Learn for success

Posted on January 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

GM and Ford are laying off workers.  The layoffs include production line, engineering and management workers. IBM has layoffs every year, even when they are expanding.  State and federal governments have layoffs. The military has layoffs.

You are only safe if you train your brain. 

One of my candidates got tired of having to upgrade his computer skills every 3 or 4 years so he studied massage therapy.  Several candidates are getting their MBA’s.  I push everyone to get certifications in their field.  I once had a client who was a soldier in Iraq, and even he was able to continue his training.

Many people think their brain can stop when they graduate from high school or college.  These people have totally missed the meaning of the “Commencement Ceremony.”  Commencement means the beginning, not the end.  It is the time to really start learning.  It is the opening of broad new vistas of opportunities.

Oprah Winfrey said that the most important decision she ever made was to read two books each week.  She could stop working today and retire with the 100’s of millions of dollars she has earned.  Instead, she keeps on learning.  Because she keeps on learning, she keeps on being interesting to watch on TV.

I knew a rodeo cowboy, a pro bull rider, who always impressed me.  She kept learning new skills, and even got into law school. 

Are you still feeding your brain or did it stop working as soon as you left school?

Something to do today

Decide on a plan to learn something fun and something useful.  They may be the same thing.  Get started.

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Posted in Training

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Dress right for each situation

Posted on December 29, 2021 | Leave a comment

Anna Nicole was a stripper-turned-actress. She used clothes as a weapon. To win a Texas millionaire husband she dressed provocatively. Then her husband died and she was fighting to get her inheritance in court. She showed up at the US Supreme Court dressed conservatively in black. Anna Nicole effectively used clothes in both cases.

Are you as smart as she is?

First off, if you won’t be happy at work unless you have pink hair with cheek, nose and tongue rings, and a t-shirt with a provocative theme, wear them all to the job interview. You may as well find out quickly if you fit in.

If you don’t really care what you wear, dress conservatively. Guys, remove all earrings (not gauges — those look awkward when they’re missing). Girls, one pair will do, maybe two conservative pairs. Ask someone who is a manager in a similar company to help you choose what to wear. Tell them to be brutally honest. Then follow their advice.

Make sure that your clothes all fit. Guys, if you need bigger pants, get them. Using hydraulic equipment to tighten up your belt looks terrible. Girls, make sure your bra fits and is not a distraction because of bulges around the edges. Both of you, if your shirt buttons are strained at all then the shirt is too small. 

You need to find out if you should wear a suit or business casual. If you have any doubts, ask. Your recruiter or the HR person who sets up the interview will tell you.

Are you smart enough to dress yourself? Then dress yourself to get the job. 

Something to do today

Find your clothing advisor. Make it someone at the level of your interviewers if you can.

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Posted in Interviews

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How to write a successful resume

Posted on December 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

The Marines test their men so that under ideal conditions they can strip down their rifles and put them back together extremely fast. They can do it blindfolded.

Since your resume may be first reviewed in 5.7 seconds and thrown away or kept, you have to make sure it can be read blindfolded.

I’m not saying to use Braille. Instead use bullets, placement of keywords, white space, and numbers (which also attract the eye) to make reviewers quickly see you meet the basic requirements.

Test one – the famous test:

Give your resume to a friend. Take it back after 12 seconds. Ask him what your resume says you are qualified to do. If he can’t tell you, it fails.

Test two — plus:

Get some resumes from friends or coworkers. Tell them you need them for this test. Or go to www.agicc.com/resumeideas.htm and download the resumes linked there. Put your resume somewhere besides first in the pile. Now, give the job description for the job you are applying for to a friend. Have him read it carefully. Give him the stack of resumes. Tell him he has 10 seconds per resume to decide if it fits the job. As he goes through the stack, time him on each resume. If he goes past 10 seconds, take the resume away and ask if it passes or fails. Does your resume pass or fail?

If your resume passes both tests, you have got a fighting chance. 

