Career Hub

Business Books to Start the New Year Right

One of my favorite blogs is 800-CEO-Read (maybe because I coach CEOs and I'm the daughter of two librarians!). Check out their list if the top new business reads being published in January. The list covers a wide array of topics. Some of the books have already been reviewed on the blog, with more reviews to follow.

Posted by Deb Dib

Seeking: Men and Women Over 50 and Fabulous

Many of my clients who are 50 or older believe that there is an age bias within some employment circles and corporate cultures that will impede their ability to find employment. But according to Ken Dychtwald, author of Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent, this perception is changing. According to Dychtwald, over the next several years, 80% of growth in the American workforce will come from workers over 50 years old. This means that the baby boomer generation will command exceptional earning power in the years to come.  Here are a few recommendations for how baby boomers can reach their professional and monetary goals during their future job search.

Know your market value
Frequently, baby boomers are coming out of an organization where they spent one to three decades. If they are coming out of an organization after a long tenure, their compensation may not have kept pace with what the market will bear due to internal changes, salary freezes, M&A activity, etc. and it is imperative that mature job seekers assess their market value before they begin interviewing. Excellent resources for competitive benchmarking include colleagues, professional organizations, recruiters, and online tools such as Salary Expert and Payscale.com.

Seek out “boomer friendly” employers
Boomers should target companies that actively promote their commitment to a mature workforce. They can increase their knowledge of such companies by following surveys such as AARP’s Annual Best Companies for People over 50 and subscribing to AARP and other mature audience magazines and newsletters. Mature workers should also consider networking in age-related affinity groups such as Forty Plus or online sites such as Eons.com.

Promote the boomer “value add” during interviews
Older job candidates can improve the quality of their interviews and their overall search strategy by capitalizing on the positive associations of the boomer generation and addressing any negative perceptions by showcasing success stories that debunk commonly held misperceptions regarding boomers. For example, positive perceptions of baby boomers include loyalty, low absenteeism, commitment to quality, strong performance records, and good team players. Job seekers can validate these perceptions by communicating stories to employers that demonstrate these skills. Negative perceptions include adversity to change, out of date skills, and difficulty reporting to a younger boss. Again, job candidates must confidently communicate their successes around change, training, and reporting relationships.

The labor storm is coming whether employers like it or not. By being informed about the changing demographics and creating a strategy for marketing accomplishments and value-add now, mature workers will improve their chances of building financially sound and emotionally fulfilling career paths over the next decade.

Keywords Are King

On a daily basis I am reminded that sometimes keeping things simple is just a good idea - especially when you talk about sending out the right message for your resume.  If you try to get into the mind of the employer when developing your resume you will be much more effective in creating a document that will get the phone ringing.  How do you do that? There are lots of ways, but in our complex and technologically driven society Keywords are King.  If your resume doesn't have the proper keywords then odds are that your resume is are never going to be passes over - even if you are the perfect candidate.  

How do you find the "right" keywords?  Simple (that is the mission here - keeping it simple - should you choose to accept it)  Pull up 10 to 15 postings for your desired position; the words and or phrases that come up over and over are your keywords.  Grab them and go!  Put them on your resume in a compelling way and listen for the phone to ring.

Friday Afternoon Funny

I just stumbled across a wonderful anonymous blog.

Resume Hell is written by a recruiter who prefers to keep his identity hidden - not surprising when the blog's tagline is "Dumb Stuff I Read on Resumes." 

I'd like to say he's making this stuff up, but I look at resumes all day and, sadly, I really don't think he is.

Be Yourself at the Interview

Almost fourteen years ago I interviewed for a job with someone who would subsequently become my manager and mentor. The last question she asked me in the interview was this:

"What's the most important lesson you've learned?"

Now when you think about it, that's a whopper of a question. You can go broad with this one or stay narrow. You can get personal or keep it generic. You can be flip or be serious.

But I didn't think about it. The interview had gone really well, I was relaxed, I was feeling confident, and I simply answered what popped into my head, which was something like, "To always be myself. Pretending to be someone else doesn't work."

I was 26 years old, and I was onto something. And I was hired.

The brilliance of my answer wasn't what got me the job. It was a sincere answer, and one in which I still strongly agree with, but that's not why I got the job. I got the job because there was a good fit between who I was, who my manager-to-be was, the job I'd be doing, and the company culture.

