Jay Wren – Page 58 – Be in the Top 1% in Mindset – Leadership

4 Job Search Myths

There are 4 job search myths that can prevent you from finding the perfect job.

Myth #1 Interview Skills

Let’s debunk the myth that interview skills are not important. If you believe that you only need to show that you are qualified to get a job offer, you are going to lose job offers to the competitive field of qualified applicants who also have job interview skills.

Interview skills are similar to negotiation skills. Effective negotiators know how to present their material. They know how to listen to and understand questions and objections from the buyer or hiring manager. They know how to ask for the order or the job offer.

Developing and practicing interview skills can help you get jobs offers that more qualified applicants may miss out on.

I have additional articles on developing interview skills under the topic heading Interviewing.

Developing and strengthening skills is important to becoming more effective at doing nearly anything. Developing mental skills strengthens the effectiveness of a person to learn and perform mental tasks (Scholarly Journals on Skills Development).

Myth #2 Job Boards and Job Search Websites

The belief that job boards and job search websites are useless is a myth. It is intuitively obvious that job boards and job search engines work. If they did not work, hiring companies would stop using them. If they did not work, job boards and search engines would have disappeared.

Some Statistics: People who say that there are no statistics to support the value of job website are not looking very hard.

Indeed.com gets 150 million unique visitors a month, Alexa traffic rank: U.S. 80th, 23, 128 sites linking in.
Monster.com gets 100 million unique visitors a month, Alexa traffic rank: U.S. 319th, 18669 sites linking in.
CareerBuilding.com gets 100 million unique visitors a month, Alexa traffic rank: U.S. 458th, 15,003 sites linking in.

Myth #3 Resumes

The myth that resumes are no longer necessary is simply not true.

There is a popular notion that you can replace your resume with a case study of the business of each company for which you apply. A case study of a company’s business is terrific for a presentation at a job interview. However, if you want to get an interview, you need a resume. Hiring managers and recruiters do not want to deal with a nonconformist when they are trying to tie job experience and employment qualification.

Myth #4 Income

The myth that you should never disclose your income can ensure that you never get a job interview. Nearly every hiring manager in any company in the country has a pay range in mind before the manager posts a job. People who are going to try to be clever and not share their income are going to reduce the number of companies that will read their resume.

Does your company have a policy about your keeping your income private? That same company required that you disclose your income before they granted you an interview.

How Important is Your College Major?

How important is your college major?

Graduating from college did two things for my career. I got a key to let me in the door that said, “Degree required” on the job description. I gained acceptance into business circles and social circles where having a college degree meant credibility.

With a liberal arts degree, I was eligible to do many things and qualified to none. I developed the skills for my career once my career began.

There are many articles emphasizing that it is not important to pick a major that leads to a career. One excellent article from the NY Times is, “Your College Major May Not Be as Important as You Think.”

However, I recommend that you pick a major that lays a base of knowledge that relates as directly as possible to the career field of your choice. The more time you invest in developing a specialty will determine how long it takes you to master that specialty.

“In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

An example of focusing on studies that directly apply to your career is the early computer studies of Paul Allen and Bill Gates. They both had thousands of hours of computer times as teenagers. When they attended Lakeside School in Seattle, WA, they both had access to a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE). They also had computer time on a computer belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC).

On the other hand, if you have graduated from college, don’t let your major slow you down from picking a career that is different from your college major. I majored in English. I went to Naval Officer Candidate School. I had classmates who included lawyers, MIT grads, PhDs, Accountants, and a Rhode Scholar. Some of my classmates had never been in a rowboat. Some could barely swim. However, most of us learned the tactics, navigation, and seamanship we needed to become Navy officers in a variety of capacities.

My experience in the Navy helped me to mature. The fact that I was a junior military officer helped me get jobs in sales with Procter & Gamble and Polaroid Corporation.

Learning How to Write a Book

My latest skills development project is learning how write a book.

When I built my first website, I had articles on how to make a job change. I began to post links to other useful articles. I added a newsletter to my website.

My son suggested that I begin to write articles for my website on a regular basis. He said that over time, I would have enough material for a book.

Throughout my career as a recruiter, I helped people with career advice. Some of these people were senior executives. Some of these people were recent college graduates who were the children of senior executives. I have read hundreds if not thousands of resumes and countless cover letters. I have helped hundreds of people for job interviews. I have been through hundreds of salary negotiations. I have worked with multiple hiring managers at over a hundred companies.

