Tag Archives: job hunting

How to be an internal referral instead of just another resume in HR

Posted on October 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

Internal referrals are the fast track to a job.

Here is a link to how to become a solid internal referral by using LinkedIn and a phone.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Networking, References, Resumes

Tagged , ,

14 ways to job hunt like a kid

Posted on September 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

Kids can be a practically irresistible force.  I have 10 children.  Usually I can resist them.  Not always.  Here’s how they win.

  1. Be totally, irresistibly and eternally committed to a world changing idea
  2. Jump up and down with enthusiasm
  3. “No” means not now
  4. “Not now” means try again in 5 minutes
  5. Laugh, smile and tickle your dad
  6. Run around and get all the other kids excited out of their minds
  7. Ask dad for help to figure out how to do it
  8. Cry if dad is not listening
  9. See if you can turn it into a school project
  10. Ask mom to talk to dad about it
  11. Bring a partially completed task to dad to be fixed
  12. Change your plans and try again in an hour
  13. A small explosion in the yard will get dad’s attention
  14. Make it a game

Kids win because they are too excited to accept defeat.  They are willing to try every possible way around an obstacle.  When I am the obstacle and they are really really determined, they know they can win. One man described that level of enthusiam and determination this way:

The ability to understand a question from all sides meant one was totally unfit for action.  Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of the real man.  (Thucydides)

Is there a job you really really want?  Why not job hunt like a kid?

Something to do today

Take a pen and paper and translate each of those 14 things into something you can use for job hunting or working for a promotion in real life.

————————–

Tomorrow:     Fingerprint locks and getting hired

Picking up a hundred dollar bill

Leave a comment

Posted in Attitude, Perseverance

Tagged , ,

Hiring managers are like giant cockroaches

Posted on September 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

A giant cockroach steals the hero’s gun and swallows it.  So the hero taunts the cockroach until it eats him.  A few minutes later the cockroach explodes and our hero is standing there holding the huge gun the monster ate a few minutes before.  Men In Black was a lot of fun.  In that case the only way to save the world was to survive in the stomach of a giant bug.

There has to be at least 5 great job hunting analogies there.  Create your own, then read mine.  I bet mine is different.

The giant bug wants nothing more than to get into its spaceship and get away.  Of course the earth will be destroyed if it gets away, but that is not the bug’s problem.  So the two puny humans must do everything they can to keep it from leaving.  They taunt it, harass it, insult it, and step on small earthly cockroaches (relatives and friends) to get it to delay its departure.  They figure out what the bug can’t ignore and get it to come back and deal with them.

Don’t show this to any of my clients please.  They won’t like it, but I have to say this.

Hiring managers really are like giant cockroaches. They just want to hide in their offices and get away from you.  You are a waste of their time unless you tell them something that proves they need you.  They would rather have their receptionist shred your resume than take the time to talk to you.  So take three lessons from the way the Men In Black fought the giant bug:

  1. You have to find the right words
  2. You have to engage them in conversation
  3. A relative or friend may be able to get them to talk to you

Over the next three days I will show you how to do each of these things.  The giant cockroach, I mean the hiring manager, will give you all the hints you need.  I’ll show you what those hints are.

Something to do today

There really are at least 5 other analogies from my opening paragraph.  Have some fun and talk about it with a friend.  Just make sure your  manager is not around.

————————–

Later:                    Getting eaten by aliens – the right words

Engage them in conversation

A relative or friend can help

Leave a comment

Posted in Finding jobs

Tagged , ,

11 vital clues about Zen and the Art of Job Hunting

Posted on August 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

Zen: 1. a school of Mahayana Buddhism that asserts that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion. 2. <jargon> To figure out something by meditation or by sudden enlightenment. (dictionary.com)

I was asked, “I have been studying to get my programming certification after being out of IT for 5 years.  People want to hire youngsters, not a grandfather from the Philippines. What do I have to do to get a job?”

It won’t be easy, but you can get that job.

First you have to understand the way things really work. The concepts are not “fair”. In many ways they are not “nice”.  They are all based on character, reality and results.

You can fight the principles just like you can fight the law of gravity, but gravity and these principles still apply. Contemplation of the principles may give you great insight. This is “Zen and the Art of Job Hunting”.

20 years as a recruiter have taught me these basic principles. (And I will do a post about each one of them.)

  1. Nothing beats a positive unstoppable Helium II attitude.
  2. People who are hurting are terrible employees and everyone knows it.
  3. You have to know your advantages and ruthlessly exploit them.
  4. The people competing against you must be known, measured, and either beaten, eliminated or enticed elsewhere.
  5. You can’t make a silk purse out of a buggy whip.
  6. You have to be worth more than you are being paid
  7. A man dying of thirst will still want a bargain on a bottle of water
  8. Perception isn’t important, it is everything
  9. Character really counts
  10. Diamonds in the rough don’t stay that way
  11. Relax and you will get cleat marks up your back

Guess what I am going to be writing about for the next two weeks? <grin>

Something To Do Today                                                      

Think about your job search. Just think.  And then take notes about your conclusions.

————————–

Next 2 weeks:     Zen and the art of getting a job

Leave a comment

Posted in Attitude, Finding jobs, Focus, Perseverance

Tagged

How to count your job search victories

Posted on February 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

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

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

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

I had an executive make it to the final list of 3 candidates for a high level job.  Another candidate was chosen.  All he could see was that for the 7th time in 3 months he had failed to get the job. He could not focus on some delightful facts:
1. He was referred to me by his network.
2. His resume was very good.
3. I thought highly enough of him to recommend him.
4. He got the first phone interview.
5. An executive flew across the country to interview him.
6. He came to the facility he would lead and passed 6 more interviews.
7. He made it to the short list of final candidates.

