I was in a “bad relationship” with my employer.  Not bad enough to leave, but bad enough to know I didn’t like it there.  It wasn’t healthy for me at all, and I should have left. The experience helped me realize there’s a lot more to a job than just a paycheck, no matter how good it is.

What’s on your list of must-have’s in a new role?

I explored this a little bit on this post: Blue Collar Job Search – What Do You Want in a Job

I put that post together for a friend who was in transition.  He wasn’t sure what kind of environment he wanted to work in, which was affecting his ability to narrow down companies, titles, roles, etc.  This list was quite helpful.

I found a new list on recruitingblogs from Paul Crowley.  The post is titled What do you get from a job besides a paycheck?

It’s an important post to read. If you don’t understand the answers to those questions, you might get stuck in a job that just isn’t right for you. The culture might be wrong.  The way you are appreciated might not fit.  The non-monetary compensation might be out of line.  The ethics might cross lines that you never wanted to cross.

Go through Paul’s list right now.  Answering those questions, and the questions I pose in my post above, can give you focus and clarity in your search.

As a recruiter, Amy has frustrations with job seekers…. and I’m sure she’s seen all kinds of bad behavior. Read her letter to you here. Her advice is bulleted below, but you MUST read her post, or you’ll miss the message:

• Know yourself
• Find companies that hire what you are
• Talk to her (the recruiter)
• Apply selectively
• Be patient (with a link to a story of job seeker patience that paid off)

What do you think? Are you different than the typical job seeker? Are you better than the average recruiter candidate?

I thought I was, too.

Turned out I was exactly like the rest of them.

Read Amy’s letter, and differentiate yourself from the rest!

The thinking is valid… to a degree.

Here is what they are trying to say, and my take:

Google is the new resume: Why use the boring old two page document that no one likes?  Instead, I should be able to Google you and see how amazing and qualified you are.

Here’s my take: The search results for someone on Google have a long ways to go before they will replace a resume, for many reasons:

• A resume is a succinct document that summarizes your career and qualifications, and should be customized for the industry, job title or company.  Google results are hodgepodge results, thrown together by a search engine, and not controlled by the candidate.
• A resume is accepted by the people making the decision, or weighing in.  The format is common and familiar.  If you have to run someone by 10 people, are you going to forward their Google search results and let people figure out what is good and what to ignore, or are you going to forward their resume?  Everyone knows what a resume is, and how to read it. Not everyone knows how to sift through search results.
• A resume is part of the ingrained (defined: Firmly fixed or established; difficult to change.) hiring process. When has HR even moved fast on anything, much less something as ingrained as the resume?
• Even if a candidate could control the Google search results (see Vizibility if you want to attempt this), many people don’t have anything that will come up when you search for them… which goes to the next point….

If you aren’t on Google (or LinkedIn), you don’t exist: Recruiters and hiring decision makers and influencers look for talent on search engines, mostly Google.  If they search for, for example, a project manager in Seattle who is certified and has 20 years experience in a certain industry, and that matches you exactly, but you don’t have a good Google presence or a LinkedIn profile that comes up, you don’t exist, they wont’ find you, and you will miss out.  In short, you don’t exist.

Here’s my take: Recruiters are not as shallow and simple as this. Many recruiters I know are networkers who spend more time on the phone and hanging at industry events. If they are looking for you, they will ask their network, who are hopefully your colleagues in your company and other companies in your area.  You’ll be harder to find, but that’s the challenge a recruiter accepts.  If everyone was easy to find in a Google or LinkedIn search, the value of a recruiter would be diminished.  Valuable recruiters specialize in finding the hard-to-find talent… whether they are online or not!

Will technology replace the resume?  Perhaps, eventually, but not anytime soon.

Cover letters are kind of hard to write.  Maybe they are more of a pain, really, than they are hard to write. And anything that is a pain to job seekers is questioned… “waa, waa, do we really need to spend more than 3 minutes on this thing?  Waa…”

It seems that if we have to take more than a few clicks to do something in our job search, it’s a waste of our time.

Not true with cover letters.

Let me share an experience I had this morning.  It was with a LinkedIn introduction, not a cover letter, but the concept is similar.

I got a LinkedIn introduction request from someone who I didn’t recognize.  Turns out, I have a reason to recognize the name, but it had slipped my mind when I saw the introduction request.  The person was asking for an introduction to a really big name at a big organization.

I sent it on to my contact, who would forward it to his contact.  I wasn’t able to write a very strong “you must forward this on, this is a great person who isn’t going to waste your contact’s time.”  But I forwarded it on anyway.

My contact immediately wrote me back and said “I need more information before I forward this on to my contact, who I have to be careful with. ”  In other words, people are cautious about what they forward on… if there is something that might affect your brand, or your relationship with your contact, would you send it on for a stranger?

NO!

