Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

Letters should be the first step of your process after identifying who it is your targeting. Make sure your first letter is simple, short, sweet, and straight to the point of who you are, what you’re trying to do, and that it informs the recipient to expect a résumé and cover letter from you in the next few days. If they opened your letter, they will now be expecting your cover letter and résumé.

A lot of times, you’ll find that it’s okay to just call instead of write letters. As a matter of fact, you have about 50% chance of success with just walking in the door of some companies. However, you’re chances go up, when you make a direct connection with someone needing help, and send them a letter that you’re about to come in there and rock their world!

The warmth of a letter beats e-mail as well. Don’t send an e-mail on your first run, until you have established a working relationship, and they’ve begun e-mailing with you, or they’ve given you their e-mail address to contact them.

Same rules apply here when it comes to permission marketing. Don’t send e-mails soliciting your services. Write letters, or send packages, or do something wild and crazy that gets their attention.

However, the first letter should prepare for the real attention getter when you send that cover letter and résumé package.

Remember, nothing has to be traditional; try to think out of the box. How can you stand out from your competition, get someone’s attention, and still be professional about it?

Dan Miller posted a guest article from Darren Hardy the other day, and I cannot let this week slip by without taking notice to this very important message. So, here I am posting this summary and then linking back to his site so you can see the original.

The subject asked the question “Is Wolf Blitzer Hurting America”

And my response to that is yes! As a matter a fact, most everything you see in today’s pseudo entertainment, politics, and status envy programs is hurting America. The star-struck culture is guided by a value system that leads people away from living true character. It fills us with garbage, and thus we produce garbage because that’s all we know. If we become what we think about, then don’t you think the mind numbing input that feeds us from television will have dramatic negative consequences in our lives, not to mention our children to whom we have a responsibility to? Probably so.

I’ve heard it said, and I think it was Wayne Dyer that noted children are exposed to 12,000 simulated murders on TV before the age of 14. Television news puts a heavy emphasis on the bad and the ugly, leaving out the good.

What do you think that does to our world, and the future we’re helping to create for our children?

My wife and I turned off the news in our home a long time ago. It’s our step to what we believe is the right direction to developing a counter-culture that has real meaning and purpose.

Do yourself, your children, and this world a favor. Find out what inspires you and decide now to be intentional about filling your mind with that instead. You’ll begin to see an entire new outlook through your attitude, and thus an entire new world of wonder.

To read the inspiration behind this blog, click here.

People ask me all the time if they should setup a Linked-in profile. This is one of those topics that I have mixed feelings about. My response is always, “it depends”.

It’s also good to consider that surveys have been taken that have resulted in 49% of people using linked-in have a household income of over $100K. However, this fact should not be your deciding factor to getting a Linked-in profile. What matters is who you are targeting exactly-now and for the long run-and will having a Linked-in profile serve the purpose of getting in front of your audience; the people who need you most. For the most part, and in many situations it’s a very important and strategic tool, but for some cases not so much.

My wife works at Johnny’s Pizza. She manages there and I know who the owner is. I can guarantee that if I wanted to get into that business, the owner is not going to be looking for me on Linked-in. Even if I wanted to approach a more strategic method to working with the owner, such as helping him increase his revenue by 50% this year using some fantastic new marketing methods, I bet you that I would never be able to make that business connection using Linked-in. No way…

The way that would work is reaching out and getting to know who he is, build a solid relationship with the heart and intention of truly serving him. I would probably have way better success on Facebook!

Now, the upside to Linked-in. It is a vastly connected network of many professionals serving in different areas, and it’s a corporate type model. HR and Recruiters use this tool to really seek out individuals before they meet them, or consider them for a position. In many ways, it’s a no brainer to just have your profile setup, so people could check you out if they wanted to. But at the same time, it could hurt your chances if you disclose too much.

