3 ways to stay competitive in todays workforce

3 ways to stay competitive in todays workforce3 ways to stay competitive in todays workforceBy just about any measurement, todays workforce is mora educated and competitive than ever before.Many of us know the stats- the percentage ofcollege graduateshas been on the rise for decades. The number of people withgraduate degreeshas doubled since 2000. And the requirements on every job description seem to include a four-year degree.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreBut its important to recognize that the ultra-competitiveness of the job market isnt only due to an increase in diplomas. Its also the result of a boom in self-learning. Thats because its easier than ever to share knowledge, so people have access to entirely new forms of education. From YouTube videos and webinars to six-week boot camps, people have a variety of options for building knowledge and skills.As a result, educated is no longer determined by possessing a degree from a brand anthroponym college- and companies expectations for candidates in this increasingly educated workforce are evolving.In order to compete, candidates need to understand how much relevant education they actually have. And, crucially, they have to be constantly upskilling- educating themselves in order to stand out.The good news is, technology and online resources make it easier than ever to upskill. The bad news is that with so much information out there, it can be difficult to answer the most important questionHow do you knowwhatto educate yourself in?After working in therecruitment industryfor almost a decade, Ive learned the answer depends on the career you want. But Ive also found a few simple steps you can take to educate yourself and, ultimately, stand out from the crowd.1 Identify how much education you have- and how much more you needSome people get complacent about improving their skills because they believe their cu rrent company or theeducational ordnungsprinzipwill provide them with what they need to know.Unfortunately, thats not true.Upskilling isnt passive- its self-motivated. It doesnt mean going back for a masters degree. It means learning on your own, reaching out for feedback, and constantly looking for ways to improve your skills.To see where you need to upskill, start reading as much as you can about industry trends. Look for terms and language that you dont understand because that could point to a skill gap. If you have a mentor, ask them for honest feedback on where you can improve. Talk to people in similar careers and ask them where they think the market is today and where its headed. Ask them about which tools, technologies, and skills are becoming obsolete, as well as which ones will soon be in high demand. You can even use a product likeEdvothat collects data on what skills and behaviors are most relevant for roles to understand how your skills compare to other candidates.Once you understand how much education you really have, and how much more you need, its time to identify the role you want and learn as much about it as possible.2 Learn the lingo so you can effectively upskill and showcase your relevancePart of your self-education is often learning a new language- the language of the job you want.Every industry and company has its own internal language for talking about responsibilities, outcomes, and even titles. If you dont understand the language, it will be difficult to understandexactlywhat will help you land the job and thrive in the role.To start learning the lingo, contact people within the industry.Reaching out can be as simple as messaging them on LinkedIn to say youre exploring an opportunity in a similar role and would love to hear about their experience. Ask for a 15-minute phone call, or buy them coffee if youre in the same area. Give them a chance to talk about themselves and their role. Learn how theyre evaluated and what tools and techn ologies they use. While they talk, pay attention to the terms they use and jot down any you dont recognize so you can look them up later. Or simply be transparent with the person youre talking to and ask them to clarify the unfamiliar terms.Once you have a better grasp on the general industry lingo, then its time to begin researching the language of the specific companies where you want to work.For each company, search for the current employees on LinkedIn and pay close attention to how they describe their roles and articulate their results and experiences on their profiles. That way, when you talk to a hiring manager or internal recruiter, youll be able to speak the language of the role and understand the metrics theyre using to evaluate you as a candidate.3 Once you can talk the talk, learn to articulate your value to get the jobA lot of people have trouble expressing their past success and future potential, which is why they struggle to be competitive candidates.If you find it di fficult to explain the value you added to a company or project, try breaking it down to three main questionsDuty What did you do?Skill What skills did you use?Accomplishment How well did you perform?So if youre a sales development rep, dont justtell an intervieweryou made cold calls.Tell them about your dutyI made 50 cold-calls per day by leveraging X and Y tools to create a strong prospecting strategy.Highlight your skillsI honed in on my communication and time-management skills to understand my prospect better, and learned crucial insights like when theyre more likely to pick up the phone versus respond to an email.Prove your value by stating your accomplishmentsEvery month, I exceeded my quota by 110%.When explaining your skills and experiences, realize that youre answering the same questions as hundreds of other applicants. So you need to articulate why you can do the job- and do it better than anyone else. If youve already worked to improve your skills and learn the language of the role, then this is just a matter of speaking to your strengths.Remember, the amount of education you have isnt limited to the letters behind your name anymore or the university you graduated from. If youre self-motivated and determined to constantly learn and upskill, theres no reason why you cant compete- and win- in todays workforce.This article first appeared on Minutes.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

