Recently in Careers Category

The Fort Wayne, Indiana company settled an U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) age, race, and retaliation lawsuit. The company will have to pay total of $580,000 and up to $5,000 in settlement administrative expenses. It doesn’t pay to discriminate, IF you get caught.

According to the EEOC: “Renhill Services, Inc. violated federal law by failing to refer African American applicants and applicants age 40 for work assignments. Further, the EEOC said, Renhill unlawfully retaliated against employees who objected to these referral practices.” READ MORE...

HOW IRONIC? As soon as you click on Renhill's website there is a large image of a BLACK woman on the homepage, then photos of others flash. She's the first face you see.

Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is featured in two EEOC Anti-Discrimination PSA. Follow the jump to see the video.

I saw this poll in the Sunday Boston Globe which had me thinking. The question:
What, besides salary, do you value most when looking of a job?

Choices:

• Commute
• Workplace/atmosphere
• Employer flexibility
• Good medical and retirement benefits
• Educational and advancement opportunities

I had to juggle retirement benefits with workplace atmosphere, but I could only select one, so I chose good medical and retirement benefits as 2nd choice behind salary.

Follow the jump for poll results.

A group of Boston firefighters is alleged to have cheated on a promotional civil service exam last year. There are reports of test takers going to the bathroom with their cell phones and text messaging answers to other test takers.

People who cheat on these exams are the same types who shoot down affirmative action, and cry that it is a reverse discriminatory practice. On the other hand, this is another example of why affirmative action is necessary-to balance problems like this.

This group may have been caught, but how many others have obtained their promotions, through cheating and other forms of dishonesty? What's sad is, if they are found guilty, it would not be surprising to see them walk away with their pensions intact.

Related Article Officials investigating possible cheating on firefighters exam

I am glad I took the typing class in high school, because if I did not, it would have been a horrendous struggle trying to type assignments for college. I would still be pecking away in frustration or paying people to type my papers. Back then I was never a speed typist. My focus was on accuracy with less emphasis on speed. A 75 wpm typist, I did not aspire to be, so when we had typing tests in the class, I always scored well in the accuracy category. My best effort was about 25-30 wpm error free.

This is one underrated skill, which holds teens and adults back from entry level jobs in customer service call centers, clerical, other positions, and growing a business. It is a skill I would put in the must have category for job preparedness. Take this typing test to see if you have improved since that high school course or have regressed. Typing should be a requirement for high school graduates. Correction, typing can start in kindergarten.

Here are excerpts from a piece Vanessa E. Jones wrote for the Boston Globe on how many black men have to modify the way they act and appear in a mostly white workplace. So much for blending in. Jones writes some of the best articles on black and urban culture. When you get a chance look up some of her work. Her feature stories are of substance, thought provoking, and just simply awesome.

In her Oct 9th Boston Globe article she writes:

"On Fridays, employees at the Boston Architectural College have the option to dress casually. But when Michael James, a director of human resources and diversity at the school, donned denim shorts one recent Friday, his clothing elicited a few comments. One person wasn't used to seeing James dressed so informally, someone else asked him, "What happened?" and another supportively told him to "fight the fight."

The interest in James's attire wasn't based on a pitched battle about what comprises casual dress. James believes the comments reflected the fact that he was a black man who decided to dress down at the office. "Even when we have casual Fridays," says James, 36, "I'm expected to wear a suit and tie."

Like many other black men, James says unspoken rules limit how they interact in predominantly white workplaces. In some cases, they must dress more formally than their co-workers, speak softly, or generally comport themselves in unaggressive ways to counteract stereotypes that paint black men as unintelligent, violent, and dangerous. These biases are based on long-held beliefs about black masculinity and sexuality that grew out of this country's history of slavery and segregation.

In the past, black men had no choice but to succumb to white society's fears and present themselves deferentially. But today a new generation of black men are bringing attention to and trying to change these implied rules of conduct.

