How to Negotiate for More Maternity Leave

How to Negotiate for More Maternity Leave Negotiating for mora maternity leave isnt something you may realize you can do. If your employer has a maternity leave policy, understand that it is elend set in stone. Instead, consider it a starting point for negotiation.In most cases, you probably have nothing to lose. The worst that can happen is that your employer says no and hopefully you dont feel you will damage your reputation or risk your job by simply asking for mora. If youre like most women, you didnt ask about your employers maternity leave when you started working. Most people dont know very much aboutmaternity leaveat all, which is why we wrote amaternity leaveprimer which outlines your basic rights here. If you find out what it is and youre unhappy with what your company offers, weve put together a checklist of strategies that will help you negotiate1. Try to Hold off on Telling Your Manager or Co-Workers You Are Pregnant until You Are ReadyBy ready, we mean that you understa nd what your companys maternity leave policy is and whether you plan on negotiating it. If that ship has sailed, try not to make any commitment or set any expectations about your maternity leave plan until youre ready. If your manager says something like, Will you be taking your maternity leave?, just explain that youd like to gather more information and set up a time to talk about it soon. This gives you time to do more research. Being prepared when you deliver your news helps everyone and makes you look well-organized and considerate.2. Decide What You Want, and Be SpecificRemember, you are negotiating with an employer and you must start with a clear goal in mind. What every woman wants will be different. You may want 8 weeks of paid leave when you are only entitled to 6 weeks. Or you may simply want four weeks of unpaid leave because you dont qualify for FMLA. One big factor in what maternity leave you want may depend on what your childcare options are. Some women may not want to put their children into daycare until a certain age, for example.3. Do Your ResearchFirst, consult your employee handbook and get the official policy from HR so you can confirm that your employer is offering you the minimum maternity leave required by law. If they are, you know anything extra you receive is something they are not required to give you. If youre koranvers youre getting less than what is required by law, then youre negotiating from a place of great strength.4. Do More ResearchAsk your colleagues who have been on maternity leave whether they negotiated and were able to receive unofficial deals. Even if they havent, they may give you advice and help you understand what is possible. Most working moms are supportive of each other and they may share important information. For example, they may know who was most helpful to them during their maternity leave, who in HR is the best person to ask about things, and other issues you may not have even realized may come up regardin g your leave. Try to find out what your companys competitors offer. This may persuade some employers that they should update their policies since companies have become increasingly generous with maternity leave in the past few years. Some of the information you are looking for may exist in our crowd-sourced maternity leave database. And you may (anonymously) contact Fairygodboss members who work at your company if you dont feel comfortable asking them directly.5. Determine Who You Want or Need to Negotiate with, and Size Them UpFor many women, their direct supervisor or manager will be their best advocate. If you can win your manager over as your ally, you will be able to approach HR or any higher-up managers together. HR may be unwilling to act without your boss approval, anyway and generally will be less inclined to help you by deviating from policies that they, in all likelihood, created in the first place. If youre uncomfortable speaking with your direct manager, you may have to speak with multiple people or perhaps go directly first to HR. Whatever your corporate hierarchy, simply remember that your pitch should resonate with them and their familiarity with both you and their responsibilities in the organization.6. Provide Your Manager with a Thoughtful, Detail Maternity Leave Plan First. After This Has Been Approved, Then NegotiateYour maternity leave plan should include how much contact you will maintain with the office during your absence, your dates of departure and return, what decisions and big milestones you will complete before/during/after your absence (including which colleagues and direct-reports will cover your certain responsibilities), and your plan for managing the transition both into your parental leave period, and then back. These are all things you should address in a formal proposal. You will be in a better position to negotiate more maternity leave if you appear to be well-organized and considerate of your managers needs. Put yourself in your boss shoes. What are the hardest issues and questions she will have about how your work will be done in your absence? Is there a colleague who can take over some of your tasks? Can certain projects wait until you come back? Will you finish important work before you leave?7. Make Your Requests in PersonWe hope this goes without saying, but if you are asking for special treatment, you will need to make your pitch like a salesperson would. Look your manager in the eye, and convince them you love your job, the company and are eager to come back to work after you have your baby. Its important to negotiate in person, rather than over-the-phone or email since you will be able to assess their position by seeing their unfiltered body language. Your more formal request should probably be written down and go into a lot of detail, but you dont need to go over all of that in-person. You can email or present them with the document so the conversation is focused on the big picture. In mos t cases, we think that HR should be informed after your manager has already approved your plan. To the extent that HR also needs to approve your agreement, we think its better for you and your manager to present a united front.8. Frame Your Argument in Terms of How it Will Help the Team or Your CompanyIts easier to frame your schwierigkeit as a joint problem or opportunity, than as a demand or threat. Although you and your baby are obviously the direct beneficiaries of your maternity leave, your company is not just absorbing costs. For example, making sure you are happy during maternity leave and adequately taking care of your personal life means you are much more likely to return to the company.Positioning your request as an exception to the policy can make some managers uncomfortable. Instead, you might try to set it up as an experiment to improve morale or retention. You may be saving the company quite a lot of money and time in terms of recruitment and replacement. There is a de cent amount of researchshowing that companies experience improved retention of women when they extend their paid maternity leave programs. To bolster your case and make it less about you, consider speaking to other co-workers (even those without children) to find out whether they believe the maternity leave policy would discourage them to return to the company. If they agree with you, you can point this out (without naming names).9. Accept That You May Not Get Everything You Want, and Actively Anticipate Alternatives or CompromisesYou should come up with a second best plan in case your ideal maternity leave situation isnt possible. For example, you might be able to get a more flexible or a reduced work-from-home schedule that will pay you some money during the leave and also help lighten your employers work. You also may be able to receive more unpaid time off than more pay. You should go into your negotiation with an idea of what you think is most achievable and be prepared to comp romise a bit. The following are some possible compromises you may be willing to propose in order to possibly receive more pay or a longer maternity leave job sharing with another employee for part of your maternity leave, part-time work, remote-working and telecommuting, flexible hours, and coming in for special events, seminars or meetings. While we believe that you should really minimize your work during maternity leave whenever possible, sometimes its not possible.10. Give Yourself a Reality CheckSometimes you shouldnt negotiate or expect much even if you do. For example, if the company is going through hard times and laying people off, you need to be sensitive to the overall context. If you are relatively new to the company, youve recently gotten pretty badeanstalt performance reviews, or dont get along with your boss, it may be unrealistic to expect that youll be able to negotiate for more.11. Stage Your Requests, if That Makes Sense in Your SituationIf you know you want more t ime off and may even quit if you are given more leave, consider waiting until towards part-way through your maternity leave to ask for an extension. While this may not always work, if youre convinced you do not want to return to your employer, you and the employer will have nothing to lose at that point if you part ways (though, note, that some employers will ask you to reimburse them for benefits or maternity leave pay if you do not return for a minimum period after your leave of absence).Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women. Join us by reviewing your employer

