job seekers are so busy trying to get an interview that they forget the real objective is to get a job. The two objectives are completely different and will affect the way you plan your job search. When viewing the recruitment process as a journey to get an interview, you’re basically setting yourself up with the nebulous goal of trying to appease the pleasures of a corporate recruiter. You are trying to create the perfect application that will pass through multiple recruitment process checkpoints before it meets (if you’re lucky!) the actual eyes of a corporate recruiter. And it will more than likely be an incompetent recruiter at that! In the formal recruitment process, all roads lead to a recruiter. Wise job seekers follow the maxim: “Recruiters are to be avoided, not engaged.” Why would you invest so much time in an online application just to get a “screening” interview with a recruiter whose business acumen is suspect at best, and non-existent at worst? On the other hand, if you approach the recruitment process as a journey to get hired, then you are trying to get a job â€" not an interview. Therefore, you will eschew the formal recruitment process that is administered by corporate recruiters, and create a personalized recruitment process that is tailored to your specific objectives. All of your hard work and effort are now put into getting an audience with a Hiring Manager â€" not to interview, but to get a job. The interview process itself, whether given by a recruiter or Hiring Manager, is inherently a screening tool that favors the interviewer. You should never allow yourself to be interviewed in the traditional sense because it instantly positions the recruiter as the “lead” and you as the “follow” in the recruitment tango. Think about it, the interviewer is assuming the role of the “selector” while you assume the role of a job beggar â€" or more appropriately, someone who needs a job more than the company needs an employee. How does this give you any advantages, or position you as a resource person to be desired by the company? It doesn’t. Therefore, a focus on getting hired means that you find ways to present your employee value proposition to the benefit of business-minded decision makers at your target employers. Make no mistake about it, there are only two choices you can make when conducting your job search campaign: apply online to be screened by a recruiter; or speak directly to a Hiring Manager. Option one is loaded with the trap doors and fake mirrors that form the heart of the corporate recruitment game. Option two is the road rarely taken that bypasses the game. Many job seekers are inevitably drawn to option one because they are unable to break the “psychological rules” of the corporate recruitment process which imply that the only path to become an employee is through the bosom of the recruiter â€" the online application. It is standard corporate recruitment practice to lull job seekers into believing there is only one path to getting hired. This belief is nurtured by the explosion in online job boards and corporate career sites. Recruiters are all too happy to send you directly to the online application because it makes their lives easier. But why should you be trying to make their lives easier? Why would you want to do your song and dance for them? You’re not planning to work for them, and you most certainly don’t need to rely on them to screen you out (or filter you in). The only person you should want reviewing your credentials for a job is the Hiring Manager, or someone with direct functional experience from the department in which you desire to work. About the Author Roderick Lewis is an international employment consultant and author of “The Corporate Recruitment Game: What Recruiters Don’t Tell, And What Employers Try To Sell”. He holds an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has worked internationally in corporate recruitment and career consulting for over 10 years. You can connect with Roderick on his personal website at www.voiceofthejobseeker.com and on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lewisrod. This article is part of the Over $6000 in Prizes: It’s The 6th Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest, which was made possible thanks in large part to our sponsors: WebHostingBuzz is a reliable web hosting company with the servers hosted at multiple US and Europe locations and over 30,000 happy customers worldwide. Organize your job search with JibberJobber, the top career and personal relationship manager online. If you want Roderick Lewis to win, share this article with your friends. READ NEXT: Goodbye Gatekeepers: Use Social Media To Target Hiring Managers.

