25 Habits to Break if You Want a Job

This post is one of many Career Collective posts by career and resume experts on Job-hunting “Rules” to Break/ Outdated Job-Search Beliefs .  I am honored to be part of this group and want to thank  Miriam Salpeter, of Keppie Careers, and Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, of Career Trend, for coordinating this initiative now on its second year.  You will find links to the other expert posts at the bottom.  I highly encourage you to read them all and bookmark them for future reference or sharing with friends and family.  If you are on Twitter, you can see our community by following #careercollective.

This advice goes out to new job seekers as well as seasoned job seekers.  It comes from those who have been in job search and have learned through the school of hard knocks.  These are the top 25 habits to break, or not fall into, if you want to land a job quickly:

1. Only apply for jobs online
2. Send the same generic cover letter to every job you apply to
3. Use the same resume for every job you apply to
4. Don’t network or meet new people
5. Don’t ask your friends and family for information
6. Complain about being unemployed
7. Bad mouth your previous employer
8. Don’t target companies, apply to anything anywhere
9. Ask everyone you know for a job
10. Be vague, general and “able to do anything”
11. Don’t take time to assess your strengths and passion
12. Don’t research salaries
13. Don’t follow up on anything
14. Wing the interview, who needs to prepare
15. Don’t do anything differently
16. Stay away from LinkedIn and social media
17. Keep your search geography very small, don’t apply for jobs outside this range
18. Only consider the large, well known employers
19. Talk a lot and chew gum during the interview, and bring a friend along
20. Assume the company will let you know the status of their opening
21. Don’t try and negotiate the job offer
22. Wait and wait and wait for the company to call you
23. Show you are desperate for the job, maybe they’ll feel sorry for you
24. Don’t invest time to learn new things about your occupation
25. Don’t read newspapers, trade publications or industry newsletters

It is quite easy to fall into the “wrong” routine- one that is not producing the results you want.  If you find that you aren’t getting interviews or enough interviews, change something you are doing.  If you find you are getting interviews but not getting job offers (remember, you won’t be offered every job you interview for) evaluate what you are saying and how you are saying it by videotaping yourself or getting feedback.  Taking ownership and being pro-active in your job search rests in your capable hands!

If you just change one of these 25 things, and give it time (it generally takes 30 days to break a habit!),  you can start to see different outcomes.

The Resume : From The Employer’s-Eye View

Old Habits Die Hard

Your resume is in pretty good shape. Isn’t it? You have been perusing professional samples online and you have been reading all the how to’s, when to’s, and don’ts. Well, then why no quality interview calls?

Despite unemployment rate still at 9.1% as of the end of 2010, there ARE opportunities out there. It is tougher, let’s face it, but why? Because your competition is talented and highly qualified. Therefore, you, my friend, have to step up your job-search game and dare to take control of your brand on paper (resume) by not playing it safe but standing out. 

What am I referring to? Applying the old Objective plus Career Chronology to your resume, which you learned in high school isn’t going to cut it anymore. It is now imperative that your resume pop and quickly capture attention. It is vital that it convey value over other candidates who are also extremely qualified. It is crucial that you tell a story about how you rescued the company, department, location, region, initiative, client base, and/or project. How? Survey your career from the employer’s-eye view and promote your exclusivity.Then, you will know how to best write a resume that implicitly tells an unmatched story that hogs the job search spot light.

The Basics You Must Know

1. Presentation does matter. Seizing the attention of an employer means you have to break from the traditional  and overly used resume presentation (design). While ultimately, content (achievements and qualifications) is what will win you an edge–by capturing attention first, you net the additional seconds necessary to entice, enthrall, guide, and compel through content (yes, content is still king). Now, know the design of your resume is conceptualized based on the industry you are targeting. Depending on your target industry, it may be necessary to keep the resume design conservative. Yet, conservative does not mean mundane. See below:

 

2. Write storytelling descriptions. As a career professional, I receive resume submissions daily. Most are in horrible shape but every now and then, I will find a few in my inbox that look nicely polished (thumbs up!). Yet, as I begin to read, the truth is revealed. The truth? The resume is an absolutely boring boilerplate; the job seeker has simply regurgitated the job description as if we don’t already know what the job entails.

