Giving Thanks, ask friends and family for help

You might have heard the term “networking.” That it is a great way to meet people. That by networking, it can help you get a new position. Well, I have advised people to something similar to networking. But to do it with their friends and family. It is what I call “Building your Team”.

Your team is anyone you know that you would consider family, friend, relative, and close acquaintances.

I have done a variety of seminars and I will ask, “Who in your close circle of friends and family has your resume? Who knows what you do for a living? Who knows what you are looking for?” The answer usually is not many, or no one.

I find that people will not talk to family, either because they think that looking or a job is embarrassing, or they felt they could not help.

Why would you go work with a group of strangers in a “networking” environment and not work with people you know?

So where do you start?
Start with describing what you do.

This way people in your team can describe it to people they know. My father got me a job when I was back from college. Now he didn’t know anything about computers, but there was a computer department. He knew that I worked with computers, it seemed simple enough, and yes they did need help. I got the summer position.

If you make it too hard on your team, they won’t be able to promote you …. Keep it simple.

Next let your team know what you are looking for in very simple and clear language.

Have them ask around. Do they have a department that deals with “your wants”? Have your team look at internal job postings. Have them gather contacts and phone numbers for you.

Now It’s up to you to take any information you get and run with it. You need to send the resume, make the call, it is not for your team to do the work. It is you to you.

Be thankful for your team this holiday, help them help you.

It’s cold and flu season

I found myself at home because I was not feeling well. It got me thinking about how people approach the cold and flu season when time is needed to get well.

First, you need to pay attention to your time off policies. Have you used them all? How many days do you have, and how many do you have left?

You need to consider when you call off. If you are supposed to start work at 8:00 and your calling in sick at 8:10 that not a real good sign that you are concerned about work or having your work place function properly with out you. In this world, with multiple means of communicating, there is no excuse for not letting your supervisor know what is going on.

Also, how was your communication, was it a voice mail, did you talked to a coworker? If you did not talk to your supervisor directly, I find it best if you make a secondary call and talk directly to them.

If your not well after the first day, I find it best to talk to your supervisor and find out what you should do. Maybe you can pick up your work. Maybe you can still come in for a half day. Just the idea that you are willing to make the effort to come in will make your supervisor feel you have interest in your work and your company.

By keeping your supervisor informed on your progress, will help you maintain your position. Keep your position, yes, I have terminated many people over my 12 years of employment from no calls, no shows, and too many days off. And in these economic times companies are looking for reasons to terminate people, its an easy way for them to reduce staff.

Illness will happen to you or your family, and it is something that needs to be addressed. The key to make sure you can take care of your self now, and continue to take care of your family by maintaining your position.

Dennis

Separate yourself, by making the hiring manager’s job easy

In these times, with unemployment rising, more and more people are applying for less and less available positions. One way you can separate yourself from the masses of people applying for the same position is to make the hiring manager’s job easy.

The more hoops a hiring manager needs to go through, the more likely it is that they will respond poorly to you, especially if you have similar or equal skills to other candidates applying to the same position.

Yes, we have a database of information. We probably have your resume. And when we send you an email asking for more qualifications, it is up to you to help clarify the information and to included it in your response. This is your job to clarify in your email, verbal response, and even in the interview.

I have heard responses for information come back to me with, “Well, it is on my resume” Basically, they are telling me, “Duh didn’t you see it? I wrote it.” And I think, “Why are you wasting my time.”

Here is a response to an email for a job posting we had.

“I love to be considered for this job. I think, I am qualified for the job. I have attached my resume and will like a response on what is the next step.”

The problem with this, he had not a single skill that matched the specifications for the position.

I also received a call this morning from someone referred my way. She wanted me to call her and tell her about the open positions. She might want consider this approach. She could have asked me to contact her to see if she is qualified.

This might seem small, but what makes a makes a great first impression is a person that wants to present their skills and desire to work. Versus me having contact them, to tell them what I have available.

So how can you make it easier?

Be responsive – respond quickly to a request for information, even it your not interested in the job.
Be kind – We get many resumes, so understand that you are one of many and leave messages or talk in a respectful manner.
Be giving - Make sure you give the information requested, do not make us look it up.
Be interested – So interested that you want to earn the job, not have it given to you.

What is the intent of your communication?

Communication is not the intent but the response. How you communicate can leave a great impression on the hiring person trying to fill the position. Who knows they might have another position that you qualify for.

As a staffing firm we sent out a mass email to our top candidates if their resume had “keyword” skill that matched our job specification. Our goal is to find the right person fast, since we too are in competition to fill the position with the most qualified candidate.

