Posts Tagged ‘careers’

Be The Life Of The Party, Not The "Talk" Of The Party

It’s December.  You are looking for a job.  Are you thinking about the most creative, and interesting ways to find one?  Have you considered jump starting your job search by launching a high profile professional presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn?  Listen job seekers, if you are a member of our HireFriday Community, participate in HFChat, this is no time to be shy.  It’s ok to toot your horn. In fact, I implore you to toot it so loud that everyone hears you…you can do this without being noisy. In fact you can be quite slick in how you present yourself at holiday parties, networking events, coffee shops, informational interviews, meetings, and professional association events.  You can, and should participate in Twitter chats. This is an excellent way to get noticed, and found by recruiters, and companies.    You don’t have to be an extrovert to be creative your job search campaign. Introverts are very successful with their online presence because they have the safety of the computer screen to shield them from over stimulation.  You have to ask yourself one critical question: How and where do you recharge your inner battery, and where can you make the biggest splash.

Here’s my top 5 tips for staying on top of your game:

1. Secure speaking engagements for the coming year with the organizations to which you belong: This is a cool way to get your name out there in your industry, and get some personal brand recognition. Public speaking is a brilliant way to position yourself in the market place, and can be a great way to receive the recognition you deserve.
2. Create a list of questions in advance targeted toward the people you want to meet. Make these questions industry specific, and relevant to the person you want to meet. People like to talk about themselves.
3. Ask questions: come prepared with a few conversation starters in case you find yourself suddenly scared, or feeling insecure: It happens to the best of us, we are in a crowd of people we don’t know at a holiday party, and suddenly we are overcome with the jitters.  You can overcome this by finding out in advance who is going to be at the party.  Run a Google search on the people you want to meet. Find out about their background, interests and accomplishments.
4. Don’t drink too much at holiday parties, or events: You never know who has a camera, or whether or not an unflattering picture will wind up on Facebook, or Twitter. Beware of people who can be “brand killers.”
5. Be the smart one at the party, not the life of the party. There’s a time and place for everything.  If you love working the room, by all means do so, particularly if that’s one of your skills.  However, don’t be the goon who dances like a fool, or worse who thinks s/he looks good while dancing.  If you don’t know how you look when you dance, be sure to check it out before it winds up on YouTube without you even knowing it.  There’s good publicity and bad publicity.

You are not Brett Michaels, Sorry. He Can Get Away With It, You Can't.

When you are looking for a job, you have to be the guardian of your image, and online reputation. No one will take better care of you than you.  So be sure you are the smart one at the party.  Make sure that don’t do or say anything that will offend or embarrass your boss.  If you are passively looking for a job while employed, that’s incredibly important.  The last thing you want is to find yourself fired before you are ready to leave.  If you are unemployed, and in an active pursuit of a job, the holidays are a monumental opportunity to find and secure a position…or at the very least get on the short list for the position you want when it comes open.

Tomorrow, I will continue the series with more secret sauce…job search tips…and encouragement.  Encouragement, is perhaps what we need most when job hunting, so hang in there.

Your job search pal,

@HRMargo

Margo Rose

Hey are we connected on LinkedIn?  Mention HireFriday in your invitation, and I will gladly accept http://linkedin.com/in/margorose

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The holiday season is upon us-quite literally. Sometimes it can feel like a weight on the chest of an unemployed person.  Now is the time to breathe, and affirm that you are a super star, as the song goes, “that’s what you are.”  Sometimes we have to believe it before we see it.  We have to believe in ourselves, and others will believe in us too.  Are you empowering your career development, or destroying it?  Sometimes we spank our career growth without even knowing it.  It’s what I refer to as our blind spot.  People can see things about us that we can’t see in ourselves.  The fact is you are leaving an impression with everyone who interviews you.  During the holidays it is particularly important to affirm your worth.  Embrace what you do best, and learn to articulate your strong points.  As you do so, you are actually reprogramming your brain, and undoing habituated patterns of negative thinking which can lead to negative behavior.

