After watching the winter Olympics and marveling at the level of athletic excellence displayed by the athletes over the past few weeks, I got to thinking about what job seekers can learn from these amazing athletes. Time after time the difference between earning a metal or not ranking came down to superb coaching, practice and finely honed technique.

In today’s highly competitive job market the same holds true for job seekers. It is not enough to be good, you need to be great to get placed with an employer. Let’s take a closer look what that means for your job search strategy.

Olympic athletes leave nothing to chance. They have a clearly defined winning strategy. They choreograph every stage of their event. By that I mean they have a clear sense of how they will begin, how they will proceed and how they will finish their performance. They have a clear and strong winning strategy in place. How solid are you in all the elements of your career search strategy? Do you have a clear sense of every step of your job search process? If you don’t, you are going to be passed by other job seekers who know what they are doing.

Olympians use coaches to mentor and correct potentially costly mistakes. Are you using a career expert to advise you in your career search strategy? If not you are not getting vital help to give you a competitive advantage.

Olympians rely on cutting edge methodology and technology to give themselves every advantage in their performance. You are relying on yesterday’s career methodologies to compete in today’s job search? Are you hanging on old ways of doing a job search because it is comfortable instead of stretching and pushing yourself to be more up to date? If you want to be noticed and get interviews you need to adopt new methods for doing an effective job search.

And finally, are you practicing like an Olympian? Are you fully engaged and committed to investing the time and energy it takes to place? Good enough will not cut it. It takes hours and hours to come up with clear and compelling SAR (Situation-Action-Result) stories that will showcase your strengths and achievements.

I hope you enjoyed watching the winter Olympics as much as I did.  Now it’s time to remember the lessons from the athletes for top performance and apply them to your career strategy job search.

Gary Prehn is a Career Management Solutions Career Advisor in Southern California.

I had dinner with my parents the other night, and in the course of the conversation my mother started talking about her dad and what he did to earn a living through the Great Depression.  I had never heard those stories before . . . or perhaps I just wasn’t listening.  It was  interesting and perhaps instructive for those of you who are without work during this current economic downturn.

Mom says that grandpa was without regular work for about 10 years. During that time he did whatever odd jobs he could to pay the rent and put food on the table. He worked on a friend’s ranch in Eastern Oregon and did day labor when he could find it. Grandpa heard that the railroad was hiring in Portland, so in early December of 1941 he found his way to the big city. That day was December 7th — the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor marking the U.S. entry into WWII. Needless to say, when grandpa got to Portland the railroad was no longer hiring.

Too old to enlist in the war, grandpa stayed with his brother-in-law and went about looking for work wherever he could find it. After many fits and starts, he finally got hired on with a trucking company where he spent the rest of his working career. He learned about the opportunity from a friend, and followed up.  Luckily that opportunity turned into a long lasting career.

For several years the family lived in NW Portland in a house with 3 other families — and only ONE bathroom!  It’s all they could afford.  They got along and enjoyed each others company even thought times were tough.

I’ll bet there is a similar story in your family. Since I heard mom tell that story, I’ve been wondering “what can WE learn from those past experiences?”  Well, several things. . .

1. Things are tough right now, but not nearly as bad as they have been. The country has come through worse economic times, and we WILL weather this storm.  Work to keep a positive attitude and together we can make it through this economic crisis.
2. Our grandparents (or great-grandparents) did whatever the had to do in order to put food on the table.  How many unemployed people today are willing to take a subsistence job for a time in order to keep themselves afloat until something better comes along?
3. Follow up on opportunities your hear about through others.  Today we call it “networking”, but I doubt grandpa used that specific word for it.
4. Everything is temporary. The Great Depression was temporary.  WWII was temporary.  Your last job was temporary.  So will you next job be temporary.  What are YOU doing to focus on the long term?
5. Enjoy each other.  Even though my mom and her family lived in a house with several other families and only one bathroom, she tells me they enjoyed each other.  They were a generally loving family, taking care of each other and providing emotional security in a world where it was severely lacking.

I encourage you to talk to someone in your own family who has a memory of how things were a few generations ago.  I think it will put perspective on the challenges we are all facing, and perhaps give us some hope to move boldly into the future!

