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Active Listening: Communication and Empathy as an IT Leader

Active listening is an essential skill for an IT leader. Your ability to communicate effectively and show empathy impacts your team’s success.

Focusing on what your employees say and understanding their points of view help you make decisions and resolve issues. These actions build trust, respect, and collaboration among your team.

Practicing communication and empathy with your team increases employee engagement, performance, and productivity. These actions elevate job satisfaction, employee morale, and attraction and retention rates. The results strengthen your bottom line.

Engage in the following behaviors to practice active listening and empathy as an IT leader.

Recognize Verbal and Nonverbal Cues

Pay attention to your employee’s tone, facial expressions, and other body language. These cues provide insight into how your employee may be feeling.

Keep in mind these emotions might not be verbally expressed. Or, your employee could say they are fine when they are not.

Focus on what your employee is and is not saying. Acknowledge what they are saying and how they are feeling. Ask follow-up questions to uncover more information.

For instance, “Thank you for sharing you feel about this situation. Would you share a bit more about your thoughts? I would like to hear more about your perspective.”

Process Verbal and Nonverbal Information

Work to understand the messages you receive from your employee. Also, keep track of the points made during the conversation.

For instance, “Here are some key points and areas of agreement and disagreement from our conversation. Here are more pieces of information to gather and suggested next steps. What do you think?”

Share Appropriate Responses

Use the information you gathered to reply to your employee. Include verbal acknowledgments, clarifying questions, or paraphrasing to show you were actively listening.

For instance, maintain appropriate eye contact, facial expressions, and body language while responding. Also, nod your head and use acknowledging phrases such as “That is a great point.”

Follow Up on the Conversation

Use your behaviors to show you were listening during the discussion. For instance, you might implement constructive feedback your employee provided. Or, you could talk about why you made another decision.

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Transferable Skills: The Best Skills to Have When Changing Careers

Transferable skills are the best skills to have when changing careers. You can apply these talents and abilities to multiple roles and industries for a successful transition.

Including your relevant transferrable skills in your resume shows the value you can provide an organization. It demonstrates how the skills you developed in previous positions align with the skills required for the position you desire. This encourages the hiring manager to contact you for an interview.

Learn which transferrable skills to include in your resume when changing careers.

Industry Expertise

If you are changing careers within the IT industry, include in your resume your knowledge, skills, and experience that can benefit the company. Mention the amount of time you spent in the industry and the types of projects you worked on.

Communication

Strong verbal and written communication skills are required for virtually any role. You likely will engage with colleagues, managers, coworkers, HR professionals, and other company stakeholders. Effectively sharing your ideas, input, decisions, and thought process is essential for success.

Find effective ways to list in your resume examples of your communication skills. This may include how you explain IT concepts and projects to non-IT professionals so that they understand your work.

Project Management

Overseeing at least some parts of projects is essential for most roles. As a result, including in your resume organization and time management shows you establish priorities, maintain a schedule, and finish tasks by the deadlines.

Consider referencing IT projects you managed. Provide enough detail to explain your role, results, and impact on the company.

Analysis

Your analytical skills are essential for problem-solving. You can use data to make educated decisions and explain your reasoning.

Consider sharing in your resume examples of how you analyzed IT problems to find solutions. Include the impact of your actions, such as increased efficiencies or lower costs.

Adaptability

Because change is part of every company and industry, fast adaptation is essential. This is especially true if your career change leads you to work for a startup. Your role regularly may change based on the company’s needs.

Highlight in your resume situations where you had to quickly adapt to complete an IT project. Include how you think on your feet and perform in high-pressure situations to benefit the organization.

Leadership

Demonstrating leadership skills is beneficial when changing careers. Hiring managers always want to add leaders to their teams.

Include in your resume examples of your leadership skills to stand out from other candidates. Depending on your work experience, share examples of when you lead IT projects, employees, or both.

Are You Ready to Change Careers?

If you are changing careers within the IT industry, reach out to RightStone for help with the transition. Visit our job board today.


Green Flags To Look For In A Potential Employer

Green flags in a potential employer indicate that the organization may be a good place to work. These signs include attractive company culture, challenging work, and opportunities for advancement.

