In the Business of You

Did you ever hear one of your single friends say something like, “There are no good men/women out there”? You hear that and feel like you need to respond with, “But, there are lots of good men/women out there that would be great for you…you’re just looking in the wrong places”. That is how more and more employers are beginning to feel. On the surface, that statement seems ridiculous yet, maybe not so much…Last evening I heard one story on a national news broadcast about there being nearly 14 million Americans still out of work (with video showing thousands of people lined up for a job fair in Atlanta), followed by a story that Siemens, a huge multi-national company with over 400,000 employees in 190 countries (with 62,000 employed in the U.S. throughout all 50 states), has nearly 4,000 open positions and “can’t fill them”. A Siemens’ VP who was interviewed stated, “If we cannot fill these positions, it is going to limit our ability for growth.” WHAT…?! Not wishing to be one o...

Over the last week, I’ve met or spoken over phone with a couple dozen or so people in transition to do some resume/job search coaching. Often, I find that a good deal of what is discussed and recommended during such conversations is difficult to hear for the person being coached. After one such session with a former Human Resources executive, whose resume needed quite a bit of work (it did little to reflect her supposed HR expertise), the individual looked at me and remarked, “Wow, that was really tough love, wasn’t it?” Yes…and the frustrating part for today’s hiring managers and recruiters is that this type of discussion needs to occur with way too many candidates. During this same time period, I met with an executive coach, a Global Recruiter for a large, multi-national company and spoke at length with a career coach/recruiter at a large corporate outplacement firm. Below are some of the main points they shared with me when asked about strengths and weaknesses of the resumes ...

Many people say that you can tell a lot about someone in just the first few minutes of meeting them. I agree. Body language, tone of voice, attire, level of self-confidence, ability to convey a sense of believability and trust are just some of the snapshots we give or receive that go a long way to creating that critical first impression. Job seekers often do not realize that basically everything they do, say or write is considered when a hiring manager looks holistically at candidates for an open position. Below are some real life examples of impressions made: A soon-to-graduate senior at a large university is asked to go to the headquarters of a large, international company on a Thursday for a round of additional interviews that would take place the next day on Friday. He travels across the country and is picked up at the airport by a representative of the company. That evening he, along with about 50 other candidates, is asked to attend a “mixer” at the hotel in which the c...

Just the other day I met with a job seeker to do some resume coaching. What occurred prior to his arriving for our scheduled breakfast meeting was a great example of what today’s job seekers can do to really distance themselves from other candidates. Since the morning restaurant patrons had not yet begun to arrive, I had the opportunity to chat a bit with our server. I have been to this establishment on many occasions and noticed that this particular individual seems to be a customer favorite. She inquired regarding the party who was to meet with me and asked if I was going to do an interview (I had the job seeker’s resume out on the table and was making on it some additional notes for myself). When I responded that we were meeting to do some resume & job search coaching, the server said she had a unique story about landing the job with the restaurant. During her interview with the restaurant owner, the server provided to him a sheet of paper containing a list of names for...

In the first two days of this week, I heard from three of the people with whom I’ve had the opportunity to do some resume and job search coaching. All three just landed new jobs. What a terrific way to start a week..! They all had much in common in regard to the manner in which their job searches were approached…and I firmly believe that it significantly contributed to their individual successes (each of them wound up with a better job than the one from which they had been outplaced). They all did a terrific job of networking, putting together customized resumes that focused on specific examples of accomplishments and truly separated themselves from other candidates during the interview process. In addition to doing the right things during a job search…candidates in today’s very competitive job market must have the “right stuff”. OK…so what is that? From conversations with dozens of recruiters and hiring managers, I have compiled a list of the top ten competencies/attributes/...

So you have a Twitter account, Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile. That’s a good start. Now…are you actually using them as tools to help you to get re-employed? Or is your online presence creating the wrong personal brand/image and taking you out of contention for being seriously considered as a candidate? Twitter and Facebook are still perceived by employers to be “personal” while they look at a LinkedIn profile as being a good barometer of a person’s professional experience, interests and expertise. I’m hoping at this point pretty much everyone realizes that prospective employers will almost always do a good job of scanning the Internet as part of their overall due diligence regarding candidates in whom they have some interest. This means “Googling” your name to find “what’s out there” about you along with taking a good, long look at what people are posting on your “wall”, what you are “tweeting” and learning about past work experiences on LinkedIn (have you noticed over ...

Over the last few weeks, I’ve brought three new people into our firm, two veteran financial planners and a person to provide market research and analysis for our growing team of advisors. What has this got to do with tips for job seekers? Everything , because to get to these three I had to “say no” to dozens of quality candidates who were not going to be a “fit” for our company’s unique culture. Our firm, like so many others, works very diligently to ensure that it maintains its “mojo” – that “thing” – the “energy” - which does so much to make one company different from all of its competitors. And that “mojo” cannot exist without the synergies that are created by combining the wide variety of individual talents into a cohesive team that is focused on exceeding the expectations of our clients. Every person on our team understands that they all “own” every client, every prospect and every person who comes in to see us – including the UPS guy. Bottom line – that is our firm’s cu...