Accelerate Your Search™ Now

Don’t tell them about your warts –

“I have these big ugly warts on my feet.  I have had them for two months now.  Some are small and rough, some are growing together.”

WHAT?

That’s right you would not say that in public or to your friends.  Yet almost daily I hear professionals who are looking for their next gig and trying to connect with other professionals, to get referrals and introductions to the employers they want to work for say things about themselves and their job search that I call WARTS!

If you want to increase your connections and referrals, it is critical to educate your family, friends, and the people you meet so they can become your personal advocates.  Doing so helps you create a mini sales force.

If your friends, family and allies know you, know what you do, know about your experience and what type of work you are interested in doing, they can help you.  When you have a team of people who like you, trust you, know you, and can explain what you do.  It is super easy for them to refer you to possible employers, their friends and contacts,  and to help connect you with the best companies and the best positions for you.

Here is one secret so few people use.  The “update letter”.  Use this tool to connect with family, friends and allies.    Most people will be very happy to hear from you, to learn about what you are doing and most will be happy to help if you tell them how they can help you. Be specific.

This is not a WART LETTER – don’t say

Dear Friend:

Poor me, I lost my job, after all these years of toil and I need a job.  Do you have a job for me?

Signed, Mr. Big Wart.

Any letter, email or conversation like that is a burden on all who receive it.  Telling anyone about your WARTS will make them want to run away from you as fast as they can and/or avoid you now and in the future.

Tastefully done an update letter allows you to connect with your network, share key achievements you since you last connected.  It provides an opportunity for you to let friends and family know what you are doing and asking them to think of you if they overhear of or connect with a situation relating to your current interests.

An update letter also provides you with an opportunity to connect, catch up, and talk about business.  You can connect and discover what’s new and or different in life and in the business of your network contacts as well if there is a way that you can help them.

Does an “update letter” really get results?  Not always, but after four months of resisting the idea, here is what happened for one person who decided to send just 10 “update letters”.

One letter went to a former executive assistant, whom he had not seen in 8 years.  She called him after receiving the “update letter”, he took her to lunch, during lunch they talked about family, old friends, business in general and her new job.  In less than a week she called him to coordinate an appointment with the COO of her employer.   The result, an interesting conversation about a new project within a division of the organization scheduled to start in a few months.  What is next?  Another conversation, then who knows?  This grateful executive is glad he composed and sent an “update letter” and connected with someone in his network and is busy updating other advocates within his network.

Who should you send an “update letter” to?

When you compose your “update letter”?

Let me know about your results.

“Our words reveal our thoughts; our manners mirror our self-esteem; our actions reflect our character; our habits predict the future.”   ~  William Arthur Ward

This week I encountered one of those people who was so angry and so frustrated, he just had to tell everyone within earshot how he has been wronged due to his age.   The clash was over the top when this angry man shouted at two “millennials” about everything from their education, dress, type of cell phone, and ideas on what would be a dream job.

Just as I was stepping forward to ensure there was not an atomic blast, one of the young ladies this man was targeting with his angry spoke up.  Her words spoken with a slight quaver in her voice turned more than a few heads.  She shared that she thought ‘AGE’ was just an excuse.  Then she shared how that excuse had helped her justify for 18 months, what she wanted to do or say without looking at the impact or the result.

She disclosed how she figured out something very important – to get interviews she had to play up her unique attributes and connect those to the employer needs and follow that by downplaying her unique attributes, including her preferred manner of dress that clashed with employer wants and/or needs or she was going to remain without a job and become homeless.

Her message was that when she stopped blaming AGE and started to think of ways to leverage her differences to provide mutual benefit and stopped her personal “WAR” with older candidates, employer systems and the authority of hiring managers she began to get interviews.

Are you waging a war?

Is AGE a blind spot in your job search?

Are you a highly qualified candidate, struggling to prove your value to companies?

Would you benefit from leveraging your value, attributes and differences?

Are your perceptions and expectations about AGE helping you connect with employers or encouraging them to call ‘security’?

What perceptions should you examine this week?

It amazes me that I forget the basics and no, it is not age! When reviewing my year end results I noticed that in some case I just stopped doing what I USED to do. The impact – POOR Results!

The kicker is it’s a phenomenon that happens to most people in business and in life from time to time. Many businesses I work with refine a process, train all, execute with gusto, then over time move on to other things assuming the basics are not that important day in and day out.

