FindThePerfectJob

A Unique Perspective

2011-12-30T07:55:00.000-08:00

Judi provides a unique perspective on job seeking. Her advice incorporates the possible viewpoints of employers/HR departments as well as the job seeker’s personal and professional goals. Most career coaches have a canned approach and try to fit any client into that formula without actually listening to determine each person’s unique situation.

----Pauline S., MA

Holiday Cheer or Holiday Sneer?

2011-12-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

“ #*&$^@*” Is this you this season? Your guests are still visiting or you’re due to travel home, presents need to be exchanged, family patterns are taking their toll, holiday madness in the airport….

Look around you. What do you see? Harried clerks, irritated shoppers, grumpy travelers, crowded parking lots, people with headaches. Are you one of them?

It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of day-to-day life and its problems. Your Christmas platter broke, everyone wants something from you, your sister didn’t give you a gift list and hates the sweater you gave her. You just want the holidays to be over.

Why are you behaving like this? Is it making your life easier? Is it helping those around you? Why are you perpetuating the problem?

Life moves in cycles. The only constant is change. Today’s craziness is tomorrow’s tranquility. When you’re in the middle of today’s craziness, you can’t always change things and make them un-crazy. But you can change your attitude, and remember that this, too, shall pass.

Moods are contagious, mostly because we forget that our mood is our choice. Other people don’t put us in a bad mood; we allowed their bad mood to affect us.

Whether you’re standing in after-Christmas lines impatient to make an exchange and slamming your credit card on the counter, blaring your horn in the parking lot, or heaving heavy sighs at your spouse, remember that “catching” someone else’s bad mood means your grumpiness may now be passed to the next person with whom you interact.

We aren’t separate from each other. We’re all part of the universe, like a bucket of water taken from the ocean is still part of the ocean. Energy travels. We pick up the moods of those around us, unless we choose not to or choose to be a change agent.

The remainder of this season, let’s do something different. When we get grumpy, stop, stand up straight, and breathe. If you’re in a store, be patient. Bring a book and read while you wait.

Others are also shopping after-Christmas sales and the clerk may be harried too. Before you grumble about a distant parking space, notice you now have the opportunity for some exercise.

In fact, let’s go one step further. If you see an irritated mother whose child just spilled her coke, step in with a napkin. Smile at the person walking by you or the salesperson in the store. Look people directly in the eye, and mean it when you say, “Have a great day!” Ask your family for help with a big hug and kiss instead of sounding annoyed.

Did we forget that although it’s after Christmas, this is still a time of joy? A time to be gracious and conscious of those around us? To savor the moments instead of counting the days until it’s over?

I’m no different. I see my parents once each year, and while my relationship with them has greatly improved from when I was in high school, we still have our moments.

In their desire to protect me from failure and disappointment, they have a tendency to squash my ideas and willingness to take risks. If I absorb that, eventually it will erode my confidence and I forget that their intentions are good. Soon I’m past the point of no return and might say things I regret.

Stressful times are testing. But the more you are tested, the more you can practice not letting it affect you. And the more you practice, the easier it becomes. After all, it’s your choice how you respond to others and what message you convey.

This season, let’s focus on “spread tidings of comfort and joy,” send “joy to the world,” and remember “tis the season to be jolly” by not twisting off when others are crazy, and by sending love back instead of more craziness.

POLL: What's the favorite gift you have GIVEN this holiday?

visit: http://www.findtheperfectjob.com/archives/444.html - and leave a comment!

Cease and Desist

2011-12-28T15:42:00.001-08:00

The other day I was forwarded a press release put out by a reference checking firm. The title was ”Cease & Desist: Your Weapon Against Negative Job References.” The subtitle was “Letters Can Put A Stop To Career-Damaging Feedback.”

I think not. More like “Letters can make a bad situation worse.”

Let’s first look at how references are done. Formally, one HR person calls another HR person, checks dates of employment and eligibitlity for rehire. For legal reasons, you can’t do much more than that. So it’s not going to help much there. Eligibility for rehire? “No.” That’s about it. Cease and Desist won’t change much there.

On the other hand, there’s a whole lot of informal reference checking that takes place and this is where the cease and desist is applicable and counter productive. If you’re looking in the same industry or geographical area, there’s the possiblity that the company doing the reference knows the company where you worked. It goes like this:

Hey Joe, this is Sam over at Magnificent Magic Marbles. There’s a guy named William Williams applying here for a Director position. Off the record, what’s the scoop on him?”

Sales and construction are two industries where more than previous employers, you’re looking at informal reference checks with clients and subcontractors. It’s a network. People know each other. As a recruiter, I did it all the time, because I knew people who knew people.

What do you do instead? A scarier but far more productive method is to heal it. Remember this is a blog post, so it’s just an overview of what to do.

I used to sometimes get great references on people who were fired. But I knew how to do a reference. Most people don’t. I also know people, psychology, and am adept at balancing things like that out. What I did with the reference and what I told the client depended on the bad part of the reference. That’s not human nature. Human nature wants to avoid mistakes and is going to hear the bad, not the good. And jettison any possibility for problems.

How do you heal it and effectively temper the problem? You call the person up and you ask why they’re giving you a bad reference. And then you work through it until you come to some understanding of what will be said in the future, and how you’ll both present that.

There are other ways to handle a bad reference, and in fact, handle references in general, but this post is specifically in reference to the “cease and desist.”

In any case, rather than go the combatative route, try a little relationship building. Try more understanding and less assumption. Move to the positive rather than accentuating – and exacerbating – the negative. Your job search will be so much better for it, and so will you, especially since it took a lot of guts to make that phone call.

Don’t Rationalize Rude Behavior – (part 1)

2011-12-26T08:15:00.000-08:00

In order to get a job, people will rationalize red flags and fail to make a connection between an isolated event or two and the much larger picture. I saw this often as a recruiter when I asked candidates questions about their previous jobs. I see it now with my clients – or people who send me emails – when they are clearly taking something just to take something,and I counsel them against moving forward in the process and why that is.

These same red flags show up for me too. That’s because we’re all marketing ourselves in one way or another. You – the job seekers - with your resume and cover letter, and me through various means in order to reach more job seekers.

Although writing and speaking opportunities find me, I also look for them: ezines, newspapers, authors and journalists that might be interested in quoting me or carrying my articles.

One of the reasons I so actively advocate following up is because having been a straight-commission, top-producing sales person who earned my living building relationships with people, I know how important following up is and why it’s necessary. And I know the frustrations of it, too. I also know from experience that the red flag is relative to the person, and have nothing to do with me.

When I make a cold call, first I inquire. Then I follow up. By then, usually I have a dialogue started because the person to whom I’m inquiring gets back with me. If not, I follow up a third time, and a fourth. I repeat the reason for calling. I refresh their memory as to my earlier communications. I mention that I’ve left a few messages. I’m always polite. By the last time, I specifically say I’ve left several messages and would they please take a few minutes to call me back? So they have to actively and consciously decide not to do that. It’s not as if they’ve forgotten who I am.

Truthfully, by the fourth time, I’m more interested in just seeing what happens. I’m not really expecting anything and not sure that if the opportunity presents itself at that point that I even want to pursue it any longer. The lack of professionalism some people exhibit is astounding.

You have this happen all the time. You follow up on a resume. Nothing. You speak with a recruiter, and then can never get a hold of them again. They promised to call you about a great opportunity. Nothing. You schedule a meeting. The person doesn’t show up or was called away. You follow up on an interview. No return call.

Rude, rude, and rude. Them, not you.

I don’t care who they are. I’ve read about singers, movie stars, and even the President, who make a point of answering every letter they receive, although they’re generally form letters sent by people hired to do that. I’ve called CEOs of large corporations or hospitals, and although I might not speak with them immediately or ever, the admin assistant phones back.

The point is that the contact was acknowledged. Who has such a big ego, or is so busy that they can’t take a minute to even delegate that task to someone? It leaves me shaking my head in wonder.

Let’s put this statement “them, not you” into perspective. When I’m selling various newspapers around the U.S. on carrying my column, I share that I was syndicated for 2 years in over 300 major metropolitan markets until they changed their format. I mention I’ve been a Sunday columnist for the New Haven (CT) Register for four years, and that I’ve written over 50 articles for a trade magazine with which I used to be associated.

Generally, I’m received enthusiastically and so newspapers around the US are carrying my columns for free in return for my ability to reach more job seekers. (With newspapers having trouble, they often assign an editor or a reporter to do their columns, so asking for payment would be pointless).

Yet, with my local paper, a small weekly one, the editor had to talk to the board, and the board, which convenes once per month, would have to vote on it. The editor forgot to bring it up and after several conversations, it wasn’t worth it. They’ve gone through several editors since then. Gee – what surprise.

Keep an eye out for - Part 2!!

How Not to Write A Resume:

2011-12-22T05:44:00.000-08:00

Does your resume profile read something like this?

Pro-active and solution-oriented person with proven ability to think outside the box and build collaborative relationships by engaging internal and external stakeholders while working in a cross- functional matrix environment. Critical thinker with exceptional track record of identifying win-win strategies, building consensus, and implementing change for bottom-line results.

It does? Then you sound like everyone else who’s looking for a job. Not only does it fail to actually convey who you are because the phrases are so generic, but it’s resume speak. It’s the same as saying blah blah blah.

By the way, I hope you didn’t pay someone to write that for you, because numerous professional writers, after they collect your money, are opening books they bought or checked out from the library. Others have professional designations that they hope to impress you with, but they don’t impress me. Having seen over half million resumes in my career, I remain unimpressed at most professionally written resumes I’ve seen. In fact, I’ve redone a bunch of them.

Before you write your resume, or have someone else do it, think about who you are, what you’re good at, and why. A resume isn’t a list of bland job description and gobbledy gook, generic, overly used phrases – it’s a document that tells your story and conveys who you are as an individual. It illustrates how you think, how your career has progressed, why, your degree of motivation, how you make decisions, what you do better than others who have the same skills, and how you’ve benefitted your employers.

And it’s not just numbers and percentages about how you increased sales, increased production, reduced staff, bam bam bam, hardcore, cold statistics either.

Ask yourself these questions:

What are the top 5 skills that have contributed to your success?
What are the top 5 personality traits that have contributed to your success?
What makes you good at what you do?
What makes you different from the person that held your job before you, or the person who will hold it after you, or the person who has the same title working for the same kind of company down the street?

Now you’re starting to get the idea.

Here are pieces from several client profiles that will give you an idea of what you’re shooting for:

Effective and innovative training professional adept at creating and delivering courses in multiple modes that bring enthusiasm for change and result in new user proficiency. Extremely skilled at learning, analyzing and understanding new or upgraded software programs, breaking them down and putting together course materials based on audience needs and level of understanding.
Operationally focused and mathematically inclined corporate finance professional, able to synthesize seemingly disparate pieces into an integrated solution.
Skilled, forward thinking professional who pragmatically identifies opportunities to reduce expenses and scrutinizes financial records to pinpoint and correct errors. Precise, solutions oriented, and trustworthy, with an exceptional amount of common sense, and a positive “can do” attitude.
Recognized and published expert in human resource management with extremely effective listening and interpersonal skills, adept at identifying the real problem.

Do you get a sense of something about that person that makes them unique? And every bullet on your resume should illustrate the statements in your profile by showing what you did, the results and the benefit.

A resume that has a generic profile followed by a gloppy paragraph of keywords followed by bullets that say things like….

