CATEGORY: | Work Life Balance |
Photo by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free Companies, such as in information and tech sector, that still allow work from home, remote, telecommuting, or hybrid setup have started requiring their employees to return to the office. Many employers are getting blowback. While management may argue productivity and socialization as few of the factors for this decision, the real benefits highlights the following advantages of work from home setup. Save on Rent Renting (or leasing) makes the highest expenses for companies who don’t own office spaces. For example, office space on one of the towers located in the central business district might cost you tens to hundreds of thousands. Just imagine if you could just use those huge savings from rentals to the following: Advertisement to improve your market reach Buy stocks Buy your own office space Employee skill development such as education and training Healthcare insurance for your employees Invest in another business Software for business Tools for productivity Utilities Utilities comprise electricity, gas for heating, internet and water. All of these can cost you thousands of pesos if you compel or require employees to return to the office. Telecommuting means saying goodbye to monthly bills that can add to your stress. Remember you need one of your staff to process bills and that can take away precious effort, money, and time. Cleaning Services Renting an office can add a cost — cleaning services. Since your staff occupies your office, you’ll need to keep the floor, ceiling, workstations, and windows clean. And that calls for janitorial or cleaning services. Now that’s another bill. Diminished Business Travel Expenses Remote collaboration and virtual meetings can reduce the cost of business travel, including accommodation, airfare and dining expenses. Improved Employee Retention Resigning employees can hamper your production. Although you can always hire another employee, remember that retraining a new staff doesn’t mean you can always get the same quality of service. On top of that, think about the cost and time of retraining new employees. Promoting work from home can help you retain talents who require more time with their family, and take care of their babies or ailing relatives. Reduced Absenteeism Flexible schedules can give more time to your employees who have personal obligations that could demand taking days off. Returning employees from sick leave can bounce back to work easier compared to commuting employees. Reduced Tardiness Traffic jams can hamper your staff’s ability to arrive on time. Even though you can adjust your time or wake up early, it’s very taxing and tiresome for you to deal with bumper to bumper traffic. By the time you and your staff arrive on-site, you’re already wasting precious time and energy. The solution to traffic? Make work from home a permanent work setup.
CATEGORY: | Overseas Work |
Image credited to Lars_Nissen from Pixabay Reaching other lands, and countries, experiencing other climates and earning more than you could in your native country are one of the best things to happen in life. If you’re contemplating working abroad, this guide can help you decide. Why should I decide carefully before going abroad? Learning the hows of ifs working abroad helps you mitigate the risks. Maximize your earning potential Find the right opportunities Avoid illegal recruitment You can get most of the benefits of working abroad if: The salary offer is more than twice the job offered locally. For most Filipinos, a minimum of 50, 000 PHP worth of salary abroad is desirable. Your role, industry, or profession has opportunities abroad that pay well. You can’t find decent-paying work locally. You love to reach famous landmarks and other countries. You love to experience other climates (four seasons versus tropical and subtropical). You’re planning to immigrate to other countries. It might not be Ok to work abroad if: You can find a job with similar offers, approximates or greater than the salary offered abroad. You’re going to study at local colleges or universities for career improvements. Studying abroad is expensive and may conflict with your working schedule. There’s no one to take care of your children (if you’re a parent) unless you and your spouse are living abroad and can afford to sponsor your sons and daughters. There’s a travel ban due to war, pandemic and political causes in a destination country unless you can find alternative countries. No one will take care of your loved ones (spouse, children, parents, and relatives) and you can find a job locally. You can’t handle the emotional impact of leaving your loved ones.
