My Name Got Me a Job!

My Name Got Me a Job My Name Got Me a Job Whats In A Name? Apparently, Your Future...Its the year 2018. Youve got a brand new degree, some great references, a batch of perfectly targeted resumes, and matching cover letters. Youre geared up and ready to get a job. Theres just one problem that might be holding you back the anthroponym your own parents gave you.Youre geared up and ready to get a job. Theres just one problem that might be holding you back the personenpersonenname your own parents gave you.Despite being well into the 21st century, some people still believe that you can guess everything about someone from their name enough to know their gender, class, racial ethnicity, or even their level of work competence.You may have seen the recent viral video where a man tried changing his name on his resume from Jose to Joe and received surprising results.Resume Genius took a hard look at some interesting research about characteristics of how our name can affect our job success. W e asked for HR and Career experts to share their insights and advice on this issue. Here are our top 3 findings1. White Names Are Worth MoreNumerous studies have shown that job seekers with Western or white names have a significant advantage over those with ethnic undertones on their resume.Incredibly, the study also estimates that a White name yields as many mora call backs as an additional eight years of experience.A study published by theNational Bureau of Economic Research titled Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? measured racial discrimination in the workplace by creating applicants with identical resumes to apply for the same role, with name being the only difference.The results showed applicants with white names received 50% more call backs for an interview compared to those with African American names. Incredibly, the study alsoestimates that a White name yields as many more call backs as an additional eight years of experience.One of our expert respo ndents is career coach and author of Careeranista Chaz Pitts Kyser. Chaz shared with us her experience dealing with hiring managers, including African American ones, who she explains are often reluctant to hire people with black-sounding names (e.g. Tawanda or Deshawn) because their names make it seem like they may be less professional.Reluctance to hire people with black-sounding names stems from negative perceptions of ethnic and African American groups as having lower standards of education or lower socio-economic status.The reality of such prejudiced thinking is why unemployment is twice as high amongst African Americans than whites.2. Easy Names Are Easily LikedResearch on the name pronunciation effect from the Journal of Experiential Social Psychology shows that easy-to-pronounce names are judged more positively than difficult-to-pronounce names. The understanding behind this is that when information is easier to process and understand, its evaluated more positively than infor mation that is difficult to process.Weve been told cases where when it came down to choosing between two equally suitable candidates, recruiters would decide on the one with a less hard-to-pronounce name simply because they did elend want to mess up the persons name. With thousands of resumes to sift through daily, its understandable for hiring managers to automatically lean towards information that they find easy to process.3. Popular Names Are More Likely To Get You HiredThe popularity of a name also has an effect on how that person is perceived. A study by Marquette University found people with common names were more likely to be hired compared to those with unique or unusual names. Separate research by Mehrabian, A. Piercy, M. (1993) also identified names that were unusual or that had unconventional spelling (e.g. Nicky as Nikki) were perceived by hiring managers as being less successful, less popular and even less cheerful than their traditional counterparts.While that may be far from the truth, our tendency to like all things familiar to us, be it brand names or real names explains why a common name like Madison may yield a more positive impression than a less conventional (elend to mention phonetically incorrect and beyond ridiculous) Maddisyne.We can take a lesson here not to go overboard with creativity in naming our children, but for those of us already living with a less than palatable name, have no fear. HR guru and author Tiffany Murray of tmurrayhrtech.com says, Recruiters and hiring managers are human and whatever natural biases they may have will come into play subconsciously. An unusual name may stick out more but a professional human resources person will not let that impact their decision.What Can I Do About It?Never let the fear of discrimination make you feel demotivated.For some ethnic minorities, there seems to always be reason to suspect that you didnt get a fair go in your application or interview. However you should never let those f ears discourage you from finding your dream job.Name discrimination is not only illegal, but there has been a huge focus on creating a more diverse workforce within corporate recruiting departments. Having diversity within candidate pools is also highly desired by hiring managers. With diversity recruiting departments becoming the norm across corporate America, recruiters are embracing this and actively seeking more diverse candidates to exceed leaderships expectations for this demand.