• Get to know the company: Before the interview, research the company to understand their values, culture, and technologies they use. This will help you to tailor your responses and ask informed questions during the interview. The company website, LinkedIn page, and Google are the resources you’ll need.
• Brush up on your technical skills: Make sure you are up to date on the technologies you’ve listed on your resume. This can include practicing coding problems, studying documentation and reading up on industry news.
• Prepare for common interview questions: Many technical interviews will cover common topics such as algorithms, data structures, and object-oriented design. Review these topics and practice answering questions related to them. Take your cues from the job post and dig into the keywords for informed clues on what may be covered.
• Think of real-world examples: Technical interviews often include case study questions. To prepare, think of real-world examples that demonstrate your skills and show how you’ve applied them in past work experiences.
• Be confident and relaxed: Finally, remember to relax and be confident during the interview. Make a positive first impression and show your enthusiasm for the role and the company.

Bonus tip: Always ask the recruiter for guidance on how to prepare, and have your machine on and requirements accessible at go time.

By following these tips, you’ll be well-prepared for your technical interview and ready to show your skills and passion for the role!

When it comes to the HR function, generally the extent is administrative, processing employment and benefit forms, timekeeping and payroll. However important employment forms and paying people are (actually they can’t be overstated), equally important are the consultative, managerial and organizational development functions of human resources that are usually missing in this scenario. In fact, there is often confusion regarding employment best practices if you haven’t devoted your career to learning what they are and practicing them.

Hence, this question that came to my inbox.

Can performance improvement plans also be used for employees who are doing a great job or are they just for struggling employees?

I would not use the term “improvement plan” for a performer who is meeting expectations. Employees are aware that anyone needing improvement is not meeting expectations and this type of plan is viewed as punitive. Companies use an improvement plan as a last effort – typically after a significant amount of one-on-one coaching has not been effective, to get an employee to be productive, and or comply with policy or procedures. Generally, a timeline is established in the plan that if improvement goals are not met within an established period of time (30, 60, 90 days) disciplinary action, up to and including separation from employment may occur.

However, an employee development plan can be crafted to get a reliable performer to the next level or step in the company. It’s good practice to identify promising internal talent and get them on a path for growth within the organization. An employee development plan is an excellent tool to provide a formal framework to attain that.

In 20 years of human resources, I have worked with managers to draft many improvement and development plans. Employees are never excited to receive an improvement plan but almost always excited that they have been recognized as star performers whom the company wants to invest in to further their career.

If you own or manage a small company and recognize the importance of constructive ways to improve employee performance and retention, I hope this has been insightful. And if you are open minded and willing to do the work, connect with me to talk about why your company struggles to keep people, why they leave you (because it is you they are ditching), and how I can help you turn the ship around.

The answer is, it depends.

Today I’m thinking about the new team leader, supervisor, manager… The best employee ever, promoted as a reward for excellent performance.

Nothing to celebrate here.

The senior manager at an almost but not quite yet mid-sized company contacted me through LinkedIn last week. I’ll call him Doug. He was blindsided and more than a bit shaken. The business was negatively impacted by a decision he made. Doug didn’t see this coming and he wanted to make sense of it all. He asked if we could talk.

I listened intently as Doug talked about his top performer whom I’ll call William. The guy was an all-star totally on top of his game when it came to producing. He was an employee for over two and a half years, had only taken one unscheduled day off, and always showed up with the right attitude. Total team player. Example to his peers. Pleasure to work with and manage. And so, when a recent management opportunity came up through company growth (luckily this company’s industry is in über hypermode right now and not economic stagnation or decline) there was only one candidate for the job – You guessed it, William.

This was an amazing opportunity and reward for a well deserving talented, loyal, and hardworking individual. The company and William were excited and happy. There was an ice cream cake!

What could go wrong, right?

You may have guessed that William is no longer employed by Doug’s company since I wrote about his promotion in the past tense.

Five months after William’s promotion, at the end of day on a Wednesday he spoke with Doug and said he couldn’t take it any longer and wouldn’t be coming back. Doug was stunned.

