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6 Ways Your Job is Losing You Future Earnings

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Love hurts, but so does the wrong job. Not only will it leave you unsatisfied but it can actually hurt your career trajectory.

From missing out on promotions to working for a company with a bad reputation, there’s a host of ways a current role can negatively impacting future earnings.

So before you commit even more time and effort to your existing job check out these six signs it may be time to look for greener pastures.

1. You don’t believe in the mission or leaders

In a tight job market taking any job you can get makes sense, but now that the market is starting to rebound it may be time to rethink your current position, particularly if you don’t agree with the direction the company is going or you don’t respect its leaders.

“There are occasions when a new CEO or new manager comes in and the company rebrands itself,” says Jennifer Hill, author of Stop Hoping-Start Hunting. “If it isn’t aligning with your long term career path and personal brand it can hurt you to associate with that company.”

2. The boss keeps taking credit for your hard work

No one wants to get thrown under the bus but when it’s your boss or manager who is doing it to you and stealing the credit, it could be a sign it’s time to start looking. After all not only will it breed resentment but it could prevent you from getting promoted if your manager gets all the accolades for your hard work.

3. The job is just a means to a pay check

Nobody wants to be in between jobs for too long which is why many will take a position as a “placeholder” until something better comes along, says Ben Carpenter, author of The Bigs: The Secrets Nobody Tells Students and Young Professionals About How to Find a Great Job, Do a Great Job, Start a Business, and Live a Happy Life. While you’ll have money in the bank going that route, you’ll also be going thru the motions instead of feeling engaged and strongly invested in the job. “Those feelings will carry over into how you actually perform,” says Carpenter. “So if you are just phoning it in, and your work is suffering because of it, you do run the risk of negatively affecting your reputation with your leaders, clients and coworkers, which can/will affect you when you seek another job.”

4. Complacency has set in

We all want to feel comfortable in our jobs but you also don’t want it to be too cushy that you don’t ever move up or leave. There’s a reason that old adage “when one door closes another opens” resonates with so many people. One way to avoid that from happening is to plan where you want to be in your career in five, ten and twenty years, he says.

5. Your company has a bad reputation

It’s ok to work for scrappy company trying to take on the competition or the market leader, but if your employer has a really bad reputation—think Enron bad—then it can hurt your future career. Not only will people question your character but you may not get an interview at the competitors to begin with.

6. Your role adds little to the business

You may love your job and tasks you perform but if that position isn’t one that impacts the business or is hurting your chances of moving up then you are likely in a dead end role.

What Is Job Security?

Job security means knowing that your job is safe—or “secure”—and that you won’t be cut, even if outside forces cause your employer to issue layoffs. For supervisors, offering job stability to direct reports will give their employees peace of mind knowing they have a stable paycheck, which is no small thing in these uncertain times.

Why Is Job Security Important for Employers?

Having a boss who understands the definition of job security and the implications it has on staff is critical to business success. That’s because job security isn’t just beneficial for employees—it benefits employers, as well.

Providing consistent, stable jobs to workers can help companies increase retention, attract top talent (word gets around when workers know that their employment is stable), and create a positive work environment that brings out employees’ best performance. After all, secure employees can spend less time worrying about their job stability, or stressing over how they’ll pay their bills if they get laid off, and can spend more time focusing on their work.

Job security can also improve a company’s bottom line, since turnover is costly. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, replacement costs can reach as high as 50% to 60% of an employee’s annual salary.

That said, while job security is valuable for employees and employers alike, not every worker deserves it. Job security is something that’s earned through hard work, dedication, and loyalty. Tolerating poor performance can be detrimental to your team’s success. Knowing when to let someone go is part of running a respectable organization.

How Managers Can Provide Job Stability

In many cases, it’s a manager’s responsibility to obtain job security for their employees, but some bosses drop the ball. A Gallup poll found that 52% percent of workers who voluntarily left their job said their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving.

If you’re a manager, there are a few steps you can take to provide stable jobs to your employees:

Find each person’s unique talents.

A great boss taps into and leverages the instincts and skills her employees have. This, in turn, will help your employees get noticed by the company’s top brass, which can make your workers indispensable.
Praise employees publicly.

