Ordinary Job Seekers vs. Power Job Seekers

By Larry LaBelle, Training Tamer Inc, 5/4/2012

 Are you just a run of the mill, ordinary job seeker or a power job seeker? There’s a big difference!  A Ordinary Job Seeker does what job candidates used to do five years ago and they don’t tend to get the results they seek.  They use old, out-of-date job search methods and don’t invest the time it takes to learn new strategies and develop modern job search tools needed to be successful in today’s extremely competitive job market. They also spend too much time on Internet jobs boards looking for jobs and typically end up with poor results since they are competing against way too many people for the same job.  Basically, they find themselves stuck and not getting interviews or winning a job.

Power Job Seekers are totally different.  They are constantly learning the latest and greatest job search strategies that produce results and they invest the time to develop the job search skills and tools that set them apart from the pack so they get interviews and win a job fast.  They also use networking as the key way to find unadvertised job openings and work with company insiders who bring their resume directly to the hiring manager with a great referral. These folks can also spot winning ideas and immediately put them to use.  They do what it takes to get the job done and don’t create excuses or reasons why they can’t.  They’re committed to their job search and they seek help from anyone and everyone to help them achieve their goals.  These attributes differentiate them from traditional job seekers and are the core of their success.

The Power Seeker has one other key thing that helps them succeed above others.  They take the time to identify their major selling points that will make them a real asset to a prospective employer.  Not only do they identify them, they also learn how to succinctly present them in their resume, cover letter, career portfolio, marketing tools, interviews and salary negotiations (to justify their salary request).  Selling points are not just your measureable accomplishments alone.  You are creating a rich tapestry of your amazing assets and if you do it well, employers will be awed and want to hire you.

Let’s consider an example.  Suppose you were a combination instructional designer and trainer.  An Ordinary Job Seeker in this job might just describe himself in terms of the duties and responsibilities he performed on the job.  He might say that he developed instructor led training manuals and online eLearning courses and taught classes to customers and internal staff.  Just specifying your duties is dull and says nothing about your unique contribution and value

Now, here’s how a Power Job Seeker would do it.  Like the Ordinary Job Seeker, she would start out by listing my duties and responsibilities first.  But then, she’d take it a step further to identify how she does each task differently from others that makes her a standout.  She’d also look for ways to measure/quantify what she does to prove her value and also identify who has benefitted from her work (company, department, manager, co-workers, customers, business partners, suppliers, etc.) and why.

For example, in developing instructor led training manuals, she used a business case example to teaching students (customers) how to use their software.  The business case example made it easier for students to understand how to use the software when they got back to their jobs.  As a result, the students were immediately productive in using the software and didn’t have to waste two or three week’s time learning how to apply the software in their companies.  This also caused other people in these companies to want to come attend the training and increased the training revenue from this course.  Now is that a compelling story or what!

Another thing to consider is that measurable accomplishments aren’t always related to making or saving money.  For example, a teacher might help an entire class improve their grade by one letter grade over the previous year.  Or a receptionist might be so warm and friendly with customers that they love coming to that business and refer their friends there as well.  Also, testimonials you received (short and convincing) can make a huge difference.  Suppose you’re an administrative assistant and your manager said, “Jane is absolutely ‘relentless’ and never quits until the job gets done!”  Who wouldn’t want someone like this on their staff!!

Now many of you will think the creating a compelling story is going to make you look like a braggart or egotist but that depends on how you say it.  It you are merely stating the facts and not sounding like you’re high and mighty and overstating your case, its fine. Remember, if you don’t tell people a compelling story about your strengths and value, how are they going to know. And if you don’t and your competition does, one of them will win instead of you and that would be a shame.

So take some time to identify and write out your own compelling sales story that you can use to sell yourself to employers. You’re first draft will probably be long but with a few edits, you’ll have short, powerful and persuasive  story you can tell that will help you win a job.  Don’t delay and if you need help, ask anyone you know who has the background and knowledge to assist you!  Do it now and be the next person on the job winner’s list!

How to Navigate a Career Change

Written By Larry LaBelle, Revised 5/4/2012

Have the job prospects in your current field become scarce or non-existent?  Are you unhappy with your current career and seeking a change?  If so, you’re not alone.  These days, many people find themselves in a position of seeking a new career and don’t know how to manage the change process.

You hear people talking about transferable skills that you can use bridge the gap into a new career and you also hear about career assessment tests, such as the Strong/MBTI, that figure out what your next job should be.  And how do you reposition your resume to make you look like a great fit this new job?  It’s seems a bit daunting, doesn’t it!

In an effort to bring some sense and direction to this process, I wrote an article to help you navigate the process and help you learn about many government resources ( O*Net and Occupational Outlook Handbook), assessment tests and much more to assist you in managing your care er change.  This article is included below.

How to Navigate a Career Change

Introduction

Many people these days are having to consider a career change because the job opportunities in their current field have become very scarce or dried up completely.  The below process will help you identify your transferable skills, discover possible new careers (maybe your dream job) that use these skills and repurpose your existing resume to prove you’re a great candidate for your newly chosen career.  If you need help, you can email me at larrylabelle@trainingtamer.com.  Good luck!

I.     General Career Change Questions

1. What do you love to do, whether it’s for work or play
2. If there were no limits on what you could do for work and God removed every obstacle and guaranteed you would get it, what would you do?
3. What type of people do you like to work with?
   • Age:  Infants, pre-school, elementary, middle school, high school, young adults, middle aged, or the elderly
   • Disability:  No disability, partially disabled, or completely disabled
   • Personality/Temperament:  Calm, easy going, supportive; middle of the road, or the other extreme
4. Do you like to work with people or by yourself?  Why?
5. What kind of alternative occupations would like to pursue?  If you’re like most of us, you’re not sure.  Here are some tools to help find out!

First, download the PDF file called Managing a Significant Career Change that you can get  from the Training Tamer Inc. website using the below link.

http://www.trainingtamer.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/L6-Managing_a_Significant_Career_Change.pdf.

Second print out slides 8-21 that help you identify your transferable skills.  Then go to the O*Net website at below link and check off all the skills you have.  When you’re done, click on the GO button at the bottom of the page.

http://online.onetcenter.org/skills

You’ll get a list of possible occupations that correspond to the skills you checked.  An occupation that has sun icon next to it is a “bright outlook” job.  One that has a green leaf icon is a “green” job.  If you click on a link for any occupation title, you’ll get a detailed summary report with information divided

into the following categories:  Tasks, Tools & Technology, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Work Activities, Work Context, Job Zone, Education, Interests, Work Styles, Related Values, Related Occupations, State/National Wage and Employment Trends and Sources of Additional Information.

At the top of this report, you see a menu bar with two great options:  Find Occupations and Advanced Search.  Find Occupations lets you search by the following categories:  Bright Outlook, Career Cluster, Green Economy Sector, Industry, Job Family, Job Zone (grouped into by categories based on level of education, experience and training required) and STEM (occupations that require education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics – hence STEM) disciplines.  If you play around with all these options, you can find many alternative jobs that you could perform with your existing, transferable skills.  The time you spend exploring here can be well worth it.

If you want to learn more about at a job you found in O*Net, go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH),  2010-11 Edition at the below link.

http://www.bls.gov/oco

In the OOH, you can use the search box look up an occupation that you found earlier using the search field.  This will get you the following 9 categories of  information:  Nature of the Work; Training, Other Qualifications and Advancement; Employment; Job Outlook; Projections; Earnings; Wages; Related Occupation; and Sources of Additional Information.  This data provides projections from 2008 to 2018.  The search results are returned by Google but the information is from the OOH.  Don’t be confused by that!

The OOH also has a side menu bar use can use select occupations by any one of the following Job Categories: Management, Professional, Service, Sales, Administration, Farming, Construction, Installation, Production, Transportation, Armed Forces and Special Features.

Another way to help you identify alternative careers is via The Holland Code – A Career Change Assessment Tool.  You can download a copy using the below link.

http://www.trainingtamer.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/The_Holland_Code -A_Career_Assessment_Tool.doc

You can also take the Holland Code test online via the following link.

http://www.roguecc.edu/counseling/hollandcodes/test.asp

Last but not least, you can take the combined Strong/MBTI career assessment test.  This is available at the below link.  It currently costs $80 (as of 11/12/2010).

http://www.discoveryourpersonality.com/strongandmbticareer.html

       6.  What would your work environment look like (need windows, light and plants; work outside vs. inside; etc.)?

II.    Current Occupation Questions

1. What do you like about what your current occupation?
2. What do you dislike about what your current occupation? Of these things, which could be changed or eliminated?  How would this influence your feeling about your current occupation?
3. What would you like to add or change about your current occupation?
4. For each of the below pairs of characteristics, which one are you looking for in a job?  In each bullet, circle the one you want. For each one you cho0se, define why is that important to you?

-  Intellectual  vs. Physical	-  Get Coaching vs. Go It Alone
-  Spiritual vs. Secular	-  Work with People vs. Work Alone
-   Technical vs. Non-Technical Work	-  Team Leader vs. Team Member
-  Scheduled vs. Non-Scheduled Work Day	-  Structured vs. Unstructured Work
-  Manager vs. Line Worker	-  Facilitate Change vs.Cope with Change
-  Follow Rules vs. Define Own Rules	-  Creative Role vs. a Well Defined Role

III.  Company Issues

1. What kind of company culture are you looking for?  Consider things like the dress code, how they treat their employees, management style, how much vacation/sick time you get, quality of benefits, day care, formal praise/acknowledgement program, bonuses, etc.).
2. Do you need to work for a company that has professional ethics?
3. Do you want to work for a company that pays you what you’re worth?

IV.       Management Issues

1. Do you want to be a line employee or a manager at some level?  If you want to be a manager, what level are you striving for (supervisor, manager, director, vice president, senior vice president, president, CEO, Board of Directors)?  Why do you want or not want management  level responsibility?
2. What kind of manager do you want (supportive/understanding, good communicator, fair, good coach, acknowledges staff for outstanding contributions and ideas, etc.)?

V.          Workplace Issues

1. Do you give and receive praise to your co-workers and management?  Do you get it from co-workers and management?  How would doing this make a difference?

VI.       Quality of Life Issues

1. What are your quality of life issues?  How do you balance your work and personal life balance?  Are you leaving time for your spouse, children, friend, church, etc.?  If not, what has the cost been (short and long term) to you and the ones needing your attention?  Remember, the only time you can truly count on is NOW and that’s where all of great things you really want reside!

