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Published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on July 12, 2000. All rights reserved.
Job Hunting Tips
If you are looking for a job, says Diana Krajewski
of Technoforce LLC, the first thing to do is attend professional association
meetings in the area of your expertise. If you want to work for a
startup, go to a venture association meeting, like the Venture Association
of New Jersey or the New Jersey Entrepreneurial Association. Or target
meetings of the New Jersey Technology Council, or any showcases that
highlight the incubator companies.
Krajewski moderates the panel on Tuesday, July 18, at noon at the
Venture Association of New Jersey’s meeting at the Westin in Morristown
on “Strategic Human Resources for the Fast Growing Company”
(see story above). After the panel, a slew of entrepreneurs will make
five-minute presentations — more than the usual handful of presentations
— because this is the last meeting of the summer, so the meeting
may last until 3 p.m. Cost: $45. Call 973-631-5680.
“During the five-minute presentations, if the start-ups are looking
for talent they will announce it at that time,” says Krajewski.
She majored in marketing at Rutgers, graduating summa cum laude, and
has an MBA in human resources from Fairleigh Dickinson. She teaches
recruiting at the College of St. Elizabeth and business ethics at
Fairleigh Dickinson. A former employee at Lucent Technologies, she
and her partner, Robin Berg Tabakin, started their own company
last year, and they focus on E-commerce and start-up companies, looking
for project managers, programmers, CTOs, technical sales.
Everyone at a networking meeting usually gets the chance to introduce
themselves, however briefly, and if you are hunting for a job, you
can say so. But maybe you don’t want to announce this in public. Tip:
CyberPub meets monthly, one week after the VANJ meeting. (This month
it is Thursday, July 20, at 7 p.m., at the Westin.) It’s free, with
a cash bar, and no reservations needed. “That is purely networking,”
she says. “You can meet someone one on one and talk about a job
search.”
Other tips to jobseekers:
Register on time for the networking meetings so your contactinformation is included in any handouts. Venture groups issue alist of registrants, by number, and a booklet of the sponsors. “Whenpeople introduce themselves, they refer to their number. You can circlethe information and get back to them at a later date,” she says.Do an electronic job search to find out what the companiesare looking for. Compare where your skills match up. What do you havethat could differentiate you? Where do you need to improve your skills.Go for additional training or refurbish your portfolioto showcase competencies that companies are looking for.Let friends and neighbors know you are looking for a job,because employer referral programs are one of the most popular recruitingmethods now.When you do your due diligence on a company with a job offer,understand what your personal values are and how they mesh with thoseof the corporation. “In everything you need to include integrityand social responsibility,” says Krajewski.Top Of PageHuman Resources’ Higher PlanePull up an extra chair at the executive roundtable.Human resource professionals are joining in, says Susan Gauff,who holds the unusual title of “vice president of people and communications”at Sarnoff Corporation.”Due to the war for talent today, particularly in technical disciplines,there is a need for human resources to function at a higher strategiclevel and to participate with senior executives to support retentionand recruitment,” says Gauff, who speaks on “Tips and Techniquesfor Getting a Seat at the Executive Table,” on Tuesday, July 18,at 6 p.m. at the New Jersey Technology Council Meeting at the ForsgateCountry Club. Also speaking: Jeffrey Weiner, human resourcemanager at Alpha Technologies. Call 856-787-9700. Cost: $70.A left-brainer in a right-brainer’s world (she has an English degreefrom Centenary College, Class of 1967), Gauff says that she’s beenable to provide an extraordinary service for the technical communityat Sarnoff. “Sarnoff is a business that is 100 percent relianton the ideas that people bring forth, so my function is to maximizethe productivity of intellectual capital,” says Gauff, who isessentially the chief administrative officer responsible for humanresources, change programs, facilities, and marketing and communications.”I focus on all of non-technical things,” she says. “Themost important thing to understand is how engineers think. It’s avery linear, analytical type of thinking, and most human resourcespeople are a little softer and less analytical. If you can approachthese non-technical things from a right-brain perspective, it’s relativelyeasy to get technical people to understand how their behavior affectsperformance.”Changing attitudes and relationships, in fact, can affect businessresults, says Gauff. “Previously at Sarnoff, and at most technicalcompanies, the perception is that interpersonal relationships don’tdo much to create results. I’ve tried to teach people how to workin teams, to teach management positive reinforcement techniques, andto use people power to create better scientific results.” Oneof Gauff’s initiatives, the “Change/Leadership Team,” broughtpeople with an