Just one more thing — Peter Clayton of Total Picture Radio believes recruiter confidence is picking up.  He writes, “According to the latest ExecuNet Recruiter Confidence Index, a growing number of companies are adding new executive jobs, and fewer are eliminating them, leading executive recruiters to confirm economic recovery is beginning to take hold.” You can listen to the podcast at: Total Picture Radio (with Peter Clayton).

When you go through a grocery line today the bagger asks you how you want your items packed. “Paper or plastic?”  Many stores do not even offer us an option. They hand us our items bagged in plastic. There was a time when all groceries were packed into paper bags. Plastic bags were uncommon but not anymore. Today plastic bags are the norm.

Last week I stated that traditional jobs were going away. I recommended that it was time to change your career strategy and stop looking for jobs and start looking for work. The insight I want to share with you this week is that work used to be packed in paper bags but today it is being packed into plastic bags. There is work to be found but more and more companies are offering it in unconventional ways.

We are used to looking for work packed into job positions with clear cut duties. The jobs were offered in a paper bag called full-time, or permanent work. Today many employers are packaging work into plastic bags called projects, temporary work or contract work.

What is happening?  Companies are finding that they have to be flexible and nimble in order to compete in today’s market. They need to enlarge their workforce on short notice in order to produce a product or service. Once they have achieved their objectives they need to reduce their workforce rather than pay out wages to idle employees.

Think about the difference between paper bags and plastic bags.  A big paper grocery sack could hold a lot of groceries. You could pack many items neatly into one bag. The bags had a rigid shape and fairly predictable volume of room. Traditional jobs were like paper bags, sturdy and dependable.

But today employers are packing much of their work into plastic bags. Work today is much more flexible, odd shaped and comes in smaller units. Plastic bags are a better container for holding or assigning work.

Be careful that you do not overlook, ignore, or turn down work because it is being offering in “plastic” as contract work, temporary work or as a consulting assignment and not offered as “paper,” a full-time job. Plastic not paper is the new norm for work today.

So, which is it for you?  Paper or plastic?

“How much did they pay you to give up on your dreams?”

That’s a direct quote from George Clooney in the movie Up In The Air. My wife and I saw it yesterday, and it really made an impact on me.  One, because this is some of the work I have been doing for the last 16 months – not the firing part, but the part about helping people move past the job loss on to a new opportunity.  Two, because it deals with an issue that more that 20% of us have had to face in the last 12-18 months — losing a job and its affect on our career, family, psyche and life.

I won’t spoil the movie for you. You should really go see it.

Now read this next part carefully, because if you don’t you may think I’m saying that working isn’t important.  I’m not saying that at all.  Our jobs allow us to exchange time for money.  Money allows us to purchase the things we want and need — i.e. food, clothing shelter, and cool stuff like iPhones and computers.  The problem is that too many of us take a job to pay the bills then end up settling for something less than we really want.  We work our jobs and they consume us.  We get tired and worn out.  Something has to give, so we settle.  We HAVE to have a job, so we give up on the one thing that really matters to us . . . our dreams.

If you have lost your job recently you have been forced into something that you didn’t want and which doesn’t feel very comfortable.  The good news is that the time you have been given may just be the ticket you need to re-focus on what really matters to you. I hope you will take the time to do that, even though it may be uncomfortable (or even a bit painful).

When our clients are evaluating their next career position we coach them to look at 4 things:

1. Job Satisfaction
2. Growth Opportunities
3. Proper Environment
4. Compensation ($$$)

When you evaluate your next position you should look for a balance of these 4 things.  If you don’t, you will probably have an opportunity to do it again within 18 months.  That’s because studies show that more than 50% of all employees are dissatisfied with their current job.  Nearly half of them state that they are looking for a new position. I assure you, that will be YOU if you don’t try to balance job satisfaction, growth opportunities, proper environment and compensation within your next position.

You don’t have to settle.  You don’t have to take a position that will suck the life out of you. You don’t have to give up on your dreams…and I hope you don’t, because life is just too short!

Happy Hunting!

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Your network let you down?  Really?

