As I prepared for this tele-class that I’m conducting tomorrow (see http://www.TinyURL.com/10TrapsEmail for details), even my ‘quick list’ of traps quickly grew to exceed 50! The class tomorrow promises to be a content-rich hour…I’ve compressed as many as I can down into 10 themes for tomorrow, and perhaps this will need to lead to another “10 More Traps” tele-class in the near future!
One of the most critical traps that I will get into in much more depth tomorrow is the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” syndrome.
In a search, there is so much frustration and anxiety, and so many people share so many suggestions (wanted or unwanted) about the search that there is a tendency to start to screen out the negative comments. For example, I was talking to a new client one time and pointed out to her serious defects in her résumé. It was, frankly, an extremely poor résumé. Even though I gave her specific, concrete feedback on the flaws and what was needed to fix it, she insisted it didn’t need any attention, and didn’t want to spend any time working on it. Her comment:
“I’ve had HR people tell me what a good résumé I have.”
I moved on to talking to her about networking (which she REALLY wanted help on), and how we would go about turning her into a master networker. Again, she balked at the details of what I was suggesting. By the end of our first session together, I simply handed her back her check, telling her that neither of us would be happy with how things turned out if we continued to work together.
I don’t advise simply jumping at every ‘constructive’ criticism you receive, automatically changing everything you are doing just because one person said so. However, you need to always be seeking to step out of your current comfort zone, experimenting with new thinking, new strategies and approaches that lead to an expanded comfort zone. This is how true growth and success occur.
Carefully probe the criticism or suggestion being offered, and explore why that person is offering it, their level of expertise with the issue at hand, what their context and rationale are, and how that fits to your situation. Go back and compare to other, perhaps conflicting, advice you’ve received, and give both some examination. Find ways to experiment with either way in your search, and see what seems to work.
The worst thing you can do is assume “it ain’t broke,” particularly if you’ve been searching for several months and aren’t building the steady stream of referrals and interviews for the sort of position you want!
And by the way, as to that client who didn’t want to change what she did…the friend who first referred her ran into her a few weeks later, and asked her how things were going. She said she was very happy with her progress. (She had admitted to me that her ‘progress’ was 1 interview in 7 months! And this was a few years back, when the economy was booming.) Over the next several months, I happened to see her in various coffee shops in the middle of the day, not dressed in business attire, so clearly she had not landed in the interim.
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Headed off on vacation for a week…more posts when I return.
John
Did you spend time building up a good set of LinkedIn connections?
Have you spent an equal amount of effort keeping those as strong connections?
It’s easy to forget to build on the relationships we have, particularly when we are busy at work, and allow them to slowly wither on the vine.
What do you think might happen if instead you implemented a regular keep-in-touch strategy with all of your contacts, to keep them fresh and vital? Do you think that might occasionally mean that one of them would approach you about an interesting opportunity?
Here a thought for how you might approach that…
1. Decide how often you want to stay in touch. If it were, say, once a quarter, then divide your 1st level contacts by 12 (3 months x 4 weeks), and that’s how many you need to reach out to per week to accomplish that. Divide up the list into those 12 segments. (OK, if you want to get technical, there are actually 13 weeks in a quarter. I was just trying to keep the math simple for you.)
2. If your 1st level contacts are filled with lots of people you don’t know, who just happened to reach out to you or you to them without any relationship, then you might want to first pare down your list into the ones you at least know, before creating the 12 segments.
3. Mark an appointment in your calendar for a half hour each week. Use that half hour to drop notes to each of the contacts in that week’s segment.
4. Make periodic updates to your Status that remind people you are out there in interesting ways. For example, you could post something about a new blog entry you put up, a new resource you stumbled across, an interesting article you read, …
5. Read the periodic LinkedIn update summaries you receive to see if there is a change, status or other update to someone’s profile that create a good excuse to write to them.
If you just do this much, you will continue to foster stronger LinkedIn connections within a manageable time commitment.
What other thoughts do you have?
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If you are interested in accelearting your career growth, I’ve written a number of articles on different aspects of this. The latest is “Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?”, which I wrote for the Actuary of the Future magazine. In it I share my own career journey, and key lessons learned others can apply to their own explorations.
I’ve posted over a dozen on my website, and you can download them there. These include:
Don’t Be Just Like Everyone Else
How To Reinvigorate Your Career In Technology
Catch Yourself Doing a Good Job
Achieve Your Career Potential!
To find them, just scroll down to the Career Growth section on this page of my site:
http://www.JHACareers.com/Articlesbl.htm
I welcome any comments you might care to share on any of them. And feel free to drop me a note at Advice@JHACareers.com if you have any specific issues on which you would like advice.
“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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www.JHACareers.com/ArticlesBL.htm.
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):