Have You Bugged Your Network Lately?

While the concept of “effective networking” continues to baffle and frustrate many job seekers, and involves a lot of subtle nuances, there are certain aspects of the process that are profoundly simple — as well as incredibly powerful, provided one incorporates them into the job search process.

One of the most important elements of a good networking strategy is repetition.  Whether you’re networking for the sake of employment opportunities, or as a business owner or consultant, it does little good to make an initial contact and then invest zero effort in ongoing follow-up.  As a rule of thumb, in fact, we encourage people to assume that if they haven’t talked to a person in their network during the past month, that person has likely completely forgotten about them — or has concluded that they either aren’t serious about their employment search or have landed a position already.

Perhaps one of the reasons we stress this point so highly, as well, is that we see this exact same dynamic play out among our own daily client interactions.  During the course of our working day, we tend to spot and pass along quite a few leads, ideas, and resources to those clients of ours who keep us posted on a regular basis about their progress, company prospects, and goals.  When clients go AWOL for weeks or months at a time, however, we tend to “lose energy” around their search efforts and become much less effective at assisting them.  In some unfortunate cases, in fact, we’ll have a client resurface after being out of touch for months — and realize that we’d heard of a perfect lead for them in the recent past, but neglected to pass it along since we were completely unaware of their current focus or employment situation!  This is simply a law of human nature.  If people see YOU taking your career seriously, and following an aggressive game plan for success, they’ll be much more seriously motivated to lend a hand with your efforts, themselves.   So make sure to keep them engaged and updated — often!

Are there exceptions to this rule?  Absolutely.  If you know somebody is going to be out of town for a while, or your instincts tell you that a longer waiting period is necessary between conversations with certain individuals, trust your judgment.  In the vast majority of cases, however, we feel that these damaging networking lapses occur due to a breakdown on the tracking end of things, not due to a genuine resistance people have to hearing from you.  We therefore encourage active job hunters to rely heavily upon the “Net” tab of our Job Search PhD spreadsheet tool (or another system they’ve designed) to effectively monitor the “last contact date” they’ve had with each person in their network.  Through such a framework, you can avoid the “out of sight, out of mind” phenomenon with your own network — and the costly consequences that accompany it!

Wisdom Sells. Experience? Not So Much…

This past month, we’ve had a strong surge of clients going through the interview process with various companies around town, so we’ve been heavily engaged in helping people prepare for these opportunities through interviewing strategy sessions and “mock interview” role-playing simulations.

Along the way, however, we’ve noticed a significant pattern forming.  While our clients were presenting themselves well in a variety of respects, such as acing the common questions and listening carefully to the employer’s needs, they were universally failing in one critical aspect.  They were talking at length about the “experience” they had to offer, in the form of past jobs and accomplishments, but were sharing nary a peep about the “wisdom” this experience gave them in the form of lessons learned, insights gained, and increased future effectiveness.

While this may sound trivial, keep in mind that wisdom is perhaps the single greatest weapon that older, more experienced job seekers have at their disposal.  In today’s dog-eat-dog hiring world, where age discrimination is a constant concern, employers are constantly wrestling with the decision of whether to forego hiring a more experienced candidate in favor of a younger, less experienced candidate who they can train from scratch and who is likely (so the stereotype goes) to work harder, faster, and cheaper.   For this reason, older workers need to think hard about how they are going to overcome this perception and showcase the unique value they can offer over less experienced candidates.  Again, we maintain that this value comes primarily in the form of “wise insights” that have been earned the old-fashioned way, through time and experience — but you have to put some real thought into it.  It’s not enough to simply rattle off war stories or trudge through 20-30 years of past work history.

As an example of the types of insights we feel fit the bill, one of our clients was recently called in to interview for a job where he would be managing the installation of a large new computer system at a local medical clinic.  If hired, he would be in charge of recruiting and leading a cross-functional team from multiple departments in order to pull the project off successfully.  When we first asked him to talk about his experience in this area, we got the standard shopworn litany of project management cliches, combined with an extensive monologue about related projects that he’d worked on in the past.  Not very compelling!  When we “rebooted” the exercise, however, and asked him a more focused question about what he’d learned as a result of these experiences, and what he felt the “secrets of success” were in such situations, he offered a much more intriguing insight.  He said that where most companies went wrong was that they picked people for these cross-functional teams based solely on their technical expertise, or longevity with the organization, instead of considering the depth of their interpersonal skills and whether or not they had a reputation as team players.  In his experience, it was far more important to build a team that could work well together than to ensure you had the absolutely most experienced people on board — and he had a specific way of interviewing potential team members that would accomplish this result without causing too much political or diplomatic strain within the organization.

