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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Hit the Networking Gas Pedal during the Holidays

It’s an utter misconception that things slow down during the holidays. Sure, there’s the turkey-induced food coma, and that spiked eggnog that left you a little groggy, but to assume that things are slowing down and people aren’t as focused on business is absolutely a myth. Ask any retailer as they dash between lines of shoppers during the final sales sprint of 2010!

The holidays are kind of weird, in a way. It’s like everyone takes a collective breath and treads water while getting the necessary work done.

But do you know what’s really going on?

People are thinking. They are reviewing what happened this year, and, just like the rest of us, businesses are building their strategy on how to tackle the coming new year.

Ultimately, it’s a time of reflection… which means that it is also a time ripe for opportunity. People are more receptive to new ideas that might prove to be advantageous to their business goals.

Reaping those opportunities mean being at the right place at the right time… and what better place to sow those seeds than to attend holiday parties?

Sure, you might not be too excited to go to Aunt Betty and Uncle Jim’s annual get-together, but think of it this way: While they might not be the ones who will connect you to your next job, but someone else at the party just might.

Another odd quality about holidays is that these festive soirees can and actually put together random people who otherwise might be outside your networking universe. Parties concentrate people from a wide array of backgrounds, socio-economic statuses, industries, and interest levels.

If you are looking for work, try transcending the obligatory requirements of attending yet another friend or family get-together, and make holiday parties all about networking instead.

You don’t need to brush past Aunt Betty and Uncle Jim; instead, up your ante in being interested in their party by asking questions beforehand about who might be attending. Having a heads up can also help you be ready for that perfect moment of making a real connection.

However, the last thing you want to do is swing in, toss a cursory howdy towards your hosts, make a swift round around room to scope out the scene, and then gaily depart… mission accomplished.

There’s some propriety involved.

Here are some quick holiday tips to get you develop a more robust contact list:

1) Don’t be a user. Don’t just make acquaintances long enough to see if the person you are talking to is ‘valuable’ in your job search. You know the type… it’s the person who is peering over your shoulder while they are talking to you, trying to see if someone ‘better’ has come arrived that they can go talk to.

2) Beef up on your conversational topics. Do some reading online of various news sources… not knowing who might be coming to the holiday party could make conversation difficult if you don’t know what to say. Instead, digest a variety of news stories, and you’ll be amazed at how some of those news details come in handy in either initiating a conversation with someone you don’t know by the holiday punch bowl, or building rapport with someone you met.

3) Find common ground. A good way to find out more about the person you are talking to you is to ask how they know the host. Instant rapport can be established using this tactic.

4) Ask them about their job. Not being the one who goes on and on about themselves gives you something in return: conversational leverage. You get to hear what the other person does, and gives you a chance to formulate some connections between what they do and your situation. It can also give you time to develop more specific questions that might reveal a nugget that is helpful to you and your job search.

5) Be fearless in follow-up. If the person you are talking to seems to be genuinely interested in you and engaged, don’t be afraid to say, “Hey, this is so great connecting with you. I’d love to grab a cup of coffee sometime so we can chat more!” Ask them for their card and offer yours based on their receptiveness to the idea. If they don’t have one, follow up with your host to see if they can provide the guest’s phone number.

6) If the moment is right, make your pitch. Informal settings during the holidays mean people can be more relaxed, and if it so happens that you find yourself talking to someone who could be making a hiring decision for a job for which you are qualified, step up. Make the pitch – bending someone’s ear during a social event can plant the seeds for future opportunities. Tell them that you are actually looking and that perhaps you could solve their staffing problem… chances are that they’ll bend forward to listen and be more receptive.

Changing your perception of annual holiday gatherings is a powerful weapon in any job search arsenal. Meeting new people, finding out their challenges, and then using that information to develop your response in solving those obstacles are a great way to fuel your success in finding employment in 2011.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Six Tips on Re-Entering the Workforce with a Vengeance

For a wide array of reasons, people go through transitions in and out of their main career field… whether it meant dabbling in another industry, or taking time out to raise a child, or even caring for an ailing relative.