Understanding how to look for green flags in a potential employer before applying for a role, during an interview, and after receiving a job offer helps determine which company may be right for you. This helps you be successful in your new position.

Discover Green Flags To Look For In A Potential Employer.

Green Flags In The Job Posting

Look for these signs in the job posting:

  • A diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture
  • Company values aligned with yours
  • Competitive compensation range
  • Attractive benefits
  • Tailored job qualifications

Green Flags For The Company

The more diverse the employees, benefits, and perks, the more equitable and inclusive the company:

  • Diverse employees in leadership roles
  • Pay Transparency
  • Negotiable benefits
  • Equitable benefits, such as paid family leave instead of paid maternity leave
  • Significant budget for employee professional development
  • Mentorship and/or coaching program
  • Wheelchair-accessible building
  • Gender-neutral restrooms
  • Paid volunteer hours
  • Adequate information to prepare for interviews

Green Flags For Junior Developers

If you are beginning your IT career, look for a potential employer with these traits:

  • Headquarters in a city with at least one IT boot camp
  • Signs on the company’s website or LinkedIn profile that the organization hires bootcamp graduates and junior developers
  • Blog posts on the company’s website or social media pages that are directed at the junior developer experience

Green Flags During The Interview

Seek these elements during an interview:

  • Punctual interviewers
  • Interviewer camaraderie
  • Inquiry about your preferred pronouns
  • Questions tailored to your knowledge, skills, and experience
  • Interviewer engagement

Questions To Uncover Green or Red Flags

Consider asking these subtle questions to determine green or red flags:

  • How is your company involved in the community?
  • What does success look like here?
  • Is weekend work common?
  • How does the team approach tight deadlines?

You also might want to ask more direct questions:

  • Are there any requirements for using work apps on personal devices?
  • If you could fix one thing within the organization, what would it be?
  • Are employees encouraged to raise technical and ethical concerns?
  • If you knew then what you know now, would you still have joined the company?

Are You Ready to Find Your Next Employer?

Work with RightStone to find your next IT role. Visit our job board today.


Career Check-In Time! Are You on Track to Meet Your 2023 Goals?

The middle of the year is an excellent time to check in on your career. Understanding whether you are on track to meet your 2023 goals is essential to accomplish your objectives.

Perhaps you reached some goals but not others. Maybe you have goals that no longer fit your career objectives. These are reasons why you should revisit your goals.

Follow these guidelines to check in and determine whether you are on track to meet your 2023 career goals.

Review Your Goals

Look back at your goals for the year. Determine whether they still align with what you want to accomplish.

Take out the goals that you no longer want to attain. Consider replacing them with new ones. Or, you can dedicate more time to achieving your remaining goals.

Determine whether you reached any of your goals. If so, cross them off.

Consider whether you are putting in enough effort to meet your remaining goals. Remember that some may take longer to accomplish than others.

Measure Your Progress

Use your established criteria to measure your progress toward your goals. Comparing where you were when the year began to where you are now shown how far you have come. It also indicates what you still must do to attain your goals.

If you are not on track to achieve your goals, determine why. Find ways to resolve the issues and get back on schedule.

Track Your Goals

Regularly check in to record your progress in reaching your goals. Knowing where you are at in the process helps determine whether you are on track to meet your goals. If you fall behind, you can take action to get to where you should be.

Review Your Action Plan

Focus on whether you are reaching the deadlines included in your action plan. If not, determine why.

Perhaps the deadlines were unreasonable. Or, maybe you require more resources or support to meet them.

Resolve the issues that caused you not to reach your deadlines. Then, reset your timeline.

Celebrate Your Successes

Reward yourself for the goals you accomplished. You might want to go out for dinner or drinks with friends, enjoy a spa service, or plan a weekend trip to somewhere you have been wanting to visit. This provides motivation to continue to attain your goals.   

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7 Reasons to Update Your LinkedIn Profile

As an IT professional, odds are you regularly update your resume. This ensures you are ready for opportunities as you learn about them.

Similarly, you should regularly update your LinkedIn profile. Keeping your details current and relevant shows hiring managers and recruiters what you have to offer employers.