Get this, your resume is not a job ad. You are not to list all the requirements to perform the job. (Employers already know what a job entails). Your resume is a job seeker promotional tool and you are to show…what YOU did with the opportunities under the given job title—not just that you fulfilled the job title (that is the least expected of you). 

 Example:

Before: Job Description 

Cross-Selling Specialist, Company Name Here, 2007 to Present

Responsible for managing sales of distributor partners and direct customers. Facilitated customer relationships, leveraged marketing programs, provided sales training, and developed unique selling tools to drive sales volume, revenue and margin by translating customer needs to product solutions. 

What is unique about the above? Wouldn’t others who hold this very same position describe their job this very same way?

After: Job Story (Cliffhanger, normally followed by quantifiable achievements in bullet form.)

Cross-Selling Specialist—Company Name Here, 2007 to Present

Identified, tackled, and solved the lack of a systemic processes and efficient tools necessary to uncover account cross-selling opportunities and maximize sales growth despite a down market.Engineered a unique and user-friendly tool by leveraging industry ratios as benchmark to identify product slate. Developed accompanying process. Tested, rolled out, promoted, and launched commensurate sales staff training, successfully equipping this B2B organization to better quantify, target, and aggressively close cross-selling opportunities across 14 sectors. Earned a promotion based on results; tool is recognized as a global best practice standard.

 The above tells a story. Does it not? Let’s see: 1. this person faced and solved an existing problem, 2. created opportunities for growth, 3. engineered a tool that positioned the company for long-term growth.This person’s work was recognized company wide. Wow! They actually produced results and not just executed the job.

Employer’s-Eye View= “This person is worth meeting. Perhaps they can come and dissolve our similar obstacles in reaching increased margins.”

3. Add impact with marketing power. Sometimes quantifiable achievements can be best illustrated with a bit of pizazz (a graph, a table). See here:

Bottom line is don’t be afraid to break from the historic way of presenting yourself on your resume. True, perhaps you will surprise prospective employers and yes, perhaps you will be the only one submitting a resume likes yours. Is that a bad thing? Are you a leader or a follower? 

Playing it safe and blending in does not win interviews for top-paying jobs.

Time to shoot higher and dare to break the norm. 

Job Search Journey – The Trip Always Seems Quicker on the way Home

“It’s not about where you started, it’s about the journey” – Joey Trebif

I remember getting my first (very used) car not long after passing my driver’s test. The first thing I did was, of course, to plan a trip. When you are 19 years old and ready to take on the world, a 1,200+ mile trip (each way) from NY to Miami with some of my friends seemed like a reasonable first trip. So we set out, thinking that when we are tired of driving (maybe halfway through), we can find a hotel and stop for the night. Full of energy (and lots of coffee), it is not until 1am that we decide we should find the next hotel. There were only small motels that we found and none of them would open  the office for us to register, so we continued to drive through the night and next day. Needless to say, it was a long and tiring journey. When we were ready to go home, we planned out our trip and made reservations for our overnight in advance. The trip back seemed to fly by and we felt like we were home in no time (even though we drove just as many miles).

So what does this have to do with job search? You will reach your destination (a new job) more quickly with a well planned job search journey. You will be better prepared in your approach to potential opportunities as well as interview and “closing the deal” (the journey home). So what do you need to create a great job search plan?

• Job Search Checklist: Start your planning with a job search checklist. It will include:
  • Everything you need in terms of “materials” (resume, references, cover letters, skills, target companies, etc.)
  • A Plan of Attack – who to contact first in your network, how you will spend your time (spread across recruiters, company career sites, job search sites and research)
  • Interview Preparation – questions to ask, answers to questions you will be asked, how you will research companies and interviewers where you get asked to interview
    • Job Search Checklist - Focuses on planning and preparation with 10 or so points (understand the process, understand the jobs that interest you, creating your list and more).
    • Checklists for Job Seekers – A bunch of checklists for each part of your search.