When my son suggested that I write articles for the basis of a book, I had plenty of information to share.

He gave me copies of books from bloggers: Leo Babauta, Tim Ferris, Mark Sisson, Seth Godin, and others.

When my articles began to number in the hundreds, I started to try to figure out how to take these articles and put them into a single book. This part became baffling. By the time I finally got all the articles into one editable document, I had nearly five hundred pages of material.

However, five hundred pages of website articles don’t make for any book that I would want to read. If I want to read website articles, I will go to websites.

If I write more books, I am certain that I will get better at the process. However, this first book is for me an enormous growth experience.

Some great writers like the brilliant 20^th century novelist Thomas Wolfe would write hundreds of pages of material and send them to an editor, Maxwell Perkins, to turn them into a book. Perkins also edited the writing of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Therefore, the newest phase of my career growth is learning how to write a book , and right now, I am trying to channel Maxwell Perkins through my mind.

Employment References

Employment references are an important part of the job-seeking process.

Generally, companies will ask for professional references. These are people with whom and for whom you have worked. They often include former employers, co-workers, vendors, buyers, and people you know through business associations. In addition, companies may ask for personal references. These people are your neighbors, friends, professors, college, volunteer groups, and other relationships outside business.

Always ask a person’s permission before listing that person as a reference.

By doing so, you are treating your references with respect. You are creating a positive relationship your references. You are helping your references prepare to represent you when employers call to learn about their experience with you. You help your references help you in a positive and supportive way.

Provide the references when the employer requests them.

Do not include your references with your resume. Your list of references is confidential business information. Only give the list of references to employers where you have an interest of employment and where you have a likelihood of employment. Typically, job seekers give references through email.

The following format for a list of references is simple.

This format makes it easy for you to create a list of references. The format is also easy for the hiring company to follow when checking your references.

References
Your Name
Your Street Address, City, ST ZIP Code
Your phone
Your Email

Reference name
Relationship with reference
Location of relationship (company name, volunteer group, etc.)
Reference title
Dates of relationship
Street Address
City, ST ZIP Code
phone
email
Reference name
Relationship with reference
Location of relationship (company name, volunteer group, etc.)
Reference title
Dates of relationship
Street Address
City, ST ZIP Code
phone
email
Reference name
Relationship with reference
Location of relationship (company name, volunteer group, etc.)
Reference title
Dates of employment
Street Address
City, ST ZIP Code
phone
email
Reference name
Relationship with reference
Location of relationship (company name, volunteer group, etc.)
Reference title
Dates of relationship
Street Address
City, ST ZIP Code
phone
email
Reference name
Relationship with reference
Location of relationship (company name, volunteer group, etc.)
Reference title
Dates of relationship
Street Address
City, ST ZIP Code
phone
email

Why Do You Want to Work for Our Company?

Why Do You Want to Work for Our Company? This question is helpful for you to know before you go to the interview.

Preparing to answer this question will help you prepare to discuss the opportunity with the company.

If you know enough about a company to explain why you want to work for the company, you will have a much more meaningful conversation during the interview. You should never go to an interview without first knowing the job description. Other things that you should know include the company products, as much as possible about the company culture, and the history of the company.

The question will help you prepare to discuss how your skills match the job.

By knowing why you want to work for a company, you can explain why the company should want to hire you. The information that you put together in preparing for this answer help you understand what ways your skills and experience match the requirements of the job.

It will help you show that you have an interest in the hiring company and not just any job at just any company.

To the hiring manager, interviewing an applicant who has a genuine interest a company raises the level of interest that the hiring manager has in an applicant. It reflects positively that you have evaluated other companies. The fact that you show that you are interested in the specific company, you are showing the hiring manager that you are a candidate worth the time it takes to interview you.

It will help you show hiring managers and interviewers that you appreciate their time by taking your time to research the opportunity and prepare for your interview.

In researching your answer to the question, you will be able to show how much you value the opportunity to interview for the job.

‘Why Were You Fired?’

“Why were you fired?” is one of the most difficult questions in interviewing. How do you prepare your answer? How do you deliver it?

Write down and rehearse your answer.

Do not let a bad case of the nerves and poor interview preparation allow you to trip over your words. Rehearse your answer so that you can give a short, clear reply. Test your answer with people you trust. Get comfortable with your answer so that it makes you look confident in your ability to go forward with success in your next job.

Discuss your answer with your references.