Did you know that stepping outside of a specific occupational pathway is actually a more common occurrence than you think?

For majority of workers, the biggest reason for having any kind of an employment gap is involves raising children, which complicates an otherwise steady career track by one of the parents usually taking time out of their career to stay at home. “Careerus Interruptus” might be a term some jokingly use in describing this intermission from working in a formal job setting.

Has this happened to you?

Does the mere fact that a ‘break’ happened in someone’s work history mean that they are any less qualified or professional?

Definitely not.

After a few years of being 'off the merry-go-round' of a career, many people totally end up feeling left behind, obsolete, and at an absolute loss on how to get back on again. If you have done some career exploration or taken a ‘leave of absence’ from a specific industry or occupation, it is tough to get your foot back in the door, and especially so today when there is such fierce competition for what few jobs are available.

But there are some simple answers on how you can get your ‘game’ back on and re-enter the workforce with a vengeance. It’ll take some concentrated effort, but if you spend time focusing on these six tips below, you’ll be more likely to get back up in the saddle in no time:

1) Don’t be afraid to identify your time ‘out’ of the workforce. We all know that employers go straight for the jugular when reading résumés and look specifically for employment gaps. Ok, great, so now you have one. Now what? The worst thing you could do is dodge it and hope it goes away. It won’t. Instead, proactively account for your time by using these two simple tools to summarize the glaring hole in your career:

a. Write: “Personal Sabbatical (YEAR-YEAR)” – and divulge a reason in a professional way, such as “to engage in child rearing,” “to care for ailing relative,” “to finish up school,” etc.

-or-

b. Write: “Professional Sabbatical” (YEAR-YEAR) – and simply say, “to engage in career exploration” – or something along those lines that comes across that you took the time off but were responsible about it.

2) Ask yourself: Is there anything helpful that I learned during my time away that will help me now? Do you know what a parent really is? A full-on project manager. What if you took a year off and traveled across Europe? You’ve gained global cultural fluency. The trick is to analyze your time away for things that could be translated into something an employer might need or figure out how what you’ve done could help them. Parlay that experience into something of VALUE to someone else beyond what it just meant to you.

3) Theme your résumé around relevant history (not necessarily recent history). Just because there is a gap more recently does not mean that the function of what you used to do isn’t still relevant. Technology may have changed things in how it is done, but the basic principles still apply. Create a themed résumé to capture the right cloud of keywords and relevant accomplishments that demonstrate your prowess towards that target job position.

4) Get your skills up to date. Identify key professional development opportunities and strategize about which ones would have the most value to the people making the hiring decision at your job target. By taking the appropriate classes, workshops, trainings, and gaining any industry certifications, you are telling that prospective employer that you are not obsolete and have taken the initiative to keep your job skills honed.

5) Get out there and rebuild your network. We all have found that there are ‘seasons’ to certain friendships and professional relationships. Change a job and go into an entirely new field, and suddenly the network that you’ve been making the rounds in seems a lot less relevant. Get to know that current movers and shakers in your target industry. Do some poking around and find out what are the vibrant professional organizations that you should belong to in order to start reconstructing your contact base. It’ll pay off in spades - most jobs are found through someone we know versus just blindly applying online.

6) Put your skills into action. Volunteering, even if you are looking for a job and a full-time parent, can seem like an impossibility due to demands on your time, but don’t forget the means to the end. Volunteering can pave the way to the right job opportunity. Plus, it is an active point on your résumé where you have demonstrated that you can put your skills and knowledge base to active (and recent use). This provides traction.

The trick to re-entering the workforce with a mindset that your time away is a liability. If you transform it into an asset, you’ll be getting in the right frame of mind to position yourself to succeed.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Love What You Do; Do What You Love

With an unexpected layoff, many people have suddenly felt like the rug was just ripped out from underneath them. A career suddenly vanishes in a blink of an eye, and the end result is something akin to being left at sea in deep water… just trying to keep your head afloat.

