Category Archives: Perseverance

Get to where you want to be in your career

Posted on January 28, 2022 | Leave a comment

When France ran Algeria, they needed a way to make roads across the trackless desert. The distances are too great and traffic too rare for asphalt or concrete, or even road grading equipment. The French took oil drums and filled them with dirt and rocks. They placed them every 5 kilometers.  

Travelers could see from one drum to another. The wind may blow away the tracks but it won’t budge the oil drums. If a sandstorm comes, time to hunker down and hope you can still see out of the windshield when it is over. Then drive off to the next oil drum on the horizon. It will still be there. Eventually you will get to your destination. Just follow the oil drums.

Choose where you want to be in 6 months, 1 year and 5 years. The goals can change later. For now, start working towards something concrete. Then figure out what you can actually get done in the short term as you work towards the goals you can’t really see. Don’t stop working towards that next goal. Get to the next oil drum in your life.

Working towards a goal, even as it shifts and changes, you will get farther than someone with no goal at all. Set goals for your career, job change and the next month. Go somewhere interesting.

Something to do today

I miss a lot of my goals. I hit a lot of intermediate points. The way I know is that I write my goals on paper. I discuss a short term goal with my wife and my business coach almost every week. This week that short term goal, although not about work, was about eating more healthily to get my blood pressure back down. I met that weekly goal, and my blood pressure dropped.

Write down a short term goal for this week and share it’s setting and accomplishment.

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Turning bad into good when life hits hard

Posted on January 8, 2022 | Leave a comment

Many of the happiest people I know were ruined at one point. Some depressed people were also ruined, but they stayed that way. It can be layoffs, bankruptcy, divorce, a major health problem or a terrorist act that is your personal disaster. Often it is a combination of them, a major kick in the teeth.

One friend of mine was climbing the career ladder. There was a disaster and he, his wife and kids all had to come and live in the basement of his parent’s house. He took a dock worker job at a trucking company. He had no future. He learned that dock worker job and got promoted several times in only a couple of years. Then he quit and formed a local company that expanded to several states. He still loaded trucks when he had to… as the CEO helping out. He won’t tell you he liked getting kicked in the teeth. Instead, he’ll tell you it was a turning point. It was the start of a new and exciting phase of his life. 

Ginger, Hot Lemon, Tea, Lemon, Snow, Juice, Cold

He got kicked in the teeth again and had the courts liquidate his company three years later. Now he’s back at it. He didn’t enjoy it, but he just kept moving forward.

Happy or depressed, which will it be? That depends on how long it takes you to put yourself in charge. Being in charge is the subject of the next series of articles. Positive steps you can take to prepare for or recover from disaster.

Something to do today

Talk to the 3 happiest people you know. Get them alone. Ask them if they were ever kicked in the teeth. You may have to push them to find out. Ask them about the list: layoffs, bankruptcy, divorce, health and terrorist acts. I’ll bet you are surprised at what they call, “A blessing in disguise.”

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Imitate to succeed

Posted on November 24, 2021 | Leave a comment

An ex-NFL football player told me how he got to the big league. He chose a player he wanted to be just like. Then he learned to hold his hands just like him. He placed his feet just like his hero. He ran like his hero. He exercised like his hero. He did everything he could to play football just like his hero. He started in 9th grade football and continued through college. He made it into the NFL. 

When I met him in Denver, he was a couple of years into a new career selling real estate. He was doing the same thing. He picked one of the best real estate salesmen in Denver and was doing exactly what the new hero did. Once again he was becoming a superstar.

There’s a hint there. Find someone who is successful at what you want to do. Become like them. If they do something, you do it.

One more thing. Watch very carefully what your hero does NOT do. What do they avoid? What do they refuse to do? Too many people try to become a success doing the things that a successful person refuses to do. 

If you want to be a millionaire, I suggest you read one or two books by Thomas Stanley. The Millionaire Next Door is a bunch of stories about how millionaires became millionaires. The Millionaire Mind has some stories, but also takes a statistical approach. It tells what first generation millionaires do, as a group, to get their money.

Better yet, find a millionaire to personally learn from.

Do you want to be a Partner, CEO, CFO, CIO, or Project Manager? Find the best example you can, and do everything the way they do. Invite them to lunch. Ask them what they would do in your shoes. Become just like them at work.

Hero, mentor, example. Find one so you can become one.

Something to do today

Find your mentor and example. Learn to work just like they do.

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Create your own luck

Posted on September 17, 2021 | Leave a comment

IQ experts say that Thomas Jefferson was one of the smartest men ever born. I don’t doubt he was brilliant. However he once said “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” He harnessed his brilliance to the ox of hard work. Without his hard work, that incredible brain would have been wasted. 

