CPI Twin Cities

Many of our clients tell us that, other than actually losing a job, the worst part of working through the recent deep recession was the uncertainty of job insecurity. Not knowing if their jobs were safe, wondering when the other shoe might drop. This uncertainty is hard on us emotionally, and it causes us to act out of fear rather than true engagement. How likely are we to take the risks of innovation if that risk exposes us to failure? A “cover your behind” work culture doesn’t bring out the best in anyone.

The best job insurance is a mindset of taking responsibility for your own career–a commitment to staying aware of your personal value proposition and to strengthening that value, wherever you are. Ownership of your own value proposition means taking an honest, eyes-wide-open look at yourself:

What do you contribute that is unique?

What would your company lose if you weren’t there?
Who knows what you do?
How much is it valued? Are you sure?

This empowering career ownership point of view means that you take charge of your development, build networks of people who can help and support you, and act as your own best advocate.  It means that you don’t wait for a boss or HR to tap you on the shoulder to give you a raise or promotion.  Consider these 5 Best Actions to be more powerful in owning your career:
1. Do an honest evaluation of your value to the organization (see questions above).
2. Create a feedback loop with someone you trust—perceptions are reality, and each of us is accountable for the impact we make, both in the results we achieve and the quality of our relationships.

3. Think about your career in terms of where you’ve been and where you want to go.  Are you on the path you’d planned for?  Are you heading in the right direction?  If not, what are you willing to change to correct the course?

4.  Take advantage of development opportunities in your workplace.  Take relevant classes if they’re offered, and volunteer to be on a task force or project team.  Be seen as someone who takes action!

5.  Update your resumé.  Resumés aren’t just for people looking for a new job outside the company. They are a valuable tool for internal positioning, too, and you need yours to be ready when the next opportunity comes up.   For most people, the work of updating the resumé is an eye-opening, affirming experience of what they know and what they’ve accomplished.

Too often, an employee’s IDP, or individual development plan, is a piece of paper or a computer file that HR requires and managers and employees go through the motions to complete.  The challenge is to make our own development plans real-world, living documents that represent a meaningful, exciting course of action to take us where we want to go.  Whose career is it? That’s up to you.

Here at CPI we stress adequate preparation for an interview.  That means researching the company and having a thorough understanding of who it is and what it does and where it does it, among other things.  Another part of the preparation is trying to gather some information about the person with whom you will be interviewing.  If you can find that interviewer on LinkedIn, huzzah!  You can probably use any of the information on the profile to break the ice as the interview begins.  And you would probably be safe in mentioning that you found him/her on LinkedIn.  After all, if the interviewer didn’t want you to know something, s/he wouldn’t have included it on LinkedIn!

Another approach is to search for information on the Internet.  Do you know the best way to do that?  Perhaps I can share some tips.  The best way is to use your favorite search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.  Create a search using the interviewer’s name in both the “firstname lastname” and “lastname firstname” formats.  This will cover finding the name in a news article as well as on some sort of list that is alphabetized by last name.  You’ll want to put the name is quotation marks to ensure that the search engine looks for the first name in front of and next to the last name and vice versa.  Connect the two formats with the “or” Boolean operator, entered all in caps.

Sound confusing?  Here’s an example:  “John Doe” OR “Doe John.”  Enter that simple query into the search engine’s search box and see what comes up.  If there are too many results, go back to the search box and add a qualifier such as the name of the company or Minnesota to whittle the list down.

Now what?  You look through the results to see what you can learn about this person that you can use in an interview.  And here’s where you need to start being careful.  Remember, just because you find it on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s true.  AND, just because the information uses the name of the interviewer, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the right person.  For example, if you search for me, you’ll find an entry on the IMDB website (Internet Movie Database) that announces to anyone who is looking that Judy Galt has had a starring role is a somewhat sleazy looking movie called “Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia.”  Now I can guarantee you that if you come to me for an interview and try to break the ice by asking me about that movie, I’m not going to be a happy camper and you might very well slide to the bottom of my list of candidates.  Why?  Because I’ve never been in that movie or any other movie!  You got the wrong person!  And you don’t look good as a result.  So when you find an interesting tidbit that you’d like to bring up in an interview, be sure to do some additional searching to make sure you’ve got the right person.  If you can’t verify it, you shouldn’t use it.

But what if you can verify it?  Then you need to be careful how you introduce it so that you don’t freak the interviewer out with tales of your cyber-stalking skills.  You would never say, for example, “I spent all last night searching for you on the Internet and I discovered that you…” and hope for a good result.  If the positions were reversed, wouldn’t you be a little turned off by an opening gambit like that?  Instead, try to think of a non-threatening way to introduce the topic.

I’m a fan of Sam Richter and his book “Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling.”  In that book, he gives several ideas of non-threatening ways to break the ice.  An example he gave in a workshop I attended was that of an executive Sam was calling on in the early fall.  Sam’s research had turned up an announcement of the man’s son’s wedding during the summer.  So Sam hoped to use that topic to get the conversation rolling along.  Rather than ask specifically about how the wedding went, Sam instead asked the executive how his summer had been.  So if the son had stood his bride up at the altar and the executive didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t have to AND he didn’t know Sam knew.  If the executive DID want to talk about it, he could and he STILL didn’t know Sam already knew, so he had no reason to be concerned about Sam’s research.