(Nina Parr, Co-Founder of The Love Your Job Project)Have a well written resumeKeep in mind, employers are far more likely to reject a candidate over a poorly resume with spelling errors and grammar inconsistencies as opposed to name, gender or racial bias. Having a well written resume is also often overlooked in the rush to get out as many applications as fast as possible. Learn the details of what makes a perfect resume here, or, if you need to make a resume in a short period of time, you may want to consider using Resume Genius resume building software here.Be professional onlineNowadays, employers can and will look you up on social media sites to see if your profile matches your resume. That means, no selfies of you in a swimsuit as a LinkedIn or Facebook profile picture (unless youre applying to be a bikini model). According toAndrea Berkman (Founder of The Constant Professional) The best way any candidate can overcome discrimination is by having a well written resume, a professional profile as well as an online presence that showcases his/her professionalism.Change your nameResume Genius has never suggested applicants change their names when applying for jobs. We believe you shouldnt have to conceal your identity to accommodate for potential bias from hiring managers. In an ideal world where the system works, that makes perfect sense. However, while conducting our research on the topic we found that name change is not uncommon and at times even suggested by experts to help t hose who might otherwise be overlooked.For instance, longer and more ethnic sounding names are more likely to raise an eyebrow. In cases where the applicant is concerned about their name affecting the likelihood of a call back, the use of a middle name is suggested or an abbreviated form of your first name for example Jerrikeisha can be shortened to Jerri, incidentally making it gender and ethnic neutral.Some careers consultants have actually recommended candidates to legally westernize their names to increase their chances of job success. Ultimately, you need to feel completely comfortable with whatever change you decide to make and not feel pressured by setbacks in your job search.Know your rightsIts important to understand your rights as an individual if any discriminatory action is being taken against you from an employer. During job interviews, its important to know what kind of questions are acceptable or illegal.Do Not Respond to Illegal Questions AboutRaceNationalityGenderRe ligionMarital statusSexual orientationIf you believe you were rejected by a potential employer due to any of these reasons, contact your local Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Human Relations agency or speak to an employment lawyer. (Cynthia Calbert, Workforce 21C)This post was written by Carmen Tu, a resume expert and career adviser.

How to achieve your goals by creating an enemy

How to achieve yur goals by creating an enemyHow to achieve your goals by creating an enemyDJ Khaled, the one-man internet meme, is known for warning his tens of millions of social media followers about a group of villains he calls they.They dont want you motivated. They dont want you inspired, he blares on camera. They dont want you to win, he warns. On Ellen DeGeneress talk show, Khaled urged the host, Please, Ellen, stay away from themThe they Khaled invokes are clearly a sinister force. But who are they? Khaled offered clues when he told DeGeneres, They are the people who dont believe in you They is the person that told you, you would never have an Ellen show.Although Khaleds claims may seem outlandish, he is in fact leveraging a powerful psychological hack scapegoating. The practice of imagining a villain thats conspiring against us, scapegoating can be an effective way to motivate ourselves and change our behaviors. Of course, as history has shown, terrible things can happen w hen people act on baseless conspiracy theories. But sometimes the antidote is in the venom.Khaled isnt the first to use the technique. In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield uses an entity he calls Resistance to describe the force conspiring against creative output. Most of us have two lives, Pressfield writes. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. Throughout his book Pressfield reminds readers, Resistance is always plotting against you.The author and game designer Jane McGonigal described a similar conspiracy of badeanstalt guys in her book SuperBetter. McGonigal blames villains like Mrs. Volcano and Snuff the Tragic Dragon when she loses her temper with her kids or feels self-pity.Khaled, Pressfield, and McGonigal know that they, Resistance, and the bad guys dont actually exist. For Khaled, thats the joke that powers the meme. If Khaled were to point a finger at a real group of people intent on sabotaging him, such as an ethnic group or a particular corporate entity, his scapegoating wouldnt be funny - it would be malicious.Correct causesIn order for productive scapegoating to work, its important not to assign blame to something or someone too specific if we do so, well shirk our responsibilities to change our own actions.Instead, we need to find the underlying causes of our