CATEGORY: | Overseas Work |
Photo by MART PRODUCTION When you ask kids what they want when they grow up, they may answer - I would like to be an engineer, teacher, doctor, and lawyer. But there are people who go for jobs that are uncommon because of the low number of people vying for such work. These jobs could be in the Philippines and other countries but they are less common compared to teachers, lawyers, call centre agents, web developers and other jobs supplied by graduates of common courses. Here are the jobs found here and abroad. 1. Bouncers (Doormen) Photo by Hans-Petter Fjeld and licensed under creative commons You might have already visited a nightclub wherein before you enter an entrance you have to be frisked or questioned by tall and burly men. What do these guys do? Those plainclothes or suit-wearing men are bouncers or security personnel tasked to secure night clubs and maintain peace and order lest bad guys spoil the night with broken bottles, bare knuckles, and cleavers. Famous bouncers and former bouncers include Vin Diesel, Dolph Lundgren, Mr.T and Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church before he entered the seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Aside from using brute force against troublemakers (if maximum tolerance is exhausted), bouncers are tasked to check drinking and legal age. They also may refuse entry to the intoxicated. 2. Paranormal Investigators Dubbed as ghost hunters, paranormal investigators (PIs) check and explore structures and places that are notoriously haunted places such as hospitals, schools, hotels, cemeteries, churches, alleys, roads, and prisons. Some houses could be haunted because it could be standing on a former graveyard, and stigmatized place. How does PI get their living? Here, you may be called by a homeowner to check their residences after he/she complained of spoons and chairs moving by themselves or apparitions appearing at the staircase or you’ll be assigned to a paranormal investigation team with a mission to check haunted castles and mansions. Real estate agents/developers may need your help to make sure that their properties are ghost-free otherwise, they’ll receive reports of homeowners and tenants running from doppelgangers, poltergeist and demons or tenants enduring sleepless nights after hearing disembodied voices and seeing shadowy figures. You may use gadgets to detect ghosts or signs of hunting - thermal cameras, EMF (Electromagnetic Field) meters, EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) recorders and Point of view cam. If you have seen the movie, Ghostbusters, you can see how they do their job expelling otherworldly creatures lurking in the library or in an attic. 3. Petroleum Engineers If you’re interested in the energy industry and analyzing 3D models of oil reservoirs or visiting oil rigs and wells, then this career is for you. Your work may vary from a clean office to a dirty site akin to a civil engineer’s construction site. You may wear a hardhat and use tools such as laptops and professional sophisticated equipment (downhole recorders, pressure recorders, external casing packers, and coiled tubing tools). You may join a team that explores for black gold (oil), designs pipelines, tanks, and pressure vessels. At the office, you’ll be in the comfort of an airconditioned room and doing a computer job using software for analysis. Outdoors, you may scout a team to look for sites possibly rich in natural gas and oil trapped hundreds of meters below the earth’s surface either at land or ocean. To be an expert in oil and gas exploration, you’ll need a bachelor’s degree, and knowledge of thermodynamics, geology, and principles of engineering and certification. Other engineering specializations such as mining, civil, and mechanical may meet the employer’s requirements. Aside from their prestigious titles, petroleum engineers are the highest paid types of engineers - more than nuclear, civil, chemical and computer science. You’ll work in companies of petroleum exploration and production. 4. Hyperbaric Welder (Underwater Welder) Photo by Dr.E Lee Spence and Licensed under Creative Commons Hyperbaric means a welding process in an elevated pressure environment (usually underwater) although hyperbaric welding is also applicable inside a sealed chamber with gas. This job is similar to welders you see in a car repair shop or construction sites except - they weld underwater. Hyperbaric welders use a set of diving and welding gear such as electrodes, diving helmet, power supply, diving knife, backup gas, stinger (electrode holder) and diving suit. These marine welders work in bridge construction, mining, ship maintenance, dams, locks, offshore drilling rigs, nuclear power facilities, and docking facilities. Hyperbaric welders are one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. They face dangers of depth pressure (called Delta P hazards) which can lead to drowning. Improvements in robotics, underwater ships and welding can make welding underwater safer. This job pays well in a short amount of time. 5. Air Traffic Controller Courtesy of Petar Marjanovic and Licensed under creative commons They occupy that iconic tower near the runway and watch blips on radar screens and high tech LCD screens showing inbound and outbound flights and flight data. In this profession, you’ll issue plan and flight clearances, provide instructions for orderly and safe landing and takeoff of the aircraft, direct the flow of planes, report any air traffic hazards/mishaps and assist pilots in the airspace. You may advise pilots and other ATCs of the weather situation. To become one, you’ll need to finish a bachelor’s degree in air traffic control, understand the weather forecast, radar readings, and some knowledge of aviation. Like engineers and pilots, ATCs are also in the well-paid category. Their salary ranges over 30, 000 to 108, 000 per month depending on the position and experience. 