Common Myths about Employment Background Checks

Myth #1: Employers are only looking to see if your resume is accurate
In Reality: When an employer runs a background check, they may be looking for salary history, criminal activity, credit scores, professional licenses or designations, drug use, or professional and personal references.

Myth #2: You can lie about how much you made at previous jobs
In Reality: While there are plenty of creative ways on an interview to evade disclosing your salary history, a prospective employer can ask your former employer or request copies of your W-2 forms.

Myth #3: Employers simply call the references you provide

In Reality: An employer may choose to conduct their own background check or to use an agency. Background investigation companies often work with other agencies that pull criminal histories, check applicant credit, perform drug testing, and collect fingerprints.

Myth #4: Anything you've ever done is going to show up in a background check

In Reality: Consumer reporting agencies must follow the standards established by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and cannot report tax liens, collections, and civil suits after seven years or bankruptcies after 10 years, but time limits for reporting negative information do not apply for jobs paying over $75,000.

Juvenile criminal convictions cannot be reported. Adult criminal convictions can be reported at any time (although some states impose their own limits).

Background investigation companies also have their own information collection and reporting policies - they may set their own limits for how far back into an applicant's history they will look, they may not report low-level misdemeanors at all, and they will almost always require derogatory claims in writing - for instance, if a previous employer says they wouldn't re-hire you, the agency would request that as a written statement as opposed to just accepting the information as part of a phone call.

If the employer is conducting their own background investigation, they may not check out-of-state criminal records or run detailed credit reports - but they might be more likely to get an off-the-record negative reference from a former employer.

Myth #5: A negative finding automatically means you won't get the job

In Reality: Just because something unfavorable shows up in a background check doesn't mean you won't get hired. The truth is that most people leave at least one job on bad terms at some point in their career. And state laws determine how information discovered during a background check can be used - for example, under Pennsylvania law, an employer can only make hiring decisions based on an applicant's criminal record if the convictions relate to the person's suitability for the position.

Myth #6: As a job seeker, you're powerless

In Reality: An employer must receive your written permission to conduct a background check before even beginning the process. If they choose not to hire you based on findings in a background check, they have to provide you with the report along with contact info for the consumer-reporting agency. If there's anything inaccurate on the report, you should immediately contact the agency and ask them to correct it.

Regardless of whether the employer conducts an in-house or external background check, job seekers still cannot be denied a position for any reason that falls under certain protected classes. In Pennsylvania, these include race, color, sex, age (over 40), ancestry, national origin, religious creed, having a GED rather than a high school diploma, handicap or disability, or relationship to a person with a disability. If you have been a victim of employment discrimination, you have the right to file an employment discrimination complaint.

Author:  Rita FriedmanCertified Career Coach, PhillyCareerCoach.com 

 

Career as a Business Analyst

The 21st century business analyst’s world is multifaceted. As a mediator, moderator, connector and ambassador, the business analyst must bring the business needs together with IT resources. Successful business analysts tend to be clear communicators, smooth facilitators, precise analyzers and team players. Plus, the ideal analyst has the versatility of various business functions, such as operations, finance, engineering, technology or architecture


What Does a Business Analyst Do?

The analyst works with the business to identify opportunities for improvement in business operations and processes
The analyst is involved in the design or modification of business systems or IT systems
The analyst interacts with the business stakeholders and subject matter experts in order to understand their problems and needs
The analyst gathers, documents, and analyzes business needs and requirements
The analyst solves business problems and, as needed, designs technical solutions
The analyst documents the functional and, sometimes, technical design of the system
The analyst interacts with system architects and developers to ensure the system is properly implemented
The analyst may help test the system and create system documentation and user manuals


How Much Do Business Analysts Make?

Depending upon which business analyst career path you choose, you’re certain to benefit from a highly rewarding and lucrative career. To give you an idea of how profitable this field can be, take a look at these job titles and average salaries, based on U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, for a variety of business analyst jobs:

Average Annual Salary

Information Security Analyst :  $86,170

Computer Systems Analyst : $79,680

Management Analyst:  $78,600

Financial Analyst:  $76,950

Budget Analyst: $69,280

Certifications

Business analysts who want to enhance their expertise and expand their career options achieve industry-recognized certification. The current leader in business analysis certification is the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®). The IIBA offers the prestigious Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®), a designation accomplished by candidates who successfully demonstrate their business analysis expertise. As a candidate, you’ll need to detail your business analysis work experience, and pass the CBAP exam.

