CareerVision

• Nine Rules for Excellent Email
  Etiquette

• Career Profile: Trishan Arul, CA, CPA
• Managing: You're Not One of
  the Gang Anymore
  
• Retire at 55 or 65? No Thanks!
  
• Featured Jobs

• Using Social Networking Tools to Brand Your Company
• Understanding the Value of Written Employment Contracts
• From the Bookshelf: Surviving Dreaded Conversations − Talk Through Any Difficult Situation at Work

• Situational Interviews

• Thought du jour
• Smart Phones: Friend or Foe of the Modern Worker?

This webinar presentation is designed for business and professional people at all levels who must write and manage email in the course of their jobs − and today that’s virtually everybody.

Here is what you will learn in this fast-paced webinar:

• Email’s role as a communication medium
• How to create a subject line that makes people read your message
• How to make your email visually reader-friendly
• How to get to the point quickly
• How to write the message effectively
• How to get people to answer your email
• How to hit the right level of formality
• How to manage your email for high productivity

Nine Rules for Excellent Email Etiquette offers practical information in an easily absorbed format, and you will be able to make use of the principles as soon as you return to your desk.

Click here to register for webinar

Career Profile: Trishan Arul, CA, CPA
~ Lorie Murdoch

Trishan Arul enjoys mentoring start-ups from his office in the Spear Tower at One Market Street, a 60-second jog from San Francisco Bay. Arul & Associates LLC is a long way from where its founder and Principal was interning at Arthur Andersen in Toronto when he made the UFE Honour Roll in 1996.

Managing people who used to be your peers is a challenge that has presented a rocky start for more than a few budding management careers.

Trouble typically comes when the manager adopts one of two extremes. He or she either flaunts the new position and behaves arrogantly towards workers, or tries to maintain the same chummy relationship as before, almost pretending the promotion hadn't happened.

The Scenario: I currently work in a senior role at a large company and am approaching retirement age. I love my work and have been so busy these past years, I haven't had time to really think about my retirement. I am becoming a little concerned because I just can't picture myself fully retired. I love my work but I also know I want to slow down. I’ve got mixed feelings about this whole thing. Help!

Featured Jobs

The job postings listed below are a sample of the 100+ postings on CA Source. To search all current CA Source postings, go to Search CA Jobs

1. Manager of Financial Services
   Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare
   Bracebridge, Ontario
   Link to Job Posting
    
2. Controller/Comptroller
   HAZCO Environmental Services
   Calgary, Alberta
   Link to Job Posting
    
3. Sr. Financial Analyst, Alternative Investments
   OPSEU Pension Trust
   Toronto, Ontario
   Link to Job Posting
    

Using Social Networking Tools to Brand Your Company
~ Marc Belaiche, CA

With significant growth the last few years in the social networking arena, now is a great time to use these tools to brand your company, particularly when trying to attract job seekers to apply to your open positions.

Regardless of whether your organization currently has significant brand recognition or you’re just beginning to build your brand, using social networking tools lets job seekers know about your company which in turn should help attract the best candidates.

Understanding the Value of Written Employment Contracts
~ Daniel Wong, LL.B, MIR

In Canada, many employees hired on an indefinite basis do not have written employment contracts or agreements. For other employees, they may have received a brief “offer” letter that contained basic terms relating to wages, vacation and benefits. While, generally speaking, there is no legal requirement for an employer to have a written employment agreement or contract with an employee, employers should consider entering into written employment agreements with most, if not all of its employees.

From the Bookshelf: Surviving Dreaded Conversations −
Talk Through Any Difficult Situation at Work

Writing directly to the reader in a conversational style, author Donna Flagg maintains that the ego derails conversations and exists to safeguard the individual from suppressed childhood woes, explaining why some conversations are so challenging.

The premise of the book is centered around the importance of having these difficult conversations. She argues that in order to move forward, organizations need to keep the words flowing instead of focusing on a destination point. The book offers scenarios of role-playing scripts demonstrating difficult conversations between employees and bosses, co-workers and co-workers, and employees and customers. All of the scenarios, such as letting an employee go and asking for a raise, are work-related.

Situational Interviews

Organizations that use situational interviews − which score all candidates on the same job-related questions − rather than unstructured formats, appear to have fairer hiring practices, according to a Canadian study.

Situational interviews require job applicants to discuss what they would do in various potential workplace dilemmas. Applicants respond to the same predetermined questions and responses are scored as outstanding, minimally acceptable or unacceptable. In contrast, unstructured interviews are more casual, free-flowing conversations that may make the hiring process seem inconsistent and subjective, especially when used by organizations with employment equity programs.

Source: "The Role of Situational Interviews in Fostering Positive Reactions to Selection Decisions," Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.

Thought du jour

Smart Phones: Friend or Foe of the Modern Worker?