The original introduction was vague.  Here are two things that would have added a lot to the request, and put the request in context:

1. “Hey Jason, remember me?  I am the person who ___________….”  Even if you think you are close to the person you are communicating with, it’s always helpful to remind them of who you are and why you have a relationship (where you met, etc.).  It never hurts to add this information, which can help remind me of why we are talking.
2. “I’d like to talk to Ms. XYZ because _________ and __________.”  The reality is, I’m not in a position to be the gatekeeper.  And if I pass on something without substance to Ms. XYZ, do you think she is going to trust what I give her next time?  In this case, there was someone between me and Ms. XYZ, and as another gatekeeper, he wasn’t going to pass anything on unless there was a real reason.  I can’t tell you how many times people want to get on the phone just to chat and pick my brain. My contact wasn’t going to allow an introduction to get to Ms. XYZ just for a brain picking… or else he would risk his relationship with Ms. XYZ.

This is the exact same thing I’ve heard from people who get resumes.  If you send a resume in without some kind of context, and something to set you apart, or explain something that you can’t really explain within the boundaries of a resume, you end up in the pile with a thousand other undifferentiated resumes.

But when you use a cover letter to explain a little more about you, or why you are so perfect for this job, or to add context to your application, you are filling in the blanks for the recipient.

Will it be read every time, by everyone who touches your resume?  Not necessarily.  But it could mean the difference between which pile you go into (the No pile, the Maybe pile, or the Short List pile).

Take the extra time to prepare a customized cover letter, and don’t risk it.

Check out this post on Recruiting Blogs by Katie, titled Personality vs. Qualified.  She talks about a challenge that regularly comes up.  No matter how fair anything should be, there are always nuances, and biases, and circumstances… so there is not one “right answer.”

Here’s Katie’s advice, which should help you interview better:

“Show interest and spunk in an interview and make sure you have done your research on the position you are interviewing for and what the job duties will entail. It really isn’t a “tough world out there”, if you just put some time and effort into your interview process. Show your passion. And if you don’t end up getting hired at that certain company– I’m sure in the long run it really was not a good fit anyway.”

Let’s break this advice down:

• Show interest and spunk in an interview: You don’t have to fake this.  If you are really interested, it should show without any special effort.
• Make sure you have done your research on the position you are interviewing for and what the job duties will entail: If you ask a question that I, as the interviewer, thinks you should already know the answer to, I’ll think you are too lazy to simple web research, or you are not as interested as the 5 others who asked better questions.
• ….if you just put some time and effort into your interview process: Does your interviewer feel like you haven’t put any time into your interview?  Or do they feel like you are well-prepared?  Who do you think they are going to hire?  The one who cares about the position enough to put time into it, or the one who is just throwing mud up on the walls to see what sticks??
• Show your passion: Two parts to this… first, like in bullet one, be interested!  Second, know the right questions to ask to show you are passionate. If you are passionate, let it show… don’t keep it quiet.
• … if you don’t end up getting hired at that certain company– I’m sure in the long run it really was not a good fit anyway: If you let getting passed over affect your attitude, it will affect your entire job search.  What you want and need is coming, even if it looks different than what you thought it would be.

Katie has great interviewing advice – take time to digest this and become a better interviewee!

I was looking for someone to catch a grammar mistake, or a spelling error.

I was hoping someone would think it was awesome and walk it down to their boss, so they could offer me a job.

And of course, I was hoping someone would say “WOW!  You are way better than I thought you were!  I’m going to hire you!”

Pipe dreams, I know.

Unfortunately, I got praising feedback:

“This is awesome! You’ll get hired quick!”

and,

“Nothing to change, this is perfect!”

Of course, this was ego-stroking feedback.  It felt good.  It empowered me.  I was excited to use this resume I put together, myself.

But I said it was unfortunate… and here’s why: The people who got my resume were the wrong people to critique it.

Even though they had been hiring managers, and one was a senior level HR manager, they were the wrong people.

None of them critiqued for grammar or spelling.  They all thought “this is Jason… and he is awesome, and here is the data to prove it.”

They were biased going in.

I get asked to review resumes all the time.  Since I speak on job search and LinkedIn and networking, and I run a job search organizer (JibberJobber.com), and I’ve written some books on this stuff.  I’m in front of lots of job seekers all the time, and some of them think I’m pretty smart.

So why wouldn’t I review your resume?

Because I’m not detail oriented.

And I don’t know enough about your, or your industry, or the companies you are applying to, etc.

And I’m really not staying up on resume stuff, like a professional resume writer is.  Professional resume writers are not typists… they are experts in your personal marketing document (aka, your resume).

Go ahead and “get feedback” from your friends and family.  But until you run your resume through a real resume professional, who is giving you qualified feedback.  If you want Career Resumes to critique your resume, click here.

Be careful who you listen to!

But it affects every job seeker I’ve met.  And their spouse, kids, parents, neighbors, etc.

This is the pink elephant of the job search… not many talk about it, or know how to deal with it.  I’m thankful to Alison Doyle, the job search expert at About.com, for pointing me to a colleague’s post: Top 8 Tips for Living with Depression

Normally, when I write a post like this, I share the 8 tips…. and ask you to go read the original post for more details.  My fear is that sometimes people read the 8 tips and think “oh, I know all about that, I don’t need to read more details on that tip…”  That’s what I do, anyway.

I hope that you really, really click through and read the entire post.  This is a life-saving concept.  It can save you, your sanity, your marriage, your relationship with loved ones, your career… and probably more.

