Tag Archives: Career Transition Coaching

Inefficiency Hinders Your Job Search

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Getty photo 23Most if not all job seekers reach at some point a heightened level of frustration with their job search process. It’s easy to understand, and it might be justifiable to blame the complex and convoluted job search process. It’s difficult to improve efficient and speed up the process. Loosely explained, efficiency is output over input and is expressed in percentages. The question before job seekers is whether they’re getting the expected results based on the amount of time and effort they’re putting into their job searches. In most cases, the answer is disappointing. So, what to do to increase efficiency?

In the world of investments, the most important factor for success is to know the right asset class allocation. Translated into the domain of job search, it means knowing how to determine the amounts of time and energy to devote to various job search activities.

Networking

Networking with people is by far the most effective job search activity. Sixty to 80 percent of people land their jobs through networking, and therefore, that’s what job seekers should spend their time on. For many, Networking is difficult and uncomfortable. And for those who don’t know how to be effective at it, networking represents a frustrating task with little results. For others, networking is second nature, and getting leads and referrals is merely a continuation of what they’ve been practicing their entire life—and not only when they need a job.

Applying for Jobs Online

Online job application is also an important aspect of the job search. Certainly, one cannot expect to win the lottery without buying a ticket. In the same way, one needs to apply for a job in order to be considered for it. On one hand, online job boards such as Monster and CareerBuilder sound appealing. On the other hand, sending off endless numbers of résumés into the black hole of applications can be a great way to boost your frustration level and waste your time. A better way is to search within SimplyHired or Indeed by using specific keywords you’re interested in and job locations you’re open to. The best tool is LinkedIn, where you can see exactly who posted a job and whom you might know at that company. Thus you can be much more strategic about your application.

Additional Advice for Increasing Your Efficiency and Your Success Rate

  • Be specific in your résumé. Applicant tracking software is looking for specific keywords.
  • Customize your résumé to the specific job you’re applying for. Recast your résumé to specifically show how your subject matter expertise solves the hiring manager’s problems.
  • Use as much as possible the target company’s own language. In other words, your actual words must match a lot of the words in the employer’s job description. Cut and paste the employer’s language from the job description to use in your résumé.
  • Make your résumé faultless. Reviewers have no patience for less-than-perfect résumés because there are thousands of other applicants they can look at who submit perfect résumés. Grammar and spelling count. Fonts, formatting, and lined-up tabs and columns count. Regarding that formatting issue, better practice is to unformat the résumé, reset everything flush left, and use no special symbols or software-specific indentions (such as in the bulleted items you’re reading here!)—instead opting for simple hyphens and word spaces to set off your displayed lists of accomplishments in your job history.

How to Deal with Your Stress While in Transition

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Physicians and psychiatrists have proved that there is a positive correlation between stress and illness. People in transition experience various and variable levels of stress. And such stress is not a stand-alone issue but is compounded by other stressors. One study identified three types of life stresses: chemical, physical, and attitudinal. All together there are 43 sources of stress that can cause about 80 symptoms. Of course people have in their lives multiple sources that cause manifestations of compound symptoms.

With regard to chemical impact on the body, the study found coffee drinking, excessive consumption of sugar and salt, regular consumption of various prescription drugs, nicotine alcoholic beverages, air pollution, and even quality of water to be offenders. Physical stressors might be overweight, lack of exercise, excessive commuting, and sedentary lifestyle.

For the sake of this blog, I want to focus on the attitudinal and, more specifically, the emotional stressors and associated symptoms. Examples of stressors associated with being in transition are problems with sleep, inability to relax, heightened levels of frustration, potential for affecting relationship with spouse, adverse effect on mood, and feelings of hopeless and depression. And most people have a combination of such stressors. In terms of symptoms, people in transition might feel depressed or moody, get angry easily, gain or lose significant amounts of weight, go through bouts of insomnia, feel overcome with fatigue, lose ability to concentrate, and experience anxiety, worry, shyness, and isolation. So the question is, how to deal with all of those?

Clearly, ignoring the symptoms is not the answer. Hoping they’ll go away is only wishful thinking. Moreover, doing nothing can cause severe and long-lasting medical consequences. Unfortunately, there is no one answer that fits everybody. Women, for example, like spas, massages, and yoga more than men do. Theater, a movie, or dinner with friends or family may appeal to others. Some would even go for acupuncture and find in that a source for reducing stress. I like walking, which I do almost seven days a week. I walk outdoors when weather permits, and indoors on a treadmill otherwise. Occasionally, I also benefit from a Japanese healing art for stress reduction called Jin Shin Jyutsu. And I have an advantage when it comes to that, for my wife has been a practitioner for over a dozen years. Visit www.jsjmonica.com to see more about it.

Job Interview Tips for Mature People

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To start with, here are some statistics:

  • Only 28% of workers 55 and older find jobs within one year versus 71% of those aged 25 to 35, reports Career Builder.
  • 63% of workers 55 and older applied for positions at lower levels than their previous jobs.
  • 48% of workers 55 and older found positions at lesser pay.

The picture is clear but not surprising. Age discrimination is evident despite being against the law. Mature people still need jobs because they have financial commitments in addition to not having enough saved for a longer retirement. So, how can they win in the marketplace while competing for fewer job openings—and against younger applicants? The answer is by having an outstanding résumé (drafted by a recommended, certified, professional résumé writer) and, ideally, working with a career coach to improve their interviewing skills. Interviewing is a learned skill like any other skill. No one was born being excellent at interviewing. The way to prepare for an important interview is similar to the way of preparing for an important college test. Here are a few tips on how to properly answer the following interview questions when age discrimination bias could be detrimental.

Aren’t you overqualified?