This is another way to help your employees improve their visibility at the organization.
Advocate for your workers during tough times.

An effective boss works fearlessly to their employees avoid layoffs.

Feel More Secure on Your Career Path

The definition of job security is universal across industries. Any company that wants to rise above the competition needs to manage its finances to make sure employees are taken care of—especially during tough economic times. Want to learn more essential lessons of the workplace? Start by creating a free profile on JobCop UK. As a member, you’ll get industry insights, career advice, and job search tips sent directly to your inbox so you can make smart decisions to secure your future.

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Why Long-Term Unemployment Isn’t As Bad As You Think

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Here’s some good news for folks who’ve long been out of work

: that big gap on your resume may not be hurting your job search as much as you think. A new study by three economists finds that while callbacks do decrease during early months of unemployment, by eight months out of the workforce, the effect levels off and more months of unemployment don’t particularly matter.

The headline result: employers called and offered an interview to seven percent of “applicants” who had been unemployed for just one month, and that callback rate steadily dropped as unemployment lengthened, with resumes showing eight months of unemployment receiving callbacks for interviews only four percent of the time. Yet after eight months, the callback rate didn’t drop too much more, even as the researchers extended the length of unemployment all the way out to 36 months.

Furthermore, in parts of the country with high unemployment, callback rates didn’t vary nearly as much according to length of unemployment. The researchers surmise that employers understand that when the economy leaves a huge number of people out of work, a person being unemployed for a while isn’t nearly as telling a fact as it might be when jobs are more easily had.

The researchers also found—to their surprise—that employers were more likely to offer an interview to a person who had been unemployed for a few months than to a person currently employed. After talking to some hiring professionals, the researchers figured that this might have something to do with the perception that the currently employed aren’t serious job seekers, or that negotiating salary or start date is tougher when a person still has another job.

So what’s the take-away for unemployed job seekers?

Well, first, it’s probably a good idea to do more than submit your resume to online job ads. In the study, resumes solicited a callback for an interview only 4.7 percent of the time overall. And while 12.6 percent received any sort of callback (including those asking for more information), neither hit rate is much to write home about. Additionally, the researchers threw out results from 83 job ads after deeming them “questionable” because of evidence that the employer was engaging in dishonest or deceptive behavior.

Second, if you have been out of work for a while, it may be a good idea to indicate on your resume why you wound up jobless or how you’ve been spending your time. In order to construct their fictitious resumes, the researchers—and a legion of research assistants, to be sure—combed through about 1,200 real resumes in order to see how the unemployed typically present themselves. They found that 95 percent offered no explanation for the gap. Including a bit about how you’ve been working as a volunteer or pursuing additional training could make you stand out.

Finally, if you are approaching some big milestone of unemployment—like the one-year mark—try not to worry too much about the signal unemployment is sending, especially if you are in a high-employment pocket of the country. The impact on your job prospects might not be as bad as you think.

That said, the results of a single academic study should never be taken as gospel. In order to make the fictitious resumes comparable outside of unemployment length, the researchers created just one sort of worker profile—a young person without extensive job experience—and only applied for positions in sales, customer service, administrative support, and clerical work. Do the same trends hold across other industries and for more experienced workers? Or when people apply for jobs through channels other than online job postings? Unfortunately, we can’t tell from this study. Optimism is in order, but a cautious one.

If you’re facing long-term unemployment, don’t let the discouragement keep you from taking action, both with your finances and your job search. Here’s what you should do in the meantime as you look for a new opportunity.

1. Reduce your expenses as much as possible and get creative with how you approach it

Working with individual lenders and firms that you regularly pay a bill to, to see if you can arrange some type of forbearance program. It’s always worth a shot to ask, and even if there isn’t a federal-mandated payment pause, a local credit union or bank might be willing to work with you.

You might find that refinancing your mortgage or transferring lingering credit card debt to a balance-transfer card might reduce some of your monthly expenses by shaving hundreds of dollars off of your monthly interest rate payment. Perhaps you can downsize your home and move in with family or take on a part-time job to help get you by. Over the longer-term, moving to a new region where jobs in your industry are more readily available might be worth considering.