Performed thorough and timely reference checking.
Acted as a liaison between the embassy and the international media, students and other private sector partners.
Led daily meetings with Oracle to define tasks, outline responsibilities, and form weekly agendas
Managed procurement of desktop hardware, software and contractor services with vendors
Involved in setting up customer’s project portfolio management system.

…….is not a resume. The above are job descriptions, not bullets. They go in a short paragraph by your job title, not bulleted under it.

Product brochures- cars, dishwashers, cameras, televisions – make sure to differentiate their product from the competition. You’re selling a product and the product is you. When your resume is your brochure, it should accomplish the same purpose.

Job Interview KILLERS!

2011-12-08T23:04:00.001-08:00

I admit I have some trouble occasionally finding articles to share. Many of the articles give poor advice or don’t provide anything but lame, general, obvious (or what should be obvious) advice that you can find anywhere and everywhere.

But I like this one. They have some unique points that many people don’t discuss and some of the ones they do are discussed in a rather different way.

I continue to say that because of poor job finding strategies, generic cover letters, really bad resumes and lack of interviewing skills, most candidates are operating at less than 70% if not even as low as 15%.

This particular article only drives home that so many things occur that the individual has no idea are improper behavior for a job interview, thus probably continue to do them, and wonder why they remain unemployed.

It’s from the Wall Street Journal: November 14

http://tinyurl.com/ybymdhb

Job and Career Advice? (Part 2 of Interview Question)

2011-12-08T20:12:00.001-08:00

I’d like to name this person who gives job and career advice because this person is perceived and put forth as a career expert, and because of where she “resides,” her career information is supposedly trustworthy.

She’s dispensing career information on resumes, interviews, and all things related to finding a job, but to name her would be unprofessional.

I noticed that for writing a resume, she advocates using an objective . They are SO dead for lack of information, specifics, and insight into the individual. Furthermore, the ones she provides will get you nowhere because your resume got tossed into the trash. A quick run through other parts of her career advice to job seekers wasn’t any more reassuring.

So just because someone is out there as an career coach and expert, doesn’t mean they are. And if you have no idea who I am and have never worked with me, that means me too. The best way is look for free career advice information – subscribe to the person’s newsletter, see if they offer free reports, find articles they may have written on how to find a job and all the issues that entails.

And it goes without saying that you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the career newsletters either.

Interview Question: No, No and No! (Part 1)

2011-12-07T01:58:00.001-08:00

I read this today in a career newsletter that those who are finding a job assume has expert and therefore correct, job advice. This newsletter has a HUGE circulation. This entry goes with the one on my Facebook fan page (http://tinyurl.com/how2careercoach) that starts out HEINOUS! In fact, maybe I’ll just start a HEINOUS! category.

I’m not naming the career ”expert” who posted this – the name is irrelvant anyway - but they’re a recruiter and they should know better.

Here’s their advice:

Toward the end of an interview the interviewer will typically turn to you and ask “do you have any questions?” It is always good to be prepared for this question and to have good thought out questions to respond with. Things that are always good to ask about are company benefits, pay day schedule, management set-up, what does a typical day in this job look like? – those kinds of questions keep the conversation going and show your interest in the position.

Aye carumba! Can anyone spot the NO NO NO part? Yes, it’s the “company benefits, pay day schedule” part. A little psychological insight into why I’m so emphatic.

The money/benefits/vacation part is a game, but it’s not really a game. Some people make money the priority in their job search, but that’s putting the cart before the horse. First, if you focus on money to the exclusion of the people with whom you’ll be working, the philosophy and culture of the company, whether the new job has the components that motivate you and make you happy to be there (and about ten other things I’m not going to go into now because it’s off the topic of this post), you might very well be unhappy in your new job at this company.

Sell yourself to the highest bidder without regard for all the other factors and if you’re unhappy, eventually the money you’re making isn’t going to be enough to compensate you for work ingat a place you hate. And once the relief of your new job wears off and reality sets in, that’s what you could very well discover.

That’s why salary doesn’t get talked about first (it does with companies, but again, that’s a whole separate topic and post). Because the point of an interview is to find out if they’re who you want and you’re who they want. Additionally, it’s ridiculous to talk about money when neither side has attached value to the other.

If you’re going to buy a car for $30K and you won’t go over that price, and someone calls you up and says “Hey I have this cherry red convertible that runs like a dream; cream leather seats and brand new stereo – it’s $37K – you want it?” You’ll be like, “no, too expensive.” So say – just say – you decide to go look at it. And you fall in love with the color and you drive it and feel the wind in your hair and the sun on your face and maybe you begin to rationalize why $37K is okay.

The point here isn’t actually about going higher or lower than your salary, as much as it is about value. Once you get to know something – or someone – and decide you want it – or them – then you look at how you can make it work. So salary up front, and making a decision on that, might eliminate getting the information you need.

This isn’t to say money is unimportant. One of my clients right now has an offer on the table with a company who has offered her $74. In her previous job, in a slightly different capacity, she was making over $90K. She really likes the place and wants the job. Every single other one of the 8 points I put so much emphasis on is ranking very high. There are some other issues we’re discussing that aren’t relevant to this blog post, but what is relevant is that the difference is enough that it poses a serious problem, not the least of which might be compromising her salary in future positions. She was willing to bottom line at $80K. So we’re embarking on a negotiation strategy.

Had the salary been discussed up front, she’d have walked away and never learned that she really wants to work here. Perhaps we can work it out, perhaps not.

From the company’s side, it’s a huge turn off. Yes, I know they violate that by asking you up front, but like I said, that’s a different circumstance and for another time. At the point they’ve decided to bring you in, your asking about salary at the beginning of the interview communicates that that’s all you care about. It tells them that your head is in the wrong place for all the reasons stated earlier. A company wants someone who wants them for who they are, not someone who is all about the paycheck. Ask those two questions ever, much less in the first interview, and you’ll be dropped from consideration.

In fact, don’t ever, ever bring up the topic. Period.

That advice, and HEINOUS #1, just underlines that just because an expert is out there, doesn’t mean they’re an expert. There are some good career people and columns out there though that offer excellent career advice, and I’ll be bringing those up too. It’s not all about ME! LOL

How to handle your layoff explanation on a job interview

2011-12-06T07:31:00.000-08:00

Here’s a good article titled “The do’s and don’ts of explaining your recession lay-off.” This is a thorny problem that leaves a lot of people feeling defensive, even if they’re one of millions of layoffs contributing to the 10% unemployment rate. That’s because it’s hard not to take it personally, especially when there are others who weren’t laid off.

Most of the time you were just in the wrong position or the wrong department at the wrong time and thus became a statistic. So in line with this excellent article, I’m going to take each point and in some cases, add some psychological insight and additional information as to why the author is making the points she is, because frequently that brings greater understanding.

http://tinyurl.com/ygf4o39

DO be the first one to address your layoff - In my opinion, regardless of who brings it up, you still get to frame it in your own terms, so in the case of this tip, there’s much more t. The reason you want to bring it up is because it lessens the impact. If you bring it up, it doesn’t appear that you’re trying to hide anything, which is what most job seekers do. And by the way, know how you’re going to present it, and practice it in the mirror with a pleasant face and confident, comfortable tone of voice before you go on the interview.

DON’T weave a complex story - As Shakespeare said, “Methinks you doth protest too much.” So sidestep Shakespeare by following that guy on Dragnet, Joe Friday, who said “Just the facts, ma’am.” The more you talk, the more you sound defensive, as if you’re trying to convince yourself that what you’re saying is true.

DO mention if it’s a recession-related layoff - You’re one of millions. There’s safety in numbers. People default to the negative in order to find and avoid problems. Without inserting this point, you leave the interviewer the option of assuming “laid off” is a euphamism for “fired,” thus concluding you’re a problem employee. Control your spin!

DON’T speak poorly of your last employer - Besides what the author says, it’s immature. If you make an immature decision in this area, what other immature behaviors will you bring to the company if you were to work there? Additionally, it smacks of a victim mindset, rather than one who takes responsiblity.

DO mention if you were involved in a mass layoff - She covers this nicely. Plus, see the “recession layoff” point above.

DON’T be afraid to say you’re not comfortable answering - Again, she handles this well and I’m glad she brought this up because so many forget that it’s a two-way street and hand every ounce of power over to the interviewer. They’re afraid that if they don’t answer the question, if they don’t behave, they won’t be liked and they won’t get the job. You’re not a 5-year old at dinner with your parents. You can go against the grain. Be respectful, and be polite and don’t give a whole paragraph on why you don’t want to answer the question.

DO discuss how you’ve filled your time - This, too, is covered well. Especially the point about being honest.

Preparation is key to knowing what you’re going to say and pulling it off poised and confidently. Winging it isn’t a smart strategy. When I was a recruiter, it was amusing to listen to how many canddiates who were actively looking would say after about the third interview, “This is getting easier!” So why not get some of those awkward answers you regret out of the way by shaping what you plan to say before you arrive?

Looking for a Qualified Career Coach...

2011-12-06T06:43:00.001-08:00

I had been looking for a qualified career / job coach for sometime. I belong to several networking groups although I am not a strong networker because I am an introvert. Even though I think the people I talked to about career coaches are sincere when looking at their credentials they just didn't have what I was looking for.

I started looking around on the web and found your name and looked at your web site. At first I was skeptical because you said a whole lot of things on your web site but I did not see any tangible proof that I could analyze and take time to consider. I had gotten burned by two other supposed career coaches and felt a little uneasy going through spending money then finding out what they told me was worthless. What clinched it for me was the first two times I talked to you, you were patient answered my questions and didn't push your services on me. I didn't cut you any slack and asked real tough questions, which you satisfactorily answered.

I finally got lucky with you, fortunately for me you listened and asked a lot of questions in order to get a true picture of what I wanted and needed to do to become successful. You literally put your whole heart, soul and self into working with me and the other people you work with. I could tell by the way you handled the webinar's.

Another thing great about you is you tell it like it is. (You are a straight shooter) You don't sugar coat it, you explain why you take the position with examples that I can relate to. And will listen to challenges which I have done more than once and will really consider what I say.With this in mind I feel stronger about being back in the market place when my resume and the other classes are done. I have enjoyed some of the more vocal emails between us and have learned from them.

I look forward to working with you in the completion of my career project and feel it will be a success. Thanks you for all your help and continued success helping others.
---Mike. W., South River, NJ

Will Protection Help?.....Or Not?

2011-11-30T17:04:00.001-08:00

It was about two years ago when I began learning from emailers and clients and job seekers in general that unemployed job seekers were being discriminated against. It’s great to see an issue getting national exposure that we in the career niche have known about for awhile.

Obama’s proposed bill prevents companies with 15 people or more from not hiring someone who is unemployed. Cheers, right? Advocates of job seekers have applauded the proposed measure. But others say it fosters discrimination in favor of the unemployed and may well result in unnecessary litigation.

According to Wikipedia: “Unemployment (or joblessness), as defined by the International Labour Organization, ocurrs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.” Not hiring the unemployed goes back further than you might expect.

Wikipedia also says that in the 1576 Act each town was required to provide work for the unemployed. The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601, one of the world’s first government-sponsored welfare programs, made a clear distinction between those who were unable to work and those able-bodied people who refused employment.

I googled various phrases to see what’s happened in the past, but didn’t find much. In 2006, Gary Aguirre was hired by the SEC, but sued them for not hiring him when he earlier applied for the job. In 2010, a job applicant asked on a Colorado website if he could sue a company for not hiring him when they required a degree, hired someone who didn’t have one, and he didn’t have one either. In 2004 a male wanted to sue Hooters for not hiring him as a waiter.

