Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Sea Glass and the Job Search: Preparing


In the last two blogs, I've compared the job search to sifting through all of the pebbles on the beach to find the perfect piece of sea glass. We looked at Planning and Networking in the last two posts and today I give you Preparing.

This chapter (placed last for a reason) takes you through the tools you’ll need to put your job search into high gear. It includes resume types, behavioral interviewing, questioning techniques, and resources to find company information.

Resume:

If you completed the planning exercises in Sea Glass and the Job Search: Planning, you should be more comfortable identifying your strengths, weaknesses, skill set, personality and work values and are ready to create a resume template that will be formatted to the type of positions that interest you.

Your resume should include a Summary Statement highlighting your overall strengths and a listing of approximately six of your core strengths.

These core strengths should match or be similar to the key words and listed in the job posting and include both technical or professional wording and soft skills (such as communication, teamwork). Whether you chose a chronological, functional or combination resume, it is critical to use succinct sentences to describe your accomplishments. The hiring manager wants to see results; not a job description.

Interviewing:

A seasoned interviewer will ask behavioral questions using the STAR format because he or she wants to know what you DID in your past job rather than what you WOULD do.

STAR questioning allows you to take the interviewer through the steps you followed to accomplish an activity. STAR stands for Specific, Task, Actions taken and Results. An example of a STAR interviewing question is “Take me through a task or project that you completed where you had to work with a difficult customer. What happened? What were the results?”

It helps to look at all of your accomplishments as they relate to the new position and ask yourself STAR questions for each accomplishment, strength and weakness.

You should also be prepared with questions/statements such as:

Tell me about yourself.
What do you feel are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
Why should we select you?
What makes you want to work with us?



Make sure that you have several questions for the interviewer too. In your preparation, make sure to look at the company website as well as any recent articles about the company and its products and services. Some questions for the interviewer can be:

a. What are the short and long term goals of the company?
b. What is the vision of the department?
c. What is the company environment like?
d. What concerns need to be addressed immediately?
e. What do you see happening with this position for the next 3 to 6 months?
f. What are the particular attributes needed to succeed in this job?
g. What are the challenges a person coming to this job will face?



Resources:

For additional resume or interviewing help, please see some of my previous articles on The Patch or visit my website and refer to the Resources tab.

Hopefully this series, Sea Glass and the Job Search has clarified some of the confusion associated with beginning your job search and allow you to find your perfect job.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Sea Glass and the Job Search: Networking


If you've ever felt like that one pebble tossed among the thousands of other pebbles and rocks on the beach then you are not alone.

Networking can make you feel like that and for many people it’s hard, exhausting and an overwhelming yet critical step to the job search process. Critical in that 65% to 80% of people have found work through their networking contacts.

Added to the mix is the recent statistic that shows approximately 80% of companies using social media to search for job candidates.

The path to finding a job has always been “who you know” and now it has moved to “who you are connected to both socially, professionally and personally”.

Networking can be massive but if you break it down into a few manageable steps you can get out from under that mountain of pebbles. Here’s how.

Identify your strengths and specific accomplishments (see previous Patch post, Sea Glass and the Job Search - Planning) and feel comfortable talking about them.

Create a list of your personal, social and professional contacts. Include names, numbers, email addressess and any other pertinent information. Let your contacts know that you are looking for work and ask for their assistance. These people may know someone who can help you. Everyone has heard of someone who found a job from a friend, neighbor, dentist, hair stylist, or the woman on the train. The list goes on.

Create a formal and informal “Elevator Speech”. Here are two samples from the same person.
Informal (for friend, acquaintance, family): “As you may have heard, I am returning to the job market, specifically in writing and editing journals in the pharmaceutical industry. I have 10 years of experience and have even won several awards. Would you know anyone in the industry that I could call?”
Formal (for a professional meeting or networking event): “Hello! My name is Catherine Jones and I am delighted to be here this morning. I represent ten years of writing and editing clinical trial publications for the ABC Company. For three consecutive years my articles on microbes and cell division were featured in the New York Medical Journal. I am currently in the market for a similar position and would appreciate any contacts for my job search. I am Catherine Jones.”