How to be a good manager Be generous

How to be a good manager Be generous Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 There are a lot of rules for first-time managers. For example, never hold a meeting without an agenda, because if you dont know what youre going to do there, then no one else will know what youre doing, either. But the rule about agendas is a great example, because, like most rules for good management, it is about being kind. Your job as a manager is to make sure your employees are growing and learning and enjoying their time at work. Bringing them to a meeting without an agenda is wasting their time, and that is disrespectful. A meeting without an agenda is like saying, My time is so much more important than yours that instead of taking time to prepare, Im going to figure out what were doing in real-time, and you will sit here and watch me. So the first rule, and probably the only rule of management, is to be respectful. A lot of questions I get from managers can be answered the same way: ask yourself if you are really being respectful. Example: Manager: My employees are totally unmotivated. What can I do? Me: Do you give them work that respects their intelligence or is the work you give them crappy? Manager: Theres nothing I can do. Someone has to do the low level work. Me: People are much more motivated to do totally boring work (as a favor to you) if they feel respected by you in other ways. So give them good mentoring and pay attention to building their skills. In return, they will want to help you, even if it means sending 400 faxes. I receive lots of email from people who have just become managers but who are still figuring out what their new role really means. One of my favorites comes from Kristy, in Canada: I got promoted to being a manager last year. . . .. I have really struggled with trying to teach others, because coming from a background of life really being about myself, my own learning, and satisfying my own personal growth, making the switch to feeling like to have to now do that for others almost feels like you are giving something of yourself away. It has only been in the past few months that I have really come recognize that providing others with the opportunities that I have been given actually feels good. . . and that I am still growing, just in a different way. Kristy admits what most people wont: that management requires giving so much of yourself that its disconcerting. Most people who are new managers just sort of disappear. They pop out of their office from time to time to tell people they are doing stuff wrong, or to let people know about new goals or new procedures. But that is not managing. That is being a human memo. A piece of paper could be that kind of manager. Real managing is about growth and caring. Its about taking time to see what skills people need to develop to move in the direction they want to move, and then helping them get those skills. This means that you need to sit with the person and find out what matters to them. And then you need to sit with yourself and figure out how you can help the person. Most people dont see management as listening and thinking, but thats what it is. Because thats what caring about someone looks like. A good manager pops up all the time, just to check in. Not because you are micromanaging and you dont trust anyone around you. But because you cant know how to help people if you dont know how they are doing. And take time to chat when things are going fine, because thats when its clear that youre just talking because you care as much about the person as the work theyre doing. Once you get to the point where you are connecting with the people you manage, and you are helping them get what they want from their job, you are in a position to change the world. Really. I had a big moment in my own career as a manager when I realized that I could change the world, in a small way, just by being more open-minded and generous to the people around me. I was a very young manager, and found myself interviewing people much older than I was. Seeing those people from the point of view of my mom, who was working for someone my age, made me change how I approached my job as a manager. And I know that people today are trying to do this as well, because this post is four years old, and it was one of the most popular on my blog last month. All this reminds me of Maslows hierarchy of needs. As a psychologist, he developed a theory to describe the path people take to address first their core needs, and then eventually to achieve their ultimate need for a life of self-actualization: Maslows Hierarchy of Needs 1. Physiological food, water, sleep 2. Safety security of body, health, resources 3. Love and belonging family, friends, sexual intimacy 4. Esteem self-confidence, respect of others, respect by others 5. Self-actualization morality, creativity, problem solving I think this pyramid applies to work as well. You start off just making sure you can get a job, and you figure out, eventually, how to use your job to make the world a better place. Pseudo-Maslow Hierarchy of Job Needs 1. Physiological Take care of keeping yourself fed and clothed. 2. Safety Work on feeling secure that you can keep yourself employed, if something happens. 3. Love and belonging Figure out how to get a job that respects your personal life. 4. Esteem perform well at your job because you have the resources and the security to do so 5. Self-actualization help other people reach their potential through creative and moral problem solving So really, management is an opportunity to self-actualize. Some people will self-actualize by being artists, or writing code. Some people will self-actualize through management. Some, a combination. But the point here is that being in management is an opportunity to grow spiritually and give back to the world in a way that is enormously fulfilling. If you allow it. You will need to set aside real time to make this happen. And you need to give generously. No big surprise there, though, because why else are we here, on this planet, except to give to each other?

