Archive for the ‘Hunting Tips’ Category

Job hunting is more of an art than it is technique, though both are needed. You need to be able to lay out a strategic process that increases the odds of getting hired; that is technique. The art is your creative approach to this technique. You might naturally say, well, “I’m not creative”. I’ll disagree with that, but technically you don’t have to be.

There are many coaches and résumé writing professionals out there that will help you get from point A to B, helping you to draw out creative approaches to career campaigning. There are many resources out there as well to help you develop your resumes, cover letters, and all things campaign worthy. Here are a few examples:

http://www.britetab.com/ – Britetab has a very creative online approach to helping you develop your résumés with personality.

http://www.effective-resume-writing.com/ -“ Effective-Résumé-Writing can help you make your résumé pop, and grab the hiring manager’s attention.

http://www.eresumes.com/ – Erésumés and Résumé Writing Services is another creative solution to helping you write and distribute your campaign.

http://www.jobweb.com/ – About to graduate? Job Web gets you resume and interview tips in different job markets and will help you get cutting edge information.

http://www.theresumebuilder.com/ Are you time crunched and need a resume now? The Résumé Builder can help you crank one out in 10 minutes!

You don’t have to do any of this alone. There are tons of resources, and yes you should be laying out a technique that’s effective, creative, and nails a meeting between you and an employer. You just need to know specific things, such as your skills or what competencies you bring. You need to be able to know who or what companies need those skills, and creatively get the attention of someone who will hire you. Lastly, it’s all about presentation, and helping you land the interview, where you can finally present the one thing your selling; you.

That’s it, though it’s tougher than it sounds, laying out the right approach and being aggressive about it, and you can increase your chances of getting hired dramatically. The only thing that’s tough is getting out there and doing it.

“The major difference between successful and unsuccessful job hunters is not skill, education, age, or ability but the way they go about their job hunt.” ~Dan Miller

The future definitely looks bright for us, but we have to be willing to accept change and our way of looking at the markets. Jobs are changing, many are going away (obviously), new ones are being born, and the question is how are we going to get ahead of the curve, and spot these trends before they emerge, and land great careers?

Trend spotting is an art in itself, but if you can understand what is going on in the jobs and business markets by paying attention to what is currently happening, and what has happened, you can usually gauge your own conclusions. It’s almost a gamble, but the resources are widely available to help you become as calculated as possible.

There will be a new release in 2012 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), but take a look at the following list of the top 30 job growths that was projected over the next 10 years from 2008 to 2018.  http://bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.t06.htm

Very astonishing to see their projections, but you won’t see everything on here that’s going to take off. BLS is a very reliable resource of course, but you have to take that information, and make your own measurements based on what you see is obviously happening around you.

A really cool thing about the BLS forecast was published in the 2009 Monthly Labor review by Kristina Bartsch. As she was explaining how BLS gets their figures she goes onto to say that, yes, many of the 30 fastest growing occupations, belong to the professional and related group and have a bachelor’s degree or higher as their most significant source of training, but, there’s a BUT! Among the 30, the jobs listed as high growth will have fewer educational and training requirements, because most of the growth jobs fall into service, office, administrative, and other major groups that have fewer education or training requirements. On-the-job training is sufficient for many of them.

In other words, for the most part, no more having to always get another degree to change your careers! Now, that’s exciting news…

Especially, since we’ve entered the era of relationship building ten-fold, everything has become about building relationships, and being exceptional examples of our areas of expertise. When we’re building relationships, and connecting with one another in a way that’s conducive for positive growth and high valued synergy, then no longer is life about what a piece of paper says we can do. We become more about the value that we’ve built through our service to others, and as a result it’s the people that we connect with that can vouch for our expertise, because they are the eye witnesses.

It doesn’t get any more real than that.

There are no limits except by what we choose to do and not do. If there is a need, we can fill it. So pay attention to what’s happening around us, and use multiple sources to help you gauge the future.

Besides what the BLS has described, there are other major trends that leading experts are forecasting that will probably be taking place, such as the new breed and high demand for Social Media leaders, Technology experts, expertise regarding the art of automation, marketing experts, and even science in the field nano-technology.

Again, those are just opinions from other experts, but should be well taken into consideration. Markets are changing, people are changing, and new needs are being born every day.

Just watch how people move through the day, and what they’re doing constantly. For instance, people are always looking down at their phones now, right? And they’re moving around, right? Everything seems to be on the go! Wouldn’t you think that we’re going to have to accommodate that somehow? How do we grow from that?

Well, I’m sure there is a rise in definitely making things more app and mobile friendly, but not just that, we’re always going to try to make things easy and comfortable, efficient, and productive. Maybe we won’t want to look down so much, but be able to engage the world around us as well as the Internet at the same time in a safe but engaging way? How can it all be integrated?

