Burning Question for Job Seekers #6

“What do you love, I mean really love, about business?”

It’s so easy to bash the corporate world.  In fact, it’s become downright fashionable to complain about the greed, waste, exploitation, and ethically-challenged behavior displayed by a high-visiblity chunk of the business world these days.

Each day, it seems, I’ll come across yet another “corporate refugee” with an amazing tale to tell in terms of the abuses and shenanigans they’ve had to deal with in the workforce, ranging from outlandish cases of sexual harassment to employees being asked to turn a blind eye to fraud.  And if one wanted to get even more worked up about the issue, you could always go see Michael Moore’s latest movie “Capitalism: A Love Story.”  I saw the film not long ago, myself, and can assure you that it offers up ample food for thought, even if we all fully agree that Mr. Moore’s projects are the product of an extremely pointed (and not necessarily unbiased) agenda!

There’s one major problem with jumping on the “bash business” bandwagon, however.  It’s the fact that the vast majority of U.S. citizens currently earn their living working in the private sector and will unquestionably continue to do so for the foreseeable future.  I wish I could track down the exact statistics, but I think it’s a safe bet that at least 80% of the jobs in this country are generated through private-sector employers, as opposed to government or non-profit positions.  So whether you’re a technical program manager at Microsoft, a self-employed marketing consultant, or the receptionist at a small three-person startup struggling to break even, you must embrace the fact that you are part of the business world.  Not exempt from it.  And in my mind, as a career coach, this means that unless 4 out of 5 of us can find some business-related problem that we truly love and enjoy solving 40+ hours per week — it’s going to be a rough ride!

Seems obvious, I know, but I meet a lot of folks these days who instantly give off signs that they are “on the rebound” from a bad employment experience.  They trash-talk the corporate world.  Or seem perplexed by it.  Or don’t seem the slightest bit interested in understanding how the potential employer they’re interviewing with actually makes money — or in discussing how they can contribute to this primary goal.  This attitude is anathema to hiring managers, especially those tasked with the health of the bottom line.  They’re looking for people who want to go to war with them, and win the free market battle, not people simply seeking a paycheck or holding their nose while the company goes about the “nasty” business of seeking a profit.  This is even more the case if you’re seeking a management or leadership position within the private sector.  Being competent at your job is rarely enough anymore.  Companies want to see passion.  They want to hire people who seem steeped in the new realities of the market and are chomping at the bit to help the organization attract new customers…or streamline its finance function…or capture market share from a competitor…or build a new recruiting process that will give the company an unfair advantage over its competition.

On a related note, are any of you familiar with the word “frenemy?”  As in somebody who is “both your friend and your enemy” at the same time?  I’ve heard this new buzzword pop up a few times lately, usually among teenage girls at my wife’s school who seem to find themselves, frighteningly often, in the position of disliking somebody in their immediate social circle — but who feel the need to maintain appearances, as opposed to “going public” with their dislike.  Well, that’s the vibe I get from many candidates these days.  They say they’re looking for a position in the business world, and they clearly want the benefits a job in business can bring, but they don’t act like they enjoy the business world even the tiniest little bit.

So back to my initial question.  What do you love about business?  What part of making a profit spins your jets?  What major or minor role can you play in helping an organization survive during this tough economy — or better yet, thrive?  This question is an important one to ask yourself if you’re targeting a role within the for-profit world.  And if you just can’t seem to muster up emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, passion, or love around the subject of business, that’s a serious sign that it might be time to reposition yourself for role in government, academia, or the non-profit sector — or take aggressive steps to process any “emotional wounds” that capitalism might have dealt you, so you can get back on the horse.  Sure, there are a great many things to despise about the way certain businesses conduct themselves, but the institution as a whole isn’t going away, any time soon.  Find the part of it that amazes and inspires you!

Tips & Turnoffs from a Hiring Manager

Today was a fun day.  As opposed to my usual routine of camping out in the office — meeting with clients and weeding my overgrown e-mail garden — I decided to get out and grab coffee with several former clients of mine just to catch up, see how they were doing in their new assignments, and compare notes on the current state of the market.

Along this whistlestop tour, I connected with an alumnus (and now good friend) of mine who now runs a successful management consulting company in downtown Seattle.  To his credit, he’s been able to maintain a stable workforce and revenue stream, despite the economic turbulence out there, and I always enjoy hearing his thoughts on the state of the marketplace and the challenges that he has to tackle as an organizational leader.