In these times, we do not have the time to initially review everyone’s resume. We do not know what is their current working status. They might have a new job since the last time submitting. Maybe they moved. Whatever! We need someone available immediately. Therefore, we send out the email to gage response.

If you have the skills, great, you will be considered. You will also be noted on your response to the question. This email did not require a response and still we had many.

Here is a section of the email we sent

I have a downtown Help Desk phone Support position currently available. My client is looking to interview immediately. This is a contract to hire position. Hourly rate is $17/hr. THE HOURLY RATE IS NON NEGOTIABLE. 40+ hours a week.

If you are qualified, available, interested, planning to make a change, or know of a friend who might have the required qualifications and interest, please reply or forward this email. In considering candidates, time is of the essence, so please respond ASAP. Thank you

Seems straight forward.

What is the response you should have to this email? Let us consider a few:

• Accept it – you feel you are a good match and you attach a resume, write up a cover letter letting us know why you fit and drop a phone call to make sure we got it.
• Delete it – maybe you make too much , still working, don’t have the skills
• Decline it --with future prospect – So you send a thank you for considering, maybe a highlight of what you do, and what expectations you have and let us know what is your current status.


Here is an example of what we look for in a response:

“I am still working xxxx, so I don't think this opportunity is for me, but please keep me posted on new openings in the future.”


Or, you can respond as some people did to our email:

“The rate for this position is to low my min is $40/hr I am not sure if you reviewed my resume. Thank you.”

(your pay isn’t listed on your resume…)

“A little on the low side for me - can the work be done remotely?”

Does it matter if it remotely or not, I have $17.00 an hour downtown.)

“I would like to have at least 22 an hour”

(thanks for the long answer, that convinced me I should give you more money.)

“what is the length of contract”

(hmmmmm Contract to hire as listed in the email)

"No thanks.. pay rate is too low for my experience."

(and what is your experience, or required pay or any thing. Really, this was the reply I got.)

What is your intent?

Your intent should be to get a positive response from the hiring manager. Something that makes me want to review your skills more. Something that makes me consider you for another opening. Or reply with positive intent, just to keep the lines of communication open. So when a great opportunity does arrive, I have YOU in mind and at the top of the list.

Your email as a reflection of self

I just received a change of email address from one of my past candidates. And the email is praisethelord@....com. Not that it is good or bad, it just is. My perception or any other hiring managers perception that it can be either good or bad. I feel the key to getting a new job is to avoid the hurdle of the hiring process, don’t give them a reason to pass on you.

We are creatures of learned habit, I have found that managers make decisions on what they like in a resume based on past experience. Most of this does not have to do with the person that is applying , it is a learned pattern.

You touch a stove its hot, are you now more cautious to touch the stove again? Same mentality.

I have seen people that express there values, beliefs, hobbies, lifestyle you name it in their email. Well, if that expression was a “stove” for the hiring manager before, you might be the one getting burned.

So I took a quick glance at resumes I have received and here is a few examples of email address

Flyguy
Tagteam
Dreamgirl
Streettrigger
Munchies
Clunky
DaOne4u
Dragon
NinjaDeathGrl
Warlock
Therighthand
Zorker
Toobuff
Granddad
Rockhead
Diva

There are many more, some not publishable.

What do you want your email name to reflect to an employer?

Dennis

Monster and Careerbuilder Search Tips

I wanted to shed some light on what we see as recruiters in our search databases. I believe if you understand what we see you might make adjustments to help us find you!

You might feel that your resume covers all the criteria or skills you have? However, the real question, does it match the job specification search criteria?

So how does this work?

If you go to an advance search page in Google, you will see a variety of ways to narrow your search to find what you are looking for. It is that simple when we are narrowing our focus on people we need.

Recruiters start with keyword searches

• Last employer
• Degrees obtained
• Location
• Skills

Matching keywords is the area that you need to take into consideration when you are writing your resume. You might need to modify key phrases for each position as well.

If you write you have knowledge of Macintosh computers, and I do a keyword search on “Apple” your resume will not come up in my search.

If you list yourself as a secretary and I search “Administrative Assistant”, again, your resume might not be found.

The words that are in the job description are clues to what the hiring managers are looking for in a candidate. So, you need to pay attention to see if your resume has those keywords included.

I am sure you have the talent and probably can do the work. You need to get noticed. This is just one of many ways to get in front of the hiring personnel.

Who do you work for?

I received an email asking me if a person should put the staffing firm on their resume.

