More Job Hunting Advice
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The Networking Gap
Every year, WEDDLE’s conducts the Source of Employment (SOE) survey, which probes the activities and preferences of both job seekers and recruiters. We use it to identify what’s working and what’s not in the job market and occasionally, to pinpoint an overlooked opportunity for job search success. That’s the certainly the case with the networking gap at job boards.
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Don’t Transfer Your Soul (or Your Talent)
Taking a job offer from an employer you barely know is like ignoring the terms and conditions vendors impose when you make an online purchase … only worse. If a product is defective, you can usually return it. When an employer turns out to be bad, however, there is no such recourse. And, the harm can be long lasting. For April Fool’s Day in 2010, the online retailer Gamestation changed its terms and conditions to include an “immortal soul clause.” It read, By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 anno Domini, you agree to grant us a non-transferable option to claim, for now and forever more, your immortal soul.
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Change the Epilogue of Your Job Search
The new scourge of job seekers is serial unemployment. You fight through the frustration and anxiety of one job search, land a new position and six months or a year later, you’re handed another pink slip and find yourself right back where you started from. It’s an increasingly prevalent plight for white collar and blue collar workers alike. There is a way to protect yourself, however, if you change the epilogue to your job search.
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The Job Seeker With the Dragon Tattoo
By now, you’ve probably heard of Stieg Larsson's best seller, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. For those who haven’t yet read the book, it’s (sort of) a murder mystery intertwined with the self-identity quest of a young woman with distinctive body art. While all of the plot’s secrets are revealed by the end of the tale, one question is never addressed: what’s the meaning of the dragon tattoo? The answer is especially important to job seekers.
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How to Succeed in Applying for a Job
There are now over three million job openings posted on job boards and social media sites on the Web. And, the conventional wisdom is that applying for those opportunities is simply a matter of clicking on the Submit button. Unfortunately, however, there’s a bit more to it, at least you want to get interviewed and possibly hired.
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The Standout Skill
Do you want an advantage in the job market? There is one skill that CEOs today believe is both in critically short supply and critically important to their organization’s success. If you have this skill, it is virtually certain that you will get the attention you deserve from employers, regardless of your profession, craft or trade. What is this standout skill? Leadership.
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Job Search Entrepreneurism
Personal branding is all the rage these days in job search books and seminars. According to these sources, you can’t be successful without a strong brand. It’s good advice, but also only partially true. While a strong brand is necessary for success, it cannot produce that outcome by itself. What’s needed is a more comprehensive approach that I call job search entrepreneurism.
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Optimize Your ROL – Your Return on Luck
According to Jim Collins, the author of Great By Choice, the difference between companies that are merely good and those that are considered great is often how they use luck. Good and bad luck happens to every company, he believes, but only those that optimize their return on luck – their ROL – are able to excel. I think that’s true for job seekers as well.
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The Sound of Silence
A chart topping single way back in 1966, the Sound of Silence is a haunting song about a dark time in this country. For many job seekers, it aptly describes the experience of applying for jobs in today’s troubled economy. They send off their resume, and all they get back from employers is a thundering nothing. Fortunately, however, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are steps you can take that will produce a response.
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The One Word You Should Avoid in a Job Search
In today’s highly competitive job market, the worst word you can use is “can.” I realize that’s a stunning turn of events for a people who have historically seen themselves as the “can do” nation. Nevertheless, what employers now want from candidates is a verb they believe has far greater potential. The word they want to hear is “will.” Until recently, employers competed in a global marketplace on the basis of productivity. The more efficient a company’s workers, the more profitable it would be. That strategy unfolded in three distinct phases.
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The Smart Resume
Faced with increasingly more able competitors around the world, employers are now seeking workers who can make a difference on the job. They describe these individuals as “A” level performers or with the more general term “talent,” but what they really want is nothing more (or less) than smart workers. How can you prove you deserve that description? First, of course, you have to be at the state-of-the-art in your occupational field. Then, you have to promote that fact using a smart resume.