How to Negotiate a Job Offer from Amazon

How to Negotiate a Job Offer from AmazonHow to Negotiate a Job Offer from Amazon Amazon salary negotiation is unique because they use a one-of-a-kind structure for their compensation packages, and they are very focused on both attracting and retaining top talent for a long time.The key question to ask about an Amazon job offer is How much can this offer be improved through negotiation? In my experience coaching software developers through Amazon salary negotiations , the answer varies from somewhat to a whole lot.The trick is that you have to be willing to consider non-salary options and think deeply about how long you actually want to work at Amazon because their job offers are structured to increase in value over time, specifically after your second year as an employee.The bottom line is that if you have a job offer from Amazon in a technical role, you likely have room to negotiate, and may have significant opportunities to increase your pay over the next sev eral years if youre willing to be a little creative.Once you actually get through the Amazon interview gauntlet, you may receive a job offer. Lets look at an example to binnensee what you can expect.Amazons offers are unique, but have three standard componentsThey will often roll all these numbers together to describe the offer in terms of Total Compensation by year, but that can be tricky to understand thanks to some quirks Ill describe below.Heres an example taken from a modified version of a real Amazon job offer from one of my clients* Equity (RSUs) Value is computed using a round number of $2,000 per share to make things easyNotice that the Total is pretty consistent through the first four years, but the sign-on bonus and equity components vary pretty dramatically from year to year.This is what I welches referring to above when I mentioned they incentivize you to stay for a few years. The vast majority of the equity is paid out in years three and four, so theres a pretty big incentive to stick around.Lets look a little closer at the main components of an Amazon job offer.As with fruchtwein job offers, this is the stable, predictable component that you can use to pay your mortgage or car payment. You cant know what company performance might look like in the future, so its hard to estimate how much of a bonus youll get or what your RSUs will be worth when they vest.Amazon tends to pay competitive cousine salaries up to a point (see below). If youre wondering whether the salary youre offered is competitive, paysa.com is a good place to start.The most unique thing about Amazon job offers is that they typically cap base salary at somewhere around $165175k depending on division and geographic location.If you run into the base salary cap, theyll start adding equity and sign-on bonuses to improve the offer. More senior roles can command very large sign-on bonuses and RSU grants while offering a relatively modest base salary (when compared to some other big te ch firms).How flexible is Amazon on Base Salary?As long as youre under the base salary cap, they can be pretty flexible. They dont typically make large moves on base salary, but they will improve the base salary up to a point.Sign-on bonuses, like equity, can range from a nice little amount into six figures.I like to think of the Sign-on bonus as a way to help bridge the gap between your first paycheck and your first RSU vesting date, and Amazon does this mora or less explicitly to help compensate for the steep vesting schedule they use for equity (RSUs) (see below).The Year 1 sign-on bonus is typically larger than Year 2s, partially as an incentive for you to join, and partially because their steep new-hire equity vesting schedule means your total pay in Year 1 would be pretty low without some sort of sign-on bonus.In Year 2, the sign-on bonus is smaller, but more of your equity will vest.How flexible is Amazon on Sign-on Bonus?Pretty flexible And thats especially true once you cro ss the base salary cap since they will begin adding a lot more equity. More equity means a bigger shortfall in Years 1 and 2, which means they offer larger sign-on bonuses to help bridge that gap.Do you have to pay back your sign-on bonus if you leave before the end of Year 2?Sometimes, Amazon will pay your Year 1 sign-on bonus out with your first paycheck in a lump sum. In that case, youll almost certainly have to pay back some or all of it if you leave before the end of your first year.Sometimes, Amazon will pay out your sign-on bonus monthly, and you may not need to pay it back if you leave early (since you were only paid a prorated amount based on how long you were there).It seems like the Year 2 sign-on bonus is often paid out monthly.As far as I can tell, theres not a lot of consistency here and it seems like Amazon may pay sign-on bonuses out differently for more-tenured positions than for less-tenured positions.Bottom line Ask your recruiter what strings are attached to your sign-on bonus so you dont encounter any nasty surprises if you leave before the end of Year 2.The Equity component of an Amazon job offer can range from not very much (as with the example above) to wowzers, thats a lot of equity depending on the role and whether you bump into the base salary cap.Amazon is unique because they almost have to offer significant equity grants to compensate for the base salary cap, and your negotiation may end up focused entirely on equity and sign-on bonus.Amazons unique equity vesting scheduleLets pause for a moment to talk about Amazons unique equity vesting schedule. Its easiest if we start by looking at a typical equity vesting schedule, then well loop back to Amazon.How most companies handle equity vestingEquity is often paid out in equal installments over four years, beginning at the beginning of the second year. So if you got 100 shares of company stock (RSUs, typically) as your equity component at a typical public company, heres what their vesti ng schedule might look likeTheres typically a one-year cliff, which means nothing is paid out until youve been there for a year, then there are regular payouts after that.In our example above, that might look like thisSometimes those payments will be quarterly or semi-annually. But the basic idea is that once youve been there for a year, you start getting equity payouts at regular intervals. Pretty straightforwardAnd Years 1 and 2 are each a cliff, followed by semi-annual payouts in Years 3 and 4. So the same 100 shares at Amazon would be paid out like thisThe optimistic reading on this is that its a way to incentivize good employees to stick around longer so they get the bulk of their equity payouts.The cynical reading of this is that it gives Amazon time to churn poorly-performing employees out of the company before they vest the bulk of their equity.If you want a better look at what its like negotiating an Amazon job offer, including how they use sign-on bonuses to take the sting out of that steep vesting schedule, take a look at my new guideNumber of shares versus current value of sharesOne interesting thing about Amazons offers is they typically include a number of shares (like 50 in the example above) as opposed to a computed current value (like $100k in the example above).This is the more accurate way to talk about RSUs, but its not what most of the other big tech firms do. This way, you have to do more math to figure out the current value of the shares, and youll end up discussing a number of shares rather than a dollar amount most of the time.How flexible is Amazon on Equity (RSUs)?Moderately flexible to extremely flexible depending on how close you are to the base salary cap.Like the other big tech firms, Amazon sees equity as a very big carrot to intice top talent to join their team and stick around, so they tend to be pretty flexible on equity.The salary negotiation with Amazon will begin earlier than you might expect.Your Amazon recruiter will o ften ask for your salary history, or at least your current salary if its legal where they are. Do not tell them your current salary.They will also usually ask for your salary expectations. That request will sound something like thisSo what were you hoping for in terms of compensation if you come aboard here at Amazon?Do not tell them your salary expectations because you will essentially be guessing what they might pay someone with your skillset and experience to do the job they need done.While they might have a good idea of the value of that job to Amazons business, you would only be guessing. You will practically always guess wrong and cost yourself money later on. So just dont guess.Also, because Amazons equity vesting schedule is so unusual, and because they include different-sized Year 1 and Year 2 sign-on bonuses, it can be very difficult to even describe a salary number in those terms.Youre much better off seeing what they offer, spending some time with it to understand what y our actual pay will look like over the next few years, and negotiating from there.Once you receive your job offer from AmazonThe first thing you should do is look to see if youre at or near the base salary cap. Its important to know up front if you can expect a move on base salary or if youre really just going to negotiate equity and sign-on bonus.That doesnt mean you wont counter on base salary, but it helps to know whether you can expect any movement there so youre not disappointed if they arent flexible on base salary.Once you counter on base salary, they will often adjust the job offer in multiple dimensions, so its important to do the math to figure out what your annual compensation will be if they adjust base salary, sign-on bonus and/or equity.Be koranvers that if you ask for and receive more equity that you also try to improve your sign-on bonus to bridge the Year 1 and Year 2 gaps while you wait on the heavy vesting in Years 3 and 4.This article was originally published o n Fearless Salary Negotiation . Reprinted with permission.