6. Beer Brewer/Technical Brewer You may love drinking beer at parties or even alone when you relax from work or bask under the sun. This job will bring the joys of brewing until the beer is perfected. To become one, you have to finish one of these courses - chemistry, chemical engineering, microbiology, food technology, and food science. As a brewer, you may work in beer factories or breweries. You’ll tackle tons of barley grains, use sophisticated equipment (vats, tanks, mixers), sample a raw mix inside the filtration tank, add hops and some spices for flavouring, operate a computer that handles data control systems of the brewing system. Then, you’ll work in equipment that adds yeast to start fermentation, and again in the filtration system that removes substances that cause a cloudy beer. If the beer passes your quality check, then those perfected liquid is now ready for bottling by a machine that can produce 1,000 beer bottles per minute. 7. Crematorium Technician If you’re not squeamish and you’re brave to witness the reality of resting in the peace that humanity has never defeated, this job is for you. As a crematorium technician, you’re tasked to open the crematorium and its office, prepare the paperwork and preheat the oven. You may sign papers regarding the preparatory steps, legal paperwork (medical exam, certificates), and attach an identifying tag (a heat resistant metal) to the body before incineration to avoid mixing one’s ashes to other people (otherwise legal cases will follow). You’ll then prepare the body for burning by activating the conveyor machine to place the body into the crematory chamber. After 2 to 3 hours, depending on the body’s size and sex (men yield more ashes than women), it will turn into bone fragments which you’ll have to collect using an array of tools - retort brush, clean-out tool, retrieval pan and transfer pan. You’ll retrieve a heat resistant tag to identify the person’s identity and avoid it mixing with other cremated remains. Then, using a multi-lift hand magnet, you’ll make sure that there are no pieces of iron and steel in the ash before placing it for grinding in the cremulator. Finally, you’ll then pour the fine ashes into an urn ready to be given to the family of the deceased. Interested in joining the people who operate such ovens like burners, you’ll need a degree in mortuary science and working knowledge of cremation. 8. Food Taster Photo by Pikrepo and licensed under creative commons Perhaps, this is one of the most exciting jobs since here you’ll do testing of manufactured foods such as ice cream, crackers, condiments, snack foods, candies, and chocolates. Some or most companies require applicants for this position to get a degree in food technology or sensory science. This job has been featured on the internet as a highly sought one since food taster is thought here as munching on chocolate bars and eating gallons of ice cream but in reality, tasting is just one of the tasks of this job. In tasting, you’ll test the food’s flavour, colour, pungency, oil content and moisture. You’re more likely to carry out food tasting sessions, record the food’s flavour, appearance, taste and smell, observe food samples using a microscope, refer to tables of viscosity, salt content, pH scale, moisture and solubility. You’ll use professional devices such as balance scales, pH meter, spectrometer, and distillation devices. In the end, you’ll observe test results and produce analysis reports. In the end, you’ll contribute to the food production by improving its taste, texture and appearance. 9. Perfumer Perfumers make perfumes, blend spices, and make sure that the perfect scent conforms to the company’s and people’s standard. In the end, they help companies produce scented cosmetics, shampoos and perfumes. Perfumers use substances that are expensive such as rose oil, ambergris (whale vomit), iris-root butter, and agarwood and turn them into Eau de parfum, Eau de toilettes, colognes, conditioners and fabric softeners. A day in the life as a perfumer, you’ll likely perform physical and chemical tests, make an analysis of the product, make sure that the manufacturing process conforms to the quality standards and use gas chromatography to understand additives used in fragrances. As a senior perfumer, you may supervise staff to make sure of a safe manufacture process before sending to distillation. To enter the club of perfume experts, perfume and cosmetic companies may require you to finish a degree in chemistry or chemical engineering and understand gas chromatography which is a method of quantifying and analyzing volatile compounds and using a gas chromatograph - a professional and expensive equipment costing $34,500. 10. Sommelier Sommelier is a wine expert. Here, you will work in fine dining restaurants, hotels and resorts known for luxurious food and drinks. You must know different kinds of wine, wine storage, food to wine pairings, and wine tastes. According to vice news, training for a sommelier is difficult as it involves the wine theory and history, serving wines, blind tasting and smelling. A few only pass the stringent exam. The most difficult part is identifying the name or wine type. Sommelier is a prestigious position that only less than 300 are master sommeliers in the world. Like other professions, to be a sommelier you have to pass an exam and certification. While passing this wine expertise exam can be difficult, the return of investment is high, as you can work in a high paying job in hotels, resorts, restaurants, and bars. In the Philippines, several training schools offer sommelier courses as part of the hotel and restaurant management degree or as an independent study offered by some colleges and hospitality schools.
