Careful taking license with what I just said: Yes, most cover letters will never be read.

In a world where there are often 3–5,000 resumes sent in for every good open job, it’s pretty easy to realize the truth in what I’m saying by looking at the mechanics of the situation: who will read all of that material sent in when applying for a job (thousands of resume, notes and cover letters)?

The reality is such that if our Resume ‘never grabs their attention’, it’s very unlikely they will every go back to read our email, notes or cover letters that we also send to help ‘make our case’. That thought can be quite disconcerting, but it’s a realistic conclusion if you start questioning who may have the bandwidth to handle all that extra work. No one will have time to read your persuasive thoughts –unless your Resume makes the final cut… so be sure to start your focus there!

Now that you (believe) you have a great Resume that positions and sells your best attributes, your cover letter can make the difference between you getting the interview, and someone else taking that prize. You do have to be ‘in it’ to win it.

WHAT IS A COVER LETTER AND WHAT’S ITS PURPOSE?

Glad you asked:

A cover Letter is your opportunity to separate yourself from all the rest that claim to have the background that will make them successful, if selected.

Your Cover Letter’s mission in life is to connect all the dots in your background that make you uniquely qualified above all others for the role. That does not mean that you are claiming to have ‘everything’ on their list, but it means that you have all the ‘right’ pieces that will make you more successful than the other candidates. That’s a tall order and tall claim, with your Cover Letter giving you the platform to make your case.

Be bold, confident and make your case. Avoid the most common mistake: subservience. Businesses that real problems, and they need real solutions. They need workers ready to ‘step up’ to the challenge. Confidence. Not someone asking for a hand-out, “Please, Sir, Can I have some more?” –That subservience may appeal to a very small percentage of readers, by not by Leaders, and not by people that want to see their organization be even greater than it may be.

On Style, this item of concern to watch out for, letting the language choices become submissive, is a pointed challenge to us. We want the job so much (sometimes) that we are willing to become Play Dough: just tell me what you want, and I’ll be that. Perfect, for managers without any confidence of their own, as you’ll be less likely to challenge them if they hire you. But most would not think that’s a very good place for your career.

Back to the language choices:

The statistics for the many placements I have been involved in over the years (most every discipline / area, as a recruiter and recruiting trainer) always showed the pattern heavily favoring this type of language choice, even though it can be quite direct. It’s Chemistry and Confidence that win the day, when capable of the role, and this goes a long way on the confidence side.

SIMPLE SECRET:

Most hiring managers are like everyone else: they’re looking for ‘clear’ help in the process of selecting you… because they (many times) don’t really understand how to hire effectively. In other words, we have to ‘educate’ them in both our outreach, and during interview process on:

    “why it’s the best choice that they’ll make, when they choose to hire us.”

STRUCTURE:

– An opening paragraph that expresses our interest in their company and the role, and makes our ‘big picture’ case for why we are the best candidate for the position.

– 2 or 3 subsequent paragraphs that ‘make the case in detail’ for the points claimed in our opening paragraph.

– A closing summary paragraph that ‘wraps up’ our persuasive argument and asks for the interview. (no one gets hired without an interview, so go for it –it’s the whole point of the outreach)

A note on content itself: When selecting what to include or highlight, be sure not to get too distracted by only the literal items in the job posting. Include them if we can, so we create a ‘perfect match’ to the job posting. But… Add in what you think are the important things to have –if you were hiring for this role. Most Job Postings do not accurately represent the background / skills of the actual person eventually hired, so use your expertise to ‘imagine’ what other items not listed in the Job Posting would the ‘best candidate’ need to succeed? Sell what makes you valuable, especially if overqualified (just never use the term overqualified, seasoned, etc.).

Remember: We are teaching them to select us, and to hire us, to solve their issues.

As I mentioned, most hiring folks (and HR folks) have little clear idea of how to locate, identify and recognize the very ‘best-of-the-best’ individuals for the position, even though that’s part of their job. So, we need to help them by making it easy to see us as the ‘problem-solver for their issues’, not simply to assemble our background (reasons to hire us) and ‘hope’ they see it the way we do. Those extra steps to naturally lead them down the path to seeing us as ‘the one’ are effective time and time again, though not with every individual. We still must work the larger odds and this approach does work with most that are trying to evaluate potential hires.

LENGTH OF COVER LETTERS:

This requires us to be as ‘long as necessary’ to get the reader to their natural conclusion: “I have to interview this person!” (but, as ‘short as possible’ to accomplish the result of: “I have to interview this person!”). Not longer than a single page, in most cases.

TONE, TENOR & APPROACH:

While I like snappy over not being snappy, I also want to avoid anything flashy or any gimmickry that will distract from the true message of the letter (“You have to interview this person!”).

Remember they may be looking at dozens of cover letters, and yours needs to compete, but only once they narrow the resumes down to the potentially most interesting choices. Once your cover letter does get read, it’s your chance to catch their attention, which could happen through something snappy if you get just the right reader, or most often, it’s from the letter hitting ‘their bullseye’, rather than ours (focus on a style that they are likely to respond to… not on how we might respond to that style).

We also need to avoid what can be potential missteps, be careful not to introduce doubt about whether or not you may be the right one (“Perhaps I may be the person who..”). You, of course, either are or are not the person that can solve their problems, and they really are looking for us to help them see that connection, rather than introducing uncertainty. This strikes at the core reason they will (or will not) choose us: confidence. When capable for the roles that we go after, it all comes down to that chemistry and confidence, and anything that chips away at their confidence in choosing us works to motive in the other direction.

BE ENGAGING:

Don’t be stiff, or too formal. Think about one valuable individual reaching out to another valuable individual (you and the manager). Never (in writing or in person) speak up to anyone, and never, of course, speak down to anyone. Think about the tone used when writing to a dear friend. Engage them.

IT”S ABOUT THEM (before it’s about you):

Everyone needs a job –it can’t be about that or it’s not interesting at all. Why are you interested in them? What excites you about them, the Job, the Manager? Tell them! And then connect in a few of your best points that are valuable to them (not the things you like to talk about, but what you think they’d like to hear about).

WHERE IT GOES OFF TRACK:

In my view, over many many successful placements, and coaching others to many successful hires, by the time the reader finally gets to reading the cover letter (typically only very late in the process), they are already very worn down by the avalanche of emails, resumes and cover letters of all varieties that just fail to ‘close the deal’ (“Here’s exactly why I’m going to be the best hire.”).

Almost all letters rely on the reader ‘somehow connecting all of those the dots by themselves’, and then (hopefully) coming to the conclusion in the same way that we see it. Better to leave as little as possible to chance and connect those dots in the form of the persuasive argument, or case for hire. But stay specific, and please don’t include the kitchen sink, as minutia just clouds your value to them.

Over the course of a number of outreach activities / applications for positions, cover letters of the style that I recommend tend to produce the interview more often than less direct styles that simply plead, “Please pick me!” (you are not a flower)

BUT… “that doesn’t sound like me”

A cover letter isn’t ‘us’… it’s a formalized letter introducing ourselves as the best choice for the role. Our chance to win them over on the chemistry side with ‘who we really are,’ comes once the interview and screening process begins, and our discussion is underway.

Now Let’s Work on those Cover Letters

and Open More Doors!

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2011 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, on Vault.com, in CRAIN’S New York Business, NEW YORK POST, The Huffington Post, on Forbes.com, in TimeOut NY and amNY, and on CNN and  FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He educated through his Online Series and speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

See ”What Others Are Saying“ at:

http://www.selfrecruiter.com/recommendations

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring (Full-Service)

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

–––––

As Quoted by The Wall Street Journal’s Career Website, FINS.com:

http://sales-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SBB0001424052970204464404577114853392680714/Finding-a-New-Job-in-Just-Two-Hours

–––––

It’s difficult to effectively focus our job search activities when we are still working for our ‘future’ past employer. But with a proper structure and plan in place, we can be successful with just 1–2 evening hours of efforts per day. Here’s how:

Q: How much time should I spend on my job search each day if I have a full-time job, but searching for a new position?

Naturally, we should spend as much focused time as is possible, but we have to be realistic with what that means. Most of us are struggling these days to keep up with the ever-increasing workload in our current positions. This may leave us feeling trapped and indentured to our current employers, and it leads some companies to take further advantage of their workforce. Anger, frustration and exhaustion can give way to our job search efforts stagnating and losing direction.

The best way to manage a Job Search
is to run it like any other Important Project:

1. Set the Goals

2. Review Your Resources (time and energies)

3. Map-out a Strategy

4. Stick to the Plan

But what is possible, and realistic, with the 1–2 evening hours that may be available, after taking care of your other responsibilities, when currently working? It’s really as simple as stepping back and looking at the right activities that drive interaction and response from those you may be interested in engaging with during our job search process.

Q: 3 activities a Job Seeker should do in their Job Search? 

The question points us toward the Elements
that will become part of a mapped-out Strategy:

1. (Limited) Consistent Searching for new Job Postings / Listings

Time Limit: 30-minutes Daily

While searching for job postings can be the #1 trap that eats up our available time, as many of those postings don’t genuinely represent companies ‘ready to hire’ right now, it’s still an important element of an effective job search. We can limit the damage to our daily plan, by limiting and controlling this activity.

2. Effective Use of LinkedIn: Marketing & Marketing

Time Limit: 45-minutes Daily

Most Job Seekers don’t really understand the power of LinkedIn –or how to harness it.

I recommend 2 marketing approaches for effective LinkedIn Use:

The 1st Marketing effort is to making our
Social Media Marketing effective and time-efficient

Before beginning our daily (time-restricted) activity on LinkedIn, spend an initial 2-hours on a weekend creating a ’25 Shares’ list. This is basic text document that you can open each time you’d like to ‘Social Media Market’ yourself, allowing you to do a simple copy-and-paste with just a few seconds of invested time.

Create a list of 25 items that you can share that shape perception about you, your place in the industry, and your skill set.

What should you be sharing
through your Social Media Marketing?

LINKS for:

– Books on your specialty (that you’ve read / are reading)

– Articles on something related to what you do, your industry or niche

– Industry White Papers that you find on the Internet

– Conferences, Workshops, Events that you attend, or are thinking of attending

– Projects that you are working on (be sure not to violate trade-secrets’ or non-disclosure agreements that you may have signed)

– Anything Else Interesting that shapes perception about you

Once assembled, you can easily open this list 4–6 times per day and copy-and-paste the next item to share in the ‘Share an update’ section of your LinkedIn homepage. Just keep rotating through your list of 25, and then refresh the basic overall list of daily shared items every month. Remember, it’s not about what your connections see, it’s that your updates can land on the home pages of the exponential number of connections that are up to 3-levels away, but still in your larger network (the people in your industry that you do not know yet). You can accomplish significant perception-marketing about you in less than 5-total-minutes per day with this technique. 

The 2nd Marketing activity is to
‘Soft Market’ yourself to decision-makers

When you find companies or jobs that you are interested in from your other job search activities, come to LinkedIn and ‘soft market’ yourself right into the minds of the decision-makers.

Here’s how:

– Make sure your Settings are ‘open and visible‘, especially your ‘Profile Views’ setting, which lets you control what others see about you when you visit their profiles (choose to display your picture, headline, and be sure to include your email address and value-positioning as part of your headline, not just your current title).

– Open the Profiles of those individuals that may be in the decision-chain for roles that you would like at the prospective employer you’d like to join. Just by doing this you have arrived on their ‘radar-screen’ as having ‘looked’ at them (as a direct link from their homepages). It’s irresistible, and they are very likely to click on you to see who’s been looking at them (human nature).

– While their profile is open, ‘add them to your network‘ with a simple introduction of you as a professional in their niche.

Whether they accept right away or not, it’s another opportunity to get them to look at your profile, which when well-developed, should be a 3-dimensional sales brochure all-about-you that drives the reader to a singular conclusion:

“It’s going to be the best business decision that I make today if I hire this person.”

With the remaining 40-minutes, after the copy-and-paste marketing that you’ll do a number of times per day, use LinkedIn to enhance your communications outreach (noted next, below), you’ll be effectively using LinkedIn at last.

3 (a). Communications: Outreach Directly to Decision-makers

Time Limit: 30-minutes Daily

Now that you’ve opened those decision-makers’ profiles on LinkedIn (for the roles that you desire) and requested to add them to your network, take the next step of emailing or calling them directly.

Reach out and express why you are so interested in them / their organization (it cannot be because you need a job, everyone does), and add to your comments that you, ‘just had to reach out and introduce yourself.’ Make sure to keep it about them, and then link what excites you about them to a skill set or area of value that you would bring to their team.

Now the hard part: ask for a meeting! 

It could be as simple as,

“I’d love to meet with you and share more about what I could add to your team. I have an opening on Thursday at 9 a.m., would that work for your schedule?”

Calling and emailing simultaneously is most effective, but you can communicate just by email if you are not ready to call people that you do not know.

Just remember to:

– communicate your excitement

– make it about them before it’s about you

– ask for the meeting

Meetings (better known as interviews!) are crucial to being able to better communicate why you are the ‘best new hire‘ that they should consider. Just avoid the use of the word ‘interview’ to better manage expectations and avoid potential roadblocks that can stop a conversation from happening.

3 (b). Communications: Follow-up: Develop a Communications Channel, not Just 1-off Messages

Time Limit: 15-minutes Daily

Your follow-up is a test of will and persistence, and your chance to be seen more clearly when viewed in comparison of all the other potential candidates.

Follow-up also does not mean, “Did you get my resume?” –that’s just not very valuable messaging.

So, follow up with interesting new layers, like sharing an article on their industry, niche, or competitors, and ask them again for a meeting where you’d like to share more. The goal is an ongoing communication channel, not just 1 or 2 messages.

Q: What should Job Seekers to do everyday (or almost everyday) that most people don’t consider as part of their job search strategy?

Read. 

No one (really) seems to want to read any more.

Information is the new currency. You have to know what’s ‘going on’ in the area that you want to work. What’s happening in the industry, with the products or services, with this company and its competitors?

I don’t count this in the ’2-hours’, as we can read at many points and times throughout the day with a few minutes here and there –just replace our natural Web-surfing with reading the right content.

Make a folder on your browser toolbar that has the bookmarks of all the:

– industry trade-paper websites

– associations

– company blogs

– saved Google-news searches of various companies you are interested in

Each few minutes of break that you have throughout the day, use the time to read up on your potential audience. You have to know what’s ‘going on’ to be engaging to those companies you might like to join.

Q: Is having a set ‘time period’ to conduct a Job Search effective? What are the pitfalls?

