All posts by ChinaJob

Dressing for Success Really Matters

Carolyn, an HR professional with a Honda subsidiary in Marysville, OH shared with me that she once had
a job candidate show up dressed very casually and wearing a baseball cap. When the interview started, the candidate leaned back in the chair and put his feet up on her desk!

All I can say to this is, ¡°Boy, were you born in the wild and raised by a pack of wolves?¡± I¡¯m pretty sure you weren¡¯t or we would have heard about you on the evening news. What were you thinking?

When you¡¯re lucky enough to be called for an interview, it means something made a good impression¡ªeither your application or your r¨¦sum¨¦, depending on the job. Here¡¯s a gentle reminder: being called for an interview is not the same as being guaranteed the job. In the first interview (and possibly the second, third and even fourth), you¡¯re still selling yourself to the hiring company. So, how should you dress?

The best advice is to always dress professionally. However, not only is professional dress subjective, in some cases it¡¯s also more than you need. To help you determine what you should wear to your interview(s), read on.

• If you¡¯re a guy, you probably have your own House of Fashion brewing just under the surface of your life. Do you have a wife, girlfriend, sister, mother or female friend? Among all of these, you¡¯ll find at least one (probably more) person who can offer sound, reasonable advice on appropriate dressing for various occasions. I would recommend checking with your wife, girlfriend or mother (in that order) before moving to the other options.

• If you¡¯re a woman, you have the same options. You also have multiple reality shows and magazines that obsess over these various subjects. Get together with a group of your friends, a bottle (or two) of wine and a stack of magazines and team up to define your look. Take bits and pieces from each magazine and then have a ¡°What Not to Wear¡± shopping and modeling weekend. If you walk away with a couple of professional outfits, you¡¯re further ahead.
• Check with your local department store. Oftentimes they retain one or two associates dedicated to personal shopping and styling. If you¡¯re in central Ohio, both Macys and Nordstrom offer this service. Nordstrom has two personal shoppers on staff¡ªone male and one female. Some personal shoppers allow you to bring in wardrobe pieces you already own (and adore) and help you build from there.
• Call the hiring manager at the company where you¡¯re getting ready to interview. HR professionals will gladly help you decipher the dressing dilemma. After all, they have a little bit invested in you at this point (they selected your resume for review by others, thereby putting their initial stamp of approval on you (at least on the paper representation of you).
• Drive by the company (OK, stalk it a little) and observe how the employees are dressed and then plan on dressing one step better (unless you¡¯re going for a management position, then wear a suit).

All of this to say that no matter how much we¡¯ve become business casual in the workplace, the interview is not the time to embrace the concept. First impressions still matter and still weigh heavily in the start of any relationship.

From Inertia to Momentum: Why Coaches are Good Investments

I introduced a client to my business coach at a networking event last week. My client was surprised that I¡ªalready a business owner and coach myself¡ªwas working with a business coach. I told her, ¡°Doctors need doctors, attorneys need attorneys, and coaches benefit from coaches.¡±

Later, I started thinking about why I decided to work with a coach. I still stand by my rather witty (if I do say so myself) response, but I also realized I actually started down this path over a year ago¡ªlong before I actually hired an coach.

Last year I started taking a hard look at my business and what I wanted to be doing. I convened an ¡°advisory board¡± of trusted friends and colleagues to help me make the shift. I was losing passion for what I had been doing and I needed people to help me be objective. Again, if I do say so myself, this was one of the smartest moves I have ever made. This group of advisors began helping me more clearly define my business direction and my strengths. It became a source of inspiration, feedback, encouragement, and a million ideas.

As a matter of fact, the million ideas were overwhelming me to the point of inertia. It seemed natural that my next step would be working with a business coach. I was at a point where I knew it was time to make the shift in my business, yet the million ideas had me paralyzed. I started working with Gail from NuGrowth Coaching to help me move from inertia to momentum. This proved to be another great decision and wise investment.

