Category Archives: Perseverance

Getting past a glass ceiling

Posted on August 3, 2015 | Leave a comment

True story: She can’t get a promotion.  Not even a bigger title.  The “Good Old Boys” all admit she is doing a great job.  She saves the company literally 5 to 50 times her salary every year.  She will never be promoted.  It is because she is a woman.  I know her.  I know her company.  There is no way up.  Even shooting her boss will only get a different man promoted ahead of her.

She can make her own life a living hell by suing the company.  She’ll lose even if she wins.  They would figure out a reason to fire her in a few years and then she’d have a hard time finding a job.

There are two ways to deal with a glass ceiling.

  1. Go around it.
  2. Get a new job.

Go around it

To go around the glass ceiling you need a mentor.  It is doubtful that your own boss will really help since he isn’t helping you now.  Invite someone 2 or 3 levels above you to lunch.  At lunch, don’t condemn your boss. Ask for help to grow.  Write down the advice you get.  Set up an appointment to have lunch again in 3 to 6 months.  Go over your progress with the person.  Report on how you have improved.

Scared?  Do you have to go to the owner, CEO or chairman of the board?  Do it anyway.  What have you got to lose?  You may be surprised that the person that far above you really wants to help winners like you succeed.  And if they refuse to help, try method 2.

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read, “President Can’t Swim”.  (Johnson)

Get a new job

Keep your old job as you search for a new one.  Chronicle your accomplishments in a job journal.  Report to your boss every week on your progress at work even if he doesn’t want to see it.  Take the reports and put your greatest accomplishments in your resume.

Network, contact recruiters, apply to good jobs at good companies.  Set criteria for moving and when you find the job, move.

Something To Do Today

Seriously ask yourself, why haven’t I been promoted this week?  Why haven’t I gotten a raise or a bonus this week?

Now write down in your job journal what you can do to get a promotion, raise or bonus as quickly as possible.

Will that make you happy?  Is that what you really want?  If yes, go do it.  If no, better figure out what you really should be doing.  There is no time like the present to change your life.  You get to be happier longer if you change today.

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Later:  The hours game

Confronting your boss

How to leave your job

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Perseverance, Promotions, Quitting or Fired, Raises

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Use the slings and arrows of outrageous job fortune to win

Posted on March 10, 2015 | Leave a comment

Goliath was the best thing that ever happened to David. (Weed)

Okay, Goliath tried to kill David.  But it was how David reacted to Goliath that made him famous.

How horribly bad stuff can eventually help you have a great job

Some people claim that the best thing that happened to President George W. Bush, was that terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center towers. There is even an apocryphal account of Bill Clinton saying, “If only that attack had happened on my watch, then I would have been a great president.”

How about these:

  • Not getting a job you really want.
  • Someone else getting the promotion you worked for.
  • Being laid off.
  • A terrible job performance review.
  • A letter of reprimand in your file.

Disasters? Yes.  Setbacks? Yes.

Setbacks make me think of the two richest families in our neighborhood when I was a kid.  One ran a gas station.  The other was a plumber.  They couldn’t get great jobs, so they took opportunities no one else wanted.  The gas station manager now owns 10 car dealerships.  The plumber started his own company and employed a host of people. They took stock of their situation and decided to move forward.

Evaluate why you really suffered a setback.  Ask the easy questions and the hard questions.  What did they do to me?  What did I do to me? Where can I go from here?

One of the oldest books on the subject of success is Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill.  Every other book on the subject just steals his material and puts it in different words.  His book can help you gain perspective and focus on what you can do.

Are you dealing with a Goliath?  Then make sure you DECIDE how to react.

Today is always the time to start your future.  Yesterday is past.  Today you can make tomorrow a little better.  Focus on what really caused your current situation.  Then go forward with a plan.  The world will change around you.

Something To Do Today

Get a copy of Think and Grow Rich and read through it.  It’s a classic.

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Later:  The job supermarket

Rigor Mortis – signs of job death

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Posted in Focus, Perseverance, Quitting or Fired

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Great and glorious job search!

Posted on March 5, 2015 | Leave a comment

My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today, I knew it then as purpose.  (Davis)

Can your job search be like General Grant’s assaults on the Confederacy? You certainly can’t start from a worse personal position than he did.

Robert E. Lee said, “We all thought Richmond, protected as it was by our splendid fortifications and defended by our army of veteran, could not be taken.  Yet Grant turned his face to our Capital, and never turned it away until we had surrendered.”

