What are the 7 Big Lies That Interviewers Tell Job Candidates? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Everyone knows that it’s an extremely bad idea to lie during the job search procedure – on your CV/resume and especially in an interview.

However, interviewers aren’t put in the position of having to tell the truth all the time.

What are the biggest lies that interviews tell candidates? Find out below (courtesy of JobCluster)!

Takeaways:

• “We’ll call you and get back to you in some time”

• “We will give you a salary considering your work experience”

• “We are impressed but we still need to interview more people”

Read them all and the explanations below!

 

via What are the 7 Big Lies That Interviewers Tell Job Candidates? [INFOGRAPHIC].

What are the 7 Big Lies That Interviewers Tell Job Candidates? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Why Happy People Get 2nd Interviews [INFOGRAPHIC]

The average person spends more time working than any other activity. Unfortunately, nearly 2 out of 3 workers surveyed in the US and Canada say they’re not happy at work.

The following infographic from our friends at Noomii explains WHY this is happening and what you can do to “turn that frown upside down” at work.

Takeaways:

• Happier people are more likely to get a 2nd interview


• Cheerful people at age 18 attained more at work and had higher job satisfaction as measured 8 years later


• Happy people miss fewer work days, they are also less likely to lose their jobs


• Increase your positivity by writing down 3 good things that happened in your life every day

Why Happy People Get 2nd Interviews [INFOGRAPHIC]

Google Steps up Efforts for More Racial Diversity

Google has had more trouble diversifying its workforce than its computer scientists have had writing programs that respond to search requests in the blink of an eye or designing cars that can navigate traffic without a human behind the wheel.

That seemed to be the conclusion when the Silicon Valley giant this week issued a gender and ethnic breakdown of its workforce that showed that of its 26,600 U.S. employees, 61 percent are white, 30 percent Asian, 3 percent Hispanic and 2 percent black. Thirty percent of its employees are women.

“Google is miles from where we want to be,” said Laszlo Bock, head of personnel at Google.

Why is one of the most innovative, dynamic sectors of the U.S. economy looking like the corporate world of the past, at least when it comes to blacks, Hispanics and women?

The biggest factor is a shortage of such students majoring in computer science or other technical fields in college, according to Bock.

“There is an absolute pipeline problem,” he said in an interview Wednesday with “PBS Newshour.”

One year, Google says, there were just two black people in the U.S. with newly minted doctorates in computer science on the job market. The company hired one of them, and Microsoft hired the other, according to Bock.

But the educational choices of some minorities don’t entirely account for the lack of diversity at technology companies.

For instance, Google sells $50 billion in advertising annually, a task that required more than 2,900 salespeople in the U.S. as of last August. Just 79 of them, or 3 percent, were black. A total of 127, or 4 percent, were Hispanic. More than 2,000, or about 70 percent, were white.

Google attributes this phenomenon to “unconscious biases” that have historically favored white people. “We like people who are like us, who watch the same shows, who like the same food, who have the same backgrounds,” Bock told PBS.

To address this issue, Google has put more than 20,000 employees through 90-minute training sessions during the past year to help them become more aware of their biases.

Google is also trying to do more recruiting at colleges with large minority enrollments. During the past year, Google has dispatched a specialist to work with historically black Howard University to draw up a curriculum that will give its graduates a better chance of competing for technology jobs against the likes of MIT. The program will be extended to five other colleges this fall.

Google is just one of many high-tech companies that are pledging to diversify their workforces this spring under pressure from the Rev. Jesse Jackson. But the same promises were made in the Silicon Valley 15 years ago, again under pressure from the civil rights leader. That effort included a conference, a new website, commitments from top firms, and a call to educate and employ 200,000 young people.

“I’m disappointed. For the most part they have not improved,” said Jackson on Thursday. “Look at their board of directors and their c-suites. There’s a culture of exclusion.”

Google’s efforts come amid a renewed bout of advocacy from Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which have been leading delegations to shareholder meetings this spring at such companies as Google, Facebook, eBay and Hewlett-Packard, decrying “old patterns that exclude people of color and women from opportunity and advancement.”

Jackson said that he hopes others will follow Google’s lead, and that this time he is redoubling his efforts here.

In 1999, when Jackson launched his first Silicon Valley initiative, 89 percent of Silicon Valley chairmen and CEOs were white, while the white-collar workforce was about 60 percent white and 31 percent Asian. Those figures have barely budged.

Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Advanced Micro Devices have published similar labor data breakdowns.

Four percent of the 57,000 U.S. employees at computer chip maker Intel Corp. are black, according to the company’s breakdown. About 8 percent of Intel’s U.S. workers are Hispanic and 26 percent are women.

“We are not satisfied with our diversity data, and we continuously strive to improve,” said Patricia McDonald, the company’s vice president of human resources. The company also says it has invested more than $1 billion worldwide during the last decade to improve education.

Intel also recently promoted a woman, Renee James, to president.

Hewlett-Packard Co. has won praise for hiring two different women, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, as CEO since 1999. Overall, one-third of HP’s U.S. staff are women, according to the company’s most recent statistics; 7 percent of HP’s U.S. workers are black and 6 percent are Hispanic.

Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, an organization focused on the local economy and quality of life, said one problem is that the sector moves swiftly.

“Silicon Valley moves at a pace that is unbelievable. It is a breakneck marketplace. So when you’re adding people, you don’t take time to cast a wider net,” he said.

Sharon Vosmek, CEO of nonprofit Astia, which connects women-led startups with financial backers, said: “This is not a Google issue; this is a societal issue.”

“Are there subtle biases? Yes, but they exist in society. Men get together and play golf, have a beer,” she said. “We’re up against societal norms, and we have to break those down by simply supporting networking between genders.”

via Google Steps up Efforts for More Racial Diversity – ABC News.

Google Steps up Efforts for More Racial Diversity

How to Build a More Diverse IT Workforce

A diverse workforce is more productive, innovative and contributes to increased market share, profitability and lower employee turnover. Agreeing with that statement is the easy part. The tricky part: How to achieve that diversity.

One possibility is Entelo Diversity. The service is designed to give hiring managers, human resources professionals and recruiters an additional way to help identify, attract and hire talent from diverse, underrepresented populations, says Entelo CEO Jon Bischke.

Recruiting a Balanced Workforce

“Many companies still struggle to create such diverse and balanced workforces and to identify and reach out to women, to different ethnicities and other underrepresented groups,” Bischke says. “We found many clients already working to address the issue of diversity, and we built this tool to assist them in their efforts,” he says.

Entelo Diversity works in conjunction with Entelo’s existing suite of recruiting and hiring tools, which leverage big data, analytics and social data to screen and source candidates, says Bischke.

How to Build a More Diverse IT Workforce

“Entelo Diversity is a Web crawler that uses a proprietary algorithm to aggregate profiles from publicly available information,” Bischke says.

“It uses what’s already indexed to create a more in-depth profile of a candidate, and then look at certain data points that could signal whether candidates are male, female, Hispanic, a veteran, ” Bischke says. For example, is the candidate a member of the NAACP? That could signal they’re African-American. Or, if the candidate was a member of a sorority during her college years, the assumption’s made that they are female, he says.

Proof of Compliance

Bischke says though Entelo has done its due diligence around the legal and social implications of the tool, each client should understand the legal and compliance regulations of its particular industry and make sure the tool is right for them.

“As long as this tool is only being used to proactively recruit and identify underrepresented groups for hiring, then it’s fine, but if it’s used to weed out people, then obviously we don’t want any part of that,” Bischke says. “But we don’t see companies using the tool that way; what we see is that many companies are already searching for more diverse candidates manually, and Entelo Diversity helps them automate some of these manual processes, saving both time and money,” he says.

Entelo Diversity can also help companies meet legal and compliance statutes that require proof that they’re searching for and hiring a diverse workforce, Bischke says.

Companies that contract with the United States Government, for example, are often required to provide documentation of their search and recruiting efforts from underrepresented groups, and the tool offers a fast, simple way to document compliance, Bischke says.

Hiring Veterans

In addition to helping companies identify and recruit women, minorities and other underrepresented groups into the workforce, Bischke says Entelo Diversity also helps businesses identify and recruit veterans.

“We’re also excited about the military aspect, and application of the tool for that population, too,” he says. “We know that hiring from the population brings candidates with great leadership and technical skills, and we hope the tool can help veterans find employment,” he says.

In addition, Bischke says, Entelo is committed to helping close the technical and skills gap currently plaguing the education system through its Hiring for Good program. Bischke says that Entelo works closely with CodeEd, an organization that teaches programming skills to middle school girls from underserved communities.