You might know, besides career coaching, we also do contract consulting, which means we have people out at our clients. I just received a call from a credit company. One of my employees was looking to purchase a car. She listed the fortune 500 client as where she works. She did not give a name or number. That did not matter. The credit company called the fortune 500 company’s human resource department and found out she is not employed there.

Fortunately, I got involved and straightened it out for my contractor.

So, should you list staffing firms as your employer on resume, applications, or credit based applications? The answer is yes.

You need to make sure that the staffing company is representing you for what you are. If you worked for someone full time for 3 ,6 or even 12 months, well that’s a full time job to me. In this economy, I have a friend that put in 26 years at one company and is now out of work. I have contractors that are still working for me with no end in sight. So what is more stable?

I have advised people to list on resume and application, to show some form of stability. The staffing company, and then the company they are working for.

Jobco Staffing/Apvantage, Oak Brook, Il November 2006-Present
Help Desk Associate

• Answered incoming calls and requests.
  
• Provided support for hardware, software, communication, and procedural related issues.
  
• Prepared documentation of all case information and updates.
  

Listing properly helps with establishing your work history

This is very important. If you list the wrong company, it could be a reason you are getting turned down or denied a loan. In addition, if you do it on a work application, you could be turned down for falsification.

Again, staffing companies are companies as well. Many of them are very large. It is how you present your work and capabilities. Convincing employers that you are full time candidate versus a day temp here and there.

Have a great weekend,
Dennis

Advertise Self

Have you ever noticed how many times a product is shown or talked about in advertisement? Why do they spend so much money and time to get their product and name out? Because it gets us to buy.

You need to advertise and promote yourself. I would like to give you some key tips on how to get your name out.

1.) The biggest key is to make a signature. Your contact information seems simple enough, but I see so many resumes without it or with that information in only one spot. When I am talking about contact information I am referring to all.

Contact information on all areas

• Name
  
• Email
  
• Phone
  
• Address
  

2.) It seems obvious but make sure your contact information is on your resume. Also make sure it is on the second page. I have seen resumes get separated and not be able to be linked together.

3.) Contact information on cover letters.

4.) Contact information on your email and email replies as well.

5.) Your resume file is your name. (Example: DennisSchererResume.doc)

6.) Your email address reflects your full name (Example: DennisScherer@email.com)

How can this be useful? Let us consider that you are one of many resumes being submitted for a position. This will help you stand out. You are promoting yourself by getting your name in front of the hiring manager multiple times.

If they save your resume on their system, it will already be named, with your name, instead of just saying resume ( which most of the say.) By doing this, it will make it easy for the hiring person to call or contact you no matter where they are in the process.

I can tell you from my own experience, when I need to get people lined up right away, it is never funny if I have to go back to the original document or a prior email to look up a number.

Dennis

An Attitude of Gratitude

Driving in to work today, I forgot my I-pass in my other car. I had to go through the pay toll lane. I went to the first person, gave my money, received no look, no acknowledgement; just a scowl on his face. He couldn't be any slower in getting the gate up, so I can go. I said, thank you, and received no return sound at all. So I think, well maybe that's just him.

I was wrong. At the next toll, I came up to the next lady, waited a few minutes. She was doing something, she looked out at me like I was bothering her day. I said thank you, and drove on.

Maybe they don’t need to say thank you. Maybe they don’t need to smile. Maybe the don’t need to work quickly. Maybe they don’t need to be grateful to me. Or... maybe the should be grateful they are working, that the machines haven’t taken over their jobs! Maybe they can be grateful that they can feed their families. Maybe they can be happy that they have an income ..or maybe not.

I’m sure there are a few people that would do that work, and show it with a smile and a thank you.

Dennis

**From the bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 240,000 in October, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.1 to 6.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. October's drop in payroll employment followed declines of127,000 in August and 284,000 in September, as revised. Employment has fallen by 1.2million in the first 10 months of 2008; over half of the decrease has occurred in the past 3 months. In October, job losses continued in manufacturing, construction, and several service-providing industries. Health care and mining continued to add jobs.

Hello! I will only take a few minutes of your time

Have you ever got that call? I received two of them this morning.

I am talking about sales calls. I like to take the calls to see what techniques they use and how they handle rejections.

I noticed with each rejection I threw out there, their tone changed. One was getting frustrated. The other guy actually got angry! Now he is trying to sell me something?!?!

Part of their frustration is that they talked for a long time, (I purposely let them). They were not looking for a response; they were paying attention to themselves and not to me.