bad behaviors, which requires asking difficult questions - especially since our intuition is frequently wrong. Maybe we dont binge on junk food or YouTube videos because of the pleasure in what were consuming, but because of deeper problems consuming us. Perhaps the true reason we allow our phones to interrupt dinner is not that were addicted to our phones, but that were addicted to work.Once weve identified our own self-defeating behaviors, the next challenge is to implement a change, which can be difficult if we think whats happening to us is beyond our control. In these situations, its easy to feel powerless and to give up. Its here that scapegoating can be used to our advantage. By directing our anger and anxieties at an invisible they, the forces working against us seem more tangible, so we feel like we have more power to fight them.Powerless if you think you areSeveral recent studies have observed a strong connection between the way we think about our ability to act and our follow-through. For example, to determine how in control people feel regarding their cravings for cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol, researchers administer a standard survey called the Craving Beliefs Questionnaire (CBQ). The assessment is modified for the participants drug of choice and presents statements like Once the craving starts I have no control over my behavior and the cravings are stronger than my willpower. How people rate these statements tells researchers how powerful or powerless they feel in the face of temptation. Lower scores reveal that subjects believe they are more in control, while higher scores correlate with people who beli eve the drugs control them.A study of methamphetamine users that appeared in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment in 2010 concluded that people with low CBQ scores were more likely to stay sober and that participants whose scores decreased over time - indicating that they felt more powerful as time passed - had increased odds of abstinence. A study of cigarette smokers published in 2014 found similar results The smokers most likely to fall off the wagon after quitting were the ones who believed they were powerless to resist.Though the logic isnt surprising - if we believe were powerless, we dont even try not to fail - the extent of the effect is remarkable. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that individuals who believed they were powerless to fight their cravings were much more likely to drink again. In fact, beliefs of powerlessness determined whether someone would relapse after treatment as much as the level of physical dependency itself did.Embracing the enemyBesides making us feel more powerful, scapegoating can harness our instincts to resist threats to our freedom and autonomy, a phenomenon that psychologists call reactance. For example, when your boss micromanages you and tells you what to do in a patronizing way, you may feel crummy and decide to do the opposite, to stick it to the man. Scapegoating uses the power of reactance toward productive ends. If we feel that someone or something is conspiring against us, were more likely to work harder to prove them wrong.Eliciting reactance has been used successfully in public health efforts, such as the anti-smoking Truth campaign, which tried to appeal to rebellious high schoolers (who feel reactance toward just about everyone). Instead of showcasing far-off consequences like emphysema and black lungs, the Truth campaign did away with the gore and instead painted the tobacco industry as a bunch of scheming jerks. In one ad activists attempt to deliver a case marked lie detector to the headquarters of a tobacco company and are promptly kicked out. In another spot, cartoon characters interrupt smokers at a party by shouting Its a trapWe can apply the same methods to use careful scapegoating to increase our own motivation. If we imagine a force working against us, were more likely to get fired up, resist our temptations, and work harder to achieve our goals.Of course, its actually just us against ourselves. But for the times when we dont want to admit that, providing a clear enemy to rebel against - a they who doesnt want you to leave that extra cookie on the plate or get back to writing that blog post - can help us summon the tenacity we need to succeed. Even if, in reality, that they resides in each of us.Heres the gistIf used correctly, scapegoating can be a powerful tool for resisting temptation and sticking to hard goals. It can also be dangerous and backfire if used incorrectly.Assigning blame is a kind of psychological defense mec hanism that frees us from uncomfortable feelings when bad things happen out of our control, or when we dont want to accept that we are responsible for our own problems.Nothing can be done when bad things happen as a result of circumstances truly beyond our control. But were often more powerful than we think we are when it comes to our own behavior. Studies have found that people who believe that temptations control them are much more likely to give in.As long as we target the behavior at the root of the problem, creating an imaginary enemy - projecting our struggle onto the scapegoat - can make us feel more powerful and help us resist temptation or achieve our goals.This column first appeared at Nir and Far.