Agree or disagree with this observation, you’ve got to at least admit that this latter response is much more interesting than the original answer that was offered, and that it clearly highlights the unique value that this candidate feels he can bring to the organization.  So when you’re getting ready for your next interview, don’t just memorize your resume and rattle off your work history.  Think hard about all of the valuable insights, shortcuts, and lessons you’ve learned over the years that never get taught in a textbook — these critical “pearls of wisdom” are what employers are looking for!

Question of the Month: April 2006

Question: “What are the most common mistakes that most job seekers make?”

Ah, now that’s a loaded question, given how unfamiliar the vast majority of professionals are with the modern job hunting process!  In the spirit of the question, however, let’s look past some of the fairly obvious and remedial missteps that people make — such as not catching typos on their resume or not dressing properly for an interview — and concentrate, instead, on some of the more subtle things people do wrong that have an even more profound impact on their overall success rate.

First things first, I’d have to say that the single most dangerous error in judgment a professional-level employee can make in today’s market is to not take the job hunting process and career management process seriously enough.  Now granted, I tend to be exposed far more to people who are encountering career turbulence, as opposed to those who are enjoying smooth sailing, but I think the lesson still holds that in the modern marketplace nobody can afford to feel “entitled” to a good job, at good pay.  These opportunities are a finite commodity, and no matter how much education and experience you’ve amassed, at the end of the day you still need to find an employer willing to pay you a large amount of cold hard cash for the solutions you can bring to their organization.  This can take a considerable amount of time if you’re targeting jobs in mid-to-senior-level management, and even longer if you’re not willing to relocate outside of Puget Sound.  So if you don’t treat the process with respect, establish a game plan, and stick to it, you will be at high risk in terms of your ability to locate an appropriate new assignment.

The second issue I see many job seekers get way too hung up on relates to putting together their resume presentation.  Simply put, the golden age of resume-writing has passed.  And while this document is still a critical part of your job search, and needs to be treated appropriately, far too many people continue tweaking, editing, and revising this document for weeks on end in the fervent hope that it will magically open doors for them or dramatically increase their response rate.  In truth, the resume is far less significant than it used to be.  Employers and recruiters scan these documents for a few brief seconds and will derive 80-90% of their impression from the candidate’s actual work history, and series of choices they’ve made throughout their career, instead of aesthetic issues like font, format, and length.  I’ve said it before and will say it again — I would always place my money on the candidate who moves quickly and sends out twice as many “good” resumes during their search, and follows them up aggressively, versus the candidate who takes weeks compiling a “great” resume and ends up delaying their search efforts and coming up way short in terms of overall submission volume.

Lastly, since all good things come in threes, I’d implore most active job hunters to pay extremely careful attention to the attitude they’re projecting out in the marketplace regarding their availability.  As stated above in this newsletter, it’s imperative that you work hard to create a positive, winning impression on every single person you encounter, even if you’re secretly struggling with feelings of frustration, fear, and stress.  You simply can’t afford to let these feelings leak out to anyone other than your absolute most trusted friends and family members — and, potentially, your career coach — or you’ll do irreparable damage to your “personal brand” and ability to generate useful contact names and referrals.  And yet, here I am mentioning this issue as one of the three most common mistakes that most job seekers make, so what does that tell you about most people’s awareness of how they come across?

In the end, paying attention to the three factors above will have a greater impact on your ultimate success rate — both in terms of the length of time you’re in the market and the quality of the offers you receive — than any specific “tactical” issue I could mention.  Unlike many things in life, I don’t feel that the “devil is in the details” quite as much when it comes to job searching.  The main rewards come to those who stay positive, identify their goals, take the process seriously, and don’t let anything come between them and a conversation with their most likely customers!

Book Review: Achieving Success Through Social Capital (Wayne Baker)

Perhaps we’re simply addicted to books about networking and the emerging “science” of social relationship theory, but we can’t help but recommend yet another publication that provides a fresh slate of insights into the many surprising ways in which we’re all connected — and the importance of these dynamics in achieving success in life, love, and work.

