Recognizing Heroes: In this heroic effort by a Des Moines, IA Construction worker, Jason Oglesbee, swoops down from a crane harness to rescue a woman that was dumped into the Des Moines River when her boat capsized on Tuesday. Click here to watch the video footage.
Guest blogger and respected colleague, Kevin Kermes, shares his tips on pacing yourself during your job search.
The Job Search Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint
By Kevin Kermes
The average job search is taking 2.5 weeks per 10K of income (i.e. 100K salary = 25 week search). These numbers are anywhere from 2 – 3 times longer than just a few years ago. All too often, a day feels like a week and a week can feel like a month – particularly for those who haven’t had to really look for a job in years. Approaching your job search differently these days not only includes how you find jobs, but how you manage what can be a long search. Here are some tips to help pace yourself and get better results in the process:
Work in Blocks: There are a lot of moving parts to the job search: developing leads, contacting prospective employers, following up, networking…and, of course, interviewing! They all require a different focus and mindset. Instead of constantly reacting to events, plan to work your day in blocks. Create a short list of critical events that are cause for interruption (call from potential employer, networking call, etc.). Otherwise, focus on the tasks at hand. Lump responding to emails into a block too…this is the biggest culprit of distractions out there!
Change of Scenery: No need to be chained to your desk for all these activities. Can you do your research in a coffee shop? Do you find you are more creative in writing cover letters sitting outside (enjoy this summer weather while you can)? A change of scenery can be great for your outlook and will help keep you out of a rut in your job search! Give it a try.
Take Time to Recharge: As you shift between your blocks of work, use a physical event to do so. A short walk around the block, the act of changing locations (like we just talked about), or even something as simple as getting a glass of water. This event (small or large) signals your brain to shift activities and focus. Something that seems insignificant and takes only a few minutes can end up saving you time and making you more productive. It’s common to be feeling guilt during your job search – did I do enough today? Should I spend a few more hours digging deeper? But, just like training for a marathon (or any athletic event for that matter), you can over-train. This leaves you tired, unprepared and ineffective for your race: the interview. By using these tips and figuring out what works best for you individually, you can be better prepared to shine and excel when you get the call for your big event!
Kevin Kermes publishes the ‘Build the Career Your Deserve’ e-zine with over 21,000+ subscribers. If you are ready to empower yourself with the vital tools and information necessary to find the job you want and build the successful career you deserve, visit him now www.kevinkermes.com.
I was interviewed last week by Mark Bartz, founder of What The Heck Do I Do? The actual article is shared in it’s entirety below. Enjoy & stay encouraged, Tom
There is an old saying from Mark Twain: if you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you read the newspaper you are misinformed. Our problem today is we have too much information – and too little time. So where do we get fresh intelligence about the challenges of today’s job market? If you are a pharmaceutical or a medical sales professional you have unique challenges in this regard. Walk into an interview unprepared – or send out your resume without knowing the following – at your own peril.
I wanted to know the latest information candidates (pharmaceutical or medical) need to know to be competitive in their job search, so I went to recruiter and author, Tom Ruff. My question was: What are the 3 things you’d want every candidate to know in today’s job market?
A backdrop on Tom. He’s been in the recruiting business for 20 years. His book is “How to break into pharmaceutical sales. A headhunter’s strategy.”
In Tom’s summary of today’s economy, “I’ve seen the extremes in the job market. In the late 80’s it was the complete opposite of the economy now. We had a low supply of candidates and a high supply of openings. Candidates could be very picky. It was common to have 2-3 job offers without trying. Today there are many candidates and few job opportunities. Candidates are competing against their peers – many are actually over-qualified and find themselves competing against new colleges grads.
What it’s boiling down to: it’s all about profitability with clients (employers); is this person going to help my bottom line profitability? We hear this directly and indirectly from managers. So – personality was great 5-10 years ago but not the #1 criteria today.”
“What are the Top 3 Things candidates should know to be competitive?”