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

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

Something To Do Today

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

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Attitude, Focus, Perseverance

Tagged , , ,

How to find a job at a convention – use the cards

Posted on January 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

Everyone is in business for himself, for he is selling his services, labor or ideas.  Until one realizes that this is true he will not take conscious charge of his life and will always be looking outside himself for guidance. (Madwed)

Are you at a convention? If your boss is sending you to learn something, attend the seminars first.  If you have a booth, man the booth first.  And while you are doing your bosses work, collect all the business cards you can. Make a copy of every card for yourself.

Serious about your job search?  Sort the cards out into three piles by company:

  1. I’d love to work there.
  2. I’d consider working there.
  3. I’d never work there.

Contact everyone you have a card for.  Send them an email or give them a quick phone call.  Tell them you were pleased to meet with them.  Ask if you can help them.

Wait a week or two.  Now it is time to use the convention network you are creating to get a job.  Of all the people you contacted, which ones are most likely to know about jobs you want?  The people in pile “1” know about jobs in their company.  People in pile “3” are likely to be actively looking for jobs and know about jobs in good companies. People in pile  “2” are a combination of the other two.  So you should contact people in all three piles.

Why sort them into 3 piles?  Because you need to decide who to ask directly for a job.

Most of the people you meet cannot give you a job.  They can point you to a job, or pass your information along.  You don’t want to work with some of the people. Ask people to help you in the way that you and they feel most comfortable.  Call them up and say, “Jim, I’m keeping my eyes open for new opportunities. We talked a couple of weeks ago at the convention.  Who do you know who I should talk to about a job as a (job you want)?”

If they say they don’t know where you could go, then say, “Jim, I appreciate your thinking about this for me.  I’m going to send you an email.  Could you forward it to anyone you think might be closer to that job I’m looking for?  Thanks.  I appreciate your help.”

Now send him an email with a brief description of your skills. Don’t send a full resume.  Instead send a hard hitting 100 word message containing bullets of only your 3 greatest accomplishments.  Thank him for his help.  Ask him to get the email closer to someone who can help you find that job.

Want to get even more help?  Tally the jobs you are finding out about.  In 3 weeks send an email out to everyone you contacted and say, “I found out about 14 jobs thanks to the help you and a few friends gave me.  I haven’t made a decision yet on what I am going to do.  If any other jobs have come across your desk, I’d like to know about those too.  Thanks.”

This is networking at its best.  Of course you can use this in any job hunt.  Conventions are just very convenient for this kind of job search because you meet so many people so

Leave a comment

Posted in Finding jobs

Tagged , ,

How to find a job at a convention – you pay

Posted on January 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

The trouble with corporate America is that too many people with too much power live in a box (their home), then travel the same road every day to another box (their office). –(Popcorn)

I know of one consultant who flies to meet his clients for lunch anywhere in North America.  He lives in the small Colorado town of Telluride. He has chosen to live in paradise and pay the price of frequent travel.

In your job search, instead of flying across the country to meet one person, you can meet with 100 potential employers. You will only pay for one plane ticket and 2 nights in a hotel.  So bite the bullet.  Pay up. Go to a convention related to your field of work.

But how do you effectively work, or network, at a convention?  Five steps:

  1. Get a list of all the exhibitors and speakers. Don’t be picky at this stage. Research and call every company that is close to the field you want to work in.  Don’t ask for the HR department, ask for a manager, marketing or sales.  Talk to them about who will be coming to the convention.  Call the best contacts who will be coming. Tell them you’ll see them at the convention.
  2. Go to the convention and make your first pass in the morning of the first day.  Quickly go to every booth on your list and collect materials and business cards.  Just explain that you will be back, but need to work quickly this morning.
  3. Go back to every booth on your list and talk in depth with the people you want to contact.  Work a priority system.  Who is most likely to hire you? Ask them questions you have about their company and their field.  Make sure you have the business card of everyone you talk to.   Give them your card.  You are building a network.  You might discuss employment, but this is not the time to apply for a job.
  4. Everyone who made it to the convention has influence where they work.  They have been talking to new people, finding things out about the industry.  Enlist them in your job search. When you get home, contact everyone you met OR WANTED TO MEET.  Call them.  Chat briefly.  Then ask if they heard of any openings for someone like you.  Ask who else you should contact.  What if they are a techie and you are a salesman?  Call them anyway.  They’re a CEO and you are an engineer?  Call them.  A conversation about the convention leads naturally to what is happening in your field and job openings. 
  5. Send an email to everyone you talk to.  Thank them for their time and ask them to forward the email to anyone who might get you closer to the job you are looking for.

If you work a convention aggressively you will find dozens of openings that are NOT advertised.  You’ll even find out about jobs at companies not at the show.  Why?  Because the people manning the booths are the best and the brightest.  They are heavily recruited by other companies.  They know which companies are looking for talent. Aren’t those the people you want in your job search network?

Something To Do Today

You need a list of conventions.  Most people forget to include the association conventions they can attend that are less than 200 miles away.  Go back over your list of conventions and add a list of local and regional association conventions you can attend.

Leave a comment

Posted in Finding jobs

Tagged , , ,