A Consultant's Chronicles

HR & Job Hunting: Stop "Stepping On Your Message"

When out job hunting, everyone always "puts their best foot forward" right? Wrong! There are tons of tried & true methods for committing “job-search suicide.”  While the state of the economy & the high unemployment rate have made job seekers just a tad wiser than before [call it experience], there remain some specific problematic behaviors that only serve to step on a job hunter's best sales message. Make no mistake about it, we are discussing a sales pitch here & the product is you. Sadly, when it comes to some key mistakes, there are plenty of "repeat offenders." Here's my critical list of things [large & small] that I still see ruining people's efforts.

Things Not To Do When Job-hunting

1-“Burning bridges” [ahead of you] Remember, the name of today's game is relationships. Try not to make enemies because yesterday's colleague could be tomorrow's boss or a connection to your next employer.
2-Feeling so hopeless that you stop trying-it's hard to stay positive in the face of serial "no thank you’s" [or worse, deafening silence] but push on.  While job hunting is physically, emotionally, & financially hard, not looking virtually guarantees nothing will change.
3-Typos-OK, this is silly. Maybe it's the college lecturer in me but God created  a spell-checker-use it! Typing errors reflect negative characteristics like laziness, carelessness, apathy & more. NOT helpful. Whenever possible, have a fresh pair of eyes proofread for you because sometimes you are just too close to a document to see mistakes & there are errors even a spellchecker won't pick up like "all & al” or “there & their."
4-"It's my world & welcome to it"-Any application/interview is about the job & what you can do for the employer NOT the other way around. Be certain that all of your communication with potential employers focuses on what you can do for them. Consider that every TV/web ad you see touts what a product can do for you or how much fun you will have using it or how good you will look if you buy it. No ad says "buy this because we have to fatten our corporate profits & go on golf junkets."
5-Running late-In the interest of full disclosure this is a personnel pet peeve. When you are late, the message this sends is "my time is more important than your time." Not the way to make a good first impression. In fact, I know HR people who will not even let you in the door if you arrive 15 minutes late.
6-"Bad-mouthing" past employers-Think about it, as you sit & complain about your past employers, your interviewer is thinking "why should I hire them if they are going to badmouth this company next?" They are also going to wonder about your contribution to all this horrible PR after all, "there are always at least two sides to this equation"
7-Not preparing for your interview enough [you haven't researched the company & can't ask questions about the position]-Hit the web & use some of the information found through your research in the interview to demonstrate that you've done your homework & care about the position.
8-Believing that the interview happens only in the meeting room-It's easy to forget but all eyes are watching. To this I would add that you shouldn't be lulled by the interviewer's casual informality, even chattiness. Remember that everything you communicate [verbally or physically] is fair game to be used. If the interview process continues over a meal, pay attention to everything you do. This includes how you order, what you order, how you treat the table-server, table manners; when I say everything I mean everything. Interviewing over a meal sounds casual but it is full of landmines so watch your step.
9-Hiding your unemployed status from friends-Admitting you lost your job is extremely difficult but far more common [& has less stigma] in today’s economy. When job hunting, your network is critical. Furthermore, pay special attention to what is sometimes known in social media circles as “loose links” or people you don’t know very well. Think about it; the better you know people, the greater the likelihood that you already have some access to their networks. However, in the case of people you don’t know very well, since you don’t know much about them, chances are that their network will mean fresh connections for you as well.  Gaining access to new networks significantly increases your chances of meeting someone who can be helpful in your search.
10-Sending a resume without a cover letter-Imagine if someone came right up to you hands outstretched & said, "give me a job." What would you conclude? I'm a city kid so I grew up seeing this behavior everyday from homeless people. To the best of my knowledge, it rarely got them a job. Now that's a dramatic example but the point is in order for your resume to be viewed in the most favorable light possible, you have to give it context & that means formally introducing yourself & providing rationale for why you are the best person for the job. Make it short, make it memorable, & make them want to read more so this is not the place to rehash your resume. Make your letter like the mouth-watering appetizer that makes the reader look forward to the entree [aka: your resume].
11-Talking about money too soon-The money issue frequently requires the finesse of a professional dancer. If they bring up the issue early as in before an offer is made, dodge, dodge, dodge! My favorite response [& one that employers respect] when they bring up the subject of money too soon is "it's a little early to be discussing money when I am still trying to get my arms around the position." Negotiating money is a fine art & deserves a post all by itself.