1) Results, recent results, and personality. This is the golden “package” employers seek to find. We have some classic issues – someone had a great track record 10 years ago, but not in the last 2-5 years. Managers typically want someone who is still “climbing” in their career and has not hit the apex. Your bragbook should be loaded with numbers.
2) The resume. No fluff. It’s all about results, numbers, accomplishments, and achievements. You can not have too many numbers. Quotes are nice (endorsements from employers and customers), but not vital. Sports or military background detail is consistently a reason you are hired. Both convey leadership. You need to create word visuals of yourself in leadership roles. Leadership is desired, rare and you either have it or you don’t. Granted, there are seminars on improving leadership skills, but most leadership is innate. Show leadership in your resume; show leadership in your interview by being confident and matter of fact – not braggadocios.
3) Your ROI. Demonstrate results in the past where you contributed to your company’s bottom line. Someone somewhere is pulling out a calculator, looking at what you produced and how much you cost the employer in salary, benefits, etc. It sounds cold, but this is the new reality. The #1 reason you are being hired is the belief on the part of the employer that you – among all competing candidates – have the greatest potential ROI. Personality and chemistry are nice to have. But perceived ROI will win the day in today’s new job market.
My wife read item #3 and commented, “Honey, that sounds a lot like dating, people sizing each other up.” An interesting insight. I then was silly enough to ask her what her perceived ROI of me was. I’m still waiting on the answer. Looks like I need to work on my brag book.
By Mark Bartz
Founder of What The Heck Do I Do?
Whether you´re a recent college graduate or an architect in the middle of switching career gears, read this before you go on your next interview. First, do yourself a huge favor and stop repeating over and over how grateful you are just to have an interview in this crazy market. Instead, take control. That´s what Susan did. Susan lives in
Susan began to understand that interviews are about two things:
1) the work that needs to be done, and 2) increasing the company´s bottom-line profitability by performing that job.
In times past she would go on dozens of interviews and project the “I´m just looking for a job.” attitude rather than a “I´m here to do the work you need to have done.” one. Did I say that she was getting killed?
But after a major “chip change” she was putting some key strategies into place and what resulted was a tremendous edge over her peers.
What she did was simple but not effortless. In other words, it took a lot of work, but she admits to us that a new career and personal fulfillment was well worth the effort. She learned how to apply her work skills to the job that needed to be done. In short, she started doing the job right there in every interview and started communicating to hiring managers that she was looking to do a job rather than looking to get a job.
See the difference?
She knew how to do the job in the interviews because she had done an exhaustive personal inventory of her skills and talents and knew exactly what she could bring to the table.
She knew how to do the job in her interviews because of her pre-interview research. She did a ton of research. At first, she did what everyone does and spent a couple of hours on the internet. But what she did next made all the difference and separated her from the pack. She contacted customer service so that she could order and poured over the annual report. She interviewed 20 people in her personal job search network, she asked them a ton of questions and was able to learn a great deal about healthcare sales. Finally, she researched and printed out every job internet board posting that pertained to her desired position so that she could study every word and every nuance.
Make doing the job in the interview your goal every single time. Stop treating it like an experiment or a fact-finding mission. It’s not where you go to “learn more about the job” even though that´s how most job seekers view it.
Sound too challenging or intimidating? Is all that work not worth the fuss? Think that you can just wing it on your next interview? You´re right: continuing to slap the same coat of paint on your job search will grant you lots of interview practice. I just pray that you don´t meet up with Susan somewhere on the interview stage someday.
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Looking for a job the traditional way?
Join me live tomorrow morning at 7:00-8:00 AM EST on WXRK 92.3 FM New York as I talk about key job search strategies and the current state of the medical and pharmaceutical sales industry.
Don’t live in NY? Listen live online @ www.923now.com or follow key points on my twitter page: www.twitter.com/tomruff
Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting different results.
Job searching is the active work of finding and getting a job (aka: new career) with a company which fits our mission and idealistic passion. The problem is that we all seem to be looking for a job the traditional way and in a market and culture that we don´t live in anymore.
