This week in consulting news

This week in consulting newsThis week in consulting newsPutting another financial corruption case behind us, former McKinsey exec Anil Kumar has agreed to pay a $2.8 million settlement to the SEC. Kumar, a cooperating witness in the insider trading probe of Galleon Group, pleaded to criminal conspiracy and securities fraud charges, and has also agreed to cooperate in a separate criminal investigation of Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam.Is humorlosigkeit & Young an ideal employer? The 60,000 college students who participated in the 2010 US Undergraduate Universum IDEAL Employer Survey seem to think that it might come close to one. For the third year in a row, EY was ranked among the top five overall employers, and No. 2 in the geschftliches miteinander category. CGI has won a hefty contract from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Under the five-year deal, the firm will modernize, and conduct application management and maintenance, on three external websites that service milli ons of beneficiaries and health care providers. CGI has had a bang-up month, also having acquired Arlington-based IT contractor Stanley Inc. for $903 million. PwC has its sights set on Middle East expansion, having announced plans to double its fee income from the region to $500 million in the next two years. Where will this outpouring of funds come from? The firm is banking on increased spending on infrastructure projects by Arab governments, which will call on the services of foreign advisory firms.Are PwC and KPMG moving into the credit rating business? As the three largest credit rating agencies continue to take heat for not helping to prevent the financial crisis, big accounting firms may step in to help assess a business risks.

6 reasons getting fired was actually amazing

6 reasons getting fired welches actually amazing6 reasons getting fired was actually amazingFor a lot of us, losing ur jobs can be a crisis. Especially with so many people living paycheck to paycheck and elend having adequate emergency funds. For me, getting fired was actually amazing.And no, notgetting FIREdbut that will happen eventually I hopeFollow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraSome background this is not a recent or new development. My current job is still safe (for now, anyway), but Ihavelost jobs in the past. And even though it seemed like the end of the world for a short moment, I ended up learning some valuable lessons in the process.Yes, we all have bills to pay, and not being able to do so can be a real problem. That is even truer if you have a family to support we have to keep the lights on and put food on the table. These are non-negotiable responsibilities.Types of Nee dsEven beyond the biological needs, our jobs tend to dictate many parts of our overall well-being. IvementionedMaslows Hierarchy of Needsa couple of timesbefore. When you think about it, though, its true our jobs heavily influence many levels of the hierarchy.Image credit SimplyPsychology.orgTake a look at the figure above. From my perspective, the only needs our careers may not help are those of self-actualization. They still might, but that depends more upon the type of job you have. In other words, with self-actualization, its less about the money and more about what youre actually doing.Heres another one pride. For better or for worse, we could never be unemployed because we have too much pride. I tend to think of this as more of an American thing. Maybe Im wrong, but either way, we could never think of losing our jobs.That happens toother people, but never to me. Or so you think until one day, it does.In reality, it doesnt matter if you are laid off or if you get fired. At the end of the day, the end result is the saatkorn not having the steady paycheck you use to pay the bills.bedrngnis only that, but many of us are friends with our co-workers. And, as mentioned, being employed imbuesa sense of accomplishment.So how, then, could getting fired possibly begood?1. Getting Fired Helps You Find a Better FitAs I said earlier, we all got bills to pay. And since we consider this is a non-negotiable arrangement, we run the risk of doing a job we hate just to earn a paycheck.Some call it the reality of adult life. Me? I call it a pretty crappy deal.Ive always said I am doing a job I definitely dont love because it pays more than other jobs would. Sure, I might have been able to find a job I enjoyed more, but it probably would have paid less. And I wouldnt even consider that while working on repaying my debt since I was throwing money away on the interest.I feel slightly less obligated to earn excess income now though, mostly due to being debt-free now. Sure, Im a lso working toward FI, but at least Im no longer throwing money away.Long story short, I now consider it anoptionto make less money if it allows me to live a life I actually enjoy.2. Helps You Understand the Importance of Emergency FundsOne of the worst things that could ever happen is to have little to money set aside if things go awry.I would know it happened to me.Long story short (and believe me, its alongstory), I accepted a job for which I had no real previous experience.In retrospect, the entire process was a little suspect. The job was halfway across the country, and they couldnt pay to fly me in for an in-person interview. And trust me this organization has money.So I never even had the chance to meet them face-to-face. There wasnt even a video chat or anything like that. Well, it turned out it wasnt a good fit for me, and I got the boot. I was only there for a few months.Again, this was halfway across the country. I had no savings, so I had to move back in with my parents . Then, I had to take the absolute first job I could get. My old job had been eliminated, so it wasnt there even if I wanted it.I ended up taking a job that wasnt really what I wanted to do, and I was there for two years.All in all, this was almost two and a half years of my life that I felt was basically a waste. I did actually gain some somewhat valuable experience at the job I had for two years, but still. If I could do things over again, Idefinitelywouldnt have taken the original job without having a sizable emergency fund.Know your risk. If you are taking on significant risk (I was), have a significant safety net in placebeforeyou do.3. Gives You More Time for Side HustlingYou know what could be considered a side hustle? This blog Sure, side hustles are typically all about the $$$, and Ive made minimal income from it so far. Nonetheless, so far Ive worked on it, well, on the side. As I said, I am still working, but in an alternate universe, getting fired would give me more time to work on it.This might be more of a silver lining than a good thing of its own, but I see some real potential here. And because blogging takes so much time, having more of it can only be a good thing.Oh, and theres also freelance writing. Ive been trying to get into that for a while without a whole lot of success. But Im hoping to secure my first long-term freelance writing client in 2019.4. Forces You to Plan For the Long-TermI mean, other than this very obvious answer, Im not sure I have a good one. Not that a train full of puppers is such a bad goalBut seriously. Ive somewhat intentionally put off coming up with a long-term plan. And by that, I mostly mean where Im going to live and what kind of work Ill be doing.Ive bounced around to different places for different jobs, but I have to admit that Im starting to want to figure out more of a long-term plan. And being unemployed would certainly give me more time to do that.5. Gives You A Break From the MadnessMost people dont know this, but I sometimes get road rage. Add that to the voluminous list of reasons Id like to be a digital nomad, or at least live in a city where I can walk and/or take public transportation everywhere I go.I try to control my road rage, and most of the time Im successful, but sometimes it just happens. Not too long ago I actually got very flustered while driving home due to people driving exceptionally poorly. As a result of my frustration, I ended up scraping the side of the garage where I park. Its a one-car garage and very narrow, but I still think it wouldnt have happened if I had been less frustrated.At one point, it was decided that my co-workers and I would be allowed to work one day remotely every week. I cant tell you how happy I was just to get one day where I wouldnt have to deal with traffic.I can only dream of the absolute ecstasy I would feel if that became an everyday thing.6. Gives You More TimeThis is my belastung point, but also the ultimate one in a way.And it mig ht be obvious, but its true nonetheless.Did you know that Americans get a pitifully low number of vacation days? On average, we get 10 days off. And according to Gusto.com, a staggering 23% getno vacation at all. Thats in stark contrast to the several (mostly European) countries thatoffer 30 days on average.Having more time can allow us to do all kind of things we otherwise couldnt spend more time on a side hustle, make our homes more organized, spend more time with family, and so on.And, of course more time to look for a new job.Getting Fired A Blessing in Disguise?That is what I have often found getting fired to be.Dont get me wrong it may seem like the end of the world, at least for a time. But getting fired gave me more time. More time to plan, for side hustling, to find a better fit, and to get a break from it all.And, most of all, it gave me more time. There is no substitute for time. I may not always be the most efficient person with my time, but I do recognize its importanc e.So yes, in a way, getting fired was actually amazing.This article first appeared on Frugal Fellow.

