Category Archives: Attitude

replay of 4 Secrets to getting a MUCH better job

Posted on April 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

This time the recording worked.  You can see my webinar free at this link.

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Posted in Attitude, Finding jobs, Promotions

Job search: The reality show

Posted on April 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. (Shaw)

Here is how your job search would look as a reality TV show:

Episode 1:  Fired?  I’ll have another job before I’m out the door, you slug.

Episode 2: If I call 3 of my friends, I’ll have two job offers by the end of today.

Episode 3: I better file for unemployment comp.  This may take a week or two.

Episode 4: After “Survivor” I’ll try to send out a resume on “Monster”.

Episode 5: Will the sun ever shine again?  Why don’t the stars twinkle anymore?

Episode 6: The capitalist military industrial complex corrupts and destroys all the slaves forced to toil therein.

Episode 7:  My dog still loves me.  That’s a start.

Episode 8: I can have the job? Really??  The pay is low, but I’ll prove you made a great decision!

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Something To Do Today

 The real job search progression includes:

  • denial,
  • getting mad,
  • reconciling with reality,
  • not knowing what to do next,
  • getting depressed,
  • realizing your self worth,
  • and finding a job. 

It’s natural.  Where are you at?

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Posted in Attitude, Finding jobs, Perseverance

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My last job stunk, what do I say?

Posted on April 9, 2010 | 1 comment

The weak can never forgive.  Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.  (Gandhi)

My last job stunk, what do I say?

“My last employer lied to me.  He looked me straight in the eye and lied to me twice in the employment interview.  Then he spent the next year undermining me.  He made it impossible to reach the pay level he promised me.”

I can handle it.  I’m an agency recruiter. I could see from his previous jobs that he was exceptionally good at what he does. Before he goes out on a job interview I’ll tell him how to handle that situation.  Eventually he’s going to have to get over that job wound.

Remember, your attitude is everything.  Managers know that some bosses reek.  Every manager has also had an employee who was terrible.  Your interviewer has to decide if you or your boss was the problem.  Because they lack facts, they will decide whose fault it was by your attitude.

When they ask you about that lying, thieving, disgusting, wife beating boss you had at your previous job, be careful.  Remember, the slimeball’s dog still loves him.  Say only, “At my last job I accomplished…”,  and list the good things you got done. 

If asked, “Why did you leave?”  Say, “My boss and I did not see eye to eye.”  Then add something else that is positive that you accomplished.

Never say more than one sentence at a time about that vile, filthy, back stabbing, dog kicking boss. Remember the Grinch’s cat still purrs when he pets it.  Make each short comment about him as positive as you can.  Follow that sentence with something positive you were able to get done at that job.

The best thing you can do is GET OVER IT.   Forgive the louse.  No.  Forgive the man.  Stop brooding.  It affects your attitude.  Hate will make it much harder to get a job.  Interviewers can smell your discontent. 

Forgive, forget, and get on with your life.  Do you really think you will be telling every interviewer for the next 20 years about that boss?  You won’t.  The time to stop telling people about that boss is now.

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Something To Do Today

Had a boss you hated?  Make a list of 10 things you accomplished there.  Not your job duties, things you made better.  Accomplishments.  Use that list every time you are asked about the job.

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Posted in Attitude, Interviews

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Double your interview chances in 5 minutes

Posted on March 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.  (Stern)

If you aren’t remembered, your interview was a waste.  Someone else will get the job. Someone else will get the promotion.  Someone else will get the reward.  If you aren’t remembered, why even show up?

Think of your interview from the hiring manager’s perspective.  He is going to interview ten people.  Three of them will totally screw up the interview.  There’s no way he’ll hire them.  That leaves 7 people who could do the job

The hiring manager finishes the last interview of the day and starts slogging through his email.  Two emails are from people he interviewed.  They said, “Thank you.” 

