In the Business of You

Sometime over the next couple of weeks, I will be a first-time grandfather. Can’t wait, as I hear from other “new” grandparents how wonderful is the experience and how different it is than when we were new parents (way back when). I remember when we brought our first child home from the hospital. My bride put him into a bassinet in the family room of our small house and we looked at each other and said, “Well, what do we do now?” The two of us realized that we must have left the “What to do With Your First Baby” manual at the hospital. As my parents have often reminded me about my first born, “he survived, despite you two”. Pretty funny, Mom & Dad..! But, I readily admit that I’m a believer in the “it takes a village to raise a child” concept. Looking at the job search process, there are a lot of similarities. When I was laid off in early 2001, after 25 years with the same company, I felt some of that same, “what do I do now” nervousness and sense of being a bit lost. ...

My last post discussed what I felt were a number of good indicators over the last several months that the employment picture was looking better…not nearly great yet, but much improved when compared to even just a year ago. The turnover experienced by job seekers groups has increased (this is one situation in which turnover is a good thing!) with the time period between separation to landing a new job significantly decreasing. Yet, I continue to speak with people who are very frustrated with the lack of activity/success in their respective job searches. I know one of the main reasons why that is…but most folks don’t want to hear it or become exasperated when I tell them that: Their resumes are boring. Over the last month, I’ve done resume reviews at the networking events our company sponsors and a “resume clinic” sponsored by a local corporate outplacement firm along with making presentations at a Career Transition Camp, three job seekers’ groups, a corporate outplacement firm...

Over the last few months I’ve made presentations at area job seeker’s groups and corporate outplacement companies to nearly 1,000 people in transition. The bad news is that there were nearly 1,000 people at the presentations (this is one of those situations where I would have welcomed a smaller audience!). The good news (which never seems to make it to the various news media), is that virtually all of the leaders/directors of these groups and the employees at the outplacement firms report that people are landing new positions in nearly half of the time that it was taking just a year ago..! Over the last twelve months, our company has co-sponsored a networking event with a local restaurant. The average number of attendees has remained somewhat the same, but that is because many who have landed new jobs come back to help those still in transition…they’re “paying it forward”. I’ve heard the following statement dozens of times from people who find new employment after being in tr...

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...