Having a set time period can give us the structure to accomplish what may seem daunting by limiting the challenge to the most important tasks. 

These steps outlined for a 2-hour job search will help generate discussions and meetings. Those are the basic stepping stones that will lead us to our nextsuccessful career step.

The only pitfall to a structured time is if we use that time to waste our energies, rather than focusing in on the items and activities that will generate discussions and meetings.

We have to engage and talk with people to get hired. 

Let’s remove our excuses, and focus on the steps that will help us to our next career challenge.

Taking back control for ourselves can be difficult when we are feeling less than confident in our Job Search. Structure, the right steps, and removing the obstacles holding ourselves back is the surest way toward the success waiting in our future.

Let’s Get Started & Take Back Control In Your Job Search

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2011 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, New York Post, TimeOut New York, and on CNN & FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He educated through hisOnline Series and speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

The Pros and Cons of Job Hopping

By Alina Dizik, CareerBuilder.com, and Featured on CNN.com:
Original Story Link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/07/04/pros.cons.job.hopping.cb/

including Quoted Expert, John Crant

My Take on Job Hopping Pros and Cons

What do employers think when they see someone has quickly changed jobs several times on their resume?

Employers are always looking for a ‘successful hire’, and that means someone who will join their team, stay challenged and motivated in the new role for about 2 years, and then be ready to be promoted to a new role where they will stay challenged and motivated for another 2 years, etc. If they can keep an employee somewhere between 4-7 years –that’s a successful hire that produces, while keeping the employment costs lower for the company.

Seeing a number of moves rather quickly does not inspire confidence that you’ll produce a good return-on-investment in the hiring process. If you’ve had several quick moves, be ready to explain the reasons why those moves occurred, and make sure this employer knows that you are looking for the right career home with this move. Focus your energies in conversation on why you are specifically excited about them and the opportunity it represents for you to contribute to their goals. It always has to be about them, as the way to make it about you.

What are some instances when job hopping can be beneficial?

Job hopping can be a double-edged sword. It immediately causes a red flag in the minds of a potential employer, but if you can control the narrative on why the moves occurred, and what benefit that the moves produce for the potential new employer, you can over come most objections.

If, as an example, you strategically moved across three roles to add marketing, advertising and public relations expertise to your career skill set, then you can position those choices as building the background that would be most valuable for the role you desire –their open position. You’ll have to be compelling and it does need to be true. So, go back an analyze why you chose each role and what you gained in experience for each position.

Another time job hopping can be beneficial is to gain a new level of position and contribution for an organization. Sometimes that ‘right next step’ for our careers comes knocking on the door. A recruiter, or internal recruiter will find us on LinkedIn and call us for an opportunity to move ahead to the next level position in our fields. When this type of opportunity knocks, we would be foolish not to consider it –even if we had made a quick move or two. In this case, the moves we made may have added just the right balance in experience to make us attractive for the new role.

Once in this new role however, if we don’t stay long enough to correct the perception of being a job hopper, it will likely catch up with us in the next interview process we are involved in.

One key reason that job hopping can be beneficial is to correct our compensation not being at the right level for our contribution. When we stay a long time at one company, others in our field statistically move ahead of us in compensation. We’ve all experienced the ‘no raises this year’ or budgets and revenues are tight, so ‘it’s a 3% maximum raise this year’, etc. –rarely do we see cost-of-living constrained to that 3%, so some of us are continually losing ground on our compensation level.

When we change jobs, though companies still base offers on compensation history, you can generally get a higher adjustment to your comp than what your annual review will give you. Over 2 or 3 moves, that can add up and correct compensation woes.

What are some instances when job hopping can hurt your chances of getting hired again?

It’s a competition every time to get an open job. Individuals that move from job-to-job quickly are either very high achievers, or running from the axe themselves. It’s very difficult to tell which one a potential candidate is, as most are ready with their ‘success stories’ –but very few are really in the high-achiever category, so you may be looked at as damaged goods.

Assuming for the moment you are one of the high-achievers, you can get ruled out for some very choice positions when your position of desire is suddenly in an organization that puts a heavy weight on employment stability. Though you may be the ‘right one’, companies will often times choose the individual that seems to offer the better return on their hiring investment –the person that will stay with them contributing for the longer term.

Another way job hopping hurts a candidate is to create the idea of the Pandora’s Box. You are too good to be true, what’s inside? Once I open the box (by hiring you), will I like what I have chosen? Are there personality defects contributing to your shorts stays? Are you really qualified for these roles that you have had –or are you running from each job? Once the negative questions start swirling in their heads, it’s very hard for them to choose you as they best new hire.

What are the main issues to consider before leaving a job quickly? 

What damage or potential damage to my own ‘brand’ will it cause (or will it add enough value to my background to offset any damage)?

Am I ready to stay a reasonable length of time at the new employer –even if I get there and realize it’s completely different than they portrayed it to me?

What are the benefits to my skill set, contribution level and compensation by making the switch?

Will the new move somehow help me by being a stepping stone toward my larger career goal?

The grass is always greener, but rarely so green once we get there. So, choose wisely.

Now, Let’s get out there and Take Back Control for ourselves!

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2011 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, on Vault.com, in CRAIN’S New York Business, NEW YORK POST, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on CNN and  FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He educated through his Online Series and speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

See ”What Others Are Saying“ at:

http://www.selfrecruiter.com/recommendations

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

By John Crant

––Quoted in the article By Alina Dizik on The Wall Street Journal‘s FINS.com Financial Career Website.

[ view article with Quotes on Fins.com ]

Now, Let’s go get that Job!

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2011 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, on Vault.com, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He educated through his Online Series and speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

See ”What Others Are Saying“ at:

http://www.selfrecruiter.com/recommendations

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

First, we do need to take a serious look at our Job Search ‘sales materials’, which include:

• a Resume that creates a ‘desire’ about what you offer as a unique candidate;

- a LinkedIn profile that is more like a 3-dimensional sales brochure ‘all about you’ that drives the reader to one singular conclusion: “It’s going to be the best business decision that I’ll make today –if I choose to hire this individual!”;

- a Cover Letter that positions and presents our best, most sellable achievements that would be of specific interest to the hiring manager;

and

- a ‘Pre-Cover Letter‘ email that is compelling enough to catch their attention –motivating them to open our Cover Letter and Resume.

But, we need to do even more in this tough job market to get their attention. After all, there are 1,000s of resumes competing for their attention. Making it worse, many times your resume may be reviewed by someone other than the hiring manger –someone without the background to understand or see your value.

Change This Equation Of Diminishing Returns, By Changing The Rules

These are rules that we did not agree to in the first place, and ‘playing by these rules’, ones that are set up to stop your value from being communicated, does not work to your advantage, nor to the advantage of the company for which you want to work, as they may miss the very best new-hire (you!).

You can use Social Media Marketing techniques to ‘soft market’ yourself and raise your profile in the minds of the deciders at your desired company.

Here are the steps:

1. Create a great, compelling LinkedIn profile that positions and sells you. That’s one that will drive the reader to one singular conclusion: “It’s going to be the best business decision that I’ll make today –if I choose to hire this individual!”

2. Visit your ‘settings’ on LinkedIn and be sure your profile is set to maximum openness. This is not Facebook. This is your own advertising space for your career.

Would you go out and buy a billboard advisement and then cover it up with a cloth so that no one could see it? It’s the same for your LinkedIn profile: it’s specifically for you to take the credit that you deserve, the credit you’ve earned, and share it with other professionals.

Pay close attention to one setting in particular: Profile Views.

This is the area to specify what others will see about you when you visit their profile. Choose the option that will show your picture and your headline. And be sure that your headline is compelling and includes a way to contact you. I recommend that you use a great positioning title in your headline –so that the reader who does not know you has a clear idea of why you may be potentially valuable to them.

As an example, if you were a Public Relations individual that specialized in helping organizations that were non-profit, your headline could say this:

Jack Smith – PR | Communications Professional for Non-Profits

Or if you had worked for a museum at one point (or wanted to ), it might look like this:

Jack Smith – PR | Communications Professional for Non-Profits | Museums

But, do you want them to contact you… say, for an interview!?  Why not make it easier for them to reach you –and include your email address?

Here’s my headline, as an example of positioning your value in the mind of the reader:

John Crant – Author, Career Coach & Speaker | SelfRecruiter.com | FEATURED SPEAKER: The New York Public Library | john@selfrecruiter.com

3. Visit 10 – 15 profiles of those that work at your desired target company, and be sure to include the potential boss; boss’ boss; the boss’ boss’ boss; peers; subordinates to your potential role; and a few others in the mix.

As each of those individuals signs into their LinkedIn account, they are delivered to their homepage (not their profile). On the right side each person’s homepage is a teaser,

“X number of people have viewed your profile in the last 3 days.”

We are all narcissists, no judgements, I’m to busy with the mirror myself!

It’s human nature, and we can use it to our advantage. We cannot resist clicking on that teaser to see just who’s been looking at us. Your headline should be included in that listing, when the potential hiring manager that you are interested in interviewing with, clicks on their teaser to see who has been looking at them.

If your headline is compelling, they will likely click on your name –and then they’ll be on your 3-dimensional sales brochure that’s all about you.

4. Reach out and connect with the boss; boss’ boss; the boss’ boss’ boss. Yes, connect with other industry professionals, individuals of value just like yourself –even though you may not have met them yet. Be sure to let them know that you are an individual of value, and that you would value including them in your network.

5. Now, email them directly (not through the ‘system’), and let them know why you are so excited about their company (it always has to be about them), and why you are excited by the value that you can bring to their team with your background.

And, while we’re at it, why don’t we ask to meet with them to share more?

6. Now that you understand how not to be submissive in our outreach, it might also be the optimum time to hit ‘submit‘ on their Job Posting.

Let’s go get those jobs that are right for us, the ones where we can deliver exceptional value for a potential employer.

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, on Vault.com, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He educated through his Online Series and speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

See ”What Others Are Saying“ at:

http://www.selfrecruiter.com/recommendations

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

A (True) Story of Job Search Effectiveness In The Holiday Season

There’s a common myth: ‘nothing happens’ before and after a holiday, so why bother!

As Job Seekers, we fall into this trap numerous times per year as holiday weekends pop up all year long. Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and on and on with lesser holidays –each tempting us to ‘throw in the towel’ for most of a week or even two (one before, one after). The December holidays, no matter which ones we celebrate, seem to deem the whole month a loss, and that loss seems to carry over a number of days into the New Year. So by the time we are eating the last few turkey leftovers, like my great lunchtime sandwich yesterday, it’s clear in our minds that we really have only 2 weeks to make some magic happen, so I ‘may as well wait’ until the new year. Bah humbug, to quote Ebenezer!

Like most, these myths do have some basis in reality. Yes, managers and HR professionals, like everyone else, do take off extra time before and after a holiday when they can. But many do not, and that presents and opportunity for the job seeker ‘on a mission’.

As You Sow, So Shall You Reap

Need motivation to ‘take back control’ in your job search?

It’s the first week of December, just the first few days in reality, and there’s a whole month where we can be sowing those seeds that will come back to us. Right now, I have clients that I work with directly that are out on 2 and 3 interviews a week… This week, next week –and with their focus and determination, they’ll probably be booking meetings the week after that and beyond. All Holiday Season. Yes, they actively plan their search and outreach strategy, take control and they approach decision-makers with their message of ‘why it’s the best business decision that they will make today, if they choose to hire them’.

One individual so impressed the ‘deciders’, that when they could not make the single day that the other ‘competitor candidates’ where coming in to meet the team, they agreed to have them fly in (at their expense) to their headquarters, to do the meeting at that location. Another client is being rushed through 3 rounds with a Fortune 100 company, and is juggling 2 scheduled interviews next week (with different organizations) and 1 additional company is pursuing them for ‘first meetings’ next week too. All this, while they are also working full-time. Another just landed 2 competing offers from marquee organizations -after 5 months without any calls.

It takes control and focus in your job search with proper planning, outreach, valuable messaging, and proper strategizing on how you’ll win each interview, but the message is loud and clear: there’s a whole lot of activity going on for some Job Seekers that don’t accept the myth that seems to be common knowledge.

Now is a great to start moving your search forward if it has become stagnant, but the basics must be in place. That means a (single page) resume that creates that spark of interest and desire about you; a LinkedIn Profile that picks up where your resume leaves off –and tells a compelling story about your background (think: 3-dimensional sales brochure, all about you); a job search plan listing whom to go after (companies, contacts); and a strategy for your value messaging about yourself. And let’s not forget that just putting on a shiny business suit and a bright smile is only the cosmetic side of truly preparing for an interview: we have to be ready to articulate why we are so excited about their company and it’s initiatives; to build solid chemistry with each individual that we meet; and to communicate with confidence why we are the ‘best choice’ for consideration among those that are competing against us during the recruiting process.

You Are The Product

We don’t like to think of ourselves that way, but it’s true. So, get ready to sell your product.  Develop your ‘marketing plan’, use social media, like LinkedIn, to make the deciders familiar with you in advance of applying for the job, and then reach out professionally and introduce yourself -being ready to convey your very best value pieces.

Just Don’t Submit

That means don’t spend all your time online looking for job postings, that’s not a job search, that’s utilizing valuable time in a way that’s not likely to work well in this job market where 1,000s apply for every job. You have to be different, not the same as everyone else. One of my clients has booked 4 face-to-face interviews (out of the last 5 interview opportunities), without any pre-screen phone interview whatsoever.

Magic!?

I think not. Their marketing materials are in top-notch shape (resume, LinkedIn, cover letter, email ‘pre’ cover letter) and they are very effective at following the strategies that we discuss to ‘soft-market’ themselves to the desired company’s managers to raise the awareness level of themselves in those manager’s minds. Then they connect with them on LinkedIn (before they have ever met or spoken!). Next comes a direct email stage of the outreach plan where they further introduce their value. And at that point, they apply online with that darn ‘submit’ button –the one that trains most users so far into submission that it creates stagnation.

Magic like this can happen for you too, but it takes strategic planning, hard work, and resolve to work with ideas just far enough out of the box to get you noticed.

You have to be in it, to win it, so let’s get going –there’s a whole month ahead!

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, on Vault.com, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He educated through his Online Series and speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

See “What Others Are Saying” at:

http://www.selfrecruiter.com/recommendations

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

5 Steps to SuperCharging Your Job Search

It’s going to be a tough Job Market for the foreseeable future, so we can’t just ‘do the same thing’ and expect different results: We Have To Change!