Heres how Top Companies find Construction Workers

Heres how Top Companies find Construction WorkersHeres how Top Companies find Construction WorkersHeres how Top Companies find Construction Workers ConlanThe construction industry has made some big gains since the economy turned aroundand the Bureau of Labor Statisticsexpects it to grow aleidher 10% by 2024 compared with 2014 numbers.But all this growth also creates a major talent crunch for employers. Its a constantly evolving situation, says Tim Mayer, director of talent acquisition at Kraus-Anderson Construction Co. in Circle Pines, Minnesota. You think you have a handle on it one day, and the next day things have changed and its different.Heres how top construction companies are successfully recruiting new hires and retaining their best employees.Compete on WagesPeople marry for love but work for money, and we work to make sure that compensation is leid the reason people wont consider ur industry. There are a variety of benchmarking tools and surces we use to drill down to the jo b and geographic area to determine what the appropriate salary structure is. We also offer an annual bonus and incentive plan.Mark Peabody, Vice President of HR, U.S. Concrete, Euless, TXMentor New EmployeesWere absolutely willing to train someone with the right work ethic. We find the best way to train a green new hire is to pair them with a successful seasoned employee who can teach them the ropes of how our company goes to market.Nicole Ferderer, Human Resources Manager, Haldeman-Homme, MinneapolisHire from a Broad Range of BackgroundsWhile its certainly important to build a knowledgeable and experienced staff, some of my companys top performers have been people whove made career changes. We make it a point to hire a diverse cross-section of people from architects, engineers and designers to military veterans,former police officers and a professional boxer who we believe have skills that translate to our business and, just as important, are a good fit for our culture.Jim Caulfiel d, Partner, Fields Development Group, Hoboken, New JerseyEstablish InternshipsWhen we are hiring for certain experienced positions, such as mechanical or electrical engineers or architects, we seek qualified candidates. However, many positions we are willing to train for and we have a very robust intern program to grow our owntalent. Grays intern program has been in place mora than 15 years and produced great talent. Our current COO and regional managers in our southeast and south Atlantic offices are products of this program.Susan Brewer, Vice President of Human Resources, Gray Construction, Lexington, KentuckyBuild PartnershipsWe utilize our partnerships with schools and trade programs like Boards of Cooperative Educational Services in order to have a pipeline of young talent that have shown interest in pursuing the construction trades but may not have any work experience. Chris List, HR director, Comfort Windows, Syracuse, New YorkOffer Training throughout CareersAs an integrated design and construction company, training and development is an important part of our business. We offer internal training programs based on our business processes, industry standards, safety and best practices. Most of our training programs are developed internally. We offer different programs tailored to the different needs of our employee-owners, included office-based staff (engineers, architects, project managers, business development, estimators, schedulers) and our field staff (construction). We also offer external training through associations, professional trainers and online learning sources.Brian Gallagher, Vice President, ONeal, AtlantaBuild Your Employer BrandGood people are being taken care of at their current companies they have no reason to pick up the phone when a similar company gives them a call. We have a pretty strong company brand with a long history, great core values and a good reputation in the market as a builder. Were working on leveraging that to attract people to us. We talk about what it means to work here how it will impact your career and community.Tim Mayer, Director of Talent Acquisition, Kraus-Anderson Construction Co., Circle Pines, MinnesotaPlan for the FutureWe are working really hard on building our succession plan for every essential role in our company. The succession plan requires us to identify gaps in knowledge so we can improve our service and grow our business. Were investing in both technical training and leadership developmentto ensure our folks have a career path in front of them, and our teams have the bench depth to maintain project performance as our projects get larger and more complex.Julie Strong, CEO, C1S Group, DallasLearn moreConstruction Lets Get HiringConstruction Hiring is Growing in these AreasInterview Questions to ask when Hiring Construction Workers