VII.    Home Base Issues (i.e. Where You Live/Work)

1. Where do you want to live and work?  Do you want to live in this area or are you open to moving somewhere else for a job?  If the answer is somewhere else, where might that be and what would be the key attributes of the community where you would live?
2. What are your commuting concerns and needs (e.g. want flextime or work at home options)?  Be specific.

VIII. Self-Employment Issues

1. Do you want to be self-employed?  Why?  If yes, what assistance will you need and what organizations can help (e.g. SBA, SBDC, SCORE, etc.)?
2. What are the typical traits of successful self-employed people?
3. If want to be self-employed, have you created a formal business plan?

NOTE:    I have a template for a business plan if you need one.

IX.       Career Change Planning Issues

1.  Have you created a detailed action plan for accomplishing your career change goal?  This should include both short term and long term goals.  The short term goals related to finding a job so support yourself (pay the bills and have “some” fun) until you can reach your long term goal.  The long term goal is your dream job and should define how you plan to get there from here, including any training or coaching you may need to be successful.

X.          Identifying Your Strengths

1. Are you focusing on your strengths instead of trying to improve on your weaknesses.  For help on this, see the Strengths Finder 2.0 book by Tom Rath.
   

XI.       Networking Issues

 1.    Are you continuing to develop your personal and business network?  If you get a job, will you continue to regularly invest time in your network?  If so, what are the benefits and if not, what are the costs?

 XII.    The Final Challenges

1. Write out your answers to the above questions and use it to help you see/determine your new career/dream job.  Remember, if you can see it in all its detail, you can/will make it happen!  CHOOSE and Stay in ACTION!
2. Describe your dream job in amazingly great detail.  Remember, what you can envision and believe in WILL HAPPEN!
3. Create a vision board with visually depicts all the details of your dream job!  Then hang it in a prominent place where you can see it every day.  Feel free to add to it or change it over time as your dream becomes more clear and begins to unfold.  Make it as visually rich as you can.  Remember, this is the vision for YOUR LIFE!  Make it powerful so it resonates with you and everyone else who sees it.
4. Enroll everyone you know in helping you make your dream come true!  This is one of the biggest secrets of people who are successful!
5. Get a coach/mentor to help and support you so you stay in action and realize your dream?  Going it alone is much tougher than having a qualified coach to guide you.  A coach can help you set realistic goals, hold you accountable for meeting them, brainstorm ideas with you, provide encouragement and point you resources that you might not have found otherwise.

 XIII.  Repurposing Your Resume for Your New Career

1. For all the transferable skills you said you wanted to pursue in Step I-5 above, first organize them into functional categories (e.g. Sales, Customer Service, Clerical, etc.)
2. Then write a brief description of each skill and whenever possible, indicate how it benefitted your company, manager, co-workers, customers, suppliers, business partners, etc.  You’ll use this information in your new resume to sell you into your new career.
3. To determine how to revise/repurpose your old resume and make yourself look like a great fit (or as close as you can get) for your new career/dream job, do the following:

• From the list of transferable skills (and their descriptions) that you created above, select the ones that apply to your new career/job that will make you look like a great fit for the job.

• Use a Functional or Hybrid/Combo resume format to focus your transferable skills, using the following sections:

- Name and Contact Information

- Candidate For

- Computer/Special Skills

-  Professional Experience

-  Employment History

-  Education

  º   Here is what you should put in each of the above sections.

- Name and Contact Information

♦        Include your name, address, phone #, email address and LinkedIn Profile address (if you have one)

♦    Include the title of the job you seeking (e.g. CANDIDATE FOR:  Trainer)

-  Professional Summary

♦       Write a 4-6 line Sales Pitch that addresses the top 4 strategic requirements in the job description

*   Use your transferable skills to prove that you can address them

*      Support you claims with  a measurable accomplishment, testimonial or award

*   Communicate your enthusiasm, passion, and vision regarding what you can do/contribute

*   Include a bullet list of your core strengths (e.g. Project Management) underneath your Sales Pitch paragraph and put the label “Core Strengths” centered above it.

-  Computer/Special Skills

♦        List your computer, trade, or other special skills

-  Professional Experience

♦   Define Skill Categories for your transferable skills that apply to job description for the position you’re seeking

*  Customer Service  & Communication

*  Management & Supervision

*  Inventory & Purchasing

♦       Then list  your related transferable skill descriptions  for your new job underneath  its corresponding  Skill Category

*  If necessary, edit the original  skill description  you developed earlier to fit the  job you’re applying for

-  Computer/Special Skills

♦       List your computer, trade, or other special skills

-  Professional Experience

♦   Define Skill Categories for your transferable skills that apply to job description for the position you’re seeking (examples included below)

*  Customer Service  & Communication

*  Management & Supervision

*  Inventory & Purchasing

♦       Then list the matching description for each transferable skill underneath  its corresponding category (edit your original description, if necessary, to fit the specific  job you’re applying for)

NOTE:  On the last page of this article, there is a set of possible Skill Category Names you can use to help you create your skill category names.

-  Employment History

♦        For each job you’ve had, list your job title, employer name/city/state, and range of employment dates.

-  Volunteer/Community Service

♦    Include any volunteer or community service work you’ve done

-  Education

♦        List your education information here.

       º      Front Desk Supervisor Job Description (For New Career/Job in
.          Nursing Home)

The River Wood Nursing is seeking a Front Desk Supervisor to manage a staff of 12 people (4 per shift) at our state of the art nursing facility.  The requirements for this job are:

-  Supervise the front desk staff

-  Hire and train new staff and provide on-going  mentoring to everyone

-  Produce weekly staff work schedules for all three shifts

-  Take inventory of medications and supplies weekly and order necessary items

-  Input resident data into the patient database and produce associated reports

-  Set goals for staff and conduct annual performance appraisals

-  Answer phones, take messages, and route messages to appropriate staff

-  Provide courteous assistance and support to staff, residents, and suppliers

-  Learn new systems and procedures quickly

-  Other duties as assigne

º    Remember, a POSITIVE ATTITUDE is everything

-  Managers hire people they like, are positive, and will fit in with their team

-  These skills are really significant and often make the difference in winning your new job

º    See copy of Linda Dutton’s Hybrid Combo Resume below for an example

-  Switched from an InterLibrary Loan Librarian job to a Front Desk Supervisor at a Nursing Home

-  Used her transferable skills to win the job (see top of next page)

♦       Reviewthe job description and notice how her transferable skills fit the job perfectly

♦       Check her repurposed resume to see how it aligns with the job description

*       Check the PROFESSIONAL  SUMMARY and PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE sections in particular

*       See if what Linda’s written makes her look like a good fit for the job based on the requirements in the Job Description

♦        Linda Dutton’s Transferable Skills

-  Supervision of Staff

-  Setting Goals and Conducting Annual Reviews

-  Hiring New Staff

-  Training & Mentoring

-  Staff Scheduling

-  Inventory Management

-  Database Experience (as a user)

-  Phone Answering and Taking Messages

-  Fast Learner

-  Strong Interpersonal Skills

 Linda enjoys working with and serving people!

   º  Linda Dutton’s Hybrid/Combo Resume (Repurposed for Career Change)

 

Linda Dutton

www.linkedin.com/in/lindadutton

312 Ashley Street                                 CANDIDATE FOR:                                   207-384-2217
North Berwick, ME 03906               Front Desk Supervisor                  lsmith@charter.com

 PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

I’ve enthusiastically served the library public for nearly 8 years.  As a member of the Dover Library Adult Circulation team, I’ve earned commendations for my telephone skills and personable manner from both satisfied patrons and supervisors.  I work closely with other staff members and perform clerical tasks in a busy public area.  Two previous jobs have required scheduling and supervision of staff and the third involved purchasing of materials and supplies.  I quickly mastered two automated state library systems and became proficient in searching several catalogs and databases.  As a result of learning these systems, reorganizing my loan desk area, and streamlining tasks, I’ve doubled the number of requests I handle and eliminated the need for an new staff  member. My dedication, passion for working with people and my desire to transfer my technical and people skills to a care giving setting would benefit your office, residents, and community.

 Core Strengths

·         Active Listening	·         Goal Setting (Self & Others)	·         Positive Attitude
·         Problem Solving	·         Mentoring & Coaching	·         Conflict Resolution
·         Team Building	·         Providing Feedback	·         Customer Satisfaction

 COMPUTER/SPECIAL SKILLS

Windows (XP/7), Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Outlook (2003/2007), Internet Explorer, Library Networks, Tracking Systems, Photocopying, Faxing, Processing Credit Card Transactions

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Customer Service & Communication

·         Won the Customer Service Award for the Quarter 4 times in 2 years at the Dover Library

·         Handled in-person, telephone, and email requests from customers

·         Greeted, registered, and assisted patrons in a friendly and pleasant manner

·         Searched databases to satisfy customer requests

·         Answered patron questions and helped them locate materials

Management & Supervision

·      Jean Harrod, the Front Desk Supervisor at the Dover Library said, “Linda was a phenomenal manager who did more to motivate her staff than any other manager we’ve ever had.”

·         Hired, trained, and coached new staff, interns, and volunteers

·         Scheduled staff working hours and vacations

·         Registered new students

·         Set staff goals and objectives

·         Supervised staff and conducted annual performance evaluations

 Inventory & Purchasing

·        Saved $30K on equipment, supplies and materials in one year by researching vendors and choosing the ones that gave us the best price for the quality of the items we needed.

·         Took inventory on a bi-weekly basis

·         Purchased equipment, materials, and supplies

 EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Library Assistant Adult Circulation, Dover Public Library, Dover, NH
Aug 1996 – Present

Motel Manager, Cabana Colony, York Beach, ME
May 1990 – Jul 1996

Director Children’s Education Program, Market Square Studio, Portsmouth, NH
Feb 1987 – Apr 1990

 VOLUNTEER/COMMUNITY SERVICE

 ·         Volunteer in Children’s Reading Room, Dover Public Library, Dover, NH

 EDUCATION

Master of Library and Information Science, University of SC
Bachelor of Science, Hotel Administration, Whittemore School of Business, UNH

 

 ·         If you get stuck, call me at 813-924-8404 or email me at larrylabelle@trainingtamer.com.

 II.          Career Transition Issues

 ·         How to I get there from here?

♦     How do I maintain my financial commitments while moving into a new career field given that it may take a while to get that job and make the same salary I had before?