William told Doug that his stress was so high his relationship with his significant other was suffering and he was having physical symptoms. He described himself as burned out, unhappy, and done. I asked Doug if there had been signs something was amiss. He thought about it and said two of the six team members William was assigned to supervise left in the first two months he was in charge, the new hire in William’s old position was having difficulty adjusting to the role (maybe she just needs more ramp up time said Doug), and other managers were frequently having to “step in to save William”.

After discussing these puzzle pieces, Doug agreed possibly William wasn’t the right fit and at the very least wasn’t prepared to assume the role. He wasn’t set up for success and the ramifications cut deep.

The replacement for the job William was promoted from isn’t performing to expectations. Because other team members quit, the company is at an operational deficiency after losing seasoned staff (company experts) and scrambling to replace them with fresh talent (it will take several months for them to get up to speed). The role William assumed, very important to the company, is now glaringly vacant. An admin assistant has been assigned to answer William’s phone and route calls to whomever is available. The company is distracted. If there ever wasn’t a good time to be distracted in business it’s now.

Like dominoes.

They didn’t have to fall.

As well intentioned as it may be, promoting an employee to a position managing others solely based on individual performance generally is not a bona fide qualification to be a supervisor, especially if the individual doesn’t have developed soft and leadership skills. And those skills come from leadership experiences at other employment (paid or volunteer), leadership development programs, or your company’s investment in the employee’s career development as a planning and retention strategy. It’s the rare case an unprepared individual is put in the position to manage others and succeeds.

Though no one gets it right 100% of the time, companies of every size minimize the the risk by working hard to get internal promotions right. Companies that get it right most often set a budget for training and leadership development, create corporate universities, pay for leadership conferences, online learning, and send promising talent out to seminars. They own learning management systems, and create leadership development plans based on performance review goals. They have people within their organizations devoted to learning and development. They identify employees with high leadership potential and work with them to chart an intentional path for growth in the organization.

Even companies without an established budget for learning and development can make an investment in other ways – through coaching, mentoring, shadowing, stretch assignments, cross training, and succession planning. To be effective for the organization this needs to be a top priority – intentional, planned, and a pillar of of the organizational culture. The Williams won’t feel compelled to leave you and the ROI will be worth it.

And, some people are more talented at being high performing individual contributors. Every company needs to hold exceptional individual contributors closely, recognize, motivate and reward them accordingly. Incentives come in many forms and working with each individual to understand what is motivating and rewarding to them is incredibly important. It might, or might not be, opportunities for advancement. If it isn’t, there are great alternatives we can discuss another day.

Speaking of William, it sounds like he’ll be ok. On his way out the door Doug said he mentioned he had accepted a job for the same hourly rate he had before becoming a supervisor, and a better bonus structure. Since he’s a high performing individual contributor he’ll likely do well for himself and his employer.

P.S. Based on completely unidentifiable information about the company and individuals. The moral of the story is truly the important part.

I was even locked out of texting by iMessage by Apple – who if you weren’t aware monitors your message volume. Some algorithm deemed that I was messaging too much for work and I had to bow to the beneficent Apple court to get a “second chance”.

When the company made the move to doing business in the cloud and chose to migrate to G Suite I found the iPhone all but completely dysfunctional except for actual phone calls. I replace all the iApps with Google apps I could, but still found myself using my personal LG 4 and later Pixel 2 XL for everything except work calls and texts, and annoyed to carry both phones, and often chargers, everywhere.

When my device was up for renewal earlier this year, I made the case for an Android – and thankfully a Pixel 3 arrived a few days later!

I didn’t hesitate to port my personal cell number from Verizon to Google Voice for $20 (one-time fee) and install the Google Voice app. I now have the convenience of business and personal numbers on the same phone. My personal calls and texts come through the Google Voice app. The call quality is generally excellent and voicemail is transcribed. This also resulted in personal saving of $840 per year by cancelling my Verizon account (I always have the option to port my personal number back to a carrier for $20).

The pure Android user experience of the Pixel without carrier or manufacturer apps and bloatware is straightforward and clean. Google apps work in concert and functionality is seamless. It’s easy to toggle between multiple personal and work accounts to keep personal and work life as separate as can be in the age we live in. No longer do I suffer from the inability to text from my keyboard because of an iPhone and Windows based computer combo. That means no more work arounds with 3rd party apps are required because Google Messages for Web syncs with any Android device without a hitch.