In the beginning, like with a new job, you learn the basics and you do them right every day. Taking a no-exceptions, no-excuses approach, then time go on and you stop executing on the basics, you rest on your laurels, get lazy, stop doing the things you need to do. Slowly things change and then you experience a slump.

If you stopped the basics and BANG! things changed in an instant you might return at once to the basics. It rarely works that way. How it works is you do the basics and get results, then build on those results.

If you stop doing the basics, you do at the start of your job search to generate leads and build your interview pipeline. If you stop networking, calling contacts and employers, slowly your results are impacted. The pipeline runs dry and the result is you don’t have interviews, without interviews, you won’t have offers and without offers no new job.

Then there are the lists of excuses such as “no one if hiring”, “jobs are go to China”, “no one calls me back”, “there are no openings in my field”. Slowly, fear, worry and lack of focus set in, and then you begin to reinvent the wheel and search of new things to do in lieu of executing the basics.

If you want solid results, go back to basics. Define you target job, and target the short list of companies you for whom you are interesting in working and get the interviews.

Ask yourself these questions:
What basics of your job search have you been UNWILLING to do recently to get interviews?

What have you stopped doing that you did regularly in the beginning of your job search?

What tasks have you gotten lazy at executing?

Are you willing to do what it takes to connect with potential employers?

If you are really ready to go to work and accelerate your search, then stop doing this and that and look at your marketing and job search plan. What parts of your plan are you implementing regularly? Where are you not being consistent with your marketing and in following your plan?

It’s time to go back to the basics. It’s time to recommit. The neat thing is, when you recommit and you start doing the basic things again, they WORK.

What happens is you start getting calls, finding opportunities, getting interviews and offers. Time and time again, opportunities starts pouring in, and you have many options. It always works.

Are you missing in piles of paper?

Did you see the Wal-Mart ad, where the two guys are looking through the trash and Christmas wrapping paper on the curb for the doll hair brush?

The feeling and looks on their faces were classic. Is your resume, your experience, what you can do for an employer lost in a sea of papers, or files on the World Wide Web? Are the odds of finding the doll hair brush better than finding you?

Are you ready to tap into your purpose, focus on your brand and have employers call you in 2010?

Would you like get out of your slump and move on to a new job?

Are you willing to do something different?

Here is your action step.

Write down what motivates you. What pulls you forward and ensures you achieve at the highest level? Read your resume. Circle your 3 top skills. Now write a brief statement of how you use these top 3 skills and how they connect to what motivates you?

What, your top three skills and what motivates you are not connected? Why not?

How can you stand out, be found and have employers call you if what you do and what motivates you are not connected?

If you need help to connect the dots, find your focus and move ahead in 2010 join us for the Q & A calls, get your questions answered and move your career and your search forward.

Happy New Year!

“The reality of life is that your perceptions — right or wrong – influence everything else you do.
When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other
things fall into place.”~ Roger Birkman

Here is a question I am ask very often and it almost always starts with a statement – “I think I need a certification or training to get a job, what do you think?”

In most cases I want to say – “It does not matter what I think, your perception is you think you do need it, therefore you must.”

Of course that would not help most people. If you are asking the same question and attempting to determine if you do need a certification here are a few questions you can ask yourself. These should help you. After you ask the questions, if you want to discuss them with someone contact me and I will be happy to discuss them with you.

Why do I want a certification?

How will this certification help me do the job I want better?

How will this certification help me use the skills I love to use every day in my ideal job?

What is the cost of the certification over the 5 years?

What is my return on that investment over 5 years?

Merry Christmas!
Cindy

“Go to work harder on yourself than your job. If you work hard on your job you can make a living, if you work hard on yourself you can make a fortune.” Jim Rohn

What action will you take today to propel you toward the things you want, the goals you have and why is that important?

If you have been attending the LinkedIn sessions this week you are already focused on your LinkedIn Profile so here is your action step for today.

Read your LinkedIn Profile and ask yourself the following questions.

Does it show my personality?

Does it highlight my top three skills? These are the things you not only do well but also the things you love to do and would rather do than anything else in the world.

Now, look at your resume. Ask yourself the same questions. If these things are missing from either your LinkedIn Profile or your resume add them.