While this situation is grave indeed, many people are taking a moment to actually re-evaluate everything in their lives. Maybe they got that career start that led them down a certain road… and there never really was an exit ramp to get off. How many times have we heard people bemoaning the fact that they never really did follow their dream and got stuck in a dead-end job?

All is not lost. It’s not too late for a do-over. With the sudden ‘liberation’ from a staid career track, many unemployed people, while recovering from the shock of losing their job, are now finding that ‘breathing room’ to tentatively branch out and rekindle those long-dormant interests that gave them spark and inspiration.

Often termed ‘encore careers,’ the second incarnation of one’s working life often combines a person’s transferrable skill sets into something that a job seeker likes to do. Have a passion for a particular cause and have an accounting / finance background? Why not investigate non-profits that have a mission that fits your passion who need to hire finance officers? Are you a sales dynamo but have a ken for animals? Maybe a new career in marketing / promotions with a veterinary practice might be the right fit.

Making lemonade out of lemons can mean navigating carefully through the psychological impacts of job loss but at the same time, seizing the opportunity of this employment void to suddenly shift gears and find that job which has meaning… lights your emotional fires… and inspires you.

The drudgery of a career where there is no excitement and only a gritty, grainy clock-like existence is truly uninspiring. Too many times, people talk of their parents trundling off to their job for the entirety of their working lives.

Taking the steps to make your employment all about avocation where you combine your passion (what you love to do) and your skills (what you are good at) will make your life infinitely more rewarding.

Think about it.

Do the research. Experiment. Conduct job shadows, go through interest assessments like Myers-Briggs, and maybe even hire a career coach.

Isn’t the opportunity to radically shift what you do and how you do it into something that has PURPOSE worth the investment in exploring the options?

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

10 Bullet-Proof Job Search Strategy Tips

Well-known fact: Job searching and being unemployed can be one of the most discouraging and ego-smashing things a person could ever experience. Rejection is common, and there is a tendency to end up in a very unhappy place.

Then, there’s the chaos. If you’ve previously been working for most of your career in a full-time position, you’re used to have the structure and routine to each day. Being out of work, you find yourself in a drifting miasma of what do I do today? And with summer around the corner, it’s very tempting to blow off the job search and spend your day lounging in the sun. Unless you are planning on landing a swimsuit model job or applying for a lifeguard position, this isn’t an approach with a high rate of guaranteed success.

Someone once told me: Looking for a job IS a full-time job. You need to adopt that mentality. And to help you create a sense of direction to your search activities, you need to develop a specific job search plan. Here are some suggestions on how to chart your course, add some structure to your day, and give yourself definable goals to give you that sense of order that you had within the workplace:

1) Appoint a Job Search ‘Buddy’
This person will be someone you report to on a weekly basis. It’s going to be a lot more compelling for you to get off the sofa when you know you need to call this person on Friday and report back on your weekly activities. This person will hold you accountable and be your ‘cheerleader’ at the same time. NOTE: Make sure that this person is someone who is a friend, mentor or colleague. Don’t rely on someone in your household… this could be a potential sticky wicket with family relationships if you somehow fall off the bandwagon and could lead to arguments!

2) Number of Articles to Be Read Weekly
When you are unemployed or out of work, it is easy to feel that you are getting left behind on industry trends and issues. It makes sense to keep yourself informed and abreast of current events – not just so you can interject a useful bit of information in an interview, but also to have something to talk about when networking. It’s amazing when you have a clear command of what’s going on in the world how easy it is to find opportunities to talk about what you’ve read or learned. Plus, the added bonus is that people will see you as a great resource!

3) Number of Networking Events to Be Attended Weekly
Shy? Get over it. The ocean is full of sharks right now, and you need to be one of them. That means getting out of the house, and getting out to networking events. But the key isn’t to think of one of these opportunities as a horrible exercise in doing something you hate. Take a completely different approach: my friend Cleon Cox, who is the founder of the Portland Job Finders Support Group has this mantra which is perfect: Meet people, learn something, and have fun. If you go into a networking or business meeting with that attitude, the pressure is off and you are just there to find out about the world. Think of yourself as an explorer… you never know what you might uncover!