The Nuiances of Need Help Writing My Resume

The Nuiances of Need Help Writing My Resume There are a lot of alternatives offered for getting help with your resume to make sure the last draft is likely to receive a second look by employers. Including professional goals can assist you by giving employers a notion of where youre going, and the way you need to arrive there. When you wish to find the best resume help, you are able to simply follow our lead. You need assistance with making a resume. The Benefits of Need Help Writing My Resume Employing a custom resume instead of a generic one is going to greatly increase your probability of an interview, as youll be a better match in the view of the reader. A simple resume template is going to be your very best bet. Though a titelseite letter does show a generalized idea of the way to compose a cover letter it doesnt show you must make 1 look distinctive and fresh to your prospective employer. Your totally free cover letter may be the kiss of death for your resume for many factors. Theres a great chance it wont include all the keywords set out in the work description. You need to understand that the interview is a previous step in the recruiting procedure. Its too simple to kill the work even before getting the interview. Ultimately, you will click submit to submit an application for the job. New Step by Step Roadmap for Need Help Writing My Resume A great deal of individuals are completely senfgas in regards to writing their own resume, and it is an excellent idea to seek out professional advice on the issue. Because you are so near your situation, it can be tough for you to be aware all of your high points and clearly convey all your accomplishments. Since there are people around who can provide help Youre able to read about the experiences other people shared, and that means you get an impression of the actual results youre likely to get. Its important to employ a service which provides you a great price for top quality. There are both local and internet options are available, and generally the investment will be well worth the money. Attempt to know the market of the organization youre asking for work, and identify what type of difficulties they may be going through. Federal jobs often need you to have experience in a particular kind of work for some period of time. Definitions of Need Help Writing My Resume Whenever you dont cover the specific hiring needs that the business has you are showing that you didnt focus on their job advertisement. You must organize your resume to aid agencies evaluate your experience. Analyze job ads You will discover a great deal of useful info on job ads. If you dont yet have work in mind, we can help you locate the ideal government vacancies for your experience.

