Tag Archives: Accomplishments

How to get your boss’s job

Posted on November 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

You have to kill your boss, or the senior technician to get a promotion. They have the job you want and are not leaving. They don’t want a promotion. They are fat and happy. They are like a big wad of hair and grease in the sink trap. They clog up the career track for everyone else. So, where is the Drano? How do you get them out of your way?

First be sure they are the biggest problem. It is embarrassing when you have complained for 5 years about your boss preventing you from getting a promotion, only to have him leave and a coworker is promoted in his place. 

You need to have a list of standout accomplishments that prove you are perfect for the job you want. That way you can get the job in your current company OR the next one. 

Become the obvious candidate. Ask your boss to help you get promoted. Also ask HR (Human Resources) and your boss’s boss. Find someone who will champion your cause and be your mentor. A mentor helps you prepare to advance and gives you visibility outside your team. Your mentor will help you to find high visibility assignments where you can prove your worth.

In a job journal write a weekly list of your accomplishments and projects. Use that list in your annual reviews. Also submit a weekly, monthly and quarterly list of accomplishments to your boss. Make sure he knows how much you contribute.

You can also look for a new job. If you have a list of undeniable accomplishments you will be a good hire for another company. 

The same things that prepare you for a promotion in your company will make you a better job candidate.

Something to do today

Write down your career goals. It doesn’t matter if they change tomorrow. Know where you want to go today.

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Posted in Promotions

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How to show personality and quality to get a job

Posted on October 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

Reading off of a sheet of questions, each interviewer takes a turn asking set questions. There are technical questions, motivation questions and team related questions. Which are the most important ones? Which are the red herrings?

If you interview with 5 people at a company, you will have to deal with 5 agendas. Each will have a different set of core values and competencies they are looking for. So how do you win?

Be yourself, but avoid dwelling on yourself.

Be yourself

Make sure your interviewers know one or two endearing things that make you different. For instance, I have ten kids and I am a Boy Scouts leader. That will set Bryan Dilts apart from other candidates and give me a personality. Do you have a computer network in your basement? Were you the top salesman of Girl Scout cookies as a kid? Mention one or two things that make you unique. Make sure NOT to mention politics.

Avoid dwelling on yourself

A quick mention of your one or two endearing qualities is all that is needed. Then it is time to mention past job performance. 

When asked about what you did, mention specific projects. You can say, “I was in charge of the budget,” or you can say, “While I was in charge of the budget we increased productivity 60% while increasing the budget only 20%.” That will catch their attention. As a salesperson you can say, “I sold to companies with over 2000 employees,” or you can get bonus points by saying, “In the last year I opened new accounts at 14 companies, each with over 2000 employees.” 

Don’t dwell on yourself. Dwell on the facts. Facts that demonstrate your value to your last company and the company you are interviewing with.

Their red herrings

You really have no hope of knowing which of their questions are red herrings. All you can do is refocus each question they ask on what you have accomplished in the past. Given a choice, most people would rather work with someone who will get things done rather than someone who answers the questions just like they are supposed to.

Ignore their red herrings and show them you are a big fish. They’ll want to reel you in and hire you.

Something to do today

Ask if you can help do interviews at your current company. You may be surprised what you learn about being interviewed by watching others in the hot seat and talking with your boss about them afterwards.

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Posted in Interviews

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Do you read under 2 ½ inches?

Posted on February 25, 2014 | Leave a comment

Most people read in 2 1/2 inch chunks.  That is why drudgereport.com and newspapers use narrow columns.

Do you have a 3 ½ inch reading span? 

Or is yours 2 ½ inches long?

To get your accomplishments and victories noticed, you have to learn the art of placement.  You need to put power words and numbers in the first 2 ½ or 3 ½ inches of each paragraph and bullet.  If you don’t, that bullet and that paragraph will not be read. 

More than 80% of resumes are tossed in the trash after a 10 second review.  More than half of the rest are tossed out after a second review of 45 seconds.  The reason is that 100 resumes may come in for a particular job.  Reviewing each resume for one minute would take over 1 ½ hours.  Instead a screener takes 15 minutes to reduce that pile to 10 or 20 resumes by trying to quickly reject the obviously unfit ones.  Since the boss doesn’t want to read even that many resumes, a 45 second review of the remaining resumes will reduce the pile to at most 5 resumes.  Then the boss takes those 5 resumes AND DOES THE SAME THING!!!!   He shuffles through the pile doing first a ten second review and then a 45 second review, hoping he only has to read one or maybe two in depth.