“Every time someone’s hired via the Entelo tool, we fund one year of code instruction and education for an underprivileged girl through the CodeEd program,” Bischke says.

via How to Build a More Diverse IT Workforce – CIO.com.

How to Build a More Diverse IT Workforce

8 Reasons Google is a Desirable Employer

Guest Blog: Alexandra Levit

Upfront disclosure:  I don’t work for Google…yet.

Thanks to my new friend Sally Anderson, a human resources partner at Google Chicago, I recently had the opportunity to tour the office and see for myself why Google is one of the most desirable employers in the world.  I wasn’t disappointed.

The Customer is King

While I sat in the brightly lit, colorful lobby and sucked on a lemon Jolly Rancher, I watched the front desk receptionist field several calls from prospective summer interns.  Did he turn up his nose and scoff?  No sir.  Google understands that when a call comes into the organization, you never know who’s on the line and what kind of influence that person might have – so its receptionists are helpful and friendly to everyone.

Diverse Work Spaces Promote Concentration and Collaboration

Google generally favors an open office environment, but the organization is very creative in its use of space.  If you need a moment to relax alone, you head to the porch swings by the windows.  You can brainstorm with colleagues in a room decorated like a garden.  Want to impress a new client?  Take her over to the speakeasy-themed conference room.

A Wellness Focus is Everywhere

Google serves up gourmet, healthy breakfast and lunch to its Chicago employees so they won’t rely on the plethora of fast food options in the area.  And if you don’t have time to hit the in-house gym or massage chairs, you can meet with colleagues as you walk around the office track – 12 laps equals one mile.

Creativity Flows Unobstructed

The people at Google, even the engineers, are always making art.  Evidence of their work is on every floor, from wall masterpieces made by paintball guns to complex “Blox” structures built to resemble Stonehenge.  I think if I worked here, I might just get over my fear of art class and discover my inner Picasso.

Every Office is Innovative

I would have thought the coolest projects would be reserved for Google’s West Coast headquarters, but Chicago can hold its own when it comes to intrapreneurship.  Employees here were responsible for Google code (an internal site for developers, the Data Liberation Front, including Google Takeout, and portions of the Art Project.  The latter was responsible for bringing the collections of museums including the Louvre and the Art Institute of Chicago online.

Community Engagement is a Priority

Google Chicago supports its local branches of the National Society of Black Engineers, National Engineers Week, National Lab Day and Girls in Engineering Day. The office participates in Chicago Ideas Week and helped judge the FIRST Robotics Competition. It provides space and resources to non-profit tech incubators, and hosts or co-hosts events including ORD Camp, the Parent Internet Safety Workshop and the Internet Bootcamp for Your Business.

It’s Like Being at the Ellen Show

A string of high-profile visitors parade through Google Chicago’s hallways, from the mayor, Rahm Emanuel, and chef Rick Bayless, to Lollapalooza acts like DJ White Shadow and Cold War Kids. Standing in the main meeting room, which manages to be intimidating and down to earth at the same time, I could fancy myself among the roster of authors and thought-leaders that grace the stage on a monthly basis.

It’s an Open Book

Other than not allowing me to take pictures of specific employees, Google was happy to show and tell me anything I wanted to know about. This openness and transparency was a refreshing change from working with organizations that ask me to sign an NDA before a 30 minute phone conversation. Google people trust others, and so others trust them.

via 8 Reasons Google is a Desirable Employer | The Fast Track.

8 Reasons Google is a Desirable Employer

The Most Talented IT Executives are Advancing Beyond CIO

Column by Peter High

I recently completed a series in this column referring to the CIO-plus. In it, I interviewed a number of chief information officers who had been asked to take on additional responsibilities, due to the great work done as CIOs and the appreciation that that good work translates well into other functions within the company. The companies were a diverse lot, including ADP, P&G, Marsh & McLennan, Waste Management, McKesson, Merck, Walgreens, Owens Corning, and the San Francisco Giants among others.  (To access the entire series, please visit this link.)

I would like to introduce a new series, which I refer to as “Beyond CIO.”  There is a growing cadre of former CIOs who have been promoted or hired into positions that continue to take advantage of their technical acumen, but provide them with expanded purviews.  Most of the executives that will be profiled will be CEOs or COOs who were former CIOs.  Again, this is a diverse lot, including executives from companies like American Express, T.D. Ameritrade, Caesars Entertainment, Schneider National, Fifth Third Bank, and HP, among others.