• Overall Job Search Plan- Your overall goals and approach to your search
  • 6 Steps in Creating a Job Search Plan – Careerrocketeer.com provides  6 steps to your job search plan in this article.
  • Create a Job Search Plan – A short article by Careeronestop.org provides 2 job hunting truths, namely that 1) job search takes time and 2) you need goals and a schedule. The blog provides some useful links (like a job hunting schedule, job web sites, finding potential employers and a few more (including resumes and networking).

• Search for Success- Ensure you know the key factors that will drive a successful search and have incorporated them into your overall plan. What has worked for others?, how can you apply others’ success to your search?, what are the pitfalls you should avoid?
  • 10 Characteristics Of A Successful Job Seeker
  • Five Secrets Of A Successful Job Search
  • 5 Typical Job Search Problems And How To Solve Them

Good luck in your search.

Scattered Thunderstorms and Your Job Search

"If Plan 'A' fails, remember that you still have 25 letters remaining." ~ Unknown

The morning of June 23, 2012 was overcast with gray skies and storm clouds looming over our son’s wedding day. Someone told me that it doesn’t rain on golf courses and it won’t rain on rose gardens. I checked the online weather forecast and read and re-read the following entry. I kept trying to convince myself that if I read it enough times, it would change:

Scattered Thunderstorms Variable clouds with scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly during the afternoon hours. High 81F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

The outdoor wedding venue had been selected and reserved months ago. Planning had been underway for days. Decorations had been decided. Bows were marked for their respective locations. Bottled water and fans were packed for distribution as guests arrived at the garden. The rental van with chairs was slated to arrive for a 2:00 P.M. set up. The 5:00 o’clock outdoor wedding seemed less and less likely as the hours progressed. At noon, the rain showers arrived. No problem, chairs hadn’t been placed yet – things will be fine. The outdoor wedding will go on. As the skies continued to grow darker, and the showers did not scatter, it became increasingly clear that Plan B was upon us.

Plan B – head to the church some 20 blocks away. Everyone scrambled. Everyone carried something. Everyone decorated something once we arrived inside out of the rain. And did it ever rain and rain and rain. And the string quartet played beautiful music. And the vases of roses stood tall. And the GM (Groom’s Mom) read a heartfelt poem she had written for the bride and groom. And the Officiant delivered a poignant ceremony. And the vows were repeated by the bride and groom.  And the couple married. And they didn’t seem to care one iota if the wedding took place indoors or out.

Plan B.

As it relates to your search for new work, do you have a Plan B in mind just in case Plan A doesn’t work out for you?  Not only do you have a Plan B, how about Plans C, D and E in this competitive job search market?  Here are a few ideas for you to consider about career options:

~~~Consider alternative jobs within an industry of preference.

~~~Conduct extensive research in learning about jobs of potential interest.

~~~Speak with individuals who perform work for which you have some interest – learn from those with strong mastery of their craft.

~~~Build a vibrant career transition team and stay connected to keep ideas and options flowing.

~~~Explore the skillset and credentials needed to perform jobs of interest and what skills, if any, do you need to add (or refine) to become a seriously competitive candidate?

~~~Stay committed to the process of career transition and do not give up until you get what you want, and or need.

Whether you are pursuing a particular job or want to get accepted into a particular university or educational program, perhaps it would be wise and well to consider your options – just in case Plan A gets rained out.

26 Things to Keep Out of Your 2012 Résumé

Age

Birth Date

Complaints, Contradictions, Convictions

Discriminatory Data

Educational Embellishments / Exaggerations

Flawed Facts, Failures

Goals Unspecified, Poor Grammar

History from Childhood

Irrelevant Interests

Joblessness Reasons

Know-it-all attitude

Lies – Little or Big

Misspelled Words

Negativity

Obstacles in your personal / professional life

Political Affiliation; photograph, problems

Questionable qualities

References, religious affiliation

Salary requirements, Social Security number

Typos

Unattractive Design

Verbose Verbiage

Weaknesses; Wordiness

eXtraneous text

Yesterday’s Yarns

Zero results

Note to Reader:  While exceptions may exist, the above-stated alphabetical entries offer job seekers a general guideline of items to avoid in the design and build of a 2012 best practices résumé document.