This morning’s rendezvous was no exception.  This time around, among the many topics we discussed, he was kind enough to share some advice for me to pass along to my clients with regard to the interviewing process.  Having interviewed hundreds of employment candidates over the past few years, he said that he’d developed a mental list of “red flags” that almost always tend to signal trouble in terms of a potential hire:

•  Candidates who express difficulty/reluctance to travel to downtown Seattle for a potential interview, via comments such as “Shucks, I hate battling the bridge” or “I never know where to park down there.”

•  Candidates who ask for special accommodations, up front, in terms of work schedule; e.g. “Would it be possible for me to only work four 10-hour days?” or “Would I be able to work from home on Tuesdays, since I have to pick up my kids at school that day?”

•  Candidates who turn out to be “serial negotiators” and keep adding more and more demands, once the job offer negotiation process begins, even when the company makes the concessions requested

•  Candidates who imply that working for my friend’s company and /or in a consulting role are clear second choices to some other desired goal such as working full-time for Microsoft; e.g. “I’m hoping to hear back from this other company I talked with, but would certainly consider becoming a consultant, if my other option falls through.”

You may laugh at some of these items, thinking they’re pretty obvious behaviors candidates shouldn’t display, but they happen much more often than you’d think!  And to his credit, my friend doesn’t necessarily have a problem with the issues themselves that are expressed above, such as a person wanting a little scheduling flexibility, but has found that the types of people who would raise these issues up front, during the courtship phase, usually turn out to be highly needy employees — and rarely end up succeeding in the company’s fast-paced, constantly-changing environment.

On the flip side, he said that there are two ways that candidates can quickly win his heart and get a healthy dose of extra credit:

•  He loves candidates who can answer the question “What is your special magic?” or “What are you extremely good at?” without missing a beat; the people who possess this level of self-awareness and have great clarity about their capabilities, he says, always stand out and make a strong positive impression; as the CEO, too, he says this information is immensely helpful in figuring out the best place to plug a person into his organization, even if it isn’t in the role the candidate is interviewing for

•  He also loves candidates who make proactive statements along the lines of “I’d love working for your company because of X, Y, or Z” and then fill in these blanks with something interesting, relevant, and that shows an above-average level of preparedness on their part

Granted, these are all techniques that are mentioned in the various interviewing prep materials that Career Horizons shares with our clients, and we’ve also talked about them in prior articles of this blog, but I still thought it would be valuable to list them all in one place — and tie them to the actual day-to-day experiences and suggestions of a local hiring authority.

And one bonus tip?  My contact also said that those folks who HAVE jobs should be highly aware of the intense pressure that business owners are facing to reduce overhead — and should therefore make a point to go the extra mile and continually find ways to build value with the people who employ them.  As a case in point, he relayed a story of a recruiter on his team who didn’t seem to be working very hard and who justified this behavior by saying “But I don’t have all that much to do, since we don’t seem to be hiring many new people right now!”

Not a very smart career management move, I can assure you…

“Communication Channel” Tips for Job Hunters

While it may sound silly, job hunting success or failure can sometimes hinge upon the littlest things, so I’m going to take a moment to share a few thoughts on one of the most basic elements of running a job search — which is to ensure that the “communication channels” you’re using to make contact with potential employers are as clear and effective as possible.  Believe it or not, as straightforward as you might think this part of job hunting might be, there have been a few important shifts that have taken place in recent years!

So just to make sure there’s zero friction around the communication methods you’re using to round up your next job, here’s a quick checklist of suggestions I’d submit for your review:

Telephone Tips:

•  Use only one phone number on your resume; most employers probably won’t take the time to track you down via multiple numbers, so give them the number you check most frequently and that you have the most personal control over (such as a cell phone, as opposed to a home phone other members of your family might answer)
•  Make sure to state your name in your voicemail greeting so that employers can feel confident they’re leaving a message for the right person and that they’ve called the right number
•  Avoid creative or humorous voicemail greetings that could turn employers off or make you look unprofessional
•  Don’t use an out-of-state cell phone number; this could raise fears you’re not a local candidate and easily cause employers to pass you over for fear of having to incur relocation fees
•  Resist answering your phone in cases where you don’t recognize the caller ID number; if an employer 0r recruiter is calling you, it’s best to have them leave a message so you can call them back when you’re in a quiet place, not rushed, and have done some quick research through your files (or on the web) to be prepared for the call

E-Mail Tips:

•  Consider setting up a separate Internet-based e-mail address strictly for job hunting purposes so that this account can be checked easily on the road and you don’t end up polluting your “main” account with a bunch of job search spam
•  Avoid using an AOL account or Yahoo account for your job hunt, if possible; unfortunately, AOL accounts are often perceived as “old school” by many tech-savvy employers, whereas Yahoo accounts are notorious for having reliability issues and causing many legitimate messages to get accidentally routed into a person’s “Junk Mail” folder
•  Create an automated e-mail signature (if you haven’t already) that contains all of your appropriate contact information in it, including possibly your LinkedIn Public Profile address, if you have one, to make it easy for employers to “check you out” via that system

Snail Mail & Fax:

•  These methods were “the bomb” circa 1988, but as you’ve probably noticed, they are rarely used anymore as part of the modern hiring process; every once in a while, however, we’ll see a job hunter try contacting an employer via one of these methods — and sometimes the “uniqueness” of using these throwback channels will actually set them apart and lead to positive results!
•  In terms of including one’s mailing address on resumes and cover letters, it’s now considered a smart move by many experts to list only the city and state you live in, instead of including your full address; the fear (as paranoid as it sounds) is that employers are now running candidate addresses through sites like Zillow.com to get a sense of where a person lives and what this might say about them in terms of lifestyle, income needs, and commute distance

I’m sure there are a few other “best practices” we could come up with in terms of employer/candidate communication, if we put our minds to it, but as of right now these are the key thoughts that I came up with to pass along.  Again, I realize this isn’t the sexiest aspect of job hunting to blog about, but it’s also one we can’t overlook — since these channels are critical to landing your next great job offer!

Crummy Economy: Silver Linings?

Looking out the window today, I probably couldn’t have picked a worse day to talk about silver linings.  Right now, at least in the Seattle/Bellevue area, the cloud cover is so dense and dreary (ya gotta love October!) that there are no linings of any kind to be found — silver or otherwise.  Still, since I was really just planning to speak metaphorically, I suppose I can forge ahead and make my point, regardless…

What’s that point, exactly?  It’s that one can find bright spots and positive things to celebrate in almost any situation, no matter how painful or challenging — and I believe that this principle applies equally well to today’s recessed economy, as well.  Now to be clear, I’m not saying things are good out there.  And I assure you I’m not simply donning my Polyanna mask in honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday.  Like everybody else, nothing would make me happier than for us to roll back the clock to a more normal job market where the “average” person could expect to find work and earn an “average” living within an “average” period of time.  After all, as beautiful as it is to look up and see a true silver lining, peeking out from behind a cloud,  most of us would still prefer a sunny day to a cloudy one!

So despite the tight constraints of the current job market, and the challenges the recessed economy is creating for so many people, I’d still like to share three encouraging developments I’ve witnessed lately during my comings-and-goings:

1)  People are gaining clarity around their priorities

While nobody wished this experience upon themselves, necessarily, today’s job market is proving to be a superlative “teaching moment” for many people in terms of focusing them to reassess and reevaluate the things in life that are important to them.  Many people, for example, are being forced to come to grips with their relationship to money for the first time in many years.  How has money (or more accurately, their desire to acquire lots of it) affected their lives to date?  How has it contributed or detracted from their happiness?  Where does it truly rank compared to other work satisfaction elements they might value such as work/life balance, fun, personal growth, freedom, and other factors?  Without question, the financial discipline and creative cost-cutting measures many families have put in place these days are going to serve them well for many years to come, assuming they maintain some of these habits once they land a new opportunity.

Additionally, I’ve seen numerous people use their “time off” to rebuild fractured relationships, improve their health, attend to issues in the family, conquer significant personal goals, and make other incredibly positive strides forward.  How many metric tons of wisdom are we going to gain, as a society, from people thinking deeply and profoundly about these issues as a result of this tough economic slog?

2)  Young people are learning valuable lessons

At a networking event our firm facilitated the other day, aimed at helping job hunters stay confident during protracted unemployment, numerous job hunters piped up and said that one surprisingly positive side-effect of their unemployment status was that their kids were paying attention — and that most of them were showing remarkable maturity, grace, and flexibility in terms of helping the family adapt to these tough times.  This experience certainly isn’t a universal one, I’m sure, but at least a half-dozen of the attendees expressed great pride at the resiliency of their children and felt convinced that this period of privation would provide them with some lasting, valuable life lessons.