Then my favor line came up. “Let me be honest.” Hmmm, you weren’t before you just said that, or only this one item is honest? I am always curious why people say that.

Now how does this little story apply to you the career seeker? Well it does in many ways! I hope you realize that you are selling yourself,your skills, your worth, every time you interview. So what do you need to be aware of?

• Sell yourself but don’t ramble on. Make sure you pause enough to let the other person respond. I know people sometimes ramble on because they are nervous. But I have never heard of anyone getting hurt during an interview.
  
• Watch your tone. When a hard question comes or you start getting uncomfortable, take a deep breath, pause and get yourself back in a positive state.
  
• Be honest all the time. If you say the “let me be honest” unconsciously the person interviewing will think what I think. So everything up to this point is not honest?
  
• Pay attention, look for the response, listen to their response. If the interviewer seems resistant of an idea or part of your presentation, take it another way.
  

Both guys might have sold me something, first if they would have backed what they said . They made factual statements and I asked them to send me the data and they couldn’t . Sell yourself as yourself.

Dennis

Meet the Parents

I love meeting people. Mom, Dad, Husband, Wife, kids, cousins, brothers, sisters and even best friends. I wish I wasn’t meeting them at the interview!

Yes, that is what I said, "at the interview" for a new position. They come walking right in with the candidate, hang out in my office. Today, one mom actually followed her son in the interview room. Mom even answered some of the questions during the interview.

One of the HR managers that I work with called me about my candidate. She told me she would not offer her a position. The candidate's husband got tired of waiting in the car, came in the corporate office, and wanted to use the bathroom. They would not let him in for security reasons and he threw a fit.

I’m sure you can guess the ending of that interview.

What do I hear as poor excuses to bring the family to the interview?

• Sonny doesn’t have a car.
  
• We were going shopping afterwards
  
• He doesn’t like to drive on the expressway
  
• I had no babysitter
  
• Thought you had a waiting room.
  

When I advise people on what to bring to an interview, family is not one of the items.

Dennis

Simple actions makes the big difference

I was having lunch with one of my hiring managers yesterday. He works at a IT consulting company. We are talking about candidates and the funny things we have seen them do.

It reminds me of America’s Funniest Videos. Have you ever watched it? You see people just do some extremely stupid things and wonder why. You think that they might learn from someone else but every week you see different people doing similar things.

Our lunch started with the thought that maybe this is only happening in a select instances. I thought because I have a contract staffing firm, maybe it’s the type of people I get. As I was listening to his outrageous stories, I discovered that it is happening everywhere. The stories are the same just different names and different actions.

We were both curious what has caused what we referred to as an entitlement attitude. The fact that people expect the job to be handed to them instead of earned. Some candidates feel they do not have to impress, that they do not have to show up on time, that they do not have to dress properly. Some candidates ask, “So what do you have for me”, instead of “What I can provide your company”.

We agreed it is the very simple things that makes the big difference. How they sit in the chair when interviewing. How they greet someone. How they answer the question. Do they use full sentences or do they just respond yes or no. In some cases we might just get a yea, out of them!

From the hiring manager’s point of view, the way you come in on the interview is the highest presentation you will have. And that during your work it will only be that good or worse as time goes on.

So, if you impress poorly we assume that you will work poorly. In addition, it does seem a bit disrespectful to not even try to impress your future employer. If anything, it is a disservice to yourself not to be your best!

I hope that you are a person that wants to learn from someone else.

Dennis

Preparing for a pink slip

With all the unemployment news, you want to be prepared. An unexpected layoff can come without notice. One day your working then next your not. Therefore, it is up to you to be prepared.

Here are a few simple things to keep in mind.


Contacts are key:

Get your coworker and supervisors contact information. Many people do not think about obtaining this information until after they are let go. Contact information can be personal email, personal cell phone or home number. This may sound simple, but when a large layoff happens finding key coworkers for a reference is difficult.

Have pertinent information about your current position:

Know your location, headquarter location, HR contacts. Why is this important? Well, if the company closes several locations, you need to have a way for a new employer to verify information. Also, try to find out which employees will be left behind.

Outside contacts:

Keep contact information on vendors, customers, other companies that you have worked with. You have information at your office but remember that you will not be there.


Keep your nose clean:

During layoff times, upper management will start to utilize other means of cutting back on labor. You need to shine. You need to be prompt. You need to do what it takes. I know you might be thinking, “Well, they aren’t going to take care of me so why should I care?” The caring reason will be different for everyone. Think about why you need the paycheck, food, house, kids. These are reasons to keep up the good work. You want to be in line for a severance, if given, and not let go for disciplinary actions. Do not give them the excuse to let you go early. If you give them the excuse to terminate you, then you might not get unemployment and jobs are not plentiful during these times.