We have “Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling” in our library, so feel free to look it over for additional tips and strategies for researching people on the web.  And be sure to add this step to your other interview preparations.

The Monday Morning Kickoff topic at CPI this week was “Job Search Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them.”  Here’s a summary of a few of the points I made:

Job searching can seem daunting.  Don’t just jump right in without doing some initial thinking and planning.  Career consultant Ford R. Myers says, “Most people spend more time planning a vacation than planning a job search.”  And Julie Bauke, author of “Stop Peeing on Your Shoes,” advises not to start your search “without a plan or much thought as to where you want to go and how you plan to get there.”  You can use the resources at CPI (networking opportunities, consultant, library, research support, etc.) to help you move your search in the right direction.  No need to go it alone.  However, you do need to accept responsibility for doing the work – don’t expect others to do it for you.  It is YOUR search and is unique to you, after all.

There are lots of tools in the job seeker’s tool chest.  Use more than one of them.  You can’t rely totally on your network or on job boards or the want ads or LinkedIn or cold calling or….  You need to find the combination of tools that works for you.  And it’s best to work at your search every day.  Those who make their job search their new full time job seem to fare better than others who use a more haphazard approach.

Find an organization strategy that works for you and use it!  Job searching generates a lot of information:  company research files, networking meetings, appointments with your consultant, workshops, and job applications and interviews.  You’ll need to keep track of it all.  The Positively Minnesota site has some worksheets you can download at: http://positivelyminnesota.com/JobSeekers/Recently_Unemployed/Preparing_for_a_Job_Search/Getting_Organized.aspx.  So does About.com:  http://jobsearch.about.com/od/findajob/tp/jobsearchchecklists.htm.  There are also some online sites to help you organize your search, such as www.jibberjobber.com.

When looking at job opportunities, try to focus on what will be right for you.  Don’t take just anything simply because it’s available.  You don’t want to be out doing a job search again in a few months because you made the wrong choice.  Likewise, don’t apply for a multitude of jobs that you aren’t qualified for.  If HR reps notice your repeated inappropriate applications, they may automatically discount you when a job you really do qualify for comes along.

At the Oscar ceremonies last weekend, one recipient said he only wanted to thank three people, “Billy Wilder, Billy Wilder, and Billy Wilder.”  In a similar spirit, don’t forget the advice of most career consultants to “Network, Network, Network.”  Much of your job search time should be invested in your networking.  Focus on building relationships, asking for advice and information rather than jobs.  Demonstrate a generous attitude, listening more than talking.

When using job boards, be sure to use the Advanced Search functionality when it’s available and search for your keywords in the job title field for increased search precision.  Use the alerts feature to save your searches and have the job boards execute them every day (while you are out networking?).  Use aggregators like www.Indeed.com  and www.SimplyHIred.com to get broad search coverage.  Choose some specialty or niche job boards, check out the career pages of all your target companies, and don’t overlook your professional association job boards.  Try to apply for jobs directly on the career page of the hiring company and FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!

When interviewing, be sure to dress appropriately and check your appearance before going in.  You don’t want part of your lunch stuck in your teeth.  Be sure to avoid bad-mouthing a previous employer or boss.  Avoid misrepresenting your skills, education, and experience, too.  Practice your answers to the “gimme” questions such as “Tell me about yourself,” or “Why should we hire you?”

Be sure to develop a positive online presence by creating profiles on multiple sites.  Suggested sites include LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, BusinessCard 2.0, Visible.me, Flickr.   Studies have shown an increase in the number of companies exploring these sites for information about candidates and potential employees.  If the social media sites aren’t right for you, consider creating a blog or a personal website.  You can also create a positive online presence by simply writing your opinion of a recently read book on Amazon.com or starting or responding to discussions in online groups such as our own Career Partners International, Twin Cities LinkedIn group.

This was an interesting and interactive session.  If you haven’t been attending the Monday Morning Kickoffs, maybe you should give them a try.  You never know what tips you might pick up to make your search process run a little more smoothly.

LinkedIn makes improvements to the site based on feedback from members. Two changes have been introduced to the Profile that may have an impact on your profile completeness score.

First, the Profile now puts more emphasis on Skills and Expertise. This means you can showcase your areas of expertise to easily connect with people that have similar skills, or with companies looking for subject matter experts. This can be found on the Company Profile,  click on the bar chart on the right side of the profile, and you’ll see a listing of the most popular skills of employees at that company.

Secondly, LinkedIn changed how profile completeness is calculated. The new calculation gives you more control of your score by emphasizing things you have direct control over, like skills, and putting less weight on recommendations. The score also takes profile freshness into consideration, so I recommend adding a new key word, or a new book to the Amazon reading list each week.

From LinkedIn, here are tips for completing your profile based on the new calculation.

Complete your profile: Adding a profile photo makes your profile 7x more likely to be found in searches.  Also, having your two most recent positions makes your profile 12x more likely to be found. Simple updates like these make a difference.

Here are quick steps to create a complete profile and ensure you’re putting your best foot forward:

1)    Add a profile photo

2)    List all the jobs or positions you’ve held, along with descriptions of your roles

3)    Have 5 or more skills on your profile

4)    Write a summary about yourself

5)    Fill out your industry and postal code

6)    Add where you went to school

7)    Have 50 or more connections – it’s easier than you think to get connected! (I like to see clients get to 100 connections.  I opens up more possibilities for you to find that great job – remember to keep in mind: people you know, like and trust)