You don’t want someone to be able to look at your Linked-in profile, and be able to make an intelligent decision about hiring you right there, without ever getting the chance to meet you person. If you have one setup, be sure that you are using it strictly as a marketing tool to “wow” someone enough to where they feel like they have to meet you in person so they can find out more about you.

Whatever marketing tool you use, it doesn’t need to sell you the job, it just needs to create hunger; it needs to wet the appetite. Be sure you have people submitting recommendations about you. Be sure you include some skills and big wins, but don’t put everything about your entire life. That will do more damage than good to your success rate. If you’re going to use it, you need to use it right, or don’t use it at all.

I do have a Linked-in profile for my own personal marketing and exposure reasons in different areas. It’s specific towards what I want to accomplish.

But the bottom line is yes, you can use Linked-in or Social Media period, but do it wisely and strategically. Don’t just create a profile because that’s what job hunters do. Do it because it is strategic to what needs to happen, and you are marketing “You”.

Decide now, how you are going lay this plan out. I would recommend using some sort of chart or spreadsheet to help you keep track of what you’re doing column by column. Also, if you are targeting a lot of companies in your search, such as fifty, then it’s probably a good idea to break them up into groups.

What you don’t want to end up doing is creating too much overlap where you are calling fifty different companies on the same day, and having too many interviews fall in the same week. I know you’re thinking that can be a good problem, but trust me, it will be a problem you won’t want to have. You’ll be overwhelmed, stressed out trying to make it to every appointment. Do yourself a favor, and cut those campaigns down by at least ten new companies  a week.

So you if you have fifty companies, you might have five different campaigns kicking off one week after each other. That’s why a chart is so important to help keep track of what you’re doing.

Things to plan for—

• Know your development dates; when you are going to produce and prepare each stack of résumés and letters.
• Plan your budget. How much money are you budgeting for the campaign? Here are some items to consider in your budget.  You need to prepare for things such as stationary, printing, art/design, Postage/Packaging, Clothes, Cosmetics, and Haircuts. All these things play a factor and can creep up on your wallet if you’re not intentional about where you invest your dollars.
• Sending Letters. Know when you are going to send your introduction letters.
• Know when you are going to send your résumé’s, to which is typically following just a few days after the first letter. You’ll also want to have prepared a cover letter with that resume you’re sending.
• Know when you’re going to call into the company and set the meeting for the interview. This will separate you from your competition. Most people do not call, they wait.
• Plan your interview weeks for each group, and have thank you follow up letters prepared for the interview weeks.
• Plan when you expect to land offers, and you are expecting to make a decision on one offer.

Everything is that intentional. You are setting your own stage, for the purpose of getting in front of someone so you can shine! Just remember; never expect the receiving end of your letters to do anything. Always be intentional about reaching out. Even include that in your letters. Let them know when to expect the résumé, or when to expect the phone call. This is appreciated in more ways than one, as you are saving people tremendous time and work with the stacks of résumés they have to get though.

Think really carefully about the kind of company you want to work for, if that’s what you’re going after. You have a choice in the matter using your own guidelines of who that specific target will be. I will always start with “the who” first, because it’s in service to others that we know what we’re most capable of; or where our greatest strengths may be that we are naturally drawn to serve with.

So who do you want to serve? What do they look like? Is it one or multiple companies? How big are they? What’s their vision? Do you want to travel or be home every evening? Are you looking for a nine to five, or do you want to be fully invested, and the hours are irrelevant? What are the demands and type of organizations you are seeking that will align with your strengths, your values, and who you are as a person.

If you don’t lay these criteria out, someone will for you. Be sure to consult with the people who your schedule and lifestyle will most affect. For example, your spouse; one of the biggest downfalls in business startups or new career ventures, is when someone doesn’t have the support of their spouse. I can’t stress this enough. I’ll go really candid on that one when I start speaking of business venture start-ups, or a career change period! Make sure that he or she is on board.

Cheryl and I are fully on board together with where our ventures are taking us. Noticed I said, “Our”… It’s ours because she and I are a unit, we are on board together, and I can’t do it without her support. I would never be able to serve you like I should if she did not support me. Because I serve her well, I can serve you well. My life as a career coach is a reflection of my life as a family man, a husband, and a dad.