Does positive thinking always bring about positive results? Not necessarily, but I guarantee you this: negative thinking will not ever reap the results you want.  Negative thinking is like a soul sucking vaccume that takes the wind out of your job search sails.  Here is an excellent model illustrated by our friends at CareerBuilder. It illustrates that if you do what you love, it is an affirmation of your strengths, and can put you on the path of career realization.

Your Career And You via Career Builder

So in the final analysis, I want to leave you with this thought: Act like you are a success.  Live your life as if you are succeeding.  Be really clear about what you do best.  Learn to articulate your value proposition, and if you need a reminder grab one of us in the HireFriday #HFChat community, and we’ll empower you, reassure you, and be your job search pal during your transition.  Some people might think I’m a little sappy pollyanna, but hey somebody has to wave the flay for the candidates who happen to be unemployed.  Somebody has to be an career advocate for those people who secretly hate their jobs but feel stuck because they are so afraid of losing their job during this recession we are in (and surviving) and somebody has to get behind both the employed, and unemployed that want to make a change, and care about moving their career forward.  The HireFriday Leadership Team does just that.  Get in touch with Cyndy Trivella, Tom Bolt, Steve Levy or me.  The easiest, and fastest way to reach me is on Twitter just Tweet to @HRMargo.  I reply to every tweet.  It’s hard to reach me by phone, or email, so just tweet me anytime of the day or night and I promise to get back to you.

One more thing.  On January 19, 2012 from 6-8 p.m. Central, 7 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time The Nashville Social Media Club, The Nashville Career Transitions Group, The #HFChat Community are sponsoring an event: Linked In Optimization, Your Job Search, and You.  Panelists include world renown experts Jennifer Way, Mathew LeBlance, Shannon VanCuren (and little ole’ me).  We are recruiting the best recruiters in the business to tweet live, career focused vendors to donate prizes (like resume packages, fun gifts, linkedIn profile reviews and optimizations, books and cool stuff you can really use in January).  Why are we doing this?  Because we happen to know for a cold-hard fact that January is the most depressing time of the year to job search.  Guess what?  We’re going to turn that around.  Why?  Because we care.  We want to remind you (all of you) that you are a super star.  That’s what you are. Will you please help us out and share this post with your social network pals? I’d sure appreciate it.

Your job search pal,

@HRMargo

Social Media Strategist

Founder of HireFriday, and HFChat

Are we LinkedIn?  No? Let’s remedy that today: http://linkedin.com/in/margorose

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Think Like A Recruiter

Last year I wrote a blog post encouraging #Job Seekers on Twitter to think like a recruiter. Why? Because if you use name sourcing skills, boolean search strings (semantic search logic) and understand how algorithms can put you in touch with your target companies, you will astounded how quickly you will find work.  In fact, I’d venture to say that you could increase the chances of your re-employment by more than 50%.  My unscientific data is backed up by my 10 years of experience trend spotting career development. In 1997, I worked in the outplacement industry for one of The Nation’s leading outplacement firm, Right Management Consultants.  I used to say to clients, every new begining starts with a good ending.  If you did not have an leave on good terms, you can heal, and recreate a good ending through processing your feelings, experiencing the grief, and envisioning a brighter feature. William Bridge’s great book, You and Company is a helpful tool for recovery and brand building.   Recently, I wrote a post entitled: Your Fired, Now What? It will be published next week. I taught how understanding The MBTI assessment tool can help you make informed decisions about your career.  There’s a wonderful book entitled, “Do What You Are,” by   Maria Sinatur.     I also recommend a book by David Keirsy entitled, “Please Understand Me.” Every effective job search begins with identifying how your temperament can shape your decision for your signature path.

In order to think like a recruiter you must do the following:

1. Assess your core competencies, and compare them to the job descriptions for where you apply.

Take your resume and look at it side by side next to the job description and write out answers for how well you match each of the requirements.