The Do This, Get That Guide On Engineering Resume Objective

The Do This, Get That Guide On Engineering Resume Objective You may be an expert in 1 kind of carpentry, or be in a position to take on all of them. An electrician needs to be in a position to bid on work, estimate the expense of materials and labor, and estimate the time that it will take to finish the job. Utilize ur electrical engineering resume example and you may make your own resume in a couple of minutes. With an entire slew of internet job sites out there it has never been simpler to obtain work. When applying for the job advertised, you will most likely be wasting your time and will secure a notification that the job was filled by somebody better qualified than you. Show your possible employer why youre able to carry out the job better than others irrespective of how much experience youve got. In that instance, its better to tailor your resume for a mechanical engineering job to coincide with the language of the work offer. Type of Engineering Resume Objective Compa nies are watching out for candidates who arent only talkers but doers. Working in fashion may be challenging, but its also enjoyable. Resumes Unraveling The Secrets has an amazing bonus to assist with the difficult resume summary section, including a substantial collection of power words that youre able to utilize to impress prospective employers. Your resume objective have to be simple and have to be clear. There are plenty of packages on the market which supply resume maker software, but a lot of them, particularly the completely free versions, are usually not too useful and everyone appears to be utilizing them, so your resume will possible look the exact same anyway. Start writing online or even attempt to determine if you can begin your own company. Running your own company may also be very lucrative. Engineering Resume Objective Secrets Teaching is believed to be among the noble professions on the planet. Career experts say its important to emphasize transferable abil ities, or to put it differently, skills which have been acquired during the college educational experience which are important at work. Jobs in Psychology have an extremely very good future. So as to work as a Substance Abuse Counselor, you can begin by getting training at work. Be Prepared A thriving interview is determined by good preparation. Writing a resume has never been simpler Identify your finest skills by checking out jobs you want to apply for. Since resumes are essentially written to impress upon the hiring manager that youre a fantastic contender for employment, they are important. The Fight Against Engineering Resume Objective Make certain that your resume objective is pertinent to the role that youre seeking. Your objective ought to be precise and concise. To learn to compose a resume objective isnt at all that difficult. The resume objective is a brief statement of what you need to offer to a provider. As soon as it is tempting to just list out your strengt hs, you also need to function to make sure your communication skills are highlighted. Soft skills are the vital people skills required that you work well. Utilize your objective to demonstrate why youre still qualified, dependent on your abilities or education. You are able to create separate section entitled technical skills where you might incorporate the exposure to different tools and computer programs. Unlike a number of other professions, you dont necessarily need to get a degree in the specialty to begin. Possessing several desired positions or an overall statement about working in engineering may be negative. By saying precisely what sort of engineering position you want, you demonstrate that you get a particular career goal and youve thought about where you would like to go in the business. The subject of mechanical engineering is an extremely respectable one.

