If you are a recent college graduate, you no doubt know that now is an exceptionally tough time to enter the job market. The unemployment rate is remaining stubbornly high at more than nine percent. That means there are a lot of unemployed people looking for work. So, even experienced workers are taking entry-level positions, making it all the more difficult for those just entering the job market.

So, what can you do to increase your chances of landing an interview, to make yourself stick out from the crowd?

One thing is to make sure that you are networking. Networking is something that everyone should be doing if they are looking for work. You need to make sure you are using LinkedIn and Twitter, which are the best social media sites for professional networking.

You also should check your college’s alumni office to tap into alumni organizations to see if you can make any contacts that way. In addition, check around for any professional organizations in your field or any other business groups, such as the local chamber of commerce, that you may be able to join. Volunteering also is a good way to make connections.

Make sure your e-mail and voicemail have look and sound professional. The funny music, jokey voices or other sounds on voicemail were fun in college, but they won’t go over well with possible employers. The same is true for e-mail. Anything that is humorous or off color will not look good to possible employers. For your e-mail, your name or initials will do.

Finally, keep your expectations realistic. The job search is probably going to take a while, and it will demand just as much effort as the job itself. The salary, the job’s duties – or both! — may not be quite what you expect. But you will get to where you want to be in time.

Aim to avoid the emotional roller coaster, the highs and lows that come with good news and bad, and keep steadily working toward your goals in spite of setbacks you’ll inevitably face.

Winston Resources can help recent Manhattan-area college grads get that all-important first “post-college” job. Contact us today so that you may learn more about how our staffing service can help!

When it comes to job interviews, there are plenty of things to think about, from the introduction, to your answers, to your enthusiasm.

But in running through your job interview checklist, don’t forget about how you dress. It is one of the first impressions you will make walking through the door. If you are not dressed appropriately, it may ruin the interview.

The way you dress should help you get across the image of yourself that you created through your résumé and responses during the interview. They should all work together.

You need to dress appropriately for the type of job for which you’re interviewing. For example, if you are applying for a job in a law firm, or in the financial services industry, a business suit is a necessity. And it should be on the conservative side. However, it is perfectly acceptable to add some personal touches to your outfit to help make an impression, although nothing too ostentatious. It helps the interviewer get a little better idea of who you are, and you will feel more comfortable during the interview.

Don’t overlook the smaller details – does your belt match your shoes, are your shoes polished? Are your fingernails trimmed and clean? Make sure you are well groomed. Getting a trim before the interview might be helpful as well.

If you are applying for a job in a more creative field, a business suit may not be necessary. But for whatever job you’re applying, you should never wear casual dress to the interview. If you are not sure how to dress, go to a business where people in your field are working and see how they dress. But if you are unsure at all what is appropriate, always err on the side of more formal dress.

Also, be careful about adding too many extras to your outfit. They might only get in the way. Try to bring no more than a briefcase or portfolio for your résumé and any other necessary documentation. That means also avoid bringing things such as cell phones, iPods, gum, cigarettes, or coffee to the interview.

Dressing the part is an essential part of preparing for any interview and should not be overlooked.

If you’re in the market for a great new job, bring your résumé to Winston Resources. We can help you move your career in a new direction with some of New York City’s best employers. Contact us today!

Sounds like the kind of “problem”  we all wish we have in this economy – feeling that we should decline a job offer.

Yet declining a job offer the wrong way can have an adverse impact on your career. Here’s how to decline an offer the right way.

1. Thank the hiring manager for the offer. After all, you were selected from dozens, if not hundreds, of applicants for the position. The company obviously thought very highly of you and you should be grateful and respectful Be apologetic as you decline the offer.
2. Tell the hiring manager about your decision as soon as you possibly can. Calling at 8:55 on the morning you were supposed to begin at the new company is just…well, there really are no words for how rude, immature and disrespectful calling at the last minute is. In fact, the only worse way to decline an offer would be to never tell your new boss that you’re not coming onboard (see number 3, below).
3. Actually decline the offer. Just don’t disappear. Contact the hiring manager via phone (e-mail is too impersonal) and tell him or her you’re not accepting the job. Trying to “hide” from giving this bad news by not responding to calls or e-mails shows a huge lack of professionalism. And don’t think the hiring manager won’t remember – and mention to others –  how immature, unprofessional and thoughtless you were.
4. Explain honestly your reasons for declining. If you feel you’re not really up to the position, say so. If something critical has come up (a family emergency, financial constraints, a counter offer by your current employer), let the hiring manager know.
5. Say no to the waffle. That is, be firm in your decision. Don’t be wishy-washy. Don’t decline an offer in the hopes that you’ll get a better salary and/or benefits package. Be honest and forthright. Show that you have backbone in your decisions.
6. Depending on how your conversation goes, it may be wise to write a letter explaining further about your decision. Be very complimentary to the hiring manager in this letter yet professional in your tone. You want to be seen as a competent individual with a good but considerate head on your shoulders. After all, you could very well find a position that’s perfect for you at this company at a future date and if you’ve declined the current offer well you still could take the company up on a future opportunity.