Can you survive that process?

What gets your resume past all the reviews is having boss stopping information where it gets read.  That means you have to have your greatest accomplishments in bullets.  Your finest deeds must be at the top of the list of bullets.  It also means you put your list of duties, if you really really feel you need to have them, in a single paragraph so they are easy to ignore until the boss decides he will slog through the whole resume.

At the bottom of www.agicc.com/resumeideas.htm are links to some very good resumes.  They are actual resumes we got permission to put on our site. They are resumes that got people jobs fast.

Your job review needs to go through the same editing process.  Let’s face it, your boss finds your job review even more boring than you do.  His boss will barely glance at it.  You have to learn to put critical information in the first 2 ½ inches of bullets.  It will earn you a lot of money.

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Something To Do Today

Rewrite your list of accomplishments.  Make it into bullets.  Put the boss stopping words and numbers in the first 2 ½ inches.  Write two or three bullets for each accomplishment.  Word them different ways.  If you have the time, create a new resume or job review.  Don’t throw away your practice bullets yet.  They will come in handy tomorrow.

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Posted in Resumes

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3 things that prove you have to be hired

Posted on January 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

Great women are not considered so because of personal achievements, but for the effect their efforts have had on the lives of countless others. From daring feats of bravery to the understated ways of a compassionate heart, great women possess a common strength of character. Through their passion and persistence, they have advanced womanhood and the world. (Peggy Anderson)

Want to get hired?  Prove you are great.

Employers look at resumes for three things to do the initial screening for greatness:

  1. Basic job skills
  2. What you have accomplished
  3. What you caused others to accomplish

Basic job skills have to be easy to find on your resume.  Prove you can type, program in VB.Net, sell, do accounting or design widgets.  Make it so those skills will not be missed by a receptionist who has 100 resumes to plow through.

What you have accomplished is often harder to come up with.

What you caused others to accomplish is even harder to remember and very hard to prove.

My opening quote gives a great suggestion, figure out the effect you had on others.  Keep track of people you have trained, processes you speeded up and money you saved.  It will set you apart.  Most people won’t track those things because they are taught to be “humble”.  There is nothing wrong with reporting how well you do your job.  Correctly convincing an employer to hire you because you will make him more money is a great idea.  Don’t shy away from proving what you are worth.

The people, teams and companies you have helped are a great indicator of just how great you are.  Accept it and take advantage of it.

Something to do today

If you have not started a job journal, today is a good day to do it.  Start tracking all the people you help.  Keep a tally sheet with the number of people who drop by and ask for help each day.  Figure out how you make the workplace better.  Track it and report it.

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Later:               Oil drums on the horizon

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Posted in Accomplishments, Promotions, References, talent

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How to get a great job at your biggest competitor

Posted on December 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Jason has had 3 promotions in 2 years.  His pay has gone up 50%.  His attitude is a delight.  If there is a tough job, he’ll rally the team and get the job done.  Jason not only gets the chance to fix disasters, he fixes the problems behind the disasters.  No one has ever done that before.  He is having a huge impact. He seems to whistle a magic tune that improves attitudes and gets unbelievable results.

Jason also just quit.  He took a new job that pays a little less than he earns now.

Two things happened.  First, Jason realized his boss would always be a loose cannon and Jason would always get to clean up. Second, with a boss like that it was obvious the company would never go out of business, but it would never get much bigger either.

The best part is that all the things he got done looked great when he applied for a job.  He applied at their strongest competitor.  Jason is going to a company that is really growing.  It is a company with a plan and a history of doing things right the first time.

Wherever you are, whistle a happy tune.  Put an accomplishment list together that will carry you into a better job, and if necessary, get that job in a better company.

Something to do today

Just for the record, all the stories I tell are true, but the names are changed.

Document your accomplishments for each week.  Give a copy to your boss in a format he can use for his reports.  That way you can be sure he knows why you are the best employee he has.