That is your quick action tip for the day. I agree with Jim Rohn “…if you work hard on yourself you can make a fortune.”

To your accelerated your search and success,
Cindy

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Are you sabotaging your career and your future income?

Almost daily I hear, “The economy is so bad, no one is hiring and I’m waiting for things to improve to look for a job”. Or “Things are so bad, I’m discouraged, frustrated, sad and feel like I am wasting my time” or now a new favorite “It’s the holidays, no one is hiring”. That type of thinking may just be sabotaging your career and your future income.

First, December is always a busy time of the year for the search business in both good and poor economic times. It is the end of the year and many departments are attempting to get positions filled and all hands on deck for the coming year, and in today’s environments folks are trying not to potentially lose headcount due to an open spot.

Oh yes, if you didn’t hear, unemployment was down in November. The job market will still take time to turn around it always does. Many went back to work, doing what they enjoy and earning more than they had been earning, and others did not go back to work and continue to miss the opportunities right under their nose.

Is it okay for you to continue to have your job search cost you $400 a day? Yes, that is the cost of your job search if your salary is $100,000 annually. Can you afford that? Of course not!

Now is not the time to take a break. Stay connected, re-connect and stay focused. Believe it or not landing the job you want is not that complex, but it does require a process with two very critical steps, 1) making a decision and 2) doing what it takes. Most people don’t get clear on what they want and they aren’t clear on or committed to doing what it takes to land the job they want. The result is a prolonged search often with less than ideal results.

If you are stuck and need help get it now. Don’t wait till you get a call for an interview to call for help and get prepared. Don’t stop your “on brand”, authentic and compelling marketing and by all mean don’t take a break during the month of December.

If you have an idea or a hunch, do your due diligence and act on it. You will not be given the idea or opportunity without the resources to take advantage of the opportunity. That is the way the world works. Don’t look at the obstacles or make excuses, take action.

If you are not where you want to be in your job search, one of the major reasons is your lack of action. Yes, you have heard it and my say you know it, “To get different results, you must do things differently”, yes, I know you are nodding your head, and saying “I know that”.

Be careful that is one of the biggest “Self-Sabotaging” things you can do. Are you willing to DO what you haven’t done before? Or will you just continue to nod your head. Get clear on the options and opportunities all around you and right under your nose. Write down what you want.

This is not as simple as it sounds. If you are saying “I don’t need to write down what I want it is in my head”, think again that arrogance of thinking coupled with “I know that” are forms of self-sabotage and these may be the very things keeping you from moving forward. Yes, these are basic things. If you are not where you want to be it is time for the basics.

Knowing the basics and not acting on and executing the basics can cost you dearly. Just like the ball team that does not execute the most basic play can lose the game, failure to execute the basics can extend your job search and can impact your salary and long term earnings.

Write down the job you want, when you want to start working and describe the job you will be doing. Review the systems you are using to land the job. Now look at your résumé and your LinkedIn Profile, are these aligned with what you want? If not, why not?

Are you devoting time to networking, researching your ideal employer and contacting the employers and hiring managers that interest you? Or are you devoting hours to surfing the internet job board hoping for the job you want to appear?

What will you do different this week?

If you’re ready take action, speed up your search and land the job you want in record time, and have questions about your search, sign up on the right for my Q & A calls then join the next call to get your questions answered.

I will email you the information on the next call. Until then continue to move forward and accelerate your search.

All talented professionals and experts sometimes get stuck; the key to their success is that they know when to ask for help and where to look for the help and assistance they need to move forward. High achievers simply need information and to be pointed in the right direction. Given the “what to do” they dive in, apply their skills, and get the job done.

If so, you’ll be happy to know that the unemployment rate has dropped in some states in October. For example in Massachusetts, the drop marked the first monthly decline in the unemployment rate since June of 2007. To make that number more “REAL” several of the people working with me have accepted new positions in the last two weeks.

These are not just any positions, but the “right job” and at top salaries. One client contacted me to say his commitment to the “right job” over many months he had invested in a solid process of marketing his experience and identifying the job he wanted had netted a very good ROI. “This is a great new position doing what I love to do with an 18.5% increase in salary, what a great way to start the holiday season”.

This past weekend while shopping with a family member I was reminded, “if we are going shopping, we need to do it right”, and I must tell you I have some serious shoppers in my family. If a job is on your Holiday Shopping List, you may want to review the list below to ensure you get what you want.