4) Number of Educational Events to Go to Monthly
When you are not working, again, there is the fear that you are getting ‘off the merry-go-round’ and losing ground to competitors. But smart job searchers realize that there is a huge opportunity to be gained during this time: go take classes. This could be a great way to help catapult you into a new career, enhance your professional credentials, or hone your skills. No matter how you look at it, employers will be impressed that you didn’t let the moss grow! And, if there ever was a time while working you wish you had a certain educational training for your career, this could be a great time to make it a reality.

5) Number of Volunteer Hours Per Month
Volunteering can provide exceptional opportunities to network, learn new skills, become a known quantity within an organization and even find out about industry or company job openings before they are even posted. Plus, you’ll feel good while doing it!

6) Number of Member Organizations To Belong To
If you have a target industry, chances are that there is some kind of related trade association or membership organization that you could join. The benefit of these organizations is that it can add to your professional credentials, you can add it to your resume, and then you can take advantage of industry events to either volunteer, attend educational sessions, gain industry certifications, and network to meet other people. You never know where this might take you!

7) Number of Informational Interviews Per Week
Part of the ‘getting out of the house’ aspect of this job search plan is to meet people… one-on-one in informational interviews. Many people mistakenly believe and take the approach that informational interviews are all about finding jobs. WRONG! Informational interviews are precisely about finding INFORMATION. Tap into your network, and see if your friends and colleagues can connect you to people that they know. Ask open-ended questions, like, “What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in the past five years in this position?” “What were some of the steps you’ve taken in your career?” - the goal is to learn things, not use this as a persuasive opportunity to try and get hired. The best part about informational interviews is that if you treat the person right who took the time to meet with you, they can become a great internal advocate for you. They might pick up the phone if a position comes open and they think you would be a good fit. Or, conversely, if you develop rapport with them, and a position does come open, they could be a good person to talk to about that position. Inside information is always a huge asset to your job search. ALWAYS thank interviewees for their time by mailing a hand-written note. Email is too easy and conventional – you want to show personal touch. And remember, 90% of all interviewees FAIL to send a thank you note. Don’t you want to be in the top 10% that gets noticed?

8) Number of Friends To Talk To Per Week
Who do friends know? People. Employed people. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your entire network (What the heck- you have time on your hands, right?) You want to circle back to the people in the farthest reaches- maybe that close friend that dropped off a few years ago. (But be careful about contacting that guy that you played football with on the high school team twenty years ago. That’s too far!) The key is to tap into your social circle and ‘refresh’ your connections. You never know what might happen.

9) Follow Up On Sent Applications
One of the biggest failures of job seekers is that they are constantly looking forward for the next job opening to apply for that they don’t go back and follow up on the positions for which they’ve already applied. You’ll want to start a separate job search diary, where you create a spreadsheet to track the positions you applied for, when the closing date was, the company name, any contact information and when you sent in your application. Wait about one week after the closing date, then call the employer to politely follow up. Sometimes, the position opening didn’t turn out to be the right fit for your skills. But if you treat the hiring manager or the human resource representative right, you could impress them in a very good way. That could put you on the “A” list for other jobs that come open.

10) Focus Your Resume on Key Themes
You probably have several different theme areas that you could develop separate resumes for based on your background. My own background encompasses being a meeting planner, television producer, sales and marketing director, instructor and resume writer. I have separate resumes that are focused on each of these areas. During this down-time, explore how you might have different incarnations of your resume, and take the time to develop these fully. You might be pleasantly surprised at how you can reinvent yourself and create new flexibility in your employment search.