In my Self-Recruiter® Lecture Series on Job Search and Career Management, I often ask those in the audience about the challenges that they are facing; the results that they are getting (or not); and about how it leaves them feeling. No surprise in the results categories. Many respond with very expected feelings of anger, frustration, disillusionment, and feeling more desperate, hopeless –and plain mad, and powerless.

Those are tough words, but they represent the real feelings of the majority of Job Seekers today. But, we have to look deeper than the ‘why’: Why are people not calling us; or why are we getting little or no response to applications; or no calls for interviews; or no call-backs for further meetings and interviews.

It’s really about CONTROL.

We feel all of these things because there seems to be very little, if any, communication or dialogue happening. The Job Seeker may feel at the mercy of a website where they just keep hitting ‘submit’ –and never have any experience other than silence in return.

Take Back Control For Yourself In Your Job Search

You CAN learn the strategies, tips and techniques to ‘Change The Equation In Your Job Search’, but, you must be willing to shed the ways of the past that have not worked –and be ready to try new techniques that may be scary to you. But, those new ideas and new ways will help you to increase the results in your Job Search efforts.

It Starts With You, With A Commitment To Take New Steps, In New Directions

So, get ready to step:

5 Steps to Super-Charging Your Job Search

1. Understand that when we are looking for a new job, or our next career step, if we are not seeing the ACTIVITY that is NECESSARY which can LEAD to our efforts being a SUCCESS…

(Calls, Outreach from Interested Employers / Recruiters, Interviews, Phone Screen Interviews, Informational Interviews, Phone discussions with Decision-makers, etc.)

Then, we may be part of what’s blocking our own success.

This understanding, and acceptance, is critical to CHANGING what’s NECESSARY to change our results.

No more HOPING it will change on its OWN.

Only after this step, are we ready to move ahead.

2. Review, Ready, and Improve Your Marketing Materials… NOW!

Your Job Search Marketing Materials… Your:

Resume, LinkedIn Profile, Your Email Messages (Pre-Cover Letter), Your Cover Letter, Your Signature Block in your email (that should be positioning and selling your professionalism), Your Business Card (whether working or not), and any other materials that you use (including Thank You cards, Envelopes, etc.)))

“Your Resume Is Not Working”

Your Resume has a job: it’s to get you the interview!

If it’s not, then it likely needs to be significantly rethought. It, in my view, needs to be a Simple Sales Sheet that creates desire about you as a Job Candidate. Not a biography, or a career summary, or a laundry list of simply everything –it needs to be about creating FOCUSED VALUE about You!

Be sure to ‘tell your career story’ persuasively, or hire someone that can help you to do so (I’m an expert, by the way).

And, Don’t Miss The Boat On LinkedIn…

It’s factoring into the decision, according to the managers that I speak with, in the sorting process (before the interview stage) –in about 50% of the hiring processes! If you are not on LinkedIn, or are not their effectively positioning and selling your very best attributes –you are already being left behind.

THINK: 3-Dimensional Sales Brochure.

You have lots of ‘real estate’ within your LinkedIn profile space, so be sure to MAXIMIZE it! If your profile looks like a basic resume (or even less), take action now.

Tell your career story with ONE GOAL in mind: Make sure it compels the interested reader to ONE CONCLUSION:

“If I hire this individual, it will be the BEST business decision that I will make TODAY.”

That’s the Job of Your LinkedIn Profile –if you need help, well, again, I am an expert.

Don’t just stay the same and expect different results.

Change and go after those results that you are desiring to achieve in your Job Search.

Now, carry this new focus on your resume and LinkedIn profile across the rest of your marketing materials to help communicate that IT WILL BE the ‘Best Business Decision’ that they will make today to hire you.

3. Stop Interviewing ‘On Demand’

What do I mean? Stop interviewing without truly being prepared.

That means no answered phone calls when you don’t know who’s calling. Let it go to voicemail, listen, strategize, then call back with your effectively packaged message about why you are the most valuable candidate that they are likely to speak with about the roll –here again, I can help you craft your value messages about yourself (and it’s a very good investment for your career future, as you will use these techniques throughout your work-life).

Also understand how to Build Chemistry with Anyone, as Chemistry is 1 of the 2 reasons that a qualified individual gets chosen. I can teach you a number of techniques to lay the foundations of Chemistry, whether in phone conversation with people that you have never spoken to before; during your interview process; and even in your outreach and messaging efforts.

And, let’s not forget CONFIDENCE –the other reason a qualified individual gets chosen for the opportunity. I know that it can be very difficult to be confident when in Job Search during this very tough market, but I can help you prepare in ways that you had not thought of, or put into practice before.

And those techniques are ones that you can use now and in the future to always be your very best.

4. Find The Companies That You Want To Work For (NOT The Job Postings)

Yes, Job Postings have their place in our Job Search –as a small percentage of what we SHOULD be doing to create the activity necessary for any successful Job Search. But, Job Postings should be playing a much smaller role, than the staring role!

The SECRET most people don’t realize: Most of those postings (by companies of any size), were purchased or committed to sometime in the past –even as long as just about a year ago! That’s the only way the contracts for the Job Postings get a cost rate-per-posting that makes any sense. But, how would they know what they want to hire this year, if they made the decision last year? (they don’t, or didn’t –when they signed those contracts). So companies ‘just keep posting’ to use up their supply, and to keep building a ‘pool’ of potential hires for some future opening –whenever that comes.

That means: a significant number of postings that you see do not represent jobs that they are truly ready to interview and hire for at this time. So, let’s spend some of our INVESTED TIME looking for the right companies that would want to hire us, and our talents –if they had an opening (or upcoming opening). Now, those would be GREAT companies to introduce yourself and your value to, and a very good use of your Job Search time.

To Discover Undiscovered Companies That Are Right For Your Background…

Use reverse search techniques in LinkedIn to find similar individuals, such as yourself, and look at something called a “One Back, One Forward“, which will help you see where folks just like you came from, any where they went to –that’s valuable information that use can use to help you find companies that might naturally hire someone with your background. And those would be great companies to then look up decision-makers (using LinkedIn) and begin your marketing outreach to introduce your value to them.

5. Pick Up Your Phone, Or Use That Keyboard To Communicate Your Value With Real Decision-Makers.

Yes, courage is required.

It can be scary to reach out to someone that you have never met –or even spoken to before. And, as you may have guessed, I’m a great coach that helps individuals understand how to make winning introduction calls –so keep me in mind if you decide that you need help.

If you’re not ready to pick up the phone, then at least pick up that keyboard and type out a great value-filled message about you and your very specific interest in them. Start a conversation of equals: both you and the decision-maker are individuals that are valuable, so reach out to them as an equal, in a professional, but equal way that shows that you respect them by making your message valuable to them (it has to be about them, even though it’s always about us).

Are you looking for a position within the HR Department? Great, then your decision-makers are also within the HR Department.

For ALL Others: Your Decision-makers are not in the HR Department, so locate them (using LinkedIn and other tools) and then bravely, with value, reach out and professionally introduce yourself. Let them know why you are so interested in their company (it cannot be that you need a job, as everyone needs a job), and what it is that you bring to the table that makes you a potential valuable addition to consider for their team.

Now, you’ve positioned yourself to get very lucky and get the ‘lightning’ strike (from your hard work and use of intellect) that recruiters are always chasing in their marketing efforts for the candidates that they represent –except that you’ve done it for the very best candidate: YOU!

Let’s Get Started & Take Back Control In Your Job Search

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He educated through his Online Series and speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

–Signed, I’m on the road to recovery!

This is a great question that many individuals face when looking for a new job, while also dealing with a health concern.

A little more background: this individual has a health issue, which has a positive prognosis, but they do still need to see the doctor for treatments (briefly, once a week) for a number of months. It will not interfere with their work, other than needing a small accommodation to make it to their doctor appointments.

The basic dilemma:

If I don’t disclose it during the interview process, will it then become a problem for which they may fire me after I’m hired?

Versus: If I do mention it while I’m interviewing, will they just ‘not hire me’ in the first place?

I understand the desire to be honest and ‘do the right thing’. Honesty is a great policy, though some things are not your employer’s business. And it would be great to find an understanding employer that wants to add your talent and accomplishments to their team. But, there’s a much lower likelihood of it coming back and causing you to lose your job –when it comes up once you are hired.

Health conditions are a ‘protected class’ in employment law. While it’s illegal for a potential employer to discriminate against you in the hiring process, I would not want to put that to a test.

My recommendation would be to avoid any discussion of it until after you are hired.

Then, have a meeting with your manager or an HR staff member and let them know that you have a short term health issue that your doctor is treating, and that you will need to adjust a schedule slightly once a week to accommodate your doctor visit. I would not disclose the nature of your health issue, as it’s really none of their business and it’s protected information. But, I would offer to work extra on another day per week to make up for the time out –and be sure to let them know how excited and pleased that you are about how you will contribute in this role.

There is no easy answer here, but I also think that we should do what we can ‘not to tempt’ a potential employer to discriminate –by removing that discussion from the hiring process (remember, they may also be concerned about the impact on their group’s medical plan and expenses too).

Be sure to avoid discussion on the issue and talk with them about the minor accommodation in scheduling needs –once they already have decided on your value.

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He educated through his Online Series and speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

Q: Whom Should I Link With On LinkedIn?

–Signed, I like you, I think. But I’m just not sure.

This question actually arrived as,

“Tell me why I would want to have you as a LinkedIn connection?”

–after, of course, some very kind words about 2 of my (non-LinkedIn) lectures that they had seen at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL.

It’s always a value exchange. We give something, and we get something in return. But, who got the better deal? –that’s what we’re really thinking about.

We are all facing this same new privacy concerns as our world moves forward at a lightning speed, and none of us want to be the one that makes a misstep.

• What should I do? / What should I be concerned about?

• Should I even have a LinkedIn Profile, and what do I say to my boss!?

• Should I connect with only those that I would recommend and respect professionally?

• Can I connect with someone that I’ve interviewed with?

• How about someone that I don’t know at all?

• Should I put all of my resume on LinkedIn, or only part of it?

I get questions like these all the time, as many individuals are just discovering that LinkedIn can be very valuable to them right now, and for their future.

I’m guessing if you have question(s) like those above on LinkedIn, that you have not seen my lecture on LinkedIn, filmed at NYPL, which I’m pleased to be able to share with you to watch in your home, office, school or wherever you may be (it’s from The New York Public Library!)–and feel free to share this with your friends and those in your network:

Self-Recruiter®
Building Your Professional Network With LinkedIn
& How To Use It For Your Job Search

http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/building-your-professional-network-linkedin-and-how-use-it-your-job-search
(Please COMMENT just below the video, as this is how the NYPL selects future projects –Your comment’s subject-line becomes its headline)

It’s my full lecture, and in it I explain why ‘everyone’ is a good connection on LinkedIn (from a CEO, to the person that may clean the CEO’s office –everyone is a valuable connection for us).

We have to separate the idea of Facebook from the idea of LinkedIn.

While Facebook, at least the idea of it, is about our extended ‘friends’ across a network, LinkedIn is about ‘building a network’ that you can leverage to your benefit professionally.

THINK: Career, Job Search, Interviews (and even in your own Business)

The real value of LinkedIn for you is not simply your profile, that’s just the ‘window dressing’, albeit very important and valuable window dressing. The real value is the ‘network pool’ that you build by adding connections.

____________

Example:

If you have ’2 connections’, you have a ‘pool’ that you can search within to locate people.

Those could be:

– people inside companies that you would like to work for, or

– people that would be the decision-makers for a position that you may be interested in, or

– someone that you may be interviewing with next week (so that you could better prepare for the meeting).

So… you have yours in the pool (2) , but you also get all the connections that each of ‘your 2′ have. They go in the pool, too. But, there is more! You also get all of your connections’ connections’ connections in the pool.

It’s 3-levels of connections –an exponential gain.

____________

In my own network, as an example, at this moment, I have 1,036 direct-connections, but I have almost 11 million people in my ‘personal, searchable pool’.

My 1,036 +  3-levels of connections =  (almost) 11 Million

That means that I can ‘find’ (almost) any:

– hiring manager that I’m searching for; or

– a certain contact within a company that I may want to reach out to; or

– the person that I may meet with next week

they are (almost) all available to me as another part of my research, so that I can better prepare to win those meetings, interviews and appointments, etc.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. While there are even more new techniques that I’ve added to my ‘live’ LinkedIn lectures and upcoming Online Series, since the NYPL brought in the film crew to capture the above presentation, I know this video lecture by NYPL will open your eyes to the value that you can build.

So, Let’s Get Networking!

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

5 Steps to Personal Branding Nirvana in Your Job Search

Personal Branding is the hot catch phrase at the moment, and for good reason.

Ever see that 80′s movie with Jeff Bridges called ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dreams’? He wanted to build a new car to compete with Detroit. Tucker’s dilemma is every new business’ challenge: “Chicken or the egg. Which came first?” He needed to sell dealership rights to get the money that he needed to build his car. No one was interested in buying dealership rights for a car that didn’t exist yet. But Tucker made an interesting observation one day in searching for the solution. He knew that people believed what they could see, but his moment of clarity happened when he first realized that people believed whatever they read in the newspaper. “If it’s in the newspaper, it must be true.” You guessed it. A gorgeous color drawing of the family around their new car, splashed across a two-page spread in the papers, and dealership sales took off.

It’s human nature, it belongs to us all, so by all means use it, just don’t abuse it. People will essentially believe what they see. So, at last you spot that job for which you’ve been waiting. Personal Branding for Your Job Search will help you get in there, and help you to more effectively compete for that dream job.

1. Decide Who You Are

Are you the very best person for this position? Great. Just convince the hiring manager that, “It’s the best business decision that he/she will make that day, should they choose to hire you for the role.” If you can effectively answer that simple question, you understand who you are. If you are not quite there yet, then go back and review all of your reasons why you are better than the very best candidate that you can imagine for the role.

2. You Are a Product Too.

When a company chooses to hire you, they’re really buying a product, and that product is you! Think about something that you desire. It could be that 52 inch TV, and iphone, a great pair of shoes or your favorite cafe’s homemade slice of pie. Think about that desire for that hot product and how it feels.  You need to create that desire surrounding your presentation of all of the reasons that answer that all important ‘best business’ question. Now, you are ready to go and convince that hiring manager.

