Having trouble filling open positions in IT? You're certainly not alone - but the culprit may be a flawed or dated approach to interviews.
HBR Articles
Practical ways to become a lifelong learner
IT leaders seek out and highly value team members who are passionate about learning. Indeed, lifelong learners often do well in IT because they are more adaptable to the constant change technology brings. In this Harvard Business Review article, Ulrich Boser points out that learners are made, not born, and everyone has the capability to develop expertise faster and more effectively if they work at it. Boser outlines three research-backed strategies individuals can use to build their learning skills. “Being a quick study doesn’t mean you’re the smartest person in the room. It’s that you’ve learned how to learn,” he writes.
5 aspects of company culture that can make or break a new job
“When you join an organization, you have a short window of time to adapt to its culture,” write Allan H. Church and Jay A. Conger in this Harvard Business Review article. “Being cognizant of not just what your colleagues do but how they work matters if you want to be effective and be perceived well.” When it comes to culture, Church and Conger say there are five specific dimensions that will ultimately have the greatest impact on your ability to navigate and succeed in a new company. In this article they dive into each – relationships, communications, decision-making, individual versus group perspectives, and change agents – and offer tips on what to look for and how to adapt.
What to do when your boss won’t advocate for you
The first challenge of having a boss who won’t advocate for your professional advancement is that you might not even know you have one. Advocacy happens when you aren’t in the room, and if your boss isn’t speaking favorably behind your back, your career could become stalled. In this Harvard Business Review article, Nicholas Pearce calls this the advocacy gap, and says, “While it may not necessarily be your fault, it is your problem. You owe it to yourself to find a workable strategy to advance your career.” Pearce offers three actionable steps that can help put you back on the path of career advancement.
The lie that perfectionists tell themselves
If you’ve ever put in a 60+-hour work week, there’s a good chance that your extra effort may have gone unnoticed – or worse, may have negatively impacted the quality of your work. In this Harvard Business Review article, authors Matt Plummer and Jo Wilson make the argument that we must stop associating more time with higher quality of work when research consistently shows that’s not the case. The problem, they say, can be traced back to a “quality-first culture” in which “people spend a lot of time perfecting work that would have had the same impact without the extra hours of tweaking.” Read the article for their compelling case for why individuals and businesses should aim to value productivity as much as – if not more than – quality.
How to focus on what’s important, not just what’s urgent
Most busy professionals’ days are driven by deadlines. They help move projects forward, and they help teams stay on the same page. But when deadlines start to get in the way of long-term, big-picture goals, that’s when they become a problem, notes Alice Boyes in this Harvard Business review article. Citing examples like writing a book, learning a new skill, and spending time with children, Boyes says, “If you’re like most people, these priorities slip to the back of your mind while you work on low- importance, time-specific tasks, such as booking a hotel room for a conference, clearing out your email inbox, or writing a monthly newsletter.” She provides six strategies and tips that can help people prioritize the important over the urgent, while still tackling their daily to-do list.