Abraham Lincoln was strongly urged to remove Ulysses S. Grant from command by Grant’s two senior leaders.  Lincoln replied, “I cannot spare this man, he fights.”

Grant’s first army unit as a General had driven away two other Generals in the previous month.  The unit was insubordinate, untrained and outright rebellious.  Yet they followed Grant.

The year before the US Civil War, Grant was an alcohol abusing store clerk who only kept his job because he worked for his father-in-law.

What changed in Grant? Passion, focus, and high purpose.

Do you have a career plan? A job search plan? One that really suits your talents and skills?  If one plan of attack fails are you willing to immediately switch to another?  As the job market changes are you ready to take advantage of previously unseen opportunities?  Are you constantly preparing?

Your passion may be your family, church, job, or club. It is probably a combination of them.  If you take the time you spend on your job, concentrate, plan and execute, you can do wonders.  If you slackly follow orders, give the minimal possible and expect to get a raise before you work harder, you will stagnate.

Where can you go to succeed?  What can you do?  Do you have to relocate your family? Do you need a new job?  A new career path? What can be your great purpose at work?

Acres of Diamonds can give you some directions along that path. You can read it or listen to the author tell it at this link.

Something To Do Today

Read or listen to Acres of Diamonds .  Read it.

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Later: Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

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Posted in Attitude, Economy, Focus, Perseverance

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Make your job search 50% more effective

Posted on February 23, 2015 | Leave a comment

The first step to making your job search 50% more effective, is to really know what is happening.  Yes, get a job in half the time. Let me give you an example that changed my life that applies to your job search.

I was overspending by 20% every month. I had an absolutely fixed income.  So I bought a notepad and kept track of every expense.  In one week it was obvious where the money went.  In a month it was unavoidable.  The truth? 20% of my very limited income was going for lemonade from cozy little shops in Murcia, Spain.

Your time is very limited.  You only get 24 hours a day.  You can’t buy more time. Do you really know how you use it?

Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace. (Sawyer)

Buy a small notebook.  Exert incredible discipline for one day each month.  Every time you shift tasks, write it down.  A phone call is a shifted task.  An internet link can be a shifted task.  Write it down.

It may help to create 15 minute intervals on the paper and write down what you did for each 15 minute period.

Now get out the chainsaw.  What was really REALLY productive?  Do you spend 2 hours daily trying to avoid offending people by chatting amiably or reading their useless emails.  Cut out the unproductive stuff.

Make sure you do what is important.  Education is essential. Networking is critical.  Talk about the NCAA tournament with Larry—don’t kid yourself.  That email of funny things kids do—delete it.

I tried it. I found I was spending hours each day with candidate email that wouldn’t do any good.  I did a 2 month experiment.  I took all my job openings off the internet. Instead I started calling up people.  In the recruiting business that is taking a chainsaw to your daily schedule.  Nothing neat and clean, I just cut 25% of my time wasted.  I have since added back some job ads, but not where everyone else advertises.  Now I get better candidates and less time wasters.

Create the log.  Keep it for a day or a week.  Get your chainsaw out.  Cut off the termite riddled, least productive part of the log.  Use the time you save to get the most useful things possible done.

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Something To Do Today

Create a time log.  Use it for your job or your job hunting.  Keep it. Analyze it.  Chainsaw it.

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Next:      Unbelievable networking facts.

Later:               Take unfair advantage of those networking facts.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Finding jobs, Focus, management, Perseverance, Time management

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How to overcome an employer’s resistance to hiring you

Posted on December 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

Why won’t they hire you? Do desperate employers resist hiring anyone?  Do they resist change? Or is it something else they resist?

Would you like to win a million dollars tax free?  But isn’t that a change?

If Oprah gave you a new car and money to pay the taxes on it, how hard would you resist? That is also a change.

Did you notice that I added that line about taxes in each question?  I had to add that because you might resist otherwise.  It isn’t the taxes, it is what the taxes represent in your mind that may cause you to resist.

Employers have the same resistance to hiring you that you might have to accepting a new car or even a million dollars.  They are afraid there is a hidden tax, a hook, a hidden problem.  They are afraid they will be forced to do things they don’t have time or energy for.  It can all be boiled down to their fear of losing control. People are afraid of losing control of their million dollars or their new car due to taxes. They are afraid of losing control if they hire you.