In a 2007 blogpost, one executive advises HR people on how to “delicately” handle the subject of why someone wasn’t hired by issuing any number of vague phrases – none of which are new to so many of todays job seekers. I can’t count the number of times job seekers have asked me what to do when they have the qualifications, are ignored, and see the job ad remain or even be reposted on a job board.

Personally, I can argue both sides of this. In deference to the job seekers, I’ve written several articles about the stupidity of companies not hiring the unemployed (here’s the most recent:

http://findtheperfectjob.com/archives/264.html In deference to employers, I know from having been a recruiter and now from working with my clients there are an awful lot of job seekers who think they are qualified….and aren’t.

Companies who don’t hire the unemployed are discounting a valuable resource. After all, it’s not as if it’s a candidates’ market and thus those who are unemployed are, generally, not the cream of the crop. These days, there are a lot of very good people who were let go individually or as a group for reasons having nothing to do with their performance.

On the flip side, there are going to be job seekers who have a history of not accepting responsibility for their actions and aren’t going to change that if this law goes into effect. In a world where people sue for spilling hot coffee on their lap, for getting cancer from cigarettes and equally absurd reasons that spend taxpayer dollars and tie up the courts, this attempt at fairness will most definitely have its boundaries tested.

It may well be that a few cases have to be litigated in order to set some sort of a precedent, with or without EEOC guidelines. This issue isn’t really anything new – it just has a different shape to it. So, whether it’s enacted or not is a moot point, really. Only in an ideal world will companies consider candidates based solely on their capabilities and credentials, and will job seekers take responsiblity for their decisions and actions and not look for the easy way out.

I’m just wondering………so you sue a company for not being hired and then…..you get lots of money for not being hired which underlines your lack of interest in conducting a productive job search in the first place (and shows what type of person you really are) or you get to work there after all. You lose either way , no?

Or you can look at it this way – if they don’t want to hire you because you’re unemployed, it’s not likely to be a place you want to work anyway. Then you’re at a meet up group and run into the hiring manager who put you in the “no” stack because you were unemployed, you can quietly hope he’s learned something from his earlier decision.

looking for the right answers to the wrong questions?

2011-11-30T09:56:00.001-08:00

No response to the resume is a common problem But the solution isn’t the same from person to person - aside from probably needing their resume fixed. Fortunately for her she sought some answers to her questions instead of just running pell mell off into some solution that seemed sensible. to her

The first problem was her resume (which she’d had done professionally.) And after all my questions, part of my solution to her was to refer her to the two people I consider very good at what they do (and I endorse very few professional resume writers). Despite having seen over half a million of them and the results people have achieved with ones I’ve done, I’ve chosen to no longer do them.

Her resume was functional rather than chronological – a good choice for her though it was poorly done. It was hard to read. The bullet points had no bullets. They were job description statements instead of ones that really highlighted what she could do and had achieved. Her jobs were concurrent but only the years were listed, not the months.

She had a hodge podge of job titles, although a steady employment record, and an advanced degree and the result was that you couldn’t tell what she’d done, you couldn’t tell what she wanted, and the degree said “expensive” so the result was that after about 3 seconds, her resume went in the “no” pile.

It was clear to me that her strengths were leading things behind the scenes; making sense out of chaos; pulling a hodgepodge of details together into one organized, cohesive grouping and establishing a prioritized timeline; talking to the different parties and making sure that all groups were represented in a manner that was equitable, agreeable, and satisfying to those involved, etc.

The resume conveyed none of that. Nada. Zip. Zilch. So my first piece of advice was to tell her to make sure the new resume writer knew that’s what needed to be conveyed on her resume. So that handled the resume problem for now.

But an extra degree or certification, such as a PMP, wasn’t necessary – at least not now. She was more a project manager in theory rather than in an industry requiring that certification and using that title, and not every industry does. Sometimes project manager is a functional part of another title rather than a formal title and formal job description. People with this skill (and I’m not one of them) are always in demand – but you have to know that it’s your “thing” and be able to convey that.

So rather than running off to school, I counseled her on how to use Indeed.com for research to pull things up to research titles, industries, requirements etc in searching for opportunities that had those skills as the essence, but in which the industry or company or context varied. That’s considered looking horizontally rather than vertically.

The purpose of this exercise was to see what the varied titles were – and as I was doing this on Indeed while talking with her, the titles varied greatly – and if there were any trends.

Project Management positions that require PMP certifications are usually vertical – IT; setting up a complex, company-wide safety program (usually manufacturing, nuclear technology, oil & gas, etc); things like that vs a more horizontal focus, that is, companies looking for someone with project manager skills – event planning, marketing communications liason, student development coordinator – all of which pulled up and necessitated a closer look.

I showed her what steps to take, how to asses each result, etc. Based on her results, then she’d know if she needed to go back to school and she could decide if she wanted to do that.

As for the advanced degree and the random assortment of companies and titles – that was easy to pull into one coherent sentence for her to utilize by means of an explanation, but it put a great deal of emphasis on the cover letter, which is where it needs to be handled, and not through a generic one.

I see this problem with so many job seekers and I’m always thankful that the ones who seek me out for a consultation do so. I applaud them for it too because it means they’re thinking things through clearly enough to not just run knee jerk into the night in some random – but seemingly plausible – way to solve whatever they perceive to be the problem.

But if all she’d done was had her resume redone, her strengths still might not have been uncovered and highlighted. Or if she’d gone and gotten a degree or certification in something, it could have been unnecessary – especially as she didn’t even know what she wanted to do in the first place.

If she’d done that and started all over again, she still wouldn’t have had the primary questions resolved and furthermore, the hiring authorities would still be rejecting her resume, not the least because of the advanced degree and how it was interfering with their perception of her because she wasn’t shaping the perception she wanted them to have.

Finding a new job is a skill – and it’s really not a skill many job seekers have, which is why so many of them are operating at about 25%. Issues they think are one problem are actually an entirely different problem. If you haven’t properly defined the issue, whatever action you take isn’t going to provide a satisfying resolution or put you any closer to your goal.

Let the Beauty of What you Love be What you Do:

2011-11-29T09:53:00.001-08:00

Friday night Steve and I went to a great little venue in Pawling, NY, called The Towne Crier Cafe. It’s an intimate little place with tables up front where you can get a superb dinner and a separate small section in the back if you’re just coming for the show. They’ve got musical acts there – mostly ones that are on the upward or downward trajectory as the place seats only about 100 people.

We saw Joe Louis Walker - serious rocking blues guy who’s played with Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Muddy Waters, etc – and Murali Coryell (son of fusion guitarist Larry Coryell), and the rest of the band that travel with Joe Louis Walker.

Which brings me to my point. Friday night, they’d just returned from 6 weeks in Europe. Saturday morning they were leaving NY to head to Florida for 6 shows on successive nights. Then back north for 1 show in PA, then 4 shows in New York City, then back again to Florida for another 8 shows. By January 20, 2012.

Artists are driven by what they do. Musicians, writers, painters – creators. They can’t not do it. So what’s the deal with so many other people? Many of whom don’t see themselves as creators and thus are creating by default?

BusinessWeek ran an article a few months ago that said according to Deloitte’s Shift Index survey, 80% of people hate their jobs. The article’s question was “Passion or Paycheck?” I want to know – why do you have to choose? Because I don’t believe you do. My clients who do the work aren’t – they’re finding both.

Part of it is the questions you – and I say “you” because I do love what I do, and firmly believe it’s my life’s purpose – part of it is the questions you ask yourself and the beliefs you hold:

“How can I make money?” ….rather than “What do I love? And how can I make that work for me?”
Flinging yourself at any job ads that look remotely viable and collecting possibilities like marbles, clutching on to them…rather than “What would be my perfect job? What would it look like?”
“That won’t work. I can’t do that. This is the real world.”….rather than “How can I make that happen?”
Limited thinking……..rather than expansive thinking.
Fear. Job seekers are full of fear. The way conventional wisdom is advising job seekers these days hugely perpetuates that……rather than self empowerment, being yourself, letting the process taking care of itself, not jumping through hiring companies’ hoops, and realizing you don’t have to sit at the table like a 12 year old who’s been told to eat all your vegetables! or you can’t get up from the table.

When you love what you do and you have your heart and passion in it, the stress isn’t so stressful. You find ways to create solutions and feel in control of your life and decisions, rather than feeling as if you’re at the mercy of a job that robs you of something….your time, your health, your soul.

It’s no accident that my company and URL is Find the Perfect Job. I know it’s possible. I see people who are doing it – like Joe Louis Walker and his group. I’ve guided job seekers to achieve it. I’m doing it… and guess again if you think the road has been easy from the moment I chose it. More like….it chose me and I said “YES!”

There’s more that factors in to being happy, identifying what you love and moving into it. There’s mindfulness as well. No matter what you are doing and whether or not you love it, be mindful of the time spent doing it. Whether you’re looking for another job or just looking, your attitude, attention, and focus contribute to your results.

Whatever you’re doing at that moment, whether you like it or not, choose to do it with love, care, and attentiveness. This leaves the door open for new ideas and possibilities you might otherwise miss. It fosters blooming, if you will. Grumbling shuts things down. Choose to be involved and connected with what you’re doing, even if you don’t – at that moment – like it. Sure, when you love what you do it’s easier and more natural, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only time to practice it.

Back to Joe Louis Walker. I was fascinated watching Murali Coryell play guitar. After the show I told him it was amazing to watch how clearly he connected with his playing and how that contributed to the music. He said a lot of people think he’s tuning out the audience. ” Totally not,” I said. “You’re tuning in the music precisely so you don’t miss connecting with the audience.” (He closes his eyes and practically goes into a trance)

Am I perfect? Do I do this mindfulness / gratefulness / choice / deliberate-creation-of-my-life thing all the time? No. But thankfully, I get a little bit better at it every day in all areas of my life. When you love what you do, it facilitates that. So don’t make the recession an excuse. You’re creating your life. Doing what you love is possible. All you have to do is choose to make it happen.

When is an Offer Not an Offer?

2011-11-17T06:15:00.000-08:00

I received an email from a woman who was “elated about an offer for employment for a long awaited job opportunity.” She’d been looking for a while and hadn’t been having much luck. Despite her elation, she went with her instinct and turned down the offer.

They’d been “sweating” her about coming in for training while she was working notice on her current job. She felt she needed to have fully resigned one job before she began another. They countered with they needed to train her before she started with them.

She wrote, because she wasn’t sure she’d made the right decision. I told her she absolutely had made the right decision and applauded her for making it. It takes guts to turn down an offer when you want a new job badly, even if you’re employed.

That wasn’t a job offer. It was “sort of” an offer. It was a dangling carrot. “Don’t quit your job yet because we want to see if we actually like you before you start, and if we don’t, then you won’t actually be starting, and you’ll still have a job.”

Later she emailed me again. They’d been calling and “pestering” her. She wanted to know how to handle it. Not coincidentally, in this email she wrote “this company is also known for its high turnover due to its unpleasant working environment.” So perhaps they didn’t want her to quit because they realized she might quit them first, rather than what I’d initially surmised.

No matter. Either way, it would have been a losing proposition for her to accept it. Even if she’d made it through the transition she’d have been there just a few months, and having left her current job…where would she be? Nowhere.

