“You don’t have to be the first to be a success. You don’t have to be unique. You don’t have to be revolutionary. What you do have to do, however, is give people value. Give them a reason to buy from you instead of from somebody else.”
Tim Berry, author and founder of multiple companies, writing in the Entrepreneur.com Blog Network, on “Startups: Unique and Revolutionary, or Forget It?”
This statement is very apt for the job seeker, and for those already in a company, and seeking to accelerate their career growth. The way to get noticed, and ultimately to get hired or awarded a new opportunity, is to give prospective employers value, and a reason to buy YOU instead of someone else.
The only reason I hire someone is because I firmly believe you will solve the problems I face, and achieve the results I need. This is the ‘value’ I seek.
Expressing how many years you have been doing something, all of the credentials you have, and the various duties you have performed over the years doesn’t equate to value. Those are what the unimaginative candidates fall back on, often because:
Unless you get very good at expressing your value in all venues, in a very natural, conversational way that isn’t ‘pushy’, you will always be left wondering why others get hired for the best jobs, or get awarded the most interesting opportunities for which you really wish you had been considered.
One key to doing this is to build a visibility campaign. I wrote about 7 ways you could start to go about this in my most recent issue of Career Tips. Write to me at John@JHACareers.com if you would like a copy, or you can review the contents and selected articles from past issues and sign yourself up at
http://www.JHACareers.com/NewsletterBL.htm
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“I want …”
Your marketing message, your résumé, your cover letter, etc. should all be focused on what THE OTHER PERSON wants, not on what you want. Your goals will come out in the process of the discussion, but you want to be sure that the emphasis is on why I as the listener or reader should be excited about helping you achieve those goals.
One example is the “Objective Statement” many candidates use to open their résumés. An objective is all about you, not about what you can do for me. For a more complete discussion of why these are counterproductive on your résumé, see http://www.jhacareers.com/ObjectiveInResume.htm.
Here’s one example, from a real résumé I received:
To utilize acquired skills leading and supporting cutting edge system development and implementation efforts to further my management career within the Insurance/Financial Services Industry.
What message does that send to the hiring manager who reads it?
Including what you want somewhere in your message is OK, as long as you do it in a way that shows why you would be an outstanding candidate for it - then it’s making it interesting to the listener / reader. It’s equipping them to know how they could help you or refer you.
Just be sure to do it later in your message, after you’ve engaged them.
The best result comes if you only get to what you want in response to the other party’s follow-up question…
“I’m a results-oriented professional…”
or this variation:
“Proven results in…”
These are used all the time in résumés and cover letters, or even in oral 30 second pitches…and they do absolutely nothing for you.
Remember the adult voices on all the Charlie Brown specials, how they were purposely designed not to be understood? That’s basically what empty phrases like these sound like; all the other party reads or hears is “blah, blah, blah.”
The problem is that these are just statements that you produce results, instead of demonstrations. It’s easy to simply say you produce results or are results-oriented, and saying it doesn’t make it true, or make me any more likely to believe it.
Instead, give concrete examples of the results you produce. Let the readers and listeners conclude from your examples that you are ‘results-oriented’, instead of trying to hit them over the head with it.
For example, if I was trying to show someone that I was “results-oriented,” instead of:
“I have proven results in helping my clients with their job searches.”
This would be much more powerful:
“Kevin had been out of work for 2 years, and within a few months of working together was back at the job and pay he deserved. And a simple technique I showed him earned him an additional $10,000 of base salary.”
or
“Tom had 15 months of interviews without a single offer. Within 1 week of attending my Winning Interviews course, he was weighing 2 competitive job offers.”
So strike empty statements that say you have results from your repertoire, and instead show the proof of the results.
And have a Happy New Year!
“I can work in any industry”, or providing in your message 2 or 3 different industries as your targets.
Candidates who say this may think they are keeping their search open, but they are actually closing it down. It has the same problem as “I have transferable skills” - it sounds like you are unfocused, and are willing to work in any industry if I’ll just consider you for a job.