Common Sense and Your Job Search

Common sense is not so common. ~ Voltaire

Connect the dots and connect with others to help you move forward; going solo in your job search is lonely; going together in your quest for new work is likelier to land you what you want and/or need.

Overcome whatever it is you would like to overcome. It is that simple and that tough. If you fear public speaking, then challenge yourself to speak.  If you are afraid of failure, ask yourself what’s the worst that can happen and what’s the best that can happen? If you detest looking for a job, how about looking for one anyway? Keep telling yourself:  Someone is going to get a job and it might as well be me!

Make the most of what you have. Instead of mulling over what you don’t have, how about being mindful of what you do have to offer?

Motivate yourself. Make that promise to self – then do your best to keep it!

Offer to help someone do something, learn something, grow something, and be something; in helping another person, you may very well end up helping yourself.

Never give up on yourself or others. Regardless of the number of people who may have shown you they are not interested in helping you, listening to you or being a part of your life at this time -- never give up!

Stay focused on an hourly basis…hours soon add up to days and weeks and months before you know it.

Educate yourself on 2012 best practices for career management. Self-educate or find a career management pro who is invested in your continued success. Start with a Google search and see what you discover. Ask your network for referrals.

Nice, a good word to practice in your job search, regardless of how many people have been rude to you. Nice: enjoyable, agreeable, pleasant, good, fine, lovely, amusing, wonderful, kind, polite. Nice.

Share what you know and sooner or later, someone may buy what you are selling in this competitive marketplace.

Engage for the purposes of serving and helping others achieve their goals and in turn, you may wind up achieving your own – a new job, a new lead, a new business idea, and if you’re really lucky, maybe even a new friend.

How do you define common sense as it relates to job search?

Good luck in your search.

Visit me on FACEBOOK

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Latest-Hot-jobs-around-the-world/221095831344468

I HAVE THE INTERVIEW, NOW WHAT?

We all know how difficult it is to secure an interview in the transactional nature of the employment market today. We also know what a rush it is to have one scheduled. I would like to share with you a strategy that will maximize your chances of succeeding on the interview.

The interviewer in asking him or herself while interviewing you:

• Do I like this person?
• What makes them tick?
• Can this person do the job?

Keeping those questions in mind here are my suggestions for what you need to do.

1.  Research the company. Not just the financial information, but where people worked before they worked at the company. Research the name(s) of the interviewers. Use LinkedIn, Google and other Social Media tools. It is amazing to me how little this done, but yet everyone discusses this all of the time.

2.  Bring your own structure to the interview. This is where the fun starts. Many interviewees I work with often tell me that the interviewer “asks the questions” during the interview. Cool, why can’t you also? An interview is a structured conversation and you will feel much less anxious about it if you participate in the structure by having prepared questions.

3.  Upon entering the office of where the interview will take place, be aware of any personal photographs, art, models (ships, cars, planes) and ask a question of interest. This is very powerful in establishing rapport and demonstrating how comfortable you are in your own skin!

Here are specific questions that you can ask your interviewer:

• What are the specific day to day tasks that I will be performing?
• What touch points, KPIs or goals are there in the first year?
• In your experience, what makes some one successful in this role?
• What specific skills or experience do you see in my background that you would like me to elaborate on?
• What specific challenges are you facing now? (This one will open the door for you to demonstrate how you can be a problem solver.)

These questions do not have to be asked in order. I have found that they are used most effectively at the appropriate time in the interview. It is very important for you to match the pace and tone of the interviewer also. If he or she has high energy, match that. If the interviewer is more somber, match that or know you do not want to work there anyway!