Why is Marketplace in HRTech on the Rise

Why is Marketplace in HRTech on the Rise Marketplace in HRTech is a growing concept. We all are curious to read about it, know more about how it works, what are its benefits and why it is becoming the need of the hour. It is an excellent platform which offers solutions to many problems at once. To enhance the business, an end-user needs many tools and apps for a seamless flow of work. Searching for different vendors for these features is tiring. Testing these apps from various parties is confusing. This calls for the need of a platform which fulfills these requirements in one go. This platform is called marketplace. ‘The marketplace for HR tech â€" which includes software products, tools, and related services â€" is over $400 billion,’ says Josh Bersin. What is a Marketplace? At a marketplace, there are numerous apps created by developers/third-parties. The job of an end-user is to choose an app/multiple apps as per the need, and he/she is ready to go. Thus, all the needs are met in one place. Marketplace Does Wonders That’s true! A marketplace does more than you can think of. Promotes Customer Engagement When an app is available on this platform, it is there for the public. All the users get access to this app. This attracts more users and helps in increasing customer engagement. Supports Innovation If you need technical add-ons for your product to promote an idea, marketplace will help you. It acts as a helping hand to allow you to introduce your idea to a community. Helps You Create Your Own Marketplace That’s the reason why this platform is built. It provides value to clients in terms of add-ons, tools, and other services. As an end-user, you make multiple use cases/workflows to create a marketplace for your ATS/CRM. Types of Marketplace Marketplace is classified into various categories. It is advisable to choose a marketplace according to its category and your business requirement. Here are some of the broad classifications: Offering Add-ons Here developers create an app and the end-users avail it as an add-on for their product. Data-sharing It is a data marketplace which provides information such as personal data, demographics, market data, analytics, etc. Vertical These marketplaces focus on a specific area. The products are of high-quality as their sellers are well-experienced. Horizontal These cater to a wide range of products and services. However, their products are second-hand. How to Choose a Marketplace? There are plenty of factors to review before deciding on choosing a marketplace. Keep in mind that the technology solutions offered by a marketplace should be in line with your business needs. The solutions you choose should give a good return. Customization and flexibility are other elements to be looked upon. The solutions should be practical to use. Benefits Marketplace is a booming concept which is loved by many companies. Here we list a few reasons why it is on the rise. Economical It is a reasonable choice for the end-user. You save your money from investing in various partnerships and get what you need within your budget. Saves Time As a buyer, you are getting everything at one platform which saves you from spending time on searching and testing various vendors. Transparency- Marketplace is transparent. The end-user can view all the apps whereas the developers can efficiently manage their buyers by having their complete account information and usage details. One-time Integration There is no need to integrate with vendors separately. More Business Generation HRTech vendors can build a higher number of connections as they do not have to search for buyers separately. This leads to an increase in their business. Examples of Marketplaces Azure Marketplace It provides cloud software solutions to its end-users. There are 8000+ listings of Saas apps, APIs and solution templates. It is an excellent platform which offers end-to-end solutions quickly. Nimble Marketplace Nimble has a lot to offer. With 100+ integration partners, avail services for lead capture, analytics, email marketing support, etc. You can find popular apps here such as Zapier, FreshDesk, Netsuite, Salesforce, etc. AppExchange This is Salesforce’s marketplace. It provides solutions which help the end-users in exploring the potential of Salesforce. There are more than 70k peer reviews which help you in deciding which solution to choose. ADP HR solution providers can sell their apps to 600,000+ companies on ADP marketplace. Developers can also integrate with ADP APIs. Avail your favorite HR apps and fulfill your requirements. 2019 will see a spike in the trend of marketplace. With its benefits and ability to simplify work, a shift towards marketplace is unavoidable. Let’s see what this coming year has in store. More players will enter this market to explore the potential of this concept. We can say the future of marketplace is bright. With AI, the scope of technology solutions is enhanced. What are your thoughts? Share with us. About the author: Lovepreet Dhaliwal works with Rchilli Inc, a leading resume parsing software provider which helps in speeding up your recruitment process. An MBA in HR and marketing, he has over six years of work experience in business development and strategic sales.

