kununu US:What's it like to work here?

The Duo Launched a Co-Authored Survey This Month to Uncover Real, Anonymous Perspectives About the State of Gender Equality at Leading Companies in the U.S.

kununu, the original workplace insights platform, today announced a collaboration with InHerSight, a ratings platform dedicated to improving the workplace for women. The combination of kununu's experienced leadership in the employer insights space and InHerSight's understanding of working women, together provide a unique opportunity to uncover key issues facing women in today's workplace.

Through this collaboration, kununu and InHerSight launched their first Gender Equality In the Workplace Survey, aimed to gather insights from men and women about how female-friendly their companies are. With 7,500+ responses collected to date and counting, working professionals across the nation are encouraged to share their perspectives now through mid-October. When completed, the survey will provide data-driven commentary to advance the conversation about real hot button issues facing women in the workplace today.

"At kununu, we believe that transparency has the power to positively transform the lives of people at work," said Moritz Kothe, kununu CEO. "Transparency not only helps people find companies where they will thrive, but it helps employers understand how they are performing across the key cultural dimensions that matter. For this reason, we're thrilled to be teaming up with Ursula and her team at InHerSight. Together, we are committed to harnessing the power of transparency to accelerate progress toward true gender equality in the workplace. And we're just getting started."

"Every day we learn more about the benefits of a gender diverse workforce, and there are plenty of reports and studies out there dealing with the wider issues women still face in their careers today. But high-level information is hard to act on," said InHerSight CEO Ursula Mead. "We believe the best way to help women and companies achieve their goals is with actionable, company-level data, and we're excited to be partnering with kununu to gather even more of that valuable insight."

Leadership from both kununu and InHerSight will attend at the HR Technology Conference and Exposition at McCormick Place in Chicago from October 4-7, continuing to foster their vision for transparency and gender equality in the workplace.

To participate in the Gender Equality in the Workplace Survey, visit www.inhersight.com/genderequalitysurvey. For more information on kununu and InHerSight, please visit www.kununu.com/us and www.inhersight.com.

ABOUT KUNUNU

kununu is the original employer insights platform committed to creating transparency in the workplace. With insights into company culture, workplace benefits, perks and more, kununu ensures that job seekers have an authentic understanding of life at a company, and that employers have a trusted platform to better engage talent. Headquartered in Boston, MA and Vienna, Austria, kununu is the leading employer review platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The company was founded by brothers Martin and Mark Poreda in 2007 and acquired by XING AG in 2013. To learn more, please visit www.kununu.com/us.

ABOUT INHERSIGHT

InHerSight is where women go for a better workplace. We help women find great companies to work for, and help companies attract and retain female talent.

At InHerSight.com, women have rated more than 17,250 companies on 15 factors -- from management opportunities to flexibility to salary satisfaction -- and every week we're matching thousands of women to companies that have what they're looking for.

Is your company female friendly? Find out at https://www.inhersight.com.

By Caroline Beaton

A recent survey by Microsoft found that 70% of college students are most worried about landing a dream job or financial stability after graduating.

And they may have good reason: 12.8% of millennials are unemployed, which is more than twice the national average. Meanwhile, two-thirds of current millennial workers want to leave their organizations by 2020 according to a 2016 Deloitte survey.

Millennials are doing lots right in the job hunt. We’re picky, purpose-driven and willing to take risks. But we also frequently make avoidable mistakes that waste our time and sabotage our career prospects. Here are four:

1) Taking what you can get.

 Instead, get clear about what you want. This is more complicated than simply following your passion because many things compose what we want: our values, our desired lifestyle, work we enjoy, work that enables pursuit of other things we like.

Deciding what you want, then, requires honesty about all the boxes you want your career to check, not just a general field or activity.

A few ways to define what matters to you professionally:

·       Sketch it out. What excites you? What randomly intrigues you? Write it down! The most successful people in all of eternity or at least Richard Branson keep a journal.

·       Use an employer review site like kununu, a Yelp for the workplace, to help clarify the details of what you want in work. Your reactions to reviews will shed light on deal breakers and must-haves.

·       Be a better person. The closer you get to the “Ideal You”, the clearer it becomes what Ideal You wants to do day-to-day. Read books that inspire your development—whether it’s self-improvement, books on your craft, books that are your craft or biographies. “As you become the highest expression of yourself, the right opportunity will come,” professional inspirer Maxie McCoy told me.