This question could—but not necessarily—mean you’re too old for the job. It also could hint that you want more money. Another possible thought behind this question could be that you’ve held bigger positions and you might leave once you find a better job, or it could imply that you’d get bored with this job within a few months. The point here is that you simply cannot answer this question before finding out what the interviewer is actually after. The answer might be, “I’m glad you raised this issue. It gives me a chance to deal with it objectively.” And then you can say, “I suspect you mention this because you may think that [list here some of the possibilities mentioned earlier].” Make sure you end your sentence with “Is that it”? Based on this, the interviewer’s answer will reveal the intention behind the question. Now that you know the intention, you can provide an example of a success story from the past that is relevant to the question.

What are your strongest skills?

Here the interviewer may be testing you on whether you’re up to speed with today’s rapidly changing technology. In your answer, you should be emphatic about how advanced with technology you are—provided this is so—and how extensively you used technology skills at your jobs.

What are your interests outside your career?

This could be another trap question by which the candidate inadvertently reveals actions associated with more-mature people. Such an answer might be, “I enjoy family, reading, watching TV, and going to the theater.” On the surface, this is a good answer, but for a more mature person, it would be better to talk about physical activities in addition to intellectual ones. Notice that the family, reading, TV, and theater examples represent sedentary activity. A better answer would be, “I enjoy intellectual activities such as reading or watching TV, but above all, I jog on a regular basis, I play tennis, and I bicycle on weekends.” Physical activities prove vitality and high energy. And what employer would not like that?

In Transition: So What’s Your Brand?

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More than ever, when you are in transition you should have a brand. Why? you ask. Because that is how you differentiate yourself and stand out from the proverbial crowd.

Branding is not about what you like but about what employers like. Your branding statement—whether in writing, on the Internet, or spoken via your elevator pitch should have the triple purposes of gaining credibility, arousing curiosity, and increasing your likability factor. And your work toward those goals will not be in vain, because 90 percent of employers check out candidates prior to making initial searches via, say, LinkedIn, Spokeo, or ZoomInfo.

Nowadays, employers use Google when searching for prospects. Research shows that

29% of people use two words when searching, 28% use three words, 17% use four words, and only 11% use one word. This means that your résumé or any other information about you should be rich with nouns and phrases. This advice is different from what we were told in the past: that résumés should have lots of action verbs. In fact, a combination of both is best. Yes, certainly computers are looking for keywords, but when people actually read about you, they want to see both action and accomplishments.

A recent study found that 90% of people search on the first three pages of search engine results and that 62% search only on the first page. Good branding work rewards candidates by resulting in a high ranking on Google searches. To find out what’s out there in cyberspace, here are the most common social media search engines:

Setting it up is a bit time-consuming, but you might be surprised at the information available about you and that you didn’t have a clue about. One of the best ways to find out what people are saying about you is to monitor your reputation via www.google.com/alerts.

It’s very important to communicate properly, for this is how people judge you. And there are certain words and phrases you should avoid because they’re overused and most often meaningless. Here are a few examples:

  • Motivated
  • Dynamic
  • Team player
  • Problem solver
  • Innovative
  • Results oriented
  • Proven track record
  • Fast paced
  • Entrepreneurial
  • Extensive experience

These days 90% of recruiters check LinkedIn. Therefore it makes good sense for you to improve as best as possible the information on your LinkedIn page. Here are a few simple ideas:

  • Increase the number of recommendations.
  • Ask questions and provide answers.
  • Update your status periodically.
  • Inform your connections about projects you’re working on.
  • Connect with your Twitter account.
  • Share links to articles of interest.
  • Import e-mail addresses from Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and Outlook.
  • Connect with ex-colleagues: people on LinkedIn from companies you worked with before.
  • Connect with people you met in person via networking events and whose business cards you collected.

As you can see, branding yourself is of utmost importance. Otherwise, you stay hidden from those you really want to see you.

The Elevator Pitch Checklist

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A recent article of mine covered most people’s lack of efficacy in practicing their elevator pitches at job search networking meetings. I wanted to follow up on that and prove my tenets, so I brainstormed with a group of trusted associates—all of whom are in transition—and we came up with some “best practices.” Following are our findings. Based on this information, you’ll be able to rework your own pitch and then practice it when networking. I promise you’ll see results instantly.

General Guidelines

It’s most important to realize that different circumstances require different pitches. Otherwise, your elevator pitch will be perceived as canned and out of context. Make sure it’s memorable, because if it isn’t, you’ll simply sound like everyone else. Try introducing an element of surprise or some humor. The pitch has to be brief and to the point, so that people don’t tune you out. And it has to have a positive tone. No one’s interested in why you’re in transition.

Content

Announce your name at the beginning and again at the end. Make sure people hear you and get the name. If you say it fast the way we normally do, people won’t get it or be able to remember it. Following your name, identify your position—or the position you want to get. Create a point of reference for your role—for example, chief financial officer in a small company.

Tone of Voice

Here’s where you have to sound enthusiastic. Here the word sound has the literal meaning. A voice too loud or too soft won’t work. Also, some people speak faster than normal when under pressure. A normal speed is best. And voice modulation where appropriate increases likability and interest in you.

Facial Expression and Body Language

People judge others based on what they see, and most people have their own personal biases. However, it’s universally agreed that professional attire and an overall professional look are most helpful for promoting your own interest when networking. A genuine and broad smile means the same anywhere and in any language. Above all, make good eye contact with the audience, but don’t move your head like a panning security camera, either. Project positive body language by standing erect. Don’t shift your weight from leg to leg.

In Summary

Creating an effective 30-second elevator pitch is not as easy as it seems to be. In those 30 seconds, you need to introduce lots of content and then act it out—a feat that for some is very difficult. But with some improvement and then several live repetitions, anyone can do it. Good luck. You’ll feel tremendously successful once people tell you how well you’ve done.