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An Investment of Caring
There’s a view these days that successful networking is based on a very simple mathematical formula. A lot of contacts equals a lot of employment opportunities. If that were so, however, all of those who are now feverishly connecting, friending and following would be happily ensconced in a new job instead. Networking is important in a job search, but what many people are doing today is “notworking” and, as a consequence, wasting their time. Networking is one of those rare words that says exactly what it means. It’s netWORK. To be effective:
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Make Yourself a "Will Do" Candidate
Americans are a "can do" people. We pride ourselves on getting the job done. It’s a trait that's stood us in good stead for centuries. We've relied on it to create the nation in the Revolutionary War and to save it in World War II, to build the world’s most modern economy and to put the first human on the moon. If we depend on it to find a job, however, we'll likely see our hopes dashed and our dreams cancelled.
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Bring More Than Your Lunch to Work
If you believe the educational system and reality television, only a select few of us have talent. They are the exceptional kids placed in the Gifted and Talented programs at school and the singers, acrobats and dancers on America’s Got Talent. The rest of us are out of luck. At least, that’s what the conventional wisdom would have us think. But, don’t. It’s wrong.
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The New Car Rule of Career Education
It's a longstanding rule of thumb. A new car loses ten percent of its value the minute you drive it off the dealer’s lot. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve bought a Mercedes or a Chevrolet, your vehicle’s worth starts declining as soon as you start to use it. The same is true with training and education in our careers. Its employment value begins to degrade the nanosecond we complete the coursework.
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A New MAD
Most Americans over the age of twenty-five remember the life-or-death struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. Our security during those dangerous times depended on a strategic balance called “mutual assured destruction” or MAD. Today, we have another form of MAD, one that is most accurately defined as “mutual assured distraction.” Instead of ensuring our wellbeing, however, it portends to undermine our job security and ultimately our career success.
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How the World of Work Has Changed
This column is the third in a three-part series focusing on what recruiters want from job seekers. The first column explored how recruiters work and why, while the second discussed how to stand out with recruiters (for all the right reasons). If you missed either of them, they’re both available at www.weddles.com. This column will address a topic that’s every bit as important as the first two. It will reveal how the world of work has changed in the last five years so you understand what’s causing recruiters to act differently in today’s job market and why you have to adjust, as well.
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How to Stand Out With Recruiters
This column is the second in a three-part series focusing on what recruiters want from job seekers. The first column explored how recruiters work and why. If you missed it, you can read the column by visiting the Newsletter Archive at www.weddles.com. This column will address an equally important topic: How to be a standout candidate with recruiters.
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How Recruiters Work and Why
A recent survey of 200 large employers in the U.S. identified the top two ways they recruited new employees. Number one was referrals; number two was job boards. Between them, those two sources accounted for over half of the people the organizations hired in 2010. While these findings are helpful, however, they also raise two important questions: First, how do you find out which job boards employers are using and second, how do you make referrals work for you?
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The Two Best Ways to Find a Job All in One
A recent survey of 200 large employers in the U.S. identified the top two ways they recruited new employees. Number one was referrals; number two was job boards. Between them, those two sources accounted for over half of the people the organizations hired in 2010. While these findings are helpful, however, they also raise two important questions: First, how do you find out which job boards employers are using and second, how do you make referrals work for you?
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The Dilemma of a Wimpy Job Seeker
The movie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is just now hitting theatres, but already it’s earning kudos for its observations of middle school and the lessons it teaches adolescents about life there and thereafter. Its wisdom, however, is not confined to pre-high school hallways. The movie has something to offer to those of us who are trying to survive another hostile and seemingly incomprehensible setting – the job market.
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Two Halves Are Better Than One
In a job search today, half of the game is mental. So is the other half. You can’t will yourself into a new or better job. Employers have a say in the outcome. But, you can will yourself into a position where employers will make the right decision for you. What does that mean? Competing successfully for a job today begins with a change in our mindset. Now, no one likes change, but we have no choice. The job market has undergone a fundamental reset, and we have to adapt or throw in the towel and give up.
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