3. Wrap Yourself in Your Sunday Best.

If you want to be the sharpest candidate for the position, your visual has to match that sharpness. It really is true: you get just that one chance to make a first impression. Do you want this dream job? Then look like a million bucks. Perfectly groomed, hair, nails and those wild nose hairs too. Shoes polished, sharp business suit (mens/womens business suit) -regardless of what you would normally be wearing day to day if you were to be hired for the position. This is your chance, so, look like the success you are.

4. Have Your Marketing Materials Ready.

I have marketing materials? Part of good personal branding, is to control every possible aspect of your public presentation of yourself. That’s the best way, in addition to being a great contributor for your current employer, to control and guide others’ perception of your value. Your marketing materials for your Job Search include having a proper business card, even when unemployed. Your business card can be as simple as your name, email address and phone number(s), but you should also consider including a short positioning statement about yourself, rather than a specific title that you may have held in the past. Now, take that idea of the brand that you have just developed, and carry it over to the look of your resume, your letterhead on which your cover letter will be printed, onto the envelope that you will use for any physical correspondence, and into your ‘signature block’ within your email program. Each of these areas should extend and support your desired perception of your personal brand. Have presentation materials to share in your interview meetings? Great, make sure that you carry your brand look across everything that you present which represents you.

5. Showcase Yourself to the World.

Now, get up on your soap box. In our business lives, everyone has at least one soapbox, and that’s your LinkedIn profile. Your LinkedIn profile should be your own fully developed and branded ‘sales brochure’ that helps build your credibility and your reputation. Will your profile add to, or take away from others’ perceptions about you? And will it show your true value and get you noticed? That may be the difference in being considered for your next business or career opportunity and getting that next meeting or interview -or going unnoticed.

There are many aspects which we can focus on when looking to develop or further our personal branding, but these five simple points are the most critical areas, that in the shortest amount of time, can have the greatest effect on our Job Search success.

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

Over the course of any job search, there are going to be emotional periods of ups and downs, the emotional roller coaster of finally getting an interview, and heartbreak again when we are not selected for the role that we were after.

Here is where statistics can be our friend –and motivator.

While overall unemployment statistics will give us no respite from the doom and gloom when we face the challenge of searching for our next position, if we understand the ‘interview-to-offer’ ratio statistics, that can add comfort –and motivation to push ahead to our next interview opportunity.

In a normal job market, which this is certainly not, for every 1st interview that we get (face-to-face, not ‘phone screens’, so push to be SEEN), a good candidate can expect to get an offer every 6 or 7 interviews. Not as ‘good’ (yet)? Maybe a few more. Are you a ‘very good’ or ‘exceptional’ candidate? Then for you it may be every 4 or 5 of these new first-time face-to-face interviews until you are in the right place at the right time, with the right skill set, to end op with an offer at the end of the interview process.

So, count up your interviews. If you’ve had more that the expected number, you will likely benefit from coaching to become better, and sharper, at presenting your value in those interviews –and ‘closing’ the interviewer for agreement on that value. If you are a few interviews shy of the target number, well then that might be just the motivation that you need to push ahead and convince a hiring manager or two that you will be ‘the very best business decision that they make today, if they choose to hire you!”

We have to be our own cheerleaders. Yes, it is tough to get up and realize that we have quite a challenge in this economy to develop any kind of Job Search Plan that will create better Career Choices for us. So, celebrate and recognize every single small ‘win’, while you are expanding your skill set on Job Search.

Success comes EVERY day. In taking on that scary challenge that we would rather not. In making that call that we think we are not quite ready to undertake. In learning to properly, and valuably, present our accomplishments. In learning to speak about ourselves in a new way. And in every new connection that we make.

Before you know it, your abilities in the presentation of your very best points will be better and sharper than before, and that will help lead you toward Job Search Success.

Now… Let’s GET to WORK before the right, next Career Opportunity passes us by!

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

John is a Featured Speaker at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, as well as at the YMCA in New York City. He speaks at Corporate Events, works with Workforce Development organizations, and teaches both students and alumni with this Self-Recruiter® Series for Colleges and Universities.

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

Q: How do I overcome being rejected as being ‘too senior’ for a role?

-signed, A Wealth of Experience

The most interesting part for me, is that the HR person emailed you almost exactly what I talk about in my lecture series. Here’s a portion of the rejection for the audience of readers:

———

“…you are a little too high level for this position and it probably wouldn’t keep you interested for very long.”

“The worry is that you would take something else within two years –whereas a more junior individual would see this as a great stepping stone to get to the next level over that same period of time.”

———

Of course, this response is generated by hiring managers most common fear:

Are you a ‘good hire’? (or not!)

A Good Hire:

Someone that will come into the role excited, with energy and passion, and stay in that role for about two years continuing to grow. At about the two year mark, a ‘good hire’ will then be ready to be promoted up to the next level position where they will continue to be excited and growing at the new level. If the company can keep you for a total of between 4–7 years, that’s a good hire!

It’s more about expenses and employment costs associated with turnover, so their concerns are real.

You need to convince them that:

(1.) It is really about THIS position (your desired role);

(2.) You will stay with them longer term; and

(3.) You have the energy, enthusiasm and passion that will make your contribution significant.

So, the first question for you:

Is this truly the right position for you?

If so, that’s a position that you desire, are willing to take, and one where you will be happy staying and contributing in this role for a while (–more than 2 years).

If you answered ‘no’ to the question… then this is a very difficult objection to overcome, since the concern may have a real foundation.

But, if you answered ‘yes’ to the question, then their response is just another objection like any other ––and that’s just an opportunity for us to convince them again that we are the right match. This also means convincing them that, in fact, this is what you really want, and are excited about, doing.

In that case, I might respond back this way in writing, and then call them today to leave a voicemail (or have a live conversation) where they can hear and judge the passion of your response firsthand.

The voicemail (or live conversation) is a very important selling tool that can help us to overcome objections like these. The goal is to help relieve their fear that you ‘wouldn’t be a good hire’ because you wouldn’t really be happy in this role.

I might say:

———

“Frankly, I’m not surprised by this question about the fit, as I do bring a wealth of experience that can be leveraged in this role for your company’s benefit.

This is, in fact, exactly the level of contribution and the type of role that I am most interested in and excited about. –Over the next two years, if that leads to new opportunities for me within the company –that’s terrific, but I would also be very content and thrilled to continue to contribute in this role for the team.

I have openings on my schedule Monday and Tuesday –what is the best time to meet and discuss my potential contribution to the team?

I’m very confident that I can allay any fears about answering the needs and staying in the role longer term.”

———

If a company or manager has ‘made up their minds’ on any objection that we encounter, it will be very difficult to counter that objection, but many in the hiring process throw these objections at us as a ‘test’ to see how we respond.

You have to be in the game, to win the game.

So, my advice is to (almost) never take ‘no’ as the final answer –just as another opportunity to persuade them that we are, in fact, the very best choice for the role.

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker on Job Search

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in CRAIN’S New York Business, on Forbes.com, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Online Lecture Series

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

on Job Search and Career Management

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

–Signed, Gregory

It can be frustrating to apply, apply, apply without the response that we are hoping for when looking for our next Career Opportunity.

I would recommend using tools within LinkedIn to ‘look up’ the likely hiring manager for the position that you seek (not just the HR representative). Once you have identified the likely decision-maker, it’s pretty simple to figure out their email address from looking at clues (on the formatting used) with just a quick search of the company’s website.

Then, reach out to them directly. Tell them why you are so excited about their company specifically (and it cannot be simple that you need a job), and then connect that interest in them to the unique skills and experience that you could bring by joining their team.

Outreach with the proper value will get much more of a response than just clicking-and-sending by hitting that ‘submit’ button.

Remember, too, that there are many many competitors out there, so be sure your RESUME and your LINKEDIN PROFILE are working to fully sell your value properly.

It’s frustrating not to get the response that we would like during our Job Search, but proactive action to reach the decision-maker is the best way to reduce your chances of getting ruled out –before the hiring manager actually sees your resume.

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker on Job Search

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in CRAIN’S New York Business, in amNY, and on FOX News – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my FULL-SERVICE:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

on Job Search and Career Management

Direct: 212-372-9878

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

Impressions are made, and solidified very quickly.

Use your Thank You notes to reinforce your excitement for the role, the company and your ‘brand’. As each moment passes after our interview, memories can begin to fade. Thank You notes are a great opportunity to make your great first impression stick. Concerned about one area of discussion or an area that you may have avoided discussing during your interview? Your Thank You notes can help there too.

My recommendation is that Thank You notes need to go out very quickly: In an ideal world, which it never is, I would advise that both email and physical Thank You notes go out on the same day as your interview.

Email Thank You notes individually to each person that you met (not sent cc’d). It’s best if you send them within 2–4 hours after the interview, but at least on the same day. The immediacy of this format reinforces the positive feeling they just had about you in your interview meeting. Be sure to use this email Thank You note as the method to overcome any concerns you may have afterward about why they may not select you, or may not move you forward in the process. Notes should be short and to the point, but don’t miss that chance to overcome any concerns by offering to discuss, or further discuss, these areas. You may not be excited to revisit these areas, but many times, just the offer of discussion on an area of concern shows that you are already on top of it, solving the problem in advance.

Go to the store and pick up a few Thank You note cards in advance which you can use each time that you interview. These should be VERY short in message, something as simple as “Jack, It was great to have the opportunity to meet with you. Best- John”. Handwritten is preferred here, as it communicates a chemistry connection. If your handwriting is like Ronald Reagan’s (child-like), you should use a Sharpie marker to write the simple note, as it helps overcome those issues. If still a concern, then go with printing it from the computer (last choice if necessary). Be sure to get it in the mail by 5 p.m., on same day as your interview.

Be the ‘standout’, just by sending Thank You notes: It’s surprising that very few candidates actually send Thank You notes of any kind, but that knowledge gives you a great advantage and the motivation to use them so that you can be a stand-out. Your email thank you notes provide the immediacy and chance to overcome issues, and your note card in the mail acts to reinforce your brand and the experience of meeting you so that you are truly memorable.

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker on Job Search

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in CRAIN’S New York Business, in amNY – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Negotiating salary can be one of the most challenging aspects to handle properly, and to your advantage, when seeking a new career opportunity. In times of economic challenge, such as a recession or long recovery period, every business is looking to do more for less, and that affects offers made to those that they look to hire. Workloads for current employees have been significantly increased, and companies will look to achieve the same efficiencies from their new hires. Of course, supply and demand play an important part in salary levels too: with so many struggling to find work, it’s natural for companies to take advantage and work to reduce incoming salary levels. That concept is well understood by hiring managers looking to reduce their payroll percentages for their departments; by HR individuals looking to improve their performance numbers and ratios; and by the individuals facing this headwind when negotiating their salary packages.

The first major mistake usually occurs before ‘negotiations’ have even begun, since it typically happens very early in the interview process. That mistake can be an answer in conversation during your first interview, or an answer given when you are handed a package of paperwork by someone in the HR department. It’s the question that you should never answer: “What is your expected or desired salary.” Ever play poker? What would happen to your monetary funds in a poker game if you shared with others at the table insights into the cards that you were holding in your hand? It’s the same principal, but now you are gambling with your future compensation, so you need to think things through before answering questions that may seem innocuous, or expressed as ‘required questions’.

The other major mistake in negotiating is to accept that you are now a commodity, equal to all the others competing against you. Understanding how to properly present and differentiate your value, as compared to those that are competing against you for the role, is crucial to gaining your desired compensation. Aside from presenting, and fully representing your value to those that you meet during the interview process, individuals seeking a better salary must also learn one of the fundamentals of successful negotiating: whomever speaks about money first, loses. When I coach individuals on salary negotiations, it begins with a singular goal for the job seeker during the interview process: never talk about money. It’s natural to want the best offer that you can receive, but you must approach this quest for your desired compensation with great self-restraint. The secret to getting the very best offer is to make them ‘fall in love’ with the skills, abilities, and all that you have to offer that differentiates you from all the others seeking this role.

Once they fall in love with the best ‘new addition for their team’, any discussions of salary needs get much easier, as they have already decided upon you. But, remember, a successful negotiation is one where everyone wins: you get your needed or desired salary, and they get an incomparable addition for their team, so be ready to deliver!

The three things that a person must have prepared before negotiating a salary:

1. A unwavering understanding that any discussion whatsoever of salary needs must come only after you have convinced them of your unique value during the interview process.

2. Be sure that you have fully developed your value and differentiated what you offer from the ‘very best individual‘ that you can imagine, as that person is your real competition for the role.

3. Develop a persuasive argument to differentiate what a company might expect when comparing the results from someone ‘capable‘ that they may hire, as compared to what they will gain in efficiency and bottom-line results by choosing to hire you for the position.

Whom should I negotiate with, and is there a ‘protocol’?

Two very similar companies may handle salary negotiations very differently, but my advice to my own coaching clients is always to be selling and persuading the real decision-maker. Are you interviewing for a position in the HR department? Then the decision-maker is in the HR department. If not, then the actual hiring manager is a better choice. Win the hiring manager over with your value and you will have an advocate –regardless of where the financial compensation decisions are actually made. Be sure to give the hiring manager the tools necessary so that they can represent you in those internal discussions by properly presenting your full value to them.

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker on Job Search

Copyright © 2009, 2010 by John Crant

As seen and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, on FINS.com, on CareerBuilder’s CBsalary.com, on The Ladders, in amNY – John share’s the answers and the concrete steps for success in Job Search.

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

See article quoting John Crant’s advice on: CBsalary.com

Expert Advice is Better When It’s From A Number of Recognized Experts Launchpad: Your Career Search Strategy Guide

John Crant of SelfRecruiter.com is one of the featured experts in the premiere edition of Launchpad: Your Career Search Strategy Guide, the new book from Chris Perry, founder of CareerRocketeer.com.

Launchpad is the ultimate career search strategy guide, published quarterly with exclusive articles on up-to-date topics from the industry’s top career experts. That varied opinion is a great resource for advice on every subject affecting your Job Search.

John’s article, included in the book, is “LinkedIn Secrets: How to Build a More Effective LinkedIn Profile in 10 Steps“.

John & SelfRecruiter.com are proud to be contributors and recommend taking a closer look at Career Rocketeer, and their new book.

Exclusive articles by the Top Career Experts. It’s a Winner.

Visit: Launchpad

Visit: Career Rocketeer

Launchpad is available now on Amazon.com

John Crant

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

SELF-RECRUITER® 4–Week Special Event:
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY’S
JOB SEARCH CENTRAL

This Self-Recruiter® featured program series includes everything needed to get your Job Search on track in 2010 (Job Search, Resume, Networking with LinkedIn, and Interviewing), and it’s all in one place at the NYPL!

