Category Archives: Focus

How to make a quick job acceptance decision slowly

Posted on June 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’  One brush stroke stands for danger, the other for opportunity.  In a crisis, be aware of the danger – but recognize the opportunity. (John F. Kennedy) 

Why make a quick decision about a job offer?

You have gone in for 3 sets of interviews.  The HR person told you an offer is coming. The offer arrives 2 days later.  It is at the top of the pay range you expected. You ask for a week to consider the offer.  Instead of agreeing, the hiring manager extending the offer gives you until 9 a.m. the next morning.  There just isn’t time to make a decision.  With a firm resolve you tell them if you can’t have a week to decide, you won’t even consider the offer.  To your shocked surprise, the offer is withdrawn. That afternoon an offer is made to someone else and it is accepted immediately.

Why was the offer withdrawn?

  1. You proved you cannot make important decisions quickly given weeks of preparation time.
  2. There was another good candidate.
  3. They figured you were interviewing somewhere else you liked more.

When an offer is made, your acceptance becomes part of your new job history.

If you cannot make a decision quickly, it shows you fail to prepare, consider, and evaluate options in advance.

From the first day you find out you will have an interview, you should be preparing to accept or reject an offer. If a second round of interviews is coming up, you need to have a list of things you want to find out before accepting an offer.  Get the answers you need.

A list of questions is fine, just don’t ask questions you should already have found out about yourself.  Also, don’t ask about benefits, vacation or salary unless you are talking with an HR person. You don’t want the hiring manager to decide that you are only interested in how much vacation you get, instead of the job.

Come up with three salary numbers:

  1. What do you reasonably expect them to offer?
  2. At what minimum pay level will you accept even if there are absolutely no benefits?
  3. What pay level will you accept with benefits just like the ones you have now?

Be prepared. When you receive a job offer and immediately say, “The money is too low, I expect more,” then you have a chance to negotiate.  If you wait a week and ask for more money it feels like you waited just to get an offer from another company so the two places could get in a bidding war. Managers hate that.  It makes them feel they are getting a mercenary who will leave for $5 more instead of an employee who really wants the job.

Know if you want the job.  Know what is an acceptable offer. Have buy-in from your family.  Then say yes, no, or I need a better offer.  Know your answer as soon as you get the offer.  How you prepare for and accept an offer really will be the first part of your job history.

Something to do today

Decide on the three money numbers you want today.  Don’t be afraid to change them later, but have them today.

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Coming up

How to make a quick decision

Job research

Company research

The jobs on my resume

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Posted in Focus, Negotiating

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Inventing your next job, not your next rut

Posted on June 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

Right now half of the people in the US workforce are seriously considering changing their jobs.  Look at your coworkers.  Half of them want to leave. If you are in one of the best companies in the world, the number is still 10% – 20%.  One GE executive announced he is leaving for a new job that will pay $100M.  He was one of their very top executives.  What about your company?  Which of the executives are ready to leave. Why?

More money.  Everyone wants more money.

What else? Before you leave, you have to decide what you want. After you spend the weekend dreaming and writing down what you want, it is time to invent your next job.

Other than money, what does your list of dreams show you value? Do you really want more family time, more challenge, more accomplishment, education, a real team environment or more time for fishing?  Look at your list of dreams and figure out what the underlying needs are. Not just what do you want today, but what need underlies that.

Underneath your list of dreams write down what really needs to change.

When you make the list of underlying changes you really want, also write down other “out of the rut” solutions to the problem.  What jobs, careers or hobbies would fix your problem?  Be sure the career change you are fighting for won’t stick you back in the same old rut in someone else’s driveway.  I’m always amazed at the number of careers that can be fixed by telling your boss, “You had better prioritize what you want me to do, because I will no longer work more than 50 hours each week.”

Look at those underlying changes you need.  Can you make them happen at your present job?  If not, time to change. List the jobs you would like that not only get you out of your current office, but fix the real problems.  Make sure that your new job is not just another rut.  Otherwise, you’ll be in that 50% looking to change jobs next year too.

To invent the job you need, you first have to know what you really need.

Something to do today

Make that list of underlying needs and add 20 ways to fulfill them.  Often you can invent the job you want while you are filling out the list.  At the very least this should help keep you from falling into the same old rut.

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Religion, politics, sexuality and job hunting – suicide or the sweet spot?

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Quitting or Fired

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Don’t let “perfect” stop your job search

Posted on June 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

Getting things done is usually more important than getting them perfect.

This article uses the example of a newspaper editor that applies to job search.

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Time management

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7 tools inside the box. What’s wrong with thinking inside the box?

Posted on May 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it. (Terry Pratchett)

7 tools inside the box 

I got an email that said, “I finally got a job networking.”