Get connected. Since most companies are using social media, it hurts your chances of finding work if you are not an active member of LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. I’ve posted a few Patch blogs on using social media.
Make sure you give as well as you get. Networking is a two way street; it’s about building relationships and giving back.

Networking can be an overwhelming part of the job search just because there are so many different pieces, people and steps surrounding it. It can also be the most fruitful if you break it down into the steps that will allow you to stand out and be noticed.

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Gift of Wisdom: Lessons for a Lifetime.


You can meet the nicest and most generous people on LinkedIn. Several weeks ago I posted a question to one of my LinkedIn groups. I asked, “What advice would you give to a young person heading off into the work world? Kind of like the old adage, “If I knew then what I know now, I’d ….” I was thinking about words of wisdom that I could share with my college-age son and also some meaningful advice for the recent college graduates who ask me for job search advice. I received a lot of wonderful advice from the group, all formatted into lists and paragraphs and links. I appreciate the warmth and responses of the entire group. LinkedIn is made up of many remarkable people!

One man, Neal Whitten offered me a free a copy of his book, "The Gift of Wisdom: Lessons for a Lifetime." The author interviewed 25 elder Americans from across the U.S., folks who represent the great ethnic, racial and social diversity of America. Neal ask them to share the key lessons they learned throughout their lives that they can pass on to the rest of us. The result is a wonderful book that beautifully captures words of wisdom and advice on life, love, health, work, family, gratitude, friendships, dreams, aging, education and so much more. Neal also includes a biography of each of the respondents; wonderful reading in itself.

The chapter on Vocations aligns with much of what we have talked about here at The Flap. Many of those interviewed stressed that we should chose a career that showcases our talents and passions; something that feeds our spirit. While the unemployment numbers might not allow us to do this right now, when things improve, we should all set a goal to fly.

I find that I am reaching for The Gift of Wisdom: Lessons for a Lifetime quite a bit lately. It is available on Amazon and truly is a gift.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Sea Glass and the Job Search: Planning


A week or so ago I compared beginning a job search to looking for sea glass on the beach; shuffling through the rocks and shells to focus on that one spectacular piece.

To many people, the job search can be a jumbling mess of thoughts and actions leaving us frustrated and not knowing where to begin. There are three steps to the job search process; planning, networking and preparing. Let’s take them one at a time

The first big step in any job search or career change is to put away your resume or your worry about crafting one. That’s the last thing to work on. You need to plan and dream and take a bit of time to think about you and all that you do. Planning allows you to sift through the jumble and focus.

1. Focus on You
2. Focus on the Job

Focus on You: Take some time to reflect and jot down your answers to these questions. Try to do this exercise yourself and then ask friends and family if they have anything to add.

a. What did I like about my last job(s)?
b. What activities did I enjoy?
c. What type of work energizes me?
d. What don’t I like to do?
e. If I could do anything, what could it be?
f. What are my interests?
g. What are my values?
h. What type of personality do I have?
i. What am I really good at?
j. What am I really bad at?
k. What skills do I have?
l. What skills have I developed over the years that I can transfer to another job (transferable skills)? Include work and volunteer activities.

Focus on the Job: Once you have identified your skills and interests, think about the types of jobs that may interest you.

a. Take a free career assessment. There are many but try coachcompass.com or online.onetcenter.org)

b. Review the jobs defined in the Occupational Outlook Guide from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

c. Go to the familiar job search engines such as Indeed.com. Jobs4Jersey.com or Monster.com and look up the various positions that match your skills and interests.

Once you’ve researched these two areas you’ll need to put them together and evaluate yourself. You can do this by drawing a worksheet. In the first column list the skills needed for a particular job. In the second column list the skills that you have that align with these. Compare the two columns and decide whether this is an area for you to pursue.