They lose control when they make you a job offer

As long as the employer is looking at resumes, interviewing, testing, talking about candidates, doing reference checks, and thinking about making offers, they are in control.  The second they make you an offer, they lose control.

Suddenly it is all up to you.  They get edgy.  To regain some control they will put a time limit on their offer. Usually they will give you overnight.  Sometimes they will give you up to a week.  But they want to have control over the process.

They have even less control when you start working for them

I am sure your new boss has worked with someone who was hired and was an absolute disaster. That person looked like the solution to their problem and was a horrible mistake.

You look like the perfect solution to their problem.  But, if they hire you, they lose control. When you come on board, there will be training, detailed supervision, review of your work, correction, adjustments to team duties, interpersonal conflicts, and a lot of other things that change. They will lose control of all those things the second you start with the team.

You have to help them regain control before you are hired

In order to soothe your potential boss, you have to give them as much control as possible.  If you can prove a few basic things, they will hire you immediately.  You need to prove:

  1. You will take the job and keep it
  2. You can do that job
  3. You won’t take too much training
  4. You will take the initiative to do things within their system
  5. You learn quickly
  6. You get along with all kinds of coworkers – good and bad
  7. You will quickly take other burdens off the boss’s back and give them back control.

How do you prove it?

We’ll talk about that over the next few days.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Focus, Followup, Interviews, Networking, Perseverance, References, Resumes, talent

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Networking, referrals, recruiters, and job boards

Posted on October 14, 2014 | Leave a comment

Even a fox can get a job guarding a henhouse if he has good enough references.

Internet job boards fill 25% of jobs, recruiters fill 16%, and referrals fill 27% of jobs according to one survey.     So where do you want to concentrate your job hunting time?

But there are so many jobs on Indeed, Monster, Dice, and Career Builder, shouldn’t I try to get those jobs?

Absolutely!  But that doesn’t mean you should automatically send a resume through those services.

22% of jobs are found on a company’s own website.  Gotta like that.  Still, don’t even apply at the company’s own website until after you have tried to take advantage of this country’s main job finding system: Networking into referrals.

Print out the jobs you want that you find on the internet.  Make a list of the companies.  Next to each company, make a list of people you know who work there.  Include people who know someone who works there.  Add a list of recruiters who can get your resume past HR (Human Resources) and directly to the hiring manager.  Get into www.linkedin.com and see if you can find someone working at that company.  (Link to bryan@dilts.us to expand your network.) Add the people at companies you are targeting to a list.

Your objective is to find someone who can drop your information on the hiring manager’s desk.  Look at your whole list before you make a move.  Who has the best chance of helping you?  Who is the best connected?  Is it a professional networker or a recruiter?  Is it your friend’s wife?  Get your resume in there and follow up.  If you don’t get a call within a week, try again through another person.

27% of jobs are being filled by networking, 25% by job boards, 16% are being filled by recruiters.  Shouldn’t networking AND job boards AND recruiters be your main job search tools?

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Something To Do Today

Get into www.linkedin.com

List where everyone you know works, their spouses too.  Keep adding to the list whenever you find out where someone works.  Keep track of coworkers who leave.  Start making a list of where everyone who knows you works. It may be worth more than gold to you now or in the future.

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Later              Personality tests

Resume blasting

Certifications –  gold and lead

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Posted in Finding jobs, Job Boards, Networking, Perseverance, Recruiters, References

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Job search: what the reality show would look like

Posted on September 24, 2014 | Leave a comment

There is a natural progression to a job search and how you feel when you have been fired.  Let me give you the key line that would be in the 8 episodes of the reality show, “I Was Fired.”

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 checks.  This may take a week or two.

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

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!

The real job search emotional 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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Later:              What to ask in every interview

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Perseverance, Quitting or Fired

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How to find out what you want to be, do, or pursue

Posted on May 30, 2014 | Leave a comment

I went to a Boy Scout camp where a fire company put on a rescue demonstration.  They had 3 cars.  One by one they ripped them apart using hydraulic tools.  Right then I decided that I want to be a fireman when I grow up.  I was 49 and ineligible, but I’m willing to dream.

A friend told me that he was the fastest machine operator at the plant where he worked.  They always put him in the job that would challenge him the most. If there was a bottleneck, he’d clear it up.  He also cried at times because he hated the work so much.  He studied to take up a different profession for 8 years.  He struggled with very low paying jobs, serious health problems, and a wife and kids he solely supported.  Finally he started working as a Mechanical Engineer at a major DOD contractor.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.  (Aristotle)

Why do people stay in jobs they hate? No one is legally bound as an indentured servant or slave anymore.  Why do people need help finding what they like to do?  There are a lot of reasons.  Fear, money, social pressure and unexplored possibilities can all be reasons.