So in answer to the pestering lady question, here’s what I advised:

Don’t give in or second guess yourself- stick with your original decision! Just say “Thank you very much but I’ve decided to withdraw myself from consideration. I’m no longer interested.”

If she calls again, repeat the message, but start with “As I said last time we spoke (etc)…”

And if she calls a third time, then it’s time to get a little….not rude or nasty, but certainly emphatically insistent. “As I’ve told you twice, I am no longer interested in working with your company. My decision is final. Please do not call me again as I will not ever change my mind.”

Gotta be FIRM. Not apologetic, not “nice.” Just firm. It’s a FIRM statement. No room for debate. As far as I’m concerned, if she calls a fourth time, just hang up on her!

My point being, that at the point, the one who wasn’t getting it was the pestering lady and her invasive behavior. If she hadn’t understood and respected the message by then, she probably wasn’t going to. So why not save your breath and your energy?

For those of you who might not have gone that route and worried about who knows you and who they know and if it would affect a job somewhere else and what about references and will it have an adverse effect, save your worrying. The possibility of that is slim. And quite frankly, anyone that knows this company and is worth working for (small things telling!), would probably call you precisely because you handled it as you did.

You don't really want to find a new job.....Do you?!?

2011-11-11T18:37:00.001-08:00

Much of what I teach isn’t just technique, it’s the psychology of the strategy and behavior. I like to help people see what’s going on with them that they don’t realize. I also like to give insight into why certain behaviors, actions, and strategies work or don’t work, by showing how hiring authorities and others might interpret or react.

When I took retained clients, and even still in consultations, so many clients find a lightbulb going off. Major epiphanies. It’s great – because they’re reaching out for help, looking to define a problem, and when they’re open to a solution, the wall breaks and information flows through.

Here are some examples of people I haven’t worked with. They’re just behaviors I’ve observed and noted within the course of doing what I do.

ONE

One of the emails I received today was from some one I didn’t know. It didn’t have a subject line. I open them – and always check my spam folder – because I don’t want to miss anything legit and I know from experience many people don’t give much thought to the subject line. Or in this case – any thought. It was a resume! It was cut and pasted into the message form. There was no introduction, no note, no information, no nothing.

TWO

People comment and ask questions on this blog, my facebook community fan page (www.facebook.com/howtocareercoach), and another blog on which I post (www.jobadviceblog.com). I often comment back and do my best to answer their questions. Often however, I need more information, and I offer them the opportunity to send me an email with whatever information I request and sometimes their resume.
Most of them don’t. Jeff LeFevre, who runs Job Advice Blog, notices the same thing. When someone offers free help, and is there to answer your question, why aren’t you jumping on that?

THREE

I do free Q & A sessions every other Tuesday (www.AskFindthePerfectJob.com) See above post. Same thing

FOUR

When I was taking retained clients, and even now on a smaller a la carte or consultation basis, I have people come to me for help. Most of them are serious about doing what they need to do to get where they want to go. It wasn’t an easy program. But there were some who I began to call “Magic Bullet” people.

Usually they were at the mercy of whatever anyone happened to tell them at the time. Frequently they’d come back to me and challenge what I’d said, and when I shared with them why whatever it was they were asking about didn’t make sense, they said “Oh, I get it.” Then did the same thing again shortly after that.

They were kind of running around in circles, looking for the easiest way or the perfect way or the “thing” of the moment. Changing with the wind – every 15 minutes. They each did one month with me.

Guess what – I’m not naming any names but all 3 of them are still unemployed over 1 year later. By contrast, the ones who hung in there with me for 2 months or 3 and stuck with it, became employed.

My point isn’t that I’m great. I am great – and I bring results, but I’m not the only coach who does that. At a certain point – it’s up to you. So my point is that whatever coach you choose, give it a chance. There is no magic bullet. Subscribe to their newsletter, read it a while, and if you like one of them, lock in and follow the program instead of looking for problems and hats with rabbits.

FIVE

You know the defniition of insanity, right? I see a lot of that. Here’s an example: one lady wanted a resume done because she wasn’t getting any results. But she couldn’t afford my price. So I gave her some lower costoptions that would help, all the way down to the special report I have on resumes, which is $10.00. I urged her to do something, if not through me, then somewhere, somehow.

I followed up with her a few months later. She hadn’t bought anything, done anything or changed her resume. And she still wasn’t getting any results. I wonder why?

You get the picture. Self sabotage. Unwillingness to chase it down. Kidding oneself. Making excuses. Unrealistic expectations. Discomfort with change. Hoping for magic. Lack of self confidence that continues on a downward spiral.

There’s lots of help out here. When you’re ready to get serious, face your fears and demons, and make something happen, we’re here.

Job Advice: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly!

2011-11-10T14:27:00.001-08:00

ONE – ugly
I’m working on a national publicity campaign, and I was talking with a guy who runs multiple national trade shows. We were talking about some of the books he receives that people want him to promote. He said (more or less), “Most aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. What makes some speaker think they know about how to get a job, I don’t know. They’re only capitalizing on the market needs.” Caveat emptor, you know?

Here’s a good example. This guy has authored over 55 books. He’s a national motivational speaker. He’s an exec on a major pro sports team. All good stuff – and definitely credible. He’s written a book called “Nail It! Top Ten Secrets for Winning the Job Interview.” A few of his secrets:

Being prepared. Exuding self confidence. Display professionalism. Radiate energy and enthusiasm. Reveal your creativity. Did anyone not know these types of things were important? No word on what types of questions you’ll be asked, what they mean, or what they’re looking for or any insight into the psychological or sales aspects of addressing them. Caveat emptor!

TWO – bad

A job seeker in one of the LinkedIn groups responded to the this question: what do I put in the online applications that ask me for my desired salary?

“Just put $1 if ‘Negotiable’ isn’t available. It will be an item on their ‘To Ask’ list and hopefully you can get a better understanding of what they are looking for from your conversation if they don’t offer a salary range.”

Don’t do that. They’re not going to ask you because they’re not going to bring you in. You’re going to be jettisoned for being flip. Assuming you’re interviewing in the same line as what you’ve been doing, then the salary range is roughly in the same area as what you’ve been making. Put what you’re making now.

THREE – good
Ten Commandments for Better Networking – an article written by Dr. Ivan Misner, who is the founder and chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His latest book, Networking Like A Pro, is probably very good because….it’s something he knows and it’s what he does. The article offers very good advice in brief, digestible paragraphs.

Thanksgiving: The Power of Choice

2011-11-09T14:38:00.001-08:00

Unemployment is at an all-time high, and here come the holidays, which means stretching money to buy gifts and answering questions from family and relatives about why you aren’t employed yet and what you plan to do about it.

Those of you who are familiar with me know that while I provide specific direction and advice, I also believe that what you think is what you create.

Everything is always in a state of flux, constantly changing into new forms depending on the force of whatever causal elements are focused on them. All objects are made up of atoms, which have energy, and are constantly moving. Atoms, manifested, become substance.

Simply put, substance is held in place by the power of your attention until – or unless – you create a new thought or desire. An inhabited house retains its essence much longer when lived in, while a deserted one falls apart much faster. Curse your car everyday, and it will give you problems just as surely as plants respond better to loving attention.

Recognizing that manifestation is an end-product, be aware of what you give your mental and emotional attention to. But let me be clear: it’s a conscious choice, which is why I talk about knowing specifically what you want in your job. Focus your desire on achieving it. Know what it must be composed of and what it looks like. We are in complete control of the quality of our experience, and to a large extent, the characteristics of it.

Your situation is what it is. If you don’t like it, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude, because you have the power to make that choice. Happiness breeds happiness, sorrow breeds sorrow, and conflict breeds more conflict.

So this holiday season, you can stress out, whine, think about how little money you have, and how everyone else is employed and luckier than you, or you can think about something else – like how much you have instead of how much you don’t have.

Because no matter what’s going on with you, someone else always has it worse.

Some people who have jobs, hate them and wish they were unemployed, but it’s nice to have a regular paycheck while you’re job hunting, isn’t it?   Others are unemployed and worry about money, but these people have no restrictions on their time. They can shop in off-peak hours and job hunt full-time.

My point is, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, so take whatever it is you don’t like, and choose to find the good in it.

There is something very profound about gratitude – expressing it for the smallest thing and expressing it often. If you think lousy negative thoughts, you have lousy negative things happen to you. If you think thankful positive thoughts, you’ll find little windows of blessings opening all over. Try it if you don’t believe me.

That’s not to say life doesn’t get hard. Be thankful for that too. It’s in times of crisis that we learn who we are, precisely because we have the ability to choose who we want to be in response to the crazy things that are happening to us. Start looking at problems as opportunities. Make that a conscious choice.

Instead of “Why don’t I have a job yet?” say “Hey great! I got an interview!” And it’s not “I can’t believe they didn’t hire me!” but rather “It’s probably a blessing I didn’t get the job anyway. I know the right one is waiting for me!”

Here’s an exercise for everyone – employed or unemployed, happy or unhappy. Pay attention to your speech. Pay attention to your thoughts. Stay conscious in the moment, and see how many times you think or say something negative. When you catch yourself, turn it positive.

Every hour, actively look for things around you for which you can be grateful. Finish every day by naming five things that happened to you that day for which you are thankful. And yes, I do this too, just before I fall asleep.

It can be as small as discovering you still have strawberries in the refrigerator when you thought they were gone, to suddenly noticing the gracefulness of a bare tree silhouetted against the sky.

Notice what you take for granted: your car starting, having a house when foreclosures are up, having food to eat. You have friends who care, a place to sleep, clothes to wear, and the ability to breathe. Be thankful, and stop taking these things for granted.

From a child’s simple prayer to exclamations of “Thanks a lot!” the business of being grateful seems like straightforward stuff. Yet recently, research has increasingly studied gratitude and other positive emotions. People who are grateful experience less stress and depression. They’re less materialistic and more spiritually connected.

A sense of gratitude also has been found to speed healing for people who have experienced loss or trauma. This holiday season, think of all the things you have to be grateful for, and then when the season is over, keep the gratefulness going.

Unemployed? Well, now’s not vacation time!

2011-11-08T05:59:00.001-08:00

It’s a myth that no one hires during the holidays. As a recruiter, mid-December through year end was one of my busiest times. I started doing search in 1985 waaaaaaaaay before cell phones and often spent the day shopping with my sister and running from one pay phone to the next, and on the phone at my parents house at night.

If you think hiring doesn’t happen during the holidays, you’re rationalizing a reason to do nothing. So another good reason to do something is because most other people aren’t.

Employers often have year-end deadlines, budgets, and tax-write offs that mean they hire you now, but perhaps you begin in January. One of my clients was offered a job last week. And today I got this nice email from a guy in Boston named Mike:

Just dropping you a quick note to thank you for the extremely helpful article on Body Language. I received it yesterday in the Net-Temps newsletter which was perfect timing for my second interview at my ideal company. I took your advice, was confident, and visualized success. It was so successful the hiring manager originally was going to get back to me in a few days but I received an offer (and accepted) last night! So thank you again for your spot-on insight. I know I’m far from alone in whom you’ve helped.

If you must persist in your belief that nothing happens until January 1st at least don’t wait to fine tune or update your resume. If you consider this to be the calm before the storm, now’s the time to batten down the hatches and prepare.

When January first arrives, every job seeker who has taken a vacation from searching will be fighting for the time of career coaches and resume writers. Not only will turn around time will be longer than it is now, but in the spirit of economics, prices may be higher as well.

