Keep It On the Record

When you begin making contact with any company, whether face-to-face or remotely, you can sabotage your progress in several, effortless ways. I see multiple examples of these mistakes committed by many job seekers, some of whom become the unemployment statistics you read in articles about people who have not been able to find work for 28 weeks, or for a year or more.

The simplest, avoidable mistake is to not make notes.

When you make any contact with a potential employer or lead, you must keep a record of it. You can make your entries on your smartphone, or your tablet computer, or you can use a website like JobKatch (www.jobkatch.com). You can go low-tech and use a notebook. If you go this low-tech route get a spiral-bound notebook so the pages don't fall out.

What is critical is that you have a recording mechanism that you can carry with you everywhere, and enter information immediately while it is fresh in your mind. No, you will not remember these details tonight when you plan to transcribe them. Immediacy is paramount so you can keep the information accurate.

For every contact you make, record everything that will provide what you need to follow up on this contact. This should include

• The date of the contact
• The business name and address
• The type of contact (face-to-face, on-line application, or a paper application)

If any part of the contact was face-to-face, capture

• The name of the employee or manager you talked with, and their direct phone number (ask for their business card because people usually put their direct phone numbers and e-mail addresses on their business cards), and
• Your impression of the conversation and anything of interest the contact may have said, even if they told you they are not hiring right now.

I never want you to be guilty of the following scenario: you submit applications on-line at three websites in the morning, you talk with a manager in the afternoon, and the next day you submit a paper application at a local business. Two weeks later you cannot remember what websites or businesses to which you submitted applications, you cannot recall the manager's name or the address of the local business, and you cannot remember the date you did any of these things.

Sloppy execution means sloppy results. Write it down.

Dream Jobs May Not Start That Way

Lindsey is 22 years old and she has a story that every young job seeker should hear.

Lindsey's story began about two years ago. This was in the middle of our recession, and Lindsey found a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant. It was a start but she wanted more hours. So she found an additional part-time job at an arts and crafts store. After a while she started looking around for something more. She shared that "My dad told me 'You don't quit a job until you have another.'" Smart dad, smart daughter.

Lindsey landed a job as a doctor's assistant at a national franchise vision center. It did not strike her as the dream job she was thinking of. In fact, she had no interest in working in a medical field but it seemed like a good opportunity.

And she loved it! She had never had an opportunity to learn that she loved helping people. "It was always different," she said. "Everyone had a different vision problem to solve. I loved helping them."

Then a pending family relocation prompted her to begin a new job search. She did not feel she had to go with her family, so she really was "just looking around." She went to a job search site, www.indeed.com, entered the city they would be moving to, and entered "eyes" in the job field. When the list of job postings displayed she picked the first one and opened it. It requested a resumé with the application. She downloaded a simple resumé template, filled in her brief job history and submitted it.

She got the job and starts in two days! She will be in a training program to be certified as an Ophthalmic Assistant.

Lindsey did everything right in these two years. She started where she could. She added a job without losing a job. Then she took a chance on a job in an area she had no interest in, and found that she was totally attuned to the work and contact this job offered. Then she planned and explored a job change while she was still working, with no urgent motivation to change, and she had the option to stay where she was.

When I asked Lindsey what she would say to other people in her age group, she spoke from her heart. "Even if a job does not seem interesting, don't pass it up. Even if it is not your dream job that doesn't mean it won't become your dream job. My job at the vision center drew out of me a desire I did not know I had. I loved working with the children and seeing them at that "Ah ha!" moment when they suddenly have clear vision for the first time. My new company has a special Pediatric section and I can't wait to work there."

Lindsey is young but has wisdom beyond her years. This young lady is going places, and she is loving the new journey she is on.

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.

Thinking Totally Outside the (Recession) Box

This story from CBSNews.com is tremendous. In a nutshell, job loss and program cutbacks pushed this couple toward imminent danger of a downward financial spiral. So, they stepped totally out of their "normal" activities and started writing. Writing novels. Now, one year later they have sold over one million e-books, and one book has become a New York Times Bestseller!

CBS News Video

This is a great story of nerve, and willingness to move out of one's comfort zone.

Three Killer Questions in Interviews

Job interviews can be cordial, challenging, or chilling. In this latter category I offer three "killer" questions that can scuttle your prospects in a flash.  Be prepared.

If you do have a current job, your killer question will be the innocuous, "Why are you looking to change jobs?"

Yes, why indeed are you looking to leave your current job? Years ago I had one interviewee answer this with, "To be perfectly honest, my boss is a jerk." Not a confidence-building response. Don't do this. Never, ever be negative about your current job situation. You can say you want a change, or a bigger challenge. You can say you want more opportunity for advancement. You can say you want to pursue a career path you always wanted to follow.  But do not say you are unhappy about your job, your employer, or your colleagues. Why not? Because the person interviewing you will be thinking, "OK, this candidate is a whiner and has personal issues we do not want to bring on-board."  Always say you are pursuing a change to move to new possibilities, never that you are running from a bad situation.

If you are currently not working the chances are good you will be asked, "Why have you been out of work so long?"