Speaking of opportunity, Winston Resources has dozens of terrific professional positions with some of New York City’s top companies. Contact us today to learn more!

Do you start projects with great gusto, work consistently for a few hours or days and then peter out as the project continues, losing interest and steam?

Many people are just like you, paying attention to the beginning of a task but ignoring its ending. We lose focus. We procrastinate, missing deadlines.

So how can we maintain our drive from the start of a project to its completion?

Researchers at the University of Chicago studied people who were working toward a goal. The researchers wanted to know if people were looking back at what they’d accomplished so far or looking forward to what they had to do. People tend to use both to motivate themselves. The researchers wanted to find out if one or the other was better.

They found that, while both ways can work, focusing too much on what we’ve completed can actually lessen our motivation because doing so can give us a feeling of a job well done too soon and so our motivation declines.

Researchers studied college students and found that the students were more apt to focus on their work if told that they still had more than half of the information to still study. Students who started slacking off had been told they had covered about half of the material.

Researchers found that the reason looking ahead helps keep us motivated is due to the fact that our brain sees the difference between the ways things are currently and how we want them to be, so it focuses on how to close the gap between them. This results in focusing our attention more on the task before us and giving it more effort.

In short, to stay motivated, think more about what the goal and now about what you’ve already accomplished.

Looking for a new job in the New York City area and needing a bit more motivation? Contact Winston Resources! We can help you get the proverbial “foot in the door” with some of Manhattan’s best employers. We look forward to hearing from you!

In the uncertain and fast-changing world in which we live, business executives are especially challenged.  They need to keep up with new technology, demographic changes, and rapidly changing economic conditions.

Another area presenting a big challenge to leaders is in that of values and ethics.  With short-term thinking dominating the business climate, looking at the big picture and being a good corporate citizen have been pushed into the background.  The mantra has become “get it and get it now.”

Leaders are increasingly looking for more data and information that will help them in their decision making.  They create models and theories to apply to their problems.  But this technocratic mode of operating often overlooks a key factor – the particular context these models are made for, and the values and goals and personalities of the individuals that carry out these plans.  Moreover, businesses need to see themselves as part of the larger society, because if they don’t create social as well as economic value, they may not survive.

In order to be a responsible corporate citizen, and operate in a context-driven world, leaders need to develop what philosophers have called practical wisdom, the kind of knowledge that comes from experience and enables a person to make careful decisions that take into account the unique conditions confronting him or her and to be guided by morals and values.  Practical wisdom has as its guiding principle the common good and morality.

Practical wisdom is guided by a person’s values and morals, in order to decide what is good or bad.  It’s about making the right decisions not just for the good of the company, but for the good of society as well. It’s using those values gained through experience to decide what goals should be set, and to strive for excellence in meeting those goals.

Practical wisdom also is the ability to grasp the essential elements of a situation, to establish a vision of how to do things, and decide on what needs to be done to achieve that vision.  It involves paying attention to the little things and having tenacity, keeping after something relentlessly.  It means not overlooking the fundamentals, and going back to the fundamentals again and again.  If you don’t do that, you cannot make progress.

If your job search is stalled, make considerable progress by contacting a recruiter at Winston Resources. We’ll help you connect with some of Manhattan’s top employers. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you haven’t started participating on one or more of the social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) you’re missing out on a terrific way to communicate with potential candidates and the public at large.

In fact, the days of choosing not to be on Facebook or Twitter may fast be ending because a recent study on social media by Cone Business found that:

• 85 percent of Americans believe that companies should use social media in order to interact with potential customers.
• 93 percent think that a business should have a presence on social media.
• 60 percent of us interact with companies on social media sites regularly.