5 Best Healthcare Resume Writing Services

5 Best Healthcare Resume Writing Services If you are looking for a skilled healthcare resume writer to craft an outstanding resume, we've got just what you need.We know there are thousands of resume writers out there, so it can be a challenge to know which ones are really the best.That's why Find My Profession has created this top 10 shortlist to inform you as to the best of the best healthcare resume writers.Our hope is that this will save you timeand money. The last thing you want is to waste resources on a resume that does not bring any results.While all the options below are terrific, we hope to win your business with our 60-day interview guarantee and outstanding commitment to customer service.Best Healthcare Resume ServicesIf you are in a hurry and don’t want to read our detailed reviews below, here is a list of the best healthcare resume writers:Find My Profession (that's us!) ReadyHire Medical Resumes The Write Resume iHire Healthcare Administration Shark ResumesIf you are a nursing professional, check out our list of the Top 5 Nursing Resume Writing Services.1. Find My ProfessionFind My Professionis not just a top-notch healthcare resume service. We are a global company headquartered in the US on a mission to master effective, ATS compatible resumes that convert into offers.A major perk of Find My Profession is that we are not a one-person shop.Collectively, our team of elite resume writers has experience in 85+ unique industries/professions. This allows us to assign you a professional writer (in the United States) based on your unique background and experience.We are also not a resume factory. We will never use “ghostwriters”. You will have your resume writer’s name, email, and phone number for direct communication.With 100+ 5-star reviews and a 60-day interview guarantee thatspeaks for itself, you can sleep easy knowing that your satisfaction is our #1 priority.Pros:Find My Profession commits to working with each client until they are completely satisfied. Don’t worry about having a limited number of edits, or a set amount of time with your writer.Cons: Find My Profession does not exclusively write healthcare resumes. Also, with a focus on more senior positions, our entry-level resume service may be a bit pricey for recent graduates.Turnaround:3-5 business days. Can expedite to 2 business days.Cost:$395 - $895Contact:(831) 888-0967Don't take our word for it, check out some of our 5-star reviews.Trustpilot2. ReadyHire Medical ResumesReadyHire Medical Resumes is a specialized medical resume writing service for administrators, physicians, nurses, medical technical staff, and more.With over 25 years of experience in medical resume writing, ReadyHire Medical Resumes will focus on your core strengths and experience and will ensure you receive a quality executive resume for domestic or global job search.They have worked with individuals in all areas of healthcare, including pharmacists, administrators, nurses, medical interns, anesthesiologists, and more.Pros: The i nitial consultation is free, giving you the opportunity to speak with your resume writer, discuss concerns, and set out a strategy.Cons: There is no range of rates available on the website.Under their “services” page, you begin the process by filling out an extensive form, including personal information, career objectives, work history, educational background, etc.Turnaround: A few days; rush service is also available.Cost: Unstated.Contact: (800) 730-32443. The Write ResumeThe Write Resume has been in theresume writing business for more than 23 years.They choose to work with a limited number of clients each month in order to provide personalized resume writing attention to professionals hoping to take their career to the next level.Instead of providing a resume template, The Write Resume partners and strategizes with you to ensure your resume effectively represents your skills, achievements, and value as a job candidate.Pros: They will connect you with a nationally certified re sume writer, offering a 100% guarantee that if you don’t get an interview in 60 days, they will rewrite your resume at no additional cost.Cons: It appears that their site has not been updated for several years. It is text-heavy and not very easy to navigate.Turnaround: 7-14 days; rush service offeredCost: $299 - $699Contact: (866) 726-90524. iHire Healthcare AdministrationiHire Healthcare Administration is a part of iHire.com, a job search website that has been connecting “the right jobs with the right talent” for the past 20 years.They offer healthcare resume writing services as well as resume formatting.Their goal is to assist you as you take the next step in your professional career goals.Pros: This company offers to work with you until you are 100% satisfied with your healthcare resume.They have professional resume writers knowledgeable in how to optimize your resume for the healthcare industry.Cons: It looks like this resume writing service has you fill out a questionnair e rather than offer a one-on-one phone consultation.As such, you might not have the opportunity to address specific concerns or preferences.Turnaround: 5-7 business daysCost: $345 - $495Contact: (877) 316-31185. Shark ResumesShark Resumes, a subsidiary of Shadow Management Consulting, has been involved in resume writing since 2002.They have resume writers that specialize in the health sciences, including healthcare professionals, physicians, physical therapists, dietitians, dentists, chemists, and more.You can schedule a phone consultation in order to directly ask questions and express concerns.Shark Resumes also offer a resume “refresh” service if you do not want your healthcare resume completely written from scratch.Pros: Shark Resumes offers a free critique of your resume, available in a 24-hour timeframe.They also provide a 90-day interview guarantee, offering to rewrite your resume for no additional cost if you have had no calls or interviews.Cons: Several typos were observ ed on their website, which could relate to a concern as to the quality of their resume writing services.Turnaround: 3â€"4 business days.Cost: $299 - $399Contact: (647) 991-4308Healthcare Resume ExamplesAt this point, you might be wonderingwhat a great healthcare resume actually looks like.Check out this executive healthcare resume samplewritten by our company, Find My Profession.Check out this healthcare administration resume samplewritten by our company, Find My Profession.Best Executive Resume Service in AmericaNot worried about finding a healthcare-focused resume company?Want to work with the best of the best in the executive space? Check out the Best Executive Resume Services.

