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Career Doctor Q-TIPS #8:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
These tips have been gathered from job-seeker Q&A's with the Career Doctor, Dr. Randall Hansen. For more information, go to The Career Doctor.
Older workers, especially those changing careers, face numerous
challenges -- and stereotypes. Follow this link to read more
Myths
About Older Workers.
Another good article for you is Positive Attitude is Key When Fighting Prejudice Against Older Workers. If you feel yourself bumping up against the "grey ceiling," this article will show you some of the ways you can empower yourself with an optimistic outlook when job-hunting.
Go to the next tip.
Functional resumes focus on experience and accomplishments in a small
number of skills clusters. If you are changing careers, focus on
showcasing skills clusters that help support your new career
direction. These skills clusters should signal potential employers as
to the types of jobs you feel you are best qualified to hold. Read
this article: Should You
Consider a Functional Resume?.
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Mature job-seekers who position themselves as having "vast"
experience that should be in high demand by all employers may set
themselves up for a great fall because those employers will not hire
older job-seekers who "know it all and have done it all." Keep in
mind that most hiring managers who interview will to be younger than
you -- with a completely different outlooks than yours. How do you
deal with this issue when you feel you have much to offer employers?
First, examine your-job search strategies. What kind of job are you looking for? Have you only emailed your resume? Where have you emailed it? Are you using your network of friends, associates, and former colleagues to help you with your job search? Do you have a job-search strategy? Read Approaches and Tactics for Older Workers Who Can't Find a Job. Also take advantage of all the resources we offer at Quintessential Careers at our Job Resources for Mature and Older Jobseekers.
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If you've had jobs that were of short duration, focus on highlighting
and leveraging your accomplishments from your previous work
experience. Consider reading: For
Job-Hunting Success: Track and Leverage Your Accomplishments.
Remember that no matter how good a job you do with your resume, the
question about your last few experiences will likely be asked -- and
you need to be prepared with a good answer. Talk about how there were
circumstances out of your control that have since been resolved --
that you are ready to make a longer-term commitment to your next
employer -- to stay for as long as there are challenges to conquer and
results to deliver to help the company's bottom line.
You can find more interviewing resources at Quintessential Careers: Guide to Job Interviewing Resources.
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How do you find your ideal internship? It's a three-step process:
determine your internship goals, prepare/polish your job search
skills, and find/track down internship sources.
Exploring the third step in greater depth, there are multiple sources for college students searching for internships, including:
- your college's career services office
- the department office of your major (and minor)
- networking sources (perhaps the strongest source)
- internship and career fairs (local, regional, online)
- company Web sites
- internship Web sites
- internship books and periodicals
- cold contact
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One of the biggest challenges college students face is gaining work
experience before they graduate. Where can college students gain the
necessary experience? Try these sources:
- internships
- summer jobs
- campus jobs
- entrepreneurial/self-employed jobs
- temporary work
- volunteer work
- research projects
- certification courses
- campus activity positions
- fraternity/sorority/social club positions
- extracurricular or sports leadership positions
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Interested in a career as a corporate trainer? According to the U.S.
Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook, "training
specialists plan, organize, and direct a wide range of training
activities. Trainers conduct orientation sessions and arrange
on-the-job training for new employees. They help rank-and-file
workers maintain and improve their job skills, and possibly prepare
for jobs requiring greater skill."
Read more here.
Another good source is the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). According to its Website, "ASTD is the world's premier professional association and leading resource on workplace learning and performance issues." The ASTD site has a lot of great resources related to corporate training, including job and career resources and advice. The organization also offers a Human Performance Improvement Certificate Program, which may be an alternative to a graduate degree.
To get a leg up, start building a network in the training field. Conduct some informational interviews with professional trainers; contact your alma mater and talk with a management professor who specializes in training; join a ASTD or another professional association; attend a conference. Learn more about informational interviews by going to the Quintessential Careers Informational Interviewing Tutorial.
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The process of finding your work and career passion is a journey, and
for most people, not a short or easy one. It takes some effort to
match up your talents, skills, and interests with one or more
potential careers. Be prepared to commit a fair amount of time to the
process. A great place to start is our article,
Choosing a
College Major: How to Chart Your Ideal Path. This article takes
you through the six steps necessary to make your journey to career
self-discovery. It also includes some great resources, including
other Web sites and some useful books.
Review some of the other articles we've published on Quintessential Careers, specifically in our Career Planning Articles section, which includes an article on completing a SWOT analysis (in which you will conduct an analysis of your strengths and weaknesses).