As job seekers we all look alike because we were all mentored by the same six individuals (John, Rick, Susan, David, Rachel and Kim.) And we look like them because we´ve stuck with the same old assumptions that if we just put an average resume together, ping out our resume on internet boards, do minimal internet research and respond to a few tricky interview questions we´ll get that dream job.
Slapping a new coat of paint on the same old job search conventions is not the way to find a job in the times in which we live. We all need to be sure that we´re making the adjustments that this job market is demanding. No longer can you go on an interview just to “kick the tires” to see if the company and/or job is a good fit.
The days of simply going on an interview to check out the opportunity are officially dead. Companies are requiring more of you than that. It won´t do to make your responses to the toughest interview questions sound like everyone else´s. Stop responding with “I´m a people person and a real hard worker.” Everyone says that. Hiring managers are requiring more depth than that.
No longer can you afford to spend an hour on the internet researching the company with whom you´re about to interview. This market will require more of you than an hour of your googling or yahooing. Here´s my point. If you want to land a job like no one else, you´re going to have to look for a job like no one else. You can join the conversation on my twitter page.
Have a great week, and stay encouraged,
Tom
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Looking for the job of your dreams? Or even a job that comes close? I don´t need to tell you that these are remarkable times we live in. Think about it. You´re looking for a job in one of the toughest job markets in the last 50 years.
Allow me to kick-start your weekend with a foundational piece of advice.
Finding the job of your dreams with a company which fits your mission and your idealistic passion will not be a quick fix.
Folks, a job search in these times is a marathon, not a sprint.
But here´s the problem. We live in an “instant access” culture where a warm meal is ready at the push of a button. We live in a world where friends can read your “I´m having a slice of pizza right now.” Twitter updates and all with an instant click of the mouse.
Our culture and the world we now live in has taught us to want instant results and that thinking has infiltrated the way we approach our job searches. We click a button and off goes our resume to some company. And our expectation is that the company will receive our resume, call us back immediately and beg us to interview with them.
Has that scenario happened to you? If it has, you´re the exception.
Finding a job which gives you meaning and purpose will require your blood, lots of sweat, a few tears, and a level of persistence that will help you get up when you get knocked down at some point during the process.
Stay encouraged!
Tom
If you´re reading this and were born after say 1980, I want to share a compliment with you: You are the greatest generation of social networkers in history.
That´s right. No generation before you can touch your ability to develop and nurture contacts. I mean, who among you doesn´t spend at least some of your free time connecting with and sending pictures and pithy updates to friends, family and high school chums on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, and places like Digg?
Ok. Let´s take those social networking skills that you´re honing and transfer them to your job search. In other words, if you´re not spending a majority of your time developing your job search social network, you need to be. Call it ”Your Family and Friends” plan or the “Facebooking” part of your job search strategy. The point is that building a social network is still the best way to locate a job especially in a market where the supply of candidates is high and the demand for them is low.
It´s estimated that 70-80% of all jobs are found through social networking.
Who do you know? Who do you know that could champion your resume and background? Is there someone whom you could champion or help? Develop that list and begin nurturing those contacts. Go ”offline” in your social networking and watch the doors open for you. You´ll be amazed.
Stay encouraged,
Tom
But lately, he seems to have given up. He hasn’t met with anyone in his network for weeks now, he isn’t applying for anything, and he mostly just hangs around the house or goes to the movies. I want to encourage him to get back out there and keep trying, but I don’t know what to say that won’t sound like criticism, which he doesn’t need right now. Do you or your readers have any suggestions for us? -Midwestern Mama
Dear MM: Cold comfort though it undoubtedly is, your husband is far from alone. The number of “discouraged workers” — those who have not actively looked for work in the past four weeks, primarily because they believe no jobs are available for them — shot up 70%, to about 717,000, between the first three months of 2008 and the first quarter of this year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We speak with plenty of people who say they aren’t job hunting right now because they’re waiting for the economy to pick up in 2010,” says Gladys Stone, a partner in San Francisco-based husband-and-wife coaching firm Whelan Stone. “But there is hiring going on, and the people who are getting hired are the ones who are out there trying the hardest, without stopping.”
