Job Search Tips

Are you looking for a job and wondering if improving your public speaking skills is a worthwhile investment? Let me kill the suspense and tell you that the answer is a resounding yes. Few self improvement projects will pay the dividends of improving your ability to communicate information to a group of individuals.

In my previous life I was a computer programmer. Like most computer programmers, public speaking was not my strong suit. The mere thought of giving a presentation gave me the chills. When I finally did get up to present, I always seemed to stumble and come off sounding like less then ideal.

Well I got fed up and decided that I was going to improve my public speaking abilities, and turn public speaking from a weakness into a strength. I read books; I listened to audio programs, and even purchased an expensive public speaking video series. The problem is that nothing worked. I still pretty much sucked at public speaking after consuming all of these materials.

What finally helped was joining my local Toastmasters club. If you are not aware Toastmasters is an international organization of local clubs dedicated to helping member’s developer their public speaking skills. These clubs meet weekly (sometimes bi-weekly). Each meeting is structured to maximize the opportunities for each member to speak. There are formal speeches, self introductions, impromptu speaking, and various roles that all require you to stand in front of an audience and talk.

The reason Toastmasters worked for me is because the meetings provide a regular dose of public speaking education mixed with tons of experience. You not only learn and observe but every week you will be speaking in some capacity or another. This is a very powerful one two educational punch.

If you want to improve your public speaking skills let me recommend that you join your local Toastmasters club. This could be the best self improvement project you ever tackle.

See you at the lectern.

Lying on your resume is very tempting, but please don’t do it. It can cause you so much heartache. Take the story of George O’Leary. Mr. O’Leary was a successful college football coach who finally landed his dream job as the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame. For non college football fans Notre Dame is the most storied college football program of all time, and being their head coach is a life long goal for many coaches.

George O’Leary was announced as Notre Dame’s new head football coach after a successful tenure as coach of Georgia Tech. Unfortunately, a few days into his new job inaccuracies in his resume surfaced. George had claimed on his resume to have earned a Master degree at a nonexistent University. He also lied about playing sports at the University of New Hampshire. The last straw was when it surfaced that he also falsified academic credentials. The University of Notre Dame asked for his resignation Mr. O’Leary was out as their football coach two weeks into his tenure.

This story is an extreme example, but I’m sure not a day goes by without someone getting caught lying on their resume. It may be tempting to enhance your resume a little but please don’t do it. In today’s world it is increasingly easy and cost effective to have resumes screened for inaccuracy. Don’t take the change of ruining your professional reputation.

What do you do when your over 50 and looking for a job. Age discrimination is a reality, but you can do things to combat it. Check it this great article on the subject.

You might be surprised at what networking can bring into your life. A new job or a private concert with Jimmy Buffet!

Have you ever seen a coworker resign his position only to suddenly change their mind? You know that the company counter offered and bumped his salary in order to keep him. This happens and it is infuriating to loyal employees that don’t make waves. When is the company going to reward loyalty?

The answer is never. If you are waiting around for someone to tap you on the shoulder to reward your hard work and loyalty you will be waiting a very long time. It just doesn’t work that way in what I like to call reality.  In reality you must create a little tension to get your just rewards. You must cause a little friction. You must be willing to lay your cards on the table and clearly communicate what additional composition you are looking for.

Now before we continue let me point out the obvious fact that in order to be successful at requesting more money, you must be a valuable employee. If you have the feeling that no one would miss you if you left, then don’t bother. Just continue to sit back collecting paychecks until that inevitable day when your boss calls you into his office for a chat.

For those of you that remain congratulations! You are a valuable employee and your employer would not want to lose you. But how do you leverage this into an increased salary? This is a very tricky question with many different possibilities. Here is what I recommend.

First off you should quietly begin a job search looking for other career opportunities. You don’t want to start salary negotiations without having other options lined up. You also want to know with confidence what the current market salary for you skill set would be.

This kind of job search should be private. Don’t reveal your name, email address, phone number, address, or current employer. Contact a quality job search company to make this easy. Once you have a feel for the market place its time to formulate the message that you’ll be bringing to your current employer.

The first thing you want to do is get clear about what you want. Are you looking for a salary increase? If you are looking for a salary bump then how much do you want? You must never be vague when requesting a salary increase. Vague requests get vague responses.  Think in terms of percentage increases. For example your goal could be a 10% pay increase.