Managers are never thanked for anything.  He takes his list of interviews and circles both names.  Then he goes through the list and circles the names of two more people who impressed him.  He puts the list down and catches up on his email.

The next days are spent catching up on all the work he put off in order to do the interviews. Two days after the interviews he receives one letter that intrigues him.  It is a paper “Thank you.”  It is from one of the people who sent an email “Thank you.”

Managers are never thanked for anything.   That person who sent an email and a paper thank you is invited in for a second interview along with one other person.

Do you want to be remembered favorably?  Get the email and ground mail address of everyone you interview with.  Send them a thank you note.  Don’t have the addresses?  Call the company and ask the receptionist.  Forgot the name?  Call the human resource department and ask who it was you interviewed with. 

Send an email thank you immediately after your interview.  Send a paper thank you the same day.  A short thank you is fine.  Say, “Thank you for interviewing me.  I look forward to working with you.  I was very impressed.”  You’ll remind the interviewers who you are immediately with the email. You remind them again two or three days later when your paper letter arrives. 

My guess is if 10 people are interviewed, those two notes will double your chances of getting the job.  It’s worth your time.

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Something To Do Today

Have you interviewed this week?  Send an email and paper thank you.

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Posted in Attitude, Interviews

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A harsh letter to an old friend and employee

Posted on March 11, 2010 | Leave a comment
I just wrote the following letter to an old friend and employee. This is a guy who worked faithfully for me when I founded my business 17 years ago.  He sent me an email attempting to show me that it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t get a job. It was the fault of a former employer or two.
 
I replied:
 
It doesn’t matter how scum like your former boss was, you SOUND completely disloyal.  You SOUND like an employee who was a problem.  You explain way too much.  You take personal shots. You show that you could find him if you wanted but he is so bad, so unworthy of respect that you refuse to acknowledge his presence in public.  You make absolutely certain that your future employer knows you can’t stop bad mouthing people you dislike.  I don’t want a person like that on my team, do you?
 
Why would someone hire you if they don’t know the full story?  Why would they hire you if they do know the full story?  You have done nothing to show you will be a great, loyal employee. 
 
Remember, and always ask yourself:
 
        Why should they do business with you versus any and every other option?
 
I guarantee there are other employees who worked for the same horrible guys who have had no trouble getting good jobs.  So how are you different?  You sound like a dog gnawing the same bone every day, the bone you bury every night only to dig it up the next morning. 
 
These guys haven’t ruined your life.  Okay, I’ll admit I am wrong if every person who worked for that employer has had the same impossible search for jobs, and the same inability to keep them.
 
My signature includes the saying,
The harder I work on me, the better my life gets. 
Not my education.  Me. My attitude, outlook, wisdom, spirituality, social graces, forgiveness, repentance, virtue, knowledge.  The whole “Me”.
 
Sorry if I have offended you.
 
No, I don’t think I am the master of my fate.  But I am the master of how I react to my fate.

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Laser intensity – job search and advancement

Posted on February 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

I had learnt to seek intensity, more of life, a concentrated sense of life.  (Berberova)

As little as possible is more

The harder I work on me, the better my life gets.  But I can only improve a little each day.  So I focus intensely on one or two things that I want to be better at.

Light is very intense in a laser.  Laser pointers are under 1/200th of a watt.  Focus that pointer laser’s beam to the size of a period and you can burn paper.  

Intensity at one small spot is the secret of lasers.  Intensity at one spot can also be the secret to advancement in your career.

Some examples:

1. Some programmers study 20 different programming languages.  As a recruiter, it is almost impossible for me to find a job for someone who has only worked a month or two in 20 different programming languages. It is easy for me to find a job for someone who has studied and worked in one programming language for two years. 

2. In accounting it is easier for us to find a top paying job for an internal audit specialist CPA than an uncertified general accountant. 