All good shoppers (and job seekers) know finding the best items, bargains, or jobs are made easier when you:

1. Never shop without a list – make a list and know what you want and need.

2. Know where to find what you want and need, and do your homework to find out who has what you want and need.

3. Review other items, bargains and jobs to be sure you are selecting the best match for your wants/needs.

4. Shop before you buy, but don’t shop without items 1-3 on the list.

Happy Holiday shopping!

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

Happy Thanksgiving!

In the US many are making plans for Thursday, Thanksgiving Day! The day marks the beginning of the holiday season and hopefully for you a time for quiet reflection and gratitude for the blessings of your life and all you have, and have been given.

As you plan your week, travels, events or whatever you will do this week to celebrate may you also pause to be thankful, I know I will. Then take a bit more time to plan how you will take advantage of all the holiday gatherings to connect with family, friends, make new friends and build relationships within your network. The holiday season is the best time of year to connect and build your network. Here are a few tips to maximize each gathering and leverage the many networking opportunities you will have over the next few weeks.

Be prepared to give something to everyone you meet. A smile, a kind word, a connection, even an opportunity to get to know a family member better can is a wonderful gift you can give another. Don’t forget to have business cards with you and share them as appropriate.

Be prepared to answer the question “What do you do?” or “Where do you work?” Avoid saying, “I am unemployed” instead share what you do, or your ideal job, clearly in less than a minute. If asked questions share more as appropriate, if asked where you work reply with you are currently seeking new opportunities within XXX (list your top 3 target companies), or that you most recently worked for XXX (your last employer).

Don’t beg for a job, sell yourself, and don’t ask those you meet if they know who is hiring or if their employer/company is hiring. Instead ask questions about the other person, what type of work they do, the company they work for and what they enjoy most about for the company. The odds are you will be very surprised to learn how you could help another person or something about that person and/or the company they work for that you would not have known without that chat.

Give the person you are talking with your full attention. Avoid the challenge of balancing a plate of food, and a glass, hold a plate or a glass but not both at the same time. It is okay to eat before you arrive at the gathering and focus only on visiting and networking. If you are gathering for a meal, ask questions and listen, listen twice as much as you talk!

Have a positive attitude about the event. Be sure to thank the host and/or organizer, even Aunt Sally, of the event and show appreciation for the work and effort to ensure the event’s success. As appropriate prepare and deliver simple unique, affordable, fun holiday gifts to say thanks.

One of my clients created a simple bookmark with a list of 5 top tips from her field and added a lovely sunrise photo she took on the other side. She gave them to each host or mailed them with a thank you. These were created on the computer in less than an hour and printed six to a page, so the cost was just right.

Do your best to ensure that everyone you meet and talk with feels special, valued and important. One of the easiest ways to do this is with focused listening.

Ask others questions about what they enjoy about the event, the season, or what is exciting or interesting in their life. Listen and ask follow up questions, avoid offering helpful suggestions or ideas unless you are asked for your ideas.

Avoid negative comments, conversations, and discussing that you are unemployed. Be happy and maintain an attitude of gratitude. Your upbeat attitude will prove contagious.

“Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar’s point is on target. This quote is one that reminds me that I have many gifts and opportunities and it is up to me to use these to build a beautiful a life to accomplish my purpose. To do this I need to be connected to my purpose and to communicate my purpose. One of the ways I have learned to communicate and achieve my purpose is to build and use my personal brand.

Are you building your personal brand? Is your brand working for you?

It is amazing how building your personal brand, will help you stand out from your peers, reach your career goals and live your purpose. Once you identify and communicate what makes you unique, compelling and relevant in the marketplace, your personal brand helps you connect your purpose, values, strengths and what you do.

Think about Bill Gates who has a stated purpose of a computer in the hands of everyone. His purpose connects to what he does, what he wants to do and he has a strong brand. How does your purpose connect to your career and what you want to do?

Do you need help to explore and live your brand?

What are the attributes that you set you apart?

What are your unique points of differentiation?

Create a list of these and your values. Write down your purpose.

Reflect on your attributes. These are the things that help you stand out and create a strong brand. Strong brands demand a premium.

What are you doing to build a strong brand?

If you want some help to explore your brand you may want to check out 360˚Reach is the first and leading web-based personal brand assessment.