StrengthsFinder: Building Credibility

As promised, I’m piggybacking on the post I wrote yesterday in order to shed a little more light on one key aspect of applying your results from the StrengthsFinder instrument — or any other personality profile you might have taken.  I want to provide a little more depth, and specificity, around how to actually build credibility with employers and convince them you truly have the success traits in question.

Why is this important?  Because in many, many years of conducting mock interviews with job seekers, I’ve almost never had somebody successfully “sell me” on the power and importance of an innate talent or personality trait.  Sure, I’ve had hundreds of people tell me that they are extremely detail-oriented, or outgoing, or results-focused, or whatever.  But do I necessary believe them?  Or see how such a quality might trump more tangible work-related qualifications such as skills or experience?  Not usually.  And I daresay most employers and recruiters would say the same.  After you’ve heard these same words used thousands of times, by thousands of candidates, they lose a lot of their mojo.  What’s more, one almost can’t help but acquire a cynical bias around these kinds of personal abilities after coming across so many “detail-oriented” people who have typos on their resumes — or so many quote-unquote “strategic” managers who don’t know what a SWOT analysis is, aren’t able to define the difference between strategy and tactics, and who don’t seem to have anything all that interesting to say about the strategic challenges or opportunities in my (aka the employer’s) market space.

So my point is this.  Unless you’re 100% committed to learning how to sell your natural strengths/gifts/talents in a meaningful and powerful way, and one that has a fighting chance of busting through the crusted-over cliches in the interviewer’s mind, it’s almost best to avoid discussing them altogether.  Stick to safer, more measurable subjects like skills and educational credentials.  If you end up in a situation, however, where you want or need one of your personal strengths to shine, here are some thoughts on how to accomplish this:

1)  First, convince yourself. This first suggestion sounds like a cop-out, I know, but it’s absolutely essential.  To have any hope at all of convincing another human being that you’re truly “one out of a hundred” in terms of some fundamental talent you possess, you first have to believe it, yourself.  Just taking a test and casually musing over the results isn’t enough.  You need to corroborate the assessment results with real-life examples of how you’ve put this strength into action, as well as feedback from people who know you well and some supporting data gleaned from other personality profiles.  You can’t have a smidgen of doubt about the talents that make up the “authentic you” or you’ll get easily picked apart when it comes time for employer cross-examination.

2)  Hand the employer a printed copy of your StrengthsFinder results. The fundamental secret behind most personality tests is that they essentially tell us things that we already know or suspect about ourselves, but for some reason known only to psychologists and neurobiologists, there’s something magically “validating” about seeing this same data presented on paper.  Information is always more credible when it’s printed out.  So if you really want to engage an employer in a discussion of how your personal strengths might add value to your future job performance, try using handouts.  If nothing else, you’ll stand out from the crowd.  And once the hiring manager sees that an “actual scientific test” confirms you have the traits you claim, the psychological effect described above might exert its irresistible influence on them, as well!

3)  Arm yourself with relevant accomplishment stories. This one isn’t all that original, since every interviewing book on the planet instructs job hunters to have some of their best “success stories” on hand, practiced, and ready to share with employers.  What you may not have done in the past, however, is examine how your fundamental personality traits (as opposed to skills or knowledge) have played a role in your past successes.  So apply this strengths-based layer of thinking to each of your past accomplishments, using whatever storytelling model you’re comfortable with (e.g. CAR, PAR, OAR, STAR; every career firm has some model they recommend that people use to break their stories down into an initial Challenge/Problem/Opportunity, followed by corresponding Actions and Results.)

4)  Offer references, endorsements, or work samples to back up your claims. If you tell me that you’re highly Empathic and extremely good at understanding the needs of the people around you, that’s nice.  I’ll take you at your word and assume you might be slightly more developed in this area than the average person who interacts with the world from a more self-absorbed perspective.  If you kick things up a notch, however, and supply me with some letters of recommendation and LinkedIn testimonials saying things like “Joe was the best listener of any manager I’ve every worked for” or “Betty had an incredible knack for understanding our customers’ needs, sometimes even better than they did, themselves!” I’ll be MUCH more inclined to give you credit for this talent.  Such evidence might be dismissed as hearsay in a court of law, but as a hiring manager, I’m going to be impressed by somebody who can back up their claims with consistent feedback from those around them.  A work sample or portfolio piece that illustrates your strengths in action can be a real show-stopper, as well!