3. Finding a high paying job for a legal secretary is easier than finding a high paying job for a general secretary.

You cannot get better at everything at once.  An hour a day carefully spent studying a single skill that is in high demand will turn you into an expert in a few months. An hour a day studying new subjects each day won’t help your career nearly as fast.  Now is the time to start narrowing your field and increasing your intensity.

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Something To Do Today

What is the hottest skill in your profession?  What is the most important bit of that skill?  Study it an hour a day for a month. You will be an expert.

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Posted in Attitude, Focus

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Even lasers have to focus

Posted on February 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

Laser light has three basic attributes: coherence, focus and intensity.

Lasers, by nature, are unfocused. A common misconception is that the light comes out of a laser in a tight beam.  It does not.  If you take a laser pointer apart you will see a simple lens just in front of the laser. Because of the light’s coherence and origin, the light can be focused into a tight beam. Coherent light waves all marching in step come from a laser.  Focus has to be designed into it.

Most people laugh at the idea of a company president becoming a janitor.  I know two people who decided to do it.  They decided to change the focus of their lives.  Both make a lot of money as janitors because they are focused.

Do you need a focus for your career and job search?  You may be capable of being a manager, worker, company president, and janitor.  With 4 resumes you could apply for each job in a coherent manner.  You could also interview for each and present yourself as the perfect employee.  But should you?

What are your talents?  What do you do better than others?  What do you want to learn?

Inability to get ahead in a career is often caused by a lack of purpose or focus.  You are happy to float to wherever there is an opening today.  Everyone always tells you what a great team player you are.  The trouble is that your raises are small and you get passed over for promotions.

So you decide to get another job.  You apply for every job you can.  Your new job is outside of the field you were in before.  Once again you float into whatever needs to be done today.  Your career goes nowhere.

Do you WANT to go nowhere as fast as you can?

Stop today.  Focus on a goal.  What is the next job, responsibility, or promotion you want?  Turn down urgent requests to do something else.  Stop letting the minor inconvenience of other people decide what you will do.  Focus on a goal. 

One way to tell if you are focused is to count how many people YOU ask to help YOU reach YOUR goal.  Ask for help.  Network.  Talk to people doing what you want to do next.  Get their advice.  Focus on one goal. 

But what if you are unemployed?  It still works.  Decide on a specific job, title or assignment you want the most.  Find people doing that job.  Ask them to help you figure out how to get to that job.  That=s networking.  That’s laser like focus. 

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Something To Do Today

Talk to someone doing the job you want for your next job.  Ask them the steps you can take to get the same job.

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, talent

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Mortal combat: win every time

Posted on February 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly combat.  (Plato)

If you job hunt (or go to work) expecting mortal combat, where the other guy must lose, you will fail.  If you have a strong attitude that, “The company, my manager and I are going to win big,” you will succeed.  In mortal combat you must defeat the real enemy every time. You will lose every time if you fight your allies.

Are companies idiots for not hiring you?  Is every interviewer prejudiced?  Let’s look at your job.  Do you assume that your workplace is run by fools?  Do you know more than your boss?  Do you hang around the complainers and whiners at work?  Are you the ringleader?  Are people out to get you?

People really may be out to get you if you have a bad attitude.  A hiring manager wants someone who will help and support him.  Promotions come to people who help raise team spirits and achieve goals.  Raises are given when a person is worth more than they are being paid. 

Often you have to train your manager.  She doesn’t have your perspective on problems.  You need to constantly bring things to her attention that she may not know. You need to train her patiently, the way you would like to be trained. 

Would you like to get pats on the back for the good things you do along with the occasional pointer on how to correct a mistake?  Do the same with your boss.  Positive reinforcement sets the stage for your negative comments to be heard.  Take an attitude check today.  Are you saying 5 positive things for every negative you voice?  Keep track.

Are you job hunting?  Can the interviewer tell how you engage in destructive mortal combat?  Is that why they are avoiding you?  If the right attitude shines through, they will hire you.