 7 Qualities of A Good Business Analyst  

#1 – Good Business Analysts Have the Basics Covered
#2 – Good Business Analysts are Resourceful
#3 – Good Business Analysts Grow their Toolbox of Skills
#4 – Good Business Analysts Create Alignment and Ownership Around the Solution
#5 – Good Business Analysts Create Clarity
#6 – Good Business Analysts Don’t Rely on Cookies
#7 – Good Business Analysts Have a Strong Dash of Project Management
 

Are you looking Business Analysis as a career option ??

Upload your resume : Click Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Characteristics of of A Great Project Manager

VISION

An effective project leader is often described as having a vision of where to go and the ability to articulate it. Visionaries thrive on change and being able to draw new boundaries. It was once said that a leader is someone who ‘lifts us up, gives us a reason for being and gives the vision and spirit to change’.

 
Command authority naturally.
In other words, they don’t need borrowed power to enlist the help of others – they just know how to do it. They are optimistic leaders who are viewed in a favorable light and are valued by the organization.

Good Communicator
The ability to communicate with people at all levels is almost always named as the second most important skill by project managers and team members. Project leadership calls for clear communication about goals, responsibility, performance, expectations and feedback.
 
Possess quick sifting abilities, knowing what to note and what to ignore.
The latter is more important since there’s almost always too much data, and rarely too little. Ignoring the right things is better than trying to master extraneous data.


ENTHUSIASM/PASSION
We tend to follow people with a can-do attitude, not those who are always negative and give us all the reasons for why something can’t be done.


COMPETENCE
The team must believe that the project manager knows what he/she is doing. Leadership competence does not however necessarily refer to the project leader’s technical abilities in the core technology of the business.


Ability to Delegate Tasks
Trust is an essential element in the relationship of a project leader and his or her team. You demonstrate your trust in others through your actions - how much you check and control their work, how much you delegate and how much you allow people to participate.


Set, observe, and re-evaluate project priorities frequently.
They focus and prioritize by handling fewer emails, attending fewer meetings, and generally limiting their data input.


Exercise independent and fair consensus-building skills when conflict arises.
But they embrace only as much conflict as is absolutely necessary, neither avoiding nor seeking grounds for control of a particular project segment.



PROBLEM SOLVING
A great project manager not only has to have all of these qualities but also know when to employ them and to what extent.

 
Cool Under Pressure
In a perfect world, projects would be delivered on time, under budget and with no major problems or obstacles to overcome. But we don't live in a perfect world - projects have problems. A leader with a hardy attitude will take these problems in stride. When leaders encounter a stressful event, they consider it interesting, they feel they can influence the outcome and they see it as an opportunity.

 

















 

10 Tips to be A Highly competitive Mobile App Developer

1. Demonstrate your understanding of the ‘why’ behind the app Developers who understand the 'why' behind the app are the most successful because they can offer the end user or the C-suite a return-on-app investment," says Bratton.


2. Be able to communicate to non-technical folks as well It's important that mobile developers are able to step outside of their technical shells and express the limitations and possibilities provided by mobile technology in a way that non-technical people can understand,

3.Always keep your skills and industry knowledge sharp
Staying abreast of the latest mobile-technology languages is key. For instance, honing the fundamentals skills (Java or C++ for Android and Objective-C or Swift for iOS) is a given. Developers should also have experience working with APIs and SDKs made available by larger social media platforms (e.g.Facebook or Instagram). After all, social media is making a huge impact on the landscape of mobile applications, helping apps build audiences and boost demand.

10 Soft Skills of IT Analyst !!!

10 Soft Skills of  IT Analyst  !!!

1. Negotiation skills: This will be of value when facilitating negotiations between IT and business users, you and IT regarding development resources, and you and the business users trying to minimize project scope creep.

2. Active listening: This will be of great value when trying to collect business requirements, provide quality internal client service, and when gathering information for status reports.

3. Dealing with conflict: This will be of value when IT and users disagree and/or when deadlines are being missed and tensions are running high.

4. Quality client service techniques: As a representative of the IT community, providing quality client service to the business users you support is critical to your job performance and career advancement.

5. Decision making: There are many formalized decision making techniques, such as a decision matrix, that can help you make quality, business appropriate, and defendable decisions that can help you to best service your internal clients and maximize your job performance.

6. Problem solving: Like decision making, there are formalized problem solving techniques, such as Five Whys and Brainstorming that can help you discover a problem’s root cause and define potential solutions.

