What is Fortune’s “Top 100” List?

Fortune Magazine has been rating large American employers in its top 100 lists for 10 years; during which time the list has become a staple of the publication. The “Top 100 Employers” list takes into account things such as work environment, pay, health benefits, growth opportunities and field exposure to give job hunters a balanced look at the largest and most sought after employers in the country.

The average company on Fortune’s top 100 list employs 15,853 people and receives 96,062 applications each year. With these companies focusing a great deal on promoting from within, getting hired by a company on Fortune’s list depends a great deal on your qualifications. But what happens when two or more equally qualified applicants are interested in a position? We set out to ask the experts and learn what applicants can do to give themselves the edge over their competitors!

Tip # 1 – Showcase Your Volunteer Experience

Employees who have traditionally gone over and above with volunteer activities should make a point to highlight that fact on their resumes and during the interview process. Experience that goes beyond your primary employer shows companies potentially interested in your skills that you are well-rounded and less likely to burn out given a heavy and diverse workload.

Tip # 2 – Networking

Make a point to develop relationships with people within your industry and always maintain those relationships in a friendly and professional manner; you never know when that friendly contact may come in handy. If your resume is being weighed equally against several others and someone within the company gives you a thumbs up, you can bet the position will go to you! Developing these types of relationships can be achieved in many different ways: calling an old classmate to see how they’re doing, attending industry events and being active in company get-togethers are great ways to meet other professionals in your field.

Tip # 3 – Be Well Prepared For Every Interview

Every good interviewee knows that getting the appointment is the most difficult part. Assuming you’re well-qualified for the position you’re after, displaying a professional appearance and knowledge of the company you are applying to will likely take you the rest of the way. Try taking a few days off prior to the interview to prepare yourself by reviewing the details of the company that issued the invite, details such as the company’s mission and how they have performed over the past year – you can bet they’ll notice!

Tip # 4 – Prove That You’re a Team Player

Today’s employers are constantly looking to the future and every smart businessperson knows that teamwork is always the key to success. If you are known for playing well with others in the workplace, make a point to say it. During the interview you should seek to have a 50/50 balance between statements of what you personally accomplished and achievements you participated in as part of a team.

Tip # 5 – Know Your Resume Inside and Out

The most pointed questions from your interviewer are going to be concerning the facts that you list on your resume and you need to be prepared to answer. If you have a history of bouncing from workplace to workplace, make sure that you are able to clearly explain exactly why that is and why it doesn’t indicate in you a lack of reliability. If you spent an extended period of time with a particular company your interviewer will be especially curious about your reason for leaving; if the circumstances surrounding your leaving the original company are negative, be ready to explain why those circumstances don’t reflect negatively on you.

Tip # 6 – You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks (Be a Young Dog!)

One of the highest points of interest for hiring companies is whether their new recruits are ready to grow and expand. You need to be willing and able to learn to work with new technologies, new people and new job requirements and you need to express that to your interviewer. All growing companies, especially those listed with Fortune, are growing because they have been able to quickly adapt to and utilize the many changes in their markets and they need to trust that their employees are all individually willing to help make that happen.

Tip # 7 – If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

Most of the world’s top employers maintain a list of “silver medalists”; applicants who came in second place when a position was being decided on. Always make a point to stay in contact with potential employers by registering on their web site if possible and continue to network with any people that you know who work for the company. These companies employ huge numbers of people and, being sought after workplaces, they draw an even larger pile of resumes. There is no shame in not being hired; number two out of many thousands of applicants almost guarantees that next time you interview for a position you will come out on top.

© 2010 Gay Executive.com. All Rights Reserved.

While Massachusetts is the only state to allow gay marriage, nine other states and Washington D.C. have begun offering civil unions or domestic partnerships that give some or all of the state level legal protections of marriage.  But for couples in state-sanctioned domestic partnerships, civil unions or same-sex marriages, filing federal income taxes can involve doing three sets of paperwork instead of one.  That’s because the state-sanctioned unions do not enable couples to file federal taxes jointly due to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which prohibits the Federal Government from treating same-sex relationships as marriages, even if they are recognized as marriages by the state.

