We’ve still got a long ways to go before January – which means there’s lots of time for political speculation in Washington.
It started with a tight focus on incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. And now that the furor of Congressional turnover has died down, thoughts of what the Democrats could do with their newly earned power are spreading across all areas of our lives – including the jobs front.
On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace interviewed Barney Frank, poised to become Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Here’s how the issue of wages and benefits came up:
WALLACE: Congressman Frank, what’s this about a grand bargain with corporate America, where you would agree to cut regulations and pass free trade deals if corporations, if businesses, would agree to raise wages and increase job benefits?
FRANK: We’re in a gridlock economic position right now. All the things that you listen to the financial community tell us are important for economic growth are kind of stalled…
The economy has shown some growth in the last few years, but according to both Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke and virtually everybody else, the growth has been more uneven and more unequally distributed than in any time in recent American memory….
What we’ve got is at the same time, they’re blocking unionization, they’ve got a very anti-labor National Labor Relations Board, they won’t accept a minimum wage increase, health care has become a great burden for working people. And what I say is let’s put it all on the table, let’s get together, and let’s do some things that will help growth, but in a way that does not promote more inequality. And I’m hoping that the business community will be responsive to that.
Does that mean help is on the way for health benefits? Hard to say at this point. But it’s the kind of talk we like to hear.
Posted by Allen Voivod on November 28th, 2006 | No Comments
You’ll probably see more people – and more people you’ve never met before – during this time of year than any other. What better time to brush up on your networking skills?
And because there’s a fair amount of event planning going on, you’ll have ample opportunity to prepare for each holiday party, family visit, even the long shopping trips where you’ll be trapped in lines long enough to deliver your elevator pitch a dozen times over.
Kelle Sparta, founder of Sparta Success Systems, shared her holiday networking strategy recently, and it’s a five-step process you can remember even with a little spiked eggnog in your system:
- Create a goal and stick to it: “For instance, your goal might be to meet 10 people, discuss your business with them, and give each of them two of your cards while collecting at least one of theirs.”
- Have an elevator pitch: Give people the information they ask for in 30 seconds or less.
- Have a follow-up plan: Make a date to follow up with the person if they seem interested.
- Give back: “If you want people to give you business and referrals, you need to offer the same in return,” Sparta explains.
- Have fun: “People like to talk to happy people,” Sparta says.
Could it be any simpler than that?
Now, let’s add one bonus tip: Practice it. With your spouse, your child, or anyone living with you. Get them to role play with you, so you can get comfortable. The more natural your networking sounds and feels coming out of you, the more people you meet will respond positively to you.
And finally, because the follow-up is so important: When you get home from any event where you’ve done some networking, immediately take a few minutes to make notes about your contacts, and get your follow-up contact dates into your calendar. If you don’t do it right away…well, it’s the holidays. A lot of other things are vying for your attention, you know?
So set yourself up for success this holiday season. And dress warmly, too!
Posted by Allen Voivod on November 24th, 2006 | No Comments
Fifteen seconds. When you hear the oft-quoted statistic about how long an employer actually looks at your résumé, what do you do?
Do you just assume that things will be different for you?
Do you try not to think about it, yet still sort of look at it out of the corner of your eye while you make more and more tweaks to a résumé that hasn’t been working for you?
Do you go back to the beginning and start all over, thinking you’ll have to write another résumé anyway for it to apply to still another position with a slightly different job description?
If you answered “Yes” to any of the above, let’s look at a new solution. (And if you answered “No” to all of them, leave us a comment and tell us what you think about that statistic.)
Your résumé, once complete, shouldn’t require much revision at all when applying for one job versus another. The real work goes into defining what YOU want to do, then making that shine through.
And where it all begins – where the clock starts ticking – is the summary section of your résumé. Nail the summary, and you’ll automatically beat the 15-second average.
But how do you do it?
Over on 6FigureJobs.com, you’ll find this bit of advice: “Begin your documents with a very strong, well-written executive summary that does not sound like a recycled textbook description. Right off the bat, explain what your key strengths are and what makes you different from other applicants with similar credentials.”
At SpencerStuart.com, you’ll get similar advice: “The career summary brings together your unique skills experience, qualifications and achievements in a single passage. It should provide a précis of what you offer that makes the recruiter want to know more – and read on.” (Read the “Start with a summary” section in that article for more details.)