Start looking

Start looking for positions that match your skills. Now I give you this advice for something you can do after hours. This will help you target companies that might utilize your skills. I find it easier to look will working then after you are let go.

Dennis

*** Caution on posting your resume, HR departments might be scanning for resumes of personnel of that company, and letting those people go first. If you can, post your resume confidential.

Unemployment Surges

Private employers made their deepest job cuts in six years last month and companies' planned layoffs surged to their highest in nearly five years. A key gauge of the service sector fell to the lowest since the index was launched in 1997.

U.S. private employers cut a larger-than-expected 157,000 jobs in October in a deteriorating labor market that will get worse in the months ahead, according to a report by ADP Employer Services.

ADP also said it revised the number of jobs lost in September to 26,000 from the originally reported loss of 8,000. The ADP Employer Services report was jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC.

ADP said the private sector job losses in October were the highest since November 2002. Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, said it was "entirely likely" to start seeing job losses of 200,000 per month.

"This is a weak number by any reckoning," Prakken told a teleconference of journalists about the report. From Reuters.

if you are one of the unfortunate people that just got let go, or if you might know your heading that way, what does this mean for you? More people looking, less jobs available. It means more competition for the position. What are some steps you can do to help you start the process?

I would like to talk about gathering your history. What did you do everyday? This might not be the easiest time to think about ,but I find it important to think about your daily routine and note every aspect. I then want you to look at the big picture of what you did and then focus on the details as well.

This is a good day to just take note, focus on the people, their titles, your interaction, the customers, the vendors, the forms, the computers, the software, the machines, the product. There are so many things we do and take for granted as just part of our day, that we need to get them out on paper to help with our presentations for our future employer.

So for today just recall and note your accomplishments. You will find this helpful.

Dennis

Election Day

The choice is between two candidates. The choice started off as many more. I am curious what made us choose these two. What is going to make us choose out of these two.

So what made the difference? Is it something you want to move toward or something you want to move away from? Is it what you hear? Is it what you see? Is it what you feel?

Do you make your choice on their past performances?

Do you make your decisions based on some one else’s opinion, your family, the media?

Do you make your decision because that’s the way we have always done it?

So how did they impress you? Or is it that the other choice is not as impressive?

So what is it that makes you make that choice?

The reason I bring this up is that this is the same decision making process that hiring managers go through when they are deciding who to hire.

More then likely something about one of these candidates made you feel good. Made you feel you are making a good decision.

Just something to think about when you are campaigning for a new position.

Dennis

You have two ears, USE THEM

I've written today's post so you can learn from the mistakes of others. All my coaching is based on that model. I see and hear what keeps others from getting hired and I want you to understand why and learn from it.

This morning one of my recruiters asked someone to email us his updated resume, a common routine procedure that automatically populates into our database. He called back and said it would be easier to fax, but for whom? Him, of course. It's one thing to ask for another method of sending a resume, especially if you don't have access to a computer. That's understandable and I'm not inflexible. However... this person has Internet access, and he told my recruiter he didn't want to use it because, for him, it's quicker to fax. But the fact that he didn't want to follow directions made the hiring process harder for me. Now, instead of working with clients to find him a job or make his information easily available to interested companies, my recruiter has two choices: manually enter in his information into our database before we can begin matching his skills with clients, or just find another candidate already in our database and place that person instead.

He didn't want to put in the effort, so why should we? It's supply and demand, folks. In today's job market, there is no short supply of people looking for work. In addition to making my recruiter's job more difficult, it gives me a good picture of how well he listens and follows directions.

We all have the ability to hear, but listening is a skill everyone should learn. Each of us has our own model of the world, our own agenda, and our own voices in our head. If you don't pay attention, you can hear what others are saying, but not listen to what it means and tune out what they want from you. Companies are looking for people that can follow directions, pay attention to detail, and can accomplish tasks. When someone is talking to you, listen intently, pause, comprehend, and respond. This is very important when your looking to earn a new career.

Did you know that you are being interviewed every time you interact with a potential employer, and you increase your chances of scheduling an interview or getting the job if you listen and follow their directions. So if you are asked to fill out an online application, email or fax a resume, complete a drug screen by a certain date, or given any other set of instructions.... not only should you do it, but do it their way. There is no room for Frank Sinatras in this job market. If you do things "my way," then don't be surprised if they tell you to hit the highway!

Dennis