Here¡¯s how working with a coach has helped me:

• A coach holds us accountable. Let¡¯s face it; we can all talk ourselves out of doing something we know we need to do because the only people we might disappoint are ourselves.
• A coach asks the hard questions, expects honest answers, gives direct feedback, but never judges.
• A coach focuses 100% on the client. With friends, conversations tend to be about commiserating or sharing the focus. Coaching allows us to be selfish.
• A coach is an excellent source of information and ideas, helping us get past our ¡°D¡¯oh!¡± moments and getting to our great moments.
• A coach is well-versed in the general area of need. In my case, I needed business assistance and my coach has significant experience in business, sales and marketing.
• A coach never tells you what to do. Through very direct questioning, though, a coach will help you reach your own solutions.

Think about your own needs. Are you stuck in your job and just can¡¯t figure out how to move on? Do you love your current employer, but really want to move up the feeding chain? The benefits of career coaching are tremendous and the investment is one you can¡¯t afford NOT to make. To find out if you¡¯re a candidate for career coaching, and for more information on career coaching, go to www.permanent-ink.com and click on Career Coaching. If you have questions or comments you¡¯d like to see addressed in a future blog, e-mail me at permanentink@insight.rr.com.

Maximum cap for pay rises in state firms cut

CHINA has cut the maximum allowed margin of wage rises in state-owned companies for this year to keep pay growth, especially in monopolistic sectors.

State enterprises which paid employees twice as much as the average level of local urban wages in 2005 can increase total pay not more than 0.6 percent for each percentage of profit growth this year, according to a circular on the Website of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security late on Wednesday. The original cap was 0.75 percent.

The ministry said the government will stringently inspect the linkage between corporate profits and wage payments in state-owned companies where wages are too high and increasing too fast.

“Such a link-up mechanism is of great importance to help create a healthy relationship between growth in wages and profits,” the circular said.

The adjustment came amid a backdrop of intense public calls, starting in the second half of this year, for a wage reform in state firms where employees are considered outrageously overpaid than the average worker, widening the gap between the rich and poor segments of society.

“The latest move is a step forward to increase state control in reining in wage growth,” said Hou Ning, a columnist for several business newspapers. “But I think there is still a long way to go.”

Workers in state companies, typically in highly regulated industries such as telecommunications, energy and tobacco, usually earn much more than they deserve based on the profit they produce.

The monopolistic nature generates complacency resulting in these state firms operating at lower efficiency than global counterparts, thanks to competition. State firms are accused of contributing lower profit while holding a huge amount of state assets and reserves.

Several reports and surveys have indicated average wage for employees in monopolistic industries is up to three times the national average. The gap could be widened to as much as 10 fold if non-wage income like bonuses and pensions are included.

White-collars’ jobs irrelevant to their study fields

Chinanews ,Beijing, November 28 ¨C A recent questionnaire survey finds that the jobs of about 80% of white-collar workers in China have nothing or very little to do with the areas of study they were trained for..

Many of them choose a ¡°strange¡± job because they don’t like their fields of study. In fact, only 42% of college students get jobs in their own fields. About 26% actually chose the fields of study at the request (or even orders) of their parents. The others were ¡°assigned¡± to major in the areas of study according to the result of the national college entrance examination.

The pressure of the job market also forces many of them to give up their dreams and pick up jobsthey don’t like at all. For example, many college graduates have become salespersons not because they have learned sales in colleges or because they enjoy the challenge of being salespersons, but because they have no choice: Salespersons are always needed in a commodity economic society.

Yahoo China President Resigns

Yahoo China has announced Yahoo China president Xie Wen has resigned for personal reasons after just over a month on the job. Xie will now serve as a strategic consultant for Alibaba. Alibaba vice president Zeng Ming will be named Yahoo China’s acting president. Xie was named Yahoo China’s president on October 17. There are rumors that Xie resigned because Yahoo China management did not support his strategic plans for the company.

Recruitment Strategies

The values, or even purpose, of developing recruitment strategies generally are misunderstood within companies. It is important to build a recruiting strategy with the following questions in mind:

1) What kind(s) of candidate skills do we need?

2) When do we need them?

3) What is our corporate culture?

4) What are our recruitment processes? (employee requisition approval, marketing, sourcing, selection, reference, sales/offer, new employee orientation).