Though my work is often conducted most comfortably at a desk with multiple screens open on multiple monitors, literally 100% of my communication and computational tools are now in one pocket instead of two and I can finally do whatever is needed whenever I need to with just one device. It’s been about 6 months since I have implemented this solution and it serves me very well – my device frustration has been reduced to a big donut hole – zero. I’m finally device happy.

Do you have device challenges, or if you have in the past how have you solved them?

Photo by Chu Son on Unsplash

Rooted in the very same community where the founder and president of the company was born and raised, good corporate citizenship is a pillar of the company’s values. Over the years, public works like landscaping and maintenance of the little league field and library grounds, and construction of a retaining wall for a no kill animal refuge have marked just some of the good it has done for the community.

This year’s idea to help make a beautiful area even a little more green and oxygenated through giving away 1000 tree seedlings was not only reflective of the company logo and name… it grew into something so much more.

As the concept developed, other activities were incorporated into the agenda like heavy equipment demonstrations, the opportunity for children to climb into equipment and vehicles (lots of horn honking went on!), environmental crafts, face painting, and a demonstration on how to plant and care for the seedlings.  This social gathering was created without barriers for anyone who wanted to join in. The entire event, including snack and beverage stations, was sponsored by the company and carried out by the staff for the community.

It was a big hit with the many hundreds of children and families who attended! So much so, that it is now slated to grow into an annual tradition – even bigger and better.

Reflecting on the preparation leading up to the event and the day itself, I have some additional takeaways that in my mind equal and perhaps surpass the intended purpose.

• The coordination of the event provided a corporate team building opportunity for field and corporate staff to work on a project side by side. Many were able to put a face to a name for the very first time and working relationships were developed and deepened.
• There is no doubt that the children that attended were left with indelible impressions of the greatness of front-end loaders, tri-axles, and other very large heavy equipment and vehicles. Girls and boys without distinction. And you know they loved playing in the dirt. With the news that this will now be an annual event, I’m considering this a talent pipeline development event and thinking of summer camp type activities for older children to learn about landscaping, and ways to keep them engaged with the company.
• Several adult attendees filled out paper job applications onsite and I handed my business card out to several more interested in sending me their resumes.
• Networking over ice cream and kids building cereal bird feeders even resulted in leads for the sales team.
• Pre and post-event promotion resulted in more likes and follows, inquisitiveness about the company and growth of our online social community.
• The community’s perceived (and indeed bonafide) value of the company’s corporate citizenship went up several notches to be certain. The phenomenal feedback received proves it.
• The collective staff endorphin rush at the end of the day after high praise from the boss – well, you can’t really put a value on that. 

No matter what type of business you’re in, or what size your company is, the benefits of finding the right real world community engagement activity can provide significant added value to your business strategy.

I would love to here what your company is doing in the community in the comments!

This weekend I knew I had to slow down and park it. I haven’t even showered or changed my pajamas. My cats don’t care. However, as soon as I’m done ecking this post out I’m headed for the shower before bed and snuggling under my freshly laundered sheets and magic blanket because by sense of smell has returned and I can’t stand myself. That’s progress at least. 

It’s what I call high season at my job. When an employee told me I’m only human the other day I quipped back, “Actually, I’m an Android.” For it’s with automaton performance that every willing individual in this part of the state has been or will be registered to work on-call snow removal. And so far, unlike the Polar Vortex and its Bomb Cyclone, the snow has largely evaded the region in plowable quantities. There is dread we’ll get dumped on from a personal perspective. But, as a die-hard rooter for the underdogs of the world, I have plenty of hope for tons of the fluffy wet white stuff to fall from the sky for all the unemployed, underemployed and laid-off hopefuls focused on Accuweather waiting for a call to action, to earn some really green stuff.

