Category Archives: Perseverance

How to get experience before you have it

Posted on November 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

Experience is that marvelous thing that allows you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. (Franklin P. Jones)

You can’t get in the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) unless you have a job acting in a movie that is going to use union actors.  You can’t get a job in a union movie unless you have a SAG membership.  So how does anyone ever become a SAG member?  Here’s the trick. Someone puts together a movie company, gets a bunch of actors who want a SAG card to sign a contract, then goes to SAG and says I want this to be a union picture, so give all these actors a SAG card.  It happens all the time.  Those films are rarely made.  They exist only for experience.

I talked to a guy who wants to be a programmer.  The trouble is that he has no experience, just some education.  He and some friends are building a website with a game.  It is not a simple task.  It will take the 3 of them about 6 months to complete. He is still going to school.

How do they make a hobby programming project look great on their resume?

They form a company to do it.  Just like the SAG actors.

In Pennsylvania, and most states, you can register a company with the state for a few bucks.  You don’t have to incorporate, just register a name and an owner.  Now the three of them have a company, a project they can use to show off their skills, and six months of programming experience that looks good on a resume.

If you are in school an internship is incredibly useful for getting a job after school.  It is just as useful to create a job with some friends.  Put together a real product and a real company.  If it fails, no big deal.  You still have experience on your resume.

You can also do this if you are 50 years old and want to switch careers.

Think about it.  What can you do to get the experience for the job you want.  Is there an alternative?  Can you get some friends to form a part time company that will give all of you the experience you want?  Make sure it really does give you the experience, and you will have a great line on your resume.  Who knows, you may even start making real money and not need someone else to give you a job.

How do you get experience before you have it?  Do it yourself.

Something To Do Today

Sit down with a pad of paper and a pencil.  Make a list of 20 companies you could start to give yourself the experience you want.

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Posted in Finding jobs, Perseverance

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5 things I do to stop procrastinating

Posted on November 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. (Peter Drucker)

An old friend laughed when she read my article on procrastinating.  She knows I am a king at procrastinating.  She mentioned how I paid my kids to help me stop procrastinating.  The first one to call me after 3 p.m., and ask if I had met my goal for telephone calls that day, got paid.  It was cheaper than having a boss take 50% of my commissions.

I am an expert at procrastination.  The only way I have been able to beat that problem is to think about it….then set up motivators.  You need to do the same thing with your job hunting duties.

There are certain things that help me stop procrastinating:

  1. Guilt
  2. Rewards
  3. Getting checked up on
  4. Momentum
  5. Brain games

Guilt

If I make a plan that I know will succeed, and don’t follow it, I feel guilty.  Simple.  I pray for help, come up with a plan to reach my goal, and am goaded by guilt.  (Why don’t you write down a plan for finding a job. You’ll feel guilty for ignoring it.)

Rewards

One month I earned a membership at the Climbnasium by making a placement.  I basically don’t buy much of anything unless it is a reward for reaching a goal.  At the end of this month, I get a “prize” if I call 30 new people every work day.  I’ve used trips, shoes, clothes, a car, computer accessories, a camera, lunch, and leaving before 5 p.m. as rewards. (You can set up a reward for sending out 10 resumes, or making 5 calls.)

Getting checked up on

I mentioned paying my kids to call me and check up.  I’ve had my wife call at noon when I was having a lot of problems procrastinating.  I have kept daily charts of how many new people I call, how long I am on the phone, and other important daily accomplishments. Having a helper or just having to check up on myself every day is a big help. (Try making a chart for how many ads you respond to, or how many networking lunches you have in a week.)

Momentum

Funny thing about starting, it’s easier to keep going after you get some momentum.  The first 3 calls I make every day are to people I already know who are actively looking for jobs.  That gets the phone to my ear.  After those 3 calls, it is much easier to make the other calls to people I have never talked to before. (To start your day you can send out two resumes thru Monster first, then send out two resumes to companies with no openings, then call the two companies you sent resumes to yesterday.  Get momentum going.)