“Tell me about yourself?”  is a question that drives candidates crazy. My suggestion is to be very specific in your answer and to focus on one or two personal interests and then have a succinct statement about your career.

“Why do you want to work here?” is of the same ilk. This is where your research pays dividends. You will know about products and services the company provides and you can communicate your excitement about being part of a culture that provides those.

These techniques are just the beginning, but if you accept responsibility for executing and hold yourself accountable you will be surprised by the results. In closing, always dress professionally for the interview and delete all embarrassing content from any Social Media sites. 

Good luck in your search.

Visit me on FACEBOOK

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Latest-Hot-jobs-around-the-world/221095831344468

50 KILLER QUESTIONS FOR JOB SEEKERS TO ASK ON INTERVIEWS

From what I’ve seen in my experience, job seekers that ask thought provoking questions raise their chance of making it to the next step of the interview process.  Trust me… it’s science.

It makes sense though, doesn’t it?  When job seekers push the recruiter/interviewer to think hard and respond with a thoughtful answer, respect is the result.

Many of my career coaching clients have recently been asking for advice on this subject.  To make it easier on them, you, and myself, here are 50 Killer Questions for YOU to ask on interviews:

Questions About The Company

1.  Is the company financially stable?

2.  On average, how many new employees does the company hire each year?

3.  Can you tell me about the turnover rate at the company?

4.  Has the company received any major awards or recognition recently?

5.  What needs to happen for the company to be successful?

6.  What are the current and long-term goals for the company?

7.  Can you name some of the competing companies?

8.  Can you talk about the current morale at the company?  Why is it good/bad?

9.  What do you think is the future of the industry?

10.  How many people are currently employed by the company?

11.   Are any positions or functions at this company outsourced?

12.  Can you explain a typical successful employee at this company?

Questions About The Position

13.  How would you describe the responsibilities of this specific position?

14.  Are there any job tasks for this position that aren’t on the job description?

15.  What would be expected of me in the first 90 days?

16.  What would be expected of me in my first year?

17.  Would I be working with a specific or multiple product(s) that the company produces?

18.  How does this specific position fit into the company’s current and long-term plans?

19.  Who are the major internal and external customers that I would interact with?

20.  How would you describe a typical week/day in this position?

21.  Can you break down the job tasks in percentage of time spent?

22.  How much travel is expected for this position?

23.  How can I be successful in this role?

24.  What is the most important responsibility for this position?

25.  How many hours should I expect to work?  Is overtime expected?

Questions About The Manager

26.  Who would be my manager?

27.  Was my manager promoted from within the company or was he/she an external hire?

28.  Can you tell me about my supervisor’s management style?

29.  How long has the manager been in his/her current role?

30.  How many years of experience do they have in management?

31.  What are some characteristics of people that perform well under this manager?

32.  Would my manager work in the same location as I do?

Questions About The Department

33.  What are some of the other position titles in the department?

34.  What are some of the current goals for the department?

35.  Where does the department need to improve?

36.  What are some recent successes for the department?

37.  What is the departments morale like?

38.  How is communication between this department and others?

Questions About Who You’re Replacing

39.  Is this a new position?  If not, where did the previous employee in this role go?

40.  When people decide to leave this company or position on their own, what is the most reoccurring reason for their departure?

Questions About Career Path and Advancing

41.  Have any of the executives at the company worked their way up into their current role from entry level or mid-career positions?

42.  Can you tell me about potential career paths that are available to a successful employee in this role?

43.  What process is used and how often does the company measure performance?

44.  When would the company like the successful candidate to be promoted from this position?

Questions About Next Steps

45.  If I’m extended a job offer, when would the company like me to start?

46.  What are the next steps from here?

47.  When can I expect to hear back about the position?

48.  How would you like me to follow up if I don’t hear from you?

49.  Are there any other questions that I can answer for you?

50.  If you find that I’m not a fit for this role, are there other positions here that I may be better suited for?

Good luck in your search.

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