Covering these bases will not guarantee you a job but your chances for positioning yourself more favorably will be vastly improved!

New Trends: Permission-Based Job-Hunting

In the "stone age" if you needed to find a job, the first thing you did was check a clump of papers dropped at your doorstep for the classified section. They were called newspapers [remember them?]. "Back in the day," after carefully consulting the papers, you then "pounded some pavement " trying to get interviews. When successful, it was even possible to be hired on the spot. However, the late 20th century & now the 21st [century] added email, & on-line job boards to make better use of your basic resume & cover letters. A job interview today means something closer to  many meetings [including pre-interviews], as well as drug & credit checks before being hired. Clearly as times change, tools become outdated.

Present Yourself As A Hologram

With the competition fiercer then ever, it's critical that your potential employer see more than the single dimension of your skills represented on your resume. No matter how slick it may be, resumes do not capture the hologram that is you. So how can you get such textured information out there in the world for the right people to see & more importantly want to "buy" [read: hire you]?

Permission-Based Job Hunting

Borrowing from the latest trends in marketing [after all, you are selling your skills]comes one of the newest ideas in job hunting: permission based job-hunting.  The idea comes from one of the major proponents of permission based marketing: David Meerman Scott. The thinking is that the old paradigms are very much like interruption based marketing & now job seekers have to supplement their efforts with permission based marketing. How? This can be achieved through things like [business-related] blogs [like this one], e-books, articles [that can be acquired online of course]. The idea is to give your potential employers a window into your ideas, how you view the world, your problem-solving skills,etc. Ideally these will be the things that make them seek you out, Now this does not mean you get to throw away your resume & cover letter. It does mean adding more tools to your job hunting toolbox .

The Stimulus Plan: Is It 'White-Collar Friendly''

Yesterday I saw an interview with Mark Penn. You remember him; he was the "mastermind" behind Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign last year who said she would be the Democratic candidate by February 5th [Super Tuesday]. Oh well, you can't be right all the time! However, he was right about something. In the interview, he talked about microtrends, the stimulus plan, & "white collar" workers. 

Outsourcing White-Collar Jobs

Long before the financial meltdown, I have been saying that we are outsourcing our upper middle class jobs & better re-think things like our corporate tax plan [by giving tax incentives to those companies that create jobs here as opposed to sending them abroad]. Most manufacturing is now done in Asia but no one thought they would outsource professional jobs like doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc but that's just what's happened. The "kicker" is that these outsourced jobs are going to graduates of American colleges & universities. Twenty years ago, they would have moved here for a better life but now they can live in their homeland and have that better standard of living. In the meantime, jobs at all levels are pouring out of this country. To make matters worse, unlike the last forty or fifty years, for the first time, we no longer have the best-educated population [even though our colleges & universities remain second to none].

What Will the Unemployed Professionals Do

Penn put some of this in perspective in terms of the jobs that won't be created as a result of the stimulus plan. His point was that there is nothing in the current plan for the rising number of unemployed journalists, lawyers, accountants, & other professionals. He pointed out that in the "old days" [last spring?], these folks could rely on their savings, stocks, & 401k's to cushion them but now everyone is wiped out. In addition to that, I would also tack on the fact that there is nothing for women without a college education given all the talk of "shovel ready" jobs. Just what percentage of women will be "manning" those shovels [pun intended]?

Penn talks about a fast-growing problem with no quick fix or simple solution in sight! So...does the current stimulus plan have "white collar" workers in mind?  What's your view?

Layoffs, 'Popcorn,' & Cognitive Re-framing

Reading this title you may be thinking, "what in the world is she talking about?" Recently, a thought came to me connected to the news report featuring a staggering number of corporations making significant job cuts. We are talking about major players here: Microsoft, Intel, Motorola, Caterpiller, Macy's, & on & on. If it was mind boggling to watch so I can only imagine how both the victims & the survivors are feeling.

The Need To Grieve

For those people who have lost their jobs [or who will lose their jobs] due to layoffs, while this is an experience where grieving is appropriate, it's also a luxury few can aff ord.Although it's an important, even necessary process, it has to be done in your spare time & can't be your central focus.

