The Ten Powers

Attitude is everything...well, almost everything. But attitude is certainly a major factor in success or failure. Salespeople know this and live it 24x7. Jeffrey Gitomer (www.gitomer.com) is a leading author of sales books and motivational essays. He recently wrote an essay on "The POWER of Sales Success is 100% in Your Control."  Everything he says is also 100% relevant to job search, so here is my re-application of his "power" ideas.

The Power of a Positive Attitude.

Discouragement hits everyone looking for a job, but no one likes a negative person. Cynicism and pessimism are twin brothers born of a cruel mother. A simple defense to build a positive attitude is to have a tangible vision of where you want to end up. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." You may be out of work but focus on the blessings you have despite your unemployment. Even when everything seems to be going the wrong way, look to affirm something in your life. My attitude was changed, literally, in a hotel restaurant one morning when I reached for a sugar packet and read on it, "Instead of complaining about what you want and don't have, be grateful for what you don't want and don't have."

The Power of Daily Attitude Actions.

Discipline makes for productivity. If you let external forces and interruptions dictate where you put your energies, you will end each day with little to show as progress. As I discuss at length in Hired!, each evening should be a time of planning your next day. Any day you wake up without a list of goals and tasks to achieve, that is a day you will have to spend hours building that list instead of pursuing productive opportunities. Starting each day with specific goals, or appointments, or persons to contact will give you a major attitude improvement.

The Power of Belief.

If you don't think you have what it takes to find a job, then you need to have a serious timeout. If you cannot find a reason to believe in yourself, why would anyone else? To borrow a phrase from a little inspirational book by John L. Mason, "You're born an original. Don't die a copy." You are the only you in the universe. You have a package of knowledge, skills and personality that no one else has duplicated - ever! You must adopt the belief that you can achieve what is needed, even if it requires hard work. If you have faith in God, then turn to God in humility and affirm that you need guidance. You have overcome many barriers in your life. This is just another one. It may look like a mountain in your path today, but someday you will look back and see only a bump in your road.

The Power of Self-Confidence.

Confidence is earned from small wins. Don't set yourself up for defeat by engaging in make-or-break job search if you are not comfortable with the various skills required. If you become frozen in your tracks when you think of yourself calling a vice-president, then you need to start smaller and work your way up to that call. Experiment. Do some test runs, maybe a lot of them. Go into a business - a retail business is an excellent place to start - and look for someone who looks like a manager. "Are you a manager here?" "Yes, How may I help you?" "I would love to become part of a company like this. Can you tell me the best path to be considered for a position with ABC Company?" Then just answer any questions, take notes in your head (then write down the information as soon as possible), and be amazed that they talked to you person to person, and you did not melt into the floor! By the way, did you notice in this little dialog that the job seeker said "become part of a company like this," not "I am looking for a job"? Many people feel intimidated asking for a job. So don't! Just express your respect for the company, and ask for guidance on how you could become a member of their team. The words you use are important, especially the words you tell yourself in your head. Take control of the words you are thinking so they do not become your biggest impediment.

The Power of YES!

I have always been amazed that some people fear succeeding. Sounds bizarre, doesn't it? But think of how many times you have said "No!" to yourself. "I can't make that phone call. They are probably not hiring anyway. I don't have as much to offer as someone else." Stop doing the weeding-out work for your potential employers. Let them decide if they want to say No! But you must stop saying No for them.

The Power of Keeping Conversational Control.

Resumés are primarily a marketing vehicle to gain a job interview. But the self-inflicted damage many job seekers commit in their job interviews is totally unnecessary. One of the most subtle mistakes job seekers make is to not ask questions during their interview! It is essential that you maintain control in the conversation in a way that you make it obvious you have read up on the company, its products or services, its customers, and even its business locations. An interview is not a one-way conversation where only they ask all the questions. Visit their website and read over all the major pages. Show them you have an active interest in becoming part of their team and that you have done the work of learning about them. Ask the interviewer questions about job topics of interest to you. After all, if you are in an interview you have already passed all the tollgates they use to weed-out unacceptable candidates. If you just sit there with little to say, and nothing to ask, the only door they may open for you is the door out of the building.

The Power of Preparation.

Every successful person prepares, so that when luck strikes they are ready. The Roman orator Seneca wrote, "Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity." Preparation is not just about knowing how to start your search. The best preparation also focuses on how, and where, to end your journey. Preparing means you are taking responsibility for your future. The entire first half of Hired! is about preparing for that coveted job offer: both how to start and how to end. You cannot plan to be lucky, but you can be prepared.

The Power of Creativity.

Creativity is the way to get out of a rut. It is so easy to keep doing the same things over and over, even after you have proven these are not working. I write in this blog about Mary who spent two years sending out resumés with no results. Sending resumés is what everyone is supposed to do when they are looking for a job, right? It did not occur to her that sending out a thousand resumés was passive, did not make her stand out, and was distracting her from potentially more productive search channels. Be willing to create new ways of looking. Think of what everyone else might be doing, and try something different. In Hired! I describe a young woman who was pursuing independent film making. She had experienced quite a few obstacles and rejections for one so young, and she said, "But life isn't about finding yourself; it's about inventing yourself." That is a profound and powerful sentiment. Invent yourself.