Something to do today

Use the methods above to test your resume. Did your resume pass or did it fail? If it fails, make changes to make your resume better and test it again. 

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Posted in Resumes

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Will your resume last more than 5.7 seconds

Posted on December 24, 2021 | Leave a comment

I heard the Wall Street Journal did a study and found that the average resume is reviewed in 5.7 seconds. Years ago it was 10 to 12 seconds. People must be reading faster.

The reason for the increase in speed is probably that so many unqualified people send in resumes these days. At one point at AGI we stopped all advertising and stopped putting our jobs out on the major internet job boards because of the unqualified responses. It took too long to slog through them.

That glut of useless resumes makes it easy for your resume to stand out. Here’s how you make it happen. 

Take the job lead you are submitting your resume for. Make sure that anyone glancing at your resume can see that you have the major skills. For programmers that means putting the languages and skills you used where they can’t be missed in 5.7 seconds. For accountants, your expertise that applies to this particular job must jump out. Salespeople need to show how good they are at a glance. Whatever makes you the best bet for the job you are applying for must stand out.

This means you may need 2 or 3 slightly different resumes. Maybe you just need to rearrange the bullet points. Try bolding the words that describe skills asked for in the ad. Put white space around the critical skill sets. Change which keywords are emphasized. Do something to get your resume past that initial 5.7 to 15 second review.

In a sea of useless resumes, you can make yours stand out and get read if you are willing to put in the effort.

Something to do today

For the next 5 times you send off your resume, give it an examination first. Take the job order and see if YOU can find the most important skills and qualifications on your resume in 5.7 seconds. If you can’t, no one can.

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Posted in Resumes

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How to get a promotion in the next year

Posted on December 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

The new year will be starting soon. This is a great time to start preparing for the next step in your career.

Is there a promotion, or position you want to have by the end of the year? What you need to do to get that promotion or position is start working towards it now. Not in a few weeks or next month. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Tree, Park, Autumn, Fall, Foliage, Nature, Countryside

One of the most common ways people don’t get to be where they want to be in their career is by getting comfortable. Sometimes they get comfortable in their position, sometimes they get too comfortable with their current limitations instead of trying to push past them.

This is an incredible opportunity to advance like a rocket in your career.

One in six C-level Executives will leave their position in the next year. Starting now would be the best time so that when they leave YOU can take their place.

Planning, thinking, dreaming, and creating is critical now. Now is the time to prepare.

If you don’t prepare you’ll run into a glass ceiling. It’s there, but you can’t always see it or reach anything beyond it. Most jobs require a certain degree or certification to get into higher positions. If you don’t have these skill levels you’ll never reach those positions and be stuck under that glass ceiling until you do.

Now is the time to start getting that certification, MBA, college education or Vo-tech class out of the way. 

Do you want to get lucky? Prepare! Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

Something to do today

Take time to think about where you want to be this year and where you want to be in the next five. Write down everything you can get to where you want to be in the next year.

Work towards your next goal whether you need a new degree, certification, or experience. For where you want to be in five years, what would you expect to see on a resume for that position? Make a list, and start towards that now. 

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Posted in Promotions

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Don’t let your resume fade away into the background

Posted on December 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Some people are remembered because they are sharp, creative, and interesting. Many people are gray and easily forgotten

Call up our office after 6 pm EST. Usually no one is there. Listen to my voicemail message. (800) 239-7037. Bryan Dilts. I change the message fairly often.

You won’t be the first person to call just to hear it. Some of them are great. Some are merely okay. I, personally, think each is funny, motivational or thought provoking. Some other people think my messages are an abomination. Each message is the real me. 

My voicemail is unique. Each person who leaves a message remembers me.

No committee would ever let me have those messages. They would strangle the creativity. I actually had a manager tell me not to be happy when I answer the phone at an old job. That is the kind of thinking that turns you into a gray person that no one will remember.