Over the years, I’ve heard similar stories from parents that have literally brought me to tears (the good kind), such as the client of mine whose 9-year-old daughter offered up her piggy bank to help pay the overdue rent — or tales of teenagers who have willingly gone out and gotten a job, for the first time in their lives, in order to help the family make ends meet.  So I can’t help but wonder whether this recession will leave a positive impact on the next generation — just as the Great Depression of the 1930s played an instrumental role in forging the values of the “Greatest Generation” we all revere.  Along the same lines, Malcolm Gladwell argues in his latest book Outliers that there is clear evidence linking the success of many of the most prominent business leaders in the last half-century to the lessons, values, and work habits they picked up watching their immigrant parents overcome the odds and adapt, heroically, to a totally new culture and the American way of life.

3)  The best aspects of human nature are on display

The last “silver lining” item I’d point out is the one that I’m most excited about, of all, and is also the phenomenon I encounter the most in my day-to-day experience working with job hunters.  Barring a few annoying exceptions, I’m simply blown away by how generous, thoughtful, and helpful many people (including hundreds of Career Horizons alumni) have been in terms of lending a hand to their fellow seekers and going the extra mile to be a networking resource.  Rather than steal my own thunder, in fact, I’m instead going to direct you to a brand-new article I wrote here (click on the “Troubled Times” link at the top of the list) that spells out my recent observations in this area.  This article was also just published today as one of my regular Puget Sound Business Journal installments.

As I’ve said in that piece, and will say again here, if you’ve been one of the generous souls who has taken the time to assist a job hunter in need, grant an informational interview, pass a LinkedIn request along, or volunteer in some other capacity to help people get back on their feet, thank you — on behalf of everybody.  Your amazing, thoughtful actions are an invaluable part of helping people keep the faith and remain confident that we’ll get through these tough times!

15 Ideas to Re-Energize Your Search!

While certain indicators of the economy seem to be perking up, as of late, there are still thousands of job seekers out there soldiering through the frustrations/challenges of a protracted job search.  With the Wall Street meltdown now approximately a year behind us, it appears that many people are reaching the point where they’ve burned through a large chunk (if not all) of their savings, severance, and unemployment benefits — and need to seriously “shake things up” a bit in order to stay focused and energized in their continued quest for a new position.

These motivational challenges, in fact, are ALWAYS the big sticking point in these kinds of situations.  While the “tactics” of finding a job aren’t terribly difficult to master, it’s far from easy to put yourself out there, day after day, and face consistent rejection from the marketplace.  Those people who steel themselves to these market realities, however, or develop and practice successful coping strategies for staying positive, are generally the folks who will get through the process most quickly and experience the most success.

In one sense, too, I suppose that job searching could be defined as an “insane” activity, if one accepts the common definition of insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.”  Clearly, a big part of job hunting is repetition.  Even if you’ve already sent out 30 resumes without getting a single nibble from employers, there’s always the chance that resume #31 will hit the bullseye.  And I also still believe that a great many job searches aren’t effective simply due to a lack of hustle, activity, and focused effort.  But again, for those people who have been job hunting a looooong time and are really hitting a wall, emergency routine-breaking measures are sometimes needed.

Along these lines, I’ve typed up a series of 15 motivational/reflectional techniques that I’ve had clients deploy, over the years, with some measure of success.  You’ll find all of these ideas captured in a “Getting Unstuck: 15 Ideas to Re-Energize Your Search!” handout that I’ve made available here, via my website.  If you’ve never been to this part of my site before, you’ll quickly realize that this file is the only one on the page that isn’t password-protected, but I’m more than happy to share this particular handout with my blog readership at large since I know there are many people who could benefit from this topic.

If any of you have additional techniques or methods you’d be willing to share on this subject, please feel free to send them along!  To date, I haven’t found a single foolproof method (if I did, I’d patent it) that is guaranteed to beat the job search blues, but I’m confident that trying out at least one of these suggested activities — if not several of them — can make a big difference in the outlook of most folks.  Good luck!

Confessions from the “Typo Police”

How important are writing skills to most jobs, really?  Sure, if you’re billing yourself as a marketing communications expert or a professional proofreader, you’d better have a keen eye for detail — and have gotten (received?) excellent grades in English class.  But if you’re a nurse?  Or a chef?  Or an engineer?  Or an accounts payable manager?  Is it imperative for folks in these professions to be extremely fluent in the written word?

I’d argue that it’s probably not.  Anybody who has enjoyed a number of years of success in these fields, after all, has most likely figured out how to communicate effectively with those around them to some extent.  You don’t see too many adults who are completely and utterly unable to get their point across.  And in the event a given individual may not be terribly comfortable expressing themselves in writing, there’s a good chance they’ve learned to err on the side of phone calls and verbal communication methods — or are resourceful enough to ask a friend for help in cases where they need to handle high-visibility written assignments.