Your resume isn’t something you want to do under duress. As the primary agent that determines whether you’re contacted by a prospective hiring company or not, it’s not a document that should be slapped together.

A well done resume tells the story of your unique accomplishments. It is not simply a list of job descriptions and companies. It takes time to craft a resume that will bring results to its owner.

Waiting may mean you’ll miss the submission date for the perfect ad you see on January 3rd. Or it may sour the opinion of a hiring authority referred to you by a networking contact, who wonders why you didn’t update your resume over the holidays while it was quiet.

While it might seem wise to ask your family’s opinion during the holidays, banish this thought. Some of the worst resumes I’ve seen have been defended by “I had my friends look at it, and they said it was fine.”

As a third-part recruiter, I participated in more hirings in six months than most hiring managers did in their entire career. For the same reason, a professional resume writer, even the bad ones, will generally create a better product than you can.

How do you know if your resume needs work? If your ratio of responses to send-outs is more than 1:3, it needs work, and indeed may be only one of several problems contributing to an abysmal ratio.

To make sure your resume is the best it can be by January 1, send it to several resume writers for a quick critique and a quote. They’ll always find problems for two reasons. One, they want your business, and two, there always is at least one problem. Don’t select by price because you get what you pay for. Yet some professional writers are exorbitant, which doesn’t imply they know what they’re doing.

Lest you think I’m angling for you to hire me, I don’t do resumes. I advise, teach, and critique, but I don’t write them. I can, and have, earlier in my career, and they received praise from hiring authorities, but as a recruiter and now career coach, I’ve seen over 500K resumes in my career.

I do, however, give away a free resume report against which you can measure yours, and see where it falls short – and it will, in at least one, probably more, areas. Then you can submit yours to various professionals and have a baseline measurement for their responses, gauging if their knowledge justifies their price and works with your budget.

Your resume is the most important document in your job search. “Good enough” doesn’t suffice. It’s your brochure against which people measure you, just as you use brochures when you buy a car, select a service, or choose a college for your child. An excellent resume doesn’t guarantee a “yes,” but a bad one guarantees a “no.”

Get the free report by signing up for my free newsletter – the form is over there on the top right (scroll up) –> see? Easy!

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This Decision Makes Me Ill!

2011-11-03T23:58:00.001-07:00

First, I want to lay some ground work.

Having been a recruiter for 22 years, with a lot of repeat clients, and having always been a top producer, I know a thing or two about sales. Also, I know a thing or two about the psychology of people. This is what differentiates me from other career coaches.

I’ve long discussed the two types of companies and their differences. I’ve also taught why and how hiring authorities default to “No,” and how to get around that in the job seeking process. Learning and understanding that is partially why so many of my clients have found jobs quickly.

And now this. Stupidity. A prime example of one of the two types of companies and an even more emphatic reason why the factors I talk about must be put into play before you start your search.

Thank goodness for companies like these. Recruiters love them. Companies like this are often the first place to be raided because of their pervasive attitude that manifests itself in so many other ways.

I’d also like to ask them “You couldn’t think of any new way to screen? Is your business built on such arbitrary decisions? Does your withdrawing this requirement when asked about it by the media give you any clue at all about the requirement you’ve just implemented?”

What am I talking about?

Thompson said he also thinks ruling out the unemployed is a bad idea. But he said that part of the problem is that recruiters and human resource departments are being overwhelmed with applications for any job opening that is posted. So they’re looking for any short-cuts to get the list of applicants to consider down to a more manageable size.

Is there a way around this? Sure. There are about 5 ways I can think of right off the top of my head. I totally see why this is happening, what the obvious repercussions are for those who are unemployed, and why it makes understanding the psychology and behavioral thinking process of these people all that more important if you want to get around it.

For two years now, “good enough” hasn’t been. You’ve needed to be “cutting edge.” Now that’s not only more important, you better be razor sharp, and learn this skill called job seeking like your life depended on it. Because it looks like it might.

Exploding Common Words of ‘Wisdom”

2011-11-03T01:21:00.001-07:00

Most of the people who have worked with me know I’m a renegade when it comes to career advice and that I don’t agree with a great deal of it. There’s a lot of “one size fits all” stuff out there, but since everyone is different, how on earth can “one size fit all?!?”

“A resume should be one page, but I don’t ding people for more than that.” [Name], director of talent acquisition at [a major company] Laboratories. –> Nay, nay, unless you’re shortly out of college. More often than not that means a tiny font or omission of Very Important Information. Two pages, sometimes 2.5 pages. The key is the information on it. A very good 2.5 or 3.0 page resume that makes relevant points and tells the full story is infinitely better than a really bad 1.0 or 1.5 page resume any day. It’s not the length, it’s what’s on it.

“Do you have any questions for us?” This is your time to ask questions at the end of an interview (from a career newsletter) –> No, it isn’t. The time to ask questions is throughout the interview and by creating a dialogue.

Here’s a tip for cover letters to get more interviews. Use a bulleted format cover letter rather than a standard letter in paragraphs. The bulleted format is more eye catching, and is more likely to be glanced at by the hiring manager or other person assigned to sort through resumes. This format will help you get your resume seen by more people and as a result get more interviews and more job offers (from a professional resume writer).–> I disagree. It’s usually a format for generic covers which are scarcely looked at. It doesn’t allow for truly selling yourself in a way in a way unique to the job seeking industry that only my top sales experience through relationship building has taught me and that I teach to clients. These letters have often gotten compliments from hiring authorities…which means the letter was actually read. There’s a few tricks to the paragraph format that make it work quite well.

In the final paragraph of your letter, before the “sincerely” and your name, simply state “I will call you next week to check on a convenient time to speak with you in person” You’ve told the hiring manager you will be calling. Logically he should be expecting your call. For this reason you may tell the gatekeeper that “Mr. HR Manager is expecting my call this week.” This will increase your chances of getting through, and of getting the interview. (from a career coach’s blog) –> No, it won’t. This person has never made cold calls in her life. By contrast, I cold called for about 20 years of my career. And for various purposes, I still do it. So yes, logically what she says about them expecting your call is true, except that from the hiring authority’s standpoint, he’s not really expecting your call, and some of these executives are very irritated that you presumed to sound like someone they know. Rule no 1. Never play down the gatekeeper. There are ways to tell the efficacy of one, and then act accordingly. Rule no 2. HR (now Talent Management, and lately Human Capital) isn’t generally the way to go.

You can’t afford to work with a rookie or a recruiter who isn’t making it. Try to find recruiters with a minimum of 5 years in the business with at least 5 years at the same firm. Check him out on linkedin. Look for recommendations. Only work with a recruiter who puts in quality time learning what is important to you and demonstrates that he understands it. (a linked in post from an in-house recruiter)–> Oh painful. I made my first placement 2 weeks after I started 3rd -party recruiting. In the space of 3 years I’d developed an entire new industry that the whole firm adopted, so I’d left that company and started/trained a department in the new firm. I was typically, in an office of 20 people, the first or second top biller and I had a huge number of repeat and exclusive clients. To this day I know recruiters who have been around 15 + years that totally bite and still don’t get the point of what they’re supposed to be doing.

I see and hear erroneous stuff all the time. It upsets me. People who don’t know what they’re talking about are giving advice that others are listening to at the cost of their search. But there’s some really good stuff out there too, and next week I’m going to give some examples of that, but this time I can use the source!

Do You Reeeeeally Want to Just Settle for “Good Enough”, When You Could Have “Perfect”......

2011-11-02T00:27:00.001-07:00

........Well then, why just settle.....?

I was on a radio talk show out of Minnesota this morning and one of the hosts, Patty, told a story about a lady she knew that quit her job because she hated it, and then turned down two other jobs, took the third offer, and is now in a job she loves. Patty wanted to know what I thought about doing that.

I think that’s exactly what someone should do!

Because the woman in Patty’s story hated her job and quit it, obviously gave a lot of thought to what she was looking for the next one – the environment, management style, chemistry, etc, which was exactly what resulted in her turning down those two offers. They weren’t what she was looking for.

In today’s market, that doesn’t happen often. People are so desperate they want any job and will take any job. I get a lot of people saying to me “Well, I knew I shouldn’t have taken it but .......*fill in the blank issue*.....” Some people don’t even hear their instinct in order to ignore it – they just go blundering blindly into disaster.

But just like in Patty’s story, a funny thing happens when you push away what you don’t want – what you want shows up. It’s happened to several of my clients, too!

There’s a little trick I know from recruiting that cuts through any doubt or confusion and makes the answer of yes or no quite clear in about 3 minutes. So when I go through that with a client, they’re not very comfortable to come full on, face to face with the realization they won’t like it at that company.

One that comes to mind is Jane T who lives in CT and was a student in my Perfect Job University class. Jane was an architectural consultant and sort of a liaison between clients and contractors. Prior to that she’d worked with an in-house design firm on salary. What she wanted was sales for a building supply distributor or wholesaler.

Despite having no experience in sales, she was getting interest from a number of companies and one of them made her an offer. Some things were good, some not so good. I supported her decision to decline the offer. She was unsure and nervous, but she trusted me. And then about a week later, two offers came through, both exactly what she was looking for and now she had a difficult time deciding which one to take!

You have to know what you want and be willing not to settle. When you refuse to settle, your intention becomes that much clearer and paves the way for what you want to arrive. Settling happens out of nervousness and desperation and usually does nothing more than perpetuate the existing circumstances – only now you’re miserable with a paycheck.

If you’re looking for a new job, set your intention, know what you want it to look like, and keep going until it shows up. That’s what it means to take control of your career. That’s how you end up in your Perfect Job.

PS - in looking for a pic to put at the beginning, I came across the one I’ve used. It’s for this website www.DontSettle.org and you should go there right now, read the blog posts, and subscribe to the newsletter!

Do What You Love....LOVE What You Do!!!

2011-10-25T01:35:00.001-07:00

Here’s a quote I came across while reading an article. I absolutely love it, since I’ve been saying it for years and it’s the antithesis of what you’ll read and find people believing these days:

Of course, no one job is best for everyone, and everyone has their own ideas about what makes a job great. “You have to like what you’re doing or you’re not going to be successful at it,” says Emily Bennington, who helps college graduates transition into careers through her company, Professional Studio 365. At the same time, “if you’re not getting paid to do it, you’re not going to love it for very long.”

I have an exercise I put clients through that asks them to rank certain points. The sheer number of people who place money as the first point (most important) is indicative of the pervasiveness of people still desperate, still willing to take any job, even though the market is loosening up.

Truth is: Picking a job for money = your unhappiness in the long run. If you don’t like your boss, or what you’re doing or anything else, what you’re getting paid will isn’t enough to compensate for the loss of your happiness! You with me so far?

The 13th century poet, Rumi, said “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” So...say it with me....when your work is what you love, then you’ll love your work!

“Fine Judi, I get it already! But I can’t afford to be picky can I?” you say. That’s exactly what I’m saying! Let me ask you something. Did desperation look good to you back in 5th grade when someone was begging to be your friend? Or the person in college who said they’d do anything just to go out on a date with you? Well, it doesn’t look good to employers either.

Beyond that, doing a job you hate creates tension and the duality of tension (tension is at odds with the body’s natural state of being – but that’s another story for another day!) inevitably leads to illness and problems in other areas of your life.

In the process of working with me on their search, some of my clients get an offer for something they aren’t too crazy about but would take, and when we go through a few simple Q&As, the answer is clear that it would be a mistake to take that job. So they turn it down. Guess what? About a week or two later exactly what they’re looking for comes through.