January 21 PROGRAM 1
Organizing & Managing Your Job Search

January 28 PROGRAM 2
Resume Renovation

February 4 PROGRAM 3
Building your Professional Network with LinkedIn &
How to Use It for Your Job Search

February 10 PROGRAM 4
Self-Recruiter® Interview Checklist:
Preparing Before & Follow-up After Your Interview

NYPL’s new JOB SEARCH CENTRAL facility specializes in assisting individuals in all things related to Job Search and houses an expanded collection of books on every subject imaginable that would be of interest to those in career transition (including my very own title).

Visitors also have access to many premium databases, free of charge, that will help them in their Job Search efforts. It’s located at the NYPL’s SIBL Science, Business and Industry Library at 188 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 (34th Street & Madison Avenue in New York City’s midtown). John’s upcoming lectures at the NYPL will each be featured at 6 p.m. on their respective dates.

Space is limited. No advanced reservations available, so be sure to Arrive Early to be assured entry! Check out my full Calendar.

John Crant

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Now is the time to renew, refresh and re-energize your Job Search efforts. A year has come and gone. Not getting the results that you wanted in your Job Search in 2009? Then it’s time to change your ways. Step out of line and take control for yourself. Yes, it is scary. The realization that if you keep doing the same activities, that your results are not likely to change, may help motivate you to take the steps necessary to be seen as that stand-out in 2010.

So, let’s change course now, at the start of the year, and before long, your results will begin to change too.

2010. It’s a fresh new year and a new beginning. It’s time to take back control and move forward in your career, and in your job search. While the challenges in the job market are still with us, by utilizing a new way of looking at our job search, we can open and chart a new path forward. Out with the old, stale methods of looking for a new job and in with the strategies that will help you uncover a new opportunity for your future.

Spending hours looking on the Internet for job postings? This is one of the first habits that must change. Rarely does this type of activity produce the results that we are expecting. Learn how to uncover the undiscovered opportunities through your research efforts and to position and present yourself to the real decision-makers.

Take the steps necessary and master becoming a Self-Recruiter in 2010, and put your career on a new track. That’s the surest way to become a Self-Recruiter® which is in control of their career and Job Search.

We’re ready for new challenges in 2010 at Self-Recruiter. In January, we have more scheduled events than in any prior month to date. It starts January 5th with a full slate of seminars each week at the West Side YMCA in New York City.

And, beginning on January 21st, The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL will be featuring the full Self-Recruiter Job Search Series on:

• Organizing and Managing Your Job Search,

• Resume Renovation,

• Building Your Professional Network with LinkedIn & How to Use it for Your Job Search, and

• Self-Recruiter® Interview Checklist: Preparing Before & Follow-up After Your Interview.

All in a four-week special event. Join us and invite your friends too.

This fresh new year will also see the launch of our New Website. Just weeks away from launch, our new Self-Recruiter site makes it even easier to get to the latest in job search and career advice, the self-help job search videos, the free downloadable guides and samples, and, coming soon: our new Online Video Job Search Class Series.

Your New Job Awaits-

2010 is here, so let’s get going!

John Crant

Copyright © 2010 by John Crant

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

The simple answer is guilt. We all have that nagging voice in our heads that our call is not of interest, and is really a nuisance, to those in our network that we may call more than once asking for help. Many times, we even play out the mental conversations to our detriment, “Why are they calling me again, I can’t help them!” We may also be thinking about the many other calls that these individuals may be getting, and visualize our call as if it’s the same as all the rest. It’s this negative-reinforcement that can block our ability to network effectively. Effective networking provides value to both parties. As job seekers, we often fall into the trap of thinking only about how the call may be valuable to us, rather than thinking of a good networking call as a value for both individuals. Compounding our anxiety may be the fact that the first time around, we may have neglected to lay the proper foundation for our follow up networking calls.

How does the outcome of the first interaction play into it?

It’s not the outcome of the first call as much as it’s whether we worked to develop a mutually beneficial networking relationship from the start. Remember, these calls should be valuable to both parties. What do you have to offer, and how can you be a valuable contact for them in their careers? Even if they are in a senior position to yours, you can still help them with valuable contacts in the industry -when they eventually are looking to expand their team.

Is this a common problem for today’s job hunters? Why?

This is the most common problem that I see as a career coach: job seekers know that they have to network, especially in this economic climate, but are ill prepared to do so. Individuals seem to have little understanding of just what makes networking effective. They’ve always heard that they need to do it. Maybe they have even attended networking events, only to spend most of their time reinforcing in conversation how ‘they are not good networkers’ to ease their discomfort.

What are some common mistakes people make when asking the same people for help?

Not showing a true interest in the other individual is the largest mistake. In today’s job market, most people return to their network without the ‘value-add’ for their contact. What’s in it for them? Calling an individual back only to communicate that you are ‘still out there and looking’ produces an anxiety and guilt reaction on the other end too, and that’s no way to the create the warm chemistry needed for effective networking. You will hear your contacts on the other end of the call squirm like they are trying to get out of a dinner invitation at the mother-in-laws (not to slight mother-in-laws, I have a great one!). So, be sure to call them back with something for or about them: an interesting, related news article about their field, their company, etc., or even something that may be of personal interest -say, in an earlier call you had uncovered their love of fly fishing, and you spotted (or search for!) an interesting article on fly fishing. Transparent? Yes. Effective? Yes, as well. There is always an ego component to networking as everyone secretly, if not overtly, wishes to be the center of attention. So, come bearing gifts for their ego and you may get more conversation, and help, than you had expected. As long as we’re talking about common mistakes, no phone messages with “I’m just following up.” If you are thinking about what your messages are communicating on the other end, this one just says, “I’m checking to see if you did anything for me.” That’s a chemistry killer, and a font of guilt that won’t help your cause. Instead, leave your message about whatever you have zeroed in upon that is about them (like the fly fishing article). Don’t forget that your tempo, tone and attitude on the call or message makes a significant difference in whether people engage and open up, or close and shut down. A little water and sunlight makes those flowers bloom.

Is it beneficial to go back to the same people who have offered help? Please explain why or why not.

Of course! The best networking contacts are the ones that you develop into close personal confidants. While not every good contact will develop into a close personal friend, by going back with value to your contact with a frequency, it will set a good tone for the relationship and result in better discussions. Rich conversations and discussions are where you’ll find your networking gold. And with repeated contact, and solid note-taking, you can be building that relationship and exploring many different avenues that can produce very useful, and actionable, information to aid in your search for a new position.

Why can some people be standoffish when they are constantly being asked for help from the same person?

Most times it comes from the mistaken belief that they cannot be of help to you without getting you a new job. If the job-seeking networker understood what they could uncover in these dialogues, they would know how, and what, areas to discuss that would produce this golden information. What can they uncover? Openings or needs/challenges, contacts, others to network with at your networking contact’s company, group, division, parent company, subsidiaries, competitors, etc. They could uncover information such as common backgrounds that get hired more quickly at this firm (certain schools, from certain former employers, etc.) or even information on how the hiring process there really works there. Information about the organization chart for this employer could be valuable to the job seeker, all available right there in conversation -if you are listening for it. And let’s not forget that you are networking with another individual from your industry, so be ready to pick their brains for new ideas that you may not have thought about yet.

How can job seekers create connections that will want to help them again and again?

If you want a fan, you have to be a fan. Be sure to check out their background thoroughly (think LinkedIn profile) and you will likely discover much more about them than you currently know. Take notes. Show an interest in them: it always needs to be about them, even though it’s about you. Bring something of value to them every time that you reach out: interesting article, insights to share, etc. Yes, it does take work to strategize and come up with the right value pieces, but it’s really about changing the way you think about networking and making connections. The art of networking is about making them look forward to getting your next call, and then you will have a fan that will help you in any way that they can.

John Crant

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

View The edited article as it appeared in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal here:

http://www.selfrecruiter.com/Media/wall_street_journal_2__john_crant.html

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Small and large businesses hire for basically the same reason: the internal need for new talent to have a positive effect on whatever it is that they do to create the revenue for their bottom line. While a larger company benefits from instant name recognition and a higher profile, a smaller company may not be well known outside of a small circle of industry individuals. How will the job seeker find these great, but smaller company opportunities? Smaller companies are also less likely to be advertising potential openings until they are ‘truly ready to hire’, and not just contemplating hiring. My recommendation is to take a proactive approach when desiring to find your next career opportunity at one of the many smaller companies in your industry niche. What exactly is a proactive approach in this case? It means taking control of your job search and not just surfing job ads.

Job seekers can use a secret that recruiting industry professionals use to help uncover these smaller, lesser known companies for your industry: the One-Back and the One-Forward technique. Recruiters use this technique with the resumes in their own databases and when using their job board accounts to look at resumes, but individuals can use this same technique using LinkedIn as their resume ‘data source.’ The concept is simple: Many other individuals, with skill sets just like yours, work at any number of companies that you likely have never heard of, since they may be smaller companies without that name recognition. This technique will help you to create a list of these companies: a target list of potential employers that you should be reaching out to in your efforts to market yourself / your skills.  What you offer in expertise will help those companies move forward in this tough economy.

You can start by finding just one individual with a similar background or skill set as yourself. Do a People Search on LinkedIn to find this starter (resume) profile. Assuming that you have found an individual that offers similar skills that you offer, take a look at where they worked before joining their current company. That’s called a ‘One-Back’, or one company before they worked at their current company. Grab a sheet of paper and start creating a list with this first new company name. Now go back into People Search, click advanced search, enter their current employer’s name in the company field of this People Search window and be sure to toggle the options to include ‘current and past’ employees for this company, along with adding appropriate titles of individuals similar to your function into the title space on the search form. Now you have a list of people to look through and this is where you can begin to create a larger list of One-Backs, and a list of One-Forwards. The One-Forwards are companies that individuals, similar to yourself, went to work for after leaving this current company.

In just a short amount of time using this technique, you will be able to compile a list of potential employers that you should be contacting to introduce yourself. Some will inevitably be larger companies that you have heard about, but many will be these smaller companies that you have never heard of before. Those companies are much less likely to be on your competition’s radar and that increases your chances of success in your job search.

Once you have a list of companies that could benefit from your skills and accomplishments, be sure to be reaching out to the individuals that would be the hiring managers for your potential roles (you can find those managers by using similar search techniques using LinkedIn). Now you just need to practice and rehearse your marketing message so that when you do reach out and create your own introduction to these individuals, you are ready to convey why it might be the ‘best business decision that make all day’ if they were to choose to hire your talent for their team.

Are smaller companies hiring? How have they taken advantage of talent during the recession?

Smaller companies are hiring too. It’s a financial balancing act whether the company is large or small, but smaller companies are hiring -when they can see the value equation will be in their favor. So, be sure your message is focused not on you, but on how they will benefit by hiring you. How will your expertise help this smaller company? How will the manager’s life get easier with an individual with your skills on their team? If you are in a role that directly affects revenue, then of course include that you will have a direct and positive effect on their revenue streams.

Remember, smaller companies have taken extra advantage of the talent they already have during this recession, but that cannot continue indefinitely. As in past recessions, smaller companies have asked their employees to do even more to help the companies survive and thrive. But after a while, all of that extra workload must be redistributed by hiring new talent. Make sure to position yourself as an asset that can help these smaller companies take that next step in their own growth -that’s the surest way to get a hiring individual off the fence and interested in hiring you.

What are some qualities to highlight during the interview process if you’re seeking work at a smaller company? (i.e. is showing entrepreneurial skills more important and what’s an example of how you can convey them to an employer?)

The key difference between a large and small company is the infrastructure and support for each individual worker. Larger companies typically have well-defined duties, responsibilities and many support individuals that interact together to create a great work outcome. But individuals who have only worked at these larger companies often find it very difficult when trying to adjust to their new role in a small company. Taken-for-granted support functions that existed in the larger company are no longer available to help you succeed and it’s expected that you will wear many hats in your new role. Someone that may have been all on the operations side in the larger company may now find themselves struggling with also having to be involved on the marketing side, and even struggling with items like having to create their own presentations without the support individuals that take on those other responsibilities in the larger companies.

Highlight your abilities to work independently, without the need for too much support. Illustrate through example where you have taken the reins and worn several hats at once. Show them through your examples that you can bring significant industry expertise to their team. This will help a smaller company manager see you as just the self-sufficient addition with the expertise that they may be looking for to solve their needs. Of course, be sure to convey that you are a team player too, but they should feel you are happy and ready to expand your role and wear multiple hats as needed -and that will help you beat your competition to join their company.

How should job seekers find contacts at a smaller company, who should they reach out to?

You hear a lot of talk today about LinkedIn, but most people really have no idea of how they can use it in their job search efforts. Before LinkedIn, few had their own database of industry information to tap as needed. Now with a properly developed LinkedIn Profile, you can search and see almost any manager in your industry.

We know whom to call, we are just not used to doing it. In just a few moments of conversation with those that I coach, almost everyone knows that they should be contacting the decision-maker. Unless you are looking for a position within human resources, that decision-maker is not in HR. Understanding how the organization chart typically works for your industry, you can search and look for the decision-makers at these smaller companies using LinkedIn.

Start with the list of smaller companies that you have created with your One-Back and One-Forward research efforts from above. Use the advanced search feature on LinkedIn People Search to look up current employees with manager, director, VP, etc. in their title to locate to potential hiring individual that would likely be the decision-maker when hiring for your typical role. If you can see their contact information in their profile, great, but if not you can simply look at their company’s website to discover the company’s email ‘format’ and apply that format to their name and email them directly. Of course, if you really want to get noticed, pick up the phone and call them with your value and start a dialogue that can lead to your next great career opportunity.

Is networking more important than in larger organizations?

Networking is very important no matter the size of the company. Most people shy away from networking as this activity that they have heard about, and know that they need to do, but they truly don’t know ‘what’ to do. It starts with having something I call the ‘Best 25 Seconds of Your Life’. It’s the common idea of an elevator pitch. Networking without a short sales presentation about yourself is just plain awkward and not very effective. The solution is very simple: you have 25 seconds to convey two major points about yourself when networking. 1. Who you are. And, 2. Why you are interesting or memorable. Be sure to make your interesting or memorable points about the value you would bring to any company considering your as an addition to their team.

In smaller companies it’s much more like a family. Be contacting and networking with several individuals within the company -and working to build chemistry with these contacts that you may uncover. As your dialogue with the company evolves and they begin to discuss you internally, you will have already warmed up those discussions of you by laying a foundation of chemistry through your networking activities.