orientation in process improvement together to teachothers in the company the fundamentals of process improvement productivityin their respective departments.Many human resources people function at a lower level in the organization,says Gauff, doing very tactical jobs like administering benefits andprocessing payroll, but as long as recruitment and retention remainproblems for the company (and in most, they do), human resources peoplecan play more of a strategic role. “If you give your employeesa better quality of life they will spend more time working,” shesays “If you give people the authority to make their own decisions,they will make better decisions.”If you’re going to cozy up with senior executives to create “peopleinitiatives,” however, make sure you can show how it affects thebottom line, says Gauff, who will be providing techniques on talkingthe language of the board of directors at the seminar.”There are three things a business wants to do,” says Gauff.”Make profits for shareholders, grow the business, and maintaina reputation in their market. If you can relate the human resourcesproblem back to those three measurable results, you’re likely to havemore success with your programs.”For example, if you have a strategy for recruiting, don’t just lookup the costs to hire someone, calculate what it costs to the businessto not have that person on board in terms of lost productivity andrevenues. “Knowing that kind of information would assist you inselling broader recruiting programs,” she says.If management training is your agenda, tie the success of the managersback to retention. “There are a lot of costs in the turnover ofemployees,” says Gauff. “Show that the activities providea return on investment, real numbers. The secret is to be able toprove it in a really analytical way.”Perhaps most important, says Gauff, you have to put yourself in aposition to associate with senior executives, and don’t be afraidto ask them what kind of “results” they need to approve aprogram. “A lot of people are intimidated by senior staff,”says Gauff. “A lot of people make assumptions that they have togo in front of the boss without rehearsal but that’s not true.”In your discussions with senior management, always relate the topicsyou’re talking about to those areas of growth and profit. “Ifthere’s not a business reason for doing something,” she says,”you shouldn’t do it.”— Melinda SherwoodTop Of PageEmpower EmployeesA boss tries to micro-manage his company and it failsto grow; a company hires technically-knowledgeable project managersinstead of salespeople and customers begin to drop like flies.Such scenarios are possible at any small business. Bill Hogan,a small business management consultant and professional coach, hasalready solved a few of these problems. “The number one problemI face is the control these entrepreneurs seem to exert,” he says.”If I’m the entrepreneur, I have to make all the decisions rightup to what donuts and coffee to pick. It becomes difficult to growthe company that way.”Hogan speaks on “Developing Relationships Through Effective SalesTechniques,” on Wednesday, July 19, at 8:15 a.m. at the PrincetonChamber meeting at the Nassau Club. Call 609-520-1776. Cost: $21.A mathematician with a BS from Montclair State, Class of 1960, Hoganstarted his career as a math teacher and basketball coach in BergenCounty. He later moved to IBM, where he spent 15 years in sales andsales management, and two more years on the strategic planning staffin Armonk. His consulting company, Leadership Group Inc. at 2 CarnegieRoad in Lawrence (609-883-5100), offers professional coaching inthe areas of hiring, firing, and having employees accept responsibility.When entrepreneurs spend an inordinate amount of time running thebusiness, and not enough time planning the business, says Hogan, theywill find it difficult to get to the next level. His solution: “Letthe employees go out and start making the decisions.”Hogan’s Top 10 Ways to Empower Your Employees:Allow employees to actively participate in team and companygoals. Include employees at every level of the organization.Allow employees to suggest better ways of doing their job.Employees often report that they have no input and are told how toperform their jobs, says Hogan. Listen, and be willing to hear theircomments.Provide positive reinforcement. Don’t just give negativefeedback. Balance it with positive.Clearly delegate responsibility and give employees authorityalong with responsibility. Don’t give an assignment, then give negativefeedback and say never mind, says Hogan.Be clear in your communication. Be sure employees reallyunderstand you.Show you have trust in your employees. Allow them to makemistakes as a form of learning. Don’t make them feel you are lookingover their shoulder to make sure that they do things right, says Hogan.Listen. Most employees report that their conversationsare one way.Be interested in the employee’s career development. Employeesoften report that their goals are not viewed as important to the organization.Let the employee help you achieve success. In other words,delegate.Be a coach.The best way to empower people is not to manage them, says Hogan,but to coach them to success. This is a process of developing theirskills and providing them specific feedback to meet high standards.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