If you feel like your network has let you down, then you really don’t understand what a network is, how to develop it, or how to use it to help you in the job search.  Listen up, kids.  There WILL BE a test at the end of this post, and if you fail you will add several months (not weeks . . . MONTHS) to your job search.

What you must understand first and foremost is that networking is NOT about you. Ever.  It’s about connecting people to help them get what they want or need. Anything that comes your way out of networking is a bi-product of you connecting other people. Many job seekers don’t understand this, and thus, are frustrated when their network doesn’t produce the results they think it should.  Many job seekers think the network is there to serve them, to pass along job leads, or to help them get a foot in the door. That is NOT what a network is for.  YOU exist to serve the network. The network is not there to serve you.

Here’s the tricky part. It is a proven fact that most people find their job because of a network connection.  They know somebody who knows somebody who needs what that particular job seeker has to offer. Your name gets passed along as a potential fit, and before you know it you are sitting in an interview.  Somehow that confusingly gets turned into, “my network is there to help me find a job.”  Look closer, because that’s not what is happening at all.  That scenario is not about YOU, it’s about the person or company that has a need for something.  Your name gets passed along because you have built up trust and respect within your network.  You are the connection that helps the other person fulfill their need.  Don’t ever get this confused, because that’s when people feel that their network has let them down. In fact the opposite is true — YOU have let down YOUR NETWORK.  You haven’t shown yourself to be trustworthy, so nobody passed along your name as a potential solution to the other person’s problem. Bitter medicine, perhaps, but that’s the way it works!

In their book, Trust Agents, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith offer a mathematic formula for trust.  (It’s not theirs originally, but that’s where I saw it, so they get the credit.) The formula goes like this:

(C x R x I) / S = T

That is, CREDIBILITY times RELIABILITY times INTIMACY, divided by SELF-ORIENTATION equals TRUST.  The key here, as I see it, is to understand that as SELF-ORIENTATION (or self-interest) increases, your TRUST factor decreases.  The more you are in it for yourself, the less trust you obtain. Networks are driven by trust.

So, the next time you feel like your network has let you down check your heart and clarify your motives.  Others can tell if you are there for yourself or for them, and they won’t tolerate it.

What’s your TRUST factor?

When I asked for input on what to write about in this blog I received the following request from Doug:

“I would be interested in hearing about effective uses of time when you are looking for work.  How much time should be spent on internet search engines, linkedin, attending network marketing meetings, having one-on-one network meetings, time spend with an accountability partner, exercising, prayer/meditation, time spent not working on the job search (I feel guilty doing this), volunteering, or other valuable uses of time.  Alternately, what are poor uses of time.  As I go through this process, I have been advised to do everything and say a yes to everything.”

This is a GREAT question Doug, I’m glad you asked it. Let me take a shot at answering it. . .

Going through the job search process is challenging.  Because it’s so new to most of us, choosing how to spend out time each day/week/month can be confusing.  On top of the confusion there are several pressing issues, such as:

• our husband/wife wondering when we will find a job and asking us daily what we did to accomplish that goal.
• our own feelings of self worth (or lack thereof) — let’s be honest, in our culture one of the first questions asked when we meet a new person is, “What do you do?”  If we “don’t” then how do we answer that question?
• advice from everyone and their brother as to how we should navigate this time – “go to everything you can”  “put this on your resume” “don’t put that on your resume” “always wear a tie when you leave the house” “don’t dress to formal or people will know you are unemployed” and so on.
• a feeling that sometimes we just want to curl up in bed and avoid the whole thing.
• a desire to make the most of this time with family and friends — “After all, I have a lot more free time now that I don’t have work getting in the way.  So why do I feel guilty when I’m out enjoying myself with the kids?”

As someone who has helped hundreds of people successfully navigate unemployment and career transition this past year, let me share with you some of what I see to be most effective uses of your time in this process.

