One of the challenges when job hunting is trying to identify genuine best practice, and gaining worthwhile feedback from trustworthy sources. In an effort to improve the likelihood of securing that great job, I try to surf the net looking for articles that may well just prompt some self-reflective learning, or make me consider an alternatibve approach to answering certain interview questions.
On the whole, this is a useful exercise, and you quickly get to know where you will find a good source of articles that tend to match your needs. I found that LinkedIn Today was a quick and easy repository, especially a lot of the Harvard Business Review and Forbes posts.
However, you can also come across a lot of incredibly superficial content, sometimes dreadfully so. With my apologies to the authors (who I do not know) I came across this link tonight -
stop-screwing-up-your-job-search-in-these-ten-ways - and could not help but think that with the exception of number 10, the other 9 suggestions were lightweight, and not much more use to me in developing my job hunting capability than reminding me that to shave, wash and wear clothes to an interview is better than failing to do so...
I understand that is is difficult to synthesise potentially complicated coaching advice into a simple one sentence message, aimed at the widest possible audience, but I would expect a contribution to Frorbes to be targeted at a level of job hunter who understood the basic tenets of human interaction and sensible behaviour, and would instead be looking for advice that is less common-sensical, more inclined to make me stop and think, and even if I were not to adopt it, would appreciate it as a worthwhile addition to the overall knowledge bank of job hunting.
I hope that the authors can forgive my criticism, and accept that it is not aimed at their capabilities or their writing per se, but I have just used their article as an example of how difficult it can be to set the right tone. I leave them with this thought from de la Rochefoucauld, "We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it".
Saturday, 28 July 2012
Head in the game
One of the hardest things that I have found about job hunting whilst not in employment is ensuring that I always maintain the right mental attitude, have my "head in the game".
When working, you are by default in "professional" mode, so should you receive a phone call from a recruitment agency, a headhunter or a potential employer, you tend to already be in the right frame of mind to respond appropriately.
However, when you are not working, and before that phone rings you have been slouching on the sofa, surfing the web, playing with the kids, or completing one of the numerous household tasks delegated to you by your wife, it can be difficult to make that instant transition into "work mode".
I have found that the most effective way of dealing with this mental disjoint is to defer the call. It is a simple tactic, that does not cause any issues for your caller, but gives you a tremendous advantage when compared to diving right into the call. Prepare yourself a selection of delaying phrases, such as:
"I am a little bit busy right now. Could you call me back in X minutes?"
"I am on my mobile. Could you call me on my landline instead. The number is..."
This gives you the time to mentally adjust, prepare yourself, and hence perform much more effectively when the call comes.
What you have to remember is that the person on the other end of the phone is unaware of your activities, does not know how keen / desperate you are to secure work, or know how busy / idle you currently are. You need to suppress any and all negative or inferior emotions from your head, and act in a thoroughly confident, professional and appropriate way.
By the way, I am not saying that this is easy - when any opportunity presents itself that may lead to re-employment, it is difficult to not act like a frisky puppy, and act super-keen, enthusiastic, and overly helpful. What you HAVE to recall - with your head in the game - is that the person on the end of the line is not only looking for passion (unless you are applying for a cast role at Disneyland). They will be mainly interested in your skills, your competencies, and for character traits such as gravitas, humility and self-awareness, all of which tend to be drowned out when you are too enthusiastic.
So, keep calm, be prepared, think clearly, and you will give yourself the best opportunity to succeed.
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”
Benjamin Disraeli
When working, you are by default in "professional" mode, so should you receive a phone call from a recruitment agency, a headhunter or a potential employer, you tend to already be in the right frame of mind to respond appropriately.
However, when you are not working, and before that phone rings you have been slouching on the sofa, surfing the web, playing with the kids, or completing one of the numerous household tasks delegated to you by your wife, it can be difficult to make that instant transition into "work mode".
I have found that the most effective way of dealing with this mental disjoint is to defer the call. It is a simple tactic, that does not cause any issues for your caller, but gives you a tremendous advantage when compared to diving right into the call. Prepare yourself a selection of delaying phrases, such as:
"I am a little bit busy right now. Could you call me back in X minutes?"
"I am on my mobile. Could you call me on my landline instead. The number is..."
This gives you the time to mentally adjust, prepare yourself, and hence perform much more effectively when the call comes.