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Later:              Hustle while you wait

The $5 call girl

Where to fish

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Quitting or Fired, References

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How to get promoted past that roadblock

Posted on November 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

It isn’t the incompetent who destroy an organization.  It is those who have achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things up. (Charles Sorenson)

You have to kill your boss, or the senior technician to get a promotion.  They have the job you want and are not leaving.  They don’t want a promotion.  They are fat and happy.  They are like a big wad of hair and grease in the sink trap.  They clog up the career track for everyone else.  So, where is the Drano?  How do you get them out of your way?

First be sure they are the biggest problem.  It is embarrassing when you have complained for 5 years about your boss being in your way, only to have him leave and a coworker is promoted in his place.

You need to have a list of standout accomplishments that prove you are perfect for the job you want.  That way you can get the job in your current company OR the next one.

Become the obvious candidate.  Ask your boss to help you get promoted.  Also ask HR (Human Resources) and your boss’s boss.  Find someone who will champion your cause and be your mentor.  A mentor helps you prepare to advance and gives you visibility outside your team.  Your mentor will help you to find high visibility assignments where you can prove your worth.

In a job journal write a weekly list of your accomplishments and projects.  Use that list in your annual reviews.  Also submit a weekly, monthly and quarterly list of accomplishments to your boss.  Make sure he knows how much you contribute.

You can also look for a new job.  If you have a list of undeniable accomplishments you will be a good hire for another company.

The same things that prepare you for a promotion in your company will make you a better job candidate.

Something to do today

Write down your career goals.  It doesn’t matter if they change tomorrow.  Know where you want to go today.

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Later:              Clogging things up yourself

Row away

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Posted in Accomplishments, Promotions

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Post It notes to meet your goals

Posted on July 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. (Robert Heinlein)

Making a goal a constant irritant is critical.  Anyone can set a goal and then forget it.  An effective tool for making goals a constant irritant is Post-it notes.  Write a single achievable goal on each note, then:

  1. Post your achievable goals on the bathroom or bedroom mirror
  2. Carefully read them when you get up and when you go to bed
  3. When you accomplish a goal, paste it in a permanent record

All three steps are critical.  You have to use them as an irritant and as a reminder that you can meet the goals you set.  You’ll find that you want to put up goals you are going to meet.

Remember the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: the mere act of measuring changes the thing being measured.  Putting those goals on your mirror, measuring yourself against them, then cataloging your successes can change your life.

Something To Do Today

Take a pad of Post-it notes home. Write achievable goals on 3 of them.  Make at least two of them very short term.  Create an archive where you can keep all the Post-it note goals you achieve.

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Tomorrow:           How they determine your pay rate

Later:                    Certainly I can

But I’m a really fast learner

Re-entering the workforce

I don’t want to spend money on training

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Focus, Perseverance, Time management

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Set your resume apart with the right facts

Posted on February 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.  (Mark Twain)

Facts would be nice

Stephen King, author of more than 30 best selling horror books, wrote a book on writing.  He says, “Get rid of adjectives.”  This top author refuse to write, “She stealthily crept down the spooky staircase which creaked ominously.” Instead of using adjectives, he just tells what his character does, “She crept down the  stairs.”  He says the toughest thing hehas to do in his writing is to remove all the adjectives. Just give the facts.

I’m still waiting to see a resume that states:  “I hate to work hard.  I disrupt every team. I am a pig.  I never take initiative.  I lie constantly.  I never hit my deadlines.”

The resumes I actually get have 2 to 4 paragraphs covering half a page that state: “I work hard.  I am a team player. I am neat.  I take initiative.  I am honest. I do assignments on time.”  Those paragraphs never give me any facts, so I don’t read them.

What I really want to know is: What is different because you were there?

Set yourself apart from the other 40 people applying for a job. Use every inch of your resume to state things you have actually done.

State facts like:

         I carried a beeper and was on-call for 3 years.

         I worked late for two months to help a different team finish the Simpson Project.

         I received an award for having the neatest desk.

         I kept our biggest customer from losing $500,000 by shipping their widgets overnight, without being authorized to, because my boss was on vacation.

         I estimated my last project at 715 hours and completed it in 690 hours at $4,000 under budget.

Would you rather hire someone who says, “I work hard” or someone who says, “I carried a beeper and was on-call for 3 years”?

If you write your resume like Stephen King writes his novels, you’ll get more interviews. Give the facts about what you’ve done.  Let the hiring manager use a red pen to add comments to your resume like: hard worker, takes initiative and hits deadlines.