And yet, regardless of which profession a person is in, there’s no FASTER way to get kicked out of the hiring process than to have a poorly-written cover letter or a resume with several major typos on it.  Why should this be the case, if written skills aren’t actually a significant part of a person’s job role?  Won’t a company miss out on some fantastic candidates if they automatically kick out everybody who accidentally spells the word “manager” as “manger” on their resume, despite the other formidable talents a person might possess?  Frankly, I think the answer is yes, and I’m starting to suspect that this happens a lot more frequently than most people might think!

There are two reasons behind such behavior, I’d argue.  First, since every employer wants to hire people committed to doing quality work, one’s resume is often viewed as a tangible “litmus test” of whether a person takes their career seriously and knows how to produce a quality finished product.  The second reason, however, is a little more nefarious — and one I haven’t seen talked about all that much.  Call me crazy, but I’d propose that the common practice of booting out great candidates based on minor resume typos is often a thinly-disguised power trip on behalf of front-line resume screeners and hiring managers.  It’s “revenge of the liberal arts majors” so to speak.  While I suppose I could be speaking only for myself, I readily admit I have an annoying superiority complex when it comes to writing — because it’s something I’ve always been pretty good at — and as a result, I’m sure I’ve penalized quite a few people to an unfair degree on this issue over the years and have allowed it to cloud my judgment in terms of their bona fide job capabilities.

Going forward, I’m going to try and lighten up on this issue a bit, since I’m realizing more and more that writing is only one of a great many diverse and wondrous talents that one can bring to bear to get exceptional workplace results.  And in fairness, if an employer were to test my math skills, the shoe would quickly be found on the other foot!  I’m pretty sure there are plenty of frustrated English majors and academic achievers out there, however, who have found themselves in lower-level admin positions and similar roles — and are taking every opportunity to “punish” those job candidates who don’t properly conjugate their verbs or who might misspell the word “there” as “their” every once in a while.   My question to these folks: does it really matter all that much?  Did you truly not understand what the person was trying to say?

In closing, I’m certainly not advocating that job seekers lessen their vigilance around this issue or allow careless mistakes to slip into their documents, but I just wanted to throw the idea out there/their as food for thought, since it was on my mind the other day.  As always, your thoughts and comments are welcomed!

P.S. Want a totally different perspective on the importance of writing in the workplace?  Check out the fascinating blog post here from author Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist.  She argues that people’s writing skills have never been better — it’s just that many of us “older folks” are viewing the concept of writing in old-fashioned, obsolete terms!

Career Q&A: How to Deal With Gaps On a Resume?

“Matt: Even though I consider myself to be a very loyal employee, I’m afraid that over the last several years I’ve bounced around to several different jobs, due to the economy, and also now have a few ‘gaps’ in my employment record that employers seem to be all freaked out about — to the point it’s costing me opportunities.  How would you recommend I handle these issues on my resume?”

As I’d suspect virtually all resume-writers and career coaches would agree, the issue above is the “big resume question of the new millennium” as companies still appear to place a big premium on finding stable/dedicated employees, but now tend to lay workers off so often, and so quickly, that candidates with unbroken work histories are getting almost impossible to find!  Fortunately, I think companies are waking up to the reality that the best candidates DON’T necessarily have a picture-perfect job chronology and that the hiring process needs to include a deeper examination of a person’s true skills, qualifications, and work capabilities.  Until the day arrives that the stigma around employment gaps disappears completely, however, job hunters will still have to deploy active countermeasures to minimize the impact of this issue on their self-marketing efforts.

In terms of how to do this on the resume, itself, there are only a few options available — and while they may help to a certain degree, I’ll warn you up front, none of them are foolproof.  Here’s a breakdown of some of the techniques you could consider, ranked in rough order of how “risky” or “unorthodox” they are compared to traditional resume-writing standards:

1)  List your employment dates in years, not months. This is the oldest trick in the book and employers are most certainly aware of it, but whenever you’ve got a bunch of short-term jobs on your resume, it often paints a better picture if you describe them solely in terms of years (e.g. 2008-2009 instead of 10/08 to 02/09) instead of listing the actual months employed.  If you worked earlier this year, too, but are unemployed at present, listing your most recent job as being “through 2009″ also camouflages this issue to a certain extent.