If you’re worried you’ll be fickle, consider Deloitte’s finding that millennials’ values tend not to change as they progress professionally; in fact, they become stronger as we move into management positions.

2) Being well-rounded.

Instead, get advanced training.

 In The Art of Work, Jeff Goins recommends asking three questions:

 1) What do I want?

 2) What am I good at?

 3) What does the world need?

 Perpetual job seekers often think they know what they want, but they don’t answer the next two questions.

Asking “what am I good at?” can depress recent grads. When I asked myself this as a creative writing major, for example, topic sentences were among my most specific, hard-won skills.

Broad, generalized abilities sink in the job market. Indeed, career experts note increasing demand for advanced skills, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). But even if you’re not numbers or strange symbols oriented, you can create a specialty by developing distinct talents.

And you don’t need a $250,000 education to get trained. Take Lynda courses, do an internship alongside your regular job, take classes at a community college or trade school, watch YouTube videos. Many of the best developers taught themselves how to code; many of the best video editors and writers just fiddled around until they got it.

You don’t need an “A” in a class to show employers you know your stuff. Build your own website; freelance and showcase client work; work until you have something to show for it.

3) Doing what everyone else is doing.

Instead, become in-demand by swimming against the current.

Warren Buffet explained that he looks at what everyone else is doing in the stock market; then he does the opposite. Do the same for job applications.

Microsoft found that almost half of surveyed college students saw New York City, San Francisco or Seattle as the “dream city they’d like to land their next job or internship in.” Jobs in these cities are consequentially much more competitive even accounting for more opportunities.

Instead, target uncommon places you like. Any medium-to-large city has plenty of cool bars, plenty of things to do on the weekends, plenty of great people. Do you need to be where everyone else wants to be?

Likewise, Glassdoor publishes job trends, which shows industries with lots of recent activity on the site. But if everyone else is applying, you’ll find yourself unnecessarily competing, compromising and, possibly, out of a job.

So, unless you’re outstandingly qualified, don’t apply to the most popular jobs. There are thousands of jobs that pay the same, have similar perks and check your “I want” boxes. Find jobs no one’s talking about yet. Consider industries that are in high demand, such as engineering, accounting, IT, healthcare, human resources, property management and sales.

4) Over-polishing yourself.

Instead, tell your story.

To nail an interview, we think about dressing professionally, speaking articulately, a perfect resume.

Though we know we’re selling ourselves, we too-easily forget what sells better than anything: stories. McCoy uses a personal story to make what she’s saying relatable and memorable. For example, “you might talk about a life defining moment: what it taught you and how it changed your perspective for the better.”

Even early in your search, you can showcase your story with specific examples from work experience in your resume, a more narrative cover letter, or by linking to your bio story online.

Millennials instinctively build personal brands. More important for getting a job, however, is a professional brand. Even if you don’t want to maintain a brand for a living, write your mission and vision statement, tell your story as if you’re the founder of You, Inc., and set the stage for your success.

This article originally appeared in Forbes.

kununu, a German-based platform for employer reviews and ratings, is moving into Seaport offices.

 By Justine Hofherr

Calling itself the “Robin Hood of employees,” Kununu, a German-based platform for employer reviews and ratings, claims to offer users a more transparent experience than sites like Glassdoor.

Kununu, which launched in 2007, recently chose the Boston Seaport as its U.S. hub, where it hopes to expand its international presence in a growing tech industry and among top digital talent.

CEO Moritz Kothe told Boston.com that Kununu is unique from other employer review platforms because it is totally free and open to the public. Users have access to all content on the site without creating a login or registration. Leaving an anonymous review only requires your email.

“We have a much more democratic approach,” Kothe said. On sites like Glassdoor, users get a preview of reviews before being prompted to create an account and log in to view all salaries and other information about employers.

On Kununu’s platform, employers are ranked out of five stars, an aggregation of how employees rate the company on individual factors like leadership support, teamwork, autonomy, job security, and work-life balance.

Reviewers can also leave suggestions for improvement and detail what they liked and didn’t like about an employer.

Kununu already has around 200,000 reviews of U.S. companies. Local companies that have already been reviewed include State Street Bank, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Putnam Investments.

Moritz also said employers are encouraged to respond to reviews.

“Employers can use this information to create a better work environment,” Kothe said. “We’re making it easier for people to provide feedback.”

The U.S. version of Kununu officially launches Thursday, June 16. The company anticipates hiring some 25 to 30 people in Boston by the end of the year.