2. Stay on top of unemployment assistance

The long-term unemployment picture is growing increasingly complicated as firms, mostly among the restaurants and retailers that took that hardest hit from the pandemic, are echoing woes of being unable to find enough qualified workers.

McDonald’s said Thursday it plans to boost its hourly wages for both entry-level workers and managers to help retire and retain workers. Chipotle plans to woo workers with sign-on bonuses for apprentices and managers.

Republican lawmakers see ramped up unemployment benefits as to blame and 16 states are now moving to cut jobless aid, impacting some 1.9 million workers, according to the Washington Post. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, however, said a lack of child care and ongoing fear of getting COVID-19 exposure in the workplace could also be keeping potential workers at home.

The UI picture looks uncertain over the coming months, but generally speaking, you should find an extra $300 in your weekly check and those benefits should last through mid-September. If you’ve experienced any delays, follow up with your state unemployment office as soon as possible to determine what the hold up might be.

3. Don’t feel like you have to explain your job gap

One of the reasons why long-term unemployment poses significant challenges when those jobless workers try to seek a new position is because employers don’t always look kindly on a gap in their resume. Some labor market experts, however, are hoping the unprecedented nature of the pandemic and its public health risks will change that perception.

4. Think about how much income you need to sustain your lifestyle

Lifetime earnings are impacted by a long bout of unemployment, with many workers feeling desperate to take the first job that might be available to them, even if it means taking a significant pay cut from what they were used to paying.

Once you evaluate your budget, you might be able to get a good grasp on your survival number — that is, the amount of money you have to have coming in every month to cover essential expenses, such as food, your car payment or your mortgage payment. That might help you get a better idea of whether an opportunity that comes your way is worth taking — or worth passing up.

“I would encourage job seekers to continue applying, continue looking, but to have a real conversation with themselves about budget: What do they need, what is their minimum in terms of compensation or pay,” Konkel says. “Even in the best of times, it’s a very frustrating process to job hunt, and in a lot of situations we don’t want to take something and realize, ‘Oh, actually, that’s totally not going to work with your life if you cannot pay the rent with that job.’”

Individuals, however, might not feel comfortable about passing up on any opportunity if they need more income coming in. In those instances, switching to a better job once the opportunity presents itself, especially if the pay isn’t what you deserve when considering your experience, industry and location.

5. Seek out job-training opportunities

Whether you’re unemployed still or taking on a temporary opportunity to receive income, don’t underestimate the value of developing new skills and brushing up on the ones you’ve already developed. That could come by taking on a new project or temporary position or even utilizing online courses or classes that might help set you apart from other job applicants.

But that might be frustrating, particularly as lower-income individuals and less-educated workers have endured the brunt of coronavirus-induced job losses. They might not have the wherewithal to afford new training and might feel more resigned to taking on a position with less compensation than before

6. Leverage your professional network

Positions might not always be advertised online, meaning it might be worth reaching back out to individuals or colleagues whom you knew at previous positions. They could help you find a position that might be more tailored to your skills and compensation level.

7. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

As we saw a boom in demand for assistance from food banks and other charities, there’s no harm in seeking assistance, particularly given that this has been one of the most dramatic and sudden economic downturns in our history

Loyola’s Classen hopes the widespread nature of the pandemic might help to reduce that stigma, limiting the mental health toll of long-term unemployment.

This idea that, as a collective, we all got hit with the pandemic at the same time, so you feel more connected to people around you,There is something about the fact that we all went through it.

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4 Secrets To Be Strategic About Your Job Search

Target growing companies.

About one-third of companies see growth and increased hiring, while 55 percent expect more sluggish staffing up, according to a Right Management study. You want to go after those that are ambitious and hopeful, not the slow-moving ones. Both may post jobs, but the ambitious company could hire quickly, or even add a second job.

Look up.

One-third of CFOs say they will consider hiring someone who’s “too junior” for the job opening and train them, according to a Duke University / CFO Magazine survey. This gives job seekers an opportunity to step up to a position where they have most, but not all of the experience required.

Take a temp job.