What you have to remember is that the person on the other end of the phone is unaware of your activities, does not know how keen / desperate you are to secure work, or know how busy / idle you currently are. You need to suppress any and all negative or inferior emotions from your head, and act in a thoroughly confident, professional and appropriate way.
By the way, I am not saying that this is easy - when any opportunity presents itself that may lead to re-employment, it is difficult to not act like a frisky puppy, and act super-keen, enthusiastic, and overly helpful. What you HAVE to recall - with your head in the game - is that the person on the end of the line is not only looking for passion (unless you are applying for a cast role at Disneyland). They will be mainly interested in your skills, your competencies, and for character traits such as gravitas, humility and self-awareness, all of which tend to be drowned out when you are too enthusiastic.
So, keep calm, be prepared, think clearly, and you will give yourself the best opportunity to succeed.
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”
Benjamin Disraeli
Thursday, 26 July 2012
obscurity is usually the refuge of incompetence
And another thing...
What is it with recruiters / employers that makes them believe that "competitive" or "excellent" is a worthwhile description of potential salary? When I look at a job vacancy, I am looking at several aspects:
- Location
- Salary
- Job title / seniority
- Wider benefits
- Company
Without pretty much all of these details, it makes it very difficult to know whether a role is suitable to apply for, resulting in far too many wasted applications to recruiters whose definition of competitive / excellent turns out to be significantly lower than how I would define it....
A vacancy that was advertised with similar vagueness on the other criteria, such as "excellent job position" or "great location" would not attract quality candidates, so why on earth do they believe that such generic blandness is acceptable for the salary range?
I know that salary is negotiable (whereas the others generally aren't) but it cannot be beyond the wit of man to provide at least a ball-park figure, to at least anchor the role within an experience / seniority bracket, can it...?
"Obscurity is usually the refuge of incompetence" - Robert Heinlein
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What is it with recruiters / employers that makes them believe that "competitive" or "excellent" is a worthwhile description of potential salary? When I look at a job vacancy, I am looking at several aspects:
- Location
- Salary
- Job title / seniority
- Wider benefits
- Company
Without pretty much all of these details, it makes it very difficult to know whether a role is suitable to apply for, resulting in far too many wasted applications to recruiters whose definition of competitive / excellent turns out to be significantly lower than how I would define it....
A vacancy that was advertised with similar vagueness on the other criteria, such as "excellent job position" or "great location" would not attract quality candidates, so why on earth do they believe that such generic blandness is acceptable for the salary range?
I know that salary is negotiable (whereas the others generally aren't) but it cannot be beyond the wit of man to provide at least a ball-park figure, to at least anchor the role within an experience / seniority bracket, can it...?
"Obscurity is usually the refuge of incompetence" - Robert Heinlein
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Recruiters - Think!
What is it about recruitment that appears to make companies lose all sense of propriety, righteousness and clear thinking? Two separate strands here, both linked:
1. The interminable delay in moving through the recruitment process, with the gap between the advert being placed and someone being appoointed often dragging into months. If the role is critical to your business, get it filled, ASAP! Every day that the role is being "covered by the team", or being "seconded to someone for development" (but not anyone who is good enough to be given the job!), is a day that the maximum value is not being generated from the role. Delaying filling it does NOT save you money - it may save you wages, but it will absolutely lose you contribution / margin / influence / team motivation / profit.
If the role is not crucial (hence your foot dragging in filling the vacancy), bite the bullet, and cancel the recruitment. Restructure and make do with what you have...
2. Outward communication. As a job hunter, I have a desire (occasionally verging on desperation) to be successful and be offered the job, but that does not give companies the right to over promise and underdeliver. The favourites:
- "We will absolutely get back to you by X" (followed by days of silence)
- "This is the end of the selection process, and we will now make our decision" (followed by an invite to meet yet another decision maker / undertake another test)
- "We will give you feedback" (followed by the blandest of comments such as "the other candidate had a better fit". I don't care about the other candidate, I want to know what I can do to improve!!!)
The problem is that I know none of this is deliberate; it is life getting in the way, with the recruiters being tied up by their own internal bureaucracy, with managers being "distracted" by the day job, by them being focussed on THEIR needs of filling a vacancy,and not really thinking about the applicants in any great detail at all (and I say this having been in this recruiter position myself many times, and with retrospect, wishing that I could have taken more time to ensure that all applicants, including the unsuccessful ones, were appropriately treated).