You might think you are displaying confidence through your willingness to apply your skills in a variety of industries. Exactly the opposite is true. You come across as lacking the confidence to present a specific target industry, perhaps even a bit desperate.
Think niche marketing. The strongest marketing efforts are tailored very specifically to a target. The same is true in your search - the more focused you appear to be, the more likely it is that I will pay attention and be engaged by your message.
This doesn’t mean you can’t be open to other industries, jobs, etc., but you will never get my attention if you start by providing a laundry list of what you might be open to. Once you have my attention, and the conversation leads to a discussion about another industry, type of company, job, then you can pursue that with me. If you never get my attention in the first place, you will never have the chance to have that conversation.
In my travels, I get to hear and see a lot of elevator pitches, marketing messages, sales pieces, cover letters, résumés, engagement bios, etc. Most of these include phrases that range from meaningless to unhelpful to seriously detrimental to any attempt to market yourself or your practice.
Over the next several weeks, I’m going to publish my thoughts on many of these. I invite your comments, and suggestions as to other phrases that frustrate you. Drop me an email at John@JHACareers.com, or simply insert your phrase in a comment here, and I’ll promote it to a new topic.
OK, here’s the first:
“I have transferrable skills.”
Ask yourself what the potential hiring manager or networking contact is hearing.
“I hope someone will consider me for something that my skills might apply to.”
or
“I don’t have confidence to present myself directly for a role I might want, so I’ll simply say my skills are transferable.”
or
“I’m not willing to commit to any one thing.”
Not exactly awe-inspiring messages, are they?
Instead of saying this, come up with a description of the type of problem you can solve with those ‘transferrable skills’, as relevantly as you can make it to your ideal target area, and then talk about that!
Here’s a quote from a column by Michael Port, the NY Times bestselling author of Book Yourself Solid, in the December issue of Entrepreneur magazine. The title of the column: “Keep Your Cards To Yourself.”
“Don’t share your business card. Take some contrarian sales advice: Never give out another business card again (unless someone asks for it, that is). Ask them for their card without reaching for yours. Simply ask permission to follow up with a call or e-mail on a specific date and/or time. Imagine what happens when on that very day (and perhaps even at the precise time) you follow through and do exactly as promised….Your first interaction with this new person is based entirely around an experience when you’ve made a promise and fulfilled it.”
Michael makes 2 critical points here that exactly match what I tell my clients:
1. It doesn’t matter how many cards you give out. People who wander around a networking event giving out lots of business cards rarely are effective networkers.
What matters is the cards you get, from people with whom you’ve had enough of a conversation to build some R&R (rapport and relationship).
How much R&R?
My guideline is that it should be enough that I feel confident this person will take my call and agree to meet me for coffee.
2. Whenever you have an important interaction with someone (a 1-on-1 networking meeting, a job interview, a sales call, or even just sending a letter requesting a meeting), leave yourself with both an action step YOU will take, and an explicitly communicated time frame when you will take that step.
This lets you do exactly what Michael is suggesting above, build the opportunity for interactions based on you making a promise and then fulfilling it.
When you meet with me, and tell me that you will call me on Monday to follow up on that contact you promised me, I may get busy and forget what you told me. However, when you do, in fact, call me on Monday as you promised, I will remember it. I will see you as someone who makes and keeps promises, the sort of person I want to work with.
Keep both of these points front of mind in everything you do.
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Many job seekers make the mistake of thinking that the holiday season is a terrible time to be looking. They assume that no one is going to hire during this season, and that they are wasting their time. As a result, they put their search on hold from Thanksgiving until New Year’s.
That’s great news for those candidates who go ahead anyway…reduced competition!
This is actually one of the best times for networking. While it may be a bit more difficult to get meetings with people because of vacation schedules, those that you do get are likely to be more productive than usual. Networking contacts will tend to be in more of a holiday spirit, more relaxed and more open to helping you out.
While some hiring managers might put hiring decisions on hold until the new year, others may actually be anxious to fill that key position while they still can count it against 2009’s personnel budget! If that head count I’ve been permitted to fill might evaporate in 2010, I guarantee you I am going to work hard to make an offer before the 31st!