Engaging with hiring managers and recruiters opens you up to new opportunities. These opportunities can advance your career.

Discover seven reasons to update your LinkedIn profile.

1. An Annual LinkedIn Update Is Essential

Conducting an annual review of the knowledge, skills, and accomplishments you gained in the last 12 months lets you add the details to your LinkedIn profile. You also can delete the information that is no longer relevant to your career path. These actions help hiring managers and recruiters focus on the details that can lead to your next opportunity.

2. Industry Professionals View Your LinkedIn Profile

Hiring managers, recruiters, and other professionals in your industry use your LinkedIn profile to determine your qualifications for roles. As a result, they might reach out about potential career opportunities. Sharing current information facilitates this process.

3. A Recession Is Coming

Entering a recession means economic instability. As a result, you should be prepared for anything to happen within your company and industry.

Having a complete, current, and engaging LinkedIn profile helps you pursue relevant roles if the need arises. It also makes you an attractive passive candidate for opportunities that fit your knowledge, skills, and experience.

4. Position Yourself for Opportunities

Updating your LinkedIn profile ensures it aligns with your career goals. This shows your authentic interest in professional growth. It also demonstrates you are equipped to take on the role you desire.

You also can connect with other professionals, hiring managers, and recruiters in your industry. These individuals might help you land your next role.

5. Gain the Latest LinkedIn Updates

Check your LinkedIn feed when you update your profile. Accept the relevant connection requests you received. Also, respond to the messages in your inbox. Additionally, read articles to find out what is new in your industry. These activities help you prepare for your next career opportunity.

6. Show Relevance in Your Industry

Activate Creator Mode to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. You can publish content and share your area of expertise.

Creator Mode lets you identify the top five hashtags you want to be associated with. These hashtags sit below your headline to let viewers know more about you when they click on your profile.

7. Stand Out from Your Peers

Updating your LinkedIn profile increases your visibility and credibility with industry professionals, hiring managers, and recruiters. This helps increase your network and professional opportunities.

Include images and videos to provide greater insight into your brand. This helps others connect with you on a more personal level.

Are You Ready for Your Next Opportunity?

Work with RightStone to find your next IT career opportunity. Visit our job board today.


Building a Strong Personal Brand: How to Stand Out in a Competitive Job Market

Building a strong personal brand helps you stand out in a competitive job market. Differentiating yourself shows what you have to offer an employer that others do not.

Creating a strong personal brand positions you as a thought leader in your field. This shows other IT professionals, hiring managers, and recruiters the value you can provide to an organization.

Having a strong personal brand helps form a lasting impression on hiring managers and recruiters. As a result, they likely will contact you about the jobs you apply for or opportunities that fit your skills and experience. These activities can help secure your next position.

Learn how to build a strong personal brand and stand out in a competitive job market.

Create Your Foundation

Build an authentic foundation that shows who you truly are. Purposefully and strategically showcase the value you provide for others.

  • Ensure your brand reflects your values, beliefs, and passions. Include your interests, skills, and credentials.
  • Focus your brand vision on what you want to be known for. Develop it according to your purpose and what you want to accomplish.
  • Create a brand message that you want to communicate to your audience. Ensure it reflects your personal characteristics and traits.

Determine Your Target Audience

Consider the industry professionals you want your personal brand to appeal to. This should include IT professionals, hiring managers, HR professionals, company leaders, and recruiters.

Your personal brand is designed to attract people in your target audience. This means your brand resonates with these individuals and attracts them to you.

Develop an Irresistible Offer

Determine what you want to sell to your target audience. This may solve a certain problem or attain a certain result.

Focus on the value you provide others, such as employers, in exchange for something, such as a desirable job with competitive income, benefits, and perks and an attractive work environment.

Set Your Content Strategy

Create and share content that helps your target audience. This builds trust and positions you as an authority in the IT industry.

  • List topics that would be helpful to your target audience. You can use an online tool such as Google’s Keyword Planner to conduct keyword research and uncover popular topics.
  • Decide which type of content to create and where to publish it. Types of content include blog posts, videos, and infographics. Publication sites include LinkedIn, YouTube, and Quora.
  • Focus on quality and consistency when publishing your content. You might want to start by creating two content types, such as blog posts and videos, and publish them on two platforms, such as LinkedIn and YouTube, and add more later.