Remember: Treat others as you wish to be treated
1. The interminable delay in moving through the recruitment process, with the gap between the advert being placed and someone being appoointed often dragging into months. If the role is critical to your business, get it filled, ASAP! Every day that the role is being "covered by the team", or being "seconded to someone for development" (but not anyone who is good enough to be given the job!), is a day that the maximum value is not being generated from the role. Delaying filling it does NOT save you money - it may save you wages, but it will absolutely lose you contribution / margin / influence / team motivation / profit.
If the role is not crucial (hence your foot dragging in filling the vacancy), bite the bullet, and cancel the recruitment. Restructure and make do with what you have...
2. Outward communication. As a job hunter, I have a desire (occasionally verging on desperation) to be successful and be offered the job, but that does not give companies the right to over promise and underdeliver. The favourites:
- "We will absolutely get back to you by X" (followed by days of silence)
- "This is the end of the selection process, and we will now make our decision" (followed by an invite to meet yet another decision maker / undertake another test)
- "We will give you feedback" (followed by the blandest of comments such as "the other candidate had a better fit". I don't care about the other candidate, I want to know what I can do to improve!!!)
The problem is that I know none of this is deliberate; it is life getting in the way, with the recruiters being tied up by their own internal bureaucracy, with managers being "distracted" by the day job, by them being focussed on THEIR needs of filling a vacancy,and not really thinking about the applicants in any great detail at all (and I say this having been in this recruiter position myself many times, and with retrospect, wishing that I could have taken more time to ensure that all applicants, including the unsuccessful ones, were appropriately treated).
Remember: Treat others as you wish to be treated
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Hot under the collar
Another day, another debacle.
Not only did a trip to London to visit a "job consultancy" prove fruitless (no specific roles, but more than happy to help me spend my own money on "marketing myself" more effectively), but I endured the joys of pre-Olympic London in 30 degree heat.
- The ripe smell of rubbish drifting on the air
- People in Olympic-branded outfits trying to get rid of their London maps
- Southern trains providing a train with no opening windows and broken aircon (think "Alec Guinness in the sweat box" in Bridge over the River Kwai, and you won't be far off the mark).
Still, things could be worse - at least I was't trapped in a glass cable car 90 feet above the Thames for nearly an hour, or caught up in lengthy tailbacks as the Oplympic VIP lanes went active.
Thought for the day : There is invariably someone worse off than you.
Not only did a trip to London to visit a "job consultancy" prove fruitless (no specific roles, but more than happy to help me spend my own money on "marketing myself" more effectively), but I endured the joys of pre-Olympic London in 30 degree heat.
- The ripe smell of rubbish drifting on the air
- People in Olympic-branded outfits trying to get rid of their London maps
- Southern trains providing a train with no opening windows and broken aircon (think "Alec Guinness in the sweat box" in Bridge over the River Kwai, and you won't be far off the mark).
Still, things could be worse - at least I was't trapped in a glass cable car 90 feet above the Thames for nearly an hour, or caught up in lengthy tailbacks as the Oplympic VIP lanes went active.
Thought for the day : There is invariably someone worse off than you.
kick in the proverbials
Just when you think that things cannot get any worse, life has a funny way of ensuring that you do get slapped round the face with a kipper!
As a middle-aged, male, professional, struggling to find a new permament job, it is hard to deal with the daily rejections:
- "we have candidates who more closely meet our criteria" (ouch!)
- "you are overqualified" (very annoying!)
- silence (rude, annoying and frankly highly irritating!)
But you do your best to keep your chin up, look forward, and carry on to the next day. So you take a break, click on the paper online, to be confronted with this headline...
Accountant who lost £70,000-per-year job reduced to eating ONE meal a day after applying for 700 jobs without success
Not sure whether to laugh, cry, sympathise, or be grateful that it is not me...A vision of the future, a cautionary tale, or just coincidence.
And now it is time to start a new day all over again....
As a middle-aged, male, professional, struggling to find a new permament job, it is hard to deal with the daily rejections:
- "we have candidates who more closely meet our criteria" (ouch!)
- "you are overqualified" (very annoying!)
- silence (rude, annoying and frankly highly irritating!)
But you do your best to keep your chin up, look forward, and carry on to the next day. So you take a break, click on the paper online, to be confronted with this headline...
Accountant who lost £70,000-per-year job reduced to eating ONE meal a day after applying for 700 jobs without success
Not sure whether to laugh, cry, sympathise, or be grateful that it is not me...A vision of the future, a cautionary tale, or just coincidence.
And now it is time to start a new day all over again....
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