I am sure there have been many others born who were smarter than Jefferson, no matter what the experts say. Those who were smarter were never recognized because they either worked in obscurity or didn’t work much at all. They used their brilliance to just get by.

Even the best poker players need luck. However, they also spend time practicing and perfecting their art. Learning to be the best at what you do and figuring out what the right moves are will be your best chances of having that luck with you. 

Two things you can do to be doing better than just getting by:

  1. You have to work hard
  2. You have to be recognized

I constantly talk to job seekers who have managed to get themselves into a great position. They work hard, have a great attitude and are willing to take chances. Interestingly, they commit with all their heart even though they may change jobs or positions frequently. They commit, work hard and make sure their accomplishments are recognized.

These superstars often hit bumps in the road. I know one that went from COO, to $24,000 per year junior associate, then back up to senior associate at $70,000 per year in 24 months. A year later he was CTO. He makes commitments, works hard and gets recognized.

Something to do today

It is time to look at your habits. Are you performing at the level you want to be recognized at? In other words, work hard and get recognized. 

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Six things you can learn from South Africa that will improve your job search

Posted on September 3, 2021 | Leave a comment

have recently worked with someone from South Africa and they have told me how difficult business there can be. Basic utilities like electricity and water are very unreliable; they can go out for hours during the day. The legal system is subject to corruption. Government regulation depends on your relationship with the bureaucrats, not the rules. Business partners don’t want to offend you or lose face, so they agree to do things they can’t get done. Bringing you bad news is avoided at all cost. Labor costs are low, but people will switch jobs for the slightest increase in pay. The problem goes on and on depending on the city, industry, neighborhood, and your ancestors.

South African business people do incredibly well in the US because they have practice overcoming complex problems. You can learn how to prosper in your job search and job by applying the few basic principles they live by. 

These job security, success, and business principles are applicable to accountants, help desk techs, managers, and CEO’s. They especially matter if you are in a job search. They will give you an incredible advantage in every company you apply at.

  1. Trust others but make sure they are actually accomplishing what they say they will do. Even experienced partners occasionally screw up. Have an alternative plan in case things don’t get done on time. Get commitments from recruiters, managers, friends, and anyone you talk to. Follow up.
  2. Don’t rely on your relationship with one person, like the HR department. Establish relationships three or four people deep. If one leaves or fails, you need the others to keep going forward.
  3. Spend time cultivating people. Get to know them. Find out about them personally as well as from business. It is amazing how often this will give you the leverage you need to succeed. Some of our greatest success as recruiters comes from being friendly, open and honest with the receptionist, as well as with HR and the hiring manager.
  4. Help others constantly. Go out of your way to encourage, help, and promote others who are growing. That help will often come back to save you in a crisis. Helping someone else get a job will improve your abilities and give you a strong supporter on the inside of their new company.
  5. Constantly focus on doing things quicker, cheaper, better, and with less people. This alone is the greatest job security guarantor in the USA. When you prove you can do it in your resume, you will always be a hot commodity on the job market.
  6. Take time to read, plan, and think. Americans are terrible at this. Sit down with a sheet of paper and write for 15 minutes or an hour each day. Brainstorm things you can do for your job or job search.

In South Africa it is essential to have multiple layers of preparation. In America, we frequently get by without them. Americans also often wonder why they got laid off and how they will survive when laid off. Preparation, getting to know more people, and fearless execution will do more for your earning potential than anything else.

Something to do today

List where you only have one layer of protection. Then list how you can improve that.

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How to get your resume noticed online

Posted on May 8, 2018 | Leave a comment

get noticed online to get a job

How to get your resume noticed.

How to get your resume seen online could be a book. That book hasn’t changed in the last 5 years. Here are the basics:

  1. Include every keyword that is in the job listing
  2. Figure out a way to repeat the most important key words
  3. Resubmit your changed resume occasionally

Keywords are critical

Computerized filters are being used more often. CareerBuilder, Ladders, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and all the others have them. If your resume does not have every important keyword or acronym, the computer eats it and spits out a form letter. No human sees your resume.

Put a list of certifications, education, software used, tools mastered and techniques employed at the end of the resume. Include every abbreviation or keyword in the ad. If you are missing a minor keyword, consider saying at the end of your resume, “I understand CDF and JCL but have never used them. It may get you past the computer filter. If you are submitting your resume directly to the hiring manager, you might take the list off.

Repeat important keywords

Your resume will be ranked by keyword usage. When my query brings back 300 hits, I want to see the most likely resumes first. I sort on “relevance” and cherry pick the top resumes. The best way to be ranked highly is to intelligently use the keywords multiple times.

Resubmit your resume

Job boards usually show the most recently submitted resumes first. If your resume has not been submitted for 3 months, it is at the bottom. Worse, recruiters may assume you have a job if your resume is that old. They won’t call you. Refresh your resume every week or two with a minor change.