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What is corporate culture? At its most basic, it's described as the
personality of an organization, or simply as "how things are done
around here." It guides how employees think, act, and feel. Corporate
culture is a broad term used to define the unique personality or
character of a particular company or organization, and includes such
elements as core values and beliefs, corporate ethics, and rules of
behavior.
Why is understanding the employer's corporate culture important? Because the organization's culture will affect you in many, many ways, such as: hours worked per day/week, availability of options such as flextime and telecommuting, how people interact with each other in the workplace, how people dress for work, benefits offered employees, office space, training and professional development opportunities, perks -- just about everything related to your time at work.
How can you learn more about the climate and culture of companies? By observing all the employees while at the interview -- what they wear, how they relate to each other, what their office space looks like. You can also learn more about an organization's culture by going to the company's Web site, taking informational tours, speaking with people who work for the company, reading annual reports and company newsletters, researching the company in business and industry journals, and interviewing human resource personnel or recruiters. Get even more advice and resources about understanding corporate culture by reading our article, Uncovering a Company's Corporate Culture is a Critical Task for Job-Seekers.
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Teachers who are burned out, especially after working at under-funded
public schools, have at least two sets of skills that can be use to
their advantage when contemplating a career change. You have your
subject-specific set of skills -- your writing and communications
skills -- and your professional skills -- training and teaching
skills. Between those two sets of skills, you have so many possible
career options -- but you aren't limited by those skills because, if
you have the interest, the time, and the expertise, you can switch
careers in any direction.
Read our article, The 10-Step Plan to Career Change. Your choices are really limitless. You just need to spend the time contemplating the direction of your life -- and your next career move.
Go to the next tip.
If you want to be prepared for just about any kind of interview,
check out our Job
Interview Questions Database, which
includes The Interview Question Database, 109 typical traditional and
behavioral job interview questions, and The Practice Interviews,
where you can test your responses to typical interview questions. The
key to successfully answering interview questions is understanding
the purpose behind each question. Your answers should always be
focused on the prize -- getting to the next step, getting the job
offer. Thus, your answers should always be framed in the context of
how your mix of education, experience, and skills will add to the
company -- and make the interviewer's job easier/better. Once you
have a handle on what the position entails, you should have a good
idea of how to frame your answers to skills-based questions,
identifying and matching the key skills you can bring to the employer.
Go to the next tip.
Every job-seeker should have a one-minute sales pitch. While parts of
the pitch can be general strengths and skills you can offer to any
employer -- including your unique selling proposition (USP), you
should, of course, tailor your answer to the employer and job at hand
to provide the strongest possible sales pitch. And regardless of
whether you end up using the sales pitch in the interview, you should
most certainly write it in your thank-you letter following the
interview.
To learn more about using marketing and sales techniques in job-hunting, read our article, Using Key Marketing Tools to Position Yourself on the Job Market.
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We get numerous emails from college students who are about to
graduate with little or no actual experience. There is simply no
excuse for any college student not to have some kind of work
experience through summer jobs and/or internships. There are just so
many advantages to gaining work experience, from learning first-hand
about corporate culture and office politics to gaining a better
understanding of your career path and learning valuable skills.
Many -- if not most -- employers recruiting college graduates, especially business school grads, want the students they interview to have some work experience. That work experience typically occurs through internships and summer jobs. If you didn't do an internship, you probably should have some sort of answer prepared in case you are asked why. Even if you have not "worked," you probably do have experience. Look at any volunteer experiences, through which you probably acquired numerous valuable skills that can easily transfer to the workplace. And you probably have been involved with numerous major projects in your classes in which you also learned and employed new skills.
Go to the Transferable Skills section of Quintessential Careers to learn more about emphasizing your set of key skills. Also go to the career services office at your college and work with those professionals to build a job-search strategy designed especially for you. You'll be able to find a job, but it will take developing a resume that focuses on your key skills and experiences, using your network of contacts, and implementing the advice from the career services office.
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While college is not for everyone, the value of a college education
is monumental -- in many ways. Most studies show a deepening income
gap between people with just a high school diploma and those with a
college education -- and especially with women. But it's not just
earning power; it is also how people will perceive you and judge you.
Read more in a our article:
What
Good is a College Education Anyway?
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Are you cut out for a career in law? To find out, look at your
personal network and see if you can meet with a corporate lawyer or
two and conduct informational interviews with them. Solicit their
advice about majors, minors, law school, and law careers. Seek a
multidisciplinary education, focusing your studies in business,
communications (oral and written), economics, math, and information
technology.