The Leadership Journey

The Leadership JourneyThe Leadership JourneyThe Leadership JourneyBy Diane Hudson Burns, FJSTC, CPCC, CLTMC, CPRWSES Project Manager, The Resume PlaceThe Leadership Journey chart, used by OPM (*acronyms are translated below), is the focus of a chapter in the new book, The New SES Application (publication date September 2011 by Kathryn Troutman and Diane Hudson Burns).The Leadership Journey serves as a road-map for leadership development and walks a professional through his career via leadership steps, with a goal of attaining SES. The chart covers all 28 leadership competencies required of OPM to be selected for SES. The model is used to help individuals and federal agencies build the development segment of employees succession plans.The core Leadership competencies are basic competencies for all employees (Managing Yourself) these are the cross functional competencies that are the foundation of leadership and personal management Interpersonal Skills Oral Communication Continual Lea rning Written Communication Integrity/Honesty Public Service Motivation. Research indicates that without these core competencies, success at upper levels is not possible.The Leadership Journey illustrates the customary levels of management and leadership. Associated with each level are related competencies that are critical for success at that level, and form a developmental step for the next level of management or leadership. There are key experiences at each level that are designed to reinforce the associated competencies. These key experiences eventually serve as building blocks for the ECQs.As the models steps move upward, Managing Yourself, moves to Managing Projects (equivalent to GS 5-11 positions). Employees in this stage of their careers build project management skill sets and five additional leadership competencies in Team Building Customer Service Technical Credibility Accountability Influencing/Negotiating.At the next level, Managing People (GS 11-13 equivalent), employe es gain an additional five leadership competencies attributed to the ECQs Human Capital Management Leveraging Diversity Conflict Management Developing Others Problem Solving.From this level, employees move into mora senior leadership and management roles (Managing Programs / GS 14-15 equivalent) focusing on six additional leadership competencies Technology Management Financial Management Creativity Innovation Partnering Political Savvy Flexibility. At this stage, most career professionals have some 12 to 20 years of experience.Combining all of the previous 22 leadership competences with six more External Awareness Vision Strategic Thinking Entrepreneurship Resilience Decisiveness, professionals who have climbed the steps of the Leadership Journey are ready for SES and Leading Organizations.To attain SES, candidates must submit an SES level resume and Executive Core Qualifications for review by the Qualifications Review Board, which determines if candidates meet the requirements for SES and demonstrate the 28 requirements leadership competencies to Lead Organizations.As an employee moves through the steps of the Leadership Journey combined with a succession plan that may include training, certifications, education, and specialized detail assignments to gain all 28 leadership competencies, the individuals resume will evolve as it begins to express stronger leadership and management skills. The accomplishments (as opposed to duties) selected for an individuals resume seeking more senior level positions, will demonstrate leadership and senior management roles, focusing on managing people, projects, and programs. As the employee gains more leadership skills, the resume will need to convey more focused and stronger accomplishments.If you would like to learn more about the Leadership Journey and development of the SES five-page resume and traditional ECQ resume package, please join us in Baltimore on September 8 and 9, 2011 for the SES / ECQ development workshop. T he book, The New SES Application is the base curriculum. You will experience hands-on, interactive training with four instructors during two days, with a goal of completing several ECQs and the five-page SES resume.* OPM = Office of Personnel ManagementSES = Senior Executive ServiceECQ = Executive Core QualificationsFind out more about our SES Application Writing Workshop.Order The New SES Application book today