Something To Do Today

Grab your resume and a ruler.  How many inches of text describe you without giving facts?  Many resumes have more hot air than facts.  Literally.

As fast as you can, cut your resume down to nothing but facts.  Add facts in bullet points.  Don’t worry about the relevance of the facts.  Act quickly.  See if you can create a long “facts only” resume in less than half an hour.

Now take a break until tomorrow.  Then fix that resume so that it can be used.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Resumes

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9 Job References Most People Overlook

Posted on March 25, 2011 | Leave a comment


When your friend puts your resume on the desk of her boss and says, “Jill is the best salesperson I’ve ever met,” that’s not a reference. She never worked with you. It is only a fantastic introduction.  So get your friend to do that, and also find real references.

The people you choose as references need to know how well you work.  If you provide your pastor, a bowling buddy and your son’s Scoutmaster as references, it will work against you.  People who check references want to know how well you work, not how well you sit in church, drink beer or drop off hikers. 

When you give people you have not worked with as all of your references, you wave a big red flag in front of your candidacy.  The hiring manager will wonder why you have no coworkers you can trust.  Isn’t there someone you worked with in the past who can say something nice about you?

Don’t limit yourself to coworkers and bosses.  Try these references:

  • A secretary or administrative assistant who you constantly worked with
  • Suppliers you dealt with extensively, more than just order takers
  • Contractors you worked with, supervised, or reported to
  • People you sold to
  • Salespeople you negotiated with
  • The person who always came to you with questions
  • A business rival you constantly competed with and sometimes beat
  • Someone from where you do a lot of real work as a volunteer
  • A teacher (only if you are fresh out of school)

Your current job and previous jobs are your biggest assets in a job search.  Use your jobs to prove how well you will work for your new company.  The bad news is if you screwed up on two jobs in a row, you are going to have a hard time getting hired. The good news is if you impressed three people at your old jobs, those are the only three you have to give as references.

Something To Do Today

In your job journal list the people you impressed in the last 5 years.  Use the suggestions above to add people beyond your coworkers, bosses and subordinates.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Networking, References

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One Hour Interview Prep

Posted on March 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.  (Seneca)

 Daryl comes out of another tense project meeting at work.  He’s late leaving for his job interview.  He guiltily leaves his jacket hanging in his cubicle so no one will suspect he is gone and sneaks out to his car.  He turns on talk radio where politicians are being called the biggest thieves and liars on earth. That gets him thinking about his hate for his current job.   He’s two minutes late.  No one will notice, but Daryl is still stressed.  The interview seems to go well, but it only lasts half an hour.  The next day a secretary calls and informs him that “He is not a fit.” He doesn’t understand why.

This is how Daryl blew it

You have to prepare for your interview emotionally and mentally.  Daryl did neither.  He really did everything he could to assure he interviewed poorly.

Here are 10 things to do on your way to an interview:

  1. Get mentally out of your office an hour early.  Shut your office door or leave the building. At the very least, prepare the evening before.
  2. Reread the descriptions you have of the job you are applying for.
  3. Jot down a quick list of how you have triumphed in the kinds of projects that you would see on that job. Writing the list cements it in your mind.
  4. Describe those triumphs out loud while you watch a clock.  Keep each description under 2 minutes.
  5. Answer aloud a few test questions like, “Tell me about yourself,” or “Why do you want this job?”  Time your answers. Keep them under 2 minutes.
  6. Leave early enough to arrive 10 or 15 minutes before the interview starts.
  7. Listen to soothing music or a motivational tape as you drive.
  8. Use your drive time to think about what you have accomplished in previous jobs. Talk out loud about each accomplishment while you watch the clock.  Keep each description under 2 minutes.
  9. After you stop in the parking lot, read the job descriptions one more time.  You need to keep in mind what the company says it is looking for.
  10. Time to shine.  Remember to smile as you walk in the door and greet each person.  Have fun.  Remember, they invited you in.  They want to see you.

If you have a bad interview, you won’t get the job.  If you have a great interview, you not only get the job, you may get more money.  

Interview preparation is not difficult.  It requires time and concentration. Give it the time and the effort it deserves.  You’ll see the difference.

One thing I mentioned that people forget

Collect job descriptions of every job you are going to interview for.  That’s often the key missing link in preparation.  If you rely only on your memory, you may forget a few essential points that you should emphasize in your interview.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Focus, Interviews

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