Chief operating officer has traditionally been a key role to have to put one’s self as “on-deck” to the top job.  Chief financial officers have also hewn their path to the CEO role. Not long ago, it may have seemed absurd to think of the CIO as an important stop on the way to the top role in the company.  Yet a group of special technology leaders have spent meaningful time as CIO but then continued the ascent beyond the role.

There are some common denominators among these trailblazers:

1. All of them have thought about business value first, and technology second


2. Most have worked in other business disciplines prior to ascending to the CIO role


3. Many work within organizations that promote from within


4. A majority have an MBA or advanced degree in a business discipline


5. Many also have spent time as consultants

 

Business Value First

As one former CIO turned CEO recently told me, “too many CIOs live in the technology world rather than the business world.” By this, he meant that they retreat to their primary area of expertise without thinking about the broader implications of the use of technologies.  CIOs need to think of their roles as part R&D on behalf of the company.  This means developing perspectives on trends like cloud computing, data analytics, and social media, to name three often written about trends. Understanding what they are is all well and good, but it is more important to think about how these trends apply to one’s company, and the value they should bring to the company, optimally with a quantified benefits estimated wherever possible.

The CIOs who have grown beyond this role also have a clear understanding of how value is created in their companies.  CIOs have long monitored systems uptime, and the degree to which projects that they manage are on-time, on-budget, and on-scope.  While these remain important, they are only foundational metrics. It is critical that IT manage to the same metrics that the business holds dear.

Diversify One’s Experiences

CIOs who have become COOs, CEOs, or who have taken on other wide-ranging responsibilities have typically spent some time in a business role within the company, even early in their career.  This familiarizes them with the company’s customers, the profit and loss statements and the drivers of each,  and simply builds their networks across the company.  When they achieved the top position in IT, they have walked a mile in the shoes of other divisions of the company. They also are probably familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the IT department as a user, which provides a strong degree of empathy in their perspective.

Ben Allen, for instance, was the CEO of Kroll, an operating company within the Marsh & McLennan portfolio of companies.  When Kroll was divested, Allen joined Marsh & McLennan as chief innovation officer, and soon thereafter as global chief information officer for the entire company.  His having spent time as the head of an operating company meant that he knew about the traditional complaints of IT as a past user.  He had been one of the executives offering constructive criticism.  As he spoke about changes that IT would mgake, he was able to speak with the operating company CEOs as a peer in a way that others would not be able to. Last month, Allen was named President of Marsh & McLennan Agency, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan’s largest operating company which was established in 2008 to meet the needs of midsize businesses in the US. Thus a CIO-plus (read my interview with Allen here) has moved “beyond CIO.”

Promote from Within

When executives leave major corporations, many times, the company initiates a search from outside of the company to replace the departing executive.  One can argue that this is a failure in succession planning and career development of one’s staff.  Companies that promote from within are constantly cognizant of rising talent.  Companies like GE and P&G rarely hire executives from the outside, putting the onus on management throughout the company to identify future leaders. Companies like this tend not to think about their companies in silos.  They offer high potential employees the opportunity to work in multiple divisions in multiple geographies to learn more about the business as their careers blossom. This means that the rising star in IT may find him or herself in a rotation in a business division in a new geography for a time before they return to IT.  As Filippo Paserini, the CIO and Group President of Global Business Services noted in my interview with him, the company has a long history of hiring CIOs who have had significant experience in other disciplines.  This well rounded perspective is something that many of the CIOs who have grown beyond the role have had.

Business Degrees Lead to Business Opportunities

Many people who will be interviewed in the “Beyond CIO” series have MBAs or degrees in other business disciplines rather than simply having engineering or computer science degrees.  This exposure to concepts like finance, accounting, management, and entrepreneurship together with the network that these degrees provide mean that the tenures as CIOs for these executives are marked with a greater understanding of the other functions within the corporation, and a more proactive and consultative approach in collaborating with the rest of the company.

Once a Consultant, Always a Consultant

Many people who will be interviewed as part of this series spent time as consultants. Consultants are faced with a wide variety of issues that do not have easy solutions. (If they were easy, the consultant would not have been hired in the first place.) At their best, consultants are problem solvers who are great listeners and great communicators. These are all critical skills, and frankly they are characteristics that buck the stereotype of the average IT employee as a group that has historically trended toward the reactive and tactical over the proactive and strategic.  For instance, Bob Willett who was CIO of Best Buy, was first the head of Accenture’s retail practice, and would rise to CEO of Best Buy International before taking on multiple other CEO and board-level assignments. He had spent time with dozens of retailers all over the world before becoming an executive at one in particular. This meant that he knew retailers small, large, growing, fading, innovative, or not, and brought a broad arsenal to Best Buy when he joined.

