November 2017 |
Transition-e-news Volume 4 Issue 136 |
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Transition Insight
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TAOnline Virtual Career Fair * The Big Virtual * January 23, 2018
The Big Virtual is a quarterly TAOnline Virtual Career Fair where U.S. veterans and security cleared professionals can connect online with military-friendly organizations. The event takes place from your computer on January 23rd from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm (ET). This event is for anyone seeking nationwide opportunities and is for all ranks and branches of service, including active duty, Reserve, National Guard, and individuals with a security clearance (including civilians). For more information and to register for the event, visit www.taonline.com/tbv-js.
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The Recruiting Template(Part Two of Four)
by Barbara Adams, CPRW, CEIP, MFRW, MMRW, MFCA-T As was discussed in Part One of this series, although organizations want to hire perfect candidates, those employers know those people do not exist. No one is perfect. A more realistic approach is to define the perfect candidate and then use that definition as a recruiting template. That template has three components: education and training, professional experience, and personality. The first two are often advertised as either preferred or required. The third one is almost always non-negotiable. Regardless, the imperfect candidate will be offered the job if two conditions are met: (1)those imperfections are identified in advance; and (2), those imperfections are either tolerable or, better yet, correctable once the person is on the job. Here in Part Two of this series in I will address the second of the three components: Professional Experience. Many organizations ask their staffing personnel and recruiters to keep a specific professional and experience profile in mind for each of their openings. They are able to predict successful candidate profiles through analysis of previous successful employee performance data. By screening résumés, application forms, and performance evaluations, they are able to identify candidates who appear to have the right professional skill set for each position. What information are they after? There is no single answer. It varies from company to company and from job to job. For example, some companies prefer one branch of service to the others. Some have a preference for junior versus senior personnel, disguising that preference in years of experience or pay grade terminology. Other companies may focus on line or staff assignments. Sometimes a specialization within a service branch is a requirement for the job. Frequently companies look for a particular sequence of assignments or duty stations. Specific designations, military occupational specialties, certifications, or qualifications may be important. In addition to specific qualifications or experience, the level of performance or degree of success is also scrutinized. An individual with an excellent track record of success will almost always be selected ahead of someone with average performance. Previous success is an excellent indicator of potential success, even if the goals of the new organization differ from those of the former one. Please join me next time for a look at the third component of the template: Personality. For more on this subject, visit www.out-of-uniform.com. © 2017; Tom Wolfe, is an author, columnist, career coach, veteran, and an expert in the field of military-to-civilian career transition. During his career he assisted thousands of service members in their searches for employment, placing more than 3000 in their new jobs. Prior to civilian life, he graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy and served as a surface warfare officer. He teaches transition courses, gives seminars on career and job change, writes about the career transition process, and continues to counsel current and former military personnel. His book, Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition, was published by Potomac Books in 2011. Tom lives on the North Carolina coast with his wife, Julie, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Maggie. |
US hiring jumps after hurricanes as employers add 261,000 jobsBy CHRISTOPHER RUGABER - Associated Press - ©2017 Stars and Stripes - reprinted with permission WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a solid 261,000 jobs in October in a bounce-back from the hurricanes that slammed the Southeast in September. The unemployment rate declined to 4.1 percent, the lowest in nearly 17 years, from 4.2 percent in September, the Labor Department said Friday. But the drop in the rate occurred mostly because many people stopped looking for work and so were no longer counted as unemployed. October's burst of hiring largely reflects a rebound from the hurricanes that temporarily depressed job gains in September. But it also shows that for all their fury, the storms didn't knock the economy or the job market off course. Over the past three months, job growth has averaged 162,000, similar to the pace of hiring before the hurricanes. "Hiring got a boost from the post-hurricane rebound, but the underlying trend remained steady," said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed, a job-search website. In part because of the durability of the job market, the Federal Reserve is likely on track to raise its short-term interest rate in December. That could lead to slightly higher mortgage rates and other borrowing costs over time. At the same time, Republicans in Congress proposed tax cuts Thursday that they say would fuel faster economic growth and job gains. That might be hard to achieve with unemployment already so low. Many employers already complain that they can't find the workers they need. Because the tax proposals would