Feeling somewhat improved in health, I decided to stop a fellow co-worker’s miffedness about not having an up to date, comprehensive online staff directory forever at his fingertips, and had a lot of fun today going to town with Airtable. I bookmarked it a while ago with a few projects in mind, this not even being one of them. When it occurred to me that Airtable might be a good solution, after unfruitful and lengthy searching for the obviously wrong term “employee directory software”, I brewed a fresh 16oz. cup and got cracking. I was in luck and found an already great template in the HR & Recruiting category. I uploaded a .cvs file from the Excel version in Dropbox we had been frustrated over using due to its wreaking havoc and conflicted versions by multiple users, and sprinkled in essential management contacts from Outlook. Voilà, a contact database with view only options that populate through a URL on any browser or great iOS and Android apps was born. I’m especially excited to see how those out in the field respond to the mobile apps, and if the guy across the hall stops asking the universe for so and so’s phone number.

If you have anything to inventory, be it people, objects, ideas, or whatever……. give Airtable a try. BTW, the link I posted is an invitation link to this incredible free product, that earns me $10 every time someone joins through it – for a pree product. I’m using the free version and hope to gain some points to use on add-ons or something. Sign up please, and make something cool – for free! My short-term plan is to demo this creation and make the case to the company to put out for a paid subscription in order to rip the bandaid off some other projects and repair them for good with surgery.

Though I personally will continue to use Dropbox, I have learned it’s not the right solution for every situation (or everyone).

While I was on a roll, I also moved and converted another highly valuable, very frequently used, and edited multiple times per day by multiple users shared spreadsheet, to Google Sheets in Drive, because of the same problems with the employee directory in Dropbox.

My not so long-term plan is to make the case for moving to G-Suite.

The only other update I have are the Quaker Oats Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies that I baked in bars in a 9 X 13 pan rather than cookies, threw in raisins and chopped pecans and glazed them for extra calories impact. I veganized the recipe and for the first time I tried a different egg-replacer, Follow Your Heart VeganEgg for 100% plant powered delish. It worked just great. If you decide to try this product as an egg substitute just be sure to follow the baking instructions on the package, which vary in preparation.

Oh yes, I did 4 loads of laundry too. Maybe I didn’t rest as much as I should have, but I was so relaxed and enjoying myself so much I guess I didn’t realize it.

Do you have any exciting projects for the New Year? I want to hear about it in the comments!

P.S. Crowning glory to the weekend, BOOTYBOO…@______.com just applied for a job!

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Your Bitmoji no longer has to reside exclusively in your digital device to express how the struggle is real, how you can’t even, that it’s hump day, or how you need coffee…

It can now live in your office. With you. On your desk. In a fine Bitmoji mood cube.

As I languidly walked through Michael’s looking at Christmas in September, I spied mini frames on an end cap for half price. All of a sudden visions of a Bitmoji mood cube danced in my head. Imagine a co-worker approaching your desk to speak with you. You pick up up your Bitmoji mood cube and rotate it like a fidget gadget, orient the proper expression toward the individual on the other side and gently set it down. Voilà… the ultimate legal satisfaction.

That’s right, your Bitmoji no longer has to stay trapped in the digital realm and this is the tutorial on how to do it.

• Avoid employee conflict. People will see your mood before approaching you, and maybe they’ll just walk away.
• Stay focused on your work and let the cube make eye contact – even eye roll, for you.
• Relish the non-verbal self-expression.
• Rotate the cube each time your emotions change and you’ll become more aware of just how emotionally stable you are, or aren’t.

Those are just the benefit highlights. This could possibly save your job and your sanity.

Here is the exact Black Photo Cube by Studio Décor® at Michael’s website that I bought in the store in Wilkes-Barre (no it’s not and ad, I’m just trying to be helpful). It’s $3.50 and definitely affordable even if you just got your first paid job out of school. Of course, you can always use any photo cube, box, block or other square item and adapt the project as necessary – meaning it’s ok to use a glue stick if needed. You could also print and laminate your favorite Bitmoji, and stick a magnet on the back for the office fridge. I think that would be a real winner.

The Process

Using the Chrome Bitmoji extension, I strategically searched for sentiments I might want to convey on the job.

To capture an image, right click and save your your desktop. Save the six images you think will do the job – because that’s how many sides a cube has.

My cube has 2.5 inch sides so laid out a square that size on a Microsoft Publisher blank document using the ruler, inserted one of the images, duplicated it five times and replaced the images. That way they were all the same perfect size. Don’t judge me for using Publisher. I could have used a number of other programs or applications, but why would I for such a simple task?
Cut out the images along the border (which will be hidden behind the frame of the cube) and pop into your cube frame.