With hesitation, I share the 8 tips.  But please, please click through to read the post – don’t just assume you have a grasp on any of these 8:

1. Join a support group,
2. Reduce your stress,
3. Improve your sleep hygiene,
4. Improve your eating habits,
5. Learn how to stop negative thoughts,
6. Beat procrastination,
7. Get a handle on your household chores,
8. Learn how to forgive

You knew about those, right?  And you know how to deal with each one?  I am sure I do too… but please, go to the original post to see more information on how to do each one better than you are now.

One of the most common issues that comes up is discrimination – specifically, age discrimination.

Chris Russell, at Secrets of the Job Hunt, wrote a post titled How to fight age discrimination.  It is a collection of four posts… here are my two favorite:

How to Fight Age Discrimination, from a legal perspective (on eHow).  There are four steps, including have documentation (see the post for what to document), find the EEOC office nearest you, file the complaint in person, and then file the complaint (aka, charge) by mail.

Fight Age Discrimination in Your Job Hunt – Manage Your Digital Footprint, by Keppie Careers.  With regard to social media, Miriam says: “It can help keep you looking young in a job market with a tendency to discriminate against older workers.”  I agree.  Having some kind of activity, or strategy, can make it look like you are current in today’s world.  Check out this post on LinkedIntelligence, about a guy who met someone in marketing who hadn’t heard about LinkedIn… if you are in marketing, you better know what LinkedIn is, don’t you think??

We all face discrimination of some kind … it might be age, it might be race, religion, accent, size, height, hair color, lack of hair… how can we get around discrimination and really show who we are? (hint: there is a way!)

I’m already thinking about this next year.

As a job seeker, I remember feeling hopelessness and helplessness.  Others could celebrate the time, and look forward with vigor and excitement, but when there is no light at the end of the tunnel it seemed that was a luxury we couldn’t afford.

In a couple of weeks I’ll celebrate my 6 year anniversary of getting laid off.

When I got laid off I had all kinds of emotions run through my body.  I was excited to be done with something that should have ended earlier.  I was scared to death of what the future would hold.  I was anxious to move on to the next phase.  I was hopeful that my next gig would be much, much better than my last gig.

It was all unknown.

I know have the benefit of looking back on the past.  I chose an untraditional route… that of business ownership and entrepreneur.

I went through my life savings, and borrowed money from family, to get this dream up.  I surrounded myself with amazing people, and moved forward, rarely looking back.

It was hard at first.  Not knowing where money was coming from, not knowing how long I could continue before I had to go to Plan B or C or D or E.  Relying on others for funding was weird, especially since it was family.  Not being able to count on a regular income creating new budgeting issues.  Learning how to get my business up and running was not easy.

There were plenty of 15+ hour days, as well as sleepless nights.

And then, one day, I was able to call my two investors and say “I think we don’t need any more investment money for a while… I’ll let you know if that changes.”  And once or twice I called on them, but for the most part the business has been self-sustaining.

We had done it.  We pulled out of the dark hole, of being hopeless and helpless, and were able to do it on our own.  We went from red to black, from no money and tons of time to descent money and not much time.

Looking back is lot easier and funner now than it was to look forward 6 years ago.

And that, my friends, is what I think about when I write to you.  I know you are in a dark, lonely, self-doubting place.  The future is dark and cloudy, with lots of question marks.

Let ME tell you, from this end of it, that you will do fine.  It will be hard, and you’ll sacrifice more, and it will be scary, but there will be a time when you look back and think “wow, we’re done with that period in our lives. I’m glad we landed okay.”

You will land.  Some of you will land in a traditional job.  Others will land in your own business.  But you will be okay.  You have to be okay.  That is our human nature – to fight, to live, to survive, and to be okay.

Keep fighting, even if it just feels like baby steps, one foot in front of the other.  And one day you’ll look back, like I can, and say “whew!  I did it!”

You will do it!

Some celebrate Christmas, some don’t.  Whether you celebrate or not, you are impacted by this holiday season.  The world seems to shut down.

So what do you do as a job seeker?

You can do all kinds of stuff … you can network (in a different way) with family and friends, or at church.  You could take some time and work on your communication (written, verbal, etc.). You could clean your office, regroup for the new year, go over your goals for the year and make a game plan for next year.

All of these things are great things to do.

I’d like to share something I learned in my job search… something I wish I would have done more:

ENJOY.

Seriously.

I know as a job seeker it’s hard to fathom you have as much to enjoy as you have had in years past… but if you honestly ask yourself what blessings you have, you should be able to list a few things. And if you are honest, you might be able to list a few more.

I remember seeing people who had a job (aka, steady paycheck, and no worries about where money was going to come from next month) and being jealous. It’s easier for them, I thought, because they didn’t have to worry about the simplest financial problems a job seeker worries about.

That was wrong, and toxic, thinking.

It’s so easy to get into that toxic place, with envy and comparisons.

I challenge you to spend the rest of this year listing ways you are blessed.

Who knows, maybe this exercise will help how others perceive you, your attitude will change, your strategies and tactics might change, and best of all, the results might change.

I dare you to try it