This blog seems like, wow, a whole lot of homework, but the goal is to provide structure, stability and goals to you in a time where there is a lot of chaos, unclear objectives and confusion. By structuring yourself and your time while unemployed, this will give you the sense of purpose you need and also a boost to feeling productive.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Salary Negotiations: Playing Poker with Your Financial Future

Would you laugh if someone told you to put down how much you’ve earned under each job listed on your résumé? Obviously, yes. Why on earth would you do that?

But what if an employer directly asks you to tell them how much money you made in your previous positions?

Um… excuse me?

Chances are you’ve had this happen before. This request is an all-too-often ploy used by many employers to try to force job seekers’ hands into showing their salary ‘cards’ and effectively sweeping any negotiation power out of the candidate’s hand. Many unemployed people are so desperate that they cave in right away for fear that they might not get the job if they don’t ‘play nice’ in the employer’s cat and mouse game of salary negotiation.

Have you experienced this at some point in your career? Then you know the drill. You are in the hot seat for an interview, things are getting towards a definite ‘close’ and it is clear that a deal is now in the works.

Then the employer drops their bomb in an interview by casually asking, “So, what are your salary needs?” or “What are you earning currently?” or, in the application process, they require you to state your salary history or requirements in your cover letter.

So, it all comes down to this moment. Time to deal the cards and start playing strategically… what you do now completely impacts your financial earnings over the course of your entire career.

So what is a job applicant to do? What are your options?

Here are five approaches you can take when it comes down to handling the thorny issue of salary negotiation. There isn’t any ‘perfect’ way to negotiate because each situation is subjective to the company culture and the person interviewing you / making the hiring decision. But being educated about your options and also having a good ‘read’ on the internal company environment can help provide you with the necessary business intelligence on the best way to approach this discussion.

1) Give them what they want. Know when the chips are down and the employer is fixated on a specific answer to the salary question. If the job opportunity truly hinges on whether you give them an answer to this question, then you have to make the decision whether to divulge your salary to give them what they want or not. The obvious downside to providing that specific number is that now you have absolutely no negotiating room whatsoever. The company knows exactly what they can ‘get’ you for, salary-wise, and it will be very difficult to go upwards at this point. Let’s face it: most employers aren’t going to pay you a higher amount out of the sheer goodness of their hearts. Their strategy is to hire the best asset to the company for the best price possible.

2) Provide a range. Do your research on what is a reasonable expectation for salary for the type of position for which you are applying. Then make your move by providing a similar range, with your current salary level somewhere inside that bracket. Depending on what you are willing to accept (even if it is below your most recent earning level) , make sure the upper number isn’t in outer orbit… otherwise you can quickly get tossed out because of a too-high salary requirement.

3) Dodge #1: Let’s talk later. Until a job offer is actually on the table, any preliminary discussion of salary is actually a fishing expedition. The employer is testing the waters to see if there is a match between their salary number and yours. Proactively stepping into the discussion can work for you if you know this tactic will work. A good way of framing it up nicely: “Until a job offer is being made, I would like to request that this discussion take place later… right now, I am very interested in learning more about this job and how I can help your company.”

4) Dodge #2: We’re in the same ballpark. Again, you can be assertive while dishing out a compliment that holds them accountable: “I am highly confident that your company offers an industry-competitive wage and with that understanding, I know we’ll be able to reach a compromise once we get into actual negotiations.”

5) Avoid the issue. This is a tactic some people take because A) They don’t really know how to handle it or B) They assume that by avoiding it, the employer won't not notice that the applicant didn’t address the question. All of which can completely and utterly backfire. Salary numbers are absolutely going to be a hot button for an employer, and they’ll be specifically scanning for that reference mentioning your salary history in the cover letter.

The most successful tricks to negotiating your salary is being flexible, willing to negotiate on other options including benefits, having a good knowledge of what jobs of this type typically pay, and being centered on what your value is without being overconfident.

In the long run, if you take a positive, collaborative approach in negotiating your salary, chances are that the employer will respond positively, and you’ll be happier because you kept your cards close to your chest while keeping up your poker face. It could mean a substantial long-term gain in overall career earnings if you are smart and savvy about how you negotiate your next salary.