Just a thought…

We all exchange our services for something in return. Sometimes we don’t expect returns as a lot of us are natural givers of service to others, but are still aware of the fact that our returns in life still come back to us from somewhere. It never fails. We get back what we put out.

Keep this mind when you are negotiating for your new salary. You have a price on your head according to that employer, and you get to decide what that price is; not the employer. People usually mistake this part by assuming that they’re just going to get whatever the employer pays them.

Let me tell you something; from that perspective this employer is going to pay you the least that he or she can get by with. Whether you think so or not, you’ve place that price tag your head, and the employer sees that. From the value and presentation that you provided for the past few weeks all the way up until now has created a certain value or dollar figure in that employer’s mind.

The time you are using to build that value, make sure you use it well. Give real value, be impressive, be remarkable, and show an obvious and unshakable service mentality. You want that employer’s mouth to be watering before you get there, and the moment you walk in that door with your high spark authentic gardenia expression, with an incredible handshake, and piercing eye contact, that employer is going to say, “I have got to have this person on my team! How much ‘money’ is it going to take me to get her on board???”

At that point, the ball is in your court. So know what you’re worth, and don’t settle for less.

Okay, so my mom walks into a Lowes the other day, and there was some business she couldn’t take care of because their machines said she was… “deceased”. Hmmm, well so mom politely smiles and advises the friendly customer service representative that she is actually alive and well. As a matter of fact, she was standing right in front of her.

“I’m sorry ma’am”, the impressive customer service rep responded, “but the system says your deceased, there is nothing I can do for you.” I kid you not! There was no “let me get my supervisor, or something is weird here we need to check into this,” nothing… Just, “we can not help you”… Wow! My Goodness…

Needless to say we got it taken care of, but you can imagine how impressed we were with the level of service there.

This reminds me of a section in the book Linchpin by Seth Godin I told you about a few weeks ago, on page 36 it says:

“Go to a McDonald’s. Order a Big Mac. Order a chocolate milkshake.
Drink half the milkshake.
Eat half the Big Mac.
Put the Big Mac into your milkshake and walk up to the counter.
Say, “I can’t drink this milkshake… there’s a Big Mac in it.”
The person at the counter will give you a refund. Why? Because it’s easier to give her a rule than it is to hire people with good judgment.
The rule is, “When in doubt, give a refund.””

Well despite what the rules have been, times are changing. People don’t want robots. They want real thinking human beings. Remember that when you’re in an interview and the interviewer asks you some really hard or wild questions and you don’t know the answer to it. Keep in mind, that usually the interviewer doesn’t want a ‘yes or no’ person, but someone who can think and process information. They need someone who can think outside the box, and make a real impact to their organization with their mind gifts, and abilities. So the method or process in how you go about answering that question or questions can make or break you. It doesn’t always matter if its wrong, but what always really matters is HOW you answered it, or HOW you process information.

You are not a robot as most of our systemized education has trained us to be. You are a living thinking human being who is there to make a difference; not just follow rules and only use number 2 pencils, but to create change and embrace growth.

Most people shop the market with the intention of displaying all their badges of success on the table. They say with confidence, “I’ve done this, and I’ve done that, or I can do this, or I can do that, and have this many rewards”.

Well that’s great and all, and knowing you have this much experience really says a lot about what your mind can produce. But keep in mind that in the midst of this economic change, work models are changing, and the old saying that says experience gets you the job is no longer enough. Cheap labor is becoming scarce, as businesses are focused more on value and service.

You may have been here and done that, but what other’s can say about you, will ultimately paint the big picture for that potential company or customer. The average employer or potential client will say, “No longer do I rely totally on your experience and ‘systemized’ education. All I want to know is what your customers say about you.”

When you’re out their marketing yourself for a job try to remember where you are hitting your mark the most. At what point, do you have to shine. The answer to that is that you better shine at every point. Every time you’re touching or connecting with a hiring manager you are building some level of value in the manner at which you connect.

However, remember there’s a moment that can make or break a deal in the first few seconds, and that is the moment you walk in that door and sit down for an interview. Every thing you’ve done up to this point was preliminary, as a value adding process with sequential steps to get you in the door to simple “talk”. How much value you put into those sequential steps should have the hiring manager’s mouth watering before you arrive.

Finally, right when you step in that door, there’s you’re spotlight! Shine like you’re Jay Leno just coming onto out the set… It’s show time! Everything you do, from the moment you step in that door, how you look, how you shake a hand, how you greet, how you sit, and how the first few words will come out of your mouth will say everything that hiring manager needs to know about making a decision to hire you.

You have only a few seconds… Make it lasting, Make’em shiny!