also swell the budget deficit by $1.5 trillion over a decade, the tax cuts might also be temporary. Tax experts generally say that permanent tax cuts are more likely to bolster the economy than are tax cuts that expire. When the Penn Wharton Budget Model examined a similar plan, it found that tax cuts would increase economic growth by 0.13 percent annually for a decade. That is a far cry from President Donald Trump's claims that he could lift annual growth by a full percentage point on a sustained basis. The proportion of adults who are either working or looking for work fell last month to 62.7 percent, slightly lower than a year ago. That drop suggests that there aren't many people on the sidelines who want jobs. Despite a shortfall of workers, average hourly pay rose just 2.4 percent from a year ago, nearly one-half percentage point lower than September's annual gain. That figure might have been distorted by the storms: Many lower-paid workers at restaurants and bars returned to work last month, and their influx could have depressed overall pay. Still, the figure illustrates a chronic shortcoming of the economy: Even as the unemployment rate has reached a nearly a two-decade low, employers haven't yet been forced to offer significantly higher wages to attract or retain workers. The government also revised up its estimate of the job total for the previous two months. In August, employers added 208,000, up from 169,000. They added just 18,000 in September as thousands of businesses were forced to close. But that figure was revised higher from a previous estimate that showed a loss of 33,000. With September's jobs figure back in the positive column, the economy has now added jobs for 85 straight months, a record streak. The biggest swing in the past two months occurred among restaurants and bars, which shed 98,000 jobs in September. That reflected shutdowns in Texas and Florida after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Yet restaurants and bars regained 89,000 jobs last month. Manufacturers added 24,000 jobs. A category that includes mostly higher-paying professional jobs, such as accountants and engineers, added 50,000. Retailers shed 8,300. Even with the economy in its ninth year of recovery from the Great Recession, hiring remains solid and growth is healthy. For the first time since the downturn, the global economy is broadly improving, with all major advanced economies expanding at the same time. The value of the dollar has slid since earlier this year, a move that makes U.S. goods less expensive overseas. Those trends are lifting U.S. exports and boosting the profits of American multinational corporations. Americans are also sounding more optimistic about the economic outlook, which could prompt more people to open their wallets in the coming months. Consumer confidence reached its highest level in nearly 17 years in October, according to the Conference Board. Auto sales have also jumped since the hurricanes as people replace damaged and destroyed cars. Replacement auto sales helped lift overall consumer spending by the most in eight years in September. Still, that is likely to be a temporary economic boost. The economy expanded at a 3 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, after a 3.1 percent gain in the second quarter. That was the best six-month showing in three years. ___
AP writer Josh Boak contributed to this report. |
Who Is the "Real" Bill?© Copyright, 2017, Susan P. Joyce.All rights reserved. I had a very interesting, and somewhat unsettling, experience this week meeting a stranger who could — if genuine — greatly help a project that is very important to me. The problem: this stranger, while apparently an “important” person, is very nearly invisible online. Opportunity: Meet “Bill Jones”Via email and telephone, trusted colleagues introduced me to a man, who seems very qualified and extraordinarily knowledgeable and well-connected to the “right people” for our project. For this article, we’ll call the mystery VIP Bill Jones (not his real name). My colleagues were impressed with Bill — his background, knowledge and experience, connections and credibility, and, essentially, the way that Bill could help our project grow and succeed. These two colleagues are very smart people, and I trust them. But, they really don’t know if he is who he says he is. He was not introduced to them by a trusted network connection. He introduced himself to them via email. The question: did they meet the real Bill Jones? Issue: Who Is Bill Jones?Before responding to the emailed introduction, I Googled Bill’s real name to learn more about him. As expected, his name appears in the list of officers for a couple of very well-known, well-respected, and very powerful businesses. But, other than his name and job title appearing on those websites, Google showed me nothing about Bill, the person. No indication of exactly who he is — what work he does, where he went to college, his experience, accomplishments, or recognition. And, worst of all, no photo of his face. I searched LinkedIn for his Profile. Same results: nothing showing me who Bill is. Several men who shared the same name have LinkedIn Profiles, but they do not share the same business biography, have very different job titles, and aren’t connected to those two businesses. Question: Is This Person the Real Bill Jones?Based on the introductions by my colleagues, I agreed to meet with this gentleman at a popular coffee shop to discuss more about the project. But, without seeing a photo of Bill, how would I recognize him when we met at the busy coffee shop? More importantly, without seeing a photo of Bill (like a solid LinkedIn Profile would have), how would I know that I was meeting with the “real” Bill? Yes, someone with Bill’s name is a VIP with two major businesses. But, anyone could have picked that name off one of those websites and assumed that identity, particularly since