Being out of work in this stagnant economy is not a stigma. But you will certainly stimulate some speculation if you have been out of work for more than the seasonally-adjusted, average unemployment duration which was 36.9 weeks as of May 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the median unemployment duration is much less: only 17.3 weeks. The median measure indicates that one-half of all job seekers were out of work for up to 17 weeks before finding a job, and one-half were out of work for more than 17 weeks before finding a job.

Why is the average so much longer than the median? One answer is that many people stop looking while they live off unemployment benefits. Some people have drawn unemployment for up to 99 weeks. That's two years. The longer you are out of work the harder it will be to find a job, and the more a prospective employer might view you as a freeloader. It might not be fair, but it is what it is. If you are just at the beginning of your unemployment journey, focus your energies steadily and continually on job search. Use the process I describe in my book, Hired!, to deflect and overcome the discouragement that will inevitably come. Just keep looking - but be smart about how you look.

And whether you are or are not currently working, vacant time periods on your resume will bring the question, "What were you doing in these gaps between jobs on your resume?"

Today the job market is so convoluted that gaps in a resume are not an automatic disqualification. I spend quite a few pages in Hired! discussing how I have handled this issue with people I have assisted. (This blog entry goes more deeply into this topic.) Whatever the reasons for the gaps in your work history, be honest with the interviewer and turn the gap from a potential liability into an asset. If you have been filling-in your time with short-term or lower-paying jobs to make some money, explain that you took these jobs while continuing your job search. That will convey continuing initiative. If a job you took to tide you over is outside the area for which you are interviewing, explain that you did not list this job because it was not related to your job or career objective. Did you gain a skill, knowledge, or useful insight in the fill-in job? Then tell the interviewer how this "gap" has enabled you to benefit them better as an employee.

These three questions are simple, but potentially dangerous if you stutter or stammer, trying to think of how you will answer. Prepare ahead of your interview. In fact, prepare now because you might have a chance encounter tomorrow where someone might ask, "Really? What kind of work are you doing now?"

Dress for Success

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That is certainly true in a job interview. You can find dozens of books on the subject of dressing for corporate success. But we live in a very "casual" age, so it is not surprising that so many HR people have shared with me that too many job seekers today just don't "get it" when it comes to looking hireable.

I recently read an article by Brian Maynor (http://www.brianmaynor.com). Brian is a style coach and I want to share a few of his ideas for being properly clothed when you go on a job interview. I cover many of these and other in my book, Hired!, but Brian's suggestions are all spot-on. After all, this is his day job!

• Keep your main colors neutral and understated. Navy blue and middle-hue blues look good on most people. Be wary of distracting patterns and textures.
• Use contrasting colors sparingly. A vivid scarf or tie can bring your neutral colors to life. But don't be so aggressive with one, or multiple, "pop" colors that three weeks later the interviewer is talking about your color wheel and cannot remember your name or face.
• Be neat. Whatever you wear must be clean, pressed, properly fitting, and well-coordinated. Make sure your hair is clean, properly cut, and well-groomed. Shoes must be polished! Scuffed or worn shoes have power to totally downgrade your entire look.
• Jewelry should not shout! Smaller is better. Pendant earrings are not a good idea for either women or men. One ring on each hand is quite enough. Look at yourself as a stranger would see you. Check your hands, wrists, neck, ears, ankles, and toes for any jewelry that will be distracting or controversial. When you find a guilty culprit: leave it at home!

I will add to Brian's list a few of the clothing suggestions I have in Hired! :

• Do not wear cologne or perfume. Nada. Not even a smidgen. Many people have allergies to scents. What you think smells great might make your interviewer nauseous. Not a good scenario.
• Cover up or use makeup to conceal your tattoos (unless you are applying for a job in a bar). Remove all visible piercing jewelry. The interviewer is really not interested in your epidermal artwork.
• If you don't have an eye for color or style, ask a knowledgeable friend or family member to help. Let them review what is in your closet. If they can't find elements that work together, ask if they will go to the store and help you pick out the piece that will tie the others together. Be prepared to spend some money to assemble a professional look. It's an investment in your future.
• Ladies, the quickest path to not even finishing the interview, much less getting a job offer, is to wear clothing that is too tight, too short, too revealing, or just too provocative. In other words, "too anything." If you have any question about whether an item is "too anything," then it probably is.
• Being dressed "appropriately" is easy to grasp if you think of it this way: if you dress for your interview in the clothing you will wear on the job, then you are under-dressed for the interview. If you dress one level up from what you would wear if you work for them, you are dressed appropriately. For example, for a man, if the normal workday clothing is jeans and work boots (as in construction or trades), or just casual clothing (as in a shopping mall retail store) then one level up is a dress shirt and complementary tie, and chinos or Dockers slacks. If the workday rule is business casual (as in most office work) then one level up is a suit.

In summary, don't make your clothing the focus of your interview. Dress so the people you talk with are not distracted by what you are wearing. You are the one looking for a job, not your attire. The best choices are the ones that help people remember you, not what you wore.