Spouse’s Personality Can Influence Career Success.

Your spouse’s personality can influence your career success.

Joshua Jackson a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, co-authored a paper with Brittany Solomon, a graduate student at Washington University. They looked at 4,544 heterosexual, married adults ranging in age from 19 to 89 years.  On-the-job performance was measured with surveys conducted each year to gauge job success. Participants supplied input on job satisfaction, salary increases and the likelihood of job advancement.

Results generated showed employees who scored highest on job success tended to have spouses with a high score for conscientiousness. The results were the same for both men and women.  A spouse’s conscientiousness had a larger impact on the other’s income when they did not work themselves.

One assertion is that this occurs as a side effect of a healthy and intimate relationship, where one partner does things to compliment the other, developing habits that positively penetrate the work environment. 

Differentiating Yourself Among the Crowd at Recruiting Events

For job searchers, it can be extremely difficult to differentiate yourself at a large event where literally hundreds of applicants are aggressively in pursuit of gaining the attention of a human resource professional or other representative from a firm. 

Don't be distraught. Remember the role of a recruiter is to represent and position the firm in the most favorable way and serve as an the in-person extension of those fancy, glossy brochures they sometimes hand out or re-emphasize information already on the website. At the end of the day, they are exhausted having to repeat this commercial.

Stand out, in a good way. So what's your goal? You want to obtain their contact information, gain as much inside information about a position without sounding clueless or intrusive, and make an impression so that they remember you when you contact them shortly thereafter.

But how does one stand out? Aside from a professional personal appearance, which is the baseline starting point, find your edge. Prepare before the event and aside from reading the company site, read recent articles about the company that generated interest in publications/online. You can bring up the news event to the recruiter if it is something neutral or favorable about the company, but certainly avoid anything negative or controversial. Better yet, think of a way to integrate this new information and tie it to how it impacts the company's strategy (or a select division where you have an interest). This will demonstrate a deeper level of interest of the company since you have given some independent thought outside of a news story, which many applicants might replicate. 

Another way to stand out? Recruiters will remember you better if you can arrive early. It shows you are interested and on top of your game. When there is a line of 10 applicants or networkers vying for their attention, your conversation may become easily forgotten. Arrive early, be succinct, and tell them you will follow up with them the next day.