Just these three things may change your invisible resume to a real interview magnet.

Something To Do Today

Go read the job description of the last job you submitted your resume for. Did your resume have all the keywords? Did it repeat the most important keywords?

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Posted in Finding jobs, Perseverance, Resumes

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How to choose (or decide to change) your career

Posted on May 1, 2018 | Leave a comment

Ladder into the clouds

Is your career really going somewhere?

It isn’t easy.  You won’t be sure you made the right decision.  So how do you decide what your career should be?

This link will take you to an interesting article on choosing a career.

The summary?

  1. Pick a career by really thinking about what you want and exploring your subconcious. Get help from lots of people in this step.
  2. Figure out what is achieveable by dividing the career into doable actions, steps, time periods.
  3. Just do it!  But do it in a series of steps.  Not like a long long long long long marathon.  Like a bunch of steps you can do.
  4. Enjoy! Profit! (and adjust)

You know what?  This version is a lot shorter.  The other one will give you a lot more food for thought.

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Posted in Career choice, Focus, Perseverance

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Guts and Glory Job Search

Posted on February 9, 2018 | Leave a comment

Knights charging into battle

Do you want what you earn from a “guts and glory” job search?

A 5000 email spam campaign may get you a job.  That’s why there are people who will legitimately email or fax your resume to a boatload of recruiters.  If you want to spend the money on it, go ahead.

But the risk and reward are small.

Putting your resume on a hundred job boards may get you a job.  I used to have a link to Resume Rabbit, who would do it.  If you want to spend the money, go ahead.

But there is no hard work and little reward.

The Guts and Glory way

How to REALLY get a great job is personal contact. Here’s why: if I put an ad in LinkedIn or on a job board, 50 to 1000 job seekers will reply.  Most of those will be unqualified for the job.  Basically, I have to wade through spam to get a few gems. Similarly, last week the same resume was sent to me 5 times.  It was from a guy in Texas who tries to hide where he is from so I will call him with a job “anywhere in the US”.  It is spam.  I delete a lot of spammed resumes.  I call 1 out of 50 of them.

The people who get my attention every time are:

  1. Recommended to me by their friends, or
  2. Call me personally and introduce themselves, or
  3. Are recruited by me when I call them directly at their jobs.

All three are guts and glory ways of contacting someone.  Getting a friend to recommend you or calling yourself is a very high risk and high reward way of looking for a job.  Sending an email or applying online is a no risk and very low reward way of looking for a job.

Cowardice is too strong of a word, but an effective one.  Email is not cowardly, it is just the least effective avenue of attack you have.

Personal calls and recommendations from friends are the most effective way to get that job you really want.  Hiring managers insulate themselves from job hunters so they aren’t bothered by unqualified and ill prepared job seekers.  If you are absolutely qualified and prepared why not use the absolutely most effective job hunting techniques you can?

Do a search for “networking” on my blog site archives.  I have written a lot of articles on how you can find the people you need to contact.  Look for a title that includes “networking”.

The easiest way, however, is just to call the company.  Ask, “Who is in charge of US sales?” or, “Who is the head of computer programming?”, or “Which VP runs commercial lending?”  Then call that person and ask them what you can do for them.  Say, “I’m Jim Tarrington.  At my company I report to the guy who does your job.  I’m looking for a job.  Is there a place I would fit into your group?”  Then listen.

Try a high contact, high risk, and high reward way to job search.  Give it a shot.

Something To Do Today

Which 3 companies would you most like to work for?  Or, which 3 advertised jobs do you want the most?  Get a friend to recommend you, or call in yourself.

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Tomorrow:     Absolute proof it is time to leave your job

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Posted in Finding jobs, Followup, Networking, Perseverance, Uncategorized

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Learn job search success – from a baby

Posted on November 8, 2017 | Leave a comment

A baby doesn't over think it.

Any win, no matter how small, makes a baby happy.

You may not have searched for a job for years.  You need to learn something from a baby.

If you touch a newborn baby’s cheek, its head turns in that direction.  Often the head goes back and forth as the baby tries to find and suck on whatever touched its cheek.  A baby old enough to try to grab something reaches for its goal and misses.  The baby’s hand goes past the object, then corrects too far the other direction, then again goes past the object. Eventually the baby grasps the object victoriously and smiles.  The baby doesn’t cry because he over-corrected five times or only has one toy in his hand. He coos in triumph.  It is time to enjoy this feat, not worry about the next challenge.

Job hunting triumphs come often.  Getting a job is always the cumulative result of a hundred victories.  Those victories should be celebrated over and over in your mind. Yes, you need to notice that you failed to finish the next step, but you shouldn’t focus on a defeat and exclude the victories leading up to that step.