Once you’re both on board with the direction that you want to head in then you can put your heads together and decide strategically, what that looks like, and who will you be serving.

But remember, the game plan always begins with “Who”.

There is a lot of work to going about reaching the right individuals who are feeling the pinch, and need help in their fields or departments. These people I speak of are the hiring managers. Now I describe these hiring managers in that way because I want you to understand something; and that is, that this is what it really is. They are real people who are working to fulfill a specific objective and they need help to fulfill those objectives. When they are not getting the specific help they need, and their objectives and deadlines are falling behind, they start feeling the pinch. Someone like you is going to magically come to their aid with a message that speaks loud and clear in how you present yourself, “I am your solution”.

What a relief that will be from their chair, because you will walk in there with your head high after intentionally reaching out to them to arrange a meeting on why this company should hire you; why this person should hire you.

You see those job positions that are listed. Those are cries for help in certain areas, and if they come open they are getting filled pretty quickly with the first person they know. Not as easy for a stranger off the streets. That’s why it’s so important to be deliberate and intentional about being the person that they know. It’s time to stop being lost in the sea of résumés; this person needs help now! How are you going to show them that you are the one that they need?

When you are targeting companies to go work for, you are targeting from a vision, solution, and culture perspective, but when it comes down to it, you’re actually developing relationships with people. That’s the name of the game. Connecting with people is going to be something you learn how to do in this process if you’ve never done it before. But it’s not as hard as it sounds.

Sending letters, creating a resume, and all that stuff will be a breeze, but actually picking up the phone and calling somebody? You might or might not be thinking, “you have got to be joking?” If this is a first time thing for you, I can understand that intimidation, but you’ll be fine after the first round. You just need to understand some basic principles about connecting with people and shift your perspective a little bit.

Believe it or not, there are lots of people that tend to freeze up when it comes time to actually calling the prospect employer or go to the interview. Just a simple phone call can be nerve racking! Even if you’ve rehearsed it over and over, there is something paralyzing that comes over people when actually making the call.

A lot of times the main reason this happens with people, is because of the perspective that people are coming from of what an interview actually is. Most people see it as a one-sided coin. This is because they know that they need a job, so they feel that the ‘interviewer’ has the upper-hand and can take the interview in any direction.

Try to keep in mind that this is a two-sided coin. The interview really means that two people are coming together to see about each other. So look at it as more of a coming together and meeting of the minds. Not only must the person like you, but you must like this person and company as well.

Get out of the mindset that you ‘need’ a job. What you need to do is adopt the attitude of service.

Don’t expect anyone to just ‘give’ you a job. You are here to feel a need because you have something this company needs. So in reality, this company that you’re so called “applying” for ‘needs’ to hire you. They need to hire you because you have something of value that they need, and in your meeting you need to decide if that company is going to be a good fit for you to serve.

Remember, this is just a meeting or a get together. You are going to bring your best and you expect no less from the other side. Place the ball back in your court by shifting your focus on who has choices. You both do, and you both are here to discuss mutual benefits of you coming together to work together. Not only must you serve the interests of this company to make it work, but this company must serve the interests of your endeavors to make it work.

It’s a numbers game just as much as it is about providing value; though you can have one lean more over the other in a given ratio, I say to do both with high intensity. Definitely deliver high quality value about yourself, but also increase your odds by targeting multiple companies. The more you target, the more chances you have.

The average goal of the clients I’ve worked with was to get about 20% return on number interviews and about 20% to 50% of the interviews to land actual job offers. So if you’re going to put 40 companies on your list, then you’re shooting for about 8 full interviews and 2 to 4 offers. Sounds easy just laying out the numbers like that, but there’s some homework on your part for sure. I would say increase your chances and target 50 companies instead. Why not?