How can social media can help you? Let us count the ways (with the help of Susan M. Heathfield, an HR Expert Guide at About.com.). Social media:

1. Makes it easy for people to find you. You should have different profiles for your company and for yourself.
2. Helps you keep in touch with former co-workers and friends. In fact, social media can make it very easy to get in touch with former colleagues, bosses, classmates, professional contacts, etc.
3. Find new employees. You can post job openings that your followers will see. You can ask them to send the job posting link to their friends.
4. Provide a place where the people who use your products/services can interact with you. This allows your customers the chance to tell you what they’re looking for, where you hit the mark and where you’re lacking. This kind of immediate two-way communication can be invaluable to your company to help it improve.
5. LinkedIn, the more “professional” of the social media sites, can be a true wealth of sources for finding and vetting new employees. You can even set up a LinkedIn page for your company, as well as for yourself.

Winston Resources has a social media presence on several networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Is your company on these sites? How is your presence on these sites helping you recruit? We’d love to hear more; contact us today.

Enron. Worldcom. The Wall Street meltdown. These are all some of the more noteworthy examples of corporate skullduggery, a lack of regard of and concern for ethical behavior.

But some business experts see these examples as the exception more than the rule.  There are thousands of companies with millions of employees who do the right thing, according to the experts.

Many people work their entire careers without ever encountering anything like the problems that led to the downfall of companies such as Enron.  If you play by the rules, you develop a reputation as someone who is ethical, and you generally don’t have problems.  But if you are willing to do things that are not exactly above board, other people can see what you are doing, and you may attract people of the same temperament.

It’s important, these experts say, that those at the top of an organization clearly spell out the culture and values of the company and make clear that unethical behavior won’t be tolerated.

Others say that the unethical behavior of businesses often reflects the larger attitudes of society in general.  It’s the idea of, “Well, everybody is doing it, so why should we be any different?”  These experts say that behaviors that are tacitly condoned by society won’t be rooted out by government regulation alone.  There already is a large number of government regulations covering many different areas.  But even all of these rules will miss some of the behaviors that are less than ethical.

To solve the problem, it will take the efforts of each individual to stand up and call out anyone involved in unethical behavior and to make clear that such behavior won’t be tolerated.

But if people leave such behavior to the government to find, it often becomes a cat and mouse game as people see what they can get away with.  Here, as in most instances, silence implies consent, and so those who see such unethical behavior cannot remain silent if such behavior is to be stopped.

Government has its role, but in the end, it is society itself that needs to send the signal that unethical behavior is wrong and to express its disapproval.

When we hear about unethical behavior by a business, it’s easy to assume the worst about the people who work in the corporate world.  But the people who work in business are just like ourselves, these experts say, people who are our neighbors and friends.  And what happens in business is the result of the actions of these people.

Whether you’re looking for a new position or a new employee, Winston Resources is the recruiting resource for individuals and companies in the NYC area. Contact us today!

Sooner or later it’s something we all must deal with – failure.  How we respond to it and how we learn from it can make a significant difference on the path our career takes.

How should we approach failure?  How should we think about it?  Here are a few thoughts on thinking about something we’d rather not think about.

One thing to consider after a failure was your passion for the task.  How enthusiastic were you about it?  How deep was your interest and motivation to the task?  Often our desire to succeed is driven by forces outside of us – approval from others, the desire for money or recognition.  There may be little intrinsic motivation involved, and that may have something to do with the fact that the effort failed.  You simply may not have cared enough about what you were doing.  And without that intrinsic drive, it is harder to make a success out of what you are doing.  So you need to ask yourself, was what you were doing a calling that came from within, or from something external?

Another thing to look at is your expectations about the project or task at hand.  Have you raised them too high in relation to your skills and experience?  No one expects a neophyte to perform like a seasoned pro.  So you need to consider whether you have asked too much of yourself.  Did you achieve all that you could given the circumstances and your capabilities?  And should you be more satisfied with your performance?  In other words, are you being too hard on yourself?

You need to challenge yourself, but you also need to set realistic expectations about what can be accomplished.

Another question to ask yourself is whether you did everything you could to make your efforts successful.  It’s a question only you can answer – did you give it everything you had?  Did you try all avenues possible to reach your goal?  If not, why not?  Did you have the right attitude, or were you not completely confident of success from the start?

Finally, you need to be willing to learn from your failure. If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently or the same?  Would you just change a few things or do a major overhaul?  The idea here is to learn from failure, and not repeat it.