Are you choosing a type of career because you feel you have no other choice? The rat race can make you feel like that sometimes. But certainly, you have a choice, and most likely you have multiple choices… The average person sees the world in only 2 shades of color; same as what most people think a rat does; 2 choices; you can have either this or that. They come from the attitude of lack, as though there is a shortage in the Universe and there’s not enough to go around and thus they settle for what they can get. Can you imagine having that attitude on a job hunt? Wow, that could put a real damper to our search wouldn’t it?

Here are a few Rat Racing tips to help you counter the attitude of lack, and onto abundance:

1. Remember you always have choices. Try to give yourself at least 3-5 options to any given situation. 7 if you can. This helps you see everything from all angles, and adds creativity to your decision.
2. Always remember that the majority portion (85%) of the job search process comes from looking inward first. The more prepared we are to seek out the best jobs that match our unique attributes first, the better chances we have of actually loving our work.
3. Try to shift that mindset to one of abundance, as if there is more than enough. Believe me, the more you can practice this mindset, the more you will soon find that there will be more than enough.
4. Sometimes when we find that we’re not getting the results that we believe we deserve, try to increase your service to others. Most people do not realize that our environment is a reflection of ourselves, and the general rule of thumb states that if you want more then you must give more. It’s the universal law, and it never fails.

I think you can agree that a lot of people are wondering where all the jobs are. It seems that there are way too many job seekers out there than there are actual “job openings”.

Well that’s one way to look at it I suppose. The mainstream job hunter, who is out there looking is using more traditional means and is doing everything its counter part, or colleague is doing, and guess what? As you can imagine it’s not working for some people. But they continue to hit the grind, day after day, submitting large amounts resumes’ over the saturated internet job sites. Don’t you think it’s time to be a little un-traditional?

Here are some thoughts to consider when out there on the hunt.

1. Realize that over 80% of the jobs currently open are not even advertised, reports Jessica Dickler from CNNMoney.com who is referencing Howard Poplinger, owner of human-resource company Epic Development and Evaluation.
2. By the time you see an ad in the newspaper about the job, the job is probably filled… You the reader are the last to know about the position. Think about it… Who ever is hiring has probably already told everyone he or she knows about that position and in the process applies for an ad which may take a few days to load anyway.
3. Knowing that over 80% of the jobs currently open are not advertised is going to require a more direct approach, and using a system that allows you to build strategic relationships with the hiring managers.
4. Using a relationship building campaign will separate you from the competition and may eliminate hundreds of competitors down to just 2 or 3.

So which is? Are you going to continue to follow the crowd and keep dropping thousands of resumes hoping someone picks one up, or are you going to spend all that energy into something positive by applying some basic marketing principles and build value for the company you seek to work for? I think it was Dan Miller that once said that if you do what everybody else is doing, you might as well pickup a stack of about thousand resumes, fly up 30,000 feet in a helicopter, and drop them all over the city hoping someone picks one up and calls you.

Are you making the most of your planning this year? So what does the New Year look like for you? Do you have some sort of vision for how the year is going to play out? Sure we can’t predict everything, and we all know there are those unexpected circumstances that come out of no where, and make you feel derailed, but there are steps we can all take to minimize the impact of negative situations, and help us keep moving confidently in the direction of our goals. There are things we all want, need, and desire. These are things we desire for a reason and may stand to serve all kinds of purposes in our lives. Some are self serving, and some serve to benefit others, but either way until we put something down on paper, we have yet to create any kind of reality to those desires.

So what do you want? What is it that you want to see happen? Think of the long run, into many years down the road of where it is and what it is you would like to be doing. Now try to visualize next year, and think about what you should be accomplishing next year in order to achieve those dreams. On the surface, you first need to know the “what” you need to accomplish, before you can move into the “how”, but to give any kind of purpose or meaning to what you are doing, always, always ask the “why”.

Here are some steps you can take to help you achieve and be ready for the coming year:

1. Discover what it is you ultimately want in life, and why you want it. Ask those meaningful questions to yourself, such as how will you be remembered after your gone.
2. Discover where you will be in 3-5 years, based on your life intentions.
3. Discover where you need to be by the end of next year, so that you can actually say, “wow! That was one productive year, and continues to line up with my life intentions, even 3 years from now”.
4. Lay out a list of 3-5 major milestones that it will take to get you to that point next year. Put dates on these milestones.
5. Set your sights on your 1st Milestone, and then go after that with all you got.

Don’t think about your 2nd Milestone, until you’ve reached your 1st. A lot of times, we find that as we approach the first milestone more doors will open, which means more opportunities that give us leverage in succeeding. The better prepared we are, the more confidently can keep moving forward in the direction of our goals, and thus true success will happen when we cross paths with opportunity.