What are some mistakes/wrong assumptions that job seekers make when applying for work at a small business?

The largest single mistake is the one that leads to individuals with large company background fail in their roles in these smaller companies. Underestimating the level and type of support you will have in your job function in these smaller companies. Yes, you need to do what you did for the larger company, but you very likely will also need to do the support functions that others performed for you in your previous roles -if you are to succeed in these smaller companies. Many arrive unprepared for this challenge, so be prepared for this adjustment to have your best chance of success.

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

View The edited article as it appeared in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal here:

http://www.selfrecruiter.com/Media/wall_street_journal__john_crant.html

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

How to Build a More Effective LinkedIn Profile in Just 10 Steps

YOU are a Product Too!

Your LinkedIn Profile should be your own ‘Sales Brochure’ that helps build your credibility and your reputation.

Will your profile add to, or take away from others’ perceptions about you?

And will it show your true value and get you noticed?

That may be the difference in being considered for your next business or career opportunity and getting that next meeting or interview -or going unnoticed.

Most individuals understand that they have to compete, but many don’t know that LinkedIn gives them the platform to do so. Get your new professional profile going or improve the effectiveness of your current profile.

Most individuals do not understand the opportunity and advantages that a rich, professional profile on LinkedIn can present to them, whether that’s for their business, for their careers, or in their immediate search for their next career opportunity.

But I already have a LinkedIn Profile.

Congratulations! You’ve taken an important first step by adding yourself to LinkedIn. Now take the next step and raise your profile’s effectiveness through a LinkedIn Professional Profile Renovation of your own.

In my Self-Recruiter® Building Your Professional Network with LinkedIn & How to Use It for Your Job Search lecture at The New York Public Library’s JOB SEARCH CENTRAL, many attendees ‘have’ their profile set up, or at least they have entered their resume on the LinkedIn site, but they don’t understand what else they should be doing. They are just waiting. Looking up to the heavens and waiting… for that ‘networking’ lightning bolt to strike. And they keep waiting until they quickly lose interest, failing to see the true value that is awaiting them -if they have used their LinkedIn profile in a different way.

Your LinkedIn profile… is Your Sales Brochure that is all about You. Imagine how your Client or Customer meetings, Job Interviews, and even your pursuit of your company’s internal open positions would change… if the individuals that you were meeting had spent time reviewing Your Sales Brochure beforehand.

Q: Isn’t my LinkedIn Profile just my resume?

Many individuals do have their LinkedIn profiles that are ‘just like their resumes’.

But, those individuals are missing the real opportunity:

Your Professional LinkedIn Profile should be ‘positioning and selling’ your background, your accomplishments, your connections, and your industry expertise in ways that no resume can because of a resume’s inherent limitations.

As I teach in my Self-Recruiter® Resume Renovation video on my Self-Recruiter® YouTube channel, in order for Your Resume to be effective for you, it should be a Simple Sales Sheet that creates desire to hire, and that must be in a single page format to increase its effectiveness among the thousands of resumes competing for attention.

Your Professional LinkedIn Profile is a multi-dimensional Sales Presentation all about You -or at least it should be!

Not just a resume.

In the modern world, perception is reality. Ready to improve that reality with a LinkedIn Professional Profile Renovation in just 10 easy steps?

Your Professional LinkedIn Profile can include:

1. Your Brand. That’s your Name, Your Headline, and Your Professional Picture. Most poorly developed profiles happen because individuals just ‘answer the automated questions’ during their LinkedIn sign-up process. That produces a profile that looks like a basic, but typically ineffective resume. Each area where you can input text and information about yourself within LinkedIn is another area to better sell yourself. Rather than just answering ‘the questions’, take back control for yourself and use each one of these spaces as opportunities to shine the light and build your credibility.

Your ‘Current Status’ is part of your brand too. Think of this prime space below your headline as your Personal Promotional Marketing message. What will you say about ‘You’?

It’s a great chance to spotlight your current projects and agenda. When I work closely in my Career Coaching & Mentoring service with professionals that are not currently looking for a new job, it’s almost always on their challenge with internal and industry marketing efforts ‘of themselves’. Those that actively manage their careers know that you must continually be ‘taking credit’, and marketing that credibility that you are building, to others. That’s one of the best ways to be seen as a leader, an expert, and the right choice for that next-level position that suddenly opens up.

2. All or part of your Resume(s). You may have more than one specialty. If your career has focused in-depth on two or more areas, it’s critically important when going after a job to send a resume that speaks directly to the opportunity that you are pursuing. But, how do you resolve having different versions of your resume with what your LinkedIn Profile says about You?

It’s about knowing what information that you have written is of value to your profile’s visitors, and which information is not. And each piece of information that you include must continue to build your credibility -and add a foundation of support for all of your resume versions.

Whether your profile visitors are potential Clients or Customers, HR professionals or hiring managers, understanding how to properly frame your experience and accomplishments – to properly take credit and never to misrepresent – involves a deep understanding of your business and career goals, and an understanding of how the hiring process actually works. If you are unsure of how to best accomplish this delicate balance, you should consider working with a professional for your LinkedIn Profile Creation / Renovation.

3. Your Summary and Specialties. Not simply a repeat of what you might have written on the top of your resume, these two areas are a vast piece of prime real estate on your profile that should be used to ‘position you’ within the mind of the reader.

Think of a cover letter that you may have spent hours developing. Why? Because that cover letter is your chance in the hiring process to ‘position and sell’ yourself in the mind of the reader. It’s similar with the use of LinkedIn’s Summary and Specialties space.

4. List Your Website, Your Blog, Your RSS Feed. Want to be seen as an expert? Well then you have to be communicating with the world. A blog is one of the easiest ways, for those with the proper writing skills, to effectively position themselves as the go-to expert in their niche. Have a website of your own (another great way to increase your credibility)? LinkedIn’s ability to include web links can be used to highlight your current company, your own company, or your own initiatives within your industry. And, be sure to take the extra step of ‘custom naming’ your web links so the they say more than just ‘My Company’!

5. Import Your Blog to Your Profile, Automatically. If you do write a blog that raises your credibility, have it imported automatically by one of the LinkedIn applications that you can add to your profile. Let your writing work for you continuously.

6. Be Public. You can choose to make your profile public to all. Why not? I’m often asked in my lecture series about privacy. While privacy concerns do have to be dealt with, reality also needs to factor into how ‘public’ we choose to be. Ever noticed how the younger generations (sometimes to their detriment) don’t seem to have a care in the world about having a ‘presence online’? In their minds, I think many of them think, “How can you live and breath and not be online.”

In another few years, everything about everyone will exist somewhere on the Internet. And, it will be seen as a very poor screening process if someone gets hired -and they don’t have a professional presence of credibility online. My advice: if you can’t beat them, join them. Be public and take control of that perception about you.

7. Honors and Awards. Yes, it’s okay to toot your own horn. List your career achievements and awards in a special section to raise your own stock.

8. Groups and Associations. We are who we associate with -in other peoples’ eyes. Be sure to make the most of your memberships to highlight your professionalism with your industry.

9. More Privacy Options that are Opportunities. You have control over many other aspects of your activities while on LinkedIn. Be sure to ‘show’ what you’ve been up to on your profile page so that you are seen as a mover and a shaker.

10. Add a Presentation or even a Video. Do you present and speak with others in your industry? Your presentation can appear right within your profile. Now that’s a great marketing tool, for You!

There’s much more…

You can achieve much more if you understand how you benefit, in ways that you do not see, by joining certain groups.

Want to increase your perception as an expert? Try answering some of your industry’s questions, in the LinkedIn Answers section and readers who like your views on topics can click to see your full profile. Then be sure that your settings also populate your ‘answers’ to your profile page so your connections see you as that expert too.

Why listen to my advice for your LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation or Renovation?

As an industry manager, executive recruiter, sales and recruiting trainer, event speaker, and as VP of a nationwide system of recruitment offices, I have seen most every aspect of the hiring process from both the internal and external view as the decision-maker, the decision-influencer, and as the objective observer. This varied insight is what provides the clarity that that my advice will bring to your LinkedIn profile. And, I have coached and mentored thousands of professionals, at all levels, in my more than 10 years in the recruiting industry.

Be sure to check out more about Full-service LinkedIn Profile Renovations on my website, Blog, and my advice on many other Job Search topics.

Your NEW LinkedIn Profile Awaits!

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

The Self-Recruiter® INTERVIEW CHECKLIST

Be sure to do the self-assessments recommended, as a new Self-Recruiter®, when preparing your resume and other promotional materials in order to improve your odds of getting seen –over the other candidates that you are competing against.

Once your interview is scheduled, be sure to do everything that you can do to continue to improved your odds of success. Remember, it IS a competition, and there’s nothing wrong with that, so approach it as such.

Your INTERVIEW can take place as an unexpected, unscheduled phone call; a scheduled phone interview; or as an in-person meeting. Being prepared for as many possibilities as possible will help you shine at your brightest.

Key Points to Consider while preparing for Your INTERVIEW:

You could receive an Unscheduled Phone Call

At some point, a company will reach out to you over the telephone, and you may not be expecting the call. They may intend to use this conversation to set up a scheduled call, or they may intend to pre-screen you for the position during this first call. Always answer the phone in a professional, business manor when you do not know who may be calling you. The first impression you make starts right on this call. But that does not mean that you have to take the call, or continue on the call –if the company wants to move right into pre-screen questions. After all, you did not have a scheduled meeting set up with them. Thank them for reaching out to you and express your interest in the company and the position. Let them know that you have another scheduled meeting, but that you would like set a time/day for the call. That way you can be fully prepared and increase your odds of success.

The Scheduled Phone Interview

Congrats! You have a scheduled phone interview! Now be prepared by fully reviewing the Self-Recruiter® INTERVIEW CHECKLIST. But, keep in mind that the largest mistake that individuals make during a phone interview… is forgetting that it’s over-the-telephone! Sound strange? What I mean is that most individuals simply ‘do’ this interview ‘cold’, rather than strategically and properly preparing all of their support materials that can help them be seen as a stand-out on the call. Be sure to be in a place where you control the environment, not the other way around. Watch out for distractions like small children at home, etc. Be somewhere that you can fully focus. If you do not have a home office with a large desk, I recommend your kitchen or the kitchen table.

Gather all of the important support documents that can help you: your Resume; your Cover Letter; your Company Research, including their Press Releases that you may want to reference during the conversation; the Job Description; the Notes that you have made during your research; and a Bullet-Point List of what you want to communicate during the call that answers the question as to why you are the Very Best Choice for the role. Now spread all of that out so that you can look over all of it at once and have easy access to any piece of that information at any time during the call. My recommendation is always to do your phone interview STANDING up, and that is also why the kitchen would be my first choice as it typically has taller counters. By standing, we release and have better control over our diaphragm, and that gives us more power and presence on the call. Do not use a speakerphone (even if they do), as you will seem ‘disconnected’ and it will be much more difficult to build chemistry. By all means, if you have a headset available, do use it, as that will free your hands to take notes and handle your support materials that you have prepared.

The In-Person Interview

Here’s your real chance to shine. No one really ever gets hired over the telephone, so when you get your in-person interview scheduled, be sure to do all of the work necessary to increase your chances of success.

The Self-Recruiter® INTERVIEW CHECKLIST:

1. Complete Your RESEARCH

The largest single mistake candidates make when interviewing for a position is to fail to do the proper research ahead of time. That research can help you shine, and be seen, as an outstanding individual to consider for the role by helping you to communicate that you are looking for this job, not just any job. It will help you to better convey what you will bring to this role and how your addition to the team will help the company reach its goals. Proper research also allows you to show through your conversation and discussions that you are already thinking about how you will add value to the company –when they choose to hire you.

• The Job

Your clear understanding of the position for which you are interviewing is crucial to your interview’s success. Re-read the job listing / job posting. Take a sheet of paper and write down the title of this position. Then write down everything that YOU think is part of this position’s day-to-day activities, based on your experience and knowledge. Be sure to be visualizing the day-to-day activities of this role. This understanding will help you to give better answers. It will also give you discussion points for use during your conversation (better known as an interview).

• The Company

Show them that you ARE potentially the right choice –by conveying your knowledge and excitement about the company. Check out, and fully read, the company’s Website; Press Releases; and do a News and Google search for additional information that may be available. Be sure to print out and highlight areas, and names, in the press releases / web pages that you may want to reference and talk about during your phone meeting.

• Company Culture

During the interview process, it’s your job to evaluate the ‘company culture’ in order to decide if it’s a fit for your needs. Many things factor in to what constitutes ‘company culture’, Part if it is the “What’s it like there?” factor. That will be one of the items for you to take note of on your visit to the company. Where did many of the company’s employees work for before joining the company? Part of company culture is also the accumulated personalities and backgrounds that the current employees have brought with them from other companies as they joined this employer. While company culture is a difficult aspect to define when considering a new employer, it is still very important to consider if you are to find someplace that can become a home for your career.

2. Do a ‘Needs Analysis’ Early in Your Meeting

Remember, an interview is just a meeting. Try, if possible, to keep the meeting in a conversational style, rather than as ‘20 Questions/20 Answers’, though you may only have so much control over that. This will help you in your goal of doing what is known as a ‘Needs Analysis’. Your goal is simply to uncover, through conversation, all that you can about what their true ‘need’ is –and why they are ‘really’ hiring for this position. It’s not just because the position is ‘open’, as that’s just a symptom of the problem(s). The problems are the ‘real pain’ that the organization is feeling because of this opening. What major projects are being left untended? What has fallen off the radar or been sidelined because of this position being vacant? Understanding their real pain will help you to improve your answers to their questions, right during your interview! Give answers showing how your experience can help to solve that pain that they are experiencing. That’s one of the surest ways to end up near the top of their list.

3. Oh Behave! Your Body Language is Speaking Volumes

Perception is Reality. Be sure your body language is on the same page as you are. You need to be engaging and energetic, without being overwhelming. Look folks in the eye when you meet them, shake their hands, and as you converse during your meeting. But remember the goal is to make it a comfortable environment for discussions, so eye contact, yes, but not to the point ‘eye-balling’ or staring. Keep your body posture in check and professional at all times. And remember that this is their normal workplace: if they were to get a phone call during your meeting, as an example, and suddenly throw their feet up on the desk and to raise their voice in discussion with whomever is on the telephone –be sure to keep your posture under control and professional –as every moment of your meeting is part of the audition (interview) process for you. An extra tip if wearing a jacket: be sure to sit, just a little, on the tail of your jacket, as that will ensure you look as sharp as possible during your meeting by keeping your jacket from riding up. It’s the small differences that distinguish someone exceptional, from someone who is only very good. Exceptional people get hired much more quickly when looking for their next career challenge.