Use those talking points in your cover letter, and one your interviews.

2. Identify the key performance indicators which will predict whether or you will be a success in your new position.

3. Determine whether or not you will work effectively with your recruiter to make rapid decisions, and answer the offer within 24 hours.

4. Don’t make your recruiters angry by stalking them. They are busy people.

Pace yourself, woo them, and give them a good reason to send your resume out to the client, & seal the deal.

5  Use ‘Phone Sourcing Tips ‘ to find hiring managers, their names, and other people in the department.

Find out what it is really like work at that company, seek these people out, and they will tell you what it is really like to work for their boss.

6. Without being creepy, let them know in a round about way that you have conducted your research and were fascinated by their recent product release.

Share an article you found in the news paper. Butter them up a little. Most importantly, lead them to the conclusion that they need you because you are smart, and knowledgeable. Convince them that they should bring you in for an interview.

That way, neither asked them if they had an opportunity, nor did you have to say “I want to work for you, do you have any job openings.  Job seekers, that is a big mistake.  Lead them to believe that hiring you is their idea, not yours.

Use the inbound marketing. you are the product. Pull instead of push.  It works, it really does.

7. Package yourself like a product that everyone wants to have. Articulate your value proposition. You are not a job beggar, rather you are a resource professional. You are highly a skilled,  ”A” player.

8. Act as if you are in high demand. When you believe in yourself, others will believe in you too.

9. Never lose sight that you are a stainless being. You shimmer and shine.

Even if you were fired, downsized or quit, even if you do have job search fatigue, don’t shut down because of depression, or funky morale.  You have skills knowledge, and abilities.

10. All you have to do is uncover the most sales worthy part of what you have to offer it.  Remember it’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up that matters.  It makes you the person that you are.

Never lose sight of the fact that you can make someone’s day in 140 characters.

A friend alluded to the fact that if you get fired, it’s actually a good thing because if you don’t you’re just taking up space, and preventing someone who can do well in that position the opportunity to perform at his peak.  That may not be what you want to hear, but it’s true.

I told him that even though he had no idea what I was going through that day, he changed my perspective, nurtured a more productive attitude, and made a difference in my life.  Think about that for a moment, take it in and realize that with every encounter you have, you have the power leave a recruiter, human resources professional, or hiring manager with a nugget of wisdom that offers them hope, happiness, and comfort. I say this in love for the community, and in the positive energy and attitude that can and will change your life for the better.  Here at HRMargo.com I am not concerned about making money, I want to change lives for the better by building a small group where I can make a differnce in your life.  Building community can be the most powerful, transformational experience.  You can be better not bitter.

Even if you were fired.  Here’s what Seiden says:

9. A great recruiter is a masterful sales person. World-class recruiters are masterful negotiators, and communicators. Recruiters want to be reassured that they will be able make, and keep their commission. After all, they worked hard for it.

If you don’t work out, a third party recruiter will have to pay the company their commission back any where between 90 days to 6 months.  Trust me, that is not something they want to do.

When was a 3rd party recruiter, and a temporary services coordinator I can boast that I only had 5 send backs after hundreds of send outs.

Think like a recruiter, and develop a sense of empathy, an compassion, they won’t be afraid that you will screw them by not working out.

Sometimes if you don’t work out it’s not your fault at all, but if you go into a company and intentionally sabatoge your position, everyone loses.  Everyone is effected by your negative situation.  It hurts you.  It hurts the recruiter.  It hurts the company.

An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure: prepare yourself before your interview, take a moment and make an honest assessment of the company culture, and ask yourself: Will I be happy in this position. Will I rise and shine in the morning, “and show the world all the love in my heart,” as Carole King sings.  Life is short.  It is not worth putting yourself in an early grave with a type A-heart attack.  You have to do what you love, and the money will follow.