1. Don’t bother spending more than about 30 hours per week in the job search.  There are physical, social and psychological effects of being on a job search that make it unproductive for us when we go past 30 hours per week.  I know you are supposed to consider your job search to be a “full time job”, so for our purposes let’s consider 30 hours to be “full time.”
2. Spend some at least 20 minutes EVERY DAY doing some form of physical exercise.  Go for a walk. Go go the gym. Play with your kids on the jungle gym.  Exercise is good for clearing out the brain and increasing energy.
3. Don’t spend more than 37 minutes per day on the computer. Likewise, DON’T go online during daylight hours.  Think about it, if 80% of jobs are found through some form of networking, then you should spend at least 80% of your time networking.  The internet will be there when you get home, after everyone is in bed.  Heck, you are probably going to be awake at 3:00 this morning anyway.  If you spend the whole day online, what will you have to do when you wake up in the middle of the night?
4. Have a networking strategy and stick to your plan.  This is tricky, because your plan should evolve as you progress in your job search.  I would recommend that early on in your search you attend lots of events where other job seekers hang out.  These are great places to meet new people, develop and practice your elevator pitch, and get some support.  However, within 6-8 weeks you want to begin moving AWAY from those kinds of events to places where potential employers and people close to potential employers hang out. The former of these events will usually be free.  The latter may cost you something.  That’s why you want to work out the bugs in your verbal and printed “brand image” in the early stages of your job search.  And yes, Doug, this means you will say no to some things. You want to be strategic!
5. An accountability partner is a great idea! Plan to check in once a week for at least an hour.  Take notes and hold each other accountable for goals set at the previous meeting.  Choose wisely. To be successful at this you need to choose someone who will kick your butt — not be your friend.

Some of the activities that have proven to be the worst use of time for job seekers include:

1. Spending time on the Internet job boards – less than 6% of all available jobs are posted on these boards. If you were digging for gold, wouldn’t you want to spend your time in a place where other people have found gold rather than someplace where the prospects for finding gold are shallow?  Well guess what. . . you ARE digging for gold! The best place to find it is through your network of friends and colleagues.
2. Writing/revising your resume (or your LinkedIn profile. Or your Visual CV. . . ). Yeah, I know, you NEED a resume.  It needs to be polished and professional.  However, your resume is a dynamic, living document. It will need to be revised continuously throughout your career.  Work on it a little at a time and track your improvement.  Besides, YOU are your best resume, so get out there and show people what you have to offer!
3. Simultaneously, paying someone to write your resume for you is a huge waste of both time and money – unless you are a high level executive commanding a 7 figure salary.  If you feel the need to pay someone, pay them to coach you how to write a quality resume. You are going to go through the job search process again in the future, so this is a skill that is worth learning as best you can! Besides, the tools you use to write a resume will be extremely helpful in interviews, and it’s pretty tough to get a professional resume writer to go with you to an interview!

This is just a beginning list of how to structure your job search efforts.  The key is to have a strategic plan with specific goals that you can track and measure each day/week.  We have more resources on this topic inside the Careers 2.0 membership site.  The Basic Membership is free, so sign up and take a look!

Thanks for asking Doug!

How about the rest of you?  What would YOU like to read about in this blog?

Related Posts:

• Our 4 Step Process for Writing An Elevator Pitch
• How To Conduct An Informational Interview
• What Is A Personal Brand And Why Do You Need One?
• How to Work With A Recruiter In Your Job Search
• Why A Great Resume Is Not As Important As A Decent Network

In the Careers 2.0 job search process we compare the job search to the work of the sales and marketing professional.  This new and powerful model for job seekers may a bit unusual but it really works! In our model your resume is part of your marketing packet, and the interviews are where you proceed through the 5 steps of the sales process to make the sale.  In this article we take an in-depth look at the interview from the perspective of a professional sales person.  Granted, this approach will be uncomfortable for those of you who aren’t used to selling.  You may not like this approach.  You may not even choose to use this approach.  However, I encourage you to take a serious look at it and see what you can learn from a pro about making this very important sale – YOURSELF.

There are many sales models out there, and professional sales people will argue over the effectiveness of their preferred choice.  However, they all boil down to a few simple steps that, when followed, will help turn a prospect into a buyer. The five steps I see most often are:

1. Identify needs (or problems)
2. Qualify buyers
3. Present solutions
4. Handle objections
5. Close the sale

1)   Identify Needs. The needs identification process begins before you write your resume.  You want to have a clear understanding of what you have to offer and a specific knowledge of who needs it.  In the Careers 2.0 process this is step I and II – Assessment and Research. You want to make this step as precise as possible. Every good sales person will tell you that knowing your target audience is key to making the sale.  You don’t want to waste your time (or theirs) talking to people who don’t have need of your product or services. When you identify the needs or problems of your prospective employer you can prepare your interview questions and answers to demonstrate why you are the perfect candidate.