If your career hasn’t taken the turns you would have liked and you’ve decided that needs to change today, contact Winston Resources. We can help you find a new position and/or career with one of Manhattan’s top companies. Contact us today!

Just where an employee stands in a company’s pecking order could well determine when and how that worker spends his or her vacation time. Throw technological advances in communications into the mix and many of today’s vacationing executives can be instantly contacted regardless of where they are.

Studies show that there is a definite difference in how the different levels of employees use their vacation time – top level executives tend to take more extended weekend trips, while those below management level tend to take all vacation time at once.

It isn’t that executives and managers don’t enjoy time off; — they do. But they also feel the need to remain in touch with the office. This frame of mind could well influence how they use vacation time. Taking too much time off at once means they are absent from ongoing developments. Some experts suggest such individuals fear time away from the job can jeopardize opportunities for advancement. Caution is urged, however, because avoiding extended time away from the job can lead to job burnout.

Aside from someone’s position in a company, time on the job also influences how vacation time is used. According to one survey, individuals with fewer than two years on the job are more likely to take sick days and personal days as vacation time. The pendulum swings the other way for workers with 16 or more years on the job, who rarely follow this practice.

The same study also showed that rank does have its privileges. It reported that more than two-thirds of executive-level employees, with less than a year on the job, were given more than two weeks vacation.  Contrast that with just half of the mid-level managers and only a third of those below management level who received the same amount of time off.

Then there is the group of individuals who take a mini vacation while on a business trip. These people prefer to stay in touch with the office even when not required to do so.

Technology in the form of cell phones, pagers, laptops and Blackberries enable anyone to perform a host of tasks while far from the office. One-third of those surveyed reported bringing work with them while on vacation.

Susan R. Meisinger, former president and CEO for the Society for Human Resources Management, said flexible scheduling and technology can be valuable tools to enable employees to take much needed time off the job. Failure to do so can result in lower productivity and job burnout, she said.

Surprisingly, many human resources managers report that one-third of employees voluntarily bring work with them on vacations, while only four percent of companies request that they keep in touch.

The lesson here may be to find the right balance between work and time off to glean the benefits both have to offer.

Contact Winston Resources when you’re looking for a new position in the New York City area. We have many temporary and direct-hire opportunities with some of Manhattan’s best firms. We look forward to hearing from you.

Having trouble reaching your goals?  Here are few suggestions for getting where you want to go from Heidi Grant Halvorson, a motivational psychologist.

First, be as precise as possible.  When you set a goal to find a new job that you enjoy, for example, you need to specify the exact type of job you want, not just simply set as your goal to “find new job.”

Do it now.  Take advantage of an opportunity to make steps toward your goal.  When you have the time, make the effort to move toward your goal.  Revamp your resume, if getting a new job is a goal.  But to do this, you need to decide beforehand exactly when and where you are going to take the step toward your goal.  Tell yourself, “Monday and 2 o’clock, I will start reworking my resume,” for example.

Keep tabs on your progress.  How much have you accomplished so far, and how much farther do you have left to go?  If you don’t know how your progress is going, you can’t make adjustments if you need to.

Be prepared to work.  When you start out, be confident about achieving your goal, but realize that it is going to take hard work, and prepare yourself for that.

Think about getting better.  You need to focus on taking small steps at improvement, because improvement will come.  You can improve.  Abilities can be acquired with practice.  You can change.

Be tough.  You need to keep at it even when you encounter obstacles.  You need to make a commitment to your long-term goals and stick with it.  Not sure you have the toughness?  Again, persistence, planning and effort will go a long way to help you develop that toughness.

Build willpower by doing something every day that you would rather not do.  Like anything else, you can build willpower through practice.  Start with something small, and plan how you will tackle the difficulties when they occur.  It will be hard at first, but as you work at it, it will become easier.  Discipline in just one area begets discipline in other areas, if you keep with it. Just do one thing that requires discipline every day. Soon enough, you’ll find that you discipline “muscle” has grown exponentially.

By the same token, don’t take on more than you can handle.  Don’t try and do too much at once.

Focus on what you will do, not what you won’t do.  You’re not going to break a bad habit by just stopping it.  It will be much easier to break by replacing it with a good habit instead.  So focus on what you are going to do to establish that good habit.

If you’re looking for a new position in the Manhattan area, the one thing you can do today is contact a recruiter at Winston Resources. We can help you find a new direction within one of the many temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire positions we have with some of New York’s top firms. Contact us today!