As this recent article from Career Journal points out, "fit" means a lot once you get to the job interview stage. You presumably already have been judged to possess the skills and background to perform the job. Now it's about whether you like them and they like you.

So at the interview, be the real you. Yes, it's smart to strategically plan for the interview. Winging it and spending no time on preparation are not strategically smart plans. Of course you want to plan, practice, and put your best foot forward in the interview.

But if you present yourself as a passionate evangelist of the product who loves to work on a team with a very loose structure, when really you have little knowledge of the product and prefer to work independently with objectives clearly laid out, you do no one any favors.

If you do get the job, it won't be a good fit for you. It will feel like walking out of the shoe store wearing an attractive pair that pinch your little toe no matter what socks you wear. You knew they weren't a good fit when you tried them on, but you really tried your hardest to like them. They're so nice looking and they were on sale, and you really needed new shoes.

Two miles later you've got one hell of a blister.

Don't lose yourself in the process of interviewing. You're looking for a job, manager and organization that fit you and in which you fit, and that might take a lot of trying on.

When you do find a job that makes excellent use of your talents and gives you the opportunities that you're genuinely looking for, you'll be glad that you didn't walk out of the shoe store too early!

Is ADHD affecting your career?

"I've got ADD." It seems that I hear that more and more from people who are looking for career assistance. "Are there certain jobs for people like me?" is the other thing they ask. So I decided to write about the issue in my weekly, syndicated column. Bottom line, no there are not certain jobs and careers that are better than others for people with ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The same variables that make for career satisfaction apply to someone with ADHD. Although, there are certain strategies to help you compensate--such as using technology, executive assistants, coaching, personal organizers, organizing software and timers. Since the condition causes problems with attention, being impulsive and hyperactive, it can affect careers dramatically. At work, my clients find themselves being late, missing deadlines and having trouble making decisions. They have trouble dealing with bosses and co-workers. The psychologist I interviewed agrees--labeling one career or another "ADHD-friendly" is inaccurate. First, focus on what matters most--discovering work you'd enjoy. And find ways to compensate for the problems ADHD might create--including an environment that is more flexible schedule and project-wise.

Personal Branding Roars

Personal branding as a concept for self-marketing has come a long way in less than 10 years. On a mentoring call for REACH Certified Personal Branding Strategists (there are 100 of us in 20 countries) yesterday, William Arruda, the personal branding guru and President of Reach Communications, the global leader in personal branding, reminded us that the 10th anniversary of Tom Peters Fast Company article "The Brand Called You" first appeared in August 1997. Since then, the concept of Brand YOU has achieved worldwide recognition and culminated in TIME Magazine naming its Person of the Year: You for 2006.

Now, if you Google the discrete term "personal branding" you get 550,000 hits. That's a lot of buzz about a term that many folks still don't grasp. Whether you are a job seeker, entrepreneur, professional, executive, faculty person, career advisor, company HR specialist, or recruiter (the list goes on and on), personal branding is critical to your career and/or business growth. It's the key element in determining how you can "stand out from the crowd" and achieve your goals.

With that in mind, I will be conducting a personal branding workshop with career advisors and workplace development professionals at the Careers Conference 2007 in Madison, Wisconsin on January 29. The workshop entitled "Personal Branding, Blogging, and the Three Keys to Self-Marketing Success" explores how personal branding and blogging can be used as positive tools for accelerating career success. The workshop is sponsored by the Center on Education and Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This speaking gig demonstrates that personal branding has transitioned from the corporate world, where branding has long been understood as a fundamental marketing concept, to academia. High school and college career professionals are eager to learn more on personal branding and how to implement it successfully with their students. The buzz about personal branding, which started out as a faint whisper 10 years ago with Tom Peters, is building to a roar worldwide.

For a quick take on the pulse of YOUR personal brand, check out this personal branding quiz.

Cross-posted at the Career Goddess Blog.

A LOW-Tech Strategy for Maximum Impact After the Interview

With the lightning fast e-mail communications we have come to take for granted today, not to mention the way word processed correspondence has largely replaced handwritten letters, I have long been convinced that many employment candidates are bypassing a powerful tool that can make a lasting impression on prospective employers and move them ahead of their competition. That tool is the handwritten thank-you note.