CATEGORY: | Interview |
Just like public speaking, interviews can cause anxiety. A few minutes before you face the hiring supervisor, you may experience palm’s sweating, heart racing, and knees weakening. Your experience is akin to lining up before a vaccine injection or a scheduled dental checkup. He/she would use the question to probe your career history, know your skills, identify your strengths and weaknesses. Most HR personnel are trained in psychology or human behavioral sciences. By observing your mannerisms and using a couple of probing questions, they’ll know if you’re telling the truth and they’ll assess your confidence level. Saying inappropriate things to an interviewer may or might sabotage your chances of getting hired. Remember that companies hire people to solve a problem and such problem solvers only come from positive people, not from pessimistic. Knowing not to say these 7 things in an interview can help you stand out among applicants, decrease anxiety moments and finally get that sweet offer letter. 1. How much is the salary? Asking first about the salary in your first interview is a big No. These are the reasons why asking the salary first is a bad idea. You’re lowering your chances of negotiating the offer. You’re leaving the impression that money is your only motivator. Hiring personnel must know you first and what can you bring to solve a company problem. Tips: Do this instead: Let the manager bring the salary topic as they will surely ask you about your salary expectations. Negotiate a salary by knowing first about the challenges and responsibilities of the job, considering the perks and benefits, and being careful after saying no if you really need a job. Research your industry and the salary range. Use this salary calculator and salary research. 2. I’m sorry, I’m late No matter what are the reasons, unless you’re in an emergency, saying that you have been late because of a traffic jam or your pet spilled your coffee, won’t make a cut. Always give a time allowance to accommodate traffic, walking scenes and delays. 3. I hate my boss - Mr/Miss A and B Badmouthing your ex-company and your boss communicates to the hiring manager that you have some ethical issues on your side or you’re a whiner instead of a problem solver. You might have some legitimate reasons such as your boss’s incompetence or his/her loose cannon temper but saying about your superiors in a bad light can ruin your chances of getting that job. Here are the reasons not to blast your ex-boss: Your may or might-to-be soon-employer could ask about your character references and they might contact the former boss that you are at odds with. The internet has made the world smaller. You may come across as a complainer who has more talk but has fewer actions. Gossips are everywhere. He/She may even be an acquaintance of your ex-boss. Tip: Forgive and move on. You may have valid reasons but you can say about them in private or say your frustration story to your close friend or relatives. 4. I hate my XYZ company When you feel hating your job and your boss, usually it’s a person or your superior that you're dealing with - and that has nothing to do with the entire company. Speaking ill about your former employer may or might bring these undesirable outcomes. You may end up hurting or offending your innocent former colleagues. You may meet your former colleagues and that they can join your current company as well. Your hiring manager will also think that you will bad-mouth their company if ever you get hired. The internet made the world smaller. No one likes a complainer. Tip: Forgive & move-on. Think about when you have been given a chance when you have less experience or skills or have been jobless. 5. Is it possible to date a co-worker? Some people get their boyfriends, girlfriends, and spouses through their job but a workplace is not a venue for romantic encounters. Office romance can be a bad idea as most companies are wary of flying kisses between Mr Right and Miss Right. Here’s a survey: The state of office romance. Here are the reasons: Heartbreaks can affect your performance. Gossips are everywhere. It’s not going to be fun working with your ex who might be dating somebody in your team. Working with your ex or former love flame daily is very uncomfortable and awkward. Tip: There are situations that office romance results in success and there’s even a couple that works together. If you can’t resist the urge, take the risk but make sure that your romantic urge is discrete or better if you have options finding your soulmate, you can choose other locations such as interest groups, social media, dating sites and networks, or even at church. 6. How do you promote or soon promote your employees? Asking this question can sound entitled and arrogant similar to asking about the salary first before the HR asks your salary expectations. Instead of asking about promotion ask “I’m interested in staying in your company, what is the typical career path for someone in this role?”. 7. No, I have no questions “No, I have no questions”, can mean you lack of interest. The Hiring manager question - “Do you have questions?” tries to test your knowledge and interest in the company. Hiring Managers ask this company knowledge question right after the resume/skills/experiences probing questions. Tip: Ask these questions: What is a typical daily routine? Is this an urgent hiring? When can I expect to hear from you? Would you like a list of references? The bottom line These 7 things not to say in an interview can mean a difference between getting a second interview/job offer or waiting for an empty promise of a second call - “we will inform you and we will call you’’. There are more than these 7 lists but these 7 are the most frequently said during the first or second interviews.