Just because it’s the holiday season doesn’t mean that I have less of a need to fill my critical openings. In fact, I may have more incentive to fill it so that I’m not stuck doing all of the work myself when I could instead be enjoying the holidays with my own family.
And even if you are networking in to a situation where any hiring decision is going to be deferred until after year end, don’t you think it will help your case to be first in line because of your persistence now, rather than to wait to try to make your presence known when all the other candidates start looking again in January?
It’s OK to take some vacation time from your search, and to enjoy the holidays yourself. Just be sure you are doing it because you want to enjoy some well-earned rest and relaxation, and not through the misguided belief that this is a bad time to be looking!
And for more on how to make the most of those networking efforts, see these articles:
http://www.JHACareers.com/ArticlesNetworkingBL.htm
Addendum:
At a meeting of a local networking group, someone stated that while this may be a good time of the year for networking, no one makes offers.
As a matter of fact, one of my clients received the job offer she wanted this week, for a position she was only made aware of around Thanksgiving.
Another client was approached this week by his former boss about a job, and was basically told that if he wants it, it’s his.
So don’t let the holiday season pass you by! Get out there and make the most of it…
A question I received
“I’ve got a pretty good job right now. As a Contractor working for a Recruiting company, I am “rented” to a new startup company. The work scope is pleasing; I like, and do well at what they want. Work is solid for at least another six months I believe.
Question: How much time and effort to I use towards another position? It would be difficult to find a better “Fit”; the pay is pretty good too. I was unemployed for over a year prior to this engagement. That, I pray, never happens again. I want to have immediate options if this assignment goes south.”
My answer
You need to create a plan to conduct a search, while juggling the current job, so that you don’t find yourself starting over again in 6 months.
Possibilities that strike me:
The 1st option will be dependent on:
The 2nd option will depend on satisfying the client in such a way that the recruiting company sees you as offering great value to their ongoing clients. It requires you to put energy into creating the visibility within the recruiting company that leads them to remember you’re out there and not want to lose you from their stable.
The 3rd option depends on networking within the recruiting company to create / unearth an opportunity there.
The 4th option requires that you:
What do other readers think? Post comments with your own thoughts on this.
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What would you do with this situation?
I spoke at a Career Campaign event in NYC last year. A week or 2 afterwards I had a long conversation with one of the attendees. He complained about how difficult it was to find interviews, and I asked what he had been doing to move his search forward.
“Going to events like this one.”
I then pointed out that he had heard me talk for 45 minutes on exactly what made a killer resume, yet the resume he had just sent me had clearly not been revised to take any of my points into account.
“I can’t remember everything you said.”
It turned out he had come to a 4 hour career event, with 6 guest speakers sharing a great deal of expertise, and hadn’t even taken any notes! When I pointed that out, he agreed that it would be a good idea if he started bringing a pad and pen to future meetings.
Now only a small percentage of candidates are as clueless as this person, but a very high percentage have never learned how to market themselves all that well.
A career search is a sales and marketing campaign, and your job as a candidate is to be the EVP of Sales and Marketing for You, Inc. That is a mindset that many candidates have difficulty mastering, or sometimes even accepting.
So don’t worry so much about the competition, just focus on doing everything you can to market YOURSELF as effectively as you can.
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This is the question that was posed:
“The more you know about a company’s culture, the easier it can be to tell what what you can offer to them if there is a match. I wanted to know how you would go about finding which company is the right fit in an industry:
My response
Face to face networking doesn’t require attending expensive events. It would be a good idea to get involved with a professional association or other networking group focused on your industry / job target, but that is only a piece of networking. True networking is 1-on-1 meetings with people outside of events, where you have their undivided attention for 30 minutes or more to equip them to understand your target, and why you would make an outstanding contribution there.
Attending selected events where you will meet the right sorts of people is a great way to make initial connections to some of the right people, so that you can then follow up and schedule those 1-on-1 meetings. You can also make connections through:
And, of course, you can go on interviews and ask probing questions about the way the company operates to establish what sort of culture they have.