Is It Time to Find a New IT Job?

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Yes, Mondays Are That Bad: 3 Ways to Make Them Better

Monday has a reputation for being the worst day of the week. Many employees view Monday as disrupting the happiness they experience by not working over the weekend.

Zety research shows that 41% of respondents dislike Monday. They report having the heaviest workloads and lots of meetings, experiencing a high-pressure work environment, and being expected to work overtime.

Further, 80% of respondents say that Monday is the most stressful day of the week. As a result, they feel the least motivated and productive at the start of the work week.

Fortunately, you can help change your employees’ beliefs about Monday to set them up for a positive, productive week. The following suggestions can help.

Implement these three ideas to make Mondays better for your employees.

1. Emphasize the Importance of Each Employee’s Role

Remind your employees of how their work impacts the organization. Provide examples of how their contributions and results help reach company goals and contribute to the bigger picture.

Encourage your employees to tie their work to their identity. For instance, an employee who has a strong work ethic can demonstrate it by being productive throughout each day. Or, an employee who excels at motivating others can show it by positively impacting their colleagues and coworkers.

Support your employees in pursuing personal interests. Experiencing happiness in their personal lives impacts how they feel about their professional lives. This is especially important when your employees return to work on Monday.

2. Monitor Employees’ Workloads

Talk with each employee about their workload. Include the hours they invest and the tasks they must accomplish to attain their results.

Encourage each employee to schedule their work throughout the week to even out the demands of each day. Also, support being as productive as possible each day, especially on Fridays, to complete as much work as possible.

Find out whether an employee is unable to accomplish all the work that is assigned to them. Develop ways to adjust the timeline or delegate when needed. Also, establish ways to maintain healthy boundaries going forward. This encourages your employees to go to work on Monday.

3. Support Employee Relationships

Emphasize the importance of your employees’ building relationships with colleagues and coworkers. Encourage them to spend time together outside of work. Forming work relationships provides motivation and support for your employees to start each week with a positive mindset.

Support your employees in recognizing their colleagues’ and coworkers’ accomplishments. This encourages feelings of value, respect, and cohesion. It also makes it easier to come back to work on Monday.

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Work-Life Balance: The Evolution

Work-life balance looks different for every employee. However, balancing professional and personal responsibilities is essential for maintaining a healthy work environment.

Sustaining a work-life balance helps reduce stress. It also lowers the odds of employees experiencing physical or mental health concerns.

Employees who experience chronic stress over an extended period may experience burnout. This can happen when continuously working overtime and not enforcing boundaries between work hours and personal time.

Creating a work environment that prioritizes work-life balance considers the needs of employees from all generations. Understanding the differences in beliefs and approaches to work-life balance can be beneficial.

Learn more about the evolution of work-life balance to better support your employees.

Baby Boomers and Work-Life Balance

Born between 1945 and 1960, baby boomers were exposed to hardships that resulted from World War II. Because earning a living was difficult, this generation desires opportunities for employment and workplace stability. Therefore, work-life balance is not a main concern.

Most baby boomers remain with companies for years. As a result, many hold senior- or director-level roles with significant amounts of responsibility and stress.

Generation X and Work-Life Balance

Born between 1961 and 1980, members of Generation X grew up seeing their parents work long hours. Therefore, Generation X experienced the impact of poor work-life balance on their families. As a result, they understand the importance of prioritizing work-life balance in their lives.

Many Generation X employees prioritize spending time with family and friends. As a result, they tend to use all their paid time off each year.

Generation X employees typically look for flexibility when deciding which companies to work for. This may include remote or hybrid work arrangements, flexible work hours, generous paid time off, and extended parental leave.

Millennials and Work-Life Balance

Born between 1981 and 2000, millennials view work as a part of life. Because their student loans are significantly high, millennials value stable employment to pay for their education and their children’s education.

Covering rising housing costs also is among millennials’ top priorities. Finding career paths that support their lifestyles also is important.

Supporting Work-Life Balance for All Generations

Encouraging employees to fulfill their professional and personal needs promotes productivity and healthy lifestyles.