 III.       Career Transition Strategy

1. Research possible job openings in your new field (or decide if you want to be self-employed)
2. Determine your retraining needs, if any (classroom, online, books, coaching/mentoring, on the job training, etc.)
3. Create a timetable for making the transition that is realistic and achievable
4. Something between  6 months and a year is realistic and not so far out it seems it will take forever
5. If you’re considering self-employment, it could take 1-2 years

º    Go to your local Small Business Administration (SBA) office to get information on training courses, counseling, and other services they provide

º    There are lots of state and federal grants and loans available to help you start a small business

6. Leave your current position and take on an interim job (full or part-time) that will help pay the bills
and leaves you enough time/energy to pursue your new career

º   If you can’t leave your current job, scale back what you give so you have the time/energy to pursue another career

7.  Maintain a positive attitude

8.  Include time for exercise and play

9      Stay in action

º    Keep working on tasks that will net you RESULTS (networking, resume submissions, etc)

º     Helps keep your pipeline full and your spirit high

10. Do first things first (Steven Covey)

11.  Spend 80% of your available time working on your primary goal, your career change

12. Don’t get sidetracked by less important/trivial tasks

13. Get a family member or friend to coach/support you so1 you stay on track

º        Create specific, short term goals with your coach and prioritize them

º        For each goal, set a date/time for completing it with your coach

º    If you get stuck along way, call coach for help immediately

º    At deadline, call coach to report results

-  If you haven’t completed the goal, coach should simply ask you what got in your way or stopped you

-  Once obstacles have been determined and solutions have been found, set a new date/time for completing the  task

-   Remember, there is no right/wrong, blame/shame in this process – just maintaining movement and achieving success

XIV.  Great Resources on Career Change

1. Books
   

• The Passion Test by Janet Bray Atwood and Chris Atwood
• What Color is Your Parachute 2012 by Richard Bolles
• Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers: 9 Steps to Get Out of Your Funk and On to Your Future by Andrea Kay
• I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It  by Barbara Sher with Barbara Smith
• The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success by Nicholas Lore
• Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood by Marsha Sinetar

2.   Websites

º    Career Changers Message Board on Monster.com

  http://monster.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=changecareers

 º    Strategic Portrayal of Transferable Job Skills is a Vital Job-Search Technique

     www.quintcareers.com/transferable_skills_technique.html

º    When Changing Careers, Highlight Transferable Skills

http://career-advice.monster.com/resume-writing-basics/career-changers/When-Changing-Careers-Highlight-Tra/home.aspx

º    Transferable Skills:  Bring Your Skills to a New Career

http://careerplanning.about.com/od/careerchoicechan/a/transferable.htm

º    Temping Your Way to a Career Change

www.quintcareers.com/temping-to-a-career-change.html

º    Career Change Articles in Crossroads Newsletter Archive (see Career Change section)

www.net-temps.com/careerdev/crossroads/archive.htm

º    Quintessential Careers:  I am a Career Changer

www.quintcareers.com/career-changer.html

º    Career Exploration Tools & Resources

www.quintcareers.com/career_exploration.html

 º    The 10 Step Plan to Career Change

www.quintcareers.com/career_changer.html

 º    Emphasizing Your Classroom Transferable & Marketable Skills

www.quintcareers.com/classroom_skills.html

Functional Resume Skill Categories
Accounting	Administration	Advertising
Analysis	Architecture	Artistic
Auditing	Bookkeeping	Career Development
Clerical	Collection	Communication
Community Affairs/Relations	Community Organizing	Computer Use
Consulting	Contract Administration	Coordination
Counseling	Curriculum Development	Client Relations
Customer Service	Data Analysis	Data Collection/Entry
Data Processing	Data Warehouse Design/ Development	Database Design/ Development
Design	Drafting	Editing
Education	eLearning	Engineering
Evaluation	Facilitating	Finance
Financial Research/Planning/ Analysis	Forecasting	Fund Raising
Graphic Design	Group Work	Human Resources
Human Services	Information Systems	Inspecting/Instruction
Instructional Design	Interpreting	Interviewing
Interviewing/Investigation	Inventory Control	Investment
Layout	Leadership	Management
Market Research	Marketing	Materials Handling
Media Productions	Media Relations	Mediation
Medical Service	Merchandising	Negotiation
Network Design/Development/ Administration	Nursing	Office Support
Office/Clerical	OLAP Design/Development	Operations Analysis
Organization	Organizational Development Planning	Personnel
Planning	Political/Public Action	Presentation
Printing	Problem Solving	Product Development
Product Presentation/Demonstration	Production	Program Analysis/ Development
Program Development	Program Evaluation	Program Planning
Program Promotion	Promotion	Public Relations
Publicity	Purchasing	Office Assistant/Manager
Quality Control/Assurance	Record Keeping	Reporting
Research	Resource Development	Retailing
Sales	Scheduling	Social Work
Special Events Planning	Staff Development	Supervision
Systems Analysis/Design	Systems and Procedures	Teaching
Team Building	Testing	Training
Volunteer Management	Writing	Youth Counseling

Winning the RIG…

Winning the RIGHT Job

By Larry LaBelle, 5/3/2012

 When people look for a new job, they typically look for one that offers a great salary and benefits and the job requirements are a strong match for their background and skills. Unfortunately, when they get on the job, they may discover things about the job, their co-workers/management and company practices that make the job much less enticing.   In no time flat, they can end up frustrated and very unhappy but may feel stuck since they don’t want to be perceived as a job hopper and they’re concerned about the difficulty of getting another job in today’s tight job market.  But it doesn’t have to be this way!  Each of us has a unique gift/talent that we can bring to the workplace but it can only blossom if we’re in the right job, working with the right people in the company that nurtures us best.

For this to work, you have to be courageous and go for what you want and deserve.  To be effective, there are a lot of questions you need to ask yourself and answer to get clear about to ensure you search for and win the right job.

Current/Last Job Questions

What do you love about what your current/last job?  What do you dislike about what your curren/last job? Of these things, which could be changed or eliminated?

What would you like to change about your current/last job?  If you could alter all these things to you satisfaction, how would this influence your feeling about that job?

For each of the below pairs of job characteristics, which ones are you looking for in your next job?  For each pair, circle the ones you want and define why each one is important to you?

-    Intellectual  vs. Physical	-    Get Coaching vs. Go It Alone
-    Spiritual vs. Secular	-    Work with People vs. Work Alone
-    Technical vs. Non-Technical Work	-    Team Leader vs. Team Member
-    Scheduled vs. Non-Scheduled Work .    Day	-    Structured vs. Unstructured Work
-    Manager vs. Line Worker	-    Facilitating Change vs. Coping .    with Change
-    Follow Rules vs. Define Own Rules	-    Creative Role vs. a Well Defined Role
-    General Oversight vs. Constant .    Oversight	-    Learn on Own vs. Prefer Training

If every obstacle was removed and there were NO limits on what you could do for work, what would you do for work?

What type of people do you like to work with (consider things like their age, whether they have disabilities, or their personality and temperament)?

What would your work environment be like (i.e. would you like to work outside vs. inside; do you want windows and plants in your office, would you have an office or a cubicle, etc.)?  Do you like to work with people or by yourself?  Why?

What kind of alternative occupations would like to pursue?  If you’re like most of us, you’re not sure.  Here are some tools to help find out!  First, go to the O*Net website (http://online.onetcenter.org/skills) and check off all the skills you have.  When you’re done, click on the GO button at the bottom of the page.

You’ll get a list of possible occupations that correspond to the skills you checked.  An occupation that has a sun icon next to it is a “bright outlook” job.  One that has a green leaf icon is a “green” job.  If you click on a link for any occupation title, you’ll get a detailed summary report with information divided into the following categories:  Tasks, Tools & Technology, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Work Activities, Work Context, Job Zone, Education, Interests, Work Styles, Related Values, Related Occupations, State/National Wage and Employment Trends and Sources of Additional Information.

At the top of this report, you see a menu bar with two great options:  Find Occupations and Crosswalk. Find Occupations lets you search by the following categories:  Bright Outlook, Career Cluster, Green Economy Sector, Industry, Job Family, Job Zone (grouped into by categories based on level of education, experience and training required) and STEM (occupations that require education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics – hence STEM) disciplines.  If you play around with all these options, you can find many alternative jobs that you could perform with your existing, transferable skills.  The time you spend exploring here can be well worth it.

The Croswalk option is very valuable for military personnel that that are leaving the military and want to find civilian jobs equivalent to what they did in the military. If you select Crosswalk on the main menu and then select Military, you go to the Military Crosswalk Search screen.  Here, you can enter you branch of service (e.g. Navy) and then enter you military job title (e.g. Communications Technician).  Then you click on the Go button.  The search results show all the military occupations in the Navy containing the job title you entered.  Underneath each military occupation, there is a list of links for corresponding civilian jobs that you can then explore.

Company Questions

What kind of company culture are you looking for?  Consider things like the dress code, how they treat their employees, management style, how much vacation/sick time you get, quality of benefits, day care, formal praise/acknowledgement program, bonuses, etc.).  Do you need to work for a company that has professional ethics?  Do you want to work for a company that pays you what you’re worth?

Management Issues

Do you want to be a line employee or a manager at some level?  If you want to be a manager, what level are you striving for (supervisor, manager, director, vice president, senior vice president, president, CEO, Board of Directors)?  Why do you want or not want management level responsibility?  What kind of manager do you want (supportive/understanding, good communicator, fair, good coach, acknowledges staff for outstanding contributions and ideas, etc.)?

Workplace Questions

Do you give and receive praise to your co-workers and management?  Do you get it from co-workers and management?  How would doing this make a difference?

Quality of Life Issues

What are your quality of life issues?  How do you balance your work and personal life balance?  Are you leaving time for your spouse, children, friend, church, etc.?  If not, what has the cost been (short and long term) to you and the ones needing your attention?  Remember, the only time you can truly count on is NOW and that’s where all of great things you really want reside!

Home and Work Location Issues

Where do you want to live and work?  Do you want to live in this area or are you open to moving somewhere else for a job?  If the answer is somewhere else, where might that be and what would be the key attributes of the community where you would live?  What are your commuting concerns and needs (e.g. want flextime or work at home options)?  Be specific.

Self-Employment Possibilities

Do you want to be self-employed?  Why?  If yes, what assistance will you need and what organizations can help (e.g. SBA, SBDC, SCORE, etc.)?  What are the typical traits of successful self-employed people?  If want to be self-employed, have you take the time to create a formal business plan?  I have a template for writing a business plan if you need one.

Career Change Planning Issues

Have you created a detailed action plan for accomplishing your career change goal?  This should include both short term and long term goals.  The short term goals related to finding a job so support yourself (pay the bills and have “some” fun) until you can reach your long term goal.  The long term goal is your dream job and should define how you plan to get there from here, including any training or coaching you may need to be successful.