5 fonts that are better for your resume than Times New Roman

5 fonts that are better for your resume than Times New Roman5 fonts that are better for your resume than Times New RomanIf yourresumeis meant to representyou,then you want to look your best, right? Well, apparently using Times New Roman on a resume is the font equivalent of putting on sweatpants for a job interview, according to a2015 Bloomberg Business article. Since we would never let that happen, here are the five best fonts to use on yourresume instead of that boring, serif-filled default.1. Arial The Safe ChoiceIf Times New Roman is like wearing sweatpants to a job interview, then Arial is like wearing your trusted little black dress. This tried-and-true classic is a standard for resume fonts. Its clean, neutral and easy to read, making it a safe bet for any industry. Since an employer will often only look at your resume for a matter of seconds, you want a font that is aesthetically pleasing and grabs the employers attention at a quick glance, Wendi Weiner, a certified professio nal resume writer and founder ofThe Writing Guru,told Business News Daily.If you rather be safe than sorry, stick to Arial.2. Helvetica The Trusted ClassicHelvetica has the simplicity of Arial but with a more classic appeal. Its a no-fuss typeface that has a timeless feel to it, Brian Hoff, a creative designer at Brian Hoff Design,told the Huffington Post. Samantha Howie, a senior human resources recruiter at New York-based Maximum Management Corp, added that Helvetica is a popular pick at the recruiting firm where she works. Go with Helvetica for a timeless font on your resume.3. Gill Sans and Gill Sans Light The Clean and ClassyThe Gill Sans family is a great way to be professional but not basic. These fonts give yourresume a modern and clean look, Polly Buckland, the managing director of the Typeface Group,told CNBC. Although, she warns users to be careful when displaying it in bold because it can look a little chunky. Proceed with the Gill Sans fonts - just do so with caution.4 . Calibri The Perfect DefaultCalibri is the font that really does it all. Its interesting, yet professional. Its modern, yet totenstill classic. So much so that Calibri replaced Times New Roman as the default typeface in Microsoft Word and replaced Arial as the default typeface in both PowerPoint and Excel. While Howietold the Huffington Postthat the font is clear, readable, straightforward but not lacking in personality, a2015 article from the Washington Poststated otherwise. The article compared the default font to those nice guys that get to know your parents for no apparent reason and somehow wind up sitting at your dinner table. The consensus seems to say that Calibri istoo expected. But hey, maybe a little predictability is exactly what your resume needs.5. Georgia The Modern TwistUnlike many other resume fonts, Georgia doesnt feel so dated. It feels fun and contemporary, yet still traditional and trusted.Mashablerecommends using Georgia instead of Times New Roman because it w elches actually designed to be read on screens. Heres the catch Although Georgia looks amazing on the internet, it doesnt always translate as well in print. So if youre going to distribute hard copies of your resume, think twice before using this fun font.Bottom lineTheres noperfectfont. You always have to take into consideration the industry you are entering, the job youre applying for and the image you wish to present. Your resume has the rare ability to divulge who you are as aprofessional and sometimes as a person in a limited amount of words, so make it count. Butpleasejustdo so with a font thats better than Times New Roman.This article was originally published on Swirled.com.