2)  Insert the reason for leaving each job. I’ve met several diehard proponents of this strategy over the years, all of whom insist that professionals today should fully “tell the story” of why they left each job so that employers don’t automatically jump to incorrect assumptions (aka “you embezzled funds or had a drinking problem.”)  This camp would suggest you add a “Reason for Leaving:” line under each job title, after which you insert something like “Position was eliminated as part of corporate reorganization” or “Recruited out of company to a more senior opportunity” or something similar.  Personally, I’m not a big fan of this approach and don’t necessarily think it always solves the problem, but in some cases I can see where it might help, especially if the “reasons” you can offer are as pure and innocent as the driven snow.

3)  Leave off certain short-term jobs entirely: In the event you’ve had quite a few short-term jobs within a given year, it might be best to jettison one (or two) of them completely off the resume to diminish the “job hopper” perception, especially if you can employ technique #1 above to cover up the date range inconsistency.  The less relevant some of your shorter-term jobs have been, in fact, the more heavily I’d think about ditching them, unless they were legitimate contract positions — in which case you should identify them clearly as such, since employers are much more tolerant of such situations.  I’ve even had people identify full-time jobs as “contract” in nature, even when this wasn’t technically the truth.  This is a risky strategy, especially when it comes time for reference checks, but I know people who are ethically willing to do this — especially when they felt that the company brought them in for a short-term fix or misrepresented the long-term prospects of the job from the outset.

4)  Rearrange your work history in an unconventional way. Over the years, admittedly, there have been cases where I felt that peoples’ work chronology was in such bad shape, in terms of how it would be perceived by employers, that I recommended they completely break the mold and list their experience in a bizarre, unorthodox way.  In some cases, this meant creating a section called “Relevant Experience” where we presented the individual’s jobs not in date order, but in “relevance” order in terms of how closely their past positions matched their future target goals.  In other cases, we didn’t even include the actual dates of employment, but simply presented the time length of employment (e.g. we put “three years” instead of 2006-2009) and again, ranked the jobs in exactly the order we wanted employers to review them.  This technique is pretty devious, and again, will not endear you to a lot of recruiting personnel, but might still be worth the risk and nab you a phone call if your qualifications (outside of the date issue) are extremely relevant to the job at hand.

5)  Bite the bullet and shift to a “functional” resume format. Alas, once upon a time, a highly progressive resume format called the “functional style” emerged into the world,  where one’s skills and qualifications were liberated from the confines and restrictive nature of pesky employment dates.  If you’re not already familiar with this fairly infamous style, just type “functional resume examples” into Google and you’ll come across tons of them out there.  The problem with this resume methodology?  It developed a very negative rap among most employment circles, since the average types of people who gravitated to the functional style were military personnel, return-to-work homemakers, career-changers, ex-convicts, and the like — in other words, people who had “something to hide” (not in a bad way, please understand) in terms of their work background and employment dates.  As a result, companies now tend to associate this style with “people who are underqualified” and I find that functionally-formatted resumes still elicit a hostile reaction among the HR professionals, recruiting folks, and hiring managers I’ve surveyed.  Still, if you’ve got nothing to lose and think this approach would capture your credentials in the best possible light, go for it!  I still use them once in a blue moon, myself, especially for potential career-changers…

Ultimately, if you’ve only got some mild gaps in your employment history, you’ll probably fare just fine, especially as the hiring world realizes that fewer and fewer candidates are going to fit the “perfect” chronology they seek.  If you’ve got a much choppier story to tell, however, this can spell trouble, and you might test out some of the techniques above to see if they make a difference.  Even more importantly than resume tweaks, though, it will be imperative for you to adjust your job search strategy itself to place far less weight on resume-driven efforts (e.g. published job leads) and more on relationship-driven methods, such as networking, where you can present your capabilities free of intense date scrutiny.

And last but not least, whether addressing the “job gap” dilemma or any other areas of vulnerability you might have as a candidate, I’ll let you in on one additional secret.  As opposed to raging against the injustice of the process, and the superficial assumptions companies make about dates and such, try putting yourself in the employer’s shoes and seeing the issue from their point of view.  While I’m sure YOU are a phenomenally committed employee, I can assure you that there are plenty of slackers, ne’er-do-wells, and bona fide job hoppers around that lead to very expensive, messy hiring mistakes.  What other methods can you use to convince employers you’re not one of these people?  What would persuade you, if you were hiring, to overlook some perceived weaknesses of this kind on the written materials of somebody you’ve never met?  Answering that question successfully might lead you to some strategies and techniques well beyond what I’ve outlined in this posting — in which case, please comment, since I’d love to feature them!