  • Prioritizing a healthy company culture creates a positive work environment. This encourages employees to feel comfortable working to advance their careers rather than simply for a paycheck.
  • Providing competitive compensation and benefits, and opportunities for career growth increases employee tenure within an organization.
  • Offering remote or flexible work options, a flexible schedule, and generous paid time off increases employee engagement, job satisfaction, and morale. It also decreases employee stress and turnover. This benefits the bottom line.

Are You Looking for Help with Hiring?

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Important Skills to Develop as an Engineer

Working as an IT engineer provides access to in-demand and lucrative jobs. This provides a foundation for long-term career success.

Continuously developing your skill set helps you take on more senior engineering jobs. This provides additional opportunities for career growth.

Develop These Important Skills To Grow As An Engineer

Communication

Team discussion and collaboration are important parts of an engineering job. Open communication helps you understand the client’s needs, create the product or service, and resolve issues.

Sharing ideas, asking questions, and providing input is essential. Actively listening and sharing constructive feedback also are required.

Using the right form of verbal, written, online, or in-person communication helps you effectively share information. Speaking in non-technical terms when interacting with professionals in other departments is important as well.

Creativity

Dealing with novel situations is part of being an engineer. Innovation is required to develop things that previously did not exist.

There will be times when the typical solution cannot be implemented or does not work. This requires using your knowledge, skills, and experience to resolve the issue.

Critical Thinking

Developing a strong sense of reality and trust in your abilities is essential. Drawing on your knowledge and experience helps you accurately evaluate situations and take appropriate action. Digging deeper for more information helps you make educated decisions and respond appropriately.

Problem-Solving

Working as an engineer involves identifying, analyzing, and solving problems. This is especially important in urgent situations.

Ongoing education and experience help you apply relevant theories and formulas to resolve issues. Learning from your mistakes also is beneficial.

Attention to Detail

Following systems to check your engineering work is essential. This may involve keeping a notebook of the mistakes you made, how you fixed them, and what you learned. You can refer to your notebook as needed to improve your performance.

Leadership

Being a self-starting engineer who wants to lead others as you increase your value to an organization is important. The more skills and experience you gain, the better equipped you are to take on management and leadership roles.

Your ability to motivate your colleagues, assess their strengths, and assign roles helps your team efficiently complete projects. Providing guidance, answering questions, and resolving issues help build team cohesion.

Ready To Grow Your Engineering Career?

Make RightStone part of your engineering career. Visit our job board today.


What Are Common Interview Styles?

Interview styles differ by the method of asking the questions. For instance, participation in a panel interview may involve being asked behavioral questions to learn more about your work experience.

Some interviewers might choose multiple interview styles. Different styles can gather the information needed to fill different needs.

You can practice answering questions in different interview styles to prepare for the one your potential employer uses. These tips can help.

Learn about the common interview styles and how you can prepare for them.

Open-Ended Interview Style

Open-ended interview questions typically are broad in scope. This means you speak significantly more than the interviewer.

One topic may be how your strengths can help you succeed in the position. Or, the interviewer might ask you to describe how your skills and experiences relate to the role and can benefit your performance.

Emphasize your hard and soft skills in your answers. Include specific examples of how you used these skills in previous roles. Demonstrate that you are well-equipped to carry out the job duties and responsibilities.

Situational Interview Style

Situational interview questions present real-life scenarios and ask how you would approach the situation or solve the problem. This helps the interviewer determine whether you would handle the issue in line with company culture.

Be sure to include specific examples of how you handled similar scenarios in previous positions. This demonstrates how you would handle related situations with your next employer.

Behavioral Interview Style

Behavioral interview questions focus on your thinking, behavior, and outcomes in previous professional, personal, and interpersonal situations. The results of your behavior show what likely would happen under similar circumstances while working at another company.

Behavioral questions may be broad, such as asking how you work while under pressure. Or, they might involve how you would handle a specific situation in the workplace.

Use the STAR method to answer behavioral questions. Explain the situation you encountered, the tasks you performed, the actions you took, and your results. Demonstrate effective communication, leadership, creativity, teamwork, flexibility, organization, and problem-solving in your answer.

Want Additional Interview Prep?

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