In this detailed treatise on the subject, author Wayne Baker, a management professor at the University of Michigan Business School, shares his extensive insights into the fundamental power of personal relationships and how individual professionals — and job hunters — can apply these dynamics to manage their “social capital” more effectively.  While a few chapters are admittedly a bit dry, as Mr. Baker discusses networking theory from an academic standpoint, the overall book is still eminently readable and of tremendous relevance to the average career-minded professional.

We particularly enjoyed the author’s description of some of the common mistakes people make when it comes to networking, such as engaging in “coin-operated networking, the mechanical view of human relationships where a deposit of a few minutes is expected to get immediate results every time, as the drop of a coin in a gumball machine always produces a gumball.”  As we’ve written about extensively, this “instant gratification” approach to relationships almost always backfires and ends up burning bridges, so we were pleased to read that Mr. Baker is in full agreement with us on this issue!

Personal Branding Pop Quiz

The topic of “personal branding” has emerged as a white-hot issue in the career management field, particularly because individual candidates (even at the executive level) are discovering that sophisticated branding principles are what’s needed in order to separate themselves from the pack in a highly commoditized labor market.  This being the case, it’s important to realize that successful branding involves more than just coming up with a few catchy slogans and a nifty elevator pitch.  It’s also about your actions, and attitudes, and whether these non-verbal components add up to create a winning impression on each person you meet during the course of your search.

As a quick test of the impression you’re likely sending out to people, ask yourself:

– Do you come across as somewhat lost or unfocused around your career goals — or do you seem crystal-clear about the kinds of problems you can solve for an employer and what you want to do next?

– Do you appear to be floundering around making random contacts — or do you seem to have a serious and solid game plan in place that you’re consistently following in pursuit of your next opportunity?

– Do you give off any signs of desperation, anxiety, depression, or cynicism — or do you seem confident in your eventual success and appear to be largely in control of your destiny?

– Do you create the impression that you expect somebody to “save you” with a magic referral — or are you systematically generating fresh leads, conversations, and opportunities via your own efforts?

– Do you only contact people when you need help or have run out of other options — or do you keep people regularly updated on your progress and the “wins” you experience during your search?

As I’m sure you’d agree, many job seekers fall into the former category on a number of these questions, and their “brand value” therefore becomes compromised in terms of their ability to generate quality leads and referrals.  If you’re a professional in transition, therefore, it’s imperative that you pay as much attention to your attitude itself as to the words you’re saying and the language you incorporate into your resume.  Everybody wants to jump on the bandwagon of a “winner” even if they’re between assignments at the moment; give off the opposite impression, however, and you could be in for a long haul!

Hardball Negotiating Tactics? You Might Strike Out…

Ultra-aggressive negotiation tactics may be appropriate for the corporate boardroom, or a used car lot, but if you bring this mentality to the job offer negotiation process, you could be in deep trouble!

While a painful lesson to learn, many job seekers make the mistake of pushing too hard during the job offer negotiation process and either costing themselves quality job opportunities or setting themselves up for a really rough ride in their new position.  The reason for this?  There are several distinct dynamics that take place in job offer scenarios that make them dramatically different from other types of business negotiations.  For starters, job offer negotiations are fundamentally win/win in nature, not win/lose.  Both sides want the deal to work and both sides must also feel that they have been treated fairly and respectfully by the end of the process.  Additionally, both parties involved will likely be working in close proximity to one another for the foreseeable future, unlike that poor salesman you outmaneuvered in the furniture showroom!  So while it’s certainly appropriate to make counteroffer proposals and be assertive about getting your needs met, the moment you’re perceived as trying to “squeeze” the other side or play them off against other employers, the rapport starts to crumble — and you’ll likely do permanent damage to the relationship you’ve taken such care to build throughout the interview process.

So what is the right strategy for approaching a job offer negotiation?  Unfortunately, there’s no single textbook answer to this question, since there are dozens of situational elements to consider and it’s important to look carefully at the leverage and context involved before deciding on your ultimate course of action.  Obtaining objective feedback around this issue can therefore be very useful in planning your strategy, whether from a trusted colleague or your Career Horizons coach.  At the end of the day, however, we promise you one thing — you will always come out ahead of the game if you walk into the negotiation process from a collaborative, rather than combative, standpoint.  Play hardball, and you’ll either lose the offer entirely, or end up getting the job but wondering for years why your boss doesn’t trust you and why you’re always last in line for raises, bonuses, and promotional opportunities!

The Magic Words: “This Person Gets It!”