5) When did we last examine our recruitment strategies? As time passes, recruitment needs change and the methods of recruitment change (most recent major impact – the Internet). Can we do better than we have up until now?

6) What is preventing our success at attracting the top 10% of candidates?

7) Can we achieve our goals utilizing corporate staff? Or do we need outside temporary professional recruitment assistance? If we need outside help, what kind is most beneficial to this situation?

8) What is our budget for recruitment?

We address these questions in this area. Remember, recruitment is not magic. The top recruiting staffs do the fundamentals well. A strong, yet flexible recruitment strategy is the basis of the fundamentals of recruiting and delivering the best candidates.

As a contract recruitment firm, The Humbert Group assesses your current recruitment strategy and assesses your staff. We will be happy to either tweak your current recruitment strategy or help your company develop a new one. Additionally, we consult with you on the best way to upgrade your staff.

Other Probing Questions — often for high-level assignments

1. Could you please describe the management team to me?
2. Does the company have a Net-use policy?
3. Will I receive my assignments from IT or from the business
unit?
4. Do developers have little contact with the business unit or
significant contact?
5. Can you show or sketch me an organizational chart?
6. If for any reason you were unable to function as CEO, how
would you like to see the company managed?
7. To whom does the chief information or technology officer
report?
8. How would you describe the degree to which you want your
heirs to have strategic or operational influence in the company until
one of them is ready to assume the role of COO or CEO?
9. What are you hoping to accomplish, and what will be my role
in those plans?
10. May I see a job description? What are the most important
responsibilities of the job?
11. How much time should be devoted to each area of
responsibility?
12. What is my spending/budget authority?
13. What initial projects would I be tackling?
14. What are the biggest technical challenges ahead for this
department/ company?
15. Presuming that I’m successful on this assignment, where else
might I be of service to the company?
16. Traditionally, companies have used IT to reduce bottom-line
costs. But I am excited about the use of IT to advance top-line
opportunities such as creating new products and identifying new
markets. Can you talk about how IT is used in this company to create
top-line value?
17. What structured strategies for software testing have you
found effective here?
18. Does the company use an IT steering committee?
19. If you put all the salespeople in a line from your best to
the merely acceptable performer, what are the earnings of the 50th
percentile? The 25th? The 75th?
20. Can you describe the performance of the sales team?
21. What is the commission structure, and what is my earning
potential in 1,3,5, or 10 years?
22. What percentage of salespeople attain objectives?
23. What percentage of the current people are above and below
their set goals?

Questions That Are Defensive — designed to protect the employee
1. I understand the company has experienced layoffs within the
last two years. Can you review the reasons why they were necessary?
2. How were the layoffs handled in terms of notification,
severance, outplacement services, etc.?
3. What rewards have you found effective in recognizing and
rewarding exceptional work?
4. Are there formal metrics in place for measuring and rewarding
performance over time?
5. How effectively has the company communicated its top three
business goals?
6. I am a hard worker, and like to be around hard-working
people. Am I going to be comfortable with the level of effort I find
here?
7. Is the company’s training strategy linked to the company’s
core business objectives?
8. How does your firm handle recognition for a job well done?
9. When was the last time you rewarded a subordinate for his or
her efforts? What token of appreciation did you offer?
10. How does the firm recognize and learn from a brave attempt
that didn’t turn out quite as expected?
11. If I were a spectacular success in this position after six
months, what would I have accomplished?
12. How much freedom would I have in determining my objectives
and deadlines?
13. How long has this position existed in the organization? Has
its scope changed recently?
14. Do you foresee this job involving significant amounts of
overtime or work on weekends?
15. What are the greatest challenges I will face in this position
in furthering the agenda of the organization?
16. Are my tasks limited to my job description, or will I be
performing duties outside the described job scope?