It takes a lot of guts to quit a job you hate and to be picky when you’re looking for a new job. But ironically, that’s exactly what will get you where you want to go.

Being Pursued by Ruthless Collection Agencies? Stressed Out and Afraid to Pick Up the Phone?

2011-10-21T01:33:00.001-07:00

Last week I did a credit and collections teleseminar with Gerri Detweiler,

Credit.com's expert. It was a huge hit! Here are a few of the feedback

comments that came in:

It was a load of valuable information!

A very informative discussion with a leading expert on credit who gives excellent

advise [sic] and tips on credit problems and offers solutions.

This is a mere hour of your day, sit back and listen to insightful information

Wow! Such a big help! I got the books and told a friend about them too.

Gerri has 20 years of knowledge, has done over 3,000 interviews and testified

before Congress, and now will be doing a regular spot on the same show out of

New Mexico that I'm on every Thursday morning.

So I decided to make both of her offers available to everyone!

OFFER #1: Available only to 4 people -- What are you waiting for?

1 hour counseling call to review credit report or similar issues and 30 days of email question support - $125. Are you kidding? I charge $100 for a consult and $150 for a month of emails.

Check out a couple of other coaches - average 1 hour consult price is $150. These days you can't go to a psychotherapist for $125. There are a few spots left - if you were on the call, you have credit problems.

Grab one of these last spots. The value of the offer - the offer period - stuns me. This is easily worth $200 - $300. Email Gerri: gerri@ultimatecredit.com

*NOTE: Do not take advantage of this if you're in serious shape such as bankruptcy - get the books instead. This for someone who merely is having some credit with their report or collection agencies. Severe problems such as bankruptcy can't be sufficiently addressed within the scope of this offer

OFFER #2: Buy 1 get the 2nd book free!

#1 book: Debt Collection Answers: How to Use Debt Collection Laws to Protect Your Rights

Designed to help you put an end to your bill collection problems. Record numbers of people

are falling behind on their bills. If you’re one of them, you know that juggling your bills and

expenses can be stressful enough. But when collectors are harassing and threatening you,

your stress level can become more than you can handle. Stop hiding from debt collectors

and handle them head on with new knowledge of your rights! Includes:

free debt collection worksheet to keep track of every conversation you have with a debt collector.

This information can prove invaluable if the collector breaks debt collection laws.

resources such as the Collection Complaint Hotline for help dealing with a debt collector.

#2 book: Reduce Debt, Reduce Stress: Real life solutions for solving your credit crisis:

Starting with a simple effective "Debt Triage" chart, you'll learn which options for

conquering debt can work for you, including debt consolidation, credit counseling,

debt settlement, and more.

You'll then find ways to get healthier financially. The book is filled with real-life stories

that are also designed to help bring the concepts in the book to life and encourage you

along the way. Reduce Debt, Reduce Stress give you clear, step-by-step advice for

navigating tough times, helping you sleep at night by giving you the knowledge

to manage your debt.

The books are only $14.95 for both of them together. But this page is

going to go down soon. Get them today, because when the page is gone - and that might be t

his weekend - it's gone!.

Learn what to do and ease your problems before they get worse!

Go here now: http://bit.ly/GDJPTP

Handle those creditors and do happy dances instead of worrying!!!!

Happy dances all around!

Judi

Judi Perkins

www.FindthePerfectJob.com

No Finding the Right Answers? Are You Asking the Right Question?

2011-10-21T01:15:00.001-07:00

A job seeker sought me out for a consultation last week. She was feeling lost (not uncommon) about what direction she should go in. She’d not had any luck turning anything up; her resume hadn’t gotten her any response and she was wondering if she should get another degree or a certification in something and if that would help. She wanted feedback on her resume.

No response to the resume is a common problem But the solution isn’t always the same - aside from probably needing their resume fixed. Fortunately for her she sought some answers to her questions instead of just running pell mell off into some solution that seemed sensible. to her

The first problem was her resume (which she’d had done professionally.) And after all my questions, part of my solution to her was to refer her to the two people I consider very good at what they do (and I endorse very few professional resume writers). Despite having seen over half a million of them and the results people have achieved with ones I’ve done, I’ve chosen to no longer do them.

Her resume was functional rather than chronological – a good choice for her though it was poorly done. It was hard to read. The bullet points had no bullets. They were job description statements instead of ones that really highlighted what she could do and had achieved. Her jobs were concurrent but only the years were listed, not the months.

She had a hodge podgy of job titles, although a steady employment record, and an advanced degree and the result was that you couldn’t tell what she’d done, you couldn’t tell what she wanted, and the degree said “expensive” so the result was that after about 3 seconds, her resume went in the “no” pile.

It was clear to me that her strengths were leading things behind the scenes; making sense out of chaos; pulling a hodgepodge of details together into one organized, cohesive grouping and establishing a prioritized timeline; talking to the different parties and making sure that all groups were represented in a manner that was equitable, agreeable, and satisfying to those involved, etc.

The resume conveyed none of that. Nada. Zip. Zilch. So my first piece of advice was to tell her to make sure the new resume writer knew that’s what needed to be conveyed on her resume. So that handled the resume problem for now.

But an extra degree or certification, such as a PMP, wasn’t necessary – at least not now. She was more a project manager in theory rather than in an industry requiring that certification and using that title, and not every industry does. Sometimes project manager is a functional part of another title rather than a formal title and formal job description. People with this skill (and I’m not one of them) are always in demand – but you have to know that it’s your “thing” and be able to convey that.

So rather than running off to school, I counseled her on how to use Indeed.com for research to pull things up to research titles, industries, requirements etc in searching for opportunities that had those skills as the essence, but in which the industry or company or context varied. That’s considered looking horizontally rather than vertically.

The purpose of this exercise was to see what the varied titles were – and as I was doing this on Indeed while talking with her, the titles varied greatly – and if there were any trends.

Project Management positions that require PMP certifications are usually vertical – IT; setting up a complex, company-wide safety program (usually manufacturing, nuclear technology, oil & gas, etc); things like that vs a more horizontal focus, that is, companies looking for someone with project manager skills – event planning, marketing communications liason, student development coordinator – all of which pulled up and necessitated a closer look.

I showed her what steps to take, how to asses each result, etc. Based on her results, then she’d know if she needed to go back to school and she could decide if she wanted to do that.

As for the advanced degree and the random assortment of companies and titles – that was easy to pull into one coherent sentence for her to utilize by means of an explanation, but it put a great deal of emphasis on the cover letter, which is where it needs to be handled, and not through a generic one.

I see this problem with so many job seekers and I’m always thankful that the ones who seek me out for a consultation do so. I applaud them for it too because it means they’re thinking things through clearly enough to not just run knee jerk into the night in some random – but seemingly plausible – way to solve whatever they perceive to be the problem.

But if all she’d done was had her resume redone, her strengths still might not have been uncovered and highlighted. Or if she’d gone and gotten a degree or certification in something, it could have been unnecessary – especially as she didn’t even know what she wanted to do in the first place.

If she’d done that and started all over again, she still wouldn’t have had the primary questions resolved and furthermore, the hiring authorities would still be rejecting her resume, not the least because of the advanced degree and how it was interfering with their perception of her because she wasn’t shaping the perception she wanted them to have.

Finding a new job is a skill – and it’s really not a skill many job seekers have, which is why so many of them are operating at about 25%. Issues they think are one problem are actually an entirely different problem. If you haven’t properly defined the issue, whatever action you take isn’t going to provide a satisfying resolution or put you any closer to your goal.

A Couple Success Stories

2011-10-18T00:51:00.001-07:00

Judi gave me a whole new perspective on my job search. I was preparing for a phone interview and felt unsure of how to prepare. Judi gave me some solid advice and also gave me a homework assignment. I can’t tell you how surprised I was when the interviewer covered all the points Judi had discussed with me! Judi gave me a new outlook on my job search by boosting my attitude and giving me the confidence I needed. I was inspired by her wisdom, experience, and her can-do attitude. She is definitely the go-to gal to help in your job search and to land the job!

---Dee M., MT

---Pauline S., MA

Will Protection Help.......Or Not?

2011-10-14T11:58:00.001-07:00

According to Wikipedia: “Unemployment (or joblessness), as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.” Not hiring the unemployed goes back further than you might expect.

Wikipedia also says that in the 1576 Act each town was required to provide work for the unemployed. The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601, one of the world’s first government-sponsored welfare programs, made a clear distinction between those who were unable to work and those able-bodied people who refused employment.

Personally, I can argue both sides of this. In deference to the job seekers, I’ve written several articles about the stupidity of companies not hiring the unemployed.

In deference to employers, I know from having been a recruiter and now from working with my clients there are an awful lot of job seekers who think they are qualified….and aren’t.

It may well be that a few cases have to be litigated in order to set some sort of a precedent, with or without EEOC guidelines. This issue isn’t really anything new – it just has a different shape to it. So, whether it’s enacted or not is a moot point, really. Only in an ideal world will companies consider candidates based solely on their capabilities and credentials, and will job seekers take responsibility for their decisions and actions and not look for the easy way out.

6 Annoying Habits

2011-10-11T23:49:00.001-07:00

Some of my own personal pet peeves.

UNWILLINGNESS TO LEARN: Why? With so many resources out there, why do some people not invest in themselves? Or seek out new information to expand their horizon? Whatever it is you do for a living, did you know how to do that right out of the box? Of course not. What about stuff around the house? Wiring? Cooking? Gardening? Playing guitar? You read. You learned. You paid for lessons. Why are you not doing that with your job search?

RUDE HIRING AUTHORITIES: If you were referred to someone in a company, especially if that person actively and verbally referred you, and then you follow up, they should get back with you. Even if it’s to say thank you, we’re not hiring. Or thank you, please submit your resume on line. Even if they have their admin get back with you. To stay silent is rude and unprofessional.

IRRESPONSIBLE RECRUITERS: Who lie. Who send your resume out without your permission. And by the way, not doing that should go without saying, but it’s good to say it anyways: “Please make sure you contact me prior to submitting my resume.” Recruiters who submit you with your knowledge, then never return your call. Probably because the company dumped them.

PROCRASTINATION: I don’t care if it’s fear of change, you hate to do your resume, you’re afraid of the unknown. You’re the only one who has the power to change your life. It’s a choice. Your choice. You can: A) go forward into the unknown, learn, fall on your face, learn, get better, continue to learn, grow, and change your circumstances. B) complain while things get worse (because they never stay the same – you’re either moving forward or moving backward). C) choose to not do anything now and know why you’re choosing that (rather than complain) or D) drive your car off a bridge. Pick one.

WHEN I FORGET TO ATTACH THINGS: It’s an extra few minutes, more clicks, and extra email in your box. Everyone does it occasionally. I do it a lot. Although knowing I do it, I like to think I’m getting better at not doing it. I hope anyway. When I have too much going on, I tend to move too fast and drop details

CAPITALIZING THINGS THAT SHOULDN’T BE: I see it in resumes. I see it in ads. What is with this trend? It drives me nuts. This was the norm in the 1700s, but it’s 300 years later. So why are people still capitalizing things that aren’t proper nouns? (Real examples). Responsible for Project Management, Business Operations, and Organizational Change (if those are actual departments, they get capped, but my guess is they are activities, and thus they do not get capped).