5)  Contrast your style to that of the “typical” style for a given job role. This one takes a little more finesse, but if you’re somewhat of an underdog for a given position, you might point out how you’d bring a unique and refreshingly different perspective to a job assignment compared to what the employer in question might typically encounter in other candidates.  For example, I suspect that the majority of career counselors out there would rank higher than me on StrengthsFinder attributes like Empathy, Woo, and Relator.  I’m just not a touchy-feely guy, at heart.  Never have been.  And as a result, I fully admit that I’m far from the best available consultant for those job hunters whose primary need is for heavy ongoing infusions of emotional support and non-directive listening.  So instead of pretending to be something I’m not, when explaining my services to people, I emphasize how my core strengths in areas like Intellection, Input, and Ideation allow me to approach the job hunting process from a more objective, marketing-focused angle.   They allow me to help people write compelling job search documents.  And find interesting new outlets for their skills.  And brainstorm creative ways to engage their networking contacts and uncover new target companies.  This approach seems to have worked pretty well for me over the years, and if I come across somebody who needs deeper work than I can offer in assertiveness or confidence-building, I refer them without hesitation to some other coaches in town who I know have greater natural strengths in these areas.

6)  Ask the interviewer to describe their best employees. This technique is something of a “sneak attack” designed to get employers to think a bit outside the box and realize (hopefully!) just how important one’s fundamental strengths, talents, and tendencies are to bottom-line job success.  If you can get them to openly discuss the personality of the top performers in the role you’re targeting, they might disclose some nuggets (“Harriet is our rock star — she’s able to juggle a million different deadlines at once and stay calm as a cucumber the whole time!”) that you can then emphasize, yourself, if you share some of the same strengths, habits, and tendencies that are identified.  You might need to prompt the employer a bit, however, to get good data.  Try asking follow-up questions like “Do you find that your top performers are always the ones who have been in the industry the longest?” and “All other things being equal, what truly separates your superstars from your bottom-of-the-barrel performers?”  And if you want to shoot the moon and risk being even more aggressive, you can ask “Obviously you, yourself, haven’t been in this industry your entire career.  What factors would you say have allowed you to adapt so successfully to this field and your current role?”  It’s a courageous question, for sure, but if you really want to emphasize the importance of natural talent, this line of conversation might be enough to switch the employer’s light bulb on!

7)  Demonstrate your Strengths in the interview itself or via a follow-up exercise. If you’re going to try building the case that you possess some incredibly useful success traits, make sure the employer sees evidence of these in the hiring conversation itself.  If one of your StrengthsFinder themes is Individualization, for example, share some observations regarding the individual people you’ve met during the hiring process, including the receptionist who greeted you in the lobby.  If Responsibility is your claim to fame, arrive at the interview 15 minutes early, fully prepared, and follow-through like clockwork on every subsequent step of the courtship ritual.  If you’re a Positivity person, let your positive energy wash over the stressed-out hiring manager during the interview so that the rest of their day is a little brighter.  All of these behaviors will greatly reinforce the words that you’re mouthing regarding your true nature.  And if the opportunity doesn’t arise to show yourself “at your best” during the interview, ask them for an assignment that will let you prove these things.  If you’re Strategic, in other words, ask whether they’d be interested in having you put together a PowerPoint that provides an objective overview of where you feel their company fits into the market — and where some untapped (and profitable) possibilities might lie.

8)  Pick your battles; don’t try to sell more than one or two strengths at a time. One last mistake I’d point out relates to those interview candidates who claim to be really strong in a particular area, such as team-building, but then can’t resist saying that they’re also the cat’s meow in terms of creativity, accountability, leadership, empathy, and analytical thinking.  Nobody is going to buy this.  While people can be equally strong in multiple areas, without question, the more different areas you try to claim “greatness” around during an interview, the more you’ll water down and weaken your message.  So if you’ve got one or two strengths that are substantially more well-developed than others, stick to them.  Own them.  Focus on getting credit for them and making them uber-relevant to the conversation at hand.  And if you’re one of those fortunate few who happens to have a whole closetful of natural gifts, be smart about it, and isolate/emphasize just those select few that appear most relevant to the opportunity you’re pursuing!