Adds partner Fred Whelan: “To a great extent, it’s a numbers game. If you’re in touch with enough people and you make enough contacts and pursue enough opportunities, the odds are that something will click. Whatever your husband did to land those interviews he did get was clearly the right stuff — he just needs to do more of it.”
Of course, nobody is saying that it’s easy to keep on keeping on when nothing seems to be working out. “Discouragement is normal in these circumstances,” says Stone. “But when you come right down to it, it’s just a mood. You can push past it. And as a project manager, your husband has faced difficult challenges before. Encourage him to think of this job hunt as just one more tough project.”
To give people a blueprint for achieving work objectives, Whelan and Stone have written a useful book called Goal!: Your 30-Day Game Plan for Business and Career Success (Quill Driver Books, $14.95). A one-day-at-a-time workbook for crystallizing short-term steps toward long-term goals, and recording each day’s progress, the book could be a huge help to anyone who is struggling with what to do next.
“When job hunters tell us, ‘I’ve tried everything I can think of, and nothing is working,’ we always suggest they make a detailed plan of action for themselves and then stick to it,” says Stone. In a recent conversation, Stone and Whelan offered these tips for the discouraged:
Contact three prospective employers each day. Every day, research three companies that interest you. Then, send an e-mail to the person in charge of your area at those firms — the CFO if you’re in finance, the head of marketing if you’re in marketing, and so on — introducing yourself and briefly explaining how your skills could be of value.
“Bypass human resources and go straight to the boss,” says Stone. “That person may be making changes and filling openings that HR doesn’t know about.”
Once you’ve been doing that a while, add one more step: Follow up, every day, with three companies you contacted the week before.
“Put in an eight-hour day, every day,” says Whelan. “For now, this is your job.”
Meet with one person in your network daily. “Networking often makes people uncomfortable, but it’s really the only way to find out what’s going on,” notes Whelan. “So meet with someone in person every day, even if it’s just to stop by their office for a brief chat or to grab a quick cup of coffee somewhere. Remember, you aren’t asking for a job, you’re just trading information.”
In-person meetings have two advantages over online or phone chats, notes Stone. First, “people will often tell you useful things in a face-to-face conversation that they wouldn’t say in an e-mail or on the phone.” And second, in-person meetings get you out of the house and can have an energizing effect. “If you go downtown and set up your laptop at a Starbucks, rather than researching employers online from home, you’re out there seeing people. You might run into an acquaintance on the commuter train, for example,” says Stone. “Just getting out and about helps you to feel connected” — a powerful antidote to discouragement.
If you perform those tasks each and every day, not just a couple of times a week or every now and then, you vastly increase your chances of finding the right opportunity.
Cultivate your connections. One way to reach lots of people who might be interested in you and your skills, says Stone, is to use the Q & A feature on LinkedIn to answer questions in your area of expertise. “Helping someone you don’t even know yet really makes you visible,” she says. “Then follow through and maintain contact with the people whose questions you’ve answered, to see how your advice worked out.” Stone and Whelan know successful job seekers who got their new jobs by answering as many as 200 LinkedIn questions a month. You don’t have to take that approach, but try helping others in need, whether on LinkedIn or elsewhere. You might be surprised at the results.
Be accountable to someone. As an added incentive to keep putting in those eight-hour days, says Whelan, “you need someone you’ll report to at the end of each week, who is interested in your progress.”
It should be someone trustworthy whose opinion you value, whether that’s a spouse or significant other, a friend, or a job search group at a local church or community center.
“It can be really helpful to share what you’ve accomplished each week with someone who’s a confidant and a cheerleader, and who can keep reminding you that you do have valuable skills to offer and that it’s not hopeless,” says Stone. “If all else fails, think about hiring a coach. Even Tiger Woods has a swing coach.”