The job came from handing out lots of business cards.  Often you get lucky working inside the box.  The box is where the proven tools are stored.  It is where most jobs are found.  Sure, think outside the box.  It might work.  First, use all the tools in the box.

This is the box

  1. Look for a job while still employed, if you can.
  2. Concentrate most on the jobs and companies you want most.
  3. Use an accomplishment filled resume – it proves you can do the job.
  4. Get the credentials of an expert.
  5. Constantly network – let people know you are looking, follow up.
  6. Watch the job ads – internet and newspaper.
  7. Use recruiters and constantly follow up with them.

Are you using all the tools inside the box?

Something to do today

Concentrate on a different tool every day or every week of your job search.  It helps keep the hunt from getting boring.

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How to wait for the next interview

Be a squeaky wheel

Get the credentials of an expert

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Posted in Finding jobs, Focus, Networking, Perseverance, Recruiters, Resumes

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How to turn your dishwasher into a snowplow

Posted on April 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

You turn your dishwasher into a snowplow with the same three steps that you rise to the next level in your career. Don’t worry, I will tell you how in a minute.

First, you need the right equipment.  Buy the hardware and get the training. Do you need a hammer or a computer?  Buy it. Get training. Training can be at college, at home or on the job.  You can read a book on entrepreneurship or on carpentry.  It doesn’t matter.  You need tools and skills.

Second, you need to start moving around in your future work environment.  Show people you are developing new skills.  If you are a carpenter, start helping to lay out the framing.  Start reading the blueprints.  If you want to be in sales, volunteer to go on sales calls with  the salespeople.  Engineers can volunteer to help in project reviews or requirements gathering.  Start working with the people who can help you get your career where you want it to go.

Third, make the move.  In your current company you may have to tell your boss to hire someone to replace you.  Tell him, “I’m doing so much now that I have to give something up.  Why don’t you hire someone for my old job? I’m worth more to you as an (insert new job).” If you have to quit, find a new job first.  It is almost always easier to find a new job when the hiring manager feels he is stealing a star player instead of hiring a quitter.

Summary: To turn your dishwasher into a snowplow: give him a shovel, show him where you want the snow moved to, and push him out into the snow. Those are the 3 steps I just shared.

Something to do today

Decide which of those three steps is next for you.  Get started on it.

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The cheating husband

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Finding jobs, Focus, Promotions, Raises, talent, Training

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How you can accidentally make job search success impossible

Posted on March 27, 2013 | Leave a comment

This story relates directly to your job search, phone calls, interviews, writing your resume, and getting a job offer.

Complete panic, worry, and unhealthy fear were created by my 17 year old daughter as she graduated from high school. In an hour she was going to get her wisdom teeth removed. She’d kill me if I use her name, so let’s call her Gina.

Gina and a friend spent a few days swapping stories about cowardice in the face of needles. They talked about it often enough to amplify their concerns. So Gina was panicked about getting the IV before they put her under. The thought of getting near a needle is horrible to her now. Her friend was bragging about cowering against a wall while she was restrained two years ago to get an inoculation. Gina was fantasizing about how badly she would react when the needle gets close.

Gina came back from the oral surgeon alive.  She had tears streaming down her face before the needle even touched her. She had three holes in her arm because they didn’t get it right. I think part of the problem was hers. Competent nurses became incompetent when faced with her dread and complete lack of faith.

People who need to leave their job are often the same way. They focus on visions of starvation and divorce for months and years before they leave.  All the horrors stories they have ever heard play through their mind over and over.  The will to better themselves is frozen and then shattered by fear.

Even worse than mere fear, you can attract all your worst dreams to you.  As you concentrate on horrible possibilities, you will be drawn to those situations.  The characteristics you concentrate on, will be in your new company.

I don’t know the exact mechanism, but most people get the job they think about the most.  If they concentrate on finding a great job, they usually find at least a good one.  If they concentrate on avoiding horrible, mean spirited, lying, deceitful people in their new company, the usually join below average or horrible companies.  They get the coworkers they dreaded. They are trapped in job after job in companies of despair.

Instead of spending your time talking to someone unemployed who lost their job in November of 2011, talk to someone who just got a new job. Talk to people who have made great job choices. Reminisce with folks who did things right.

Look for a job while you are still employed.  Find out about the company you are moving to.  Talk to your new coworkers before you take the job.  There is a lot less danger than you have been worrying about.

If you concentrate on the positive, you will find the good in every experience.  If you concentrate on the negative, you won’t have a good experience, no matter how good the experience is. You can make good things possible or impossible.

Something to do today

Make a list of the people who tell horrible war stories about job changes.  Stay away from them.  Stay away from everyone who teaches you fear and panic.

Buy The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, or Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  Read it. Absorb it.

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Later: The rubber band solution for nervousness

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Interviews, Negotiating, Networking, Resumes

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Should I change based on what the HR person told me?