Tips For Preparing Your Personal Brand For a Job Search

Tips For Preparing Your Personal Brand For a Job SearchTips For Preparing Your Personal Brand For a Job SearchYouve likely seen the term personal branding in blogs and articles as youve been preparing for your job search. Personal branding is how a candidate packages their skills, background, experience, and public persona in order to market themselves to potential employers.A strong personal brand image could mean landing the job of your dreams while the wrong one could hurt your chances or even worse, get you disqualified from consideration entirely.Because finding and keeping a job is all about marketing yourself properly, lets take a minute to cover a few key points that will boost your personal brand image.Clean out your closet your social media closetWhere do you think the first place employers look after theyve seen your resume and are considering taking the next step? If you answered straight to your social media accounts, youre correct. In fact, 52% of employers surveyed in CareerBuilders annual social media recruitment survey admit to taking to the web to research applicants.Companies want to know that theyre hiring people of high integrity, so you want to make sure that everything you post on the internet projects your most hirable you.The same CareerBuilder survey reported48 percent of hiring managers who research applicants on social media said theyve found something that led them to not hire a candidate. Some of the top turn-offs includeProvocative or inappropriate photographs 46 percentInformation about candidate drinking or using drugs 40 percentCandidate bad-mouthed previous company or fellow employee 34 percentPoor communication skills 30 percentDiscriminatory comments related to race, religion, gender, etc. 29 percentThe takeaway is not that you cant go out with your friends and have a good time rather, be cognizant of the moments you choose to document and share.Build up your verbunden presenceWe know we just told you to clean up y our verbunden presence, but theres a flip side. This is about ensuring that your online presence reinforces a positive and professional perception its about taking control and reshaping the information that can be found easily in an online search.One of the first things we advise clients to do is ensure that they have an updated and professional LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is well indexed by Google, so when a recruiter searches your name online, your LinkedIn profile is likely to be one of the first results they would see. LinkedIn is also a great way to include projects youve worked on, papers youve published, or even interviews in which youve been quoted.If you like to write or have an online portfolio to showcase, we typically suggest that your purchase your own website domain, such as www.JohnSmith.com. If you are unable to purchase your own domain, you can get one for free on sites like WordPress. The key is just to make sure that your full name is included in the URL, such as w ww.wordpress.JohnSmith.com. No matter which approach you take, strive to always keep it professional.Behavior in the real world is just as important as your online presenceMany companies see their employees as extensions of their business, even after hours. Again, this doesnt mean that you cant have a life. But if you want the job or if you want to keep the one you have you should be on your best behavior even outside of business hours.Do you remember many years ago when a woman drove across country wearing a diaper? Do you remember her name? No? But you may remember who she worked for. After all these years, the only details most people recall about that strange event is that the woman worked for NASA.Let us helpPersonal branding isnt easy and, but the good news is that you dont have to go about it alone. If you need help marketing yourself to employers by creating a great resume, cover letter, or LinkedIn profile that highlight your personal brand, contact the career consultants at Resume Spice today. Let us help

Director Perseveres In Second Job Hunt of the Year

Director Perseveres In Second Job Hunt of the YearDirector Perseveres In Second Job Hunt of the YearHugh Taylor had barely settled in at IBM when the recession claimed his new job. Yet he found his short tenure welchesnt an obstacle to finding another sttte.Hugh Taylor was living in Los Angeles and commuting to Seattle for much of his work at Microsoft. When the software giant asked him to relocate to Seattle, he decided instead to look for a new position. After 13 months with Microsoft, he landed at IBM in August 2008 and was ready to settle in for the long haul. Instead, seven months later, IBM laid off 10,000 people. He was one of them.His position as a software evangelist for the company was eliminated along with many others - something that still shocks him a little.I saw the news I saw people getting laid off, but I wasnt expecting it to happen to me, he said. IBM used to be a place for lifetime employment. It may not be that way anymore, but its still a place for long careers . I thought I would have had more time there.Looking for a job just seven months after finding one created a lot of concerns for the MktgLadder member. I didnt have a complete credential from IBM, he said. I was concerned how it would look to other employers that I had been there for such a short time and only 13 months at the job before that. I really had to scramble. I have a wife, a house and three kids under the age of eight.My first thought was, Im not interested in doing another job search. But eBay wouldnt let me put my kidney up for sale, Taylor joked.He may have been making light of a bad situation, but he was thinking about his options. I definitely had a panicky couple of weeks, he continued. I was looking at all kinds of jobs, soliciting freelance work, wondering if it was time to launch my freelance business.Tapping an exhausted network, againGoing back to his network would be a challenge, he said. He had used it to land his position at IBM. He wasnt sure he could appro ach the same people again. I had vigorously worked the network before, he said. I wasnt sure I could go to them and say, Here I am again. I need a job again. He did attempt to contact some people in his professional network, but what he heard made him even more nervous. I talked to people I knew, and they were saying, I dont have anything for you. Were in a hiring freeze. Im 44 years old Im old enough that age is an issue it can be a tricky age group for finding a new job.IBM had given him 30 days to find a position within the company, but with a hiring freeze, that was problematic. So, Taylor went back to Ladders - where he had looked for a position seven months earlier - and began the process again. He applied to 70 to 80 postings on Ladders, as well as other job sites, over the course of the next six weeks.He received calls about eight positions, four of which turned into face-to-face interviews.He also worked with an outplacement service provided by IBM, which helped him to r ewrite his resume. I learned a lot about resume writing, he said. I wanted to articulate what I could do for a company. They had me focus on a problem-resolution format for each job description, so I could talk about my role in problem-solving, he said. Its an atomic resume.Gaps in employmentThe irony Before he could get his resume out, he was already hearing back from potential employers. And while Taylor thought he would have to do a lot of explaining about his recent employment, he found that most potential employers understood his situation and were not concerned with his short tenure at previous companies.One of those employers was Mitratech, a technology company that makes software which allows Fortune 500 businesses to manage lawsuits.Mitratech was looking for a vice president of marketing. They brought me in, and although they didnt feel I had the experience to be a VP, we talked, he said. It took a fair amount of time for things to come together, but eventually, they offere d me the job as senior director of marketing.Taylor is relishing his role at the forward-thinking company. At Mitratech, Im in dienstgrad of all the marketing. I can get things done without a lot of meetings. Its been a good transition.He is cautiously optimistic about his prospects at this company. After two jobs in two years, he would like to settle in someplace. Companies need better software tools to manage litigation, and lawsuits never go out of style, he said.And, just in case, he keeps his atomic resume in his back pocket. Im holding onto this one, he said.