Now, for the companies, the bottom line is that you need to focus in on the companies that fit your vision. You want to understand their culture, and let it be a company that you chose to work for because you were in the driver’s seat, and not because there was an open position.

If all we did was apply for open positions without considering our strengths, then we lose near 70% to 80% of the time. To which explains the reason why most of nation’s workers hate their jobs, and thus do very mediocre work. We need to be intentional about what we want.

Be sure to use you city’s directory, the World Wide Web, Hoovers, the Chamber of Commerce directory, an industry guide such as http://referenceusa.com/ (You can get access through your local library. Most libraries will have both local and national search tools for selecting companies based on your search criteria.) But there are many ways to research a given company. It’s even better if you know someone who works there, someone who can given you insight or educate you about the opportunities present, or who can basically vouch for your expertise and get you to the right people.

Things to keep in mind when researching your company:

1. You are competing against nearly 70 to 100 people on average when you apply for that position, but you may only have 2 – 3 competitors, sometimes zero, when you’re using this new method.
2. Waiting for a position to be advertised or until someone tells you there is an opening is no longer necessary.
3. When you see an ad for a particular position, you’ve already lost your window of opportunity.
4. This method will help you close in on close to 90% of the jobs that are never advertised.

Rule of thumb; the ball is in your court, not the company. The company has their vision, and you have yours. Now, it’s about connecting with that company and deciding whether or not you both have mutual benefits in your visions.

The method I take my clients through on job hunts is an aggressive approach, that if applied with real focus, and intensity you can bring in some dramatic results. It revolves around the idea of making contact with people, real people, not machines, not automatic online résumé submissions, but real people, who are feeling real pain. The kind of pain that you are going to solve with the competencies that you bring, and services you can offer.

Yes, you need to be able to get the attention of a hiring manager, who wants what you have to offer.

So how do we do this? Well, if we think in turns of being in business for ourselves, and that we are offering a service for others as my own personal company then we can think from the perspective of using basic marketing principles. Remember, everyone is in business, whether we’re serving one company as an employee, or multiple companies as a Sole Proprietor, you are still in business providing and filling a need. So no matter if you’re entering a job setting, you need to start acting as though you are your own business.

Now, being in your own business, you have to develop a model. A basic business model that’s going to help you attract ideal customers, or in your case ideal companies to work for, who are your customers. The model that I walk my clients through revolves around getting the attention of your hiring managers multiple times, with the intentions of ending up with multiple offers.

We don’t want to be applying for jobs online. You are literally batting one out of a thousand; literally. True story, I knew a gentleman who did all his job hunting applying on sites such as Monster and CareerBuilder, and after months he ended up landing a position; success? Well, yeah, because he got the job, but I bet he could have done a lot better. I asked him about that length of time spent as we were talking about his process. He said he believes he did submit over one thousand résumés over that course.

I’m thinking, well of course it took that long. You are competing with thousands of other candidates, and not to mention some imaginary job boards, and already filled job ads.

I used to be a recruiter, and I won’t mention where I worked, but it seemed to be a common practice to post bogus jobs up on job boards just to get the attention of qualified candidates. Call it “Bait”, if you would.

Not to mention, those recruiters are sorting through stacks of résumés everyday, and it’s really hard to get noticed in the middle of all those shuffling papers.

Also, anything job board related, or newspaper ads, you can be sure that by the time a posting makes to the paper, nine times out of ten, that position is already filled.

Keep in mind also, that many companies are also hiring from within. Bersin & Associates report released in 2011 says that “talent mobility” is on the rise along with many huge changes when it comes to filling positions. Alternative ways to laying people off or moving them up the chain have been put into place.

Meaning, instead of just focused on cutting costs, leaders are now looking for ways to invest in what they currently have.

For the employee, this can be great news. For the job hunter or the employee that doesn’t want to work for that company anymore, a more systematic and creative approach is going to have to be put in place.

It’s time to get creative, it’s time to get systematic, and it’s time to fire up the engines and get intentional about what you want. 

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