Little children are great examples for their creativity, and their ability to stay upbeat and happy in many situations. Kids trip over or fall face first into the floor all the time and they get right back up and go back to being happy as ever. They’re wonderful examples of how everyone should act. Having that upbeat and unstoppable attitude is a great way to stand out, not some gloomy gray person that fades away. 

Unlike children where they can be all over the place, in your job search you need to strike a balance. You need to build confidence in the hiring managers. You also need to stand out. If you come up with a great idea, run it past some friends who can help you refine it. Then test it. The key is to refine and improve, not kill the idea. In the end, take responsibility and do something a little different. Your friends are not a committee with a life or death responsibility. They are helpers.

Figure out what will make your resume better and unique. Decide a few things you can answer to the standard questions that make you stand out in 10 seconds of an interview. Find the way to network that will set you apart and make you uniquely worthy of help. Always go for a little better.

Use help to do something better and more unique. Don’t let a committee kill your genius. Be sharp and creative, not just a gray person everyone immediately forgets.

Something to do today

So, what is unique about you? Is it your personality? Your brainpower? Your 10 kids? (I have that many.) Education? Sense of humor? Hard work? Soberness? Reliability?

Figure out a way to emphasize your strengths. Be different.

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Posted in Finding jobs

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The skills you need to be a good employee

Posted on December 13, 2021 | Leave a comment

One of the great keys to finding a new job is being good at your old job.  

You have to be competent, cheerful, and communicative. Competent people get the job done.  When they’re assigned a project, they make sure to do it as well and as quickly as possible.  Every manager loves an employee that gets his projects done before the deadline. 

Cheerful people get the job done with a smile.  Sure, they may have to put up with a difficult project, a tight schedule, and a team member or two whom they don’t particularly like, but even all that doesn’t get them down.  Every manager loves an employee with good morale, especially if he keeps the other workers’ spirits up.

Communicative people let their boss know what’s going on while they’re getting the job done.  That doesn’t mean that they flood his desk with memos or his voicemail with messages giving him information he doesn’t need.  It means they let their supervisor know once in a while that things are going as planned… or that they honestly admit when things have gone awry and need some intervention.

I know a fellow who has been working with his current employer for almost a year. He’s certainly competent. He was given a piece of software that hasn’t been working properly in spite of seven years of development by other programmers. Pieces of that software that never worked before are now running smoothly.

My friend is also cheerful. He’s put up with a supervisor that sells products the company doesn’t have (and has managed to create several of those non-existent products to save his boss’s hide). He talked an employee out of leaving when his boss yelled at him. He does a good job of keeping office tensions low. 

My friend, however, could use some work on his communication skills. He was a college student at the time, and occasionally his schedule changes when he least expects it. That means that sometimes he’ll have a class or group meeting when he would ordinarily be at work.

What should you do in that sort of situation? Call ahead, of course, to let your boss know what has happened and try to make sure your employer isn’t left hanging because he needs you. Yes, that means that you should call in to work at 3 am and leave a message if you won’t be able to contact him in advance any other way.

A supervisor’s job is to make decisions. By calling him, you let him know what is going on so that he can make those decisions. If you don’t call, you may find yourself in trouble… and looking for another job. Finding that job will be extra difficult, because you’ll have to tell them why you left your last employment.

So, be dependable. Call ahead. Your boss may not like that you can’t make it in, but he’ll love that you let him know.

Competent, cheerful, and communicative. Important keys. That all adds up to being reliable! What a concept.

Something to do today

Make a list of the times in the last year that your schedule has changed unexpectedly and kept you from going to work as normal.  What did you do?  Were those things that helped your relationship with your boss or hurt it?

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Posted in Focus

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When you’re replacing the interviewer

Posted on December 10, 2021 | Leave a comment

Jill had to interview with the person she was going to replace. That person was being fired. It was an uncomfortable situation. Let’s make it worse. That person thought he was irreplaceable. No one could possibly know accounting like he did. No one would work as hard. Jill couldn’t possibly win.