Take your Bitmoji mood cube to work and make your desk happy!

These would make inexpensive but very thoughtful gifts for friends with a bit of a Bitmoji hack since you don’t have access to someone else’s Bitmojis. Save the Bitmojis your friends text or message to you as images, and get them onto your computer with whichever method you prefer (cloud service, email, Pushbullet, MightyText, etc.). Proceed as directed and surprise your friends.

My work is done here…

I’ll be monitoring Standard & Poor’s and the Shanghai Stock Exchange to see how the photo cube market fluctuates after this and probably kick myself in the pants for not investing in photo cube manufacturers. You just watch.

Here’s the microwave version to catch you up.

In June a series of very serious events (on the scale of a tsunami) and an organizational restructuring happened at my place of employment while I was blissfully on vacation. I was liquidated in a two sentence email while I was baking morning biscotti. Let me tell you that in my entire career I have rarely seen downsizing handled with less finesse. Some companies actually tell you in person versus an email to leave your keys and parking pass on your desk at the end of the day.

Luckily I wasn’t out of the country or even out of my house so I was able to run over and clear out of my office and leave that magic key on the desk.. Then I flipped the mental switch from shocked bisciotti baker to jobseeker for the first time in a long time in the ensuing days.

I won’t tell you all the thoughts I had, though I’m sure some ears are still rightfully ringing. However, I cannot stress enough how fortunate I am to have returned to recruiting at a wonderful company just six weeks later. Five weeks in, I’m now a former night owl and thrilled to finally have adjusted my nocturnal schedule in order to be able to get up much earlier than I was accustomed to, at the crack of dawn actually, with 7-8 hours of sleep. It’s been a rough transition to be sure, but thankfully well worth it.

For those of you who may have heard me say I would never return to corporate America.. whelp, it happened.

You’re caught up!

At the new job I was advised to have a second phone for my peace and sanity. I was resistant. Who wants to walk around like Annie Oakley with one in each hand and a bandolier full of chargers? At first I thought I could solve the issue with Google Voice for a second number on my personal cell phone, or an app like SideLine, but for a myriad of insurmountable system incompatibilities you don’t need to know about, I relented.

If you’ve known me for a long time, you might recall I had a very difficult time giving up my Blackberry. I was a huge advocate and was one of the handful of people who actually plunked down the value of a major organ for a Playbook instead of an iPad because I really thought I needed a tablet.

When Blackberry started to slide into the abyss of darkness and Verizon stopped carrying them, I went Android. Some of my friends had weird problems with their iPhones and the nearest Apple store is 1.25 hours away in Allentown. I also felt that Apple had become snobbish and cultish since the Apple iic of my college days, and I just wasn’t interested.

So they gave me an iPhone 6s.

I am trying… I bought it a nice case, a protective screen, a new car air vent holder. For the first 2 weeks I used only native apps wanting to have an open mind and see if I could like it as much as my still phenomenal Lg G4, which I hesitate to give up because new phones don’t have removable batteries and I happen to find that a mega feature.. It was good for making and receiving calls and texts.

Week 3 I tried to make it faux Android by installing as many Google apps as possible. Meh… I don’t like the user experience, and the fact there is no back button / arrow. I don’t like that physical home button – why can’t it be touch? Yes, the battery life is good, but it always is on a new phone. It doesn’t help the email experience is less than optimal because the company doesn’t use cloud based services. Talk about sticker shock… I have been Google Apps all the way for a very long time. To boot the laptop on my desk up and see Outlook almost made me cry. I did install an iCloud add-on in Outlook in order to be able to see my work calendar on the phone, and granted, some of these issues would be the same if my work phone was an Android, and there’s more…. At this point I have rigged so much I’m beginning to feel like the Skipper on Gilligan’s Island.

Tomorrow starts week 6.

If you have successfully gone from Android to iOS and loved it I want to hear why in the comments. How did you warm up to it? Because most of the searching I have done seems to turn up a lot of people who just couldn’t do it..

