Accelerate Your Search™ Now

Are you asking yourself ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ or ‘What do I want to do next?’ or ‘What do I want to be or do when I retire?’   If you are in a job search the odds are that you are asking these or similar questions.   All are great questions.

Recently, a former client contacted me to say “I plan to retire in the next 3 years, and I am as stuck as to how to make the shift as I was several years ago with my job search, will you help?”  My reply after understanding where he was stuck was yes. 

Why,  he was stuck with what managing his retirement career, not all the other retirement stuff like 401 Ks, health insurance, etc., those things are not my forte.  

If you are searching and asking these questions, here is a quick tip to help you accelerate your search.  Write the question at the top of a blank page of paper, then over several days set aside 10 minutes to brainstorm all the possible ideas you have and write them down, add pages if you need to.  Don’t evaluate the ideas, just jot them down.  At the end of the week review all the ideas.   Move the top 3 to 5 ideas to blank pages and continue to explore your ideas.    

Ask yourself these questions for starters:

   What would it take to do this?

   What would be the impact of this?

   Why do I want to do this?

When you are ready to seriously explore your ideas discuss them with someone you trust.  Then formulate a plan, and take action to create the transition or transformation you want.

Have a comment or thought?  Post it below.

Do you have a question about your search?  Sign up for next Q & A call to the right, join the session and ask your question.

Who decides if you are overqualifed and why?  The employer does.  That’s who. 

Why is there so much focus on overqualifed?  I don’t know.  I, of course, do have an opinion on the matter, but I doubt that will help you accelerate your search.  However, maybe I can help you by looking at the issue a bit differently.

Have you ever said to a door to door salesperson, “Not today, thank you” or the Boy Scout “No thank you, I bought caramel corn from another scout before you” or “we don’t eat caramel popcorn, thank you for stopping by”?   In many cases the dreaded statement “You are overqualified for this position” is just simply a no thank you.

Yes, I know the dreaded statement stings.  It does not feel like ‘no thank you’ or does it?

What happens if you reframe “You are overqualified” to “No, thank you”?

My bet is you think the later stings less, but does it really?  Think about it.  It is still rejection.  Rejection is, in my view the underlying issue with most of the conversations around the issue and statement “You are overqualified”. 

No one (at least no one I know) likes to be rejected.  And almost no one I know likes to reject others.

Especially, if you are in business and interviewing someone or talking to someone with good skills, and loads of experience.  Most people don’t like to be mean or reject another person, even when they don’t personally connect.  Sure there are some that do, you know them, and I do too.

What would happen if you heard “No, thank you” in lieu of “You are overqualified for this position”?  Think about  it!

I once knew a hiring manager who, said “thank you” and allowed someone else to say “No, thank you”.  Here is how he did it – during the each interview he was very good at finding something good about all the candidates he rejected.  He picked out something good about the candidate and made a mental note.  At the end of the interview, he confirmed the candidate’s home phone number, and he called each one after an interview.  Usually he placed the call before the person arrived home and left a message, he would share the one good point he noted and thank them for interviewing.  He would end the message with ‘good luck, your <whatever the good point was> will be of value to your next boss.   I learned that good quality he shared with the candidate was always a quality he appreciated, but he did not value at that point in the role that he was attempting to fill.  

Why, did he do this?  Well, I never ask him, yet here is why I think he did it.

He cared about people and the feelings of people. He saw value and appreciated what each person offered.  He appreciated the time the person set aside to interview.  He did not like rejection, and he might want to hire the person for another position some day.  He was building a team and running a business.  The call was “rejection protection” – so that in the future if he had a role for the person, the person would recalled him in a positive light in lieu of the hiring manager who had once rejected them.  It helped him build relationships and create goodwill.

The end result – still the rejection, but the rejection did not address a lack.  It appeared to sting less.

In my view it can be hard to build talented teams when you focus on lack.  Yet most hiring systems and hiring situations will reject several people.  The process in most organizations is look at many, interview some, hire one.

The truth is you were not selected and someone else was for whatever the reason.  That feeling is rejection.

Yet if you reframe your feelings, and focus on your value and not  the ‘over’ or ‘under’ or what you lack, you may be surprised at what you attract.  Why continue to focus on the lack? 

My suggestion – understand you will be rejected from time to time, learn to cope with it.  You don’t need to like it, crave it, nor attract rejection with continued focus, thought and conversation. 