I’m often asked about how to overcome age-ism. Here’s a representative question
“What is frustrating these days is that there many people (Over the age of 65) with excellent experience, knowledge, and backgrounds in their respective areas of expertise but cannot find a suitable position.
Employers, (who use younger recruiters) discreetly discriminate against older workers. Somehow or other they think that we will get up and quit after a short period of time.
Due to our current economy, many older people want to work well into their 70’s. How do you overcome or convince these younger people that we the older worker) want to work and contribute to the over all success of the organization.”
My answer
One group you might want to look into is “Grey Hair Management.” They specialize in outplacement & career coaching services for ‘older’ workers.
Looking for work over 65 is always more difficult for full time work at professional levels. The issues employers are concerned about with every older candidate are that much more of a worry for them when you are past what most would consider a ‘normal’ retirement age. The problem isn’t the age itself, it’s the characteristics that are assumed to come along with the age – employers are worried:
The more you can counter those issues right up front in the way you present yourself, the more success you will have. Come up with clear stories to deal with each of these issues. Take a close look at your appearance:
Another option is to look into consulting / contracting, where the age and expertise you bring to the table may be considered an advantage. I’ve been working with one older client to define and build an independent consulting practice, and he has quickly become quite well known in his niche, is frequently called on to speak at a variety of specialized conferences, and now has a thriving practice.
Shelley asked about tips for young people just starting out - a great topic! I’ll start the ball rolling here, and then you can add your own thoughts to mine.
First off, whether or not you admire your boss, you can learn a lot from him or her. Observe what your boss does well, and what you think could be done better. I learned a lot from my early bosses about management, often as reverse role models showing me things I resolved never to do myself when I was a manager.
Watch carefully how different people operate at all different levels in the organization - your co-workers, peers in other departments, your superiors, senior people not in your chain of command, etc. Watch for communication styles, how they conduct or participate in meetings, ways they write memos and emails, how they direct others, etc. Look for the best (and the worst) of those, and examine in what ways those differ from your own style. Figure out what you can do to emulate the best behaviors.
Pay particularly close attention to the next level up in the chain of command - the level to which you would next aspire. One of the best ways to position yourself for promotion is to model the behavior of those at that level.
Get to know the people around you. Don’t get sucked into the circles of those who are negative - you become negative by association. Seek out mentors.
Have deep conversations with your boss. Find out what your boss is most concerned about, what keeps him up at night, what goals are most important to her. People often forget that their boss has goals, just as they do. You have a great opportunity to build influence with your boss if you get to know his priorities, and can then find ways to approach your own work to better align with those.
Think about where you want to be in 5 years, and what skills and experience you need to develop to get there. Then think about what projects you could take on to develop those. Make your boss an ally in doing that. Have career discussions regularly with her to focus on the long term, and options for how you can get the types of experience that will foster your development.
And don’t forget to work on your own personal development. Take courses. Seek out opportunities to run meetings, and to make presentations. Put special emphasis on communication skills, both written and oral. Those are going to make a huge difference in your career. Consider joining a Toastmasters club or similar organization.
OK, I’ll stop there for now. What suggestions do you have to add into the mix?
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I’m interested in knowing what my readers would like to hear about in this Career Accelerator blog. Either drop me a note at John@JHACareers.com with your suggestions, or just post a comment to this entry.
I’ve posted on a diverse range of issues around marketing yourself, including
So tell me, what are your burning issues that you would like to know more about?
And don’t forget that you can subscribe to my RSS feed at:
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And you will find many useful articles on my website at:
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OK, I’m probably dating myself here…remember those Wendy’s commercials in the 1980’s, when a little old lady ordered competititors burgers, only to exclaim “Where’s the beef?”
I’m reminded of those ads when I see resumes that say things like “results-oriented”, “highly motivated”, “outstanding communication skills”, and one of my favorites, “proven results in …”
These are empty phrases that only detract from your message. Your resume and the statements you make should demonstrate these things; if you have to specifically say them, then you aren’t doing your job in what you are presenting.