There are other areas in planning that may be important to you such as reviewing your finances, personal and family needs, logistics, etc. These need to fall into the job search equation too. After this, it’s time to start part two of the job search equation; networking. We’ll do that next time.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Beating Those Interview Nerves


When I was a new trainer, it used to bother me that I would get so sickly anxious before I gave any type of presentation. My knees and voice would shake and my mouth would go dry; I’d even get splotches all over my neck and face. For a while there I took to wearing turtleneck sweaters to cover up. I asked a friend whose presentation style I greatly admired, how he managed to be so smooth. He told me two things that I have always remembered; be prepared and be yourself.

The same advice can be used for preparing for most interviewing questions/scenarios and while they won't totally eliminate all of the jitters, they will go a long way in alleviating the stress.

Prepare: To prepare for any type of interviewing question, you must do some upfront legwork and here’s an easy way. Take a piece of paper and draw two columns. In the first column, write down the job wording and job responsibilities of the open position. In the second column, write out your accomplishments as they relate to these words and phrases.
Look at your resume for guidance (after all, there was something in your resume that interested the hiring manager or HR representative), refer to your prior work experience and also any outside or volunteer work. Also, look up the company website and read the sections entitled Home, About Us and Our Employees. These sections will provide additional information and boost your understanding of the company. Looking at your accomplishments, the company website and any other media articles will help you better understand your strengths, weaknesses, challenges and the corporate/job fit. Understanding these will prepare you to respond to many of the typical and atypical interview questions. This exercise will also make it easier to be yourself and feel comfortable with your responses.

Now for the Questions:

1. What's the biggest challenge you faced and how did you overcome it? Be prepared with a specific example of a work related challenge and be able to take the interviewer through the steps you followed to address it. Be sure that you include the final results and any lessons learned.

2. What's your biggest weakness? Relate this to a job related weaknesses only. After stating the weakness, immediately explain the steps you took to correct it. If, for example your weakness is disorganization, you might say the following, “After attending a time management class I realized that my disorganization stemmed from poor prioritization. I now prioritize my workload every morning and have learned to stay focused on the goals of the task, especially when solving complex problems.”

3. Tell me about yourself. This is a common introductory statement and a good place to insert your elevator speech. A general response might be, “I welcome the opportunity to talk to you today about the Editing Manager position. I have over 10 years of experience writing and editing communications in the global pharmaceutical industry at company name(s) and my work has been featured twice in the New York Medical Journal. I look forward to sharing that with you today.”
Because this is such an open question, many times the interviewee doesn’t know how to respond. Another response with an ending question to the interviewer might be, “I welcome the opportunity to talk to you today about the Editing Manager position. I have over 10 years of experience writing and editing communications in the global pharmaceutical industry at company name(s) and my work has been featured twice in the New York Medical Journal. Is that where you’d like me to begin?”

4. Give me an example of a time or situation where you had to….. If you wrote out your accomplishments as they relate to the open position, you will not be caught off guard with this question. This is a behavioral interview question and will most likely be the “meat and potatoes” part of the interview. For specific information on behavioral interviewing, please refer to STAR interviewing.

My friend told me one more thing about nerves; being nervous show that you care about the outcome of the presentation, interview, etc and is a good thing. He said that when I stopped being nervous about any presentations, that was the time to worry. I agree and still get butterflies and rocks in my stomach before any new presentation.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Outplacement Survey

Dear Flap Readers,


I am considering branching out into a new job search area; Outplacement Services. Many of the folks attending my job search, coaching and especially resume preparation sessions have mentioned that their companies offered either no assistance or used one of the big box outplacement companies. While they have many valuable attributes, many of these larger firms cannot offer the personalized outplacement service that a displaced person needs and wants.

A very qualified colleague and I would like to collaborate in this area with a slight twist; customer service.

Before we get started, we need some data and would appreciate if you could complete the attached survey. You will remain anonymous and we will remain forever grateful!

Thank you.
Nancy

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