Discussing your answer with your references is helpful in at least two ways. First, you want your references to give an answer that is consistently with your answer to this question. Second, your references may help you prepare an answer that is honest, unemotional, and make your firing nothing that should prevent you from getting a new job.

Stick to the truth.

Telling lies can catch up with you through reference checks and backgrounds checks. Even worse, if the hiring company does not discover that you lied until after you have started to work for the new company, you might find that you are being fired again.

Structure your answer to show how you will be a great hire at you next company.

Being fired from a job does not mean that you do not deserve to get a job where you are interviewing. If you were fired, because your last company was laying people off, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Understandable the reasons you are being fired

A new boss came in and replaced everyone with people from his or her previous company.
The company shifted its business model and eliminated jobs for your skills.
Your boss was highly skilled but had high turnover, because he or she is a micromanager.

Eleven Things that Annoy Co-Workers

Eleven things that annoy coworkers is a starter list for etiquette around the workplace. You might want to read more articles on the subject. Being annoying is not the best way to advance your career.

Using Big Words and Jargon to Impress People

Using big words to impress people is phony and annoying. Building your vocabulary is a good practice. Just using those words to impress people is an annoying.

Using Facilities for the Handicapped

Those facilities are there for people who need them. People who routinely use specialized needs bathrooms or handicapped parking annoy will soon lose credibility and trust.

Texting or Writing Emails During Meetings

You are in a meeting. Everyone is focusing on the speaker except you. You feel that texting urgent messages or answering emails during the meeting is professional. You believe that you are being diligent. However, you are creating a distraction for everyone in the room. People who are in a meeting are like members in a marching band. They are in meeting mode. When you start texting or sending emails, you become a distraction to everyone who can see what you are doing.

Talking Loudly Enough to Disturb Other People

Talking loudly enough on the phone to distract other people is rude and unfair.

Blocking Doorways and Hallways

Be thoughtful of how you use passageways. Some people do not know how to navigate blocked hallways or aisles. People who block these spaces making passing awkward for people.

On the other hand, if you do need to get past a people in a blocked passageway, simply say, “Pardon me.

Disappearing from Work

People notice when you are not at your desk or not in meetings. Often people cannot do their job when you are not around to do your job.

Constant Complaining

Negative information makes other people feel unpleasant. When you complain, you bring people down with you.

Gossiping

Gossiping is unfair and will cost you the trust of other people.

Personal Grooming

Clipping your nails and combing your hair seem so minor an event to some people that they forget that doing either one around other people is makes them uncomfortable. At your workplace, do personal grooming in the restroom.

Talking About Yourself

For some people, talking about themselves is so easy to do. It is also healthy. However, talking about ourselves all the time pushes people away. We not only distance ourselves from other people, the habit can prevent us from building strong business relationships.

Discussing Politics and Religion in the Workplace

Religion and Politics in the Workplace: I read an article recently that helped me know that not everyone understands the impact of religion and politics in the workplace. The author started his article with religious jokes.

The jokes weren’t clever. They were flippant. Furthermore, they distracted from the point of the article.

How to Bridge Employment Gaps in Your Resume

If you have gaps in your resume, you are not alone. Long recessions and a restructuring of the economy in the United States have created new complications for people who need to find jobs.

New types of jobs often require that job seekers develop new skills. In some cases, job seekers must receive certifications, credentials, or licenses that require formal training. Some of this training can require that job seekers take time from work.

The result is that many people go through extended periods of unemployment. According to an article in USA Today, 20% of the people who have lost work over the past 5 years are still unemployed, and many of those who found work are in temporary jobs.

Knowing how to handle unemployment gaps on your resume is important.

There is value in doing consulting work, temporary assignments, and even volunteer work. Include information on your resume to help people know what you are doing in addition to seeking a new job.

Job searching involves fundamentals.

The uncertainty of job searching can challenge you mentally, emotionally, and physically. Your finances become uncertain. Trying to focus on job searching is just part of the mental challenge of finding a job. Finding mentors and working with friends can help you stay focused and positive as you go through the daily grind of getting a job. Practicing the fundamentals of contacting employers, making applications, and continuing to seek employment are all critical to finding a job.

Your social media profile has a role in job search.

Maintain consistency between your social media and your resume. If you place a record of your career track on LinkedIn or Google Plus, make sure that the records you keep on those websites and profiles on other sites are consistent with each other and with your resume.