no face is associated with the name. Without a LinkedIn Profile, which includes a recognizable photo of him, I have no proof that the Bill Jones I met is the “real” Bill Jones, although he seemed to be genuine (and is, unfortunately, proud of his online invisibility). [MORE: 5 Very Important Reasons to Have Your Photo on LinkedIn.] Problem: Be Visible, Find-able, and ReachableRecruiters today are in a hurry. Most are measured (and rewarded) on their “time-to-hire” record (how quickly they fill their jobs), so they move fast and usually ignore anyone who is difficult to reach. So, you need to be “find-able,” and, for most professions and industries, LinkedIn does a good job of making you visible to them, although more connections make you more visible inside of LinkedIn to recruiters who don’t pay LinkedIn the extra money for LinkedIn Recruiter. Adding your email address to your contact information inside of LinkedIn makes you reachable, once you’ve been found. Do this carefully, though, especially if you are employed! For more information on making your contact information available safely and smartly, read To Be Hired, Be Reachable! Solution: Protect Your Privacy and Protect Your IdentityThis experience made it clear to me how important managing our online visibility is, regardless of how important the world may think we are. While protecting our privacy is still essential, being clearly and appropriately visible is also essential. We really don’t need to choose between these two options — protecting our privacy or protecting our reputation! We can all do both, as long as we are careful. In fact, today, having a public persona (e.g. LinkedIn Profile) is no longer optional. For anyone. Borrowing (and misusing) someone’s identity is very easy now, particularly if that person is invisible to the world. Even spies and people with high level clearances need to be visible on LinkedIn, if only to convey their “cover story” to the world at large. Do NOT publish your home address and home phone number on public profiles, social media, or any online public venue. Keep those private. It won’t stop employers or recruiters from reaching you, and it will help you protect your privacy. Be sure to keep your birthday OFF the Internet — that’s a very private piece of information that makes you vulnerable to identity theft. Read Protect Your Birthday to Protect Your Identity for more details. More About Your Online Reputation & Your Job SearchOnline Reputation and Your Job Search 5 Very Important Reasons to Have Your Photo on LinkedIn Reputation Management (or Recovery) Why Your Job Search May Be Taking So Long Protect Your Birthday to Protect Your Identity Ego Surfing or Smart Self-Defense Why Submitting a Resume Isn’t Enough (and What You Can Do About It) About the Author… Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 2011, NETability purchased WorkCoachCafe.com, and Susan has been editor and publisher of WorkCoach since then. Susan also edits and publishes Job-Hunt.org, is a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a columnist on HuffingtonPost. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+ |
More veterans and military members are putting VA loans into service to buy homes
Reprinted with permission ©2017
Stars and Stripes WASHINGTON — For most of his life, Marrio Pearson gave little thought to being a homeowner. If the 45-year-old U.S. Army veteran thought about it at all, he found plenty of reasons why it was a bad idea. He thought he was too old to buy a house. He wasn't sure he would stay in Washington. He might take a job elsewhere. He figured being single made it too difficult. Plus, life always seemed to get in the way. He got divorced. He got laid off. He got a new job. On top of all that, he worried about the cost and the length of the loan. "$300,000 sounds like an astronomical amount," said Pearson, a senior quality assurance engineer at a cybersecurity company. "The thought of 30 years of paying for something was very intimidating." Pearson eventually overcame his reservations and bought a $330,000 rowhouse in Washington's Historic Anacostia neighborhood in October 2016. He put down just $2,500 and financed the purchase with a Veterans Administration Loan. Using a VA loan rather than a conventional or Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan, Pearson saved money by obtaining one of the lowest interest rates on the market. He also did not have to scrape together a down payment or pay mortgage insurance. "It turned out to be way easier than everything I had read online," Pearson said. A VA loan proved the most affordable way for Pearson to buy his home. Because of that affordability, a record number of veterans and servicemembers are taking advantage of the loan program. The 740,000 VA loans last year were the most in a single year, and up more than 300,000 from three years ago. The low interest rate is the biggest reason why many veterans and servicemembers are using the program. VA loans have had the lowest average interest rate on the market for the past 41 months, according to Ellie Mae. As of September, the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed VA loan was 3.99 percent. It was 4.26 percent for a conventional loan. The VA home loan benefit was part of the original GI bill in 1944. Not only did Congress want to help veterans obtain an education, it wanted to help them buy a home. "It gave millions of Americans who served in World War II the opportunity to build wealth and realize the dream of homeownership," said Jeff London, director of the loan guarantee service at the VA. "A lot of historians credit the GI bill for the economic boom, not only from the education standpoint, but also from the wealth-building and the building of America when it comes to homeownership." Veterans have long had some of the highest rates of homeownership among all segments of society. Their homeownership rate