And on that behemoth of job search sites, Monster.com, you’ll get the six-step guide to creating a career summary. (They make it sound so simple, don’t they?)
Bottom line: As we like to say here, if it isn’t a winner, it’s a killer. And the first battle in the résumé game is your summary. Start there, get clear on what you want, and write it so an employer can easily see the value you bring to the table.
And finally, show your summary to someone who doesn’t know what you do on a daily basis. If that person “gets it” in 15 seconds, you’re well on your way.
Don’t gamble with your résumé. Get a free résumé critique from Career-Resumes® today!
Posted by Allen Voivod on November 21st, 2006 | 2 Comments
Okay, it’s Friday, we’ve got a short holiday week next week…time to relax and take a little breather from the hustle and bustle of job searching, resume writing, cover letter mailing, and all the other work involved in landing your next success story.
(After reading that list, it sounds like a job in itself to get a new job!)
I’ve been thinking about Inc. magazine’s August 2006 cover story on hiring – and especially about the sidebar on Cognitive and Personality Tests being used in more and more companies as part of the hiring process.
Now, none of the top 10 tests listed in that article appear on the popular testing site Tickle. Not surprising. But for fun, and maybe to learn a little more about yourself – which is always good when you’re trying to identify the perfect position at the perfect company – try Tickle for a little light-hearted fun.
Over in their Career section, they have literally dozens of tests, so don’t get carried away. I managed to restrain myself to three this morning. Which is just as well, because when you go through these tests, the number of advertisements and special offers they make you look at before you get your results is astounding. I had to click past six ads for the results of the first test alone. (Subsequent tests only required 1-2 ads to get past.)
And since you’re wondering, I took these three:
- What Breed of Dog Are You at Work? I’m a “Pug,” which is galling, because it’s possibly the only dog I’d never own.
- The Power Quotient. I ranked a 76 out of 100, which puts me in the “Diplomatic” box. For astrology fans out there, I’m a Libra, so I should have expected this result.
- The 5-Factor IPIP Personality Test. The results of this one indicate my most unique quality is that I’m “Unusually Conscientious.” Now, I think I’m conscientious, but I never would have said I was whoppingly super-high on the conscientious scale. So now I’m wondering whether I was totally honest with my answers on that one. Hmmmm.
Let us know what tests you take, and what your results were! And tell us a little about yourself to put it in perspective. You do know how to answer the “Tell us a little about yourself” question by now, right?
Posted by Allen Voivod on November 17th, 2006 | No Comments
Do you really want to clutter up your inbox with every last job search email newsletter from places like SpencerStuart.com, ExecutiveRegistry.com, 6FigureJobs.com, Monster.com, HotJobs, et cetera, et cetera? Good grief, no!
Instead, allow us to do the dirty work for you. Here’s a rundown of recent articles from these popular career advice websites, with links to all!
From HotJobs:
From Monster.com:
From 6FigureJobs:
We’ll start there, and add links from other career advice websites over the coming weeks and months. If there’s a website you’d like to see appear in this regular resource, let us know with a comment!
Posted by Allen Voivod on November 14th, 2006 | 1 Comment
Information overload!
You know you have to read up on resume writing to get your resume in the best shape possible. Where do you go to do it? If you’re like a lot of people, one of three places:
- All the job board sites, from Monster to The Ladders – of course they have resume advice for you!
- Online article directories are stuffed full of tips and tricks for getting your resume to stand out from the crowd.
- And the makers of the “Dummies” and “Complete Idiot’s Guide” how-to books probably picked resumes as one of the first topics they ever covered.
But ask yourself this: If you’re going to write your resume, or just punch up your resume, why not get your advice from as authoritative a source as possible?
That would be Susan Whitcomb. One of the nation’s top professional resume writers, her definitive work Resume Magic emerged in its 3rd Edition in September 2006.
How definitive? Originally published in 1999, Resume Magic holds an honest-to-goodness five-star rating on Amazon.com. (How many reference books can claim that honor over a seven-year-publication history?)
Whitcomb key to success is that she looks at resumes with an advertising maven’s eye. Some of the topics she covers include:
- Ad agency strategies you can apply to get noticed and hold interest
- Visual design and formatting
- Copywriting, including an extensive style guide
- Electronic resumes
- And, naturally, cover letters
Better yet, the level at which she drills down on this information is knock-you-socks-off powerful – even if you’re just reading the table of contents!