5 Steps to Gain Control of Your Life

5 Steps to Gain Control of Your Life It can be so easy to feel out of control in this life. If you constantly feel overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious and at a loss of what to do, that’s a sign that you need to take action. There are lots of challenging circumstances that can make you lose control. It isn’t all darkness, however.If you’re looking to regain control of your life, destiny, and happiness in general, these steps can assist you with the process.Keeping a good attitudeis a start. You no longer have to feel helpless and vulnerable in your skin all the time.1. Set Aside Designated Personal Time Every DayevalevalPeople often feel out of control because they don’t put time in for themselves. If you want to be a happy and well-rounded person in this world, you have to make your own happiness and well-being a top priority day in and day out.Neglecting your happiness and personal goals can only have negative consequences for you and the other people around you. Make it a priority to set aside a decent amount o f personal time for yourself on a daily basis.It doesn’t matter if you use that time relaxing and meditating or if you use it working on a particular craft or skill. Personal time is all about you, you and no one else but you. Just try to turn off all of your mobile devices for a while.Don’t think about other people who are bothering you. Focus all of your energy on yourself. You’ll be surprised to see the positive effects this time has on your mind and mood.2. Do What Feels Right for YouPeople often abandon their individual goals and passions because they’re worried about what others may say or think. Don’t be that type of person. People who let others sway them are often the most troubled individuals on this planet. They’re often the angriest as well.If you want to be perfectly happy, you have to concentrate on doing what feels right for you. Stop thinking about what your family members want out of you. Stop fixating on societal expectations as well. You’ll never get anywhere if you concentrate on satisfying people who aren’t you and who will never be you. Follow your heart instead.If you want to uproot halfway across the world to start working in the farming industry, do so. It doesn’t matter if other people think you’re absolutely insane. It doesn’t matter if they believe that you’re odd.evalNothing matters if you’re doing something that makes you feel content and enriched.People shouldn’t fear doing things that make them happy. They should always welcome doing what feels right to them.3. Steer Clear of the Pressure to Always Say YesIf you constantly feel like your life is spiraling out of control, it may be because you simply aren’t in charge of things. You will definitely want toget back on track. It’s important to remember that you’re ultimately your own boss. You’re an adult. No one can tell you what to do and how to live your own life.If you feel miserable and stiff all of the time, it could be because you’re alwa ys buckling under the pressures other people place on you. You may have a demanding spouse who expects you to do what he or she says all of the time.Or, you may have an irrational supervisor at work who expects you to be superhuman and who treats you like the lowest of the low. You may even have family members who have unreasonable expectations of you.evalIf you’re serious about gaining happiness in this life, you have to be able to take others for who they are. Don’t let them navigate your actions. Don’t let them force you to be someone you don’t want to be. You should never live your life trying to please others. If you don’t have the time to do something for another person who is pressuring you, firmly say “no.”Individuals who want totake control of their liveshave to have boundaries. They have to be able to identify when something has gone too far as well.4. Seek Out Brand New OpportunitiesHappy people tend to be individuals who don’t dread newness. They tend to be individuals who seek out positive change. If you want to be someone who makes the most of your life, you should prioritize taking on new adventures. New things frequently make people smile. They often make people feel like they can get out of their frustrating ruts in life.If you want to seize the day and feel like you’re whole again, focus on bettering yourself each and every single day of the week.Take up an exciting new hobby that’s always sounded interesting to you. Go skydiving with your most adventurous friend if that sounds appealing.Sample exotic and delicious cuisines from all different corners of the planet. Plan a last-minute trip to a faraway destination that has always captivated you. Think outside the box as well. Remember thatyou don’t have to limit yourselfin this lifetime. You have an imagination that exists for a purpose. Use it. Nothing can stop you from taking your creativity to the limit.5. Develop an Appreciation for Life LessonsevalHard situations can often make excellent learning opportunities. It’s crucial to remember the fact that no one can dodge trials and tribulations 100 percent of the time. Even the happiest and most well-rounded people occasionally have to deal with majorheadaches and hassles. If you want to be someone who can enjoy life to the maximum, remember that harsh lessons serve a purpose.Try to learn from them whenever possible. Turn lemons into lemonade.Failures do not define youunless you let it. If something goes wrong in life for you, remember that you can always try again later.