Book Review: Be The Hero (Noah Blumenthal)

Several weeks ago, I had the chance to see the author of this book, Noah Blumenthal, deliver a keynote speech for a local professional organization.  The presentation was so funny, so captivating, and most of all, so uplifting, that I couldn’t help but pick up a copy of his book and see if his powerful message translated well into written form.

Be The Hero didn’t disappoint — and most of all, it’s a terrific book for our times.  Easily digestible at 126 pages in length, the essential idea behind the book is that people can either act like victims, powerless to change the world around them, or they can choose to think or respond heroicly to the circumstances they find themselves in.  To illustrate his points, the author has crafted a semi-fictional story about a man named Jeff who hates his job, resents his marital situation, and is miserable about pretty much every aspect of his life.  Jeff then meets up with an old friend named Martin who takes him under his wing and teaches him three positive techniques  he can use to reframe his self-defeating view of the world, all of which involve altering the underlying “stories” he is unconsciously telling himself about his life and the all of the various characters in it.

For some, this book may seem a bit idealistic or miss the mark.  In one sense, the message could largely be boiled down to “always keep things in perspective” or “try to see the positive in every situation.”  Fans of the self-help genre, however, will most likely enjoy this book immensely, especially if they have appreciated books like Who Moved My Cheese? or The Secret in the past that pass along their wisdom via entertaining fictional allegories.   And Mr. Blumenthal does a great job of sharing his lessons in a way appropriate to our times, since all of us will likely recognize shades of ourselves in “Jeff” and the challenges he seems to be encountering in his busy, fast-paced, stressful professional life.

So if you’re looking for a dose of inspiration, and a book that will help you summon your “inner hero” and respond more positively in the face of adversity, Be the Hero would be a great place to start.  And if you really buy into the author’s teachings, you’ll even find a section at the back containing a password that will allow you to access a whole bunch of additional resources via the author’s website.  Nice touch!

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Have you ever wondered whether you, too, should join the exclusive little club of 200+ million people who currently throw a bunch of their thoughts and musings up on the web, hoping somebody will actually read them?  In other words, have you ever considered writing your own blog?

At a recent networking event hosted by Career Horizons, our special guest, Blaine Millet of Social Media for Executives, expressed his view that almost every professional today should consider starting a blog.  He went on to make a very passionate and convincing case about how blogs are truly the hub of the social media universe — and that they are the most important tool that companies, as well as individual professionals, can use to promote their brand and drive meaningful dialogue with potential contacts/customers.  In addition, he specifically recommended that novice bloggers consider using the Google-owned Blogger.com interface, since the site offers many useful features, for free, and is also far and away (at least in Blaine’s opinion) the easiest blogging platform to master.

My thoughts on the matter, looking at the issue from the “career management” side of the fence?  I’m largely in agreement with Blaine’s assessment that most career-minded professionals today should think hard about launching a blog.  I still don’t think this step is for everybody, however.  Blogging could easily become a distraction that sucks time away from more urgent job hunting activities, and one’s personal blog could also make an “underwhelming” impression on potential employers if not executed well, or correctly.  Don’t forget, too, that whatever you slap up on the web is likely to stick around — with your name on it — for decades to come.  I suspect that there are quite a few members of Generation Y sweating bullets right now, in fact, praying that potential employers don’t find that embarrassing post they wrote about flatulence or that old picture of them on Facebook, operating a beer bong.

Still weighing the pros/cons of launching a blog?  Here are a few of the characteristics I think most successful bloggers tend to possess:

1) You should love to write; if writing isn’t your cup of tea or you don’t derive much enjoyment from it, authoring a blog could easily become a painful chore, once the initial excitement wears off.  So if you’re already struggling with the written aspects of job hunting (e.g. you find the process of composing cover letters to be about as fun as getting a root canal) there may be better options for promoting your brand out there.

2) You should have lots of interesting things to say; since we’re already approaching an “infinite number of monkeys” point in terms of how MUCH information is out there on the web at large, as well as the blogosphere, it probably doesn’t make much sense to publish a stream of shopworn material that’s already been written about before.  You’ll need to be bursting with fresh ideas and opinions that you just can’t wait to share with the world.  Ideally, this material will be interesting to other people besides yourself, but honestly, even if it’s just stuff YOU find fascinating, that’s a perfectly good place to start!