Identifying Your Strengths

Are you focusing on your strengths instead of trying to improve on your weaknesses?  For help on this, see the Strengths Finder 2.0 book by Tom Rath.

Networking Issues

Are you continuing to develop your personal and business network?  If you get a job, will you continue to regularly invest time in your network?  If so, what are the benefits and if not, what are the costs?

The Final Challenges

Write out your answers to the above questions and use it to help you see/determine your current job is right for you.  If not, you can use this information to help you define and identify your dream job and get it.  For your dream job, be sure to describe it in amazingly great detail.  Remember, what you envision and believe in WILL HAPPEN!

Create a vision board with visually depicts all the details of your dream job!  Then hang it in a prominent place where you can see it every day.  Feel free to add to it or change it over time as your dream becomes clearer and begins to unfold.  Make it as visually rich as you can.  Remember, this is the vision for YOUR LIFE!  Make it powerful so it resonates with you and everyone else who sees it.

Enroll everyone you know in helping you make your dream come true!  This is one of the biggest secrets of people who are successful!

Get a coach/mentor to help and support you so you stay in action and realize your dream?  Going it alone is much tougher than having a qualified coach to guide you.  A coach can help you set realistic goals, hold you accountable for meeting them, brainstorm ideas with you, provide encouragement and point you resources that you might not have found otherwise.

One Last Thing for the Currently Employed

What if you’re currently employed but find yourself very unhappy in your job.  Maybe your job started out as a great job but something has happened to make it go sour.  Maybe your job requirements have changed, there have been management changes that have negatively impacted you, the company policies and practices have been modified or whatever and these changes just don’t work for you.

If you choose to stay in this job, you can get very frustrated, become cynical and complain a lot both at work and at home, get physically and/or emotionally sick and be completely unhappy.  Life is too short to live like this but many of us are hesitant to pursue a new job, especially in today’s economy where the job market is so competitive.  We’re also afraid our current employer might find out we’re looking for a new job and let us go. But if we don’t look, we’ll never know what great new job we could have had and how much better our life could be overall.

So remember, reach for the stars and you’ll find yourself working in an amazing galaxy!

Winning a Job With LinkedIn

Written by Larry LaBelle, Training Tamer Inc. – Revised 2/22/2012

Create a Complete LinkedIn Profile & Include Your Contact Information

The first step to winning a job with LinkedIn is to create strong profile that is complete and compelling to the HR staff, recruiters, hiring managers and others who read your profile.  Complete means that you fill out every section in your profile

and add optional sections such as the Skills section (contains a list of your Core Strengths).  It’s also important to include your phone number in your profile, preferably at the bottom of your Summary.  Remember 80-90% of the HR staff and recruiters search LinkedIn for job candidates and 45% of the hiring manager do too.  If they see a hot candidate, they want to call you immediately before someone else has a chance to snatch you up.

Create a Compelling Summary

When HR staff, recruiters and hiring managers search for potential job candidates on LinkedIn, the first part of your profile they read is the Summary section. Like the Summary section in your resume, it needs to short, well written and compelling but why?  When these folks are viewing LinkedIn Profiles, they only spend about 10-15 seconds reviewing the Summary section to decide whether they want to consider the candidate further.  If you don’t grab them here, you’re screened out.

To make you Summary section solid, here’s what to do.  First, get 2-3 job descriptions for the type of job you’re seeking and then make a list of all the skills/requirements from all three of them.  Then pick the top 4 strategic, important point (from the hiring manager’s perspective) and write a 4-6 line summary where you pitch your strengths and value in each of these four areas.  Then end the summary with an accomplishment (measurable accomplishment, testimonial or award) but make sure it is no longer than 2 lines long.

In the Specialties section of the summary, be sure to put in all the keywords that HR staff, recruiters and hiring managers would use to search for job candidates on LinkedIn when they’re trying to fill a position.  You may have some of these in other sections of your resume but this is the place to put an exhaustive list to be sure you are one of the people who ends of in the search result and near the top of the list.  For example, if a recruiter were doing a search for a Senior Customer Service Representative, they might use 20 keywords in their search.  These could include the job title (and synonyms for it), key skills and requirements from the job description, and the like.  If you only have 5 keywords in your profile and I have 19, I show up almost at the top of the search result but you’d be way down the bottom.  If you didn’t have any of the keywords, you wouldn’t be in the search result at all.

Build a Strong Network of Connections

In order to win in LinkedIn, you have to build a large network of connections, especially Level 1 Connections.  You also need to join lots of relevant LinkedIn Group to broaden your network even further.  Level 1 Connections are the ones you can communicate with directly and can help you get insider information in your target companies.  We’ll talk about this more below.

To initially build your network of Level 1 connections, first go to the LinkedIn Home Page.  In the  upper right corner of the screen, there is am area called People You May Know.  There are 3 people in this initial list but you can access others via the See More link at the bottom of this list. When you click on the See More link, you get access to a number of pages of possible people you may know.  It doesn’t matter whether you know them now or not.  What’s important is to scan the list for people you’d like to connect with who might be able to help you in your job search.

For each person on the lists, check out their job title and company name to initially decide if there’s a prospective connection for you.  If they are, click on their name link to view their profile.  Once you read it, you should have enough information to decide whether you want to connect to this person.  To connect, click on the Connect button in the upper right of the person’s profile and then select the way that you know this person.  If you don’t know the person, use either the Friend or Other option.  Then write a custom note explaining why you want to connect to this person and state how the relationship can be mutually beneficial.  Then click on the Send Invitation button to send the request.  Repeat this process for every person you want to connect to on Linked.  If you spend a couple of hours a day during your first week on LinkedIn, you’ll build up a large network of Level 1 Connections fast.

Remember, Level 1 Connections are the ones who can give you Recommendations to display on your own LinkedIn Profile.  Their also the ones who can be you champion in your target companies.

Oh, one last but very important thing.  What if you want to connect to the LinkedIn Heavy Hitters who have the largest number of Level 1 Connections as well as the largest number of overall people in their entire network?  Connecting to the Heavy Hitter will give you the opportunity to harvest all the people in their network who could help you and make them your Level 1 Connections so you can get their assistance when you need it.

To find these Heavy Hitters, first go to the Search field at the top right of the screen.  In the button to the left of the Search field, select People.  Then click on the Advanced link to the right of to the Magnifying Glass icon.  This will bring you to the Advanced People Search tab.  In the Sort By drop down list at the bottom left of the screen, select Connections.   This will sort results in order by the overall number of connections, leaving the Heavy Hitters at the top of the list.  In the Expanded drop down list field, select Expanded. This will let you see a bit more information about each person in the search result. To get the search results list, click on the Search button.

To connect to any one of the Heavy Hitters in the search results list, first click on the person’s name.  This will display this person’s profile.  To initiate a connection request, click on the Connect button in the upper right of the screen.  Fill out this screen and make sure to enter a custom message in the Include a Personal Note field.  For example, you might enter, “You’re one of the top Linked Users and I’d like to connect with you to learn more about you and see how I can help you.”  You do this to ensure that this person will want to connect with you.  Most Heavy Hitters are LIONs (LinkedIn Open Networkers) and will accept a connection request from anyone since it increases their overall network.

Get Lots of Recommendations to Help Promote You

One of the most powerful features of LinkedIn is the ability to get Recommendations from your Level 1 Connections and display them on your profile.  Recommendations are worth their weight in GOLD.  Whenever HR staff, recruiters or hiring managers find a potential job candidate on LinkedIn, the first thing they look at is your Summary.  If this passes their litmus test, the next likely section for them to review is the Recommendations section.  Here they can see what you manager, co-workers, customers, suppliers, etc. have said about the quality of your work. This is clearly a great selling point that you need to thoroughly exploit.

When you ask your Level 1 Connections for a Recommendation, they will write it and submit it to you for review.  You can request changes if you want before you post it on your profile.  If the Recommendation isn’t to your satisfaction, you don’t have to post it on your profile at all.  If someone you know isn’t good at writing a recommendation, you could write one yourself and email it to them to have them and have the use it to submit a recommendation for you.

Use LinkedIn to Find a Champion in Your Target Companies

Champions are the people you connect with in LinkedIn who work in one of your target companies.  They can help you get the hiring managers name and contact information, tell you the problems and pains the manager is facing, what new initiatives the manager is undertaking, what s/he expects the new employee to accomplish in his first 90 days on the job, what the company culture and manager are like and more.  S/he can also take your resume to the hiring manager with a personal referral to help put you at the top of the stack of resumes for the job.

To get a champion, you have to create a strong relationship with him/her before you ask for help.  Otherwise, this person has no motivation to help you.  You have to provide them with help and spend the time building a trusting relationship to win the champions heart so he/she really want to help you.  It also doesn’t hurt to ask this person if they get a referral bonus if you get hired.  If he/she could get a $500-$1000 bonus, their commitment to helping you goes way up.  Don’t forget that the champion needs to get to know you and learn about your skills and value before they’re likely to refer you.  After all, recommending a failed candidate could cost this person his/her credibility so make them feel good about what you have to offer so they’ll enthusiastically support you.

To find a champion inside a target company, first go to the Search field at the top right of the screen.  Next, go to the button to the left of the Search field and set it to People.  Then click on the Advanced link to the right of the Magnifying Glass icon.  In the Company field, enter the name of your target company (e.g. Cognos).  The drop down list field below the Company field is set to Current or Past.  Now click on the Search button.

Since we are doing a People search for the company Cognos and the drop down list setting is Current or Past, the search will return a list of all current and past employees of Cognos.  We can now scan this list for ideal people we’d like to have as our champion inside Cognos to help us secure a job in the company.  It’s best to find people who work in the same department you’d work in when possible but if that’s not possible, pick someone else.  Happy hunting!

Follow Companies to Be Alerted to Signs of Job Openings/Hiring

In LinkedIn, there is an option to Follow Company that you can use tract personnel changes and additions inside the company.  To set up this option on a company, first go to the Search box at the top right of the page.  Make sure the button to the left of the search box is set to Company.  Next enter the company name (e.g. Cognos) into the search field and then click on the Magnifying Glass icon.  A list is displayed showing the name of the company (e.g. Cognos) and any of its subsidiaries.  Find the company you want (e.g. Cognos) and put your mouse over the company name.  You should see two links appear to the right, one of which is the Follow Company link.  Click on this link.  You will see a STAR appear in place of the Follow Company link, indicating that you are now following this company.