7. Strategic thinking: Very often a business analyst must think outside-the-box to find innovative business solutions that meet their internal client’s needs. An understanding of strategic thinking techniques can help facilitate this process.

8. Technical writing: A key role of business analysis is the creation of business requirement specifications and other forms of documentation. Your ability to develop coherent, informative, and usable documents is a requirement for professional success.

9. Presentation and public speaking: Don’t underestimate the value of creating and delivering quality presentations on topics such as application designs, project status, and business requirements. Generally speaking, the people listening to your presentations are senior IT and business management people. Your ability to impress them with your presentation could have a significant effect on your career growth.

10. Team building: As a business analyst, you may be required to lead formalized and/or ad hoc teams. Your ability to structure, coordination, and lead these teams can not only make you more successful in your current role, but position you for future IT senior positions.

What is employment testing !!!

What is employment testing !!!

Written, oral or on-the-job testing to determine whether a job applicant is suitable for a position. Employers using employment testing believe certain test scores indicate the level of job performance an individual would provide as an employee.

Types of Employment Testing

• Assessment Centers :- Assessment centers can be designed to measure many different types of job related skills and abilities, but are often used to assess interpersonal skills, communication skills, planning and organizing, and analytical skills. The assessment center typically consists of exercises that reflect job content and types of problems faced on the job. For example, individuals might be evaluated on their ability to make a sales presentation or on their behavior in a simulated meeting. In addition to these simulation exercises, assessment centers often include other kinds of tests such as cognitive ability tests, personality inventories, and job knowledge tests

• Biographical Data :- The content of biographical data instruments varies widely, and may include such areas as leadership, teamwork skills, specific job knowledge and specific skills (e.g., knowledge of certain software, specific mechanical tool use), interpersonal skills, extraversion, creativity, etc. Biographical data typically uses questions about education, training, work experience, and interests to predict success on the job. Some biographical data instruments also ask about an individuals attitudes, personal assessments of skills, and personality.

• Cognitive Ability Tests :- Cognitive ability tests typically use questions or problems to measure ability to learn quickly, logic, reasoning, reading comprehension and other enduring mental abilities that are fundamental to success in many different jobs. Cognitive ability tests assess a persons aptitude or potential to solve job-related problems by providing information about their mental abilities such as verbal or mathematical reasoning and perceptual abilities like speed in recognizing letters of the alphabet.

• Integrity Tests:- Integrity tests assess attitudes and experiences related to a persons honesty, dependability, trustworthiness, reliability, and pro-social behavior. These tests typically ask direct questions about previous experiences related to ethics and integrity OR ask questions about preferences and interests from which inferences are drawn about future behavior in these areas. Integrity tests are used to identify individuals who are likely to engage in inappropriate, dishonest, and antisocial behavior at work.

• Interviews:- Interviews vary greatly in their content, but are often used to assess such things as interpersonal skills, communication skills, and teamwork skills, and can be used to assess job knowledge. Well-designed interviews typically use a standard set of questions to evaluate knowledge, skills, abilities, and other qualities required for the job. The interview is the most commonly used type of test. Employers generally conduct interviews either face-to-face or by phone

• Job Knowledge Tests:- Job knowledge tests typically use multiple choice questions or essay type items to evaluate technical or professional expertise and knowledge required for specific jobs or professions. Examples of job knowledge tests include tests of basic accounting principles, A+/Net+ programming, and blueprint reading.

• Personality Tests:- Some commonly measured personality traits in work settings are extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to new experiences, optimism, agreeableness, service orientation, stress tolerance, emotional stability, and initiative or proactivity. Personality tests typically measure traits related to behavior at work, interpersonal interactions, and satisfaction with different aspects of work. Personality tests are often used to assess whether individuals have the potential to be successful in jobs where performance requires a great deal of interpersonal interaction or work in team settings.

• Physical Ability Tests:- Physical ability tests typically use tasks or exercises that require physical ability to perform. These tests typically measure physical attributes and capabilities, such as strength, balance, and speed.

• Work Samples and Simulations:- These tests typically focus on measuring specific job skills or job knowledge, but can also assess more general skills such as organizational skill, analytic skills, and interpersonal skills. Work samples and simulations typically require performance of tasks that are the same or similar to those performed on the job to assess their level of skill or competence. For example, work samples might involve installing a telephone line, creating a document in Word, or tuning an engine.

What Skills Does A GIS Analyst Require ?