3) You should focus on a specific subject; while I reckon there are a few “stream of consciousness” blogs out there that attract steady readership, the most successful blogs are laser-focused and deal with a highly specialized occupational niche, industry segment, or business topic.  So before launching your blog, decide what niche of the business world you want to focus on and think hard about how you can bring a unique, refreshing, or humorous point-of-view to the subject at hand.

4) You should commit to writing a new blog post at least weekly; while Blaine suggested that people post blog entries at least three times per week, I personally think a lower frequency can be just fine, too.  I personally follow a few bloggers whose output is pretty anemic and it doesn’t bother me at all, as long as what they have to say, every now and then, is compelling.  Trust me on this, however.  You’ll start off thinking that writing three postings a week is going to be a piece of cake — but before you know it the honeymoon will pass, you’ll find the days flying by, and will (most likely) find yourself falling farther and farther behind this goal as “real life” gets in the way!  Just comes with the territory…

5) You should have thick skin; inevitably, the best blogs end up attracting a lot of eyeballs and associated reader comments, not all of which will be positive ones.  If you’re therefore not prepared to have your opinions challenged, or to stand your ground around some of the bold, captivating, and audacious opinions you’ve shared (see point #2 above), you may not find the “blogging experience” to be as uplifting as you’d originally hoped!

These are just a few assorted things I’d recommend you think about if you’re considering taking the plunge into the blogging pool.  All warnings aside, however, you can’t really go wrong by giving the process a try, just as long as you avoid saying anything that you might later regret or that could be used against you in a court of law.  And if we go back to the career-related benefits of blogging, for a second, I’d emphasize that one of the most valuable benefits of writing a blog (at least for me) is the structured way in which it forces you to focus your thoughts and improve your storytelling abilities.  Even if your blog never fully takes flight, there’s a ton of value to be gained simply by sitting down, gathering your thoughts, and putting pen to paper (so to speak) in order to express your point-of-view in a concise, compelling way.  Blog or no blog, this may turn out to be the best interview preparation step you ever engage in!

Kudos to Multicare & Better Hiring Practices!

Here’s another cool “small world” story that just happened within the Career Horizons orbit — and one that reveals an interesting new twist on the modern hiring process!  Yesterday, one of my clients mentioned that she’d been applying for a job down at Multicare, the health care company based in Tacoma, but ultimately decided to bow out of the process without fully completing the on-line application.  Nonetheless, she was pleasantly surprised to receive an automated e-mail from Multicare, within the next few minutes, asking her to fill out a brief anonymous survey sharing her perceptions of the company’s application process.

Here was the text she received:

“MultiCare would appreciate your participation in a short survey about your experience and current perception of their jobs, work environment, culture, hiring process, and employees.   The survey is fully interactive (so it focuses quickly on what is most important to you), and just takes a few minutes to complete. Because MultiCare can only see the aggregated responses of all survey participants, you remain anonymous while they work to improve the experience for job seekers and new employees.   To take the survey, follow this link…”

To me, the very notion that a company would CARE about the perception job seekers have of its hiring process is a pretty worthwhile thing to celebrate, in its own right, but I’m even more impressed by an employer that would solicit the opinions of those candidates who don’t even complete the application process.  If a company were to only limit its survey data (as some probably do) to just the subset of applicants who end up completing the process, and/or getting hired, they’d obviously end up with a pretty skewed set of results — and one that would paint an artificially-positive view of the process in question!  It would leave out all of those job seekers who might have been intimidated by a company’s application system.  Or found it cumbersome.  Or were confused by it.  Or felt it was biased in some way based on age, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.  So the fact that Multicare seeks out the opinions of ALL potential candidates is a pretty nifty thing, at least from my standpoint.

The small world part?  It turns out that the company that produces these surveys, Improved Experience, was actually co-founded by a friend of our firm down in Texas named Alise Cortez.  And while we’ve known about Alise’s product for a few years now, this is the first time one of our clients (to the best of our knowledge) has actually bumped into it in the real world, here in the Puget Sound area.  So it was great to be able to circle back around to Alise, let her know her product had been encountered by somebody we knew, and to let her know that this person’s reactions to the system were extremely positive!

It will be interesting to watch, going forward, whether other employers besides Multicare raise their consciousness in terms of the hiring process  and employ tools such as Improved Experience to make their application systems more approachable, efficient, and effective.  With all the horror stories one hears about how poorly companies are treating job applicants these days, it’s a pretty safe bet that certain employers are scaring off (or accidentally weeding out) a large contingent of top-notch talent, right from the outset, simply due to a poorly-designed application process!