These Quotes About Optimism Will Brighten Your Day

These Quotes About Optimism Will Brighten Your DayThese Quotes About Optimism Will Brighten Your DayHaving an optimistic outlook can have a positive impact on ones health, happiness, and performance.The power of optimism should not be ignored as a factor in success and personal growth. Some research even shows that optimism results in higher achievement. Even in the darkest times, people who have found themselves negative, depressed, or in despair chose instead to focus on the positive things in their lives that made them feel happy and inspired. Colin Powell Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. Margaret Thatcher I have a habit of comparing the phraseology of communiques...noting a certain similarity of words, a certain similarity of optimism...and a certain similarity in the lack of practical results during the ensuing years. Nicholas Murray Butler Optimism is the foundation of courage. Dr. James S. Vuocolo Some folks go through life pleased that the glass is half full. Others spend a lifetime lamenting that its half-empty. The truth is There is a glass with a certain volume of liquid in it. From there, its up to you Harvey Mackay Optimists are right. So are pessimists. Its up to you to choose which you will be. Lucille Ball One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesnt pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself. Bill Frist We are a strong, robust, and prosperous nation. Optimism is the essence of our success. It drives our creativity and emboldens our entrepreneurial spirit. It is what makes us invest in the future and accomplish our highest aims. Winston Churchill For myself, I am an optimist- it does not seem to be much use being anything else. An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity. Benjamin Franklin While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us. Robert Conroy Culti vate optimism by committing yourself to a cause, a plan or a value system. Youll feel that you are growing in a meaningful direction which will help you rise above day-to-day setbacks. Linda Lingle But before looking to the future, lets glance back at the road weve traveled these past two years because that is the source of much of the optimism we are all feeling about the future. Henry Ford If you think you can do a thing or think you cant do a thing, youre right. Richard M. DeVos Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A you can do it when things are tough. Hilary Mantel The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it. Norman Vincent Peale Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will. A.A. Milne (Alan Alexander Milne ) What day is it? asked Pooh.Its today, squeaked Piglet.My favorite day, said Pooh. Helen Keller Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the menschlich spirit. Zig Ziglar An optimist is someone who goes after Moby Dick in a rowboat and takes the tartar sauce with him. Nicholas M. Butler Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress. Henry David Thoreau If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.