StrengthsFinder: Practical Applications

Can one ever become TOO self-aware?  I mean, to a fault?  It probably wouldn’t be hard to pull off, given the zillions of personality tests and assessment instruments that are available today, ranging from international powerhouses like MBTI (Myers-Briggs) and DiSC to a number of scrappy up-and-comers like the locally-based Core Value Index from Taylor Protocols and Thomas Indicator Profile from CereCore.  Heck, I even took a test years ago called Kingdomality that pegged people into the roles they’d likely play in a medieval village, based on their personality type.  For the record, and oddly enough, I was cast as the Black Knight…

While all of these different instruments have their pros and cons, as well as their ardent followers, I’ll admit that the one personal development tool I’ve found to be more valuable than any other is the StrengthsFinder assessment offered by the Gallup organization — a tool that was popularized, initially, through the best-selling book Now Discover Your Strengths by Donald Clifton and Marcus Buckingham.  This is the only assessment tool I use in my work with clients on a regular basis.  Not only do I love the simplicity and cost of the instrument (buy the book for $20, take the test it contains, and bingo, you’re done!), but I also find that the results it spits out are eerily on target for many people, including myself.  Additionally, unlike many assessments, the StrengthsFinder tool isn’t built around “quadrants” or another such rigid construct where certain personality traits are mutually exclusive by definition (e.g. you can either be introverted OR extroverted) and it also doesn’t make the assumption that only certain personality types can succeed in certain career roles.  I find people to be much more complex than this.  And I know tons of people who have performed like champs in various job roles that wouldn’t typically be associated with their particular personality type.

At any rate, that’s why I love the StrengthsFinder tool.  So if you haven’t taken it, I’d encourage you to do so, and if you happen to believe in your results and buy into the philosophy that Gallup espouses, there are nine different books you can track down that talk further about the tool and its various applications.  I want to take a moment and put my own unique spin on things, however.  I want to discuss how the results from this tool, and similar tools, can actually be harnessed to make a practical difference in the outcome of your job hunt — versus just being one more indulgent, feel-good personal development activity that you ponder for a while, but that you don’t actually end up applying in any productive way.

So here’s a quick list of ideas I’ve come up with in terms of how a person might apply their StrengthsFinder results in “tangible” fashion to the career planning and job-finding process:

1)  List your five StrengthFinder themes on your resume or LinkedIn profile.  Sure, it’s unorthodox, but this step will at least make you stand out from the crowd, and if the recruiter or hiring manager reading your resume is a fellow fan of the tool, you’ll likely get some extra brownie points!  Want to be REALLY wild and crazy?  Add them as a line in your e-mail signature block, as well…

2)  Tailor your job search game plan directly around your core strengths.  If your StrengthsFinder themes provide some keen insight into how you’re wired and the types of activities you’re naturally most successful at, why not apply this information to the method, routine, and strategy of your job search, itself?  While a “Woo” person might have the best success out building relationships at casual networking events, an “Input” or “Analytical” person like myself might avoid embarrassing themselves at such functions and instead focus on gaining publicity via a blog or on-line networking tools — or work on gaining a competitive edge through superior pre-interview research.

3)  Explore career options by searching for jobs that specifically call for your strengths and talents.  While this step can be a little tricky, at first, we ‘re fortunate to have sites at our fingertips today like Indeed.com that contain millions of bytes of real-time occupational data from around the entire country.  Have you tried isolating one of your key strengths, as well as some closely-related synonyms, and then running these keywords through the entire job database to see which career niches relate to them in some way?  Which jobs and careers have a non-obvious requirement for a person with strong Empathy, for example?  Or for an individual naturally oriented to the Connectedness of various things in the world?

4)  Brainstorm some fresh Talent/Skill/Knowledge pairings.  Let’s face facts.  If you’re looking to change careers or increase your marketability for mid-to-senior-level positions, your natural talents alone aren’t going to be enough.  As the NDYS book emphasizes, you have to pair up your natural gifts with some black-and-white skills and educational/knowledge elements before you truly have a “Strength” that companies will value highly (and pay you handsomely) for.  So as an exercise to help with this step, try browsing through the course catalog of your local community college, since these institutions are the best game in town in terms of acquiring new Skill/Knowledge elements.  Along the way, as you flip through the course offerings available, ask yourself “How would my natural Talent for X pair up effectively with the Skill in (or Knowledge of) X, Y, or Z that I could learn through this school?”  You might be surprised at the creative ideas that surface by brainstorming in this outside-the-box way.