I would also suggest you not dwell on the rejection, or try hard to figure out why you were rejected, nor rail against the company, your experience or your age.  The rejection may be a blessing you can not yet count.  Reframe it as “No thank you”.   

One day on the radio I heard, rejection in dating referred to as protection from a bad situation.  What a point of view!

What would happen in your job search is you reframed the rejection or the statement “You are overqualified” as “No, thank you – I value you as a person and want to protect you from this situation”?

Just a different point of view on “You are overqualified”.

Feel free to share your comments below.

What does your career pattern look like?  How does it compare to your peers?  

What does it say about you, about what you believe and where you are going?  What does it say about career planning and living in general?

The article in Fast Company, “The Four-Year Career” by Anya Kamenetz discusses a pattern the article states is increasingly defining the careers of US workers. Read it and share your view.

The article shares some recent statistics – “the median number of years a US worker has been in his or her current job is just 4.4, down sharply since the 1970s.”  As well as a close look at the careers of three people, two females, ages 36, and 61, and one male, age 28. Additionally, it shares more interesting statistics, insights and lessons.

The world of work is new and different than many of us were taught as young children, or at least different than how I was taught.  My view of what I was taught at an early age shifted in the 1980s.  Do you still believe what you learned as a young child?  Has your view shifted?  If not, what would happen if your view did make a shift?

I hope you enjoy the article.  I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts on Anya Kamenetz’s article.  Post them below or drop me an email. 

May I leave you with a few questions to ponder…

What do you believe in, why do you want to do the work you are pursuing?

What job or jobs (for others) could you create if you move or drive toward new goals, objectives and your beliefs?

What is next for you?   Do you have a four year plan?  If no, what do you want a plan?

What will you do different in 2012?

If you have been job searching for a several months or more the question – “What will you do different in 2012?”  As well as the answer is critical to your job search and your career success.  If your results are not where you want them to be, ask yourself “What will I do different in 2012?” 

If your job search results are – interviews and no offers, coming in second time and time again, or no interviews, or no conversations with potential employers and this continues – where will you be at the end of 2012.  Well the odds are the same place you are today!

If you continue to do the same things the odds are great that you will get the same results, and be in the same place at the end of 2012 as you were at the end of 2011.  Also believe it or not, or like it or not, the longer you are not working – yes, unemployed – the higher the odds are you will impact your long term earnings potential.  Let’s face it; the odds are also higher that you are building some habits that may impact your performance for years to come. 

Over the years, I have worked with and learned from many talented coaches, mentors, bosses and colleagues.  I am not 100% sure Doug Brown was the first to ask me a couple of powerful  questions that made a huge difference in my habits, my life, my business, and my career, but I believe it was Doug – Thanks Doug!  

Here are the powerful questions:

What is important to you?

What is REALLY important to you?

If < fill in the blank with what is REALLY important to you > is that important to you, what are you willing to different today to have it or achieve it?

I hope the questions and your answers help your search and your life as much as they have helped me.  Here’s to your very successful 2012!

If you want to share what you are doing different, please do so below.  I’d love to hear about your success.  If I can help you do something different in 2012, contact me.

You have heard it and you know your reputation counts in your job search.  It is a given that employers will check your references.  Employers and recruiters will ask you and others about your experience, how you work, the quality of work you deliver, and many other questions to help them determine if you are the right person for the current opening in the organization. 

Do you know what others say about you when asked?  Do you know how others view you? 

Your reputation – who you are and what makes you tick all help you communicate your value to an employer.  What others share about you is critical.  Do you understand how others view you?

When you have a keen understanding of yourself and how you are communicating who you are, how you work, play and do all things it is much easier to communicate your value in a way that paints a clear picture for others.  When you also have an understanding of how others view and value you, you are better able to market and leverage your brand.

After all your reputation (your personal brand) is about what others think of you, not only what you think.  Do know what others value about your knowledge, your experience, your skills, your style, your value in the workplace, your vision and your values?

What would happen if you did?

All of these items are elements of your personal brand and who you will be as an employee.  These elements make up ‘fit’.  “Fit” for the job is one of the critical factors in hiring a new employee.  Employers want not only the skills need to do the job they also want employees who “fit” on the team and within the organization.  Don’t you want “fit” too?

One of the best indicators of future performance is past performance, and most if not all hiring managers know this.  Therefore, as employers seek employees for new or open positions they not only identify the skills and experience needed for the job, employers seek to discover how you have performed in the past and they seek information from others to learn about your possible ‘fit’.