2)   Qualify Buyers. If you are selling cars, it is vitally important to know if you are talking to someone who is a serious buyer or just a “tire kicker.”  Likewise, in the job interview, you want to determine as quickly as possible if the person with whom you are meeting has the ability to make the hiring decision or if they are just trying to make a list to send up the food chain.  There are different tactics for each of these situations, and all of them equates to “making the sale.”  However, the “sale” in each instance may be different. In the interview process, “making the sale” equates to getting a job offer when you are meeting with someone who has hiring authority. In all other cases “making the sale” means “getting the next interview.” (For a deeper explanation of different types of interviews see “The Art Of Interviewing To Land Your Perfect Job”)

3)   Present Solutions. The most often and effective sales technique used by sales professionals combines asking questions with making a specific sales pitch.  You want to make certain that the prospect is engaged with you and still wants or needs your services.  To do that you will ask questions that help you identify/magnify the pain and simultaneously check to see if the prospect is still willing and able to buy.  In an interview you will most likely not be the one to ask the bulk of the questions.  However, a good job candidate will listen carefully, ask probing questions, and present her answers so as to address the specific problems that the interviewer has. This takes skill and practice!  We aren’t used to listening actively in our culture.  But it’s a skill you had better learn and practice if you want the job.  You can be certain that your most qualified competition has taken the time to learn how to listen and ask deep, probing questions.

4)   Handle Objections. This is where you have an opportunity to show your prospective employer why you are uniquely suited for the position.  If you have done a good job of steps 1 – 3, you will know ahead of time what objections might come up.  They typically fall into 2 categories: a) experience and b) personality.

1. Experience. Be aware that these objections may be left unspoken, so you will have to utilize your experience and intuition to know they exist.  The best way to overcome the experience objection is to come back to the needs the employer has addressed and highlight your ability to help fill their needs. Use your quantified CARS statements to show specifically how you have dealt with this issue in your past.
2. For personality objections, you will want to help the interviewer envision you in the position.  They want to know how well you will work with a team, how you will interact with leadership, and how well your personality fits with the corporate culture.  The best way to let them know this is to ask direct questions about the company, culture, and co-workers. It’s important that you feel a good fit as well, otherwise you will be at this job search again rather soon.

5)   Close the Sale. Sales professionals have a variety of “closing techniques” in their sales quiver.  These techniques have funny names like “the which close,” “the trial close,” “the take away,” and even “the red dress close.” Honestly, in my opinion, most of these techniques give sales people a bad name (can you say, “used car salesman?”). I recommend that most job seekers refrain from the use of such techniques. There are, however, some softer closing techniques that will help you move forward in the interview process.  I recommend the following 3 step approach.  This is what I call “the job interview soft close.”

1. Clarify with the interviewer that you have adequately addressed all of their needs, concerns and objections. Some good questions to use here include: “have I adequately addressed all of your concerns?” and “How do you feel my experience and qualifications meet your needs for this position?”
2. Ask for the “sale.”  Every sales trainer I know says that most sales are lost because the sales person did not ask for the sale.  One way to do this (softly) is by asking, “What are the next steps in this process?” This indicates your willingness to move forward and will give the interviewer an opportunity to end the interview process if it’s not going anywhere.  You could also ask, “After reviewing my qualifications, how well do you see me fitting into this position?”
3. Get a firm commitment for following up.  If the interviewer tells you he will call you next week, say, “Which day?  I’ve got several engagements next week and I want to be sure to block out some time for you.”  If they give you a day, ask what time.  Ask if it is ok to check back with them directly in 3 days to see where they are in the decision making process.  Get a direct phone number to call. Set a firm date and time and don’t forget to make the call at exactly that time. Treat that follow up call in the same way you did the face-to-face interview – which means you need to dress in business clothes and call from a quiet location, etc.