Jill didn’t pass the interview. She won anyway.

It was a chance to spy, do business intelligence and find out about the other leaders. A month later the managers who allowed this curmudgeon to reject her came back to Jill. They came on bended knees. It was a terrible mistake they admitted. But that terrible interview gave her insight to ask difficult questions of those managers. Jill quickly found out that she didn’t want to work for them. We found her a different job that was a much better fit.

If you are thrown into the lion’s den, take advantage of it. You can turn the interview around and find out about the company, the leadership and the rest of the team. You may be able to find out where the company is really going. Find out who the biggest competitors are. One of those competitors may want to hire you. The possibilities are only limited by the questions you ask. 

Take a hostile interview and turn it into a learning opportunity. You don’t have to let anyone beat you down. 

Later, if you are in a friendly interview, the same questions can show your interest in the company, job, and industry.

Something to do today

In your journal write down questions you can ask in an interview. What would help you in your job search? Showing interest in the company, competitors and industry will actually make you look better in the interview.

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Posted in Interviews, Uncategorized

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Each stage of the interview is important

Posted on December 7, 2021 | Leave a comment

One recruiter had a candidate going for a final interview. It was a nice executive job. He was ushered in to talk to the board of directors. They shied away from him during the introductions and after barely 15 minutes he was dismissed. He did not get the job.

The recruiter was baffled. He called the CEO and asked, “What happened?”

The CEO replied, “You’ve seen that our building has mirrored windows all around. It looks like a silver cube. We were in the first floor conference room finishing a little business when your candidate drove up. He got out of his car and walked right up to the windows of our room. He took a quick look at himself in the glass. He saw something he didn’t like so he spat on his fingers and rubbed down an errant lock of hair. He liked that better, but he was still uncomfortable. He undid his belt, reached into his pants to adjust himself then buckled back up. Do I need to tell you more about why we declined to hire him?”

The second you drive onto the company property, you are on stage. Many managers ask the receptionist what you were like in the waiting room. That is particularly true of sales candidates (they want someone who tried to get information from the receptionist). The HR (Human Resources) interview may be as important as the interview with the CEO. Every phone call is important. You may be competing against 10 or 20 other candidates. 

Be yourself. Be your best self at all times.

Something to do today

Think of your last three interviews or job hunting phone calls. How did you do? Did you treat each contact with professionalism?

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Posted in Interviews

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Look for the right place to cast your resume

Posted on December 3, 2021 | Leave a comment

When I was a child I tried fishing in a puddle in front of our house. When the sun dried it up I could see there were no fish there.

At college I saw a video of a man fishing in one of the larger fountains there. When people asked how the fishing was, he pulled up a nice string of large trout. That made for interesting conversations, but no one believed him. They could see there were no trout in that clear fountain water.

On a Scout outing John and I were lying on a creek bank and looking down into the water. We could see 3 nice trout in the tree roots. When a fisherman came by we asked how he was doing. Only one fish so far. John told the man to cast his lure at the tree root. In a dozen casts the man caught all three fish.

To catch fish you have to cast your lure where the fish are.

This applies to new jobs and promotions 

A recruiter can be that kid lying on the bank of the creek looking into the water. He says “Cast your resume over here and you’ll get a job.” He knows where the jobs are.

Ask your friends and acquaintances who are hiring. They may have a good idea where to go. Look at the financial news stories and find out what industries are “going public” in the stock market. Ask what companies are growing the fastest and look for a job in that industry.

Your mentor at work will tell you, “Volunteer for that project. It has great visibility. Avoid Jill Montoya, she’s poison.” The mentor knows where the rewards and pitfalls are hidden.

Always be looking to the future. Where are the jobs being created? What do you need to learn to be in a high demand field?

Fish where the fish are. You’ll have better luck.

Something to do today

Ask the people you respect most in your profession where the jobs are and where the industry is going. 

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Posted in Finding jobs

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