Inability to file taxes jointly results in major differences in tax liability. Consider a gay couple where one partner has a taxable income of $40,000 and the other a taxable income of $20,000. If the couple could file their federal taxes jointly, the tax bill would be $8,217.50 but filing separately they must pay $9,032.50, an additional expense of 815 dollars.

In addition to the potential expense of filing separately, gay couples must pay income taxes on benefits paid to spouses such as health benefits.  That additional taxable income can increase the tax rate that the individual must pay and can add up to thousands of dollars in extra taxes not paid by their heterosexual counterparts.

Gay couples who own a home together must also decide how much of the mortgage interest payments each partner will use as a deduction, and couples with children must decide which partner gets to claim them as dependents for tax purposes on federal returns and returns in states that don’t recognize same-sex unions.

All of these discrepancies in the way gay couples are treated are estimated to cost gay couples more than a billion dollars in additional taxes every year.

© 2010 Gay Executive.com. All Rights Reserved.

1. Create additional revenue streams. No matter how safe you think your primary source of income is, creating additional, independent streams of revenue is a sure way to maintain your lifestyle and perhaps even add to your savings. You can utilize your additional skills via online services or even turn a hobby into a sales situation. We all have valuable skills outside of those that we present at work every day, it’s just a matter of recognizing and utilizing them.
2. Increase your online presence. Whether your job involves the internet or not, creating an online resume that lets potential employers know who you are and what you can do gives you an easy way to expose your skill-set. You never know; the next email in your inbox could be a better offer!
3. Expand your on-the-job visibility. If you are currently with a company that has the potential to take you places, make sure that your higher-ups recognize your current abilities and future potential. Go over and above whenever possible to indicate to your employer that you are one of the more valuable employees that they have.
4. Always network with your peers…ALWAYS! That lunch that you have with an acquaintance from a company in your field could be the difference between a job offer when you need it and unemployment. Get your business card out there, present an excellent attitude at all times and make sure that you leave a positive impression each and every time you shake a hand.
5. Invest in your education. Like it or not, employers are very interested in how we look on paper. If you are feeling insecure about your place in the global economy then it may be time to divert some of that entertainment fund into furthering your education. Don’t be intimidated; you don’t necessarily need to enroll at your local university! Courses in everything from CPR to business administration increase both your general visibility and your value to current and future employers.
6. Keep an eye on the job market at all times. Even if you are currently employed and see no end in sight it’s always a good idea to be aware of where your resume fits into the climate of available positions at any given time. Not only does this ensure that you are better prepared if the worst does happen, it keeps you open to the possibility of a better offer if one happens to come along!

© 2010 Gay Executive.com. All Rights Reserved.

Asia has become an increasingly important and competitive region for banks seeking high profile deals such as IPOs (Initial Public Offerings).  The increased volume of transactions has lead to vastly increased hiring and intense industry competition makes it crucial to ensure that talented gay professionals are not deterred from applying because of a combination of regional intolerance and western macho behavior on trading floors.

Beyond fierce competition for qualified applicants, investment banks are increasingly committed to corporate social responsibility. Some have even committed to only do business and send employees to locations where they will be safe from harassment and treated fairly.  Cheryl de Souza, Lehman’s Asia director of diversity and inclusion, says: “Walking across some of the [trading] floors in Hong Kong, you will find that we now have people who feel comfortable about having a picture of their [same-sex] partner on their desk and that’s huge in terms of progress.”

But that progress is not universal, while advances have been made at investment banks which generally operate only in a country’s largest cities, Asian retail banks which have branches in smaller cities, where homophobia is more prevalent, have seen far less progress.  What Lehman and some other investment banks are trying to achieve in Singapore and other parts in Asia runs counter to the region’s cultural and legal environment. Throughout Asia gay people still face discrimination at home and in the workplace because of a mix of family conservatism and legal bans.

Richard Welford, a director of CSR Asia, a consultancy focused on corporate social responsibility, says: “In the vast majority of cases in Asia, gays and lesbians have to stay hidden. Sometimes they will even make up boyfriends or girlfriends … But it does seem that in some sectors such as investment banking, businesses are taking the lead [in improving the situation for gay people].”

© 2010 Gay Executive.com. All Rights Reserved.