When you began your job search you probably updated your résumé, your LinkedIn profile, contacted a few key people in your network, maybe asked for a reference or two, posted your résumé online, and set up a few online search agents to send to you emails of job openings in your field.  Then you may have made a few calls to see who might be hiring, and began to look at the job openings online.  You submitted a few applications or emailed out your résumé and now you are waiting to the phone to ring or the emails asking you to set up an interview.  Does that sound like your marketing efforts and your search plan so far?

If so maybe it is time to leverage your reputation and actively market yourself.  Here are the steps to leverage your reputation (your personal brand) and actively market yourself and have a better understanding of your personal reputation and how to market and communicate your ‘fit’ to employers who will value you.

1. Get feedback on your reputation.  Learn about what others think of you and how they communicate your strengths.  Assessments, interviews and conversations will help gather feedback.
2. Review the feedback.  After you selected those to provide feedback and gathered enough data, you will want to review the data.  This type of feedback will often provide valuable data to help you create a very on target message to share your value.
3. Review the feedback with a trusted advisor or coach.   To look at your reputation and grow and leverage your personal brand you will need help.  Companies hire teams of experts, don’t short change yourself by lacking the benefits and insights of having a trusted advisor or coach help you review the data you have gathered.
4. Establish your brand aspirations.  Your reputation evolves.  This occurs with or without your intention.  How can your reputation and your strengths help you achieve your goals?  How will you communicate these as you continue to grow and evolve?  Strong personal brands grow and evolve and your personal brand is a tool to help you market yourself and to achieve your goals.  What is your desire for your brand?  How would you like to communicate your desire?
5. Plan and execute.  Ideas, Thoughts, Aspirations are great, however without planning and action nothing happens.  Develop your plan to leverage your reputation, make a commitment to yourself to take action, now execute and market yourself communicate your value and use your reputation and what others say about you to demonstrate your “fit” for the job you want.

During a job search there are days when focus is hard to achieve and your search slows down or stops, we all have those days.  Those days can impact your attitude, your focus, your workflow and the pace of your search. 

You know the days I am referring to – don’t you? 

YES, those days were you wander from your email, to LinkedIn, follow a link, read an article, listen to an interesting podcast, sign up for a free webinar, talk to friends on the phone, watch TV, or YouTube and then before you know it the day is gone and it is 6:15pm.  Your family is home and there are more distractions.

Here are a couple of ways to avoid the lack of focus.  Create practical plan and time within the plan for focus and to get you on track and moving forward. 

Plan your search.  Create a plan for your day and your week.  This really helps on those days when feel lost or frustrated and you don’t know what to do or where to start. 

When those days come, you look at your plan and do the tasks on your plan.  Just get the job done; doing what is on your plan helps you focus and continue to move forward.  If you don’t do what is on your plan, you may be consumed with distractions, lack of focus, and the result is you find yourself wasting the day.

Then there are also those days that when there is consistent string of interruptions to your work flow.  For each interruption it can take you 10 to 15 minutes to return to the task at hand in a productive manner.  The time you waste due to interruptions can be massive and the impact on your focus is dreadful.   

Here is how to create space for focus and avoid this consistent time waste of those days within your plan.  Choose specific hours of your workday as your uninterrupted time.  Block the time as an appointment with yourself on your calendar.  Don’t schedule other appointments or calls during that time.  Each day during this time turn off the communication tools and all distractions, email, phones, chat, text, etc.  Educate your family and friends that you may not be interrupted during this time. 

Each day during this time work on one thing and one thing only that will accelerate your search until that one thing is complete.  My bet is you will be amazed at your productivity increase and what you can achieve in a short time.  It works for me.  Try it.  Then let me know how it goes.

Have a comment, thought or tip to share?  Post it below.

Need more ways to speed up your search?  Look to the right and request my gift to you – “162 Ways to Accelerate Your Job Search and Land the Job You Want”.

It is the job you want, you landed the interview, it went great, you are leaving and planning your follow up and the first day at work – yippee!  Then it hits you – you didn’t ask for the job.

Don’t be afraid or forget to ask for the job.  Landing a job is about sales and in sales you don’t close deals if you don’t ask for the sale.  It can be scary, intimidating, or just plain uncomfortable but you must do it.

Do you believe in your skills?  Your value? Your ability to do the job? Can you help this company get results?   If you answered yes, then help them hire you and ask for the job.

Practice a few ways to ask for the job.  You don’t get what you deserve you get what you ask for, state you value and what you can do for the company and ask for the job! 