5)  Use your StrengthsFinder themes to identify new target company/contact possibilities.  While there are thousands of well-intentioned job seekers out there doing their best to “network” in some capacity, many people still struggle to help the people around them come up with good referral possibilities.  One way to stimulate this thinking is to ask people if they know of companies where a certain Strength is lacking in the organizational culture — and causing problems, as a result — or whether they know of any particular leaders/managers who AREN’T good in a particular area and might value a complementary subordinate on the team.  These questions might sound like “Are you aware of any companies suffering from a lack of Strategic thinking and who might need somebody to help them figure out which products to support going forward — and which to shelve?”  Or “Do you know of any executives who are smart, but tend to avoid conflict, and might therefore value somebody with thick skin (the Command theme) willing to help them hold people accountable and communicate tough decisions?”

6)  Leverage your Strengths to overcome Knowledge/Skill deficiencies.  In cover letters, as well as the interviewing process, you sometimes have little choice but to trot out your natural gifts/talents as a way to offset the lack of “hard skills” and “specific industry experience” you might have for a given assignment.  In my opinion, this is the single greatest benefit the StrengthsFinder tool can potentially contribute to the job search process.  It’s also the hardest to execute.  Hiring managers hear candidates claim to be fast learners, people people, and results-oriented drivers all day long, so will be almost completely closed down to the idea that your natural talents are worthy of important consideration once they learn you don’t possess the full laundry list of skill and knowledge elements they’re seeking.  You’re going to have to sell them HARD on this idea, which takes a fair amount of preparation and practice.  You’re going to have to map out specific ways in which your innate gifts would contribute to success in the job at hand and then convince the employer you truly have these gifts, compared to all the other candidates they’ve met paying lip service to the exact same words.  When you see this done, it’s an amazing thing, but it’s a rare occurrence!  To help with this step, I’m going to be writing a follow-up post shortly that discusses some tips, tricks, and methods you can use to gain more credibility in this area, so stay tuned…

7)  Give your new boss a gift; tell them exactly how to get the best out of you! You’re know you’re going to work again, right?  I mean, despite the conditions out there, you realize it’s a near-impossibility that you’re destined for permanent unemployment?  Given this fact, let’s fast-forward to the first exciting week of your new job.  Assuming your new manager appears to have at least one iota of self-awareness, you might consider entrusting them with a printed copy of your top five StrengthsFinder themes, as well as the pages from the second half of the NDYS book that talk about “how to manage” somebody with your particular orientation.  Tell them that since you’re just getting to know one another, you wanted to give them a cheat sheet about your work style so that you can avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and so they know all the right levers to pull to get the best out of you.  Honestly, if my last boss had kept a copy of my “how to manage this person” results taped to their desk, they could have manipulated me like Pinocchio all day long — to the positive benefit of all concerned!

So for what it’s worth, these are just a few pragmatic ways in which I feel the StrengthsFinder results can be applied for fun and profit as part of your job search adventure.  What other ideas come to mind?  What other applications have you tried, yourselves?  How else can one transport the results from such assessments (StrengthsFinder or otherwise) out of the realm of “academic curiosity” and into the world of “Wow, those test results played a critical role in helping me select a perfect career path — or land my next job”?

“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!

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!

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!

Three Quality Career Links/Articles

As always, I’ve spent a good chunk of time this past month scanning the seas of cyberspace in search of high-quality articles, resources, and fresh ideas related to career success.  Many of my clients have continued to forward along some of their favorite websites and resources, too, which I always appreciate!  Here’s a quick round-up of some of the best and most thought-provoking articles I’ve turned up over the past weeks…

Item #1: LinkedIn Discussion Thread on “If your job search goes beyond 12 months, should you change anything?”

Believe it or not, it’s now been almost exactly a year since the big Wall Street meltdown started taking place last fall, and as a consequence of this (at least in part) there are now quite a few job hunters approaching the one-year mark in their search efforts — with many now having even surpassed this point.  The question that comes up, therefore, is whether individuals should alter their strategy in any major way after having been between assignments for so long.  The above LinkedIn discussion thread offers some quality insight into this issue and is worth a read for anybody who has found themselves in a period of prolonged unemployment.

Item #2: U.S. News and World Report article entitled “New study reveals secrets to finding a job”

This article discusses an empirical study by the University of Missouri regarding the specific attitudes/behaviors that lead to improved job search success, bringing a scientific dimension into play that is not usually found in a field where subjective opinions typically reign supreme.  The long and short of it is that the study’s authors found that “developing and following a plan at the start of your job search, and having positive emotions later in the job search” were the two most significant contributing factors to success.  Luckily, these two findings dovetail nicely with our own approach to the job search process, and if you want to track down some further information about the study (warning: it gets pretty clinical!) you can click here to access some additional details.