Book review The golden ratio - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Book review The golden ratio - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog 1.61803398874989484820458683436563811772030917980576286213544862270526046281890 244970720720418939113748475408807538689175212663386222 Doesnt look like much does it? What if I told you, that this number is significant in such varied circumstances as: * The construction of pentagons * The number of spirals in sunflowers * The construction of sea-shells * Fractals Spooky, huh? The number is called variously the golden mean, the golden section number, the golden ratio or simply phi (pronounced fee), and in the book The Golden Ratio The story of phi, the worlds most astonishing number, Mario Livio explains the history and relevance of this number. He looks at many phenomena that are definitely linked to this number (such as the ones mentioned above) and dismisses some which are waaaay more speculative such as phi appearing in the proportions of the cheops pyramids and in Mona Lisa. Basically, phi is the ratio you get, if you divide a line in two different lengths so that the ratio between the shorter and the longer piece is identical to the ratio between the longer piece and the whole line. This ratio is 1.618033 It is not only an irrational number (ie. one that cant be written as a fraction of two integers), but it is in a sense the most irrational of all irrational numbers. Heres a more in-depth description. It takes a rare writer to write an interesting book about math, but Livio pulls it of magnificently, pulling together the history, the math, the beauty and the weeeeeird properties of phi. And heres phi to 20.000 decimal places. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

What exactly is a company culture

What exactly is a company culture What exactly is a company culture? Question: What does company culture mean? I just read your response on “Job Seeker or Job Stalker.” You commented that recruiters, hiring managers, interviewers and anybody else you contact at the new company are watching your job search behaviors and asking questions such as “will you fit into our culture?” I have always wondered what “fit into our culture” means. What is a company’s culture? It tends to insinuate or have a hidden undertone â€" or it can be perceived in this manner. Overall, my focus is on the perception, simply because I work with college students. College students today are very diverse and I want students to take advantage of all opportunities. Advice from Dana: I am somewhat ambivalent about the fit into our culture discussion. Not just because our employees are so diverse and many value a flexible environment, but because there is no ONE culture inside any company. For example, within Microsoft, the cultures varied greatly between functions (engineering/development, marketing, operations, etc.) and varied based on the leadership team in place at the time. I also believe all employees need to learn flexibility and agility to work in a variety of cultures, as long as the culture is respectful to all diverse styles and meets the company’s value bar, which should be high. From another perspective, I must say that Im bored with the common candidate-to-interviewer question, Can you tell me about the culture here? Its a waste of a precious question as the candidate is only going to hear the good things, right? Glassdoor.com serves a good purpose since its the Yelp of company cultures. Finally, what does culture mean anyway? When I interview, the job skills I look for that tie with cultural fit are: Does the candidate respect other peoples time? For example, is he/she on time? Do they smile and seem like they can have a good time while working hard? Are they self-aware, humble? My obsession for college graduates today, in all fields and all levels (graduate school included), is to focus on winning the job in such a competitive environment. Compete to win that job based on your passion, skills, experience, and running a great job search process. Culture will be what you make it once youre hired and as you grow your career.