10. You have two ears, two eyes, an one mouth the recruiters who go from good to great are the ones who know how to LISTEN. They listen for buying cues, hot buttons, and signs that the client is sold on the candidate.  Now think this through, if you learn how to think like a recruiter you will listen, mirror the hiring managers body language, listen and interpret the tone of their voice, and make them feel comfortable with you.  Again, a good sales person is flexible, and adapt to the potential buyer. 10. Communicate with people the way want to be communicated you to with communicate with you. Do not communicate with others the THEY want YOU want them to communicate with you. If you think like a recruiter you will cut the time cycle of time to fill the position, reduce the cost of hire, and convince the human resources representative that you are going to reduce their costs, increase their profitability. Human resource managers are plagued by the pressure to justify their existence with metrics that they have to report to their bosses.

Will you please leave a comment.  What’s your opinion about this. Don’t be afraid to let me know, I care about your opinion.

Your HR Pal,

HRMargo Rose

Contact me at (513) 549-3025

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Now, do you have any questions?”

Every job interview, if the job seeker is lucky enough to get to this stage, is critical.  What controls whether or not you get an offer?  The résumé gets you in the door, but whether you leave as a job seeker or an employee depends on how you conduct yourself during the interview.

Some candidates think that when the interviewer says, “Now, do you have any questions?” it’s a polite indication that the interview is nearly over and the interviewer is about to wrap up.  They couldn’t be more mistaken.  The question really signals the start of the main course.  Everything that came before was just appetizers.

In this week’s #HFChat we explore the art and importance of asking questions during your interview with guest host John Kador, who begins his book 301 Best Questions to Ask on your Interview with that passage above. During the chat, we will discuss:

1. Why is it important to ask questions? #Interview
2. What kind of questions are appropriate to ask?
3. Should you save your questions until the end of the interview?
4. What are the best questions you’ve heard?
5. Should you ask the interviewer for a critique?
6. Why should you ask for the job?

John will host the chat along with long-time #HFChat participant and previous host Adam Eisenstein, employment branding manager for The McGraw-Hill Companies (@McGrawHillJobs).  McGraw-Hill is holding a book giveaway in conjunction with this chat, so join the contest here!

An independent business writer, John Kador is the author of over 15 books, including 301 Best Questions to Ask On Your Interview, The Manager’s Book of Questions, and How to Ace the Brainteaser Job Interview. His latest book is Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Building Bridges, and Restoring Trust. He received an MS degree in public relations from The American University and a BA in English from Duke University.  He lives in Lewisburg, PA. He invites readers to contact him at jkador@jkador.com or visit his web site (www.jkador.com) where he blogs about careers and writing.  Follow John on twitter at @jkador.

Adam Eisenstein is Marketing/Branding Specialist for Talent Acquisition at The McGraw-Hill Companies, working across all business lines to connect recruiters to talent and vice-versa via advertising, websites, and social media.  Adam is also creator and editor-in-chief for ‘The Virtual Cooler’ careers blog (http://thevirtualcooler.com).  Adam also has been an English teacher, film and theater producer…and occasionally, an actor.  Adam has an MFA from the University of Utah and a BA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  You can reach him @McGrawHillJobs on Twitter.

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While everyone was counting their blessings on Thanksgiving, were you secretly contemplating your anger, sadness, and sense of loss because of being unemployed?  Here’s a novel idea.  Ask yourself, “What am I NOT grateful for this year?” Have you ever considered writing an “Un-Gratitude” list?   If you recently lost your job, this list can be a tool that will help you sort things out.   Our economy is still in a slump.  Unemployment is still high.  My point is simply this: regardless of your station in life, or where you are in your job search process, hear this: its OK to not feel jolly while everyone is hanging up the holly!  This is particularly true if you just got your walking papers before the holidays.  The good news is you can, and will survive, so let’s get started.