Item #3: Interns Over 40 Blog Posting on “100 tips & tools for job hunters over 45″

Since a large number of our firm’s clients are past the age of 40, and many are seriously thinking about pursuing a new career path, the concept of a whole blog devoted to this subject is a pretty intriguing one.  So I’ve started following the Interns Over 40 blog, described here, which focuses on helping people in this age group deal with the unique challenges (and opportunities) involved in reinventing themselves, career-wise.  As an example of the content this resource contains, the link above takes you to a list of “100 tips and tools” that older workers should consider for enhancing their job search prospects.  Of all the suggestions listed, tip #42 “aim to break stereotypes” was my favorite.  And while few of the ideas on the remainder of the list were all that revolutionary, it’s still a great resource for folks in the 45+ age bracket to review!

Let’s Make “Common Courtesy” More Common!

Please.  Thank you.  You’re welcome.  Weren’t we all schooled in these basic building-blocks of politeness at some point during our formative years?  Don’t we, ourselves, tend to get offended when rude, thoughtless, or inconsiderate behavior is exhibited by those around us?

Unfortunately, there’s an epidemic of impolite behavior going around, as reported by a fairly large segment of folks within the Career Horizons community.  At least a dozen complaints have crossed my desk in the past few weeks from hiring managers, recruiters, job seekers, and general business contacts who have been ticked off about how they’ve been treated by various individuals they’ve encountered during their networking efforts.  Amazingly, in a time when everybody should be seeking to be on their absolute best behavior, particularly job hunters, certain basic tenets of common courtesy seem to be falling by the wayside.

For example, here’s a note I received two days ago from a former client (I’ll keep her name anonymous) who has been heroic in her efforts to help people network within her current organization, but apparently is not seeing much considerate feedback or follow-up, in return:

“Matt:  Please continue stressing the importance of keeping the connection in the loop when using him/her to get information and/or a contact through LinkedIn.  I don’t know how often I have provided information, phone numbers, and even the personal contact to XYZ Company’s former CFO, but I do know how often I was shot at least a short update: only once.  No further remarks except that these people burned their bridges with me, and probably others as well when they exhibited the same thoughtless behavior toward them.”

On a related note, I met on Tuesday with a team of recruiters from a local HR consulting firm and asked them what advice they’d give to job hunters to improve their odds during the hiring process.  I was expecting them to perhaps share some resume tips or pass along some sophisticated interviewing strategies, but almost in unison, they said that basic politeness was the one area in which most job hunters need to improve — and said, specifically, that they’ve had quite a few folks “no show” for interviews or arrive to meetings 10-15 minutes late.  Hard to believe, I know.  But not a single recruiter around the table seemed to disagree with this observation, interestingly enough.

Want an even more common “rudeness scenario” than the above two examples?  Every day, I hear stories about people getting contacted by somebody who asks them for a favor, such as an informational interview or a coffee meeting, and then either completely fails to show up — or seems to expect the other person to completely rearrange their calendar or drive an unreasonable distance to meet with them.  Let’s be clear on this, folks.  When you ask somebody for a favor, you need to be one making concessions and bending over backwards to make the meeting convenient for the other party.  Don’t reschedule on them.  Don’t show up late.  And don’t let them buy their own cup of coffee, if you can help it.

In closing, this is all pretty basic stuff, at least if you were raised right, and while I suspect that MOST of you reading this blog aren’t the biggest offenders out there, we all need to be vigilant of our own behavior — since the above observations are hardly isolated incidents or being manufactured out of thin air.  When in doubt, bend over backwards to make sure you’re treating those around you with the dignity and respect they deserve.  And when you occasionally blow it and miss a meeting, as we all do at times, over-apologize to the brink of absurdity to make sure no hard feelings are left behind.  Your reputation rides on it!

Burning Question for Job Seekers #5

“When is the last time you really impressed yourself?”

Let’s hypothetically assume, if you’re reading this blog, that you are among the substantial number of Americans who have lost their jobs at some point over the past year.  When this happened, how long did you think it was going to take to find your next assignment?  A week?  A month?  A year?  Obviously, in these cases, it’s impossible to know.  You might end up finding a new opportunity almost immediately or you might discover, like many folks, that your search is going to take a bit longer than initially hoped or planned.  One thing I can tell you for sure, however, it’s that you can’t afford to put your life completely “on hold” until you find new employment.  You have to accept that the length of your search is a complete unknown and to make sure, consequently, that you build some enjoyable, interesting, and enlightening activities into your game plan along the way to keep your head on straight.