For those ambitious CIOs who may not share these characteristics, there are ways to develop comparable experiences through training, and from spending more time with one’s peers.  Better still, surrounding one’s self with an IT leadership team with these backgrounds will benefit the IT department generally, and especially the CIO.  Lastly, these are principles that should be taken into consideration when developing one’s talent. A leader is as good as his or her staff, and it behooves the CIO to build the best team possible.

Please look for these interviews in the weeks ahead to understand what makes each of these executives special, but also why their stories may become more the norm in the future.

via The Most Talented IT Executives are Advancing Beyond CIO – Forbes.

The Most Talented IT Executives are Advancing Beyond CIO

CIOs Are Increasingly Being Plucked From Other Functions

Information Technology is becoming much more of the business by the business and for the business than ever before. This is true because almost all business trends have deep technology components to them. Not only every industry, but practically every function within every company needs IT to run its most strategic processes and platforms. Lastly, customers are becoming ever more technology savvy. As a result, companies are demanding that IT leadership reflect this business-centricity.

It used to be commonplace that the chief information officer would grow up in the IT department, often from the level of programmer, working his or her way up the hierarchy until reaching the highest point. It also used to be that this was the end of the journey, by and large. This level of grassroots knowledge of IT was all the more important in an era where IT’s infrastructure was all on premises, and largely homegrown.

Now that substantial swathes of IT are managed in the cloud, and as more systems are leveraged in their “vanilla” state off-the-shelf, and as more of the actual IT work is done by vendors, a growing number of CIOs are taking on this role after having spent most of their careers in other functions.

The advantages of doing so can be tremendous. As IT becomes the business (rather than something separate from it or a support function to it), it is essential that IT leaders have greater business and financial acumen. This can come from an IT executive who has an MBA, or from a CIO who had a stint in a function other than IT while spending most of his or her career in IT. More companies are finding that it makes sense to have IT leaders who have walked a mile in the shoes of other functions.

Examples include Marriott International Global CIO Bruce Hoffmeister, who grew in the Finance function before taking over IT. He developed a training module to teach financial acumen to IT resources. Before long, he was the leader of that function. Jamie Miller also has a finance background, having been Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at GE before becoming CIO. She now brings the financial rigor and discipline to the IT function, ensuring that IT delivers the business value promised across its portfolio. Rebecca Jacoby, the CIO of Cisco Systems, was a Supply Chain leader before taking over IT. She has indicated that her expertise in cost accounting has allowed her to constantly monitor the many facets of IT to ensure that the right cost models are applied across the portfolio of IT. Whereas many CIOs are pressured into outsourcing IT functions, Jacoby constantly has the data at her fingertips to understand how the cost to build and manage things in-house compares to outsourced options. This is an essential skill today.

Other CIOs who came from other functions include

Kelly Breitenbecher of PETCO, who was a Merchandising executive before taking over IT

Bill Klitgaard of Covance, who was that drug development services company’s CFO

Eric Pearson of IHG, who was that hospitality company’s CMO of the Americas immediately prior to his current role

Some of these executives will be profiled as part of my “Business CIOs” series in the coming weeks, starting with my interview with Jamie Miller of GE this week. (To get notice on future articles in the series, please click the “Follow” link above.)

This is not an easy path for these CIOs, but they are often chosen because their strengths align with the weaknesses of the department historically. A transparent and accountable executive of another function with a history of collaborating well with IT can be a solid successor to a CIO who was opaque and who lacked accountability. Often CIOs who come from other functions also elect to hire a chief technology officer to run the most deeply technical aspects of IT.

This by no means the death knell to IT leader who grew up in the function. Rather, it means that those IT employees who aspire to become CIOs ought to spend time working in close collaboration with other functions if not spending time in another function entirely for a time. Depth of knowledge of technology coupled with a breadth of experience across the company is often the best combination of all.

via CIOs Are Increasingly Being Plucked From Other Functions – Forbes.

CIOs Are Increasingly Being Plucked From Other Functions