Keep your eye on the prize. Keep picturing your goal — a great new job — in your mind’s eye. There is truth in that corny New Age saying, “If you can see it, you can be it.”
“The subconscious mind is a powerful thing,” says Stone. “It accepts what you tell it. If you plant thoughts and images of success in your mind, your brain will find ways to make success happen” — as long as you’re helping it along by keeping on with those busy eight-hour days.
I read this article this morning from Harvey MacKay. For those of you that are not familiar with Harvey, he is an author of the NY Times #1 best sellers, Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive and Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt. His also the founder of MacKay Envelope, a $100 million dollar a year enterprise and a syndicated columnist whose weekly columns appear in 52 newspapers around the world.
The article is a good reminder of the critical role adversity plays in developing character and self confidence.
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I have never met a successful person who hasn’t had to overcome a little—or a lot—of adversity.
Adversity is the prevailing theme of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, which bears the name of the renowned author Horatio Alger, Jr. His tales of overcoming adversity captivated the public in the late 19th century. The association honors dedicated community leaders who demonstrate individual initiative and a commitment to excellence; as exemplified by remarkable achievements accomplished through honesty, hard work, self-reliance and perseverance over adversity.
In early April, I once again attended the 2009 Horatio Alger Awards in Washington, D.C., as I have every year since I was inducted in 2004. The association, a nonprofit educational organization that awards more than $10 million in scholarships annually, was established in 1947 to dispel the mounting belief among the nation’s youth that the American Dream was no longer attainable. The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is dedicated to the simple but powerful belief that hard work, honesty and determination can conquer all obstacles.
Oprah Winfrey, a Horatio Alger member, experienced much abuse and adversity as a young child. She learned that if you want to not only stay alive, but also make something of yourself, you have to overcome obstacles. She said: “Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.”
Retailing magnate, J.C. Penney, another member, added: “I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity.
Why do some of us have what it takes to pick ourselves up off the canvas when others are ready to throw in the towel? I don’t know the answer, but if I did I’d bottle it.
I do know this: It isn’t all that rare. The human species comes equipped with built-in mental toughness. Some of us just don’t know it’s there.
Take it from an old peddler: The hardest sale you’ll ever make is to yourself. But once you’re convinced you can do it, you can.
Adversity is the grindstone of life. Intended to polish you up, adversity also has the ability to grind you down. The impact and ultimate result depend on what you do with the difficulties that come your way. Consider the phenomenal achievements of these people who experienced extreme cases of adversity.
Beethoven composed his greatest works after becoming deaf.
Thomas Edison had an IQ of less than 100, almost died of scarlet fever and was nearly deaf, yet he became one of the greatest inventors in history.
If Columbus had turned back, no one could have blamed him, considering the constant adversity he endured. Of course, no one would have remembered him either.
Abraham Lincoln became one of our greatest U.S. presidents, despite dropping out of grade school, going broke, having a son die at a young age and running for political office and losing four times.
Carol Burnett, another Horatio Alger member, was raised by her grandmother because both her parents suffered from alcoholism. She lived in an impoverished area, was divorced twice, yet went on to great success and her variety show won 23 Emmy Awards.
Glen Cunningham was seven years old when he was so badly burned in a schoolhouse fire that his doctor said, “I doubt if he’ll be able to walk again.” Yet he went on to become the outstanding miler of his time. Nature is full of wonderful examples of how adversity fosters strength.
Botanists say that trees need the powerful March winds to flex their trunks and main branches, so that the sap is drawn up to nourish the budding leaves.
Pearls form inside the shell of certain mollusks as a defense mechanism to a potentially threatening irritant such as a parasite inside its shell. The mollusk creates a pearl to seal off the irritation.
And it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who pointed out, “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.”
I don’t like adversity any more than the next guy, but I welcome it. It has made me stronger, more fearless, and ultimately, more successful. Stare down adversity and watch it blink.
Mackay’s Moral: A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.