Be smart about it, and use the job or the employer to add luster to your resume or skillet. Or land a short-term assignment at a company where you really want to work, and then be the temp they cannot stand to let go. Almost one-fourth of employers in the CareerBuilder survey expect to move some temps into permanent jobs in the second quarter, and that’s up from 17 percent last year.

Show your growth.

Companies are concerned with finding people whose skills and knowledge are keeping up with the changes in the world, so spell out the ways you’re doing this. If you recently learned how to use WordPress to design websites, add it to your professional profiles and resumes. If you’re researching sales techniques that have higher degrees of success for a major presentation at an industry convention, put that down. Indicate how you’re adding to your skillet and growing your talents.

A warmer job market will mean more possibilities, yet it doesn’t mean you can cool off your diligence in development or active search. Use the blooms in the economy to bring back your higher expectations for a new job.

Job searching

isn’t just about applying for jobs and hoping to get called for an interview anymore. Few people can simply put in an application, get an interview, and land a job in today’s competitive and network-driven job market.

The most successful job seekers utilize a variety of strategies, from establishing a social presence to targeting companies, to help them stand out from the crowd.

Try these job search strategies to expedite your search, find connections who can lend a hand, get your resume noticed, and ace your interviews, so you get job offers.

Search for the Right Jobs

Use the job search engines to find jobs by using keywords that match your interests and the location where you want to work. Narrowing your search criteria will save time, help you focus your job search, and give you highly relevant job listings to review (and fewer non-relevant listings to weed through).

Job Search Where Companies Are Hiring

If you’re aware of where companies are seeking applicants, you can position yourself to increase your chances of getting found by hiring managers. One of the important job search strategies you can use is to focus your efforts on the same job sites that companies are using to recruit.

Make Sure Companies Can Find You

When you’re conducting a job search, you need to make it easy for employers to find you online. Employers, who can be inundated with resumes when they post jobs, often seek passive candidates (qualified candidates who aren’t necessarily looking for work, but who may be interested if the right job comes along). Here’s how to ensure companies can find you.

Get Noticed by Your Dream Company

The job market is crowded, and one of the most valuable strategies you can use is to make sure that you stand out from the crowd and show the hiring manager that you are a candidate who should be selected for an interview.

One way to do this is to have a target list of companies you’d like to work for, and focus your efforts on making a terrific impression on the organization.

Rank Well on Google

Create profiles on LinkedIn and other professional networking sites. Use your name for the URL, if possible. When prospective employers search for you online, those profiles typically rank high, so you will provide recruiters, employers, and contacts with a strong, positive, and professional impression of you as a candidate they should be interested in.

Customize Your Resume and Cover Letter

It’s important to take the time to write targeted resumes and cover letters that specifically link your qualifications to the hiring criteria for the jobs you are applying for.

The hiring manager will be able to immediately see why and how you are qualified for the job. You’ll have a much better chance of getting an interview with a targeted resume, than if you send a generic letter and resume.

Use Your Network

Networking is still the way most people find jobs, and the job search strategies you use need to include networking—either online or in person. Connect with everyone you know, because you never know which contact may be able to help you with your job search or put you in touch with someone who can.

Join LinkedIn Groups so you’ll have access to job listings posted for Group members and more people to network with. Set up information interviews with professionals at your target companies to get more information about an industry, job, or company.

Ace the Job Interview

A job interview, of course, is what is going to get you a job offer—or not. Take the time to prepare. Research the company before you go for the interview, dress appropriately, practice answering and asking interview questions, and make a concerted effort to impress the interviewer with your skills, experience, confidence, and expertise.

Follow Up After the Interview

It’s really important to follow up after an interview by thanking everyone you interviewed with. Candidates who send thank you notes get hired more often than those who don’t.

Use your thank-you note as an opportunity to reiterate why you’re the best candidate for the position. If you flubbed an answer during the interview, you could also use your thank you note to clarify.

Use Job Search Strategies for Older Workers When Applicable

There are strategies older job seekers can implement to help expedite a job search and to find gainful and meaningful employment. From age-proofing your resume and cover letter, to highlighting your years of experience in a positive way, review these tips targeted at helping mature job seekers land interviews and get hired.

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