1. Institute a Common Framework (The Common Framework as a title, but a common framework as a general description)
2. Responsible for the Automotive, Transportation, and Hospitality industries (again, general descriptions do not get capped)
3. Driven by the On boarding Process (I can’t begin to even understand this one)
4. Building relationships with Transformation Team Leadership, Business and Operations leads and counterparts, and Vendors (how do you build a relationship with leadership? Leaders, yes, but leadership? and by what stretch of the imagination does vendors get a capital V?)

Bad Credit? Employer Credit Check? No Worries!

2011-10-07T20:10:00.001-07:00

In addition to drug testing and often fingerprinting, companies both national and international have also required credit checks. But it’s become more the norm than the exception, because with the extreme number of people applying, companies have implemented it as a means of indicating a candidate’s character.

Unfortunately for the many who have been out of work so long they’ve destroyed their credit, a credit check strikes fear in their hearts. What if the company rescinds the job offer? It becomes a catch-22. You can’t repair your credit without a job, and you can’t get a job without good credit.

The solution for some candidates is to confess immediately. This results in eliminating them from consideration, which perpetuates their fear. To make the credit check issue virtually non-existent and remove the fear from the entire equation, let’s factor in some basic psychology.

As humans, we have the inclination to rationalize what we want. The more something is of value to us, the more we exclude from the picture anything that might impede our ability to obtain it. When you apply this to the hiring situation, it means that a job seeker, about to receive an offer, has value to the company. Consequently, the candidate’s bad credit becomes relatively unimportant to them.

By contrast, when you confess in your cover letter, you’re guaranteed not to hear from the company. When you admit to it during your first interview, you’ve just screened yourself out. Early in the process the company is still looking for reasons eliminate candidates. When you confess to having bad credit you’re not getting points for honesty; you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

Factoring in additional psychology, most people don’t like surprises, certainly companies about to extend an offer. When you combine the relative degree of value with the effect of being surprised, the solution becomes much easier: tell them about your credit, but not until they’re about to extend and offer and consequently do the credit check. You have value to them, and you’ve removed the surprise. The result? The whole matter is brushed aside.

When an offer is imminent, there are phrases that will clue you in. To begin with, you’re generally aware of when you’re in the final stages of the process, if not when you’re the final candidate. The interviewers tend to smile a lot and say positive statements that join you both together. Or they request references. Failing that, they’ll make you an offer and expect you to take a few days to consider it. Now’s the time to bring it up.

Another tip: what you say and how you say it influences how the information is received. In other words, the bigger the deal you make of it, the more attention they’ll give it. When you share the information with a smile, and in an informative, but off-handed way, you’re communicating that it’s no big deal.

Wording would be something like, “By the way, I want to let you know that during the long period I was unemployed and juggling my bills, I ruined my credit. Since you’ll be doing a credit check, will my temporary bad credit be a problem?”

Yet more psychology: notice the inclusion of the word temporary, as well as the explanation for the bad credit. You’re satisfying their unspoken question of “why?’ which is likely to put them on edge about the subject, and at the same time, you’re telling them that it’s not the normal state of affairs. All they really want to know is that you’re responsible and not a constant excuse maker.

Bad credit and bankruptcy are usually accompanied by mitigating circumstances such as lengthy unemployment or an irresponsible spouse and divorce proceedings. We’re human. Companies understand this because they’re composed of humans. So instead of losing sleep, remember that by the time the credit check happens, they’re more concerned about getting you on board.

You’re Selling a Product……YOU!

2011-10-04T05:51:00.000-07:00

I coined this phrase for one of my columns a while back, because I wanted to make the relationship clear. We all know interviewing is selling, but crazy as it sounds, it’s still a little foggy to some.

Professional sales people receive training consistently to better understand the dynamics of what makes a top salesperson – not only adept at closing sales, but adept at knowing which ones to walk away from. It’s done through knowing your product, asking questions, and building relationships.

What qualifies me to talk about sales when I’m a career coach? I’ve been on straight commission for 25 years. As a recruiter, I built relationships, had repeat clients, and my placements stuck. And along with another unrelated phone sales position, I’ve consistently been a top producer, breaking a few records along the way.

How does this relate to job hunting? That’s exactly what this blog post is about today.

knowing your product – you – and your resume is your brochure, yet 99.9% of all resumes have bullets that are job description statements and fail to differentiate that person from the hundreds of others who do the same thing.
consequently, you can’t sell yourself. You can’t even remember what you did, or else you haven’t taken the time to go back and dredge it out. Knowing – and communicating – these “kudos” in response to the answers from your questions, is essential to interviewing
asking questions, creating a dialogue – people don’t know how to do that either, because they’re so busy “selling” themselves for the job. Then, when they finally get something, they wonder how they ended up in a place that was nothing like they thought it was.

Two words: Art Sobczak. www.businessbyphone.com I recommend this guy all the time. I know his work and I’ve not only lived by it, I’ve succeeded with it. (And I get no remuneration etc from this recommendation, BTW).

You need to sign up for his newsletter. Sure, some of it won’t make sense, but there are principles in there you need to know. Let’s look at the last issue, where he made up a reality TV show. In the interest of space, I’m making Art’s newsletter quotes blue, rather than indenting, and I haven’t listed all the questions that Art had in the article.

In this reality series, 50 salespeople are herded into a 55-story magnificent office building with gold fixtures in every bathroom, to wait their turn to win the business of Joe BigCustomare, a head honcho decision maker who will award a million dollar purchase order to one lucky and skillful sales pro. (Lots of people are interviewing for the same job)

Little do the unsuspecting sales reps know, but Joe BigCustomare is really a schlub who runs a near-bankrupt snow plowing service in Phoenix, and is behind on his truck payments. Our focus is on one sales rep, Pat Savvy. Pat was the eighth sales rep to have a shot at pitching to Joe. (in our parallel situation, maybe it’s a dysfunctional company, maybe it’s not – that’s part of it, but not really my main point here)

In the first episode, the first seven all pretty much took the same approach. Each paraded in to see Joe, pulling out their laptop computer and Powerpoint presentations. They had charts, graphs, videos, reams of technical data, samples, interactive computer programs, and slickly-crafted pitches, extolling in detail each of the fine “benefits” of doing business with them. (All the job seekers tripped over themselves talking endlessly about why they were right for the job, having forgotten the job ad and not knowing much about the company or the position or how they fit)

Then, it was Pat Savvy’s turn. Pat had nothing but a yellow legal pad and a pen. And lots of questions.

Pat started out with some general questions. “So, Joe, tell me why you’re looking at this product.” (….looking to hire this position.”)

“How long have you been looking?” (umm…ditto)

Then Pat go into need- and problem-related questions:
“What problems will it solve for you?” (”What are the top priorities that need to be addressed in this position?”)

“Who else is affected by them?” (the effect of the problems/ solution/ interaction with other departments in the company)

“What is the return on investment that you’re looking for?” (what are the goals you’re looking to achieve in this position and in what time frame?)

“Is this product going to replace another one?” (how long was the previous person here?)

Then Pat asked about the decision-making process: “What three criteria will you weigh most heavily in choosing your vendor?” (what’s the decision making process? eg, how many interviews?)

“Who else will be involved in the decision making process?” (yipper skipper, same question)

“Tell me about them and what they might be looking for.” (what are the most important factors in the person you hire? then ask it of every person with whom you interview)

“Are you already leaning toward one salesperson over another?” (where are you in your decision making process? and where am I within that plan?)

“When, specifically will the decision be made?” (as in, when are you planning on extending an offer and having someone on board?)

Long story short, Pat didn’t want the job. All his questions revealed Joe was a phony. He saved himself a lot of misery, didn’t he? And if Joe hadn’t been a phone, Pat would have known exactly how to take his services and address Joe’s needs rather than just talking blah blah blah, which is like shooting arrows into a dark closet. You can’t see the target.

So follow this link to go to www.businessbyphone.com, and sign up for Art’s newsletter now. It will help you understand the sales process, enhance your interview skills and educate you on how to follow up. Like I said, if professional sales people need help, what about you – who is also selling, and that’s not even your career?
____________________________________

Art Sobczak provides how-to tips for prospecting and sales using the phone techniques that are applicable to job seekers that might not be advertised and set themselves apart from everyone else who is just sending out resumes. Learn how to follow up, ask questions, find out the buyer’s needs and sell to those. Get free tips, script examples, watch videos and more. www.BusinessByPhone.com and www.TelesalesBlog.com

Interviewing: Speak Up and Find Out!

2011-10-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t looked for a job in a while, skydiving might be preferable to interviewing. But there are a few simple steps that will remove the fear and give you the confidence you’d otherwise wish you had.

Common sense says you need to research the company via their website, brochures or the library, although you’d be surprised at how many skip the obvious. Basics also include bringing a few extra copies of your resume to hand out if necessary, arriving early, dressing professionally, and knowing what you have to offer the company.

But those are no-brainers, or they should be. What even experienced interviewers often fail to do is ask, in detail, about the position. So get away from the job description and dig into the actuality of that job in that company, as it stands right now. Find out why the position is open and how long it’s been vacant. Ask also how long the previous person was there. If that person was there less than two years, find out how long the previous person was there. If both are short, chances are you won’t be there long either.

You want to know what the first priority to be addressed is, if there’s a time frame for accomplishing it, and if so, what it is. Is it a realistic one? And overall, in what condition is the job you’ll be picking up? Is it maintenance? Troubleshooting and clean up? Smooth, accelerated growth? And how do the answers sit with you?

The toughest thing about interviewing is that you need to find out about the position and sell yourself as the one for the job – concurrently. That means you’re going after it before you even know if you want it. Process it later. It’s easier to close the door than open it when it’s too late. In the meantime, to stay in control of your career, if what you’re hearing is agreeable to you, then show enthusiasm and throw the stiff formality out the window.

Interviews should be dialogues, not question and answer sessions. You can’t change the subject, but you can ask a question about the topic that’s on the table. This gives you additional insight into the position and what they’re looking for. It also helps what part of your background you want to talk about, leaving you less likely to ramble on, hoping something will be impressive.

You can also ask for clarification if something sounds a little…….off. But pay attention to your tone of voice and your body language. A furrowed brow, a puzzled tone, and a curled lip are much more off putting than an interested tone, a smile, and a relaxed open manner. The latter shows genuine interest in the details. The former can sometimes be construed as the mark of a difficult person.

Pretend you’re interviewing with a friend’s company, and it’s just a formality. How would you be sitting? Sounding? What would your word choices be? Because self confidence has a completely different look and feel to it, and companies don’t want to hire desperate people. They want to be specifically chosen for who they are and what they offer. Just like you do.

Resume Bullets: Informative or Boring?

2011-10-01T14:07:00.001-07:00

The most problematic part of a resume for people seems to be crafting their accomplishments. The confusion between an accomplishment and a responsibility is the difference between generating excitement by selling what you can do, and making a bland statement that elicits the question “So what?” It’s the difference between being invited in for an interview….and getting no response at all.

A responsibility reads as if it was taken from your job description. It fails to distinguish you from any other person that held that title before you, or holds that title at any other company. It says your function, but it doesn’t speak to your ability to perform that function.

By contrast, an accomplishment is what differentiates you from any other person that does, or has done, that job. It not only indicates how well you perform your job, but what type of person you are.

How does a factual accomplishment reveal something as subtle and subjective as a personality trait? Measured with the length of time you were at a company, your number of accomplishments indicates the degree to which you are a go-getter. It says if you’re motivated to go beyond the average job, and how much pride you take in your work.