Business really is mortal combat.  You have to plan on winning every time.  Are you going to defeat stupidity with perfect logic and rapier sharp attacks?  No, you will lose.  Do you plan on patiently helping everyone learn, grow and win?  Your victory is assured.

An attitude of constant improvement will win. Constant carping criticism loses every time.   

If you need help getting your job search moving, I’m giving a resume seminar next Tuesday called Your Resume Reeks Worse Than An Outhouse.  It is free and I’ll put a replay up here the next day.  Or let me help you with a 5 week plan.  www.agicc.com/5-weeks.htm

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Something To Do Today

Keep a notepad with you.  Make two columns.  Put a check in one column for every positive thing you say.  Put a check in the other column for every negative thing you say.  Do the positives outstrip the negatives by 5 to 1?

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Ash breeze and sailing

Posted on February 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

The harder I work on me, the better my life gets.

You won’t go anywhere in your sailboat if you are becalmed.  Sailors on the old 3 mast boats used to dread finding themselves where there was no wind.  There are places in the ocean where you can go weeks without a breeze.  The old mariners often had only one way out, “ash breeze”.

When becalmed, a rowboat full of men would be sent out tied to the front of the ship.  They would take their ash wood oars and start rowing.  Progress was always painfully slow.  Any breeze would move a ship faster, but Aash breeze@ was better than dying becalmed. 

Are you becalmed?  Are you stuck in a company or job that just isn’t getting you anywhere?  The book, Carry On Mr. Bowditch, is the story of one of the greatest mariners of our age.  

Bowditch was stuck in a nowhere job.  Born in 1773, with little formal education and  apprenticed to a storeowner, Bowditch became an expert bookkeeper.  He wasn’t where he wanted to be.  He studied mathematics and astronomy on his own.  Eventually he became a sea captain, author and educator.  He received an honorary PhD for his accomplishments.  His book on celestial navigation is still used at the US Naval Academy.   

The most important thing you have is your attitude.  Couple attitude with an intense desire to better yourself and you cannot be stopped.  Start preparing now for the job you want to have in five years.  Learn what you need to learn.  The more you work on YOU, the better your life will get.

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Something To Do Today

Read the book, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Latham.

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Posted in Attitude, Perseverance, Training

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Down Syndrome vs down syndrome part 3

Posted on February 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

If you kill time, you’ll murder your future.

Up until the 1980’s it was common to put people with Down Syndrome into asylums.  They never learned to read, talk, be toilet trained or do much of anything.  They seemed to be content.  They would sit in the corner and rock or wiggle their fingers in front of their eyes.  Most died before the age of 21.

The singing cowboy Roy Rogers and his wife Dale Evans had a baby with Down Syndrome, which they refused to give up.  Dale Evans wrote a book about the child’s two years of life.  She began a revolution.   Kids like my daughter Merrilee now learn to read to a fifth grade level, are toilet trained, and live to be at least 50. 

Merrilee would sit in a corner and rock or wiggle her fingers in front of her face if she didn’t have something more interesting to do. Job seekers with down syndrome often end up doing something equivalent.  They find an essentially useless, brainless task and concentrate on it.  They don’t want to think.  They just want to be doing SOMETHING.

Do you keep submitting the same resume online to hundreds of jobs with no result?  Do you mail a resume to all the ads in the paper without getting an interview?  Do you just watch TV because it is less painful than trying to get a job?

You really do have amazing potential.  Sometimes discovering your talents is painful and difficult.  Worse, trying to get paid for those talents the first time, before you have “experience”, can take the wind right out of your sails. 

Try something new.  Make a completely different resume and submit it a few places.  Call a few companies and ask for the person who would be your new supervisor.  Do some serious networking by having friends critique your resume for you.  Study interviewing skills at the library.  Read, “How To Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie.  Read “Acres of Diamonds” by Russell Conwell (Google it)

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Posted in Attitude, Perseverance