"Fixed On Popcorn"

While the reason may seem obvious to some, I was provided with a colorful example this past weekend when watching my dog.   Allow me to explain. My local bank has a large popcorn machine & so they regularly crank out popcorn for customers to snack on while they wait. As soon as his big & now bulging eyes fixed on the popcorn nothing else mattered [it's one of his favorite "unauthorized" treats to scarf. It was discovered  “back in the day” when I used to go to the video store. He was so focused on the little popped kernels on the ground that other more appropriate treats went un-noticed [don’t worry, he ate them; he just didn't care]. His eyes were glued on something just beyond his reach & something he was never going to get [not from me anyway]. Its the same way some people view those lost jobs, most of which will not be coming back. The key point is that staying “fixed on the popcorn” [or your job] then becomes an exercise in futility. 

Time For Some Cognitive Reframing

Basically you have two choices: focus your energy on what you've lost or look at the layoff as an opportunity: to change environments, get a fresh start, change careers, get new training, start a business, etc The latter is a much more positive, self-affirming way to look at circumstances that were beyond your control by turning them into something you can "drive." It can't help but influence how you feel about yourself therefore enabling you to make a better presentation in future job interviews for your next job. This is also a powerful tool for avoiding debilitating depression due to lost employment.  It's also what psychologists call cognitive re-framing. Specifically it is defined as putting "a new & different 'frame' " around a concept or thought. I'm a big fan of its use...perhaps because I learned it so early.

Change As the Equivalent of 'Generous'

As a baby my grandmother had to look after me for quite a while because my mother was seriously ill. When finally ready to re-claim her responsibilities & me, my mother commented to my grandmother who was feeding me that I was a slob [because there was food everywhere including on my grandmother so the story goes]. My grandmother disagreed. She said, "she's not a slob, she a "generous person; she shares her food with everyone & every thing!"  Take a tip from my grandmother: stop thinking about yourself as the 'slob' who lost their job & start focusing on the opened door to new opportunities. A friend who is a successful entrepreneur in a relatively new business said that whenever he is asked about how he [& his company] stays successful, his answer is a telling, useful, & straightforward one: they are not afraid of change. In this context, consider 'change' to be the equivalent of 'generous.'

New Training: Staying Alive In Today's Job Market

This weekend I was talking with some friends one of whom works for a very successful college oriented towards providing adult education. She was talking about the fact that they are stepping up their ad campaign. Makes sense to me. Why? In a market trending downward, people seek out training or re-training for one of two basic reasons..

People still currently employed look for training to solidify their positions by broadening their skill set which makes them an asset worth keeping. On the other hand, now that "pink slips" are plentiful, others seek re-training to make them more marketable for new positions especially if they have been working in an area where the jobs lost may either never return or not return for some time.

Even if you feel relatively secure in your position, in this market, it's a good idea to dust off that resume & bring it up to date. It is also helpful to get out in front of "the hammer" by considering some extra training to do all that you possibly can to either keep working or get work ASAP! 

The Palin Factor: Working Women & Families

Sarah Palin's involvement in this year's presidential battle as GOP VP candidate has re-ignited the "mommy wars." Perhaps, re-ignited is not quite correct. She brought to the fore what was simmering under the surface. Last week, two well-known journalists [Claire Shipman & Katy Kay] weighed in on this debate in an opinion piece in the WSJ.

The Choice To Work

In the piece they ask not whether woman could do a job as demanding as the VP with 5 young children but "why" would she take or pursue such a job. It is their contention that college-educated women are now a commodity [and can basically write their own ticket in terms of hours, responsibility, and pay]. The net result they claim is that women simply no longer have to compete for top tier jobs when child rearing This perspective is news to me. It was always my understanding that our radical feminist forebears weren't necessarily advocating that women do any such thing. Instead I always thought that their position was far more sensible: that women should have the choice! Furthermore, if however, they chose such a high powered, responsible gig then they were entitled to get equal pay for equal work...with equal respect.

A View From "Above"

As Mika Brezinski, co-host of Morning Joe quickly pointed out, theirs is a judgment made by the privileged few [who have options about whether to work or how much to work] representing the minority in this country. Today most families depend on at least two incomes [sometimes 3 or 4] just to get by.

Shipman & Kay have created a "hornet's nest" for those woman who either have to work or want to work [when they are also full time moms]. Not only does such a position threaten well deserved advances by women but it also reinforces the utterly specious idea that somehow the presence of professional women  can endanger entire industries [ostensibly due to their needs and/or the demands of the culture, aka raising a family]. Every working woman feels the pull of her family whether she's a CEO, a waitress or even possibly the Vice President but that doesn't mean that they somehow neglect their duties or even resent them. 