Have a question about how to ask for the job at the end of the interview? Sign up and join me on the next Q & A call, ask your question and get an answer.

Need specific ways to speed up your search?  Look to the right and request my gift to you – “162 Ways to Accelerate Your Job Search and Land the Job You Want”.

Have a comment or thought?  Post it below.

‘Tis the holiday season!  What a great season for networking and landing a new job. 

Are you ready for holiday season networking?  So many people take a break from a job search at this time of the year, that those that stay with it have the added plus of less competition. 

If you’re a great networker you know this is a great and fun time of the year.  If you don’t like to network or haven’t mastered the finer aspects of networking and marketing yourself as you network you might not have feel the same excitement about this season.

Here are 8 quick tips to help you plan your holiday job search networking.

 1. Don’t only attend the mandatory events, expand your holiday networking

 Leverage the events you always attend and add others.  Consider stepping outside of your industry events, family events, and the networking events you do now, add several events where you can meet new contacts.  

 2. Set a budget for holiday networking

  You will have expenses, business cards, attire, event fees, food or beverage, or a donation to a charity or cause.  Be willing to invest in yourself, in your search and do it with a grateful heart.  Holiday networking is not about going to parties, it is about connecting with critical centers of influence and the opportunity to market you to your target audience.

3. Plan and Set a schedule for holiday networking

 The season is short and many events fall on the same day.  Plan which events to attend, who to connect with, what to wear, and how you will follow up. Having a plan and a schedule will help your focus.

4. Leverage your existing relationships, network and connections by giving

 Each holiday networking event is an opportunity for you to add value to others.  Discover who you can help and do so.  Connect someone, learn of a need and help, share a tip, do what you can do to help others in your network.

5. Support the event and the community the event serves

 Find a way to offer your support for the event or the organization before or after the event.  You could share event photos or highlights of the event via social media channels, or connect in advance with the organization or event supporters to offer your unique talent, skills or labor to support the event.

6. Don’t get lost in the crowd

 Know how you want to differentiate yourself from others searching for key contacts and your dream job. Know who you want to connect with, and be open to the opportunities before you.  Don’t sell, and don’t take your résumé to any holiday event.  It can be hard to predict who will show up, remember impressions count.

7. Don’t forget to leverage your online network and online events this season

 Many events are growing and some with combine both online and face-to-face experiences.  If get an “Evite” with an RSVP treat it as you would any invitation with an RSVP.  If you need to check in via a QR code to support the charity – do it.  Manners do count.

8. You Can’t Have It All Without Effort and Work

 Networking can be great fun.  You meet wonderful people, serve others, connect and build relationships and gain a lifetime of event memories, but all relationships take work.  During this season in North American the daylight hours are shorter, so it is a season of busy days, long nights, many events and extra commitments.  Your networking workload may increase, so adjust your schedule according.  Rest during the day if you know an event will end late, drink lots of water and plan your follow up so you can reconnect quickly and in an effective manner.

Do you have a networking tip to share or a comment?  Post it below.

To accelerate your search you need a strategy that helps you stay focused on the “right” things to build and maintain your network.  I encourage you to balance and nurture your network online and offline.

It is so easy to spend time, energy and effort on the items that take up time yet net you little in real results from your network.  It is also easy to forget to pay attention to the little things that pay big dividends.

There are many tools to help you connect with your network – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.  Technology has made it easy and convenient to connect. 

Yet sometimes technology robs us of the opportunity to really spend quality time with friends, business associates, customers, and possible employers.  Rarely does a technology work as well as a face to face meeting.

One of the “right” things to do in marketing yourself is to meet face to face.  Face to face you have the rare chance to learn more about others and often to explain your business and what you do.

How much face to face time do you have planned for this week?

“There are only 3 colors, 10 digits, and 7 notes; it’s what we do with them that’s important.” ~ Ruth Ross

AMBITION: The eager or strong desire to achieve something.

Does your job search reflect your ambition?

Would you be convicted by clear and compelling evidence of your ambition to land the job you want?

Or is there only the slimmest evidence available to demonstrate your intent?  Think about it!

If others were ask to share what you do, how you do it, and the job you want to land, could they share it?

Do you project the end result?  Do you clearly state your end goal or do others need to guess what you do, what value you might add, or if you really could get much of anything done?

What stories are you telling?  What evidence are you presenting?

What are you doing with 3 colors, 10 digits, or 7 notes?

What are you doing with your skills, talent, ability and experience?

Is there evidence of your ambition to land the job you want?