Finding Jobs in LinkedIn & Related LinkedIn Contacts

The first place to find jobs in LinkedIn is on the LinkedIn Job Board.  Go to the main menu and select Jobs.  Then select Find Jobs.  Now click on the Advanced Search link underneath the Search button.  Here, you have all kinds of search fields that you can use to find jobs in your field.  For example, you might enter Trainer in the Keywords field, 33613 in the Postal Code field and set the Within field to 50 mi (80km).  Then you click on the Search button to initiate the search.  When the results are displayed, you are often given some very useful additional information to help you get a champion to help you get this job.  A job listing can tell you how many of your connections can refer you to the job poster and it may also tell you who posted the job if that person is in your network.  Way cool!

The second place to find jobs in LinkedIn in the Jobs Sub-Group inside a LinkedIn Group that has a job board.  To determine which Groups have Sub-Groups, click on Groups on the main menu and then select Groups Directory.  This will display a list of all Groups available in LinkedIn.  To look for groups related to Job Search only, enter Job Search in the Keywords field on the upper left of the screen.  Then go to the next field underneath called All Categories, click on the down arrow and select Networking Group.  Then click on the Search button.  You will now see a list of groups related to Job Search.

The one I’ll use in this example is the Jobs (Job Openings, Job Leads and Job Connections.  If you look at this Group’s listing, you’ll see two lines at the bottom with some very important statistics.  The first line of these two has Discussions (140) and Jobs (571).  Discussions tells you how many active discussions are currently going on in the group.  Jobs tells you that this group has a Job Board inside the group (a Sub-Group). The second line specifies the Owner of the Group followed by the Number of Members.  If there are a large number of members in a group, it has a lot of discussions and it has a jobs sub-group, it’s a great group to join.   To join a Group, just click on the Join Group button.

Once you’re in the group, you see that there is a tab called Jobs.  This is where you go to see the job postings for this group.

Add Marketing Materials to Your LinkedIn Profile

You can add valuable job search marketing materials to your LinkedIn Profile.  For example, you could add Work Samples (along with a compelling story for each), a brief Strategic Business Value Presentation (states your 3 areas of strategic, lists 3-5 ways you strongly contribute in each of these areas and 3-5 ways you can help your future employer), or anything else that would help you win a job with your future employer.

To upload and display these marketing materials in your LinkedIn Profile using the companion application called SlideShare.  With SlideShare, you can upload up to 6 marketing files into LinkedIn and then display them in your profile.  You have two options for displaying them.  With option 1, you can display one of them in a large viewer with next/back buttons to navigate the pages/slides in your file.  The other files can be accessed via a link under the viewer.

With option 2, you can display all you files at once in your profile but they are displayed as oversized icons.  To access the content of any of these files, you have to click on the associated icon.

Anytime you add, change, or delete a marketing file that you’ve uploaded into SlideShare, all your connections are notified of the change.   You can changes from all your Linked connections on your Home page

SlideShare is only one of many companion applications available in LinkedIn.  You can use the WordPress application to create a BLOG and display the BLOG in your LinkedIn Profile.  Whenever you make changes to your BLOG, all your connections are notified.  A BLOG is a great way to get know as an expert in your field

You can also use Reading List by Amazon application to post a list of your favorite books in your LinkedIn Profile and include your personal recommendation for each.  Because this is an Amazon application, your first select the books from Amazon that you want to display and write a recommendation for it.  When you post them on your LinkedIn Profile, other LinkedIn users can see the cover of the book and your recommendation.  If they like a book and want to buy it, they can click on the cover of the book and go to Amazon to buy it.  This is another great way to be seen as an expert in your field.

All the applications that you use in your LinkedIn profile are in a section called Applications.  When you first add an application such as SlideShare, the Applications section will appear near the bottom of your profile with your SlideShare file in it.  Since we’re putting marketing material in this section, we’d rather have the Applications section up at the top of our profile underneath the Summary section.  To do this, first put your mouse over the Applications section title and you’ll see the mouse pointer turn into a 4-way arrow.  This means you can move this section up or down in your profile by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the section to where you want it.  In this case, move it up under the Summary section.  Voila!

Now, one last thing regarding the Applications section.  If you have 3 applications you want to display in the Applications section, such as SlideShare, WordPress and Reading List by Amazon, how do you control the order that they display in the Applications section?  Here’s the trick!  If you want WordPress at the top, then SlideShare underneath that and Reading List by Amazon last, create these applications from the bottom up.  In order words, create Reading List by Amazon first, SlideShare second and WordPress last.  Bingo!

GOOD LUCK & GO WIN THAT JOB!

Get the Right Job – Target Your Top 20 Companies

Written by Larry LaBelle, Training Tamer Inc., 2/3/2012

Why Should You Target Your Top 20 Companies?

If you’re looking for a new job, will it be the right and perfect job for you or just another job?  In today’s economy, many of us are driven by personal financial condition to take just any job to get employed again, be able to pay our bills and get rid of the fear and stress associated with long term unemployment.

Often times, this seems like best, most logical short term choice but in the near and long term, it can be a disaster.  If you accept a job that doesn’t full use your talents, you have a manager whose style doesn’t support you, you have to work outrageously long hours or the company’s culture is 180 degrees from yours, you won’t be happy and probably won’t stay long.  And if you get down and don’t perform, you might lose the job.  So how do you get the perfect and right job and company for you?  Let’s see!

The very first step is to find the top 20 companies you’d like to work for and then try to get a job in one of them.  The key to making this work is to first create a set of criteria for researching and selecting these 20 companies. There are two categories of research information:  Primary and Secondary.

Primary Research Criteria

There are 6 primary research criteria.  First, you want to research their products and services to see if they are a fit for you given your background, experience and personal preferences.

Second you want to check out the company’s history and corporate culture to see if the company’s ethics, work environment, dress codes and values align with yours.

Third, you want to determine the company’s mission and goals (both short and long term) to see if where they are and where they are going is a match for you.

Fourth, you want to check out the company’s financial status to ensure that the company is financially stable and won’t be doing layoffs anytime soon.  Any company that is publicly traded on the stock exchange has an annual report containing this information.  You can get it from their website (if it’s available there) or call the company and request a copy.

Fifth, you want to check out the company’s organizational structure.  If you like to be able to touch people at all levels of the company, you won’t want to work in a firm with a complex and multi-layered org chart.  Sixth, you want to check to see if the company has an office in your local area so you don’t have to move or commute a long distance each day.  Now some companies allow work at home employees and if they do, it won’t matter where the company is located.  Always ask about this, even if a company doesn’t support it at the moment.  Who knows, you may be the first to get it.

The sixth primary research criteria is to check out whether the company has the kind of job you want. If you were a trainer and your target company didn’t do any training, you’d probably rule them out.  If they do, check out the salary range for these positions to make sure they meet your needs.

Secondary Research Criteria

There are 5 secondary research criteria.  First, check out the possible career advancement paths and opportunities that are available to you.  Second, how complete and comprehensive are the benefits the company offers and what will you have to pay each pay period for them?  Also, how much are the co-pay amounts for health, dental, and vision plans?  How do the benefits compare to what you’ve received in your previous job?  Remember, benefits are worth between 25 and 45 percent of your base salary to look at this closely so you don’t leave money on the table.

Finally, what type of employee training and ongoing support does the company provide?  Do you get comprehensive training when you start to you don’t have struggle during your first 3-6 month and doing the old “fake it till you make it” routine to get by?

What Are Sources for Finding This Information?

Below is a list of sources for gathering research information on your Top 20 Companies.

• Find Companies though Family, Friends, Co-Workers, etc.
• Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Book of Lists(available at Library)
  • Provides information on top 200, top 100 and top 50 companies in the Tampa Bay Area

• Tampa Bay Business Journal
  • Provides information on activities in local businesses and also discusses new companies that are moving to Tampa
• New companies will be creating jobs and if you contact the parent company before they create their new office in Tampa  you can beat the competition by applying before they move here and start advertising for their jobs (the hidden job market
  at its best)

• Chamber of Commerce Member List
  • Use Google or Yahoo to locate the chamber’s website
  • Search for “Chamber of Commerce, Your City, Your State”
  • You can go to two meeting FREE before you will be asked to join
  • You can get a list of the current membership with names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses – Awesome resource

• Online Yellow Pages or White Pages
  • www.superpages.com
  • www.whitepages.com/business

• Hoover’s Online
  • Provide a free trial
  • Search for companies using the Companies search field in the upper left corner of the screen
  • Site provides information on company: Address/Phone, Company Description, Industry Information, Key People, Biographies, Company Financials, etc.
  • www.hoovers.com/free/geo/index.xhtml?location=/United+States/

• Vault
  • Search for companies using the Companies search field in the upper left corner of the screen. Set your search type to Company using the mini menu above the Search field before entering a company name in the Search field
  • Site provides information on company: Address/Phone, Stats, Company Description, Info on Company from Community, Employer Ranking, Employee Reviews, Salary Reports, Discussions Related to Company, Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity Information, etc.
  • www.vault.com

• Reference USA
  • Can access at most local libraries
  • Must have a library card to access the database
  • Can access the database from home via the Internet
  • Database provides information on all sizes of companies from small mom and pop shops all the way up to the major corporations but less personnel and financial information is available for small companies
  • Use the Custom Search so you have more search criteria fields to help you find companies (e.g. # employees search field to find companies with the # employees between X and Y)
  • Site provides information on company: Address/Phone/Fax, Business Profile, Industry SIC and NAICS Codes, Location Map, Business Demographics, Management Directory, Company News, Stock Data, Business Expenditures, Historical Data, UCC Filings, Nearby Businesses, Competitor’s Report and Brands & Products.

• Wetfeet
  • www.wetfeet.com/subscription.aspx
  • Provides a trial subscription
  • Use the Company Profiles link on left side of screen
  • Provides info on Key Facts, Key Financial Facts (revenue amount and growth rate), Personnel Highlights (# employees and growth rate), and a Company Overview

• Edgar SEC Filings
  • www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

• Jobatorial
  • www.jobatorial.com
  • Contains pro and con information about companies submitted by current and past employees

• Use Google or Yahoo to find company’s websites (if not available from earlier research)
  • Go to site and do in-depth research on company
    • Check Blogs on company’s website, if any
  • Print out info and write down any questions you have

• Check out Public Opinion on Companies
  • User Google’s Usenet Service
    • http://groups.google.com/
    • Enter the company name in the Google Search Box at the top

• Check out Public Opinion on Stock Performance
  • Silicon Investor’s Stock Talk
    • www.techstocks.com/
  • Raging Bull
    • www.ragingbull.com/

Criteria for Picking Your Top 20 Companies

Below are the criteria I use to select my top 20 companies.