The Power of Being Memorable.

Your resumé will be memorable if it is filled with spelling mistakes, bad grammar, or obvious "truth-stretchers." Your interview will be memorable if you show up late, or in the wrong clothing, or if you take a phone call or start texting during the interview. This is not the kind of memorable to which you should aspire. In Hired! I provide numerous examples of how to rise above the masses applying for the same job position, and how to avoid Human Resources. Be memorable by making your value proposition clear and simple. If you submit a resumé make absolutely sure it fits the criteria I describe in Hired!: no text in a font smaller than 10 points, zero spelling errors, clear sentences that describe what you have accomplished for other employers. Accompany your resumé with a simple cover letter containing three or four bullet statements linking your job experience and skills to the position they have advertised. In an interview dress "up on level," take notes, ask questions that relate to the company's goals and growth plans for your job area. Ask questions about the business challenges that are causing them pain, and give them your explanation of why you can help them solve these problems. Follow-up with a simple Thank You note.

The Power of Value.

Value to you might mean the wage or salary you want to be paid. But what you want is not important to an employer. When I wrote Hired! I made this a major theme: All that matters to the employer is the value you can offer them. Period. Be prepared to explain in 15 seconds or less the value you can bring to the table. This is called an "elevator pitch." Craft it as your answer to the question: "What value do you bring that will benefit me and my company?" Practice it over and over so it flows naturally and is already in your mind when you make contact with a line manager who may need your skills. Commit it to memory so you do not sound like you are reading it from a page, and you must be able to convey it in no more than 10 to 15 seconds. It is your obligation to be able to articulate why you are the best choice for the position they have open. Don't expect them to dig this information out of your resumé, or that they will play 20 questions to understand your benefits.

Resumé Rennovations - A Perfect 10!

A resumé is the single aspect of job search that job seekers primarily focus on. I would say that finding the person doing the hiring is more important, but the resumé is a key, a key to open the door of an interview. I recently worked with a man to make sure his resume was an effective key.

Richard is a senior software guy looking for new opportunities. He has 30 years of experience developing and managing technical solutions in diverse industries. We have known each other for 12 years so I asked him to send me his resumé so I would know what positions he is targeting. When it arrived by e-mail I realized we could make some immediate improvements.

His resumé was written perfectly for the late 1990s, but the expectations of today's employers are quite different. The first improvement was to shorten and punch-up the content. The resumé was five pages long. "Cut it to two pages maximum" was my first response, because no one reads more than two pages of any resumé, and many readers do not go past the first page. Second, I asked him to remove the Qualifications section at the beginning. "Your qualifications will be apparent from your content, and this section is stealing real estate better used for your job achievements."

Next, the scope was too broad. Richard has the curse of being a multi-skilled, senior person. That means it was too easy to put everything he has done into one resumé. I suggested that he convert this one resumé into three resumés with each focused on a major skills area: software architecture, IT management, and software development. Employers need to fill specific job openings so one should always have a resumé that matches that job area, and the resumé should describe supporting skills that "come along free" as part of your skills package.

Then I suggested he make this the first of his three resumés and focus his content totally on his software architecture skills. This meant deleting all but the most in-demand software languages and tools. "For every job you have held, make your content sell your architecture skills. Craft it so it presents a unified picture of your value as an architect, not a set of independent snapshots." It also meant rewriting many job entries to tailor them to an architecture focus.

I sent Richard the "Resumé" section from my book so he could get the Big Picture on what resumés should look like today. It resonated with him. He was gracious and bought a couple of copies of Hired! on Amazon. When I received the last version of his resumé, I was really impressed.

Richard did it all - a virtual rewrite. His resumé now is exactly two pages. Every job entry describes not only his job responsibilities but also his achievements that will create interest in the reader. It is focused entirely on his software architecture skills with a dash of "sizzle" about his programming and management skills. It is well-balanced and emphasizes his most recent job experiences with lighter descriptions about his job positions more than ten years ago.

Then he blew me away. He sent another e-mail saying, "I LOVE IT! I got hits on it in under an hour after putting it up on Dice.com. I have an interview on Friday, with possibility of another while I'm there. For contract and permanent positions. Just got another email about a different contract gig with a State agency. Got an email from a start-up in Virginia needing an architect. Awesome."

Awesome, indeed. His resumé became that effective key to open the door to these interviews. Results don't always happen this quickly, but if your resumé has not been severely pruned and tuned recently, you might might find that no doors are opening for you. I have more ideas on resumés and job interviews in Hired!

If you want to bring some new life to your resumé, the sample Resumé chapter Richard read is available for download at http://www.garykevans.com/sample.html.