Any time I see “Proven results in …”, my reaction is that I’ll believe it when I see the proof. And if you are showing me the proof, then why do you need to tell me you have “proven results”?
There is also a downside to adjectives. Any time you have to tell me up front you have something, instead of just demonstrating it, you reduce your credibility. When you tell me, for example, about your “outstanding” achievement, you risk coming across as a braggart, and the reader is inclined to be skeptical. On the other hand, if you simply present an achievement that is truly outstanding, omiting the adjective, readers are led to conclude it really is outstanding, and then you get much more credit for it in their minds.
So next time you are sitting down to compose your powerful description of the package you have to offer, delete all of the empty phrases and replace them with demonstrations.
Instead of saying you are “results-oriented”, show me results and let me decide you are results-oriented.
In place of “proven results”, show the results themselves.
Instead of “outstanding communication skills”, give an example of those skills you are so proud of.
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Comment from one of my readers:
“I say “WOW” to the comment “have the courage to walk away from the position you don’t want”. (From Career Tips, March 2009 - email me at John@JHACareers.com for a copy.)
I find it interesting that one wouldn’t know if they wanted the position prior to the interview. However, I have found that once you’re on the job you may find out the position isn’t what was described and therefore not what you want. In the current economy it’s an employer’s market where they have hundreds of applicants, so one may feel lucky, blessed or otherwise gifted to have been selected for a position.
I’ve heard it’s easier to find a job when one already has a job. Do you subscribe to this philosophy and if so, wouldn’t it be better to take a not so perfect position and network in house to get to the position you want or continue to seek the desired position while you’re already in a position?”
My Answer:
No, I do not. That was the thinking years ago when layoffs were much less common.
If you don’t have a job because you got fired, or if you have a history of short duration jobs, or if you have a long gap (at least 6 months), then it’s a different story.
Generally, it is much easier to find a job when you aren’t employed, because then you have all of the prime working hours to devote to your search. The most effective technique for job search is having lots of 1-on-1 networking meetings, mostly with people who are employed, and which therefore tend to take place during the working day.
If your goal is to get into a particular company, then an effective technique can be to find a job that is more or less a lateral move to get in the door, prove yourself there, and then work to get into the job you want. This can be done whether you are already employed or not.
The challenge is that if the position isn’t one you are truly interested in, it will be harder to sell yourself for it. Hiring managers want someone who is passionate about their work, and who are therefore more likely to put in the extra time and effort when needed. If you don’t have that passion, it will be hard to fake it. This is doubly hard if you are applying for a position beneath what you might qualify for, as then the hiring manager will be suspicious that you are just taking it to get in the door and make a move as soon as possible.
I’ve worked with more than one client who had been out of work 2 years, and by showing them how to market themselves effectively (with a strong emphasis on networking), within a few months both had landed at jobs they were thrilled with, right back at the responsibility and compensation levels they had been at before their layoffs.
I’ve had a lot going on lately, so I haven’t been as diligent about posting. I welcome your comments on any issues frustrating you about your career or career search, and then I’ll address those issues here.
In the meanwhile, you can listen to this quick tip on effective phone interviewing (from the candidate’s point of view):
I find that a large percentage of job seekers have misconceptions about networking that hold them back in their search. Take this email I received, for example:
“I have been out of work for 7 months and I have not been on one interview for a job. I am networking, I have joined groups such as Linkedin, Yahoo at RUMC, and etc… However, searching for jobs seems to be leading me nowhere and time is running out. I’m thinking at this point that I need a headhunter to help me in my search. Growing weary!”
Don’t confuse attending networking events or sending emails to on-line groups with networking! Sure, they are an element of it, but a very small one. The truly effective career search networking comes from one-on-one in person meetings with as many contacts as possible.
Don’t assume you are advancing your search by emailing your resume to everyone you know. In fact, you are probably setting your search back several steps.
Here’s how I responded to the question above:
You say you are networking. What exactly are you doing?Are you spending most of your time networking on-line and going to networking events, or are you meeting with people 1-on-1 to equip them to understand exactly what you want to do and why you would be an outstanding candidate for it?