Image Attribution: By Bilby – Own work, CC BY 3.0

Yeah, like so many people are talking about, relying on keyboarding wrecked my cursive handwriting. Maybe that’s only a half truth. Maybe it was never what you could call calligraphic quality. I’m left-handed, and I’ll admit, it’s been a lifelong challenge. Although, my mother has beautiful script, and she’s left-handed too. However, she has kept up her penmanship skills and hasn’t given up on handwritten cards and letters like I mostly have. I even write letters to my prison penpal on the computer, and print them out to mail.

Numbers are great. No problem there. I jot down a ton of phone numbers checking voice mail. I never have to do an Amazing Kreskin act to figure out a number I have recorded on a scrap of paper. I write numbers just fine. Of course, number are numbers, I love them – there are no cursive expectations.

Sometimes it’s a problem.

Like a few weeks ago when I went to an important meeting and wrote notes on a sheet of looseleaf paper. Lines kept the writing straight, but when I needed to refer to the notes a few days ago I was confused by more than a few words and had to try to tease out the context. I’m not 100% confident I won’t end up calling my meeting partner for clarification sometime soon.

Then there’s last week’s 2 day certification training. The first order of business for the trainer was to set room expectations. In the top 3 were to keep technology to a minimum. I didn’t feel comfortable taking my phone or tablet out to take notes in Keep because I got eyes just quickly checking my email (maybe it was paranoia), though laptop people didn’t seem to have that issue. She probably assumed they were taking notes, but I’m certain at least one was playing Candy Crush. Not to fear, facilitators read from the slides and also provided them printed out. As unstimulating as that always is, in this case it worked out. There was a test at the end – imagine if I would have had to rely on handwritten notes. I’m certain I dodged a bonafide calamity.

I thought I solved the issue years ago when I bought the first generation Livescribe smartpen. But it was like holding a big magic marker, people were paranoid when I was using it that I was a spy, and I didn’t find it comfortable so I gave up on it. It’s in my electronics graveyard. You probably have one of those too, filled with cables, chargers, cases, holders, batteries, old devices, etc. I visit it when I experience some pressing technology challenge, thinking the answer could be in there. Instead, I keep finding a broken flip phone, Blackberry Pearl charger, and headphones with disintegrating foam ear covers.

The struggle is real.

This isn’t about doodle art or hand lettering envy. Or that I once owned a calligraphy pen and didn’t realize it wouldn’t ever work well for a left-handed writer no matter how hard I tried. #Fail.

There’s a lot of critique that some schools are no longer teaching cursive handwriting. I work with some youth in that boat. Waiting for them to fill out enrollment forms in block letters is painful and a huge time waster. Technology will remedy that someday, but in the meantime I want to improve my own skills. So, I started googling how to improve handwriting and came up with a bonanza of reasons why some people have horrible handwriting – everything from learning disabilities, to lack of practice due to reliance on keyboarding, and hands not being able to keep up with fast thinkers.

I also found a trove of practice worksheets. I decided to print off the 3 page Improve Your Cursive Worksheet from 8 Tips to Improve Your Handwriting over at the TPK website. Lindsey Bugbee knew just what I needed. After one hour of practice there was a notable an incredible improvement. And oh the memories of primary school, the exercises took me right back like probably nothing else could.

More practice and next thing you know, I’ll be bullet journaling.

Do you have penmanship challenges? Do you care? If the answer is yes, download the worksheets, grab a nice pen and fix yo’ self!

That is, a personal job search. So, a few weeks ago I decided I would freshen up my own resume and post it. Let’s just say I’m conducting research to see what’s going on in the world of job boards. Job boards make it kind of a big deal free perk to job seekers that if they upload their resume they’ll be discovered. You never know, right?

Listen to me job seekers… that’s all hype. The only contacts I have received have been from sourcers and recruiters for life insurance companies…. and while I realize I have a lot of transferrable skills, it’s pretty clear sourcers and recruiters from other companies are on social media, at campus recruitment events, and the phone with applicants and referrals.

Job boards are like washing machines that eats socks. Maybe great for job seekers searching, but not so great for job seekers who want to be discovered. Maybe job board companies are using uploaded resumes to mine data for their own purposes. Maybe their real purpose isn’t to help you get a job.

Lesson to job seekers.

Don’t post your resume on a job board and sit back in your deck lounger drinking Arnold Palmers expecting interview offers to come rolling in. You’ll be disappointed.

P.S. Prove me wrong wizards.