Posted on March 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

Yes and no.

Human Resource people are phenomenal.  They are almost always honest.  However, they are human. An HR recruiter who is sorting through 100 resumes each day, scheduling 30 appointments for herself this week, and 50 appointments for managers, may cut corners.  You call and ask, “Why won’t you interview me?” She has no clue who you are and merely pops your name into the database to be sure you are a reject, then replies, “You just didn’t match what we were looking for.”

In reality you may have been a perfect match but the receptionist rejected your resume.  The HR person never saw it. She needs to get back to work and you are an interruption.  If you can get your resume into the manager’s hands some other way, you might be interviewed.

At another company where you have been through three interviews, you eventually get a reject letter.  You call up HR and ask, “Why?”  She may have been told the real reason. She may remember.  In all likelihood she pops your name into the database and sees the box checked, “Other hired.”  She racks her brain, remembers that the winning candidate had two certifications and tells you, “You weren’t as qualified as the person we hired.”  No revelations there, really.  She never talked to the manager about you, only about when the winner starts.

Even when the HR person remembers you personally she often does not have good feedback.  I always pump HR for information.  I trust the best to know exactly what is going on.  I always ask myself if this HR person really had the time to get involved with my candidate.

HR people rarely lie.  They are honest and hardworking.  Often they just don’t know the details you may want to hear from them.

Something to do today

Ask HR for feedback, but don’t put too much emphasis on what they say unless they give you a lot of details relevant only to you.

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Later: Should I trust an agency recruiter?

You can learn from spammers, but don’t spam

The rubber band solution for nervousness

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Posted in Finding jobs, Focus, Interviews, Perseverance

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Do you eat the leaves of your job search before the fruit appears?

Posted on March 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Woodchucks are evil.  They get in my garden.  They eat the leaves on my strawberry plants and leave the flowers and small green fruit.  Then the flowers and fruit die.  I hate woodchucks.

I sometimes do the same thing figuratively.  I get started in a successful niche in my business, then I turn my hand to something else without thinking, without following my plan.  I waste my built up career capital switching direction because of lack of discipline.  I fail to direct my efforts and let the shifting winds of the moment direct my efforts.  I eat the strawberry leaves.  Then the flowers and fruit wither and die.

Are shifting winds and tides driving your job search and career?  Changing direction is one thing.  Never deciding is another.  You only have 40 or 60 hours a week for your career.  You have to build the roots and leaves of your career so that you get the full fruits of your labors.

Don’t let the woodchucks of indecision and lack of discipline keep you from the ripe fruits of hard work and patience.

Something to do today

Write out what you want your career to look like.  You can change it later, but if you write it out you will be less likely to change it 3 times a day.

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Later:             It’s official

Illegal questions

How to quit

The old boy network

Exploit the old boys

The money question

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Posted in Focus, Perseverance

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Are you passively employed ?

Posted on February 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

Thinking of yourself passively — as being employed and, therefore, subject to the dictates of someone else — can be fatal to your long-term success. In reality, you’re the president of your own personal-services corporation. You’re completely in charge of production, quality control, training and development, marketing, finance, and promotion.

Seeing yourself as self-employed forces you to recognize that you are also self-responsible and self-determining. That everything that happens to you happens because of your conduct and your behavior. You’re in the driver’s seat. You’re behind the steering wheel of your life. It’s up to you to decide how to utilize your talents and abilities in such a way as to bring you the very highest return on the investment of your time and energy.  (Brian Tracy)

read the whole thing here.

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Raises, Time management, Training

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Why your spouse can save your career

Posted on January 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

For 9 years my wife told me, “You can get into that business, but don’t quit your day job.”  I was working at EDS.  I wanted to start my own company.

I matured over those years.  I learned a little about business and life.  I started and failed at a few small part-time businesses.  Then one day I said, “I want to leave EDS and start a company.”  My wife said, “I think that is the right thing to do.”

I was surprised, but she was right.  It was finally time to make a change.  I was finally ready.  My wife helped keep me in touch with reality.

Spouses motivated by love and in a spirit of honesty can be great counselors.  As a recruiter I have repeatedly seen spouses give counsel that I personally disagreed with.  Then later it turned out they were right.  I misread employment situations that they saw clearly.  The person closest to the candidate knew what my candidate wanted much better than I did.  Often a spouse “just knows” when something isn’t a fit.  On the other hand they also are pretty sharp about pressing people to leave a bad situation too.

Value the counsel, hunches and assertions of the person closest to you.  A lot of times it is the best advice you can get.

Something to do today

Have you talked with your spouse and family about your job situation lately?  Ask them about quitting, relocation, companies and career paths.  You may be surprised at what they really think.

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Later:               Job hunting on the job

Salt in the wound

Eagles don’t flock?

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Posted in Focus, Quitting or Fired

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