This debate was triggered in part by those who question Gov. Sarah Palin's qualifications as well as overall ability to be VP [given her family responsibilities], a question this debate hardly answers. However it does create a bigger and some would say more incendiary conflict. What's your view?

Doctor Shortage: Hard Work, Low Pay, Women's Fault

A recent article by Catherine Arnst literally still has me seeing red [and I read it a couple of weeks ago]! Citing research from the British Journal of Medicine, she maintains that there are too many women doctors creating a physician shortage. Essentially Arnst asserts that women don’t work as hard and are not as dedicated [because of motherhood and childrearing].

Allow me to try to correct this obviously specious and incendiary claim. Based on what male physicians tell me, probably the number one reason why there are fewer male doctors is the current status of our managed care system. It does not adequately compensate doctors [male or female] for their work and long years of training, while demanding that they see more patients at the expense of quality care [in terms of the amount of time they have with each patient]. It should be noted that generally speaking after factoring in most differential variables, there is a significant gender gap in terms of salary between male and female physicians They all tell me that the only disciplines worth pursuing in today's system are those that are independent of managed care [such as plastic surgery which is mostly elective and as such "cash & carry"].

The next culprit is our education system. Too many students are opting out of the harder math and science classes which put a student on track for a career in science or medicine. Why should they train longer, get into deeper debt, work longer hours and not be appropriately compensated for their efforts when an MBA or a JD will also net them a respected profession, shorter training and significantly larger salaries [not to mention time for a "second act"].

The last "hard" reason is something the article does briefly mention which is generation. The millennium generation works on their own terms, which includes spending fewer hours at any job let alone one as grueling as medicine.

There is a yet another reason not mentioned in the article about why we will see a decline in doctors here in the United States: outsourcing. We used to think of this as strictly a "blue collar" problem but no more. Increasingly hospitals are outsourcing medical specialties that don't necessarily require patient contact [like radiology]. This practice has clear downsides. Although the hospitals are saving money, not only are they outsourcing critical "white collar" jobs but when doctors are used overseas, medical confidentiality is no longer guaranteed. These doctors [and their associates] are not bound by the same confidentiality and ethical practices as doctors here in the U.S. This trend puts our medical confidentiality and our personal identities at risk since all medical files have a treasure-trove of information about us.

Genuine problems require genuine solutions instead of ineffectual but "convenient" ones. The real problems lie in our public policy and educational system NOT "with women." Since qualified women are clearly willing to put in the time and training as more and more enter medical school, it is time for our society to create solutions that truly speak to both the needs and changes in our culture.

Name That Endeavor: Is Your Job A Career Or A Calling?

Do you have a career or a calling? Which column best describes your present job?

Column A

• Have you always been interested in what you do?
• Do you immerse yourself in the subject matter just for fun?
• Do you talk about your job a lot in an affirmative way getting others excited  by your passion
• Would you do it for low pay or no pay?
• Can you see yourself doing something else?

Column B

• Are you just in it for the money?
• Did you choose this career for the prestige, power, and/or other career perk?
• Did your school guidance counselor, military recruiter, or some other third party choose it for you since you were feeling kind of lost?
• Are you working in a family business without being given the option of considering any other alternative?
• Do you "punch in at 9 and punch out at 5" never giving your work a thought at any other time?

If you have answered yes to the questions in Column A than folks, you may be among the lucky ones pursuing a calling. If your work life sounds more like Column B, than probably your job is more likely a career and not your passion. Working at something other than a calling is not unusual. In fact, it's closer to the norm. while most people have to work, very few have the luxury of pursuing their passion. Sometimes however, it can be done as a hobby. For example, a friend considers herself an early music singer who supports herself as a lawyer. Singing may be her passion but it won't pay the mortgage. So are you forever stuck in a grind you hate? Absolutely not. Like my friend, you can have the best of both worlds or, if you can swing it, transition into a career you love.

Case in point, the owner of Red Rover, a dog walking service and pet hotel was originally a veterinarian wannabe because he was passionate about animals. However after college he turned to something "more realistic" and became a business consultant. One day he did a favor for a colleague and took care of his dog. One dog turned into two with more soon to follow. Shortly thereafter, he developed a new business of his own where he could pursue something much closer to his original dream.

If changing jobs is not possible for you now, perhaps you can pursue [or find] your true calling as part of your "second act" [previously known as "the golden years"]. Since we are living longer, that means there's time to do the work required to support our families without completely sacrificing work that can nourish our soul.