As an allocation analyst at TJX Companies Inc. in Framingham for three years, starting in 2000, Wynndell Bishop says he made a conscious decision to speak with a softer voice and present himself in an unaggressive manner. "I would say 60 percent of the division I was in was young white women between the ages of 21 and 28," says Bishop, 28, who received his MBA from Boston College in May. "A lot of those women, to my knowledge, didn't have a lot of interaction with black folks other than what they saw on TV."

James makes accommodations because of his 6-foot-2 height, which, he says, has made people view him as "threatening and menacing even though I'm the most peaceful person out there." He shies away from making declarative statements at work, to prevent himself from appearing too aggressive. "I say, 'What are your thoughts about it?' rather than demanding they do certain things," James says. "I put it out there in a fashion that they feel they have a choice."" READ MORE...

This career article offers some hope and tips on how to positively deal with your past and get a job which fits your situation. It is helpful for those who have had problem situations on or have been fired from previous jobs also, because some the same advice can apply to you. Just because you have a record, it does not mean you should not be allowed to ever have gainful employment.

In a career article, “Deeper Background” by Teresa Odle she offers sound advice to the ex-offender, on how you can dwell on the future in your job searches, and find the right job:

“Many job seekers have red flags in their personal or work history that signal to employers they might present a hiring risk. And studies show that no history presents more reluctance among employers than a criminal past.

That poses a problem for many job seekers and communities, since between 10 and 12 million people circulate in and out of U.S. jails, prisons and detention centers each year, says Ron Krannich a career counselor and co-author of "The Ex-Offender's Job Hunting Guide: 10 Steps to a New Life in the Work World" (2005, Impact Publications). Krannich estimates an additional 50 million Americans have some kind of record.” READ MORE…

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations aka FBI is loosening up on some of its hiring requirements, and among them is if applicants have had a history of smoking marijuana, it will be forgiven. Previously, this revelation would have barred someone from being hired. Therefore, if you applied before and this prevented you from getting through the screening process, you may want to consider applying again.

USA Today reports Jeff Berkin, deputy director of the FBI's Security Division says the marijuana standard has been in place for 13 years.

"It encourages honesty and allows us to look at the whole person," Berkin said of the revised policy. He said it was too early to tell whether the new standard has encouraged an increasing number of applicants as the FBI attempts to hire 221 agents and 121 intelligence analysts.

"Increasingly, the goal for the screening of security clearance applicants is whether you are a current drug user, rather than whether you used in the past," said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "It's not whether you have smoked pot four times or 16 times 20 years ago. It's about whether you smoked last week and lied about it."

Under the FBI's revised drug policy, applicants are disqualified if they have used:

• Any illegal drug, other than marijuana, within the past 10 years or used marijuana for more than just "experimentation."

• Marijuana within the past three years or for a substantial period of time.

Source: FBI
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Here is a recent FBI press release:

Press Release
For Immediate Release
February 9, 2004 Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691

The FBI is hiring more Intelligence Analysts than ever..!
The FBI is kicking off an aggressive Intelligence Analyst hiring campaign and is tailoring its recruiting initiative to identify men and women who possess critical skills such as critical reasoning, computer literacy, sound judgment, research, and information gathering and manipulation. The FBI is especially interested in recent college graduates, professionals, and individuals with military and criminal intelligence experience who are well organized, have excellent oral and written communication skills, have the ability to apply inductive and deductive reasoning to analyze intelligence information, and the ability to conduct appropriate research.

Intelligence Analysts at the FBI are on the cutting edge of the great opportunities and challenges brought about by fast-paced global changes. While most people can only talk about making the world a safer place, FBI Intelligence Analysts make a contribution. Due to current and emerging investigative and intelligence responsibilities, the FBI's analytical needs have dramatically increased, creating unique and distinguished employment opportunities for critical thinking, problem solving professionals.

FBI Intelligence Analysts are diverse professionals all sharing their common desire to protect, strengthen, and make a positive difference to the nation, and to a larger part, the world. There are few careers in the Federal government as timely and in-the-news as working for the FBI. Now, here is an opportunity for qualified individuals to put their analytical aptitude to work protecting our nation.

All interested applicants should immediately apply on-line at www.fbijobs.com .

Reference:
USA Today