What Skills Does A GIS Analyst Require?

Personally, we find that one of the most important requirements lies in developing an accurate position including a reasonable description of expected duties. Within the GIS Community we believe there has always been much confusion regarding this. How often do you see a career posting for a Technician or other "junior" person and the requirements asking for a candidate with a Master's degree and 5 years of hands-on experience? A key to matching up qualified people with the perfect job is to have both sides on the same page and the employee being aware of what is expected of him/her in their duties.

Technical Skills:-

· Strong GIS skills with two or more GIS packages.

· Strong Macro / C / C++ / Visual Basic programming skills.

· Understanding of and/or willing to learn math and statistical analysis.

· Strong Oracle or related RDBMS skills including development skills.

· Excellent verbal / written communication skills.

· Genuinely excited and enthusiastic about learning and pushing technical limits / finding new solutions.

· Good writing skills - for documentation, training, processes.

· Formal training (eg. Degree) or high level of experience with GIS.

· “Hands-on" experience.

· Good analytical / problem solving skills.

· A basic understanding of the concepts behind data management in a relational database.

· Good IT technical skills.

· The ability to think and solve problems.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES FOR SERVICE DELIVERY MANAGER .. !!!

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES FOR  Service Delivery Manager : 

·         Building a personal relationship with key client staff

·  Successful service delivery - SLA achievement and high level of customer

· satisfaction  Monitoring overall performance of services

·  Good communication around issues and opportunities – get things done,

· make things happen  Collaborating with senior management on client account management

· Growth  Ensuring operations teams are aware of changes and are prepared

·  Building service reports

·  Service reporting and sponsoring service delivery meetings

· Pulling in additional resources when needed e.g. specialist teams or

· People for specific issues / opportunities  Removing all obstacles to customer satisfaction and / or financial

· Performance  Communicating across organisational boundaries – from engineers

· Through to senior managers  3rd party management responsibilities

·  Looking out for client’s and Imtech’s long-term interests

·  Following up if service delivery is not meeting expectations

·  Working with the client and operations teams to identify and

· Manage service improvement activities  Along with operational managers and technical leads, accountable for and

· Contribute to the overall performance of the managed services division  Ability to follow hardware and software best practices as defined by the

· Managed Services management

How to research a company for a job interview:

How to research a company for a job interview:

First step is to learn following 5 things

1. Company Mission Statement and Basic Facts
2. What Sets the Company Apart From its Competitors?
3. What is Being Said About the Company in the News and Through Social Networks?
4. How the Company is Structured
5. Who's in Charge?

*Should you take the time to research employees who you might know?
Go on LinkedIn and see if you are connected to anyone who has worked or currently works at the company, and if you are call them beforehand and ask some questions. When you're at the interview, and it's appropriate, you can say 'I'm actually connected to so and so who works in marketing through a friend.'

* Is there a downside when it comes to doing company research?

People do a ton of research and feel like they need to showcase that information, so doing too much research can actually work against you. People go in and say 'Why did you do this and that in Asia?' and they end up questioning the company – it's presenting the information they've gathered in a negative way.

* So what's the best way candidates can use the research they've done in the interview?
If you want to point to research you've done, say something like 'I saw this and I love it.' But, you don't ever want to say 'I would do this differently.' Learning about the company is also great for tailoring your interview examples and highlighting things that you see in the company that are commonalities with you and areas where your expertise could be useful.

* Should you Google the person you're interviewing with to learn about their background?
You don't need to. You are going to be tempted to use any information that you find there. But if you find no connecting points let it go and move on. Don't try to draw assumptions and don't make connections that don't exist. If they worked at the same company that you did, they are going to see it on your resume that's something they will bring up in an interview.

*What should you do if you're interviewing with a smaller company, which does not have a significant Web presence?

If you can't find any information on the company, you can say something like 'I'm really intrigued by the company and I'm really excited to learn more.' People love to talk about where they work. I think taking a look at the company Web site is good enough in this case. You can say 'I'm normally able to do some research about a company.' That is totally acceptable and can be a great conversation starter and connecting point. Once they start telling you about the company, you can say 'I worked on something very similar' and point to your experience.

Skills are required for Risk Management Specialists !!!

Skills are required for Risk Management Specialists !!!

	Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
	Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
	Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
	Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
	Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
	Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
	Mathematics - Using mathematics to solve problems.
	Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
	Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
	Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
	Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
	Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
	Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
	Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
	Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
	Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
	Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
	Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
	Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
	Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
	Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
	Management of Material Resources - Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.