I was reminded of this today as I read an article in the Crossroads jobseeker newsletter that emphasizes the impact such a note can have. The author, Kathy Condon, relates the results of a poll she conducted among Hewlett Packard managers revealing 100% agreement that their favorite way to receive a thank you from an interviewee would be through a handwritten note. When Robert J. Centonze, a director of compensation and planning at Campbell's Soup Company was interviewed for a CareerJournal.com article last year, he said, “Email is very efficient and business like, but the personal handwritten note or card [shows] your personality and individualism.”

Unlike an e-mail quickly dashed off upon arriving home, the handwritten note tends to find its way into the candidate’s file. It may even enjoy circulation around the office or prominent display in the recipient’s office or cubicle. This is priceless personal advertising for the cost of a postage stamp!

All of this is not to say that a handwritten note is absolutely necessary or even that it is the best route to take in every situation. Whether an e-mailed, printer-generated, or handwritten note is most appropriate will depend on the culture of the organization and the formal or informal nature of the relationship you’ve established with your interviewer(s). In some cases, especially where a decision is imminent, e-mail may be the only viable choice. If your handwriting is hopelessly illegible or juvenile in appearance, you would certainly be better off with a printer-generated or e-mailed note.

Whether handwritten, printed, or electronic, your thank-you needs to be on its way within 24 hours of the interview. If you interviewed with several people within the company, most career experts advise that each should receive a personalized note that can be similar to but not identical to the others. (This would be embarrassing should your recipients compare notes, to say the least!)

Jeffrey S. Wells, recently retired VP of Human Resources for Circuit City Stores, expressed a contrarian view when interviewed for the CareerJournal.com article cited above. His biggest peeve was when candidates sent thank-you notes to everyone they met at the company: “That was a turnoff.” However, I would pose the question: Were those other people who received the notes annoyed? I sincerely doubt it.

A USA Today piece bemoaning a decline in the fine art of handwritten thank-you notes in our culture stated, “The trend is a reflection of how Americans' short attention spans and electronically wired lives — combined with a diminished mindfulness of etiquette — have made the USA, well, a pretty ungrateful nation.” I couldn’t agree more. And when a hiring manager has to choose between two apparently equally qualified candidates, a handwritten thank you note just might tip the balance.

Posted by Laurie Smith

Resume Writing eBook. FREE!

I'm thrilled that the Career Hub writers have once again agreed to participate in our regular free eBook series.

The "Insider's Guide to Resume Writing" is our second eBook and you can download it here.

(Note: If you already downloaded our first eBook, you'll receive a copy of this one shortly and do not need to sign up again.)

Topics include how to use the art of storytelling to create a compelling marketing document, the pros and cons of the two-page resume, and how to use context to create impact. Several articles discuss how to incorporate personal branding into your resume writing, and you'll learn the 7 secrets no one ever told you about getting the most out of your resume.

Get your copy now. (We'll also include a link to download our first eBook, "The Insider's Guide to Job Search" in case you don't already have it.) Please feel free to share with others or send your friends here for their own copy.

Sending Your Resume: Names Matter

Today I received an email:

“Dear Ms. B-V (the person did spell out the last name…):

I have been searching for a job, sending out resumes and smoke signals all over the country only to find my search in vain. I read your suggestions and advice on how to land an interview, techniques to get employers to return your call and Top 10 Secrets to Turn Networking Pain to Career Gain. Which brought me to the conclusion that I would make a good candidate for your company….”

You would? I don’t think so. Here’s why:

1. I am NOT Ms. B-V. So they addressed their email to the wrong person - even though they said they’ve read my article.

2. They attached this note (complete with several grammatical errors) and their resume, on top of the full e-zine (where the article appeared). Instead, they could have mentioned the article and name of the e-zine in the note. That way, their note and resume would have downloaded much faster - and have been more relevant.

3. Why would reading my article draw them to the conclusion that they’d be a great candidate for my company? No where in the article did I say I was hiring (I’m not - so don’t get any ideas).

4. If this person truly read my article, they would have been referred to me through someone I know (my article was about networking) AND they would have used my correct name.

It’s A-OK to try a cold-call approach. But there is a right way to do it.

Read on!