In terms of the overall job search process, interviewing continues to be (in our opinion) one of the most misunderstood aspects of the job hunting challenge, with many people still operating under the belief that interviews are designed to separate the “most qualified” individual from the rest.  In the real world, however, it’s virtually impossible to objectively rank people by paper-based qualifications.  Instead, companies invite a number of candidates in who meet the minimum education/experience requirements, then base their decision on which individual seems to best grasp their unique work culture, challenges, and ideal future vision of the position in question.

This being the case, many candidates end up completely missing the point of the interview and failing to capitalize on many significant opportunities to sell themselves.  For starters, it’s important to recognize that despite appearances, and the actual questions that might be asked, most hiring managers care next to nothing about your background and work history.  What do they care about?  Whether or not you are capable of providing them with profitable future solutions — and how quickly you can do it.  As a job seeker, therefore, you have to be extremely careful not to get caught telling war stories or rehashing your resume in the interview, unless you consistently tie these past achievements back to the expressed future needs of the hiring manager.

How do you know what these needs are, exactly?  That’s the other important part of the equation.  Don’t focus on “acing” the questions being asked or trying to rattle off one silver-tongued answer after another.  Focus instead on one thing and one thing alone — try to build the trust and rapport necessary to get the person across the desk to really open up and describe their vision of what the ideal person hired will be able to accomplish.  Like any great salesperson, be a great listener.  Ask insightful, intelligent questions.  And do as much homework as possible, in advance, so that you already come in with a strong sense of what the interviewer’s hot buttons and buying signals are likely to be.

When all is said and done, again, your actual qualifications will likely matter very little in terms of whether or not you end up receiving the job offer.  By the time you’re invited in for the interview, you’ve already been “prequalified” from your resume.  The difference therefore comes down to the interviewer’s perception of which candidate best understands their problems — and seems confident that they can solve them in the timeline and manner desired.  And ultimately, if you’re the candidate who best “gets it” in their eyes, guess what?  You’ll be the one hired!

The Lost Art of Asking for Favors

All appearances to the contrary, the process of finding an exceptional new job really hasn’t changed that dramatically over the past 100 years.  The most consistent route to success is to cultivate relationships with a wide network of people and then approach these contacts for help, at the appropriate time, in finding a new opportunity.  More than half of all positions are filled in this manner, outpacing the effectiveness of employment ads, recruiters, job fairs, and all other channels combined.

Despite this consistent reality, however, there’s no question that networking today is a slightly more difficult process than it has been in the past.  For starters, many influential professionals are extremely busy and simply don’t have as much time available to socialize.  In addition, we believe that the constant demands of e-mail and voice mail have lowered the networking tolerance of most people, making them less likely to respond to casual or disorganized requests for assistance.

We’d therefore offer a few quick reminders in how to properly approach and ask for favors from your network.  By following these pointers, you’ll ensure that you make a professional impression and will maximize the odds that people will be willing to help you out, not just now, but down the road!

– Take the pressure off right up front; make it clear that you’re neither asking for nor expecting job leads
– Show respect for the person’s time and acknowledge that they’re busy
– Be specific about how much time you need from them and honor this commitment religiously
– Do your homework in advance; don’t waste people’s time asking for info you could get elsewhere
– Have a clear agenda for your call, or meeting, and be prepared to drive the conversation forward
– Promise to return the favor in any way possible down the road
– Send a polite thank-you note or follow-up communication no later than 24 hours after the meeting

By following these simple techniques, you’ll find that the people in your network become much more receptive to your phone calls and will be far more likely to do you a favor — including, perhaps, sharing a personal referral that could lead directly to your next employment opportunity.

Tow Truck Drivers: Suprisingly Successful & Satisfied!

Earlier this month, I had the unfortunate luck of having my car break down after a networking event in downtown Seattle.  The only good news, however, was that my extended warranty covered my vehicle up through 75,000 miles — and my car just happened to be teetering under the brink at 74,826!

The engineers at Ford will just have to try harder next time, eh?

Aside from my relief over the warranty issue, however, there turned out to be another unexpected benefit from the experience, as well.  As the tow truck driver hauled me and my rig back to Issaquah, through the molasses-esque traffic of the I-90 corridor, we ended up striking up an interesting conversation.  At some point, my professional curiosity compelled me to ask him about his career and how much he liked bailing out stranded motorists on the highway every day.  Amazingly, at least from my ignorant standpoint, he said that he’d been in the business for over 20 years and that the vast majority of tow truck drivers would never, ever think of changing careers and making a living any other way.