Speaking of which, you can get the table of contents (from an older edition), as well as a sample chapter. It’s Chapter 2, “How to Use Advertising Strategies to Get an Audience With Your Boss-to-Be,” and that chapter alone is worth dozens of times the very reasonable price of the book, which you can order right here from Amazon.com.
So if you’re feeling like there’s too much resume advice out there, and you don’t know who to listen to, take a step back and start over again with just one solid source of proven experience. Otherwise, information overload will just paralyze you and your job search.
Posted by Administrator on November 10th, 2006 | No Comments
How can an employer decide what you’re worth?
It’s a question with both practical and philosophical implications.
I started thinking about the practical side while using Salary.com’s Salary Wizard tool. It’s probably the most widely used and relied-upon salary calculator out there.
Monster.com and HotJobs use Salary.com as their preferred salary info provider. Newspaper websites refer job seekers to Salary.com, too (and get a bit of compensation for anyone who buys a Salary.com report through referral, no doubt).
But here’s what I started wondering: Where does Salary.com get their information? And how as a job seeker, or someone thinking about a career change, can you trust this data to guide your search and inform your salary negotiations?
So I took a peek behind the curtain at their methodology, and I highly recommend you do the same.
And when you get there, you’ll see options to look at the details of Client Data, Corporate Data, and Salary Wizard data. It’s worth the 15-minute investment to read all three. Here’s an excerpt from the Corporate Data info:
Salary.com purchases hundreds of salary surveys each year, and applies the best practices originally developed by the American Compensation Association (now WorldatWork).
Salary.com’s team of Certified Compensation Professionals match jobs by their job description (job title matching and surveys that used job title matching are not used). Data is aged to a common date and outliers are removed. Finally the data may be sliced or adjusted to reflect the conditions prevalent in a particular location, size of employer, and industry.
Salary.com also offers executive compensation data derived from searching and matching corporate proxy filings and from surveys of incentive pay practices.
Now, I’m not about to audit their results, but it looks about as reliable as you can get, especially if you dig deeper into the certification process offered by WorldatWork. And that wraps up the practical side of the employee worth question for this post.
As for the philosophical side of the question, just remember this – it’s up to you, and no one else, to decide what you’re worth to a company.
When you know the value you can deliver to a company, it’s much easier to make the right decision about any position you choose to pursue. Keep that firmly in mind before you start playing with salary wizards, okay?
Posted by Administrator on November 7th, 2006 | No Comments
There’s a gap between your experience and what the hiring company wants, and you know it.
You’ll almost never find a perfect fit between who you are and the wish list any company puts out there. So how do you close the gap?
Education is one powerful way, and no, I’m not talking about going out and getting a full-on college degree. Even if you’re between positions and keeping your spending to a minimum, there’s bound to be some cost-effective options available to you.
First off, you have to be very clear on the type of career opportunity you’re after. Then start looking for common skills in the job descriptions for that field – ones you may not have in your toolkit. Yet.
Now, jump right in, start working on the new skill you need, and make sure you put it on your resume! Don’t worry that you haven’t mastered it by the time you head into an interview. When it comes up, turn it into a positive by saying something like:
“I know this skill is important to the position, and so I’ve started doing X, Y, and Z to master it.”
Doing this shows you’re a self-starter, you invest in your career path, and you’ve been paying attention to the company’s needs. And that makes you stand out from the crowd.
But how to get started? A few ideas for you:
- Go to your network. Does someone you know already have the skills you need? Ask that person how to get up to speed fast.
- Google it. Whatever the skill is, type it in a search along with words like “tips,” “articles,” “tutorials,” “guide,” or “class.” Throwing a “free” in the search terms is okay, but could rule out some low-cost options in your results.
- Check with your local technical, vocational, or community college – these often offer very affordable classes.
- Your local library can point you to other adult education resources in your area.
And finally, don’t look at the cost of education, in money or time. Look at it this way: If a $100 class could help you land a job paying just $5,000 more than your last position, that’d be worth the investment, right? You bet.
And that’s a conservative number. What if taking a class could help land you $25,000 or more a year? Right. You’re a fast learner. 
Now go hit the books!
Posted by Administrator on November 2nd, 2006 | No Comments