4. Dress Like You ARE A Success!

Imagine the very best-of-the-best that you will be competing against for this position. Part of how you will beat them, and get the offer, is to be a stand-out in every way. Make sure the ‘visual’ meets that goal too! You know, you really do only get one chance for a first impression. How would you like them to think of you? No matter the position that you are after, or what the typical person in that role might wear during their normal day-to-day activities, you should look your very best when interviewing. I always recommend looking like ‘a million bucks’. Haircut and groomed, shoes polished and dressed appropriately. What’s appropriate? Ladies: business suit/skirt or very dressy outfit (but not ‘evening’ wear). Men: suit and tie, almost without exception. That’s a dark suit, light shirt, sharp tie. You have one chance to look better, and more professional, than the next person interviewing for this role, look in the mirror and be sure your choice matches up to that challenge.

5. Are You Listening?

While you may have a lot to say and a desire to share it all with your interviewer, you should also be there to hear why they may be the right place for your next career home. In a perfect world, you would speak 40% of the time, which also means they should be doing most of the talking.

6. Ask, Not.. But Do Sell Yourself

Be ready to let them know how it will benefit them –if they were to hire you. What talent and expertise do you have that will help the team or the company grow, or be more effective? Always be speaking in a way to convey your value to them, as it will help them visualize how it may be the right choice to hire you.

7. Don’t Talk About Money! –Getting the Best Offer

If you want the best offer, you must avoid any discussion (whatsoever) about money. The sooner they begin to visualize a ‘number and you’, the more difficult it becomes to change (or raise) that number when they move toward the offer stage. Build your value in discussions with them before they begin to visualize that number –and then your number will usually be higher.

8. Time to Get it Right

When is that? Early, but not too early . Arrive in the area about 30 minutes before your scheduled appointment, so that you can be using the time to collect and organize your thoughts for the interview. Be sharp and ready as you only have one chance to win each interview, so be ready to be your best. But don’t arrive in the office earlier than between 5 and 10 minutes before your scheduled time, otherwise it communicates that you aren’t concerned with their schedule.

9. Next Stop: Opportunity

Though you will also be assessing the company and the job to determine if they are a fit for your needs and desires during the interview process, you must never let that part show. What should show through at all times, is your desire and interest in the position, in assisting the manager’s team and in helping the overall company’s performance. Hiring individuals remember the candidates that truly show interest and show themselves to already be thinking about how they can add to the company. Careful about any comments about your past employers (Don’t bad-mouth past employers!), as they will be visualizing what you might say about them in the future –if they were to hire you for this opportunity.

10. Ask, Ask, Ask for the Job!

If you never ask, you may never get. Candidates wrongly assume that ‘just because I’m here interviewing, they must know that I want this job’. That is an incorrect assumption. You may go on a number of interviews, before you find the opportunity and employer that you are really interested in. Did all of the interviewers assume that you were interested in those jobs too? Let them know how enthused and excited you are about the possibility of joining their team and their company.

For more downloads and to see resume samples, go to www.selfrecruiter.com.

—————————–

Self-Recruiter® Career Advice Blog: INTERVIEW CHECKLIST Copyright © 2009 by Provident Resource, Inc.

Remember, there’s lots more to making your Job Search more effective.

• Be sure to send your resume in the right file format (Don’t send a Word format!). (*page 42)

• Be ready to Build Chemistry with Anyone! (*page 61)

• Don’t Talk About Money! (*page 70)

• Make sure that you understand The Unwelcome Truth, or you could get an offer that is too low! (*page 73)

• Understand how your Thank You Notes Can Solve Your Problems in Advance! (*page 65)

• Why you need to, and how to Be Ready to Accept an Offer On The Spot! (*page 80)

• What to do and how to Get Over it! -after a layoff. (*page 9)

• How to Prepare for the Unexpected (*page 68)

• The (Secret) Truth About Recruiters (*page 11)

Self-Recruiter®

Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &

Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

-Signed

I just want what I deserve.

We all want what we deserve. Unfortunately, what I call the ‘Unwelcome Truth’ usually gets in the way.

The Unwelcome Truth:

Companies usually pay based on pay history, and they are not typically basing their offers on what you will bring to the company, or on what you will produce for them. That’s an equation that most individuals who strive to be at the top of their professions have a difficult time accepting. So, I have some advice.

Change the Equation.

Just knowing this ‘pay history’ fact will help you better prepare for your interview process (that’s a sales opportunity for you). The interview process –which may begin with an email exchange, a brief phone conversation to ‘pre-screen’ you for a role, or a scheduled full interview, is an opportunity for you to begin to properly frame your value to the organization that you are potentially looking to join.

At each step in the process, which may include multiple phone and multiple face-to-face interviews, it’s important to ‘control’ any conversation about salary, salary history, expected salary, desired salary, etc. Whether that question comes directly in a pre-screen phone call, as an off-handed question out-of-the-blue during one of your meetings, or as a question buried in a stack papers that someone from the Human Resources / HR department has handed you, you must stay in control of what you choose to communicate about your salary.

Here’s my guideline. On your current or last salary, if they ask, you will need to disclose it at some point, but wait as long as possible to do so. The last thing that you want to do early in the process is to create a number in their minds that they associate or identify when they think of you. Ideally, when they do think of you, you want them to be thinking of the value that you will bring and the addition in expertise that their team will gain, should they choose to hire you. Delaying any discussion with regards to salary will give you the ability to frame your value during the interview process by letting them know all that you will ‘bring to the table’ in this new position. If and when you do decide to disclose your past salary, you have to frame it as ‘$X for that role’, and then segue to the fact that for the role under consideration, you would be ‘looking for a fair offer for your experience and the responsibilities of that position’.

As for expected or desired salary, Never… and this is one of the rare cases where I really mean never, never answer the ‘expected or desired salary’ question with a number (any number). No, Nada, Never. Really.

First, you have to understand why they are asking. Have you bought a car in your past? The question could just as easily be about buying a house, a new TV or anything else that you may want to acquire. The person at the auto dealership asks you what you can afford or how much you want to spend. They are looking at the ‘deal’ from their side, but trying to convey that ‘it’s about you’. Hogwash. It’s about trying to work the deal so that you ‘feel’ satisfied and so that they get to sell / structure the deal with most of the advantage to them. So why do we so willingly tell them how much money we have to spend? Because they asked. Asking, is an important part of selling. Individuals involved in hiring are there to actually find the right person, but they are also there to ‘sell’ the opportunity to that individual –so that they want to join the company. We are all trained to answer too many questions, disarmed by an ease of style that may be present in the sales person’s approach.

The hiring process is a buy/sell relationship, just like any other. Ever wonder why –no one– is allowed, at any company that I have seen, to talk about or discuss their compensation with others in the company? An ‘open pricing’ policy on salaries would surely drive up overall wages, and that’s not to their advantage. It’s simply because five people all standing next to each other doing the same job are likely all earning different salaries. If 3 of the 5 knew what the other two were making, they would demand the same. You’ll see others comment in that this just ‘isn’t so’, but that’s what exists in many many companies and those that earn the most know all too well about this fact.

Given this understanding, there is an obvious reason why they are asking expected or desired salary. Just like the car salesperson, they would like to offer you the very least that they could. You may not be thrilled with their offer, but you will likely not be overly disappointed, as it will most certainly be an offer in the area of what you had told them was acceptable.

Take back Control.

Be sure to be selling them on all that you bring, while also evaluating whether this is the right company for your next career home. Work to have them see you as the solution to many of the issues and challenges that you discuss with regard to the role. And continue to reinforce that you would be looking for a fair offer for your experience and the responsibilities of that position. You can also turn the tables a little by asking them what they have budgeted for the role. If they can ask, why can’t you?

The interview process is your time to present and sell yourself, as compared to all others that they may see. Your value must be stronger, and brighter, than all of the other candidates. As you navigate the process, look for every opportunity to understand what their real problems are (it’s not the open position) and relate how your background, experience and expertise is the right solution for those problems.

In my book, Self-Recruiter® Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter & Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge, I discuss many of the challenges faced during the hiring process and how to overcome them. It’s about getting them to ‘fall in love’ with your skills and expertise for the role. That’s your job during the interview(s). Once they ‘have to have YOU’ for the position, the negotiations are no longer from a sorting, or ‘ruling out’ standpoint. They are about trying to come up with an offer to ‘make it work’ for both the company and the person they are trying to hire. And that’s a Win-Win for everyone.

John Crant

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Have a question?

Ask, Self-Recruiter

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Signed,

–Struggling to Solve a Puzzle

When we face a long period of unemployment, many things happen to our self confidence, and the view we may have of professional selves. Of course, be sure to view my video about Suffering After a Layoff [ http://www.selfrecruiter.com/podcast1.html ], but even though you may put this layoff itself behind you, many things can still cloud our judgement as we analyze and go after each new opportunity that we uncover.

You had mentioned that you did have the opportunity for an interview, but that they had a concern over your potentially step backward from the director’s position which you had held, to an individual contributor’s role. This concern is natural, and it’s an objection in every potential employer’s mind –whether they raise that concern during your interview –or not.

It may help you to understand what a hiring manager considers ‘a good hire’. There are many costs involved when an employer looks to hire an individual for a position that they are looking to fill. Benefit costs, training and orientation costs, costs associated with a ‘ramp-up’ period before the new employee truly begins contributing, not to mention the costs involved for the efforts to actually source the potential new-hire, and more. For many hiring managers, a ‘good hire’ starts with someone that is at the right ‘arc of their career’. This means… is the position at the ‘right level’ for your background, not simply ‘do you have interest and desire’ to be in the role.

Let’s look at my definition of a good hire:

A Good Hire is someone that I can hire, who will be (1) happy, (2) contented, & (3) challenged in the role; a role where they can (4) continue to grow in their abilities; and over time (5) can be promoted to the next level role where they will also be happy, contented, challenged and growing. If I can keep this new-hire for a period of at least somewhere between 4–7 years before they move on to another employer… THAT’S a GOOD HIRE!

Now, that’s a tall bar to set for new-hires, as many individuals do get hired and then move on after only a short while or a year or two. Then I incur more expense to begin the process all over again to replace them. That’s where this ‘arc of your career’ thing comes into the decision process.

Let’s take your situation as an example. You were a director. Looking over your employment background and your credentials, you have had a nice career progression. That would raise a potential concern for any employer that would consider hiring you for a lesser role.

The questions circling in the hiring manager’s mind would be:

- Why would this individual stay happy and contented in the new (lesser) role?

- How could the individual be challenged in the new (lesser) role?

- What could they possibly learn in the new (lesser) role that would keep them growing?

- When I am ready to promote them in a couple years, it would just be to the same level that they had been at several years back at that point…

You can begin to understand the concerns, even if you don’t like to think about that part.

But all is not lost. When you consider what may be going on inside of a hiring managers mind, that presents a wonderful opportunity for you to address and overcome each one of those ‘objections’ that may be preventing them from moving you on to the next interview in their hiring process or to making you an offer.

I have coached and advised many individuals facing just such challenges with the specifics on overcoming those objections during the hiring process. And I’ve helped them to a successful conclusion  so that they understand how to get their careers back on track. I would recommend working closely with a career and interview coach, but be sure that they truly understand the real-world dynamics of the hiring process from every side and every angle.

You also mentioned another challenge that you face: getting more frequent interviews.

Maybe, it’s your RESUME.

In this case, I believe it is. Take a look at my video on Resume Renovation [ http://www.selfrecruiter.com/podcast4.html ]. Your resume that you had sent to me does not pass the ’3 second’ Resume Test and while it has a great many items of value on it, there are so many points to consider (it’s a 2-pager), that puts your value ‘out of focus’. My recommendation here is to engage someone that understands what may be ‘valuable’ and what is not –to help bring your value back into focus before you get ruled out at the resume ‘sorting’ stage of their hiring process for the jobs that you are pursuing.

Maybe, it’s your LinkedIn Profile.

Your LinkedIn Profile should be your own ‘Sales Brochure’ that helps build your credibility and your reputation.

Will your profile add to, or take away from others’ perceptions about you?

And will it show your true value and get you noticed?

That may be the difference in being considered for your next business or career opportunity and getting that next meeting or interview -or going unnoticed.

It’s a very small investment in yourself –when compared to each additional week that leaves you unable to find your next career home.

Resources for Help:

You can learn more about CAREER and INTERVIEW COACHING here:

http://www.selfrecruiter.com/services3.html

You can learn more about full-service RESUME RENOVATION here:

http://www.selfrecruiter.com/services2.html

Also, my book covers many topics and challenges when looking for your next career home.

Things like getting your resume noticed; getting that next interview; reaching out directly to hiring managers –not just to HR; negotiating a better salary and benefits; using the Internet resources available to you; planning for the unexpected during your interviews; avoiding the traps in the HR department; and how to manage your job search. Click the title below for more information on the book and audiobook:

Self-Recruiter®

Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &

Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

.

Stay motived in your job search –by Taking Control Back for Yourself-

John Crant

.

Have a Question:

Ask, Self-Recruiter

.

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

Q: My Annual Review is next week. How Can I get Something Else if They cannot Raise My Salary?

- Lone-Wolf Standing in My Department

Congratulation! That may seem strange given the situation that you are describing of being the ‘last one standing’ in what was formerly a larger department. But, the congratulations are for not letting it stop you, or holding you back from going after SOMETHING during your Annual Review.

You had told me in your email that you didn’t think that they had the funds to give raises this year, even with all of the cutbacks. That may be true, or it may be untrue.

My advice is to go in with a positive attitude, ready to recount your contributions this year to the company –even if their ‘attitude’ conveys that they are worried about how you’ll take ‘not getting a raise’. Of course, I would always recommend that you do the work necessary to fully prepare for this meeting. Many individuals think of an annual review as a time for ‘them’ to to evaluate ‘us’. While that’s true, it’s also a time for you to be evaluating and communicating your accomplishments to them and your expectations to your supervisor. Remember, they are charged with the responsibility of hiring, firing and laying off –but they are also charged with the responsibility of making sure the very best individuals on their team stay happy and motivated. Happy and motivated individuals produce a much higher quality work-product (no matter what your role), even when also dealing with a department that is disappearing around you.

So, create a list of everything that you desire to keep yourself a motivated and productive member of the team. That could include obvious things such as ‘more money’, better responsibilities or a better desk or office location –now that there seems to be openings all around you. But it could also include wish-list items like more vacation time and title changes.