Brain games

The most effective thing I have done to get me to make calls is a simple brain game.  I have 50 dollar coins – 40 are gold colored, 10 are silver.  Every time I call a new person I noisily drop a coin into a cup.  Silver coins are for sales calls, gold are for recruiting.  It reminds me that every call means money.  It works for me.  At the end of the day, if I only have 20 or 25 calls, I can see how close I am to my goal of 30. It is a brain game that really motivates me. (What is a brain game you can use for job hunting?)

 

Procrastinating the most important parts of your job search can be a major problem.  Figure out what you can do to get working on the important things every day.

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Tomorrow:     Mental hygiene

Cover letter anesthesia

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Posted in Finding jobs, Focus, Followup, Networking, Perseverance, Time management

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3 reasons to procrastinate in your job search

Posted on November 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

Procrastination isn’t the problem, it’s the solution.  So procrastinate now, don’t put it off. (Ellen DeGeneres)

What to learn from procrastinators

My son and daughter put off doing their summer homework.  When they only had 3 weeks to get it done there were more problems.  They also had band camp taking up 10+ hours a day. After they procrastinated the hard part of summer that long I was telling them…..

“Procrastinating can be a good thing.

“First of all, I hope you procrastinated to get important things done.  If you did, then you used your time wisely. Use this experience to learn to do first things first.  (That is very important for job hunting.)

“Second, you should be letting less important things stay undone now that you are up against a nearby deadline. Learning to NOT do good but less important things is just as important as doing “first things first.”  (Job hunters often do repetitive, less productive, easy tasks. Stop it. You don’t have to do them.)

“Third, your quality should be high now, and you should pay attention to what works and doesn’t work for shortcuts.  Now is when you learn how much research is essential, and what research is just being done to avoid the hard work. Now is when you find out you really can do a quality job in 8 concentrated hours rather than 4 full leisurely days.”  (Job hunters often research a company for hours when all they need to know is that it is in the same industry.  They do heavy research so they can make less phone calls and send less resumes, which is more painful than surfing the internet.)

Think about all the schoolwork, studying, and commercial work you have procrastinated and gotten done at the last minute.  How much time did you save by having your back to the wall?  How many tasks that were more important have you gotten done?  What tasks just disappeared with time?

Now apply those lessons to job hunting.  Give yourself tight deadlines to get tasks done.  Instead of procrastinating, give yourself too little time to get tasks done, then fit them in the time you have given yourself.  Learn from the times you procrastinated.

Something To Do Today

Be your own boss.  Set a goal for how many companies you will call today.  That is a high priority job search activity.  How many resumes will you send out on ads?  How many resumes to companies in your industry or geography?

Learn from your prior procrastination.

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Later:                   More procrastination

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Posted in Accomplishments, Focus, Followup, Perseverance

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How to deal with a senile, blind, unthinking, incompetent boss — like yours

Posted on October 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

If you can get your boss to repeat what you say, there is still only a 50-50 chance he understood or thought about what he repeated.  There is only a 10% chance he will remember it in a week. Harsh?  No. Guys who get PhD’s in education will agree.

Have you ever felt like your boss was from a cartoon show?

How could you?!  Haven’t you learned anything from that guy who gives those sermons at church….Captain Whatshisname? (The Simpsons)

How many times do I have to tell them?

Your sweet boss is a senile, blind, unthinking, incompetent, well meaning person. Treat him that way, without offending him, and you’ll do well.

I only exaggerated a little. Here is why:

Everyone hears, but no one listens.

My wife and I were in charge of various activities at church, but very few people came.  Then we were told the key.  If a person at church is reminded of something 3 times, there is a chance they will consider it.  If they are reminded 6 times, it is likely they will remember hearing it once or twice.  So we started letting people know by announcements from the pulpit, notices on the bulletin board, a poster in the lobby, announcements in each Sunday School class, and an announcement at the Wednesday night meeting.  We did the notification for 3 weeks preceeding each event.  Suddenly people started coming.  They finally got it. They finally remembered. You have to repeat things over and over.