How often do your networking meetings result in a referral to someone else you can talk to? If you are doing it the right way, my experience is that you can expect a 100% or better replacement ratio – that, on average, for every 10 contacts you meet with, you end up with at least 10 new contacts to talk to.
If you want to work with headhunters, that’s fine, though you will have to ‘sell’ yourself to them just as you would to a new networking contact or hiring manager. Make sure you are working with the best headhunters – here’s an article that may help with that:
http://www.JHACareers.com/ArticlesRecruiters.htm
And for anyone who wants a primer on how to go about really effective career search networking, read these articles:
http://www.JHACareers.com/ArticlesNetworkingBL.htm
In my August issue of Career Tips, I wrote about the benefits of volunteering to make yourself more marketable, and some potential traps to avoid. (If you would like a copy, just drop me a note at John@JHACareers.com)
Another form of ‘volunteering’ is the unpaid internship or ’sample’ consulting project. Basically, you are giving a prospective employer something for free to demonstrate the value you can add. Be sure to make this a quid pro quo - where you are getting something substantive in return. Your received value could be a reference / recommendation, the chance to build up your skills and accomplishments in a new venue, or even just a commitment to consider you for a future paid opportunity.
I’d suggest making the value you are going to receive explicit.
For example, if it’s the ‘consider for the future’ option, then get agreement in advace to a point in time when that consideration will take place. This could be a time line, like 2 months after you start, or when a deliverable takes place, such as when you complete the project. By making this tradeoff explicit in advance, you present yourself as a more confident professional, and someone with negotiation skills. You also avoid the awkwardness of wondering when to ask, having the project just continue dragging on, etc.
Another technique is to simply ask a lot of questions and offer concrete suggestions, demonstrating your insight and the value you can add. This can get people in a frame of mind where they are interested in helping you, or in getting more of your insight for themselves. One great example was just sent me by someone who had been struggling with her search for some time:
“Here’s how I landed my job: I was reading the classifieds, and noticed an attorney’s ad which had incorrectly stated an area of law. I thought to myself, “does she know her ad is incorrect or does she not know what she’s doing relative to this area of law”. I decided to call, introduce myself and ask her about the ad.
She thanked me for bringing it to her attention, and asked me to tell her more about myself. She asked my availability to come in for an interview, and fewer than 72 hours later we met, and I’ve been there since that day!!”
“I’ve sent out what feels like hundreds of résumés with no calls. I know I’m qualified for all the jobs, but can’t understand why I’m not getting a buzz.”
This is an all-too-common complaint. If you aren’t getting responses from your résumé, either it is serving poorly as your sales brochure, or you are sending it out to the wrong openings. Ponder these questions:
Another way to help get to the bottom of this is to find someone you trust in HR (the higher the level the better) or recruiting, or even a career coach, and sit down 1-on-1 with them. Explain exactly what the job is that you are seeking, and ask whether they would get excited about your candidacy based on your résumé.
What are your thoughts?
When was the last time you sat back and gave serious thought to what you want to achieve in life, and how what you do at work is aligned with that?
Are you doing what you really want to do? Do you still think of your job as a career, or has it become simply a source of a paycheck? Do you get up in the morning excited to go to work? Do you take pride in what you’ve accomplished at the end of the day?
If the answer to these questions is no, it’s time to re-examine your priorities.
Think of what it’s costing you each day to come to a job you aren’t really that interested in anymore, to periodically glance at the clock in the afternoon, wishing you could get home to what’s truly important in your life! And what does that cost you at home—spending eight or more hours a day doing something that leaves you drained instead of energized?
For the rest of the article, visit this link:
http://www.JHACareers.com/ArticlesPotential.htm
Also think about impact it has on your family to watch you working away at a job about which you lack passion. If you have children, what are you modeling for them about the working world? You’d better believe they are going to notice your attitudes towards your job and work in general, and that will have a lastimg impression on them and their own behaviors. For more on this, read this article:
http://www.jhacareers.com/RoleModel.htm
I’d love to hear your reactions to these…drop me a note at Advice@JHACareers.com.