It tells the hiring authority if you look for problems and find ways to solve them, or if you are content with saying, “That’s good enough.” And it also tells him how well you know your job by how well you solved those problems. Let’s look at an example. If you’re a teacher, a responsibility might read:

Developed innovative, education-based curriculum

Which leaves the following questions:

For what classes did you develop a curriculum?
Why did it need to be developed?
What was going on before it was developed?
What was the result of the development?

Interviewers want answers, not questions. Since the responsibility statement doesn’t indicate how well you performed your job, it’s easier not to invite you in for an interview. Interviewers don’t know if you have accomplishments hiding behind your responsibilities. They assume you don’t have anything to say, because you didn’t say it. They don’t care that perhaps you didn’t know how to say it. If your resume doesn’t sell you, it’s not their problem. It’s yours.

By contrast, the accomplishment version of the same statement might read:

Created and implemented innovative, education-based curriculum that engaged students more actively, resulting in 75% of student body raising grades by average of a full point

This says you’re worth talking to. Then at the interview, it opens the field for the interviewer to ask you for more information about what types of programs you implemented and how you implemented them

An accomplishment is a results-oriented statement. It shows the benefit of hiring you by telling what you can do. What you’re saying is, “I know what you want done, and I’ve done that. I’ve done it successfully for my previous company; therefore, I can do it successfully for you. When you hire me, you aren’t risking an unknown. You’re hiring someone who has a proven ability to do the job successfully.”

That’s what interviewers want to know. That’s what they want to hear. They don’t want to wonder, and they don’t want to figure it out. If your resume doesn’t indicate what you’re capable of, the chance of an interview in which to sell yourself is slim.

If you’ve been sending out resumes and getting nothing in response, take a look at your bullets under each company name. Do they just say what you did, or do they say how well you did it?

You’re selling a product, and the product is you. The interviewer is the buyer, and your resume is, in effect, your marketing brochure. But if the buyer isn’t interested, you can’t close the sale. And that’s your problem, not theirs.

Poor Grammar = Poor Impression!

2011-10-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

I don’t care about casual communication between friends, but resumes, cover letters, websites……That there’s a plethora of applicants for almost every job is no secret. But A company needs only one reason to jettison you from consideration, and this one can be prevented easily.

I’ve become increasingly concerned about the ignorance of Americans – not those who have learned English as a second language, but native English speakers – regardless of race, income level, schooling or other determining factors.

The number of people who read seems to be decreasing in direct proportion to the number of kids growing up with portable DVDs, and iPods. Television has become the preferred babysitter for children and the most effective way for adults to anesthetize themselves after a day’s work. Teachers, overworked and underpaid, seem to be fighting a losing battle – or are some perpetuating it?

These days I see egregious (horrible, outrageous, astoundingly bad) grammatical errors on resumes and cover letters, web sites, signs, emails to me…..regardless of management or income level. Job hunters write asking me for “advise” (it should be “advice.” “Advice” is the noun; “to advise” is a verb).

Some of these are written by people who are in the job market hoping to be invited in for an interview, and their paperwork is full of punctuation and grammatical mistakes. Were they careless? Or do they not know? Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe the hiring authority doesn’t know the difference either.

The other day I saw the back of a company shirt that said: providing quality service since 10 years. A company shirt? How many were printed and are worn by employees who walk around advertising that that particular company has someone in an upper-level management position who didn’t catch the error or didn’t know the difference?

Here’s a sign I saw in a store a few weeks ago: We do not except credit cards. (It should be “accept”.)

Last week a senior level manager emailed me. He confused “its” and “it’s” in three different places. (”Its” is possessive. “It’s” is the contraction of “it is”.)

Here’s another example: I do product testing for a research panel. The product came with a slip of paper that said: “This commitment covers not discussing this product or it’s usage with others outside your home.” (It should have been “its”)

Here’s what really bugs me: the new rule that seems to have come into effect in the last year – if in doubt, add an apostrophe. So what’s happened is that people all over America have lost the understanding of the difference between plural and possessive (possessive gets an apostrophe, plural does not).

Your resume and your cover letter are not just a synopsis of your background. They are not just an introduction of you when you hope to be considered for an interview. First and foremost they are a brochure, and they are selling a product, and the product is you. If you wouldn’t go to an interview in blue jeans, don’t send your cover letter and resume with mistakes to a prospective employer.

If you were shopping for a new car, what would you think if all the Honda or Lexus or Toyota brochures had apostrophes in the wrong place? Or misspelled words? Or glaring grammatical errors? Would you know?

What about a flyer from your local grocery store? Or a promotional piece from your state representative?

On some level it’s going to make a difference as to what you think of that company or person. If they aren’t careful enough about their literature or sales material, what else don’t they pay attention to? Don’t rely on Microsoft Word’s ABC/Grammar checker. It isn’t able to discern if a word is spelled correctly but used out of context. The grammar checker won’t help you unless you have a fundamental understanding of grammar to begin with. In fact, if you defer to the grammar checker’s advice, you’ll probably increase your number of mistakes.

An excellent reference book – and a funny one – to keep on hand is The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. It’s easy to digest, has clever illustrations full of personality, and the examples make learning fun.

Don’t tell yourself good grammar doesn’t matter. Don’t tell yourself that your skills are more important. Above all, don’t tell yourself that everyone speaks poorly these days and the hiring authority won’t know or care. The ability to communicate, written and spoken, is of paramount importance – certainly in business. And it only becomes more valuable as fewer people are able to demonstrate it.

Resume Distribution Services = Waist of Your Money!

2011-10-01T12:00:00.001-07:00

Resume distribution services are the biggest scam going. But they’re seductive, aren’t they? Only fifty bucks to reach thousands and thousands of recruiters and employers! How can you miss? Easily. What the blaster services have going for them is that potential customers, like you, respond to their marketing from your purely assumptive point of view, rather than applying logic or viewing it from the recipient’s.

To you, the odds sound tough to miss. Thousands? If even a few hundred respond, think of all the interviews you’ll have! You’ve also assumed that the service has done their homework, carefully researching the validity of each address. And perhaps even that they’ve forged relationships with these recruiters and employers, who are each, in turn, eagerly awaiting the next “blast” of resumes from the service. Fallacy, fallacy, fallacy.

The email addresses aren’t qualified. Usually they’ve been harvested, even if it’s from a legitimate source like The Kennedy Guide to Executive Recruiters. Consequently a large percentage bounce back, and for those addresses that are legitimate, your resume is viewed as spam, and more often than not, simply deleted.

Let’s start with a look at the Kennedy Guide, an extremely valuable tool, and one, by the way, that you can find in the reference section of any library, or purchase on line access to for $60.00. Got that? For about the same price, you can have the real thing and not the imitation. And even so, you need the most recent edition because the info in it goes out of date quickly.

Additionally, I know one retained search firm that put a general catch-all email address in there. They received so many resumes from it – many from blasting services – that every day or so, they just deleted the entire inbox. Better you use the guide for the other wealth of information it provides, and call them to qualify their specialties and geographical area of concentration. You can get the guide here: www.kennedyinfo.com. It’s absolutely worth the $60.00 online access price.

Employers who are actively hiring, receive enough unqualified resumes from their ads for specific positions without having to take the time to look at ones that come through a blind service for which they didn’t pay. These companies already know that those resumes have nothing to do with their business or their hiring needs of the moment, 99% of the time. For the other 1%, it’s not worth bothering to look.

Recruiting firms too, receive massive amounts of resumes each week. And while many firms cover multiple industries and disciplines, their data base is still probably 75% unusable. I know; I was a recruiter for 20 years and was at several firms, both contingency and retained. While it’s possible that some firms download the resumes from services, they simply go right into the database. If you’re thinking the recruiters actually see them and study them when they arrive, you’re wrong.

As a further example, because of my URL and email address, I’m on the list of many of these services. So a few times per week, I get these resumes. I’m not a recruiter. I don’t collect them, send them, or have any interest in them, unless they’re my client, and my clients are job seekers, not employers. So if I’m fooled enough to open the email, once I see what it is, I delete it.

Faxing your resume is no different. Fax spam is almost as insidious as email spam. Roofing companies, mortgage refinancing firms, stock tips, local restaurant menus, it goes on and on. Who looks at the fax spam? It’s usually tossed right in the trash with nary a glance, unless, perhaps, you’re standing there waiting for a fax.

This is what you’re paying for. Your resume is being sent to addresses that aren’t valid and aren’t qualified. It’s being send to, and received by, people who didn’t ask for it, don’t look at it, and don’t care. If it still sounds too good to be true, remember what your mom told you when you were a kid: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. File resume distribution services under that heading.

Give a Clue (and Get more Results!!!)

2011-09-30T06:20:00.000-07:00

You’re selling a product and the product is you, so much of what I teach involves advanced sales techniques as they apply to job hunting. That’s because job seekers are too “me” focused when the buyer, which is the hiring company, wants to know what’s in it for them.

When the buyer is about “me” and the job seeker is about “me,” the interview won’t be very successful because both parties are thinking “what’s in it for me?” They’re neglecting to take into consideration the other side of the equation. That’s okay for the company to do, but it’s not okay for you.

Failing to consider the other person’s side extends to following up on resumes. “Hi my name is Mary Johnson. I sent you my resume last week, and I was wondering if you received it.” The response, invariably, is “If you sent it, we have it.” And Mary hangs up the phone frustrated, no wiser than before she called.

The reason is that she was expecting the person to remember her. Failing that, she expected the person to invest their time in finding the answer. The odds are very low on both. Had she said, “Hi my name is Mary Johnson. I have 10 years experience in marketing, specialize in product rollouts and spent last summer in Italy. I sent in my resume for the Director of Marketing position and was wondering if you’d received it?” She’d have had better luck receiving an answer.

The reason this method is more successful is because first, she clued the person in as to the position to which she was connected. Secondly assuming product rollout experience was a requirement in the ad, she indicated she had relevant experience. And third, she’s mentioned something that probably has made her stand out among the others who sent in a resume.

The memorable fact doesn’t need to be related to the position, but it does need to be something unique so it’s likely to cause a bell to go off. Odds are very few resumes listed spending any time in Italy. And lastly, she hasn’t assumed anything. She’s made helping her convenient for the person with whom she’s speaking by giving that person a clue as to who she is.

Another common example of failing to give a clue occurs in emails. People have an annoying habit of hitting reply and typing their message without giving any thought to the subject line. Consequently, it’s assumed that the sender’s name is sufficient enough to get the email read. The subject line is there for a reason: to indicate the contents of the email message.

When the recipient is making decisions as to which emails to read first, the sender’s email may be deleted, designated as not urgent, or mistakenly filed without ever being looked at. If you’re emailing with a hiring authority during the hiring process, this can cost you time, being heard, lack of recognition or worse, a bit of annoyance – connected to you – every time they read your emails. Additionally, when a thread continues with the same subject but the topic changes, it’s difficult to find the email you’re looking for.

In the message people commit the same violation they do in the phone example above. They fail to fill in the circumstances or tag themselves to facilitate identification. They behave as if the person they’re emailing doesn’t email with anyone else or has been sitting at their desk, waiting for this particular email.

In the Q & A teleseminars I do, I frequently ask people to email me with more information, and what I receive is an email that requires I either send it back and ask the person to refresh my memory as to which question they asked, or go looking for it myself.

Pay attention. Think your communication through from the other person’s viewpoint. Don’t take it for granted that they know who you are. Wouldn’t you rather your name be connected to appreciation rather than annoyance?