Naturally, I was surprised by this revelation.  I figured that driving a tow truck was probably a pretty grueling profession, with many potential safety hazards, and that it wouldn’t be a walk in the park dealing with grumpy, inconvenienced people all day.  He shook this characterization off, however, and said that driving a tow truck was actually one of the most unsupervised, independent jobs in the world.  Compared to a litany of other jobs he had held over the years, he said that nothing compared to the freedom of being outside and working without a boss over his shoulder all day.  He even went so far as to characterize most days as downright fun, since he got to deal with interesting people and was usually perceived as a “savior” coming to the rescue, not as part of the problem.

This individual even disclosed that the job paid surprisingly well, although of course I was tactful and didn’t pry into his gross earnings for the year.  He did, however, admit to one aspect of the job that hadn’t panned out quite as expected.   He said that when he initially got into the profession, he expected it would good for his romantic life since he’d have the chance to rescue “damsels in distress” all day and might get an occasional date or two out of the deal.  In reality, though, he confessed that most attractive, single women usually already had ten guys running to their rescue by the time he arrived on the scene — boyfriends, want-to-be boyfriends, opportunistic male bystanders, etc.  So while that specific benefit didn’t happen to materialize, which I’m sure his wife appreciates, the other aspects of the job still continue to provide him with great fulfillment and satisfaction.

I share this story not because I expect most of you to quit your job, and cash in your 401(k) to purchase an $80,000 custom wrecker unit, but because it illustrates one of my favorite aspects of the career counseling field.  When you really get down to it, and talk to the people engaged in various professions, you discover that almost every career is wonderfully unique and has surprising satisfiers and benefits to offer.  So when considering different career avenues, do your best to keep an open mind and to avoid pre-judging an occupation simply by the superficial, stereotypical impressions you have of it.  I’m usually pretty good about not rushing to judgment, myself, but I’ll admit — in this case, I got “caught” and learned, once again, why it never pays to make assumptions about what certain jobs truly entail!

Energy: The Foolproof Test

Did you know that there’s a simple “litmus test” that can accurately gauge the effectiveness of virtually any type of meeting that takes place between two individuals?

The test is this.  After any interview, networking conversation, or interpersonal interaction, ask yourself whether the meeting generated energy in both parties — or whether it depleted it.  In other words, when the interaction is finished, do the people who participated feel more excited and energized than when they started or do they feel tired, drained, and exhausted after the exchange?  Except in a few rare cases, this test will tell you everything you need to know about whether or not the meeting was a success.

Perhaps the most tactical application of this knowledge, from a job search standpoint, is to assess whether you’re doing your part to create this positive energy and to make conversations flow as smoothly as possible.  Are you prepared enough for the meetings you attend?  Do you bring fresh ideas and perspectives?  Are you holding up your end of the conversation or are you sitting back, displaying negative and intimidating body language, making it extremely difficult for the other person to get to know you?  If you already sense that some of these behaviors apply to you, it’s important that you take proactive steps to address the matter.  If you’re unable to connect with other people easily and build solid rapport, you’ll be at a major disadvantage in finding employment.

There are also people out there, unfortunately, who display these characteristics but appear completely unaware that they’re coming across this way.  In my private coaching practice, for instance, I have clients who are very engaging, and approachable, and we often go well beyond the scheduled appointment time (on my dime, of course!) because we’re creating good energy and making significant progress toward reaching the individual’s goals.  At the same time, however, I occasionally encounter clients who come across as closed, guarded, and non-responsive in our conversations.  Given my lack of masochistic tendencies, you can imagine that I tend to wrap up our sessions right on schedule!

So while the consequences of displaying closed and guarded behavior may be minimal in terms of the career coaching interaction, they are signs of an individual who is likely to run into major roadblocks in the interviewing, networking, and job hunting process.

For the most part, of course, I raise this issue directly with clients who make me “work hard” to get to know them or who come across as standoffish.  It’s part of my job to provide this objective feedback, and in many cases, the root cause doesn’t actually turn out to be arrogance — but a degree of shyness or insecurity, instead.  Whichever the case, however, it’s important to acknowledge the issue and work on it if it turns out to be a barrier to your success.  Unless you’re able to bring positive energy to the table, and create excitement in the people you’re conversing with, you’ll find yourself at a major disadvantage in both your job search as well as your ongoing career success.