If you feel that they cannot offer you more salary, why not let them see some understanding (which will be appreciated) mixed with firm disappointment (which would be expected) and then tell them that if they cannot raise your salary, then you need the next-level title. You said in your email that you are a senior designer in a department that was larger –that used to be headed up by an art director. Now, all are gone and you are there doing all of the work. It seems to me that you would be able to ask for what you ‘need’ –especially if it does not cost them anything additional right now.

Certainly test and see if there are funds for a raise, but if you feel that there are not, try what I suggested. Here’s how it might go:

Let them see some understanding for their financial situation, mixed with firm disappointment –because you have financial needs too. Give them a long pause after showing the dissapointment. Look them in the eye and say with determination, “Well… if you cannot raise my salary, then I need to have the art director title.” Then hold your reaction firm (don’t let anything show!).

Remember, they have kept you because you provide something that others did not. Though you must be the judge as to whether they are reasonable people or not, it’s not likely that they would do anything negative simply because you asked. That’s a common mistake that individuals make, they fail to ask. But, if we don’t ask, we will rarely get, so ask! And be sure to ask in a way that provides some solution to everyone involved. In this case, they will get to keep payroll from increasing (a great benefit to them) in return for giving something without a specific value to them, but of great value to you.

The next time you are then searching for a new career opportunity, you may be doing so with an art director title on your resume showing your increased capabilities and responsibilities.

Prepare for your meeting and make it a win-win for everyone.

John Crant

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

There are more salary and negotiating tips in my book. check it out:
Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Have a Question?

Ask, Self-Recruiter

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

Q: I’m an older worker and I find myself looking for a new job and wonder: How to Get Hired If You are Older?

-signed, I’ve Got Experience!

There’s no getting around it: this is a tough job market. The candidate pool of talent has expanded exponentially and that is leaving many wondering how they can compete. I had a similar question from an audience member at one of the seminars that I teach. This individual’s concern was ‘how to I compete and get noticed when I seem to be competing with 20-somethings?’ Well, in defense of 20-somethings, I think there’s a time, place and a position for each person’s experience –and that thought really leads to us to the answer.

It’s normal to be looking over our shoulders as we move through our careers, especially as we see hungry up-and-comers beginning to compete for the positions that we may be after. Of course, it’s competition that generally makes everything better, less expensive, and in many cases it can increase service levels as businesses compete for our purchases. But in employment, competition can make us nervous and lead us to focus on the wrong items, such as age. I’m not so naive to think that agism doesn’t go on in hiring practices, though it should not. But any company worth working for will be much more focused on what each individual can bring to the company, should they be hired.

My recommendation is to put this concern up on the shelf and out of your way. It distracts us from truly going after, and attaining, our real goal. Choose instead to have confidence in the unique accomplishments that you can offer with your experience, and be well prepared to let them know why you are the very best choice for the role.

It can be challenging to put such a concern aside and focus instead on our value, so here’s a simple exercise that can help you get ready to ‘sell’ yourself and your capabilities during your next interview.

—

Exercise:

Think of the position that you are pursuing, and what the role’s contribution to the company can be –when it’s performed at its best. Now imagine the three ‘best’ candidates that you can think of for that role. Those individuals are the people you are competing against to get this career opportunity. Those are the individuals that you need to be ‘more valuable’ than in order to be chosen for the opportunity.

Now, write down all of the reasons why the manager should hire you over those other three candidates that they are going to consider. Be very specific and site examples of what you have been able to accomplish for your prior employers.

—

This simple exercise may have a number of results. You may decide that you are going after a position that you cannot compete for effectively –and that may be a positive outcome in helping you refocus on positions where you can truly succeed.

This exercise can also help you understand in clear terms why you are the very best individual for the role, and how to persuade the manager to come to the same conclusion after you present your points, accomplishments and how you will create an impact for the company –once you are in that role.

Our ego and confidence may take hits from a number of directions when we find ourselves looking for our next career step. Be sure that we are not the ones holding ourselves back and be ready to trumpet your value and contributions. Then your confidence and abilities will not likely go unnoticed.

John Crant

PS: To ‘win’ the roles that you are after, be sure you know all the secrets of how to get noticed. That includes having a resume that properly sells your abilities, being truly prepared for the interview process, and understanding how to avoid the many traps along the way –including those in the HR department.

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Check out my book for much more:

Self-Recruiter Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &

Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

As an industry manager, executive recruiter, recruiting & sales trainer, event speaker, and as VP of a nationwide system of recruitment offices, I have seen most every aspect of the hiring process and this varied insight is what provides the clarity you will find in this book.

In these times, you really need to be your own specialist, your own career counselor, and your own recruiter: a Self-Recruiter.

And I’ll teach you how.

You’ll learn how to get your resume noticed and get that next interview. How to reach out directly to hiring managers and how to beat the other candidates that you are competing against. You’ll learn how to build chemistry with anyone you meet. You’ll learn how to negotiate a better offer with a better salary. I’ll teach you how to avoid common traps in the Human Resources department. How to utilize the Internet resources available to you. How to plan for the unexpected and I’ll teach you how to plan, set goals, and manager your job search.

It’s available here.

Have a Job Hunting or Interviewing Question?

Ask, Self-Recruiter!

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

I have so much going on in my job search activities… I feel like I have little energy and motivation left for follow up on my activities and fear that I’m not being effective. Help!

-signed, Lost in the Minutia

I speak with many individuals that are in the same boat as you are in, as part of the series that I teach on Job Search & making the changes necessary on your Resume in order to get truly noticed. Let’s face the reality: there are many more people ‘on the market’ right now than there are jobs available. That’s a difficult reality to accept, so I say, ‘don’t accept it’ –and choose to get out of line and do something different. You may be a great candidate, with a great background, but if you go unnoticed, how will you get that offer for your next career challenge, rather than the next person in line?

I teach a class titled Organizing & Managing Your Job Search. In it, I share a complete system to track and manage your job search efforts, including your follow-up activities, to be sure that nothing ‘falls by the weigh-side’. It does take real effort to discover the potential positions for which we wish to be considered. It takes even more effort to get ourselves ‘noticed’ –so that we can really be in contention for those roles that we are going after. And that takes meticulous follow-up along with a plan to ‘market yourself’ for that opportunity –not simply clicking-and-sending to an HR ad on the Internet.

Your follow-up activities and the steps that you take once you have applied for a position can help shine a light on you as the best choice for the role. Or that light can focus in on someone else because of the steps that they take and their focus on follow-up efforts.

On my website, go to the Downloads page and you can download a complete system to help you manager, track and follow-up on each step of your job search. It’s free. The organization and management that the system will bring to your job hunting activities will help you to stay motivated and focused so that you are less likely to go unnoticed for that choice role you may be after. That is the surest way to increase your odds of success in your search for your next great career challenge.

I hope you don’t forget to follow-up on this…

John Crant

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

PS: There’s much more you can and should do.

Check out my new book that is a Step-by-Step Guide for your Job Search that teaches you the secrets that the very best candidates use to get out of line and get noticed.

Send in a Question to

Ask, Self-Recruiter

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

Here’s an interesting blog post from Life Mastery Skills that I am right in tune with, as it’s about our ability to take risks in life, when we need to do so.

It’s written by Sheila Radha Conrad, who makes some great observations that we can all learn from when facing challenges.

Here are a few snippets:

Let’s Risk Being Successful

Resume Renovation – Full Service

YOU are a Product Too! Your Resume should be a Simple Sales Sheet that helps create desire to hire that product. Will your resume pass the ’3 Second’ resume test? And will it show your true value and get you noticed? That may be the difference in being considered for your next career opportunity and getting that next interview -or going unnoticed.

Full service Resume Renovation is for individuals that are looking to improve the effectiveness of their resume. It’s not about simply ‘writing’ your resume, after all, you already have a resume. It’s about knowing what information that you have written is of value to the reader, be it an HR professional or a hiring manager, and which information is not. Understanding how to properly frame your experience and accomplishments – to properly take credit and never to misrepresent – involves a deep understanding of the hiring process actually works.

Your Resume Renovation will be completed by me personally. As an industry manager, executive recruiter, sales and recruiting trainer, event speaker, and as VP of a nationwide system of recruitment offices, I have seen most every aspect of the hiring process from both the internal and external view as the decision-maker, the decision-influencer, and as the objective observer. This varied insight is what provides the clarity that I will bring to your resume.

Q: How soon will I have my new resume?
Your Resume Renovation is usually completed within 3 to 5 business days from the time of placing your complete order (1. completed the purchase check-out process; 2. emailed your current resume version(s); and 3. the initial phone consultation has been completed).

Q: How does the process work?
Once you have completed your Resume Renovation purchase check-out process, email your current resume version(s) to services@selfrecruiter.com.
You will be contacted by the next business day to schedule your initial phone consultation where we will review the goals for your Resume Renovation.

Along the way toward your new, more effective resume, I may have you work on a questionnaire covering your career accomplishments to help bring out your most valuable achievements, if it is needed.

When your new resume is ready, you will have an opportunity to review it and be sure that it meets with your expectations.

Q: What format am I provided?
Your new resume will be provided in two formats.

A Word version will be included for edits in the future on your end, and for copying-and-pasting into HR systems when applying online when needed. You will also be provided a PDF version, which is the version that I recommend using in all cases, except where you cannot.

The PDF version makes it so your resume will look its best on the other end, when it is displayed or printed. Be sure to check out my Podcast called ‘Headless Horseman’ to understand the perils of sending a Word version, rather than the PDF.

Q: Can I get multiple versions of my resume?
Of Course, but the basic service includes one Resume Renovation that focuses your value in one direction – and that makes it a very valuable tool for you.

Additional versions are at an additional cost. Think of an individual where their background and expertise are evenly split between training roles and project management positions. They may be after opportunities in both areas. They would need two resumes, with each one speaking effectively toward its goal. You can create additional versions yourself, based off my Resume Renovation for you, or I can do it for you at an additional charge.

Your NEW Resume Awaits!

Click here for More Details.

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

The Self-Recruiter® YouTube Channel is now LIVE at

www.youtube.com/selfrecruiter

Also: check out our Podcast page of self-help Job Hunting & Advice Videos (menu tab).

Self-Recruiter is proud to see this project come to fruition. Along with our books, audiobooks and Advice Column (Ask, Self-Recruiter Advice Blog), we now offer a taste of the Self-Recruiter spirit in video form. Get motivated and stay in control of your career. Know someone that is suffering after a layoff? well, this featured video (below) is just the ticket that will get them back on track and moving toward their next career opportunity.

I hope you enjoy these videos as much as we enjoyed making them. And yes, many more are already on the way!

John Crant

Send in a Question to:

Ask, Self-Recruiter

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

Take the Self-Recruiter® Job Search Survey.

Look for the Results in an upcoming issue of our e-Newsletter.

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

Check it out:

See it NOW: Newsletter June 09

Past issues: Newsletter April 09

It’s natural, especially in these days of harder economic times, to want to include everything that may catch the eye of ‘someone’ that may have a need – and hopefully will choose to call us in for an interview. But the ‘everything + the kitchen sink’ approach is not one that you should be using on your resume.

Let’s revisit what we think a ‘Resume’ is. If we look in the dictionary, that may not help us. One listing that I saw simply said, “1. a curriculum vitae. 2. a summary.” Okay, but that’s not much of a help or a direction to follow.

A Resume:

What is it? It is, and should be, a simple ‘Sales Sheet’ on a hot product (you!) for which you want to help create ‘desire’. The key word here is simple. It truly needs to be just a single page in most every case. And the information you do choose to include, needs to be valuable to the reader and be very easily ‘absorbed’ within just a few seconds (really, within just 3 to 5 seconds of ‘look time’). So, be sure to do extra work on your formatting.

Things like your address, phone number and hobbies are not really important. Dump the hobbies and make your contact info very small – they will find that information if they want to call you in. Focus the value of your resume on your contributions and accomplishments that should jump off the page. Those are items that they may be looking at, and then imagining, how you can bring those type of accomplishments to their team -should they choose to hire you.

Check out my new Resume Renovation classes (free to attend) & also use my step-by-step guide:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.

I hear it’s widely available and very helpful.

John Crant

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

www.SelfRecruiter.com

Send in a Question to

Ask,Self-Recruiter

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

How to Achieve Your Goals for Your Job Hunt

Taking on any tough project can be a daunting task, without the proper help. Before long, we are overwhelmed and dropping pieces of our important project here and there. Our follow-up gets lost. Entire areas that should be in focus get moved to a back-burner, and then forgotten. Soon, we have fallen into a rut of doing the same limited activities, over and over again, with less and less of the results for which we are looking.

Don’t beat yourself up too much, but do take control and action, so that your dreams do not fall by the weigh-side. These are certainly not the times where you should just ‘leave it to chance’. Understand your goals. Get a good system in place for managing your Job Search goals and activities, and then follow up on every single detail.

There’s a lot to think about and this is where we usually start to be overwhelmed. Resumes to send out. Calls to potential managers to make (yes, call the hiring manager!). Your personal network to build and ‘work’ for opportunities. Interviews to plan for – what will your interview strategy be? Or will you just go in and interview, and hope that they will choose you?

All of these activities, and more, need a strategy in order to be effective. They need to be tracked and followed up on. And I didn’t even talk about managing your search activities for discovering open jobs yet – ones that you might choose to go after.

Without a detailed plan, and set goals for that plan, it’s not very likely that you will achieve your goals. Join me for my new Organizing and Managing Your Job Search class. It’s free and very helpful in keeping you on track toward reaching for your next career opportunity.

You can also download a free Guide to Organizing Your Job Search, right on my Blog.

Get out of the ditch and back on the road toward success!

John Crant

Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

www.SelfRecruiter.com

Send in a Question to

Ask,Self-Recruiter

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

View My LinkedIn Profile at:

www.linkedin.com/in/johncrant

john@selfrecruiter.com

www.selfrecruiter.com

My Book:

Self-Recruiter®
Changing the Rules: How to Be Your Own Recruiter &
Ride the Economic Crisis to Your Next Career Challenge.
Copyright © 2009 by John Crant

Also check out my:

Career Coaching & Mentoring

LinkedIn Professional Profile Creation / Renovation (Full-Service)

Resume Renovations (Full-Service)

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and you need to change with them,
in order compete and 
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Check out our Free Classes & our online podcast videos both here and on our new Self-Recruiter® YouTube channel.

ORGANIZING & MANAGING YOUR JOB SEARCH