If you are angry about losing your job right before the holidays: process your feelings, but don’t let your anger, sadness, and depression sabotage your job hunt this season.  Here’s a few tips to help you work through your holiday unemployment blues:

1. Make “Un-Gratitude” list.  Write down all the things you are not grateful for, and get it all out on paper.  Don’t hold back, trust me it might bring up a lot of pain, but it will also help you release those feelings you haven’t been able to completely discharge.  Just putting it all down on paper will help those feelings dissipate.

1. Put the list away in drawer for at least 24 hours. Make a decision to not act on feelings of immediate anger.  Take a brisk walk instead. Doing something physical does wonders for clearing your head.

1. Schedule a time to share your “Un-Gratitude” List with a trusted (safe) friend.

1. Share what you wrote down, and let the catharsis happen.  Process your anger about how it felt to lose the job, the fears you and your family face, the opportunities, and consequences that are before you now.

1. Burn the list.  That’s right, what you think, and feel is personal, it’s your business, don’t leave it around to be found. The point is to write this list, share it, and dump it.

1. Reflect.  After a few days, ask yourself: how important is it in the scheme of the rest of my life?  Where do I want to focus my energy: in the problem, or in the solution?  What do I want to do next?  Does it make sense for me to take action, or does it make sense for me to let go, move on, and create a better future? That’s a personal decision that only you can answer.

1. Create blueprint for a better, brighter career.Take everything you learned from the pain your “Un-Gratitude List” brought up, and ask yourself, how can I avoid this in the future?

1. Sometimes learning what we don’t want in our job helps us to make practical decisions about what we do want in our next job, company culture, and workplace expectations.  Yes, it’s OK to have that list too.  Having a list of what you really want in a company is every bit as important is having the list of everything you don’t want.  Fine tune this down to what types of resources, supplies, support, and the type of team members you want around you. The more detailed this list the better.  Even if you don’t find exactly what you want, having this list will help you to know what to look for when you are interviewing.  Remember, you are interviewing them too.  Interviewing is a two-way street, and having that fit is critical.

1. Keep your blueprint as a road map to guide your job search strategy, your career goals, your dreams and aspirations.  Use it as a tool to continue to transform your job loss anger into job search empowerment.

1. Write one more “Un-Gratitude List”.  What about all the things that didn’t happen?There’s a lot to be grateful for in seeing what you put on such a list. This list can be very therapeutic if you just lost your job.   For instance, it could be something as simple as, “I’m grateful I did not get injured on the job,” or “I’m grateful I did not have to do that year-end report,” or “I’m grateful do not have to attend one more of those staff meetings.”  Dig deep.  It could even be funny stuff.  In fact the funnier the better.  Nothing helps us move on better than humor.  In time, you will look back and say, wow, I’m grateful I am not at that company anymore.  I am so much happier at the company where I work now, if I hadn’t lost that job, I’d never have found this one! If you like double negatives like me, you can get pretty creative turning your ingratitude into gratitude.

1. Make a decision each day during the holidays to do one simple thing to get closer to finding your next job.  The holidays are a great time to network.  If you follow each of these steps, you will have worked through your feelings of loss, created a plan of action, and believe it or not, there’s no better time to promote yourself than at holiday functions, parties, gatherings, and anywhere you can make connections who can, and will help you.

It’s ok to not be grateful during Thanksgiving if you’re still smarting from the loss of a job.  It’s also ok to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and make a decision to forge ahead resolutely.  Making an Un-Gratitude list might just be the beginning to a new blueprint toward your next dream job!

Please comment below, let me know what you are not grateful for, and how that’s helped you gain perspective.  Thanks!

Happy Holidays,

HRMargo

Please connect with me on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/margorose and join our HireFriday LinkedIn Group,  Like The HireFriday Facebook Page, and Group.  Join our HFChat on Twitter every Friday at Noon Eastern Time, and Check out our helpful Job Search candidate community at http://hirefriday.com.

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