You are a slave if you believe you cannot change.  You are free when you think about, study for, and work towards a change for the better.  So take a little time today and write down a list of things you always wanted to do.  Make a list of jobs and careers you might enjoy.

Need help? Every university has a department to help students discover what they would like to study. The internet has sites to help you choose a career.  Every state run job center will give you interest and aptitude tests for free.  Friends and family are always happy to tell you where to go and what to do when you get there.

You may want to consult a career coach or a consulting coach.  For example, I work with people who want to be consultants to help them have a viable business without worrying about where the next client is coming from. Others help you figure out and pursue your best and happiest career.

It is worth taking time to find out if you really want to be a fireman, mechanic, professor or plumber.  If you start working towards a career goal you can always turn back later and be better off for trying.  However, you will never get anywhere without taking the first steps to think about, study for and work towards a change.

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Something To Do Today

Make a list of every hobby you have attempted.  List every subject you have studied.  Rank them all as “liked”, “don’t care” and “disliked.”  Look for a pattern.  You may be surprised.  Take an interest test or two.  They’re actually fun.  Many are free.  Contact me.  I can help too.

Next:  Mortal combat: win every time

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Perseverance, Quitting or Fired, talent

“Ash breeze” can fix your job search

Posted on May 21, 2014 | Leave a comment

Sometimes your job search just isn’t working.  Fix your job search using what the old sailors called “ash breeze”.

You won’t go anywhere in your sailboat if you are becalmed, no wind.  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 “ash 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.

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

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Something To Do Today

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

Tomorrow:  IBD and what’s hot

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Posted in Attitude, Finding jobs, Focus, Perseverance, talent, Time management, Training

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You’ll get the job if you focus on the right stuff

Posted on May 19, 2014 | Leave a comment

Understand the emotions and actions, ignore the words.

Down Syndrome vs down syndrome part 2

Merrilee has Down Syndrome, a medical condition.  At 9 years old she could read 150 words. At 18 she can now read maybe 300 words. She understands only very simple sentences.  Yet, she’s brilliant.  She understands very clearly what people are doing and feeling.  She is not distracted by their words, clothing or cars. Merrilee is not distracted by her own expectations.

Job seekers with down syndrome, a perception condition, communicate verbally and in writing much better than Merrilee.  Their down syndrome, however, makes it very difficult for them to understand, interpret and act on the emotions and actions of others.  They interpret everything through their biased perception filter.

Attitude really is everything in job hunting.  A hiring authority told me, “I hire almost entirely on attitude.  It’s easy to train someone if they have a good attitude.”  If a job hunter has down syndrome it doesn’t matter what they know, they will be a problem employee.

Job seekers with down syndrome assume the people around them are mean spirited, harsh, cruel, difficult and/or unfeeling.  When an HR department fails to respond to their resume, they assume rudeness.  When no one gets back to them after an interview they figure the interviewer is a rude jerk.  When they are probed about why they left their last job they think it’s an unnecessary mean streak. Having down syndrome causes you to find the worst no matter what happens.

When Merrilee, with Down Syndrome, is told, “No,” she understands the word.  She doesn’t understand explanations so she figures out what the other person’s real emotions are.  She understands that mostly “no” means not now.  She can feel when “no” means not for a long time.  She gets it when “no” means she could get seriously injured.

Your job hunting will be much more successful if you focus on what people are feeling and watch what they are actually doing.  Make it a habit to never take offense.  That company may literally have 500 worthless applications for one job and cannot reply to each applicant.  Your interviewer may be impressed, but unable to hire you.  He probably told HR that you have been turned down and HR is swamped with other work so they didn’t call to let you know.

Keep trying to get into the jobs and companies you are most interested in.  I called a manager about a job he filled the previous month.  He said, “That job is open again.  Can you help me fill it?”  One month later someone new will be hired.  Those who already gave up are out of the running.  His previous “no” meant “not now.”

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Something To Do Today

If it has been over 3 months since you talked to someone at a target company, time to get back in touch.  Things change.  Find out what is happening there today.

Next  Down Syndrome vs down syndrome part 3

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Posted in Attitude, Followup, Perseverance

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