For more help on nailing the job interview be sure to sign up for email updates.  If you need more assistance with your job search consider checking out my book, “Career Crossroads” (affiliate link).

Job Interviews / Interviewing Related Posts

• Want to Ace the Behavioral Interview?
• How To Conduct An Informational Interview
• The Art of Interviewing to Land Your Perfect Job
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As a job seeker, you have a resume and you send it to every possible job opening you can find.  You make sure every recruiter in town has at least one copy on her desk. It’s posted in 6 places on Monster.com and 4 places on CareerBuilder.com. You hand it out like those guys hocking strip-show fliers on 5th Avenue in New York City.  You even sent one to your best friend’s mother, simply because she seems to know everybody!  But how effective is your resume, really?

Are you getting the results you want from it?  Are you getting enough interviews?  Do you even KNOW what “good results” would look like?

Have no fear, my friends, we are here to take the pain and confusion out of writing an effective resume.  Here’s the inside scoop on getting the most out of your resume:

1. Define expected results. The first thing you need to do is determine what purpose your resume will play in your job search efforts.  Do you want to use it to get a foot in the door?  Do you want it to help you “close the sale?”  Or, do you want your resume to simply be something that your prospective employer has in their hands to help them rest assured that they have made the right decision by hiring you?  Any of these are legitimate uses for a resume, but you need to know how yo intend to use this important document in order to be able to craft it to effectively achieve your goals.
2. Begin with a clear Professional Summary. If you are lucky you will get 8 seconds worth of attention from the person reading your resume.  You have got to grab their attention so they will read further.  A banal, boring, or uninteresting summary will send them on to the next person.  I see way too many resume’s that begin with some kind of “objective statement” to the effect, “desire a challenging career that utilizes my strengths.”  BFD.  I bet the hiring manager who reads this will get 500 or more with the same objective.  What in that statement will make you stand out from the others? More importantly, what do you have to offer a potential employer?  Your resume is a marketing tool similar to a newspaper ad.  If you want to grab the attention of the reader you’ve got to have a compelling headline.  Otherwise, they will move on to the next one without giving you a second thought.
3. Give proof. Once you have their attention you need to back up your statement with credible, verifiable results to prove that you are capable of doing what you say you can do.  Use CAR Statements in the body of your resume to demonstrate your capabilities. Don’t just state responsibilities.  Give specific examples of how your actions have helped previous employers make or save money.  For example, every Office Manager could put on their resume that they “order, organize and monitor office supply cabinet.”  Big deal.  Nothing in that statement would be enough to get you an interview.  Just think of what might happen if, instead, you put down something like: “saved previous employer $12,000 per year by developing a process to effectively order and manage office supplies.”  I can tell you what happened, because one of my clients put that on her resume and got several interviews because of it. Show “proof” and you will stand out from the competition.
4. Develop an effective follow up strategy. You probably have figured out that using a shotgun approach in your job search is not very effective.  It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but a narrowly focused, laser-beam strategy will produce much better results. If you don’t have a strategy for your job search you may want to check out the Careers 2.0 ARMS process.  It has helped hundreds of other job seekers find their perfect job in half the time, and Basic Membership is free!

If you aren’t seeing the results you want from your current resume, perhaps it’s time to try something different.  These 4 tips have been time tested and will definitely produce results, I guarantee it!

Resume Advice Related Posts

• How To Write a Professional Summary Statement for Your Resume
• 4 Examples of A Professional Summary Statement
• 3 Different Types of Resumes You Need To Know About
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Your job search is a tough process.  Perhaps it’s time for a little comedy relief.  These videos all poke fun at the  job interview.  Best of all, they will show you what NOT to do!

Have you ever felt like THIS in a job interview?

This one is my favorite. Definitely outside-of-the-box thinking.

This guys pretty much does EVERYTHING wrong! Don’t do ANY of these things and your interview should go well.

Happy Hunting folks!

Job Interviews / Interviewing Related Posts

• Want to Ace the Behavioral Interview?
• How To Conduct An Informational Interview
• The Art of Interviewing to Land Your Perfect Job
• 101 Job Interview Questions
• How to Nail The Job Interview