Questions Designed to Get Feedback
1. How do you like me so far?
2. Do you have any concerns about my ability to do the job and
fit in?
3. Is there anything standing in the way of us coming to an
agreement?
4. Do you have any concerns about my experience, education,
skills?
5. How do I compare with the other candidates you have
interviewed?
6. Describe your ideal candidate. What do my qualifications lack
compared to those of the theoretical ideal candidate?
7. I’m ready to make a decision based on the information I have.
Is there anything else I can elaborate on so that you would have a
better understanding of my qualifications and suitability for this
position?
8. Are there any areas in which you feel I fall short of your
requirements?
9. Can you give me any feedback that would make me more
attractive to the company in the future or that I could benefit from
next time?
10. Is there anything else you need from me to have a complete
picture of my qualifications?

Finance Mgr

Company Introduction:
World famous energy service company , new established JV, register in HK, in charge of Asia Pacific area business, operation centre in SH.

Duties and responsibilities:
1.Establish and direct finance & accounting function with direct supervision of accounts receivable, accounts payable, petty cash, and banking activities
2.Supervise day-to-day financial accounting activities, consolidation, and preparation of reports and analysis
3.Prepare timely and accurate financial reports with recommendations to top management
4.Establish and manage treasury & cash management activities
5.Implements and administers the company credit policy and control credit accounts
6.Prepare financial and economic outlook (monthly) and plan (annual)
7.Direct and develop tax compliance & planning and ensure accuracy of company’s tax declarations
8.Assist CEO in developing Board and other presentations

Qualifications and experience:
1.Fluent in English and Chinese
2.Significant knowledge of PRC and Hong Kong GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles)
3.Familiarity with US GAAP & IFAS
4.Bachelor degree or above (Masters preferred), major in accounting and finance.
5.Post-graduate professional qualification (Chartered Accountant, Certified Public Accountant or equivalent)
6.Experience with International Corporation preferred
7.5 years finance work experience, 2+ years finance management experience
8.Experience with Big 4 accounting firm desirable

* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English) to: ‘topjob_fi126sh@dacare.com’

China-made Christmas gifts sold to 200 countries

Chinanews, Hangzhou, Nov. 28 ¨C Zhejiang’s Yiwu has begun to see an increasing export of Christmas gifts this month when Christmas is no longer than a month away and many super markets in Western Countries are busy collecting Christmas products.

From last May to October, actually, there had been 10-million-US-dollar worth of Christmas gifts made in Yiwu exported to more than 200 countries and regions worldwide every month.

These 200 countries and regions, such as the US, Germany, Holland, and Brazil, have made Yiwu as their key channel importing Christmas commodities by this year, according to a chief of the Yiwu office of the Jinhua Customs.

The exported Christmas goods cover not only traditional colorful lamps and wrapping paper, but also many other categories including costumes, toys, and even household appliances, indicating a climbing added value of export.

Yiwu Festival Gifts Co., Ltd. is now running up a set of Christmas products for South Korea. Salesman of the company said it was a temporary order, and the products ordered by many European and American countries have all been turned out and shipped there already.

Why IT Recruiting as a profession?

Sometimes people in our industry can get a bad repetition or make someone mad. But, is that because what the industry is or what they did?

Remember the movie, Dave. It¡¯s about an average Joe that poses as president. At one point, he¡¯s talking to the real president¡¯s wife and she asks him what he does in real life. He answers he runs a very small staffing company. She answers ¡°Oh, you find people jobs¡±, and is very impressed. That¡¯s it in a nutshell. Over a lifetime career in this business, think about how many, houses, cars and college educations you have contributed to the economy by doing your job well?

You are a:

– Talent Agent ¨C No agent in sports or the entertainment industry has anything over you.

– Psychologist ¨C You have to get into the head of the candidate and figure what makes them tick and what their ¡°real¡± job interests are.

– Computer Scientist ¨C Few IT recruiters have a technical degree but we¡¯re expected to be able to wade through thousands of acronyms, know what they do and be able to screen candidates.

– Career Coach ¨C Be able to convince the candidate it¡¯s not in their best interest to wear that 2 pound nose ring to the interview.

– Travel Agent ¨C Figure out how to get that candidate in Fairbanks to Miami by 2 pm tomorrow to meet the CIO.

– Marriage Counselor ¨C Remember, it¡¯s the whole family that is affected by a job change.

– Friend – **the most important** No explanation other then ¡°treat others and you want to be treated¡±.