If you send out 100 resumes and get 3 phone calls, you succeeded 103 times!  You sent out 100 resumes, a feat many job seekers never equal.  You also got 3 calls from your resume.  It worked.

You called 10 recruiting shops and 1 invited you in for an interview.  10 calls is a great adventure, and one success in 10 calls is wonderful.  Securites salespeople often make 200 calls in a day with absolutely no success.  Getting one interview is great.  Making 10 calls is a victory.

I had an executive make it to the final list of 3 candidates for a high level job.  Another candidate was chosen.  All he could see was that for the 7th time in 3 months he had failed to get the job. He could not focus on some delightful facts:

  1. He was referred to me by his network.
  2. His resume was very good.
  3. I thought highly enough of him to recommend him.
  4. He got the first phone interview.
  5. An executive flew across the country to interview him.
  6. He came to the facility he would lead and passed 6 more interviews.
  7. He made it to the short list of final candidates.

What a monumental chain of victories!  This was a phenomenal set of accomplishments.  Yet, he couldn’t see his successes when the process was done.  All he looked at was that he missed the final cut.  He got depressed and self critical.  It got so bad that I couldn’t recommend him to another company.  He took a job he dislikes with a company he doesn’t respect.  That job lets him stop the pain of focusing on his occasional failures. He was not desperate financially.  He was desperate to win because he stopped seeing his successes.

Watch a baby closely the next time you have a chance.  Notice their absolute delight in grasping a rattle or teething ring.  They are thrilled and fling their chubby hands around with the object they won.  Nothing could be more glorious.  Right now they are focusing on success.  They aren’t worried about the next step.  They got one thing right.

Take the time to relive your successes every hour of your job search.  You will find your attitude soars.  You don’t make the cut?  Relive every successful step getting there.  Include finding out about the job, applying, getting a call, arriving on time, etc.  All those are feats showing your prowess.  Go ahead relive them in your mind. You deserve it.

Something To Do Today

Get your job journal out.  List the 3 jobs you have gotten closest to winning.  Even if it was just making a phone call or sending a resume.  List all the steps you executed successfully to get to that point.  Include all the little ones.  Relive those successes.  “You done good, little fella.”

Next:            Why not go for the CEO job ?

Later:           3 critical words

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Perseverance

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Can you fit into the company culture?

Posted on November 1, 2017 | Leave a comment

pro wrestler jumping

In a company you get used to the most amazing things after a short time.

Wrestlers in feather boas and getting the right job

Everyone knows you can’t run for Governor and expect to win if you are a professional wrestler who wears feather boas. It is worse if you are a radio talk show host who is conservative AND liberal at the same time.  Jesse Ventura became a Governor by being all these things.  He got a lot of politicians upset and confused.  He also did a great job of running the state. But, less than half the people voted for him.

My coworkers and I offend some people. We do it by being ourselves.  We are not purposely obnoxious. We are friendly and inoffensive by our standards.  We just believe in being open, honest, and having fun.  We have a theory that we can either try to be bland inoffensive gray, or we can enjoy work being just who we are. We can’t do both.  We have found a LOT of people who like it when we are ourselves.  Even the candidates who literally leave our office in tears because we are candid with them, send their friends to us.  But some people refuse to do business with us.  We choose to pay that price.

We don’t set out to be obnoxious.  Neither should you.  If that nose jewel is just an accessory, don’t wear it to the interview.  If you will not work without it, wear it. The same thing goes for a beard. Dress up in the best way you know how for an interview.  Make your resume as professional AND personal as possible.  Use good manners always.  Be honest. Be yourself. Also understand that whether you dress very conservatively or outrageously, you will be judged as a bad fit for some jobs. Just make the choice consciously.

It is wonderful how quickly you get used to things, even the most astonishing. (Edith Nesbitt)

There are jobs for programmers, salespeople, bankers and accountants in very conservative companies.  The jobs also exist in companies that have bizarre office paint jobs, people with pink hair and pierced tongues, and parking lot hockey games at lunch.  I can point out such companies deep in Amish country in Lancaster, PA. All companies want team players who fit into their very different cultures.

Let’s be honest.  The more unusual you are, the more exceptional your accomplishments have to be.  Don’t set out to offend or shock people.  Be as nice and sociable as you can.  Fit in with company culture wherever possible.  Just don’t be afraid to be a little different, to be yourself.

Something To Do Today

Call my office after 6 pm and go to my voice mail. (717)975-9001.  Bryan Dilts is the name. I change my message occassionally.  My message is “very unprofessional” according to many. It also sets me apart in the minds of people who hear it.

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Tomorrow:      Corrections – a newborn’s grasp

Later:               Why not go for the CEO job ?

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