Don’t forget that you could also negotiate other items including time off.  I once used up all my time off due to the birth of my son and negotiated an extra paid week off.  Employers will often give you extra time off a lot easier then they will give you a pay increase because time off is a soft cost.

Once you have a goal in mind you must set a formal meeting with your supervisor and lay your cards on the table. I recommend that you prepare an update to date resume and list what you bring to the table. This is not the time to be modest. Lay out your accomplishments out and remind your employer why you are so valuable. Then make your request and provide back up information.  “I’m looking for a 10% salary increase which would put my salary in line with the current market for my skill set and productivity level.”  Put it out there and shut your mouth. Let you boss digest your request and come back with a response. You might be surprised his response.

One thing that you should never do is to use a job offer to club your current employer. This is bad protocol and has a high likelihood of getting you escorted out the door next to Johnny the security guard with a box full of cubical crap including a squeeze toy and red stapler.

This whole exercise involves leaving your comfort zone, but if you are willing to put yourself out there you might be pleasantly surprised at the results.

Energy Job

One of my readers sent me an email stating that applying for jobs online wasn’t working for her. I just wanted to talk about this topic for a minute.

The fact is online job boards are one of the worst sources of jobs. It may seem that job boards hold the promise of numerous employment opportunities; the truth is that the vast majorities of positions are never advertised.

Unless you have very specific marketable skills job boards are probably not the answer to your job search problems. The best advice I can offer is to get out there and network. The more people you meet the better chance you will bump into some who is able and willing to hire you.

If you have been keeping you hat out of the job search ring because of the sluggish economy then read this article by Beth Gilfeather.  Now might be the perfect time to look for your next assignment.

I attended a Brian Tracy event in Fort Lauderdale last night. The event was amazing and as usual Brian Tracy offered great insights into personal success and achievement.

One of the topics covered at the event related to employment and job searching.  According to Mr. Tracy (and I believe this to be true) the average person learns how to perform their job in about 12 months.  Most people tend to coast after this. They don’t bother to develop themselves further. They do the minimum to get by,  they go on long coffee breaks, and they spend significant time engaging in idol chit chat with coworkers. In fact studies have shown that on average employees spend 50% of their work time in time wasting activities.

This becomes a problem when difficult economic times force  companies must implement layoffs. If you haven’t  steadily increased the value you offer your employer, you are in danger be being shown the door.

Coasting at work is still a problem if you company goes out of business. While it is true that you would have been let go regardless of the number of coffee breaks taken. The problem remains that because of those wasted hours you have less to offer the employment market. You have less doors open to you.

Don’t let this happen to you. One of the things that I coach my clients to do is to take on a self improvement project. Pick the one area of your professional life that is your greatest weakness. Then lay out a series of actions steps that you will undertake in order to turn this weakness into strength.

This project could be anything from mastering prospecting to becoming an excellent public speaker. There really are no limits to what skills you can improve if you set a goal and take immediate and consistent actions towards accomplishing that goal.

If you do this there will be much less chance that the world will pass you by.

Here is an important piece of information about success in your job search. If you have your resume posted on some of the online job boards you must make frequent updates.

The reason for this is simple. Job boards rank resumes by how old the resume is. This means that someone who posted their resume today would appear on top of the search results over someone who posted their resume a year ago.

Job boards rank resumes this way because someone who posted their resume today is more likely to sill be looking for a job vs. someone who posted their resume last year.

The bottom line is that if you are using online job boards (and you should be) then update your resume once a week. This will reset your resume and move you to the top of the search rankings.

By the way you don’t have to make radical changes. Simply change around a word or two.

Cheers

When looking for a job how much consideration do you give the company? The truth is people looking for a job often don’t consider the company very much. In my experience most job candidates that show up for interviews take at most five minutes to review the company’s website. This is the extent of their company research.

This is not a good game plan. When you choose to accept a position you are making one of the most significant decisions of your life. Think about it, with whom you spend more time with, your spouse or Joe in the next cube over. Usually you spend more waking hours around Joe then the person who you made vows with.

What kind of company is it? Do people tend to work 9 – 5 (at some company’s everyone works until 7:00 PM). How is the commute from where you live? Is the company in a growth field? Do you believe in their core product or service? What kind of charities is the company involved with? How are their employees treated? How do ex-employees speak about their experience with the company?

These are all important questions that you should have answered before agree to work for anyone. If you don’t know the answer then you will find out the hard way.