• Company’s financial health & employee growth
• Company pay scale meets your needs
• Comprehensiveness of benefits
• Company has jobs in your field
• Corporate culture matches your needs
• Size of company fits your needs
• Commute distance works for you
• Flex time or work at home options available
• Whatever else is important to you

Now It’s Time to Work Your Top 20 For Inside Help

Once you’ve picked your top 20, you need to prioritize them from most to least important to you.  Then start mining these companies for jobs start from the top of the list.   For each company, you want get an insider from your personal network or LindedIn connections who can be your champion in helping you win a job in the company.

You champion can get you the hiring manager’s name and contact information, tell you about the company’s problems and any new initiatives they’re undertaking (so you can position yourself as the best candidate to handle them) and bring your resume to the hiring manager with a personal referral.  This last part is the most important.  Remember, HR staff and hiring managers will typically consider referred candidates before anyone else since they were referred by an existing employee who they know and trust.  It also means they won’t have to pay any recruiter fees for this person either.

Before you ask your champion for help, be sure to build a strong relationship with him first and find a way to help him.  That way, your champion will be much more inclined to want to help you!  If you take the time to nurture a trusting relationship and provide help before seeking assistance, 90% of the people will want to help you and 70% actually will; otherwise, only 4% will help you. That’s a quantum leap and one you want to take full utilize if you want to win a job fast!

Happy Hunting & Remember to Win That Job!

Writing a Winning Resume That Gets You an Interview

One of the most effective ways to write a resume that gets you an interview is to write a Targeted and Branded Resume with 5 keys sections in the first third to half of a page of your resume.

In this area, you create your Branding Box, Candidate For, Professional Summary, How I Can Help Your Company and Computer/Special Skills sections with information that is unique to the job you are seeking and is based on the skills listed in the job description for that job. These 5 sections need to be edited for every job you pursue.  To download a complete example in Microsoft Word, click this link: Sample Chronological, Targeted and Branded Resume.doc.

Why is all this important?  Well, HR Staff and Recruiters get hundreds of resume for each job opening and during the pre-screen, they only spend about 10 seconds (approximately a third of a page) on each resume to decide whether to screen you in or out.  That’s why it’s important WOW them with what you put in these 4 sections so you not only get screened in but you get an interview as well.

CANDIDATE FOR:

In the Candidate For: section, make sure you list the title of the job you’re seeking. If you don’t specify the job title and the company or recruiter has multiple job openings, it won’t be clear which job you’re applying for and they may just toss your resume in the basket rather than have to read the whole thing to figure out which job you’re after.  This goes under your name and is sandwiched between your address information on the left and your phone # and email address on the right. See the example below and also not that it includes your LinkedIn Profile address (as a link).

Linda Smith

www.linkedin.com/in/lindasmith

______________________________________________________________
70 Villa Canyon #490               CANDIDATE FOR:                               813-421-0001
Tampa, FL 33617                  Sr. Customer Service Rep      smith@charter.com
______________________________________________________________

BRANDING BOX:

The Branding Box section is immediately under your contact information. This is just regular text that has been formatted with a fancy border and background shading (use Borders and Shading option in MS Word) rather than a Text Box.  That way, the text is not lost when your resume is imported/scanned into a resume database.

The content of the Branding Box is a brief, two line statement of your personal brand.  To write it, first identify your top 4 strengths related to your target job and the value/benefit they bring to an employer.  Then write your branding statement. Focus what you say on the key needs of the employer based on the content of the job description and any insider information you can get from the target employer.  Here’s an example for a Senior Customer Service Representative.

• Exceptional Customer Service Specialist who solves customer problems quickly with fewer than 3% callbacks and sells new products to over 30% of the customers calling in for support.

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:

The Professional Summary section is where you describe your skills for the position that show you are a perfect fit for the job.  The key to writing this section is to identify the top 4 strategic skills from the job description and write a 4-6 line Sales Pitch that highlights your value in each of these 4 areas.  Make sure you use clear, concise and effective language and write like you’re talking to your best friend.

If you specify your number of years of experience, only include enough to qualify for the job.  Otherwise, you might trigger ageism & high salary expectation issues. You should also back up what you say by citing an accomplishment, a testimonial or an award from a previous employer.  Accomplishments should be quantifiable (e.g. Exceeded my sales quota each quarter by 25%) and bolded based on the criteria in the Employment History section below.  This section is best written in paragraph form since its short and takes up less space that you may need for other information in your resume. With an effective Skill Summary people reviewing your resume don’t have to dig through your entire Employment History section to get this information.  Remember, make it powerful so it really SELLS YOU!  Below are examples for a Senior Customer Service Representative and an HR Director.

• Senior Customer Service Representative with over 3 years experience resolving customer problems and consistently maintaining a high call volume and customer satisfaction rating.  Maintained lowest per call time of the entire staff and coached others on team to reduce theirs by an average of 15%.  As a fast learner who enjoys challenges I can produce  the same results for you and more.

• HR Director with more than 13 years’ experience as an HR Generalist and Manager.  I have expertise in strategic planning, policy and procedure development and implementation, staffing and retention. . My skills encompass project management, problem solving, and strategic planning. When I worked at Wachovia Bank, I achieved 6% turnover in an industry where the norm is 20+%.  I also improved benefit options by 30% with no cost increase and achieved 10% labor cost savings.  My experience includes both large and small companies and I’ve worked in a cross section of industries.

You can also include a Bullet List of Strategic Skills right at the end Professional Summary.  If the list is long make it a 2 column list. For example, a list for a Senior Customer Service Representative could include:  1) Leadership, 2) Problem Solving, 3) Call Management and 4) Power Selling. Be sure to list the items in order of importance from top to bottom in both columns.

HOW I CAN HELP YOUR COMPANY:

The How I Can Help Your Company section that specifies a max of three ways you think you can help your target employer.  It is based on your research of the company’s problems, pains and future initiatives that you get from your network contacts inside the company.  These could be your personal contacts or ones you made through LinkedIn.  When approaching your contacts, make sure you build a relationship and possibly help them before asking for this information since it will increase your chances of getting it.  Remember, people help people they know, like and trust and a relationship is the key to making that happen.  Below are examples of three ways a Senior Customer Service Representative found to help his target company.

• Improve call turnaround time by 15% for the entire customer service department
• Increase accuracy/brevity of call records by 20% to make easier for non-originating customer service reps to service follow up calls from customers
• Serve as a leader/coach for other customer service reps to help increase their performance and retention.

COMPUTER/SPECIAL SKILLS:

The Computer/Special Skills section should include a list of Keywords that HR Staff and Recruiters would use to search for your resume, either in the company’s resume database or a public resume database like LinkedIn, Monster, etc.  If you don’t have a comprehensive list of keywords (and synonyms for those keywords), you resume may not be found or score as highly in terms of the number of target keywords that showed up in your resume.  One other value of this central keyword list is that it’s easier to check in terms of verifying its comprehensiveness and managing updates to the list.  It also allows recruiters, HR staff, and hiring managers to see what skills you have at a glance

THE REST OF YOUR RESUME:

In the Employment History section of your resume, there are 2 key guidelines to follow.  First, limit the number of bullets for each job to 5 and list them in order of importance from top to bottom.  These should address the top 5 strategic requirements from the job description.  Also, limit each bullet point to 2 lines max.  Be sure to include at least one accomplishment or testimonial in the list of 5 put it at the top of the list.  For accomplishments, put the benefit portion at the front of the statement and bold it so it stands out to the reviewer.  For example,

• Saved $150,000 in construction costs by researching and selecting materials that were less costly but of equivalent quality

For testimonials, be sure to specify the name, title and company of the person who gave the testimonial and bold the whole thing.

• Jean Hunter, CEO at Zeroid Corp. said; “Ted Parker was driving force behind the successful planning and implementation of our new production line system at Zeriod.”

Finally, only include the last 10-15 years of your work history in this section. That’s all you need.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

In the Volunteer Work/Community Service section, you can include any volunteer or community service you’ve done.  Also it’s not necessary to specify the dates for these items.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

In your Education & Professional Development section, list your degrees from the highest to the lowest and do NOT include graduation dates since they can trigger ageism and salaryism. After that, list any professional training or development you’ve participated in over the course of your career.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the Page Footer of your resume, be sure to include your Name and the Page Number.  That way, if someone drops a pile of resumes with yours in it, they can put yours back together again.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you have a Gap in Your Work History, you can fill it in one of two ways.  The best is to include Volunteer Work in place of the gap.  Give the name of the volunteer organization, the dates you worked there and then list a few bullets underneath describing what you did and any benefits you produced for the organization.  You can also fill the gap with time spent caring for a sick relative, raising your children, recovering from an illness, gaining new skills at school, etc.  Just try to identify and state anything new you learned or did in each of these cases to give it some meat.

SEE A COMPLETE EXAMPLE OF THIS TYPE OF RESUME BELOW!
__________________________________________________________________________

Linda Smith

www.linkedin.com/in/lindasmith

______________________________________________________________
70 Villa Canyon #490               CANDIDATE FOR:                               813-421-0001
Tampa, FL 33617                  Sr. Customer Service Rep      smith@charter.com
______________________________________________________________

 BRAND:  Exceptional Customer Service Specialist who solves customer problems quickly with fewer than 3% callbacks and sells new products to over 30 % of the customers calling in for support.

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:

Senior Customer Service Representative with over 3 years experience resolving customer problems and consistently
maintaining a high call volume and customer satisfaction rating.  Maintained lowest per call time of the entire staff and
coached others on team to reduce theirs by an average of 15%.  As a fast learner who enjoys challenges, I can produce
the same results for you and more.