Again, if you can get your boss to repeat what you say, there is still only a 50-50 chance he understood or thought about what he repeated.  There is only a 10% chance he will remember it in a week. The studies have been done to prove it.

So the key to getting your boss to really understand is to remind him repeatedly.  How often? Every single week.

Forever?  Yes, forever. Yes, every week.

Your boss really only wants to think about your competence as he puts together your annual performance  review.  Otherwise, he just wants you to be excellent and not cause him any extra work.  You have to treat him like we treat the congregation at church.  He needs to be told over and over about what you have accomplished.

I suggest you submit a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual progress report to your boss.  Submit it even if he says, “You don’t have to.”  Tell him, “I hope you don’t mind.   I just want to be sure you understand what is going on.”  If he still objects, tell him you are gathering documentation for your annual review for him.  Keep it brief, but make it regular.

If you get those reports to your boss each week, I’ll bet he starts to file them in a special folder for you.  Then when he has to do pay reviews, he’ll open that folder and bless you for helping him out.  And your pay raise will be higher than it would otherwise.  When he is planning to promote someone, he’ll open that folder and know more about what you have done than about what anyone else has done.

Every Friday remind your leader why he loves having you work there.

Something To Do Today

Start giving your boss regular reports on what you do.

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Later:              A Korean attitude

What to learn from procrastinators

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Posted in Accomplishments, Followup, Perseverance, Raises, talent, Time management

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How do you get started in a new profession?

Posted on August 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

This is a short video about how to become a journalist, politician, salesperson, accountant, programmer, etc.  It is a great real life example of how to become what you want to be.

Do you know how many engineers do NOT have a degree?  I have a bunch of them in my database.  Accountants, CFO’s, and Controllers without a college degree?  I know managers in CPA firms who do not have an accounting degree, much less a CPA.

Oh yes, I almost forgot.  How many people got a degree and can’t get a job in their field?  I get many of those resumes every single day.  Watch this video to see how one person got started.

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

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Why the best people have the hardest time finding jobs when laid off

Posted on August 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

The best people have the hardest time finding jobs when they are laid off. It is a fact. It is not for the reason you are thinking.

This is my experience.

I was the only person out of 300 that knew for sure that layoffs were coming.  I had a mole in the headquarters in Dallas.  I asked my boss, Mike, when the layoffs were going to start.  He said, “There won’t be any layoffs.” Nevertheless, he checked with Dallas and was told there would not be any layoffs.

He was wrong, and I knew it.  My source sat 50 feet from the division president who was laying plans.

So I told Mike, “If there are layoffs, I want to be in the first group you let go.”

Mike assured me that it wouldn’t be necessary.  There would be no layoffs.

I started looking for a job and started a small recruiting company.  A week before the layoffs were announced I gave my 2 weeks notice.  My company, AGI, had its first contract.  Mike acknowledged that my timing was perfect.  The only thing that could have gone better was waiting a week so I got severance pay.  The new job security was a lot better than any severance pay.

Everyone who was laid off in the first group got a job immediately.  Everyone.

There were more layoffs.  The people laid off 6  months later didn’t find as many open jobs as the first group.  Those laid off a few months after that were unemployed for a lot longer.

The funny thing is that the best employees were laid off last.  But they couldn’t find jobs.  Why?

By the time they were laid off, there was a serious business malaise.  All the local companies had staffed their urgent projects.  Now everyone was afraid to hire more people.  So the best people had the hardest time finding jobs.

Isn’t it strange that the best workers, the most loyal staff, the absolutely essential people all had a hard time finding jobs? The reason is that they were let go at the absolute worst possible time.  Every job was filled months before. They were hurt the most by their own loyalty.

Are you concerned about layoffs?  Even if you are planning to stay, start setting yourself up for a job. Start setting yourself up for a promotion. Work harder than ever.  Take over new tasks.  Figure out how to make the company more money. Write a resume and hand it to your boss.  Ask for a promotion or an award for doing so well.  Don’t worry about a raise. Worry about getting recognized for exceptional performance where you are.  Then figure out if you really should look for a new job.