As part of this recommendation, I’d encourage you to set (and start working on) some ambitious personal development goals.  Is this a time to finally lose that extra 10 pounds you’ve been carrying around?  Or to train for and run that marathon you’ve always had your eye on, even if you come in dead last?  Or to finally quit smoking, learn Portuguese, or rebuild that old Chevy sitting in your garage?  These types of activities can make a huge difference in the success or failure of your job search, oddly enough, because they’re the kinds of things that will keep your self-confidence high.  Most motivational experts agree, after all, that the most authentic, sustainable source of self-esteem involves the process of overcoming difficult challenges and impressing the toughest critic of all: yourself.

So if you’ve been out of work for a while, ask yourself the “burning question” I’ve outlined above.  Have you impressed yourself lately?  Have you accomplished something in recent memory that really knocked your own socks off?  If you’re struggling to answer these questions in the affirmative, that’s a sign that you might need to incorporate some new personal development goals or commitments into your life.  It’s the single best way to keep your confidence high, which is a critical trait employers pick up on and a quality that’s extremely tough to fake in an interview, however much you might try.

Theoretically, I suppose, your stretch goals don’t have to be personal ones — and they could relate, instead, to the manner in which you’re conducting your job search.  For example, some people could probably impress themselves by buckling down and taking the time to polish their elevator pitch to perfection, master the art of Boolean Internet searching, or make five cold calls a day, despite (or more accurately, due to) the fact that such things are WAY out of their comfort zone.  In general, however, I think personal development goals are a more fertile area to explore if you need to give your confidence level a lift.  Either way, though, don’t lose sight of the main point here.  Unless you believe in yourself, and remind yourself you’re capable of achieving amazing things regardless of your employment status, you could easily spiral down emotionally and be much less effective in your job hunting efforts.

This is preventable.  Prevent it!

Video: Tips for Coping With a Layoff

While I myself haven’t joined the growing wave of folks posting video clips on YouTube,  I continue to be impressed by the people who are embracing this new medium in a professional way – and using it to pass along some great information via short, engaging video productions.

Along those lines, I recently checked out a wonderful short video created by Debbie Whitlock of Sound Financial Partners.  Debbie is a financial advisor here in the Puget Sound area, as well as a friend of the firm, and she’s put together a six-minute clip that shares some very solid advice on how to get your finances (and related matters) pulled together following a layoff or unexpected job loss.

What I particularly loved about this presentation, and why I decided to share it, is that Debbie demonstrates a tremendous knowledge of some of the new credit laws, COBRA regulations, and other government programs that can help families get by during these difficult times.  This was a significant “value add” beyond some of the traditional advice I’ve seen financial professionals give regarding these situations — and reflects Debbie’s commitment to educating her clients, versus simply selling them services.  Here’s a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEB5JwxpTIE

If you found the info in this video helpful, definitely let Debbie know by clicking here.  I’m sure she’d love to hear from you, especially since I can imagine it takes a certain amount of courage to get up in front a camera and “broadcast” yourself out to cyberspace at large!

WTIA Event & Job Website

Do your career prospects even REMOTELY relate to the world of technology?   If so, do yourself a favor and familiarize yourself with the many useful offerings of the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) if you haven’t done so already.  As the trade association for over 1,000 Washington State high-tech companies, WTIA is a clearinghouse of useful information, events, and resources related to the entire spectrum (e.g. software, mobile, Internet, hardware, etc.) of tech-related companies here in the local area.

Why is this subject on  my brain?  Because I’m actually delivering two speeches today on “Marketing Yourself Successfully” as part of the WTIA’s wonderful “Back to Work” event.  I’ve already got the first speech under my belt, in fact, and am just sitting here in the break room recharging my introvert batteries before I head out for round two.  If you weren’t able to attend this event, and were interested in the material presented, you’ll find a link to my slides here that you’re more than welcome to download and review — although you’ll miss out on all of my brilliant ad-libs and color commentary, of course…

Additionally, let me be one of the first to tell you about the brand-new WTIA Job Center that the organization has just launched, since this employment portal is likely going to be gaining a lot of steam in the months to come — and will undoubtedly emerge as one of the top sources of local technology industry jobs.  Right now, there are 178 open positions listed in the system, ranging from senior account executive to embedded software engineer, but expect this number to grow as the fine folks at WTIA continue to promote this hiring resource aggressively among their corporate membership.

Make sure you check out their Industry Directory, too.  It’s a terrific source for turning up technology company prospects, whether of the startup or gargantuan variety!