                                                       Core Strengths

·   Active Listening         ·    Sell Add-On Products                      ·    Follow Through
·   Problem Solving         ·    Solid Reputation w/Customers   ·    Customer Rapport
·   In Depth Research     ·    Clear/Concise Solutions                 ·    Conflict Resolution
·   Coaching Co-Workers

HOW I CAN HELP GEICO:

• Improve call turnaround time by 15% for the entire customer service department
• Increase accuracy/brevity of call records by 20% to make easier for non-originating customer service reps to service follow up calls from customers
• Serve as a leader/coach for other customer service reps to help increase their performance

COMPUTER/SPECIAL SKILLS:

• Key Skills: Customer Service, Customer Support, Call Center, Problem Solving, Active Listening, Communication, Coaching and Sales
• Software:  Windows 2000/XP/7, MS Office 2003/2007/2010, Internet Explorer, and Call Tracking and Sales

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:

Citigroup, Tampa, FL
Customer Service Representative                                                                                               July 2003 – Present

• Resolved 97% of incidents with no call back by diagnosing and answering customer questions quickly and thoroughly
• Sold 30% more low interest credit cards to customers than any other customer service rep by pointing out the program’s key benefits
• Maintained knowledge of products and able to answer customer questions from information on Intranet site
• Kept a positive attitude in busy and demanding environment
• Preserved confidentiality of Citigroup customers and employees

Computer Associates, Tampa, FL
Senior Telesales Representative                                                                                                    May 1999 ‑ June 2003

• Exceeded my sales quota by 20% each quarter by listening  to customers and recommending solutions to match their needs and budget
• Sold mainframe backup and security software to customers
• Coached new and existing telesales representatives to effectively sell our products so all our salesreps were able to meet or exceed their quarterly sales quota
• Contributed sales tips to the quarterly sales newsletter
• Participated in the development and delivery of the annual sales kickoff meetings

CompUSA, New York, NY
Sales Representative                                                                                                                         August 1998 ‑ April 1999

• Sold an average of $225,000 more per quarter than any other salesrep in the region by aggressively seeking out new customers and selling more product to my existing customer base
• Sold PCs, printers, peripherals, software and training to customers
• Assisted customers with questions and problems with their hardware and software

Other Employers:

• Health Care USA, Customer Service Representative             1997 – 1998
• Johnson & Johnson, Salesrep                                                          1995 – 1997

VOLUNTEER WORK/COMMUNITY SERVICE:

• Project Manager, United Way, Tampa, FL                                   2008 – 2010

EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:

• Associate of Science Degree
  Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL

Winning a Job with a Career Portfolio

Remember “Show N Tell” time in grammar school when you’d bring in something and tell everyone about it? You’d talked with amazing excitement in your voice and explained every detail. Now, everyone knew what you could do and understood your passion for doing it. A career portfolio can achieve that for you in a job interview. You can show work samples, describe any process or procedure related to them and explain the benefit to your company, , manager, customers, etc. There’s great power in this approach, especially the benefits.

To learn how to create a compelling Career Portfolio, go to http://www.trainingtamer.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/Winning_a_Job_with_a_Career_Portfolio-V2.doc.

Are You Selling Yourself Throughout the Job Search Process?

Written by Larry LaBelle, Training Tamer Inc.

Created:  9/14/2011, Updated:  1/28/2012

The key to a short and successful job search is to constantly sell yourself to potential employers.  For most job seekers, this means having a high quality resume/cover letter and performing well in a job interview.  Part of the problem here is that job seekers typically don’t know how to sell themselves effective in their resume/cover letter in an interview.  On top of that, they don’t realize that they can sell/market themselves in many other ways between the time they submit a resume and get invited to an interview.

Winners know that you have to sell yourself constantly and at every phase of the job search and they’re willing to do the work to ensure they win a job fast.  You have to sell yourself in your resume/cover letter, in live and social media networking (e.g. LinkedIn and Twitter), via marketing tools that you display in an online career portfolio and your LinkedIn profile, in prescreen and live interviews, 30-60-90 day plans and in salary negotiations.

Resume

Profession Summary (at top): Needs to be a short and compelling Sales Pitch (4-6 lines) that addresses the top 4 strategic needs from the job description and is supported by a measurable accomplishment or testimonial.  Remember, the sales pitch should focus on the employer’s needs and your ability to address them.

Underneath your summary, create a three column bullet list that identifies your Core Strengths.  Each strength’s name should be between 1-2 words long to be effective. Examples of a Core Strengths are:  Project Management, Systems Administration, Problem Solving and the like.  Choose key strengths from the job description or base them on your knowledge of critical skills in your job and industry.

The above information, along with your name and contact information, takes about a third of a page.  That’s what reviewers typically look at during the prescreen process to decide whether to screen you in or out.

If you do this section well, you’ll get selected during the prescreen process and get invited to interviews.

Employment History:  Make sure to include a measurable accomplishment or testimonial in every job in this section.  This
shows consistent evidence of your value across your entire work history.

 Cover Letter

1. Cover Letter: Should be short and open with a paragraph that grabs the reader’s attention immediately and really sells you (don’t duplicate the Sales Pitch from your Professional Summary though).

Networking

Face to Face Networking:  Memorize the sales pitch in your Resume’s Professional Summary and use it at networking events when someone asks you what you do.  Be sure to establish relationship with the other person first before dumping your sales pitch on them.  Also, say it in a way that sounds real and genuine instead of like you’re reading for the first time.  Practice is the key here.

LinkedIn:  Make sure your Headline grabs attention.  It’s right under your name at the top of your profile and it’s the first thing anyone sees so make it sizzle.  For example, for an Administrative Assistant it might say, “I run the office so you can create a successful business.” 

Your Summary section contains the same sales pitch you developed for your Resume.  Remember, you want to sell yourself to HR staff, hiring managers and recruiters that are searching for job candidates on LinkedIn.

Be sure to fill in the Specialties section of your profile with your core strengths, such as project management, cross functional teams, etc.  Remember, this is like a keywords section so make it complete.

In the Experience section, be sure to include a measurable accomplishment or testimonial for each job just like you did in your resume.

In the Applications section, use the SlideShare Application to upload and display Work Samples and your Strategic Business Value Presentation (more detail on these under Marketing Tools below.)  This will make your profile stand out and help to sell you!

Marketing Tools

Business Card:  Put your LinkedIn Profile URL on the front and a few bullet points about your strategic value on the back.

Career Portfolio with Work Samples:  Include a compelling story with each work sample that explains what it is, why it was needed/created and how it benefitted your company, department, manager, co-workers, customers, business partners, suppliers or whomever.

Strategic Business Value Presentation:  Identify your 3 areas of strategic value where you make strong contributions to the company.  For example, they might be People, Process and Planning.  Then identify 3-5 ways that your contribute strongly in each of these areas.  Finally, identify 3-5 ways that you can really help your future employers.  If you do this, you’ll be able to deliver a compelling message about your strengths and value that most job candidates don’t know and/or can’t articulate!  This can really set you apart from the pack.

If you want a template for building this type of presentation, go to www.trainingtamer.com.  Then click on “Downloads” on the main menu and select “Job Search Marketing Tools.”  Then click on the link called “Strategic Business Value Presentation – Word Version.”  Once you get it, edit out the existing text and enter your own information.

Interviews

General:  When answering interview questions, be sure to provide concrete examples with every answer.  Concrete Examples are much more compelling, easier to understand and are more likely to be remembered (to pass on to other decision makers who couldn’t attend your interview).

Also, try to end each answer with how what you did provided value or benefit to your company, department, manager/co-workers, business partners, suppliers, etc. Remember, the more times you show value, the stronger you will look as a candidate.

Pre-Screen Phone Interview:  If you have Work Samples and your Strategic Business Value Presentation, you can cover them during the phone interview.  When you’re called to schedule the phone interview, just ask that the caller be at his computer and on the Internet so you can show him your marketing tools.  This can be the thing that sets apart and helps you move on to a live interview.

Face-to-Face Interview:  Be sure bring multiple copies of your Work Samples and Strategic Business Value Presentation (color copies are best).  At the beginning of the interview, make sure to reserve 10-15 minutes at the end of the interview to ask any question you have and also to show your Work Samples and Strategic Business Value Presentation.  Make sure to give a copy of your materials to each person on the interview team as a leave behind both for them and others they may want to share them with.

End the interview with a brief, 3 line mini-sales pitch to summarize your value.  For example, for a customer service representative, it might be, “I just want to remind you that I have over 3 years experience in customer service and I have the communications, listening, and problem solving skills to make an immediate contribution to  your team.”  Remember, during the interview you’ve been mired in details so it’s great to end with a power summary like this.

Post Interview

Thank You Note:  Be sure to use the Thank You Note as another opportunity to sell yourself and why you want to work for the company.  Likewise, use it as an opportunity to enhance a weak answer you gave during the interview or perhaps offer a solution to a problem the hiring manager is having that you unearthed after the interview (makes you a contributor and you’re not even on board yet).

30-60-90 Day Plan:  If the interview process is complete and you are one of several finalist being considered, a great way to sell yourself and beat the other finalist is to create a one page 30-60-90 Day Plan and send it to the hiring manager via 2^nd Day Express Mail (or hand carry it in).  The plan will specify what you will do in your first 90 days on the job but breaks it up into three, thirty day windows.  For each 30 day window, you will specify 5-6 major tasks that you plan to accomplish based on the problems and needs you’re manager wants you to address.  To find out what the hiring manager wants done in the first 90 day, simply ask him/her during your first live interview.  Just be sure not to go into too much detail so you don’t get yourself in trouble.  Almost no one does this so it should help beat the other finalist hands down!

Salary Negotiations

Justifying a Higher Compensation Request:  If the employer has made an initial job offer and you want to counter with a higher figure, you’ve got to provide some justification for your request.  The best way to do this and win is to summarize the top 3-5 ways/situations where you have contributed value/benefit to your previous employers as proof that you’re worth it.  Make it clear you’re confident you can do the same for them.  Make sure that the ones you pick either closely or directly relate to your prospective employer’s needs and write them down and memorize them beforehand so can deliver a solid reason for them to honor your request.

Ace That Interview!

Written by Larry LaBelle, Training Tamer Inc,

Created:  9/30/2011, Updated:  1/28/2012

So you finally got an interview but you’re really concerned about your ability to nail it and beat your competition.  Well, you’re not alone!  Most job seekers don’t have the necessary skills needed to excel in an interview, become a finalist and then win the job. You need training and coaching to help you learn the latest interviewing strategies.  You also need to role play an interview with mock interviewers who ask you tough questions and have observers who take notes and give you feedback to improve your performance.

But what do you need to know to be successful at the interview game?  There are basically 8 interview elements you have to learn and master:

Pre-Interview Issues

Before you go to an interview, make sure you complete a paper version of a job application form.  You can then easily transfer this information to the employer’s job application (paper-based or online) and it will be complete and consistent every time.   Also, for in person interviews, make sure to ask the interviewer if you will be given any tests before your actual interview (e.g. math, logical reasoning, etc).  If so, see if you can get examples of the types of questions you’ll be asked.  If you fail these tests, you usually are eliminated and don’t get be interviewed.

Types of Interviews

Telephone Pre-Screen Interview

This type of interview is usually done by an HR person to see if you are a strong enough candidate to be brought in for an Face to Face interview.  It is used to weed out inappropriate candidates and leave a reasonably sized group that appear to be well qualified for the position

Here are a couple of tips being successful on the phone.   First, stand up during the interview since it will increase your energy.  Put up sticky notes on the wall with all you key points, answers to tough questions, etc.  Make sure you organize them so you can find what you need at a glance.  This will make you more confident and help you win.  Remember to smile and be enthusiastic since this comes through on the phone.