Students who are planning to attend law school to become corporate lawyers often major in business administration or accounting. The reason you want a well-rounded education is that there is much more to being an attorney than the law. You should choose courses that will help you develop proficiencies in writing and speaking, reading, researching, analyzing, and logical thinking. Start researching law schools -- and once you develop such a list, go to each school's Web site (or catalog) and see the courses they recommend to best prepare you for law school -- and for a career in law.
Go to the next tip.
Older college enrollees often make much better students than
traditional college-aged students. If you're considering taking the
plunge, think carefully about the following as you work toward a
decision about college. First, can you afford to go to college? Can
you develop aplan -- a combination of financial aid, scholarships,
and a part-time job -- that will give you enough financial freedom to
pay your current bills as well as college tuition? Find some
resources in the
college
planning resources section of Quintessential Careers.
Second, what do you want to study in college? Don't just jump into college without a plan. Spend some time matching up your other skills and interests with various careers by going to the career assessment tools section of Quintessential Careers.
Third, do you really need to go to college -- or do you want to go? While many companies do hire employees without a college degree, there is often a point at which you can't get any farther up the ladder with the degree. Keep in mind, too, that it is often the degree the matters more than what you study, so keep your focus on the prize.
Fourth, are you using college as an escape from the job market? In a tough economy with jobs hard to find, this situation should play only a very small role in your decision about attending college.
Go to the next tip.
Requests for a salary history put job-seekers at a distinct
disadvantage because you are providing the employer with very
valuable information and getting nothing in return (unless you feel
being considered for the position is something of value). This
information becomes critical if you become the applicant that the
employer wants to hire because with your salary history, the employer
can lowball your job offer, offering you a salary that is higher than
your present salary (but not at the level you want). Your negotiation
ability is severely limited. And for job-seekers making a major
career change or jump, past salary becomes even less important.
What can you do when asked for a salary history? First decide whether you even want the job -- whether you want to work for a company that would base even a part of its hiring decision not on what you are worth to the company, but on what you have been paid in the past. Assuming you do still do want to work for the employer, you have a number of options.
Most importantly, though, do NOT list your salary information on your resume. Create a separate salary-history page (similar to a reference page) that matches the format and look of your resume.
And read our article, Responding to Requests for Salary Requirements or Salary Histories: Strategies and Suggestions. This article gives you a good overview and provides you with a couple of sample salary-history formats.
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A request for a job-seeker's salary requirement is used by employers
in the same way as salary histories are used -- often as a screening
device by employers. A typical employer who requests a salary
requirement from applicants places job-seekers into three categories:
job-seekers who requested a salary that was below the minimum for the
position (and were perceived as not qualified), job-seekers who
requested a salary in the range for the position (and were perceived
as being the best candidates to interview, assuming they had the
skills and experiences we desired), and job-seekers who requested a
salary well above the range (and who were perceived as being
over-qualified for the position or just people who thought too highly
of themselves).
As a job-seeker, you MUST do your homework! Conduct some research before you submit your salary requirement. The ideal situation is when you have a contact within the organization who can provide you with the actual internal salary range for the position, but if that is not an option, look at your own company for the salary ranges for a similar position, use your network to get salary ranges for similar positions in other companies, and use one or more of the salary guides (such as Salary.com) to develop an estimated salary range. Keep in mind that the size of the company, the industry it operates in, and the geographic location of the job will all need to be factored into the equation.
Once you have an idea of the employer's salary range for the position, the next step is to see if your salary requirements will fit within the range. If your desired salary fits the range, then you are in great shape. If you are well below the range, but feel you are fully qualified for the position, then request a salary on the lower side of the range (which also allows you to grow into the positions in terms of raises). If you are well above the range, you may need to consider other options.
Read our article, Responding to Requests for Salary Requirements or Salary Histories: Strategies and Suggestions. This article gives you a good overview and provides you with various strategies for responding to a request for a desired salary.
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Job-seekers should go into relationships with headhunters knowing
where these recruiters are coming from -- recruiters are paid by an
employer when they place a candidate with that employer. Recruiters
do not work for job-seekers.
With that said, an excellent article that provides much more insight into the job-seeker/recruiter dynamic is: The Care and Feeding of Headhunters and Recruiters, by Kathryn Lee Bazan.
Two of our favorite Web sites for finding recruiters are:
- FindARecruiter.com -- where job-seekers who are looking for a recruiting professional (headhunters, executive search, staffing firms) can search a database of more than 10,000 recruiters. Search by company name, specialty, or location.
- Oya's Recruiter Directory -- a free resource created to help job-seekers find recruiters who can assist you in reaching their career goals. Search for recruiters or browse by recruiter specialty or location. A great resource for job-seekers.