CATEGORY: | Career Development |
Photo credited to Art by Vector Toons and licensed under Creative Commons After the invention of so many tools to produce goods and services, and the system to make production smoother, people made careers. By the way, what are careers? It’s a culmination of your work experience, education, and training. It could be your job where you started flipping burgers until you became the head chef. It could be your first job doing data encoding until you become a multi-skilled programmer. Jobs versus Careers Jobs and careers are two different things. A job means any type of work done for a short time. For your first two years, you started as a driver and after two years, you resigned and began a job as a computer technician. On the other hand, careers refer to the same job you held from the start as a novice until you get promoted to a managerial position or resigned and held the same job at another company. Career refers to a work where you started or grew to use the same skills while trying to hone them with experience. Careers are long term while jobs are short term. Reasons why I shouldn’t be afraid to change careers • Changing a career opens the door to more opportunities One of the factors of success is taking a calculated risk. Taking risks is getting out of the comfort zone where you are stuck in the same position for five years without being promoted or getting a pay raise. You could be doing the same job - washing plates or cleaning the kitchen for 3 years. While you do your work you may begin feeling the resentment of not getting a pay raise or promotion and then your aversion to your present job will cause a toll on your performance. If you are on the same boat with others who are sure that their organizations are not providing better career opportunities, you have to look for new jobs. New careers can lead to better working conditions, company and career path. • Change for job security Sometimes because of the slowing economy, some companies with slow sales and productivity may or might end bankrupt. If you are one of the employees of those companies, you should start planning to make some emergency measures in case your employer’s business closes. Watch out for future threats such as jobs that may disappear because of automation or robots. According to Forbes and other internet sources, these jobs may disappear in the near future or next decade because of automation or the use of robots. Cashiers Electronic assemblers Fishermen Sewing machine operators Switchboard operators Telemarketers If you do one of those jobs above, you may start bulletproofing your career by training for jobs that are: Creative jobs - Jobs that require creativity and higher skills such as Writing, Database Administration, programming and arts. Relationship-based - Jobs such as a social worker, lawyers, teachers, healthcare social workers, a lawyer. While the above-threatened jobs mentioned from those sources may sound far-fetched, it can be close to reality as technology is getting smarter. Changing a career is a safe detour against falling into the unemployment or underemployed trap. • Diversify your skills Like the weather, the economy can be unpredictable. You may never know what comes next to the most-in-demand job, and what are the jobs to be hit next. Diversifying your skills can help you get ready for lay-offs and career changes. Studying one or two more skills doesn’t mean jack of all trades and master of none but a jack of all trades and master of some. You can be a writer and at the same time skilled in programming or graphic design. • Follow what you love There’s nothing more energy zapping than doing a job that offers no career growth. Such a job can send your motivation into plummet, lower your productivity, raise your stress levels and affect your health. Following what you love and motivates you can be rewarding as it suits your passion. • You might be ready Being ready means you have enough cash to cover your unemployment period and the necessary training and skills to land in a new career, although it’s best to quit your present job until you find a new one. For example, if you want to shift from welding to information technology to Engineering, you should have enough cash to cover your bills and the right experience and skills to land even in junior positions. You can hone your skills while you are still employed by doing part-time studies or studying during day offs. • You are now ready and got compelling reasons to switch careers Now, it’s beyond a reasonable doubt that - you’ll get the next job, you got some savings to survive during the job-search period and you got these reasons to switch careers: You’re stressed You’re always burned out You have always think about resigning Your current job doesn’t interest you anymore Two career paths for two people If not planned correctly, you could end up stuck in the same old job and pay scale. For example, below are the career paths for two people who took the same education. Person Three years ago One year ago Now X Took the HRM Course Started working in a restaurant by preparing mise en place (preparing of ingredients). Decides to learn skills to get a good paying job Studied HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) and culinary training skills Gets promotion from steward to Chef de Partie Earns $9 =/hour Finishes HACCP and culinary training Gets promoted to Chef de Cuisine and earns $10/hour. Y Took the HRM Course Started working in a restaurant by preparing mise en place. Decides to seek for a job that pays well Quits the job and lands in a factory Earns $10/hour Laid-off after the factory closes. Works as a waiter Earns $6/hour Don'ts of changing careers Basing your career change decisions to pad your wallet - Doing so can lead to job dissatisfaction. Quitting but not ready - It’s a hassle if you don’t have not enough savings to cover your bills while job hunting or an incoming new job. Rushing your decision too quickly - Without analyzing what makes you unhappy in a job can lead to hurried decisions that you’ll regret later. You might be unhappy with your boss, a bad week, a bad day or your colleagues - but are those really your reasons to quit your job? Not researching your job market - Applying for jobs after jobs without researching is like firing with a shotgun or throwing darts blindfolded. Stay current with job trends on your skills and industry. Not tapping your network - Networks are people that could be your friends, classmates, work colleagues, relatives, customers and even your fiance. Not contacting your network can decrease your chances of landing a new job. Actively informing those who can potentially help can help you ease your job search and minimize rejections. The Bottom line You shouldn’t be afraid to change careers because it’s a way to seek a better opportunity. Changes are constant and it will happen. Changing careers is a way to survive in an ever-changing job market. Make sure to be ready by planning, researching, tapping your networks and avoiding career change mistakes. Reference: 1 - https://www.forbes.com/pictures/lmj45ighg/top-20-disappearing-jobs/