Face to Face Interviews

There are 3 types of Face to Face interviews.  Each one includes the hiring manager but others would be involved, such as people from the hiring manager’s team, managers from other departments, or senior management.

1. One on One Interviews:  You meet with one person and that’s it.  This is the simplest and easiest type of interview.
2. Panel Interviews:  You face a panel of people who take turns asking your questions.  This type of interview can be unnerving since you are facing so many people but if you remember to just focus on the person asking you a question, you can manage it quite well.  As you get more comfortable during the interview, try to look at all the players in the room to connect with them and see how they are reacting to your answers.  Then make adjustments accordingly.
3. Round Robin Interviews: Here, you are interviewed by a group of people but one after the other in succession. This makes for a very long interview and you have to pace yourself to maintain a consistent level of energy throughout the process. After you meet with each person, ask for a bathroom break so you can get some water, get your center and relax a bit before you face the next person in line.

Interview Tips & Strategies

Here are a few techniques for effectively answering interview questions.   First, speak as if you’re talking to your best friend.  This will make you look friendly and people hire people they like.  Be sure to smile and maintain eye contact.  Show enthusiasm in your voice and vary you tone of voice to keep it lively.  Maintain good posture and  avoid fidgeting since it’s very distracting.  For tough questions, take 5 seconds to think of an answer before responding so you can think of a great answer instead of a lame one.

Remember to keep you answers short and concise to be effective.  Use concrete work examples to support your answers and include quantifiable accomplishments whenever possible.  Always try  to address the question from the employer’s perspective and provide enough detail so interviewers don’t have to dig to get the information they want.  Answer the “What is your greatest weakness?” question with a medium weakness you used to have  but have worked on and overcome (so it’s now a strength).  Last, Practice answering questions with family/friends to get feedback on  your performance or leave a voice mail for yourself with the answer to see how it sounds to you.

Four Stages of the Job Interview

Open the Interview

When you first see the interviewer, introduce yourself and shake hands (medium grip).  As you do, say hello and use the interviewer’s name.  Then give your name and the title of the job you’re interviewing for.  Finally, ask the interviewer if he/she has a copy of your resume and if not, make sure you have 3-4 extra copies available do give him/her and anyone else on the interview team

Do brief ice breakers for 1-2 minutes at the beginning to help you and the interviewer feel more comfortable. Then ask stage setting questions that will lay the foundation for the interview.   First, ask hiring manager to leave you 10-15 minutes  at the end of the interview to ask him/her  questions about the company, your future manager and co-workers, the job, and the benefits.  During this time, you also want to show samples of your work and tell a compelling story about why each one was needed, the action you took to create it and the benefit/value it produced.

You also want to ask if it’s okay to take notes during the interview.  If you do this, you can properly assess the job to determine if it’s a great fit for you.  Finally, ask hiring manager to give you a thumbnail sketch of the duties and responsibilities of the job from his/her point of view.  It’s possible that the job duties have changed since the original job description was written and if you learn of some new requirements, you can address them during the interview.  Most other job candidates won’t know to do that so you’ll have an edge.

Conduct the Interview

When you’re asked a question, take your time and think before answering.  Take notes during the interview so you can properly assess whether the job, manager/co-workers, and company (culture, etc.) are a good fit for you.  Use the SAB format to provide effective, memorable answers that have an impact and are easily remembered.  SAB  tells a clear, concise, and compelling story (paints a picture) based on your actual work experience that has a greater impact and is easily remembered.  Use work samples to support your answers and prove your worth. Remember, the interview is like a Milton Bradley a game so have fun with it

Sales Close

First, ask hiring manager following questions.  “Based on our discussion, my resume, and my portfolio examples, do you think I’m a good fit for the job?” If the answer is yes, ask “Do you have any reservations or concerns about me in this job?”   If he says yes, provide examples from your work history to eliminate these concerns.  Keep asking this question until there are no more reservations.  Remember, these reservations may not be in the hiring manager’s consciousness at the end of the interview but often surface later to eliminate you from contention – if you address them before leaving and resolve them, you WIN!

Now you want to find out what the next step is (e.g. complete interview, hold second interview, make job offer, etc.) and when will it be completed. For example, if the next step is to complete the interviews, ask when that will occur.  After that date has passed, it’s okay to call and check in.  When you call, find out where they are, what the next step is, and when the next step will be completed (so you can call again then).  Be sure to positive and reiterate your interest and value (using your mini sales pitch) in the position.

Final Close

The interview is now over.  It’s time to shake hands, thank interviewer for his/her time, and then present your mini-sales pitch to end the interview and leave the interviewer a strong image of your value and fit for the job.  For example, for a customer service job, you might say, “I just want to remind you that I have over 3 years experience in customer service and I have the communications, listening, and problem solving skills to make an immediate contribution to your team.” Keep this short (3 lines max) and make it compelling and memorable!

SAB Method for Answering Questions

Use the Situation, Action, Benefit (SAB) technique to structure your answer and keep your response time to about 30-45 seconds

• Situation = What happened (keep it brief)
• Action =  What you did
• Benefit = Benefit to you, co-workers, manager/company, customer/supplier, etc.

The trick is to keep the Situation part of your answer short and to the point.   Say what happened quickly (without too many unnecessary details) and then get right to the most compelling part of your answer, which is the Action and Benefit.  Tell the story like you’re reliving it in the present (e.g. “I was standing on the shop floor when my manager John came up looking very angry.  …..”) – it makes it more compelling and is easily remembered.

Answering Employer Questions

At this point, the employer (typically the Hiring Manager) will ask you a series of questions to determine if you are the best candidate for the job.  You can get list of sample questions from www.trainingtamer.com.  Go to Downloads on the Main Menu and then select Interviewing Skills Information.  There are 3 lists of Employer Questions here:  50 Interview Questions, 64 Tough Interview Questions and Interview Questions-Categorized.

I suggest you take 20 questions from these lists and write out your answers to them.  This is great practice and will help you master giving answers that are short (30-45 seconds), concise, supported by examples and end with the benefit or value your produced.  This is the secret to Acing the Interview and winning the job.

Creating Questions for the Employer

There is a list of suggested questions you can ask the interviewer on www.trainingtamer.com  in the  Interview Strategies & Questions document I mentioned in the previous section.  These questions are intended to help you learn all about the company, you manager and co-workers, the job and the benefits to decide if this job and everything else is right for you.  Hopefully, this list will help you devise some other probing questions you want to ask.

If the answers you receive give you bad feelings about the job, pay attention to them.  Too many people ignore them and end up in a job they really dislike or hate.  In short order, they end up quitting or being let go and end up back in the unemployment line (perhaps without unemployment benefits this time).  Better to trust your gut and find the job that is truly right for you!

Practice Makes Perfect

This part is simple but oh so important.  Practice with family, friends and other job seekers until you are confident in your interviewing skills and get high marks from your practice partners.  And always make sure you prepare before every interview to get yourself back in the grove.  People who don’t do this often do poorly.  So it’s important to practice before absolutely ever interview regardless of whether they had a great interview just a few days earlier. Remember, keep the mind greased and you’ll be on top of your game.

Post Interview Actions

First, don’t forget to send the interview a Thank You Note.  The most impactful way to do this is to buy a card at the store, hand write your note and the address on the envelope and then, either mail it or hand carry to the company to the receptionist to give to the interview.  You could even buy the card in advance and have it with you in your car to complete and deliver before you leave.

When it comes to the content, make sure you three fundamental things.  First, thank the interviewer for his/her time.  Second, reiterate why you’re a great fit for the job.  Third, if you gave a poor answer during the interview or heard them mention a problem or need they have, address it in your thank you note.  Giving a better answer to the question you muffed during the interview can erase any poor impression you may have left.  If you do some research on their problem or need and provide a solution, you’ll boost your chances since you’re acting like a contributor even though you’re not on board yet.  Just remember to keep your note short and to the point to ensure it gets read.

There are a number of checks that employers may do before they make you a job offer.  This includes reference checks, credit checks (for positions involving money), criminal background checks, drug tests, polygraph tests, and educational background checks.  These take time so be patient.  Also, failing one of these could eliminate you from contention so be honest and up front about any potential issues.

That’s it!  Good luck and make sure you Ace that Interview!

Why Employers Hire You!

By Larry LaBelle, Training Tamer Inc., on 10/19/2011

 Why do employers hire the people they do?  Well, there are lots of reasons but the top three are the factors that determine whether or not you get the job. The lowest of these three is your skills, the second is how well they think you will fit on their team and the highest is whether they LIKE YOU!

When you’re invited into a job interview, employers already have a good sense from your resume regarding whether you have the skills to do the job.  They will certainly question you in the interview to verify your skill set and make sure you have the proven experience needed to be successful.  Obviously, this includes your measurable accomplishment and testimonials from past managers, co-workers, customers, etc.

They’re also look for both your technical and non-technical skills.  Your technical skills might include things like experience in database design and implementation with Oracle or SQL Server.  Your non-technical skills can cover a broad range of skills. The employer might be looking for someone who has strong leadership and management skills, is passionate about their work, has strong problem solving skills, is creative and generates new ideas, has a positive attitude and praises managers and co-workers.  They might also want someone who has excellent conflict resolution skills to manage two teams that aren’t currently getting along well.  Also, someone who can see problems at all levels and identify solutions is also highly valued, especially when it impacts the company’s bottom line.

Next, there is the issue of Team Fit. Do you have the personality, work ethic and interpersonal communications style that will complement the team?  Do you work well with all the generations and races that are on the team?  For example, if there are a mixture of ages on the team, some will prefer communicating via instant messaging or text messages and others will want to use email.  Are you comfortable using all these mediums?  If the team is one that works at a fast pace, routinely beats deadlines and expects its members to honor their commitments (or communicate if they can’t), do you possess those same traits so you’ll fit in?

Finally, the #1 reason for hiring a new employee is LIKABILITY!  If the hiring manager and his team like you, they feel will enjoy working with you and will be able to get along with you.   There are many cases where person hired in a position had fewer of the required skills and weren’t a 100% team fit but they were hired anyway because everyone really liked them and believed they could work with them.

So it’s important to show the real, likable you in everything you do if you want to win and that includes your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, pre-screen interview and live interviews and even your salary negotiations.  Be warm and friendly, ask questions to initiate conversations and get know people, listen to and show interest in what others have to say and be authentic and genuine in all your interactions.  The bottom line is to let the real you out, the one your family and friends see, know and love.  Remember LIKE means Love Interacting Knows Everyone.  So sell your SKILLS, join the TEAM and bring out the you they’ll really LIKE!