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Don't be discouraged if you've been laid off -- look at the layoff as
a chance to start anew with a better opportunity. Read our article,
Getting
Fired: An Opportunity for Change and Growth, which offers tips and
suggestions for developing a plan to get you in shape to find an even
better job than the one you had. Remember to focus on your skills and
abilities. Job experts say that besides various governmental bodies
hiring right now, companies in certain industries are also hiring --
including healthcare, security and defense, and pharmaceutical
companies. Of course, companies in other industries are also hiring,
but in much smaller numbers.
The key to your job-hunting success is to have a job-search plan -- one that includes a positive outlook, a new resume, and a strategy for locating job opportunities. Read our article, Job-Hunting in Times of Uncertainty: Five Overlooked Strategies to Help Make Your Job Search More Productive -- and Successful.
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Job-hunting is all about marketing and selling -- and being more
aggressive in hunting down job opportunities than other job-seekers.
A common problem among job-seekers is applying for jobs and then
sitting back waiting for the phone to ring. Job-hunting just does not
work that way. You need to get on the phone (or via email if you
applied for jobs using email) and contact every company you have not
heard from and see what the status of your application is -- and ask
for interviews where appropriate. If you are relying only on job ads
-- either job postings on Web sites or help-wanted ads in local
newspapers -- move your job search up quite a few gears.
Have you joined any professional or social organizations in your area? Do you have friends or family close by? Networking is the best method to find strong job leads. Learn more about networking by going to Quintessential Careers: The Art of Networking.
Don't get discouraged, but don't sit at home waiting for a phone call. Pound the pavement. Make your own opportunities. One other great source for understanding the importance of marketing in job-hunting is our article: Using Key Marketing Tools to Position Yourself on the Job Market.
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Thinking about signing up with a resume blasting service? There are a
growing number of resume distribution firms on the Web, and
Quintessential Careers partners with the one we feel offers
job-seekers the best opportunities. But "resume blasting" should be
just one part of a thorough job search -- one that includes multiple
methods of tracking down job leads -- and one that always includes
networking. Whether it's posting your resume on a couple of Web sites
or using a blasting service, avail yourself of every avenue of job
searching. Certainly blasting your resume to a number of recruiters
and employers is one method.
Where can you find more information about the various services? Go to Quintessential Careers and our resume distribution services.
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There are critical differences between traditional job-hunting and
job-hunting on the Web. For example, an emailed cover letter, while
serving the same job-search function, is quite different from a
traditional print cover letter. An emailed cover letter should be
shorter and more concise, grab the attention of the reader more
quickly, and focus on keywords.
An emailed cover letter is generally no more than three paragraphs. The first paragraph identifies the key benefits you can offer the employer -- in a dynamic and inviting style. The second paragraph provides the details that support the benefits you mention in the first paragraph. The third paragraph must close the deal by asking for the interview.
As in a print cover letter, you should try to identify the hiring manager for the position if it is not listed in the job posting. Contacting the company and asking for the name of the hiring manager will work for many organizations, but some may have privacy policies -- or concerns about getting deluged with responses. Alternative salutations include "Dear Hiring Manager" or by skipping the salutation completely and just starting the letter with "Re: Job Posting XX7783Y." You can get more tips and advice about writing email cover letters by reading our article, Tips for a Dynamic Email Cover Letter.
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If you're having a frustrating job search while relying heavily on
searching on the Internet, remember that job-hunting on the Web
should comprose only about 15-20 percent of your total job-search
effort.
What else are you doing in trying to find a new position? What about networking? Have you contacted all your family, friends, colleagues, former co-workers and bosses, associates, and just about anyone else you know and told them you are looking for a new job? Have you contacted your alma mater and networked with the alumni offices, your old professors, and the career services offices? What about the local chapter of the professional organization for your field? If you're not a member, join and start networking! What about cold calling and finding hidden job opportunities? Read more in our article, Cold Calling: A Time-Tested Method of Job-Hunting.
Have you looked into temping -- either as a way to get back on your feet or as a way to get your foot in the door? Read this article: Temping Offers a Way to Build Your Resume -- and Much More.
Are you spending enough time with your job search and are you following up ALL your job leads? Take the time to chase down every job lead.
If you are still unsure about what the problem is with your job search, read our article: Ten Questions to Ask Yourself if You Still Haven't Found a Job.
Review all our Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips.
Maximize your career and job-search knowledge and skills! Take advantage of The Quintessential Careers Content Index, which enables site visitors to locate articles, tutorials, quizzes, and worksheets in 35 career, college, job-search topic areas.
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