List employment periods in years.

Job seekers frequently list periods of employment in years only. The goal of your resume is to get you to an interview. If there are periods of weeks of unemployment in your past, getting to an interview to discuss those periods of unemployment is better than not getting to an interview at all.

You Do Not Have to be a Genius to Manage Well

You do not have to be a genius to manage well.

As a new Navy ensign, I was assigned me to work directly for a limited duty officer. The first day that he and I met was my first day of service in the Navy. He did not hire me. I reported aboard the USS Midway and went to his office.

The Navy has different groups or classes of officers. The limited duty officers are men and women who have worked their way up through the enlisted ranks into the ranks of officers. Their opportunity for promotion caps out at the rank commander (pay grade O5). They are specialists with high aptitudes for certain skills.

The limited duty officer for whom I worked had the ability to master Navy administrative skills far more rapidly than his peers did.

When I transferred into his department, he was a lieutenant. He assigned me the responsibility of managing the education office. In this role, I managed a chief petty officer and six enlisted men. My responsibilities in this office were to give educational support and testing for career advancement of the 5000 enlisted members of the ship and air wing.

However, I knew nothing of my responsibilities as an educational officer.

At the same time, I stood bridge watches. During these watches, I developed the skills to maneuver an aircraft carrier on the course and speed for launching and recovering aircraft, replenishing ships at sea, and other navigational and working functions.

When I was not on bridge watches, I worked with the limited duty officer, who was my departmental boss. He quickly taught me how to manage and evaluate the men under my responsibility in the education office.

He and I worked together well. I learned a great deal. I wanted to do a good job. My boss took the time to teach me how become a better manager. As a young, inexperienced manager, I had a tendency to give higher evaluations to people I liked. He showed me to focus on how quickly and accurately people performed their duties as well as how much I enjoyed working with them.

Within a year, the Navy promoted me to lieutenant junior grade. Within 3 years, I was promoted to lieutenant. My role in the administrative department had gone from simply managing the education office to manage the ship’s television station and newspaper and managing the ship’s public affairs program. I wrote press releases that the Navy sent to U.S. Command for declassification and release to media. I worked with the Bob Hope troupe and the Miss America Troupe for their performances in front of thousands of members of the crew and guests.

At the same time, I became qualified as an officer of the deck for fleet operations. I was a competent ship handler and enjoyed working alongside senior officers aboard the ship.

My boss in the administration office was perhaps not as smart as I was. I draw this conclusion because, in 3 years, my skills in the areas where I worked became as strong as the skills of my boss, who had over 20 years of experience. I also had developed skills for ship’s bridge operations. My boss, as a limited duty officer, did not qualify to work on the bridge of ship. Perhaps the best sign that I was smarter than my boss is that I reached the rank of lieutenant in 3 years. Reaching that rank had taken him nearly 20 years.

I was certainly never upset by the fact that I was smarter than my boss was. His skills for the department in which I worked helped me greatly. I was able to learn to do my duties. I was fortunate to have his leadership and knowledge as tools and examples for growth.

I respected that he had a gift for specialized administrative skills and that he had 20 years developing those skills. I showed respect by seeking and following his direction. In addition, I knew that he had 20 years of experience in successfully working with other men and women in the Navy. I knew that I could and did learn how to work with other people the way he worked with other people, not just for a day, but the grind of day in and day out. I went to him for direction in dealing with difficult people and situations.

What I learned from this was the value of experience. I learned that, when I have decisions to make, I should turn to people with experience to help me with ideas on making those decisions. I learned that you do not have to be a genius to manage well, but that you do have to have experience and skill to manage well.

What are Your Salary Expectations?

What are your salary expectations? At some point in the interview process, you may have to answer this question.

Some companies will ask you to give the information at the beginning of the interview process. If the question comes up on a job application, you can try to leave the answer blank. With some online applications, you cannot just skip past the answer.

Knowing how to answer the question accurately, involves more than just salary. It includes knowing the expenses and hidden costs of the new job. It involves knowing the difference in tax base, commute costs, vacation time, benefits, and insurance coverage.

There are several articles on this website to help you handle salary discussions and negations.

The best time for you to discuss salary is after you receive an offer and begin to negotiate the offer. Many companies make a verbal offer and then follow up with a written offer once the detailed have been finalized. Therefore, holding off on giving an answer to this question until you have all the details of the offer can help you respond in a practical manner that is meaningful to you and to the hiring company.