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Posted in Economy, Finding jobs, Perseverance, Quitting or Fired

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How you create your future with your passion

Posted on July 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

“The future is not something we enter.  The future is something we create.”  (Leonard Sweet)

I have worked for more than 30 companies.  Each one could have been a new career.  Okay, so I was 12 when I got my first newspaper delivery job, but I could have kept at it. I could have become a delivery supervisor or a reporter.  My job as a movie theater usher could have led to a lifetime working as a theater manager. I could have gone back and gotten my MS or PhD in Geology.  I could have worked my way back onto the remaining oil rigs after 3/4 of them were shut down in one month, and continued there.  Instead, I got into computers.

The job world really does reward you for your experience and what you persist in.

Shrinking and growing happens in all industries.  After each war, as the military shrinks, generals become colonels and majors.  Most officers just leave the military. Patton and Eisenhower took demotions after the first world war. They stayed with their beloved career.  They rose again.

Dot.com turned into dot.bomb in 2001. 2002 saw thousands of computer pro’s unemployed. That changed. In February 2006 more US workers were into computers than there were working with computers at the peak of the dot.com boom.  Persistence during the bad times has created a lot of opportunities.

One friend of mine sold a computer company for millions.  Then he lost all that money in Enron and other bad investments.  So he retrained in VB.Net and took a job for $24,000 per year.  A year and a half later he was earning $70,000 per year.  He has another company doing amazing things for the iPhone now.

If you are in a field you love and are willing to roll with the good times and endure the bad, you will be able to stay in that field.  Your pay may vary from great to poor, but in the end you create your future.

Industry hopping and career changes aren’t bad if you are still looking for your love.  If you have found your love, embed yourself within that industry.  You may have to switch companies and jobs, but let your experience build until people look at you and say, “We have to hire him, he’s worth two of anyone else.”

Something to do today

Learn more and do more if you want to stay in your industry. Be a ball of enthusiasm and a tower of dedication.

If you don’t want to stay in your industry, get into a new one NOW.

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Coming up

Give a monkey a gun

Salary toy

Working for the Fortune 50

Scrabble and muck and get ahead

When to give up and go elsewhere

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Economy, Focus, Perseverance

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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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Rules of war for gutsy job seekers

Posted on May 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

Here are your rules if you have the guts to declare war on your job search.  They are not for cowards.  This is how a real proactive job search can be done.

Check it out here.  It is on LinkedIn.  If you aren’t on LinkedIn yet, then link to me bryan @ dilts.us

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Posted in Finding jobs, Perseverance, Time management

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The single most important trick I use to get myself to make phone calls

Posted on March 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

My telephone weighs 470 kilograms if I do not pick it up and make a call out by 8:30 in the morning.    I get nervous.  I can’t pick it up.  I make my living calling people and sometimes I just can’t do it.

So I use a rubber band to help pick it up.  I put the rubber band around my wrist.  Every time I start to think about being nervous I snap it hard against my wrist.  If I pause before picking up the phone, I snap it and pick up the phone.  If I feel nervous, I snap it and pick up the phone and dial somebody, anybody.  The real trick is that I interrupt my thought patterns.  I have a mechanism to deal with nervousness.  The little snap of pain also trains me that nervousness is unpleasant.  More important than the pain. is that I interrupt my negative thoughts.  I start concentrating on the positive, and do something positive.

When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them. (Confucius)

I should have told my daughter how to use a rubber band to change her thought pattern when she and her friend were talking about their fear of needles.  It might have helped her channel her thoughts so she wouldn’t cry before the needle touched her.  Irrational fear or just nervousness can ruin an hour, a day, or a lifetime.  Control the negative by finding something to interrupt the negative thoughts and think about the positive.

You really are what you think about.  If you need to think about something else, figure out a way to do it. I use a rubber band to help pick up the phone.  What do you use to get over nervousness?

Something to do today

Research ways to interrupt your thought patterns and channel them positively.  There are a lot of great books on the subject.  The classics are The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, or Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  Read it. Absorb it.

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Later: Fledging falcons on the DEP building

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Posted in Attitude, Networking, Perseverance, Time management