These are the issues a hiring manager will dismiss you for

These are the issues a hiring manager will dismiss you forThese are the issues a hiring manager will dismiss you forDo you talk politics around the water cooler? Debate immigration? Rail about gender rights? All these conversations are important, but they can be downright dangerous at work even during the period before you get hired. Airtasker polled over 1,000 people, 204 with hiring responsibilities and 805 employees, about the hiring process, layoffs, and coworker discussions.What they found Political discussion of all kinds can put your standing and even your job at risk. They are literally the last kind of views you want to express at work.However unfairly, your views if known can stop your potential hiring right at the door.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and morePerhaps in a search for cultural fit, hiring managers feel the need to know future employees stances on possibly con troversial views. And theyve admitted to notlage hiring those candidates based on opinions they dont like.Below, see 29% of hiring managers dismissing a candidate for his or her stance on racial equality, and 27% for their take on gender equality.The dangers of social media in the hiring processSocial media is a great place to rant about politics. Unfortunately, its often one of the first places hiring managers go to check you out as a candidate, as 69% of them admitted. Facebook is the major source of snooping, at 91%, followed by Instagram (62%), Twitter (56%), and LinkedIn (55%).Nearly half (48%) of hiring managers responded that they wouldnt hire perfectly qualified candidates if they expressed strong, controversial political opinions on social media. (So set your Facebook to friends-only, and make your Instagram private while youre job-searching).One respondent with hiring responsibilities explained that his main reason for scouring candidates social channels for political talk was that he wanted everyone to get along. I feel it is important to keep politics out of the office as much as possible. We look through prospective employee social media to see if they are overtly vocal and outlandish in their views, not to weed out the ones we dont agree with. We need everyone to get along and work as a team.Why was I really laid off?Forty-one percent of laid-off employees felt that their layoff wasnt strictly about performance, but was related to their identity, beliefs, or physical appearance. According to respondents, some of them were right.Again, the theme continues that making controversial political views on a wide scope of themes known at work can put an employee at risk either fairly or unfairly.Keep talkinFor those who do engage in political water-cooler chat at work or are simply part of a minority group here are the percentages who feel like theyre treated negatively based on theirPolitical views 14%Gender 13%Race/ethnicity 12%Education level 10%St ance on LGBTQ+ rights 7%Stance on immigration 7%Stance on gender equality 6%Stance on racial equality 5%What about us?Since the MeToo movement blew up in the fall of 2017, 28% of male respondents said theyve changed the way they interact with female colleagues. The jury is still out on whether those changes are good or bad. Almost three-fourths (70%) of men said they were being more careful about what they said, which seems innocuous enough. But avoiding interactions with women (37%) and avoiding being alone with women (27%) are more problematic and prevent women from moving up in organizations.