The trials of starting a new job

Here in the CRMO we are in the business of largely recruiting contractors rather then full time employees.  Some of these contractors have twenty page plus resumes as they are career consultants, consultants who solely take on contracts.  It often amazes me how many new contracts these individuals have started over the course of their career.  Having to constantly get acclimatised to both new people and new projects seems a bit daunting to me, but who am I to judge?

Starting a new job is often a mixture of many emotions ranging from excitement, nervousness, anxiety and hope.  There are many factors that each person has for deeming a new job to fulfilling.  One main factor for most is expectations.  If you expect a job to be a certain way and it does not meet these expectations, the start of a new job can be very stressful.  On boarding is another key factor in starting a new job, or sometimes unfortunately, lack there of.

When you think about your current job and how you felt when you first started, what are your thoughts and what emotions pop up?  On the other hand, have you had the unfortunate experience to start a new job, realize all too soon that it is not what you thought and jumped ship altogether?

Career Builder posted an article with some helpful tips on what to do if you do find yourself in the latter situation and truly hate your job a couple weeks into it.  You can read the full article here.

What about you?  Have you found yourself in the unfortunate situation of realizing your new job is simply not what you expected?  If so, what did you do?  Did you stick around or jump ship?

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Do you share your ideas?

I recently stumbled across a print that I think really speaks for itself…

Eleanor Roosevelt Quote on Beige by LittleGrayOwl via etsy

This got me thinking about how often I do or don’t discuss ideas with others, especially in the workplace.  Discussing ideas is essential for the growth and advancement of a business and I personally feel that time should be placed aside for this specific purpose.

What do you think?

Let’s talk lunch

How do you spend your lunch hour?  Do you eat lunch in a lunch room, go out for lunch,  sit in front of your computer and eat while you work or just skip lunch all together? Personally when I work off site I usually turn off completely during lunch and either go for a walk, go to the gym or watch television over lunch, however when I am in the office I rarely venture away from my computer during lunch hour.  During the summer I try to get out for a walk but in the winter months I am not too keen to leave the building.

An article posted on CNN’s Living section suggests that how you spend your lunch hour can greatly impact your productivity and overall happiness.  The article strongly urges employees to get out of the office or do something completely non work related during the lunch hour.  This apparently will improve your productivity.

One of the barriers to enjoying your lunch hour may very well be your manager or senior executives.  As a new employee you quickly pick up on the social norms in your work environment and if your boss and his or her boss always work their way through lunch you might be inclined to follow suite or risk appearing like a slacker.

One good tip offered up in this article is to engage one of your senior members of the team and propose that they join you in a fun non work related lunch time activity.  By encouraging your managers to step away from the desk at lunch, others may very well follow.

I encourage you to read the full article over at CNN.  You can see it here.

“How to Avert a Data Center Staffing Crisis”

Here at Bell Professional Services, one of our major lines of business is data centre solutions. We here at the Contractor Resource Management Office staff a lot of consultants for this department, and so I found this article to be quite interesting. According to the trends, there is a steady rise in job postings for data centre related roles, and a huge data centre hiring boom.

The article also points out other trends currently happening in the data centre world. Thought I’d share it with you!

“There is a trend I’ve been observing for the past year or year and a half – managers are challenged to find operational staffing for data centers,” says Zandi. “Many data center workers are retiring, but have never been involved in knowledge transfer to the younger generation.”

Zandi also says that consolidation is resulting in more complex resources. Storage, network and computing are becoming integrated, which saves data centers money but makes staffing more difficult. Training for these skills is extensive and expensive.

Companies should continue the path of virtualization and consolidation but not forget training, Zandi says. “Start having your existing staff cross-train in other domains.” He also recommends that companies invest in certifications and trainings for employees. He suggests building lab-environments where employees can test new technologies and do hands-on training.

Zandi also says that managers are going to have to lower the barrier of entry in terms of the experience in cross-domains. Workers with deep knowledge in one area should be valued even if they don’t have broad cross-domain experience. These are the sort of workers you need to have cross-training each other.

According to Zandi, certifications are going to play a greater role in data center staffing decisions. He suggests that workers that want to stay viable focus on getting cloud-related certifications. He says certifications from Cisco, EMC and VMWare are most important and notes that Cisco’s Nexus platform is particularly hot.

The most important thing for workers to do now, he says, is research and learn other domains. He suggests getting your hands dirty with technologies you wouldn’t ordinarily work with, and to take advantage of any online training you can.

He also recommends that both managers and workers follow the relevant discussions – both in-person events and on the Web – regarding technology and keep abreast of trends.

We’ve emphasized the importance of investing in IT staff in the past, particularly in our “How to Improve IT Worker Morale.” Even in this jobless recovery, certain types of workers are particularly hard to find.”

To read the rest of the article, click here.