is close to 80 percent, compared with 64 percent for the general population. "People talk about this idea that homeownership seems to mean more to many veterans and military families," said Chris Birk, director of education at Veterans United. "Many see it as owning a piece of the American dream that they vowed to defend." To be eligible for a VA loan, a military member must serve 90 consecutive days on active duty during wartime, or 181 days during peacetime, or six years in the guard or reserves. Some veterans are under the misunderstanding that they must use the benefit immediately or lose it, or that if they used it once, they can't use it again. "In the past, many veterans believed that this is a one-time benefit," London said. "That's not the case. This is a lifetime benefit." Besides the low interest rate, another big advantage is that a down payment is not required. As long as a veteran has his full VA loan entitlement and remains below the loan limit, he does not have to put money down. The limit is $424,100 for most counties. In more expensive markets, it is $636,150. A veteran can borrow above that amount but would need to put money down. Say that a veteran wants to buy an $800,000 house in Loudoun County, which is considered one of the high-cost markets. For a conventional loan, he might be required to put down 20 percent, or $160,000. But with a VA loan, he would need to put down $41,000. He wouldn't pay mortgage insurance and would probably get a better interest rate. Although a veteran doesn't pay mortgage insurance, he is required to pay a VA funding fee, which is typically 2.15 percent of the loan amount. Many borrowers finance the fee. "The only real downside I see is the funding fee," said Craig Fauver, a Virginia-based real estate agent. "Putting no money down, plus adding on the funding fee, you are immediately underwater. You're starting at 102 or 103 percent of your value." VA loans tend to work best with single-family homes in suburban or rural areas. They are more difficult to obtain in urban markets, where entry-level housing tends to be a condo or co-op. The VA doesn't guarantee loans for co-ops, and condos must have VA approval. The uptick in VA loans has come despite the program's reputation. Many veterans shied away from it because they thought it wasn't worth the hassles or headaches. "Unfortunately, in the past, if a veteran or service member wanted to utilize the VA benefit, sometimes lenders or Realtors would steer them away from the program because there was a notion that VA is too hard to work with, there is a lot of red tape," London said. "We've spent a lot of time, effort and resources to get the word out about the program." The biggest complaints about the program involve the appraisal process. Only VA-approved appraisers inspect the homes to make sure they meet minimum property requirements and are "safe, sound and sanitary." VA appraisers tend to have stricter standards than a typical home appraiser, and that makes buying a fixer-upper with a VA loan almost impossible. "I generally steer people away from fixer-uppers with a VA loan," Fauver said. The first house Pearson wanted failed the VA inspection because it need too much work. When he finally found the home he bought, the closing was delayed because of the inspection. "The longest part of the process was waiting for the VA inspector to come out and reinspect," Pearson said. "There are not that many VA inspectors." Delays in the appraisal process are one reason why VA loans take longer to close. The average closing period for a VA loan is 46 days. It is 43 days for a conventional loan. VA loans have come under scrutiny by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. From 2012 to 2016, the CFPB received more than 12,500 mortgage complaints from service members, veterans and their families. Most of them were related to refinancing. "What some lenders have done is, they have aggressively marketed to veterans and service members," London said. "A lot of those complaints centered around those [marketing] materials. Some of those materials might have promised teaser rates, and veterans who did get those loans maybe didn't have a full understanding of the type of loan they were getting." The idea of a no-down-payment loan brings back the horrors of the recent housing crash. About 80 percent of VA loan borrowers do not put down money when buying a house. But less than 1 percent of VA loans were in foreclosure as of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Delinquency Survey. VA loans have had the lowest foreclosure rate on the market for the past 18 quarters. "There's a lot of myth and misconception surrounding the program, especially given the no-down-payment benefit," Birk said. "But it's actually emerged as a model of stability." The VA does not provide money for the loan. Unlike an FHA loan, for which the government guarantees the entire loan, the VA guarantees about a quarter of the loan in most cases. Pearson is thrilled with his new home. His mortgage payment is about $100 more than what he previously paid in rent. And best of all for the Washington Nationals season ticket holder, it is close to the stadium. "I ended up finding a place in Southeast," he said. "It met my requirements of being able to ride my bike to the baseball stadium. It was less than a mile to a Metro station. The neighborhood had a lot of potential. The only thing I didn't get was a garage." Pearson pays extra on his mortgage each month and rents out his basement on Airbnb. "I'm trying not to be in debt for the rest of my life," he said. When he finally signed the papers at closing a little more than a year ago, Pearson says, he became emotional at the thought of being a homeowner. His tears of joy continue today.
"Sometimes I go home," he said, "and I cry again, because it's my home."
(c)2017 USA Today |
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